Two of my predictions came true, one related to the show and one not. We did indeed get a lot more people on the daily chat as I had expected (not least to mention Sam and Florence together!) and North Shropshire would fall to the Liberal Democrats which is just staggering. Anyways, the latter isn't the main point, let's get on with the final Friday afternoon broadcast of the show in 2021 because Christmas Eve is next week already! Yes, time flies, and Florence is wearing a Christmas sweater too! How lovely...
Letters: Florence gets an early lead with AUTHORS in R2, then extends it with AMATEUR in R7 (which her husband Sam joked about it in the daily chat and I hope Jasamrit didn't take it personally), GOURAMI in R10 after Jasamrit got gromit (which made me think about Wallace and Gromit, oops
) and ELEGIAST in R11! Another great spot by both players today were ODONATES in R12, so well done!
Numbers: Sensing how the opponent is good at Maths (with Florence having a Maths degree and Jasamrit's maximum Mensa test score), both gamble; the former with 3 Large in R3 and the latter with 4 Large in R6. Steady start with R3 but oh no, Jasamrit's gamble backfires in R6 with a perfect solution from Florence!
He subsequently tries that selection again in R14 even though the game was over by then and it just unfortunately made things worse as Florence finds an easy way out (which I admit I missed it so badly)!
Conundrum: I would say the difficulty of this conundrum was comparable to that of yesterday's one, but Florence sure is quick on the buzzer and gets it correct, taking her to just one point shy of the Maximum! :O She would have solidly beaten me in this aspect even though I did eventually get the answer.
That was really incredible, to see Florence improve noticeably from her Preliminaries and despite the pressure, remained calm and gave the spectacular performance we saw on-screen today (in fact, supposed if you were calm enough, you could possibly solve all four Numbers rounds). I thought the game's margin would be around 30 points, but it was way off at 59 points not least because of that! Commiserations Jasamrit, you tried to hold her back but it didn't quite work out for you, but at least no one can take away the maximum score on your Mensa test all those years ago which I'm sure you are proud of! All the best in your studies, your 'A' Levels and your future ambitions in University! Good luck on your audition on Only Connect as well and hopefully, we'll see you back on screen somewhere in the not too distant future!
One last week of Countdown, and Susie's back in Dictionary Corner next week (Personally, I'd rather have her Origins of Words than a second Anecdote). Not just that, another guest that appeared earlier in the Series is also back, yup, it's the Reverend Richard Coles (I can't remember when was the last time apart from Series 82 that a guest appeared in more than one recording block.)! Florence is up against Stu on Wednesday, but who will face Ahmed and take the final Semi-Final spot on Tuesday? Is it "Back after 19 Years and with his unusual yet impressive Numbers solving techniques" Jeremy Slaney or "Cheating defeat thrice with an incredible comeback on the last of these occasions" Matt Gould? Tune in next week to find out!
Progress:
QF1 (15 December):
Ahmed Mohamed (#1) vs Janet Noe (#8) (
143 - 59)
QF2 (16 December):
Stu Harkness (#2) vs Roddie Bell (#7) (
112 - 82)
QF3 (17 December):
Florence Cappleman-Lynes (#3) vs Jasamrit Rahala (#6) (
121 - 62)
QF4 (20 December): Jeremy Slaney (#4) vs Matt Gould (#5)
SF1 (21 December): Ahmed Mohamed (QF1 Winner) vs (QF4 Winner)
SF2 (22 December): Stu Harkness (QF2 Winner) vs Florence Cappleman-Lynes (QF3 Winner)
GF (23 December): (SF1 Winner) vs (SF2 Winner)
