Ok, brand new feature I'm trying out, and as we are marking (albeit belatedly) DOND's 5th Anniversary this week, what better time to launch it?

Basically, each day I'll be delving into the show's archive (thanks to my comprehensive database of information! ) to relate a particular stat of the past to the day's game. This could be to do with air date, player name, winnings or anything else vaguely interesting that crops up. Feel free to add your own if you like, but I will also add one each evening when I can. Some days will be more fascinating than others, naturally.

Here's the first one then:

Aimee (22/11) - Ok, not a fascinating one to start admittedly, but you may recall has been another player called Aimee (Feb '10), who didn't do quite as well as today's in securing a £14k win, but achieved a banker spanking!
(...and anyone who says about the acute over the 'e' will be ignored)

She wasn't the first player to sell a £15k box for exactly £15k either! I know Cuffy and Carmine did, and there could be more!

I know the £5k and £20k boxes have been sold for their exact worth before too.

Yes, selling a box for its value no longer has the novelty value it once had, hence not worthy of inclusion.

Anyway, today's stat:

John (23/11) - Unsurprisingly, not an uncommon name of player, today's John was the 14th player to be called exactly John. There has also been John G, H and M, and numerous other variants. Perhaps the most memorable of these (for me anyway!) was John G ( 18th Feb '06), who after turning down a near-average offer of £25,000 at 5-box (he had £50k, 75k and blues I vaguely recall), hit the disaster round, and then swapped to win just £10. Probably the biggest ever crash at the time.

The £20k box was sold for £20k the day before £75k Justin played in Love Week.

Elli (24/11) - Ok, well it would be rather remiss of me to let today's date pass on an anniversary week without mentioning the creator of one of the most enduring systems in the show's history. I am of course referring to Mally (24th Nov '05), who infamously fathomed that if a box contained £250k on the previous day, it couldn't possibly have it again the next day, known as 'Mally Logic'. In the end, he didn't need to worry as he had £250,000 on the table!

In fact, the stats for the end game seem so mindblowing now they are worth repeating:

He took £54k at 5-box, which was 99.87% of the mean. It is the 6th highest deal at 5-box.

His proveout offer makes today's inflations seem reasonable - when left with £100 and £250k, the banker said he'd have offered... wait for it, £145,000! (that's nearly 116% of the mean!)

Quite a game, I'm sure you'll agree...

I think even 'Player 14' never got 116% of the mean... of course, the hilarious thing about Player 14 is that he took a below-mean offer later!

I don't think many of the early players truly had any feel for the board's value, unsurprising really - I think it was December before the game really bedded in. Of course, shifting offer patterns have caused many things to change since then...

Kirsty (25/11) - Quite a broad spectrum of results from previous players called Kirsty. One (May '07) experienced one of the biggest crashes from being offered £26,062 at 8-box to win just £100, another had a modest win of £7,500 that most forget (Apr '08), but undoubtedly the most memorable played in Apr 2006, and was the first to go for the £250k. In doing so, she turned down £125k in live play (which no one has surpassed since, nor is likely to barring the perfect finish). Just imagine how Noel would've been today after that start with another Kirsty in the VIP area - he loves his coincidences!

Oh, incidentally you might be interested to know all the previous Kirsty's played on a Tuesday! Thought so.

Nice info StatsMan!

Ok, double whammy of stats as I've been too lazy to update lately. I don't suppose anyone's that interested but still:


Wayne (28/11) - Not the first Wayne to have an unlucky game. In fact, the other 2 Wayne's stick in the mind for totally different reasons. The first (Jun '06) received a succession of offers ending in 999, but in the end took just that at 5-box, crashing from what would've been a 2nd-offer OPW at £19,999. The other notable mainly for playing immediately after Alice (Mar '09). Surely the £250,000 couldn't be there again - but it was! Thankfully, he got a chunky sum by taking £21,500 at 5-box.

Kim (29/11) - Only one other Kim, of the female kind, played in March and took her box for a £15,000 OPW. Er, bit stumped for a juicier stat to be honest... same finish today as Dave, Davinia, Sue, Jack Laura and others?... 17th winner of a fiver? That do you? Good.

Let's hope Toyin wins a significant amount and/or plays on a significant date...

Crumbs, I'd forgotten Wayne - from the World Cup games yes? What a bewildering week that was, but it proved to Channel 4 they couldn't get away with overcooking this format, and so I'm glad they did it for that reason alone!

Another double bill of stats then:

Glenn (30/11) - First Glenn with 2 'n's, there have been 3 others. But the stat today is winners of £44,000 - there have been 2 other players to win this amount, both unsurprisingly from a long time ago. The first, Shahid (May '07) secured an OPW dealing at 5-box with £35k on the table, the other, Nicola (Feb '08) also dealt at 5-box, but could've had a Corinne-esque £88,000 offer at 2-box, and had £250k on the table.

Claire (01/12) - If you look hard enough, you can find coincidence. Take 4 years ago today ( 1st Dec '06), contestant Ian also won £20,000 but in a completely different way. Scintillating stat, there. But, Ian had won £20,000 in exactly the same way as Margaret from the day before, by opening the box on the table. Would be even more remarkable were it not for the fact around 80 players had won exactly this amount...