c4countdown

It's Nick Wainwright v Steve Baines today, so the best of luck to both.

R1: epilate

R4: Can't remember if LIONISER is in or not...?

Edit: it is. Thought Suze might've mentioned it.

alternate first numbers (though not really worth mentioning as it was easy)

4 x 10 + 1 = 41
41 x 5 = 205

I can't watch the game today so I am relying on a good recap

PALETTE in game 1

What's the scores so far?

couple of interesting words in the 'DREAMY' round:

REAMY: Charlie Reams-like ("that was a reamy insult")
REAMED: as in "dammit I spelt a word wrong on the forum and Charlie just reamed me"

alternate numbers:
100x 9 = 900
7 x 8 = 56
9 + 3 = 12

900 + 56 - 12

R12 (i think)... TERRACE was another equaller for 7

Last numbers game:

((75+5) x 10) + 9 + 9 - 7.

Ready to go - I'm doing my workings-out with red ink today......

** Red pen runs out of ink **

KATHERINE'S RESULTS

Letters 1 - PLEAT

Letters 2 - BOUNDS (why didn't I add the A? )

Letters 3 - ROOFING

Letters 4 - BOILERS

Numbers 1 - 206 (1 off)

Tea Time Teaser 1 - Can't quite get 'gastric acid' out of my head!

Letters 5 - MORTICE

Letters 6 - ANODES and SEASONS

Letters 7 - LEASE

Letters 8 - MERGED

Numbers 2 - Failed due to interruption.

Tea Time Teaser 2 - got TACKLING

Letters 9 - ZIPPIER

Letters 10 - CAMEO

Letters 11 - TRACER

Numbers 3 - Failed due to utter incompetence.

Conundrum - I'd got the word davenport, but thought it was just a surname so didn't think it'd be acceptable......... I feel a total twit.

R14 from me: (75-9)*(7+5)+10+9. Then I spot the more straightforward way. D'oh.

Eoin.V.Monaghan wrote:What's the scores so far?

Actually what was the final score?

Letters mix was a little better today even though there were four letter Ss in one selection.
Susie seemed to struggle to get much animation out of her sidekick.A couple of times she looked
at him as though she thought he might have gone to sleep.I just hope that we will see some of the
old favourites in DC.I would hate it if it was a case of ditch anyone who appeared under the old
regime.

Eoin.V.Monaghan wrote:

Eoin.V.Monaghan wrote:What's the scores so far?

Actually what was the final score?

It was 105 v 85. The recap is up.

Good luck against Nick, Kai and vice-versa

jeff wharton wrote:Letters mix was a little better today even though there were four letter Ss in one selection.
Susie seemed to struggle to get much animation out of her sidekick.A couple of times she looked
at him as though she thought he might have gone to sleep.I just hope that we will see some of the
old favourites in DC.I would hate it if it was a case of ditch anyone who appeared under the old
regime.

IIRC Charlie helped the temporary shuffler with the shuffling for this game. I think he was a little embarrassed by the four S's slipping by him though. Perhaps he'll clarify.

Simon Myers wrote: IIRC Charlie helped the temporary shuffler with the shuffling for this game. I think he was a little embarrassed by the four S's slipping by him though. Perhaps he'll clarify.

Yeah, I did the consonants and he did the vowels. However I didn't look at them, I just made sure they were really thoroughly shuffled. Anyway four S's is not so bad; much better than four U's anyway.

Charlie Reams wrote:

Simon Myers wrote: IIRC Charlie helped the temporary shuffler with the shuffling for this game. I think he was a little embarrassed by the four S's slipping by him though. Perhaps he'll clarify.

Yeah, I did the consonants and he did the vowels. However I didn't look at them, I just made sure they were really thoroughly shuffled. Anyway four S's is not so bad; much better than four U's anyway.

Idiot - you're supposed to claim that you did the vowels.

Katherine, you did much better than me as I didn't get the conundrum and I know a DAVENPORT is a desk!

kathleen batlle wrote:Katherine, you did much better than me as I didn't get the conundrum and I know a DAVENPORT is a desk!

Actually I've never heard of DAVENPORT as a noun. So yeah, it was a really good game, excellent standard from both players. I'm a little surprised that Steve missed the last numbers game - I assume he was trying to get 11*75 instead of (75+x)*10 like Nick did. In fairness, the odds of beating Nick Wainwright on two crucial conundrums are fairly low. I held him to a crucial conundrum on Apterous once, and he got it in 0.9 seconds! Also, it's the first time I've seen him despite having played him online, because I didn't watch Series 56 and Nick Wainwright gives loads of irrelevant results on Google Images. A bit like Paul Gallen (there's a professional rugby player with that name).

PS did any of the male viewers find themselves distracted during the letters games? I did.

Matt Morrison wrote:alternate first numbers (though not really worth mentioning as it was easy)

4 x 10 + 1 = 41
41 x 5 = 205

I did that, (2 + 3 = 5) is the bit you missed out.

Martin Gardner wrote:PS did any of the male viewers find themselves distracted during the letters games? I did.

Yep. All I could think about was running my fingers through Steve's beard.

Martin Gardner wrote:

Matt Morrison wrote:alternate first numbers (though not really worth mentioning as it was easy)

4 x 10 + 1 = 41
41 x 5 = 205

I did that, (2 + 3 = 5) is the bit you missed out.

oops, well spotted Martin, and thanks for clearing it up!
I honestly did have a "hang on, there wasn't a straight 5 was there?" moment as soon as I'd posted, but laziness won out again

I had a nice DC equaller in the DREAMY round of DAYMARE. Love that word.

Martin Gardner wrote:

kathleen batlle wrote:Katherine, you did much better than me as I didn't get the conundrum and I know a DAVENPORT is a desk!

Actually I've never heard of DAVENPORT as a noun.

Lindsay?

Does anyone else find Andrew Sachs so meek and irritating that they almost wish Jonathan Ross was reinstated on BBC?

Every letters round Susie had to stare at him and prompt him to tell us their words- it was like watching a special needs child working with their frustrated teaching assistant.

Well played though Nick, solid performance. You are my outside tip for the tournament now James H is out.

Matthew Green wrote:
Well played though Nick, solid performance. You are my outside tip for the tournament now James H is out.

And if Nick gets knocked out, are you going to change again and again until there's one person left - the winner?

Matthew Green wrote:Does anyone else find Andrew Sachs so meek and irritating that they almost wish Jonathan Ross was reinstated on BBC?

Every letters round Susie had to stare at him and prompt him to tell us their words- it was like watching a special needs child working with their frustrated teaching assistant.

Well played though Nick, solid performance. You are my outside tip for the tournament now James H is out.

Seconded. The one downer on an excellent first week for the new team. Really looked like he wished he would rather take Russell Brand and Jonathan Ross out on the town to see the Satanic Sluts than be in the Countdown studio.

Matt Morrison wrote:alternate numbers:
100x 9 = 900
7 x 8 = 56
9 + 3 = 12

900 + 56 - 12

I can't believe that no-one else has pointed out that the target was 744, not 944.

David Gunn wrote:

Matt Morrison wrote:alternate numbers:
100x 9 = 900
7 x 8 = 56
9 + 3 = 12

900 + 56 - 12

I can't believe that no-one else has pointed out that the target was 744, not 944.

Haha, brilliant. I surprise even myself sometimes. Well, there you go, I was the only one who was able to make 944!

Er, was there a 2 in there or something? Maybe I meant 100 x (9-2)...

EDIT: God I really am on the ball. Already using 6 numbers. Just simply must have read it wrong. Odd, don't think I've ever done that before.

Nice game today for my birthday. Saw OLEATES in one round but wasn't sure about it so stuck with TEASEL. I saw AIRTIME just out of time. I also missed LIONISER, HEMLOCK and was already privy to the conundrum but wouldn't have got it, so 10/15 maxes for me. Chatted briefly with Nick on the Monday CoC recording and was well impressed that he got DAVENPORT. I only got it once he told me it was also a surname. Still PRONATED + V Good to remember!

Dinos Sfyris wrote:Nice game today for my birthday. Saw OLEATES in one round but wasn't sure about it so stuck with TEASEL. I saw AIRTIME just out of time. I also missed LIONISER, HEMLOCK and was already privy to the conundrum but wouldn't have got it, so 10/15 maxes for me. Chatted briefly with Nick on the Monday CoC recording and was well impressed that he got DAVENPORT. I only got it once he told me it was also a surname. Still PRONATED + V Good to remember!

Ha, I was in the audience and this old lady sat next to me was impressed that I wrote down DAVENPORT straight away. She asked me what it means and I said I had no idea but it's PRONATED + V. She was really interesting in how I play the game after that.

Matthew Green wrote:Does anyone else find Andrew Sachs so meek and irritating that they almost wish Jonathan Ross was reinstated on BBC?

He certainly seemed less interested than when he was first on and Susie really had a job on her hands just to get him to contribute. But I love his anecdotes to the extent that it makes up for the other stuff. Off the screen he's a really nice guy and makes the effort to chat to contestants, showing a genuine interest.

Junaid Mubeen wrote:Off the screen he's a really nice guy and makes the effort to chat to contestants, showing a genuine interest.

I can think of quite a few people who would probably disagree with that.

Kai Laddiman wrote:

Junaid Mubeen wrote:Off the screen he's a really nice guy and makes the effort to chat to contestants, showing a genuine interest.

I can think of quite a few people who would probably disagree with that.

I think part of his quietness was down to Jeff's inexperience. For most of the five days he didn't get a proper introduction so got no applause and when Jeff went to DC, mostly he would say, "Anything else from the corner?" instead of the customary, "Anything else Andrew" which invites him to speak.

Being an actor, he sulked!

Kai Laddiman wrote:

Junaid Mubeen wrote:Off the screen he's a really nice guy and makes the effort to chat to contestants, showing a genuine interest.

I can think of quite a few people who would probably disagree with that.

Yeah fair enough, I'm probably thinking more back to when he was first on, during my heats, before the whole Ross/Brand /Slut affair. He was definitely more cheerful and engaging then.

I was pleased to struggle through the game having been fortunate not to be punished for a few bad misses in the letters rounds. Steve 'nice guy' Baines lived up to his reputation by being very sporting in defeat and (like most of the contestants who were able to) staying for the rest of the filming to support the remaining players.

I have Mark Tournoff's book to thank for the conundrum spot as I first saw DAVENPORT in a word list in one of the appendices regarding surnames that are also valid words in Countdown.

Nick Wainwright wrote:Steve 'nice guy' Baines lived up to his reputation by being very sporting in defeat and (like most of the contestants who were able to) staying for the rest of the filming to support the remaining players.

Yeah, it surprises me that Steve isn't on this forum (or is he?) as he really got into the spirit of things and seemed to be a huge fan of the show. Top guy.

Junaid Mubeen wrote:

Nick Wainwright wrote:Steve 'nice guy' Baines lived up to his reputation by being very sporting in defeat and (like most of the contestants who were able to) staying for the rest of the filming to support the remaining players.

Yeah, it surprises me that Steve isn't on this forum (or is he?) as he really got into the spirit of things and seemed to be a huge fan of the show. Top guy.

A quick search shows that he has an account, but has never posted. Hopefully he's reading and blushing away.

Nick Wainwright wrote:I have Mark Tournoff's book to thank for the conundrum spot as I first saw DAVENPORT in a word list in one of the appendices regarding surnames that are also valid words in Countdown.

What type of word lists are in the book?

Joseph Bolas wrote:

Nick Wainwright wrote:I have Mark Tournoff's book to thank for the conundrum spot as I first saw DAVENPORT in a word list in one of the appendices regarding surnames that are also valid words in Countdown.

What type of word lists are in the book?

There are various word lists such as common 9-lettered words, words which contain particular endings such as '-ology' & '-head', 9-lettered words containing the letters 'i', 'n' and 'g' which don't end in '-ing', words ending in '-ing' which can be pluralised etc.

Nick Wainwright wrote:

Joseph Bolas wrote:

Nick Wainwright wrote:I have Mark Tournoff's book to thank for the conundrum spot as I first saw DAVENPORT in a word list in one of the appendices regarding surnames that are also valid words in Countdown.

What type of word lists are in the book?

There are various word lists such as common 9-lettered words, words which contain particular endings such as '-ology' & '-head', 9-lettered words containing the letters 'i', 'n' and 'g' which don't end in '-ing', words ending in '-ing' which can be pluralised etc.

I just reread the whole book in the last day and I found it funny scouring the list of nines you should never miss. There's a few in there that I knew but very rarely come up like ADIPOCYTE and AITCHBONE and words I didn't know/wouldn't risk, e.g. COHABITER. The rest are just high probability nines as you'd expect but include PROTAMINE, STROBILAE, LIONHEART, PALINODES etc...words which the average contestant are going to miss but to make it big I guess you should know them.

Dinos Sfyris wrote:Nice game today for my birthday. Saw OLEATES in one round but wasn't sure about it so stuck with TEASEL.

That reminds me, I know it's picky, but shouldn't the contestant be asked to spell a word like TEASEL?

Ben Wilson wrote:R14 from me: (75-9)*(7+5)+10+9. Then I spot the more straightforward way. D'oh.

I did it that way too. It's a sign of greatness.

Gavin Chipper wrote:

Ben Wilson wrote:R14 from me: (75-9)*(7+5)+10+9. Then I spot the more straightforward way. D'oh.

I did it that way too. It's a sign of greatness.

Add me to this, er, 'illustrious' list.

Gavin Chipper wrote:

Dinos Sfyris wrote:Nice game today for my birthday. Saw OLEATES in one round but wasn't sure about it so stuck with TEASEL.

That reminds me, I know it's picky, but shouldn't the contestant be asked to spell a word like TEASEL?

Nah, I initiated this debate with some of the other contestants. There's some oddity with this word, I think both TEAZEL and TEAZLE are valid, but only TEASEL (and not TEASLE) or something like that, so there is definitely potential for misspelling. I thought it warranted clarification. Actually, I think the "debate" consisted of me raising this point, and a few people shrugging their shoulders.

Jon Corby wrote:

Gavin Chipper wrote:

Dinos Sfyris wrote:Nice game today for my birthday. Saw OLEATES in one round but wasn't sure about it so stuck with TEASEL.

That reminds me, I know it's picky, but shouldn't the contestant be asked to spell a word like TEASEL?

Nah, I initiated this debate with some of the other contestants. There's some oddity with this word, I think both TEAZEL and TEAZLE are valid, but only TEASEL (and not TEASLE) or something like that, so there is definitely potential for misspelling. I thought it warranted clarification. Actually, I think the "debate" consisted of me raising this point, and a few people shrugging their shoulders.

You could of course offer ELATES or STELAE and eliminate any doubt.
That doesn't help matters if the selection is S T J E A E S L E though, for example (TEASELS a darren 7).

Jon Corby wrote:

Gavin Chipper wrote:

Dinos Sfyris wrote:Nice game today for my birthday. Saw OLEATES in one round but wasn't sure about it so stuck with TEASEL.

That reminds me, I know it's picky, but shouldn't the contestant be asked to spell a word like TEASEL?

Nah, I initiated this debate with some of the other contestants. There's some oddity with this word, I think both TEAZEL and TEAZLE are valid, but only TEASEL (and not TEASLE) or something like that, so there is definitely potential for misspelling. I thought it warranted clarification. Actually, I think the "debate" consisted of me raising this point, and a few people shrugging their shoulders.

Incidentally, i did have TEASEL down correctly, but anyone who has played me on an off-day on apterous will know how erratic my spelling can be. I too was quite surprised not to be asked to spell it.

Junaid Mubeen wrote:

Kai Laddiman wrote:

Junaid Mubeen wrote:Off the screen he's a really nice guy and makes the effort to chat to contestants, showing a genuine interest.

I can think of quite a few people who would probably disagree with that.

Yeah fair enough, I'm probably thinking more back to when he was first on, during my heats, before the whole Ross/Brand /Slut affair. He was definitely more cheerful and engaging then.

He bumped into me after the first day's filming was over and nearly fell down. Then he looked at me as though I should apologise: I didn't, I steupsed instead and called him "babylon".

Is Lioniser absolutely definitely okay?

[quote="Nick Wainwright]Incidentally, i did have TEASEL down correctly, but anyone who has played me on an off-day on apterous will know how erratic my spelling can be. I too was quite surprised not to be asked to spell it.[/quote]

I remember going for TOUNGED against Nick (while he put TONGUED ).

Ian Dent wrote:Is Lioniser absolutely definitely okay?

There was a similar question a while ago, and the answer is yes.

LIONIZE is listed, together with it's derivative LIONIZER. LIONISE is listed as an alternative spelling for LIONIZE. Following the reasoning which was given before, LIONISER would therefore be allowed.

Kai Laddiman wrote: I remember going for TOUNGED against Nick (while he put TONGUED ).

Spoiler!

Junaid Mubeen wrote:

Kai Laddiman wrote: I remember going for TOUNGED against Nick (while he put TONGUED ).

Spoiler!

That was on apterous, actually.