Countdown in Lincoln 2009
Saturday, 24th January at St. Hugh's Church in North Hykeham
This is the site for the fifth annual Countdown in Lincoln tournament, which will be held at St. Hugh's Church Hall in harewood Crescent, North Hykeham. If you enjoy watching Countdown at home and think you're up to pitting your wits against like-minded enthusiasts and former contestants of all abilities, then COLIN is the place to be! There will be two exhibition games prior to the start of the event- an open Goatdown challenge (the link has all the info you could ever want, and much, much more), and a special exhibition game between two top players- more details of which can be found below...
The tournament itself will consist of three rounds, as per the previous years- everybody will play six games and 'host' three more. Using the format devised by the legendary Edinburgh Countdown Club, players will be divided into tables of three. Two players will play the game against each other, whilst the third person on the table acts as 'Des/Carol/Susie'. Once everyone has played everyone else on the table once, the round will be completed (for those three players, at least). The winner will be the person who has the most amount of wins on the day, with total points scored being used in the event of a tie-break. If a further tie-break is required, highest number of conundrums solved will be used, followed by highest one-game score on the day. In the event that there are two players unbeaten on six wins at the end of the tournament, a conundrum 'penalty shoot-out' will be played- essentially a best-of-7 conundrum challenge.
The format used for the games will be the old nine round format that was used until September 2001, which consists of 3 letters games, one numbers game, 3 letters games, one numbers game then the conundrum.
There will be prizes for first place down to fifth, with a bonus prize for highest-placed person in the bottom half of the seedings according to the unofficial ratings list, and several spot prizes, which will be announced in the coming few weeks.
Itinerary
10:00 Doors open, set up
10:30 Welcomes
10:50 Goatdown warmup (7 rounds)
11:30 Exhibition game
12:10 Lunch
12:40 Kick off, round 1 (games 1, 2 & 3)
14:00 End of round 1
14:15 Round 2 (games 4, 5 & 6)
15:35 End of round 2
15:50 Round 3 (games 7, 8 & 9)
17:10 End of round 3, announcements, prize giving
Information
Entry Details
If you wish to enter, please send an email to lcc_2005@btinternet.com or to hulla.mahulla@btopenworld.com. The only details I'll need are your name, whether or not you've been on the show before, and whether you wish to participate in either the Goatdown or the exhibition match. The entry fee for COLIN will be £8, payable either on the day or in advance (if you wish to pay in advance, ask and I will provide an address to send a cheque to, or an email address to send paypal payment to). Please also indicate whether or not you'll be able to bring along a copy of the Countdown board game (any version*, as long as it contains both letters and numbers rounds) and/or a copy of the latest edition of the Oxford Dictionary of English (as used on the show). All profits raised on the day will be donated to charity.
*-Please note that for the purposes of the players' eardrums and collective sanity, the sound module is not to be used during the tournament proper- no one wants to hear a mash-up of 11 different versions of the clock music at the same time!
Currently, there is just ONE space remaining.
Venue Details
St. Hugh's church, named for the patron saint of the city of Lincoln, was built in the 1960s on Harewood Crescent in North Hykeham, and is one of the newer churches in the Greater Lincoln area. Currently administered by the Hykeham Team Ministry, it is a place of worship for dozens of local residents each Sunday.
St. Hugh's Church
For a multimap of the area, please click HERE. Ignore the fact that it says 'Bracebridge Heath'- the map is of North Hykeham. The postcode, for all you satnav fans, is LN6 8JB.
Acknowledgements
Charlie Reams for writing the "swiss triplets" program used at COLIN since 2006.
Susie Dent, Carol Vorderman, Des O'Connor, Des Lynam & The Late, Great Richard Whiteley for bringing the show to life on the screen.
Armand Jammot for having such a brilliant idea all those years ago, and turning his idea into the reality (but not reality TV!) we see on our screens six days a week.
