Weekly summary: Episodes 444 to 450 (Masters Series)

An inaccurate title, as I've combined the two short weeks of the Masters series into a longer one. It all started out pretty well for me, matching David and Lily in the first game.  Then two games where I had invalid answers kept me from nearing that target, but I still managed to beat the contestants.  The remaining games I lost, though, in each case on the conundrum by probably a tenth of a second or less.  Frustrating, but the conundrums have always been the weakest part of my game.

	QF1	QF2	QF3	QF4	SF1	SF2	GF
Me	68	60	70	53	48	39	43
Champion	30	49	42	28	33	54	43
Challenger	38	22	50	58	56	39	46
David + Lily	78	75	87	78	77	76	75
Me (solo)	78	60	80	76	69	69	50

In the series three finals summary I commented that the finals brought out the full monties, but that seems not so much the case this time around.  Just two possibilities over the entire series, only one of which was found.  There were some quite challenging number mixes, but Lily was equal to almost all of them, and the exception she solved soon afterwards.

	QF1	QF2	QF3	QF4	SF1	SF2	GF
Full Monties			1					1
Missed Full Monties					1			1
Tough Numbers		1						1
Impossible Numbers								0

Results from the quarterfinals were pretty good, but took somewhat of a dive thereafter.  The conundrum performance is both better and worse than it might seem -- most of those solutions were quite quick, but also just fractionally slower than the contestants.  It was only in the second quarterfinal that I managed to solve it first.  Several invalid answers in this series, but at least in the quarterfinals they were bolstered by some good results otherwise.

	QF1	QF2	QF3	QF4	SF1	SF2	GF
Maximums: L	4	3	3	3	2	4	3
N	3	2	3	3	2	1	1
C	1	1	1	1	1	1	0
Invalid: L	-	1	1	-	-	-	-
N	-	1	-	-	-	-	1

Ep 450 [M1] [GF]: Sam Gaffney, Matthew Thomason (June 27, 2012)

Not that anyone reading this needs the reminder, but it's still very much meaningful to vote and comment at http://lanfans.org/ if you want SBS to resume producing Letters and Numbers.


Rounds: Here.


Two very worthy contestants in tonight's grand final, but of course so were all of the contestants in the Masters Series.  Because of the way the seedings work, although Matthew started out as a lower seed than Sam he will be taking the champion's position; that is because the bracket he was in included the number one seed Andrew Fisher.

Matthew got to this point by beating Tony Loui 65 to 50 in an effective rematch of the series two grand final, and then beating Toby Baldwin 63 to 47 in his semifinal.  Both matches came down to the conundrum, which Matthew solved in 2.5s and 2s respectively.  Along the way he has found some great words in tough mixes, including EPISTLES, PANELED, and TOUCHÉ.  He has struggled a bit when the numbers are tough, although he has been perhaps a bit fortunate that four of the six numbers rounds he has faced so far were very easy.

Sam started off with a sound 62 to 35 victory over Jeremy Schiftan, the largest winning margin of the Masters Series (and one of only two games in which the result was decided before the conundrum).  It is also the only match of the Masters Series so far where the conundrum was not solved, incidentally.  He then had a very tough game against the formidable Naween Fernando, which he won 54 to 39 thanks to a massive last section comeback and a one second conundrum solution.

Sam has been a bit out of touch with the words so far this series, at least compared to the form I've come to expect from him (which is understandable, as he's gotten better since then, just like I have since my time on the show); that said, his find of HISTONE in the last letters round against Naween was excellent.  Sam has excelled in the numbers, just missing out once so far with a one-away solution on a target that was also too tough for Lily to solve within time.

So it's a contrast in abilities, with the letters currently favouring Matthew but the numbers being all Sam.  And this time Sam is in the challenger's seat, where he would much prefer to be; that gives him two selections on the numbers, and you can bet he will continue to go for the heavyweight mix that has served him so well.  It's likely to come down to the conundrum, and with the contestants being so fast, anyone could win it.


Of course, I'm about to spoil the result.  *chuckles*  Do feel free to skip this section.

The match started easily enough with a shared seven, but Matthew scooted ahead in the second round when Sam's risky play turned out to be invalid.  The first numbers round was too easy to provide a challenge for anyone, and then Matthew stretched his lead with another good find in the letters.  That was danger territory for Sam, but the remaining letters rounds were shared and his number mixes saw him get ahead at last.  Sam took a precious three point lead into the conundrum, but he buzzed in early with an invalid answer to give Matthew a chance.  Matthew was not able to capitalise on that mistake after all, and Sam scraped home with a 46 to 43 victory to become the grandest of the show's champions.

It feels a bit anticlimactic to talk about my results, but I mostly kept track with Matthew.  My words were decent (as were his), but Sam's superior play in the heavyweight mixes told and I had to get the conundrum.  I was ultimately too slow to do so, and so finished with a 3-4 record on the series.

Ep 449 [M1] [SF2]: Sam Gaffney, Naween Fernando (June 26, 2012)

I'm still plugging http://lanfans.org/ of course -- if you've not voted, please head over there and register your support for the show.  So far it has attracted a very nice amount of attention, but it could always use more.


Rounds: Here.


The second semifinal is tonight, to determine who will go up against Matthew Thomason in the grand final.  It promises to be a tough match, with Sam Gaffney exceptional on the numbers and Naween Fernando unlikely to be beaten on the letters.  With all due respect to Matthew, I expect that the winner of this match will win the series.  It's letters vs. numbers, and I can tell you that it is a cracking match.  If for some reason you read these recaps without watching the show first, skip the next bit where I summarise and skip to the round-by-round breakdown.  Better yet, go and watch the show.


The show started out ominously for Sam as Naween found the longer word in the first round.  The next round gave him a chance to settle his nerves with the best result not too challenging, but his only chance to choose the numbers turned out to be too easy.  That would have been very worrying, and Naween continued his good play to forge ahead in the next two letters rounds.  That put Sam 22 points behind, meaning that even if he got best results from the numbers he was going to need the conundrum in order to win.

Naween was in control of those numbers, and aimed for the easier options.  But fortune smiled on Sam in both of them, as they were more challenging than they might have seemed and he was able to get those crucial points.  Naween faltered in the last letters round as his extensive vocabulary proved a drawback, and Sam was actually ahead going into the conundrum; that was certainly not looking likely at the halfway point!  But victory would still go to whoever solved the conundrum, and both players had been amazingly fast on them throughout.  Indeed, with only a second in the clock one of them buzzed in for the win... it was Sam, no doubt very relieved to get into the final with a 54 to 39 victory.

I played much like Naween, as it turns out.  My letters results were at least his equal, although on the last letters round only because his choice was invalid.  I had some difficulty with the final two numbers rounds, ending up one away each time.  I feel that I should have solved them, mind you, but I overlooked a couple of options.  I still had a chance at the conundrum, but for the fourth game in a row a contestant's buzzer sounded just as I paused -- I really am getting sick of that!  So that's three wins and three losses for me in this Masters series; one chance left to swing the balance...

Ep 448 [M1] [SF1]: Toby Baldwin, Matthew Thomason (June 25, 2012)

A reminder to go and support Letters and Numbers at http://lanfans.org/ if you have not already done so, and to also follow the other suggestions there to promote the show.  It's gathering momentum, but still needs a lot of help to spread the word.


Rounds: Here.


So, onto the first semifinal, where Toby Baldwin takes on Matthew Thomason.  Both contestants defeated series champions in order to make it this far, with Toby pulling off the upset of the series when he played very well to beat the formidable Andrew Fisher in the first quarterfinal.  Matthew faced Tony Loui in his quarterfinal -- a rematch of the series two grand final -- and prevailed in mirror fashion to Tony's earlier win in that grand final.


The match started with a surprisingly difficult letters round, and Matthew did well to take an early lead there.  He extended it in the second round when Toby fell victim to a phantom letter, but thereafter the contestants kept pace with each other for a while.  Toby gained back some crucial ground in the second numbers game to get within range, and with the remaining main rounds shared the game was alive at the conundrum.  Matthew solved it very quickly once again to ensure his place in the grand final with a 63 to 47 victory.

I had a poor start to the game, and I was not quite able to recover from it.  I picked up enough to be just a little ahead of Matthew going into the conundrum, but for the third game in a row I was just beaten to the solution, pausing as the contestant's buzzer sounded.  That's my second loss of the Masters Series, and the games are only getting tougher at this point.

Delays

The recap for Monday's semifinal will be delayed as I attempt to catch up on some sleep (although I have played the game, which may not have been the wisest decision...).  Apologies for the delay, and remember to spread the word about http://lanfans.org/ -- it's getting pretty good notice so far, but needs a good deal more.  Any tweeters out there, throw in #lettersandnumbers for some extra attention.

This shameless plug brought to you by http://lanfans.org/ and the letters... well, all of the letters, really.  Even if I do have to gratuitously mention J, K, Q, and Z to complete the pangram.

Time for some activism

No doubt most readers of this blog will have noticed SBS's announcement that they are "resting" the show.  That's grim news, but I feel there is a chance of doing something about this if we can get enough public outcry about the decision, or at least support for reinstatement of the show.

The show's facebook page might be a natural place for those comments, but it is entirely possible that they would shut that down at the time of resting.  Consequently, I have spent the weekend setting up a separate website to act as a place to solicit votes and feedback for the show's reinstatement.  The address is below; please stop by and add your contributions to it so that it does not look so bare. *chuckles*

And then encourage family, friends, and other acquaintances to do the same.  This sort of thing can snowball once a critical mass of sorts is reached, but the word needs to be spread quickly and far.  The show has a facebook following of almost eleven thousand people; if there is a way to reach them and get a sizeable number to respond then that would be a significant step.

The website is: http://www.lanfans.org/

I sincerely believe there is a chance of success, but I'm going to need a lot of help.  Please join me in making it happen.

Ep 447 [M1] [QF4]: Jacob Davey, Naween Fernando (June 22, 2012)

Rounds: Here.


The final quarterfinal sees series 3 champion Jacob Davey take on Naween Fernando, the runner-up from series 1.  Jacob had that memorable comeback win against Jeremy Schiftan, but he cannot afford to get in a similar situation this time -- Naween is just too good on the letters for that.

Richard mentions that Naween has found three full monties and solved seven conundrums while on the show, which is certainly indicative of the above.  Jacob is going to need some help from the numbers, and unfortunately for him he is technically the higher seed so he only gets to choose once.


The game went pretty much as expected: Jacob started off on the back foot as Naween opened with a couple of good words, but Jacob's choice of a rat pack in the first numbers round paid off to get him back within striking distance.  Naween stretched the lead in the next round, but his mistake in the second numbers round allowed Jacob to close again.  Once more Naween found an excellent word to move into safe territory, and the final numbers round turned out to be trivial.  That guaranteed Naween the victory, but he solved the conundrum in very quick time to round out the win, 58 to 35.

I was just short of top form today, and in the end I conceded a fraction too much.  The numbers rounds gave me the expected advantage, but a couple of missed words meant that Naween was only five points behind me going into the conundrum.  That was always going to be a problem, and although I solved the conundrum in quick time, Naween had just buzzed in as I managed to pause.  That's my first loss of the Masters Series, and I am disappointed but not too surprised.

Ep 446 [M1] [QF3]: Tony Loui, Matthew Thomason (June 21, 2012)

Rounds: Here.


Tonight the seedings have worked out so that we see a repeat of the series two grand final.  That time only two main rounds distinguished the contestants, with Matthew gaining in a letters round and Tony striking back in the numbers.  It came down to the conundrum, which Tony solved to win.  How will it shake out this time?

Well, I'm about to reveal the answer, and there's not really much spoiler space here. *chuckles*  Although I shall note that Richard called it "remarkable" that the seedings worked out to have the two of them facing each other again.  It's not, really -- assuming that the runners-up are essentially randomly distributed, the chance of at least one rematch was 62.5%; it would have been more remarkable if there had not been one.


Things went a little similarly to that previous match, in fact.  Once again, Matthew took the lead in the first round, but this time he extended it in the second round.  Tony struck back in a later numbers round to get within striking distance, and either could have won at the conundrum.  But this time it was Matthew who was ahead, and Matthew who solved the conundrum first.  That gave him the victory, 65 to 50.

I did pretty well tonight, including finding the full monty.  But I had another invalid word today, and one that genuinely surprised me.  Further investigation pretty much confirms that I made up the usage that I came up with, so that was odd.  Aside from that, only one main round was non-optimal (I'd seen the best option but discounted it), and I was just pipped to the conundrum by Matthew.  I was comfortably home thanks to the rest of the good results, though, and so far the quarterfinals have been kind to me.

Ep 445 [M1] [QF2]: Sam Gaffney, Jeremy Schiftan (June 20, 2012)

Rounds: Here.


This quarterfinal pitches Sam Gaffney (series 4 champion) against Jeremy Schiftan, the runner-up from series 3.  Since his last appearance, Jeremy has graduated from his arts degree with a linguistics major.  That makes David happy, of course.


The contestants ended up mostly matched on the letters, although Sam did have the better of one round.  But his superior numberwork told, and just like in his grand final he knew that he was safe once he solved the final numbers round.  The conundrum eluded both contestants, and Sam got through to the next round with a 62 to 35 victory.

I had a mixed effort tonight; I had several optimal answers, but two invalid rounds cost me dearly.  I was fortunate to still be a point ahead going into the conundrum after that, but happily was able to solve the conundrum in decent time to escape with the win.

Ep 444 [M1] [QF1]: Andrew Fisher, Toby Baldwin (June 19, 2012)

Rounds: Here.


Finally we are back to new episodes, and more specifically the inaugural Masters series.  While it has been nice to get a reminder of contestants from previous series, I felt the repeats really began to wear towards the end; maybe next time (I'm certainly hoping that there is a next time!) they can just air the Masters Series immediately at the end of the regular series.  I think that will work out better overall, to be honest.

A note about numbering: The website is calling this episode 444, and that is fair enough, I guess.  But it is going to mess up the convenient ordering of episodes into groups of a hundred, so I wish they had applied a different numbering to it.  I was tempted to invent my own numbering, but that would lead to confusion later down the track; maybe they will come up with some new numbering of their own and I can adjust these accordingly.


Anyway!  New episodes!  Finalists from each series so far!  Are you excited?  I am!


There's no real sense of the seedings, so I'll take the games as they come.  The first contestant in the champion's seat is Andrew Fisher, the series champion from series 1; Richard notes that Andrew's debut score of 95 is still the single-game record.  It is mentioned that Andrew came second in the 2011 World Scrabble Championships, confirming his outstanding ability with the letters.

Rather surprisingly, the challenger's position is occupied by Toby Baldwin, one of the semifinalists from series 4.  It seems that Alan Nash -- the runner-up from that series -- was not able to make it, so Toby was called in as the next in line.  (Well, that's a guess on my part; maybe they also asked Daniel Chua, the other semifinalist.)  So it looks like I just needed eight people to be unable to make it, and I could have been asked. *chuckles*

Andrew is hot stuff with the letters, and I strongly expect him to pick up a good many points over Toby on those.  I'm including the conundrum in that, of course -- Andrew usually solves it within a couple of seconds.  The numbers could go a bit each way -- it really depends how they fall.  Toby has the advantage of choosing the numbers twice, and he'll need to exercise that option well in order to win.  Andrew is definitely vulnerable on the numbers, although he gets close quite often; Toby should be better overall on them, but has had his problems there -- during his main run of six episodes he had five invalid numbers solutions, and another round where he did not get within scoring range.  If he repeats that kind of performance tonight then he will really struggle.


Indeed, the episode mostly went as expected: Andrew picked up points in the first two letters rounds, but then Toby shortened the gap to five in the first numbers round.  A split letters round followed, and then Andrew pulled away once more, only for Toby to close up in the ensuing numbers round.  Another split letters round followed -- Andrew clearly had a riskier play that he avoided, and quite reasonably so -- and once again Toby took the points in the numbers round to be ahead at the conundrum.  And then... the very surprising occurred: Andrew did not solve the conundrum quickly.  In fact, time just kept on ticking away, and it looked like Toby would win by default.  Just shy of the 24 second mark, Toby buzzed in with the correct answer to take the underdog win, 52 to 37.

I had a very good game, marred only by being very slow on the conundrum -- I only just barely solved it within time (and that was after Toby had done so).  But all my answers were optimal aside from a moderately obscure word in the first round that eluded everyone, and quite against my expectations I cruised to a comfortable win.  The lack of potential full monties may well have been a factor; there was not even a sniff of one to be had, although some of the mixes were tantalising.

Investigating words: Validity (part 4: variant spellings)

Posts in this series: part 1; part 2; part 3; part 4.


One thing I have not yet touched on is the issue of inflected and derived forms of variant spellings.  The Macquarie tends to be fairly poor about listing these (mostly, it does not), and that causes problems if the rules mentioned so far are taken very literally.

Here are some examples that could have arisen from episodes so far:

• PLOW is listed as a variant spelling of PLOUGH, and PLOUGHER as a derived form of PLOUGH; the variant derived form PLOWER (episode 334) is not listed.
• MOLDY is listed as a variant spelling of MOULDY, and MOULDIER as an inflected form of MOULDY; the variant inflected form MOLDIER (episode 357) is not listed.
• STOMODEUM is listed as a variant spelling of STOMODAEUM, which has STOMODAEA as its plural and STOMODAEAL as a derived form.  Neither STOMODEA nor STOMODEAL (episode 423) are listed.
• SIGNALED and SIGNALING are listed as variant spellings of SIGNALLED and SIGNALLING, inflected forms of SIGNAL.  However, while SIGNALLER is listed as a derived form, SIGNALER (episode 424) is not mentioned as a variant of it.
• AUMBRY is listed as a variant spelling of AMBRY, and AMBRIES as the plural of AMBRY; the variant plural AUMBRIES (episode 443) is not listed.

A strict reading of the show's rules, and of the policies that David has announced, would render all of these invalid.  My personal hope, though, is that David adopts a more lenient approach.  Indeed, he may already do so but it just has not come up yet.  Specifically, I would hope that where a variant spelling exists, and a derived or inflected form of the main spelling is listed, then the corresponding derived or inflected form of the variant spelling is also allowed.

There is probably some caveat needed if there are cases for which the variant spelling is significantly different in a way which would impact the derived or inflected form, but my expectation is that very few, if any, cases of this would arise.

Such a policy would make all the above words valid, with the possible exception of SIGNALER.  I'm OK with that, and consider it an acceptable casualty; I do think that all of the others should be allowed, and I hope that David has a policy along those lines in mind.


Posts in this series: part 1; part 2; part 3; part 4.

Investigating words: Validity (part 3: nouns)

Posts in this series: part 1; part 2; part 3; part 4.


Part 1 covered the basics, while part 2 dealt with adjectives and verbs.  This post will go into nouns in a bit more detail, although sadly it will mostly reflect confusion on my part.  This is the section where by far the majority of David's discretion would be required.

Investigating words: Validity (part 2: adjectives and verbs)

Posts in this series: part 1; part 2; part 3; part 4.


In part 1 I covered the basics of allowed words and inflected forms; this post will cover the easier cases in a little more detail.  Those cases are the inflected forms of adjectives and verbs; most of the possible uncertainties in those areas have been cleared up, but not all.

Investigating words: Validity (part 1: basic rules)

Posts in this series: part 1; part 2; part 3; part 4.


Since I'm not going to reblog the current episodes (here's the link page for them), I thought this would be a good week to talk about some other things.  We'll see how that turns out.


An ongoing concern for me and perhaps for other watchers of the show -- and certainly for contestants! -- is how to tell if a particular word is going to be allowed or not.  A lot of the time this is fairly easy to answer, but there is also a considerable grey area.  When a contestant steps into that realm of uncertainty then David makes a ruling, but the players at home are not so fortunate.  This is the first of three posts in which I am going to attempt to set out the situation as I understand it.

Additionally, over the course of this blog there have been several words come up for consideration which are of uncertain validity (or were at the time).  If they had been chosen on the show then we would have got a ruling, of course, so these are words which have not yet been tried.  (Or possibly, tried in episodes before this blog started.)  I'm going to list many of them in the appropriate parts, often with my guesses as to validity.

Weekly Summary: Episodes 297 to 300

A short week this time, since Friday's game was the first of the series four finals.  I had some decent results, although I'm pretty sure that the first time around I would have lost the two semifinal games (Tuesday and Wednesday).  The closest I got to the David and Lily combination was 8 points, and that's quite a spread.

	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu
Me	77	65	67	71
Champion	20	58	26	45
Challenger	10	41	13	34
David + Lily	88	83	76	99
Me (solo)	77	75	67	84

Lots of full monties this week; the finals do seem to bring them out.  None of them were missed, which is nice.  Only one numbers game troubled Lily; that's good solving from her in a set which had some worthy challenges.

	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu
Full Monties	1	1		2	4
Missed Full Monties					0
Tough Numbers		1			1
Impossible Numbers					0

The two middle games looked to be the best, in terms of maximums.  And those were each with an invalid numbers round!  A little more care could have produced some really good results, although obviously this whole metric is flawed because memory can have been a factor.

	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu
Maximums: L	2	4	4	3
N	3	2	2	2
C	1	1	1	0
Invalid: N	-	1	1	-

Series 4 finals links

These episodes are far too fresh in my memory to play through again, but for anyone wanting to revisit them the individual post links are below:

• Episode 394 [QF1]
• Episode 395 [QF2]
• Episode 396 [QF3]
• Episode 397 [QF4]
• Episode 398 [SF1]
• Episode 399 [SF2]
• Episode 400 [GF]

Not that much longer until the Masters Series starts.  I admit, I'm getting a bit impatient!

Ep 300 [GF]: Jacob Davey, Jeremy Schiftan (June 7, 2012; originally aired October 21, 2011)

Rounds: Here.

Disclaimer: I watched this episode when it first aired, and although I did not recall much of it I cannot rule out memory being a factor.  Two rounds were firmly fixed in my memory; I don't feel guilty about claiming them since I found the optimal results on those rounds the first time that I watched this episode.

So we come to the grand final of series three, and -- spoiler alert -- it is one of the most remarkable games I've ever watched.  So much so that when I was attending the filming of my episodes a couple of weeks later it was still being talked about by the cast and crew.  If you've not seen the episode you may wish to skip the spoilery summary below and go straight to the round-by-round descriptions.  It will still be here when you've finished.


As expected, there is not much to the pre-game chat, other than the contestants revealing how nervous they are.  It is mentioned again that there have been 99 full monties found already, so the potential is for the show's hundredth full monty to be found in this grand final.


The game started off quietly enough, with sevens to settle into things.  Jeremy gained an early lead in the second round, and extended it in the third when Jacob's choice of the balanced mix provided a very challenging target.  The contestants found identical results in the next two letters rounds, and once again Jeremy took the points in the second numbers round.  That put him a massive 27 points ahead at the second break and things looked very bleak for Jacob.

After the break, Jacob needed to outpoint Jeremy on his letters round to even have a chance.  He saw the potential for a full monty from the first eight letters, played for it, and got it.  Jeremy missed it, and that narrowed the margin to just 9 points.  Jacob still needed to at least match Jeremy on the last numbers round, something he had so far failed to do.  But this time the target proved too difficult for Jeremy, and Jacob did well to solve it and take a single point lead going into the conundrum.  As expected from a grand final conundrum, it was a difficult one.  But Jacob saw his way through to the answer before the halfway mark, completing a mammoth comeback for a 60 to 49 win.

Ep 299 [SF2]: Colin Turnball, Jeremy Schiftan (June 6, 2012; originally aired October 20, 2011)

Rounds: Here.

Disclaimer: I watched this episode when it first aired, and although I did not recall any of it I cannot rule out memory being a factor.


There's another minor snippet revealed in the pre-game chat: Jeremy is still playing dub/reggae (presumably this was discussed during his episodes in the main part of the series), and in the last week or two has actually been in the recording studio "laying down tracks", as Richard puts it.


Another very close game tonight, but a big contrast to yesterday's game -- most rounds produced different results from each contestant, and the lead kept shifting back and forth.  Jeremy got first blood in the initial letters round, only for Colin to overtake him in the first numbers round.  Colin was unfortunate in the next round when his word was not listed in the Macquarie, and Jeremy had the lead again.  But once more Colin's numberwork put him back into the lead, and then Jeremy tied up the scores in the next round.  Jeremy was one crucial step closer to the target number in the last numbers round and took a seven point lead into the conundrum.  Either could have won it, but in the end it proved too difficult for both; Jeremy squeaked through to the final with a 40 to 33 win.

I had good results -- nearly optimal, in fact -- including outdoing David in one round.  But an oversight in one of the numbers rounds lost me my chance to beat the David and Lily combination, and I was kicking myself for a while over that.  I did solve the conundrum a touch over halfway through, and rounded out what turned out to be a comfortable win.  I suspect I may not have won this the first time it aired, though -- some of my answers were definitely the result of improvements to my play.

Ep 298 [SF1]: Jacob Davey, Anthony Kendall (June 5, 2012; originally aired October 19, 2011)

Rounds: Here.

Disclaimer: I watched this episode when it first aired, and although I did not recall most of it I cannot rule out memory being a factor.  In one instance (to be mentioned later) I remembered a result after the fact; it is an edge case for another reason, also to be mentioned later.


A few more snippets about the competitors are revealed.  Jacob is a musical composer, and after his successful sixth episode he let out some of his emotional energy in a composition.  At the rather less pleasant end of the spectrum, Anthony has had three knee reconstructions on his left knee, due to rugby and perhaps other sporting injuries.


The contestants were locked together for the first third, and if not for one risky play from Anthony would have been matched for the first seven rounds.  However, those seven points conceded to Jacob were important, as Jacob outdid Anthony in the very tricky last numbers round to take an unassailable lead going into the conundrum.  Jacob solved it in extremely quick time to take a heartily deserved win, 70 to 46.

I had some up and down in this game, and it was not a good time for it -- both contestants were in excellent form.  I gained some advantage on the letters, but an extremely careless effort in the final numbers round saw me declare an invalid total and possibly become vulnerable again at the conundrum.  I did solve it, but much slower than Jacob did, and for all I know slower than Anthony would have solved it also.

Ep 297 [QF4]: Jeremy Schiftan, Brydon Coverdale (June 4, 2012; originally aired October 18, 2011)

Rounds: Here.

Disclaimer: I watched this episode when it first aired, and although I did not recall any of it I cannot rule out memory being a factor.


In this last quarterfinal we finally get to learn some new things about the contestants, at least of a sort.  It does make a nice change from the recital of their previous performances on the show.

In the champion's seat is fourth seed Jeremy Schiftan, a student and musician.  Since his time on the show, Jeremy has been travelling around Europe.  His highlights were the sunshine in Spain, and Ghent in Belgium; he has friends in Ghent that he met in previous travels through Europe.

In the challenger's position is fifth seed Brydon Coverdale, a cricket journalist.  Richard notes that (when this episode originally aired) the summer of cricket is about to get underway.  Brydon agrees, and says that he is about to go to South Africa to cover the Australian tour there, and that he thinks Capetown has just about the most beautiful cricket ground in the world.  (I'll make an aside here that the Australian cricket tour of South Africa started about a week before this episode first aired, but the point of filming was around two months prior.)


It was a tight game for much of it, with the contestants equal at the first break.  Jeremy scooted ahead in the second third, courtesy of a longer word and a solution to the numbers round.  The last letters game could have turned that on its head but produced no swing, and Brydon needed to outdo Jeremy on the final numbers game to have a chance.  He managed to do so, and set up a potential double conundrum round by going into it precisely ten points behind Jeremy.  But neither was able to solve the conundrum, and Jeremy made his way into the semifinals (to face Colin) with a 51 to 41 victory.

I was in decent shape, but missed a couple of trickier longer words along the way.  And then the final letters round I missed an answer I should have seen, which took the gloss off things a little.  I solved the conundrum reasonably early, and ended up an easy victor in the end.

Weekly Summary: Episodes 199 to 200, 294 to 296

It's been a very good week for me, realistically: Only just short of the combined David and Lily score on Tuesday and Wednesday, matching them on Thursday, and with a chance to overtake them on Friday if not for a numbers meltdown.  Subconscious memory may be a factor in the conundrums, but the rest of the rounds are going strongly in any case.  A stark contrast to my results on the series one finals episodes.

	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri
Me	76	77	77	73	66
Champion	39	33	24	48	33
Challenger	38	23	25	20	27
David + Lily	86	78	78	73	73
Me (solo)	81	77	77	73	66

Two full monties this week again, but only one was found.  Two tough numbers proved a challenge late in the week, and that's much better than the boring rounds we've had a few times recently.

	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri
Full Monties	1					1
Missed Full Monties			1			1
Tough Numbers				1	1	2
Impossible Numbers						0

It's been a pretty decent run recently, with Tuesday and Thursday being standouts.  The non-optimal result on Thursday was from an extremely tough numbers game, so I'm very happy with it in particular.  Of course, it is definitely possible that I am being helped by having seen these episodes the first time that they aired.

	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri
Maximums: L	2	4	3	5	4
N	3	3	3	2	2
C	1	1	1	1	1

Ep 296 [QF3]: Anthony Kendall, Simon Walsh (June 1, 2012; originally aired October 17, 2011)

Rounds: Here.

Disclaimer: I watched this episode when it first aired, and although I did not recall any of it I cannot rule out memory being a factor.


In the champion's seat for tonight's quarterfinal is third seed Anthony Kendall.  Anthony is a software developer and long-distance runner, and had the best final game score of anyone in the series.

Facing Anthony is the sixth seed, Simon Walsh.  Simon is an accountant and self-confessed sport tragic.  The first game he played on the show was against his wife, but hopefully that was taken in good spirit.  (I'm a bit against such things, on the whole; I know the show likes those matchups, but it guarantees that one of the pair will only get one game.  They might both have the potential to shine, if not for that.)


The game started out with a pair of matched rounds; then Anthony pulled ahead on the first numbers round -- a round that posed problems for Lily, as it turns out.  Simon gained back that lost territory in the next letters round, but then fell behind on each of the remaining letters rounds.  When the numbers failed to provide any swing -- he perhaps should have mixed it up on the last one -- Simon was out of contention going into the conundrum.  He solved it first to take the consolation points, but was left to rue what might have been; Anthony made it to the semifinals with a 54 to 51 victory.

I was doing well, and even had a chance at a rare double feature of outdoing both David and Lily on the same game... but I wimped out of the key word.  And then I had a disastrous numbers round where I got completely lost through overcomplication when the standard method would have worked well.  Only two rounds short of optimal, but what a difference they make to the score!

Ep 295 [QF2]: Colin Turnball, Paul Breen (May 31, 2012; originally aired October 14, 2011)

Rounds: Here.

Disclaimer: I watched this episode when it first aired, and although I did not recall any of it I cannot rule out memory being a factor.


Occupying the champion's seat in this second quarterfinal is second seed Colin Turnball, and actuary and adventure seeker.  During his run in the regular part of the series Colin solved five conundrums in a row.  But more importantly from his point of view, he got married a few months ago.  And, as he notes, they are still together.

Taking the challenger's position is magazine imaging specialist Paul Breen, the seventh seed.  When he was last on the show it was mentioned that he hoped to solve one of David's crosswords some day.  He is still trying, but is not there yet.


Paul gained an early lead over Colin in the first letters round, but Colin found the optimal results in the remaining letters rounds and Paul was just off the pace each time.  That was a major advantage to Colin, and when the contestants matched each other on the numbers rounds there was not enough chance for Paul to get back into contention.  Colin was safe going into the final numbers round, which was a testing one, and he solved the conundrum first also to record a 65 to 34 win and only two non-opimal rounds.  That's a high standard, for sure.

I was also in good form, fortunately for me.  In fact, only that last numbers round proved a stumbling block, and I solved the conundrum in good time.  (Bearing in mind that I would have seen it during the original airing, and I'm not sure how fast I found it then.)  Colin did not leave much room, but just enough for me to get home even if the conundrum result were reversed, so it's a good result for me.