OK guys, time for the annual roundup of the year's highlights. From tomorrow until the 2nd January, I will be looking back over 2012 month by month. And also picking the best game of each month (in the same way I did back in July for the 'end' of Season 7).

There will also be the traditional 'players per wing position' line-up on New Year's Eve, and a summary of the year's biggest winners.

Hope you all enjoy my look back on the year gone by!

(From tomorrow, tune in every evening for my month by month review)

January 2012
Well, the first DoND of 2012 began with Noel positively proclaiming that the first male £250,000 winner would be found this year. And yet, with only eight shows of the year left…

The first shows of the year were rather average deals, punctuated by Jacques and Shakeel’s unfortunate 50p wins. Also, there was Ioannis Costa-Hinnis, who provided much hilarity, and divided the viewership with his humour.

The first Power 5 win of the year came from Darren Easome, who won £35,000 from his box after a series of brave, but not stupid no deals. One of the best Power 5 wins of the year, yet barely anyone remembers it in the light of the events of two days later…

James Trigg came out, and appeared nervous. Like most male players, he had kids to think about, and the Banker tried to use them as mind games. It backfired spectacularly, however, when an against-all-odds all blue fourth round resulted in the first ever all red 8-box! At 5-box, £5,000, £10,000 and the top three remained. Offer: £65,000. James’ decision: DEAL! Some may consider that decision cautious, but it paid off when the top two went in the final round, and £10,000 was in the box!

Still, that decision would prove important in the light of two games the following week...

Paul Pocock made his way to a 5-box comprising the top three, £10,000 and £100. Offer: £70,000. Paul’s decision: DEAL! Unfortunately, the £250,000 was in the box, and Paul took it rather badly. So did the forum. Even though, as James1978 pointed out, Paul dealt £5,000 more than Mr Trigg on a weaker board!

Next day, Belinda Challis has yet another similar 5-box, this time the top three with £20,000 and 50p. Offer: £75,000! Belinda’s decision: DEAL! A very sensible call, especially given that, as KP pointed out, the pressure to gamble after Paul’s game must’ve been immense. But £100,000 was in the box, not particularly gutting when you have £75,000, but enough for the moaners to kick off again.

The rest of the month petered out by comparison, with notable games including that of Ian ‘Snowy’ Oakley, who took out the Power 5 in a run of 5 boxes! Luckily, he recovered to a £4,000 deal at a 3-box extra offer, which was a good result.

Another game the following week was memorable for all the wrong reasons. Poor Leo James never got a chance to make a proper decision, with his highest offer being £3,000. One of the worst trainwrecks ever, with no talking points at all.

This was cancelled out two games later by Wendy Lee, another lively player who divided opinion with her rather loud approach to the game. Her board soon developed into a very strong board, with a very rare all red 5-box. Her deal at £60,000 wasn’t totally vindicated due to the £250,000 staying to the end, but it wasn’t in the box.

The month ended with Carland Lai, a very popular player due to his posting on the forum. After turning down £17,000 at 8-box, his game seemed to be falling apart, but he recovered to a win of £15,000 from the box, that went down well for a variety of reasons.

Overall, January was a good month. Perhaps too good a month, as the very average results of the following month seemed rather disappointing compared to January’s FIVE Power 5 wins. But more on that next time…

Best Game of the Month (IMO): James. All-red 8-box, and ‘cautious’ deal that paid off spectacularly.

Nice one, enjoyed this thoroughly

Darren's game was probably the underrated power 5 win of 2012. Pity it gets forgotten about with James' all-red 8-box 2 days later, and other people later in the month dealing for £60k+ offers!

Leo's game really was one of the dullest trainwrecks ever IMO, a poor board throughout, combined with banker stingyness and not really any dealable offers leading to an inevitable blue win, it was such a flat show, no memorable moments in it at all really. No wonder his game thread was only 2 pages long! (Hell, they might as well have shown £41k Jessica's game which fell on the same date and day of the week 6 years earlier that day instead! just kidding )

February 2012
Well, after the great results of January, with five Power 5 wins, February seemed a little disappointing by comparison.

The month began with a run of pretty average games, with standouts being Lily’s OPW, and Robbie’s game, where the Banker secretly offered Robbie’s girlfriend money if she could get him to deal!

Then, along came Rich Masson. His game was built up by the Banker on Twitter prior, claiming it would be a DOND first. This caused many to believe he would be the first male £250,000 winner.

The Banker clearly took Rich seriously, with very generous offers throughout, starting with a very good £20,000 opening offer! Rich made it to 5-box with the top two, £50,000, £5 and 50p. The Banker offered an above-average £85,000, which Rich (very quickly) declined! Left with the Jackpot and £50,000, another above average offer of £160,000 was offered! Rich turned it down as well, leaving most on the forum thinking the wait would finally be over. Noel opened the box…

£50,000!

Everyone was left stunned and very disappointed that the wait wasn’t over after all that drama, though the statsmen were, obviously, delighted that two AMO rejections hadn’t resulted in the Jackpot being won.

Things got worse the next day, when Greg Dornham dealt a perfectly sensible £22,470 with only the top two higher, and had the £100,000 in his box.

Things calmed down the next day, when Candice spanked the Banker, and then when Brian narrowly avoided the 1p club. And then we had Marios Fojup’s game, a very dramatic game which saw many twists and turns as Marios battled through the final round one box at a time.

The annual Love Week, for Valentine’s Day, saw the show take on an ‘80s theme. The shows themselves weren’t terribly memorable, the best result being Casey Simpson’s £21,000 TPW. This left many disappointed.

The next week saw Nick Shenko give us a tense game, with the Power 5 staying until 11-box, resulting in an offer of £30,000! After turning it down, the game fell apart slightly, but Nick recovered to a 5-box offer of £22,000. With only £50,000 and £75,000 higher, Nick dealt, but the 10% best possible round left the top two to the end.

Then, two days later, Mathew Smith came along, and also got himself an offer of £30,000, this time at 8-box, with the Jackpot, £50,000 and £35,000 still in play, as well as the 1p. Mathew sensibly dealt. He came very close to an against all odds all-blue fifth round, but narrowly avoided it when the Jackpot went in the final box! The same happened in the final round, with the £50,000 preventing the 10% best possible round. And £10,000 in the box provided a much needed OPW!

The ‘highlight’ of the rest of the month was Imani Evans, a really emotional contestant, who seemed thoroughly shocked at the strength of her board, causing many to get annoyed with her. The joy of an all-red 6-box was immediately cancelled out when the £250,000 went in the final box of the fifth round. Left with £3,000 and £50,000, Imani dealt the offer of £20,000, only for the big money to be in the box.

The month concluded with more ‘average’ results, notably Laura Carter’s game, where she dealt £18,000 at 8-box, which was a good offer for the board, but the proveout went totally wrong, leaving her with £50,000 and £100,000, and triggering a huge uproar on the forum, even though it was a good offer for the board.

So, February disappointed in comparison to the heights of January, a descent that would continue throughout March. But that’s another story…

Best Game of the Month (IMO): Mathew. For reasons I stated back in July…

Helen's was an underrated game from that era, albeit one with possibly the worst clock spoilers ever...

Imani's game was the best advert for following the game through text commentary imaginable. An in-your-face contestant getting big-money decisions throughout, and dealing at the last of them.

Agreed that Mathew's was a very good game, one of the most exciting proveouts ever.

I'm impressed you can remember all the surnames, Jack!

Well, I actually took note of them at the time.

But, if I didn't, I could probably remember some of the standout ones. It's one of the key qualities of people with AS, that we tend to remember lots of obscure things about certain subjects.

March 2012
Obviously, February was a pretty low key month compared to January. But, then March began, and things weren’t getting any better…

Very few games truly stood out in March. The biggest win was £26,000, won by Jess Richards in the second show of the month. At the time, it was considered by far the best game of a poor month, but, now, its reputation seemed to have soured somewhat, for numerous reasons.

This was immediately followed by Zoe Truckle’s very unfortunate trainwreck, which was marked by horrendous luck in the top six being gone by 12-box, and Zoe having an offer docked to £1 for laughing at the Banker when she found the 1p!

The next week, though, would be the one that would set the tone for the rest of the month.

Damien West arrived at 8-box with the top three, £20,000, £5,000 and various blues. Offered £40,000, Damien decided it was a risk worth taking. It wasn’t. The 1 in 56 worst possible fifth round saw the top three wiped from the game! Left with £100 and £5,000, Damien swapped his box, and ended up with the blue.

Next day, Kingsley Odeyemi took a lower stakes 8-box gamble at £12,000, which didn’t appear to be his true preference, crashed, and didn’t take it well at all. Poor chap.

This seemed to set the tone for the rest of the month, which was plagued by low stakes deals for low sums of money, with nothing terribly memorable.

Notable games included that of Keith Duffus, a ‘Marmite’ player who dealt £7,000 at 8-box, but could’ve doubled his money if he went on, and Mark Coleman, who managed a feel-good game when he sold the 1p for £16,000. The next game, things seemed to be picking up when forum reader Donna Cohen dealt £17,500 for a much needed OPW. Could things be moving on?

‘Fraid not. Two days later, Sam Britton had a terribly unfortunate game, with the top eight gone by 11-box, with £5,000 the highest left. He later recovered to a £1,000 deal at 2-box, which was happily vindicated.

And then there was Niko. One of the most controversial and forum-dividing games of all time. Niko was a very entertaining contestant, who provided amusing banter with a song he wrote performed on a piano accordion. His low stakes game saw him reach 5-box with £35,000 and £15,000, and three blues, including the bottom two, IIRC (could be wrong about that). He dealt the offer of £4,250, but the proveout went totally wrong, leaving him with the two reds at the end.

The month petered out with yet more unfortunate games, including Dave Blacker, who dealt £950 with £35,000 still on the board (it wasn’t in his box, though), and Jan Evans, who became the first 1p winner of the year.

And then there was cerebral palsy sufferer Eugenia Birtin, who was given rather low offers throughout due to her playing for charity. Her 8-box deal at £6,500 was rather cautious, but that was nothing when she received a hypo-offer of £26,000 on a final two of the £250,000 and £100. Luckily, the blue was in her box.

I was hoping we could end the month with an OPW, and, that we did… from a third offer deal! Joan Hawcroft’s £13,000 deal at 11-box was not the most cautious 11-box deal ever, but still fairly cautious. As it turned out, though, it was the perfect deal, as the game fell apart, giving a much needed OPW! Even so, many weren’t terribly satisfied.

So, overall, March disappointed, but things couldn’t always be this bad, could they? Well, that’s another story!

Best Game of the Month (IMO): Niko. For reasons stated by KP back in July...


Oh, yeah, and this…

I only didn't vote for Niko at the time becuase I was too scared of the reaction.

That Show of the Month thread for March 2012 is the worst thread I've ever seen on here. Boy, am I ever glad that RMF no longer frequents this place and that Mark has toned down a bit.

Oh I've seen worse - the "What would you have done today" thread for the first 6 months of this year springs to mind.

Haha, true. I always use the 'Worst (thing) ever' hyperbole to exaggerate things. The actual worst thread ever made will always be the Minx Thread.

The party guilty of creating that atrocity now spend their years in Rampton.

Yeah, he mysteriously disappeared. His smiley spam always brightened up my day.

The March 2012 poll was just nasty. I thought Niko was great, but unfortunately, the ugliness of his game thread & the SoTM thread sort off put me off him (Bit like Belinda's game back in January!)

Hell, i wouldn't have minded Niko winning the March 2012 poll, just as long as £950 Dave didn't win as it probably the worst deal ever IMO!

April 2012
So, after March, people were hopeful that we’d begin to see a slight change around for the show.

At first, things weren’t promising, with Kelly and Antonia both selling the £50,000 through reasonable decisions.

However, the Easter weekend was what began to turn fortunes around, with three memorable games. Phyl Smith scored the biggest win for weeks on Good Friday, pulling off a £24,000 OPW. And then, we had Becky Walters’ game, a trainwreck which was so bad that, when she won £750 from her box, it was technically an OPW! Bob Edgeler finished the weekend with a dramatic game, and the first acceptance of the Banker’s Gamble for almost two years, which sadly resulted in him joining the 1p club!

After that, things seemed to improve for the show. Wade Hickman’s game shortly afterwards proved one of the tensest for a while, as he bravely battled his way to a 2-box offer of £22,500, after turning down some good offers.

Then, when Alan Knott dealt £16,500 for an OPW, it triggered a great run of games. Of the next five games, only one did not result in an OPW. Standout was Gemma Ayto’s game, when she turned around an apparent trainwreck and won £35,000 from the box (the second Gemma to win said sum from box). Floyd Hamodu’s £27,000 OPW (the biggest sum dealt since Jess’ game) was another highlight.

Then, the following week saw Tony Pugh’s game, one of the biggest wins of the year, and one of the most opinion splitting games of the year as well.

Like Rich’s game, the game was built up heavily beforehand as a potential £250,000 win.

Tony’s game proved tense, with a 5-box of the Jackpot, £50,000, £35,000, £500 and the 1p. Offered £28,500, Tony bravely ploughed on. £35,000 went. £50,000 went. Final box… 1p!

Faced with the Jackpot, and £500, Tony was offered £72,000. Considering the risk too great, Tony dealt. Alas, the Jackpot was in the box. So near, yet so far. A great game, and a great win, yet you know he’d have done it if he’d kept one of the big sums to the end instead.

The month finished with a series of average results, notably Aideen Riley, who accidentally no dealt £16,000, and was asked the question again (she later dealt at £9,000), and Guy Singh, a good board reader who didn’t quite get an OPW, but provided a good, close game. And also Norma West’s game, an unfortunate game which saw the lowest selling of the £75,000 (at £4,000).

But, overall, April was an improvement on February and March, with some of the great games of the year. Would the momentum continue into May? Well, that’s another story…

Best Game of the Month (IMO): Tony. One of the biggest wins, and most tense games, of the year, even if the end result proved slightly disappointing.

Tony's game really was an absolute classic - an awful lot of players would have played that differently in either direction, but his decisions made perfect sense statistically.

Becky's £750 OPW was hilarious.

Good review so far Hogwild (it's not just male players who have kids to think about though...). The first few months really did hammer home that you'll never get much enjoyment from the show if you think every game that isn't an OPW or a power 5 box win is worthless...

...As suitably demonstrated by that GOTM thread in March. I didn't actually vote for Jess or Niko, I went for Donna! I am a bit biased though, as her son who was in the audience is actually a mate of mine. Seeing him spar with Noel certainly brightened up March for me.

May 2012
So, April was a good improvement on the previous two months, with good money being won, and that run of five OPWs in six games. What would May hold for us?

Nothing terribly memorable to start with, with the tensest game of the early batch being Karl Tyson’s £10,000 box win, after turning down some good offers earlier on.

This was followed by Adam Hastings’ game, one of the most underrated and forgotten Power 5 wins of the year. Faced with a scary 5-box of the Jackpot and four blues, Adam bravely turned down the offer of £13,000. Two blues led to a 3-box extra offer of £35,000, which he very sensibly dealt. Agh, the £250,000 was in the box! Cue the moans!

And then we had poor old Paul Barnes, who clearly wanted to no deal £24,000 at 8-box on a strong 6-2 split with four of the Power 5, but his wife was adamant that he should deal. He did. And the Jackpot was on the table again!

This was the start of the Banker’s Birthday week, which, following on from Cops and Robbers in 2010, and Cowboys and Indians last year, saw a Doctors and Nurses theme. The week itself wasn’t terribly memorable, certainly not on the scale of Suzanne’s epic Jackpot win last year.

The best game of the week was that of Bill Bailey. (NO! not that Bill Bailey! Or this one!) He turned down some very good, very big offers throughout his game, eventually settling for £30,000 at a 3-box extra offer. Another underrated and forgotten big win.

Speaking of celeb namesakes, a short series of Celebrity Deal or No Deal was airing at this time, with famous faces playing for charity. Most were either stand-up comics (Jimmy Carr, Sarah Millican), or reality TV mainstays (Jordan, Peter Andre). And there was also Olly Murs, who became the first person to play DoND twice (having won £10 in December 2007, prior to his pop success), and the boyband McFly, who won £10,000 after a very tense game. The best result, though, came from the X-Factor’s Louis Walsh, who won £70,000 after a very exciting game, which nearly saw him become the first male £250,000 winner!

Back to regular Deal, and the week after the Banker’s Birthday week began with Candice Cranstoon winning £5 after a very unlucky game. The next player, Lee Oldfield, was given an 8-box offer of £8,250 for himself, plus £1,000 for Candice. After much deliberation, Lee took the money. This proved a wise call, as the game fell apart afterwards. However, many were not happy, as they had been led to believe by remarks from the Banker and Twitter, and from regular pilgrim John on the forum that Lee’s game would see a big win.

The rest of the week was rather non-descript, except for Rich Cattell’s highly controversial 11-box deal for £16,500, which also saw the first instance of the Banker’s Gamble being offered after an 11-box deal!

All this time, though, we hadn’t seen any OPWs. There’s been plenty of TPWs, and blues were regularly being sold, but no-one had got the max out of their game since Floyd.

That changed in Angelique’s game, where she narrowly avoided the 1p club by swapping it for £15,000!

And then, there was Colleen de Cruise’s game, another highly controversial one. Faced with the top four at 8-box, Colleen turned down the offer of £32,000, only to then have the 1 in 56 worst possible round, and lose the top three! Her subsequent deal at £9,000 was definitely not a bad decision, contrary to what some will say. Especially considering she then went on to have the 1 in 10 best possible round, and have £50,000 in the box!

The rest of the month wasn’t terribly memorable, except for two good comedy games. The first came from Scott Billing, whose obsession with Arnold Schwartzenegger led to a side game to see who could do the best Arnie impression! (With mixed results!) Scott sensibly dealt £17,101 at 5-box, and destroyed the game for a much needed OPW!

The other was that of Tony Bradley, a very nice chap, who had provided much hilarity on the wings, leading to the Banker naming him his favourite ever player. Unfortunately, the game was not nice to him, and he won just 50p. But the Banker threw in six bottles of vintage champagne for being such a good player!

The month ended with Mike Law, who did a sensible 5-box deal for £14,000, but was denied an OPW when £50,000 was revealed in his box.

So, May was a middle-of-the road sort of month, then. Nothing that memorable, but not terrible either. Things were moving at a steady pace, as we moved into the Summer months, but that’ll have to wait until next time…

Best Game of the Month (IMO): Scott. A great comedy game, and a well-deserved OPW. Tony’s game was enjoyable, but a bit too heartbreaking.

In May of 2012, I was into my last month of high school after 7 interminable years and had only just re-started my interest in this show, having last had 'the spark' for it in late 2007 !

Adam's £35k win was the first show I watched in full this year and I got into it pretty well. My main memory of this month is waiting with eager interest for Tony's game and the legend didn't disappoint. The win of 50p didn't even feel that awful because it was obvious he was doing this for fun and nothing more. My favourite contestant of the year.