I hope so, maybe do a "Second Chance" Edition?

First of all, is this the first time that the £250,000 and 1p have been on the table in consecutive days?

So we have the 22nd 1p win (21 really + Christmas Star Winner). Kind of self induced as there were chances to avoid it. The £8,000 being one of them.

And here's my view: There should not be a "Second Chance" edition for the people who have won 1p. I don't want to sound harsh but just because they won the lowest amount, doesn't mean they should get the chance again. No mention of Lee or Daimon who won nothing, or people like Igor and 4p Mark included in this is there.

You only play the game once. That should remain the case.

Amazingly, it is!

I doubt Zoe would have got anything like £18k with that board at 8 box and Rod would have got more than £40k at 2 box on Zoe's board.

A classic case of a player being blinded by the bottom right of the board today and not looking up about 2 feet on the right and noticing the lack of anything there.

Rod is the 3rd 1p winner from Sheffield after Trev and Pete!

Well to a certain extent Rod was unlucky in that he hit two of the power five in the opening round weakening the board. I'm not entirely convinced the game ever recovered from that.
On the other hand he did have an acceptable bailout offer at 5 box so arguably his 1p was self inflicted.

I'm fairly neutral on this show, couldn't really get into it though i'm not too sure, maybe it peaked too early with Russ and his animal impressions

I don't have a problem with players who play to the end if they feel it's the best thing to do on the day, any more than i begrudge players who deal prematurely, the important thing is that they remain true to themselves

It was clear that Rod's secrecy was actually irritating Noel. I don't really know why Rod kept the details of his system secret for so long really, as it didn't add anything to the proceedings and actually made it rather strange to watch. Did Rod really think that constantly being evasive about his system was the right thing to do? It just struck me as rather odd.

What Noel said at the end (about the viewers secretly being evil and enjoying today's game) was rather revealing too! This 1p win will also strengthen Noel's attitude that systems never work.

Not sure what to make of the newbie Russ! His unique selling point seems to be that he can randomly make animal noises for no good reason at all. I also saw him check both wrists for the time at one point (he seems to wear 2 watches at once!). Seems a bit of a nutter but he seems to be a genuine nutter. I find it amusing when they're genuine, but find it irritating when they're faking it. Russ however, seems to be genuine.

Also I found it quite amusing when Noel said "Welcome Russ", bearing in mind the long-running joke Noel had with the previous Russ who was on the show in Feb 2009!

P.S. Also noticed that Terry had the dreaded box 17 today with the sticky lid - surprised they haven't ditched that box by now. They seem to have 2 sets of boxes and labels (proved by the alternating appearance of the thin £1 label!), which means the sticky box 17 appears every other day. Expect it to appear again on Thursday then!

That one was ruined by timing/editing again - I originally thought it was going to be a 5-box deal, probably for something big if he hadn't found the £250k just after the squashdown, and even when it was £8k I thought, well he's had a go when the £250k is in play, that's a decent get-out. Once he no-dealt that I knew he was doomed!

I'm sure there's something wrong with Box 17 on the set of boxes used on Tues/Thurs/Sun, thats 3 times people have struggled to get it open! Oh and it totally ruined any chance of a consolation too.

Still, Rod's reactions and the way he took it on the chin means I think he made the right decisions for him, and he wasn't just aggressive becuase of what happened to Zoe!

Zoe and Rod' s games together are giving me similar feelings to Kelsie and Di in March 07 - I know they wouldn;t have got each other's offers but still....

Oops he edited his post to fit in Box 17 before me!

Oh and all I can say about Russ at this stage is "Marmite". He's in the same wing position as probably the other person who split opinions of him so much - Bunney!!

Yes, we must've been typing about box 17 at exactly the same time!

They must have spare boxes (such as for when they have to give them away!) so it's strange box 17 hasn't been chucked out. Mind you, the boxes are expensive so they try to get as much life out of them as possible. They look quite solid, but they're actually quite delicate - which is why leaning on them too hard or ripping them open too violently is not a good idea!

awww what a shame but hey has t happen everyso often silly not to take £8000 really think he will be getting a spanking of his missus she was well not impressed

Well, that was a bit of a strange game all round, really. He rather alienated the audience by not revealing his system (which wasn't particularly spectacular when it was finally revealed), and this left a strange atmosphere throughout where Noel didn't seem to be fully supporting him, and was getting increasingly irritated by the system not being revealed. It was a bit of an edgy game, that's for sure, and Noel's end speech perhaps intimated that he sort of enjoyed the result of this game - I know he was talking about games like this generally, but I don't think he was Rod's biggest supporter by the end of the show!

As others have said, it was an avoidable trainwreck, at the very least in a respectable bail-out of £8k, less clear cut at £18k, but there wasn't going to be an immediate increase unless you kept the top 2, so I would probably deal there.