Saturday 28 April 2012

Weekly summary: Episodes 431 to 435

Last week I said that I thought it might have been my best week playing the show, but this week blew it out of the water; my average this week was a mammoth 79.8 points per game (ten points higher than last week's average).  I'm still somewhat flabbergasted by that.  I'll note that I had taken the week off work; maybe that had a lot to do with it?  With the exception of the last game where David found an obscure full monty, I was right up there with their scores.  It's been a fantastic week for me, and it is going to take serious effort (and some good fortune) to match it.


MonTueWedThuFri
Me8772887973
Champion2724283339
Challenger447463324
David + Lily8975897985
Me (solo)8772887973


Like Jane last week, Mark was not able to get past the fourth-game barrier.  Ian had a short run but was in turn defeated by Simon, who faces his fourth game on Monday; that's the third Monday in a row which is somebody's fourth game -- will third time be the charm?  This week's results pushed Louise Broadbent and Craig Hill out of contention, but we expect several more evictions before the finals.

Norm Do676258615962369
Ann Russell404846624947292
Ben Fisher555363426021294
Jane Taylor47546440205
Mark Potter41515140183
Simon Walton*654749161
Ian Phillips575949165
Margaret Zimmer383752127


This was a much more interesting week than the last, with three full monties found by David and a fourth lurking in the wings.  Friday's game turned up an impossible target, but Lily was on track with every solution, including a very difficult rat pack on Tuesday.


MonTueWedThuFri
Full Monties1113
Missed Full Monties

11
Tough Numbers0
Impossible Numbers11


The maximums flowed this week, and I solved every conundrum in four seconds or less.  I was just short of being able to put together an optimal game; the best chance was Wednesday where I had the other maximum written down but decided against it.  Tuesday saw that tough rat pack give me the only numbers blemish.  Friday's letters results may seem poor in comparison, but three of those mixed maxima were words I would never have found.  This is going to be a tough week to follow!


MonTueWedThuFri
Maximums: L44441
N32333
C11111


Contestants sorted by average score:


TotalGamesAverage
Norm Do369661.50
Ian Phillips165355.00
Simon Walton*161353.67
Jane Taylor205451.25
Louise Broadbent99249.50
Ben Fisher294649.00
Ann Russell292648.67
Mark Potter183445.75
Diana Greenslade43143.00
Mark O'Carrigan43143.00
Margaret Zimmer127342.67
Craig Hill85242.50
Steve Hibbert83241.50
Gavin Griffith40140.00
Carey McManus76238.00
Neil Croft37137.00
Steve Malcolm71235.50
James Cooper35135.00
Philip Scambler35135.00
Andrew Boyden34134.00
Donald Piggott-McKellar34134.00
Peter Ghalayini30130.00
Scott Morrow30130.00
Jack Maloney29129.00
Mathew Thomas57228.50
Brent Dalton26126.00
Marc Lissner26126.00
Ian Wanless26126.00
Zaid Abbas24124.00
Bonnie McAllister23123.00
Kylie Alexander21121.00
Susan Morrison21121.00
Cassie Palmer20120.00
John Morris16116.00
Casey Duggan13113.00
Vishal Gandhi10110.00
Patrick Johns10110.00
Hans Pieterse616.00

Ep 435: Simon Walton, Neil Croft (April 27, 2012)

Rounds: Here.


On Simon's third night we find out that he also teaches for Open Access College.  As he explains, this is a distance education school in South Australia.  The teaching happens both over the phone and online; he notes the difficulties in trying to explain some of the spatial mathematics over the phone, which is one reason for the increased use of online materials.

Tonight's challenger is Neil Croft, an I.T. manager and sports enthusiast.  Neil is particularly interested in the Melbourne Cup; he does not bet on it, but has (as he puts it) a predilection for learning the winners of the race.  For some reason a few years back he attempted to learn them, and has persisted in that.  Richard puts him to the test starting at 1960; Neil rattles off eight of them before they bring it to a stop.


Simon continued his impressive word lengths with sevens and eights the order of the day; one of them turned out to be invalid (the drawbacks of having a Scrabble vocabulary) but the rest were good.  Neil matched him with a seven at first but was limited to six-letter words in the remaining rounds; however, Neil picked up some handy points on the numbers and was just two points behind going into the conundrum.  Had Neil solved the final numbers round he would have been a point ahead at the conundrum, in fact.  Simon managed to solve the conundrum first, a little over ten seconds in, to escape with his third victory by a margin of 49 to 37.

I did not feel that I was hitting any high notes today, and investigations afterwards showed that I had only managed one maximum on the letters.  I was never going to find those other four maximums, as it turns out, but I should have managed to go one better that I did in the fourth round.  I managed to do as well as was possible in the numbers, and solved the conundrum relatively quickly, so I really only made the one mistake this game.  It ended up being a comfortable win again, to round off the best week of playing I have had.


Thursday 26 April 2012

Ep 434: Simon Walton, Mark O'Carrigan (April 26, 2012)

Rounds: Here.


Simon once competed in a 24-hour Scrabble tournament.  It started at midday, and it was going quite well -- he did not have his first coffee until around one or two in the morning -- but in the last couple of games he started to feel a bit sleepy.  Fatigue really set in once he was in the tram afterwards as he started to doze off, but fortunately he woke up before the end of the line.

Tonight's challenger is Mark O'Carrigan, a carpenter and builder.  He is wearing a leather cap that he made himself a long time ago; he says that he does not often take it off because people always ask him if he has had a haircut.  Mark owns a property in the Blue Mountains that includes a natural sandstone cave that people can stay at; he has set up a small tourism business around it that enables him to stay there and gives him a lifestyle that he enjoys.  Pictures and some details are at his website.


Simon got off to an early lead in the first round, and extended it in the first numbers round.  Mark regained some of that ground when Simon tried an eight that the Macquarie does not list, but again conceded ground in rounds six and seven.  That guaranteed Simon the win, and he needed all of that advantage as Mark found a late rally to win the final two rounds and close the gap to four points.  But Simon was still the winner, 47 to 43.

I had another very good game, again just one round short of optimal.  That was a word that I might have found on a better day, but I definitely was not anywhere near it today.  The only other blemish was a slightly slower conundrum solve than I would have liked on that mix, but it was still acceptably fast.  I'm hoping I can keep this form up tomorrow to round out an excellent week!


Ep 433: Ian Phillips, Simon Walton (April 25, 2012)

Rounds: Here.


One of Ian's non-travel activities is setting orienteering courses.  As he explains, orienteering is a sport of running and navigating in the bush.  Ian used to participate competitively, but as his age increased his speed decreased... so now he sets the courses for others to follow instead.  His challenge is to set interesting courses for both elite and novice participants; this includes varying the length of the course, the terrain, and the route involved.  Competitors might take a long easy route or a short difficult route; they have to weigh their choices and wear the consequences.

Tonight's challenger is Simon Walton, a secondary school teacher.  It seems that Simon has become quite interested in statistics and would like to learn more about it.  He was not that interested fifteen years ago when he walked out of a statistics lecture (at the University of Adelaide) because he found it so boring.  I've certainly had my share of lectures like that, but a good book goes a long way.  However, since then Simon has become a teacher of mathematics and learned to appreciate how useful statistics is.  For that matter, I wish that I had taken some statistics courses when I was a university student.

A little later in the show it is pointed out that Ian is a qualified statistician.  He encourages Simon in his interest, and says that statistics is a great way to go.


There were some good words being found tonight, and Simon picked up three eights.  Two of those were better than Ian's efforts, and when Ian overlooked his 75-times tables in the second numbers round Simon was 26 points ahead and safe going into the final numbers round.  Ian solved the conundrum quickly again to make the scores look better, but this was Simon's night and he won handily by 65 to 49.

I found everything possible tonight, including the full monty and the conundrum in a second.  But on one of those rounds I took the conservative choice and lost my optimal game.  It's a bit disappointing to miss out due to making the wrong decision, but better than not seeing the option at all.  In any case, my score of 88 is the highest I've recorded on this blog.


Wednesday 25 April 2012

Ep 432: Ian Phillips, Brent Dalton (April 24, 2012)

Rounds: Here.


Richard asks for information about more of Ian's travels; Ian responds that he cannot forget climbing Mount Kilimanjaro.  They started the ascent at 1:30 in the morning and zigzagged up a scree slope to get to the top of it before sunrise.  That must have been quite something!  Ian says that it took a lot out of him, but he managed to get back down again.

Much later in the show he mentions that his next travel plan is to go to Western Australia and walk the Bibbulmun Track.

Tonight's challenger is Brent Dalton, a mechanical engineer.  Brent has an ambition to build his own car; he says that it takes time, money, and inclination, and he has always had two out of three but now it is getting to the point where he can put it all together.


Brent is able to keep up with Ian for a while, but Ian manages to outscore him in two letters rounds and a numbers round.  That gives Ian a win before the final numbers game, and with nothing to lose Brent opts for a challenging rat pack.  It turns out to be too difficult for either, but Ian solves the conundrum very quickly to seal a 59 to 26 win.

I was doing well until that rat pack, which proved difficult for me.  I managed to solve the conundrum faster than Ian to end up with a good score, and fortunately post-game solving showed that the rat pack wasn't the only optimal game spoiler.  A good week so far!


Tuesday 24 April 2012

Ep 431: Mark Potter, Ian Phillips (April 23, 2012)

Rounds: Here.


This is Mark's crucial fourth night, and Richard wheels out the question about strategy.  Mark says that in the numbers he does not think you need more than one large number if you are reasonably good at your times table, so he tends to go with the classroom mix.  That is kind of true, as the statistics show that the single large number mix is very solvable in general, but it misses the point a little.  More large numbers do not make it easier (or in the case of two large numbers, not significantly easier); in fact, they tend to make it harder.  The different mixes expose different facets of numberwork, and it's about choosing a mix that works for you and hopefully not for your opponent.

Tonight's challenger is Ian Phillips, a government management consultant.  He has done a lot of travel "with a focus on wildlife", according to Richard.  Richard asks about Ian's most exciting wildlife moment; Ian responds that about twenty years ago he spent three months in East Africa.  He got close to leopards, elephants, hippopotamuses... but probably the best of all was sitting within arm's length of a mountain gorilla in the wild.


In a sense, it was closer than the final scoreline might suggest.  Mark started off with an invalid word to give Ian an early lead, but took the lead right back in the next letters round.  Ian forged ahead again in the first numbers round, but it was the full monty in round five that effectively ensured him the win.  Mark managed to pull back ten points in the final numbers round, but it was too late by that point.  The conundrum proved beyond both contestants, and Ian became the new champion with a 57 to 40 victory.

I had spent the afternoon trying to solve puzzles as part of the MUMS puzzle hunt, and possibly my brain was a bit tired.  Whatever the reason, I started off with a poor effort (made poorer by a conservative play) in the first round, and that turned out to be the spoiler for another optimal game.  I was a bit behind the pace on several rounds but managed to come good just in time (the closest being the full monty that I only just got down), and solved the conundrum relatively quickly.  So it ended up being a very good game after all, and I don't know whether that was in spite of or because of the other puzzle solving.


Saturday 21 April 2012

Weekly summary: Episodes 426 to 430

This feels like my best week so far, certainly of this series.  On the main rounds I was consistently in the ballpark of David and Lily's combined totals, with the conundrum still proving to be an occasional stumbling block.  There was a slight dip in performance on Thursday, but nothing as severe as previous weeks.


MonTueWedThuFri
Me7465756174
Champion2115164423
Challenger2423232914
David + Lily7476777379
Me (solo)7465756174


Jane hit that fourth-game hurdle and could not quite make it; that puts her in dubious position with respect to the finals.  There was some early turnover in the champions, but Mark managed to find a run of form and will face his fourth game on Monday.  That pushed Steve Malcolm off the table, but there'll be a lot more shuffling of it in weeks to come.  The major question is: Can Mark win that fourth game?

Norm Do676258615962369
Ann Russell404846624947292
Ben Fisher555363426021294
Jane Taylor47546440205
Mark Potter*415151143
Margaret Zimmer383752127
Louise Broadbent613899
Craig Hill454085


It's been a fairly bland week; no sign of a full monty, and the numbers mostly cooperative (although sometimes requiring some good insight from Lily).  Just the one impossible target to liven things up.


MonTueWedThuFri
Full Monties0
Missed Full Monties

0
Tough Numbers0
Impossible Numbers1
1


This was a great week for the maximums, with an optimal game to start and definite chances of achieving it on Wednesday and Friday also.  I very nearly had a perfect week on the numbers, which is a heartening sign.  It's the letters I am particularly happy about, though, as I can concede a lot of ground on them sometimes; perhaps I was helped here by the lack of full monty potential.


MonTueWedThuFri
Maximums: L53324
N33332
C10101
Invalid: C---1-


Contestants sorted by average score:


TotalGamesAverage
Norm Do369661.50
Jane Taylor205451.25
Louise Broadbent99249.50
Ben Fisher294649.00
Ann Russell292648.67
Mark Potter*143347.67
Diana Greenslade43143.00
Margaret Zimmer127342.67
Craig Hill85242.50
Steve Hibbert83241.50
Gavin Griffith40140.00
Carey McManus76238.00
Steve Malcolm71235.50
James Cooper35135.00
Philip Scambler35135.00
Andrew Boyden34134.00
Donald Piggott-McKellar34134.00
Peter Ghalayini30130.00
Scott Morrow30130.00
Jack Maloney29129.00
Mathew Thomas57228.50
Marc Lissner26126.00
Ian Wanless26126.00
Zaid Abbas24124.00
Bonnie McAllister23123.00
Kylie Alexander21121.00
Susan Morrison21121.00
Cassie Palmer20120.00
John Morris16116.00
Casey Duggan13113.00
Vishal Gandhi10110.00
Patrick Johns10110.00
Hans Pieterse616.00

Ep 430: Mark Potter, Susan Morrison (April 20, 2012)

Rounds: Here.


This is Mark's third night, and Richard drops some hints about his Scrabble ability.  Mark explains that he grew up in a large family and playing board games was one of their major recreational activities; Scrabble in particular was a family favourite.  Then a couple of decades back Mark noticed that there was a Scrabble championship as part of the Moomba festival.  He entered it, and ended up coming second in his group.  He was pretty thrilled with that, and it is a fine result for his first tournament.

Challenging Mark tonight is Susan Morrison, a wedding celebrant.  Richard asks what the highlights of such an occupation are.  Susan says that she has only been doing it for the last few years, but it is always a lot of fun.  She makes particular mention of surprise weddings, where the guests may be unaware that a wedding is about to take place.  (The soon-to-be-married couple know, of course!)


Both contestants had some good finds in the letters and some gains for each, but Mark had the better of it.  The numbers proved the real difference, however, as Susan's last two attempts were invalid; had her declarations been correct then that would have been a relative gain of 27 points to her, which is obviously huge.  Mark also outpointed her on the first numbers round, and by the time they reached the conundrum he was 30 points ahead.  It proved to be difficult and neither solved it, so Mark retained that margin in a 51 to 21 victory.

I had mostly good results tonight, but should have done better in round four.  Round three broke my streak of best numbers results, but aside from those two rounds I picked up all that I could.  I managed to see the right solution to the conundrum fairly early, and although I could have done better I've certainly avoided the poor Friday games of the last couple of weeks.


Friday 20 April 2012

Ep 429: Mark Potter, Jack Maloney (April 19, 2012)

Rounds: Here.


On Mark's second night we find out that he is a fan of the Tour de France; that lets Richard sneak in a quick plug for SBS's coverage of the event.  Richard asks if Mark would like to be there and watch it; Mark responds that once he stops paying school fees -- which is still a few years away yet -- he is planning to get a van and follow the whole course; it is something that he has been wanting to do for a long time.

Tonight's challenger is Jack Maloney, a high school student.  Jack is 17 years old, and has been a keen football and basketball player.  He has been playing basketball for around eight or nine years, and now he also umpires and coaches it.  The team he coaches is a group of under-14's, who are the juniors of the Melbourne Tigers.


It was quite a tough night on the letters; Jack found a couple of good sevens, but Mark matched him on one of those and picked up ground with a pair of sixes in other rounds.  But it was the numbers rounds where Mark shone, proving my comments from yesterday incorrect and gaining a solid advantage there.  The net result was that he was safe going into the conundrum.  It proved to be a difficult one that neither solved, and Mark won by 51 points to 29.

It seems that my habit of an end-of-week drop in performance is continuing, as tough letters today kept me from finding the maximums within time.  It is a minor consolation that neither did David.  Still, I have solved every numbers round so far, which must stand me in good stead.  The conundrum was too hard for me to get within time, but in any case I blew my chance with a reflexive buzz at the one second mark.  I'd managed to do enough for the win regardless, although that final letters round could be quite costly against some players.


Wednesday 18 April 2012

Ep 428: Carey McManus, Mark Potter (April 18, 2012)

Rounds: Here.


Carey takes up the champion's position, and Richard asks him about his beer-brewing activities.  Carey and a friend like to brew their own beer, as it turns out.  They brew all sorts of beers, but they have a particular favourite which is a dark ale.  They do the brewing at his friend's house, which is on Batman street in Fitzroy, and consequently they call their dark ale the Dark Knight.

Tonight's challenger is Mark Potter, who is a warehouse manager for a plumbing company.  Mark is also fascinated with gardening, and in particular with the gardens of Edna Walling.  As he points out, Edna is a very famous landscape gardener who has done a lot of work all around Australia and has an enclave in Mooroolbark in Victoria that is very well-known also.  Richard asks what kind of things characterised her gardens; Mark responds that she used lots of English types of trees, and she worked out where to plant them by throwing a potato -- where it landed was where she would plant the tree.  This becomes a running joke throughout the night.

At a later point in the show Richard raises the topic of Mark's house.  Mark relates that the property had a feel... the garden and the house had a feel of what they'd been looking for for quite a number of years.  Mark did quite a bit of investigation and eventually found the garden plans for his house in the Victorian State Library.  They were in a section of the library devoted to Edna Walling -- he had managed to acquire one of her gardens!  It was a great feeling, as you might imagine.


It was another close game with very little to separate the contestants.  Mark gained a lead in the second letters round, only for Carey to level the scores again in the following numbers round.  Thereafter they were matched until the final letters round, where a phantom letter saw Carey come undone.  He had a chance to get back the lead in the numbers round but made a mistake there also, and Mark was in front going into the conundrum.  It proved to be a very awkward mix and neither solved it; that gave Mark the win, 41 to 35... the same scoreline that Carey won with on the previous night.

I very nearly had another optimal game, but was about a second or two short of time in the first round, and arguably the same in the second.  Thereafter it went smoothly up until the conundrum.  I had an awful time of it but finally saw the answer with three seconds left on the clock.  That's three solid nights for me this week, and I'm pretty happy about that.


Ep 427: Steve Hibbert, Carey McManus (April 17, 2012)

Rounds: Here.


Yesterday it was mentioned  that Steve is into plane spotting.  Richard asks him how he got into that; Steve responds that back in England he used to live near an airfield.  So he and others went and spent their weekends at the airport and collect registrations on the planes.  Steve is particularly fond of the Tiger Moth and would love to take a joy flight in one of those.

Taking up the challenge tonight is Carey McManus, a building design student.  Richard asks why Carey thinks architecture is important; Carey replies that he thinks it affects us so much -- the way light comes into buildings, the way we use spaces... it's very important in our daily lives.  He would like to start off with residential work because you get a bit more control over the project, but a lot of the most interesting stuff tends to be done in the public sphere.  So he'd love to do things like Federation Square in Melbourne, for instance.


It's another close game, with the lead changing a few times.  Honours are pretty evenly split in both facets, but Carey's risky play in the final letters round pays off; that gives him a lead that he carries into the conundrum, and with it proving too tough for both contestants he has the win, 41 to 35.

I started off well, but feeling the pressure to repeat last night's optimal result.  Then I found a better answer shortly after time in round 4 and knew that it was no longer possible, which was both disappointing and a relief.  The round after that was also challenging, but I was still scoring strongly until the conundrum.  I was probably the most lost on this conundrum that I have ever been, eventually giving up after seven fruitless minutes of searching.  It was findable, but my mind was not in the right place to see it.  Still, a good game overall, and a good start to the week so far.


Tuesday 17 April 2012

Ep 426: Jane Taylor, Steve Hibbert (April 16, 2012)

Rounds: Here.


Jane is back for her fourth night, trying to get over that fourth game hurdle.  Richard asks what sort of preparation she has been doing over the weekend; Jane responds that she has been revising her 75-times tables.  She has also found a website where she can practice the maths with the clock counting down.

Tonight's challenger is Steve Hibbert, a full-time father to three children.  They are aged five, four, and one, and looking after them keeps him busy; as he says, it is very challenging and rewarding at the same time.  Steve also enjoys plane recognition (aka "plane spotting").


It's a good close game tonight, although the letters rounds were arguably a bit flat with findable sevens in most rounds and not much longer.  Jane gets the lead in the first numbers round, and extends it in the next letters round.  Steve then gets most of the ground back in the next numbers game, and they trade points in the remaining two main rounds.  Steve is just two points behind going into the conundrum, and he solves it first to take the win, 48 to 40.  Jane bows out at that troublesome fourth game, and it's very unlikely that she'll be back for the finals.

I'm flying high tonight, after recording an optimal game.  I found best possible answers in every round, and solved the conundrum in a second.  I'm pretty happy about this, as you might expect.  Probably happier.


Sunday 15 April 2012

Investigating words: Why the Macquarie?

A while ago I posted a comment on the Letters and Numbers website responding to complaints about the show's use of the Macquarie dictionary.  It has long since vanished, and I figure that sooner or later I'll want to say much the same again, so here's a post about it for posterity.  This is somewhat longer than the original comment, because I now have more room to ramble.

Every so often on that website someone will complain (usually with disproportionate ire) about some particular word being disallowed (or, more rarely, allowed).  Obviously, the show must have some decision procedure about which sequences of letters are going to be considered valid words for its scoring purposes; otherwise the contestants would be all "That's a nice tnetennba" about things.  So a list of valid words is needed, and the natural and sensible approach is to use a dictionary for this purpose.

One could take this suggestion further and say that several dictionaries would be better, as any specific dictionary is likely to have omissions due to the English language continually evolving.  That is a reasonable point of view in general, but I feel there are two reasons that it does not work for the show.  The first is a pragmatic one: Having to check more than one source would slow down the show production for very little benefit.  The other is more about the keen home viewers (or prospective contestants): A desirable feature is for them to be able to do this checking themselves; this increases involvement and a sense of transparency in the decision procedure.  Having more than one source would significantly raise the cost to them of doing so.

The second reason also argues against using some custom word list that the show has put together (or one of the Scrabble word lists); it is harder for the interested home viewer / prospective contestant to get their hands on that than a published dictionary.

Assuming that the above reasoning is accepted, the question becomes: Which dictionary to use?  There are many points to take into consideration, but one point trumps them all: Since this is an Australian show, as much as possible of the everyday Australian vernacular should be allowed.  The Macquarie is unquestionably the most comprehensive dictionary of English as used in Australia, including a wide range of colloquialisms and regionalisms, and it is thus the only sensible choice of dictionary for this show.

There are drawbacks to using only the Macquarie (as there would be to any dictionary), and I've gone on about some of them in the past before.  But the key point is that it is the most appropriate of the available alternatives.  I support the show's use of the Macquarie as their reference dictionary, while at the same time hoping that the next edition will address what I see as some of the deficiencies in it (especially with regard to its use in Letters and Numbers).


If anyone from the Macquarie somehow ends up reading this: The major issue is the inflected forms, which are lamentably inconsistently handled.  In some cases reading an entry leaves me completely unclear as to the correct spelling for an inflection (usually the plural of a noun or the present tense of a verb, where the question of -s or -es is not always straightforward).  Nouns ending in 'o' are particularly troublesome in this regard; there are examples where the plural form(s) are explicitly listed when only -s is allowed, when only -es is allowed, and when both are allowed.  So when no plural form is listed (for an obviously pluralisable noun) there is no good basis to infer which is supposed to be the case.

In contrast, my copy of The Chambers Dictionary (1993) does a wonderful job of dealing with this that I would love the Macquarie to emulate: In just two pages up front it gives the basic rules that it follows for what the default inflected forms are (depending on the last letter or so of the word).  It then only lists inflections where those rules do not suffice, and as a result I can be completely certain when I look at an entry in it what all the accepted inflected forms are (according to it).

Saturday 14 April 2012

Weekly summary: Episodes 421 to 425

I managed to avoid any invalid declarations this week, although in one case that left me with nothing to declare.  It was a week of almosts, with my numbers work just a bit short of where it needed to be in order to let me catch David and Lily.  The end-of-week performance continues to be a worry, and only a passable conundrum solution let me escape with the win there.


MonTueWedThuFri
Me6266638458
Champion76234254
Challenger2716143416
David + Lily7474848778
Me (solo)6266738472


Ben faltered at the last, with three invalid answers in his final game.  But he still played six games; last series that would have been enough to get into the finals, so we will probably see him again.  The latter half of the week saw Jane start her run towards the finals; she has improved as she has gone on, and Friday's game was particularly strong from her.  If she keeps this form up then she stands in very good shape to make the finals.

Norm Do676258615962369
Ann Russell404846624947292
Ben Fisher555363426021294
Jane Taylor*475464165
Margaret Zimmer383752127
Louise Broadbent613899
Craig Hill454085
Steve Malcolm343771


David found two full monties this week; there was probably another but it would come down to a ruling on legality.  The numbers were a little more awkward than usual, with one genuinely impossible round and two others that Lily needed more thinking time on.  (Plus some others where it seems that she had only just found a solution as time expired.)


MonTueWedThuFri
Full Monties112
Missed Full Monties
1?
1?
Tough Numbers112
Impossible Numbers1
1


I had a mixed run this week, with the middle part being good for the maximums.  I solved four out of the five conundrums (although two of them only just within time), which is definitely above my average.  But I dropped a maximum result on the numbers on each day, and that thwarted my attempts to catch David and Lily.


MonTueWedThuFri
Maximums: L14342
N22222
C01111


Contestants sorted by average score:


TotalGamesAverage
Norm Do369661.50
Jane Taylor*165355.00
Louise Broadbent99249.50
Ben Fisher294649.00
Ann Russell292648.67
Diana Greenslade43143.00
Margaret Zimmer127342.67
Craig Hill85242.50
Gavin Griffith40140.00
Steve Malcolm71235.50
James Cooper35135.00
Philip Scambler35135.00
Andrew Boyden34134.00
Donald Piggott-McKellar34134.00
Peter Ghalayini30130.00
Scott Morrow30130.00
Mathew Thomas57228.50
Marc Lissner26126.00
Ian Wanless26126.00
Zaid Abbas24124.00
Bonnie McAllister23123.00
Kylie Alexander21121.00
Cassie Palmer20120.00
John Morris16116.00
Casey Duggan13113.00
Vishal Gandhi10110.00
Patrick Johns10110.00
Hans Pieterse616.00

Friday 13 April 2012

Ep 425: Jane Taylor, Bonnie McAllister (April 13, 2012)

Rounds: Here.


There's more talk about Jane's around-Australia caravan trip tonight; it seems that things did not always go smoothly.  Jane explains that despite it being a fairly new caravan the fridge didn't work, they lost their auto electrics at one stage, and the air conditioner rattled loose around Kakadu and sheared its attachements.

But probably the worst thing was losing a wheel off the caravan as they got to Wyndham, at the upper north of Western Australia.  That's obviously not a good thing to happen, but fortunately it did so while the were going at quite low speed into a caravan park.  That was on a Saturday afternoon; they managed to locate the part in Melbourne on Monday morning and (via Australia Post) received it in Kununurra by Wednesday afternoon.

Tonight's challenger is public servant Bonnie McAllister.  Bonnie was in a beer ad once, which required her to run nude down Lydiard Street (in Ballarat).  It was apparently a cold day, and all she (and others, apparently) had were a flesh-coloured G string and socks and shoes.  She found it exhilarating, which surprises Richard, but it fits in somewhat with her personal motto of "Challenge accepted".

(That beer ad is almost certainly the 2009 VB commercial that won a Gold Lion award at the 2010 International Advertising Festival in Cannes.  It's not a bad ad.)


Jane was in fantastic form tonight on the letters, starting off with a trio of excellent eights and only dropping a single letter behind optimal on them.  She had a decent set on the numbers also, and solved the conundrum a little before the halfway point.  Bonnie essentially matched Jane on the numbers but her consistent six-letter words were not enough and Jane finished a comprehensive 64 to 23 victor.

I was somewhat off form tonight; this showed up most clearly in the second numbers round where I missed a solution that I would have seen on a better day, but also in two of the letters rounds where I found eights easily afterwards but was stuck at seven during time.  I went into the conundrum behind Jane, and perhaps feeling a bit fortunate to still be in contention, and was glad to solve it ahead of her and sneak home by four points.  A wobbly game from me, but mostly a great game from Jane.


Ep 424: Jane Taylor, Andrew Boyden (April 12, 2012)

Rounds: Here.


Jane is back for her second night, hoping to defend her carryover champion status.  Since her retirement she has done a certain amount of travelling; she (and her partner, presumably) took a caravan around Australia for eight months.  They started in Tasmania, and travelled anticlockwise around Australia, getting all the way up to Cape York and then westward and south once more.

Tonight's challenger is Andrew Boyden, who manages an international supply company.  Back in May last year -- almost a year ago now -- his wife Alicia appeared on Letters and Numbers also.  They compete keenly at home, as you might expect; Andrew says that they are running about fifty-fifty at the moment.

[Update: Andrew wrote a few posts about his experience with the show, although the last one never quite materialised.  Part 1; part 2; part 3; part 4; part 5; and the as-yet empty part 6.]


Jane gets off to a flying start with an unanswered full monty, and has the better of most of the letters rounds.  She oversteps once with an invalid word, but gets a commanding lead from those letters rounds nonetheless.  The numbers go a bit each way (in part due to her invalid declaration, which looks like an oversight), and she is twenty points ahead going into the conundrum.  Andrew buzzes in but his suggestion is invalid, and Jane ends up winning by 54 points to 34.

I had an exceptional game, and it should have been better; I threw away points on the second numbers round that were there for the taking.  The perils of wasting time on the wrong idea!  I only just got the conundrum solved within time, having wasted much of it ignoring the right fragment, but I did get there.  If not for that numbers slip-up, I would have tied David and Lily.  Still, it's always a good game when one gets a full monty!


Thursday 12 April 2012

Ep 423: Steve Malcolm, Jane Taylor (April 11, 2012)

Rounds: Here.


On Steve's second night we find out that he is training to be an ironman.  No, not the Marvel superhero, an entrant in the ironman surf lifesaving event.  Steve says that there are a couple of reasons for this; one is that he's reached the point in life where he has to fight the middle-aged spread and it's a good way of keeping control of that.  It's also about the personal challenge, although when he is out there at four in the morning on a bicycle in the wind and the rain he does sometimes question whether it is worth it.

Tonight's challenger is Jane Taylor, a retired teacher and community development officer.  Jane has been awarded the Centenary of Federation medal; she received that in 2001 as recognition of her paid work as a community development officer at a community centre, and her voluntary work in the same area as an elected member of council.


Jane showed good performance on the words today, outpointing Steve several times.  Steve gained some of it back on the second numbers round, but he needed to outpoint Jane on the last to have a chance.  Jane was able to outdo him on that round and be safe going into the conundrum; Steve solved a tough one very quickly, but Jane had the win, 47 to 37.

I was in decent form today, although there were some rocky spots and definite grounds to improve.  Really, the only disappointing part was the second numbers round where I cunningly avoided following one line that would lead to a solution, and found another but had lost too much time in the process.  I was slow on the conundrum as usual, but just barely got it within regulation time.  All up it was easily enough for the win, but I'd like to do a bit better tomorrow.


Tuesday 10 April 2012

Ep 422: Mathew Thomas, Steve Malcolm (April 10, 2012)

Rounds: Here.


Mathew returns after thwarting Ben's attempt to become a retiring champion last night.  Mathew grew up in New Zealand, and occasionally he does a hāngi at the local primary school.  This involves cooking the food in the ground using hot rocks; there is a big fire that goes along with that, but it does not last too long.  He usually does this in winter so that he does not get in any trouble with the fire brigade.

Tonight's challenger is I.T. manager Steve Malcolm.  He has travelled in Africa recently, and in particular ended up working in Zimbabwe for Outward Bound.  As he explains, Outward Bound is about using outdoor activities such as abseiling, rock climbing, and raft building to try and teach people life skills like teamwork and independence.

Steve also visited South Africa, where he rode an ostrich.  He describes it as "a bit like sitting on a big crazy chicken".  That pretty much conforms to expectations.


It was a close game; both managed to win a letters round, but Steve gained an early lead due to the first numbers round.  A later invalid word from him gave Mathew a good chance at recovery, but Mathew returned the favour with a transcription error on his last numbers round.  Either way it was coming down to the conundrum, but that error was the difference between Mathew being ahead or behind going into it.  Steve buzzed in after eight seconds... but his answer was invalid.  Mathew had the rest of the time to try and solve it but was unable to, and that let Steve scrape home, 34 to 25.

Once again I had two poor rounds today, which could be very costly.  The first was failing to spot a seven-letter word, which in retrospect was perhaps not as bad as it felt at the time; the second, however, was a complete meltdown on the second numbers round resulting in nothing to declare at all.  Another letters round I almost made a mess of and was very lucky that my risky recovery attempt paid off.  Against that, I had optimal results in all the other main rounds, including another risky word in the final letters round, and a four second conundrum solve.  A comfortable win despite some rocky play.


Ep 421: Ben Fisher, Mathew Thomas (April 9, 2012)

Rounds: Here.


Win or lose, this is Ben's last night for a while.  Richard notes that Ben has solved the last four conundrums, and has done a lot of tweakage in his numbers rounds.  Ben says that when he first started watching the show he could never get the numbers, but Lily's tutelage has managed to teach him tweaking.  Lily is pleased by that, as you would expect.

Tonight's challenger is Mathew Thomas, a taxi driver and teacher.  The teaching that he does is English as a second language; he calls it "survival English", enough to allow the students to catch trams, fill in forms... to do the everyday things that native English speakers here might take for granted.


Ben gets off to a poor start, with an invalid word in the first round.  He somehow ends up with nothing to declare in the first numbers round, and when Mathew finds a good word to outscore him in the next round, Ben is 18 points adrift.  That possibly pushes him into trying for too much, and his next round is also invalid; he gets some back in the next two rounds but still needs to outpoint Mathew in the final numbers round to have a chance.  He makes an error in the accounting, though, and Mathew is safe going into the conundrum.  It proves to be too tough for both contestants, and Mathew takes the win, 32 to 21.

I had a decent game, but could not find the high notes.  Rounds two and three were the disappointing ones where I should definitely have done better.  Once more I was slow on the conundrum, but at least it was closer this time -- just over forty seconds, as it turns out.  It was all enough for a comfortable win, but still plenty of room for improvement.


Saturday 7 April 2012

Weekly summary: Episodes 416 to 420

This week also started well; the invalid words that I tried were both reasonable stretches for longer, rather than simple mistakes, and I had the best alternatives written down.  So I'd found all optimal answers for the main rounds on the Monday, and if I'd not risked the invalid word on Tuesday would have been just a point behind David and Lily on solo aggregate for that day.  Wednesday saw me find a full monty that eluded David, which is a decidedly rare moment to cherish (I think the only other occasion was INDURATES from episode 365).

On Thursday I made a mess of one numbers round but was otherwise in excellent form; David found a very good full monty to make the difference look large, but it was only two rounds of difference.  And then Friday... was somewhat disappointing, including actually declaring an invalid answer to a numbers round -- something which I had been hoping to avoid doing this series.  Once again that backwards slide at the end of the week; maybe next week I can avoid it.


MonTueWedThuFri
Me6159735947
Champion2730432448
Challenger426101417
David + Lily7867778479
Me (solo)6159736953


Ben dominated this week, and looks quite likely to be the third retiring champion of the series.

Norm Do676258615962369
Ann Russell404846624947292
Ben Fisher*5553634260273
Margaret Zimmer383752127
Louise Broadbent613899
Craig Hill454085


David found one full monty this week, and I found another, but a third eluded us both.


MonTueWedThuFri
Full Monties11
Missed Full Monties
1
12
Tough Numbers11
Impossible Numbers1
1


This week started out really well, but Friday had a very noticeable drop.  I only managed to solve two of the conundrums this week; they were fairly fast solves, but I'd like to solve more of them.


MonTueWedThuFri
Maximums: L42331
N33212
C01010
Invalid: L11---
N----1


Contestants sorted by average score:


TotalGamesAverage
Norm Do369661.50
Ben Fisher*273554.60
Louise Broadbent99249.50
Ann Russell292648.67
Diana Greenslade43143.00
Margaret Zimmer127342.67
Craig Hill85242.50
Gavin Griffith40140.00
James Cooper35135.00
Philip Scambler35135.00
Donald Piggott-McKellar34134.00
Peter Ghalayini30130.00
Scott Morrow30130.00
Marc Lissner26126.00
Ian Wanless26126.00
Zaid Abbas24124.00
Kylie Alexander21121.00
Cassie Palmer20120.00
John Morris16116.00
Casey Duggan13113.00
Vishal Gandhi10110.00
Patrick Johns10110.00
Hans Pieterse616.00

Ep 420: Ben Fisher, Zaid Abbas (April 6, 2012)

Rounds: Here.


This is Ben's fifth night, and a win here will almost certainly earn him a place in the finals.  Ben went to Glasgow over the Christmas/New Year period to attend the wedding of some of his friends.  They kitted him up in the full kilt and his family's heritage tartan.  Richard lists the components of such dress and Ben agrees that they had him in all that "... and not much more".  Heh.

Tonight's challenger is Zaid Abbas, a software engineer.  Zaid plays "three or four" instruments, but has never had formal musical training.  He learned the keyboard when he was very young, just playing by ear -- he would listen to a song and then emulate it.  From there he kept building up his repertoire, moving on to more complicated songs.  Since then he has picked up the guitar, and drums, and is hoping to expand further.


There were good moments from both contestants tonight; the numbers targets were all high, but the contestants were always close with Zaid having slightly the better of it.  Unfortunately for Zaid, three of his words were invalid and Ben outscored him on the others, and that was just too much ground to give up.  One of those invalid words could easily have been the optimal answer (more on this in round 5), though, as he had found a good word.  Ben also found a great word in the last letters round and was really fast on the conundrum once more, to take a comprehensive 60 to 24 win.

I was off-kilter all night; whatever I did today that affected me, I hope I avoid it in the future.  I blanked badly on the first round, found an excellent word on the second, then went chasing after the wrong thing in the next numbers round and ending up declaring the wrong total.  The next three letters rounds should have produced eights but I missed them all, and I did not solve the conundrum either.  The last two numbers rounds were not enough to keep me out of trouble, and I ended up losing to Ben by a point.  That's right on the one-in-twenty mark that is my quota, but I'm still very disappointed by my performance since I was playing well below my best.


Friday 6 April 2012

Ep 419: Ben Fisher, Scott Morrow (April 5, 2012)

Rounds: Here.


I bumped into Daniel Chua at university today, which was nice.  Nicer still was that he recognised me, which isn't bad considering we only met for one day half a year ago.  Hi, Daniel!  (For any newer readers, Daniel was one of the finalists from series 4.)


It looks like we are out of interesting things for Ben to talk about, as Richard asks him about his tactics for the game.  Ben says that something that he did not realise from home is that as a contestant there's actually quite a lot of pressure during the letters rounds when calling out the consonants and vowels.  (I'll mention that I did not feel pressured in that situation, but I did notice that making those decisions was taking away thinking time that I was used to having.)  Ben has reacted to this by settling on one mix and asking for that pretty much every time, so that he does not have to think about that.

He has mostly gone with three consonants, three vowels, consonant, and the vowel/consonant in some order, but there have been exceptions.  Still, he has presumably saved himself some thought during that, which is the point.  That said, I prefer to be more flexible about it so as to take advantage of possibilities that arise as the letters are revealed.

Tonight's challenger is statistician Scott Morrow.  Scott plays African drums; he developed that interest when he did a study tour in Ghana around six years ago.  It was a drum and dance tour, catering to all levels, and he describes it as fantastic from both a musical standpoint and that of getting to interact with another culture.


There were some good words from both players tonight, and Scott pushed Ben throughout.  Admittedly he was helped by Ben making two mistakes in the numbers rounds, but he is still the first contestant to make Ben sweat on the conundrum.  Ben was only two points ahead going into it, but once again solved it quickly to take the win, 42 to 30.

I started out in excellent form, or so I thought, but David brought me back to earth.  I got flustered in the first numbers round and ended up much further away than I would have liked, but the rest was pretty good.  I was just a bit slower to the conundrum than Ben, but did solve it, to round out a mixed but enjoyable performance.


Thursday 5 April 2012

Ep 418: Ben Fisher, Kylie Alexander (April 4, 2012)

Ben lived in the UK for a few years; I hope he watched Countdown there.  He explains that like many backpackers, or indeed other people who go there, he got his "Heathrow injection" and started putting on some pounds.  In that first winter there wasn't much to do so he decided that he would run the London Marathon.  Ben spent about four months training, and then come April he entered it.  He completed the event in four hours and seven minutes; he had hoped to do it in under four hours but hit a wall (figuratively, I assume) at around 22 miles.

Tonight's challenger is Kylie Alexander, who is studying to be a GP.  Kylie is currently a registrar, and as a registrar has worked in quite a variety of places.  She mentions Kakadu in the Northern Territory, the Riverland on the south coast of South Australia, and now in the Adelaide Hills.  As Richard points out, Kylie has been away from the cities; he asks if she intends to work in a regional area, and she responds that she does.


Ben is in good form again tonight, with some good results in both facets of the game.  An invalid word from him was a small blemish but the game was essentially won at that point.  He finished off the game with an excellent four-second solution to the conundrum, and a 63 to 21 win.

I had some good and some bad tonight.  I was just in time on the first letter round, a bit too slow on the second and third, but then found the elusive full monty in the fourth.  I was not quite equal to the challenge of a tough numbers round, and nowhere near solving the conundrum.  Nonetheless, some of those good results saw me comfortably home, and any day with a full monty is a good one.


Tuesday 3 April 2012

Ep 417: Ben Fisher, Ian Wanless (April 3, 2012)

As you may recall from last night, Ben has trekked through Africa.  He was there during New Year's Eve of 2006, and celebrated much as one might expect.  When he woke up the next day he thought that he had a terrible hangover, but as the day progressed delirium and fever set in; he found out at the end of the day that he had actually contracted malaria.  But he went to the snake clinic and was given some four-month old medicine, and was good within twenty-four hours.

I recognised tonight's challenger from early opening shots, although it has probably been twenty years since I last saw him.  It's mathematician Ian Wanless, who represented Australia in the International Mathematical Olympiad in 1987 (the year prior to me).  He works in the field of combinatorics, which he jokes is the methods of counting when you run out of fingers and toes.  Ian adds that people might have done permuations and combinations at school, and that's the start, but then you move on to more advanced techniques.  He mentions that it has a lot of applications, such as gene sequencing, designing codes for communication, and experiments with physical trials.  More information about some of it may be on his homepage.


It's decent wordwork from both contestants tonight, with sixes and sevens throughout.  Ben finds the longer words, but Ian gets back some of that ground in the first numbers game to stay in contention.  Ian tries the six small option in the second numbers game but the target is impossible to score on.  He tries it again a second time, and is unfortunately a touch too slow to get a solution down; Ben outscores him and is safe going into the conundrum.  Ben rounds out a good night's play by solving that conundrum after seven seconds, and is a deserved winner by 53 to 26.

I was on track for most of this, but I tried an archaism in one round that unfortunately turns out not to have made it into the Macquarie.  Two other rounds offered longer words than I found, one of them relatively common but not mentioned by David.  I finished it off with my fastest conundrum solution for a long time (subjectively, at least), and a comfortable win.


Monday 2 April 2012

Ep 416: Craig Hill, Ben Fisher (April 2, 2012)

Richard's opening spiel includes a very large number of spoonerisms, which he impressively delivers.  As part of that it is noted that Lily's name spoonerises to Silly Learner.

Craig enjoys cricket, and says that he used to play until recently.  He liked getting out in the sun and spending some time with the guys.  Unfortunately, in the last game he played, he was on the fielding side and stood closer to the bat than turned out to be wise.  On the first ball of the game he discovered the limits to his reflexes and (in Richard's words) "tried to eat the ball".  It made a bit of a mess of his face and he lost a front tooth, but he's recovered now.  He does not know if he'll make it back out onto the cricket field any time soon, however.

Tonight's challenger is commercialisation manager Ben Fisher.  Ben loves to get out and see the world -- he thinks it has a lot to offer. He has been on treks across Africa, treks through the Grand Canyon, and did a driving trip around Northern Ireland not so long ago.  Richard asks what the perfect ingredients are for Ben's kind of travel; Ben responds that he likes to travel with someone who is willing to be spontaneous and do something on the spur of the moment.  He adds that planning can sometimes get in the way of the most amazing experiences.  He finishes with an exhortation to people who travel to take the opportunities when they arise.

Later conversation reveals that Ben plays trivia regularly at a pub, and on at least one occasion a few months back he noticed that Lily was on one of the other teams.


The contestants were fairly close throughout; Ben gained in two early letters rounds but Craig got some of that ground back in the first numbers round.  They were mostly matched for the rest of the game, but Ben found a good solution to the last numbers round to be safe going into the conundrum.  Ben buzzed in with an incorrect answer, but Craig was not able to solve it either; Ben finished the victor, 55 to 40.

I had a very good game, but felt obliged to risk a nine that I didn't entirely like and it turned out not to be valid.  The other seven main rounds were optimal, though, and that was enough for a comfortable win even though the conundrum likewise eluded me.


Sunday 1 April 2012

Weekly summary: Episodes 411 to 415

The week started well, with a game where I saw the answers (including the full monty) to outpoint David and Lily... but talked myself out of them.  The next game was also good, just two points off, and in the third I finally bagged a full monty.  The last two slipped somewhat, missing options I should have seen; hopefully next week I shall avoid that backwards slide.


MonTueWedThuFri
Me7373696361
Champion2716274727
Challenger161704040
David + Lily8475817777
Me (solo)7373697061


Ann successfully retired, to start off the series with two retiring champions.  Thereafter things settled down to a more normal state, and a bit more turnover than previously.

Norm Do676258615962369
Ann Russell404846624947292
Margaret Zimmer383752127
Louise Broadbent613899
Craig Hill*4545


There were two full monties on offer this week, and David found them both.  There were a couple of impossible targets in the numbers, also, with Wednesday proving to be a particularly difficult day.


MonTueWedThuFri
Full Monties112
Missed Full Monties

0
Tough Numbers11
Impossible Numbers11
2


Overall this was a better week than last week, but with a noticeable drop in my letters performance in the last two games.


MonTueWedThuFri
Maximums: L33312
N33222
C11010


Contestants sorted by average score:


TotalGamesAverage
Norm Do369661.50
Louise Broadbent99249.50
Ann Russell292648.67
Craig Hill*45145.00
Diana Greenslade43143.00
Margaret Zimmer127342.67
Gavin Griffith40140.00
James Cooper35135.00
Philip Scambler35135.00
Donald Piggott-McKellar34134.00
Peter Ghalayini30130.00
Marc Lissner26126.00
Cassie Palmer20120.00
John Morris16116.00
Casey Duggan13113.00
Vishal Gandhi10110.00
Patrick Johns10110.00
Hans Pieterse616.00

Ep 415: Louise Broadbent, Craig Hill (March 30, 2012)

Louise is trying to reduce her carbon footprint.  She says that there is so much waste and that people should do a lot more recycling and reuse what they can.  She makes specific mention of there being too many cleaning products, and that a different product is not necessary for each task.  I'm happy to believe this, but using one product twice as much would seem to have essentially the same impact as using two separate products, so I'm not entirely following the reasoning here.

Challenging Louise is systems engineer Craig Hill.  He has taken flying lessons... or at least, a flying lesson.  Craig says that it unfortunately was too expensive to continue right now, but it was a great experience.  Under an instructor's guidance he did the take-off, landing, and the flying in-between; that seems impressive for a first lesson!  It was great fun, and he'd love to do it again one day.


The game twists each way; Craig wins two early letters rounds to get a potentially winning lead, but then Louise wins the last two to level the scores again.  The first two numbers rounds fail to distinguish the contestants, and although Craig gets ahead in the last numbers round it comes down to the conundrum.  Louise buzzes in with an incorrect answer, and that gives the game to Craig, 45 to 38.

I started out decently, but then had some oversights after the first third, culminating in mental shutdown on the final numbers round.  The conundrum proved too difficult for me again, and the game fizzled out in disappointment although I had done enough to win.