Ask Graeme?

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Re: Ask Graeme?

Post by Johnny Canuck »

How big is the biggest group of people such that everyone in it has played everyone else in an Apterous game at least once?

Have any groups of three or more people done the same thing on televised Countdown?
I'm not dead yet. In a rut right now because of stress from work. I'll be back later in S89. I also plan to bring back the Mastergram - if I can find a way to run a timer or clock through pure MediaWiki without having to upload to Vimeo every time.
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Re: Ask Graeme?

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Johnny Canuck wrote: Sat Sep 18, 2021 10:09 pm How big is the biggest group of people such that everyone in it has played everyone else in an Apterous game at least once?

Have any groups of three or more people done the same thing on televised Countdown?
One I can immediate think of is Briggs, Moloney and Bursford from my series alone. I feel like there may be some 4s if you look at coc and stuff (two of my above three played Jonathan Wynn, so swap him out with Judy for a different three), but I wouldn't be too surprised if 3 is best
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Re: Ask Graeme?

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Travers, O'Neil, Worsley is another one.
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Re: Ask Graeme?

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I've thought about this before but never publicly asked. Tournoff, Gallen and Travers is another one that springs to mind. Add Matthew Shore to the mix and you get very close to a four, but sadly he never played Gallen. Also Carson, Davies and Bevins if specials count.
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Re: Ask Graeme?

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Jack Worsley wrote: Mon Sep 20, 2021 2:43 am I've thought about this before but never publicly asked. Tournoff, Gallen and Travers is another one that springs to mind. Add Matthew Shore to the mix and you get very close to a four, but sadly he never played Gallen. Also Carson, Davies and Bevins if specials count.
Nice. Conor is involved in another 3 with myself and Chris Will too.
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Re: Ask Graeme?

Post by Gavin Chipper »

I think the impressiveness goes up pretty quickly with number. Three sounds pretty ordinary, and yet no fours have been found yet. Five and it would make the news.
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Re: Ask Graeme?

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Gavin Chipper wrote: Mon Jun 14, 2021 7:04 pm Gloria Hunniford is 81. Who are the oldest and youngest DC guests? It seems that at one point at least, Gabby Logan/Yorath was the youngest ever female guest.
Stanley Johnson is also 81 at the time of airing his episodes (though clearly 80 during filming as he "forgot" he'd had his birthday).
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Re: Ask Graeme?

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In terms of rounds remaining, what is the earliest a game has been mathematically won?

(and obviously, this needs to be per format.)
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Re: Ask Graeme?

Post by Patrick Thompson »

Apologies if already done but who has the highest max percentage when picking 6 small (min of 10 games)?

And same question for 4 large.
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Graeme Cole
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Re: Ask Graeme?

Post by Graeme Cole »

Carl Harrison wrote: Wed Jun 16, 2021 2:38 pm What are the highest and lowest total "max" scores from an 8-game consecutive run during heats (in the 15-round era). Not necessarily looking at just the record from octochamps runs, but any consecutive set of 8 games.

There was a bit of a discussion around this in the "1000 club" thread - the max score available from Luke Boynton's 8 games in the current series was 1149, which would be the 3rd highest max ever available from an Mocktorun on Apterous - so it would be interesting to see how this compares with the history of the show, and show how much variability there is in the maximum score available over 8 games depending on when you happen to appear. (Although I presume the averages have been moving up over time, particularly post-2016 when the large dictionary update came in)
This includes all 15-rounder heat games up to the end of series 83.

Old 15 rounder:
The lowest max from any eight consecutive games was 941, in the eight-game runs ending with episodes 3093, 3097, 3103, 3138, 3142, 3143, 3145, 3155, 3194, 3195, 3196, 3362, 3363, 3365, 3366, 5020, 5021 and 5025.
The highest max from any eight consecutive games was 1110, in the eight-game run ending with episode 3111.

Modern 15 rounder:
The lowest max from any eight consecutive games was 978, in the eight-game runs ending with episodes 5673, 5685, 5686, 5830, 5831, 6089 and 6134.
The highest max from any eight consecutive games was 1200, in the eight-game run ending with episode 7492.

Through the return of the now rather ancient graph generator, we can see how the average max per game (in this case for all games, not just heats) has changed since the introduction of the old 15-round format in series 46...

Image

Countdown started using ODO in series 71. I'm not sure exactly when significant numbers of new words were added to ODO, but looking at the graph I'm guessing it was around series 73. The shift from the old 15 rounder to the modern 15 rounder in series 68 might have had a small effect on maxes, but every series since series 73 has had a higher average max than any series before then.
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Graeme Cole
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Re: Ask Graeme?

Post by Graeme Cole »

Thomas Carey wrote: Mon Jun 21, 2021 1:47 pm Not really sure what I'm asking here but - teatime teasers. I'm part of the 8-9-8 gang - I had 8 letter teasers on my original series, 9 letters in my CoC and 8 letters in my Christmas special. I can't imagine there's too many people who've gone 8-9-8 (I'm the only one of the six who played the Christmas specials) - am I the only one?

Are there any other people who've played in 3 different eras of teatime teaser? Has anyone done more than 3?

(The dates for the 'eras' of TTT can be found here if it helps https://wiki.apterous.org/Teatime_Teaser )
Nobody has played in more than three "eras" of TTT.

If you count the time before series 46, where there were no teasers, as a separate "era", twelve people have played in three: Ann Dibben, Martin Hurst, Kate Ogilvie, Andrew Fenton, Amey Deshpande, Andrew Hulme, Bruce Lambert, Graham Nash, David Williams, Ian Volante, Martyn Simpson and Thomas Carey.

If you don't count the teaserless era at all, there are only three who have been in three separate eras: Ian Volante, Martyn Simpson and Thomas Carey.
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Re: Ask Graeme?

Post by Graeme Cole »

Thomas Carey wrote: Thu Jun 24, 2021 1:43 pm Most disallowed words total by both contestants in

a) any game
b) any non-prelim game
c) across all seven games in a series finals?

Asking because, hoo boy, the series 83 finals have a lot.
(a) Episode 5499 had 10 disallowed words.
(b) Episode 7534 (series 83 QF) had 7 disallowed words.
(c) The Series 61 and Series 83 finals each had 16 disallowed words in total.
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Graeme Cole
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Re: Ask Graeme?

Post by Graeme Cole »

Jack Worsley wrote: Thu Jun 24, 2021 7:30 pm Great to see this is still going. A couple relating to my Christmas special against Conor:

First of all, every letters round in our game contained nine distinct letters. Has this ever happened before or since in any format?

The second question relates to teatime teasers, so I'm not sure if it's answerable from your database, but here it is anyway. The second TTT in our special was the same as the second in my fourth heat, in terms of the scramble and the answer, although the clue was slightly different. Has any other contestant had the same TTT answer (would be cool if they were the same scramble and clue too but not essential) in different episodes?
Old 15 round games where every selection contained nine distinct letters: Episodes 3104, 3106, 3120, 3168 and 3814.
Modern 15 round games where every selection contained nine distinct letters: Episodes 7355, 7372, 7396, 7448, 7473, 7477, 7498 and (your game against Conor) S49.

The database shows me 30 occurrences in the 9-round era, but it would naturally have been more likely with only six letters rounds. Also, this might be affected by incomplete game details in some early series.

These occurrences seem highly clustered. All but one of the old-15 occurrences were in series 46 and 47, and all the modern-15 occurrences were in series 82 and 83. Perhaps there were some short-lived changes to the shuffling strategy around then?

The database doesn't store teasers so I can't answer the second part.
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Re: Ask Graeme?

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JackHurst wrote: Fri Jun 25, 2021 9:02 pm I believe the highest score in the series finals just finished was 101. i.e among all of the 7 games making up the finals, 101 was the highest score.

Is 101 the lowest highest score from a series finals? If not which series had lower?
Series 46, 58 and 83 had a highest finals score of 101, but Series 53 beats them with a highest finals score of 100.
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Re: Ask Graeme?

Post by Graeme Cole »

Fiona T wrote: Sat Jun 26, 2021 12:46 am With no intention of detracting from his awesome win, Adam Latchford became series [83] champ without declaring a valid 9 in either his prelims or finals! Is he the only one?
No. This was very common in the 9-round game, and in 15-round Countdown, Ben Wilson, Nick Wainwright and Adam Latchford all won their series without having previously declared a valid 9.
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Graeme Cole
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Re: Ask Graeme?

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Marc Meakin wrote: Sun Jun 27, 2021 6:21 am What is the percentage of not written down declarations?
Which contestant had the most during an octorun?
Has anybody completed an octorun without any not written down declarations?
Neither the database nor the wiki records whether a contestant's word or numbers solution wasn't written down. This is only recorded if they didn't declare not written down and their declaration was disallowed because of it.
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Graeme Cole
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Re: Ask Graeme?

Post by Graeme Cole »

JackHurst wrote: Mon Jul 12, 2021 4:18 pm On average, what letters max % do players achieve?

1) Across all players from the past 10 series?
2) In series Heats (lets say in the last 10 series)?
3) Non series finalists from the last 10 series?
I'm assuming "max %" means the number of letters points scored by the player in a game divided by the number of letters points available in the game, times 100, and not something like "percentage of letters rounds maxed".

1) 58.0%, considering all performances in all games in series 74-83.
2) 57.3%, considering all performances in prelim games in series 74-83.
3) 50.9%, considering all performances by players in prelim games in series 74-83 who did not appear in a finals match in any of those series.

By comparison, the average letters max % for those series in only the quarter-finals, semi-finals and finals is 70.6%. The individual figures for only quarter-finals, semi-finals and finals respectively are 65.6%, 75.3% and 81.1%.
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Re: Ask Graeme?

Post by Graeme Cole »

Gavin Chipper wrote: Tue Jul 20, 2021 7:36 am What do the stats say about the letter shuffling this series? I think the selections have been awful, with about 34 of the same vowel coming out consecutively on at least 9 occasions.
The average max per game so far in series 84 has been 132.88, so according to this graph it's closer to series 73-80 than to the heights of the last three series.

Point for discussion: we already know that purely random shuffling would give you more duplicate letters than we actually see on Apterous and Countdown. When we say selections are "awful", do we mean "selections where the max is low, or where the only words of length six or more are really obscure" or do we mean "selections with a reasonable max using non-obscure words, but which we're not used to seeing on Apterous"?

Case in point: consider the ZoomDown selection from round 11 of game 1 the other day, RSROEECIR. With the three Rs, it doesn't look like the "friendliest" of selections, but the maxes are ORRERIES and SORCERER, of which at least the latter is not an obscure word. We might say that SORCERER is difficult to spot, but do we say that because it's inherently difficult to unscramble or just because we're so used to Apterous-style shuffling that we don't see that kind of selection very often? Perhaps this needs its own thread to itself.
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Re: Ask Graeme?

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It's Sunday and the Church of Cole is in session.
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Graeme Cole
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Re: Ask Graeme?

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Adam Latchford wrote: Thu Aug 19, 2021 1:26 pm Might seem like a boring one but I saw this the other day...

Series 83 February had someone who made the finals on every single episode. Has this ever happened before?

How many back to back octochamps have their ever been?
May 2020 also had no contestants who didn't make the finals, but there was only one new episode in it. The same goes for July 2005, whose only episode was the series 53 final.

July 2002, June 2013 (albeit containing the series 68 finals and a gap of a week) and May 2014 also had every episode featuring at least one series finalist.
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Re: Ask Graeme?

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Johnny Canuck wrote: Fri Sep 17, 2021 11:27 pm
Adam Latchford wrote: Thu Aug 19, 2021 1:26 pmHow many back to back octochamps have their ever been?
Unless it's been beaten since, it was three (Adam Rolston, Tony Manwani and Dave Ashton) in Series 79.
This hasn't been beaten since then.
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Graeme Cole
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Re: Ask Graeme?

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Johnny Canuck wrote: Sat Sep 18, 2021 10:09 pm How big is the biggest group of people such that everyone in it has played everyone else in an Apterous game at least once?

Have any groups of three or more people done the same thing on televised Countdown?
I can't answer the Apterous question, but on Countdown, these 3-cliques (to borrow the graph theory term) are far more common than I expected. There are 98 sets of three players A, B, C where A has played B, B has played C and C has played A on any televised episode of Countdown. These 98 sets are all different but they're not all disjoint - in other words, some players appear in multiple sets.

For example, Mark Tournoff, Conor Travers and Matthew Shore are one 3-clique and Mark Tournoff, Conor Travers and Paul Howe are another. Paul Howe and Matthew Shore have never played each other, but if they did, it would make a 4-clique.

Perhaps surprisingly given the number of 3-cliques, there is no set of 4 players all of whom have played each other on Countdown.
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Re: Ask Graeme?

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Rhys Benjamin wrote: Wed Oct 06, 2021 10:23 am In terms of rounds remaining, what is the earliest a game has been mathematically won?

(and obviously, this needs to be per format.)
9 rounder: 15 episodes were won on round 6 (3 rounds and 38 points remaining).
https://wiki.apterous.org/Episode_126
https://wiki.apterous.org/Episode_460
https://wiki.apterous.org/Episode_466
https://wiki.apterous.org/Episode_637
https://wiki.apterous.org/Episode_646
https://wiki.apterous.org/Episode_713
https://wiki.apterous.org/Episode_778
https://wiki.apterous.org/Episode_1061
https://wiki.apterous.org/Episode_1144
https://wiki.apterous.org/Episode_1762
https://wiki.apterous.org/Episode_1886
https://wiki.apterous.org/Episode_2302
https://wiki.apterous.org/Episode_2343
https://wiki.apterous.org/Episode_2448
https://wiki.apterous.org/Episode_3035

Old 15 rounder: Two episodes were won on round 10 (5 rounds and 74 points remaining).
https://wiki.apterous.org/Episode_5285 (possibly the first time in 27 pages of this thread that I've been the answer to a question)
https://wiki.apterous.org/Episode_5663 (the last ever old 15 rounder)

Modern 15 rounder: 13 episodes have been won on round 10 (5 rounds and 74 points remaining), up to the end of series 83.
https://wiki.apterous.org/Episode_5749
https://wiki.apterous.org/Episode_6109
https://wiki.apterous.org/Episode_6368
https://wiki.apterous.org/Episode_6580
https://wiki.apterous.org/Episode_6592
https://wiki.apterous.org/Episode_6960
https://wiki.apterous.org/Episode_7081
https://wiki.apterous.org/Episode_7082
https://wiki.apterous.org/Episode_7225
https://wiki.apterous.org/Episode_7333
https://wiki.apterous.org/Episode_7470
https://wiki.apterous.org/Episode_7472
https://wiki.apterous.org/Episode_7473
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Graeme Cole
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Re: Ask Graeme?

Post by Graeme Cole »

Patrick Thompson wrote: Wed Oct 06, 2021 2:45 pm Apologies if already done but who has the highest max percentage when picking 6 small (min of 10 games)?

And same question for 4 large.
I've assumed that by "10 games" you mean "minimum 10 numbers rounds".

6 small:

If "max percentage" means "number of 6-small rounds where the player got the closest possible to the target, as a percentage of number of 6-small rounds faced", Dylan Taylor takes it, having maxed all 15 of the 6-small rounds he faced.
If "max percentage" means "number of points scored on 6 small rounds, as a percentage of the number of points available on 6 small rounds", Chris Cummins and Dylan Taylor both have 100%.

I've put the top 10s here, partly to give more information but mainly so I appear in an answer again:

Code: Select all

6 small (maxed rounds / available rounds)

NAME              ROUNDS   MAXED       %
Dylan Taylor          15      15   100.0
Chris Cummins         15      14    93.3
Dinos Sfyris          13      12    92.3
Jonathan Liew         20      17    85.0
Zarte Siempre         11       9    81.8
Nick Wainwright       14      11    78.6
Graeme Cole           16      12    75.0
Jack Welsby           15      11    73.3
Gavin Rogers          11       8    72.7
Tom Chafer-Cook       10       7    70.0

Code: Select all

6 small (points scored / available points)

NAME              ROUNDS  SCORED  MAX      %
Chris Cummins         15     134  134  100.0
Dylan Taylor          15     141  141  100.0
Zarte Siempre         11     104  110   94.5
Stephen Mellor        12     105  114   92.1
Graeme Cole           16     132  151   87.4
Scott Mearns          10      83   97   85.6
Gavin Rogers          11      91  107   85.0
Bradley Horrocks      23     183  218   83.9
Dinos Sfyris          13     104  124   83.9
Richard Saldanha      11      81   97   83.5
4 large:

Code: Select all

4 large (maxed rounds / available rounds)

NAME              ROUNDS   MAXED       %
Jack Worsley          14      13    92.9
George Ford           21      19    90.5
Andy Platt            24      21    87.5
Dan McColm            12      10    83.3
Jon O'Neill           18      15    83.3
Thomas Cappleman      21      17    81.0
Martyn Simpson        13      10    76.9
David O'Donnell       20      15    75.0
Jonathan Rawlinson    11       8    72.7
Noel McIlvenny        22      16    72.7

Code: Select all

4 large (points scored / available points)

NAME              ROUNDS  SCORED  MAX      %
Jack Worsley          14     134  137   97.8
George Ford           21     204  210   97.1
Jon O'Neill           18     168  177   94.9
Thomas Cappleman      21     190  201   94.5
David O'Donnell       20     180  194   92.8
Andy Platt            24     207  225   92.0
Ned Pendleton         10      91  100   91.0
James Haughton        20     168  185   90.8
Laurence Killen       10      88   97   90.7
Mark Deeks            10      88   97   90.7
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Re: Ask Graeme?

Post by Gavin Chipper »

Graeme Cole wrote: Sun Oct 10, 2021 12:50 pm
Gavin Chipper wrote: Tue Jul 20, 2021 7:36 am What do the stats say about the letter shuffling this series? I think the selections have been awful, with about 34 of the same vowel coming out consecutively on at least 9 occasions.
The average max per game so far in series 84 has been 132.88, so according to this graph it's closer to series 73-80 than to the heights of the last three series.

Point for discussion: we already know that purely random shuffling would give you more duplicate letters than we actually see on Apterous and Countdown. When we say selections are "awful", do we mean "selections where the max is low, or where the only words of length six or more are really obscure" or do we mean "selections with a reasonable max using non-obscure words, but which we're not used to seeing on Apterous"?

Case in point: consider the ZoomDown selection from round 11 of game 1 the other day, RSROEECIR. With the three Rs, it doesn't look like the "friendliest" of selections, but the maxes are ORRERIES and SORCERER, of which at least the latter is not an obscure word. We might say that SORCERER is difficult to spot, but do we say that because it's inherently difficult to unscramble or just because we're so used to Apterous-style shuffling that we don't see that kind of selection very often? Perhaps this needs its own thread to itself.
Some good work from you in this thread!

On the awful selections thing - I would tend to say a selection is awful even if it has a good max (like 8 or 9) but it's hard to spot and the next best is 5. But in terms of comparing the selections across series, I don't think such subjective judgements matter that much. "Awful" selections tend to produce lower maxes even if the odd one doesn't, so it will average out. If the average max across a whole series is significantly lower than in another series, the chances are that the selections are worse by pretty much all metrics.
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Re: Ask Graeme?

Post by Gavin Chipper »

Graeme Cole wrote: Sun Oct 10, 2021 3:25 pm
6 small:

If "max percentage" means "number of 6-small rounds where the player got the closest possible to the target, as a percentage of number of 6-small rounds faced", Dylan Taylor takes it, having maxed all 15 of the 6-small rounds he faced.
Closest possible to the target - Graeme has maxed getting the correct definition of what a max round is.
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Re: Ask Graeme?

Post by Gavin Chipper »

Graeme Cole wrote: Sun Oct 10, 2021 2:18 pm
Rhys Benjamin wrote: Wed Oct 06, 2021 10:23 am In terms of rounds remaining, what is the earliest a game has been mathematically won?

(and obviously, this needs to be per format.)
9 rounder: 15 episodes were won on round 6 (3 rounds and 38 points remaining).

...

Old 15 rounder: Two episodes were won on round 10 (5 rounds and 74 points remaining).

...

Modern 15 rounder: 13 episodes have been won on round 10 (5 rounds and 74 points remaining), up to the end of series 83.
I suppose the next question is - what's the closest it's been to 1 round earlier? E.g. in the modern 15-rounder, you'd need a 92-point lead (I think) to win it after round 9. What's the biggest lead anyone's had?
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Re: Ask Graeme?

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Graeme Cole wrote: Sun Oct 10, 2021 10:50 am
Carl Harrison wrote: Wed Jun 16, 2021 2:38 pm What are the highest and lowest total "max" scores from an 8-game consecutive run during heats (in the 15-round era). Not necessarily looking at just the record from octochamps runs, but any consecutive set of 8 games.

There was a bit of a discussion around this in the "1000 club" thread - the max score available from Luke Boynton's 8 games in the current series was 1149, which would be the 3rd highest max ever available from an Mocktorun on Apterous - so it would be interesting to see how this compares with the history of the show, and show how much variability there is in the maximum score available over 8 games depending on when you happen to appear. (Although I presume the averages have been moving up over time, particularly post-2016 when the large dictionary update came in)
This includes all 15-rounder heat games up to the end of series 83.

Old 15 rounder:
The lowest max from any eight consecutive games was 941, in the eight-game runs ending with episodes 3093, 3097, 3103, 3138, 3142, 3143, 3145, 3155, 3194, 3195, 3196, 3362, 3363, 3365, 3366, 5020, 5021 and 5025.
The highest max from any eight consecutive games was 1110, in the eight-game run ending with episode 3111.

Modern 15 rounder:
The lowest max from any eight consecutive games was 978, in the eight-game runs ending with episodes 5673, 5685, 5686, 5830, 5831, 6089 and 6134.
The highest max from any eight consecutive games was 1200, in the eight-game run ending with episode 7492.

Through the return of the now rather ancient graph generator, we can see how the average max per game (in this case for all games, not just heats) has changed since the introduction of the old 15-round format in series 46...

Image

Countdown started using ODO in series 71. I'm not sure exactly when significant numbers of new words were added to ODO, but looking at the graph I'm guessing it was around series 73. The shift from the old 15 rounder to the modern 15 rounder in series 68 might have had a small effect on maxes, but every series since series 73 has had a higher average max than any series before then.
Yeah it was the middle of series 73 - my octorun was the last 8 games before the influx
cheers maus
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Re: Ask Graeme?

Post by Adam Latchford »

Graeme Cole wrote: Sun Oct 10, 2021 11:08 am
Thomas Carey wrote: Thu Jun 24, 2021 1:43 pm Most disallowed words total by both contestants in

a) any game
b) any non-prelim game
c) across all seven games in a series finals?

Asking because, hoo boy, the series 83 finals have a lot.
(a) Episode 5499 had 10 disallowed words.
(b) Episode 7534 (series 83 QF) had 7 disallowed words.
(c) The Series 61 and Series 83 finals each had 16 disallowed words in total.
yaaaaaaas highest amount of disallowed words in a non pre lim record holder, that's going straight on my fridge
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Re: Ask Graeme?

Post by Ian Volante »

Graeme Cole wrote: Sun Oct 10, 2021 11:01 am
Thomas Carey wrote: Mon Jun 21, 2021 1:47 pm Not really sure what I'm asking here but - teatime teasers. I'm part of the 8-9-8 gang - I had 8 letter teasers on my original series, 9 letters in my CoC and 8 letters in my Christmas special. I can't imagine there's too many people who've gone 8-9-8 (I'm the only one of the six who played the Christmas specials) - am I the only one?

Are there any other people who've played in 3 different eras of teatime teaser? Has anyone done more than 3?

(The dates for the 'eras' of TTT can be found here if it helps https://wiki.apterous.org/Teatime_Teaser )
If you don't count the teaserless era at all, there are only three who have been in three separate eras: Ian Volante, Martyn Simpson and Thomas Carey.
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Re: Ask Graeme?

Post by Gavin Chipper »

Graeme Cole wrote: Sun Oct 10, 2021 10:50 am
Carl Harrison wrote: Wed Jun 16, 2021 2:38 pm What are the highest and lowest total "max" scores from an 8-game consecutive run during heats (in the 15-round era). Not necessarily looking at just the record from octochamps runs, but any consecutive set of 8 games.

There was a bit of a discussion around this in the "1000 club" thread - the max score available from Luke Boynton's 8 games in the current series was 1149, which would be the 3rd highest max ever available from an Mocktorun on Apterous - so it would be interesting to see how this compares with the history of the show, and show how much variability there is in the maximum score available over 8 games depending on when you happen to appear. (Although I presume the averages have been moving up over time, particularly post-2016 when the large dictionary update came in)
This includes all 15-rounder heat games up to the end of series 83.

Old 15 rounder:
The lowest max from any eight consecutive games was 941, in the eight-game runs ending with episodes 3093, 3097, 3103, 3138, 3142, 3143, 3145, 3155, 3194, 3195, 3196, 3362, 3363, 3365, 3366, 5020, 5021 and 5025.
The highest max from any eight consecutive games was 1110, in the eight-game run ending with episode 3111.

Modern 15 rounder:
The lowest max from any eight consecutive games was 978, in the eight-game runs ending with episodes 5673, 5685, 5686, 5830, 5831, 6089 and 6134.
The highest max from any eight consecutive games was 1200, in the eight-game run ending with episode 7492.
This used to be a stat on the Countdown database thing (cdb) but I'm not sure that still exists. And by one of the biggest coincidences of all time, the 8 games starting with Helen Grayson's run had the lowest max in the 9-round era. A coincidence because she also had the highest percentage of the max score in any heat run in the 9-round era. The lack of available max score might have actually made it easier to score a higher percentage of the max, but the coincidence rating doesn't fall a great deal even when you take that into account.
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Re: Ask Graeme?

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Graeme Cole wrote: Sun Oct 10, 2021 12:35 pm
JackHurst wrote: Mon Jul 12, 2021 4:18 pm On average, what letters max % do players achieve?

1) Across all players from the past 10 series?
2) In series Heats (lets say in the last 10 series)?
3) Non series finalists from the last 10 series?
I'm assuming "max %" means the number of letters points scored by the player in a game divided by the number of letters points available in the game, times 100, and not something like "percentage of letters rounds maxed".

1) 58.0%, considering all performances in all games in series 74-83.
2) 57.3%, considering all performances in prelim games in series 74-83.
3) 50.9%, considering all performances by players in prelim games in series 74-83 who did not appear in a finals match in any of those series.

By comparison, the average letters max % for those series in only the quarter-finals, semi-finals and finals is 70.6%. The individual figures for only quarter-finals, semi-finals and finals respectively are 65.6%, 75.3% and 81.1%.
I was actually asking for % of rounds maxed. The reason I ask is because when I build a stats section in my app, I want a benchmark of % letters rounds maxed to tell the user they are probably good enough to apply for the show.
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Re: Ask Graeme?

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Gavin Chipper wrote: Mon Oct 11, 2021 10:31 pm This used to be a stat on the Countdown database thing (cdb) but I'm not sure that still exists.
It should be here: http://cdb.apterous.org/octomax.php - the links are still up under octochamps and everything - but it's fubared.
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Re: Ask Graeme?

Post by Sam Cappleman-Lynes »

In how many games have there been more vowels than consonants picked in total across all letters rounds?
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Re: Ask Graeme?

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Thanks for all your answers!

Inspired by him being on a repeat of the celebrity chase right now - I've had Jon Culshaw as a DC guest for two separate 'runs' - my first 3 heats, and then my CoC QF. How many people have had some DC guest for more than one run? Has anyone had the same guest three separate times, or more than two guests at least twice?

By 'run' I'm going to go with a time that a guest was in DC with no different guest in between, rather than individual filming days as I know some guests have filmed multiple days in a row for whatever reason.
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Re: Ask Graeme?

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Sam Cappleman-Lynes wrote: Thu Oct 14, 2021 8:50 pm In how many games have there been more vowels than consonants picked in total across all letters rounds?
I'd hazard a strong guess that surely there has never been a TV game where every single letters round has had 5 vowels. (Perhaps back in the day you were allowed 6 vowels, but I still can't believe vowels would have outnumbered consonants in any match.)
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Thomas Carey wrote: Sat Oct 16, 2021 8:38 pm Thanks for all your answers!

Inspired by him being on a repeat of the celebrity chase right now - I've had Jon Culshaw as a DC guest for two separate 'runs' - my first 3 heats, and then my CoC QF. How many people have had some DC guest for more than one run? Has anyone had the same guest three separate times, or more than two guests at least twice?

By 'run' I'm going to go with a time that a guest was in DC with no different guest in between, rather than individual filming days as I know some guests have filmed multiple days in a row for whatever reason.
Good question. Following on from that, which contestant has had the most number of different DC guests. I've looked at Conor who seems to have had 10 different ones (plus a special match with no DC guest at all!) and I'm guessing that will take some beating, but haven't looked much further.
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Thomas Carey wrote: Sat Oct 16, 2021 8:38 pm Thanks for all your answers!

Inspired by him being on a repeat of the celebrity chase right now - I've had Jon Culshaw as a DC guest for two separate 'runs' - my first 3 heats, and then my CoC QF. How many people have had some DC guest for more than one run? Has anyone had the same guest three separate times, or more than two guests at least twice?

By 'run' I'm going to go with a time that a guest was in DC with no different guest in between, rather than individual filming days as I know some guests have filmed multiple days in a row for whatever reason.
I'm willing to bet that the answer to this question is 'yes', the filming blocks were all pre-1990 and the DC guest in question was Brandreth.
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Re: Ask Graeme?

Post by Sam Cappleman-Lynes »

Carl Harrison wrote: Sat Oct 16, 2021 9:48 pm
Sam Cappleman-Lynes wrote: Thu Oct 14, 2021 8:50 pm In how many games have there been more vowels than consonants picked in total across all letters rounds?
I'd hazard a strong guess that surely there has never been a TV game where every single letters round has had 5 vowels.
Sure, but that wasn't the question. More vowels than consonants has happened at least once, in this game which had 51 out of the 99 letters being vowels. I wondered if there were any more examples.
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Re: Ask Graeme?

Post by Jack Worsley »

Thomas Carey wrote: Sat Oct 16, 2021 8:38 pm Thanks for all your answers!

Inspired by him being on a repeat of the celebrity chase right now - I've had Jon Culshaw as a DC guest for two separate 'runs' - my first 3 heats, and then my CoC QF. How many people have had some DC guest for more than one run? Has anyone had the same guest three separate times, or more than two guests at least twice?

By 'run' I'm going to go with a time that a guest was in DC with no different guest in between, rather than individual filming days as I know some guests have filmed multiple days in a row for whatever reason.
I had Dr Phil twice (Series 66 finals and two matches in the 30BC). Kirk has had him three times (Series 60 heats, finals and 30BC). There's bound to be plenty more examples of contestants having the same guest twice, particularly in the early years when there appeared to be a smaller pool of guests.
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Jack Worsley wrote: Sun Oct 17, 2021 1:42 am
Thomas Carey wrote: Sat Oct 16, 2021 8:38 pm Thanks for all your answers!

Inspired by him being on a repeat of the celebrity chase right now - I've had Jon Culshaw as a DC guest for two separate 'runs' - my first 3 heats, and then my CoC QF. How many people have had some DC guest for more than one run? Has anyone had the same guest three separate times, or more than two guests at least twice?

By 'run' I'm going to go with a time that a guest was in DC with no different guest in between, rather than individual filming days as I know some guests have filmed multiple days in a row for whatever reason.
I had Dr Phil twice (Series 66 finals and two matches in the 30BC). Kirk has had him three times (Series 60 heats, finals and 30BC). There's bound to be plenty more examples of contestants having the same guest twice, particularly in the early years when there appeared to be a smaller pool of guests.
Mark Nyman looks to have had two difference DC guests on 3 separate occasions - Gyles Brandreth and Ned Sherrin - both in series heats, finals and CoC (including a joint DC guest appearance by both of them in the series final).
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Re: Ask Graeme?

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Sam Cappleman-Lynes wrote: Sat Oct 16, 2021 11:48 pm
Carl Harrison wrote: Sat Oct 16, 2021 9:48 pm
Sam Cappleman-Lynes wrote: Thu Oct 14, 2021 8:50 pm In how many games have there been more vowels than consonants picked in total across all letters rounds?
I'd hazard a strong guess that surely there has never been a TV game where every single letters round has had 5 vowels.
Sure, but that wasn't the question. More vowels than consonants has happened at least once, in this game which had 51 out of the 99 letters being vowels. I wondered if there were any more examples.
Durr, yes of course you don't need 5V in every round to have more vowels in total. I never was that good at numbers! Good find though, I was amazed that even one such show exists.
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Re: Ask Graeme?

Post by Jack Worsley »

How many episodes have been won by the player who won fewer rounds? I imagine most cases involve the winner spotting a nine that their opponent missed but I know of one episode where this was not the case. https://wiki.apterous.org/Episode_5555 Are there any others?

Has anyone ever won despite winning two or more rounds fewer than their opponent?
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Re: Ask Graeme?

Post by Gavin Chipper »

What's the highest number of rounds a player has stayed on 0 points for and still ended up winning?
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Re: Ask Graeme?

Post by Martin Hurst »

https://wiki.apterous.org/Episode_7638

Has there ever been a game before on Countdown between two contestants with fewer characters in their name between them? (7 v 7 = 14)?
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Re: Ask Graeme?

Post by Gavin Chipper »

Did Yoga have just Yoga on his name plate? Yoga v Mandi Hale would be nine.

Edit - I meant 13.
Last edited by Gavin Chipper on Sat Dec 04, 2021 10:39 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Ask Graeme?

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Gavin Chipper wrote: Sat Dec 04, 2021 8:25 pm Did Yoga have just Yoga on his name plate? Yoga v Mandi Hale would be nine.
I’m reliably informed that Paul “YT” White was plated as such. Therefore this one gets us to 10, or 4 using only first names.
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Re: Ask Graeme?

Post by Max Benkel »

What's the reason for the drinking glasses to be taken away from contestants? covid reasons?
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Re: Ask Graeme?

Post by JackHurst »

Max Benkel wrote: Thu Jan 13, 2022 7:04 pm What's the reason for the drinking glasses to be taken away from contestants? covid reasons?
Yes. Everybody has a bottle of water stashed underneath the desk now.
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Re: Ask Graeme?

Post by Carl Harrison »

What is the highest numbers target that has ever been declared by a competitor (and/or scored points with it). I'm guessing there have been a few 1000's over time, but has there ever been anything declared in the 1001-1009 range?
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Re: Ask Graeme?

Post by L'oisleatch McGraw »

Johnny Canuck wrote: Sat Sep 18, 2021 10:09 pm How big is the biggest group of people such that everyone in it has played everyone else in an Apterous game at least once?
Might have missed it, but didn't notice an answer to this yet.
I imagine this would be a good jumping off point.
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Re: Ask Graeme?

Post by Thomas Cappleman »

L'oisleatch McGraw wrote: Tue Jan 18, 2022 8:15 pm
Johnny Canuck wrote: Sat Sep 18, 2021 10:09 pm How big is the biggest group of people such that everyone in it has played everyone else in an Apterous game at least once?
Might have missed it, but didn't notice an answer to this yet.
I imagine this would be a good jumping off point.
Based on numbers I can see in my rival list, the point where a person's ranking equals the number of opponents they've played (i.e. the largest possible answer to this, if everyone above them had all played each other) is about 230. Maybe somewhere around 100 is plausible?
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Re: Ask Graeme?

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What is the ranking order of letters in terms of how many times they've been used in declarations?
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Re: Ask Graeme?

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cheers maus
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Re: Ask Graeme?

Post by Gavin Chipper »

Thomas Carey wrote: Thu May 26, 2022 4:45 am viewtopic.php?p=199450#p199450
Spoilerz
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Re: Ask Graeme?

Post by Christy Cooper »

What is the probability of getting a selection that contains all 4 of the 'bad' consonants? (J, X, Q, and Z)
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Re: Ask Graeme?

Post by Johnny Canuck »

Based on the standard letter distributions mentioned earlier in this thread (you can just pick the most recent one, and ignore the effects of shuffling), what is the least likely 9-letter word that has been available in a selection at least once? What is the least likely 9 that has actually been spotted?
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Re: Ask Graeme?

Post by Ian Fitzpatrick »

Has BAMBOOZLE ever been a conundrum?

Anyone watching Mcdonald & Dodds last night will understand the relevance of the question :)
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Re: Ask Graeme?

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Gavin Chipper wrote: Sun Oct 10, 2021 9:08 pm I suppose the next question is - what's the closest it's been to 1 round earlier? E.g. in the modern 15-rounder, you'd need a 92-point lead (I think) to win it after round 9. What's the biggest lead anyone's had?
The biggest lead anyone has had after 9 rounds of a modern 15-rounder is 86, which was Tom Cappleman in episode 6109.

In the old 15-rounder, the largest lead after R9 was 74 by Julian Fell in episode 3349.

In the 9-rounder, you'd need to be more than 56 ahead after R5 to have the game sewn up then. The closest anyone came to that was David Acton who was 47 ahead in episode 1762.
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Re: Ask Graeme?

Post by Graeme Cole »

JackHurst wrote: Tue Oct 12, 2021 10:42 am
Graeme Cole wrote: Sun Oct 10, 2021 12:35 pm
JackHurst wrote: Mon Jul 12, 2021 4:18 pm On average, what letters max % do players achieve?

1) Across all players from the past 10 series?
2) In series Heats (lets say in the last 10 series)?
3) Non series finalists from the last 10 series?
I'm assuming "max %" means the number of letters points scored by the player in a game divided by the number of letters points available in the game, times 100, and not something like "percentage of letters rounds maxed".

1) 58.0%, considering all performances in all games in series 74-83.
2) 57.3%, considering all performances in prelim games in series 74-83.
3) 50.9%, considering all performances by players in prelim games in series 74-83 who did not appear in a finals match in any of those series.

By comparison, the average letters max % for those series in only the quarter-finals, semi-finals and finals is 70.6%. The individual figures for only quarter-finals, semi-finals and finals respectively are 65.6%, 75.3% and 81.1%.
I was actually asking for % of rounds maxed. The reason I ask is because when I build a stats section in my app, I want a benchmark of % letters rounds maxed to tell the user they are probably good enough to apply for the show.
The percentage of rounds maxed by the average player is much lower than the percentage of points scored relative to the max, but I guess this isn't too surprising.

Across all performances in series 76-85, the average number of letters maxes per person per game is 2.59, or 25.9%.

Counting series heats only, the average performance maxes 24.6% of letters rounds.

Counting only performances from players who never appeared in a series finals, it's 19.4%.

Among performances from players in those series who did appear in a series finals, it's 41.7%, and the average letters max performance among those who reached a series final was 61.2%.

Note: A "performance" is specifically "one player's letters rounds in one game".
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