Countdown numbers game practice sheet

Angus Kidman competing on Letters And Numbers, way back in 2010.

5 small, 1 large
9 – 7 – 3 – 6 – 3 – 75 – 504
4 – 3 – 7 – 4 – 10 – 50 – 807
3 – 8 – 8 – 2 – 9 – 25 – 764
7 – 6 – 8 – 3 – 1 – 50 – 398
6 – 5 – 2 – 8 – 4 – 25 – 255

4 small, 2 large
10 – 2 – 4 – 6 – 100 – 50 – 896
2 – 3 – 9 – 8 – 75 – 50 – 306
7 – 10 – 6 – 7 – 50 – 100 – 158
2 – 8 – 9 – 7 – 25 – 50 – 160
3 – 9 – 7 – 10 – 25 – 75 – 141

6 small
10 – 8 – 9 – 8 – 4 – 3 – 731
10 – 6 – 3 – 7 – 6 – 1 – 922
3 – 10 – 4 – 5 – 6 – 10 – 770
10 – 4 – 4 – 6 – 1 – 10 – 187
4 – 8 – 10 – 1 – 3 – 10 – 786

4 large, 2 small
100 – 50 – 25 – 75 – 5 – 8 – 445
75 – 100 – 25 – 50 – 2 – 9 – 641
75 – 50 – 25 – 100 – 3 – 8 – 405
25 – 50 – 100 – 75 – 4 – 5 – 767
50 – 100 – 25 – 75 – 4 – 5 – 423

3 large, 3 small
25 – 75 – 50 – 2 – 10 – 4 – 701
25 – 75 – 50 – 5 – 1 – 7 – 202
75 – 50 – 100 – 1 – 8 – 7 – 237
100 – 75 – 50 – 9 – 2 – 5 – 535
75 – 25 – 50 – 6 – 4 – 7 – 838

I love Countdown (aka Letters And Numbers or Des Chiffres Et Des Lettres), always have, and unlike most folks I enjoy the numbers game just as much as the letters game. This sheet gives me the chance to hone my skills. It uses some very simple PHP code to produce random numbers.

These are the rules for the numbers game, as described in the show’s official book, Countdown: Spreading The Word:

There are four rows of numbers to select from: the top row contains the numbers 25, 50, 75 and 100; the other three rows contain the numbers 1-10 (two of each) at random.

One contestant selects six numbers from a selection of 24.

A random three-digit ‘target’ (from 100 to 999) is set and both contestants have thirty seconds to achieve this target using only the four basic operators of addition, subtraction, division and multiplication (no powers, fractions, decimals etc.)

Contestants may use any or all of the numbers but may use each number only once.

Interestingly, those official rules don’t spell out the most common way of specifying which numbers you want: asking for X large numbers and Y small numbers. Happy calculations!

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