Spoilers for Thursday 5 January 2023 - CoC XVI, Prelim 4

[Philip A]

The quarter-final matchups are now taking shape, and this first-round match will fill up half of next week’s last 8. James Haughton, the winner of Series 81 who has also had a good run on highbrow quiz shows, plays Series 84 semi-finalist and Scrabbler Stu Harkness, who has a Pointless trophy alongside his teapot and two glass trophies.

[Adam S Latchford]

Pre tournament this was the game I was most excited for of the round of 16

[Gavin Chipper]

Pre tournament this was the game I was most excited for of the round of 16

And that's even with you playing in one of the games.

[Adam S Latchford]

Pre tournament this was the game I was most excited for of the round of 16

And that's even with you playing in one of the games.

Yeah I wasn't looking forward to that!

[Philip A]

R3 alt: (75+6)*(10-1)-8-8=713, quite tricky for a 1 large.

[Rhys Benjamin]

Lost to Stu 58-117 and James 61-111.

Also, Colin... 10/10 hyping skills.

[Philip A]

Ah, rotten luck for Stu. So near. James missed a trick on VOCALISES, but held on and cracked that tricky conundrum brilliantly. What a finish to an exciting game.

[Adam S Latchford]

Fantastic episode. The miss of vocalises made it even better - ahmed had the best performance so far but that was the best game

[Andres Sanchez]

As I was making my predictions on this whole CoC, this was one of the matches I had a tough time choosing its victor.

They both had their numbers down pact and I think what sealed it for me was letters. Both were certainly good but I think James had more of an edge to it. And I didn't expect Stu to come back swinging honestly, I thought they'd be neck and neck the whole way through. A very commendable win to both players and a huge commiserations to Stu, you played wonderfully.

[Thomas Cappleman]

Another great game for the tournament. And we both commented at home how nice it is to have everyone in the studio clearly having a good time with the game.

[Toby McDonald]

Great game guys! Well done James and commiserations Stu.

[Ryan Lam]

With today's episodes, the lineup for the remaining Preliminaries are now known (although the contestants seating position may not be correct). Again, how lucky am I to rearrange and slot this episode correctly on the Wiki albeit the contestants positions were incorrect. We have Stu Harkness who now has a ponytail hairstyle (Fiona teased me on the Daily Chat to take a new picture, maybe I should!) and I so remember his "747 Paper Aeroplane" after that impossible Numbers round in his Quarter-Final match. In the other seat, James Haughton, the last pre-pandemic Grand Champion and yes, I did check, he never sat in that chair before and now we know it's because he was a reserve contestant immediately after the previous Octochamp Tom Silverlock was crowned. Well, COVID-19 doesn't really impact the skill of the players, and glad we had Stu in the Daily Chat so let's see who is stronger!

Letters: Great first third with both contestants spotting all the maximums, but James gets ahead with MOUTHIE in R4 and GALLOPER in R8. Very unlucky Stu who mentioned that he had the latter word but did not risk it The gap remains all the way until R11; James had OVISACS, but Stu has a nine with VOCALISES which essentially nearly wiped out the score margin! Oh my word, and James covers his face in disbelief probably from failing to spot it. Kudos to Rachel for guessing the definition of CAKEAGE correctly in R12 and to James by ending off with ALTAITE in R13 too afterwards!

Numbers: James goes for something different from what we know and starts off with 1 Large, but Stu pulls out the big tactics and goes for 4 Large in R6 with another manageable target. Then came R9 with James switching to 6 Small, and I'm sure the two "1"s would have thrown both of them off and caused James to no longer have a Maximum score for the game. Finally, with a small target in R14, a crucial conundrum was heading our way after both contestants knew 190 was 95 × 2!

Conundrum: Deep breath, or maybe hold it, for it's the first crucial conundrum of the Championship. I hear a buzzer, it's James and with his HYPE SKILL, he has SYLPHLIKE which I had never heard of until the episode aired! With that, he takes the day with his first crucial ever! That was tense!

Ouch, to lose two consecutive games with the same score, I feel you, Stu, but fret not, 97 is a very good score and you know what, had you risked GALLOPER, it would have been a far more painful loss as the score would have been 105 - 101 going into the conundrum, so don't feel haunted about it. Continue to have fun to teach your students Maths and that comeback you gave was nothing but fantastic. Have fun out there in the Apterous community too and hope your 16 year journey on Countdown continues with many more!

There you have it, half of the Quarter-Finalists are known at this stage with a "zig-zag" pattern of winners thus far. Next up, it's a battle I'm sure no one wants to miss, because both players are Grand Champions and they have appeared on our Daily Chat on a regular basis. Will it be our most recent winner who surprised himself with the final conundrum of Series 86 exactly a fortnight ago, Tom Stevenson or the sole player from Series 83 and someone who toppled Luke Boynton, another great player, Adam Latchford who secures the next spot and faces James the following Tuesday? Let's see (and hear!) their inputs tomorrow!

Progress:
Preliminary 1 (02 January 2023): Florence Cappleman-Lynes (Series 84 Runner-Up) vs Leo Smith (Series 82 Semi-Finalist) (100 - 69)
Preliminary 2 (03 January 2023): Dinos Sfyris (Series 80 Grand Champion) vs Elliott Mellor (Series 80 Runner-Up) (88 - 110)
Preliminary 3 (04 January 2023): Ahmed Mohamed (Series 84 Grand Champion) vs Edward Byrne (Series 86 Runner-Up) (121 - 76)
Preliminary 4 (05 January 2023): Stu Harkness (Series 84 Semi-Finalist) vs James Haughton (Series 81 Grand Champion) (97 - 111)
Preliminary 5 (06 January 2023): Tom Stevenson (Series 86 Grand Champion) vs Adam Latchford (Series 83 Grand Champion)
Preliminary 6 (09 January 2023): Martin May (Series 79 Runner-Up) vs Luke-Johnson Davies (Series 82 Grand Champion)
Preliminary 7 (10 January 2023): Steve Hyde (Series 85 Semi-Finalist) vs Dan Byrom (Series 85 Grand Champion)
Preliminary 8 (11 January 2023): Matt O'Connor (Series 85 Runner-Up) vs Sam Cappleman-Lynes (Series 82 Runner-Up)
Quarter-Finals 1 (12 January 2023): Florence Cappleman-Lynes (Preliminary 1 Winner) vs (Preliminary 8 Winner)
Quarter-Finals 2 (13 January 2023): Elliott Mellor (Preliminary 2 Winner) vs (Preliminary 7 Winner)
Quarter-Finals 3 (16 January 2023): Ahmed Mohamed (Preliminary 3 Winner) vs (Preliminary 6 Winner)
Quarter-Finals 4 (17 January 2023): James Haughton (Preliminary 4 Winner) vs (Preliminary 5 Winner)
Semi-Finals 1 (18 January 2023): (Quarter-Finals 1 Winner) vs (Quarter-Finals 4 Winner)
Semi-Finals 2 (19 January 2023): (Quarter-Finals 2 Winner) vs (Quarter-Finals 3 Winner)
Championship Final (20 January 2023): (Semi-Finals 1 Winner) vs (Semi-Finals 2 Winner)

[Adam S Latchford]

Numbers: James goes for something different from what we know and starts off with 1 Large, but Stu pulls out the big tactics and goes for 4 Large in R6 with another manageable target. Then came R9 with James switching back to his favourite 6 Small, and I'm sure the two "1"s would have thrown both of them off and caused James to no longer have a Maximum score for the game. Finally, with a small target in R14, a crucial conundrum was heading our way after both contestants knew 190 was 95 × 2!

Wrong way round here, James is the 4 large merch and stu loves a 1 large

[Ryan Lam]

Wrong way round here, James is the 4 large merch and stu loves a 1 large

Thanks, edited it. All the best today!

[Howie Myers]

r14 alt: 2*(100-4)-(50/25)=190
magnificent game!