Monday 8th October 2012 (Series 67, Prelim 45)

[Graeme Cole]

Countdown recap for Monday 8 October 2012.

C1: Champion Tia Corkish (3 wins, 246 points).
C2: Challenger Ryan Sword is a research scientist from Gretna. He owns 1,113 DVDs, including some from his favourite directors, Stanley Kubrick and Quentin Tarantino. He's also an apterous player, like Tia.
DC: Susie Dent and Matt Allwright.
RR: Rachel Riley.
OT: Other words or solutions.

R01: S D N I A O G D E
R02: F L X A O U P M E
R03: C R I A T V U I O
R04: P C M G A E A M Y
R05: 25, 75, 2, 4, 6, 1. Target: 731.
TTT: SAILDRAM - "They may have sailed along with a few drams inside them"
R06: P D R I E I O E T
R07: B F R A O K E E T
R08: S N T U I O Q R I
R09: D N C E O T N I E
R10: 10, 10, 5, 8, 4, 1. Target: 315.
TTT: MAXPULSE - "This position sends the frog's pulse racing to the max."
R11: G S H A I W T A H
R12: V B S E A E M N T
R13: G J S A U R S O E
R14: 100, 75, 25, 50, 9, 8. Target: 674.
R15: M E B I T D U S T (conundrum)


And now a brief interlude before our main feature:

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Enjoy the show.

Round 1: S D N I A O G D E

C1: AGONISED (8)
C2: SADDEN (6)
DC: DIAGNOSED (18)
Score: 8–0 (max 18)

Tia takes the first round in today's battle of the apterites. But a useful thing to learn is that an anagram of AGONISED is DIAGNOSE - and the latter is more useful as it can take a D on the end.


Round 2: F L X A O U P M E

C1: AMPLE (5)
C2: AMPLE (5)
DC: AMPOULE (7)
Score: 13–5 (max 25)

Susie plays soundalike Countdown with the darrenic seven, which means a small sealed glass capsule containing a liquid. Ryan gets off the mark.


Round 3: C R I A T V U I O

C1: COURT (5)
C2: CART (4)
DC: VICTORIA (8)
Score: 18–5 (max 33)

Not the best looking selection, but VICTORIA is allowable - it's the name of a four-wheeled horse-drawn carriage.


Round 4: P C M G A E A M Y

C1: AGAPE (5)
C2: GAME (4)
DC: CAMPY (5) GAMMY (5)
OT: APACE (5) GAMEY (5) GAMMA (5) GEMMA (5) GEMMY (5) MAGMA (5) MAMEY (5) PACEY (5)
Score: 23–5 (max 38)

No such gems hidden in this selection, though - five is the max. Tia spots one of them to go 18 ahead of Ryan.


Round 5: 25, 75, 2, 4, 6, 1. Target: 731.

C1: 731. (75-2)*(6+4)+1 (10)
C2: 731. (75-2)*(6+4)+1 (10)
Score: 33–15 (max 48)

After a reasonably easy numbers game, Rogue Traders' Matt Allwright tells us about the original Ponzi scheme, a term now used to apply to any scam investment scheme where newer investments are used to pay older investors' returns.


Teatime teaser: SAILDRAM -> ADMIRALS


Round 6: P D R I E I O E T

C1: RIOTED (6)
C2: DEPORT (6)
DC: PERIDOT (7) DIOPTRE (7)
OT: DIORITE (7) EPIDOTE (7)
Score: 39–21 (max 55)

Sixes each from an awkward-looking five-voweller. PERIDOT is a semi-precious variety of olivine, and a DIOPTRE is a unit of refractive index, as used when describing lenses.


Round 7: B F R A O K E E T

C1: BEAKER (6)
C2: BEAKER (6)
DC: BERATE (6)
OT: AEROBE (6) AFREET (6) BEATER (6) BEFORE (6) BEREFT (6) BETAKE (6) BOATER (6) BORATE (6) REBATE (6) REEBOK (6) RETAKE (6)
Score: 45–27 (max 61)

And we're at home to Mr Flattingham with this one.


Round 8: S N T U I O Q R I

C1: SQUINT (6)
C2: QUITS (5)
DC: QUIRTS (6)
OT: IRONIST (7) NITROUS (7) TURIONS (7)
Score: 51–27 (max 68)

Tia extends her lead with SQUINT. Susie and Matt have QUIRTS. A quirt is a short-handled riding whip with a braided leather lash, as Susie tells us, before making quite clear she's not that familiar with them. Nick suggests Matt could chase rogue traders down with a quirt.


Round 9: D N C E O T N I E

C1: CONNED (6)
C2: CONTEND (7)
OT: INDECENT (8) NEOTENIC (8)
Score: 51–34 (max 76)

Ryan pulls some points back with CONTEND. Tia has CONNED, a word which Matt probably spotted immediately and chased down with his quirt.

NEOTENY is a zoological term meaning the retention of juvenile features in an adult animal. NEOTENIC is the noun from it.

OOW: weapons named after women today, for example the large German wartime gun nicknamed Big Bertha by the British. The word "gun" itself possibly comes from the medieval female name Gunnhildr, which comes from Norse. Both "gunn" and "hildr" meant "war".


Round 10: 10, 10, 5, 8, 4, 1. Target: 315.

C1: 315. (8*4-1)*10+5 (10)
C2: 315. (10*10+5)*(4-1) (10)
Score: 61–44 (max 86)

We haven't had a six small for ages, have we? Anyway, this one doesn't trouble either of our contestants.


Teatime teaser: MAXPULSE -> AMPLEXUS


Round 11: G S H A I W T A H

C1: AWAITS (6)
C2: AWAITS (6)
DC: HASHTAG (7)
Score: 67–50 (max 93)

I saw HASHTAG and thought there was no way that would be in the dictionary. #whatdoIknow


Round 12: V B S E A E M N T

C1: BEATEN (6)
C2: MEANEST (7)
DC: BASEMENT (8)
Score: 67–57 (max 101)

Ryan gets within ten now with MEANEST.


Round 13: G J S A U R S O E

C1: AROUSES (7)
C2: URGES (5)
DC: GROUSES (7) ROGUES (6)
OT: ARGUSES (7) GASEOUS (7) RUGOSAS (7) SAUGERS (7)
Score: 74–57 (max 108)

But Tia pulls away with AROUSES. It's no surprise that Matt spots ROGUES. SAUGERS are nocturnal fish, and RUGOSAS follow the tried and tested rule of "if you're asked what something means and you don't know, just say it's a plant".


Round 14: 100, 75, 25, 50, 9, 8. Target: 674.

C1: 675. 75*9 (7)
C2: 673. 75*9-50/25 (7)
RR: 674. (75+9)*8+50/25 (10)
Score: 81–64 (max 118)

Ryan's 17 behind, so he tries to shake things up with four large ones. Rachel picks them up, still laughing at Nick's "Rachel awaits your pleasure" comment.

There are some useful tricks with four large. One of them is that if you want a multiple of 25, there's a good chance it can be made out of the large numbers alone. In this case the useful bit is that you can reach 625 with 25*(100-75) or 25*(75-50). Furthermore, both these methods give you a 50 or 100 left over depending on which one you use, so that means you can also make 525, 575, 625, 675 or 725 using only the large numbers. Since you can make a 1 out of the smalls, 675 would have been the way to go here: (100-75)*25+50-(9-8).

But Rachel likes to be different, so she does it her way.


Round 15: M E B I T D U S T

C1 buzzes on 11 seconds to say SUBMITTED which is correct.
Final Score: 91–64 (max 128)

Tia grabs the conundrum to make her second score in the nineties and her fourth win. This takes her to fifth on the leaderboard for series 67. To get any higher she needs at least three more wins, and if she gets those she'll be going for octochampdom on Friday. See you next week.


Further summaries are at:
http://www.apterous.org/cdb/series.php?series=67

[Zarte Siempre]

117-62 against Tia, 117-50 against Ryan.

Only major blip was going for what I presume DC were checking out in R4 - ampage is not a word...