Countdown recap for Wednesday 16 June 2010.
C1: No.1 Seed Oliver Garner (9 wins, 925 points.) An Apteforumite from New Malden, Surrey. He's a student at Tiffin's School. He beat No.8 Seed Claudia Tyson 123-75 in his quarter-final last Thursday.
C2: No.5 Seed Craig Chittenden (7 wins, 760 points.) An Apteforumite from Bishop Auckland, County Durham. He beat No.4 Seed Peter Zyss 98-76 in his quarter-final yesterday.
DC: Susie Dent and Paul Zenon, wearing a shirt covered with fishes. You might notice a fishy theme during the rounds.
RR: Rachel Riley, who may have missed out on Rear Of The Year 2010 last week, but she and the rest of her features looks as lovely as the roses on her lovely dress.
OT: Other words or solutions.
R01: P N D A E I N E G
R02: T R G I E A R L E
R03: O U T N D M O I T
R04: W S J V E I A E S
R05: 25, 5, 10, 9, 2, 6. Target: 780.
TTT: BIGINTRO - "We're just going round and round in circles, really"
R06: T R Y I U A S N O
R07: B C I O A P L I N
R08: T D U E I E H V T
R09: I O U F R N M A R
R10: 4, 7, 9, 5, 6, 3. Target: 767.
TTT: SEEAPART - "If you don't see eye-to-eye, you can go these ways"
R11: C S D R I O E O D
R12: L B M T S A E O A
R13: R C E A T S K E O
R14: 100, 6, 7, 9, 10, 1. Target: 152.
R15: M I L K S T A U T (conundrum)
And now a brief interlude before our main feature:
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Enjoy the show.
Just before Oliver picks his letters, the two contestants have a friendly handshake. Very nice to see that on the show.
Round 1: P N D A E I N E G
C1: ADENINE (7)
C2: PENDING (7)
OT: DIGENEAN (8)
Score: 7–7 (max 8)
A good start by our semi-finalists, although the brilliant sounding darrenic 8 is missed by all.
DIGENEAN is and adjective relating to DIGENEA, a subclass, suborder, or other taxon of trematode worms which have a complex life cycle involving alternation of sexual reproduction as an internal parasite of a vertebrate with asexual reproduction in a mollusc and often including developmental stages in still other hosts and which include a number of parasites.
Round 2: T R G I E A R L E
C1: RETAILER (8)
C2: literage
DC: LITREAGE (8) RETRIAL (7)
Score: 15–7 (max 16)
Ouch
A very unfortunate declaration there by Craig after a slightly befuddled Susie asks him to spell his word, and accidentally gives the American spelling.Round 3: O U T N D M O I T
C1: MOTION (6)
C2: MOTION (6)
DC: DOMINO (6)
OT: MOUTON (6) MUTTON (6)
Score: 21–13 (max 22)
Round 4: W S J V E I A E S
C1: WAIVES (6)
C2: WEAVES (6)
DC: SIEVES (6) seesaw
OT: JESSIE (6) SWIVES (6)
Score: 27–19 (max 28)
SWIVES means to copulate.
There's me being very confident that either SEAVIEW or SEAVIEWS were in. They're 2 words, I believe. By the way, seesaw is SEE-SAW.
Round 5: 25, 5, 10, 9, 2, 6. Target: 780.
C1: 780. (((5 - 2) x 25) + 9 - 6) x 10 (10)
C2: 780. (25 + 10 - 9) x 5 x 6 (10)
Score: 37–29 (max 38)
A not too bad 1 large comes up, but with Craig's 6 small very likely to be in the offing, can Oliver extend his lead enough for it not to matter....
Paul performs a brilliant magic trick involving an attache case filled with dehydrated objects. These dehydrated objects were a small glass of whisky, a glass of wine, a pint of beer, and a goldfish bowl full with water and goldfish.
Teatime teaser: BIGINTRO -> ORBITING
Round 6: T R Y I U A S N O
C1: RAINOUTS (8)
C2: TRAINS (6)
Score: 45–29 (max 46)
A brilliant darren by Oliver, and he just seems to be on fire today. 5 maxes in a row too.
Round 7: B C I O A P L I N
C1: BIONIC (6)
C2: COAL (4)
DC: BIOPIC (6) CAPLIN (6)
OT: CIPOLIN (7)
Score: 51–29 (max 53)
Oh dear, Craig seems to have hit the meltdown button, after only declaring a 4.
Note DC's fishy declaration of CAPLIN.Round 8: T D U E I E H V T
C1: THIEVED (7)
C2: THIEVED (7)
Score: 58–36 (max 60)
Maybe not. Both get the pretty straightforward darren there.
Round 9: I O U F R N M A R
C1: INFORM (6)
C2: UNFAIR (6)
DC: UNIFORM (7) MARRON (6)
OT: MURRAIN (7)
Score: 64–42 (max 67)
Craig has reached the next numbers game just 22 points behind. If he can get 2 perfect numbers games and keeps his nerve in the letters games, he might still be in with a chance. Note also the 2nd fishy find from DC, the MARROn.
MURRAIN is any various diseases of cattle, such as anthrax, foot-and-mouth disease, and Texas fever, which is a tick-bourne protozoan infection.
Susie's Origin Of Words tells of the origin of the phrase "buckling down".
Now it's 6 small time.
Round 10: 4, 7, 9, 5, 6, 3. Target: 767.
C1: 767. (((6 x 5 x 3) - 4) x 9) - 7 (10)
C2: 768.
Score: 74–42 (max 77)
WOAH UNBELIEVABLE (Where have I heard that before 
) Oliver pulls out a masterstroke and manages to beat Craig at his own game You would think that Oliver now has one foot in the final now.Teatime teaser: SEEAPART -> SEPARATE
Round 11: C S D R I O E O D
C1: DISCORD (7)
C2: SCORED (6)
DC: ODORISED (8) DISCOED (7) COD (3)
Score: 81–42 (max 85)
As DC find their 3rd fish of the day, Oliver pulls away further form Craig, despite not risking his good darrenic 8.
Round 12: L B M T S A E O A
C1: MALTOSE (7)
C2: mastable
DC: LAMBASTE (8)
Score: 88–42 (max 93)
Game over. As Craig jokes around with a made-up 8, Oliver's 7 puts him out of reach and into Friday's final.
Round 13: R C E A T S K E O
C1: ROCKETS (7)
C2: ROCKETS (7)
DC: SKATE (5) CAKE (4) SOCKET (6) CREATES (7)
OT: COASTER (7) RECOATS (7) COATEES (7) RACKETS (7) STACKER (7) TACKERS (7) RESTOCK (7) STOCKER (7) RETAKES (7) ROSEATE (7)
Score: 95–49 (max 100)
Plenty of 7's around, as well as 2 more fishes too (The second being FISH-CAKE).
A COATEE is a close-fitting short coat, especially one with tails or skirts.
Round 14: 100, 6, 7, 9, 10, 1. Target: 152.
C1: 152. (6 x 9) + 100 - 10 + 7 + 1 (10)
C2: 152. (6 x 7) + 10 + 100 (10)
Score: 105–59 (max 110)
After Oliver bottles out of declaring 1 away according to Craig, both manage to get the simple 10 points, giving Oliver yet another century.
Round 15: M I L K S T A U T
C2 buzzes on 16.5 seconds to say MULTITASK which is correct.
Score: 105–69 (max 120)
It seemed a pretty simple conundrum for a semi-final, but anyway, Craig has the final word, but Oliver is the deserving winner and will contest Friday's final.
Even though Craig seems to know that his chances of winning weren't that good, he still gave it a jolly good go, and he can leave with his head held high.
I'll be back tomorrow with the 2nd semi-final, the rematch between No.6 Seed Lee Graham and No.7 Seed Nicki Sellars.
Till then, bye bye.
Statistics Corner
Oliver:
Total score - 105
Raw score - 105
Total % of max - 88
Raw % of max - 88
Total average score per round - 7.0
Raw average score per round - 7.0
Number of maxes - 9
Craig:
Total score - 69
Raw score - 92
Total % of max - 58
Raw % of max - 77
Total average score per round - 4.6
Raw average score per round - 6.1
Number of maxes - 7
Further summaries are at:
http://www.apterous.org/cdb/series.php?series=62