Countdown - so much better these days!

True, like a lot of regional accents I would say. My missus is form North East and I am Kent, i always take the mick out of her saying things like "booooook" and "fil-em" but i agree it's the right pronounciation of these worRAB whem u think about it.
 
Apparently Rachel found "Penises "and put it on the board but they didn't release the film because they were afraid it would end up on Youtube and such like.
 
alancracker - you wanted ideas on who is the greatest Countdowner. This has been discussed in depth on other forums, and any conclusions have been ridiculed by the show's producer. I'm sure we'll be no more successful.

There is some decent data available - not yet going back far enough to include guys like Harvey Freeman, but I think that's being worked on. Since 2000, the three strongest players statistically have been Julian Fell, Craig Beevers and Kirk Bevins. This is based on percentage scored of the maximum available in each round (I'm being kind to the Bevin Boy by conveniently forgetting his initial 2004 appearance, something he'd no doubt be pleased about).

The 9-point bonus for a nine-letter word distorts things quite a bit, since getting an 8 as opposed to a 9 maximum loses 10 points, whereas a 7 against an 8 max loses only 1. One player whose average suffered quite a bit in this way was David O'Donnell, and if the scores are reworked on a 9 for a nine basis, he is only a lttle behind the three mentioned above. Conor Travers is a close fifth, a little way ahead of the last series champion Chris Davies.

Craig Beevers is a tournament Scrabble player, the 2009 UK national champion no less. Countdown was a brief diversion for him, not wanting to confuse himself for too long carrying 2 separate dictionaries in his head, wheras the others are, or were, dedicated Countdowners for a considerable period of time.

One thing to remember is that Countdown is quite a limited game when compared to other intellectual sports like Chess and Scrabble. The guys mentioned above often come pretty close to perfection, so they're not far from having completely mastered the game - something which will never happen in Chess, for example.

By the way, I also like Rachel's dresses, but I don't look at them while I'm playing the game.
 
It was fun!



Ken Bruce

and first episode (22nd) she wore a little short black and white stripe dress (i think it was black & white stripe, it was shortt anyway :cool:) then second episode she wore a bit longer gold dress.
 
Re the 'times' question: when Rachel started Countdown, the 'times by' issue soon arose. Susie dealt with the query one day on the show and basically said that this usage was legitimate. However, I share my dislike of it being used in this way with the others who do so. My main gripe is that it just sounRAB, at worst, 'wrong' or, at the very least, extremely clumsy. Saying the traditional 'Three times ten', for example, sounRAB so much better than 'Three times by ten' for the following reason: in 'Three times ten', the times can be substituted by 'multiplied by'; if you substitued this for the new expression there's an extra 'by',

Anyway, I agree that Rachel does have a nice bum. :) I just wish she would stop ruining her hair on a regular basis... and saying someone is 'brilliant' at the nunbers even if they haven't done the sum brilliantly... :mad:
 
Well, Chris and Innes are possibly the two shyest contestants ever, but what a terrific semi-final. Even Jeff's joke made me laugh! :p (Won't give away the result for those who haven't watched yet.)

Oh and Rachel - I WANT that dress! :D
 
I have to say when he first came on I did not expect the Rollercoaster guy to be getting a chance at being an otcochamp. Well done to him though.

Who is the guy in dictionary corner this week? He is funny, though was a bit too vocal at times. Surprisingly I think the best guest that's been on recently was John Parott.
 
I didn't even realise that Cabover was a word, but fair play to them both they did well in what I thought was a tough game. Although I must admit I thought I was drunk when I saw 37 on the numbers board, that gave it a good twist, or simply making the numbers round a damn sight tougher.

I was in the audience for the episodes to be shown at the end of next week (wed-fri) and I think they filmed Monday's ep on the same day we saw that week's recording. But next Friday's ep is No 5000.
 
Ooh I got a nine-letter word yesterday, by the way: contender. Even the Dent missed it. My god I felt smug :D (I only get a nine once in every blue moon so have to milk the moment as much as poss!)
 
Nice to see the positive comments on here. I have really enjoyed CD over the last year. It's much fresher and accessible to the casual viewer I think.

I will admit I enjoy Rachel's fashion parade. I'm the same age as her, but much shorter unfortunately. :(

Have always liked Jeff from Soccer Saturday, and he has settled in nicely.

I agree with the girls saying some of the contestants have been rather pleasing on the eye of late too :) and actually I think Jeff brings out their personalities well.

The game yesterday was interesting too-the numbers round is my favourite so it was nice to see the shake up.
 
Countdown is brilliant at the moment. Jeff is so natural and Rachel's maths is truly amazing. She has come such a long way and always seems to get the solution now. Plus she's gorgeous. Watching vorderman flogging her maths stuff (didn't you just know she was going to exploit that Tory maths role???) it makes me so glad she's no longer on it.
 
He's the latest product of a well-known online Countdown training academy, and yes, it's not far from the truth to say he has swallowed a dictionary.

I'm not criticizing, far from it. What these guys are doing is 100% admirable. But the style is quite uniform and when they take their turns in the spotlight it does get a bit predictable.
 
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