Countdown

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Martin Benjamin
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Joined: Sun Oct 28, 2007 8:54 pm

Countdown

Post by Martin Benjamin » Sat Jun 13, 2015 12:05 pm

Following in the footsteps of some Forum members, my 16 year old son Rhys is appearing on Countdown this Monday (15th June) at 2-10pm, repeated 6am Wednesday morning. I should think it will be on 4oD online, too. It was filmed a couple of months ago in Salford, and as he is under 18, I had to chaperone him to meet safeguarding requirements. Overtly he chuntered about having to bring his embarrassing dad, as is natural for a teenager, but I suspect secretly he didn’t mind having someone there for support (and to buy him meals). Nick Hewer, Rachel Riley, Susie Dent, Colin Murray (Dictionary Corner) and the supporting staff (Damian Eadie et al) were all really nice and not in the least standoffish, chatting to audience members between programmes, and very hospitable to all the contestants – nothing was too much trouble.

I am not allowed to give away results, but I am sure the producers would not mind me trying to boost viewing figures by saying that Monday 15th June was a great see-saw scrap (even if you don’t particularly like Countdown). I have dipped in and out of Countdown over the years, and while I more than held my own with the letters games (I was playing along in the studio), I never bothered learning 25 or 75 times tables, which is what the diehards do, so some of the numbers games were a bit of a struggle for me.

After Monday, I shall add some comment about things which didn't make it to screen or which might give away anything to do the result in advance. Maybe those who have appeared might have some comments to make, too. I know Matthew Turner, Roger Edwards, Kevin Thurlow and David Williams have been on, and done very well. I have to take my hat off to all of you and anyone else who has been on. It is a lot easier playing at home, or even in the studio audience, than sitting there under the lights, knowing that you might have an off day in front of hundreds of thousands of viewers. It's akin to being on live boards at events such as the 4NCL rapidplay, and knowing that your daft moves are being transmitted to guffawing chess enthusiasts, but worse.
Last edited by Martin Benjamin on Sun Jun 14, 2015 2:04 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Jonathan Bryant
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Re: Countdown

Post by Jonathan Bryant » Sat Jun 13, 2015 6:29 pm

Martin Benjamin wrote: ... Colin Murray (Dictionary Corner) and the supporting staff ....

This Colin Murray presumably >>

https://twitter.com/colinmurray



He’s one of us. At least in the sense that he plays casually.

I swapped some tweets with him on the subject a couple of years or so ago. One year his Friday night Radio 5 programme featured the London Chess Classic. They wanted to interview Luke McShane but ended up with David Howell because Luke’s game was still going (or possibly the other way around).

benedgell
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Re: Countdown

Post by benedgell » Sat Jun 13, 2015 7:03 pm

At the risk of embarrassing him a little, another chess player/ Countdown contestant:

http://wiki.apterous.org/Jerry_Humphreys

The four large numbers bit on his website is impressive:

http://www.jerryh.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/ ... umbers.htm

Kevin Thurlow
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Re: Countdown

Post by Kevin Thurlow » Sun Jun 14, 2015 12:11 pm

Probably too late - but good luck to Rhys!

Barry Sandercock
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Re: Countdown

Post by Barry Sandercock » Mon Jun 15, 2015 3:12 pm

Well done Rhys. Good win in the first round.

Martin Benjamin
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Re: Countdown

Post by Martin Benjamin » Mon Jun 15, 2015 3:38 pm

SPOILER if you haven't watched the programme yet and don't want to know the details.

It actually went to three conundrums, but only the final one was broadcast. He lives to fight again next Monday (22nd).

Kevin Thurlow
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Re: Countdown

Post by Kevin Thurlow » Tue Jun 16, 2015 1:58 pm

I wish they would show all three conundrums and cut some of the waffle (although I cut it by fast forwarding the recording).

I'm slightly surprised neither player got the first numbers and that both missed the round 8 word, but as Martin said, it is nerve-wracking in the chair. When I was on, I thought I would have to declare "cat" in one round, before spotting "agoutis" after 29.99 seconds!

Martin Benjamin
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Re: Countdown

Post by Martin Benjamin » Fri Jun 26, 2015 8:36 pm

So Rhys finally bowed out after five wins, defeated by Pat "the Brain of Kildare". I haven't seen "today's" game yet, but I recall that Pat played well and deserved to win. However, timing of the filming contributed to a below par performance by Rhys. He won all five games on the Sunday from about 1pm, finishing at 9-30pm, and was really buzzing and "in the zone" at that stage. The combination of a very late dinner, adrenalin still surging and a stuffy hotel room meant that he didn't get to sleep until about 6am on Monday (nor did I). When he resumed at 9am on Monday against Pat, he felt a bit flat and the audience was about a third of the size, so he didn't really get in the zone. I suspected he was going to lose when he didn't spot TRAPEZIUM (which I was desperately trying to transmit to him telepathically from the audience seating!). I think Rhys panicked a bit when the first numbers game was a doddle, because he was probably expecting to lose some of the letters rounds to Pat, but hoped to win the numbers rounds. Once he got behind, I remember he tried very hard to get a difficult numbers game spot on, and thereby didn't spot an easy near miss which Pat got. Five wins is a very good performance, but even if he had lost the first game (which could easily have happened) I would still have saluted him for having the nerve to put himself forward at 16 years of age for the programme. I know he really enjoyed the experience at the time, once he was on set and the filming had started.

Just wondered if Kevin, Matthew and others found having played weekend chess tournaments to have been useful experience for their Countdown appearances, in terms of playing intensely for a day, and then having to come back the next morning and be 100% sharp straight away.

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MJMcCready
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Re: Countdown

Post by MJMcCready » Sat Jun 27, 2015 11:37 am

Martin Benjamin wrote:Following in the footsteps of some Forum members, my 16 year old son Rhys is appearing on Countdown this Monday (15th June) at 2-10pm, repeated 6am Wednesday morning. I should think it will be on 4oD online, too. It was filmed a couple of months ago in Salford, and as he is under 18, I had to chaperone him to meet safeguarding requirements. Overtly he chuntered about having to bring his embarrassing dad, as is natural for a teenager, but I suspect secretly he didn’t mind having someone there for support (and to buy him meals). Nick Hewer, Rachel Riley, Susie Dent, Colin Murray (Dictionary Corner) and the supporting staff (Damian Eadie et al) were all really nice and not in the least standoffish, chatting to audience members between programmes, and very hospitable to all the contestants – nothing was too much trouble.

I am not allowed to give away results, but I am sure the producers would not mind me trying to boost viewing figures by saying that Monday 15th June was a great see-saw scrap (even if you don’t particularly like Countdown). I have dipped in and out of Countdown over the years, and while I more than held my own with the letters games (I was playing along in the studio), I never bothered learning 25 or 75 times tables, which is what the diehards do, so some of the numbers games were a bit of a struggle for me.

After Monday, I shall add some comment about things which didn't make it to screen or which might give away anything to do the result in advance. Maybe those who have appeared might have some comments to make, too. I know Matthew Turner, Roger Edwards, Kevin Thurlow and David Williams have been on, and done very well. I have to take my hat off to all of you and anyone else who has been on. It is a lot easier playing at home, or even in the studio audience, than sitting there under the lights, knowing that you might have an off day in front of hundreds of thousands of viewers. It's akin to being on live boards at events such as the 4NCL rapidplay, and knowing that your daft moves are being transmitted to guffawing chess enthusiasts, but worse.
I think a fair few chess players have been on it. Dave Ledger participated in 93.

Kevin Thurlow
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Re: Countdown

Post by Kevin Thurlow » Mon Jun 29, 2015 8:38 am

"Just wondered if Kevin, Matthew and others found having played weekend chess tournaments to have been useful experience for their Countdown appearances, in terms of playing intensely for a day, and then having to come back the next morning and be 100% sharp straight away."

When I recorded the heats, I was first on and won all five that day. I wilted a bit after the "lunch" break, but got big leads, then relaxed too much and only won fairly narrowly. I hardly slept that night either, but luckily I was recording on their last working day before Christmas, so the last three were recorded about 5 weeks later. This was just as well, as I played Peter Lee in the 6th, (who did really well on his second attempt a few years later) and I only won as I pressed the button for the conundrum a fraction of a second earlier. I'm sure I would have lost if I had played that one the day after the first five heats. So in answer to Martin's question, "yes".

" think a fair few chess players have been on it. Dave Ledger participated in 93."

True, sadly he lost as he offered "pincer", which was disallowed then as it is capitalised (Pincer movement), and "pincers" only existed as a plural. It would be allowed now. (He could have offered "prince" of course...) Simon Gillam was on as well.

Only a few chess players have experienced the problem of winning all five heats in a day!

Matthew Turner
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Re: Countdown

Post by Matthew Turner » Mon Jun 29, 2015 11:06 am

To be honest, I hadn't really thought about whether playing weekend chess had helped dealing with the 'pressure' of competing in Countdown. I certainly felt that I was more relaxed than most of the competitors, but I put this down to the fact that I had completed letters challenges in the newspapers for 15 years, so I was pretty confident with what I was doing. I also got immersed in the atmosphere and everyone made me feel very welcome, so I regarded it all as a bit of fun. Two of my opponents certainly took it much more seriously and I think that was very much to their detriment, both from the perspective of the scoreline and their experience. I have a lot of happy memories.

Kevin Thurlow
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Re: Countdown

Post by Kevin Thurlow » Mon Jun 29, 2015 12:21 pm

" I also got immersed in the atmosphere and everyone made me feel very welcome, so I regarded it all as a bit of fun. Two of my opponents certainly took it much more seriously and I think that was very much to their detriment, both from the perspective of the scoreline and their experience. I have a lot of happy memories."

Absolutely. I used a bit of opening preparation, in that I decided to ask for three consonants, three vowels, two consonants and then have a brief think. It is quite easy to stumble over the word "consonant", so saying "and again" and "and one more" is easier. Also, I let Carol choose the numbers, so I didn't waste time/energy thinking about what to do.

All the Countdown team were really nice, including the security guards, canteen staff etc.

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