Spoilers for Tuesday 27th June 2023 (Series 87, SF1)

[Toby McDonald]

Great game both. Very well done Ronan, and commiserations Adam.

Edit: Just noticed the max game Ronan, very nice!

[Philip A]

Some contest, very well played both. Ronan the first person since Conor Travers to achieve a maximum-scoring game more than once.

[Gavin Chipper]

Great game both and well done to Ronan on the max score (though not a true max game as one of the numbers wasn't the closest possible).

[Johnny Canuck]

A "Sergio game", perhaps?

[Andres Sanchez]

Vwp you two, here's my play on that:

leafmen
MONODIA
(50/25+1)*2*100+75
GEISHAS
ETHANOLS
(9+4-1)*7*10
SATIRE
DIOCESAN
100+50-9
UNROOF
AMPUTEES
ROGATIONS
DELUGE
(75-((50/25)*3))*10
DISSONANT (3ish seconds)

98 - 85 against Adam and 75 - 122 against Ronan! Can't wait to see how the finals go!

[Ryan Lam]

We're in the closing stages of the Series now and if you think two rematches on air isn't enough, maybe consider this another one albeit from the online version because both Ronan and Adam had faced each other in the Zoomdown Semi-Finals in December 2021 1.5 years ago! Now, I admit I did not watch the whole thing before the show today and Ronan won by a margin of 41 points back then just to refresh my memory, so it's game on and see if Adam can improve his performance!

Letters: Gah, an early stumble with wolfman from Adam in R1, unlucky Ronan then gets on with an excellent spot of MONODIA in R2 and ANETHOLS in R5 (I wasn't sure if this word was valid beforehand) to match Adam's ETHANOLS, well done for remembering that it can be pluralised! From Chemistry there, to Biology in R7, back to Chemistry again in R8 if you'd noticed (well of course DIOCESAN was in that last round to match DC's spot of FLAMEN in R1 with AMEN being there ). The gap is still even after both Teatime Teasers, and Ronan spots another brilliant word with RURBAN in R10. Then, came R11, argh!! My heart sank when Adam spelt out epistema and I instantly knew it was not correct. That was painful but I'm sure he had to risk it However, that didn't get in the way of things with both spotting ROGATIONS in R12, excellent!

Numbers: Yes, this is what we want, much harder targets worthy of a Finals match (minus R9 of course). Gambling seems to be the only option here, Ronan goes for 4 Large in R3 and it was such an impossible target the best was four away, so good work (I missed their simple method, gah! ) Adam next goes for the other extreme end, 6 Small in R6 and both contestants got the best they could with yet another impossible round! Lastly, with the last chance to force a crucial conundrum in R14, Adam goes for 4 Large, something he already had in mind beforehand as mentioned in the Daily Chat should he be in that exact situation he was (this genuinely surprised some of us in the Daily Chat) and with Rachel putting her marker down after the solution was written, you know with three impossible rounds, this is extremely rare, so great work all round to Adam and Dexter for grabbing all 31 points available today!

Conundrum: Something I haven't mentioned is that Ronan's still on a maximum going into here. If he gets this, he'll be the first person to score double max games in a single, regular series. He buzzes in after 1.5 seconds, he's not SITting ON SAND, he's on solid rock and he's DONE IT!! He has made history by scoring ANOTHER MAX GAME exactly five weeks later!!! OH MY WORD!! I'm really dizzy now, what just happened??!! Man, it feels like this is a dream!

Incredible! That was such a stellar performance from both contestants! I predicted Adam wouldn't let Ronan off the hook that easily with the latter winning by a margin of 20 points and with the final difference at 24 points, that wasn't a bad guess. I'll talk more about Ronan's performance of course after the Grand Final now that he's through, but as for Adam, to say this was superb is an understatement. It's extremely unfortunate both of your slip-ups ultimately cost you the game. Despite that, you fought bravely to the end, and nevermind you didn't score a century here, you have given us a fantastic display of your skills even though you yourself mentioned you only had a 10% chance of beating Ronan based on your stats on Apterous (I'm paraphrasing here). I hoped your children enjoyed watching you in the studio and may your Countdown journey never stop even after 15 years! Marvellous work and hope to see you online for the remaining matches of the Series on the Daily Chat as well!

The second Semi-Final and of course, the second rematch of the Series with Cillian facing against Peter once more. Both rematches saw the losers sitting opposite their winners, but can Peter do the same as Adam and flip the game or will it end in another loss for him? Also, if you didn't cringe at Colin's nickname for Cillian at the end of the show (The Incredible "Mulk"), good for you . Anyways, let's see who shall face Ronan on Thursday!

Progress:
QF1 (21 June 2023): Ronan Higginson (#1) vs Andrew Barrett (#8) (122 - 70)
QF2 (22 June 2023): Cillian McMulkin (#2) vs Dave Cappleman (#7) (109 - 81)
QF3 (23 June 2023): Peter Burke (#3) vs Greg Pearce (#6) (107 - 64)
QF4 (26 June 2023): Graham Moonie-Dalton (#4) vs Adam Dexter (#5) (60 - 117)
SF1 (27 June 2023): Ronan Higginson (QF1 Winner) vs Adam Dexter (QF4 Winner) (122 - 98)
SF2 (28 June 2023): Cillian McMulkin (QF2 Winner) vs Peter Burke (QF3 Winner)
GF (29 June 2023): Ronan Higginson (SF1 Winner) vs (SF2 Winner)

[Fred Mumford]

A "Sergio game", perhaps?

I vote for an "Alberto" game (a "Jim" game is also appropriate but the name is perhaps too common), where someone gets a maximum possible points score without getting the best possible result in every round.

[Gavin Chipper]

A "Sergio game", perhaps?

I vote for an "Alberto" game (a "Jim" game is also appropriate but the name is perhaps too common), where someone gets a maximum possible points score without getting the best possible result in every round.

Does someone want to explain the reasoning behind any of these? I definitely think it should get a name.

Edit - Perez, Ascari, Clark? Presumably Ascari and Clark got the max points from the best x of y scoring. And Perez is Max's team-mate.

[Fred Mumford]

Edit - Perez, Ascari, Clark? Presumably Ascari and Clark got the max points from the best x of y scoring. And Perez is Max's team-mate.

Yes on Ascari and Clark. They fit the achievement better and also have the advantage of being less transient. In 5 years time the Sergio name may confuse.

[Gavin Chipper]

Jim is one syllable like Max and Jos so I think fits better. Plus Clark is more famous than Ascari so I say go with Jim.

[John Garcia]

Jim is one syllable like Max and Jos so I think fits better. Plus Clark is more famous than Ascari so I say go with Jim.

It's a Jim; Max but not as we know it.

[Ronan M Higginson]

Thanks to the couple of people who weren't just banging on about the idea of a fucking name. Very well played Adam, was great meeting you. So pleased to be in the final so no matter what happens tomorrow, I'll be enjoying myself knowing it's the last one either way.

Is 3 impossible numbers rounds a record in the New 15 round format?