c4countdown

TA,FL,BO,WA,JA,NI,GR,YO,LI,TO,TH,BO,FR,TH,BI,BA,CI,TH,IS,JA

IL, AL

Karen Pearson wrote:IL, AL

That's four letters!

But they're not the next two I had in mind. Can you explain your reasoning?

Okay Jon, doesn't look like any of us are going to get it . . . Any clues?

No.

Jon Corby wrote:No.

I know Corby well enough to know there's a 95% chance the next two letters are "NO". For what reason, I know not.

Matt Morrison wrote:

Jon Corby wrote:No.

I know Corby well enough to know there's a 95% chance the next two letters are "NO". For what reason, I know not.

The next two letters are not "NO".

Are the next 2 letters the end of the sequence or does it carry on ?

They are not US states, UK Postcodes or ISO-3166-1 country codes but beyond that I'm stumped.

Ray Folwell wrote:Are the next 2 letters the end of the sequence or does it carry on ?

They are not US states, UK Postcodes or ISO-3166-1 country codes but beyond that I'm stumped.

They do carry on further than that, but the sequence is finite.

Got it! The next two letters are "HO".

And to complete what I regard to be the end of the finite sequence: HO, TH, IS, JA, HO. Ok, you could continue it still further from there, with FR, TE, ME, but then you run out of two-letter groups.

Matt Bayfield wrote:Got it! The next two letters are "HO".

And to complete what I regard to be the end of the finite sequence: HO, TH, IS, JA, HO. Ok, you could continue it still further from there, with FR, TE, ME, but then you run out of two-letter groups.

Awesome, awesome work Matt. I am seriously impressed. Seriously. Hours of intense analysis or an epiphany?

Either way, have a badger:



I like the fact that you giving the answer probably won't help anyone else either, lol.

Well Jon, I wasn't about to spoil the intrigue for everyone else when there was the alternative option of adding to their general confusion!

I only saw this thread this afternoon as I rarely visit this forum. The answer suddenly dawned on me after 15 minutes of considering various options of what kind of things the two-letter groups could represent - I was fairly sure that the groups represented, well, the kind of thing they actually were. It was then when I ran through the section in the middle "TO, TH, BO, FR, TH, BI..." that the solution eventually came to me - and of course it helped that the knowledge (as opposed to the skill) required to identify the sequence is in a sphere in which I'm very well acquainted. (You can probably guess what my specialist round is in pub quizzes...)

I could describe my thought process further... but that would probably give too much away.

The badger is appreciated!

I have to admit I'm looking forward to the answer. I'm too dumb to know where to start with solving it.

I've been waiting on an answer for ages now. Hurry up you sexy tease.

Actually, before you reveal the answers, at the point when clearly no one else is going to get it, lets get some clues.
I just get too bewildered by these things to know where to start.

The only clue I can see at the moment is Matt referring to "groups", so presumably each two letter doesn't refer to a specific individual thing.
Although he could have meant that he'd separated the two letter codes into groups (like the middle group/section he pointed out). Who knows? Not I.

Oh, and mentioning it's something to do with a particular specialist round you tend to get in pub quizzes. Not that that helps, sports, geography, history, entertainment....

Matt Morrison wrote:Not that that helps, sports, geography, history, entertainment....

...pasta shapes (or is that just my local?)

Charlie Reams wrote:

Matt Morrison wrote:Not that that helps, sports, geography, history, entertainment....

...pasta shapes (or is that just my local?)

what's it called, the Itali Inn?

(ba doom)

Matt, pleased don't be confused by my mention of "groups". I was using "group" as a synonym for a pair of letters. Replace every occurrence of "group" with "pair" and it might be less misleading.

Each two-letter pair does refer to a single thing. As it happened, concentrating on a small part of the full sequence did help me spot the solution, but grouping the pairs into sections of several pairs isn't necessary.


I leave it entirely up to Jon to give any further hints.

Matt Bayfield wrote:I leave it entirely up to Jon to give any further hints.

I think we all know how unlikely that is

It's this bit that's confusing me:

Matt Bayfield wrote:And to complete what I regard to be the end of the finite sequence: HO, TH, IS, JA, HO. Ok, you could continue it still further from there, with FR, TE, ME, but then you run out of two-letter groups.

Given that FR, TE and ME are two-letter groups, why are they not part of the "finite sequence"?

I suspect the answer's going to be something to do with sport, and hence dull.

Phil Reynolds wrote:It's this bit that's confusing me:

Matt Bayfield wrote:And to complete what I regard to be the end of the finite sequence: HO, TH, IS, JA, HO. Ok, you could continue it still further from there, with FR, TE, ME, but then you run out of two-letter groups.

Given that FR, TE and ME are two-letter groups, why are they not part of the "finite sequence"?

I suspect the answer's going to be something to do with sport, and hence dull.

They are part of the finite sequence, but kinda belonging to a different section as the rest of them in the puzzle. But they certainly would be next if you wanted to continue the sequence.

It's nothing to do with sport.

Is it to do with music?

M. George Quinn wrote:Is it to do with music?

It's nothing to do with sport.

Don't answer that question. I've just got it.

Woo hoo.

M. George Quinn wrote:Don't answer that question. I've just got it.

Woo hoo.

PM me, just to prevent other people falsely 'claiming' to have got it, and I'll give you respect in this thread.

Jon Corby wrote:

M. George Quinn wrote:Don't answer that question. I've just got it.

Woo hoo.

PM me, just to prevent other people falsely 'claiming' to have got it, and I'll give you respect in this thread.

PM received - Magic George is also bang on the money, and earns a dancing badger:

I was on the right track for a couple of days just didn't get the last little bit.

Jon Corby wrote:YO,LI,TO,TH

I found this in a similair sequence yesterday that continues TH,YO,IM,TO,TH,ST

PM received from David Williams received, who has also cracked the code! Well done!

Pour vous:

Will you eventually reveal all?

Or at least give us a clue

marc meakin wrote:Will you eventually reveal all?

Or at least give us a clue

It would be pretty twattish of me not to tell you the answer.

Jon Corby wrote:It would be pretty twattish of me not to tell you the answer.

Yeah, but will you?

Phil Reynolds wrote:

Jon Corby wrote:It would be pretty twattish of me not to tell you the answer.

Yeah, but will you?

I would have to be some kind of colossal bell-end not to.

Jon Corby wrote:

Phil Reynolds wrote:Yeah, but will you?

I would have to be some kind of colossal bell-end not to.

I think that answers the question.

Jon Corby wrote:

Phil Reynolds wrote:

Jon Corby wrote:It would be pretty twattish of me not to tell you the answer.

Yeah, but will you?

I would have to be some kind of colossal bell-end not to.

Keep stacking them up, Jon, we know we'll never see your answer

I have the answer! There is no answer. It's random. Whatever you say after you will get a badger off Corby.

Stupid fucking quiz.

Kirk Bevins wrote:I have the answer! There is no answer. It's random. Whatever you say after you will get a badger off Corby.

Stupid fucking quiz.

OMG!
Jon's humour's gone too far this time.
Thanks for putting us out of our misery though Kirk.

Derek Hazell wrote: Jon's humour's gone too far this time.
Thanks for putting us out of our misery though Kirk.

To put you in more misery - I was joking.

Kirk Bevins wrote:

Derek Hazell wrote: Jon's humour's gone too far this time.
Thanks for putting us out of our misery though Kirk.

To put you in more misery - I was joking.

So was I . . . about his humour going too far this time

People other than Mr Corby do know the answer. What's it worth? Of course said Mr Corby can buy my silence by matching any bid.

David Williams wrote:People other than Mr Corby do know the answer. What's it worth?

Much less than it would have been two weeks ago! It's dragging on a bit, I'm probably just gonna shrug and move on when the answer is revealed, rather than the mind-blowing excitement I might have experienced before.

On a happily topical note: is this one of the many series that ends up at "MC"?

Matt Morrison wrote:

David Williams wrote:People other than Mr Corby do know the answer. What's it worth?

Much less than it would have been two weeks ago! It's dragging on a bit, I'm probably just gonna shrug and move on when the answer is revealed, rather than the mind-blowing excitement I might have experienced before.

Oh, I was gonna tell you, but if you don't really care, then....


You will hate it (and me) when you hear the answer

Jon Corby wrote:

Matt Morrison wrote:

David Williams wrote:People other than Mr Corby do know the answer. What's it worth?

Much less than it would have been two weeks ago! It's dragging on a bit, I'm probably just gonna shrug and move on when the answer is revealed, rather than the mind-blowing excitement I might have experienced before.

Oh, I was gonna tell you, but if you don't really care, then....


You will hate it (and me) when you hear the answer

WHEN ?

Can't we have more clues first, to give we lesser-able the chance of a small quantity of satisfaction?

OK, some questions:

1. Are the pairs initials?
2. And more specifically, do they refer to people?
3. Do the pairs correspond to countries?
4. Is the ordering chronological? ie, do the later pairs correspond to more recent events?
5. Do the pairs correspond to winners - eg Countdown finalists, Eurovision winners, something like that?
6. Is the answer somehow lexicographical? Like, I dunno, each pair corresponds to the first and last letter of a word which has some kind of property, eg Countdown final conundrums or something like that?

Alice Moore wrote:OK, some questions:

1. Are the pairs initials?
2. And more specifically, do they refer to people?
3. Do the pairs correspond to countries?
4. Is the ordering chronological? ie, do the later pairs correspond to more recent events?
5. Do the pairs correspond to winners - eg Countdown finalists, Eurovision winners, something like that?
6. Is the answer somehow lexicographical? Like, I dunno, each pair corresponds to the first and last letter of a word which has some kind of property, eg Countdown final conundrums or something like that?

1. No
2. No
3. No
4. No (well, sorta, but not really how you describe)
5. No.
6. Kinda

Should be easy to get it from that.

OK... so do the repetitions correspond to identical entries? eg does TH always mean the same thing?

And indeed... does TH refer to the word THE?

Alice Moore wrote:OK... so do the repetitions correspond to identical entries? eg does TH always mean the same thing?

No.

Alice Moore wrote:And indeed... does TH refer to the word THE?

Ooh..... could be!

Aha!

Hang on a mo... think I'm finally getting there...

GOT IT!

Of course I can't prove it by giving the answer, as it's already been given. But this should be enough:

BE,IN,DU,BE,GO,TO,ME

Although I'm aware there are alternatives to what I just wrote, but that's the version I know.

Very good. Raised a smile in this corner of the internet.

Here's another. What are the next 5 letters in this sequence?

F,U,K,A,W,W,R,A,Y,R,D,U,K,A,W,W,L,T,E,E,T,K,E,Y,R,Y,E,W,N,U,K,A,R,Y,O,E,E,W,T,U,T,D,O,E,E,W,N,U,K,A,R

Clue: It's going on a similar principle to the last one (which is why it uses single letters: too easy otherwise). God knows whether anyone'll get it though.

Just give the fucking answer.

The big breakthrough for me was realising that not only did TH sometimes stand for THE, but CI stood for CITY. And then I got TO,TH,BO,FR,TH,BI,BA,CI and then I got the rest.

Are they lyrics to a song or words from a poem?

Alice Moore wrote:The big breakthrough for me was realising that not only did TH sometimes stand for THE, but CI stood for CITY. And then I got TO,TH,BO,FR,TH,BI,BA,CI and then I got the rest.

Ah, that's finally enough for me to get it. Don't think I'd've ever done so without the CITY clue, it's not something I'm especially familiar with.

marc meakin wrote:Are they lyrics to a song or words from a poem?

The fomer. This whole thing was a huge anti-climax for me.

Junaid Mubeen wrote:The fomer. This whole thing was a huge anti-climax for me.

Perfect

Hi everyone, i am a virgin poster and have also eventually solved this bollocks. I am deeply embarrassed to admit knowing the lyrics to this rubbish so please don't judge me from this post !

Graham Easton wrote:i am a virgin poster

Don't worry, this place is full of them.

Michael Wallace wrote:

Alice Moore wrote:The big breakthrough for me was realising that not only did TH sometimes stand for THE, but CI stood for CITY. And then I got TO,TH,BO,FR,TH,BI,BA,CI and then I got the rest.

Ah, that's finally enough for me to get it. Don't think I'd've ever done so without the CITY clue, it's not something I'm especially familiar with.

IAWTP