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.
David Jones successfully retired yesterday, so there are two new challengers tonight. Occupying the champion's position is James Pho, a third-year medical student who pays his way by cycle advertising. This involves him cycling around pulling a billboard behind him; James says that it is pretty big, and that can get annoying when the weather is windy. He adds that it is one of the better part-time jobs he has had, as it has all of his favourite things: Wearing lycra, riding bikes, and -- of course -- getting paid.
In the challenger's seat is Rob Mould, a retired I.T. consultant who has recently returned to university to study a bachelor's degree in business and financial planning. He recently sat his first exam in forty years, and topped it. Rob describes the experience of returning to university as stressful, but he had to do something to keep his brain going after working for thirty-nine years.
The contestants were quite evenly matched; in fact, they scored equally on the first six of the main rounds. Then Rob got a small lead in the final letters round; he had a chance to seal the win in the following numbers round, but had become confused about which numbers were on the board and his answer was invalid. That kept the game alive going into the conundrum; for a while it looked like it might elude them both but then Rob found the answer a bit over twenty seconds in. That confirmed his victory with a final scoreline of 48 to 32.
I... well, there were some difficult letters rounds today, but I was still off my best which led to an unwanted record: For the first time since I have been keeping track of the maximums (110 episodes now) I failed to get a single maximum in the letters rounds. A tough numbers round further reduced the maximum count, and I was disappointed to end up rather further away from the target than I should have. The one redeeming feature of tonight was solving the conundrum quickly.
Friday, 31 August 2012
Thursday, 30 August 2012
Ep 38: David Jones, Brendan Murphy (August 29, 2012; originally aired September 22, 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.
This is the sixth and final night for David Jones, at least until the finals series. Richard asks whether David is more comfortable with the letters rounds or the numbers rounds; the answer to that is pretty obvious from anyone who has been following the play. But David still manages to add a twist to it, saying that nine conundrums would suit him best. Heh! That's fairly true, as he has solved four of the five so far (Kiao Inthavong beat him to the other one).
David does then grant that the letters have been much better for him than the numbers, and Richard reminds us that David found a nine-letter word yesterday. David goes too far when he states that it proved the difference in that game; the winning margin was greater than that, so he would have had to actually give up points to Beckett to have lost. Since that would have required either an invalid word or at most a five, it was highly unlikely.
Tonight's challenger is Brendan Murphy, an I.T. manager at a secondary college. Brendan has travelled extensively within Australia; one of his favourite spots is the Gold Coast, which he says is a great place to take the family and have a really relaxing holiday.
As mentioned before, I'll be referring to David Astle throughout as DA to avoid confusion about which David is which.
David got off to an early lead, then several shared rounds followed (including a numbers round that neither was able to make any progress on). Then David extended his lead in the next three rounds, and was safe going into the final numbers round. Both shared points in that, but the conundrum was too difficult for either of them -- David buzzed in halfway through with an incorrect answer -- and David became the show's fourth retiring champion with a 53 to 22 win.
I had a reasonable game -- the only maximum I missed in the main rounds was rather obscure and I was not prepared to risk it -- but the conundrum was also too difficult for me. I finished comfortably ahead, but was disappointed to break what has been a pretty good streak on the conundrums -- 17 in a row solved within regulation time, even if contestants have beaten me to them sometimes.
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.
This is the sixth and final night for David Jones, at least until the finals series. Richard asks whether David is more comfortable with the letters rounds or the numbers rounds; the answer to that is pretty obvious from anyone who has been following the play. But David still manages to add a twist to it, saying that nine conundrums would suit him best. Heh! That's fairly true, as he has solved four of the five so far (Kiao Inthavong beat him to the other one).
David does then grant that the letters have been much better for him than the numbers, and Richard reminds us that David found a nine-letter word yesterday. David goes too far when he states that it proved the difference in that game; the winning margin was greater than that, so he would have had to actually give up points to Beckett to have lost. Since that would have required either an invalid word or at most a five, it was highly unlikely.
Tonight's challenger is Brendan Murphy, an I.T. manager at a secondary college. Brendan has travelled extensively within Australia; one of his favourite spots is the Gold Coast, which he says is a great place to take the family and have a really relaxing holiday.
As mentioned before, I'll be referring to David Astle throughout as DA to avoid confusion about which David is which.
David got off to an early lead, then several shared rounds followed (including a numbers round that neither was able to make any progress on). Then David extended his lead in the next three rounds, and was safe going into the final numbers round. Both shared points in that, but the conundrum was too difficult for either of them -- David buzzed in halfway through with an incorrect answer -- and David became the show's fourth retiring champion with a 53 to 22 win.
I had a reasonable game -- the only maximum I missed in the main rounds was rather obscure and I was not prepared to risk it -- but the conundrum was also too difficult for me. I finished comfortably ahead, but was disappointed to break what has been a pretty good streak on the conundrums -- 17 in a row solved within regulation time, even if contestants have beaten me to them sometimes.
Wednesday, 29 August 2012
Ep 37: David Jones, Beckett Rozentals (August 28, 2012; originally aired September 21, 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.
This is David Jones' fifth night, and Richard asks what prompted him to move to Australia. David says that "apart from the obvious reasons" he met his now-wife while she was working in the UK for a couple of years. When her visa expired he asked her if she would like him to head to Australia and see what happens; obviously that worked out pretty well.
Tonight's challenger is Beckett Rozentals, a fashion designer, art curator, and history lecturer. Beckett rides her bike to work each day "in high fashion and in high heels". And, well, that's about it for what we find out about her.
As mentioned before, I'll be referring to David Astle throughout as DA to avoid confusion about which David is which.
It was a rather mixed performance from David tonight; he got off to a good start in the first two letters rounds, including finding a full monty, but was only able to score four points in the next four rounds. Beckett was not able to capitalise on this lapse, though, and David ended up ahead by enough to be safe going into the conundrum. He solved it quickly once more to get his fifth win, 55 to 34.
I was mostly in good shape tonight, although I missed one word I should have got. Once more I was slow on the conundrum, with David beating me to it by a second. Against that, I managed to solve a numbers round in time that Lily did not, and that gave me a very rare solo total larger than the combined DA/Lily combination.
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.
This is David Jones' fifth night, and Richard asks what prompted him to move to Australia. David says that "apart from the obvious reasons" he met his now-wife while she was working in the UK for a couple of years. When her visa expired he asked her if she would like him to head to Australia and see what happens; obviously that worked out pretty well.
Tonight's challenger is Beckett Rozentals, a fashion designer, art curator, and history lecturer. Beckett rides her bike to work each day "in high fashion and in high heels". And, well, that's about it for what we find out about her.
As mentioned before, I'll be referring to David Astle throughout as DA to avoid confusion about which David is which.
It was a rather mixed performance from David tonight; he got off to a good start in the first two letters rounds, including finding a full monty, but was only able to score four points in the next four rounds. Beckett was not able to capitalise on this lapse, though, and David ended up ahead by enough to be safe going into the conundrum. He solved it quickly once more to get his fifth win, 55 to 34.
I was mostly in good shape tonight, although I missed one word I should have got. Once more I was slow on the conundrum, with David beating me to it by a second. Against that, I managed to solve a numbers round in time that Lily did not, and that gave me a very rare solo total larger than the combined DA/Lily combination.
Tuesday, 28 August 2012
Ep 36: David Jones, Ben Strate (August 27, 2012; originally aired September 20, 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.
David Jones faces the crucial fourth game hurdle tonight, but there's essentially nothing to the pre-game chat. He's had a good run so far, with his lowest score being 50.
Tonight's challenger is Ben Strate, an energy and resource lawyer with a passion for musicals. Richard checks whether this passion extends to performing in them, and Ben confirms that he likes to do so -- the singing, at least; he says that dancing is not such a strength of his. Some of the musicals that he has performed in are Into the Woods, Urinetown, and Singin' in the Rain.
(I recall seeing a wonderful production of Into the Woods at the Sydney Opera House in 1993. They had a nifty rotating stage that they used to very good effect.)
As mentioned before, I'll be referring to David Astle throughout as DA to avoid confusion about which David is which.
David got off to an early lead when Ben essayed a risky word without success; Ben was perhaps a little unlucky as it was certainly a relatable concept. A couple of shared rounds followed, but then David won the next two letters rounds to build a significant lead. Ben was not able to capitalise on the opportunities offered by the numbers rounds, and David was guaranteed the win before the conundrum. He continued his good form by solving it to register a 61 to 30 victory.
I found a couple of good words tonight, but also missed a couple. I was very slow on the conundrum, but I'd done enough in the numbers to take the win anyway. I definitely needed the advantage that they provided his time!
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.
David Jones faces the crucial fourth game hurdle tonight, but there's essentially nothing to the pre-game chat. He's had a good run so far, with his lowest score being 50.
Tonight's challenger is Ben Strate, an energy and resource lawyer with a passion for musicals. Richard checks whether this passion extends to performing in them, and Ben confirms that he likes to do so -- the singing, at least; he says that dancing is not such a strength of his. Some of the musicals that he has performed in are Into the Woods, Urinetown, and Singin' in the Rain.
(I recall seeing a wonderful production of Into the Woods at the Sydney Opera House in 1993. They had a nifty rotating stage that they used to very good effect.)
As mentioned before, I'll be referring to David Astle throughout as DA to avoid confusion about which David is which.
David got off to an early lead when Ben essayed a risky word without success; Ben was perhaps a little unlucky as it was certainly a relatable concept. A couple of shared rounds followed, but then David won the next two letters rounds to build a significant lead. Ben was not able to capitalise on the opportunities offered by the numbers rounds, and David was guaranteed the win before the conundrum. He continued his good form by solving it to register a 61 to 30 victory.
I found a couple of good words tonight, but also missed a couple. I was very slow on the conundrum, but I'd done enough in the numbers to take the win anyway. I definitely needed the advantage that they provided his time!
Sunday, 26 August 2012
Weekly summary: Episodes 31 to 35
My solo scores were all in the 70's for the first time this series, although the three-way scores were not always so good (mostly due to a contestant solving the conundrum first). David Jones played a couple of good games midweek to make life tricky; I only just outscored him on Wednesday and ended up with a tie on Thursday.
Naween successfully retired, as expected. Only a fraction too much risk in his last game kept him from taking the top spot on the rankings -- it was very close! David Jones has begun his march up the leader board, and at this rate will settle comfortably into third place if he goes all the way.
It was a bland week, with no full monties on offer and most numbers games being a bit too easy. Not all of them, but Lily continued her excellent form to solve them all and that is two weeks in a row for that.
I had three good games where I was only just off a maximal game; the one which really should have been was Tuesday's effort, where I missed what should have been a simple find of ROTATION.
Contestants sorted by average score:
| Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Me | 71 | 76 | 64 | 57 | 73 |
| Champion | 40 | 24 | 30 | 57 | 31 |
| Challenger | 6 | 41 | 58 | 17 | 16 |
| David + Lily | 76 | 77 | 74 | 77 | 75 |
| Me (solo) | 71 | 76 | 74 | 73 | 73 |
Naween successfully retired, as expected. Only a fraction too much risk in his last game kept him from taking the top spot on the rankings -- it was very close! David Jones has begun his march up the leader board, and at this rate will settle comfortably into third place if he goes all the way.
| Andrew Fisher | 95 | 63 | 64 | 67 | 67 | 59 | 415 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Naween Fernando | 73 | 60 | 64 | 94 | 64 | 56 | 411 |
| Chris Scholten-Smith | 45 | 47 | 48 | 47 | 38 | 40 | 265 |
| Kashi Ross | 48 | 46 | 34 | 41 | 45 | 32 | 246 |
| David Jones* | 63 | 63 | 50 | 177 | |||
| Aaron Tyrrell | 51 | 35 | 61 | 18 | 165 | ||
| Sudesh Piyatissa | 37 | 57 | 34 | 128 | |||
| Stephen Farrelly | 26 | 30 | 30 | 86 |
It was a bland week, with no full monties on offer and most numbers games being a bit too easy. Not all of them, but Lily continued her excellent form to solve them all and that is two weeks in a row for that.
| Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full Monties | 0 | |||||
| Missed Full Monties | 0 | |||||
| Tough Numbers | 0 | |||||
| Impossible Numbers | 0 |
I had three good games where I was only just off a maximal game; the one which really should have been was Tuesday's effort, where I missed what should have been a simple find of ROTATION.
| Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Maximums: L | 2 | 4 | 4 | 2 | 4 |
| N | 2 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 |
| C | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
Contestants sorted by average score:
| Total | Games | Average | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Andrew Fisher | 415 | 6 | 69.17 |
| Naween Fernando | 411 | 6 | 68.50 |
| David Jones* | 177 | 3 | 59.00 |
| Rob York | 94 | 2 | 47.00 |
| Chris Scholten-Smith | 265 | 6 | 44.17 |
| Geoff Heard | 88 | 2 | 44.00 |
| Sudesh Piyatissa | 128 | 3 | 42.67 |
| Aaron Tyrell | 165 | 4 | 41.25 |
| Kashi Ross | 246 | 6 | 41.00 |
| Tanya Ithier | 41 | 1 | 41.00 |
| Kiao Inthavong | 39 | 1 | 39.00 |
| Jonathan Scarlett | 39 | 1 | 39.00 |
| Chaitanya Rao | 38 | 1 | 38.00 |
| Jason Stockdale | 37 | 1 | 37.00 |
| Lara Cassar | 35 | 1 | 35.00 |
| Andrew Patterson | 35 | 1 | 35.00 |
| Elaine Miles | 33 | 1 | 33.00 |
| Jenny Blair | 33 | 1 | 33.00 |
| Alexis Harley | 32 | 1 | 32.00 |
| Erez Gordon | 31 | 1 | 31.00 |
| Alan Stewart | 29 | 1 | 29.00 |
| Adib Surani | 29 | 1 | 29.00 |
| Stephen Farrelly | 86 | 3 | 28.67 |
| Michael Clark | 28 | 1 | 28.00 |
| Helen Robinson | 27 | 1 | 27.00 |
| Michael Gin | 25 | 1 | 25.00 |
| Les Ramsay | 25 | 1 | 25.00 |
| Stavroula Nicholls | 24 | 1 | 24.00 |
| Robin Wedd | 24 | 1 | 24.00 |
| Jane Cleary | 23 | 1 | 23.00 |
| Jim Bailey | 21 | 1 | 21.00 |
| Daniel Pratt | 21 | 1 | 21.00 |
| Nick Taubert | 19 | 1 | 19.00 |
| Arthur Barrs | 17 | 1 | 17.00 |
| Carol Campbell | 17 | 1 | 17.00 |
| Dawn Tuftan | 15 | 1 | 15.00 |
| Frances Weinberg | 10 | 1 | 10.00 |
| Paul Hughes | 6 | 1 | 6.00 |
| Andrew Bullen | 5 | 1 | 5.00 |
Saturday, 25 August 2012
Ep 35: David Jones, Kiao Inthavong (August 24, 2012; originally aired September 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.
David Jones is back for his third night, with a win here seeing him halfway to retirement. Richard notes that David is a keen cricket player and asks more about that. David responds that he has been playing for a number of years now, first in England for his school and then his local club. Since moving to Australia it seemed like a great way to get involved in local life so he now represents Parkville District Cricket Club. Richard checks whether David is a batter or a bowler, and David says that he is almost exclusively a bowler but concedes that he will don the pads if required.
(For those interested in statistics, here are his bowling details.)
Tonight's challenger is Kiao Inthavong, a research fellow who lived and worked in both Cambodia and Bangkok for a year. Kiao has a PhD in computational fluid dynamics, which ties in nicely with Lily's areas of study. Kiao's work involves using computers to try and visualise how air and particles move; he specialises in looking at how drug particles move in nasal sprays. That line of work has led to him having the nickname of "Doctor Snot".
As mentioned before, I'll be referring to David Astle throughout as DA to avoid confusion about which David is which.
David and Kiao were pretty well matched, but Kiao risked a little more and ultimately that turned out to be unwise as he ended up with three invalid answers. The oversight in the numbers (a miscalculated total) probably did not cost him anything, but the two letters rounds did. David was safe after the last letters round, and when Kiao solved the conundrum first (the first losing contestant to do so in some while; the last time was in episode 12) the final score was 50 to 39 in David's favour -- the difference of 11 being exactly the amount that David scored due to Kiao's invalid words.
There were some difficult letter mixes today, although one of the rounds looked like it might finally produce a full monty (it's been a disappointing week on that front) but did not. I mostly navigated them well, but missed one tricky maximum. I solved the conundrum in decent time, however, and finished comfortably ahead.
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.
David Jones is back for his third night, with a win here seeing him halfway to retirement. Richard notes that David is a keen cricket player and asks more about that. David responds that he has been playing for a number of years now, first in England for his school and then his local club. Since moving to Australia it seemed like a great way to get involved in local life so he now represents Parkville District Cricket Club. Richard checks whether David is a batter or a bowler, and David says that he is almost exclusively a bowler but concedes that he will don the pads if required.
(For those interested in statistics, here are his bowling details.)
Tonight's challenger is Kiao Inthavong, a research fellow who lived and worked in both Cambodia and Bangkok for a year. Kiao has a PhD in computational fluid dynamics, which ties in nicely with Lily's areas of study. Kiao's work involves using computers to try and visualise how air and particles move; he specialises in looking at how drug particles move in nasal sprays. That line of work has led to him having the nickname of "Doctor Snot".
As mentioned before, I'll be referring to David Astle throughout as DA to avoid confusion about which David is which.
David and Kiao were pretty well matched, but Kiao risked a little more and ultimately that turned out to be unwise as he ended up with three invalid answers. The oversight in the numbers (a miscalculated total) probably did not cost him anything, but the two letters rounds did. David was safe after the last letters round, and when Kiao solved the conundrum first (the first losing contestant to do so in some while; the last time was in episode 12) the final score was 50 to 39 in David's favour -- the difference of 11 being exactly the amount that David scored due to Kiao's invalid words.
There were some difficult letter mixes today, although one of the rounds looked like it might finally produce a full monty (it's been a disappointing week on that front) but did not. I mostly navigated them well, but missed one tricky maximum. I solved the conundrum in decent time, however, and finished comfortably ahead.
Friday, 24 August 2012
Ep 34: David Jones, Arthur Barrs (August 23, 2012; originally aired September 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.
David takes his place in the champion's seat tonight, and we learn that he has travelled widely over south-east Asia; he went there for a few months after university to postpone joining the real world. Richard asks whether there were particular parts that David enjoyed more; David responds that he did enjoy the entire trip, but possibly the highlight was in Indonesia where he got to see orangutans in the wild.
Tonight's challenger is Arthur Barrs, described as a jack of all trades and master of many. Some of his occupations include financial planning and being an air force pilot. Arthur acquired a nickname during that latter job, and he relates the experience as follows.
(Aside: I'm not at all certain about the spelling of Arthur's surname; corrections welcomed.)
As mentioned yesterday, I'll be referring to David Astle throughout as DA to avoid confusion about which David is which.
Arthur found a very nice word to start with, but it wasn't nearly as long as David's choice. He did get ground back in the next round, though, and then an easy numbers round led to shared points there. Then David was too good for the rest of the game, scoring unanswered points in every round including the conundrum to take a comprehensive 64 to 17 win.
I just could not shake David this game; I picked up a small lead early on, but then gave it back. We performed identically on the other five of the first seven rounds and then I managed to get ahead in the last numbers round. (I think David must have run out of time, as he was clearly on the right track there.) Once again David beat me to the conundrum, and that's the first time I've tied with a contestant this series.
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.
David takes his place in the champion's seat tonight, and we learn that he has travelled widely over south-east Asia; he went there for a few months after university to postpone joining the real world. Richard asks whether there were particular parts that David enjoyed more; David responds that he did enjoy the entire trip, but possibly the highlight was in Indonesia where he got to see orangutans in the wild.
Tonight's challenger is Arthur Barrs, described as a jack of all trades and master of many. Some of his occupations include financial planning and being an air force pilot. Arthur acquired a nickname during that latter job, and he relates the experience as follows.
I was sitting in the departure lounge at RAAF base, Richmond, with my pilots course buddies and a flight sergeant walks in. He says, "I need an officer volunteer." Everyone's just looking around, and he goes, "You" (pointing at me) and he gives me this briefcase. He says, "I need you to take this to the other end" and he handcuffs it to my wrist.Thereafter his mates all started calling him James Bond, or double-0.
(Aside: I'm not at all certain about the spelling of Arthur's surname; corrections welcomed.)
As mentioned yesterday, I'll be referring to David Astle throughout as DA to avoid confusion about which David is which.
Arthur found a very nice word to start with, but it wasn't nearly as long as David's choice. He did get ground back in the next round, though, and then an easy numbers round led to shared points there. Then David was too good for the rest of the game, scoring unanswered points in every round including the conundrum to take a comprehensive 64 to 17 win.
I just could not shake David this game; I picked up a small lead early on, but then gave it back. We performed identically on the other five of the first seven rounds and then I managed to get ahead in the last numbers round. (I think David must have run out of time, as he was clearly on the right track there.) Once again David beat me to the conundrum, and that's the first time I've tied with a contestant this series.
Ep 33: Geoff Heard, David Jones (August 22, 2012; originally aired September 15, 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.
Geoff is back for his second night, and his first time in the champion's seat. Richard mentions that Geoff enjoys playing golf and asks more about that. Geoff says that golf has been a hobby of his for a number of years now; it started when he was around seven or eight and his father would pay him a dollar a round to caddy for him. Eventually he decided that it was better to carry the bag around for himself instead of for his father.
Tonight's challenger is David Jones, a public servant who is originally from Britain and was awarded Australian citizenship in 2009 (just a year ago, at the time this was originally aired). Richard asks about how the citizenship ceremony went, and David responds that there was a formal and an informal component to it. The formal occasion involved being given a certificate, a gum leaf, and a soft toy koala (among other things); Richard interjects to express his belief that at one point people were given a tree, not just a leaf, and David jests that clearly times are hard. The informal part of the evening involved an apparently time-honoured tradition of pouring beer over his head.
A David contestant always makes things a little complicated to describe. I'll be changing my usual policy of using surname initials and instead refer to David Astle as DA throughout (his standard identifier for crossword purposes). It would probably have made my life easier if I had adopted this policy a while ago, but nevermind.
David found an excellent word to start, and continued in that vein to soon be 21 points ahead. Geoff was not able to keep up with him on the letters, and the numbers were mostly unchallenging. Geoff managed to gain back some ground in one of them, but it was not enough and David was safe going into the conundrum. He solved it quickly to round out the win, 63 to 35.
I almost played a maximal game, but one round had a hard-to-find better option; it also eluded DA, which should give a measure of that difficulty. The net result was that I was also safe going into the conundrum, and I needed that as a mental freeze left me a second or so off David's solving pace. I just barely scraped home, and David is certainly a contestant to watch.
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.
Geoff is back for his second night, and his first time in the champion's seat. Richard mentions that Geoff enjoys playing golf and asks more about that. Geoff says that golf has been a hobby of his for a number of years now; it started when he was around seven or eight and his father would pay him a dollar a round to caddy for him. Eventually he decided that it was better to carry the bag around for himself instead of for his father.
Tonight's challenger is David Jones, a public servant who is originally from Britain and was awarded Australian citizenship in 2009 (just a year ago, at the time this was originally aired). Richard asks about how the citizenship ceremony went, and David responds that there was a formal and an informal component to it. The formal occasion involved being given a certificate, a gum leaf, and a soft toy koala (among other things); Richard interjects to express his belief that at one point people were given a tree, not just a leaf, and David jests that clearly times are hard. The informal part of the evening involved an apparently time-honoured tradition of pouring beer over his head.
A David contestant always makes things a little complicated to describe. I'll be changing my usual policy of using surname initials and instead refer to David Astle as DA throughout (his standard identifier for crossword purposes). It would probably have made my life easier if I had adopted this policy a while ago, but nevermind.
David found an excellent word to start, and continued in that vein to soon be 21 points ahead. Geoff was not able to keep up with him on the letters, and the numbers were mostly unchallenging. Geoff managed to gain back some ground in one of them, but it was not enough and David was safe going into the conundrum. He solved it quickly to round out the win, 63 to 35.
I almost played a maximal game, but one round had a hard-to-find better option; it also eluded DA, which should give a measure of that difficulty. The net result was that I was also safe going into the conundrum, and I needed that as a mental freeze left me a second or so off David's solving pace. I just barely scraped home, and David is certainly a contestant to watch.
Thursday, 23 August 2012
Ep 32: Stavroula Nicholls, Geoff Heard (August 21, 2012; originally aired September 14, 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.
Naween successfully retired last game, so we have two new contestants tonight. Taking the champion's position is Stavroula Nicholls, an accounts administrator who regularly runs half-marathons. She has done four of them so far at a rate of one or two a year, and is "heading towards" her fifth. Richard asks how long a half-marathon is, and Stavroula notes that it is 21.1 kilometres. (This information was also vouched in episode 22, although I did not mention it there.)
In the challenger's position is Geoff Heard, a university student completing a double degree in science and commerce. Geoff's hobbies include coin-collecting and rogaining. Geoff explains that rogaining is very similar to orienteering: Participants head out into the bush (or other terrain) for periods of 6, 8, 12, even up to 24 hours, finding their way around using bearings, maps, and compasses, and try to collect as many checkpoints as possible in the designated time. It can be very competitive and quite physically taxing as people push themselves to move as fast as possible over what is sometimes extremely difficult terrain.
Stavroula started off with an invalid word, allowing Geoff to score the first points. In the next round both contestants found the best answer, and then both had invalid answers in the numbers round. Another shared round followed, but then Geoff drew steadily away. He had the game wrapped up going into the conundrum; it proved to be too difficult for them both and Geoff ended up with a 53 to 24 victory.
I had a careless oversight in one round that ended up costing me a maximal game. Against that, I was quite pleased with my find in another round, and made a good decision to avoid an error in another. I was a bit slower on the conundrum than I would have liked but got there, and finished with a 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.
Naween successfully retired last game, so we have two new contestants tonight. Taking the champion's position is Stavroula Nicholls, an accounts administrator who regularly runs half-marathons. She has done four of them so far at a rate of one or two a year, and is "heading towards" her fifth. Richard asks how long a half-marathon is, and Stavroula notes that it is 21.1 kilometres. (This information was also vouched in episode 22, although I did not mention it there.)
In the challenger's position is Geoff Heard, a university student completing a double degree in science and commerce. Geoff's hobbies include coin-collecting and rogaining. Geoff explains that rogaining is very similar to orienteering: Participants head out into the bush (or other terrain) for periods of 6, 8, 12, even up to 24 hours, finding their way around using bearings, maps, and compasses, and try to collect as many checkpoints as possible in the designated time. It can be very competitive and quite physically taxing as people push themselves to move as fast as possible over what is sometimes extremely difficult terrain.
Stavroula started off with an invalid word, allowing Geoff to score the first points. In the next round both contestants found the best answer, and then both had invalid answers in the numbers round. Another shared round followed, but then Geoff drew steadily away. He had the game wrapped up going into the conundrum; it proved to be too difficult for them both and Geoff ended up with a 53 to 24 victory.
I had a careless oversight in one round that ended up costing me a maximal game. Against that, I was quite pleased with my find in another round, and made a good decision to avoid an error in another. I was a bit slower on the conundrum than I would have liked but got there, and finished with a comfortable win.
Mild delays
Apologies for the slow updates; SBS did not put episode 32 up until today, and I've been busy all night. I have played both games but not had enough time to write them up; I expect that I shall get one or two of them done tomorrow.
Tuesday, 21 August 2012
Ep 31: Naween Fernando, Paul Hughes (August 20, 2012; originally aired September 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.
Once more the pre-game chat tells us essentially nothing more about Naween; in fact, he doesn't even get to speak. It really does seem that they squeezed every fact about him into the first episode's brief, and that's a shame.
Tonight's challenger is Paul Hughes, a retired I.T. specialist who solves cryptic crosswords and sudoku puzzles daily. Paul also volunteers at the Red Cross two days a week; he works in a call centre, and the primary role is to make sure that the people they call -- elderly housing department tenants for the most part -- are OK each morning. But it has the secondary function of giving those people someone to talk to each day, and Paul says that you get to hear some lovely stories.
Naween needed 60 points this episode in order to match Andrew Fisher's total. He started off a little quietly with a safe word, but was still able to outpoint Paul in each round of the first third (aided by an invalid numbers declaration from Paul) to quickly take a 23 point lead. Paul got on the scoreboard at last in the next letters round, and then Naween risked a nine that was Scrabble-legal but not in the Macquarie. Paul's word for that round was also invalid, so neither scored. The following numbers round was similarly scoreless, and then Naween finished well to take points in the rest of the rounds. It was his fastest solution to a conundrum yet, and a solid 56 to 6 victory.
I started well enough, but lost my way in the middle section of the game, missing two longer words that I might have seen on other days and being too slow to solve the numbers round. I followed up by being overly conservative on the last letters round, but then recovered to take the last two rounds, including the conundrum. A good game, but could easily have been better.
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.
Once more the pre-game chat tells us essentially nothing more about Naween; in fact, he doesn't even get to speak. It really does seem that they squeezed every fact about him into the first episode's brief, and that's a shame.
Tonight's challenger is Paul Hughes, a retired I.T. specialist who solves cryptic crosswords and sudoku puzzles daily. Paul also volunteers at the Red Cross two days a week; he works in a call centre, and the primary role is to make sure that the people they call -- elderly housing department tenants for the most part -- are OK each morning. But it has the secondary function of giving those people someone to talk to each day, and Paul says that you get to hear some lovely stories.
Naween needed 60 points this episode in order to match Andrew Fisher's total. He started off a little quietly with a safe word, but was still able to outpoint Paul in each round of the first third (aided by an invalid numbers declaration from Paul) to quickly take a 23 point lead. Paul got on the scoreboard at last in the next letters round, and then Naween risked a nine that was Scrabble-legal but not in the Macquarie. Paul's word for that round was also invalid, so neither scored. The following numbers round was similarly scoreless, and then Naween finished well to take points in the rest of the rounds. It was his fastest solution to a conundrum yet, and a solid 56 to 6 victory.
I started well enough, but lost my way in the middle section of the game, missing two longer words that I might have seen on other days and being too slow to solve the numbers round. I followed up by being overly conservative on the last letters round, but then recovered to take the last two rounds, including the conundrum. A good game, but could easily have been better.
Sunday, 19 August 2012
Weekly summary: Episodes 26 to 30
I managed to stay close to the David and Lily combination all week, except for a slip of the pen on Friday's game, so that was nice. I was also pleasantly surprised to be competitive with Naween throughout the week, although it is likely that the advantage of having seen the conundrums before was significantly at play. Regardless, it was quite a satisfactory week and possibly my highest weekly aggregate to date.
When I said in last week's summary that Kashi had a good chance of becoming a retiring champion, I had not known that her last game was against Naween. It was no surprise that she lost that last game, and Naween had his own five game streak that he will finish on Monday. One would expect the current top four to make the finals, and the others not to.
There were three full monties that I found this week, and a tricky one that I did not. This exactly matches David's performance, and lends credence to the idea that I'm only doing so well right now because of the blue book. I look forward to episodes 51 and above where this will not be a factor; it should be interesting to see if there is much difference. Lily solved every numbers game this week, for the first time (although in two of the previous weeks her only unsolved ones were genuinely unsolvable).
The maximum count was much better than last week, including two optimal games. The only real blot was the error on the last numbers round of Friday, alas.
Contestants sorted by average score:
| Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Me | 76 | 79 | 62 | 100 | 64 |
| Champion | 32 | 40 | 47 | 70 | 41 |
| Challenger | 56 | 15 | 14 | 10 | 5 |
| David + Lily | 76 | 88 | 77 | 100 | 75 |
| Me (solo) | 76 | 85 | 75 | 100 | 64 |
When I said in last week's summary that Kashi had a good chance of becoming a retiring champion, I had not known that her last game was against Naween. It was no surprise that she lost that last game, and Naween had his own five game streak that he will finish on Monday. One would expect the current top four to make the finals, and the others not to.
| Andrew Fisher | 95 | 63 | 64 | 67 | 67 | 59 | 415 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chris Scholten-Smith | 45 | 47 | 48 | 47 | 38 | 40 | 265 |
| Naween Fernando* | 73 | 60 | 64 | 94 | 64 | 355 | |
| Kashi Ross | 48 | 46 | 34 | 41 | 45 | 32 | 246 |
| Aaron Tyrrell | 51 | 35 | 61 | 18 | 165 | ||
| Sudesh Piyatissa | 37 | 57 | 34 | 128 | |||
| Stephen Farrelly | 26 | 30 | 30 | 86 | |||
| Rob York | 52 | 42 | 94 |
There were three full monties that I found this week, and a tricky one that I did not. This exactly matches David's performance, and lends credence to the idea that I'm only doing so well right now because of the blue book. I look forward to episodes 51 and above where this will not be a factor; it should be interesting to see if there is much difference. Lily solved every numbers game this week, for the first time (although in two of the previous weeks her only unsolved ones were genuinely unsolvable).
| Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full Monties | 1 | 2 | 3 | |||
| Missed Full Monties | 1 | 1 | ||||
| Tough Numbers | 0 | |||||
| Impossible Numbers | 0 |
The maximum count was much better than last week, including two optimal games. The only real blot was the error on the last numbers round of Friday, alas.
| Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Maximums: L | 5 | 2 | 3 | 5 | 4 |
| N | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2 |
| C | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Invalid: N | - | - | - | - | 1 |
Contestants sorted by average score:
| Total | Games | Average | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Naween Fernando* | 355 | 5 | 71.00 |
| Andrew Fisher | 415 | 6 | 69.17 |
| 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 |
| Kashi Ross | 246 | 6 | 41.00 |
| Tanya Ithier | 41 | 1 | 41.00 |
| Jonathan Scarlett | 39 | 1 | 39.00 |
| Chaitanya Rao | 38 | 1 | 38.00 |
| Jason Stockdale | 37 | 1 | 37.00 |
| Lara Cassar | 35 | 1 | 35.00 |
| Andrew Patterson | 35 | 1 | 35.00 |
| Elaine Miles | 33 | 1 | 33.00 |
| Jenny Blair | 33 | 1 | 33.00 |
| Alexis Harley | 32 | 1 | 32.00 |
| Erez Gordon | 31 | 1 | 31.00 |
| Alan Stewart | 29 | 1 | 29.00 |
| Adib Surani | 29 | 1 | 29.00 |
| Stephen Farrelly | 86 | 3 | 28.67 |
| Michael Clark | 28 | 1 | 28.00 |
| Helen Robinson | 27 | 1 | 27.00 |
| Michael Gin | 25 | 1 | 25.00 |
| Les Ramsay | 25 | 1 | 25.00 |
| Robin Wedd | 24 | 1 | 24.00 |
| Jane Cleary | 23 | 1 | 23.00 |
| Jim Bailey | 21 | 1 | 21.00 |
| Daniel Pratt | 21 | 1 | 21.00 |
| Nick Taubert | 19 | 1 | 19.00 |
| Carol Campbell | 17 | 1 | 17.00 |
| Dawn Tuftan | 15 | 1 | 15.00 |
| Frances Weinberg | 10 | 1 | 10.00 |
| Andrew Bullen | 5 | 1 | 5.00 |
Saturday, 18 August 2012
Ep 30: Naween Fernando, Andrew Bullen (August 17, 2012; originally aired September 10, 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.
We get a tiny bit more insight into Naween at last: He estimates that he spends around half an hour a day studying words. Naween points out that he has "put in the hard yards" in the past (i.e., done a lot more focused study than that) but these days he would be happy with half an hour.
Challenging Naween is Andrew Bullen, described as a well-travelled editor of science and technology journals. Andrew enjoys playing soccer for fun and kicking goals for his favourite charity, the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. He has been raising money for them for the past three years; last year he helped to raise over eight thousand dollars. The soccer club helps here; they (meaning the combination of Andrew and the club) sell drinks at the home matches and run an end-of-season soccer tournament after the main one.
Naween was not in nearly the same form as yesterday's superb game, but the effect on Andrew was similar. Several errors from Andrew hampered his cause, and in the end he was only able to score in one round when Naween was unlucky with a risky word. Naween finished off the game with his fastest conundrum solution so far (although still a ways short of Andrew Fisher's typical speed), and a 64 to 5 victory.
I dropped just a little short of optimal, missing the best option in the same round where Naween came unstuck and accidentally writing down a wrong figure in a numbers rounds. The other rounds were mostly straightforward, but Naween surprisingly missed a couple of better words and I was safe going into the conundrum.
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.
We get a tiny bit more insight into Naween at last: He estimates that he spends around half an hour a day studying words. Naween points out that he has "put in the hard yards" in the past (i.e., done a lot more focused study than that) but these days he would be happy with half an hour.
Challenging Naween is Andrew Bullen, described as a well-travelled editor of science and technology journals. Andrew enjoys playing soccer for fun and kicking goals for his favourite charity, the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. He has been raising money for them for the past three years; last year he helped to raise over eight thousand dollars. The soccer club helps here; they (meaning the combination of Andrew and the club) sell drinks at the home matches and run an end-of-season soccer tournament after the main one.
Naween was not in nearly the same form as yesterday's superb game, but the effect on Andrew was similar. Several errors from Andrew hampered his cause, and in the end he was only able to score in one round when Naween was unlucky with a risky word. Naween finished off the game with his fastest conundrum solution so far (although still a ways short of Andrew Fisher's typical speed), and a 64 to 5 victory.
I dropped just a little short of optimal, missing the best option in the same round where Naween came unstuck and accidentally writing down a wrong figure in a numbers rounds. The other rounds were mostly straightforward, but Naween surprisingly missed a couple of better words and I was safe going into the conundrum.
Thursday, 16 August 2012
Ep 28: Naween Fernando, Daniel Pratt (August 15, 2012; originally aired September 8, 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.
On Naween's third night, again the chat boils down to stating that Naween has done well so far. Did they use up all his conversational material on the first night?
Tonight's challenger is Daniel Pratt, an English-as-a-Second-Language teacher who lived in France for four years, then moved to Australia six years ago. Daniel spends much of his time "scouring op shops for jazz albums", but the talk is about his lack of luck when crossing the road. He has been hit by cars a few times; the first time was by his mother, as it turns out. He was on his way to a hot date and was waving his mother back out of the car park and her foot slipped off the clutch a bit too fast and left him rubbing his shin and saying "ow" for the rest of the date.
(As an aside, the combination of France and getting hit by a car reminds me of one of the French dialogues that I had to translate at school. Translated, it went something like: "Excuse me, can you tell me how to get to the hospital?" "Certainly! Just close your eyes and cross the road.")
Daniel played a good game and found several good words, but Naween played a better one and his letters play was optimal. He also continued his decent numbers performance to outscore Daniel there, and solved the conundrum to give him an emphatic 64 to 21 victory.
I had a good back-and-forth tussle with Naween, not quite managing to match his wordplay but making up the ground with the numbers. I ended up ahead but not safe going into the conundrum, but just managed to solve it first to take the win once more.
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 Naween's third night, again the chat boils down to stating that Naween has done well so far. Did they use up all his conversational material on the first night?
Tonight's challenger is Daniel Pratt, an English-as-a-Second-Language teacher who lived in France for four years, then moved to Australia six years ago. Daniel spends much of his time "scouring op shops for jazz albums", but the talk is about his lack of luck when crossing the road. He has been hit by cars a few times; the first time was by his mother, as it turns out. He was on his way to a hot date and was waving his mother back out of the car park and her foot slipped off the clutch a bit too fast and left him rubbing his shin and saying "ow" for the rest of the date.
(As an aside, the combination of France and getting hit by a car reminds me of one of the French dialogues that I had to translate at school. Translated, it went something like: "Excuse me, can you tell me how to get to the hospital?" "Certainly! Just close your eyes and cross the road.")
Daniel played a good game and found several good words, but Naween played a better one and his letters play was optimal. He also continued his decent numbers performance to outscore Daniel there, and solved the conundrum to give him an emphatic 64 to 21 victory.
I had a good back-and-forth tussle with Naween, not quite managing to match his wordplay but making up the ground with the numbers. I ended up ahead but not safe going into the conundrum, but just managed to solve it first to take the win once more.
Wednesday, 15 August 2012
Ep 27: Naween Fernando, Jim Bailey (August 14, 2012; originally aired September 7, 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 Naween boils down to "you did well yesterday". That feels like a waste of an opportunity, quite frankly.
Challenging Naween is Jim Bailey, a self-employed executive recruiter (or headhunter, less formally). Jim enjoys skiing, swimming, and golf, and once came within a hundred metres of enjoying -- or at least experiencing -- bungee jumping. He was in Queenstown with the family for skiing and thought he'd look it up, but was not able to bring himself to go through with it.
A tough opening round saw the contestants share points, then Naween moved ahead in the next letters round. He extended that lead in the numbers round, and continued to forge ahead in several ensuing rounds. He was safe before the last letters round with Jim never managing to score unanswered points off him, and although the conundrum proved too tough for both contestants Naween still scored well in a 60 to 21 victory.
I had a good game tonight, although I did miss a couple of longer options that I feel I should have found. Against that, I found a full monty tonight and got to the conundrum first, ending up with a comfortable win that made me pretty happy.
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 Naween boils down to "you did well yesterday". That feels like a waste of an opportunity, quite frankly.
Challenging Naween is Jim Bailey, a self-employed executive recruiter (or headhunter, less formally). Jim enjoys skiing, swimming, and golf, and once came within a hundred metres of enjoying -- or at least experiencing -- bungee jumping. He was in Queenstown with the family for skiing and thought he'd look it up, but was not able to bring himself to go through with it.
A tough opening round saw the contestants share points, then Naween moved ahead in the next letters round. He extended that lead in the numbers round, and continued to forge ahead in several ensuing rounds. He was safe before the last letters round with Jim never managing to score unanswered points off him, and although the conundrum proved too tough for both contestants Naween still scored well in a 60 to 21 victory.
I had a good game tonight, although I did miss a couple of longer options that I feel I should have found. Against that, I found a full monty tonight and got to the conundrum first, ending up with a comfortable win that made me pretty happy.
Tuesday, 14 August 2012
Ep 26: Kashi Ross, Naween Fernando (August 13, 2012; originally aired September 6, 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.
This is Kashi's last night for the main games, win or lose; the pre-game chat pretty much amounts to only that, with Richard barely giving her an opportunity for a word.
Facing Kashi is a very familiar Naween Fernando, described as an accountant who likes to stay indoors on Sundays but makes an exception when it comes to Scrabble. Naween has competed in every World Scrabble Championship since 1995, and his best placing was third in 2005. At the time this episode was filmed that was better than Andrew Fisher, although that has since changed.
Naween was in strong form from the outset, finding a good eight-letter word while Kashi's seven was invalid. He continued to score strongly, with Kashi unable to find a valid word longer than six throughout the evening. The first two numbers games were too easy and offered little scope for advancement, and Naween had the game won before the last (slightly more difficult) numbers round. He took the points there although he did not solve it exactly, and finished off by getting the conundrum for an impressive debut score and a 73 to 32 win.
Naween offered very little chance to beat him, but I was happy to be keeping up. It was still level-pegging after round 7, but I solved the last numbers round that he did not; the game might have ended in a tie but I managed to get the conundrum first, and took the victory with what turned out to be an 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.
This is Kashi's last night for the main games, win or lose; the pre-game chat pretty much amounts to only that, with Richard barely giving her an opportunity for a word.
Facing Kashi is a very familiar Naween Fernando, described as an accountant who likes to stay indoors on Sundays but makes an exception when it comes to Scrabble. Naween has competed in every World Scrabble Championship since 1995, and his best placing was third in 2005. At the time this episode was filmed that was better than Andrew Fisher, although that has since changed.
Naween was in strong form from the outset, finding a good eight-letter word while Kashi's seven was invalid. He continued to score strongly, with Kashi unable to find a valid word longer than six throughout the evening. The first two numbers games were too easy and offered little scope for advancement, and Naween had the game won before the last (slightly more difficult) numbers round. He took the points there although he did not solve it exactly, and finished off by getting the conundrum for an impressive debut score and a 73 to 32 win.
Naween offered very little chance to beat him, but I was happy to be keeping up. It was still level-pegging after round 7, but I solved the last numbers round that he did not; the game might have ended in a tie but I managed to get the conundrum first, and took the victory with what turned out to be an optimal game.
Friday, 10 August 2012
Weekly summary: Episodes 21 to 25
I struggled with the numbers this week but still managed to keep mostly close to David and Lily. Tuesday was the day I had the most difficulties with, as has become a disturbing tendency, but I was still able to pull out some good results and was never seriously in trouble.
Kashi defeated all opponents this week and stands a good chance to become the third retiring champion of the series.
Once again there were two full monties this week, and I'm glad to have spotted them; I've had a surprisingly good run on them so far, with the last one I missed (and only miss so far this series) being OBTURATED back in episode 5. One numbers round eluded Lily's eagle eye this week, and there have been some difficult ones.
I think this is my worst weekly performance by maximum count, and that's with having solved all five conundrums. I've had a lot of troubles with the numbers this week, including the very poor effort on Tuesday of not getting anything down at all for one round. Things were picking up toward the end of the week, but I hope that next week goes somewhat better.
Contestants sorted by average score:
| Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Me | 68 | 54 | 76 | 60 | 82 |
| Champion | 23 | 24 | 18 | 34 | 6 |
| Challenger | 13 | 23 | 20 | 33 | 6 |
| David + Lily | 75 | 77 | 84 | 78 | 85 |
| Me (solo) | 74 | 61 | 83 | 73 | 82 |
Kashi defeated all opponents this week and stands a good chance to become the third retiring champion of the series.
| Andrew Fisher | 95 | 63 | 64 | 67 | 67 | 59 | 415 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chris Scholten-Smith | 45 | 47 | 48 | 47 | 38 | 40 | 265 |
| Kashi Ross* | 48 | 46 | 34 | 41 | 45 | 214 | |
| Aaron Tyrrell | 51 | 35 | 61 | 18 | 165 | ||
| Sudesh Piyatissa | 37 | 57 | 34 | 128 | |||
| Stephen Farrelly | 26 | 30 | 30 | 86 | |||
| Rob York | 52 | 42 | 94 |
Once again there were two full monties this week, and I'm glad to have spotted them; I've had a surprisingly good run on them so far, with the last one I missed (and only miss so far this series) being OBTURATED back in episode 5. One numbers round eluded Lily's eagle eye this week, and there have been some difficult ones.
| Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full Monties | 1 | 1 | 2 | |||
| Missed Full Monties | 0 | |||||
| Tough Numbers | 1 | 1 | ||||
| Impossible Numbers | 0 |
I think this is my worst weekly performance by maximum count, and that's with having solved all five conundrums. I've had a lot of troubles with the numbers this week, including the very poor effort on Tuesday of not getting anything down at all for one round. Things were picking up toward the end of the week, but I hope that next week goes somewhat better.
| Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Maximums: L | 2 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 4 |
| N | 3 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| C | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
Contestants sorted by average score:
| Total | Games | Average | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Andrew Fisher | 415 | 6 | 69.17 |
| Rob York | 94 | 2 | 47.00 |
| Chris Scholten-Smith | 265 | 6 | 44.17 |
| Kashi Ross* | 214 | 5 | 42.80 |
| Sudesh Piyatissa | 128 | 3 | 42.67 |
| Aaron Tyrell | 165 | 4 | 41.25 |
| Tanya Ithier | 41 | 1 | 41.00 |
| Jonathan Scarlett | 39 | 1 | 39.00 |
| Chaitanya Rao | 38 | 1 | 38.00 |
| Jason Stockdale | 37 | 1 | 37.00 |
| Lara Cassar | 35 | 1 | 35.00 |
| Andrew Patterson | 35 | 1 | 35.00 |
| Elaine Miles | 33 | 1 | 33.00 |
| Jenny Blair | 33 | 1 | 33.00 |
| Alexis Harley | 32 | 1 | 32.00 |
| Erez Gordon | 31 | 1 | 31.00 |
| Alan Stewart | 29 | 1 | 29.00 |
| Adib Surani | 29 | 1 | 29.00 |
| Stephen Farrelly | 86 | 3 | 28.67 |
| Michael Clark | 28 | 1 | 28.00 |
| Helen Robinson | 27 | 1 | 27.00 |
| Michael Gin | 25 | 1 | 25.00 |
| Les Ramsay | 25 | 1 | 25.00 |
| Robin Wedd | 24 | 1 | 24.00 |
| Jane Cleary | 23 | 1 | 23.00 |
| Nick Taubert | 19 | 1 | 19.00 |
| Carol Campbell | 17 | 1 | 17.00 |
| Dawn Tuftan | 15 | 1 | 15.00 |
Ep 25: Kashi Ross, Carol Campbell (August 10, 2012; originally aired September 3, 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.
On Kashi's fifth night we find out that she is a competitive table tennis player; she has been playing for many years. Last year she was a student at a university so she competed in the team and ended up coming second in the university championship. But she's not likely to take it further -- it's more of a hobby; she has a table at home, though, and will happily play guests who like the game.
Tonight's challenger is Carol Campbell, a retired teacher. Carol has lived in four different countries and had forty-two (!) different addresses. Richard asks what her favourite address was, and Carol responds -- perhaps misinterpreting the question -- that it was Egypt. There were fantastic opportunities there and the cultures are quite different, especially with regard to education. They take a very top-down approach to education, whereas Carol tends to run a very cooperative and interactive classroom, and her students loved it.
It was a relatively low-scoring game, with the numbers providing only five points in total. Carol was able to match Kashi several times in the letters but not outdo her, and Kashi had the game wrapped up before the conundrum. Kashi completed the win by solving the conundrum first, and the final scoreline was 45 to 17 in her favour.
I had a good game except for once again missing a numbers option; it's really been a bad week on that front. On the other hand, I did find the full monty which continues a good run of form from me on that front. I solved the conundrum quickly and very nearly managed to keep both contestants scoreless, so it's a good way to end the week.
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 Kashi's fifth night we find out that she is a competitive table tennis player; she has been playing for many years. Last year she was a student at a university so she competed in the team and ended up coming second in the university championship. But she's not likely to take it further -- it's more of a hobby; she has a table at home, though, and will happily play guests who like the game.
Tonight's challenger is Carol Campbell, a retired teacher. Carol has lived in four different countries and had forty-two (!) different addresses. Richard asks what her favourite address was, and Carol responds -- perhaps misinterpreting the question -- that it was Egypt. There were fantastic opportunities there and the cultures are quite different, especially with regard to education. They take a very top-down approach to education, whereas Carol tends to run a very cooperative and interactive classroom, and her students loved it.
It was a relatively low-scoring game, with the numbers providing only five points in total. Carol was able to match Kashi several times in the letters but not outdo her, and Kashi had the game wrapped up before the conundrum. Kashi completed the win by solving the conundrum first, and the final scoreline was 45 to 17 in her favour.
I had a good game except for once again missing a numbers option; it's really been a bad week on that front. On the other hand, I did find the full monty which continues a good run of form from me on that front. I solved the conundrum quickly and very nearly managed to keep both contestants scoreless, so it's a good way to end the week.
Ep 24: Kashi Ross, Jonathan Scarlett (August 9, 2012; originally aired September 2, 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.
This is Kashi's fourth night, and she gets a question that will become a frequent occurrence for fourth-nighters: Richard asks what techniques she has. She answers much the same as everyone else does, that she looks for affixes or common patterns in the letters, and tries to get to the nearest multiple of 100 or 50 in the numbers (and then work from there).
Tonight's challenger is Jonathan Scarlett, who is in his final year of study for a double degree in electrical engineering and computer science. Jonathan also plays guitar -- he's done so for six years -- and performs with the Engineering Music Society. Richard finds the combination a little unusual, and asks if they are all musical engineers. Jonathan explains that you don't have to be an engineer to join -- it's just that the society was created by engineers so that's what they decided to call it. It's basically a club where people get together to play music; they have an orchestra, a concert band, and a couple of stage bands which he plays electric guitar in.
It was a very close game this time; Jonathan got the early lead in the first round, but then Kashi was rewarded for her risk in the second round to claim the lead. A couple of shared rounds followed, and then Kashi extended her lead with another good word, only for Jonathan to retake it in the following numbers round. Then he found the better word, but an error on his part in the last numbers round allowed Kashi to take a slender lead into the conundrum. It was all there to play for, but it proved too difficult for them both and Kashi just got home, 41 to 39.
I bobbled a numbers game yet again -- I'm really getting a bit bothered by that -- and missed a word that I should have seen. Aside from that it was mostly smooth sailing, and I solved the conundrum in relatively short time to round out a 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.
This is Kashi's fourth night, and she gets a question that will become a frequent occurrence for fourth-nighters: Richard asks what techniques she has. She answers much the same as everyone else does, that she looks for affixes or common patterns in the letters, and tries to get to the nearest multiple of 100 or 50 in the numbers (and then work from there).
Tonight's challenger is Jonathan Scarlett, who is in his final year of study for a double degree in electrical engineering and computer science. Jonathan also plays guitar -- he's done so for six years -- and performs with the Engineering Music Society. Richard finds the combination a little unusual, and asks if they are all musical engineers. Jonathan explains that you don't have to be an engineer to join -- it's just that the society was created by engineers so that's what they decided to call it. It's basically a club where people get together to play music; they have an orchestra, a concert band, and a couple of stage bands which he plays electric guitar in.
It was a very close game this time; Jonathan got the early lead in the first round, but then Kashi was rewarded for her risk in the second round to claim the lead. A couple of shared rounds followed, and then Kashi extended her lead with another good word, only for Jonathan to retake it in the following numbers round. Then he found the better word, but an error on his part in the last numbers round allowed Kashi to take a slender lead into the conundrum. It was all there to play for, but it proved too difficult for them both and Kashi just got home, 41 to 39.
I bobbled a numbers game yet again -- I'm really getting a bit bothered by that -- and missed a word that I should have seen. Aside from that it was mostly smooth sailing, and I solved the conundrum in relatively short time to round out a comfortable win.
Ep 23: Kashi Ross, Robin Wedd (August 8, 2012; originally aired September 1, 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.
It gets mentioned that Kashi has travelled to over thirty countries. Richard asks if she has a favourite destination, and Kashi responds that New York City is definitely one of the most exciting places on earth. She has also spent a lot of time in India and says that it is very fond in her heart. That is certainly a contrast!
(At the end of this piece Richard twice calls her Kushi rather than Kashi; I guess it was not considered worth a reshoot over.)
Tonight's challenger is Robin Wedd, an oceanographer with a PhD in physics. Robin's job involves predicting the climate up to a year ahead, using all the observations they can get from the ocean and the atmosphere. They combine that with a model of the oceans that they have developed, feed it all into a supercomputer, and analyse what comes out; the hope is that they can predict the ocean state about a year ahead. So far it's OK to about two or three months with general climate results, but it gets pretty fuzzy by the year mark.
It was a close game that had the potential for a first; Kashi got out to an early lead in the first two rounds but Robin closed the gap to a single point in the numbers. Kashi pulled clear a bit more in the next letters round, then an invalid attempt from her allowed Robin to get closer again. Robin could have taken the lead in the second numbers round but made an error, and the net result was that Kashi was ahead by precisely ten points at the conundrum. That could have led to a tiebreaker conundrum if Robin solved it first, but neither was able to and Kashi ran out the winner, 34 to 24.
My performance was a little mixed again, as I overcomplicated a numbers round and failed to solve it. On the other hand, I did find the full monty on offer tonight, and that is always enjoyable. I finished up with a conundrum solution in decent time, and overall it was a decent 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.
It gets mentioned that Kashi has travelled to over thirty countries. Richard asks if she has a favourite destination, and Kashi responds that New York City is definitely one of the most exciting places on earth. She has also spent a lot of time in India and says that it is very fond in her heart. That is certainly a contrast!
(At the end of this piece Richard twice calls her Kushi rather than Kashi; I guess it was not considered worth a reshoot over.)
Tonight's challenger is Robin Wedd, an oceanographer with a PhD in physics. Robin's job involves predicting the climate up to a year ahead, using all the observations they can get from the ocean and the atmosphere. They combine that with a model of the oceans that they have developed, feed it all into a supercomputer, and analyse what comes out; the hope is that they can predict the ocean state about a year ahead. So far it's OK to about two or three months with general climate results, but it gets pretty fuzzy by the year mark.
It was a close game that had the potential for a first; Kashi got out to an early lead in the first two rounds but Robin closed the gap to a single point in the numbers. Kashi pulled clear a bit more in the next letters round, then an invalid attempt from her allowed Robin to get closer again. Robin could have taken the lead in the second numbers round but made an error, and the net result was that Kashi was ahead by precisely ten points at the conundrum. That could have led to a tiebreaker conundrum if Robin solved it first, but neither was able to and Kashi ran out the winner, 34 to 24.
My performance was a little mixed again, as I overcomplicated a numbers round and failed to solve it. On the other hand, I did find the full monty on offer tonight, and that is always enjoyable. I finished up with a conundrum solution in decent time, and overall it was a decent game.
Thursday, 9 August 2012
Ep 22: Kashi Ross, Michael Clark (August 7, 2012; originally aired August 31, 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.
Until she was about 28, Kashi rollerbladed everywhere for transport. She does not say when this started, but does specifically single out her university days for that; she could not afford a car at the time and found walking too slow. And, well, that's pretty much all there is to that anecdote.
Tonight's challenger is Michael Clark, a bank analyst who keeps fit by playing golf and squash; he has also recently competed in a half-marathon. Richard asks if he plans to do a full marathon at any point; Michael responds that he is thinking about it... but not very hard.
The game started off fairly innocuously with a couple of matched rounds. Michael drew clear in the first numbers round and then extended the lead in the next letters round. Both contestants had invalid answers in the following round, and then Kashi struck back with four good results (including solving the conundrum) to hold Michael scoreless in the last four rounds and take the win, 46 to 28.
I was definitely playing below my best today, three times seeing a better word just a little after time expired. It was the numbers performance that really disappointed me, though, as I missed two solutions; in fact, one of them I struggled so badly with that I did not even get anything down on paper within time. I hope it's a long time before that happens again -- there were quite a few ways to get close and not getting something down was poor time management. I did solve the conundrum quickly to salvage something from the day, but in terms of maxima it's one of my worst results for a while.
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.
Until she was about 28, Kashi rollerbladed everywhere for transport. She does not say when this started, but does specifically single out her university days for that; she could not afford a car at the time and found walking too slow. And, well, that's pretty much all there is to that anecdote.
Tonight's challenger is Michael Clark, a bank analyst who keeps fit by playing golf and squash; he has also recently competed in a half-marathon. Richard asks if he plans to do a full marathon at any point; Michael responds that he is thinking about it... but not very hard.
The game started off fairly innocuously with a couple of matched rounds. Michael drew clear in the first numbers round and then extended the lead in the next letters round. Both contestants had invalid answers in the following round, and then Kashi struck back with four good results (including solving the conundrum) to hold Michael scoreless in the last four rounds and take the win, 46 to 28.
I was definitely playing below my best today, three times seeing a better word just a little after time expired. It was the numbers performance that really disappointed me, though, as I missed two solutions; in fact, one of them I struggled so badly with that I did not even get anything down on paper within time. I hope it's a long time before that happens again -- there were quite a few ways to get close and not getting something down was poor time management. I did solve the conundrum quickly to salvage something from the day, but in terms of maxima it's one of my worst results for a while.
Weekly summary: Episodes 16 to 20
A week of games against Andrew Fisher was always going to be exceptionally tough, but I surprised myself with my results: Three solid wins, and one of the losses by but a single point. The very unexpected aspect (which contributed significantly to these results) is that I managed to outpoint Andrew on nine of the letters games, only two of those due to invalid word choices on his part (although a third invalid choice coincided with a longer word from me); in contrast I was only outpointed five times with no invalid words.
Andrew completed his run and successfully retired with a phenomenal aggregate of 415 points, an average of just under 70 points a game. Fantastic stuff!
A couple of full monties this week, both of which I was very happy to spot. There was an impossible numbers game on Tuesday, which I was somewhat less happy about. *chuckles*
I had some early troubles with the numbers, but settled down for the latter half of the week. The letters results were generally strong for a pretty good run. If COMEDIAS (see episode 18) is considered valid then Wednesday's result should be decreased by one.
Contestants sorted by average score:
| Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Me | 72 | 36 | 69 | 73 | 58 |
| Champion | 39 | 57 | 48 | 44 | 59 |
| Challenger | 35 | 22 | 16 | 10 | 20 |
| David + Lily | 77 | 71 | 75 | 89 | 76 |
| Me (solo) | 72 | 56 | 74 | 87 | 64 |
Andrew completed his run and successfully retired with a phenomenal aggregate of 415 points, an average of just under 70 points a game. Fantastic stuff!
| Andrew Fisher | 95 | 63 | 64 | 67 | 67 | 59 | 415 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 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 |
A couple of full monties this week, both of which I was very happy to spot. There was an impossible numbers game on Tuesday, which I was somewhat less happy about. *chuckles*
| Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full Monties | 1 | 1 | 2 | |||
| Missed Full Monties | 0 | |||||
| Tough Numbers | 0 | |||||
| Impossible Numbers | 1 | 1 |
I had some early troubles with the numbers, but settled down for the latter half of the week. The letters results were generally strong for a pretty good run. If COMEDIAS (see episode 18) is considered valid then Wednesday's result should be decreased by one.
| Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Maximums: L | 5 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 4 |
| N | 1 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 3 |
| C | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
Contestants sorted by average score:
| Total | Games | Average | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Andrew Fisher | 415 | 6 | 69.17 |
| 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 |
| Andrew Patterson | 35 | 1 | 35.00 |
| Elaine Miles | 33 | 1 | 33.00 |
| Jenny Blair | 33 | 1 | 33.00 |
| Alexis Harley | 32 | 1 | 32.00 |
| Alan Stewart | 29 | 1 | 29.00 |
| Adib Surani | 29 | 1 | 29.00 |
| Stephen Farrelly | 86 | 3 | 28.67 |
| Helen Robinson | 27 | 1 | 27.00 |
| Michael Gin | 25 | 1 | 25.00 |
| Les Ramsay | 25 | 1 | 25.00 |
| Jane Cleary | 23 | 1 | 23.00 |
| Nick Taubert | 19 | 1 | 19.00 |
| Dawn Tuftan | 15 | 1 | 15.00 |
Wednesday, 8 August 2012
Ep 19: Andrew Fisher, Jane Cleary (August 2, 2012; originally aired August 26, 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.
SBS finally got around to fixing this episode in the Past Episodes list, so if you've not already seen it you can do so now.
Richard asks Andrew what the international tournament Scrabble experience is like; Andrew describes it as a great experience because the room is full of these "word brainboxes" trying to outwit their opponents. He provides a little more insight into the process, mentioning that they use chess clocks and have 25 minutes per player. Richard asks about cultural differences, and Andrew remarks that the Americans -- of course -- have their own dictionary, but the rest of the world plays with a bigger one.
Tonight's challenger is Jane Cleary, a scientist with a double degree in physics and mathematics, a graduate diploma in I.T., and another in operations research. That's a lot of qualifications! In her spare time she studies Egyptology and can even read ancient Egyptian. Richard asks about the origins in her interest in Egypt; Jane responds that it probably started with the very first Christmas present that she can recall getting, which was a book of Egyptian myths, and she has been hooked ever since.
Andrew was in excellent form tonight with three good eight-letter words, and pretty good results on the numbers also. Jane may have had the first-game nerves going (and who wouldn't, facing Andrew?), and a couple of slips in the numbers sealed her fate. Andrew cruised to his fifth win, 67 to 23.
I missed a couple of those eights that Andrew found, but managed to balance that out by finding some longer words elsewhere that I assume he was not prepared to risk. I picked up just enough on the numbers to be safe at the conundrum, and much to my surprise managed to solve it first to record a 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.
SBS finally got around to fixing this episode in the Past Episodes list, so if you've not already seen it you can do so now.
Richard asks Andrew what the international tournament Scrabble experience is like; Andrew describes it as a great experience because the room is full of these "word brainboxes" trying to outwit their opponents. He provides a little more insight into the process, mentioning that they use chess clocks and have 25 minutes per player. Richard asks about cultural differences, and Andrew remarks that the Americans -- of course -- have their own dictionary, but the rest of the world plays with a bigger one.
Tonight's challenger is Jane Cleary, a scientist with a double degree in physics and mathematics, a graduate diploma in I.T., and another in operations research. That's a lot of qualifications! In her spare time she studies Egyptology and can even read ancient Egyptian. Richard asks about the origins in her interest in Egypt; Jane responds that it probably started with the very first Christmas present that she can recall getting, which was a book of Egyptian myths, and she has been hooked ever since.
Andrew was in excellent form tonight with three good eight-letter words, and pretty good results on the numbers also. Jane may have had the first-game nerves going (and who wouldn't, facing Andrew?), and a couple of slips in the numbers sealed her fate. Andrew cruised to his fifth win, 67 to 23.
I missed a couple of those eights that Andrew found, but managed to balance that out by finding some longer words elsewhere that I assume he was not prepared to risk. I picked up just enough on the numbers to be safe at the conundrum, and much to my surprise managed to solve it first to record a win.
Tuesday, 7 August 2012
Ep 21: Kashi Ross, Erez Gordon (August 6, 2012; originally aired August 30, 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.
There are two new contestants tonight due to Andrew Fisher's successful retirement on Friday. Taking the champion's position is Kashi Ross, a teacher who has recently been playing competitive Scrabble around Australia. Kashi has also played over twenty-three thousand online games of Scrabble over the last five years. As Richard points out, that is an average of over twelve games a day which sounds like an enormous time investment. Kashi clarifies that the vast majority of the games she plays are fast ones where each side has only three minutes to play, so it is only a bit over an hour per day.
In the challenger's position is Erez Gordon, a hospitality consultant who won The Age Good Food Guide's Service Excellence Award a few years ago. (That was in 2002, in recognition of his performance as Maitre d'Hotel of Jacques Reymond.) Erez loves good food and wine, and travelling the globe to find it. Richard asks if the food options determine where Erez travels, and Erez agrees that they play a major role but often it is simply about places where you have not been before. He notes that when he went to the Bahamas he was disappointed to find that they had no regional cuisine at all; the locale more than made up for it, though.
Kashi got off to an early lead in the first round, although neither contestant used the retsina mix to best advantage. She extended that lead in the first numbers round, and the contestants were essentially matched for the rest of the main rounds. Neither managed to score in the last two rounds, with the conundrum feeling somewhat difficult, and Kashi won 48 to 31.
I had a reasonable game, but missed three of the best letters results. The first was a bit careless, but the other two were words I was always going to struggle to see. Against that, I very nearly tied with the David and Lily combination when David had a mental bobble of his own, being two letters off best on one round. It just goes to show how it can happen to anyone!
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.
There are two new contestants tonight due to Andrew Fisher's successful retirement on Friday. Taking the champion's position is Kashi Ross, a teacher who has recently been playing competitive Scrabble around Australia. Kashi has also played over twenty-three thousand online games of Scrabble over the last five years. As Richard points out, that is an average of over twelve games a day which sounds like an enormous time investment. Kashi clarifies that the vast majority of the games she plays are fast ones where each side has only three minutes to play, so it is only a bit over an hour per day.
In the challenger's position is Erez Gordon, a hospitality consultant who won The Age Good Food Guide's Service Excellence Award a few years ago. (That was in 2002, in recognition of his performance as Maitre d'Hotel of Jacques Reymond.) Erez loves good food and wine, and travelling the globe to find it. Richard asks if the food options determine where Erez travels, and Erez agrees that they play a major role but often it is simply about places where you have not been before. He notes that when he went to the Bahamas he was disappointed to find that they had no regional cuisine at all; the locale more than made up for it, though.
Kashi got off to an early lead in the first round, although neither contestant used the retsina mix to best advantage. She extended that lead in the first numbers round, and the contestants were essentially matched for the rest of the main rounds. Neither managed to score in the last two rounds, with the conundrum feeling somewhat difficult, and Kashi won 48 to 31.
I had a reasonable game, but missed three of the best letters results. The first was a bit careless, but the other two were words I was always going to struggle to see. Against that, I very nearly tied with the David and Lily combination when David had a mental bobble of his own, being two letters off best on one round. It just goes to show how it can happen to anyone!
Sunday, 5 August 2012
Ep 20: Andrew Fisher, Les Ramsay (August 3, 2012; originally aired August 27, 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.
Win or lose (and who could picture him losing at this point?), this is Andrew's last night until the finals. Richard reminds us of the rules of retiring champions, and nothing much more is said.
Tonight's challenger is Les Ramsay, a retired electrical engineer. Some of the activities that Les spends his time on are "cooking curries, reading intrigue novels, playing golf, and he also loves to travel". Richard asks if there is any particular destination that Les has enjoyed most; Les answers in the affirmative -- last year he spent some time travelling through Mexico and South America, and he thinks that Mexico City is a fascinating place. It has such a cultural diversity, and there are more people in Mexico City than in the entirety of Australia.
Andrew got off to a great start with two excellent words, then outdid Les in the first numbers round and soon had a commanding lead of more than thirty points. The only minor blip came when Andrew tried for too much and ended up with an invalid word; Les managed to gain a tiny bit of ground back in the last numbers round also, but Andrew solved the conundrum for another emphatic win (although his lowest scoring game to date), 59 to 25.
I did well in most rounds, but one of Andrew's words was just too good for me. Although I gained some back on his invalid word and in one of the numbers rounds, it proved to be just short of enough; when he solved the conundrum first it gave him the win over me by a point.
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.
Win or lose (and who could picture him losing at this point?), this is Andrew's last night until the finals. Richard reminds us of the rules of retiring champions, and nothing much more is said.
Tonight's challenger is Les Ramsay, a retired electrical engineer. Some of the activities that Les spends his time on are "cooking curries, reading intrigue novels, playing golf, and he also loves to travel". Richard asks if there is any particular destination that Les has enjoyed most; Les answers in the affirmative -- last year he spent some time travelling through Mexico and South America, and he thinks that Mexico City is a fascinating place. It has such a cultural diversity, and there are more people in Mexico City than in the entirety of Australia.
Andrew got off to a great start with two excellent words, then outdid Les in the first numbers round and soon had a commanding lead of more than thirty points. The only minor blip came when Andrew tried for too much and ended up with an invalid word; Les managed to gain a tiny bit of ground back in the last numbers round also, but Andrew solved the conundrum for another emphatic win (although his lowest scoring game to date), 59 to 25.
I did well in most rounds, but one of Andrew's words was just too good for me. Although I gained some back on his invalid word and in one of the numbers rounds, it proved to be just short of enough; when he solved the conundrum first it gave him the win over me by a point.
Saturday, 4 August 2012
Miscellany
Apologies for the delayed postings; I had hoped that SBS might get the right episode 19 in place, but presumably that won't happen until at least next week. I'll post the episode 20 results soon and catch up that other episode when it becomes possible.
I'm abandoning the Countdown recaps; it simply does not interest me as much, and is already handled elsewhere as I've mentioned. It really does not play as well in Australia as it does in the UK, and I had not appreciated just how significant this was until I got to properly contrast it with Letters and Numbers. Amongst other issues of cultural difference, there were around five words suggested by contestants on Thursday's game that I simply could not tell what was being said (but that apparently the presenters had no difficulty understanding).
The good news is that the TV schedule suggests that episodes of Letters and Numbers will continue to screen in the 3PM slot for at least a while, so we're not having repeats of Countdown inflicted upon us in that timeslot instead.
I'm abandoning the Countdown recaps; it simply does not interest me as much, and is already handled elsewhere as I've mentioned. It really does not play as well in Australia as it does in the UK, and I had not appreciated just how significant this was until I got to properly contrast it with Letters and Numbers. Amongst other issues of cultural difference, there were around five words suggested by contestants on Thursday's game that I simply could not tell what was being said (but that apparently the presenters had no difficulty understanding).
The good news is that the TV schedule suggests that episodes of Letters and Numbers will continue to screen in the 3PM slot for at least a while, so we're not having repeats of Countdown inflicted upon us in that timeslot instead.
Friday, 3 August 2012
Countdown series 64 episode 3: Adam Gillard, Fran Dyson (August 1, 2012; originally aired January 12, 2011)
SBS has messed up and has the content of episode 18 in place of episode 19, so there'll be a delay on that episode. Meanwhile, here's results for Wednesday's Countdown episode.
The c4countdown recap for this episode is here.
The c4countdown recap for this episode is here.
Thursday, 2 August 2012
Ep 18: Andrew Fisher, Andrew Patterson (August 1, 2012; originally aired August 25, 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 we find out that Andrew Fisher sings in a Melbourne choir called Gloriana, which he states has a huge repertoire ranging from the 1400's through to composers who are still alive today. Richard investigates which end of that range Andrew prefers, and is told that he likes the "way-out contempory stuff".
Tonight's challenger is Andrew Patterson, who has worked as an I.T. analyst for twenty years. He spends his spare time composing and solving crosswords, specifically for a medical publication. That involves a large number of medical words and clues, as one might expect. His wife is a GP, which allows him to run ideas past her to check on them being sensible.
Having two contestants named Andrew poses the usual issues, so for the rest of this post they will be referred to as Andrew F and Andrew P.
Andrew F found a full monty early on and Andrew P was never quite able to recover from that. Andrew P risked an invalid word in the fourth round, only for Andrew F to return the favour in the next. The following numbers round saw both contestants miss a simple chance to gain points over the other, and then Andrew P managed the rare feat of finding a longer word than Andrew F in the last letters round. He needed unanswered points in the last numbers round to have a chance, but it was Andrew F who did well to solve it and seal the win; he notched up yet another quick conundrum solution to round out a 67 to 35 victory.
I had decent performance tonight, although I suspect that the only reason I knew the full monty was because of this episode so there is a bit of a chicken-and-egg situation there. I picked up just enough on the remaining rounds to take the win regardless, although if Andrew F had risked some of the longer words he no-doubt saw then this would likely not have been the case. My conundrum solution was very slow -- possibly not within time, although I am assuming that it was -- but the rest of it was enough to see me home.
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 we find out that Andrew Fisher sings in a Melbourne choir called Gloriana, which he states has a huge repertoire ranging from the 1400's through to composers who are still alive today. Richard investigates which end of that range Andrew prefers, and is told that he likes the "way-out contempory stuff".
Tonight's challenger is Andrew Patterson, who has worked as an I.T. analyst for twenty years. He spends his spare time composing and solving crosswords, specifically for a medical publication. That involves a large number of medical words and clues, as one might expect. His wife is a GP, which allows him to run ideas past her to check on them being sensible.
Having two contestants named Andrew poses the usual issues, so for the rest of this post they will be referred to as Andrew F and Andrew P.
Andrew F found a full monty early on and Andrew P was never quite able to recover from that. Andrew P risked an invalid word in the fourth round, only for Andrew F to return the favour in the next. The following numbers round saw both contestants miss a simple chance to gain points over the other, and then Andrew P managed the rare feat of finding a longer word than Andrew F in the last letters round. He needed unanswered points in the last numbers round to have a chance, but it was Andrew F who did well to solve it and seal the win; he notched up yet another quick conundrum solution to round out a 67 to 35 victory.
I had decent performance tonight, although I suspect that the only reason I knew the full monty was because of this episode so there is a bit of a chicken-and-egg situation there. I picked up just enough on the remaining rounds to take the win regardless, although if Andrew F had risked some of the longer words he no-doubt saw then this would likely not have been the case. My conundrum solution was very slow -- possibly not within time, although I am assuming that it was -- but the rest of it was enough to see me home.
Wednesday, 1 August 2012
Countdown series 64 episode 2: Mike Pickering, Gavin Cooksley (July 31, 2012; originally aired January 11, 2011)
It felt like a tough set of rounds today (and the maximum total bears that out to an extent), but there were some longer options lurking there to be found.
The c4countdown recap is here.
The c4countdown recap is here.
Ep 17: Andrew Fisher, Adib Surani (July 31, 2012; originally aired August 24, 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.
Not too surprisingly, Andrew enjoys solving hard cryptic crosswords. More unusually, though, he also enjoys composing them and has even managed to get a few published in The Times. Impressive!
Tonight's challenger is Adib Surani, a pure mathematics student who has been winning mathematics competitions since the age of seven. His friends know him as "a calculator substitute", and he has an ambition to one day solve the Riemann hypothesis. That's quite an ambition, for sure. Adib explains that the Riemann hypothesis is one of the most important unsolved problems in mathematics right now.
(That's true, although the conjecture that people care about is more the generalised Riemann hypothesis; a lot of consequences of deep interest would follow from a proof of GRH, and my impression is that the importance of a proof of RH is more to do with how such techniques might then be applied to GRH (as well as being further supporting evidence for it) than for results that flow from a proof of RH itself.)
Andrew got off to a good start with the only eight-letter word and just never let up, finding great results throughout in both letters and numbers. Adib was not able to match him, and although he got some late points back in the last numbers game it was too little too late, and Andrew cruised through to a 64 to 29 victory.
I was all over the place today, missing a numbers game that I feel I should have solved and being too slow to find a couple of words that I would have found when in top form. Some confusion on the conundrum kept me slow there, and I lost by over twenty points to Andrew. On the plus side, I did manage to find a word that eluded both him and David, and that is always something to be happy about.
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.
Not too surprisingly, Andrew enjoys solving hard cryptic crosswords. More unusually, though, he also enjoys composing them and has even managed to get a few published in The Times. Impressive!
Tonight's challenger is Adib Surani, a pure mathematics student who has been winning mathematics competitions since the age of seven. His friends know him as "a calculator substitute", and he has an ambition to one day solve the Riemann hypothesis. That's quite an ambition, for sure. Adib explains that the Riemann hypothesis is one of the most important unsolved problems in mathematics right now.
(That's true, although the conjecture that people care about is more the generalised Riemann hypothesis; a lot of consequences of deep interest would follow from a proof of GRH, and my impression is that the importance of a proof of RH is more to do with how such techniques might then be applied to GRH (as well as being further supporting evidence for it) than for results that flow from a proof of RH itself.)
Andrew got off to a good start with the only eight-letter word and just never let up, finding great results throughout in both letters and numbers. Adib was not able to match him, and although he got some late points back in the last numbers game it was too little too late, and Andrew cruised through to a 64 to 29 victory.
I was all over the place today, missing a numbers game that I feel I should have solved and being too slow to find a couple of words that I would have found when in top form. Some confusion on the conundrum kept me slow there, and I lost by over twenty points to Andrew. On the plus side, I did manage to find a word that eluded both him and David, and that is always something to be happy about.
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