Adrian Fletcher reports back from our most recent tournament in Sheffield
Countdown invaded Sheffield on May 10th, for what I believe is our glorious leader George Armstrong’s second year hosting the event and it’s second at St Bartholomews. We were blessed with a beautiful, sunny day, which really let us make the most of the venue’s very pleasant outdoor space. Why someone chose to bring a rugby ball, erroneously leftover from our earlier trip to Rugby, instead of a football, sadly, remains a mystery.
Everyone seemed to find the venue okay, a short tram ride from the centre of Sheffield makes it convenient enough. I believe some people may also have done some kind of parkrun, but as always, I did a different one, so I didn’t see anyone there. George’s claims of a café “around the corner” remain unsubstantiated, but Aldi is a short walk.
As has become somewhat vogue, the event had 4 rounds of games in the Lincoln fashion. The field was divided into tables of 3 and each player plays 2, 9 round, games and hosts once. The extra round, over the more traditional 3 round events, can be an organisational challenge, but everything was nicely timed out and all games completed in good time for the final.
We even had time to fit in a House of Games style quiz. 7 teams of 4 taking part to name answers in a category that didn’t contain a random letter. The best performing team then battled each other until our quiz champion Logan Skelton was crowned. Impressive work from a man who had zero sleep on an overnight coach from Scotland (seemingly of his own free will).
The games were hard fought as always across the 4 rounds, with some good scores and tight matches. Jack Worsley and Dylan Taylor (more on them later) only separated by a tie break conundrum in round 2, which was the same round that upcoming Durham host, Adam Beach, set the high score for the day with 84 against Thomas Roebuck, who really hadn’t done anything to deserve that. Not just the high score for the day, that game was also Beachy’s first max at a co-event, with Jase Cullen also recording his first in the previous round. They must be putting something in the water in Yorkshire…
After the 4 rounds there were no surprises to see a top 2 of Dylan Taylor, with a perfect 8 wins, and Jack Worsley with a mind-boggling 551 points. Dan Byrom, Stephen Read and Tim Down completed the top 5 all with 6 wins to lead the rest of a very competitive field with some strong players on 2 wins. In addition to the traditional trophies for the top finishers, George also put a bit of thought into spot prizes, which is always a nice touch. Beachy again shining by picking up word of the day for FOYAITE, and Dylan claiming biggest comeback and lucky stiff awards.
As anticipated, the final (hosted superbly by yours truly) was a close affair, with both players maxing the first 4 rounds. In the second half, Jack took a narrow lead when Dylan unexpectedly missed GENOME, before both players picked up a 9-letter word from AEEDSNCOI. The final numbers saw both players take the full 10 points, giving us a crucial conundrum. Despite being 6 points behind going into the final round Dylan managed to rearrange HOTCARPET to PORCHETTA to win the day.
It’s Dylan’s 5th consecutive win in events he has attended, leaving the countdown world wondering who’s going to stop Warrington’s second most prominent Countdowner? Well anyone who fancies their shot at a trophy can head down to our next tournament in Tunbridge Wells on May 24th!
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