The second annual “Countdown” competition for 6th class kicks off tomorrow at 2.35.After last year’s very successful competition , Ciara Fleming emerged as champion and the battle to succeed her is sure to be intense. The opening matches this week are as follows. (This is a knock out competition, with two out of three to go through to the next round)
Round 1

Tuesday Nov 10th :
2.35; Eoin Harrington v Evan Wynne v Conor Cooper

Thursday Nov 12th

2.35: Ana Flood Gomez v Tomás Roche v Caitlyn Carey

3.05: Diarmuid Keher v Luke Cahill v Alex Hickey

The competition is based on the very popular Channel 4 programme “Countdown”. The rules are slightly modified, so anyone taking part should read the rules which are outlined below.

 Scoil Mhuire  COUNTDOWN RULES
• Each game will consist of 4 Numbers game , 4 Letters games and a conundrum. Players will take turns to pick first.
• The player with the most points at the finish is the winner and goes through to the next round.
• In both the Letters and Numbers games, players have 1 minute

LETTERS GAME
• In the Letters game, players try to make the biggest word possible using some or all of the letters
• In the Letters game, no proper nouns are allowed . This means basically that any word which normally begins with a capital letter does not count.
• Each player is awarded points for the biggest word he/she can make. For example from the letters M, P, E , O , N, S, Y, X, T if player A makes the word MONEY, he/she gets 5 points. If player B makes TONE, he/she gets 4 points.
• If any player manages to make a 9 letter word, his/her score is doubled (eg 18)
• If any player makes an 8 letter word, he/she gets a bonus of 2 points extra.
• For a word to be acceptable , it must appear in the Oxford Online Dictionary.
• Letters can only be used as many times as they appear on the list of 9. For example if there is only one “e” in the list, you can only have one “e “ in your word.

NUMBERS GAME
• In the Numbers game, the aim is to achieve the target number by using the 6 selected numbers (or some of them). Players can use any mathematical operation (+, -, x, ÷ etc).
• If a player achieves the target number, he/she sores 10 points
• 5 or less away from the target-8 points
• 6-10 away from the target-6 points
• 11-15 away from the target -4 points

CONUNDRUM
• 10 points if word is recognised within one minute