Welcome back Les! Just in time to finish the last of the cake from your 7th forum birthday party (I wouldn't go near it myself, though, unless mould-green and fluffy is how you like your cakes...)

On topic, I think making the most of your moment is a great attitude to have towards things like this.

The editing in season 3 in general was crap really, especially around the end of 2007 when there were heaps of sob-story players and most of the players on the wings were just a bunch of robots opening boxes (The only characters on the wings were really Orry and Clive - The former was a Marmite character, and the latter didn't truly shine until his game) due to wing banter ending up on the cutting room floor. The juiciest example was of Ian's poets getting left out!

Ian brought along some poets! Bloody hell, that's quite an entourage to just be left on the cutting room floor.

Good to see Les returning to the forum, that really was a tremendous storyline they contrived with you. I think it was KP who said that your carefully edited wing advice was played out *just so* your gamble was all the more shocking. I imagine you promptly put your foot through the TV and sent Endemol the bill.

It's TV it has to be entertaining. When any show becomes predictable the need to watch ends. Excellent edits, stirred up emotion, unpredictable and fuels the need to watch the next show.

Last year, Scott dealt a reasonable offer of £19,000 at 5-box on a board consisting of 10p/£10/£5,000/£10,000/£250,000.
It was the right move as he took out ALL of the remaining reds in the final round leaving just 10p & £10 at the end with the latter in his box!

We all know what happened two years ago today...

What?

Nong became the 5th £250,000 winner.

She was absolutely MENTAL to decline £68,000!
I could never have risked that!

I would've declined it as well before Paddy came along (with the attitude I had to the game back then). Now that 2 males have won the jackpot I am bit more mellowed, I'd DEFINITELY accept that, though I would've also dealt the £34,000 5 box offer beforehand.

A new interview with Nong surfaced recently on DOND's YouTube channel. She mentioned instinct and LUCK quite a lot!

I remember the following week after her game not having much 'luck' for the players - if memory serves, 4 of the following 6 players actually lost the £250k in the first or second round! Of course, the day after her game, Gary very nearly dealt the second offer, only for his game to collapse afterwards. He thankfully got out with a few grand before the end...or did he? The official website actually stated he'd won £11k...

In other news...

Happy Paddy Day!!!!

Hopefully history will repeat itself today. There probably would've been 1 in 22 chance of that happening had they kept Malcolm just one more day.

This time last year marked two significant events:

Danny's game which for some reason wasn't shown. Apparently it wasn't shown because he'd gotten in BIG trouble and was in court on the very day his game should've aired!

Also, this time last year was the beginning of the weekend shows going on hiatus for the rest of 2013. Not sure why they ditched the Sunday shows for the latter half of 2013, i kind of lost tracked of how long the players had been on the show for while they were dropped!

Also, 3 years ago was Chris' exciting game, where he very bravely no-dealt £12k on a 3-blues/£1k/£250k 5-box. The gamble paid off as he kept the £250k in play to 2-box which consisted of £1 and the biggie. Here, he DEALT at a fairly sub-par (for the board anyway) offer of £53,000.

Only for the banker to have the last laugh (and the forum to go into the usual Male-underselling-£250k-box outcry at the time) when the big one was discovered in his box!

Still a great game though, i feel Chris' game gets forgotten and was sadly drowned in outcry over him underselling a £250k box. Oh the joys of the Pre-Paddy DoND world, how we miss you....

I missed a couple of anniversaries

Yesterday was 2 years since Scott declined £25,250 (100% of the average!!) on a £500/£50k ending, and won £50,000!

Today is 2 years since Gael had an unavoidable trainwreck, and 3 years since Rich played a brave game and declined £26,000 aka the governer, on a £10,000/£50,000 finish, but it didn't quite workout right, and he went away with £10,000

Few games in this day worth mentioning

Last year, celebrity contestant Gok Wan left with just 10p

3 years ago, Danielle had a powerful board throughout her game and snapped up £30,000 on a very strong 8-box, consisting of 3-blues/£20k/£35k/£50k/£75k/£250k, and she nearly pulled of a spanking, but the ultimate victory went to the banker when her box was revealed to contain £50,000

4 years ago, Paul had a nightmare game, and his luck was so bad that his highest amount at 8-box was £1,000!! He also recieved lots of gimmick offers such as 'A model turkey' and '2 fried eggs'! Luck just never went his way, and he left with just £1

5 years ago, Des had a brilliant game when he dealt at £50,000 on a 3-blues/£20k/£100k/£250k 5-box, and declined the banker's gamble on a £20k/£100k 2-box. Great choice as a hypo-swap proved that he would've given away the £100k

6 years ago, Brian, who played on his 34th show (making him the second longest running player in DoND history!), kicked off season 4 in disappointing fashion by only winning 50p , until..........the banker rang back and offered Brian to sell his tea mug to him for £3,780!! , which increased his winnings to £3,780.50!

Unfortunately though, Brian's game had set a bitter tone for the first 3 weeks of S4, as it was the beginning of a long string of trainwreck games that were covered up by ridiculous banker bonuses

6 years ago, Melanie dealt at £10,000 on a 3-blues/£3k/£250k 5-box and broke the record of the lowest selling of a £250k box for the second time in 2008, by having it in her box! But, Melanie wouldn't hold her title for very long thanks to a certain player with the ironic surname of 'Winner', 2 months later!

Bit of a contrast to her namesake from summer 2006 who pulled off one of the best 11-box deals and proveouts in DoND history!

£30,000 at the THIRD OFFER

Not surprised she had dealt that. I don't think we'll ever see any five figure third-offers starting with a 3 again.

The last time we saw one starting with a 2 was in Lily's game this January. Considering the Fair Deal seems to be the Banker's cap for what to offer at the first three offers lately, it's virtually impossible to get a third offer starting with a 3 now. The only it would possibly happen is if a player like £50k Rich or Scott had a board at the 3rd offer like £57k Brenda's.

8 years ago Matt got off to the best start ever, hitting no reds in his first 8 boxes, and receiving a huge opening offer of £20,000 and a record second offer of £35,000!!

From then on, his luck became more average for the rest of his game, until he was faced with £5k/£50k final 2 where he DECLINED the last offer of £23,000 and SWAPPED his box. Sadly he gave away the £50,000 and ended up with £5,000, which he really hurt him!

6 years ago, the show's resident Judy Dench doppleganger Sheila was in the chair. Becaause of her striking resemblence to Judy Dench as Agent M from James Bond, music from Bond played as she made her way down the walk of wealth and all of the banker's offer ended with "£...,007"! Sheila dealt at a precarious 5-box for an offer of £12,007, with a £250k strong one-box game.

Her proveout didn't favour her and she kept the £250k to the end, missing out on a final offer of £70,007!

But, Sheila was spared from a crushing defeat mirroring Melanie from the previous week when £50 was discovered in her box!