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.

	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri
Me	87	72	88	79	73
Champion	27	24	28	33	39
Challenger	44	7	46	33	24
David + Lily	89	75	89	79	85
Me (solo)	87	72	88	79	73

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 Do	67	62	58	61	59	62	369
Ann Russell	40	48	46	62	49	47	292
Ben Fisher	55	53	63	42	60	21	294
Jane Taylor	47	54	64	40			205
Mark Potter	41	51	51	40			183
Simon Walton*	65	47	49				161
Ian Phillips	57	59	49				165
Margaret Zimmer	38	37	52				127

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.

	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri
Full Monties	1		1		1	3
Missed Full Monties					1	1
Tough Numbers						0
Impossible Numbers					1	1

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!

	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri
Maximums: L	4	4	4	4	1
N	3	2	3	3	3
C	1	1	1	1	1

Contestants sorted by average score:

	Total	Games	Average
Norm Do	369	6	61.50
Ian Phillips	165	3	55.00
Simon Walton*	161	3	53.67
Jane Taylor	205	4	51.25
Louise Broadbent	99	2	49.50
Ben Fisher	294	6	49.00
Ann Russell	292	6	48.67
Mark Potter	183	4	45.75
Diana Greenslade	43	1	43.00
Mark O'Carrigan	43	1	43.00
Margaret Zimmer	127	3	42.67
Craig Hill	85	2	42.50
Steve Hibbert	83	2	41.50
Gavin Griffith	40	1	40.00
Carey McManus	76	2	38.00
Neil Croft	37	1	37.00
Steve Malcolm	71	2	35.50
James Cooper	35	1	35.00
Philip Scambler	35	1	35.00
Andrew Boyden	34	1	34.00
Donald Piggott-McKellar	34	1	34.00
Peter Ghalayini	30	1	30.00
Scott Morrow	30	1	30.00
Jack Maloney	29	1	29.00
Mathew Thomas	57	2	28.50
Brent Dalton	26	1	26.00
Marc Lissner	26	1	26.00
Ian Wanless	26	1	26.00
Zaid Abbas	24	1	24.00
Bonnie McAllister	23	1	23.00
Kylie Alexander	21	1	21.00
Susan Morrison	21	1	21.00
Cassie Palmer	20	1	20.00
John Morris	16	1	16.00
Casey Duggan	13	1	13.00
Vishal Gandhi	10	1	10.00
Patrick Johns	10	1	10.00
Hans Pieterse	6	1	6.00