c4countdown

The unplayed matches in the Open were adjudicated as follows:

David O'Donnell forfeit win vs. Phil Makepeace
Adam Gillard vs. Simon Myers draw
Kai Laddiman forfeit loss vs. Philip Jarvis
Dan Seasmith* forfeit loss vs. Niall Seymour
Tom Rowell vs. Ian Dent* double forfeit loss

Players marked with * have missed two matches and have been removed from further pairing in the Open (and can then concentrate on their games in the other sections).

The games for week 3 in the open are here.

For the Under 1400, go here.

For the Under 1200, go here.

For the Under 1000, go here.

Thanks a lot Tom Rowell.

U1400 result (last week's really)

http://www.apterous.org/viewgame.php?game=268199

Karen Pearson 101 - 84 Tom Rowell

Ian Dent wrote:Thanks a lot Tom Rowell.

What happened? You had a week to arrange a date.

U1400: Michael Wallace 91 - 78 Liam Ternan

Some pretty dodgy play by me made up for by a fortunate second number selection (so much for my 'tactic' of choosing 6 small), and kindly Conundrum Gods. Great game.

What happened Kirk?

Nothing happened. Nothing at all. No sign on him whatsoever.

Ian Dent wrote:What happened Kirk?

Nothing happened. Nothing at all. No sign on him whatsoever.

I mean did you PM him to arrange a time? If not, why not? [end of authoritative speech]

Kirk Bevins wrote:

Ian Dent wrote:What happened Kirk?

Nothing happened. Nothing at all. No sign on him whatsoever.

I mean did you PM him to arrange a time? If not, why not? [end of authoritative speech]

Or use the excellent Aptomail [TM].

Ian Dent wrote:What happened Kirk?

Nothing happened. Nothing at all. No sign on him whatsoever.

You weren't exactly Mr. Conspicuous yourself last week, Ian. I'd been looking for you for 5 days to play our game from the previous week.

You didn't look very hard.

Hang on. Do people actually not just PM/email each other, and expect to just 'run in' to their opponents on apterous?

Michael Wallace wrote:Hang on. Do people actually not just PM/email each other, and expect to just 'run in' to their opponents on apterous?

Maybe that's just too much hassle for them. Having said that, there are some people who don't respond to PMs - naming no names at this point!

Another result:
http://www.apterous.org/viewgame.php?game=268299
Karen Pearson 96 - 65 Jordan F

Me and Chris played each other in both The Open and the U1400. The way we were thinking is that the first two games I list are part of the Open and the third game is part of the U1400, if you want to do something else Andrew, go ahead.

Open:
Chris Philpot 2- Jordan F 0
http://apterous.org/viewgame.php?game=268275
http://apterous.org/viewgame.php?game=268275

U1400:
Chris Philpot 107- Jordan F 53
http://apterous.org/viewgame.php?game=268282

In the open, James Doohan 2 - 1 Hugh Binnie.

James Doohan 96 - 77 Hugh Binnie
Hugh Binnie 86 - 82 James Doohan
James Doohan 95 - 87 Hugh Binnie

James ran away with the first game, though it wasn't quite the massacre he'd predicted before we started.

Hugh Binnie wrote:James ran away with the first game, though it wasn't quite the massacre he'd predicted before we started.

Haha, very good Hugh

In fairness, Hugh was not on his top form today and that is the only reason there was an upset here

james doohan wrote: In fairness, Hugh was not on his top form today and that is the only reason there was an upset here

Charlie, I think there should be an aptomarathon every week!

Jordan F wrote:Me and Chris played each other in both The Open and the U1400. The way we were thinking is that the first two games I list are part of the Open and the third game is part of the U1400, if you want to do something else Andrew, go ahead.

Open:
Chris Philpot 2- Jordan F 0
http://apterous.org/viewgame.php?game=268275
http://apterous.org/viewgame.php?game=268275

U1400:
Chris Philpot 107- Jordan F 53
http://apterous.org/viewgame.php?game=268282

Whichever way you agreed to count them is fine with me.

Kirk Bevins 112 - 95 David O'Donnell. A crucial conundrum and it's 1-0. Hard luck in round 11 for DOD there.
Kirk Bevins 101 - 110 David O'Donnell. Another crucial conundrum and he just beats me to the buzzer. He deserves to win and I'm annoyed that I'd forgotten FOIBLES + U = BIOFUELS, MAESTRI + X = MATRIXES and QUAILS + I = SILIQUA. I'm annoyed that I've seriously reduced my practice. 1-1. Decider...
Kirk Bevins 110 - 106 David O'Donnell. A sexy 9 in round 6 couldn't shake him off and then the clinical round 8. He said to me during the round "I'm waiting to see what you declare" which tells me he probably has a risky 9....but I couldn't see it for the life of me. Unluckily for DOD he thought that if it was valid I'd have spotted it (4 months ago, you'd be spot on) and he doesn't pluralise a mountain. That ultimately cost him the game. Unlucky mate.

Final result, Kirk Bevins 2 - 1 David O'Donnell.

Week 3 Open vs Ian Volante

http://www.apterous.org/viewgame.php?ke ... 3784607325

http://www.apterous.org/viewgame.php?ke ... 2242596474

I managed to sneak both games but they were highly contested. Cheers Ian.

U1400 Michael Wallace 79 - 99 Josh Hurst

Finally my stem learning (© Chris Maudsely) pays off, but the shock omission of SUGARIER (as in, my pants are sugarier than High School Musical) gives Josh the edge. Two rounds later his spot of LIGATURES surely puts the game beyond doubt, but no! I take a chance with GISMOS, and then get lucky with the 1 large coming out slightly tricky to close the gap to 4. Josh EMPLOYed his brain in the next round to take the gap back up to 10, but we match to the conundrum, which he selfishly solves just before me, thus making the game finish far less excitingly than it would have done with 50 tiebreaker conundrums. Bastard.

Karen Pearson 2 - 0 Andrew Herbertson

105 - 69 - http://www.apterous.org/viewgame.php?game=268506
95 - 73 - http://www.apterous.org/viewgame.php?game=268516

The score for the first game is somewhat flattering - Andrew had a word disallowed and was unlucky on the conundrum which gave me extra time to work it out. The second game was was fairly poor all round! Neither of us really deserved to win it!

V tight one this, with a nail-biter for a conundrum. At last I win! (U-1400)

Josh Hurst 88 - 94 Ian Volante

Michael Wallace wrote:U1400 Michael Wallace 79 - 99 Josh Hurst

Finally my stem learning (© Chris Maudsely) pays off, but the shock omission of SUGARIER (as in, my pants are sugarier than High School Musical) gives Josh the edge. Two rounds later his spot of LIGATURES surely puts the game beyond doubt, but no! I take a chance with GISMOS, and then get lucky with the 1 large coming out slightly tricky to close the gap to 4. Josh EMPLOYed his brain in the next round to take the gap back up to 10, but we match to the conundrum, which he selfishly solves just before me, thus making the game finish far less excitingly than it would have done with 50 tiebreaker conundrums. Bastard.

I too owe Chris Maudsley some thanks for my Open success this afternoon

Tom Rowell 86-79 Miriam Nussbaum
Tom Rowell 107-98 Miriam Nussbaum

Open Tournament:

James Robinson 0 - 2 Dale Levell

James Robinson 87 - 104 Dale Levell
James Robinson 96 - 99 Dale Levell

Dear oh dear. How unlucky can one person get

If getting drawn against Dale isn't bad enough, losing twice, when you could have won is even more agonising.

Having said that, Dale was on fire at the start getting LISTENER, which I could easily have got, even though I only got 6 (I was too slow with RELENTS, but no difference.) Then midway, Dale got DOPANT, and after clearing the letters, the max game looked on the cards, especially as it was his numbers, but he miscalculated and my 4 away (although I actually spotted it, while he was working out.) put me in with a shout, but I guessed incorrectly leaving Dale to pick up the pieces.

Then in game 2, after we both thought you couldn't have IMPOSTOR, Dale managed a brill 6 small solve, giving him a nice 10 point lead, which he kept until round 12, when my OUTSOLD, cut his lead to 3, and after the next 2 rounds were tied, we got another crucial conundrum on our hands. And after 5 seconds, I leapt in hoping that it was MOTORTYPE, but then, the agony, it wasn't. While Dale tried to find it, I managed to see the right answer with 10 seconds to go, OPTOMETRY.

Oh well, Dale admitted afterwards that he didn't want to be drawn against me, because of my 6 small ability, yet it was a brilliant 6 small solve that won him that 2nd game.

But, I'm more than happy with my performances, especially after my rubbish form recently.

James Robinson wrote:If getting drawn against Dale isn't bad enoug, losing twice, when you could have won is even more agonising.

Yeah, I hate it when apterous makes it so I can't win.

Open Result:

Simon Myers 2 - 1 Henry Meier

Simon 81 - 92 Henry
Simon 100 - 72 Henry
Simon 109 - 71 Henry

After that first game any other result would have been a travesty, as the next two games show. I can't be too downhearted losing to a far better player, especially one with such an excellent surname

Open Tournament:

Matt Morrison 1 - 2 Ryan Taylor
Matt Morrison 88 - 97 Ryan Taylor
Matt Morrison 73 - 63 Ryan Taylor
Matt Morrison 60 - 108 Ryan Taylor

Dear oh dear. How unlucky can one person get
If getting drawn against Ryan isn't bad enough, losing more games than you won, when you could have won marginally more than you lost, is even more agonising.

The first game was a bad start as apterous made it so that I couldn't win. Ryan was consistently average for someone who thinks so damn much of themselves. The most important factors here are that lag caused MODERNE not to take for me in R2, I didn't choose to declare SAVABLE in R6 because Ryan said "there definitely isn't anything more than 6, trust me" and then in R9 I had SALADE declared but the declaration window popped up behind and fucked me over (a bit like a ninja gay) by choosing WILDSEX for me.

In the second game, Ryan won a few rounds with some pretty normal words like SANTERO, FORAMINA, EPIMERON, and NORIA. That was all he was bringing to the fucking party, and it was a pretty rubbish contribution, like a guy who thinks he can stroll in to a kegger with a couple of Bud Lights in his hand and expects to leave wasted. Other than these rounds, Ryan basically acted the twat, missing very basic stuff like sticking a Y on the end of PEAT in R4. He couldn't even get one single five-letter word, I had four of the fuckers. In R7 he was embarrassed further when I saw OUTSTRIP after 8 and chose a consonant at the end to prevent the round yielding anything stronger. And whaddayaknow, the ginger ragamuffin fell for it. After Ryan buzzed for the crucial conundrum on 0.8 seconds (basically cheating) and then gave an 8-letter word, I maximised the 29.2 seconds I had remaining by declaring an invalid 8-letter word on 3.7 seconds. Whereas Ryan was a bit of a prick for declaring an 8-letter word, it was a pretty noble and honourable thing for me to do to ensure the game went to a tiebreaker. Ryan took his twattery to a new level here, refusing to press the button to start the 2nd conundrum until I wasn't looking. He achieved this by sending me a message on Facebook, asking me questions in aptochat, talking to me on MSN, and texting me, until finally he was sure I wasn't looking. However, no one told Ryan that cheaters don't prosper, and although he had got me off the scent, I saw the conundrum window pop up when he made his wrong guess, and I instantly took it home for a deserved victory.

In the third game Ryan basically acted like a tit from start to finish, doing stuff like abusing me in aptochat and declaring words I haven't heard of, both actions that clearly contravene the rules of apterous etiquette. He called me 'baldy' on more than one, and less than three, occasions. I shall be starting a yes/no poll (filled with additional hilarious options that make me look cool) very soon in order to adjudge whether Ryan should be thrown out of the tournament or not. I suggest whoever gets drawn against him in the next round be prepared for fireworks. And ginger pubes.

Brilliant! I just choked on my Pick & Mix reading this.

Sorry I didn't manage to play you on Sunday Simon; we changed our internet provider and got cut off for 3-4 days. Back online now.

U1400 Result: Adam Gillard 75 - 72 Tom Rowell

Another U1400 result: Adam Gillard 118 - 97 Karen Pearson

Andy Wilson 2 - 1 Jordan F

58 - 45 http://www.apterous.org/viewgame.php?game=268856
99 - 69 http://www.apterous.org/viewgame.php?game=268844
76 - 91 http://www.apterous.org/viewgame.php?game=268833

Unlucky Jordan. We both tried our best to lose the decider.

Played one game against Peter earlier with rest to be played tomorrow. Howard's been on to me, we'll hopefully get that one done asap also.

U1200:

Dave Mattingly 77 - 100 Andy Wilson
Dave Mattingly 79 - 72 Andy Wilson
Dave Mattingly 95 - 67 Andy Wilson

Andy deservedly won the first game, and was unlucky not to sweep the match, having me down by 13 heading into the final numbers round. I hit a nine in the opening round of the decider, and that was pretty much that. Well played, Andy, you deserved better.

ATTN Jordan/Kai

Might be available Fri afto for games, will be available most of Sunday. Please PM me with suitable times.

Played both wk 3 u1400 games
Lloyd Pettet 83 - 39 Ian Volante

Ian got unlucky with a few declarations which meant he had to take a few risks later on.
Lloyd Pettet 95 - 87 Lee Simmons

A tight tense affair, Lee dropped a couple of easy spots in rd 9 and 13, which allowed me to creep ahead. Then we both missed a relatively straightforward crucial.

Open stuff - three close games against Stuart Arnot:

Stuart Arnot 78 - 81 Jim Bentley
Jim Bentley 93 - 105 Stuart Arnot
Jim Bentley 91 - 78 Stuart Arnot

We both lost the plot at various points (I think we'd both been drinking tbh), but it was a great contest.

JimBentley wrote:(I think we'd both been drinking tbh)

White wine spritzers followed by gin and tonic.

Stuart Arnot wrote:

JimBentley wrote:(I think we'd both been drinking tbh)

White wine spritzers followed by gin and tonic.

I'm gonna have a shot in the dark here and guess that Jim was drinking something considerably more manly.

Open: Innis Carson 2-0 James Hurrell

Innis 119-109 James

First game was fantastic, with both of us dropping just one point before the conundrum. I was fortunate to get the conundrum first, can't imagine James was far behind.

Innis 107-95 James

This time the lead went back and forth a bit, with us both missing a couple of things each. However it still went down to a crucial conundrum, and again I squeaked through.

Cheers James, really good games. Could very easily have been 2-0 to you instead.

Matt Morrison wrote:

Stuart Arnot wrote:

JimBentley wrote:(I think we'd both been drinking tbh)

White wine spritzers followed by gin and tonic.

I'm gonna have a shot in the dark here and guess that Jim was drinking something considerably more manly.

I was drinking strong cider mixed with vodka to make it even STRONGER. And added bleach to make even more CYTOTOXIC. With drugs in.

James Leroux 2-1 Andrew Herbertson
James 86-87 Andrew
James 80-79 Andrew
James 76-55 Andrew

Lloyd Pettet 2-1 Nick Wainwright

3 v close matches, all crucial

Lloyd 85 - 75 Nick
Nick Wainwright 90 - 77 Lloyd Pettet
Nick Wainwright 74 - 76 Lloyd Pettet

Result for Open Week 3:

Marcus Hares 2 - 0 Liam Tiernan

Marcus 96 - 80 Liam http://www.apterous.org/viewgame.php?game=270211
Marcus 100 - 91 Liam http://www.apterous.org/viewgame.php?game=270222

Summer open result:-

Lee Simmonds 2-0 Dave Mattingly

http://www.apterous.org/viewgame.php?ke ... 3747461158

Managed to get a good start and built up a head of steam which saw me win this game quite comfortably.

http://www.apterous.org/viewgame.php?ke ... 0569148339

Much closer this time around, Dave's excellent ability with 6 small allowed him to gain a 10 pt lead which was held until rd 11 when Dave unfortunately saw a phantom letter to allow me to cut the deficit to 2 pts. I was then surprised to see that Dave missed the last numbers, this proved crucial as the conundrum went unsolved.

Dave, unlucky mate, this probably should have gone to a decider.

u1400
Dan Seasmith 87-96 Tom Rowell

Dinos 2 Ollie 1
Dinos was the better player, but key bottlings^ of words cost me game 2 and a 2-0 win.
http://www.apterous.org/viewgame.php?game=270714
http://www.apterous.org/viewgame.php?game=270720 (WOOLMAN and HURTIER bottled and I had PLACID when I got PLAUDIT^ wrong)
http://www.apterous.org/viewgame.php?game=270729

Unlucky dude. 3 very enjoyable games. I thought I had Game 1 in the bag when EDELWEISS popped up as the conundrum. (He'll never get that!) but when I typed "E" much to my astonishment you'd already buzzed. Cheers for the games

u1400
Philip Jarvis 68 - 99 Lloyd Pettet

U1200 Wk3 Result

J Gillies 2 - 0 M Nussbaum

http://www.apterous.org/viewgame.php?ke ... 8865872762
http://www.apterous.org/viewgame.php?ke ... 7517695178

Two quite close games. Thanks Miriam.

The Open -

Richard Priest 87-72 Matthew Tassier
Richard Priest 92-60 Matthew Tassier

I was very nervous for this, my confidence had gone down a Levell or two after last week's pasting, but this has helped bring it back up a bit Thanks to Kirk for teaching me REMUAGE at Co:Lon - ill wind and all that.Unlucky Matthew.

U1400 result just in:

James Doohan 72 - 76 Jim Bentley

After not scoring in the first two rounds, I sort of managed to keep up for much of the rest of it and shocked myself with a late conundrum (usually I give up if I can't see it in ten seconds) to snatch a pretty undeserved victory. Not a game to remember for either of us really.

A result from the Open Division

Matt Bayfield 111 - 76 Niall Seymour
Niall Seymour 60 - 112 Matt Bayfield

Ben Wilson, there's a football game on this evening that I'd like to watch, so if you can come online and play our match this afternoon that would be handy.

Under my 1200:

Matt 97 - 87 Niall
Matt 83 - 62 Niall

Edward McCullagh 104 - 113 Jon O'Neill
Jon O'Neill 111 - 65 Edward McCullagh

Good games both, I had the rub of the green on the first crucial conundrum and with the early nine in the second game.

A+++ would play again.

Jon O'Neill wrote:Edward McCullagh 104 - 113 Jon O'Neill
Jon O'Neill 111 - 65 Edward McCullagh

Good games both, I had the rub of the green on the first crucial conundrum and with the early nine in the second game.

A+++ would play again.

Damn my LARDINESSx

Jon was a deserving winner though.