c4countdown

Countdown recap for Thursday 26 February 2009.

C1: Challenger Ann Abel.
C2: Challenger Brian Goulding.
DC: Susie Dent and Graham Cole.
RR: Rachel Riley.
OT: Other words or solutions.

R01: E A U M S T G O T
R02: E I L X A M V L D
R03: O E U N N T T E Z
R04: R P I A E R S G P
R05: 50, 75, 10, 1, 9, 10. Target: 386.
TTT: MALDRANK - "It's famous and is there for all to see"
R06: A O B O N S M E P
R07: A O E R N G D E D
R08: A O I R P T S E D
R09: I A U R K J R O H
R10: 25, 10, 4, 10, 8, 3. Target: 364.
TTT: SILLYNET - "How you might sit at an old film library"
R11: E E O H N S T E N
R12: A S B C I A S R E
R13: I E O R C T L A D
R14: 100, 3, 5, 6, 1, 3. Target: 525.
R15: I N E P T G N A T (conundrum)


And now a brief interlude before our main feature:

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Neil "The Zuss-man" Zussman left yesterday as the first octochamp of the series, and therefore obviously currently sits atop the seeding table. This means two new contestants today, but you can't help thinking that either one of them could surely only be warming that champions chair for at most a couple of days given the imminent arrival of THE KIRKULATOR next week. Still, who knows? Maybe Kirk will screw it up like last time.

Sitting in that champion's chair is Ann Abel, a retired teacher and magistrate from Salford. She's married with two children (Jonathan and Zoe) and enjoys walking, reading and Killer Sudoku. Interestingly she was born in Manchester in Jamaica, but now lives in Manchester in England. More interesting of course is that her whole name (Christian name & surname) reads as another Christian name, yet somehow this goes unmentioned. Shocking.

In the challenger's chair is Brian Goulding, who joins us from Camborne in Cornwall. He's married to Jennifer, has a daughter, two sons and two stepsons, and his hobbies include bowls, ornithology and working on his allotment. He's a retired fire officer (hero), and tells us that when he joined the service in 1962 he was put in charge of a fire engine just two hours into the job, and couldn't work out how to put his helmet on properly!!!! Tragically, four people (including two young children) burned to death while he sorted out his headgear, but still a very funny story.

Nah, all right, I made that last bit up.

Round 1: E A U M S T G O T

C1: mottoes
C2: gateaus
DC: OUTAGES (7)
OT: MUTATES (7) STOMATE (7) TAUTOGS (7)
Score: 0–0 (max 7)

A few sevens, but easily missed ones, so I was impressed when both contestants declared the max. Oh dear!
Outages are power cuts, stomate is another term for stoma (minute pores in the epidermis of the leaf or stem of a plant) and tautogs are edible fish.

Round 2: E I L X A M V L D

C1: MAILED (6)
C2: MAILED (6)
DC: MEDIAL (6)
OT: VEXILLA (7)
Score: 6–6 (max 14)

Vexilla (plural of vexillum) are the vanes of feathers, amongst other things.

Round 3: O E U N N T T E Z

C1: TENET (5)
C2: TONNE (5)
DC: TENON (5) TENZON (6)
OT: TENUTO (6)
Score: 11–11 (max 20)

Tenzons (alternative spelling of tenson), Susie tells us, are kind of like mediaeval rap battles between troubadours. "Thou hast been verily served", and all that.

Round 4: R P I A E R S G P

C1: GRIPPERS (8)
C2: prepairs
Score: 19–11 (max 28)

Ann finally breaks the deadlock with a darren!

Round 5: 50, 75, 10, 1, 9, 10. Target: 386.

C1: 390. (9-1)*50-10 (7)
C2: 390. (9-1)*50-10 (7)
RR: 386. (50/10)*75+10+1 (10)
Score: 26–18 (max 38)

Teatime teaser: MALDRANK -> LANDMARK

Round 6: A O B O N S M E P

C1: AEONS (5)
C2: BONES (5)
DC: BEMOANS (7) (actually offered by Jeff - DC only had sixes apparently)
OT: AMBONES (7) MOPANES (7)
Score: 31–23 (max 45)

Ambones (plural of ambo) are oblong pulpits with steps at each end, and mopanes are African trees.

Round 7: A O E R N G D E D

C1: grenaded
C2: DERANGED (8)
DC: RENEGADO (8)
OT: GANDERED (8) GARDENED (8)
Score: 31–31 (max 53)

Brian pulls the scores back level again with a good spot. "DERANGE" is a nice word that you can add a load of other letters to in order to get eights. So if you're ever actually on the show and see those letters come out, you might want to recount this little story to yourself:

"Help," I called to the GENDARME as he neared, "that RENEGADE has taken my ENGRAVED pewter tankard that my GARDENER gave me. It simply must be REGAINED." "Are you sure it was a RENEGADE and not a RENEGADO? " he answered. "Yes," I said, "I could tell by his ENLARGED DUNGAREE that..." Oh shit, the time's up.

Round 8: A O I R P T S E D

C1: TRIPODS (7)
C2: DEPARTS (7)
DC: TRAIPSED (8)
OT: ADOPTERS (8) PASTORED (8) READOPTS (8) ASTEROID (8) DIASPORE (8) PARODIES (8) DIOPTASE (8) DIOPTRES (8) RIPOSTED (8) PARODIST (8) PAROTIDS (8) PASTORIE (8) SEPTORIA (8)
Score: 38–38 (max 61)

One of those sets of letters that you're convinced there's a nine from, but instead it's just a whole raft of eights.

Round 9: I A U R K J R O H

C1: HAIR (4)
C2: HAIR (4)
DC: HOURI (5) JUROR (5)
OT: HAIKU (5) HIJRA (5) KARRI (5) KAURI (5) KORAI (5) RAKHI (5)
Score: 42–42 (max 66)

A hijra is an Indian transvestite or eunuch, a karri is a tall Australian eucalyptus, a kauri is a tall coniferous forest tree, korai (plural of kore) are Greek statues of women (clothed - boo) and rakhi are cotton bracelets, and if someone gives you one you have to treat them as a sister. Which I think means generally ignore them, unless you want to borrow some money or something (hi Lu)

Round 10: 25, 10, 4, 10, 8, 3. Target: 364.

C1: 365. (10+4)*25+8-3+10 (7)
C2: 363. (10+4)*25+10+3 (7)
RR: 364. (8+3-10+25)*(10+4) (10)
Score: 49–49 (max 76)

Teatime teaser: SILLYNET -> SILENTLY

Round 11: E E O H N S T E N

C1: HONEST (6)
C2: HONEST (6)
OT: ETHENES (7)
Score: 55–55 (max 83)

Um, ethene is apparently another term for ethylene which is a mass noun. So I dunno if ethenes should be valid or not. Little help, Dinos?

Round 12: A S B C I A S R E

C1: BRACES (6)
C2: ASCRIBES (8)
DC: RABIES (6) SCABIES (7) BRAISES (7)
OT: AIRBASES (8) ARABISES (8) BRASSICA (8)
Score: 55–63 (max 91)

Yet again it takes a very good eight to separate these two, and this time it's Brian who pulls into the lead, with time running out for Ann...

Arabises are low-growing herbaceous plants (also called rock or wall cress) and a brassica is a plant of a genus which, like a slightly risque version of Cluedo, includes rape and mustard.

Round 13: I E O R C T L A D

C1: TRAILED (7)
C2: LEOTARD (7)
DC: EROTICA (7) LORICATE (8)
OT: ARTICLED (8) LACERTID (8) IDOLATER (8) TAILORED (8)
Score: 62–70 (max 99)

A lacertid is a type of lizard, while loricate means having a lorica or other protective plates or scales.

Round 14: 100, 3, 5, 6, 1, 3. Target: 525.

C1: 525. (6-1+100)*5 (10)
C2: 525. (100+6-1)*5 (10)
Score: 72–80 (max 109)

Round 15: I N E P T G N A T

C1 buzzes on 3 seconds to say PATENTING which is correct.
Score: 82–80 (max 119)

Ann nicks it at the death, in what turns out to be a pretty high scoring game; indeed the contestants could only be separated in three letters rounds, and with a max eight each time. Commiserations to Brian, who takes the narrow, last-gasp defeat in good humour, and congratulations to Ann, who strides on into tomorrow's game.... the winner of which will face THE BEVATRON on Monday...

Further summaries are at:
http://www.apterous.org/cdb/series.php?series=60

Ann for series champion.

Jon Corby wrote:Um, ethene is apparently another term for ethylene which is a mass noun. So I dunno if ethenes should be valid or not. Little help, Dinos?

I'd probably say no to ETHENES as there's only one isomer of its sort. Funnily enough PROPENE, the next alkene in chain length, is only there in the singular (but you can have PREPONES) and BUTENE isn't there at all (probably because you have to specify but-1-ene or but-2-ene) and even more funnily I'd probably say butenes was more acceptable as a plural as you can have cis and trans variations. Mind you this comes from someone who received BARELY passing marks on Level 2 of his chem degree the other day!

Awesome recap btw

Dinos Sfyris wrote:I'd probably say no to ETHENES as there's only one isomer of its sort.

Do you think Susie would disallow it though, considering it's marked just as "noun" and you have to follow the redirection to find it's an alternative name for a mass noun? (see the OPALINES debate)

I'm not sure what to do

Dunno mate. My record with mass nouns is primitive at best. Probably doesn't help that I don't have an ODE2r so have never wanted to look anything up for such purpose, so I don't know how Susie would go about it.