Ep 349: Sebastian Ham, Susan Cumming (December 29, 2011)

Rounds: Here.


Richard reveals that Sebastian does kung fu and tai chi, and asks what form of kung fu he practices.  Sebastian responds that it is a style called Hung Leng, developed by a British sifu; it's a traditional Chinese form of wushu that uses all the animal styles, a bit of tai chi and bagua and lots of others.

Challenging Sebastian is Susan Cumming, a scientist and education manager at the Monash Institute of Medical Research.  She looks after PhD students there -- currently 101 of them; Richard makes a 101 Dalmatians reference, and we find out that Susan likes bichon frises.  The students are mainly studying molecular biology, but there's also a lot of bioinformatics and some psychology.  Within the molecular biology area they range from cancer research to baby research, to reproduction and development, and to immunology.


Susan does well in the letters, outdoing Sebastian twice (once when he overreaches for a seven that it not listed in the Macquarie).  Unfortunately for her, Sebastian does well on the numbers today while Susan is unable to make much headway at all.  That's more than enough to give Sebastian the win, 49 to 32.

I had a good game today; I missed a seven (possibly extendable to an eight, but more on that in round four) that I've seen in the past, but aside from that did as well as I plausibly could.  Coupled with a fast conundrum solution, I have a comfortable victory myself and feel back in better territory.

As usual, details after the jump.

Round 1: H R E O L I T P U

I found HERO, HOLE, HOLIER, TOILER, was dubious about POUTIER, and relieved to find OUTLIER to replace it.  After time I found HOPLITE ("a heavily armoured foot soldier of ancient Greece") as well.  I'll make a quick note of another seven that I liked from this mix: PHILTRE / PHILTER (a magic potion, more or less).

Susan has HOLIER, while Sebastian has gone for POUTIER.  This latter is not listed, however; in fact, neither is the base word POUTY, which seems to take David by surprise.  That takes us back to HOLIER, which David remarks originally that he knows is OK because of the phrase "holier-than-thou".  That's not entirely correct -- if it only appeared in that context then it would not be allowed, since the show requires standalone words.  The standalone entry is there under HOLY, and all is well.

David has found the eight of HELIPORT, which is an excellent find.  This appears to be the only eight, but there is in fact a nine here: TUROPHILE ("a lover of cheese").  That's definitely my word learned for the day.

Sebastian: [invalid]
Susan: HOLIER
Me: OUTLIER
David: HELIPORT

Scores: Sebastian 0, Susan 0 (6), me 7


Round 2: R N T G I E A J R

We have a promising set for -ING, but then the last two letters spoil the party completely.  I had RING and TEARING, and there's no real headway to be made over that.  There's a good many other sevens that I won't bother listing.

Sebastian: JARRING
Susan: TEARING
Me: TEARING
David: TEARING

Scores: Sebastian 7, Susan 7 (13), me 14


Round 3: Target 454 from 75 25 2 9 2 7

Sebastian sticks with the standard choice, and it's not too hard; the idea is obviously to get to 450 then add 4.  I found 454 = 9*(75 - 25) + 2 + 2, then realised that I could save a number with 454 = 2*(9*25 + 2).

Susan is six away with 448, but Sebastian has got to the target.  Both he and Lily use the first of the solutions above.

Sebastian: 454
Susan: 448
Me: 454
Lily: 454

Scores: Sebastian 17, Susan 7 (13), me 24


First break: FEED RUMP ("Angry with a scent")

Here "angry" is referring to the FUMED of PERFUMED.

David's talk is about the origin of the word 'tuxedo'.


Round 4: H S B D I O E M A

I was really hoping for a final E for EMBODIES, but no such luck.  I found DISH, HOSED, BODIES, and (inspired by Jabberwocky) wondered about BEAMISH.  Deciding that this latter was unlikely to be allowed I stayed with BODIES; BEAMISH is apparently a word of old origin pre-dating Caroll's use of it, and listed in Chambers... but not in the Macquarie, so that was one pitfall dodged.

Both contestants have sixes -- there's several to be found -- while David comes up with BOHEMIA ("a social milieu in which a bohemian attitude is present").  This raises the question of why he did not go for BOHEMIAS; I cannot see any good argument for ruling out a plural.  (Admittedly, the contexts in which I can picture it used would entail works of fiction, but that should not be an obstacle.)

I did find BOHEMIAN once when it appeared in the show last season, so I'm disappointed at missing BOHEMIA(S) this time.  Two sevens which could have been found are AMEBOID (variant spelling of AMOEBOID) and HAEMOID (bloodlike).  Chambers lists OBEAHISM as a derived form of OBEAH ("to bewitch"), but the Macquarie does not have this verb sense to derive from.

Sebastian: BASHED
Susan: SHAMED
Me: BODIES
David: BOHEMIA

Scores: Sebastian 23, Susan 13 (19), me 30


Round 5: F D I E C O K S U

Here I had DICE, COIFED, and FOCUSED.  Two other sevens from this mix are DEFOCUS and FUCOIDS (seaweeds of the Fucus genus).

Sebastian: SUCKED
Susan: SUCKED
Me: FOCUSED
David: FOCUSED

Scores: Sebastian 23 (29), Susan 13 (25), me 37


Round 6: Target 472 from 50 10 2 7 7 1

Susan goes for a single large number, and the result is slightly unexpected; superficially the aim would be to form 47, multiply by 10, then add the 2.  That doesn't seem to be workable, though, and instead moving down from 500 appears to be the key.  I found 472 = 50*10 - 7*(7 - 2 - 1); this is Lily's solution also.

Susan has nothing to declare, while Sebastian has got there exactly with a minor variant of the other solution: 472 = 50*10 - 2*(7 + 7).

Sebastian: 472
Susan: [no answer]
Me: 472
Lily: 472

Scores: Sebastian 33 (39), Susan 13 (25), me 47


Second break: FAIR TACT ("Van Gogh only sold one painting while he was alive")

It's a very punny clue of ARTIFACT, as the clue is an "arty fact".  (The painting is The Red Vineyard, by the way.)


Round 7: M N A O D E O L B

I had MOAN, MONAD, MOANED, and finally BLOOMED.  Sebastian has a six, but Susan has managed to catch up some vital points by also finding BLOOMED.

David notes the seven of ABDOMEN; Richard chips in with regrets that the final consonant was not a P, which would have given LAMPOONED.  David is impressed and delighted at Richard seeing this.

Sebastian: BLAMED
Susan: BLOOMED
Me: BLOOMED
David: ABDOMEN

Scores: Sebastian 33 (39), Susan 20 (32), me 54


Round 8: Target 285 from 4 3 5 10 10 6

Susan remarks that with the scores the way they are she'll have to go for broke with six small.  I don't agree with this -- she's seven points behind, and the evidence so far suggests that Sebastian is more comfortable with the numbers than she is so her chances of overtaking him are small.  Better to hope to not lose ground with an easy numbers round, and solve the conundrum for the win -- definitely a possibility given her slightly better letters rounds.

In any case her choice turns out to be easy enough; I found 285 = 5*(6*10 - 3) and 285 = 3*(10*10 - 5) within time.

Susan did not manage to get anywhere with this, while Sebastian has found 285 = 3*10*10 - 5 - 6 - 4.  That puts him uncatchably far ahead, and I really think that Susan would have been better served by a single large number.

Lily has a different solution again: 285 = (10 - 3)*4*10 + 5.

Sebastian: 285
Susan: [no answer]
Me: 285
Lily: 285

Scores: Sebastian 43 (49), Susan 20 (32), me 64


Round 9: PONCE EXIT

That X is like a beacon, standing out and guiding me to the solution.  I buzzed in on the one second mark; neither contestant ended up finding it.

Sebastian: [no answer]
Susan: [no answer]
Me: EXCEPTION (1s)

Final scores: Sebastian 43 (49), Susan 20 (32), me 74


Susan gifted Sebastian too much of an advantage in the numbers rounds here, I'm afraid.  If she'd kept her head a bit better on the last one (with selection strategy or solution) she may well have still been in contention going into the conundrum.  She managed to outdo him twice in the letters rounds, but one of those was arguably a case of him being undone by the Macquarie.  Sebastian stayed calm, took the points on offer in those numbers rounds, and finished with the win.

I was never going to see HELIPORT or TUROPHILE in round one, and aside from that the only improvement available was with BOHEMIA(S) in round 4.  I'd have liked to see that, but I'm content with the results, particularly since it was a fast conundrum solve this time.