c4countdown

Well played to all finalists, and best of luck to Chris and Fiona tomorrow.

VALETAS in R13

The call for more women to apply on the show is up again, and yes, I'm sure we want more inclusiveness when it comes to having more females appearing in the Finals rather than just one or none at all! Talk about style, Fiona's elegantly dressed here and the presenters are so obsessed with her hair, what's with that in recent Finals eh? Also reminds me of the song "She's a Lady" by Tom Jones too if anything. On the other side, we have Terence who can't believes he's here just like Michael Calder half a year ago, but to be fair, not scoring in four rounds and still making it is also in part because Rob Barkess screwed up too in some places. Let's see who has the upper hand here!

Letters: We're off as Fiona takes the first round with FOMENTS, but with the mass noun mights in R2, Terence gets off from the starting line and the margin is just a single point! A nice Christmas R5 to remind us that there's STEAK in a BASKET somewhere next week to enjoy over dinner (I hope!), but if it was STAKE that Terence had, then it can't get any higher as Fiona opens the gap up! Nice spot of POLENTAS in R8 afterwards from both, and some in the Daily Chat were fearful Susie might rule it invalid (restaurant rules are always the hardest, sigh...) but fortunately didn't Fiona was probably looking for a round to deal a fatal blow to Terence as well as not make the same mistake as Mark Finnerty did in the last third back in June where he risked too much and blew the game. R12 came, and with an -ING, there is ENDORSING from Fiona and she has done it!! The first female contestant into the Grand Final since Florence-Cappleman Lynes in December 2021 and the game was over! However, we should also commend Terence for getting SVELTE in R13 afterwards, that's not an easy word to get in the last round!

Numbers: Fiona is not taking any risks with just a one point gap and goes with 1 Large for R3. Easy target for starters, and yes, it's better for Terence to declare his solution first in case Fiona can't read his handwriting later on! I bet he is hoping for a difficult puzzle I guess, and R6 comes with one such that both contestants had to settle for one away. Finally, Rachel has to do something this Finals (Kudos to those in the Daily Chat who found one of the four methods to get the answer; I didn't and got one away too)! With the margin still not moving a single bit, Fiona goes for 3 Large... dammit, the hard bit is just figuring out 25 × 9 innit Last but not least, Terence wants to finish on a high with 4 Large, but he mostly likely ran out of steam as he allows Fiona to clamber more points with him ending up on 600, guessed he didn't think through how to make a "3" from there, bad luck

Conundrum: Wow, OILI TEARS for this one, and everyone in the Daily Chat was so grateful this one was so much easier after yesterday's LAMINGTON nonsense (although I'm sure my Australian friends would recommend this for Christmas). Gah, neither contestant solves it, again! Rachel saves the day with the answer, man if tomorrow's conundrum goes unsolved, I believe this will be the first time overall that no one has gotten a single conundrum in a Finals (maybe someone can help to clarify this point?)

My prediction was for Fiona to win with a margin of 25 points, and the difference was larger at 35 points in part due to the miss from Terence in R14. By the time the second break came I was almost sure my prediction was out the window, until that decisive R12 changed everything. Sadly, luck was not on the latter's side and "The Gentleman" has to take a bow and leave. But, before he does that, he is glad that if there was anyone he had to lose, it was Fiona, and having both #6 Seeds make it to the Semi-Finals in the same year is something I bet will never be repeated in a long time, so hats off to you for doing so! Plus, if there was a watch party at your University again today, give yourself a round of applause, you gave a spectacular display for your colleagues on-screen and perhaps you can display the Finalists plaque on your staff table eventually to show you made it this far!

Here we go, the big day to wrap up the year for Countdown is nearly upon us and it's back to the "conventional" #1 vs #2 Seed in the Grand Final. Will Chris edge out in the battle to clinch the Richard Whiteley Memorial Trophy or will Fiona do so and become the first woman in a very, very long time to be the Grand Champion? Will the match go down to the wire as what some of us may have predicted? Stay tuned, and let's see if we really close the year out with a bang!

Progress:
QF1 (12 December 2024): Chris Kirby (#1) vs Neil Holland (#9) (96 - 68)
QF2 (13 December 2024): Fiona Wood (#2) vs Helen McGivern (#7) (107 - 83)
QF3 (16 December 2024): Rob Barkess (#3) vs Terence Newnham (#6) (87 - 100)
QF4 (17 December 2024): David Roe (#4) vs Alex Call (#5) (97 - 67)
SF1 (18 December 2024): Chris Kirby (QF1 Winner) vs David Roe (QF4 Winner) (101 - 82)
SF2 (19 December 2024): Fiona Wood (QF2 Winner) vs Terence Newnham (QF3 Winner) (111 - 76)
GF (20 December 2024): Chris Kirby (SF1 Winner) vs Fiona Wood (SF2 Winner)

r11 alt: CRUMBED

Good game, particularly from Fiona, so let's hope a for a good final.

That absolute gushing praise for Fiona in the introduction was way, way, way over the top though. It was pretty bizarre actually.