I'm not sure if I'll keep this up -- there is already a perfectly good set of recaps for Countdown episodes over at c4countdown -- but for anyone who feels like comparing, here are my results. I'll be taking a much more bare-bones approach to Countdown recaps than I have to the Letters and Numbers ones; it honestly does not inspire me as much.
This episode is the first of series 64, from the begining of 2011. That's the fifth series of Jeff Stelling's run as host; I've found him the most watchable of the four hosts that the show has had since Richard Whiteley's death in 2005, but all that turnover has had its effects, with new presenters taking a while to develop that rapport with the rest of the cast which makes the show go much more enjoyably. Jeff was replaced by Nick Hewer at the start of 2012; who knows how long Nick will last? Of course, that's 220 episodes away, and with all respect to Countdown, I hope that SBS brings back Letters and Numbers before then.
Scoring poses a bit of a problem here, as different words are accepted. I'm probably going to end up with some Frankenstein mishmash of scoring, which is further reason why I'm not going into too much detail here. Words that I mention will be in the Macquarie unless otherwise noted, and may not necessarily be legal in Countdown.
The standard abbreviations in use below are DC for "Dictionary Corner", the two people who perform the same role as David does, and RR for "Rachel Riley", who has the equivalent function to Lily. Today's contestants are Mike Pickering and Karen Conduit.
The c4countdown recap for this episode is here.
Tuesday, 31 July 2012
Ep 16: Andrew Fisher, Alexis Harley (July 30, 2012; originally aired August 23, 2010)
Rounds: Here.
Disclaimer: While I have not seen this episode before, I did play through the blue book (episodes 1 to 50) around ten months ago when I was scheduled to be a contestant on the show. Additionally, I did a quick flick through it a few months back to collect words for my posts about word validity.
The chat with Andrew mostly just rehashes his performance from yesterday. Andrew notes that he saw the potential for FUMIGATES prior to the last tile being drawn, but that he saw NAUGHTIER just at "the last minute"... and I know it's an understandable phrase to use, but it grates every time. In any case, the video suggests that he found it just under halfway through, but for a player of his calibre that could well feel like a very long time.
Tonight's challenger is Alexis Harley, a university lecturer in English literature. Alexis plays online Scrabble and describes herself as a "bespectacle bagpiping bilbiophile". Richard picks up on the bagpipe aspect of that and asks for more information. Alexis explains that she and her mother were sitting outside a recorder lesson -- they were a bit early -- and her mother asked her what instrument she would like to take up when she dropped recorder. Alexis knew that her mother was thinking flute or violin, or possibly something like saxophone at the worst, so she tried to think of the most obnoxious answer that she could. He mother was kind enough to take her up on it, as she puts it.
It was a night for Alexis finding six-letter words only to be beaten by Andrew's seven-letter ones; that happened three times and together with the conundrum going Andrew's way proved an insuperable hurdle. There were a couple of tricky number mixes tonight; they went a bit each way although Andrew did the better, and the net result was his second victory, 63 to 32.
I had a great round in the letters, finding optimal answers that included two words longer than those found by Andrew; one of those also outdid David. However, I struggled in the numbers, missing a couple of adjustments to reach the target. One of those I should definitely have found, while the other was deservedly tough. But Lily was on target with both of them, so I ended up significantly behind the combined total. Against that, I managed to beat Andrew to the conundrum solution again, much to my surprise. All things considered, a pretty good game!
Disclaimer: While I have not seen this episode before, I did play through the blue book (episodes 1 to 50) around ten months ago when I was scheduled to be a contestant on the show. Additionally, I did a quick flick through it a few months back to collect words for my posts about word validity.
The chat with Andrew mostly just rehashes his performance from yesterday. Andrew notes that he saw the potential for FUMIGATES prior to the last tile being drawn, but that he saw NAUGHTIER just at "the last minute"... and I know it's an understandable phrase to use, but it grates every time. In any case, the video suggests that he found it just under halfway through, but for a player of his calibre that could well feel like a very long time.
Tonight's challenger is Alexis Harley, a university lecturer in English literature. Alexis plays online Scrabble and describes herself as a "bespectacle bagpiping bilbiophile". Richard picks up on the bagpipe aspect of that and asks for more information. Alexis explains that she and her mother were sitting outside a recorder lesson -- they were a bit early -- and her mother asked her what instrument she would like to take up when she dropped recorder. Alexis knew that her mother was thinking flute or violin, or possibly something like saxophone at the worst, so she tried to think of the most obnoxious answer that she could. He mother was kind enough to take her up on it, as she puts it.
It was a night for Alexis finding six-letter words only to be beaten by Andrew's seven-letter ones; that happened three times and together with the conundrum going Andrew's way proved an insuperable hurdle. There were a couple of tricky number mixes tonight; they went a bit each way although Andrew did the better, and the net result was his second victory, 63 to 32.
I had a great round in the letters, finding optimal answers that included two words longer than those found by Andrew; one of those also outdid David. However, I struggled in the numbers, missing a couple of adjustments to reach the target. One of those I should definitely have found, while the other was deservedly tough. But Lily was on target with both of them, so I ended up significantly behind the combined total. Against that, I managed to beat Andrew to the conundrum solution again, much to my surprise. All things considered, a pretty good game!
Sunday, 29 July 2012
Weekly summary: Episodes 11 to 15
The usual trend of the late-week slump continued, although the result is compounded by an unusual judgement from David. Some good early results saw me match the combined David and Lily team on Tuesday, and that is always nice. Friday marked an unusually high-scoring game but one which I have seen before so scoring it fairly is not really possible.
Stephen had a low-scoring run as champion before Sudesh defeated him on his third game. Sudesh was likewise defeated on his third game, and neither should make the finals.
All three full monties this week came from Friday's game, for an impressively high maximum of 109. That game set several records, although admittedly it is early in the game's history: First full monty found by a contestant; first full monty found by both contestants; first game with two full monties found by a contestant; first game with three full monties found by David; highest score by a winning contestant; highest score by a losing contestant; highest combined contestant total. On top of all that, this week saw the first genuinely unsolvable numbers game, so it has been pretty eventful all round.
Mildly erratic but mostly good form on the letters this week, but some flaws in the numbers in the later half. I had not realised that I had solved every conundrum until I collated the data -- that's a nice result. The highlight of the week was Tuesday's optimal game.
Contestants sorted by average score:
| Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Me | 74 | 77 | 70 | 56 | 90 |
| Champion | 10 | 13 | 24 | 10 | 28 |
| Challenger | 0 | 10 | 24 | 18 | 78 |
| David + Lily | 76 | 77 | 74 | 77 | 109 |
| Me (solo) | 74 | 77 | 70 | 63 | 97 |
Stephen had a low-scoring run as champion before Sudesh defeated him on his third game. Sudesh was likewise defeated on his third game, and neither should make the finals.
| Chris Scholten-Smith | 45 | 47 | 48 | 47 | 38 | 40 | 265 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aaron Tyrrell | 51 | 35 | 61 | 18 | 165 | ||
| Sudesh Piyatissa | 37 | 57 | 34 | 128 | |||
| Stephen Farrelly | 26 | 30 | 30 | 86 | |||
| Rob York | 52 | 42 | 94 |
All three full monties this week came from Friday's game, for an impressively high maximum of 109. That game set several records, although admittedly it is early in the game's history: First full monty found by a contestant; first full monty found by both contestants; first game with two full monties found by a contestant; first game with three full monties found by David; highest score by a winning contestant; highest score by a losing contestant; highest combined contestant total. On top of all that, this week saw the first genuinely unsolvable numbers game, so it has been pretty eventful all round.
| Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full Monties | 3 | 3 | ||||
| Missed Full Monties | 0 | |||||
| Tough Numbers | 0 | |||||
| Impossible Numbers | 1 | 1 |
Mildly erratic but mostly good form on the letters this week, but some flaws in the numbers in the later half. I had not realised that I had solved every conundrum until I collated the data -- that's a nice result. The highlight of the week was Tuesday's optimal game.
| Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Maximums: L | 3 | 5 | 3 | 5 | 3 |
| N | 3 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 3 |
| C | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
Contestants sorted by average score:
| Total | Games | Average | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Andrew Fisher* | 95 | 1 | 95.00 |
| Rob York | 94 | 2 | 47.00 |
| Chris Scholten-Smith | 265 | 6 | 44.17 |
| Sudesh Piyatissa | 128 | 3 | 42.67 |
| Aaron Tyrell | 165 | 4 | 41.25 |
| Tanya Ithier | 41 | 1 | 41.00 |
| Chaitanya Rao | 38 | 1 | 38.00 |
| Jason Stockdale | 37 | 1 | 37.00 |
| Lara Cassar | 35 | 1 | 35.00 |
| Elaine Miles | 33 | 1 | 33.00 |
| Jenny Blair | 33 | 1 | 33.00 |
| Alan Stewart | 29 | 1 | 29.00 |
| Stephen Farrelly | 86 | 3 | 28.67 |
| Helen Robinson | 27 | 1 | 27.00 |
| Michael Gin | 25 | 1 | 25.00 |
| Nick Taubert | 19 | 1 | 19.00 |
| Dawn Tuftan | 15 | 1 | 15.00 |
Saturday, 28 July 2012
Ep 15: Rob York, Andrew Fisher (July 27, 2012; originally aired August 20, 2010)
Rounds: Here.
Disclaimer: This is one of the most well-known games of the show's run; I have seen this episode before (and the latter part twice), although quite some time ago. There are three letters rounds that I recalled (for reasons that will be obvious in due course), and I'll mention those at the time. Additionally, I played through the blue book (episodes 1 to 50) around ten months ago when I was scheduled to be a contestant on the show and I did a quick flick through it a few months back to collect words for my posts about word validity.
Rob was in a rock and roll band in the '90s, which Richard uses to segue back to Rob's appearance in musical comedy mentioned yesterday. Richard asks if Rob has a favourite on-stage musical, and Rob responds that it is a hard question, but that Oklahoma! is the one.
Tonight's challenger is Andrew Fisher, an auditor who has represented both the UK and Australia in Scrabble many times, and his aim is to win the World Scrabble Championship. Richard remarks that it is quite a serious commitment to Scrabble, and Andrew agrees. A little later in the conversation it is mentioned that Andrew has co-written a book about how to win Scrabble.
Andrew adds that he has been playing for quite a few years now and has competed in the World Scrabble Championship a few times but never come better than fifth (which he did in both 1999 and 2001), so he would like to go a few better the next time he tries. He certainly accomplished that, coming second in 2011.
Andrew got off to a significant lead in the first two letters rounds and then three shared rounds followed, including the first full monty found by a contestant -- in fact, it was found by both contestants for a double first. Andrew extended his lead in the next numbers round and found another full monty in the last letters round. He finished it all off with a fast solution to the conundrum, and a very impressive 95 to 42 win. That game score of 95 is still a record, incidentally.
I missed the best option in the first round, but was back on track in the second. The three remaining letters rounds were the ones that I recalled, and the numbers rounds were not too difficult. I solved the conundrum faster than Andrew, although obviously I may be memory-aided on that front and I think he was taking a reasonably relaxed approach to it at that stage. It's hard to read much into all of this given that I recalled some significant rounds, of course.
Disclaimer: This is one of the most well-known games of the show's run; I have seen this episode before (and the latter part twice), although quite some time ago. There are three letters rounds that I recalled (for reasons that will be obvious in due course), and I'll mention those at the time. Additionally, I played through the blue book (episodes 1 to 50) around ten months ago when I was scheduled to be a contestant on the show and I did a quick flick through it a few months back to collect words for my posts about word validity.
Rob was in a rock and roll band in the '90s, which Richard uses to segue back to Rob's appearance in musical comedy mentioned yesterday. Richard asks if Rob has a favourite on-stage musical, and Rob responds that it is a hard question, but that Oklahoma! is the one.
Tonight's challenger is Andrew Fisher, an auditor who has represented both the UK and Australia in Scrabble many times, and his aim is to win the World Scrabble Championship. Richard remarks that it is quite a serious commitment to Scrabble, and Andrew agrees. A little later in the conversation it is mentioned that Andrew has co-written a book about how to win Scrabble.
Andrew adds that he has been playing for quite a few years now and has competed in the World Scrabble Championship a few times but never come better than fifth (which he did in both 1999 and 2001), so he would like to go a few better the next time he tries. He certainly accomplished that, coming second in 2011.
Andrew got off to a significant lead in the first two letters rounds and then three shared rounds followed, including the first full monty found by a contestant -- in fact, it was found by both contestants for a double first. Andrew extended his lead in the next numbers round and found another full monty in the last letters round. He finished it all off with a fast solution to the conundrum, and a very impressive 95 to 42 win. That game score of 95 is still a record, incidentally.
I missed the best option in the first round, but was back on track in the second. The three remaining letters rounds were the ones that I recalled, and the numbers rounds were not too difficult. I solved the conundrum faster than Andrew, although obviously I may be memory-aided on that front and I think he was taking a reasonably relaxed approach to it at that stage. It's hard to read much into all of this given that I recalled some significant rounds, of course.
Friday, 27 July 2012
Ep 14: Sudesh Piyatissa, Rob York (July 26, 2012; originally aired August 19, 2010)
Rounds: Here.
Disclaimer: While I have not seen this episode before, I did play through the blue book (episodes 1 to 50) around ten months ago when I was scheduled to be a contestant on the show. Additionally, I did a quick flick through it a few months back to collect words for my posts about word validity. After the fact, I recalled one of those turning up in this episode.
Richard asks if Sudesh's medical studies have taken him overseas, and Sudesh states that they have. The previous year in summer Sudesh and three of his mates went to the Caribbean for their medical elective. Sudesh claims that they primarily went there for the accent and and to work on their tan, but they also worked in the hospital in St Lucia and that was a great experience.
Tonight's challenger is Rob York, a technical officer who has been playing competitive Scrabble for three years. Rob used to sing comic opera; he was in two shows: H.M.S. Pinafore and Trial By Jury. He was in the chorus rather than playing a character, but always enjoyed being on the stage with the others.
The game started with a tough letters round, and then an unexpected ruling from David allowed Rob to get a lead in the second round. Sudesh followed up with two invalid answers, and then a series of flat rounds followed. Sudesh gained crucial points in the last numbers round to get back within range at the conundrum, but Rob solved it first to take the win, 52 to 34.
I had good results on the letters -- I was particularly pleased by my answer in the first round -- but I struggled on the numbers (I attribute part of that to playing this game at two in the morning). I completely froze on the first numbers round and ended up with nothing to declare there. I fell just short of the final numbers target also, but solved the conundrum in decent time to finish on a good note.
Disclaimer: While I have not seen this episode before, I did play through the blue book (episodes 1 to 50) around ten months ago when I was scheduled to be a contestant on the show. Additionally, I did a quick flick through it a few months back to collect words for my posts about word validity. After the fact, I recalled one of those turning up in this episode.
Richard asks if Sudesh's medical studies have taken him overseas, and Sudesh states that they have. The previous year in summer Sudesh and three of his mates went to the Caribbean for their medical elective. Sudesh claims that they primarily went there for the accent and and to work on their tan, but they also worked in the hospital in St Lucia and that was a great experience.
Tonight's challenger is Rob York, a technical officer who has been playing competitive Scrabble for three years. Rob used to sing comic opera; he was in two shows: H.M.S. Pinafore and Trial By Jury. He was in the chorus rather than playing a character, but always enjoyed being on the stage with the others.
The game started with a tough letters round, and then an unexpected ruling from David allowed Rob to get a lead in the second round. Sudesh followed up with two invalid answers, and then a series of flat rounds followed. Sudesh gained crucial points in the last numbers round to get back within range at the conundrum, but Rob solved it first to take the win, 52 to 34.
I had good results on the letters -- I was particularly pleased by my answer in the first round -- but I struggled on the numbers (I attribute part of that to playing this game at two in the morning). I completely froze on the first numbers round and ended up with nothing to declare there. I fell just short of the final numbers target also, but solved the conundrum in decent time to finish on a good note.
Ep 13: Sudesh Piyatissa, Tanya Ithier (July 25, 2012; originally aired August 18, 2010)
Rounds: Here.
Disclaimer: While I have not seen this episode before, I did play through the blue book (episodes 1 to 50) around ten months ago when I was scheduled to be a contestant on the show. Additionally, I did a quick flick through it a few months back to collect words for my posts about word validity.
Richard notes that Sudesh has been the host of a TV show before, so perhaps the studio environment is more familiar to him than to most contestants. Sudesh explains that a friend of his is in the film industry and has a show on community television called The Melbourne Update; Sudesh was offered and accepted the chance to co-host it a few years back. Richard suggests that this gives Sudesh a third string to his bow, if he decides against the comedy and neurosurgery careers.
Tonight's challenger is Tanya Ithier, a student in the first year of her social work and psychology degree. Tanya was once ranked third in Mauritius at table tennis; she explains that she started playing at the age of ten, just after school for fun. At some point she got noticed by a national trainer who took her under his wing and has trained her since, helping her get to that level.
Tanya started off with an early lead, but a phantom letter in the fourth round led to an invalid word from her and Sudesh narrowed the gap, then took the lead in a later numbers round. Two shared rounds followed, and Sudesh was ahead but vulnerable going into the conundrum. He solved it at the halfway mark to get his second win, 57 to 41.
I started off in reasonable shape, matching David and Lily for five rounds. Then I did somewhat poorly on the second numbers round, only just avoiding declaring an invalid answer. It was still good enough for points, but was a worrying lapse. The last numbers round also proved to be too tough for me to solve, but later checking revealed that it was genuinely unsolvable. I finished with a quick solution to the conundrum to poll another score in the seventies despite that wobbly period later on.
Disclaimer: While I have not seen this episode before, I did play through the blue book (episodes 1 to 50) around ten months ago when I was scheduled to be a contestant on the show. Additionally, I did a quick flick through it a few months back to collect words for my posts about word validity.
Richard notes that Sudesh has been the host of a TV show before, so perhaps the studio environment is more familiar to him than to most contestants. Sudesh explains that a friend of his is in the film industry and has a show on community television called The Melbourne Update; Sudesh was offered and accepted the chance to co-host it a few years back. Richard suggests that this gives Sudesh a third string to his bow, if he decides against the comedy and neurosurgery careers.
Tonight's challenger is Tanya Ithier, a student in the first year of her social work and psychology degree. Tanya was once ranked third in Mauritius at table tennis; she explains that she started playing at the age of ten, just after school for fun. At some point she got noticed by a national trainer who took her under his wing and has trained her since, helping her get to that level.
Tanya started off with an early lead, but a phantom letter in the fourth round led to an invalid word from her and Sudesh narrowed the gap, then took the lead in a later numbers round. Two shared rounds followed, and Sudesh was ahead but vulnerable going into the conundrum. He solved it at the halfway mark to get his second win, 57 to 41.
I started off in reasonable shape, matching David and Lily for five rounds. Then I did somewhat poorly on the second numbers round, only just avoiding declaring an invalid answer. It was still good enough for points, but was a worrying lapse. The last numbers round also proved to be too tough for me to solve, but later checking revealed that it was genuinely unsolvable. I finished with a quick solution to the conundrum to poll another score in the seventies despite that wobbly period later on.
Wednesday, 25 July 2012
Minor delays
I'm a bit busy for a couple of nights, so the writeups for episodes 13 to 15 will be delayed by at least a day, probably two.
Ep 12: Stephen Farrelly, Sudesh Piyatissa (July 24, 2012; originally aired August 17, 2010)
Rounds: Here.
Disclaimer: While I have not seen this episode before, I did play through the blue book (episodes 1 to 50) around ten months ago when I was scheduled to be a contestant on the show. Additionally, I did a quick flick through it a few months back to collect words for my posts about word validity.
Tonight Richard reveals that Stephen plays competitive lawn bowls. Stephen notes that he has been doing so for twenty-five years; he took it up after his AFL days. Richard asks what it is that appeals to him about the game, and Stephen responds that part of it is the way that the ball curves -- there are no straight lines.
Challenging Stephen is Sudesh Piyatissa, who is in his final year of studying medicine. Sudesh would like to star in a comedy, but if that does not work out he will return to his fallback position of being a neurosurgeon. His acting experience so far appears to be playing a superhero (with the power to see into the future) in a play for the Melbourne University Sri Lankan Students' Association.
Stephen got off to an unfortunate start with an invalid word, and Sudesh found good results in the next two rounds to take a twenty-three point lead at the first break. Stephen managed to get ground back in the remaining letters rounds, and was ten points behind at the final numbers game. His declared solution would have tied things up at the conundrum, but a careless error from him cost that chance and guaranteed Sudesh the win. Both contestants buzzed in at approximately the same time, with Sudesh just being a fraction faster. His answer was incorrect and so Stephen got the consolation prize of solving the conundrum, but Sudesh took the win 37 to 30.
I started out a little uncertain, but managed to find good answers just within time on the first three rounds. Thereafter I settled down and cruised through the rest of the game, culminating in a reasonably fast solution to the conundrum and a very satisfactory optimal game.
Disclaimer: While I have not seen this episode before, I did play through the blue book (episodes 1 to 50) around ten months ago when I was scheduled to be a contestant on the show. Additionally, I did a quick flick through it a few months back to collect words for my posts about word validity.
Tonight Richard reveals that Stephen plays competitive lawn bowls. Stephen notes that he has been doing so for twenty-five years; he took it up after his AFL days. Richard asks what it is that appeals to him about the game, and Stephen responds that part of it is the way that the ball curves -- there are no straight lines.
Challenging Stephen is Sudesh Piyatissa, who is in his final year of studying medicine. Sudesh would like to star in a comedy, but if that does not work out he will return to his fallback position of being a neurosurgeon. His acting experience so far appears to be playing a superhero (with the power to see into the future) in a play for the Melbourne University Sri Lankan Students' Association.
Stephen got off to an unfortunate start with an invalid word, and Sudesh found good results in the next two rounds to take a twenty-three point lead at the first break. Stephen managed to get ground back in the remaining letters rounds, and was ten points behind at the final numbers game. His declared solution would have tied things up at the conundrum, but a careless error from him cost that chance and guaranteed Sudesh the win. Both contestants buzzed in at approximately the same time, with Sudesh just being a fraction faster. His answer was incorrect and so Stephen got the consolation prize of solving the conundrum, but Sudesh took the win 37 to 30.
I started out a little uncertain, but managed to find good answers just within time on the first three rounds. Thereafter I settled down and cruised through the rest of the game, culminating in a reasonably fast solution to the conundrum and a very satisfactory optimal game.
Monday, 23 July 2012
Ep 11: Stephen Farrelly, Dawn Tuftan (July 23, 2012; originally aired August 16, 2010)
Rounds: Here.
Disclaimer: While I have not seen this episode before, I did play through the blue book (episodes 1 to 50) around ten months ago when I was scheduled to be a contestant on the show. Additionally, I did a quick flick through it a few months back to collect words for my posts about word validity.
Richard follows up yesterday's chat with Stephen by asking him how writing a film script is different from other sorts of writing. That does not work too well as a conversational gambit, as Stephen admits that he has not done any other writing before.
Tonight's challenger is Dawn Tuftan, a mother of two who is currently studying accounting by correspondence. Dawn is a keen scuba diver, and in particular used to go on night dives. Richard asks what the attraction of night diving is, and Dawn responds that they are amazing. She imagines it is similar to the feeling one might get in space: You are weightless; it is dark; it is quiet; and you can only hear yourself breathing. She adds that you can see some amazing marine life and it is very beautiful. It can be a little eerie at first, but once you get used to it it is very tranquil and relaxing.
Honours were even on the first letters round, then Dawn got a minor lead in the second. Stephen took the lead in the first numbers round, and extended it in the following letters round. Little difference followed, and the five points that Stephen scored in the last numbers round were enough to guarantee him the win. Neither was able to solve the conundrum, so the final scoreline was 30 to 15 in Stephen's favour.
I missed two eight-letter words today, the first of which I saw not long after time expired and the second of which would likely have eluded me for some time. Aside from that I had optimal answers, and a decent game throughout.
Disclaimer: While I have not seen this episode before, I did play through the blue book (episodes 1 to 50) around ten months ago when I was scheduled to be a contestant on the show. Additionally, I did a quick flick through it a few months back to collect words for my posts about word validity.
Richard follows up yesterday's chat with Stephen by asking him how writing a film script is different from other sorts of writing. That does not work too well as a conversational gambit, as Stephen admits that he has not done any other writing before.
Tonight's challenger is Dawn Tuftan, a mother of two who is currently studying accounting by correspondence. Dawn is a keen scuba diver, and in particular used to go on night dives. Richard asks what the attraction of night diving is, and Dawn responds that they are amazing. She imagines it is similar to the feeling one might get in space: You are weightless; it is dark; it is quiet; and you can only hear yourself breathing. She adds that you can see some amazing marine life and it is very beautiful. It can be a little eerie at first, but once you get used to it it is very tranquil and relaxing.
Honours were even on the first letters round, then Dawn got a minor lead in the second. Stephen took the lead in the first numbers round, and extended it in the following letters round. Little difference followed, and the five points that Stephen scored in the last numbers round were enough to guarantee him the win. Neither was able to solve the conundrum, so the final scoreline was 30 to 15 in Stephen's favour.
I missed two eight-letter words today, the first of which I saw not long after time expired and the second of which would likely have eluded me for some time. Aside from that I had optimal answers, and a decent game throughout.
Sunday, 22 July 2012
Weekly summary: Episodes 6 to 10
More invalid words kept the Wednesday and Thursday results down, but the week started off very well as I fell just short of David and Lily on Monday, and then outdid them on Tuesday. It could have finished that way also, but the conundrum was too tough for me. Still, Tuesday was absolutely the highlight thanks to a pair of full monties and a very rare score of 90.
Chris won his final game and became the show's first retiring champion. Aaron had a good run following him, but was defeated on his fourth game and probably will not make the finals.
David found both full monties this week, which turned up in the same game. There were some tricky numbers mixes around and Lily's unsolved count was unusually high. Maybe she was a little unwell? Two of them should have been fairly easy solves.
A wide spread of results this week, with invalid words costing me towards the end. Wednesday was the low point on maxes, although I did find a longer word than David in that game. The numbers performance was mostly good, with the ones that I missed feeling reasonably difficult (and two of those also eluding Lily).
Contestants sorted by average score:
| Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Me | 74 | 90 | 54 | 60 | 63 |
| Champion | 19 | 10 | 22 | 27 | 6 |
| Challenger | 29 | 17 | 12 | 23 | 14 |
| David + Lily | 76 | 87 | 76 | 78 | 70 |
| Me (solo) | 74 | 90 | 54 | 60 | 63 |
Chris won his final game and became the show's first retiring champion. Aaron had a good run following him, but was defeated on his fourth game and probably will not make the finals.
| Chris Scholten-Smith | 45 | 47 | 48 | 47 | 38 | 40 | 265 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aaron Tyrrell | 51 | 35 | 61 | 18 | 165 |
David found both full monties this week, which turned up in the same game. There were some tricky numbers mixes around and Lily's unsolved count was unusually high. Maybe she was a little unwell? Two of them should have been fairly easy solves.
| Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full Monties | 2 | 2 | ||||
| Missed Full Monties | 0 | |||||
| Tough Numbers | 2 | 2 | 4 | |||
| Impossible Numbers | 0 |
A wide spread of results this week, with invalid words costing me towards the end. Wednesday was the low point on maxes, although I did find a longer word than David in that game. The numbers performance was mostly good, with the ones that I missed feeling reasonably difficult (and two of those also eluding Lily).
| Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Maximums: L | 3 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 5 |
| N | 3 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 2 |
| C | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Invalid: L | - | - | 1 | 2 | - |
Contestants sorted by average score:
| Total | Games | Average | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chris Scholten-Smith | 265 | 6 | 44.17 |
| Aaron Tyrell | 165 | 4 | 41.25 |
| Chaitanya Rao | 38 | 1 | 38.00 |
| Jason Stockdale | 37 | 1 | 37.00 |
| Lara Cassar | 35 | 1 | 35.00 |
| Elaine Miles | 33 | 1 | 33.00 |
| Jenny Blair | 33 | 1 | 33.00 |
| Alan Stewart | 29 | 1 | 29.00 |
| Helen Robinson | 27 | 1 | 27.00 |
| Stephen Farrelly* | 26 | 1 | 26.00 |
| Michael Gin | 25 | 1 | 25.00 |
| Nick Taubert | 19 | 1 | 19.00 |
Ep 10: Aaron Tyrrell, Stephen Farrelly (July 20, 2012; originally aired August 13, 2010)
Rounds: Here.
Disclaimer: While I have not seen this episode before, I did play through the blue book (episodes 1 to 50) around ten months ago when I was scheduled to be a contestant on the show. Additionally, I did a quick flick through it a few months back to collect words for my posts about word validity.
Richard reveals that Aaron's first paying job was a column called "Grumpy Old Git". Aaron explains that he was very excited to see that a writing job was up for grabs; he sent in an opinion piece as requested, and they responded that he would be great for the Grumpy Old Git column. He was twenty-three at the time.
Challenging Aaron tonight is Stephen Farrelly, a management consultant who has also spent three years as a secondary school teacher. Stephen is currently writing a comic screenplay set within the education department. It is about an inept deputy vice principal who keeps getting promoted instead of demoted or sidelined.
Stephen got off to a good start with a best answer, then conceded most of that ground right back to Aaron when his next word was invalid. Neither scored in the numbers round -- in fact, only one valid scoring total was declared all game, in part due to an error from each player -- and then points were swapped over the course of the rest of the letters rounds. Stephen managed to get eight points ahead thanks to the numbers, but it was still anybody's game at the conundrum. The conundrum proved too difficult for them both and Stephen scraped through with a 26 to 18 victory.
I did quite well to start with, including solving a numbers round that eluded Lily within time. Sadly I dropped below optimal in the second very tough numbers round, but the chance to beat David and Lily was still there as Lily had also been stumped by it. Alas, the conundrum was too hard for me and so I missed out on that chance. Still, it was a decent game, conundrum aside, and another comfortable win.
Disclaimer: While I have not seen this episode before, I did play through the blue book (episodes 1 to 50) around ten months ago when I was scheduled to be a contestant on the show. Additionally, I did a quick flick through it a few months back to collect words for my posts about word validity.
Richard reveals that Aaron's first paying job was a column called "Grumpy Old Git". Aaron explains that he was very excited to see that a writing job was up for grabs; he sent in an opinion piece as requested, and they responded that he would be great for the Grumpy Old Git column. He was twenty-three at the time.
Challenging Aaron tonight is Stephen Farrelly, a management consultant who has also spent three years as a secondary school teacher. Stephen is currently writing a comic screenplay set within the education department. It is about an inept deputy vice principal who keeps getting promoted instead of demoted or sidelined.
Stephen got off to a good start with a best answer, then conceded most of that ground right back to Aaron when his next word was invalid. Neither scored in the numbers round -- in fact, only one valid scoring total was declared all game, in part due to an error from each player -- and then points were swapped over the course of the rest of the letters rounds. Stephen managed to get eight points ahead thanks to the numbers, but it was still anybody's game at the conundrum. The conundrum proved too difficult for them both and Stephen scraped through with a 26 to 18 victory.
I did quite well to start with, including solving a numbers round that eluded Lily within time. Sadly I dropped below optimal in the second very tough numbers round, but the chance to beat David and Lily was still there as Lily had also been stumped by it. Alas, the conundrum was too hard for me and so I missed out on that chance. Still, it was a decent game, conundrum aside, and another comfortable win.
Friday, 20 July 2012
Ep 9: Aaron Tyrrell, Lara Cassar (July 19, 2012; originally aired august 12, 2010)
Rounds: Here.
Disclaimer: While I have not seen this episode before, I did play through the blue book (episodes 1 to 50) around ten months ago when I was scheduled to be a contestant on the show. Additionally, I did a quick flick through it a few months back to collect words for my posts about word validity.
Aaron and his girlfriend recently travelled to South America, where they were fortunate to remain unscathed despite a series of incidents going on around them. They went to see Machu Picchu, and on the trail there one of the women they were travelling with actually fell off the edge. Fortunately it was only about a twelve foot drop (still could be quite nasty!) and they managed to lift her back up again.
Then the floods came and "pretty much wiped out the town". A bit later in the trip they were in Chile; they flew out of there and a week later the earthquake hit. It sounds like a good thing their entire trip had not been scheduled for a week later!
Tonight's challenger is Lara Cassar, a social researcher who has also been a massage therapist, a film producer, and a volunteer lifesaver. But Lara's favourite job was being a tour guide on the Sydney Harbour Bridge. She enjoyed meeting the many different people, and (of course) the view was always spectacular.
The contestants were mostly matched on the letters rounds; Lara had just the better of it, although she saw a phantom letter in the last letter round to give most of that advantage back. But Aaron had the comprehensive advantage in the numbers, finishing the game in strong style. He solved the conundrum in quick time -- the fastest of any contestant so far -- for a comprehensive 61 to 35 victory that admittedly was closer than the scoreline might suggest.
I had a wobbly game today that could have been very good instead with a bit better decision-making. I had problems in three letter rounds; I talked myself out of the best answer in two of them, once for a lesser result and once for an invalid longer one. The third round was another invalid option that did catch me by surprise; with sufficient thought afterwards I might have realised that, but there's just not that much time to think about such things. Aside from those three I had optimal rounds, including getting to the conundrum first, and in the end it was enough.
Disclaimer: While I have not seen this episode before, I did play through the blue book (episodes 1 to 50) around ten months ago when I was scheduled to be a contestant on the show. Additionally, I did a quick flick through it a few months back to collect words for my posts about word validity.
Aaron and his girlfriend recently travelled to South America, where they were fortunate to remain unscathed despite a series of incidents going on around them. They went to see Machu Picchu, and on the trail there one of the women they were travelling with actually fell off the edge. Fortunately it was only about a twelve foot drop (still could be quite nasty!) and they managed to lift her back up again.
Then the floods came and "pretty much wiped out the town". A bit later in the trip they were in Chile; they flew out of there and a week later the earthquake hit. It sounds like a good thing their entire trip had not been scheduled for a week later!
Tonight's challenger is Lara Cassar, a social researcher who has also been a massage therapist, a film producer, and a volunteer lifesaver. But Lara's favourite job was being a tour guide on the Sydney Harbour Bridge. She enjoyed meeting the many different people, and (of course) the view was always spectacular.
The contestants were mostly matched on the letters rounds; Lara had just the better of it, although she saw a phantom letter in the last letter round to give most of that advantage back. But Aaron had the comprehensive advantage in the numbers, finishing the game in strong style. He solved the conundrum in quick time -- the fastest of any contestant so far -- for a comprehensive 61 to 35 victory that admittedly was closer than the scoreline might suggest.
I had a wobbly game today that could have been very good instead with a bit better decision-making. I had problems in three letter rounds; I talked myself out of the best answer in two of them, once for a lesser result and once for an invalid longer one. The third round was another invalid option that did catch me by surprise; with sufficient thought afterwards I might have realised that, but there's just not that much time to think about such things. Aside from those three I had optimal rounds, including getting to the conundrum first, and in the end it was enough.
Thursday, 19 July 2012
Ep 8: Aaron Tyrrell, Michael Gin (July 18, 2012; originally aired August 11, 2010)
Disclaimer: While I have not seen this episode before, I did play
through the blue book (episodes 1 to 50) around ten months ago when I
was scheduled to be a contestant on the show. Additionally, I did a
quick flick through it a few months back to collect words for my posts about word validity.
Tonight Aaron is described as a copywriter, which certainly sounds better than yesterday's description as a "writer of junk mail". Aaron is about to start an online proofreading service aimed at year 12 and university students, where submissions will be edited for clarity, consistency, and correctness and they will fix up the students' punctuation, spelling, and grammar. Richard calls it "spellcheck with humans". Aaron agrees, and hopes that it will help students to lift their grades.
(I'm a bit undecided about whether I think such a service is a good thing; if they learn from it, then it is. If, on the other hand, they use it as a substitute for developing those skills then it may raise their grades but not their ability. Working in an educational institution as I do, I've heard far too many tales of students who have engaged in any number of actions aimed at increasing grades without actually learning anything. That is not a good thing.)
Challenging Aaron is Michael Gin, a secondary school teacher with thirty years of experience. He teaches mathematics and English to students who have English as a second language. Michael is also a tenor in Jonathon Welch's community choir known as THECHO!R.
There was a lot of back and forth in this game, with only one round yielding points for both contestants. Honours were even in the letters rounds, and mostly so in the numbers, too. The crucial moment came when Michael made a careless error in the first numbers round where a simple tweak would have seen him home, and that gave Aaron a ten point lead going into the conundrum. If Michael solved it first then it would go to a tiebreaker conundrum, but neither contestant managed it and Aaron gained his second win with a score of 35 to 25.
I was a bit disappointed by my performance today, which started off with an invalid word and finished with a wrong guess at the conundrum. In two other letter rounds I missed longer answers I should have found (one found just as time expired, the other not too long afterward). On the plus side, I did find two longer words than David managed, although one of them was only found after time. All in all, a wobbly performance, although I still managed a win against the contestants.
Tonight Aaron is described as a copywriter, which certainly sounds better than yesterday's description as a "writer of junk mail". Aaron is about to start an online proofreading service aimed at year 12 and university students, where submissions will be edited for clarity, consistency, and correctness and they will fix up the students' punctuation, spelling, and grammar. Richard calls it "spellcheck with humans". Aaron agrees, and hopes that it will help students to lift their grades.
(I'm a bit undecided about whether I think such a service is a good thing; if they learn from it, then it is. If, on the other hand, they use it as a substitute for developing those skills then it may raise their grades but not their ability. Working in an educational institution as I do, I've heard far too many tales of students who have engaged in any number of actions aimed at increasing grades without actually learning anything. That is not a good thing.)
Challenging Aaron is Michael Gin, a secondary school teacher with thirty years of experience. He teaches mathematics and English to students who have English as a second language. Michael is also a tenor in Jonathon Welch's community choir known as THECHO!R.
There was a lot of back and forth in this game, with only one round yielding points for both contestants. Honours were even in the letters rounds, and mostly so in the numbers, too. The crucial moment came when Michael made a careless error in the first numbers round where a simple tweak would have seen him home, and that gave Aaron a ten point lead going into the conundrum. If Michael solved it first then it would go to a tiebreaker conundrum, but neither contestant managed it and Aaron gained his second win with a score of 35 to 25.
I was a bit disappointed by my performance today, which started off with an invalid word and finished with a wrong guess at the conundrum. In two other letter rounds I missed longer answers I should have found (one found just as time expired, the other not too long afterward). On the plus side, I did find two longer words than David managed, although one of them was only found after time. All in all, a wobbly performance, although I still managed a win against the contestants.
Wednesday, 18 July 2012
Ep 7: Jenny Blair, Aaron Tyrrell (July 17, 2012; originally aired August 10, 2010)
Disclaimer: While I have not seen this episode before, I did play
through the blue book (episodes 1 to 50) around ten months ago when I
was scheduled to be a contestant on the show. Additionally, I did a
quick flick through it a few months back to collect words for my posts about word validity.
Two new contestants today; first up in the champion's position is Jenny Blair, a locum pharmacist and mother of three. Jenny has played the zither since she was eleven years old, and Richard asks for more information about what a zither is and how she came to play it. She explains that the zither is an Austrian folk instrument that is a bit of a cross between a harp and a table guitar; it is played on the table and has about fifty strings that need to be coordinated, so both hands are working at once. Jenny adds that her father was born in Austria, so she has been heavily involved with the Austrian Club in Melbourne since she was a young child and that is where she learned to play it.
In the challenger's position is Aaron Tyrrell, who writes junk mail for a living. Aaron once worked at a pub and was held up by a duck. That made me think of the time that Sam Gaffney was attacked by ducks, but it's not quite the same situation. This was a man dressed in a duck costume who entered the tavern to general bemusement, then jumped behind the bar and demanded that money be thrown into a bag (it is not mentioned if he was armed or simply intimidating). When the robber got back to his car it failed to start, and that was where some of the customers of the bar caught up with him and managed to detain him until the police arrived.
Aaron got out to an early lead with an excellent word in round 2. The next three rounds produced matching results from the contestants, but then Aaron finished strongly with better results in the last two numbers games and the last letters round. He had the match wrapped up after that last letters round, but Jenny got the consolation prize of solving the conundrum. That was the only time she was able to get unanswered points in the match, and Aaron won comfortably by 51 to 33.
I had a very good game, and in fact outscored the combination of David and Lily. That was due to two tough numbers rounds where the solution eluded Lily within time; I solved one of them but not the other, and managed to keep up with David on the words. I had decent conundrum speed to round off the game, and it was a very satisfactory win.
Two new contestants today; first up in the champion's position is Jenny Blair, a locum pharmacist and mother of three. Jenny has played the zither since she was eleven years old, and Richard asks for more information about what a zither is and how she came to play it. She explains that the zither is an Austrian folk instrument that is a bit of a cross between a harp and a table guitar; it is played on the table and has about fifty strings that need to be coordinated, so both hands are working at once. Jenny adds that her father was born in Austria, so she has been heavily involved with the Austrian Club in Melbourne since she was a young child and that is where she learned to play it.
In the challenger's position is Aaron Tyrrell, who writes junk mail for a living. Aaron once worked at a pub and was held up by a duck. That made me think of the time that Sam Gaffney was attacked by ducks, but it's not quite the same situation. This was a man dressed in a duck costume who entered the tavern to general bemusement, then jumped behind the bar and demanded that money be thrown into a bag (it is not mentioned if he was armed or simply intimidating). When the robber got back to his car it failed to start, and that was where some of the customers of the bar caught up with him and managed to detain him until the police arrived.
Aaron got out to an early lead with an excellent word in round 2. The next three rounds produced matching results from the contestants, but then Aaron finished strongly with better results in the last two numbers games and the last letters round. He had the match wrapped up after that last letters round, but Jenny got the consolation prize of solving the conundrum. That was the only time she was able to get unanswered points in the match, and Aaron won comfortably by 51 to 33.
I had a very good game, and in fact outscored the combination of David and Lily. That was due to two tough numbers rounds where the solution eluded Lily within time; I solved one of them but not the other, and managed to keep up with David on the words. I had decent conundrum speed to round off the game, and it was a very satisfactory win.
Monday, 16 July 2012
Ep 6: Chris Scholten-Smith, Alan Stewart (July 16, 2012; originally aired August 9, 2010)
Disclaimer: While I have not seen this episode before, I did play
through the blue book (episodes 1 to 50) around ten months ago when I
was scheduled to be a contestant on the show. Additionally, I did a
quick flick through it a few months back to collect words for my posts about word validity.
Since this is the first time it has come up, Richard explains the mandatory retirement of champions after six wins. Chris notes that he can see that he will be addicted to the show once he gets a chance to go home and view it on television.
Standing (or sitting, if you wish to be pedantic) between Chris and successful retirement is tonight's challenger, Alan Stewart. Alan is an editor and a poet; he collects board games and stamps. He also organises science fiction conventions, and his dream is to travel into space. Richard picks up on the science fiction aspect, and asks whether Alan has a favourite science fiction book and film. Alan opts for Shadow of the Torturer, by Gene Wolfe, and Star Wars. Richard suggests that maybe Blade Runner is worthy of the top spot, and Alan concedes that it is a good movie, but Star Wars was what hooked him on science fiction.
The first third of the game went well for Chris, with Alan risking an invalid word and otherwise being just a bit behind. That gave Chris a commanding twenty-one point lead, and by the second break Alan needed an eight-letter word (at least) to have a chance. It just was not on the cards, and Chris was safe with two rounds to go, although if Alan had managed to solve the conundrum the margin of victory would have been a single point. Neither managed it, though, and Chris became the show's first retiring champion with a 40 to 29 victory.
I was mostly in good shape, but it so easily could have been another optimal game. There were just two letters rounds in it; in the first, I saw the best answer a little after time -- as is so often the case -- and in the second I actually saw the best option in potentia as the letters went up, but had forgotten it by the time the last of its letters appeared on the board. Bother. Aside from that, it was all optimal, including a single-second conundrum solution. A hopeful start to the week, although flawed.
Since this is the first time it has come up, Richard explains the mandatory retirement of champions after six wins. Chris notes that he can see that he will be addicted to the show once he gets a chance to go home and view it on television.
Standing (or sitting, if you wish to be pedantic) between Chris and successful retirement is tonight's challenger, Alan Stewart. Alan is an editor and a poet; he collects board games and stamps. He also organises science fiction conventions, and his dream is to travel into space. Richard picks up on the science fiction aspect, and asks whether Alan has a favourite science fiction book and film. Alan opts for Shadow of the Torturer, by Gene Wolfe, and Star Wars. Richard suggests that maybe Blade Runner is worthy of the top spot, and Alan concedes that it is a good movie, but Star Wars was what hooked him on science fiction.
The first third of the game went well for Chris, with Alan risking an invalid word and otherwise being just a bit behind. That gave Chris a commanding twenty-one point lead, and by the second break Alan needed an eight-letter word (at least) to have a chance. It just was not on the cards, and Chris was safe with two rounds to go, although if Alan had managed to solve the conundrum the margin of victory would have been a single point. Neither managed it, though, and Chris became the show's first retiring champion with a 40 to 29 victory.
I was mostly in good shape, but it so easily could have been another optimal game. There were just two letters rounds in it; in the first, I saw the best answer a little after time -- as is so often the case -- and in the second I actually saw the best option in potentia as the letters went up, but had forgotten it by the time the last of its letters appeared on the board. Bother. Aside from that, it was all optimal, including a single-second conundrum solution. A hopeful start to the week, although flawed.
Sunday, 15 July 2012
Weekly summary: Episodes 1 to 5
The week went pretty well, as I managed to get close to the combined David and Lily total a couple of times, and tied with them once in Wednesday's optimal game. The end-of-week problems were back in force, though, as two invalid words and a missed conundrum saw me drop 35 points behind their total. Ouch!
Chris has won every game so far, so is the only name on the leaderboard. He has a decent chance to become the first retiring champion of the show.
David found the only full monty on offer this week. Although there were a couple of tricky numbers games, Lily was equal to the challenge of most of them, only missing one of them within time.
The week went mostly well, with the highlight being Wednesday's optimal game. Thursday was just short of optimal also, with an invalid word being the difference. Against that, Tuesday and Friday were poorer results, with Friday's efforts including two invalid words. I was strong on the numbers throughout, only missing out on the one optimal answer for the week.
Contestants sorted by average score:
| Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Me | 70 | 63 | 76 | 65 | 54 |
| Champion | 20 | 21 | 17 | 15 | 25 |
| Challenger | 18 | 6 | 0 | 15 | 24 |
| David + Lily | 74 | 76 | 76 | 69 | 89 |
| Me (solo) | 70 | 63 | 76 | 65 | 54 |
Chris has won every game so far, so is the only name on the leaderboard. He has a decent chance to become the first retiring champion of the show.
| Chris Scholten-Smith* | 45 | 47 | 48 | 47 | 38 | 225 |
|---|
David found the only full monty on offer this week. Although there were a couple of tricky numbers games, Lily was equal to the challenge of most of them, only missing one of them within time.
| Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full Monties | 1 | 1 | ||||
| Missed Full Monties | 0 | |||||
| Tough Numbers | 1 | 1 | ||||
| Impossible Numbers | 0 |
The week went mostly well, with the highlight being Wednesday's optimal game. Thursday was just short of optimal also, with an invalid word being the difference. Against that, Tuesday and Friday were poorer results, with Friday's efforts including two invalid words. I was strong on the numbers throughout, only missing out on the one optimal answer for the week.
| Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Maximums: L | 4 | 1 | 5 | 4 | 3 |
| N | 2 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 |
| C | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| Invalid: L | - | - | - | 1 | 2 |
Contestants sorted by average score:
| Total | Games | Average | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chris Scholten-Smith* | 225 | 5 | 45.00 |
| Chaitanya Rao | 38 | 1 | 38.00 |
| Jason Stockdale | 37 | 1 | 37.00 |
| Elaine Miles | 33 | 1 | 33.00 |
| Helen Robinson | 27 | 1 | 27.00 |
| Nick Taubert | 19 | 1 | 19.00 |
Saturday, 14 July 2012
Ep 5: Chris Scholten-Smith, Jason Stockdale (July 13, 2012; originally aired August 6, 2010)
Disclaimer: While I have not seen this episode before, I did play
through the blue book (episodes 1 to 50) around ten months ago when I
was scheduled to be a contestant on the show. Additionally, I did a
quick flick through it a few months back to collect words for my posts about word validity.
Nothing much to the pre-game chat with Chris again. Tonight's challenger is Jason Stockdale, who is studying a double degree in commerce and law. Jason has a part-time job as a soccer referee on weekends, and is also a highly competitive Scrabble player. In fact, he placed seventh in the recent (at the time of filming) 2010 Australian Championship. Readers with good memories will notice a few Letters and Numbers contestants among his opponents, and in particular that he managed to beat Andrew Fisher.
There were some much better words in play tonight, which was nice to see. Jason appeared to pay the price of the Scrabble vocabulary, twice ending up with invalid words, while Chris managed to avoid that fate (for the first time) and it proved an important difference. Jason had slightly the better of the numbers rounds, but it was Chris who had the lead by a single point going into the conundrum. In the end it proved to be too difficult for them both, and Chris scraped through with a 38 to 37 win, his lowest score so far. (Note that if he had solved the conundrum he would have ended up yet again with a score in the high forties. He's arguably quite consistent!)
I had a fairly mixed game. I found some good words early on, but the first was tainted by foreknowledge. My numberwork was on target throughout, but I finished with two invalid words and failed to solve the conundrum, ending the game on a disappointing note. I'd done enough to win, but it could have been significantly better.
Nothing much to the pre-game chat with Chris again. Tonight's challenger is Jason Stockdale, who is studying a double degree in commerce and law. Jason has a part-time job as a soccer referee on weekends, and is also a highly competitive Scrabble player. In fact, he placed seventh in the recent (at the time of filming) 2010 Australian Championship. Readers with good memories will notice a few Letters and Numbers contestants among his opponents, and in particular that he managed to beat Andrew Fisher.
There were some much better words in play tonight, which was nice to see. Jason appeared to pay the price of the Scrabble vocabulary, twice ending up with invalid words, while Chris managed to avoid that fate (for the first time) and it proved an important difference. Jason had slightly the better of the numbers rounds, but it was Chris who had the lead by a single point going into the conundrum. In the end it proved to be too difficult for them both, and Chris scraped through with a 38 to 37 win, his lowest score so far. (Note that if he had solved the conundrum he would have ended up yet again with a score in the high forties. He's arguably quite consistent!)
I had a fairly mixed game. I found some good words early on, but the first was tainted by foreknowledge. My numberwork was on target throughout, but I finished with two invalid words and failed to solve the conundrum, ending the game on a disappointing note. I'd done enough to win, but it could have been significantly better.
Friday, 13 July 2012
Ep 4: Chris Scholten-Smith, Chaitanya Rao (July 12, 2012; originally aired August 5, 2010)
Disclaimer: While I have not seen this episode before, I did play
through the blue book (episodes 1 to 50) around ten months ago when I
was scheduled to be a contestant on the show. Additionally, I did a
quick flick through it a few months back to collect words for my posts about word validity.
Chris returns for his fourth night, and the pre-game chat has nothing much to it -- just some banter about his book plans.
I was surprised to see that I recognised tonight's challenger (and this kind of experience is one reason why Letters and Numbers will play better to Australian audiences than Countdown will). He is Chaitanya Rao, described as an electrical engineer who has spent five years studying his PhD in the US. He was studying mathematics and then migrated into electrical engineering, which he carried on into postgraduate study. That's a lot of time spent as a student, which is why he says that if he wrote an autobiography it would be titled "Finally in the real world: A young man's delayed journey".
(I know Chaitanya from the mathematical olympiad training, as I was involved in that training back at the time; he ended up representing Australia in the 1994 International Mathematical Olympiad, where he gained an honourable mention.)
It was an unpromising night for the letters rounds, with nothing longer than seven on offer. Chris continued his pattern of one invalid answer per game, but picked up a little on the letters rounds as Chaitanya only once exceeded five. Chaitanya did well on the first numbers round -- a round that proved too tough for Lily within time -- to get within one of the target, and that gave him a single point lead going into the final numbers round. The victory was there for the taking, but he missed his chance and both contestants were still in contention at the conundrum. It was Chris who solved it first to record a 47 to 38 point victory for his fourth win.
I started off with an invalid word when I simply could not see one of the more plausible options of that length, which was a shame. Thereafter I was optimal, including safely (but fortunately) navigating the numbers round that caused Lily to falter. Coupled with a two second conundrum solution, only that invalid first round prevented my second optimal game in a row, and had I just settled for a safer shorter word I could have outpointed David and Lily. Still, a good game all things considered.
Chris returns for his fourth night, and the pre-game chat has nothing much to it -- just some banter about his book plans.
I was surprised to see that I recognised tonight's challenger (and this kind of experience is one reason why Letters and Numbers will play better to Australian audiences than Countdown will). He is Chaitanya Rao, described as an electrical engineer who has spent five years studying his PhD in the US. He was studying mathematics and then migrated into electrical engineering, which he carried on into postgraduate study. That's a lot of time spent as a student, which is why he says that if he wrote an autobiography it would be titled "Finally in the real world: A young man's delayed journey".
(I know Chaitanya from the mathematical olympiad training, as I was involved in that training back at the time; he ended up representing Australia in the 1994 International Mathematical Olympiad, where he gained an honourable mention.)
It was an unpromising night for the letters rounds, with nothing longer than seven on offer. Chris continued his pattern of one invalid answer per game, but picked up a little on the letters rounds as Chaitanya only once exceeded five. Chaitanya did well on the first numbers round -- a round that proved too tough for Lily within time -- to get within one of the target, and that gave him a single point lead going into the final numbers round. The victory was there for the taking, but he missed his chance and both contestants were still in contention at the conundrum. It was Chris who solved it first to record a 47 to 38 point victory for his fourth win.
I started off with an invalid word when I simply could not see one of the more plausible options of that length, which was a shame. Thereafter I was optimal, including safely (but fortunately) navigating the numbers round that caused Lily to falter. Coupled with a two second conundrum solution, only that invalid first round prevented my second optimal game in a row, and had I just settled for a safer shorter word I could have outpointed David and Lily. Still, a good game all things considered.
Wednesday, 11 July 2012
Ep 3: Chris Scholten-Smith, Helen Robinson (July 11, 2012; originally aired August 4, 2010)
Disclaimer: While I have not seen this episode before, I did play
through the blue book (episodes 1 to 50) around ten months ago when I
was scheduled to be a contestant on the show. Additionally, I did a
quick flick through it a few months back to collect words for my posts about word validity.
On his third night, we learn that Chris plays the piano and sings as well. Richard mentions that Chris also hopes to be a published novelist; he asks Chris whether he has a clear idea of what his novel will be, and in particular whether he can visualise the cover for it. Chris replies that he has it all worked out: It is going to be an existential thriller and there will be a cliff on the front cover. He adds that he has only written around 250 words so far, so he has quite a way to go.
Challenging Chris tonight is Helen Robinson, a published author with a background in social welfare, teaching, and criminology. Her book was about rage (which is also its title); Helen clarifies that it isn't a novel, and is very much written for the layman. It talks about a lot of different types of rage and anger; Richard asks if it is about anger management, and Helen agrees to an extent. She explains that it is more about the escalation of anger that leads to rage.
Fortunately it was a rage-free game. Helen unfortunately had three invalid answers, which made it hard to keep up with Chris, despite him having an invalid answer of his own. It was the numbers rounds that really proved the difference in this game, with Chris doing well to get close each time and Helen not able to match that. Once again Chris had the game wrapped up by the end of round seven, and although Helen solved the conundrum first Chris was the victor, 48 to 27.
I wasn't quite as fast as I would have liked to be in the letters rounds, but I got there within time and that's what counts. There weren't any nasty surprises lurking in the main rounds and I ended up with an optimal game, including a one second conundrum solution. Both very nice things to have!
On his third night, we learn that Chris plays the piano and sings as well. Richard mentions that Chris also hopes to be a published novelist; he asks Chris whether he has a clear idea of what his novel will be, and in particular whether he can visualise the cover for it. Chris replies that he has it all worked out: It is going to be an existential thriller and there will be a cliff on the front cover. He adds that he has only written around 250 words so far, so he has quite a way to go.
Challenging Chris tonight is Helen Robinson, a published author with a background in social welfare, teaching, and criminology. Her book was about rage (which is also its title); Helen clarifies that it isn't a novel, and is very much written for the layman. It talks about a lot of different types of rage and anger; Richard asks if it is about anger management, and Helen agrees to an extent. She explains that it is more about the escalation of anger that leads to rage.
Fortunately it was a rage-free game. Helen unfortunately had three invalid answers, which made it hard to keep up with Chris, despite him having an invalid answer of his own. It was the numbers rounds that really proved the difference in this game, with Chris doing well to get close each time and Helen not able to match that. Once again Chris had the game wrapped up by the end of round seven, and although Helen solved the conundrum first Chris was the victor, 48 to 27.
I wasn't quite as fast as I would have liked to be in the letters rounds, but I got there within time and that's what counts. There weren't any nasty surprises lurking in the main rounds and I ended up with an optimal game, including a one second conundrum solution. Both very nice things to have!
Tuesday, 10 July 2012
Ep 2: Chris Scholten-Smith, Nick Taubert (July 10, 2012; originally aired August 3, 2010)
Disclaimer: While I have not seen this episode before, I did play
through the blue book (episodes 1 to 50) around ten months ago when I
was scheduled to be a contestant on the show. Additionally, I did a
quick flick through it a few months back to collect words for my posts about word validity.
Chris is the show's first carryover champion, but the talk with him today is just about yesterday's game coming down to the conundrum. Did we already run out of things to say about him? I noticed that the contestant introductions so far have been a bit more information-dense than in more recent episodes; maybe they started off by mentioning everything and then realised that this left them poorly placed for later shows with the same contestant. Or maybe it was just that they felt more like talking up yesterday's show at this point.
Challenging Chris is Nick Taubert, an administrator for a superannuation company. Nick also works for a children's charity, and has played indoor soccer for eight years. But it is another recent experience of his that Richard chooses to ask about: For the past year Nick and his housemates have been participating in couch surfing, where people who are travelling stay on their couch for a night or two. Nick describes it as a brilliant way to meet people from all over the world.
This game was a much more one-sided affair than last night's effort, with Nick twice seeing phantom letters and ending up with invalid words. Chris had an invalid word of his own in the first round, but picked up gains in both letters and numbers rounds to be safe after round seven. The conundrum proved to be too difficult for both contestants and Chris gained his second win, 47 to 19.
I had a reasonable game today, but missed several better answers with the letters. Two of those I found not long after, and a third I should have seen as it is a frequent appearer on the show. That was a bit disappointing, but my answers were still adequate. The conundrum was also too difficult for me -- vastly harder than last night's doddle -- but I still finished with a solid win.
Chris is the show's first carryover champion, but the talk with him today is just about yesterday's game coming down to the conundrum. Did we already run out of things to say about him? I noticed that the contestant introductions so far have been a bit more information-dense than in more recent episodes; maybe they started off by mentioning everything and then realised that this left them poorly placed for later shows with the same contestant. Or maybe it was just that they felt more like talking up yesterday's show at this point.
Challenging Chris is Nick Taubert, an administrator for a superannuation company. Nick also works for a children's charity, and has played indoor soccer for eight years. But it is another recent experience of his that Richard chooses to ask about: For the past year Nick and his housemates have been participating in couch surfing, where people who are travelling stay on their couch for a night or two. Nick describes it as a brilliant way to meet people from all over the world.
This game was a much more one-sided affair than last night's effort, with Nick twice seeing phantom letters and ending up with invalid words. Chris had an invalid word of his own in the first round, but picked up gains in both letters and numbers rounds to be safe after round seven. The conundrum proved to be too difficult for both contestants and Chris gained his second win, 47 to 19.
I had a reasonable game today, but missed several better answers with the letters. Two of those I found not long after, and a third I should have seen as it is a frequent appearer on the show. That was a bit disappointing, but my answers were still adequate. The conundrum was also too difficult for me -- vastly harder than last night's doddle -- but I still finished with a solid win.
Ep 1: Chris Scholten-Smith, Elaine Miles (July 9, 2012; originally aired August 2, 2010)
It used to be that each episode of Letters and Numbers had a repeat screening a week later, at three in the afternoon. Now that all filmed episodes have been shown, SBS has made the excellent decision to continue to use that timeslot to show the episodes from the very beginning. That gives a lot of people a chance to see episodes that they missed out on the first time, and I'm pretty happy about that.
Episodes of Countdown are scheduled to start three weeks from now, and it remains to be seen whether they will then migrate into that repeat slot or whether (as I hope) the reruns of Letters and Numbers will continue. Regardless, I intend to enjoy this while it lasts.
Disclaimer: While I have not seen this episode before, I did play through the blue book (episodes 1 to 50) around ten months ago when I was scheduled to be a contestant on the show. Additionally, I did a quick flick through it a few months back to collect words for my posts about word validity. One particular word did stay in my mind from that, which I will mention in due course.
So... the very first episode of Letters and Numbers. There's a certain bittersweet irony to this one given the current decision to rest the show: Richard opens with a little spiel that mentions how the format has lasted a long time in France and the UK, and that they hope the show will prove just as popular here. I honestly think that they nailed that brief in the time that they had, and were picking up a groundswell of school viewers that would really have paid off in five years time or so.
It will be interesting to see how the cast settles into their roles. There's a few moments of stiffness here and there tonight, and David is wearing an uncharacteristically bland shirt by the standards of later episodes. His opening response to Richard is a little more subdued than I'm used to, and drives home just how good a rapport the three of them built with each other in a short time. I'm looking forward to seeing that develop.
Taking up what will come to be known as the champion's position is Chris Scholten-Smith, a secondary school teacher of literature, Latin, the ancient classics, and Chinese. That's an interesting combination, and Richard asks how come Chris chose both Latin and Chinese. Chris responds that Latin was still a compulsory subject when he was at school, and later on in life he went to China, living and working in Nanjing. That was a wonderful experience for him, and how his other passion was awakened.
Occupying the challenger's position is Elaine Miles, who is studying a PhD in physics and arts conservation. Elaine is writing a thesis on the non-destructive testing of artwork; on a lighter note, she is part of a knitting group called Yarncore. Elaine explains that this is a group of twenty physicists who have been knitting for the past three years and made over a hundred items, including some for street festivals.
(This sounds unrelated to the Seattle-based YarnCore, but maybe there is a connection after all.)
It was a vowel-heavy night from both contestants, which kept word lengths down. Elaine risked a longer word in the first round and an unusual decision saw it validated to give her an early advantage. The next round saw both contestants try invalid words, and the remaining letters rounds provided no further swing. The first numbers round was shared, but a surprising miss from Elaine in the second numbers round saw Chris take the lead. With the last numbers round proving too difficult for both contestants, Chris was ahead but catchable going into the conundrum. Chris solved it in quick time to get the win, 45 points to 33.
I had a decent game, only dropping two maximums. One of those I might have seen if I had been a bit more careful, but the other was a numbers game that was simply too tough for me (but not the ever-impressive Lily, even this early in the show's history). The conundrum was pretty clear, but I was still a second slower than desirable; I'm confident that I'd have been beaten to it by a goodly percentage of finalists.
Episodes of Countdown are scheduled to start three weeks from now, and it remains to be seen whether they will then migrate into that repeat slot or whether (as I hope) the reruns of Letters and Numbers will continue. Regardless, I intend to enjoy this while it lasts.
Disclaimer: While I have not seen this episode before, I did play through the blue book (episodes 1 to 50) around ten months ago when I was scheduled to be a contestant on the show. Additionally, I did a quick flick through it a few months back to collect words for my posts about word validity. One particular word did stay in my mind from that, which I will mention in due course.
So... the very first episode of Letters and Numbers. There's a certain bittersweet irony to this one given the current decision to rest the show: Richard opens with a little spiel that mentions how the format has lasted a long time in France and the UK, and that they hope the show will prove just as popular here. I honestly think that they nailed that brief in the time that they had, and were picking up a groundswell of school viewers that would really have paid off in five years time or so.
It will be interesting to see how the cast settles into their roles. There's a few moments of stiffness here and there tonight, and David is wearing an uncharacteristically bland shirt by the standards of later episodes. His opening response to Richard is a little more subdued than I'm used to, and drives home just how good a rapport the three of them built with each other in a short time. I'm looking forward to seeing that develop.
Taking up what will come to be known as the champion's position is Chris Scholten-Smith, a secondary school teacher of literature, Latin, the ancient classics, and Chinese. That's an interesting combination, and Richard asks how come Chris chose both Latin and Chinese. Chris responds that Latin was still a compulsory subject when he was at school, and later on in life he went to China, living and working in Nanjing. That was a wonderful experience for him, and how his other passion was awakened.
Occupying the challenger's position is Elaine Miles, who is studying a PhD in physics and arts conservation. Elaine is writing a thesis on the non-destructive testing of artwork; on a lighter note, she is part of a knitting group called Yarncore. Elaine explains that this is a group of twenty physicists who have been knitting for the past three years and made over a hundred items, including some for street festivals.
(This sounds unrelated to the Seattle-based YarnCore, but maybe there is a connection after all.)
It was a vowel-heavy night from both contestants, which kept word lengths down. Elaine risked a longer word in the first round and an unusual decision saw it validated to give her an early advantage. The next round saw both contestants try invalid words, and the remaining letters rounds provided no further swing. The first numbers round was shared, but a surprising miss from Elaine in the second numbers round saw Chris take the lead. With the last numbers round proving too difficult for both contestants, Chris was ahead but catchable going into the conundrum. Chris solved it in quick time to get the win, 45 points to 33.
I had a decent game, only dropping two maximums. One of those I might have seen if I had been a bit more careful, but the other was a numbers game that was simply too tough for me (but not the ever-impressive Lily, even this early in the show's history). The conundrum was pretty clear, but I was still a second slower than desirable; I'm confident that I'd have been beaten to it by a goodly percentage of finalists.
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