Rounds: Here.
This is Christopher Weldon's fourth night, and a win here will put him in good position to move into the finals rankings. Richard talks about Christopher's so-far impressive conundrum speed and jokingly suggests that Christopher's typing speed may be a contributing factor. Christopher plays up to it well, saying that maybe his typing speed is increased exponentially by having only one button to focus on.
Tonight's challenger is Nick Carr, a GP who does regular radio and TV segments. Nick says that David's crosswords are both the highlight and the lowlight of his weekends. He adds that he used to enjoy his weekends, sitting back and reading the papers. Now he sits there scratching his head over David's crosswords all weekend; he doesn't get to read anything any more. But of course, when he does manage to get one out it is all the sweeter for the difficulty.
It was a close game tonight, one that kept us guessing up until the end. Christopher started off promisingly with points in the first round, then several shared rounds followed. (Nick overlooked a simple modification of his first numbers game that would have given him points there, mind you.) Then Nick found an excellent word to claim the lead, only for Christopher to take it right back again in the next numbers round. Nick was unlucky that his attempt for the last letters round was not valid, and the result of all this was that Christopher was ahead by precisely ten points going into the conundrum. It looked like time would expire without it being solved, but with less than two seconds left Nick found the answer and took the game to a tiebreaker conundrum. He ended up solving that, too, somewhat more quickly, and took a deserved 54 to 44 victory.
I played reasonably well, just dropping the one letters maximum in the main rounds. Some of my numbers solutions were a bit overcomplicated, but they got the job done and that is what counts. David had found that maximum that I missed, but then I found a longer word in the tough final letters round, and the chance to tie was still available. Unfortunately, that first conundrum was too hard for me; I solved the second one rather quickly but the damage was done and the tie slipped away. Still, some nice words on offer tonight and a good game despite the conundrum woes.
Tuesday, 30 October 2012
Monday, 29 October 2012
Ep 81: Christopher Weldon, Paul Power (October 29, 2012; originally aired November 22, 2010)
Rounds: Here.
Christopher Weldon is back after the weekend for his third game. Christopher's day job (as opposed to his scriptwriting) is to write on-hold messages for businesses. Richard makes the observation that when you hear such a message on the phone you don't generally stop and realise that someone had to have written it, and Christopher agrees; he then adds that much of the time the writer was him. We also find out that Christopher has an impressive typing speed of around 117 words per minute.
Tonight's challenger is Paul Power, a retired organisational psychologist. Paul explains that organisational psychology is the study of people at work: Everything from career choice, why people choose certain vocations, through to effective leadership. Richard asks how psychology is part of this; Paul responds that psychology is the study of people and behaviour, so this is about people behaving at work... hopefully, people behaving well at work.
Christopher found a good word in the first round to establish an early lead; Paul looked to get it back in the second round, but it turned out that he had used one of the letters twice. A few shared rounds followed, but then an error from Paul in the second numbers round allowed Christopher to push his lead out to twenty points. Paul finally won a round in the next letters round, but then lost more points in the last numbers round to ensure Christopher's win. Paul buzzed in quickly on the conundrum, but it was invalid, and Christopher solved it shortly thereafter, finishing with a sizeable 56 to 24 victory.
I had a good game with two bad moments: I got so flustered on the first numbers round that I lost track of my backup plan and finished further away than both contestants, and then I missed a findable better word in the last letters round. The rest went fairly well -- I was particularly happy with my solution to the last numbers round -- and I solved the conundrum quickly for a change, finishing comfortably ahead.
Christopher Weldon is back after the weekend for his third game. Christopher's day job (as opposed to his scriptwriting) is to write on-hold messages for businesses. Richard makes the observation that when you hear such a message on the phone you don't generally stop and realise that someone had to have written it, and Christopher agrees; he then adds that much of the time the writer was him. We also find out that Christopher has an impressive typing speed of around 117 words per minute.
Tonight's challenger is Paul Power, a retired organisational psychologist. Paul explains that organisational psychology is the study of people at work: Everything from career choice, why people choose certain vocations, through to effective leadership. Richard asks how psychology is part of this; Paul responds that psychology is the study of people and behaviour, so this is about people behaving at work... hopefully, people behaving well at work.
Christopher found a good word in the first round to establish an early lead; Paul looked to get it back in the second round, but it turned out that he had used one of the letters twice. A few shared rounds followed, but then an error from Paul in the second numbers round allowed Christopher to push his lead out to twenty points. Paul finally won a round in the next letters round, but then lost more points in the last numbers round to ensure Christopher's win. Paul buzzed in quickly on the conundrum, but it was invalid, and Christopher solved it shortly thereafter, finishing with a sizeable 56 to 24 victory.
I had a good game with two bad moments: I got so flustered on the first numbers round that I lost track of my backup plan and finished further away than both contestants, and then I missed a findable better word in the last letters round. The rest went fairly well -- I was particularly happy with my solution to the last numbers round -- and I solved the conundrum quickly for a change, finishing comfortably ahead.
Sunday, 28 October 2012
Weekly summary: Episodes 76 to 80
This was a somewhat less good week than last week, starting off with invalid answers and generally missing better options that I would like to have found. Still, it's not all as doom-and-gloom as I make out, so apologies for that.
Dom Saric successfully retired, finishing up in fifth position as expected. No contestants lasted very long thereafter, but Christopher Weldon looks to have some potential.
For the second week in a row there were no potential full monties, so hopefully that will change next week. There was a genuinely impossible target on Wednesday, which arguably should also count as "tough" since Lily was not able to find the best option either.
My maximum count was rather down this week, with the invalid answers contributing to that. This is the first week (that I am aware of) where I was not able to get three numbers maxima in any game. I've definitely struggled, and it has been a sharp comedown from the previous week.
Contestants sorted by average score:
| Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Me | 54 | 56 | 70 | 61 | 62 |
| Champion | 27 | 24 | 7 | 30 | 37 |
| Challenger | 7 | 0 | 0 | 40 | 33 |
| David + Lily | 77 | 75 | 74 | 77 | 74 |
| Me (solo) | 54 | 66 | 70 | 71 | 72 |
Dom Saric successfully retired, finishing up in fifth position as expected. No contestants lasted very long thereafter, but Christopher Weldon looks to have some potential.
| Andrew Fisher | 95 | 63 | 64 | 67 | 67 | 59 | 415 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Naween Fernando | 73 | 60 | 64 | 94 | 64 | 56 | 411 |
| David Jones | 63 | 63 | 50 | 61 | 55 | 53 | 346 |
| Liam Bastick | 48 | 60 | 48 | 46 | 50 | 72 | 324 |
| Dom Saric | 53 | 52 | 50 | 45 | 51 | 57 | 308 |
| Chris Scholten-Smith | 45 | 47 | 48 | 47 | 38 | 40 | 265 |
| Kashi Ross | 48 | 46 | 34 | 41 | 45 | 32 | 246 |
| Veronica Corrigan | 41 | 60 | 54 | 35 | 43 | 233 |
For the second week in a row there were no potential full monties, so hopefully that will change next week. There was a genuinely impossible target on Wednesday, which arguably should also count as "tough" since Lily was not able to find the best option either.
| Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full Monties | 0 | |||||
| Missed Full Monties | 0 | |||||
| Tough Numbers | 1 | 1 | ||||
| Impossible Numbers | 1 | 1 |
My maximum count was rather down this week, with the invalid answers contributing to that. This is the first week (that I am aware of) where I was not able to get three numbers maxima in any game. I've definitely struggled, and it has been a sharp comedown from the previous week.
| Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Maximums: L | 1 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 2 |
| N | 2 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 2 |
| C | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Invalid: L | 1 | - | - | - | - |
| N | - | 1 | - | - | - |
Contestants sorted by average score:
| Total | Games | Average | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Andrew Fisher | 415 | 6 | 69.17 |
| Naween Fernando | 411 | 6 | 68.50 |
| Sam Chow | 65 | 1 | 65.00 |
| David Jones | 346 | 6 | 57.67 |
| Esther Perrins | 219 | 4 | 54.75 |
| James Weatherhead | 164 | 3 | 54.67 |
| Liam Bastick | 324 | 6 | 54.00 |
| Angus Kidman | 103 | 2 | 51.50 |
| Dom Saric | 308 | 6 | 51.33 |
| Jasper Johnson | 51 | 1 | 51.00 |
| Christopher Weldon* | 100 | 2 | 50.00 |
| Dennis Callegari | 96 | 2 | 48.00 |
| Rob York | 94 | 2 | 47.00 |
| Jayanthi Viswanathan | 140 | 3 | 46.67 |
| Veronica Corrigan | 233 | 5 | 46.60 |
| James Parton | 182 | 4 | 45.50 |
| Pravin Dullur | 45 | 1 | 45.00 |
| Chris Scholten-Smith | 265 | 6 | 44.17 |
| Geoff Heard | 88 | 2 | 44.00 |
| Sudesh Piyatissa | 128 | 3 | 42.67 |
| Kathryn Jones | 85 | 2 | 42.50 |
| Yolanda Sztarr | 127 | 3 | 42.33 |
| Aaron Tyrell | 165 | 4 | 41.25 |
| Kashi Ross | 246 | 6 | 41.00 |
| Peter Stegelman | 82 | 2 | 41.00 |
| Tanya Ithier | 41 | 1 | 41.00 |
| Ian Campbell-Fraser | 161 | 4 | 40.25 |
| Amanda Mendizza | 40 | 1 | 40.00 |
| Keith De La Rue | 39 | 1 | 39.00 |
| Kiao Inthavong | 39 | 1 | 39.00 |
| Jonathan Scarlett | 39 | 1 | 39.00 |
| Michael Phillips | 38 | 1 | 38.00 |
| Chaitanya Rao | 38 | 1 | 38.00 |
| Ian See | 113 | 3 | 37.67 |
| Jason Stockdale | 37 | 1 | 37.00 |
| Rob Mould | 70 | 2 | 35.00 |
| Rolli Pick | 70 | 2 | 35.00 |
| Lara Cassar | 35 | 1 | 35.00 |
| Andrew Patterson | 35 | 1 | 35.00 |
| Chris Ryan | 35 | 1 | 35.00 |
| Paolo Navidad | 34 | 1 | 34.00 |
| Beckett Rozentals | 34 | 1 | 34.00 |
| Peter Smith | 67 | 2 | 33.50 |
| Elaine Miles | 33 | 1 | 33.00 |
| Jenny Blair | 33 | 1 | 33.00 |
| Alexis Harley | 32 | 1 | 32.00 |
| James Pho | 32 | 1 | 32.00 |
| Erez Gordon | 31 | 1 | 31.00 |
| Yvonne Wake | 31 | 1 | 31.00 |
| Ben Strate | 30 | 1 | 30.00 |
| Jonathan Campbell | 29 | 1 | 29.00 |
| Alan Stewart | 29 | 1 | 29.00 |
| Adib Surani | 29 | 1 | 29.00 |
| Stephen Farrelly | 86 | 3 | 28.67 |
| Michael Clark | 28 | 1 | 28.00 |
| Tristan Leech | 28 | 1 | 28.00 |
| Helen Robinson | 27 | 1 | 27.00 |
| Dave Wilson | 27 | 1 | 27.00 |
| Michael Gin | 25 | 1 | 25.00 |
| Desire L'Etang | 25 | 1 | 25.00 |
| Les Ramsay | 25 | 1 | 25.00 |
| Rachael Bausor | 24 | 1 | 24.00 |
| Brian Lynch | 24 | 1 | 24.00 |
| Stavroula Nicholls | 24 | 1 | 24.00 |
| Robin Wedd | 24 | 1 | 24.00 |
| Jane Cleary | 23 | 1 | 23.00 |
| Mark Mota | 22 | 1 | 22.00 |
| Brendan Murphy | 22 | 1 | 22.00 |
| Michael O'Neill | 22 | 1 | 22.00 |
| Jim Bailey | 21 | 1 | 21.00 |
| Daniel Pratt | 21 | 1 | 21.00 |
| Matt Woodley | 20 | 1 | 20.00 |
| Nick Taubert | 19 | 1 | 19.00 |
| Arthur Barrs | 17 | 1 | 17.00 |
| Carol Campbell | 17 | 1 | 17.00 |
| Mark Duggan | 17 | 1 | 17.00 |
| Damian Foong | 16 | 1 | 16.00 |
| Dawn Tuftan | 15 | 1 | 15.00 |
| Jason Taylor | 14 | 1 | 14.00 |
| Bassem Abousaid | 12 | 1 | 12.00 |
| Billy Lowe | 12 | 1 | 12.00 |
| Frances Weinberg | 10 | 1 | 10.00 |
| Robert Lukunic | 8 | 1 | 8.00 |
| Rebecca Daley | 7 | 1 | 7.00 |
| Dean Schwab | 7 | 1 | 7.00 |
| Paul Hughes | 6 | 1 | 6.00 |
| Andrew Bullen | 5 | 1 | 5.00 |
Ep 80: Christopher Weldon, Jasper Johnson (October 26, 2012; originally aired November 19, 2010)
Rounds: Here.
Christopher Weldon gets his turn in the champion's seat after his good come-from-behind victory over Peter Smith last night. Richard mentions that Christopher is an acting graduate as well as a writer, and that he has melded those two facets together as he has written at least one script. Christopher says that he would like to do more scriptwriting; he has written one play already. He admits that it might sound impressive but the play only went for ten minutes, so he can call himself a playwright with very little effort. He'd like to write more things, and jokingly adds that he particularly wants to write anything that he can put himself in and be funny and then have people love him...
Tonight's challenger is Jasper Johnson, a year twelve student and the show's youngest competitor so far. Jasper's grandmother is from Germany; she lives in Australia, but Jasper has always wanted to visit Germany. Early last year (2009) he got the opportunity to do so as an exchange student; his school has a sister school in Hamburg, which is in the north of Germany. He was there for three months, made many new friends and generally had an exciting experience.
Jasper got the early lead in the first round, and a couple of shared rounds followed. There was an exchange of points in the middle letters rounds, and then more matched results all the way up to conundrum. For the second time Christopher was seven points behind going into the conundrum, and once again he solved it quickly to take the win, 54 to 51.
I had a reasonable game, missing several tough maxima in the middle section but otherwise doing well enough. Christopher was too fast for me on the conundrum again, but this time there was only a second in it. Fortunately I'd managed to do enough in the rest of the rounds to finish comfortably ahead.
Christopher Weldon gets his turn in the champion's seat after his good come-from-behind victory over Peter Smith last night. Richard mentions that Christopher is an acting graduate as well as a writer, and that he has melded those two facets together as he has written at least one script. Christopher says that he would like to do more scriptwriting; he has written one play already. He admits that it might sound impressive but the play only went for ten minutes, so he can call himself a playwright with very little effort. He'd like to write more things, and jokingly adds that he particularly wants to write anything that he can put himself in and be funny and then have people love him...
Tonight's challenger is Jasper Johnson, a year twelve student and the show's youngest competitor so far. Jasper's grandmother is from Germany; she lives in Australia, but Jasper has always wanted to visit Germany. Early last year (2009) he got the opportunity to do so as an exchange student; his school has a sister school in Hamburg, which is in the north of Germany. He was there for three months, made many new friends and generally had an exciting experience.
Jasper got the early lead in the first round, and a couple of shared rounds followed. There was an exchange of points in the middle letters rounds, and then more matched results all the way up to conundrum. For the second time Christopher was seven points behind going into the conundrum, and once again he solved it quickly to take the win, 54 to 51.
I had a reasonable game, missing several tough maxima in the middle section but otherwise doing well enough. Christopher was too fast for me on the conundrum again, but this time there was only a second in it. Fortunately I'd managed to do enough in the rest of the rounds to finish comfortably ahead.
Ep 79: Peter Smith, Christopher Weldon (October 25, 2012; originally aired November 18, 2010)
Rounds: Here.
Peter Smith returns to the champion's chair but this time as a bona fide champion. Richard notes that forty-seven years ago Peter was "right at the cutting edge of computing", and asks for more information. Peter explains that he was working on a computer called CSIRAC, which was built by the CSIR (the name at the time for what is now called the CSIRO) not long after the Second World War. (He adds "at Melbourne university", but it is not clear if he means it was built there or he was working there; certainly the latter is true but the former is not: CSIRAC was originally built in Sydney and later transferred to Melbourne.)
Richard asks for more details about it, and Peter says that the machine would have comfortably filled the studio. (That surprises me, based on some of the photos, but perhaps the more interactive photo selection available at the museum's pages will give a better idea; presumably there was more to it than the obvious selection of cabinets, and the depth is a bit unclear.) He says that it was immensely powerful for its day, but by comparison with today's computers: "Think of the cheapest, smallest mobile phone you can get and that would beat it hands down". He finishes by mentioning that the computer is now in the Melbourne Museum, and he is glad that he is not in there with it.
Tonight's challenger is Christopher Weldon, a writer who has moved house fifty-seven times. That is really quite a lot of moves, and naturally Richard asks about the reasons behind that. Christopher responds that there has never been one real reason for it; sometimes it was an important move due to a parent having a new job, and sometimes it was because the shower head was a bit dodgy and they wanted a new one. While he was living with his parents most of that travel was in Queensland and a bit in the Northern Territory; since he has been living by himself it has been generally Canberra and now Melbourne.
It was a nice close game tonight; Christopher got the early advantage in the second letters round, only for Peter to draw level again with a much better result in the first numbers round. Peter then took the lead with an excellent find in round four, and carried that lead all the way to the conundrum. Christopher needed to solve it first to win, and did so when he found an extremely fast solution to what seemed like a difficult conundrum. Christopher got the win, 46 to 43.
I started off with a relatively poor miss -- a word I've found many times before but not this time. I had good results for the most part thereafter, but failed to solve a tricky numbers game that was nonetheless approachable. Christopher was too fast for me on the conundrum, but I got there in due course and my main rounds had kept me in front.
Peter Smith returns to the champion's chair but this time as a bona fide champion. Richard notes that forty-seven years ago Peter was "right at the cutting edge of computing", and asks for more information. Peter explains that he was working on a computer called CSIRAC, which was built by the CSIR (the name at the time for what is now called the CSIRO) not long after the Second World War. (He adds "at Melbourne university", but it is not clear if he means it was built there or he was working there; certainly the latter is true but the former is not: CSIRAC was originally built in Sydney and later transferred to Melbourne.)
Richard asks for more details about it, and Peter says that the machine would have comfortably filled the studio. (That surprises me, based on some of the photos, but perhaps the more interactive photo selection available at the museum's pages will give a better idea; presumably there was more to it than the obvious selection of cabinets, and the depth is a bit unclear.) He says that it was immensely powerful for its day, but by comparison with today's computers: "Think of the cheapest, smallest mobile phone you can get and that would beat it hands down". He finishes by mentioning that the computer is now in the Melbourne Museum, and he is glad that he is not in there with it.
Tonight's challenger is Christopher Weldon, a writer who has moved house fifty-seven times. That is really quite a lot of moves, and naturally Richard asks about the reasons behind that. Christopher responds that there has never been one real reason for it; sometimes it was an important move due to a parent having a new job, and sometimes it was because the shower head was a bit dodgy and they wanted a new one. While he was living with his parents most of that travel was in Queensland and a bit in the Northern Territory; since he has been living by himself it has been generally Canberra and now Melbourne.
It was a nice close game tonight; Christopher got the early advantage in the second letters round, only for Peter to draw level again with a much better result in the first numbers round. Peter then took the lead with an excellent find in round four, and carried that lead all the way to the conundrum. Christopher needed to solve it first to win, and did so when he found an extremely fast solution to what seemed like a difficult conundrum. Christopher got the win, 46 to 43.
I started off with a relatively poor miss -- a word I've found many times before but not this time. I had good results for the most part thereafter, but failed to solve a tricky numbers game that was nonetheless approachable. Christopher was too fast for me on the conundrum, but I got there in due course and my main rounds had kept me in front.
Friday, 26 October 2012
Ep 78: Peter Smith, Mark Duggan (October 24, 2012; originally aired November 17, 2010)
Rounds: Here.
Dom Saric successfully retired last night, so we have two new challengers today. Taking the champion's position is Peter Smith, a retired computer consultant who currently works as a part-time I.T. lecturer. Back in the early 1990's, Peter helped investors to win thirty-eight million dollars on lotteries. What they did was to look for lotteries around the world that slowly jackpotted to very high potential winnings (I gather the slowness was important since it meant that the lottery would not attract large numbers of other people with the same idea, like an isolated large lottery would do). Then they had to ensure winning by buying every single outcome for the lottery, which might be as much as nine million entries.
Their consortium had to spend around seven million American dollars, which in those days was around ten million Australian dollars, in order to get all the requisite tickets. A successful result for them, almost quadrupling the seed money. Apparently it made two and a half thousand people very happy.
Taking the challenger's position is Mark Duggan, a business consultant and qualified chartered accountant. Mark moved to Australia ten years ago and spends several hours a week as a volunteer on a crisis telephone line, talking to people about all kinds of problems. He also helps to train new volunteers through their journey from knowing nothing about telephone crisis counselling through to being qualified to sit and work on the phones with any kind of caller.
It was a close but low-scoring game tonight, with neither contestant able to gain any points from the numbers rounds. A round where both contestants declared invalid words also kept scores down, and otherwise they mostly matched results. They went into the conundrum with Peter ahead but not safe; he buzzed in late with an invalid answer, but Mark was not able to use the extra time to solve it and Peter took the win, 24 to 17.
I started off reasonably well, but things slipped in the latter stages as I missed solving a numbers game that I should have and then failed to find two tough maxima. My conundrum speed was all right but not fast, but I'd done enough to get the score back up to seventy which is a relief after the previous two games.
Dom Saric successfully retired last night, so we have two new challengers today. Taking the champion's position is Peter Smith, a retired computer consultant who currently works as a part-time I.T. lecturer. Back in the early 1990's, Peter helped investors to win thirty-eight million dollars on lotteries. What they did was to look for lotteries around the world that slowly jackpotted to very high potential winnings (I gather the slowness was important since it meant that the lottery would not attract large numbers of other people with the same idea, like an isolated large lottery would do). Then they had to ensure winning by buying every single outcome for the lottery, which might be as much as nine million entries.
Their consortium had to spend around seven million American dollars, which in those days was around ten million Australian dollars, in order to get all the requisite tickets. A successful result for them, almost quadrupling the seed money. Apparently it made two and a half thousand people very happy.
Taking the challenger's position is Mark Duggan, a business consultant and qualified chartered accountant. Mark moved to Australia ten years ago and spends several hours a week as a volunteer on a crisis telephone line, talking to people about all kinds of problems. He also helps to train new volunteers through their journey from knowing nothing about telephone crisis counselling through to being qualified to sit and work on the phones with any kind of caller.
It was a close but low-scoring game tonight, with neither contestant able to gain any points from the numbers rounds. A round where both contestants declared invalid words also kept scores down, and otherwise they mostly matched results. They went into the conundrum with Peter ahead but not safe; he buzzed in late with an invalid answer, but Mark was not able to use the extra time to solve it and Peter took the win, 24 to 17.
I started off reasonably well, but things slipped in the latter stages as I missed solving a numbers game that I should have and then failed to find two tough maxima. My conundrum speed was all right but not fast, but I'd done enough to get the score back up to seventy which is a relief after the previous two games.
Ep 77: Dom Saric, Rebecca Daley (October 23, 2012; originally aired November 16, 2010)
Rounds: Here.
This is Dom Saric's sixth night, so the last we'll see of him before the finals. Retiring undefeated is his goal, of course, and speaking of goals Richard mentions that Dom is a big soccer fan. Dom has been playing outdoor soccer since the age of six, and picked up indoor soccer in the last five or six years.
Tonight's challenger is Rebecca Daley, a student of biomedicine who recently came to Australia from America. Rebecca met her boyfriend on New Year's Eve in New York City, where she was living at the time. They lived there while he finished up law school in the vicinity, and then the next New Year's they moved to Australia so that he could start work here and she could start studying.
Dom finished on a high note, or at least on a comprehensive victory. He found some good words throughout, with Rebecca unable to match him in any of the letters rounds (in part due to two invalid words). He had the better of the numbers rounds, and when he solved the conundrum quickly the final scoreline was an imposing 57 to 7 in his favour. Dom successfully retired, the sixth person to do so.
I had a good game, except for one major problem that cost me that rare chance of outscoring David and Lily. That was a truly careless slip of the mind that gave me an invalid numbers round -- always frustrating when that happens. I was much slower than Dom to see the conundrum, also, so there were a couple of features that needed improving. The strong plus here was finding a longer word than David in one round (and a second such after time, but for the same round); that is always something to be cherished.
This is Dom Saric's sixth night, so the last we'll see of him before the finals. Retiring undefeated is his goal, of course, and speaking of goals Richard mentions that Dom is a big soccer fan. Dom has been playing outdoor soccer since the age of six, and picked up indoor soccer in the last five or six years.
Tonight's challenger is Rebecca Daley, a student of biomedicine who recently came to Australia from America. Rebecca met her boyfriend on New Year's Eve in New York City, where she was living at the time. They lived there while he finished up law school in the vicinity, and then the next New Year's they moved to Australia so that he could start work here and she could start studying.
Dom finished on a high note, or at least on a comprehensive victory. He found some good words throughout, with Rebecca unable to match him in any of the letters rounds (in part due to two invalid words). He had the better of the numbers rounds, and when he solved the conundrum quickly the final scoreline was an imposing 57 to 7 in his favour. Dom successfully retired, the sixth person to do so.
I had a good game, except for one major problem that cost me that rare chance of outscoring David and Lily. That was a truly careless slip of the mind that gave me an invalid numbers round -- always frustrating when that happens. I was much slower than Dom to see the conundrum, also, so there were a couple of features that needed improving. The strong plus here was finding a longer word than David in one round (and a second such after time, but for the same round); that is always something to be cherished.
Wednesday, 24 October 2012
Happy blogday to me!
Commenter Victor pointed out that today is the blog's anniversary, something that I had not noticed. (Strictly speaking, the anniversary was the 23rd as the introductory post went up then, but the first game-covering post was on the 24th.) Woohoo! *cue party hats and streamers*
Thank you to everyone who has wandered by over the year, and especially to those who stayed and played along. My particular thanks to Sam Gaffney, who found this blog fairly early on and whose rivalry and encouragement over its course ensured that my enthusiasm never waned.
A small bonus game of sorts for you, on this occasion: One of the SUMS puzzles this year was based on Letters and Numbers; although some of the rounds are not legal in the game (too few vowels), you may enjoy the change. The game is below; I'll add answers in the comments eventually if required.
Round 1: N O U P B M I C E
Round 2: T R I F M L E Y F
Round 3: Target 917 from 2 4 6 8 7 8
Round 4: T L U C V S H E N
Round 5: H A T B O X G E N
Round 6: Target 687 from 50 6 10 2 4 4
Round 7: Q M N O P R S T U
Round 8: Target 335 from 50 1 3 1 2 2
Round 9: SHIN AFORE
Thank you to everyone who has wandered by over the year, and especially to those who stayed and played along. My particular thanks to Sam Gaffney, who found this blog fairly early on and whose rivalry and encouragement over its course ensured that my enthusiasm never waned.
A small bonus game of sorts for you, on this occasion: One of the SUMS puzzles this year was based on Letters and Numbers; although some of the rounds are not legal in the game (too few vowels), you may enjoy the change. The game is below; I'll add answers in the comments eventually if required.
Round 1: N O U P B M I C E
Round 2: T R I F M L E Y F
Round 3: Target 917 from 2 4 6 8 7 8
Round 4: T L U C V S H E N
Round 5: H A T B O X G E N
Round 6: Target 687 from 50 6 10 2 4 4
Round 7: Q M N O P R S T U
Round 8: Target 335 from 50 1 3 1 2 2
Round 9: SHIN AFORE
Tuesday, 23 October 2012
Ep 76: Dom Saric, Billy Lowe (October 22, 2012; originally aired November 15, 2010)
Rounds: Here.
The SUMS Puzzle Hunt is over for the year, and it felt like a major struggle this time. I'll try and get these posts back into schedule soon; apologies for the various delays.
Dom Saric returns after the weekend, trying to move up the finals rankings. If he can win tonight then he'll advance a spot or two, anyway. But first, Richard mentions that Dom is a kickboxer; Dom says that he did kickboxing for about three years, and in particular the style called Muay Thai. He explains that it is one of the more traditional styles found in Thailand, and he chose it because it is fairly practical, good for discipline, and great for fitness.
Taking up the challenge tonight is Billy Lowe, a project engineer who moved to Australia from Singapore ten years ago. Richard mentions that one of Billy's favourite books is the atlas, and asks more about that. Billy explains that, aside from the colourful maps and pictures, he enjoys looking at the strange and peculiar place names. In particular, one of his passions is finding place names without vowels; he makes specific mention of the Croatian island Krk.
Dom found a lovely word to start off the game, and then extended his lead in the second game. Billy was not able to get anywhere with the first numbers round and Dom's lead was already over twenty at the first break. Billy managed a bit better in the letters in the rest of the game but continued to give up points in the numbers. He was not able to take any points off Dom, and Dom reached the half-century mark once again in the final numbers round. Neither was able to solve the conundrum, and Dom finished a comfortable winner with a 51 to 12 scoreline.
I was all over the shop today. It's quite the turnaround after last week; I'm not sure if puzzle fatigue is to blame or not. It seems like I made many errors; first I missed a very familiar word, then later I strangely decided against the best option. A bizarre oversight in the numbers round caused me to drop another maximum, and then I had an invalid word. I rounded it all out by not solving the conundrum within time, finishing with my lowest maximum count for seven weeks (and equal lowest solo total this series). Somehow it was still enough, but I really want to do better tomorrow.
The SUMS Puzzle Hunt is over for the year, and it felt like a major struggle this time. I'll try and get these posts back into schedule soon; apologies for the various delays.
Dom Saric returns after the weekend, trying to move up the finals rankings. If he can win tonight then he'll advance a spot or two, anyway. But first, Richard mentions that Dom is a kickboxer; Dom says that he did kickboxing for about three years, and in particular the style called Muay Thai. He explains that it is one of the more traditional styles found in Thailand, and he chose it because it is fairly practical, good for discipline, and great for fitness.
Taking up the challenge tonight is Billy Lowe, a project engineer who moved to Australia from Singapore ten years ago. Richard mentions that one of Billy's favourite books is the atlas, and asks more about that. Billy explains that, aside from the colourful maps and pictures, he enjoys looking at the strange and peculiar place names. In particular, one of his passions is finding place names without vowels; he makes specific mention of the Croatian island Krk.
Dom found a lovely word to start off the game, and then extended his lead in the second game. Billy was not able to get anywhere with the first numbers round and Dom's lead was already over twenty at the first break. Billy managed a bit better in the letters in the rest of the game but continued to give up points in the numbers. He was not able to take any points off Dom, and Dom reached the half-century mark once again in the final numbers round. Neither was able to solve the conundrum, and Dom finished a comfortable winner with a 51 to 12 scoreline.
I was all over the shop today. It's quite the turnaround after last week; I'm not sure if puzzle fatigue is to blame or not. It seems like I made many errors; first I missed a very familiar word, then later I strangely decided against the best option. A bizarre oversight in the numbers round caused me to drop another maximum, and then I had an invalid word. I rounded it all out by not solving the conundrum within time, finishing with my lowest maximum count for seven weeks (and equal lowest solo total this series). Somehow it was still enough, but I really want to do better tomorrow.
Weekly summary: Episodes 71 to 75
I had a pretty satisfactory week, with all solo scores reaching the seventies; the only other time that has happened in this series (and possibly at all) was eight weeks ago. This week's effort was just a touch better than that week, so that's nice. David and Lily continue to shine, though, as even with these good results I was only able to match them once.
James Parton lost his fourth game and so did not make it onto the finals table. Dom Saric had a fine run this week, with four wins being enough to move him into the table. If he can successfully retire he will likely make it to fifth position. That's all bad news for Esther Perrins, who is knocked out at last.
It was a fairly incident-free week: No full monties (found or otherwise), and Lily solved every numbers game (admittedly, some were a bit tricky).
A reasonable set of maxima this week. The numbers misses were both on reasonably tough games, but some of the better words I should have found. It was nice to solve all of the conundrums this week.
Contestants sorted by average score:
| Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Me | 75 | 75 | 75 | 69 | 70 |
| Champion | 10 | 33 | 22 | 37 | 21 |
| Challenger | 10 | 17 | 8 | 24 | 0 |
| David + Lily | 75 | 79 | 76 | 77 | 73 |
| Me (solo) | 75 | 75 | 75 | 74 | 70 |
James Parton lost his fourth game and so did not make it onto the finals table. Dom Saric had a fine run this week, with four wins being enough to move him into the table. If he can successfully retire he will likely make it to fifth position. That's all bad news for Esther Perrins, who is knocked out at last.
| Andrew Fisher | 95 | 63 | 64 | 67 | 67 | 59 | 415 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Naween Fernando | 73 | 60 | 64 | 94 | 64 | 56 | 411 |
| David Jones | 63 | 63 | 50 | 61 | 55 | 53 | 346 |
| Liam Bastick | 48 | 60 | 48 | 46 | 50 | 72 | 324 |
| Chris Scholten-Smith | 45 | 47 | 48 | 47 | 38 | 40 | 265 |
| Kashi Ross | 48 | 46 | 34 | 41 | 45 | 32 | 246 |
| Veronica Corrigan | 41 | 60 | 54 | 35 | 43 | 233 | |
| Dom Saric | 53 | 52 | 50 | 45 | 200 |
It was a fairly incident-free week: No full monties (found or otherwise), and Lily solved every numbers game (admittedly, some were a bit tricky).
| Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full Monties | 0 | |||||
| Missed Full Monties | 0 | |||||
| Tough Numbers | 0 | |||||
| Impossible Numbers | 0 |
A reasonable set of maxima this week. The numbers misses were both on reasonably tough games, but some of the better words I should have found. It was nice to solve all of the conundrums this week.
| Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Maximums: L | 4 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 4 |
| N | 3 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 2 |
| 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 |
| Sam Chow | 65 | 1 | 65.00 |
| David Jones | 346 | 6 | 57.67 |
| Esther Perrins | 219 | 4 | 54.75 |
| James Weatherhead | 164 | 3 | 54.67 |
| Liam Bastick | 324 | 6 | 54.00 |
| Angus Kidman | 103 | 2 | 51.50 |
| Dom Saric* | 200 | 4 | 50.00 |
| Dennis Callegari | 96 | 2 | 48.00 |
| Rob York | 94 | 2 | 47.00 |
| Jayanthi Viswanathan | 140 | 3 | 46.67 |
| Veronica Corrigan | 233 | 5 | 46.60 |
| James Parton | 182 | 4 | 45.50 |
| Pravin Dullur | 45 | 1 | 45.00 |
| Chris Scholten-Smith | 265 | 6 | 44.17 |
| Geoff Heard | 88 | 2 | 44.00 |
| Sudesh Piyatissa | 128 | 3 | 42.67 |
| Kathryn Jones | 85 | 2 | 42.50 |
| Yolanda Sztarr | 127 | 3 | 42.33 |
| Aaron Tyrell | 165 | 4 | 41.25 |
| Kashi Ross | 246 | 6 | 41.00 |
| Peter Stegelman | 82 | 2 | 41.00 |
| Tanya Ithier | 41 | 1 | 41.00 |
| Ian Campbell-Fraser | 161 | 4 | 40.25 |
| Amanda Mendizza | 40 | 1 | 40.00 |
| Keith De La Rue | 39 | 1 | 39.00 |
| Kiao Inthavong | 39 | 1 | 39.00 |
| Jonathan Scarlett | 39 | 1 | 39.00 |
| Michael Phillips | 38 | 1 | 38.00 |
| Chaitanya Rao | 38 | 1 | 38.00 |
| Ian See | 113 | 3 | 37.67 |
| Jason Stockdale | 37 | 1 | 37.00 |
| Rob Mould | 70 | 2 | 35.00 |
| Rolli Pick | 70 | 2 | 35.00 |
| Lara Cassar | 35 | 1 | 35.00 |
| Andrew Patterson | 35 | 1 | 35.00 |
| Chris Ryan | 35 | 1 | 35.00 |
| Paolo Navidad | 34 | 1 | 34.00 |
| Beckett Rozentals | 34 | 1 | 34.00 |
| Elaine Miles | 33 | 1 | 33.00 |
| Jenny Blair | 33 | 1 | 33.00 |
| Alexis Harley | 32 | 1 | 32.00 |
| James Pho | 32 | 1 | 32.00 |
| Erez Gordon | 31 | 1 | 31.00 |
| Yvonne Wake | 31 | 1 | 31.00 |
| Ben Strate | 30 | 1 | 30.00 |
| Jonathan Campbell | 29 | 1 | 29.00 |
| Alan Stewart | 29 | 1 | 29.00 |
| Adib Surani | 29 | 1 | 29.00 |
| Stephen Farrelly | 86 | 3 | 28.67 |
| Michael Clark | 28 | 1 | 28.00 |
| Tristan Leech | 28 | 1 | 28.00 |
| Helen Robinson | 27 | 1 | 27.00 |
| Dave Wilson | 27 | 1 | 27.00 |
| Michael Gin | 25 | 1 | 25.00 |
| Desire L'Etang | 25 | 1 | 25.00 |
| Les Ramsay | 25 | 1 | 25.00 |
| Rachael Bausor | 24 | 1 | 24.00 |
| Brian Lynch | 24 | 1 | 24.00 |
| Stavroula Nicholls | 24 | 1 | 24.00 |
| Robin Wedd | 24 | 1 | 24.00 |
| Jane Cleary | 23 | 1 | 23.00 |
| Mark Mota | 22 | 1 | 22.00 |
| Brendan Murphy | 22 | 1 | 22.00 |
| Michael O'Neill | 22 | 1 | 22.00 |
| Jim Bailey | 21 | 1 | 21.00 |
| Daniel Pratt | 21 | 1 | 21.00 |
| Matt Woodley | 20 | 1 | 20.00 |
| Nick Taubert | 19 | 1 | 19.00 |
| Arthur Barrs | 17 | 1 | 17.00 |
| Carol Campbell | 17 | 1 | 17.00 |
| Damian Foong | 16 | 1 | 16.00 |
| Dawn Tuftan | 15 | 1 | 15.00 |
| Jason Taylor | 14 | 1 | 14.00 |
| Bassem Abousaid | 12 | 1 | 12.00 |
| Frances Weinberg | 10 | 1 | 10.00 |
| Robert Lukunic | 8 | 1 | 8.00 |
| Dean Schwab | 7 | 1 | 7.00 |
| Paul Hughes | 6 | 1 | 6.00 |
| Andrew Bullen | 5 | 1 | 5.00 |
Sunday, 21 October 2012
Ep 75: Dom Saric, Damian Foong (October 19, 2012; originally aired November 12, 2010)
Rounds: Here.
Tonight is the crucial fourth night for Dom Saric. Can he win and get a likely finals spot? We'll find out soon, but first Richard points out that English was not Dom's first language. Dom agrees, adding that he was born in Croatia, and so his first language was Croatian. When he first went to primary school here in Australia he attended English as a second language classes for two years; somehow he ended up loving the language and even took four units of English for the HSC.
Tonight's challenger is Damian Foong, a public servant with a degree in biomedical science and a diploma in languages. Damian spent three years living and working in rural Japan; that was as part of the Japan Exchange and Teaching Programme, an initiative of the Japanese government. While in Japan he worked as an assistant language teacher in government schools in Ibaraki prefecture. He adds that even though it was quite close to Tokyo he had rice paddies all around his apartment -- it was very, very rural. The nearest train station was two cities away! Damian looks at it all positively, saying that he got the benefits of living in the countryside in terms of developing a greater understanding of Japanese culture and language than he may have done in the city.
Damian had the frequent first-game problem of a phantom letter in the first round, and then Dom won the next two rounds to build a good-sized lead. Another good word from Dom in the fifth round extended the lead further, but Damian managed to peg back that lost ground in the next numbers round. Damian needed to solve the last numbers round to have a chance but he was not able to make anything of it; Dom solved the conundrum to make the margin even more impressive, finishing with a 45 to 16 victory.
I was doing fairly well up until the last numbers round; I had dropped one maximum, it turns out, but David had also missed it. But a miscalculation in that round left me scrambling and I was not able to get to the target within time -- a rather disappointing miss. My conundrum speed was a bit slower than I wanted but got the job done, pushing the score up to the seventy mark again.
Tonight is the crucial fourth night for Dom Saric. Can he win and get a likely finals spot? We'll find out soon, but first Richard points out that English was not Dom's first language. Dom agrees, adding that he was born in Croatia, and so his first language was Croatian. When he first went to primary school here in Australia he attended English as a second language classes for two years; somehow he ended up loving the language and even took four units of English for the HSC.
Tonight's challenger is Damian Foong, a public servant with a degree in biomedical science and a diploma in languages. Damian spent three years living and working in rural Japan; that was as part of the Japan Exchange and Teaching Programme, an initiative of the Japanese government. While in Japan he worked as an assistant language teacher in government schools in Ibaraki prefecture. He adds that even though it was quite close to Tokyo he had rice paddies all around his apartment -- it was very, very rural. The nearest train station was two cities away! Damian looks at it all positively, saying that he got the benefits of living in the countryside in terms of developing a greater understanding of Japanese culture and language than he may have done in the city.
Damian had the frequent first-game problem of a phantom letter in the first round, and then Dom won the next two rounds to build a good-sized lead. Another good word from Dom in the fifth round extended the lead further, but Damian managed to peg back that lost ground in the next numbers round. Damian needed to solve the last numbers round to have a chance but he was not able to make anything of it; Dom solved the conundrum to make the margin even more impressive, finishing with a 45 to 16 victory.
I was doing fairly well up until the last numbers round; I had dropped one maximum, it turns out, but David had also missed it. But a miscalculation in that round left me scrambling and I was not able to get to the target within time -- a rather disappointing miss. My conundrum speed was a bit slower than I wanted but got the job done, pushing the score up to the seventy mark again.
Saturday, 20 October 2012
Ep 74: Dom Saric, Yvonne Wake (October 18, 2012; originally aired November 11, 2010)
Rounds: Here.
This is Dom Saric's third night on the show, and Richard asks Dom where he sees his medical studies taking him. Dom responds that he is currently leaning towards a career in psychiatry; that is what has interested him the most out of the different blocks he has done so far.
Tonight's challenger is Yvonne Wake, a retired French teacher who enjoys solving cryptic crosswords, reading biographies, and travel books. Yvonne visited France two years ago, and is going again next year (which would have been 2011). She thinks that Paris is the most beautiful city; she has seen many European cities but it is Paris that she adores. She adds that there is nothing better than strolling along the Seine chatting to the bouquinistes in French.
Dom got out to an early lead thanks to the first three letters rounds, where in each case Yvonne was limited to five-letter words. She managed to match him on the remaining two letters rounds, but since they had identical results on the numbers rounds she had fallen too far adrift by the conundrum. In the event, neither solved it, and Dom gained his third win by 50 points to 31.
I played a reasonable game today, but did miss three longer words that could have been findable. My conundrum speed was a little slow but I got there, and the numbers behaved themselves for me. I needed to find one of those longer answers to bump my solo total up to the week's running theme of 75, but it was still a satisfactory total.
This is Dom Saric's third night on the show, and Richard asks Dom where he sees his medical studies taking him. Dom responds that he is currently leaning towards a career in psychiatry; that is what has interested him the most out of the different blocks he has done so far.
Tonight's challenger is Yvonne Wake, a retired French teacher who enjoys solving cryptic crosswords, reading biographies, and travel books. Yvonne visited France two years ago, and is going again next year (which would have been 2011). She thinks that Paris is the most beautiful city; she has seen many European cities but it is Paris that she adores. She adds that there is nothing better than strolling along the Seine chatting to the bouquinistes in French.
Dom got out to an early lead thanks to the first three letters rounds, where in each case Yvonne was limited to five-letter words. She managed to match him on the remaining two letters rounds, but since they had identical results on the numbers rounds she had fallen too far adrift by the conundrum. In the event, neither solved it, and Dom gained his third win by 50 points to 31.
I played a reasonable game today, but did miss three longer words that could have been findable. My conundrum speed was a little slow but I got there, and the numbers behaved themselves for me. I needed to find one of those longer answers to bump my solo total up to the week's running theme of 75, but it was still a satisfactory total.
Friday, 19 October 2012
Ep 73: Dom Saric, Robert Lukunic (October 17, 2012; originally aired November 10, 2010)
Rounds: Here.
Dom Saric gets his turn in the champion's seat tonight, and Richard asks him where his studies have taken him. Dom responds that he went to Vienna last year as an elective, where he did some trauma surgery, plastic surgery, orthopaedics, and tumour surgery. Richard asks about differences in approach, but Dom says they did things much the same their as here; the only differences he can think of might be in the logistics and how the hospital is run.
Tonight's challenger is Robert Lukunic, who works in logistics and has a degree in architecture. Robert is particularly interested in both astrology and astronomy, which Richard remarks is unusual. Robert says that it started with primitive man looking up at the heavens; lacking the scientific approach of today they came up with the myths of the idea of astronomy, like dividing the sky into the 12 zodiac signs and trying to make sense of what they saw around them. (The way he mentions astronomy here rather than astrology is a little confusing, but I think what he means is that they were attempting to do astronomy but without the right framework of scientific thought they ended up with astrology.)
Robert continues that he thinks the two subjects were blended together strongly in the beginning, one influenced by the other. Then with the advent of the scientific method, and advances in telescopes and computers and such, astronomy "has really taken off".
Robert started off with a good word that was a little risky but it paid off. That was, unfortunately, the highlight of the game from him. He failed to score points in any other round, and Dom swept through them comfortably, including a fairly quick solution to the conundrum. The final scoreline reflected the disparity, with Dom winning by 52 points to 8.
I had another good game, although I very carelessly dropped a maximum on a late letters round. Later checking showed that it did not cost me an optimal round, atlthough it was close. The numbers worked out pretty straightforwardly, and I solved the conundrum in rapid fashion to end up with my third score of 75 in a row.
Dom Saric gets his turn in the champion's seat tonight, and Richard asks him where his studies have taken him. Dom responds that he went to Vienna last year as an elective, where he did some trauma surgery, plastic surgery, orthopaedics, and tumour surgery. Richard asks about differences in approach, but Dom says they did things much the same their as here; the only differences he can think of might be in the logistics and how the hospital is run.
Tonight's challenger is Robert Lukunic, who works in logistics and has a degree in architecture. Robert is particularly interested in both astrology and astronomy, which Richard remarks is unusual. Robert says that it started with primitive man looking up at the heavens; lacking the scientific approach of today they came up with the myths of the idea of astronomy, like dividing the sky into the 12 zodiac signs and trying to make sense of what they saw around them. (The way he mentions astronomy here rather than astrology is a little confusing, but I think what he means is that they were attempting to do astronomy but without the right framework of scientific thought they ended up with astrology.)
Robert continues that he thinks the two subjects were blended together strongly in the beginning, one influenced by the other. Then with the advent of the scientific method, and advances in telescopes and computers and such, astronomy "has really taken off".
Robert started off with a good word that was a little risky but it paid off. That was, unfortunately, the highlight of the game from him. He failed to score points in any other round, and Dom swept through them comfortably, including a fairly quick solution to the conundrum. The final scoreline reflected the disparity, with Dom winning by 52 points to 8.
I had another good game, although I very carelessly dropped a maximum on a late letters round. Later checking showed that it did not cost me an optimal round, atlthough it was close. The numbers worked out pretty straightforwardly, and I solved the conundrum in rapid fashion to end up with my third score of 75 in a row.
Thursday, 18 October 2012
Ep 72: Dennis Callegari, Dom Saric (October 16, 2012; originally aired November 9, 2010)
Rounds: Here.
OK, so I haven't managed to do that well at getting the short versions out. Oh, well, back to delayed long ones instead. Incidentally, I have been relying on the closed captions recently for the spelling of contestants' names, but have unfortunately discovered that they are not always correct; I have corrected the spelling of Dennis Callegari's surname in the previous post.
Incidentally, this show was first aired on David's birthday (his 49th, to be specific).
Dennis Callegari gets his turn in the champion's position tonight. In addition to his more serious writing, Dennis writes clerihews and posts them on his blog (he also has another blog, although that does not seem to be solely about clerihews). As he explains, a clerihew is a simple four-line poem with the AABB rhyming scheme, invented by Edmund Clerihew Bentley. (What he does not say is that they are biographical and generally a little absurd.) Dennis quotes one that he wrote a little earlier:
Ooh, there was some good play tonight. Dennis faltered early with an invalid word in the second round, but then struck back strongly with two excellent words in the following letters rounds. Dom was in trouble but managed to win the final two rounds to snatch victory at the last, 53 to 47.
I had a pretty good game tonight. I dropped two maxima early on, but otherwise everything fell into place nicely. One of those maxima was an excellent word from David, but the other was a numbers round that was tough but solvable; I always am a bit disappointed when that happens. But still, another solid game and decent speed on the conundrum makes this a satisfactory game.
OK, so I haven't managed to do that well at getting the short versions out. Oh, well, back to delayed long ones instead. Incidentally, I have been relying on the closed captions recently for the spelling of contestants' names, but have unfortunately discovered that they are not always correct; I have corrected the spelling of Dennis Callegari's surname in the previous post.
Incidentally, this show was first aired on David's birthday (his 49th, to be specific).
Dennis Callegari gets his turn in the champion's position tonight. In addition to his more serious writing, Dennis writes clerihews and posts them on his blog (he also has another blog, although that does not seem to be solely about clerihews). As he explains, a clerihew is a simple four-line poem with the AABB rhyming scheme, invented by Edmund Clerihew Bentley. (What he does not say is that they are biographical and generally a little absurd.) Dennis quotes one that he wrote a little earlier:
He knew he wasn't Anglo-SaxonTonight's challenger is Dom Saric, who is currently completing a bachelor of medicine and surgery. Dom notes that he has been a student for the past twenty years straight, from primary school to high school to an undergraduate degree and then postgraduate studies. Richard asks when Dom will stop studying and "get into other action". Dom responds that he doesn't think that he will ever stop studying, because he will be going into medicine and that's an ever-changing field. So he expects to be studying for the rest of his life.
But Michael Jackson
Was at a loss
As to why he wasn't Diana Ross
Ooh, there was some good play tonight. Dennis faltered early with an invalid word in the second round, but then struck back strongly with two excellent words in the following letters rounds. Dom was in trouble but managed to win the final two rounds to snatch victory at the last, 53 to 47.
I had a pretty good game tonight. I dropped two maxima early on, but otherwise everything fell into place nicely. One of those maxima was an excellent word from David, but the other was a numbers round that was tough but solvable; I always am a bit disappointed when that happens. But still, another solid game and decent speed on the conundrum makes this a satisfactory game.
Tuesday, 16 October 2012
Ep 71: James Parton, Dennis Callegari (October 15, 2012; originally aired November 8, 2010)
Rounds: Here.
The SUMS Puzzle Hunt is on all this week, and it's likely to take up most of my free time. Rather than delay the writeups, I'll put more bare bones versions up at first and then adjust them later. With luck, this will lead to greater appreciation for my usual style. *chuckles*
James Parton returns for the crucial fourth match; can he win through and make his way into the finals rankings? We'll find out shortly, but first it is mentioned that many years ago James worked in a casino. He says that one of the games he dealt (an odd choice of terminology for a dice game) was craps, which he describes as one of the most challenging mathematically -- there are 63 possible bets so you needed to know the odds for all of those bets.
Tonight's challenger is Dennis Callegari, a technical science and fantasy writer who has published a book on Captain Cook. Dennis also owns, or will very soon, a scale model of the Endeavour; later chat reveals that the reason for the equivocation is that he has the kit but has not yet assembled it. He says that it is a pretty major construction effort, needing both time and space, and he has not yet managed to get the combination right.
Richard asks where Dennis's interest in Captain Cook comes from, and Dennis responds that he has always been interested in the history of exploration. Some years ago he was working for the Department of Defense and they had restored some artifacts from the Endeavour that had been recovered off the Queensland coast. That prompted him to write the history of the loss, recovery, and restoration of the artifacts.
It was a rather close game, with the only difference in the letters being due to Dennis declaring an invalid word. They each gained a little on the numbers, but otherwise matched each other throughout and so James was ahead but not safe going into the conundrum. James has yet to solve a conundrum, and that trend continued as Dennis got to it first for the come-from-behind victory, 49 to 46.
I had another good game, matching David and Lily throughout as well as solving the conundrum quickly. It turned out this was one round away from optimal, with the better option being a word that I had not heard of. Still, a good result is a good result..
The SUMS Puzzle Hunt is on all this week, and it's likely to take up most of my free time. Rather than delay the writeups, I'll put more bare bones versions up at first and then adjust them later. With luck, this will lead to greater appreciation for my usual style. *chuckles*
James Parton returns for the crucial fourth match; can he win through and make his way into the finals rankings? We'll find out shortly, but first it is mentioned that many years ago James worked in a casino. He says that one of the games he dealt (an odd choice of terminology for a dice game) was craps, which he describes as one of the most challenging mathematically -- there are 63 possible bets so you needed to know the odds for all of those bets.
Tonight's challenger is Dennis Callegari, a technical science and fantasy writer who has published a book on Captain Cook. Dennis also owns, or will very soon, a scale model of the Endeavour; later chat reveals that the reason for the equivocation is that he has the kit but has not yet assembled it. He says that it is a pretty major construction effort, needing both time and space, and he has not yet managed to get the combination right.
Richard asks where Dennis's interest in Captain Cook comes from, and Dennis responds that he has always been interested in the history of exploration. Some years ago he was working for the Department of Defense and they had restored some artifacts from the Endeavour that had been recovered off the Queensland coast. That prompted him to write the history of the loss, recovery, and restoration of the artifacts.
It was a rather close game, with the only difference in the letters being due to Dennis declaring an invalid word. They each gained a little on the numbers, but otherwise matched each other throughout and so James was ahead but not safe going into the conundrum. James has yet to solve a conundrum, and that trend continued as Dennis got to it first for the come-from-behind victory, 49 to 46.
I had another good game, matching David and Lily throughout as well as solving the conundrum quickly. It turned out this was one round away from optimal, with the better option being a word that I had not heard of. Still, a good result is a good result..
Sunday, 14 October 2012
Weekly summary: Episodes 66 to 70
The week started off with the chance for a rare feat: Outscoring David and Lily. That was due to my find of RITENUTO in a letters round, but then I made a complete mess of a numbers round and the chance slipped through my fingers. In the next two games I failed to solve three conundrums, which is a record I hope I will not equal again. An overdoes of vowels kept word lengths down in the latter half of the week, but I was able to finish strongly for a change, including a maximal game on Friday.
Ian Campbell-Fraser lost his fourth game, and so Esther Perrins retained her eighth spot in the finals rankings. James Parton will have a chance to trouble her on Monday, though.
Three full monties were on offer this week. The first eluded everyone, the second was found by a contestant -- a rare case of a contestant finding a full monty and still losing the game -- but not me, and the third one I found. There was one impossible numbers target on Friday, with Lily getting as close as possible.
Nothing much to say about this week on the maximum front, other than the pleasure of my first maximum game since we moved into episodes that I had neither seen nor read.
Contestants sorted by average score:
| Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Me | 65 | 66 | 49 | 72 | 84 |
| Champion | 23 | 16 | 25 | 21 | 16 |
| Challenger | 17 | 16 | 14 | 0 | 0 |
| David + Lily | 74 | 77 | 85 | 73 | 84 |
| Me (solo) | 65 | 66 | 56 | 72 | 84 |
Ian Campbell-Fraser lost his fourth game, and so Esther Perrins retained her eighth spot in the finals rankings. James Parton will have a chance to trouble her on Monday, though.
| Andrew Fisher | 95 | 63 | 64 | 67 | 67 | 59 | 415 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Naween Fernando | 73 | 60 | 64 | 94 | 64 | 56 | 411 |
| David Jones | 63 | 63 | 50 | 61 | 55 | 53 | 346 |
| Liam Bastick | 48 | 60 | 48 | 46 | 50 | 72 | 324 |
| Chris Scholten-Smith | 45 | 47 | 48 | 47 | 38 | 40 | 265 |
| Kashi Ross | 48 | 46 | 34 | 41 | 45 | 32 | 246 |
| Veronica Corrigan | 41 | 60 | 54 | 35 | 43 | 233 | |
| Esther Perrins | 55 | 43 | 75 | 46 | 219 |
Three full monties were on offer this week. The first eluded everyone, the second was found by a contestant -- a rare case of a contestant finding a full monty and still losing the game -- but not me, and the third one I found. There was one impossible numbers target on Friday, with Lily getting as close as possible.
| Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full Monties | 1 | 1 | 2 | |||
| Missed Full Monties | 1 | 1 | ||||
| Tough Numbers | 0 | |||||
| Impossible Numbers | 1 | 1 |
Nothing much to say about this week on the maximum front, other than the pleasure of my first maximum game since we moved into episodes that I had neither seen nor read.
| Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Maximums: L | 3 | 4 | 2 | 3 | 5 |
| N | 2 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 |
| C | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Invalid: L | - | - | 1 | - | - |
Contestants sorted by average score:
| Total | Games | Average | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Andrew Fisher | 415 | 6 | 69.17 |
| Naween Fernando | 411 | 6 | 68.50 |
| Sam Chow | 65 | 1 | 65.00 |
| David Jones | 346 | 6 | 57.67 |
| Esther Perrins | 219 | 4 | 54.75 |
| James Weatherhead | 164 | 3 | 54.67 |
| Liam Bastick | 324 | 6 | 54.00 |
| Angus Kidman | 103 | 2 | 51.50 |
| Rob York | 94 | 2 | 47.00 |
| Jayanthi Viswanathan | 140 | 3 | 46.67 |
| Veronica Corrigan | 233 | 5 | 46.60 |
| James Parton* | 136 | 3 | 45.33 |
| Pravin Dullur | 45 | 1 | 45.00 |
| Chris Scholten-Smith | 265 | 6 | 44.17 |
| Geoff Heard | 88 | 2 | 44.00 |
| Sudesh Piyatissa | 128 | 3 | 42.67 |
| Kathryn Jones | 85 | 2 | 42.50 |
| Yolanda Sztarr | 127 | 3 | 42.33 |
| Aaron Tyrell | 165 | 4 | 41.25 |
| Kashi Ross | 246 | 6 | 41.00 |
| Peter Stegelman | 82 | 2 | 41.00 |
| Tanya Ithier | 41 | 1 | 41.00 |
| Ian Campbell-Fraser | 161 | 4 | 40.25 |
| Amanda Mendizza | 40 | 1 | 40.00 |
| Keith De La Rue | 39 | 1 | 39.00 |
| Kiao Inthavong | 39 | 1 | 39.00 |
| Jonathan Scarlett | 39 | 1 | 39.00 |
| Michael Phillips | 38 | 1 | 38.00 |
| Chaitanya Rao | 38 | 1 | 38.00 |
| Ian See | 113 | 3 | 37.67 |
| Jason Stockdale | 37 | 1 | 37.00 |
| Rob Mould | 70 | 2 | 35.00 |
| Rolli Pick | 70 | 2 | 35.00 |
| Lara Cassar | 35 | 1 | 35.00 |
| Andrew Patterson | 35 | 1 | 35.00 |
| Chris Ryan | 35 | 1 | 35.00 |
| Paolo Navidad | 34 | 1 | 34.00 |
| Beckett Rozentals | 34 | 1 | 34.00 |
| Elaine Miles | 33 | 1 | 33.00 |
| Jenny Blair | 33 | 1 | 33.00 |
| Alexis Harley | 32 | 1 | 32.00 |
| James Pho | 32 | 1 | 32.00 |
| Erez Gordon | 31 | 1 | 31.00 |
| Ben Strate | 30 | 1 | 30.00 |
| Jonathan Campbell | 29 | 1 | 29.00 |
| Alan Stewart | 29 | 1 | 29.00 |
| Adib Surani | 29 | 1 | 29.00 |
| Stephen Farrelly | 86 | 3 | 28.67 |
| Michael Clark | 28 | 1 | 28.00 |
| Tristan Leech | 28 | 1 | 28.00 |
| Helen Robinson | 27 | 1 | 27.00 |
| Dave Wilson | 27 | 1 | 27.00 |
| Michael Gin | 25 | 1 | 25.00 |
| Desire L'Etang | 25 | 1 | 25.00 |
| Les Ramsay | 25 | 1 | 25.00 |
| Rachael Bausor | 24 | 1 | 24.00 |
| Brian Lynch | 24 | 1 | 24.00 |
| Stavroula Nicholls | 24 | 1 | 24.00 |
| Robin Wedd | 24 | 1 | 24.00 |
| Jane Cleary | 23 | 1 | 23.00 |
| Mark Mota | 22 | 1 | 22.00 |
| Brendan Murphy | 22 | 1 | 22.00 |
| Michael O'Neill | 22 | 1 | 22.00 |
| Jim Bailey | 21 | 1 | 21.00 |
| Daniel Pratt | 21 | 1 | 21.00 |
| Matt Woodley | 20 | 1 | 20.00 |
| Nick Taubert | 19 | 1 | 19.00 |
| Arthur Barrs | 17 | 1 | 17.00 |
| Carol Campbell | 17 | 1 | 17.00 |
| Dawn Tuftan | 15 | 1 | 15.00 |
| Jason Taylor | 14 | 1 | 14.00 |
| Bassem Abousaid | 12 | 1 | 12.00 |
| Frances Weinberg | 10 | 1 | 10.00 |
| Dean Schwab | 7 | 1 | 7.00 |
| Paul Hughes | 6 | 1 | 6.00 |
| Andrew Bullen | 5 | 1 | 5.00 |
Saturday, 13 October 2012
Ep 70: James Parton, Jason Taylor (October 12, 2012; originally aired November 5, 2010)
Rounds: Here.
James Parton is back for his third night, and we find out that at the age of twelve he "burst onto the gumboot-throwing scene". He won the junior division, and as a result he competed in the senior division. He ended up coming second, losing by 1.5 metres to the world champion.
Tonight's challenger is Jason Taylor, a data entry officer with a master's degree in history and a love of cricket. Richard asks Jason what parts of history he is most interested in, and Jason responds that his biggest interest is European history, mainly English, around the 16th and 17th centuries. He then adds medieval to that list, which basically expands it by a millennium.
James got an early lead in the first round, then Jason struck back in the second with an eight-letter word to take the lead. But that was about it from Jason, who only managed to give valid answers in two of the remaining seven rounds. He was a little unlucky on one of them, admittedly (and I was surprised by the ruling, but I'll get to that in due course). James ran out the winner, 48 to 14.
I... had a good game. A maximal game, in fact, and with conundrum speed of two seconds there's a case to be made for optimality, although I'm sure Sam would have gotten to it faster. Regardless, I'm happy about it, as you would expect. It was my first score in the eighties for a couple of weeks, and it was very nice to finish off the week on good results after Wednesday's effort.
James Parton is back for his third night, and we find out that at the age of twelve he "burst onto the gumboot-throwing scene". He won the junior division, and as a result he competed in the senior division. He ended up coming second, losing by 1.5 metres to the world champion.
Tonight's challenger is Jason Taylor, a data entry officer with a master's degree in history and a love of cricket. Richard asks Jason what parts of history he is most interested in, and Jason responds that his biggest interest is European history, mainly English, around the 16th and 17th centuries. He then adds medieval to that list, which basically expands it by a millennium.
James got an early lead in the first round, then Jason struck back in the second with an eight-letter word to take the lead. But that was about it from Jason, who only managed to give valid answers in two of the remaining seven rounds. He was a little unlucky on one of them, admittedly (and I was surprised by the ruling, but I'll get to that in due course). James ran out the winner, 48 to 14.
I... had a good game. A maximal game, in fact, and with conundrum speed of two seconds there's a case to be made for optimality, although I'm sure Sam would have gotten to it faster. Regardless, I'm happy about it, as you would expect. It was my first score in the eighties for a couple of weeks, and it was very nice to finish off the week on good results after Wednesday's effort.
Friday, 12 October 2012
Ep 69: James Parton, Desire L'Etang (October 11, 2012; originally aired November 4, 2010)
Rounds: Here.
James Parton gets his turn in the champion's position and thus three picks at the letters. Brace yourselves for a vowel storm... but first, we find out that about five years ago James had his greatest golf moment, shooting seven under par. That's seriously impressive! He jokes (or so I hope) that in the last five years he has told that to everyone he has seen every day.
Tonight's challenger is Desire L'Etang, a fleet manager with a bachelor of business administration and a master's degree in public policy and government; he is currently undertaking a doctorate in business administration. As Richard says, that's quite the amount of qualifications he is building up. Eventually, Desire hopes to set up his own business and do some consultancy, liaising with small or medium businesses with the aim of reducing their costs or finding ways to give them a business advantage.
Desire seems to share James's penchant for vowels, so it's a tough night on the letters front. The contestants started out with a matched word, then James won the next three rounds to take a lead of over twenty points. Desire gained some back on the second numbers round, but when James won again in the last letters round it was all but over. Desire still technically had a chance, but a shared numbers round put paid to that. Neither solved the conundrum, and James got his second win, 44 to 25.
I had a good enough game, missing two maxima at the beginning but otherwise doing as well as could be done. There was a little finesse required in the numbers -- particularly the last numbers round -- so I was pleased to get them sorted out satisfactorily. And even more pleased to solve the conundrum again, after three unsolved ones in a row. A much improved performance over yesterday, and that was a relief.
James Parton gets his turn in the champion's position and thus three picks at the letters. Brace yourselves for a vowel storm... but first, we find out that about five years ago James had his greatest golf moment, shooting seven under par. That's seriously impressive! He jokes (or so I hope) that in the last five years he has told that to everyone he has seen every day.
Tonight's challenger is Desire L'Etang, a fleet manager with a bachelor of business administration and a master's degree in public policy and government; he is currently undertaking a doctorate in business administration. As Richard says, that's quite the amount of qualifications he is building up. Eventually, Desire hopes to set up his own business and do some consultancy, liaising with small or medium businesses with the aim of reducing their costs or finding ways to give them a business advantage.
Desire seems to share James's penchant for vowels, so it's a tough night on the letters front. The contestants started out with a matched word, then James won the next three rounds to take a lead of over twenty points. Desire gained some back on the second numbers round, but when James won again in the last letters round it was all but over. Desire still technically had a chance, but a shared numbers round put paid to that. Neither solved the conundrum, and James got his second win, 44 to 25.
I had a good enough game, missing two maxima at the beginning but otherwise doing as well as could be done. There was a little finesse required in the numbers -- particularly the last numbers round -- so I was pleased to get them sorted out satisfactorily. And even more pleased to solve the conundrum again, after three unsolved ones in a row. A much improved performance over yesterday, and that was a relief.
Thursday, 11 October 2012
Ep 68: Kathryn Jones, James Parton (October 10, 2012; originally aired November 3, 2010)
Rounds: Here.
Kathryn Jones gets her turn in the champion's seat tonight, and Richard asks about her recent projects. Kathryn says that one of the major projects that she has been working on recently is for a wind farm in south-western Victoria. They drill down into the rock to a depth of around fifteen or twenty metres, basically making sure that the ground conditions are such that the structures will not fall over in the wind.
Taking up the challenge tonight is James Parton, a retail manager and a very keen golfer. He is nicknamed 'Dolly' (due to the surname, of course), and so is his brother. It is a family tradition, and he expects that his son will get the same treatment also in due course.
The game started off with two shared rounds, and then James gained the lead through superior numberwork. A later invalid word from Kathryn (and a good find from James) allowed him to extend his lead. He managed to get further ahead in the second numbers round, and given the relative performances on the numbers up to that point it seemed that only an unlikely full monty in the last letters round could give Kathryn a chance. And then... it happened, with Kathryn doing extremely well to find the nine at the time she most needed it. The last numbers round was shared -- James missed an easy chance to guarantee his win here, but equally Kathryn missed the chance to move ahead -- and he was ahead but not safe at the conundrum. Unfortunately for Kathryn, it was too hard for them both and James had hung on to win, 44 to 41.
I started out by missing a longer word that I should have found, and then two vowel-heavy mixes offered little scope for advancement. I followed up an invalid word in round five by just missing a better option in round seven (although the full monty was not on my radar). The numbers behaved themselves today, but when I once again failed to solve the conundrum within time I had my worst score since episode 17 (when Andrew Fisher was playing). I'd done enough to limp home past the contestants, but I was definitely playing below my best today.
Kathryn Jones gets her turn in the champion's seat tonight, and Richard asks about her recent projects. Kathryn says that one of the major projects that she has been working on recently is for a wind farm in south-western Victoria. They drill down into the rock to a depth of around fifteen or twenty metres, basically making sure that the ground conditions are such that the structures will not fall over in the wind.
Taking up the challenge tonight is James Parton, a retail manager and a very keen golfer. He is nicknamed 'Dolly' (due to the surname, of course), and so is his brother. It is a family tradition, and he expects that his son will get the same treatment also in due course.
The game started off with two shared rounds, and then James gained the lead through superior numberwork. A later invalid word from Kathryn (and a good find from James) allowed him to extend his lead. He managed to get further ahead in the second numbers round, and given the relative performances on the numbers up to that point it seemed that only an unlikely full monty in the last letters round could give Kathryn a chance. And then... it happened, with Kathryn doing extremely well to find the nine at the time she most needed it. The last numbers round was shared -- James missed an easy chance to guarantee his win here, but equally Kathryn missed the chance to move ahead -- and he was ahead but not safe at the conundrum. Unfortunately for Kathryn, it was too hard for them both and James had hung on to win, 44 to 41.
I started out by missing a longer word that I should have found, and then two vowel-heavy mixes offered little scope for advancement. I followed up an invalid word in round five by just missing a better option in round seven (although the full monty was not on my radar). The numbers behaved themselves today, but when I once again failed to solve the conundrum within time I had my worst score since episode 17 (when Andrew Fisher was playing). I'd done enough to limp home past the contestants, but I was definitely playing below my best today.
Wednesday, 10 October 2012
Ep 67: Ian Campbell-Fraser, Kathryn Jones (October 9, 2012; originally aired November 2, 2010)
Rounds: Here.
This is the crucial fourth game for Ian Campbell-Fraser, with a win pushing him into the finals rankings. For a loss to get him there he would have to score over ninety points, and I think we can safely conclude that losing with such a score is rather unlikely. Meanwhile, Ian briefly explains what he does: Currently, he is working for the National Native Title Tribunal, whose main job is to help Aboriginal claimant groups, governments, farmers, and miners come together and reach an agreement about Aboriginal native title rights.
Tonight's challenger is Kathryn Jones, a geotechnical engineer with a bachelor of arts and a degree in engineering. When Kathryn started university she decided that she wanted to study engineering and build bridges; after two years of that she decided that structural engineering was not for her. Then they started talking about soil and rock and water, revealing a more interpretive side to engineering than just crunching numbers, and that re-engaged her interest.
Ian gained the early lead in the first round, and then a lot of shared rounds followed. Kathryn finally found a better answer in the last letters round to tie up the scores. Neither was able to make that much of the later numbers rounds -- which to be fair did have some challenge to them -- and the scores were tied going into the conundrum. The main conundrum was a very tough one that neither could solve, so the tiebreaker conundrum was wheeled out. It looked like it might prove likewise elusive, but Kathryn saw her way through to the answer with five seconds left and won the game 44 to 34.
I had a good series of main rounds, although I missed the best option in one letters game. I negotiated the numbers rounds safely, although in the case of the last one only just in time. But both conundrums defeated me comprehensively tonight so I have some sympathy for the contestants' woes.
This is the crucial fourth game for Ian Campbell-Fraser, with a win pushing him into the finals rankings. For a loss to get him there he would have to score over ninety points, and I think we can safely conclude that losing with such a score is rather unlikely. Meanwhile, Ian briefly explains what he does: Currently, he is working for the National Native Title Tribunal, whose main job is to help Aboriginal claimant groups, governments, farmers, and miners come together and reach an agreement about Aboriginal native title rights.
Tonight's challenger is Kathryn Jones, a geotechnical engineer with a bachelor of arts and a degree in engineering. When Kathryn started university she decided that she wanted to study engineering and build bridges; after two years of that she decided that structural engineering was not for her. Then they started talking about soil and rock and water, revealing a more interpretive side to engineering than just crunching numbers, and that re-engaged her interest.
Ian gained the early lead in the first round, and then a lot of shared rounds followed. Kathryn finally found a better answer in the last letters round to tie up the scores. Neither was able to make that much of the later numbers rounds -- which to be fair did have some challenge to them -- and the scores were tied going into the conundrum. The main conundrum was a very tough one that neither could solve, so the tiebreaker conundrum was wheeled out. It looked like it might prove likewise elusive, but Kathryn saw her way through to the answer with five seconds left and won the game 44 to 34.
I had a good series of main rounds, although I missed the best option in one letters game. I negotiated the numbers rounds safely, although in the case of the last one only just in time. But both conundrums defeated me comprehensively tonight so I have some sympathy for the contestants' woes.
Tuesday, 9 October 2012
Ep 66: Ian Campbell-Fraser, Michael O'Neill (October 8, 2012; originally aired November 1, 2010)
Rounds: Here.
Ian Campbell-Fraser returns as champion, and is introduced as having taken six months away from the city to watch life go by... often from the top of a camel. That statement obviously cries out for more details; Ian explains that not long after he finished university, he and a couple of friends decided that they would travel around Australia (he calls it "that great journey that a lot of people aspire to"). Ian was based in Perth and they got as far as Broome, so they did not even get to leave the state!
Ian adds that, due to "a strange combination of circumstances", his mates both returned to Perth and he was left in Broome with no money to keep going and no money to return home. So he had no choice but to spend six months on Cable Beach, which he says is probably Australia's most idyllic spot. And, he continues, there are plenty of camels there and it's a great way to see the countryside.
Tonight's challenger is Michael O'Neill, who is currently studying a bachelor of science degree in genetics and pharmacology. Richard asks where Michael hopes that line of study will take him, and Michael responds that hopefully it will lead to doing work on some particular disease, maybe cancer or some sort of mental illness, and even more hopefully to then finding a cure or treatment for it.
Ian started out with an unluckily-invalid word, but regained the lost ground in the next round. The first numbers round was easy and solved by both, then an invalid word from Michael allowed Ian to get further ahead. Ian continued to score points in the letters rounds, and only a better numbers answer in the second numbers round kept Michael in contention. He needed to score points in the last numbers round to have a chance, but although Ian's answer was invalid so was his, and that guaranteed Ian the win. Neither solved the conundrum, and the final scoreline was 34 to 22 in Ian's favour.
I almost had a really good game. I struggled in the first round but spotted a good word in time, then managed to find a longer word than David in a later round. I was on track for a rather rare chance to beat the combined David and Lily score but then I completely botched a numbers round, ending up without anything valid to declare (and only just avoiding an invalid declaration). The rest went about as well as it could, with the usual issue of slow speed on the conundrum.
Ian Campbell-Fraser returns as champion, and is introduced as having taken six months away from the city to watch life go by... often from the top of a camel. That statement obviously cries out for more details; Ian explains that not long after he finished university, he and a couple of friends decided that they would travel around Australia (he calls it "that great journey that a lot of people aspire to"). Ian was based in Perth and they got as far as Broome, so they did not even get to leave the state!
Ian adds that, due to "a strange combination of circumstances", his mates both returned to Perth and he was left in Broome with no money to keep going and no money to return home. So he had no choice but to spend six months on Cable Beach, which he says is probably Australia's most idyllic spot. And, he continues, there are plenty of camels there and it's a great way to see the countryside.
Tonight's challenger is Michael O'Neill, who is currently studying a bachelor of science degree in genetics and pharmacology. Richard asks where Michael hopes that line of study will take him, and Michael responds that hopefully it will lead to doing work on some particular disease, maybe cancer or some sort of mental illness, and even more hopefully to then finding a cure or treatment for it.
Ian started out with an unluckily-invalid word, but regained the lost ground in the next round. The first numbers round was easy and solved by both, then an invalid word from Michael allowed Ian to get further ahead. Ian continued to score points in the letters rounds, and only a better numbers answer in the second numbers round kept Michael in contention. He needed to score points in the last numbers round to have a chance, but although Ian's answer was invalid so was his, and that guaranteed Ian the win. Neither solved the conundrum, and the final scoreline was 34 to 22 in Ian's favour.
I almost had a really good game. I struggled in the first round but spotted a good word in time, then managed to find a longer word than David in a later round. I was on track for a rather rare chance to beat the combined David and Lily score but then I completely botched a numbers round, ending up without anything valid to declare (and only just avoiding an invalid declaration). The rest went about as well as it could, with the usual issue of slow speed on the conundrum.
Some delays again
Apologies (particularly to Jan, and I hope you can get back to sleep soon): The Daylight Savings switch has not been kind to me, so the post for episode 66 is going to be delayed at least a day.
Some possibly tantalising details: I had a chance to outscore David+Lily after finding a better word than David, but completely botched the second numbers round to throw that chance away. Oh, and there was also a full monty on offer that was not found by anyone, but I'd be pretty impressed if it were found it. My final score was 65 (both solo and against the contestants).
Some possibly tantalising details: I had a chance to outscore David+Lily after finding a better word than David, but completely botched the second numbers round to throw that chance away. Oh, and there was also a full monty on offer that was not found by anyone, but I'd be pretty impressed if it were found it. My final score was 65 (both solo and against the contestants).
Monday, 8 October 2012
Weekly summary: Episodes 61 to 65
A couple of invalid answers blotted my copybook this week, but otherwise I was managing to stay reasonably close to David and Lily. It was one of the tougher weeks that I can think of as far as the letters went, with several mixes proving to be surprisingly parsimonious despite what seemed like a reasonable selection of letters.
Veronica Corrigan's run came to an end at the fifth game, but it was enough to push Aaron Tyrrell out of the finals rankings.
There were no chances at a full monty this week, but the numbers proved to have a bit of bite to them. One target was genuinely unachievable (with Lily finding the best possible) and another was solvable but too difficult for Lily within time (and myself also).
A decent but unexceptional week again, dropping a few maxima in particular on Friday. The lowlights were an invalid word on Friday and jumping in too quickly with the wrong answer on Wednesday's conundrum. It was perhaps a little comforting to read the comments and find out that I was not the only one with that problem.
Contestants sorted by average score:
| Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Me | 74 | 70 | 61 | 64 | 63 |
| Champion | 26 | 40 | 30 | 23 | 22 |
| Challenger | 17 | 27 | 5 | 33 | 21 |
| David + Lily | 75 | 74 | 72 | 75 | 74 |
| Me (solo) | 74 | 70 | 61 | 74 | 63 |
Veronica Corrigan's run came to an end at the fifth game, but it was enough to push Aaron Tyrrell out of the finals rankings.
| Andrew Fisher | 95 | 63 | 64 | 67 | 67 | 59 | 415 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Naween Fernando | 73 | 60 | 64 | 94 | 64 | 56 | 411 |
| David Jones | 63 | 63 | 50 | 61 | 55 | 53 | 346 |
| Liam Bastick | 48 | 60 | 48 | 46 | 50 | 72 | 324 |
| Chris Scholten-Smith | 45 | 47 | 48 | 47 | 38 | 40 | 265 |
| Kashi Ross | 48 | 46 | 34 | 41 | 45 | 32 | 246 |
| Veronica Corrigan | 41 | 60 | 54 | 35 | 43 | 233 | |
| Esther Perrins | 55 | 43 | 75 | 46 | 219 |
There were no chances at a full monty this week, but the numbers proved to have a bit of bite to them. One target was genuinely unachievable (with Lily finding the best possible) and another was solvable but too difficult for Lily within time (and myself also).
| Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full Monties | 0 | |||||
| Missed Full Monties | 0 | |||||
| Tough Numbers | 1 | 1 | ||||
| Impossible Numbers | 1 | 1 |
A decent but unexceptional week again, dropping a few maxima in particular on Friday. The lowlights were an invalid word on Friday and jumping in too quickly with the wrong answer on Wednesday's conundrum. It was perhaps a little comforting to read the comments and find out that I was not the only one with that problem.
| Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Maximums: L | 3 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 2 |
| N | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 2 |
| C | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Invalid: L | - | - | - | - | 1 |
| C | - | - | 1 | - | - |
Contestants sorted by average score:
| Total | Games | Average | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Andrew Fisher | 415 | 6 | 69.17 |
| Naween Fernando | 411 | 6 | 68.50 |
| Sam Chow | 65 | 1 | 65.00 |
| David Jones | 346 | 6 | 57.67 |
| Esther Perrins | 219 | 4 | 54.75 |
| James Weatherhead | 164 | 3 | 54.67 |
| Liam Bastick | 324 | 6 | 54.00 |
| Angus Kidman | 103 | 2 | 51.50 |
| Rob York | 94 | 2 | 47.00 |
| Jayanthi Viswanathan | 140 | 3 | 46.67 |
| Veronica Corrigan | 233 | 5 | 46.60 |
| Ian Campbell-Fraser* | 93 | 2 | 46.50 |
| Pravin Dullur | 45 | 1 | 45.00 |
| Chris Scholten-Smith | 265 | 6 | 44.17 |
| Geoff Heard | 88 | 2 | 44.00 |
| Sudesh Piyatissa | 128 | 3 | 42.67 |
| Yolanda Sztarr | 127 | 3 | 42.33 |
| Aaron Tyrell | 165 | 4 | 41.25 |
| Kashi Ross | 246 | 6 | 41.00 |
| Peter Stegelman | 82 | 2 | 41.00 |
| Tanya Ithier | 41 | 1 | 41.00 |
| Amanda Mendizza | 40 | 1 | 40.00 |
| Keith De La Rue | 39 | 1 | 39.00 |
| Kiao Inthavong | 39 | 1 | 39.00 |
| Jonathan Scarlett | 39 | 1 | 39.00 |
| Michael Phillips | 38 | 1 | 38.00 |
| Chaitanya Rao | 38 | 1 | 38.00 |
| Ian See | 113 | 3 | 37.67 |
| Jason Stockdale | 37 | 1 | 37.00 |
| Rob Mould | 70 | 2 | 35.00 |
| Rolli Pick | 70 | 2 | 35.00 |
| Lara Cassar | 35 | 1 | 35.00 |
| Andrew Patterson | 35 | 1 | 35.00 |
| Chris Ryan | 35 | 1 | 35.00 |
| Paolo Navidad | 34 | 1 | 34.00 |
| Beckett Rozentals | 34 | 1 | 34.00 |
| Elaine Miles | 33 | 1 | 33.00 |
| Jenny Blair | 33 | 1 | 33.00 |
| Alexis Harley | 32 | 1 | 32.00 |
| James Pho | 32 | 1 | 32.00 |
| Erez Gordon | 31 | 1 | 31.00 |
| Ben Strate | 30 | 1 | 30.00 |
| Jonathan Campbell | 29 | 1 | 29.00 |
| Alan Stewart | 29 | 1 | 29.00 |
| Adib Surani | 29 | 1 | 29.00 |
| Stephen Farrelly | 86 | 3 | 28.67 |
| Michael Clark | 28 | 1 | 28.00 |
| Tristan Leech | 28 | 1 | 28.00 |
| Helen Robinson | 27 | 1 | 27.00 |
| Dave Wilson | 27 | 1 | 27.00 |
| Michael Gin | 25 | 1 | 25.00 |
| Les Ramsay | 25 | 1 | 25.00 |
| Rachael Bausor | 24 | 1 | 24.00 |
| Brian Lynch | 24 | 1 | 24.00 |
| Stavroula Nicholls | 24 | 1 | 24.00 |
| Robin Wedd | 24 | 1 | 24.00 |
| Jane Cleary | 23 | 1 | 23.00 |
| Mark Mota | 22 | 1 | 22.00 |
| Brendan Murphy | 22 | 1 | 22.00 |
| Jim Bailey | 21 | 1 | 21.00 |
| Daniel Pratt | 21 | 1 | 21.00 |
| Matt Woodley | 20 | 1 | 20.00 |
| Nick Taubert | 19 | 1 | 19.00 |
| Arthur Barrs | 17 | 1 | 17.00 |
| Carol Campbell | 17 | 1 | 17.00 |
| Dawn Tuftan | 15 | 1 | 15.00 |
| Bassem Abousaid | 12 | 1 | 12.00 |
| Frances Weinberg | 10 | 1 | 10.00 |
| Dean Schwab | 7 | 1 | 7.00 |
| Paul Hughes | 6 | 1 | 6.00 |
| Andrew Bullen | 5 | 1 | 5.00 |
Saturday, 6 October 2012
Ep 65: Ian Campbell-Fraser, Michael Phillips (October 5, 2012; originally aired October 29, 2010)
Rounds: Here.
Ian Campbell-Fraser is back, getting his turn in the champion's chair after defeating Veronica Corrigan last night. Ian enjoys cryptic crosswords and also building, especially with blocks of Lego. He has two young children and he likes nothing better than getting down onto the floor with them and putting the pieces together, constructing some amazing things. Ian jokes that his wife might be starting to realise that getting to play with Lego could have been his main reason for having children.
Tonight's challenger is Michael Phillips, a student who is studying a double degree in arts and science with the intention of becoming a teacher; specifically, he aims to be part of the Teach for Australia program. Richard asks what that involves; Michael explains that, as a Teach for Australia associate, he will be placed in an educationally-disadvantaged school. Then over the ensuing two years he will be teaching there in his own classroom, while also studying towards a diploma in teaching.
At a later point in the show there is some further chat, and it is mentioned that Michael plans to specialise in mathematics for his teaching.
Michael got the early lead in a tough first letters round, then extended it again in the fifth round. Lack of experience in the options of the large numbers cost him in round six, though, as Ian clawed back some lost ground there and then took the lead in the following letters round. The final numbers round was shared -- both quite far from the target -- and so it came down to the conundrum. That ended up being too difficult for them both, and Ian scraped home the winner by 40 to 38.
I felt rather out of sorts tonight, and had some mixed results. I ended up trying an invalid word in one round, and missed some findable better options in the final letters round. I followed that up by failing to solve the last numbers round and then getting the conundrum only a fraction of a second before time expired. Rather wobbly, all things considered, but it was fortunately good enough.
Ian Campbell-Fraser is back, getting his turn in the champion's chair after defeating Veronica Corrigan last night. Ian enjoys cryptic crosswords and also building, especially with blocks of Lego. He has two young children and he likes nothing better than getting down onto the floor with them and putting the pieces together, constructing some amazing things. Ian jokes that his wife might be starting to realise that getting to play with Lego could have been his main reason for having children.
Tonight's challenger is Michael Phillips, a student who is studying a double degree in arts and science with the intention of becoming a teacher; specifically, he aims to be part of the Teach for Australia program. Richard asks what that involves; Michael explains that, as a Teach for Australia associate, he will be placed in an educationally-disadvantaged school. Then over the ensuing two years he will be teaching there in his own classroom, while also studying towards a diploma in teaching.
At a later point in the show there is some further chat, and it is mentioned that Michael plans to specialise in mathematics for his teaching.
Michael got the early lead in a tough first letters round, then extended it again in the fifth round. Lack of experience in the options of the large numbers cost him in round six, though, as Ian clawed back some lost ground there and then took the lead in the following letters round. The final numbers round was shared -- both quite far from the target -- and so it came down to the conundrum. That ended up being too difficult for them both, and Ian scraped home the winner by 40 to 38.
I felt rather out of sorts tonight, and had some mixed results. I ended up trying an invalid word in one round, and missed some findable better options in the final letters round. I followed that up by failing to solve the last numbers round and then getting the conundrum only a fraction of a second before time expired. Rather wobbly, all things considered, but it was fortunately good enough.
Friday, 5 October 2012
Ep 64: Veronica Corrigan, Ian Campbell-Fraser (October 4, 2012; originally aired October 28, 2010)
Rounds: Here.
Veronica Corrigan is back for her fifth night, hoping to get closer to successful retirement. But first, some more about her, and in particular her interest in wine. As mentioned earlier, Veronica went away for a while after she finished school; when she returned she started working in a wine store. She was rather fortunate as her boss owned a winery and so was able to teach her a lot about winemaking, as well as tasting and things like that.
Tonight's challenger is Ian Campbell-Fraser, a native titles lawyer and public servant who is also a huge Elvis fan. (He probably liked slim Elvis, too. *rimshot*) Richard asks if Ian has "made the pilgrimage" to Graceland, and Ian responds that he has -- several years ago now -- and it was quite moving. At the end of the tour they take you past Elvis's grave and he confesses that he shed a tear.
The contestants start off equally matched in the letters rounds, then Veronica gained the lead by solving the first numbers round. They both had good words in the next round but Ian's was the longer, cutting into that lead of Veronica's. Another matched round, and then Veronica got back that lost ground in the second numbers round. She was ten points ahead going into the last numbers round and looking strong, but then a surprising miss from her in a rather easy round saw Ian level the scores going into the conundrum. That greatly improved his chances, of course, and he was able to take advantage of it with a quick solution to what could have been a very tough conundrum. Veronica's run comes to an end as Ian wins, 53 to 43.
I started out fairly well, finding a couple of less easy maxima. Two more difficult rounds followed where I missed better options that were findable -- Lily missed the numbers answer too, which is some comfort -- and then things continued back on track until the conundrum, which I only just solved with a few seconds left. A good game except for that conundrum speed, really.
Veronica Corrigan is back for her fifth night, hoping to get closer to successful retirement. But first, some more about her, and in particular her interest in wine. As mentioned earlier, Veronica went away for a while after she finished school; when she returned she started working in a wine store. She was rather fortunate as her boss owned a winery and so was able to teach her a lot about winemaking, as well as tasting and things like that.
Tonight's challenger is Ian Campbell-Fraser, a native titles lawyer and public servant who is also a huge Elvis fan. (He probably liked slim Elvis, too. *rimshot*) Richard asks if Ian has "made the pilgrimage" to Graceland, and Ian responds that he has -- several years ago now -- and it was quite moving. At the end of the tour they take you past Elvis's grave and he confesses that he shed a tear.
The contestants start off equally matched in the letters rounds, then Veronica gained the lead by solving the first numbers round. They both had good words in the next round but Ian's was the longer, cutting into that lead of Veronica's. Another matched round, and then Veronica got back that lost ground in the second numbers round. She was ten points ahead going into the last numbers round and looking strong, but then a surprising miss from her in a rather easy round saw Ian level the scores going into the conundrum. That greatly improved his chances, of course, and he was able to take advantage of it with a quick solution to what could have been a very tough conundrum. Veronica's run comes to an end as Ian wins, 53 to 43.
I started out fairly well, finding a couple of less easy maxima. Two more difficult rounds followed where I missed better options that were findable -- Lily missed the numbers answer too, which is some comfort -- and then things continued back on track until the conundrum, which I only just solved with a few seconds left. A good game except for that conundrum speed, really.
Thursday, 4 October 2012
Ep 63: Veronica Corrigan, Jonathan Campbell (October 3, 2012; originally aired October 27, 2010)
Rounds: Here.
This is the crucial fourth night for Veronica Corrigan: Even a loss will get her into the finals rankings if she can score 12 points, but she'll need over 60 points or a win (the more likely option) in order to move up to seventh position. Richard asks where her word-finding background comes from, and Veronica says that her family plays lots of word games at home; her strengths are Take Two and particularly Boggle, where she has a ten year unbeaten streak in her family.
Taking up the challenge tonight is Jonathan Campbell, a schoolteacher who enjoys writing and recording music. Jonathan played in a band called Foregone Conclusion (I have to wonder if the name was chosen as a reference to The Office's David Brent, who used to be in a band of that name) that covered 80's love songs. Richard asks if Jonathan sang in it, but Jonathan responds that he has a shocking singing voice and he played guitar.
Jonathan found a rather nice word in the first round to get an early lead, but Veronica overtook him in the second round with the top spot. An error from her in the numbers round saw him get in front again; a little later two good results from Veronica saw her get more than a conundrum's worth ahead. That could have been game to her, but she chose an unfortunately invalid word in the final letters round and that was enough to allow Jonathan back within striking distance going into the conundrum. Veronica buzzed in early with an invalid answer and had a nervous wait to see if Jonathan would find the solution in the remaining time. He did not, so Veronica survived with a slightly fortunate win, 35 to 29.
I had a decent game on the whole. I dropped two maxima on the letters in the middle of the game, but I would not have found the longer options in any case. An impossible numbers target livened things up toward the end, and I was comfortably ahead at the conundrum. Just as well, as I also buzzed in with the same invalid answer that Veronica tried later; I could not recover in time, taking probably another five seconds to find the right answer.
This is the crucial fourth night for Veronica Corrigan: Even a loss will get her into the finals rankings if she can score 12 points, but she'll need over 60 points or a win (the more likely option) in order to move up to seventh position. Richard asks where her word-finding background comes from, and Veronica says that her family plays lots of word games at home; her strengths are Take Two and particularly Boggle, where she has a ten year unbeaten streak in her family.
Taking up the challenge tonight is Jonathan Campbell, a schoolteacher who enjoys writing and recording music. Jonathan played in a band called Foregone Conclusion (I have to wonder if the name was chosen as a reference to The Office's David Brent, who used to be in a band of that name) that covered 80's love songs. Richard asks if Jonathan sang in it, but Jonathan responds that he has a shocking singing voice and he played guitar.
Jonathan found a rather nice word in the first round to get an early lead, but Veronica overtook him in the second round with the top spot. An error from her in the numbers round saw him get in front again; a little later two good results from Veronica saw her get more than a conundrum's worth ahead. That could have been game to her, but she chose an unfortunately invalid word in the final letters round and that was enough to allow Jonathan back within striking distance going into the conundrum. Veronica buzzed in early with an invalid answer and had a nervous wait to see if Jonathan would find the solution in the remaining time. He did not, so Veronica survived with a slightly fortunate win, 35 to 29.
I had a decent game on the whole. I dropped two maxima on the letters in the middle of the game, but I would not have found the longer options in any case. An impossible numbers target livened things up toward the end, and I was comfortably ahead at the conundrum. Just as well, as I also buzzed in with the same invalid answer that Veronica tried later; I could not recover in time, taking probably another five seconds to find the right answer.
Wednesday, 3 October 2012
Ep 62: Veronica Corrigan, Dave Wilson (October 2, 2012; originally aired October 26, 2010)
Rounds: Here.
This is Veronica Corrigan's third night, and we are informed that she is a great baker. Richard asks what her specialty is, and Veronica responds that her brownies have developed quite a following. Not only does she get introduced as "the girl that makes brownies", but a couple of friends of hers made a Facebook page about her brownies, and by the end of the day another twenty-five people had joined. So she was rather literal when she said that they have a following.
Tonight's challenger is Dave Wilson, a fencing contractor with a green thumb. Dave has built a golf course on his ten-acre property. That's quite an endeavour! He says that it is still a work in progress, but it has taken three years so far. Every Australia Day he has a golf day and earlier that year (2010) 67 people turned up to play. Impressive!
The contestants started off with the same answer in the first round, and then Veronica impressed David in the second round with a word he had not heard of before. That gave her a small lead which she extended in the numbers round. The middle third of the game produced matched results throughout, and then Veronica found another good word in the final letters round to get a twenty point lead. Dave still had a chance if he could solve the final numbers round, but he was not able to do so; his actual answer was invalid, not that it made a difference to the result. The conundrum turned out to be too difficult for them both, and Veronica ended up with a comfortable 54 to 27 win.
It was a night of really tough letters mixes, and I was only able to do better than six once. The numbers behaved themselves, though, and a decently fast conundrum solution pushed my score up into the seventies again for another decent game.
This is Veronica Corrigan's third night, and we are informed that she is a great baker. Richard asks what her specialty is, and Veronica responds that her brownies have developed quite a following. Not only does she get introduced as "the girl that makes brownies", but a couple of friends of hers made a Facebook page about her brownies, and by the end of the day another twenty-five people had joined. So she was rather literal when she said that they have a following.
Tonight's challenger is Dave Wilson, a fencing contractor with a green thumb. Dave has built a golf course on his ten-acre property. That's quite an endeavour! He says that it is still a work in progress, but it has taken three years so far. Every Australia Day he has a golf day and earlier that year (2010) 67 people turned up to play. Impressive!
The contestants started off with the same answer in the first round, and then Veronica impressed David in the second round with a word he had not heard of before. That gave her a small lead which she extended in the numbers round. The middle third of the game produced matched results throughout, and then Veronica found another good word in the final letters round to get a twenty point lead. Dave still had a chance if he could solve the final numbers round, but he was not able to do so; his actual answer was invalid, not that it made a difference to the result. The conundrum turned out to be too difficult for them both, and Veronica ended up with a comfortable 54 to 27 win.
It was a night of really tough letters mixes, and I was only able to do better than six once. The numbers behaved themselves, though, and a decently fast conundrum solution pushed my score up into the seventies again for another decent game.
Tuesday, 2 October 2012
Ep 61: Veronica Corrigan, Paolo Navidad (October 1, 2012; originally aired October 25, 2010)
Rounds: Here.
Veronica Corrigan is back after the weekend, getting her turn in the champion's chair. Veronica has a long-term goal to work as a doctor in France. She explains that she took a year off after school finished and spent two of those months in Paris and just loved it. It's a great place, so she would love to be able to go back and work there.
Tonight's challenger is Paolo Navidad, a project manager with a master's degree in biotechnology. Paolo's biggest personal achievement has been getting a research paper published in a science journal. The paper was about the method they had developed to detect developing viruses in animal cells. In particular it was about a pig virus, so the research had implications with regard to detection and diagnosis of pig diseases.
It started off as a close match, with the first three rounds shared. Paolo gained the lead in the fourth round only for Veronica to get most of it back in the next. Paolo was not able to get close enough to the target in the second numbers round and Veronica claimed the lead, then ensured her win with a solution in the final numbers round. Veronica capped it off by solving the conundrum first to make the game look much less close than it was with a 60 to 34 scoreline in her favour.
I had a reasonable game, but talked myself out of the best option in one round, thereby failing to match David. I got to the conundrum relatively quickly, and everything else went about as well as it could have (I missed out on another tough maximum, admittedly) for a solid win.
Veronica Corrigan is back after the weekend, getting her turn in the champion's chair. Veronica has a long-term goal to work as a doctor in France. She explains that she took a year off after school finished and spent two of those months in Paris and just loved it. It's a great place, so she would love to be able to go back and work there.
Tonight's challenger is Paolo Navidad, a project manager with a master's degree in biotechnology. Paolo's biggest personal achievement has been getting a research paper published in a science journal. The paper was about the method they had developed to detect developing viruses in animal cells. In particular it was about a pig virus, so the research had implications with regard to detection and diagnosis of pig diseases.
It started off as a close match, with the first three rounds shared. Paolo gained the lead in the fourth round only for Veronica to get most of it back in the next. Paolo was not able to get close enough to the target in the second numbers round and Veronica claimed the lead, then ensured her win with a solution in the final numbers round. Veronica capped it off by solving the conundrum first to make the game look much less close than it was with a 60 to 34 scoreline in her favour.
I had a reasonable game, but talked myself out of the best option in one round, thereby failing to match David. I got to the conundrum relatively quickly, and everything else went about as well as it could have (I missed out on another tough maximum, admittedly) for a solid win.
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