PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS GAME IS NOW CLOSED. The review is posted below along with a lot of spoiler space for those who still want to have a go at the game. Game 15 has been set up on a new page.
1. AOUMDYBST
2. OJTOORRSS
3. EISYIRMDX
4. LTOPWSIII
5. 50 6 3 9 10 4 TARGET: 368
6. EUNORIINM
7. IEGLDKAIO
8. IEOFDBAGT
9. AALIEBRBR
10. 25 1 6 2 7 4 TARGET: 894
11. OUIDDRGMT
12. DSCSIEIAA
13. IWPQMOTOE
14. 100 8 10 3 6 5 TARGET: 318
15. ITRATBURY
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Apologies for this slightly belated game 14 review, but I have been very busy with approaching coursework deadlines for school and have also had a cold for the past few days, so haven't really found the time to update the site. However, it's a beautiful Saturday morning here - the sun is streaming in through the windows - so this has urged me on to type this up and post it, along with game 15 which is on a new page.
My thanks go to all who entered the game and hopefully everyone got the e-mail back from me with their official scores. Yet again the high scorer is Stuart Earl with an impressive 109 (someone really is going to have to do something spectacular to knock him off the top spot!) but well done to all those who scored in the 90s and who got a century. Time now for my round-by-round review of the game:
Round 1: A fairly tricky round to start off with - six was the best anyone could do and the most common word was DOUBTS. DATUM was there for five, but sadly you can't stick an "s" on the end of that to get *datums*, as the plural would have to be "data" as far as I'm aware.
Round 2: Again, another fairly bad selection with lots of double letters. However, there were a couple of sixers here with ROOSTS and TORSOS, so those double letters coming in handy there.
Round 3: Still haven't broken the chain of sixes being the maximum and here we could offer MIXERS, MISERY and DERMIS, which is the thick layer of the skin beneath the epidermis. I am in some doubt as to whether DIMERS would be allowed, as in the molecules. I don't think they would allow it as I searched for "dimers" and couldn't find an entry on the askoxford site.
Round 4: Yet again, lots more sixes being the best, with the most commonly offered being PISTOL, PILOTS and SPOILT. Not really a great deal more to comment on here!
Round 5: The first numbers round of the game and I went for the Classic Countdown selection of one large and five small numbers. The quickest way to get to the target of 368 is to say: ((50 + 9) x 6) + (10 + 4) = 368.
Round 6: A slightly better letters round this time in as much that it produced the first seven letter word of the game - REUNION. There were, however, a couple of good sixes here - MINION, meaning a servile follower of a powerful person and NEURON, which is an alternative spelling of "neurone".
Round 7: Again, another seven in this round with GODLIKE, which I thought may have been capitalized, but indeed it is not, so it's perfectly valid. An interesting six is the word KELOID, which is an area of irregular fibrous tissue formed at the site of a scar.
Round 8: A couple of sevens here with BIGOTED and also GODETIA, which is a North American plant with lilac to red flowers. I must confess that I'd never heard of this before and only got it with the help of an online solver!
Round 9: Back to the "six being the best" type of round, with two sixes - LIBBER, an informal term for one who is involved in liberation campaigns and also the much simpler BRIBER, both fine for six.
Round 10: Still the classic Countdown selection in this round with one large and five small numbers, but with a much bigger target of 894. The quickest way to get to the target is to say: ((25 x 4) x (7 + 2)) - 6 = 894.
Round 11: Again, six was the best anyone could do in this round as well, a common theme throughout the show. The most commonly offered word in this round was TURGID, which is quite impressive in what would appear to be a difficult selection of letters.
Round 12: Everyone managed to go one better in this round and offered DAISIES for seven. Nothing more to comment on here.
Round 13: Five was the best in this round, with a few interesting words. TOPOI was there, which is the plural of "topos", which is a traditional theme or formula in literature. TEMPO was also there, as was its plural TEMPI. A difficult selection of letters to end the game with.
Round 14: The traditional Countdown selection again and a fairly low target of 318 made it slightly simpler for everyone to score the full ten points on the last numbers round: (100 + 6) x 3 = 318.
Round 15: The conundrum of ITRATBURY went to TRIBUTARY, with everyone getting this for the full ten points.
My thanks to all of those who entered. Game 15 has now been set up on a new page and will be concluded on Saturday 4th February. Just out of interest, are people happy for me to stick to the normal 15 round format, or would they prefer a nine round game in future? I realise that people may not have the time to complete a full 15 round game, so would a nine round game encourage more people to take part? Please use the e-mail address at the bottom of the page to air your views!
