c4countdown

Thanks everyone for the kind comments and thanks in particular to Charlie for a good game. At 20-20 after 5 rounds we feared it would be the worst final ever but some nice letter selections ensured otherwise. I did get 927 via (8x6x2+7)x(5+4) but only after cocking up my attempt at 929. Annoyingly, they edited my reading out of the solution!

Given that it was a final and Carol's last show, I did not expect the dominant talking point to be Charlie's last numbers selection. Let me (try to) end this ridiculously long-winded debate by saying I think Charlie was spot on. I am certainly not as practised on 4 large and under the pressure was prone to missing an easy spot. Indeed, it took me about 15 seconds to get the very obvious 297.


For those that wondered, I got the OED , which arrived today and no cash .

Junaid Mubeen wrote:Given that it was a final and Carol's last show, I did not expect the dominant talking point to be Charlie's last numbers selection. Let me (try to) end this ridiculously long-winded debate by saying I think Charlie was spot on. I am certainly not as practised on 4 large and under the pressure was prone to missing an easy spot. Indeed, it took me about 15 seconds to get the very obvious 297.

Seriously, you were under pressure?

I honestly though that you would've been more relaxed playing, with it being your 2nd appearance

Joseph Bolas wrote: I honestly though that you would've been more relaxed playing, with it being your 2nd appearance

Actually it was my 12th.

*~*~* Congratulations Junaid *~*~*

And well done to the rest of you forum mates who did so well. I've only been on here a few months and I must say it's nice to be able to communicate with those from the show, and also to see and hear on TV those who we normally only read. It's been quite a unique experience.

As C and J both kept having lots of vowels, and ended their selections on a vowel, I was pleased that in Junaid's final selection he ended with a consonant.

Junaid Mubeen wrote:

Joseph Bolas wrote: I honestly though that you would've been more relaxed playing, with it being your 2nd appearance

Actually it was my 12th.

Even though you know very well what I meant, I guess I should've said 2nd attempt.

Joseph Bolas wrote:

Junaid Mubeen wrote:

Joseph Bolas wrote: I honestly though that you would've been more relaxed playing, with it being your 2nd appearance

Actually it was my 12th.

Even though you know very well what I meant, I guess I should've said 2nd attempt.

And did he get to the final of that series as well?

Martin Gardner wrote:

Joseph Bolas wrote:Even though you know very well what I meant, I guess I should've said 2nd attempt.

And did he get to the final of that series as well?

No he didn't.

Ben Pugh wrote:

Matt Morrison wrote:And yes, I'd expect Junaid to get WELL over 90% of the maximums on several thousand 4-large numbers games, wouldn't you?

Anyway well done Charlie, a well-deserving second place, after having played you on apterous a few days ago I'm expecting even better things in the CoC.

Er Ben. In case you haven't already read my post on the Apterous section, it was highly likely that if this was a few days a go it was actually the might of the CoC that played you and not just Charlie.

I'll stick to tradition - I had a DC beater in round 7 with BEIGNET.

Cracking final and I was moved when Carol was choking up at the end. It was so sad when the music then quickly came on to save her any embarrassment. It was really sad for her to say that round 13 was her last ever letters round but I'm surprised Junaid didn't make more of a meal of it by saying "and for the last ever time, a final consonant please, Carol" or similar.

Anyway well played Junaid mate. Unlucky Charlie old bean - you fought like a stallion but that damn Junaid risking words like CARRIOLE and getting away with it? Pah!

Oh I forgot to mention - did anyone else notice that they didn't go to Susie for origins of words or didn't they do this for the finals?

Kirk Bevins wrote:Oh I forgot to mention - did anyone else notice that they didn't go to Susie for origins of words or didn't they do this for the finals?

It was skipped for the final, I think the extra bits at the end made the running time fairly tight. As you know (but others may not), Origin Of Words re-appears for CoC. Possibly under the title Origin Of Gnorks.

I thought it was a bit sad that Carol V didn't get to say all she seemed to want to and broke down at the end. I was expecting quite a long piece to camera summing up her 26 years on the show. I thought they cut to the credits a little too quickly too, or did Carol lose it completely and wanted it edited out?

Well done Junaid anyway, and thanks to Junaid and Charlie for an exciting final. Must have been fun to be part of such an historic episode!

Looking forward to the new-look show in January...

Phil Reynolds wrote:

Kai Laddiman wrote:Actually, PERUSAL's a mass noun, i.e. you can't pluralise it.

Really? I would have thought it was perfectly valid to say something like "After a couple of hasty perusals of the letters I spotted an 8".

I see PERUSALS is indeed listed as a valid 8 in the game recap.

Andy Clews wrote:I thought it was a bit sad that Carol V didn't get to say all she seemed to want to and broke down at the end. I was expecting quite a long piece to camera summing up her 26 years on the show. ....

Ah! Well, of course I forgot about the immediately preceding show on C4 (just watched the recording), wherein CV got to say a few words

ChrisEdward wrote:unpieces

nscpieuea

Sorry about this but I checked in the dictionary and unpieces isn't a word

Craig Beevers wrote:So how come Giles is in DC anyway?

I believe that this was Carol's request.

Lee Simmonds wrote:

Craig Beevers wrote:So how come Giles is in DC anyway?

I believe that this was Carol's request.

Indeed, Carol said as much in the introduction. Well actually she made a joke about asking for a particular DC guest, and having to put up with Gyles, but my guess is that he was her choice.

Part of the reason for the sudden cut at the end is that Des was about to tell us that coming up next on Channel 4 was a special programme honouring Carol's years of service. It was only later that Channel 4 decided that Deal Or No Deal could not be moved under any circumstances and Carol's show would be before the final and not after.

Sitting in the audience, I thought I was playing terribly, coming up with lots of stupid words. It was only when I sat at home with a dictionary that I realised that some of them were in, including SMITHED in round 1. However, I would have still lost to either one of Junaid or Charlie, had I made the final. Well done to both of you.

Kyle Barrett wrote:Really good final.

Good job Charlie, you put up a great fight thats for sure, and we can all say what could have been done differently. But since I am probably not half as clever as you guys, I'd like to say it ended how it ended, and it ended very close. No need to discuss the variables there.

Let me make it clear that I did however get 'tinkered' in the team time teaser. So I maybe I was quick to say I am not half as clever as you guys!

I got TINKERED, but what the hell was that clue about? Something to do with lemon spread?

Edit - Oh, tin curd! Fucking hell, I bet I wasn't the only one. Well I know I wasn't because I didn't watch it alone.

Gavin Chipper wrote:Edit - Oh, tin curd! Fucking hell, I bet I wasn't the only one. Well I know I wasn't because I didn't watch it alone.

Thanks. I get it now.

I thought it was interesting that at the start of the show, Des went through their total scores, and Junaid had overtaken Charlie so in a sense was the unofficial number one seed for the final. I wonder if that's happened before.

Gavin Chipper wrote:
I got TINKERED, but what the hell was that clue about? Something to do with lemon spread?

After I got the answer, TIN CURD came to me straight away as the clue to "container of lemon spread". It was a genius clue IMO.

Kirk Bevins wrote:

Gavin Chipper wrote:
I got TINKERED, but what the hell was that clue about? Something to do with lemon spread?

After I got the answer, TIN CURD came to me straight away as the clue to "container of lemon spread". It was a genius clue IMO.

But normally you'd expect him to go through and explain it. We always seem to get an explanation for the obvious ones!

Gavin Chipper wrote:I thought it was interesting that at the start of the show, Des went through their total scores, and Junaid had overtaken Charlie so in a sense was the unofficial number one seed for the final. I wonder if that's happened before.

I'm sure it's happened a number of times. Last time was series 53. John Brackstone, number 1 seed on 8 wins and 822 points, John Mayhew on 8 and 811. In the QF and SF, John M scored 18 more points than John B, so by the time they met in the final, John M's points total was then seven more. That final was decided on a tie-break crucial conundrum in John M's favour.

Howard Somerset wrote:

Gavin Chipper wrote:I thought it was interesting that at the start of the show, Des went through their total scores, and Junaid had overtaken Charlie so in a sense was the unofficial number one seed for the final. I wonder if that's happened before.

I'm sure it's happened a number of times. Last time was series 53. John Brackstone, number 1 seed on 8 wins and 822 points, John Mayhew on 8 and 811. In the QF and SF, John M scored 18 more points than John B, so by the time they met in the final, John M's points total was then seven more. That final was decided on a tie-break crucial conundrum in John M's favour.

My hunch would be not that many times. Back in the olden days, the number one seed was often the only one on that number of wins, so could not be overtaken. Also things probably went less to form with the number one seed often going out so there would not always have been much potential for such a scenario. Also it would take two seeds pretty close together happening to swap places in the quarters and semis and make the final.

But having a look, Dick Green "overtook" Allan Saldanha and I think that's the only other proper example. Also Glynn Leaney overtook Peter Hutchings and Maria Boyes overtook Bhavin Manek by outscoring them in the quarter finals, but in both cases the number one seeds failed to make the final. And Mark Tournoff overtook Paul Gallen (as well as Jack Welsby) after his 138 in the quarter finals, but Paul outscored him by enough in the semis to regain the lead.

Just watched this now, great game, very sorry I couldn't be there to see it. Congratulations Junaid, was impressed with the improvement in your letters to match the already stellar numbers and conundrums, and hard luck to Charlie, there really wasn't much to choose between you.

Regarding 4 large, Jerry Humphreys' delectable guide is well worth a read for those who haven't already seen it.

And poor Carol Not loved by everyone, but I thought she was fantastic and am sad to see her go.

Well done Junaid on becoming the latest series champion. Bad luck to Charlie- I think the disallowed ALIENER was the crucial point. Both ALIENER and ALIENOR are good in Scrabble but ALIENER is not in Oxford.

In my opinion, Charlie did 100% the right thing by going for 4 large numbers. It was something that Junaid was untested at and Charlie needed to try something different to force the issue. A lot of contestants during every series, in that situation, just pick 1 large and take the narrow defeat- at least he gave himself a chance of winning. Of course, the problem is that, unlike the letters games, you have very little control over what comes out for the numbers and Charlie was dependent on a tricky target being generated. I had practised 3 large numbers for the C of C for about 2 years but every 3 large numbers game I picked was fairly easy and gained me no advantage at all so you need that bit of luck to get the difficult target you want. For this reason, I think the idea of picking the challenger's chair is overrated but I think I'm in the minority on that one.

One more thing, I don't have my Oxford to hand but is ESCAROLES good in Oxford? Would it have been allowed if Charlie or Junaid had declared it for the conundrum? A similar situation to Ben Wilson's ASSISTANT/SATANISTS conundrum.

Paul

Paul Gallen wrote:One more thing, I don't have my Oxford to hand but is ESCAROLES good in Oxford? Would it have been allowed if Charlie or Junaid had declared it for the conundrum? A similar situation to Ben Wilson's ASSISTANT/SATANISTS conundrum.

No Paul. ESCAROLE is listed, but only as a mass noun.

I'm a little late here having been avoiding anything Countdown related for weeks as I've only just caught up using 4OD...

I just wanted to say congratulations to Junaid, and a mix of commiserations and congratulations to Charlie and all the other finalists too. The last three months have been the first time I've watched Countdown in over a decade and I've really enjoyed watching you all.

I hope the new hosts make a good job of it but I'm sad to see Carol go, it's a pity the show had to be cut so abruptly at the end as well. Gyles seems marginally less irritatingly cringeworthy than he used to in the eighties - maybe that's a case of me being more forgiving of eccentric Conservatives in my thirties than I was in my teens though. And his jumpers have probably aged quite well compared to some of Carol's outfits!