Ask Graeme?

[Gavin Chipper]

Great work by the way Graeme. Thanks for all that.

[Jon O'Neill]

Love a Graeme update in this thread. Amazing stuff - thanks.

[Steve Hyde]

Apropos of nothing, what is the smallest number vowels ever picked by an Octochamp across their entire octorun? Has anyone managed a perfect 120?

[Thomas Carey]

Apropos of nothing, what is the smallest number vowels ever picked by an Octochamp across their entire octorun? Has anyone managed a perfect 120?

And the obvious reverse question. Jonny Rawlinson maybe?

[Tom S]

Which day has had the most series champs appear over the years?

[Steve Hyde]

Do you have a quick way to produce a list of teapot owners, who won their first game by <10 points, and solved one of the numbers rounds in the same way as their opponent after declaring second?

https://twitter.com/fesshole/status/171 ... 8EnYw&s=19

[Gavin Chipper]

Do you have a quick way to produce a list of teapot owners, who won their first game by <10 points, and solved one of the numbers rounds in the same way as their opponent after declaring second?

https://twitter.com/fesshole/status/171 ... 8EnYw&s=19

That's amazing. Let the detective work begin...

Edit - Just looking at this series, there's a few examples. Some of those numbers games were ridiculously easy though so probably not the one, but anyway, I'm not sure it would be a great idea to start naming people. Though it would be fun...

[Steve Hyde]

I'm not sure it would be a great idea to start naming people.

What do you mean? I can't see a single possible issue with establishing the Kountdown Kangaroo Kourt, or 'KKK' for short

[Graeme Cole]

Do you have a quick way to produce a list of teapot owners, who won their first game by <10 points, and solved one of the numbers rounds in the same way as their opponent after declaring second?

https://twitter.com/fesshole/status/171 ... 8EnYw&s=19

Skipping ahead to this question, now a viral scandal...

I'm going to disregard the "after declaring second" bit, for two reasons: the declaration order hasn't always been rigidly enforced, and sometimes it's reversed if one player declares their solution not written down. The wiki from which the database is scraped doesn't record when this happens.

The requirement to show your opponent (or, originally, DC or the host) your paper was only introduced circa series 50 (2003), so I'll limit the search to games from then onwards.

I'll also modify the condition slightly, because the fess doesn't explicitly say that they both solved the numbers game exactly. It says they claimed to have "got the maths section" but that could plausibly mean they got the best available, or the best found in the studio, or just that they got what their opponent had.

So the condition is:

• The player was on their first game of a run, and
• The player won that game, and
• That game had a numbers round in which both players scored the same nonzero score with the same method, and
• The player's margin of victory was less than or equal to their score for that numbers round or the game went to a tiebreak, and
• The episode was shown no earlier than the start of series 50.

This gives 234 distinct episode numbers, not including any games in the present series.

If you assume that "got the maths section" definitely means "got 10 points", it narrows down to 208 distinct episodes.

I won't post the list because even if the story's true, it would only cast aspersions on 207 innocent people and not identify our anonymous fesser. Nice idea, though!

[Philip A]

More Apto than Countdown, but what is the longest Q without U word? I have it down as MGQASHIYOS which is 10 letters.

Are there any other U-less Q 9s?

[Sam Cappleman-Lynes]

Are there any other U-less Q 9s?

Answered here: http://www.c4countdown.co.uk/viewtopic. ... 37#p208337

[Johnny Canuck]

Which day has had the most series champs appear over the years?

I’d assume it’s a rather large-scale draw at 2

[dan spinks]

Has anyone ever won a game without making a declaration in any of the numbers rounds? (question inspired by Monday's game in which Caroline only declared in 1 of the 4 rounds)

[Ben Bazz]

Apropos of nothing, what is the smallest number vowels ever picked by an Octochamp across their entire octorun? Has anyone managed a perfect 120?

Hi! This question caught my eye as it may be a record for me! (Episodes 8112-8119)
I think I chose 4 vowels on 4 occasions, choosing 3 vowels in all of my other selections. Not far from the perfect 120 but certainly plausible that it is not the record.

[Steve Hyde]

Apropos of nothing, what is the smallest number vowels ever picked by an Octochamp across their entire octorun? Has anyone managed a perfect 120?

Hi! This question caught my eye as it may be a record for me! (Episodes 8112-8119)
I think I chose 4 vowels on 4 occasions, choosing 3 vowels in all of my other selections. Not far from the perfect 120 but certainly plausible that it is not the record.

Ha, I think you were the inspiration for the question best of luck in the finals!

[Steve Hyde]

In today's episode a contestant scored points by declaring 99 in a numbers round. Has this ever happened before?

[Callum Todd]

In today's episode a contestant scored points by declaring 99 in a numbers round. Has this ever happened before?

Oh wow that's cool!

[Ben Bazz]

Apropos of nothing, what is the smallest number vowels ever picked by an Octochamp across their entire octorun? Has anyone managed a perfect 120?

Hi! This question caught my eye as it may be a record for me! (Episodes 8112-8119)
I think I chose 4 vowels on 4 occasions, choosing 3 vowels in all of my other selections. Not far from the perfect 120 but certainly plausible that it is not the record.

Ha, I think you were the inspiration for the question best of luck in the finals!

It's actually quite exciting to think that I might have a Countdown record!
Thanks for the good luck for the finals; it was a real treat to get to return to the studio and spend some time with the other finalists.

[Rhys Benjamin]

Obviously we know about Maus's record for the shortest time to solve all 8 conundrums, but what is the record for 7/7, 6/6, 5/5, etc.? (And I suppose, 9/9, 10/10, etc., if it has been done)

I've noticed Matthew Jenkins managed to solve 4/4 in 8.25, which must be up there?

[Adam S Latchford]

What is the most successful first name in countdown (if we say at least 3 people have to have been called this and do it by percentage of games won)

[Callum Todd]

What is the most successful first name in countdown (if we say at least 3 people have to have been called this and do it by percentage of games won)

My money is on Tom/Thomas. Or maybe Mark.

[Adam S Latchford]

What is the most successful first name in countdown (if we say at least 3 people have to have been called this and do it by percentage of games won)

My money is on Tom/Thomas. Or maybe Mark.

My gut is it will be a more unusual name. Lets say there's been 2 random people called Innis pop up over the years. Something of that ilk

Won't be adam we suuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck

[Fiona T]

What is the most successful first name in countdown (if we say at least 3 people have to have been called this and do it by percentage of games won)

My money is on Tom/Thomas. Or maybe Mark.

My gut is it will be a more unusual name. Lets say there's been 2 random people called Innis pop up over the years. Something of that ilk

Won't be adam we suuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck

Interesting - Tom for example is such a common name that if a bunch of them lost their only game that would bring the percentage of games won by Toms right down. I'm going Corrina - 100% win rate!

[Fiona T]

My money is on Tom/Thomas. Or maybe Mark.

My gut is it will be a more unusual name. Lets say there's been 2 random people called Innis pop up over the years. Something of that ilk

Won't be adam we suuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck

Interesting - Tom for example is such a common name that if a bunch of them lost their only game that would bring the percentage of games won by Toms right down. I'm going Corrina - 100% win rate!

Oh you said at least 3 people - forget that!

[Gavin Chipper]

What is the most successful first name in countdown (if we say at least 3 people have to have been called this and do it by percentage of games won)

My money is on Tom/Thomas. Or maybe Mark.

My gut is it will be a more unusual name. Lets say there's been 2 random people called Innis pop up over the years. Something of that ilk

Won't be adam we suuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck

I was thinking the same. Common names will generally tend towards 50%. I looked up Harvey (cos of Freeman) but only found two. And two Nics (Nic Brown). If Nic counts as its own separate name anyway.

[Gavin Chipper]

As far as I can see, there are three Darryls. Darryls Hall and Johnson both lost their only game, so we're on 0/2. But then we have Darryl Francis. He won 15 out of 19 "normal" games. He lost a masters game though, and was on the winning team in some weird special. We won't count the weird special though.

So if we don't include the masters, then Darryls have 15/21 or 71.4%. If we do it's 15/22 or 68.2%.

There are a couple of Daryls and a Darrell though.

[Thomas Cappleman]

I make Conor as being 23/31 or 74.2%, so an initial beater

[Adam S Latchford]

thought i'd found a winner with terence being 21/29 so 72% but conor has pipped it so far

[Bradley Horrocks]

Eoin?
3 which lost initial game = 3 L
2 octos + grand finalist = 18 W 2 L

18/23 = 78.3%

[Fiona T]

Jeffrey Burgin 8 wins, 1 loss
Jeffrey Clayton 11 wins, 2 losses
Jeffrey Hansford 10 wins 1 loss

29 wins, 4 losses

29/33 = 87.9%

(I am going by Jeffreys on the wiki - Jeffrey Clayton redirects to Jeff Clayton - adjudication required!)


(Edit - inability to correctly evaluate 29+4 )

[Ben Wilson]

Surprised no one's yet mentioned the 3 series champs and one CoC winner named Chris but okay.

[Gavin Chipper]

You have to include everyone with that name, not just the top three.

[Martin Hurst]

Jeffrey Burgin 8 wins, 1 loss
Jeffrey Clayton 11 wins, 2 losses
Jeffrey Hansford 10 wins 1 loss

29 wins, 4 losses

29/33 = 87.9%

(I am going by Jeffreys on the wiki - Jeffrey Clayton redirects to Jeff Clayton - adjudication required!)


(Edit - inability to correctly evaluate 29+4 )

I think it has to go by what is on their name plate doesn't it?

[Fiona T]

Jeffrey Burgin 8 wins, 1 loss
Jeffrey Clayton 11 wins, 2 losses
Jeffrey Hansford 10 wins 1 loss

29 wins, 4 losses

29/33 = 87.9%

(I am going by Jeffreys on the wiki - Jeffrey Clayton redirects to Jeff Clayton - adjudication required!)


(Edit - inability to correctly evaluate 29+4 )

I think it has to go by what is on their name plate doesn't it?

As a general rule that seems sensible, but we don't always know that and people change names between appearances too. Do we know whether Jeff ever appeared as Jeffrey? Can't think why the wiki redirect would have been added otherwise!

What do we do with people who do change their name - do only the recordings with the matching name count towards the 'most successful' achievement?

[Adam Gillard]

What is the most successful first name in countdown (if we say at least 3 people have to have been called this and do it by percentage of games won)

My money is on Tom/Thomas. Or maybe Mark.

My gut is it will be a more unusual name. Lets say there's been 2 random people called Innis pop up over the years. Something of that ilk

Won't be adam we suuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck

Speak for yourself, mate

[Rhys Benjamin]

Jeffrey Burgin 8 wins, 1 loss
Jeffrey Clayton 11 wins, 2 losses
Jeffrey Hansford 10 wins 1 loss

29 wins, 4 losses

29/33 = 87.9%

(I am going by Jeffreys on the wiki - Jeffrey Clayton redirects to Jeff Clayton - adjudication required!)


(Edit - inability to correctly evaluate 29+4 )

I think it has to go by what is on their name plate doesn't it?

As a general rule that seems sensible, but we don't always know that and people change names between appearances too. Do we know whether Jeff ever appeared as Jeffrey? Can't think why the wiki redirect would have been added otherwise!

What do we do with people who do change their name - do only the recordings with the matching name count towards the 'most successful' achievement?

He did not but the redirect was created in 2008 so who knows why.

[Johnny Canuck]

I think it has to go by what is on their name plate doesn't it?

As a general rule that seems sensible, but we don't always know that and people change names between appearances too. Do we know whether Jeff ever appeared as Jeffrey? Can't think why the wiki redirect would have been added otherwise!

What do we do with people who do change their name - do only the recordings with the matching name count towards the 'most successful' achievement?

He did not but the redirect was created in 2008 so who knows why.

I think he was a pretty active member on here and was known as Jeff in a lot of conversations. There was also a joke for a while where everyone was spelling Kirk's surname "Bevan" instead of "Bevins", which got a redirect and even got onto a lot of wiki pages unchallenged

[Gavin Chipper]

Interestingly there are two Michael Calders, so if we get a third, perhaps we could count the first name and surname together as one name!

[Philip A]

How many people have won a Countdown teapot and a Mastermind glass bowl?

[Ian Volante]

How many people have won a Countdown teapot and a Mastermind glass bowl?

Isabelle Heward is the one I'm aware of. May well be others. Geoff Thomas marginally missed doing the double, arguably failing at the easier task.

[Philip A]

How many people have won a Countdown teapot and a Mastermind glass bowl?

Isabelle Heward is the one I'm aware of. May well be others. Geoff Thomas marginally missed doing the double, arguably failing at the easier task.

Another one for sure is Andy Page (bowl in 2003, teapot in 2004). I know it’s at least 2 but wonder if there are any more.

[Gavin Chipper]

The equivalent would surely be winning a series of Countdown.

[JackHurst]

How many people have won a Countdown teapot and a Mastermind glass bowl?

Do you have the list of Mastermind winners in a format suitable for Graeme to put into his SQL query for the Countdown Database?

[Rhys Benjamin]

As a general rule that seems sensible, but we don't always know that and people change names between appearances too. Do we know whether Jeff ever appeared as Jeffrey? Can't think why the wiki redirect would have been added otherwise!

What do we do with people who do change their name - do only the recordings with the matching name count towards the 'most successful' achievement?

He did not but the redirect was created in 2008 so who knows why.

I think he was a pretty active member on here and was known as Jeff in a lot of conversations. There was also a joke for a while where everyone was spelling Kirk's surname "Bevan" instead of "Bevins", which got a redirect and even got onto a lot of wiki pages unchallenged

I'm well aware of that; it's the opposite point. He's never been "Jeffrey" in the Countdown world as far as I know.

[Andres Sanchez]

How many people have won a Countdown teapot and a Mastermind glass bowl?

Do you have the list of Mastermind winners in a format suitable for Graeme to put into his SQL query for the Countdown Database?

I feel like we should have a list for just quiz show winners categorized by show on the wiki, not a real page but just more game show-specific tags.

[Gavin Chipper]

There's a list of Mastermind champions on the Wikipedia. It would take someone about five minutes to look for potential matches on the Countdown wiki and we could determine likely actual matches from there. I might have a look later when I'm on my laptop if I can be bothered.

[Graeme Cole]

Since it's origin up to Series 87, what's the percentage of contestants/finalists/champions that are Apterites? Curious of how much Apterous has had an absolute grasp on the community?

I can't answer all of this one because there's no way to know, for every contestant, whether they actually played on Apterous. Some people use assumed names.

I believe every series champion since 2008 has played on Apterous. I wasn't sure whether series 79 champion Mike Daysley played on Apterous, but having checked, there is an Apterous account in that name which last played a game in 2010.

[Gavin Chipper]

There's a Mike C Daysley that played as recently as 2020. The profile picture is of him with the trophy.

[Graeme Cole]

Apropos of nothing, what is the smallest number vowels ever picked by an Octochamp across their entire octorun? Has anyone managed a perfect 120?

In the modern 15-rounder, an octochamp picks 40 letters rounds, so the number of vowels they pick will be between 120 and 200.

In the old 15-rounder, C1 picked 6 letters rounds and C2 picked 5. Hence, an octochamp would usually pick 5 letters rounds in their first game and 6 in their other seven games, so they would pick between 141 and 235 vowels over 47 letters rounds. However, if an octochamp started in C1 and stayed there, they would pick between 144 and 240 vowels.

The smallest number of vowels picked by an octochamp in their octorun is 124, by Ben Bazzard. Close behind is Coral Heath (126) and Moose Rosser (129). All of these were in the modern 15-rounder.

In the old 15-rounder, the picker of the fewest vowels across an octorun is Kai Laddiman. He picked only 145 vowels from 48 rounds (he started in the C1 position), one more than the minimum 144. The only round in which he picked more than three vowels was the last letters round of his first game.

And the obvious reverse question. Jonny Rawlinson maybe?

Correct, by quite a margin. Jonathan Rawlinson picked 217 vowels out of a possible 235. The next highest are Scott Gillies (199), Heather Styles (197), Chris Marshall (193), Ryan Taylor (192), Jimmy Gough and Marcus Hares (191) and Kirk Bevins (190). As you might expect, these were all in the old 15 rounder.

The highest number of vowels picked by an octochamp since the start of the modern 15-rounder is Elliott Mellor, with 175 out of 200. Matthew Tassier picked 172, Noel McIlvenny picked 171, and 33 other octochamps picked 160-169 vowels.

[Graeme Cole]

Which day has had the most series champs appear over the years?

Could you elaborate? Day of the year or day of the week? And by "appear" do you mean their first game, or all games?

[Graeme Cole]

Has anyone ever won a game without making a declaration in any of the numbers rounds? (question inspired by Monday's game in which Caroline only declared in 1 of the 4 rounds)

Obviously this happened quite a few times in the 9-round format when there were only two numbers rounds, but if we restrict it to 15-rounders (both kinds), only two contestants have won a game without declaring anything in any numbers round. They are Jillian Tidman and Matt Williams.

[Graeme Cole]

In today's episode a contestant scored points by declaring 99 in a numbers round. Has this ever happened before?

No. That's the first time a player has scored points with a declaration of less than 100.

At the other end, there have been 22 scoring declarations of 1000, but only one scoring declaration of more than 1000, which was a declaration of 1001 by Lindsey Denyer in 1991. Her opponent declared 1008 in the same round.

[Gavin Chipper]

Which day has had the most series champs appear over the years?

Could you elaborate? Day of the year or day of the week? And by "appear" do you mean their first game, or all games?

According to this, octochamps tend to start on the third of the five episodes on a recording day, so a Wednesday. And it's likely to extend to series champions too. If that's what the question is.

[Graeme Cole]

Obviously we know about Maus's record for the shortest time to solve all 8 conundrums, but what is the record for 7/7, 6/6, 5/5, etc.? (And I suppose, 9/9, 10/10, etc., if it has been done)

I've noticed Matthew Jenkins managed to solve 4/4 in 8.25, which must be up there?

People who solved all the conundrums in their run in the fastest aggregate time for each run length 1-8 are as follows. All tiebreaks are ignored.

Note that runs of only six and seven games are relatively rare anyway - if someone has won that many, they're probably good enough to win eight. It's even rarer for someone to have solved all their conundrums to not win eight.

8/8: Tom Carey, 17.75s. In total, 13 people have solved all the conundrums in an eight-game run.
7/7: Nobody has solved all the conundrums in a seven-game run.
6/6: Wayne Kelly, 34.0s. The only other person to have solved all conundrums in a six-game run was Rod Chatfield (66.5s). Wayne Kelly actually retired undefeated after his sixth win, so could have gone on to solve (or not solve) more conundrums.
5/5: Three people have solved all conundrums in a five-game run: Andrew Bull (we don't have all his conundrum times, but the three we do have add up to 7.25s), Peter McGuigan (11.75s) and Ryan Sutton (28.0s).
4/4: Eight people have solved all conundrums in a four-game run. The fastest overall was Matthew Jenkins on 8.25s as you say.
3/3: 22 people. The fastest overall was Steve Gruzd (4.5s).
2/2: 68 people. The fastest overall was Dominic Moyes (2.5s).
1/1: 851 people solved the conundrum in their run's only game. The fastest was Alex Ayling on 0.25 seconds, but at this point we're relying heavily on the precision with which each individual recapper recorded the time.

9/9 and higher would theoretically have been possible before they got rid of draws in 1991, but nobody with an octorun of more than 8 games solved all their conundrums.

Edit to add: these stats, and all the others I posted today, count all games up to the end of series 88.

[Peter Thomas]

Hi Graeme, I was wondering how many octochamps in the fifteen round format have scored less than 100 each game? (I originally posted this a couple of weeks ago, but there have been no replies. Sorry if my original wording was a bit abrupt.)

[Philip A]

I bet Pilates is the most frequently declared word on TV Countdown without it ever being allowed: 22 instances in total if you include matched answers.

[Fiona T]

Very oftenly declared on apto too!

[Adam S Latchford]

Someone tried to declare it once as PALATES (pronounced pilates and meant pilates) to absolutely get away with murder

It's totally understandable that someone would go for it

[Johnny Canuck]

Someone tried to declare it once as PALATES (pronounced pilates and meant pilates) to absolutely get away with murder

It's totally understandable that someone would go for it

This declaration pleased my mate-lots

[Peter Thomas]

Hi Graeme, I was wondering how many octochamps in the fifteen round format have scored less than 100 each game? (I originally posted this on March 8th, but there have been no replies. Sorry if my original wording was a bit abrupt.)