10 years ago, a lovely young lady named Jenna was in the chair! .

Her game was struggling to get anywhere, and her highest offer of the match was £4,000! (Though it was pretty generous for her board considering she had 3-blues/5k/£20k), after Jenna declined £1,500 on a 50p/£5,000 final 2, it looked like she was gonna leave with 50p due to how her luck was going. But Noel flipped the lid to reveal...£5,000!

So it was a well-deserved OPW despite a low money game, and a £5,000 that felt like a power 5 win

Yep, and Jenna was also the first player on the UK version to get an OPW from going all the way.

10 years ago, Lynsey had a pretty uneventful game after she accepted £8,600 but missed out on an £30,000 with a £5/£75,000 finish. There was some consolation when Lynsey's box was revealed to contain £5

Lynsey's game was pretty unmemorable and she was a pretty forgettable player so, lets skip a few years to the other time January 10 has fallen on a Tuesday. Where a nervous James got off to a strong start, and it just got better and better, as James found all the blues very quickly and became DoND's only contestant to have an all red board at 8-box!

James declined the offer of £40,000 at 8-box, and continued another round with his incredible board. He avoided the top 3 in the final round and faced with a £3k/£10k/£75k/£100k/£250k, and got an offer of £65,000 (I would've expected something £70k or more) which he DEALT

The Proveout went well with James left with a £10k/£75k finish, and arguably DoND's strongest game of all time, was wrapped up with a well-deserved $pamking, when £10,000 was found inside James' box

Yep, one would argue that was the luckiest game in Deal history, but I think £100,000 Harry's game attests otherwise (best EVER opening round, good offers thereafter despite hitting significant reds, keeping the Top 3 to 5 box, having a great final round despite finding the jackpot and then winning the higher amount after turning down above the average!).

And unless there's something special hiding amongst the last few tapes on the impending broadcast shelf, this will remain the only all red 8-box.

6 years ago, car lover Carmine from Italy had his turn in the crazy chair, hoping to break the run of unfortunate games, with Jardi and H (what sort of names are they?! ) crashing to £750 wins, and George (female) selling a £50k box for just £4k

At 8-box, Carmine had a board with 5-blues/£15k/£100k/£250k, where he was offered £15,000. Unlike the previous player who had big dreams of a fancy car ( ), Carmine played it safe and DEALT at £15,000. He found the £250k in the next round and had a 3-blues/£15k/£100k board where his offer would've been £8,000

HOWEVER, the banker called back and said that if Carmine had an all-blue round and was left with a £15k/£100k finish, he would've been offered £30,000+a trip to Italy and the ferrari museum!

Luckily, that didn't happen, as Carmine found the £100k in the last round, and when Carmine's box was opened, it was revealed to contain £15,000. Making it a DRAW as Carmine sold his box for the same amount that was in it!

Still, it was an OPW, as Carmine got the most money out of his game, and unless I'm wrong, was Carmine the first player to sell his box for the amount in it and still get the most money out of his game?

My word, was Carmine's game really 6 years ago? Doesn't seem like it!

It really is strange, honestly, 2010 still feels more like 3 years ago, yet these games are more than half a decade old now!! January 2010 did produce quite a few memorable games (for better or worse), and one if them was Bel who played on this day 6 years, remember her infamous banker's gamble gone horribly wrong? She dealt at £6,500, but was given a far-fetched banker's gamble at 2-box where she had the 1p and the £75,000

It was a pretty easy gamble really, and indeed Bel did accept the banker's gamble, but sadly ended up with the 1p!

Yes it is a weird feeling. At the end of the coming October, I'll be 20 and officially out of the teenage years - doesn't seem (nearly!) 7 years since I was celebrating my 13th in my 2nd year of high school! Incidentally I had only been watching DoND around 5 months - it was a combination of hearing about Alice's game, and someone else on another forum I'm part of running a DoND-based game on said other forum that made me start watching!

I remember watching Bel's game, and I think I remember not wanting her to take the BG. Can't win 'em all I suppose.

5 years ago was Scott who was dubbed 'Cocky Scott' by Noel as he took some big gambles near the end, especially when he was offered £20,000 on a 50p/£100/£15,000/£35,000/£75,000 final five. He no-dealt and had the worst round possible by taking out the three reds and being left with a 50p/£100 final 2 and ended up with just 50p!

Declining 80% of the mean on that board was a very foolish decision!

10 years ago, Alan had one of the unluckiest games of Season 1, and for a long time, held the record for the lowest set of offers, which was equalled by Siobhan in September 2007, and finally broken by Phyl in March 2008, whose peak offer was just £2,050.01 (which she dealt and got an OPW!).

Alan had one of the worst opening rounds ever, losing FOUR of the power 5 in the first round! From then on, Alan's game struggled to get going and all the big money was found very early. At 5-box, Alan had a 4-blues/£5k, where he was offered (very generous for the board) £1,000. Here, Alan decided to cut his losses and DEALT at the £1,000, but unfortunately, a turnaround was on the cards when Alan had an all-blue final round, and had £5,000 on the table, which would've been a great spanking from a horribly unlucky game!

I forgot to put in a post for the 10th anniversary of garvan's games, which is now 10 years and 2 days ago!

Garvan is recognised for playing on just his NINTH show, making him DoND's shortest running player ever (excluding those who left without playing, and the first 9 players from the original 22)!

Garvan had mixed fortunes throughout the early stages of his game, but then his luck picked up quite nicely, and at 8-box, he had 4-blues/£5k/£10k/£75k/£250k and was offered £14,000.

Garvan declined it and took out the £75k and 2 blues in the fifth round, so he had two blues/£5k/£10k/£250k. But in a shock twist, after losing the the £75,000, banker's offer went DOWN to £13,500!

The banker had set the trap for Garvan by giving him a borderline forcing offer. Garvan did decline the offer and came close to a big money finish, but lost the £250k in the last box!

Garvan was left with a 50p/£5,000 ending, where he no-dealt the final offer of £1,500, and an unusual game ended on a good note when Garvan won £5,000 out of his box

Quite an interesting 10 year anniversary now, as it was a game that influenced the entire show for a long time, quite possibly for the rest of its life.

Marie stated a target... £15,000. She was brazen about it, she wanted £15k THERE AND NOW. £15k, wham, bam, thank you mam. Hugill then offered values that centered around her unconcealed target and drove her on to play, when she actually had a decent board and would have received a far larger offer had she not kept her mouth running. She crashed to a get-out offer of £4,000 to avoid a 50/50 chance of winning a pence piece, but had a larger red in her box, thus earning the lowest possible amount that was available to her.

From then on, it was always advisable never to speak your target - always use the book. The one renegade was a chap called Gary... his game will be detailed on the 10th anniversary in April.

To Marie's defense, she was offered a generous £30,000 at 11 box, and that "larger red" in her box was £10,000, and £4,000 on a 1p/£10,000 is a generous lifeline at 80% of the average. Those really were the only remotely dealable offers of the game, but sadly Marie took the latter for an OPL.

Also, if I was asked if I had a target, I'd say "yes, a statistical target." I'd then write "75% of the average" in Noel's book if I was asked to do so.

Really, the £4k offer on the 1p/£10k finish was the most generous offer in the whole game. I'm sure most people would've gotten sucked in by the 11-box board and no-dealt the £30k, but the offers at 8-box and 5-box were beyond a joke (£8,000 with the £10k and FOUR of the power 5 still on the board after the £250k went was clearly forcing her to on!)

Also, Derrick's game was 5 years ago and £35k Tracey's game was 6 years ago!

1st February 2006

UK No.1: Notorious BIG/Diddy/Nelly - Nasty Girl (other top 10 inclusions were Arctic Monkeys, Beyonce and the descending Shayne Ward, Nizlopi and Will Young)

DOND: Gerry ''Geordie'' Reynolds

Geordie had been a winger for around 25 shows and made himself a fixture by playing himself up through each and every contestant's game that he witnessed. With the energetic vibe established and his reputation for statistical advice, he made himself into a popular player by the time his game rolled onto our screens at the start of February.

However, his demeanour was in stark contrast to the personality that was in full bloom on the wings. He played the game as straight-laced as it was possible to play - reminding everyone of the completely random nature of the game, uninfluenced by any strategy. He also pioneered a system, eliminating the boxes from left to right. Nice and simple, he didn't even have to give his next pick, just silently watch the order as it happened.



By the time the 2nd offer was due through, he'd achieved an almost parallel board. A few tiny figures removed, a few of the jumbo sums too. The offer of £750 was dismissed with no extraneous consideration.



That's how we remember the studio in that golden age. Bricks, bricks, bricks. Industrious. Lovely.



''(Your system) is a great plan, which has taken two of the biggest numbers. The next three could change all that, or make it even worse''.



It did get worse, £200 at stage 3. ''The irony is had you gone from right to left, you'd have produced one of the strongest games of all time''.



When he found himself in times of trouble, winger Finlay came to him, speaking words of wisdom:

''Well, Geordie's quite right, it's a very random game and you can't influence the odds. Personally I'd like to think that intuition plays a part in something like this, umm, but Geordie's decided that he wants to play the odds and that's what he's doing''.

What sauce!



Retroactively famous face. This was Lucy's debut appearance and it was known to few that she'd be standing there until her 50th show. The £100,000 was exposed on the board at this point and at first glimpse, it looked as though Lucy had struck it off the board. Nope, just £10k.



Geordie found himself at 8-box with the £100k still active with two fall back values. He liked this state of affairs and had this to say about it:

''It's my favourite round. I've got 55 good chances and 1 bad chance of taking out the top three, so this is the round that I'm comfortable in''. Delivered with a flash of positive emotion too. The offer was £5,000 and, as it transpired, the only offer worth taking...



... because Geordie hit that one single bad chance. Crash, bang, wallop. All gone. First ever blue 5-box. You could hear a pin drop in the room next door.



Tidybeard - ''For once, you are speechless''.

Geordie: ''No, just waiting for him to ring''.



''Nobody has ever tried to introduce your system and nobody has ever had an offer like this, in gameplay - £80''. No thank you.



Crashing even further to a maximum possible prize of an 'undred quid, it was assumed that he'd decline the cash on offer and open the box. ''He doesn't have to write out a cheque, he can give you a paper note. £20''.

Nope!

''I'm honestly saying that £20 or £100, it was not my day. I'm not going to give him the satisfaction of giving me 10p and it's time to go home''



This was what made him a hall-of-famer, the lowest deal accepted at £20. It stood for 17 months until Igor smashed it into the trees with the unbeatable 2p deal. Geordie offered a pint to anyone who could usurp his infamous position in the hall - it's unknown whether Igor took him up on it. What he did do, however, was cash his cheque for £5,000 on the 'Bay.



To wrap up this decadian retrospective on Geordie's game, he did actually beat the Banker. He was indeed declined the opportunity to pay out Geordie with a ten pence piece.

Oh yes, Geordie's game.

Other highlights were

- Geordie looking pretty emotionless throughout the whole show despite his incredible back luck

- John G expressing tearful sympathy for Geordie when he opened his box


Other notable players we had on the wings were

- John Magill, in one of his many game show appearances

- Okiem, better known as 'The Oak'

- Jim, whose box openings were often orchestrated by Noel, Geordie's game was one of them

- Russell, who dropped some memorable quotes in his game

- Aileen, the show's original 'black widow' (and a gorgeous one too! ), whose game was just a couple of days away

- Dazzling Daz

- Bearded Chris, who would go on to witness DoND's first ever 'Box-gate' moment in his game

- Norma. A quiet long-runner who was in her early shows, and would eventually come to the table, hoping to turn the luck in the dream factory following 2 memorable trainwreck games


With Sam, Gary, Germaine, Beryl and Marcus about to appear!

Something tells me either £3,100 Beryl or 1p Trevor will be the next player to get the "psychokiller all-star" treatment.

I'm only doing this for games that I've got in my 'VHS rip-to-DVD' collection, of which Beryl and Trevor are unaccounted for. Geordie's is actually the oldest game I have which was taped on original broadcast and it's missing part one, hence why the screen grabs crash in at the second offer.