c4countdown

Jack Worsley wrote: ↑Mon Sep 20, 2021 2:43 am I've thought about this before but never publicly asked. Tournoff, Gallen and Travers is another one that springs to mind. Add Matthew Shore to the mix and you get very close to a four, but sadly he never played Gallen. Also Carson, Davies and Bevins if specials count.

Gavin Chipper wrote: ↑Mon Jun 14, 2021 7:04 pm Gloria Hunniford is 81. Who are the oldest and youngest DC guests? It seems that at one point at least, Gabby Logan/Yorath was the youngest ever female guest.

Carl Harrison wrote: ↑Wed Jun 16, 2021 2:38 pm What are the highest and lowest total "max" scores from an 8-game consecutive run during heats (in the 15-round era). Not necessarily looking at just the record from octochamps runs, but any consecutive set of 8 games.

There was a bit of a discussion around this in the "1000 club" thread - the max score available from Luke Boynton's 8 games in the current series was 1149, which would be the 3rd highest max ever available from an Mocktorun on Apterous - so it would be interesting to see how this compares with the history of the show, and show how much variability there is in the maximum score available over 8 games depending on when you happen to appear. (Although I presume the averages have been moving up over time, particularly post-2016 when the large dictionary update came in)

Thomas Carey wrote: ↑Mon Jun 21, 2021 1:47 pm Not really sure what I'm asking here but - teatime teasers. I'm part of the 8-9-8 gang - I had 8 letter teasers on my original series, 9 letters in my CoC and 8 letters in my Christmas special. I can't imagine there's too many people who've gone 8-9-8 (I'm the only one of the six who played the Christmas specials) - am I the only one?

Are there any other people who've played in 3 different eras of teatime teaser? Has anyone done more than 3?

(The dates for the 'eras' of TTT can be found here if it helps https://wiki.apterous.org/Teatime_Teaser )

Thomas Carey wrote: ↑Thu Jun 24, 2021 1:43 pm Most disallowed words total by both contestants in

a) any game
b) any non-prelim game
c) across all seven games in a series finals?

Asking because, hoo boy, the series 83 finals have a lot.

Jack Worsley wrote: ↑Thu Jun 24, 2021 7:30 pm Great to see this is still going. A couple relating to my Christmas special against Conor:

First of all, every letters round in our game contained nine distinct letters. Has this ever happened before or since in any format?

The second question relates to teatime teasers, so I'm not sure if it's answerable from your database, but here it is anyway. The second TTT in our special was the same as the second in my fourth heat, in terms of the scramble and the answer, although the clue was slightly different. Has any other contestant had the same TTT answer (would be cool if they were the same scramble and clue too but not essential) in different episodes?

JackHurst wrote: ↑Fri Jun 25, 2021 9:02 pm I believe the highest score in the series finals just finished was 101. i.e among all of the 7 games making up the finals, 101 was the highest score.

Is 101 the lowest highest score from a series finals? If not which series had lower?

Fiona T wrote: ↑Sat Jun 26, 2021 12:46 am With no intention of detracting from his awesome win, Adam Latchford became series [83] champ without declaring a valid 9 in either his prelims or finals! Is he the only one?

Marc Meakin wrote: ↑Sun Jun 27, 2021 6:21 am What is the percentage of not written down declarations?
Which contestant had the most during an octorun?
Has anybody completed an octorun without any not written down declarations?

JackHurst wrote: ↑Mon Jul 12, 2021 4:18 pm On average, what letters max % do players achieve?

1) Across all players from the past 10 series?
2) In series Heats (lets say in the last 10 series)?
3) Non series finalists from the last 10 series?

Gavin Chipper wrote: ↑Tue Jul 20, 2021 7:36 am What do the stats say about the letter shuffling this series? I think the selections have been awful, with about 34 of the same vowel coming out consecutively on at least 9 occasions.

Adam Latchford wrote: ↑Thu Aug 19, 2021 1:26 pm Might seem like a boring one but I saw this the other day...

Series 83 February had someone who made the finals on every single episode. Has this ever happened before?

How many back to back octochamps have their ever been?

Johnny Canuck wrote: ↑Fri Sep 17, 2021 11:27 pm

Adam Latchford wrote: ↑Thu Aug 19, 2021 1:26 pmHow many back to back octochamps have their ever been?

Unless it's been beaten since, it was three (Adam Rolston, Tony Manwani and Dave Ashton) in Series 79.

Johnny Canuck wrote: ↑Sat Sep 18, 2021 10:09 pm How big is the biggest group of people such that everyone in it has played everyone else in an Apterous game at least once?

Have any groups of three or more people done the same thing on televised Countdown?

Rhys Benjamin wrote: ↑Wed Oct 06, 2021 10:23 am In terms of rounds remaining, what is the earliest a game has been mathematically won?

(and obviously, this needs to be per format.)

Patrick Thompson wrote: ↑Wed Oct 06, 2021 2:45 pm Apologies if already done but who has the highest max percentage when picking 6 small (min of 10 games)?

And same question for 4 large.

6 small (maxed rounds / available rounds)

NAME              ROUNDS   MAXED       %
Dylan Taylor          15      15   100.0
Chris Cummins         15      14    93.3
Dinos Sfyris          13      12    92.3
Jonathan Liew         20      17    85.0
Zarte Siempre         11       9    81.8
Nick Wainwright       14      11    78.6
Graeme Cole           16      12    75.0
Jack Welsby           15      11    73.3
Gavin Rogers          11       8    72.7
Tom Chafer-Cook       10       7    70.0

6 small (points scored / available points)

NAME              ROUNDS  SCORED  MAX      %
Chris Cummins         15     134  134  100.0
Dylan Taylor          15     141  141  100.0
Zarte Siempre         11     104  110   94.5
Stephen Mellor        12     105  114   92.1
Graeme Cole           16     132  151   87.4
Scott Mearns          10      83   97   85.6
Gavin Rogers          11      91  107   85.0
Bradley Horrocks      23     183  218   83.9
Dinos Sfyris          13     104  124   83.9
Richard Saldanha      11      81   97   83.5

4 large (maxed rounds / available rounds)

NAME              ROUNDS   MAXED       %
Jack Worsley          14      13    92.9
George Ford           21      19    90.5
Andy Platt            24      21    87.5
Dan McColm            12      10    83.3
Jon O'Neill           18      15    83.3
Thomas Cappleman      21      17    81.0
Martyn Simpson        13      10    76.9
David O'Donnell       20      15    75.0
Jonathan Rawlinson    11       8    72.7
Noel McIlvenny        22      16    72.7

4 large (points scored / available points)

NAME              ROUNDS  SCORED  MAX      %
Jack Worsley          14     134  137   97.8
George Ford           21     204  210   97.1
Jon O'Neill           18     168  177   94.9
Thomas Cappleman      21     190  201   94.5
David O'Donnell       20     180  194   92.8
Andy Platt            24     207  225   92.0
Ned Pendleton         10      91  100   91.0
James Haughton        20     168  185   90.8
Laurence Killen       10      88   97   90.7
Mark Deeks            10      88   97   90.7

Graeme Cole wrote: ↑Sun Oct 10, 2021 12:50 pm

Gavin Chipper wrote: ↑Tue Jul 20, 2021 7:36 am What do the stats say about the letter shuffling this series? I think the selections have been awful, with about 34 of the same vowel coming out consecutively on at least 9 occasions.

The average max per game so far in series 84 has been 132.88, so according to this graph it's closer to series 73-80 than to the heights of the last three series.

Point for discussion: we already know that purely random shuffling would give you more duplicate letters than we actually see on Apterous and Countdown. When we say selections are "awful", do we mean "selections where the max is low, or where the only words of length six or more are really obscure" or do we mean "selections with a reasonable max using non-obscure words, but which we're not used to seeing on Apterous"?

Case in point: consider the ZoomDown selection from round 11 of game 1 the other day, RSROEECIR. With the three Rs, it doesn't look like the "friendliest" of selections, but the maxes are ORRERIES and SORCERER, of which at least the latter is not an obscure word. We might say that SORCERER is difficult to spot, but do we say that because it's inherently difficult to unscramble or just because we're so used to Apterous-style shuffling that we don't see that kind of selection very often? Perhaps this needs its own thread to itself.

Graeme Cole wrote: ↑Sun Oct 10, 2021 3:25 pm
6 small:

If "max percentage" means "number of 6-small rounds where the player got the closest possible to the target, as a percentage of number of 6-small rounds faced", Dylan Taylor takes it, having maxed all 15 of the 6-small rounds he faced.

Graeme Cole wrote: ↑Sun Oct 10, 2021 2:18 pm

Rhys Benjamin wrote: ↑Wed Oct 06, 2021 10:23 am In terms of rounds remaining, what is the earliest a game has been mathematically won?

(and obviously, this needs to be per format.)

9 rounder: 15 episodes were won on round 6 (3 rounds and 38 points remaining).

...

Old 15 rounder: Two episodes were won on round 10 (5 rounds and 74 points remaining).

...

Modern 15 rounder: 13 episodes have been won on round 10 (5 rounds and 74 points remaining), up to the end of series 83.

Graeme Cole wrote: ↑Sun Oct 10, 2021 10:50 am

Carl Harrison wrote: ↑Wed Jun 16, 2021 2:38 pm What are the highest and lowest total "max" scores from an 8-game consecutive run during heats (in the 15-round era). Not necessarily looking at just the record from octochamps runs, but any consecutive set of 8 games.

There was a bit of a discussion around this in the "1000 club" thread - the max score available from Luke Boynton's 8 games in the current series was 1149, which would be the 3rd highest max ever available from an Mocktorun on Apterous - so it would be interesting to see how this compares with the history of the show, and show how much variability there is in the maximum score available over 8 games depending on when you happen to appear. (Although I presume the averages have been moving up over time, particularly post-2016 when the large dictionary update came in)

This includes all 15-rounder heat games up to the end of series 83.

Old 15 rounder:
The lowest max from any eight consecutive games was 941, in the eight-game runs ending with episodes 3093, 3097, 3103, 3138, 3142, 3143, 3145, 3155, 3194, 3195, 3196, 3362, 3363, 3365, 3366, 5020, 5021 and 5025.
The highest max from any eight consecutive games was 1110, in the eight-game run ending with episode 3111.

Modern 15 rounder:
The lowest max from any eight consecutive games was 978, in the eight-game runs ending with episodes 5673, 5685, 5686, 5830, 5831, 6089 and 6134.
The highest max from any eight consecutive games was 1200, in the eight-game run ending with episode 7492.

Through the return of the now rather ancient graph generator, we can see how the average max per game (in this case for all games, not just heats) has changed since the introduction of the old 15-round format in series 46...



Countdown started using ODO in series 71. I'm not sure exactly when significant numbers of new words were added to ODO, but looking at the graph I'm guessing it was around series 73. The shift from the old 15 rounder to the modern 15 rounder in series 68 might have had a small effect on maxes, but every series since series 73 has had a higher average max than any series before then.

Graeme Cole wrote: ↑Sun Oct 10, 2021 11:08 am

Thomas Carey wrote: ↑Thu Jun 24, 2021 1:43 pm Most disallowed words total by both contestants in

a) any game
b) any non-prelim game
c) across all seven games in a series finals?

Asking because, hoo boy, the series 83 finals have a lot.

(a) Episode 5499 had 10 disallowed words.
(b) Episode 7534 (series 83 QF) had 7 disallowed words.
(c) The Series 61 and Series 83 finals each had 16 disallowed words in total.

Graeme Cole wrote: ↑Sun Oct 10, 2021 11:01 am

Thomas Carey wrote: ↑Mon Jun 21, 2021 1:47 pm Not really sure what I'm asking here but - teatime teasers. I'm part of the 8-9-8 gang - I had 8 letter teasers on my original series, 9 letters in my CoC and 8 letters in my Christmas special. I can't imagine there's too many people who've gone 8-9-8 (I'm the only one of the six who played the Christmas specials) - am I the only one?

Are there any other people who've played in 3 different eras of teatime teaser? Has anyone done more than 3?

(The dates for the 'eras' of TTT can be found here if it helps https://wiki.apterous.org/Teatime_Teaser )

If you don't count the teaserless era at all, there are only three who have been in three separate eras: Ian Volante, Martyn Simpson and Thomas Carey.

Graeme Cole wrote: ↑Sun Oct 10, 2021 10:50 am

Carl Harrison wrote: ↑Wed Jun 16, 2021 2:38 pm What are the highest and lowest total "max" scores from an 8-game consecutive run during heats (in the 15-round era). Not necessarily looking at just the record from octochamps runs, but any consecutive set of 8 games.

There was a bit of a discussion around this in the "1000 club" thread - the max score available from Luke Boynton's 8 games in the current series was 1149, which would be the 3rd highest max ever available from an Mocktorun on Apterous - so it would be interesting to see how this compares with the history of the show, and show how much variability there is in the maximum score available over 8 games depending on when you happen to appear. (Although I presume the averages have been moving up over time, particularly post-2016 when the large dictionary update came in)

This includes all 15-rounder heat games up to the end of series 83.

Old 15 rounder:
The lowest max from any eight consecutive games was 941, in the eight-game runs ending with episodes 3093, 3097, 3103, 3138, 3142, 3143, 3145, 3155, 3194, 3195, 3196, 3362, 3363, 3365, 3366, 5020, 5021 and 5025.
The highest max from any eight consecutive games was 1110, in the eight-game run ending with episode 3111.

Modern 15 rounder:
The lowest max from any eight consecutive games was 978, in the eight-game runs ending with episodes 5673, 5685, 5686, 5830, 5831, 6089 and 6134.
The highest max from any eight consecutive games was 1200, in the eight-game run ending with episode 7492.

Graeme Cole wrote: ↑Sun Oct 10, 2021 12:35 pm

JackHurst wrote: ↑Mon Jul 12, 2021 4:18 pm On average, what letters max % do players achieve?

1) Across all players from the past 10 series?
2) In series Heats (lets say in the last 10 series)?
3) Non series finalists from the last 10 series?

I'm assuming "max %" means the number of letters points scored by the player in a game divided by the number of letters points available in the game, times 100, and not something like "percentage of letters rounds maxed".

1) 58.0%, considering all performances in all games in series 74-83.
2) 57.3%, considering all performances in prelim games in series 74-83.
3) 50.9%, considering all performances by players in prelim games in series 74-83 who did not appear in a finals match in any of those series.

By comparison, the average letters max % for those series in only the quarter-finals, semi-finals and finals is 70.6%. The individual figures for only quarter-finals, semi-finals and finals respectively are 65.6%, 75.3% and 81.1%.

Gavin Chipper wrote: ↑Mon Oct 11, 2021 10:31 pm This used to be a stat on the Countdown database thing (cdb) but I'm not sure that still exists.

Sam Cappleman-Lynes wrote: ↑Thu Oct 14, 2021 8:50 pm In how many games have there been more vowels than consonants picked in total across all letters rounds?

Thomas Carey wrote: ↑Sat Oct 16, 2021 8:38 pm Thanks for all your answers!

Inspired by him being on a repeat of the celebrity chase right now - I've had Jon Culshaw as a DC guest for two separate 'runs' - my first 3 heats, and then my CoC QF. How many people have had some DC guest for more than one run? Has anyone had the same guest three separate times, or more than two guests at least twice?

By 'run' I'm going to go with a time that a guest was in DC with no different guest in between, rather than individual filming days as I know some guests have filmed multiple days in a row for whatever reason.

Thomas Carey wrote: ↑Sat Oct 16, 2021 8:38 pm Thanks for all your answers!

Inspired by him being on a repeat of the celebrity chase right now - I've had Jon Culshaw as a DC guest for two separate 'runs' - my first 3 heats, and then my CoC QF. How many people have had some DC guest for more than one run? Has anyone had the same guest three separate times, or more than two guests at least twice?

By 'run' I'm going to go with a time that a guest was in DC with no different guest in between, rather than individual filming days as I know some guests have filmed multiple days in a row for whatever reason.

Carl Harrison wrote: ↑Sat Oct 16, 2021 9:48 pm

Sam Cappleman-Lynes wrote: ↑Thu Oct 14, 2021 8:50 pm In how many games have there been more vowels than consonants picked in total across all letters rounds?

I'd hazard a strong guess that surely there has never been a TV game where every single letters round has had 5 vowels.

Thomas Carey wrote: ↑Sat Oct 16, 2021 8:38 pm Thanks for all your answers!

Inspired by him being on a repeat of the celebrity chase right now - I've had Jon Culshaw as a DC guest for two separate 'runs' - my first 3 heats, and then my CoC QF. How many people have had some DC guest for more than one run? Has anyone had the same guest three separate times, or more than two guests at least twice?

By 'run' I'm going to go with a time that a guest was in DC with no different guest in between, rather than individual filming days as I know some guests have filmed multiple days in a row for whatever reason.

Jack Worsley wrote: ↑Sun Oct 17, 2021 1:42 am

Thomas Carey wrote: ↑Sat Oct 16, 2021 8:38 pm Thanks for all your answers!

Inspired by him being on a repeat of the celebrity chase right now - I've had Jon Culshaw as a DC guest for two separate 'runs' - my first 3 heats, and then my CoC QF. How many people have had some DC guest for more than one run? Has anyone had the same guest three separate times, or more than two guests at least twice?

By 'run' I'm going to go with a time that a guest was in DC with no different guest in between, rather than individual filming days as I know some guests have filmed multiple days in a row for whatever reason.

I had Dr Phil twice (Series 66 finals and two matches in the 30BC). Kirk has had him three times (Series 60 heats, finals and 30BC). There's bound to be plenty more examples of contestants having the same guest twice, particularly in the early years when there appeared to be a smaller pool of guests.

Sam Cappleman-Lynes wrote: ↑Sat Oct 16, 2021 11:48 pm

Carl Harrison wrote: ↑Sat Oct 16, 2021 9:48 pm

Sam Cappleman-Lynes wrote: ↑Thu Oct 14, 2021 8:50 pm In how many games have there been more vowels than consonants picked in total across all letters rounds?

I'd hazard a strong guess that surely there has never been a TV game where every single letters round has had 5 vowels.

Sure, but that wasn't the question. More vowels than consonants has happened at least once, in this game which had 51 out of the 99 letters being vowels. I wondered if there were any more examples.

Gavin Chipper wrote: ↑Sat Dec 04, 2021 8:25 pm Did Yoga have just Yoga on his name plate? Yoga v Mandi Hale would be nine.

Max Benkel wrote: ↑Thu Jan 13, 2022 7:04 pm What's the reason for the drinking glasses to be taken away from contestants? covid reasons?

Johnny Canuck wrote: ↑Sat Sep 18, 2021 10:09 pm How big is the biggest group of people such that everyone in it has played everyone else in an Apterous game at least once?

L'oisleatch McGraw wrote: ↑Tue Jan 18, 2022 8:15 pm

Johnny Canuck wrote: ↑Sat Sep 18, 2021 10:09 pm How big is the biggest group of people such that everyone in it has played everyone else in an Apterous game at least once?

Might have missed it, but didn't notice an answer to this yet.
I imagine this would be a good jumping off point.

Thomas Carey wrote: ↑Thu May 26, 2022 4:45 am viewtopic.php?p=199450#p199450

Gavin Chipper wrote: ↑Sun Oct 10, 2021 9:08 pm I suppose the next question is - what's the closest it's been to 1 round earlier? E.g. in the modern 15-rounder, you'd need a 92-point lead (I think) to win it after round 9. What's the biggest lead anyone's had?

JackHurst wrote: ↑Tue Oct 12, 2021 10:42 am

Graeme Cole wrote: ↑Sun Oct 10, 2021 12:35 pm

JackHurst wrote: ↑Mon Jul 12, 2021 4:18 pm On average, what letters max % do players achieve?

1) Across all players from the past 10 series?
2) In series Heats (lets say in the last 10 series)?
3) Non series finalists from the last 10 series?

I'm assuming "max %" means the number of letters points scored by the player in a game divided by the number of letters points available in the game, times 100, and not something like "percentage of letters rounds maxed".

1) 58.0%, considering all performances in all games in series 74-83.
2) 57.3%, considering all performances in prelim games in series 74-83.
3) 50.9%, considering all performances by players in prelim games in series 74-83 who did not appear in a finals match in any of those series.

By comparison, the average letters max % for those series in only the quarter-finals, semi-finals and finals is 70.6%. The individual figures for only quarter-finals, semi-finals and finals respectively are 65.6%, 75.3% and 81.1%.

I was actually asking for % of rounds maxed. The reason I ask is because when I build a stats section in my app, I want a benchmark of % letters rounds maxed to tell the user they are probably good enough to apply for the show.

Sam Cappleman-Lynes wrote: ↑Thu Oct 14, 2021 8:50 pm In how many games have there been more vowels than consonants picked in total across all letters rounds?

Thomas Carey wrote: ↑Sat Oct 16, 2021 8:38 pm Thanks for all your answers!

Inspired by him being on a repeat of the celebrity chase right now - I've had Jon Culshaw as a DC guest for two separate 'runs' - my first 3 heats, and then my CoC QF. How many people have had some DC guest for more than one run?

Thomas Carey wrote: ↑Sat Oct 16, 2021 8:38 pm Has anyone had the same guest three separate times, or more than two guests at least twice?

Thomas Carey wrote: ↑Sat Oct 16, 2021 8:38 pm By 'run' I'm going to go with a time that a guest was in DC with no different guest in between, rather than individual filming days as I know some guests have filmed multiple days in a row for whatever reason.