Fetishised
Countdown Catch-Up:
Preparation for the show
Arriving in the studio
The first segment of the first episode
It was all going very quickly, and it was already time for the next letters game. We had the following selection:
I W N N U S I E T
Solutions: There was -IEST staring at me again. But the best I could do with this was WINIEST, which I didn't think was a likely word. I could also see UNITES. It looked as though I was stuck between a safe 6 and a dodgy 7, but then - very late - I saw TINNIES. Which was just as well, because Shane declared 7 too. He had TUNNIES. Dictionary Corner had spotted UNITIES. I've since discovered that WINIEST would have been fine, and we could have had an 8: UNTWINES (I doubt I would have risked that though, even if I had spotted it).
When I declared TINNIES, Susie and I ended up talking over each other, as we both explained at the same time that TINNIES is an Australian word. I felt a bit of an idiot about that, and it wasn't the only time it happened during the episode.
The gap in the scores remained the same, with 28 for me and 36 for Shane.
Onto the next letters round, with the following selection:
T E R E G C O L E
Solutions: I knew there must be something better in there, but all I could find was GREET. I held my breath as Shane declared, hoping he'd struggled too, but no. He had a 7: ELECTOR. Dictionary Corner saw ELECTRO, and I've since found CORTEGE. Susie read out the definition of ELECTRO from the dictionary, which made me smile (I spent some of my youth dancing to the stuff, and one of my favourite songs - U Don't Dans 2 Tekno by the Alabama 3 - name-checks it ("You don't dance to techno, hip-hop or electro")). Susie made me laugh by saying (after being asked by the celebrity in Dictionary Corner) that dancing to it was something you should do at home, in private. She blushed about that afterwards, saying it was all she could think of to say.
Oh, I've just realised I haven't even mentioned the celebrity in Dictionary Corner. It just shows how very focused I was on playing the game: I'm afraid I wasn't the least bit interested. This might be partly because he was a cricketer (David Lloyd) and I know nothing about cricket.
Shane had moved further into the lead: The scores were now 43, 28. Bother.
Our next letters selection was as follows:
M E T A I R K E P
Solutions: All I could see was MEATIER. I looked for an 8, but couldn't see one. Now that the gap was widening, I really needed to spot something good so that I could catch up. But he had a 7 too, with PRIMATE. Dictionary Corner had MEERKAT.
The status quo was maintained. 50 for Shane, 35 for me.
Onto a new letters round:
S I N E T H O E F
Solutions: For ages, I couldn't see anything at all. All I could see was -ISH, but I couldn't see anything to put in front of it. And then I spotted NEST late on, which was pathetic but better than nothing. I didn't feel good about this, and I was right not to: Shane had a 6, with SOFTEN. And then Dictionary Corner announced FETISH, which was doubly annoying because it ended with the already-spotted ISH suffix.
Jeff spotted FEINTS, and I have since found HISTONE for 7 (but only by using word-finding software). Shane had moved even further into the lead: 56 for him, 35 for me.
And now we were into our second numbers game. I was over 20 points behind, but this was a good opportunity for me to gain some points. I like the numbers rounds, I'm normally good at them. I tried not to dwell on my previous failure.
It was my turn to choose, so I went for 1 large, which is the easiest and most common combination. This is what we got:
5, 6, 3, 10, 7 and 75, with a target of 863.
Solutions: I quickly saw that (7 + 5) x 75 is 900, which left 37 to find from the remaining numbers. 12 x 3 is 36, so I could do ((7 + 5) x (75 - 3)) to get 864. Now all I needed was a 1. But I couldn't find it, and as before I panicked and did several different permutations in my head, trying to find that elusive 1, not stopping to look for a different technique.
The clock stopped, I had to give up. I declared 864, and waited... what would Shane declare? Well, of course: 863. As before, I waited to see if he would make a mistake... but this is how he did it:
((75 + (5+6)) x 10) + 3.
It was such a simple solution, I could have done it in my sleep. And the worst thing of all? He had done it by multiplying by 10. All through my practice, again and again, I wrote large notes for myself: LOOK FOR 10. If you have a 10, the sums are often much easier. And I have a horrible tendency to miss it. Which is exactly what had happened here. Even worse, in the first numbers game I had not only spotted the 10, I had become obsessed with it to my detriment. But now, when it actually would have been useful? I didn't see it.
The scores were now 66 to Shane and 35 to me. Things were looking bad. I had allowed myself to succomb to panic in that numbers game, and I had royally messed things up. It was still possible for me to win, but only if I played very well. I took some deep breaths. There was no fat lady singing. I could still do this.
It was time for the second ad break. I have no idea what the teatime teaser was. I was thoroughly distracted with berating myself for my stupidity. Incidentally, I also have no idea what Shane and Jeff talked about during any of their chatty bits, or what Jeff said during his intros, or what David Lloyd's anecdotes were, or what Susie had to say about the origins of words. David Lloyd was a funny and personable feller but I was totally distracted by the game and how I was doing.
Shane and I chatted again while we waited for the "third half" to start. Again I tried to let him know that I knew where I had gone wrong, and wasn't an utter dunce. Again he was friendly and sympathetic. He had spotted that I tried to move my chair, and we bonded over our shared dislike for having to sit to one side of the monitor instead of square on.
It was at this point, I think, that Shane said to me something like: "I notice you like to enunciate your consonants clearly too."
"Yes," I said. "I get really frustrated when I'm watching at home and my attention's distracted by cooking tea or whatever, and I can't hear the contestants because they're mumbling." As soon as I'd said this I thought, hang on, that doesn't make sense. It doesn't matter if I can hear whether the contestant has said "vowel" or "consonant" - what matters is which vowel or consonant is subsequently chosen. It's obvious to me now this isn't what he meant, but at the time I felt I'd said something nonsensical, and this made me feel even more discombobulated.
But heigh ho, off we go, time to start again.
[continued here and here and here]
Preparation for the show
Arriving in the studio
The first segment of the first episode
It was all going very quickly, and it was already time for the next letters game. We had the following selection:
I W N N U S I E T
Solutions: There was -IEST staring at me again. But the best I could do with this was WINIEST, which I didn't think was a likely word. I could also see UNITES. It looked as though I was stuck between a safe 6 and a dodgy 7, but then - very late - I saw TINNIES. Which was just as well, because Shane declared 7 too. He had TUNNIES. Dictionary Corner had spotted UNITIES. I've since discovered that WINIEST would have been fine, and we could have had an 8: UNTWINES (I doubt I would have risked that though, even if I had spotted it).
When I declared TINNIES, Susie and I ended up talking over each other, as we both explained at the same time that TINNIES is an Australian word. I felt a bit of an idiot about that, and it wasn't the only time it happened during the episode.
The gap in the scores remained the same, with 28 for me and 36 for Shane.
Onto the next letters round, with the following selection:
T E R E G C O L E
Solutions: I knew there must be something better in there, but all I could find was GREET. I held my breath as Shane declared, hoping he'd struggled too, but no. He had a 7: ELECTOR. Dictionary Corner saw ELECTRO, and I've since found CORTEGE. Susie read out the definition of ELECTRO from the dictionary, which made me smile (I spent some of my youth dancing to the stuff, and one of my favourite songs - U Don't Dans 2 Tekno by the Alabama 3 - name-checks it ("You don't dance to techno, hip-hop or electro")). Susie made me laugh by saying (after being asked by the celebrity in Dictionary Corner) that dancing to it was something you should do at home, in private. She blushed about that afterwards, saying it was all she could think of to say.
Oh, I've just realised I haven't even mentioned the celebrity in Dictionary Corner. It just shows how very focused I was on playing the game: I'm afraid I wasn't the least bit interested. This might be partly because he was a cricketer (David Lloyd) and I know nothing about cricket.
Shane had moved further into the lead: The scores were now 43, 28. Bother.
Our next letters selection was as follows:
M E T A I R K E P
Solutions: All I could see was MEATIER. I looked for an 8, but couldn't see one. Now that the gap was widening, I really needed to spot something good so that I could catch up. But he had a 7 too, with PRIMATE. Dictionary Corner had MEERKAT.
The status quo was maintained. 50 for Shane, 35 for me.
Onto a new letters round:
S I N E T H O E F
Solutions: For ages, I couldn't see anything at all. All I could see was -ISH, but I couldn't see anything to put in front of it. And then I spotted NEST late on, which was pathetic but better than nothing. I didn't feel good about this, and I was right not to: Shane had a 6, with SOFTEN. And then Dictionary Corner announced FETISH, which was doubly annoying because it ended with the already-spotted ISH suffix.
Jeff spotted FEINTS, and I have since found HISTONE for 7 (but only by using word-finding software). Shane had moved even further into the lead: 56 for him, 35 for me.
And now we were into our second numbers game. I was over 20 points behind, but this was a good opportunity for me to gain some points. I like the numbers rounds, I'm normally good at them. I tried not to dwell on my previous failure.
It was my turn to choose, so I went for 1 large, which is the easiest and most common combination. This is what we got:
5, 6, 3, 10, 7 and 75, with a target of 863.
Solutions: I quickly saw that (7 + 5) x 75 is 900, which left 37 to find from the remaining numbers. 12 x 3 is 36, so I could do ((7 + 5) x (75 - 3)) to get 864. Now all I needed was a 1. But I couldn't find it, and as before I panicked and did several different permutations in my head, trying to find that elusive 1, not stopping to look for a different technique.
The clock stopped, I had to give up. I declared 864, and waited... what would Shane declare? Well, of course: 863. As before, I waited to see if he would make a mistake... but this is how he did it:
((75 + (5+6)) x 10) + 3.
It was such a simple solution, I could have done it in my sleep. And the worst thing of all? He had done it by multiplying by 10. All through my practice, again and again, I wrote large notes for myself: LOOK FOR 10. If you have a 10, the sums are often much easier. And I have a horrible tendency to miss it. Which is exactly what had happened here. Even worse, in the first numbers game I had not only spotted the 10, I had become obsessed with it to my detriment. But now, when it actually would have been useful? I didn't see it.
The scores were now 66 to Shane and 35 to me. Things were looking bad. I had allowed myself to succomb to panic in that numbers game, and I had royally messed things up. It was still possible for me to win, but only if I played very well. I took some deep breaths. There was no fat lady singing. I could still do this.
It was time for the second ad break. I have no idea what the teatime teaser was. I was thoroughly distracted with berating myself for my stupidity. Incidentally, I also have no idea what Shane and Jeff talked about during any of their chatty bits, or what Jeff said during his intros, or what David Lloyd's anecdotes were, or what Susie had to say about the origins of words. David Lloyd was a funny and personable feller but I was totally distracted by the game and how I was doing.
Shane and I chatted again while we waited for the "third half" to start. Again I tried to let him know that I knew where I had gone wrong, and wasn't an utter dunce. Again he was friendly and sympathetic. He had spotted that I tried to move my chair, and we bonded over our shared dislike for having to sit to one side of the monitor instead of square on.
It was at this point, I think, that Shane said to me something like: "I notice you like to enunciate your consonants clearly too."
"Yes," I said. "I get really frustrated when I'm watching at home and my attention's distracted by cooking tea or whatever, and I can't hear the contestants because they're mumbling." As soon as I'd said this I thought, hang on, that doesn't make sense. It doesn't matter if I can hear whether the contestant has said "vowel" or "consonant" - what matters is which vowel or consonant is subsequently chosen. It's obvious to me now this isn't what he meant, but at the time I felt I'd said something nonsensical, and this made me feel even more discombobulated.
But heigh ho, off we go, time to start again.
[continued here and here and here]