c4countdown

Up and down, up and down, the life of a recapper is up and down. Or so I say anyway.

Enjoy.

Countdown recap for Thursday 6 October 2011.

C1: Champion Wayne Chadwick (1 win, 66 points.) From Braithwaite, Keighley, West Yorkshire. He likes doing karaoke, particularly the Queen classic, Bohemian Rhapsody. One of his favourite experiences was scuba diving in Turkey.
C2: Challenger Nikki Roberts. An Apterite from Widford, Hertfordshire. She is a housewife to her single child. She recently completed the Powerwalking Half-Marathon which started and ended in Battersea Park, London, and took her 3 and a half hours to do. She says she applied to be on the show to stop her husband nagging her to come on.
DC: Susie Dent and Anneka Rice.
RR: Rachel Riley.
OT: Other words or solutions.

R01: R O E N A S N S L
R02: R P N U O E M J I
R03: S O I N E P H B L
R04: R S T U O A P T O
R05: 100, 9, 10, 7, 5, 7. Target: 599.
TTT: PAPERTAN - "The answer is obvious, clearly."
R06: N Y C E I Q N E D
R07: T A I S E M T D G
R08: T D R A I E V X C
R09: D I E R O L W U R
R10: 25, 10, 3, 2, 7, 5. Target: 328.
TTT: BRATPUNK - "A brat punk might turn out to be this, morally speaking"
R11: B E E C I N D F O
R12: G S S U A I A R M
R13: R E O L A D K G T
R14: 75, 2, 3, 1, 9, 8. Target: 948.
R15: R A C E E T R A K (conundrum)


And now a brief interlude before our main feature:

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Enjoy the show.

Round 1: R O E N A S N S L

C1: LOANERS (7)
C2: LOANERS (7)
DC: REASONS (7) OARLESS (7)
OT: ENSNARLS (8)
Score: 7–7 (max 8)

The darrenic 8 is left alone, but there are a few 7's around.

Round 2: R P N U O E M J I

C1: JUMPIER (7)
C2: JUNIPER (7)
Score: 14–14 (max 15)

Both 7's are picked up by the contestants here.

Round 3: S O I N E P H B L

C1: PHONIES (7)
C2: PHONIES (7)
DC: PINHOLES (8)
OT: BONSPIEL (8)
Score: 21–21 (max 23)

Anneka seemed to think that PINHOLES was probably rubbish, but she's not wrong and beats the contestants single-handedly.

A BONSPIEL is a competition or meet in curling at which teams from several clubs or districts compete with one another.

Round 4: R S T U O A P T O

C1: stopout
C2: UPSTART (7)
DC: TAPROOTS (8)
OT: OUTPORTS (8)
Score: 21–28 (max 31)

And the stalemate is finally broken as Wayne's stopout needs a hyphen to tag along with..........

Round 5: 100, 9, 10, 7, 5, 7. Target: 599.

C1: 599. (((7 / 7) + 5) x 100) - (10 - 9) (10)
C2: 599. ((10 - 9 + 5) x 100) - (7 / 7) (10)
Score: 31–38 (max 41)

Nice and easy once you know how to make two 1's.

Anneka talks about the time she was on a train to Brighton with her sister, and how she accidentally ate and drank the food that belonged to the woman sitting opposite her.

Even though Mike likes to normally give his take on the guests when it's his recap, I'd just like to say that Anneka has been a brilliant addition to DC this week and I hope she returns in the near future.

Teatime teaser: PAPERTAN -> APPARENT

Round 6: N Y C E I Q N E D

C1: quinced
C2: DENY (4)
DC: NEEDY (5) deice
OT: INDENE (6) YENNED (6)
Score: 31–42 (max 47)

I hope I wasn't the only one stunned into silence when Wayne said 7, but it quickly turned back to normal, once the phantom U was pointed out.

INDENE is a colourless, liquid hydrocarbon, C9H8 , obtained from coal tar by fractional distillation: used in synthesizing resins.
YENNED means to have a craving or yearn for something.

Round 7: T A I S E M T D G

C1: MATIEST (7)
C2: MIDGETS (7)
DC: GAMIEST (7) MISDATE (7)
OT: AGISTED (7) SIGMATE (7)
Score: 38–49 (max 54)

Flat, flat, flat, flattttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttt.

Round 8: T D R A I E V X C

C1: ADVICE (6)
C2: CRAVED (6)
DC: VERDICT (7)
Score: 44–55 (max 61)

Just the darrenic 7 spotted by DC here, but that will do.

Round 9: D I E R O L W U R

C1: wordlier
C2: ROWDIER (7)
DC: WORDIER (7) WEIRDO (6) WORRIED (7)
Score: 44–62 (max 68)

Oh dear, Wayne seems to have fused WORDIER and WORLDLIER for the illegal wordlier here.

Susie's Origins Of Words talks about the origins of the collective nouns for tigers, polar bears, cheetahs, woodpeckers, larks, goldfish, butterflies, mice, buffaloes, peacocks, parrots, ravens, gorillas, zebras and rattlesnakes.

Round 10: 25, 10, 3, 2, 7, 5. Target: 328.

C1: 328. ((10 + 3) x 25) + 5 - 2 (10)
C2: 328. ((10 + 3) x 25) + 5 - 2 (10)
Score: 54–72 (max 78)

Another fairly straightforward numbers here.

Teatime teaser: BRATPUNK -> BANKRUPT

Round 11: B E E C I N D F O

C1: CONFIDE (7)
C2: DEFINE (6)
DC: CODEINE (7)
OT: BENEFIC (7)
Score: 61–72 (max 85)

A good 7 here by Wayne and he gets himself right back in it now.

Round 12: G S S U A I A R M

C1: SUGARS (6)
C2: GRAMS (5)
OT: SAMURAI (7) SIMURGS (7)
Score: 67–72 (max 92)

Has Nikki started to fall apart That's 2 rounds in a row with no points, and Wayne is now just 5 points behind.

Round 13: R E O L A D K G T

C1: RELOAD (6)
C2: LEOTARD (7)
DC: LEGATOR (7)
OT: DELATOR (7) GLOATED (7) GLOATER (7)
Score: 67–79 (max 99)

But Nikki seems to have reclaimed her mind with the Countdown classic LEOTARD.

Round 14: 75, 2, 3, 1, 9, 8. Target: 948.

C1: -
C2: -
RR: 948. (9 + 3) x ((8 / 2) + 75) (10)
Score: 67–79 (max 109)

And the tough numbers game seals Nikki's win.

Round 15: R A C E E T R A K

C1 buzzes on 3.25 seconds to say RACKETEER which is INCORRECT.
C2 does not buzz.
The answer was CARETAKER.
Final Score: 67–79 (max 119)

Interesting that Wayne had as much convicting with saying RACKETEER as Chris did with PROMPTING yesterday. Still wrong though.

So, despite Wayne scoring more than yesterday, he relinquishes the champions' chair to Nikki, and suddenly we're getting a few women in the champions' chair now, which is always a good thing.

Can she carry on flying the flag after Jayne's triumphant run

Join Mike tomorrow to see if she can carry on going.

I'll be back next week, so till then, bye bye.

Statistics Corner

Wayne:
Total score - 67
Raw score - 73
Total % of max - 56
Raw % of max - 61
Total average score per round - 4.5
Raw average score per round - 4.9
Number of maxes - 5

Nikki:
Total score - 79
Raw score - 90
Total % of max - 66
Raw % of max - 76
Total average score per round - 5.3
Raw average score per round - 6.0
Number of maxes - 6

Further summaries are at:
http://www.apterous.org/cdb/series.php?series=65

James Robinson wrote:Up and down, up and down, the life of a recapper is up and down. Or so I say anyway.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hlv672jqbtE

RACKETEER/CARETAKER: I remember a few years ago someone making the very same mistake; I suspect the same initial letters were used, but can't be sure. He was an ace crossword solver (D... McN... I think) and one would have expected him to win. But it was a crucial conundrum and he jumped in almost instantly with the wrong answer.

Wil Ransome wrote:RACKETEER/CARETAKER: I remember a few years ago someone making the very same mistake; I suspect the same initial letters were used, but can't be sure. He was an ace crossword solver (D... McN... I think) and one would have expected him to win. But it was a crucial conundrum and he jumped in almost instantly with the wrong answer.

This one?

Graeme Cole wrote:

Wil Ransome wrote:RACKETEER/CARETAKER: I remember a few years ago someone making the very same mistake; I suspect the same initial letters were used, but can't be sure. He was an ace crossword solver (D... McN... I think) and one would have expected him to win. But it was a crucial conundrum and he jumped in almost instantly with the wrong answer.

This one?

Or this one?

James Robinson wrote:Even though Mike likes to normally give his take on the guests when it's his recap, I'd just like to say that Anneka has been a brilliant addition to DC this week and I hope she returns in the near future.

Plagiarism alert! Agree with you, though. There seem to be more good additions than bad ones recently, IMO. The return of Victoria Mather, anyone?