Friday 27 February 2015

Ep 270: Brydon Coverdale, Michael Lithgow (February 27, 2015; originally aired September 9, 2011)

Rounds: Here.

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


Brydon has the crucial fourth game tonight; a victory here gives him a good chance of making the finals, but a loss likely keeps him out.  Richard wheels out my least favourite question, asking Brydon about his technique in the game.  There's really nothing any contestant can answer that is enlightening, and that's pretty much the case here.  It always comes across as a lost opportunity to learn more about the contestants, and always makes me wonder if they did not provide enough talking points.

Tonight's challenger is Michael Lithgow, a water sampler and competition snooker player.  Richard asks for more information, and Michael obliges.  He works for an independent laboratory that does water sampling for Melbourne Water; that is their main client.  They do routine testing for the reservoirs, water tanks, and taps all around greater Melbourne to make sure it is clean and safe.  As for the snooker, Michael got into that when he turned 18 -- his father plays snooker with the RSL competition in Melbourne, so once he was old enough his father could take him there and teach him.


Just like yesterday's game, Brydon gets sevens to his opponent's sixes in the first two rounds.  It's pretty much all Brydon thereafter, too, as Michael declares an invalid word after the first break and round five also goes seven-six to Brydon.  The first two numbers rounds were fairly simple, but the last one was more difficult than the family mix usually produces.  Again Brydon navigated the hazards well while Michael faltered.  The conundrum was too difficult for both, but Brydon had still managed to get his score into the sixties, winning 61 to 27.

I did reasonably well myself, just two letters rounds shy of maximal.  (Admittedly, on one of those my actual choice might have caused derision in the at-home audience.)  When the last numbers round turned out to be too troublesome for Lily I even ended up unexpectedly ahead in the solo game.  The conundrum was tricky, and for a while I thought another solo victory would slip away from me, but I got there with just two seconds left to round off a very good week for me on the game.


As usual, details after the jump.

Thursday 26 February 2015

Ep 269: Brydon Coverdale, Sasha Quilty (February 26, 2015; originally aired September 8, 2011)

Rounds: Here.

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


Brydon is back for his third night, and we find out that another possible career path he would enjoy is travel writing.  He has been to around twenty-five countries now, and he would like to keep travelling as much as he can.  Richard asks if there is any particular writer's style that Brydon would like to model himself on.  Brydon notes that Bill Bryson has always made him laugh, so he would love to have his job as well: Travel writing with humour, as Richard puts it.

Tonight's challenger is Sasha Quilty, a hot rod fan who is currently building one of her own.  Apparently there's other people working on the same car as well, as she says that they are building it in three different locations at the moment -- parts here, parts there.  Eventually it should all come together to be a beautiful blue hot rod.


The scoreline may not reflect the closeness of this game.  Brydon won the first two rounds with seven letter words to Sasha's six (the reverse of how yesterday's game started), but most of the rest of the rounds were shared.  Sasha was unable to close that early lead, however, and Brydon extended his lead in the last numbers round to guarantee victory.  Sasha solved the conundrum first, but Brydon was the winner, 56 to 45.

I had a good game, except for one major omission: I got lost on one numbers round and ended up not getting anything down in time.  Ouch.  I was just short of maximal on the rest, however, and still managed to score in the seventies.


Brief details after the jump.

Wednesday 25 February 2015

Ep 268: Brydon Coverdale, Miles Tilly (February 25, 2015; originally aired September 7, 2011)

Rounds: Here.

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


Brydon takes his turn in the champion's seat, and Richard opens the conversation by suggesting that Brydon would like David's job.  Specifically, he would like to be a crossword composer if he were not a cricket journalist.  Brydon agrees that he is interested in that, adding that the challenge is getting everything to fit where you want it.  While I agree that is part of it, it feels to me somewhat lesser a challenge than creating the fiendish but (mostly) fair clues that David does.

Opposing Brydon is Miles Tilly, a musician who is currently working on his fourth album.  Richard notes that Miles' second album got a nomination for an award at an international competition.  Miles expands on that to note that his second album release was nominated for Best Electronic Release at the 2005 New Zealand Music Awards (he goes by the handle "Audiosauce").  Richard asks about the style of music involved; Miles responds that it is mainly "chilled-out", with a little bit of Latin and samba styles.


It was yet another close game tonight; Miles gained the upper hand early with two good letters rounds, although I feel that Brydon probably should have done better.  But a gap in Miles' technique in the numbers round saw Brydon reduce the deficit, and a good round five result put Brydon a single point ahead at last.  Miles got those points right back in the next numbers round, then miscued by essaying a rat pack in the final numbers round.  Brydon handled it deftly, and moved into the conundrum ahead but not safe.  He did well to solve it, too, and finished the winner, 47 to 33.

I had a good night on the letters, but flailed around a bit on the numbers.  I can take some consolation in that Lily also had troubles with one of them, at least.  Despite those difficulties I still managed a total in the 70's, which is always nice to have.


As usual, details after the jump.

Tuesday 24 February 2015

Ep 267: Anushan Jegatheeswaran, Brydon Coverdale (February 24, 2015; originally aired September 6, 2011)

Rounds: Here.

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


Anushan is back for his third night, and getting past that has been a bit of a problem for contestants recently.  But before we find out about that, Richard notes that Anushan has "musical inclinations", as he puts it.  Anushan explains that he plays the mridangam -- Richard asks for the name again, and fair enough, too (I'm glad I have transcripts to work from!) -- which is a kind of double-sided drum.  It's a classical Indian instrument, and Anushan has been learning it for about ten years.

Tonight's challenger is Brydon Coverdale, a cricket journalist.  Brydon has been on five tours around the world to watch and cover the cricket; he mentions in particular that he went to the 2011 World Cup earlier that year, which was in India and Sri Lanka.  That was 7 or 8 week's worth, and great fun.  He certainly enjoys his career!


The contestants were very closely matched tonight.  They tied the first three letters rounds, and each one won of the others.  The numbers were similarly close, and the small differences in their results shook out to give Brydon a slender two point lead going into the conundrum.  It was anyone's game to win, but ultimately the conundrum was too difficult for both.  Brydon becomes the new champion, winning 43 to 41.

I had a mental slip in round one that cost me the best answer, but otherwise did pretty well.  The semi-highlight was finding a word (an hour or so after time, mind you) that David did not get.  This week is definitely going much better than last week -- I hope the trend continues!


As usual, details after the jump.

Monday 23 February 2015

Ep 266: Anushan Jegatheeswaran, Kim Butcher (February 23, 2015; originally aired September 5, 2011)

Rounds: Here.

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


We start the week with Anushan in the champion's chair, after his victory over Rachel last week.  Richard informs us that Anushan is able to walk on his hands and also manipulate things with his feet.  He asks how that started, and Anushan says that it was when he was quite small.  Initially he would lean against a wall, but then he tried pushing himself off it and just started walking around.  Somewhere along the way he learned to turn off light switches with his feet.

Tonight's challenger is Kim Butcher, a music teacher and very keen op-shopper.  She collects a lot of things from them, such as tourist scarves and vintage tablecloths.  She tends to buy her clothes by the kilo; in fact she is wearing one of her op-shop finds tonight.


Kim took the early lead in the first letters round, but Anushan took it back in the first numbers round.  The lead changed hands again in each of the next two rounds, partly due to an invalid word from Kim, and Anushan took advantage of that to move clear going into the second break.  But he fell from grace by trying an invalid word himself afterwards, and with the final numbers round tied it was anyone's game going into the conundrum.  It was Anushan who solved it first, getting his second win with a scoreline of 47 to 31.

I picked up a maximal game tonight, with the only way to improve it being to shave some seconds off the conundrum.  A very happy start to the week for me!


As usual, details after the jump.

Saturday 21 February 2015

Weekly summary: Episodes 261 to 265

I had adequate results this week, but -- except for Friday -- always ended up significantly behind David and Lily's combined score due to the conundrum.  The shortfalls were exacerbated by an invalid word on Tuesday, and two numbers rounds on Wednesday that I did not manage to solve.  On Thursday I had the good result of outdoing Lily in a numbers round; in fact, it would have been an optimal game if not for the conundrum.  On Friday I finally managed to get that tie I'd been trying for all week, which was a relief.


MonTueWedThuFri
Me6451626777
Champion247103710
Challenger1722172010
David + Lily7675797477
Me (solo)6457626777


This week was pretty similar to last week, as far as results went: The champion was only able to win Thursday's game.  Rachel looked in decent form but was not able to defeat Anushan; it's been a while since anyone got even as far as four victories.  The limited leaderboard looks like this:

Martin Gabor56585244220
Judithe Hall625143156
Emily Hawker675329149
Rachel Furness355440129
Rebecca Skovron533689
Jodi-Ann Menzies492877
Shyam Subramaniam472572
Geoff Walker482371

There was only one full monty on offer the entire week, and that was sufficiently obscure that it was missed by everyone.  Lily was foiled by the numbers only once, with Thursday turning up a difficult target that was very nicely solved by Rachel.


MonTueWedThuFri
Full Monties0
Missed Full Monties11
Tough Numbers11
Impossible Numbers0

My maximum counts for the main rounds were essentially the same as last week, but it was a tough week as far as conundrum-solving went.  I only managed to get Friday's one out within time, and mostly it wasn't even close.  I had an invalid word on Tuesday, which did come as a bit of a surprise; I hadn't realised I was taking a risk with OUTLIE.


MonTueWedThuFri
Maximums: L32453
N33133
C----1
Invalid: L-1---
N-----


Contestants sorted by average score:


TotalGamesAverage
Martin Gabor220455.00
Judithe Hall156352.00
Anushan Jegatheeswaran*50150.00
Emily Hawker149349.67
Rebecca Skovron89244.50
Rachel Furness129343.00
Brad Tucker41141.00
Daniel McNamara40140.00
Jodi-Ann Menzies77238.50
Shyam Subramaniam72236.00
Geoff Walker71235.50
Ajanthan Jegatheeswaran32132.00
Emma Watson31131.00
Cormac Murtagh58229.00
Matthew Matten28128.00
Cameron Begley51225.50

Friday 20 February 2015

Ep 265: Rachel Furness, Anushan Jegatheeswaran (February 20, 2015; originally aired September 2, 2011)

Rounds: Here.

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


Rachel returns for her third night, and Richard asks her about her job of child speech pathology; in particular, he asks what kind of things she helps children with.  Rachel answers that the most common issue is "sounds, errors with their sounds and making them clearer".  She also sees many children that are not using a lot of words or do not have a great grasp of expressive language.  Richard asks how difficult improving a child's speech can be, and Rachel responds that it can sometimes be quite difficult, but the earlier they work with them the better the outcome.  They can even usefully start as young as ten months old.

When we had the long shot of the set at the start of the episode I thought that SBS had messed up and shown yesterday's game again.  The reason is that tonight's challenger looks fairly familiar; in fact, it's Ajanthan's brother Anushan Jegatheeswaran, an accounting and sports management student.  Richard points out the family relation, as you would expect, and asks if their is any sibling rivalry over the show at home.  Anushan agrees.


It's a very close game tonight, and there's very little to choose between the contestants.  Anushan missed his chance to jump to an early lead when he overlooked a simple extension to his word in round one.  He finally got that lead in the first numbers round when Rachel was surprisingly far away, but then an invalid word from him allowed Rachel to narrow the gap.  Rachel took the lead with an excellent solution in the second numbers round, only for Anushan to ties the scores in the last numbers round.  I thought we were going to go to a tiebreaker, but Anushan solved the conundrum in the last second to become the new champion, 50 points to 40.

I had a good game to finish off the week, and I am particularly happy with my round 4 answer.  That was the one that made me think I might be in with a chance of matching David and Lily, and I was able to keep up that form to do so.  I've struggled all week to do that, but this time was finally able to solve the conundrum and get that precious result.


Brief details after the jump.

Thursday 19 February 2015

Ep 264: Rachel Furness, Ajanthan Jegatheeswaran (February 19, 2015; originally aired September 1, 2011)

Rounds: Here.

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


Rachel is back for her second night, and it is revealed that she has a young daughter called Lily; also a son named Noah, but that name lacks the obvious connection to the show.  Both children are huge fans of Lily Serna, and (young) Lily told Rachel to be sure to let (older) Lily know that Rachel had her own little Lily at home.  Phew, that's too many uses of "Lily" in the sentence, but there's only so much I can do.

Tonight's challenger is Ajanthan Jegatheeswaran, an architect whose ambition is to own his own company providing disaster relief housing.  Richard notes the specificity of that ambition, and asks why that is so.  Ajanthan explains that his family left a war-torn country to come to Australia, so wants to be able to give something back to people less fortunate than they were.


Ajanthan was the first to score, finding a nice word in the first round while Rachel lagged behind.  She took the second round, though, reducing his lead to just a single point.  Two shared rounds followed, but then Rachel really hit her stride, finding a good word and an exceptional numbers solution.  Ajanthan's choice in the final letters round was invalid, and that guaranteed Rachel the win.  Both solved the final numbers round, and the conundrum was too difficult for everyone, so the margin remained large in Rachel's favour: 54 points to 32.

I had an excellent game, hitting maximums in all of the main rounds.  One of those was that same numbers round that Rachel did so well on, and as Lily faltered there I was actually ahead on the solo total going into the conundrum.  All I needed to do was solve it to have that great rarity of the win against David and Lily... but for the fourth game in a row the conundrum was too difficult for me.  Frustrating!


As usual, details after the jump.

Wednesday 18 February 2015

Ep 263: Geoff Walker, Rachel Furness (February 18, 2015; originally aired August 31, 2011)

Rounds: Here.

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


Geoff Walker gets his turn in the champion's seat, and Richard brings up the topic of Geoff's interest in bushwalking.  In particular, that he has done some spectacular walks west of Alice Springs.  Geoff agrees, and names the location: The West MacDonnell Ranges with the Larapinta Trail.  He enthuses that it is a wonderful walk, even though it can be tough going.  In particular, it is really nice when you are walking along the ridge tops, because you have long-distance views for kilometres around.  "Absolutely beautiful", he finishes.

Taking up the challenger's position is Rachel Furness, a child speech pathologist.  Apparently Rachel has a bucket list -- well, not so much a bucket list as a "pre-turning-forty list" -- that she is trying to get through.  One of them is appearing on a TV show, so that one is satisfactorily taken care of.  Richard asks what else is on the list, and Rachel mentions completing the Rubik's cube and learning to surf.  She thought that Lily might be able to help her with those; Lily disclaims any ability with the Rubik's cube, but is confident about being able to help with the surfing.


Geoff got off to an unfortunate start with an invalid word; it's the sort of thing that some familiarity with the Macquarie would suggest avoiding, but of course contestants don't end up with a copy until they have already lost.  He had two more invalid answers in the next three rounds, and was perhaps fortunate to only be 11 points behind at the halfway mark.  Matters were a little more even thereafter, but a perhaps-tactical choice by Rachel of the rat pack in the last numbers round was too difficult for either to solve, and that guaranteed her the win.  The conundrum went unsolved, and Rachel became the new champion with 35 points to 23.

I had some good results in the letters today, although I should have done better in the first round.  I struggled a bit with the numbers, in contrast, needing extra time to find the best options in two of the rounds.  It still seemed like decent results, although once again the conundrum was just too hard for me.


As usual, details after the jump.

Tuesday 17 February 2015

Ep 262: Cormac Murtagh, Geoff Walker (February 17, 2015; originally aired August 30, 2011)

Rounds: Here.

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


On Cormac's second night, Richard asks him about the "multilinguist" term that was used in his description.  Cormac explains that he knows four languages: English and Irish in high school, and he has picked up German and Spanish as well.  Richard asks him to translate "letters and numbers" to a couple of languages of his choice; Cormac gives the Gaelic translation of "litreacha agus uimhreacha", and then Richard takes back the free choice by asking for it specifically in Spanish.  That turns out to be the rather simpler "letras y nùmeros".  German would have been more interesting ("Buchstaben und Zahlen").

Tonight's challenger is Geoff Walker, a bushwalker whose passions include bushwalking and the Argentinean tango.  Richard seems impressed by the tango, and asks how Geoff got involved in it.  Geoff explains that he was looking for something to occupy his spare time about ten years ago; he saw an advertisement for classes, went along, and loved it.  But more than the dancing, he loves the music -- that's what really keeps him going in tango.


It starts off fairly evenly -- Geoff took the lead in the first round, two tied rounds followed, then Cormac tied it up at the halfway mark.  But that was as good as it got for Cormac: Geoff outmatched him in the letters, and two poor numbers rounds saw Cormac slip out of contention.  The conundrum was too hard for everyone, so Geoff became the new champion, 48 to 19.

I started off well, but once I missed a word I'd have liked to have found things unravelled a bit.  My next declaration was invalid, and I was too slow to see the best option in the last letters round.  The numbers went well, but once more the conundrum proved too difficult for me.  I hope I get one soon!


As usual, details after the jump.

Monday 16 February 2015

Ep 261: Jodi-Ann Menzies, Cormac Murtagh (February 16, 2015; originally aired August 29, 2011)

Rounds: Here.

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


Jodi-Ann gets her turn in the champion's seat to start off the week.  Richard notes that Jodi-Ann has swum with dolphins, and asks her what that was like.  Jodi-Ann says it was fabulous, and that she has been very fortunate in that she has been able to swim with dolphins both in the wild and also in captivity.  Richard then throws back to Lily, who surfs a lot, and asks her if she has encountered dolphins while doing so.  Lily responds that she has, but it wasn't so nice at the time -- all she saw was a fin go past, so she and her surfing companion Anna were both scared for a while.

Tonight's challenger is Cormac Murtagh, described as an avid poker player and multilinguist.  Richard asks how serious Cormac is about the poker, and Cormac explains that he started off just playing with friends but has since become more serious about it; he moved on to playing in tournaments, which he has really enjoyed.  He has also been able to earn a bit of money doing it, which is good.  He hopes to eventually "swim with the big sharks" in the poker game.


Jodi-Ann got off to a poor start with an invalid word, but it was not a very costly mistake.  She took the lead in the second round, only for Cormac to gain it back and then further extend it in the next two rounds.  Jodi-Ann struck back in the second numbers round, with her solution taking her to just a point behind Cormac.  That point was significant, however, as Cormac was the one to solve the final numbers round; that put him eleven points ahead going into the conundrum.  It was a hard conundrum, and no-one solved it; Cormac took the victory, 39 to 28.

As seems to be a bit of a running theme recently, I had good results but was just a little too slow in some of the initial rounds.  Thereafter I found the maximums, before running into the brick wall of the conundrum.  It was too tough for me also, but I still managed to reach the mid-sixties.


As usual, details after the jump.

Saturday 14 February 2015

Weekly summary: Episodes 256 to 260

It's been an interesting week of games, with solid results against the contestants.  The first half was particularly good, as I was only just short of matching David and Lily, then did manage to do so on Wednesday.  Things fell off a little after that, but it was pretty satisfactory scoring despite my usual grumbling.  Plus twice I managed to find a longer word than David could, and that's always a very satisfying thing to do.


MonTueWedThuFri
Me7964946175
Champion311302717
Challenger2420421420
David + Lily8674947778
Me (solo)8564946175


The week started with two close games, resulting in tiebreaker conundrums.  Rebecca played well to defeat Judithe on Monday, and then was perhaps a little unlucky on Tuesday when the letters rounds were not helpful.  Cameron defeated Rebecca, but then Emily burst onto the scene with a scintillating first game on Wednesday.  Another good win followed, but fatigue seemed to take it's toll on Friday, and Jodi-Ann finished the week as champion.  Lots of turnover this week; the limited leaderboard looks like this:

Martin Gabor56585244220
Judithe Hall625143156
Emily Hawker675329149
Rebecca Skovron533689
Shyam Subramaniam472572
Cameron Begley46551
Jodi-Ann Menzies*4949
Brad Tucker4141

There were three full monties on offer this week, all found by David (and myself, although I had the foreknowledge advantage in one case).  Wednesday served up a very tough numbers round, but other than that Lily was on track throughout.


MonTueWedThuFri
Full Monties123
Missed Full Monties0
Tough Numbers11
Impossible Numbers0

My maximum counts improved across the board from last week (well, same number of conundrums solved).  So that's good.


MonTueWedThuFri
Maximums: L24532
N33223
C21 (of 2)1-1
Invalid: L-----
N-----


Contestants sorted by average score:


TotalGamesAverage
Martin Gabor220455.00
Judithe Hall156352.00
Emily Hawker149349.67
Jodi-Ann Menzies*49149.00
Rebecca Skovron89244.50
Brad Tucker41141.00
Daniel McNamara40140.00
Shyam Subramaniam72236.00
Emma Watson31131.00
Matthew Matten28128.00
Cameron Begley51225.50

Friday 13 February 2015

Ep 260: Emily Hawker, Jodi-Ann Menzies (February 13, 2015; originally aired August 26, 2011)

Rounds: Here.

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


Emily is back for her third night, after two strong games.  Richard opens the chat by asking about her daughter, Ashley, who is 14 months old (at the time of filming, presumably).  It turns out that they watch Letters and Numbers together (and it is the only show that they do).  Richard enquires, a little optimistically, about whether Ashley is showing any signs of playing the game.  Emily expresses her doubt about Ashley being able to solve the conundrum at any point in the near future, and on further questioning says that there are no signs as yet of Ashley having a preference for the letters or the numbers.

Tonight's challenger is Jodi-Ann Menzies, who apparently loves to sing.  She guesses that enjoyment started at school, where she sang in the choir, and then she "graduated" into an adult choral group.  She's now taking private singing lessons.  Apparently her favourite place to sing is in the car; David interjects to point out that doing so is called "car-aoke".  Oh, dear.


Emily took the early lead in round 1, but thereafter it was almost all Jodi-Ann's way.  Emily's risky option in the second round was invalid, and Jodi-Ann managed to outdo her in the first numbers round to gain the lead.  Jodi-Ann found good words thereafter, and went into the final numbers round an even 20 points ahead.  Emily kept her hopes alive with a good solution in that round, but still needed to solve the conundrum in order to force the tiebreaker.  It had all the setup for a major comeback, but the person who buzzed at the 30 second mark was not Emily, but Jodi-Ann, who came through with a 49 to 29 victory.

I had good results tonight, but twice had the disappointment of seeing a better word without having enough time left to get it down on paper.  It's been a long week -- I'd forgotten how much time these posts take to write up.  Fortunately there's the weekend to recover.

As usual, details after the jump.

Thursday 12 February 2015

Ep 259: Emily Hawker, Daniel McNamara (February 12, 2015; originally aired August 25, 2011)

Rounds: Here.

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


There's no pre-game chat with David and Lily this episode, which might be the show attempting to make up time after the earlier episodes filmed that day.  Fortunately, we still get to hear from the contestants.

Richard praises Emily's previous exceptional game, and asks if she was fuelled by chocolate.  Emily laughs and agrees that she was, and is most of the time.  Asked about when the love of chocolate began, she suggests that it have formed in utero, as her mother is also a big chocolate lover.  In any case, she has loved chocolate as long as she can remember, and was even the secretary of the Chocolate Lovers Society at university.

Tonight's challenger is Daniel McNamara, who wrote a program to help him practice for the show.  Further explanation reveals that this was a program to solve numbers games and to work out whether there is an exact solution or not.  (I agree that can be useful, but I think that there's more benefit using a programs simply to quickly generate games to play; one can learn a little technique from seeing solutions -- and I certainly found that somewhat useful myself -- but there's far more benefit to simply playing through lots and lots of rounds.)

Daniel used this program for a few days before the auditions, and adds that he thinks there's a lot of room to expand the program to make it more efficient, and a fuller approach to solving those problems.  I'll take this opportunity to point out the "Countdown" numbers game solver website, which I use occasionally.


Daniel starts off with a risky and ultimately invalid play in the first round, and thereafter there is very little difference between the contestants.  In fact, there was only one other round where a difference in scores happened; that time, Emily took the risk.  It paid off for her, however, and so she took an unassailable lead into the conundrum.  It was another tough one, and neither contestant found the answer within time.  That gave Emily her second win, 53 to 40.

I felt off my game tonight, particularly on the numbers rounds where I only just got answers down in time on two of them, and was too slow for the solution on the third.  An oversight on the letters in one round saw me fail to declare a better option, and I was also beaten by the conundrum.  The statistics make it seem like I played better than I did; I was struggling in many of the rounds.


As usual, details after the jump.

Wednesday 11 February 2015

Ep 258: Cameron Begley, Emily Hawker (February 11, 2015; originally aired August 24, 2011)

Rounds: Here.  (Sorry for the delay; SBS's content delivery was having troubles again, only getting a small way into the video before failing.  It was better after dinner.)

Disclaimer: I watched this episode when it first aired, and although I did not recall any of it I cannot rule out memory being a factor.  However, for other reasons one of the rounds was spoiled for me, which I'll get to in due course.


Cameron is back, taking his turn in the champion's seat.  Richard reminds us again about how tight the last game was, and there's a little chitchat about that.  It's appropriate, I guess, but it does rob us of the chance to find out more about Cameron.

Tonight's challenger is -- oh, hey, it's Emily!  I recognised her, and that meant I recalled a comment Sam made about one of her games, and that meant I knew what was going to happen in one round.  But I digress.  Emily has a degree in linguistics and finance, and Richard observes that seems to be a perfect combination for Letters and Numbers.  Hard to argue with that!  Emily started off in finance, and specifically studied Japanese and French for a while, but then decided that the study of language was more interesting than the study of languages themselves.


Emily got off to a cracking start with a full monty, and an unanswered full monty is generally enough of an advantage to win regardless of what else goes on.  But Emily kept piling on the points, while Cameron was unable to make any progress at all.  His first two words were deemed invalid (one of them should technically have been accepted, by my reading), and indeed he never managed to match Emily in the letter rounds.  Unlike last night, the numbers did not save him; he was only able to manage five points overall, while Emily steamed past sixty.  The game was over at the second break, which is extremely early for that to happen.  The conundrum proved too difficult for both contestants, preventing Emily from reaching the 70's, but she was very happy with her 67 to 5 victory.

It's a rare day when two full monties are available, but that was the case here.  I found them both, but the second one was the "prior knowledge" case I've alluded to; without that knowledge, I am pretty sure I would not have seen it within time.  Aside from that, I matched David and Lily throughout, and had decent conundrum speed to boot.  Just one tough numbers round marred the optimal result, but it was still very good and put my final total into the 90's.


As usual, details after the jump.

Tuesday 10 February 2015

Ep 257: Rebecca Skovron, Cameron Begley (February 10, 2015; originally aired August 23, 2011)

Rounds: Here.

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


Rebecca gets her turn in the champion's seat after her tiebreaker win over Judithe last night.  Richard effuses about how exciting that game was, then shifts to asking Rebecca when her love of music developed.  Rebecca answers that it started when she was very little: She had piano lessons from the age of five or six.  Meeting her husband also helped continue that love; he is the biggest music fan she knows, and in particular a huge Beatles fan.

Tonight's challenger is Cameron Begley, a general manager for the CSIRO.  Richard notes that the CSIRO engages in a huge range of scientific work, and asks Cameron what sort of things he is involved with.  Cameron explains that he is involved on the commercial side, so he gets to work with the wonderful scientists at CSIRO and then take the results out to their customers.  (It feels a bit odd to me to think of the CSIRO as having customers, but it does make sense.)  There is also an insect collection at the site he operates in Canberra that he is enthusiastic about; additionally, he gets to work with "a whole bunch" of biotechnology scientists.


Rebecca took the lead early as Cameron seemed to struggle to find any form at the start; by the halfway mark she was a daunting 20 points ahead.  The remaining letter rounds were too difficult for Rebecca to stretch that lead, however, and Cameron fought his way back into contention with two solves on the numbers rounds.  For the third game in a row the scores were tied going into the conundrum, and neither contestant solved it.  So once more unto the tiebreaker, and this time it was Cameron who found the solution first to take home the victory, 46 to 36.

I missed a difficult option in the first round, but thereafter I was hitting the best results.  The highlight came in round 5 where I outdid David, and the potential for another tie loomed.  Alas, the conundrum was extremely difficult -- it took me almost five minutes to solve it -- and so that tie slipped away.  The second conundrum was much easier.  Another solid win for me, but when compared with David and Lily it is another case of "the one that got away".  Maybe next game...


Brief details after the jump (to be fleshed out later).

Monday 9 February 2015

Ep 256: Judithe Hall, Rebecca Skovron (February 9, 2015; originally aired August 22, 2011)

Rounds: Here.

Disclaimer: I watched this episode when it first aired, and although I did not recall any of the main rounds I cannot rule out memory being a factor.  I definitely did recall something about the conundrum, which I'll get to in due course.


On Judithe's third night, Richard reveals that she taught in Hong Kong for a while.  Judithe says that she really enjoyed it; the staff and students were wonderful, and the students were voracious readers and very keen to learn.  She obviously approved of all that.

Challenging Judithe tonight is Rebecca Skovron, who is studying to be a teacher while running her own theatre company.  Richard naturally focuses on that second part, asking her what sort of productions she puts together.  Rebecca states that they do exclusively musical theatre; in response to Richard's followup question she clarifies that she does not do any of the singing, expressing her opinion that the audience should be very grateful for that.


It's another close game tonight with the contestants matching each other in most declarations.  Judithe slips slightly with an invalid declaration in the first numbers round to give Rebecca an edge, but a risky choice in the last letters round pays off and gets her level again.  Both contestants make errors on the last numbers round, and so for the second game in a row Judithe goes into the conundrum on a tied score.

Rebecca is unlucky on the conundrum, buzzing in with what I would have thought was a valid word; however, it is not the answer wanted.  She stares at Judithe while the clock ticks down, and perhaps her psychic interference works as Judithe does not find the solution.  So, once more we are onto a tiebreaker conundrum.  Again time ticks down, and on Judithe's past form Rebecca might be in trouble if the clock gets down to just a few seconds left.  But Rebecca gets there first, and takes a hard-fought victory, 53 to 43.

I started off well enough, and hit the high point in round 4 where I managed to outdo David for once.  I had dreams of a very rare victory against the combined team, but a poor miss in the next round saw that hope gone.  David then found an excellent word in round 7 to take away the consolation prize of a tie.  So near, and yet so far.  On the plus side again, I had excellent speed on both conundrums; however, I do clearly recall the issue around the first conundrum from when the show originally aired, and that is almost certainly responsible for my unusually good speed on that round.  Overall it was a good game, with much to be happy about.

As usual, details after the jump.

Saturday 7 February 2015

Weekly summary: Episodes 251 to 255

It's been a long while since I've done one of these -- I had to remind myself how they went!  It's been a bit of a difficult week, trying to get back into the swing of the game again after such a long absence.  It really has driven home the difference between playing it live and using the unhurried approach of the web versions I provide.  Still, hopefully there'll be time to adapt.  I had mostly reasonable results, although my performance was hampered a little by playing when tired.

The first game was a slowish start as there was not much room to distance myself from Martin, and if he'd solved the conundrum I would have started off the re-runs with a loss.  I settled down a little after that point and had clear victories, finishing off with on Friday with a game just one round shy of optimal.  It was no surprise that I never managed to outdo David (there were only four chances presented: EPACRID, DIACHRONY, ANYWISE, and DIOPTASE), but a couple of tough number rounds enabled me to pick up some points against Lily and twice match their combined solo total.  So there are positive signs already, and I'm looking forward to the next week.


MonTueWedThuFri
Me6665546786
Champion5832372015
Challenger3116414714
David + Lily7772727686
Me (solo)6672696786


Martin started out with a few good wins, but narrowly lost to Shyam who had one of the best conundrum solves I've seen.  Judithe then came by and played a couple of good games to be a decent contender.  Obviously my statistics are incomplete at the moment since I lack the first half of the series, but here's the leaderboard based on this week; according to the books Martin scored 56 points in his first game.

Martin Gabor56585244220
Judithe Hall*6251113
Shyam Subramaniam472572
Brad Tucker4141
Emma Watson3131
Matthew Matten2828

David and I each found the full monty on the final day, but the obscure one on Tuesday eluded us.  Lily had to use the break as thinking time on three occasions -- there were some tough rounds this week!  She did find the best result on Tuesday's unsolvable round.


MonTueWedThuFri
Full Monties11
Missed Full Monties11
Tough Numbers1113
Impossible Numbers11

My maximum count on the letters was rather less than I would like, until Friday's excellent game.  The numbers went reasonably, and I was well above my usual conundrum solution rate.


MonTueWedThuFri
Maximums: L32225
N32232
C01112
Invalid: L---1-
N-----


Contestants sorted by average score:


TotalGamesAverage
Judithe Hall*113256.50
Martin Gabor220455.00
Brad Tucker41141.00
Shyam Subramaniam72236.00
Emma Watson31131.00
Matthew Matten28128.00

Friday 6 February 2015

Ep 255: Judithe Hall, Brad Tucker (February 6, 2015; originally aired August 19, 2011)

Rounds: Here.

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


Judithe returns after yesterday's solid win over Shyam.  Richard asks how the unusual spelling of her first name came about; Judithe explains that both of her parents had names with an 'e' on the end, and decided that she should not be left out.  There's a little further banter about possible other names with 'e' appended.

Tonight's challenger is Brad Tucker, an astrophysicist.  Richard mentions the terms "dark energy" and "supernovae" and asks if that is the kind of thing that Brad studies.  Brad affirms that, explaining that the supernovae (which he describes as "bright stellar explosions") are used to figure out what dark energy is.  He adds that they think that dark energy is a force that is causing the universe to expand, and indeed to increase in that expansion.


It was quite the close game tonight.  Brad did not seem as comfortable on the letters as he would have liked, but fortunately for him Judithe did not quite match her performance from yesterday.  She twice picked up a small lead from the letter rounds, but each time Brad was able to gain back that ground on the numbers.  It turned out that both contestants were tied going into the conundrum, and with neither solving it the tiebreaker conundrum was wheeled out.  Time ticked down again, then in an echo of yesterday's game Judithe found the solution with only a handful of seconds left on the clock.  She scraped by with the win, 51 to 41.

I had an excellent game tonight, except for a bit of a brain freeze on the last numbers round.  Brad liked the heavyweight mix, which is sure to make Sam happy but I seem to be a bit rusty on it.  That stopped me from having an optimal game, and fretting over that may have contributed to my poor performance on the second conundrum.  Still, my score made it into the eighties, and that's a rare occurrence.

As usual, details after the jump.

Thursday 5 February 2015

Ep 254: Shyam Subramaniam, Judithe Hall (February 5, 2015; originally aired August 18, 2011)

Rounds: Here.

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


Shyam has his first turn in the champion's seat tonight, and Richard inquires how serious Shyam is about the "aspiring novelist" description.  Shyam reveals that he has started scripting a novel, but it's only in the draft stages.  Unfortunately he does not go into any further detail about it, so it's hard to get a sense of how clear the story is to him.

Tonight's challenger is Judithe Hall, a teacher/librarian.  Richard draws the connection between Judithe's job and Shyam's aspiration, and then moves to a more general point about Judithe loving books.  She agrees, noting that these days they come in several different formats.  She awkwardly transitions to talking about what it means to her to be a librarian, which is "inspiring students and staff to make use of all the available resources, and to really have a lifelong love of learning".


Judithe was in good form on the letters today, and took points from Shyam in four of the five rounds.  That was a big gap to overcome, and with the numbers rounds being a little easy, Shyam was out of contention going into round 8.  The conundrum was a difficult one, but Judithe found the solution with a couple of seconds left on the clock for an emphatic 62 to 25 victory.

I struggled to distance myself from Judithe, and risked a little too much in one round to fall behind.  I was fortunate to get back on level pegging in the next round, but it took an invalid answer from her in a numbers round for me to finally get ahead.  I solved the conundrum very quickly, but (as I'll explain in the conundrum round) there's a sense in which I had seen it before.  Overall I was a little wobblier than I'd like -- I'm still getting adjusted to the show's format again! -- but happy to get through with the win.

As usual, details after the jump.

Ep 253: Martin Gabor, Shyam Subramaniam (February 4, 2015; originally aired August 17, 2011)

Rounds: Here.

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


Martin has reached the crucial fourth night, and Richard's asks about his consistent choice of the "perfect match" number mix, and any other game techniques he has developed.  There's nothing much of note in Martin's response, and again I have to wonder whether he provided the show with the requested interesting facts about himself.  Certainly we've not found out much about him so far in these chats.

Standing in Martin's way is Shyam Subramaniam, an aspiring novelist with a master's degree in accounting.  Shyam was an enthusiastic coin collector when he was younger, starting from around the age of 14, when his uncle travelled a lot in Africa and returned with all sorts of interesting coins.  By the time Shyam was 18 he had managed to acquire coins from around a hundred different countries.  He's since grown out of the obsession, but he certainly loved it at the time.


It's a close game tonight; Martin gets an early lead with a good find in round 1, but then risks too much in the second round and gives it mostly back.  He pulls away in the next two rounds, but Shyam manages to peg him back a little in the second numbers round, and the game is alive going into the conundrum.  Shyam solves it staggeringly quickly, and gets the come-from-behind win, 47 to 44.

I was off my game somewhat, with two bad misses.  I can partly attribute that to attempting to play this at two in the morning; lesson learned.  But solid results throughout were good enough to see me clear despite the conundrum (which I solved quickly by my standards, but not nearly fast enough to beat Shyam).

As usual, details after the jump.

Wednesday 4 February 2015

Ep 252: Martin Gabor, Matthew Matten (February 3, 2015; originally aired August 16, 2011)

Rounds: Here.

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


This is Martin's third night, and it is revealed that his ambition is to be a rugby league commentator.  Richard asks what Martin thinks his chances are, and Martin jokingly notes that Ray Warren is expected to retire in the next few years, and Martin will be available.  That's perhaps unfortunate timing for Martin -- by the time this show aired, but almost certainly after it was filmed, Ray Warren had been diagnosed with prostate cancer, which perhaps gives an unintended edge to the remarks.

Facing off against Martin is Matthew Matten, a lab technician and self-confessed LEGO nut.  At the moment he is working on building a model of Saint Basil's Cathedral.  Richard asks about the scale of this project, and Matthew explains that the proportions are going to be as though the minifigs were person-sized, so he expects it to end up around a metre to a metre-and-a-half tall.  That's quite the project!


Both contestants struggle somewhat on the numbers tonight, each making an invalid go of the first (very difficult) numbers round.  Honours on the remaining numbers rounds are mostly even but slightly tilted in Martin's favour, but it's the words that carry him safely to victory, as he finds some good eights to move well clear.  He rounds it off by solving the conundrum, sealing a 52 to 28 victory.

I also struggled a little, feeling off my game today.  I mentally froze in round 3 and only just got myself unstuck in time for an adequate result.  I missed a couple of longer words that I might have found on a better day, too.  Against that, I found a solution (two, in fact) that eluded Lily, and I solved the conundrum reasonably quickly to end up in the mid-sixties again for a safe win.

As usual, details after the jump.

Ep 251: Martin Gabor, Emma Watson (February 2, 2015; originally aired August 15, 2011)

Finally we get some re-runs of unblogged episodes again!  For people's convenience, here's a link to the Past Episodes page on the SBS website.  (This episode is erroneously labelled S4 Ep1 by them, but it's actually episode 251, or S3 Ep51 under that nomenclature.)  The comment page is broken at the moment, however, and I doubt that they will be bothered to fix it.

It might take me a while to settle back into the episode blogging format; please bear with me.  As a new feature for posterity after the videos are no longer available again, I'm including links to the rounds as done in the "new game" format.

Rounds: Here.

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


The carryover champion is Martin Gabor, a sports journalism student.  This is his second night, and already Richard's question has devolved into Martin's preference for letters or numbers.  Did Martin not come prepared with the required interesting facts about himself?  Anyway, Martin says that he used to favour the letters, coming as he did from a humanities background, but thanks to learning tweaking skills from Lily he now prefers the numbers.

In the challenger seat is Emma Watson (no, not that one), a sports management student.  Richard points out the similarity in occupations between the two contestants, and asks Emma what sort of skills are needed to manage sports people.  Emma responds that there is a lot to do with public relations -- she gestures towards Martin -- and also sorting out contracts, media, endorsements, and still making sure that they have the time to perform and put in the effort on the field.


There's a bit each way in the letter rounds today, with Martin ending up slightly on the better end of that.  But in keeping with his pre-game comments, it's the numbers that bring him comfortably home; he solves all three rounds while Emma only solves the first, and takes an unassailable lead into the conundrum.  It proves to be a tough one, and with neither solving it Martin wins 58 to 31.

It was interesting watching the show again, with both a sense of comforting familiarity about affairs but also a bit of pressure that has not been there in the non-show games.  I can't say that I really miss the timer music!  Anyway, I had a reasonable game, but I'm disappointed to miss the conundrum; I saw the key features but failed to unravel it within time.  There was not much leeway to get away from Martin, who found solid results throughout, and I was ahead but not safe at the conundrm.  With no-one solving it, I scraped home with the win.

As usual, details after the jump.

Tuesday 3 February 2015

Reruns back on!

Thanks to commenter Justin Thai for pointing out that SBS has started showing some more re-runs (who knows for how long).  Ignore the website's erroneous claim that they are showing season 4; the two episodes currently available on the show's webpage are 251 and 252.  For anyone wanting to watch them on TV as they air, it appears that they are showing at 5:30PM on SBS ONE.

If they keep showing them then we have 43 episodes to see that I have not covered yet (before we hit the season three finals).  I'm going to suspend new games while the re-runs are on, and aim to catch up on those shortly.  It will be interesting to see what it's like playing the show's games after this time.  I've got a suspicion I've been overly lenient with my timings.

NG 572

New game 572 is now available.