c4countdown

Bob De Caux wrote:

Ian Volante wrote:And since I'm picking your brains, can anyone find a closely related pair from the answers to 6? (beyond Paris/France, and Washington/Kingston haven't performed together!)

Jack London
Angela Brazil
Henry Holland
Matthew Paris
Denzel Washington
Neville Shute Norway
Alex Kingston
Irving Berlin
Chrissie Wellington
Anatole France
John Ireland
Jimmy Wales

Why wouldn't it just be Paris/France?

Seems too easy!

Ian Volante wrote:Further investigation shows that it's not just the numbers of letters, but the arrangement of vowels and consonants that match. This implies strongly that there's a mistake in the answers, as two British equestrians fit this criterion (and not their horses), but one only got silver as mentioned.

Last night I thought it might be broader, e.g. same number of vowels in forename and surname, which works for two of the GB equestrian gold medallists (Charlotte Dujardin and Scott Brash) but unfortunately also works for about seven of the Croatian water polo players. If it is the arrangement of vowels and consonants that's the thing (and now you've pointed it out, it seems too much of a coincidence for it to be anything else) then just three of the Croatians now fit (Josip Pavic, Damir Buric and Samir Barac), which is good. Problem is, only one equestrian (Scott Brash) now works, which is bad. So either we're missing something or there's a mistake.

Ian Volante wrote:

Bob De Caux wrote: Why wouldn't it just be Paris/France?

Seems too easy!

I'm pretty sure it is Paris/France. When I was doing that one I was anticipating finding someone with a surname that was the capital of one of the countries I had. I'd got Anatole France but didn't get as far as Matthew Paris so since that fits that is what I was expecting as the answer.

JimBentley wrote:

Ian Volante wrote:Further investigation shows that it's not just the numbers of letters, but the arrangement of vowels and consonants that match. This implies strongly that there's a mistake in the answers, as two British equestrians fit this criterion (and not their horses), but one only got silver as mentioned.

Last night I thought it might be broader, e.g. same number of vowels in forename and surname, which works for two of the GB equestrian gold medallists (Charlotte Dujardin and Scott Brash) but unfortunately also works for about seven of the Croatian water polo players. If it is the arrangement of vowels and consonants that's the thing (and now you've pointed it out, it seems too much of a coincidence for it to be anything else) then just three of the Croatians now fit (Josip Pavic, Damir Buric and Samir Barac), which is good. Problem is, only one equestrian (Scott Brash) now works, which is bad. So either we're missing something or there's a mistake.

After further thought today, I'm going to have to stick with the idea of it being a mistake. I just can't see another way around it - no extra names appear to exist that would help.

Ryan Taylor wrote:

Ian Volante wrote:

Bob De Caux wrote: Why wouldn't it just be Paris/France?

Seems too easy!

I'm pretty sure it is Paris/France. When I was doing that one I was anticipating finding someone with a surname that was the capital of one of the countries I had. I'd got Anatole France but didn't get as far as Matthew Paris so since that fits that is what I was expecting as the answer.

Fair enough. I'll post answers when they appear.

Solutions here: http://www.rssenews.org.uk/2013/01/chri ... lutions-2/

I didn't win anything, I suspect due to my only omission on not spotting that the base 7 and base 6 sums also gave answers that equal 76 in base 10.