Tuesday 5th May 2009 (Series 60, Prelim 63)

[Dinos Sfyris]

Countdown recap for Tuesday 5 May 2009.

C1: Champion Hamish Williamson (4 wins, 361 points) from Dumbartonshire. He's into racing, chess and politics and scored the highest ever Countdown debut score on Wednesday, which was followed by 3 subsequent very adequate scores.
C2: Challenger Bob Stevenson from County Durham. He's a depot manager who likes music and sports including golf and horse racing. His favourite place is some racecourse that I didn't catch, but according to Jeff is the coldest place on Earth.
DC: Susie Dent and Lewis Martin.
RR: Rachel Riley.
OT: Other words or solutions.

R01: M P A U L O L I F
R02: D E N C A E T M G
R03: A R I T T A D S I
R04: E A N R T E L R S
R05: 50, 2, 7, 5, 6, 3. Target: 626.
TTT: GREENFOO - "Reach the conclusion that the quartet have left"
R06: N A R N I O R L E
R07: D O S T E G U S Q
R08: S O R N I O P A S
R09: C Y O E N D A C D
R10: 2, 9, 1, 2, 10, 5. Target: 787.
TTT: STICKPIE - "The fussiest of all the axes, perhaps?"
R11: T I P T O A M R E
R12: L V A E B N A S I
R13: R E G O S I J P E
R14: 8, 1, 1, 3, 4, 7. Target: 409.
R15: D E K I T C H E N (conundrum)


And now a brief interlude before our main feature:

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Enjoy the show.

Round 1: M P A U L O L I F

C1: PAILFUL (7)
C2: PALLIUM (7)
OT: PALMFUL (7)
Score: 7–7 (max 7)

2 excellent spots by our contestants. I only managed a miserable FLUMP

PALLIUM is not some exciting yet to be discovered element It is either a woollen vestment conferred on archbishops by the Pope or the layer of unmyelinated neurons or grey matter forming the cortex of the cerebrum

Round 2: D E N C A E T M G

C1: ENACTED (7)
C2: DECANT (6)
OT: ENCAGED (7) ENDGAME (7) ENDGATE (7) NEGATED (7) GATEMEN (7) MENACED (7)
Score: 14–7 (max 14)

Round 3: A R I T T A D S I

C1: DIARIST (7)
C2: TRAITS (6)
DC: tardis (capitalized)
OT: DISTRAIT (8) is the only 8 and STRIATA (7) is the only other 7
Score: 21–7 (max 22)

DISTRAIT particularly ammonium distrait has many uses, especially for Jack Bauer

Round 4: E A N R T E L R S

C1: ANTLERS (7)
C2: LEARNERS (8)
DC: EARNERS (7)
OT: RELEARNS (8) RELATERS (8) RELEARNT (8) TERRANES (8)
Score: 21–15 (max 30)

Round 5: 50, 2, 7, 5, 6, 3. Target: 626.

C1: 626. (5+7)x(50+2)+6/3 (10)
C2: 626. 2x6x50+7x3+5 (10)
Score: 31–25 (max 40)

Teatime teaser: GREENFOO -> FOREGONE

Round 6: N A R N I O R L E

C1: LEARN (5)
C2: NAILER (6)
DC: LOANER (6) (Martin) AILERON (7) lorraine (Jeff)
OT: ALIENOR (7) LORINER (7)
Score: 31–31 (max 47)

Round 7: D O S T E G U S Q

C1: -
C2: stodges (regrets going for a 7 after Hamish declares nothing!)
DC: QUOTED (6) QUOTES (6) DEGUSTS (7)
Score: 31–31 (max 54)

Round 8: S O R N I O P A S

C1: PRISONS (7)
C2: SOPRANOS (8)
OT: PARISONS (8) If only Hamish had stuck the A in!
Score: 31–39 (max 62)

Round 9: C Y O E N D A C D

C1: CADENCY (7) Its the Darren. Great spot from Hamish.
C2: DANCED (6)
OT: CANOED (6) DEACON (6) DYNODE (6) DYNOED (6) NOYADE (6)
Score: 38–39 (max 69)

Round 10: 2, 9, 1, 2, 10, 5. Target: 787.

C1: -
C2: -
RR: 790. Presumably ((9-1)x2x10-2)x5 (7) This is the closest you can get.
Score: 38–39 (max 76)

Teatime teaser: STICKPIE -> PICKIEST

Round 11: T I P T O A M R E

C1: tiptoer
C2: tiptoer
OT: AMORETTI (8) POTTIER (7) (Bob too late) and a few other 7s
Score: 38–39 (max 84)

Both players fail to score for the 3rd time in the game!

Round 12: L V A E B N A S I

C1: SLAVE (5)
C2: SALIVA (6)
DC: LESBIAN (7) ABELIAN (7)
OT: ABELIAS (7) ALEVINS (7) SAVABLE (7)
Score: 38–45 (max 91)

A lot of you probably remember ABELIAN as a maths term from Thursday's game.

Round 13: R E G O S I J P E

C1: GROPES (6)
C2: ORGIES (6)
DC: PORGIES (7) Its the only 7
OT: JEREPIGO (8)
Score: 44–51 (max 99)

JEREPIGO is, as I suspected, a red heavy dessert wine.

Round 14: 8, 1, 1, 3, 4, 7. Target: 409.

C1: 420.
C2: 410. ((4+1)x8+1)x(7+3) (7)
RR: 1 away. Another impossible numbers game so it's the closest possible.
Score: 44–58 (max 106)

Round 15: D E K I T C H E N

C1 buzzes on 10 seconds to say THICKENED which is correct.
Score: 54–58 (max 116)

So Bob brings Hamish's run to a halt in a very low scoring game, but he could still very possibly be back for the finals as a low seed and replicate his debut form in an opening quarter final against Kirk Can some statozoid confirm that this is the lowest winning score? Or the lowest joint total of the 15 round era or something? Interestingly between them they scored 56 in the first 5 rounds, then 56 between them again in the last 10 rounds, so that's an achievement in itself.

Recap brought to you by Abu Fayed

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

[Neil Zussman]

Nice recap Dinos. Considering how low-scoring it was, the contestants had some pretty nice words.
I think the racecourse was Hexham, or something like that? Could be wrong though.
For round 10, Rachel could've done ((2*5-1)*9-2)*10 but we'll never know.

So Bob brings Hamish's run to a halt in a very low scoring game, but he could still very possibly be back for the finals as a low seed and replicate his debut form in an opening quarter final against Kirk Can some statozoid confirm that this is the lowest winning score? Or the lowest joint total of the 15 round era or something? Interestingly between them they scored 56 in the first 5 rounds, then 56 between them again in the last 10 rounds, so that's an achievement in itself.

Recap brought to you by Abu Fayed

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

One of the lowest winning scores ever, but not the lowest. I feel I should point out that since the lowest winning score ever is less than the losing score in this game, there is absolutely zero chance that this game has the lowest joint total...
There's a list of stats here.
Note to those in charge: any time I want to see these facts, I always forget where they are. They're not mentioned on the wiki anywhere (that I can see), or on the cdb homepage, making it rather hard to find them. Any chance of this chaning sometime? [/rant]

[Ralph Gillions]

Yes, the racecourse was Hexham.

[Charlie Reams]

They're not mentioned on the wiki anywhere (that I can see), or on the cdb homepage

Except on the big banner saying "Records" at the top of every page, you mean.

[Neil Zussman]

They're not mentioned on the wiki anywhere (that I can see), or on the cdb homepage

Except on the big banner saying "Records" at the top of every page, you mean.

I meant to say, there is no big 'records' banner on the wiki or on thecountdownpage. Although feel free to correct me about that as well, it's perfectly possible that I'm being spectacularly blind.

[Charlie Reams]

I meant to say, there is no big 'records' banner on the wiki or on thecountdownpage. Although feel free to correct me about that as well, it's perfectly possible that I'm being spectacularly blind.

You're right about that. Generally there's a lack of inter-site linkage. It's something I've been meaning to work on for a while, although the topic in the General forum is a good starting point.

[Phil Reynolds]

DC: Susie Dent and Lewis Martin.

Is that a joke that went over my head or just some bizarre name-switching typo?

OT: Apropos of the above, is it just me or is there a trend nowadays for actors to have back-to-front names? I started obsessing about this during the first series of Green Wing - the regular cast of which included Oliver Chris, Paterson Joseph and Keir Charles - since when I've noticed loads more.

[Howard Somerset]

Can some statozoid confirm that this is the lowest winning score?

Neil's already answered your actual question, but it's interesting to see the extremes achieved by Hamish. After only two games he'd made both the highest and lowest (so far) winning scores of the season. And after his run was completed, he'd won a game with the highest winning score and lost a game to the lowest winning score.

[Howard Somerset]

I meant to say, there is no big 'records' banner on the wiki or on thecountdownpage. Although feel free to correct me about that as well, it's perfectly possible that I'm being spectacularly blind.

The wiki does have a link to records, and it's even on the front page. But I must admit that I always find it difficult to find. Maybe it should be moved to "Quick Links" at the top.

[Dinos Sfyris]

DC: Susie Dent and Lewis Martin.

Is that a joke that went over my head or just some bizarre name-switching typo?

Thats the result of me really concentrating on getting his name the right way round

Cheers for the confirmation on the records.

Geeks.

[Phil Reynolds]

The wiki does have a link to records, and it's even on the front page. But I must admit that I always find it difficult to find. Maybe it should be moved to "Quick Links" at the top.

I notice near the bottom of the main page is a violet-coloured bar containing three links to other Countdown-related sites. Only the first one ("The Countdown Page") works. The second is to something called "The Countdown Corral" which doesn't seem to exist. The third is to "C4Countdown Forum" (sic), but the URL is wrong (it has .com instead of .co.uk). I did try to quietly fix this rather than whining about it here, but it wouldn't let me edit the page.

[Howard Somerset]

I notice near the bottom of the main page is a violet-coloured bar containing three links to other Countdown-related sites. Only the first one ("The Countdown Page") works. The second is to something called "The Countdown Corral" which doesn't seem to exist. The third is to "C4Countdown Forum" (sic), but the URL is wrong (it has .com instead of .co.uk). I did try to quietly fix this rather than whining about it here, but it wouldn't let me edit the page.

Fixed.

[Phil Reynolds]

The third is to "C4Countdown Forum" (sic), but the URL is wrong (it has .com instead of .co.uk).

Fixed.

Ooh - service with a smile. Loving your work Howard. It still says C4Countdown Forum (singular) but most people seem to call it that informally anyway so I'll shut up now.