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.
Deborah gets her first turn in the champion's seat, after her victory over Matthew yesterday. Richard reveals that Deborah had a special anniversary recently, and asks her to tell us about it. Apparently, a little while ago (from when the show was filmed) Deborah's 20th wedding anniversary was approaching, and her husband sat her down one day and said that he had been saving money -- where in the world would she like to go? They ended up choosing a twenty-day cruise around the Mediterranean.
Tonight's challenger is Shaun Ellis, an online data producer whose goal is to live and work in New York. Richard asks what the attraction of New York is; Shaun responds that he went there on his honeymoon last year for seven fantastic weeks, and when he came back to Australia he missed some of the things he had become used to: a 24-hour chemist a block away, things open all the time, and $5 cabs across town. He can't wait to get back to that kind of living situation. He told his brother, Cameron, about how great it was; Cameron had fewer ties, and just upped and moved to New York in response. Now he posts on Facebook to tell Shaun what he is up to.
The contestants start out with a shared round, then Shaun took the lead in round two. He then extended it in round four to move clear by more than the conundrum. Deborah was not able to make any headway on that until the last letters round, where Shaun went against his instincts by gambling on a British colloquialism. It was not valid, and that opened the door for Deborah. But Shaun slammed it shut again by finding a good solution to the last numbers round, and was safe going into the conundrum. Neither contestant managed to solve it, and Shaun won through, 43 to 27.
As usual, details after the jump.
Tuesday, 31 March 2015
Monday, 30 March 2015
Ep 291: Matthew Magain, Deborah Kemper (March 30, 2015; originally aired October 10, 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've got two new contestants today, since Anthony successfully retired on Friday. First up in the champion's position is Matthew Magain, a web and phone application designer. But in addition to that he has written and published a children's book, called Charlie Weatherburn and the Flying Machine. Matthew says that it is based on an Australian mathematician names Charles Weatherburn, who lived in the early 1900s and was "quite a giant" in the fields of vector analysis and differential geometry; the central character in the book was inspired by him.
And in the challenger's seat we have Deborah Kemper, an accountant who plays indoor soccer. Richard asks why indoor rather than outdoor; Deborah explains that her husband and son were playing it, and decided that it was time to get her involved with some sport. She plays defence when she plays.
Points were shared in the first round, and then Matthew took the lead in round two. He extended it further with an excellent find in round five, but that was the last piece of good news for him. Deborah solved both remaining numbers rounds while he did not, and Matthew misheard a letter in the last letters round to end up with an invalid answer. Neither contestant could solve the conundrum, but even if Matthew could have it would not have been enough. Deborah became the new champion with a scoreline of 43 to 32.
As usual, details after the break.
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've got two new contestants today, since Anthony successfully retired on Friday. First up in the champion's position is Matthew Magain, a web and phone application designer. But in addition to that he has written and published a children's book, called Charlie Weatherburn and the Flying Machine. Matthew says that it is based on an Australian mathematician names Charles Weatherburn, who lived in the early 1900s and was "quite a giant" in the fields of vector analysis and differential geometry; the central character in the book was inspired by him.
And in the challenger's seat we have Deborah Kemper, an accountant who plays indoor soccer. Richard asks why indoor rather than outdoor; Deborah explains that her husband and son were playing it, and decided that it was time to get her involved with some sport. She plays defence when she plays.
Points were shared in the first round, and then Matthew took the lead in round two. He extended it further with an excellent find in round five, but that was the last piece of good news for him. Deborah solved both remaining numbers rounds while he did not, and Matthew misheard a letter in the last letters round to end up with an invalid answer. Neither contestant could solve the conundrum, but even if Matthew could have it would not have been enough. Deborah became the new champion with a scoreline of 43 to 32.
As usual, details after the break.
Sunday, 29 March 2015
Weekly summary: Episodes 286 to 290
It was a week of good scoring for me, with all scores above 70 again. There must be something about Mondays, as it was my least-good day and it feels like that has been a trend recently. The second half of the week went quite well, as I managed a tie with David and Lily on Wednesday and Friday. It is possible that I would have done so on Thursday also, as the only difference was a very difficult numbers round that we did not find Lily's answer for.
Anthony obviously dominated the week, winning every game with a score of fifty or more. He had a particularly close game on Thursday but got through it to become a retiring champion. The limited leaderboard looks like this:
Thursday was the eventful day, with two potential full monties (only one of which was found) and an impossible numbers game due to Michael's choice of the rat pack.
I picked up one more maximum in each category than last week, so that's progress of a sort. I wish I were doing a bit better on the numbers, though. Still, I had two maximal games and one game that was only one round short of maximal, so it's going well enough.
Contestants sorted by average score:
| Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Me | 72 | 66 | 69 | 83 | 78 |
| Champion | 45 | 44 | 38 | 25 | 43 |
| Challenger | 27 | 27 | 25 | 20 | 17 |
| David + Lily | 77 | 76 | 79 | 85 | 78 |
| Me (solo) | 72 | 73 | 79 | 83 | 78 |
Anthony obviously dominated the week, winning every game with a score of fifty or more. He had a particularly close game on Thursday but got through it to become a retiring champion. The limited leaderboard looks like this:
| Anthony Kendall | 57 | 51 | 51 | 63 | 50 | 72 | 344 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brydon Coverdale | 43 | 47 | 56 | 61 | 70 | 52 | 329 |
| Paul Breen | 60 | 36 | 31 | 64 | 53 | 36 | 280 |
| Tina Rose | 72 | 46 | 63 | 57 | 29 | 267 | |
| Martin Gabor | 56 | 58 | 52 | 44 | 220 | ||
| Judithe Hall | 62 | 51 | 43 | 156 | |||
| Emily Hawker | 67 | 53 | 29 | 149 | |||
| Anushan Jegatheeswaran | 50 | 47 | 41 | 138 |
Thursday was the eventful day, with two potential full monties (only one of which was found) and an impossible numbers game due to Michael's choice of the rat pack.
| Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full Monties | 1 | 1 | ||||
| Missed Full Monties | 1 | 1 | ||||
| Tough Numbers | 0 | |||||
| Impossible Numbers | 1 | 1 |
I picked up one more maximum in each category than last week, so that's progress of a sort. I wish I were doing a bit better on the numbers, though. Still, I had two maximal games and one game that was only one round short of maximal, so it's going well enough.
| Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Maximums: L | 3 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 5 |
| N | 2 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 3 |
| C | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Invalid: L | - | - | - | - | - |
| N | - | - | - | - | - |
Contestants sorted by average score:
| Total | Games | Average | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Anthony Kendall | 344 | 6 | 57.33 |
| Martin Gabor | 220 | 4 | 55.00 |
| Brydon Coverdale | 329 | 6 | 54.83 |
| Tina Rose | 267 | 5 | 53.40 |
| Judithe Hall | 156 | 3 | 52.00 |
| Emily Hawker | 149 | 3 | 49.67 |
| Michael Stone | 49 | 1 | 49.00 |
| Niall Donohue | 48 | 1 | 48.00 |
| Billy Browne | 47 | 1 | 47.00 |
| Paul Breen | 280 | 6 | 46.67 |
| Anushan Jegatheeswaran | 138 | 3 | 46.00 |
| Sasha Quilty | 45 | 1 | 45.00 |
| Rebecca Skovron | 89 | 2 | 44.50 |
| Glenn Pile | 43 | 1 | 43.00 |
| Kim Butcher | 31 | 1 | 31.00 |
| Brad Tucker | 41 | 1 | 41.00 |
| Angela Miezis | 80 | 2 | 40.00 |
| Daniel McNamara | 40 | 1 | 40.00 |
| Scott Ingram | 78 | 2 | 39.00 |
| Jodi-Ann Menzies | 77 | 2 | 38.50 |
| Shyam Subramaniam | 72 | 2 | 36.00 |
| Sneha Pereira | 36 | 1 | 36.00 |
| Surya Raviganesh | 36 | 1 | 36.00 |
| Geoff Walker | 71 | 2 | 35.50 |
| Kathryn Bickerton | 34 | 1 | 34.00 |
| Miles Tilly | 33 | 1 | 33.00 |
| Samantha McLaine | 65 | 2 | 32.50 |
| Cathy Bickerton | 32 | 1 | 32.00 |
| Ajanthan Jegatheeswaran | 32 | 1 | 32.00 |
| Kim Butcher | 31 | 1 | 31.00 |
| David Lowden | 31 | 1 | 31.00 |
| Emma Watson | 31 | 1 | 31.00 |
| Karen Barber | 30 | 1 | 30.00 |
| Johanna Riley | 30 | 1 | 30.00 |
| Cormac Murtagh | 58 | 2 | 29.00 |
| Jonathan Prout | 29 | 1 | 29.00 |
| Matthew Matten | 28 | 1 | 28.00 |
| Michael Lithgow | 27 | 1 | 27.00 |
| Barry Cook | 26 | 1 | 26.00 |
| Tim Hoffman | 26 | 1 | 26.00 |
| Cameron Begley | 51 | 2 | 25.50 |
| Denver Quadros | 16 | 1 | 16.00 |
Friday, 27 March 2015
Ep 290: Anthony Kendall, Jonathan Prout (March 27, 2015; originally aired October 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.
Anthony returns for his last night until the finals. Richard goes with a variation of the technique question, asking whether any of Anthony's training techniques for the half-marathons have helped him develop the mental stamina that has been on display here. The answer, more-or-less, is that there is no connection.
Standing in the way of Anthony's successful retirement is Jonathan Prout, a mathematics and science teacher who also conducts historical walking tours of Melbourne. Richard rather bizarrely says that we'll probably get to hear about those walking tours at some stage, which would only be true if Jonathan wins. In any case, Richard takes tonight's chat in another direction by noting that Jonathan is a big karaoke fan. Jonathan enthuses that he loves karaoke; a couple of years ago he was on a cruise and entered a karaoke competition that they held. He made the top five and had to sing in front of 650 passengers. His competition was an NFL anthem singer, a Russian opera singer, a Canadian jazz singer, and an Albury music teacher. As Richard observes, that's some tough competition! Jonathan is a little embarrassed to reveal that the song he sang was I'm Just a Gigolo.
The contestants shared points in the first two rounds, but then it was all Anthony. He took unanswered points in the next four rounds, and his last six rounds were all maximal. Jonathan recovered a little late in the piece to share the last two main rounds, and was only just a little slower at the conundrum, but the result was Anthony's best game so far and a 72 to 29 victory. Anthony successfully retired, and will be back in a week or so for the finals.
As usual, details after the jump.
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.
Anthony returns for his last night until the finals. Richard goes with a variation of the technique question, asking whether any of Anthony's training techniques for the half-marathons have helped him develop the mental stamina that has been on display here. The answer, more-or-less, is that there is no connection.
Standing in the way of Anthony's successful retirement is Jonathan Prout, a mathematics and science teacher who also conducts historical walking tours of Melbourne. Richard rather bizarrely says that we'll probably get to hear about those walking tours at some stage, which would only be true if Jonathan wins. In any case, Richard takes tonight's chat in another direction by noting that Jonathan is a big karaoke fan. Jonathan enthuses that he loves karaoke; a couple of years ago he was on a cruise and entered a karaoke competition that they held. He made the top five and had to sing in front of 650 passengers. His competition was an NFL anthem singer, a Russian opera singer, a Canadian jazz singer, and an Albury music teacher. As Richard observes, that's some tough competition! Jonathan is a little embarrassed to reveal that the song he sang was I'm Just a Gigolo.
The contestants shared points in the first two rounds, but then it was all Anthony. He took unanswered points in the next four rounds, and his last six rounds were all maximal. Jonathan recovered a little late in the piece to share the last two main rounds, and was only just a little slower at the conundrum, but the result was Anthony's best game so far and a 72 to 29 victory. Anthony successfully retired, and will be back in a week or so for the finals.
As usual, details after the jump.
Thursday, 26 March 2015
Ep 289: Anthony Kendall, Michael Stone (March 26, 2015; originally aired October 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.
This is Anthony's fifth night, and Richard wheels out a variant of the technique question, asking why Anthony makes the choices that he does. Anthony says that with the letters he just likes to keep the consonants and the vowels together. As for the numbers, he goes for the classroom mix because he finds it easier to have it dictated which large number will be used. That's a point that often eludes contestants: The easiest mix, in terms of most games being solvable, is the two-large one. But the single large number option is only barely behind it (each mix has approximately 98% of games solvable), and can be easier to work with since there is no need to choose which large number to work with. I'd certainly recommend it as the option for any contestants who were not too comfortable with the numbers (if the show were still going, anyway).
Tonight's challenger is Michael Stone, a software programmer. Richard says that Michael has the "extraordinary" talent of being able to recite the decimal version of one-seventh to as many decimal places as one wishes. I thought he was going to say "of pi", and the switch to one-seventh took me by surprise. It's also a joke, as the decimal expansion repeats after only six digits (0.142857142857...) so there's very little memorisation required. Well, that's a tiny bit amusing, but is that really the most interesting thing he could come up with? A shame, if so.
Anthony got a small lead in the first round when Michael tried an invalid answer; that proved to be a costly mistake. The next few rounds were shared, then the tables were reversed in round five as Anthony had the invalid answer; that tied up the scores. Another shared round followed, and we went into the second break with the scores level. Michael stumbled in the last letters round with another invalid answer, and Anthony capitalised on Michael's error by doing very well in the last numbers round to take the points and guarantee his victory. Michael got the consolation prize of solving the conundrum, but Anthony scraped home with the win, 50 to 49.
As usual, details after the jump.
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 Anthony's fifth night, and Richard wheels out a variant of the technique question, asking why Anthony makes the choices that he does. Anthony says that with the letters he just likes to keep the consonants and the vowels together. As for the numbers, he goes for the classroom mix because he finds it easier to have it dictated which large number will be used. That's a point that often eludes contestants: The easiest mix, in terms of most games being solvable, is the two-large one. But the single large number option is only barely behind it (each mix has approximately 98% of games solvable), and can be easier to work with since there is no need to choose which large number to work with. I'd certainly recommend it as the option for any contestants who were not too comfortable with the numbers (if the show were still going, anyway).
Tonight's challenger is Michael Stone, a software programmer. Richard says that Michael has the "extraordinary" talent of being able to recite the decimal version of one-seventh to as many decimal places as one wishes. I thought he was going to say "of pi", and the switch to one-seventh took me by surprise. It's also a joke, as the decimal expansion repeats after only six digits (0.142857142857...) so there's very little memorisation required. Well, that's a tiny bit amusing, but is that really the most interesting thing he could come up with? A shame, if so.
Anthony got a small lead in the first round when Michael tried an invalid answer; that proved to be a costly mistake. The next few rounds were shared, then the tables were reversed in round five as Anthony had the invalid answer; that tied up the scores. Another shared round followed, and we went into the second break with the scores level. Michael stumbled in the last letters round with another invalid answer, and Anthony capitalised on Michael's error by doing very well in the last numbers round to take the points and guarantee his victory. Michael got the consolation prize of solving the conundrum, but Anthony scraped home with the win, 50 to 49.
As usual, details after the jump.
Wednesday, 25 March 2015
Ep 288: Anthony Kendall, David Lowden (March 25, 2015; originally aired October 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.
This is the crucial fourth night for Anthony: A win here will very likely get him to the finals, particularly if he can keep his average up. But first, Richard lets us know that Anthony used to be very competitive in rugby, and asks if he still plays it. Anthony responds that he had to give up rugby some time ago; he grimaces as he says it was due to too many knee injuries. As Richard observes, they've obviously been fixed if Anthony is doing all that running! In fact, as Anthony explains, it was the reason he got into running in the first place. Part of going through his many knee reconstructions (I wince at the thought) meant that he had to run to get back to fitness in order to be able to play sport. Somewhere along the way he became enthused by the running itself and turned that into his sport of choice.
Tonight's challenge is David Lowden, a police officer who has proudly completed a couple of marathons. That is two full marathons, as he points out, but since then he has cut back and now does half-marathons, just like Anthony. He jokingly suggests that if the scores are tied at the end they should do a lap around the block to settle it.
David found an excellent word to take the initial lead, but then fell victim to a misheard (or mis-seen) letter and had an invalid answer in the second round. A couple of shared rounds followed, but Anthony took the lead in round five and extended it in round six. David was more than a conundrum's worth behind going into the final numbers round, so he tried to shake things up with a rat pack. But Anthony navigated it better to be safe going into the conundrum. He put the finishing touch on the victory with a fast solution to the conundrum, and the 63 to 31 victory gets him to his fifth game and likely into the finals.
In the rest of this write-up, I'll use "David" to refer to David Astel, and "David L" to refer to David Lowden.
As usual, details after the jump.
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 the crucial fourth night for Anthony: A win here will very likely get him to the finals, particularly if he can keep his average up. But first, Richard lets us know that Anthony used to be very competitive in rugby, and asks if he still plays it. Anthony responds that he had to give up rugby some time ago; he grimaces as he says it was due to too many knee injuries. As Richard observes, they've obviously been fixed if Anthony is doing all that running! In fact, as Anthony explains, it was the reason he got into running in the first place. Part of going through his many knee reconstructions (I wince at the thought) meant that he had to run to get back to fitness in order to be able to play sport. Somewhere along the way he became enthused by the running itself and turned that into his sport of choice.
Tonight's challenge is David Lowden, a police officer who has proudly completed a couple of marathons. That is two full marathons, as he points out, but since then he has cut back and now does half-marathons, just like Anthony. He jokingly suggests that if the scores are tied at the end they should do a lap around the block to settle it.
David found an excellent word to take the initial lead, but then fell victim to a misheard (or mis-seen) letter and had an invalid answer in the second round. A couple of shared rounds followed, but Anthony took the lead in round five and extended it in round six. David was more than a conundrum's worth behind going into the final numbers round, so he tried to shake things up with a rat pack. But Anthony navigated it better to be safe going into the conundrum. He put the finishing touch on the victory with a fast solution to the conundrum, and the 63 to 31 victory gets him to his fifth game and likely into the finals.
In the rest of this write-up, I'll use "David" to refer to David Astel, and "David L" to refer to David Lowden.
As usual, details after the jump.
Tuesday, 24 March 2015
Ep 287: Anthony Kendall, Cathy Peck (March 24, 2015; originally aired October 4, 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.
It's Anthony's third game tonight, and Richard returns to the topic of Anthony's running; as we heard before, Anthony will be running his 20th half-marathon this weekend. Richard asks how many full marathons Anthony has run, and it turns out that there was only one, a couple of years ago. There is reference to a joking comment that David made in an earlier game -- that Anthony could save time by doing ten full marathons instead of twenty half-marathons -- and Anthony points out that it does not work like that.
Tonight's challenger is Cathy Peck, a retired school teacher. This is not the first time that Cathy has been on television: Fifty years ago, she was on a show called Desmond Tester's Cabbage Quiz; as she explains it, if you got an answer correct then you got prizes. However, you had to stand and hold the prizes in your hand. If you dropped a prize, then you were given a cabbage in its place. And it was very difficult holding cabbages and prizes.
Anthony took the first letters round, but his invalid answer in round two let Cathy almost catch up. The points were shared in the first numbers round, but Anthony outscored Cathy in the next two letters rounds and it looked like he might run away with the match. Again the points were shared in the numbers round, and then Cathy found the best option in the last letters round to claw her way back into contention. Unfortunately, she made a simple error when writing her numbers answer in the last numbers round, and what should have been shared points again (and a chance for her to win if she solved the conundrum) turned into disaster. Neither contestant could solve the conundrum, and Anthony registered his third win, 51 to 32.
As usual, details after the jump.
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.
It's Anthony's third game tonight, and Richard returns to the topic of Anthony's running; as we heard before, Anthony will be running his 20th half-marathon this weekend. Richard asks how many full marathons Anthony has run, and it turns out that there was only one, a couple of years ago. There is reference to a joking comment that David made in an earlier game -- that Anthony could save time by doing ten full marathons instead of twenty half-marathons -- and Anthony points out that it does not work like that.
Tonight's challenger is Cathy Peck, a retired school teacher. This is not the first time that Cathy has been on television: Fifty years ago, she was on a show called Desmond Tester's Cabbage Quiz; as she explains it, if you got an answer correct then you got prizes. However, you had to stand and hold the prizes in your hand. If you dropped a prize, then you were given a cabbage in its place. And it was very difficult holding cabbages and prizes.
Anthony took the first letters round, but his invalid answer in round two let Cathy almost catch up. The points were shared in the first numbers round, but Anthony outscored Cathy in the next two letters rounds and it looked like he might run away with the match. Again the points were shared in the numbers round, and then Cathy found the best option in the last letters round to claw her way back into contention. Unfortunately, she made a simple error when writing her numbers answer in the last numbers round, and what should have been shared points again (and a chance for her to win if she solved the conundrum) turned into disaster. Neither contestant could solve the conundrum, and Anthony registered his third win, 51 to 32.
As usual, details after the jump.
Monday, 23 March 2015
Ep 286: Anthony Kendall, Glenn Pile (March 23, 2015; originally aired October 3, 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.
Anthony gets his turn in the champion's seat tonight. As mentioned before, Anthony is a keen long-distance runner, and Richard asks what sort of distance Anthony likes to run. Anthony responds that he mainly does half marathons, and he expects to be doing his twentieth this weekend.
Tonight's challenger is Glenn Pile, an operations manager who has completed over 600 parachute jumps. That seems like a goodly number! Richard suggests that it is quite a few jumps; Glenn says that there are many thousand-jumpers in the field, but six hundred is "reasonable". Glenn used to jump competitively, and managed to get to the national level, coming runner-up in the national competition. That was all pre-children, though -- he does not jump any more.
Anthony won the first two letter rounds, but Glenn took the first numbers round to close the gap. Then Anthony drew away again in the next numbers round to be a dangerous eleven points clear at the halfway mark. The next three rounds were shared, so Glenn needed unanswered points in the last numbers round to have a chance. But it went Anthony's way instead and ensured Anthony's victory. Glenn took the consolation prize of solving the conundrum, but the win was Anthony's, 51 to 43.
As usual, details after the jump.
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.
Anthony gets his turn in the champion's seat tonight. As mentioned before, Anthony is a keen long-distance runner, and Richard asks what sort of distance Anthony likes to run. Anthony responds that he mainly does half marathons, and he expects to be doing his twentieth this weekend.
Tonight's challenger is Glenn Pile, an operations manager who has completed over 600 parachute jumps. That seems like a goodly number! Richard suggests that it is quite a few jumps; Glenn says that there are many thousand-jumpers in the field, but six hundred is "reasonable". Glenn used to jump competitively, and managed to get to the national level, coming runner-up in the national competition. That was all pre-children, though -- he does not jump any more.
Anthony won the first two letter rounds, but Glenn took the first numbers round to close the gap. Then Anthony drew away again in the next numbers round to be a dangerous eleven points clear at the halfway mark. The next three rounds were shared, so Glenn needed unanswered points in the last numbers round to have a chance. But it went Anthony's way instead and ensured Anthony's victory. Glenn took the consolation prize of solving the conundrum, but the win was Anthony's, 51 to 43.
As usual, details after the jump.
Weekly summary: Episodes 281 to 285
Starting off the week with a few monties kept my scores high; a poor set of numbers results meant that Wednesday's results were not quite as good as they could have been. I once again finished the week on a strong note, as it was only my overreach for another full monty that stopped me tying with David and Lily.
Tina had a good run in the early part of the week, but finally went down to Samantha on Thursday. Tina's scoring was erratic -- spread moderately evenly between 29 and 72 -- but she got to the important fifth game and maintained a good average. Samantha was defeated by Anthony on Friday, so once again Friday produces a turnover. The limited leaderboard looks like this:
There was a full monty available on each of the first three days of the week, but that was it as far as interesting features went. David's hopes were briefly raised, only to be dashed on Thursday.
I had a very good week with the letters maximums, and it would have been even better if I had not tried for the full monty on Friday The numbers results in the middle of the week were a little disappointing, however. I did manage to get four of the five conundrums, though, so that's a pleasing outcome.
Contestants sorted by average score:
| Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Me | 88 | 78 | 79 | 63 | 70 |
| Champion | 16 | 20 | 28 | 10 | 14 |
| Challenger | 10 | 0 | 12 | 7 | 35 |
| David + Lily | 89 | 88 | 86 | 76 | 78 |
| Me (solo) | 88 | 85 | 79 | 63 | 70 |
Tina had a good run in the early part of the week, but finally went down to Samantha on Thursday. Tina's scoring was erratic -- spread moderately evenly between 29 and 72 -- but she got to the important fifth game and maintained a good average. Samantha was defeated by Anthony on Friday, so once again Friday produces a turnover. The limited leaderboard looks like this:
| Brydon Coverdale | 43 | 47 | 56 | 61 | 70 | 52 | 329 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Paul Breen | 60 | 36 | 31 | 64 | 53 | 36 | 280 |
| Tina Rose | 72 | 46 | 63 | 57 | 29 | 267 | |
| Martin Gabor | 56 | 58 | 52 | 44 | 220 | ||
| Judithe Hall | 62 | 51 | 43 | 156 | |||
| Emily Hawker | 67 | 53 | 29 | 149 | |||
| Anushan Jegatheeswaran | 50 | 47 | 41 | 138 | |||
| Rachel Furness | 35 | 54 | 40 | 129 |
There was a full monty available on each of the first three days of the week, but that was it as far as interesting features went. David's hopes were briefly raised, only to be dashed on Thursday.
| Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full Monties | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | ||
| Missed Full Monties | 0 | |||||
| Tough Numbers | 0 | |||||
| Impossible Numbers | 0 |
I had a very good week with the letters maximums, and it would have been even better if I had not tried for the full monty on Friday The numbers results in the middle of the week were a little disappointing, however. I did manage to get four of the five conundrums, though, so that's a pleasing outcome.
| Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Maximums: L | 4 | 5 | 4 | 5 | 3 |
| N | 3 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 3 |
| C | 1 | 1 | 1 | - | 1 |
| Invalid: L | - | - | - | - | 1 |
| N | - | - | - | - | - |
Contestants sorted by average score:
| Total | Games | Average | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Anthony Kendall* | 57 | 1 | 57.00 |
| Martin Gabor | 220 | 4 | 55.00 |
| Brydon Coverdale | 329 | 6 | 54.83 |
| Tina Rose | 267 | 5 | 53.40 |
| Judithe Hall | 156 | 3 | 52.00 |
| Emily Hawker | 149 | 3 | 49.67 |
| Niall Donohue | 48 | 1 | 48.00 |
| Billy Browne | 47 | 1 | 47.00 |
| Paul Breen | 280 | 6 | 46.67 |
| Anushan Jegatheeswaran | 138 | 3 | 46.00 |
| Sasha Quilty | 45 | 1 | 45.00 |
| Rebecca Skovron | 89 | 2 | 44.50 |
| Rachel Furness | 129 | 3 | 43.00 |
| Brad Tucker | 41 | 1 | 41.00 |
| Angela Miezis | 80 | 2 | 40.00 |
| Daniel McNamara | 40 | 1 | 40.00 |
| Scott Ingram | 78 | 2 | 39.00 |
| Jodi-Ann Menzies | 77 | 2 | 38.50 |
| Shyam Subramaniam | 72 | 2 | 36.00 |
| Sneha Pereira | 36 | 1 | 36.00 |
| Surya Raviganesh | 36 | 1 | 36.00 |
| Geoff Walker | 71 | 2 | 35.50 |
| Kathryn Bickerton | 34 | 1 | 34.00 |
| Miles Tilly | 33 | 1 | 33.00 |
| Samantha McLaine | 65 | 2 | 32.50 |
| Ajanthan Jegatheeswaran | 32 | 1 | 32.00 |
| Kim Butcher | 31 | 1 | 31.00 |
| Emma Watson | 31 | 1 | 31.00 |
| Karen Barber | 30 | 1 | 30.00 |
| Johanna Riley | 30 | 1 | 30.00 |
| Cormac Murtagh | 58 | 2 | 29.00 |
| Matthew Matten | 28 | 1 | 28.00 |
| Michael Lithgow | 27 | 1 | 27.00 |
| Barry Cook | 26 | 1 | 26.00 |
| Tim Hoffman | 26 | 1 | 26.00 |
| Cameron Begley | 51 | 2 | 25.50 |
| Denver Quadros | 16 | 1 | 16.00 |
Friday, 20 March 2015
Ep 285: Samantha McLaine, Anthony Kendall (March 20, 2015; originally aired September 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.
Samantha takes her turn in the champion's seat tonight, and Richard reminds us that she is a commerce, property, and construction student. Richard tries to get her to explain what is involved in that combination, but Samantha does not really grab the opportunity. She says that there are finance components, and a lot of property investment and valuation parts as well. Richard follows up by asking where Samantha thinks it will take her in professional terms; Samantha responds that hopefully it will be a combination of the two, maybe in property investments or development.
Tonight's challenger is Anthony Kendall, a software developer and keen long-distance runner. Like many of the software people who have been on the show (myself included), Anthony wrote a computer program to generate random rounds of the show for him to practise against. Hopefully it will serve him well tonight.
The contestants started with a shared round, but then Anthony leapt clear by winning the next three rounds. Samantha got a little back in round five, but that was the last positive result for her. Her troubles were compounded by not being able to get anywhere in the numbers rounds, and Anthony was safe going into the conundrum. He solved it quite quickly, and finished the victor with a solid 57 to 20 scoreline.
I tried for too much in the first round, but I had to chance it. Some consolation was gained in the second round where I outdid David, and if I had played it more safely in the first round I would have ended up tying with David and Lily. A good game overall, but an invalid result always hurts the solo total.
As usual, details after the jump.
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.
Samantha takes her turn in the champion's seat tonight, and Richard reminds us that she is a commerce, property, and construction student. Richard tries to get her to explain what is involved in that combination, but Samantha does not really grab the opportunity. She says that there are finance components, and a lot of property investment and valuation parts as well. Richard follows up by asking where Samantha thinks it will take her in professional terms; Samantha responds that hopefully it will be a combination of the two, maybe in property investments or development.
Tonight's challenger is Anthony Kendall, a software developer and keen long-distance runner. Like many of the software people who have been on the show (myself included), Anthony wrote a computer program to generate random rounds of the show for him to practise against. Hopefully it will serve him well tonight.
The contestants started with a shared round, but then Anthony leapt clear by winning the next three rounds. Samantha got a little back in round five, but that was the last positive result for her. Her troubles were compounded by not being able to get anywhere in the numbers rounds, and Anthony was safe going into the conundrum. He solved it quite quickly, and finished the victor with a solid 57 to 20 scoreline.
I tried for too much in the first round, but I had to chance it. Some consolation was gained in the second round where I outdid David, and if I had played it more safely in the first round I would have ended up tying with David and Lily. A good game overall, but an invalid result always hurts the solo total.
As usual, details after the jump.
Thursday, 19 March 2015
Ep 284: Tina Rose, Samantha McLaine (March 19, 2015; originally aired September 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.
It's Tina's fifth night, and Richard wheels out the technique question. Sigh. Tina says that as a child in Denmark they were encouraged to do numbers in their heads, and so that is something that is probably helping her here.
Tonight's challenger is Samantha McLaine, a commerce, property, and construction student who loves live music. In fact, she has been to see 365 live bands perform, by her reckoning. Richard asks what it is about live music that appeals to her; Samantha tries to explain it, but it doesn't come across to well. It seems to be a combination of the physical immediacy and the uniqueness of the experience.
Samantha gained a small lead in the second round when she found a nice word, but Tina took the lead right back in the first numbers round. A couple of shared letters rounds followed, and then Tina's form on the numbers seemed to dessert her. Samantha closed out the game with two decent results on the numbers, and an excellent word in round 7. She was safe going into the conundrum; neither was able to solve it, so the scoreline remained 45 to 29 in Samantha's favour.
As usual, details after the jump.
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.
It's Tina's fifth night, and Richard wheels out the technique question. Sigh. Tina says that as a child in Denmark they were encouraged to do numbers in their heads, and so that is something that is probably helping her here.
Tonight's challenger is Samantha McLaine, a commerce, property, and construction student who loves live music. In fact, she has been to see 365 live bands perform, by her reckoning. Richard asks what it is about live music that appeals to her; Samantha tries to explain it, but it doesn't come across to well. It seems to be a combination of the physical immediacy and the uniqueness of the experience.
Samantha gained a small lead in the second round when she found a nice word, but Tina took the lead right back in the first numbers round. A couple of shared letters rounds followed, and then Tina's form on the numbers seemed to dessert her. Samantha closed out the game with two decent results on the numbers, and an excellent word in round 7. She was safe going into the conundrum; neither was able to solve it, so the scoreline remained 45 to 29 in Samantha's favour.
As usual, details after the jump.
Wednesday, 18 March 2015
Ep 283: Tina Rose, Tim Hoffman (March 18, 2015; originally aired September 28, 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 Tina's fourth night, and a win here gives her an excellent chance of making the finals. Richard reveals that Tina came to Australia as a child from Denmark, and apparently had some troubles with the language. Tina expands on that: Her family came over on a boat, and they were taught English during the trip. But she found that when she went to school -- she was eleven at the time -- she was given a lot of grief about her accent. Tina's response was a determination to learn the language, get rid of her accent, and learn to spell. Now, when she does visit Denmark, people laugh at her because she speaks Danish with an Australian accent.
Facing off against Tina is Tim Hoffman, a freight and logistics consultant. Apparently, many years ago when they all lived in Sydney, David was flatmates with some of Tim's friends and so Tim got to know him briefly. He adds that he has sampled David's cooking. Richard asks if Tim can remember what David cooked, and Tim responds that he does not know what it was called; he is interrupted by laughter at that point, and Richard calls it "the closest thing to a non-compliment [he has] come across in a while". Tim continues by saying that he would describe it as a type of proto-puttanesca, and it was the first time he had ever seen a caper. He was impressed that it was garnished, however: "a very, very well-positioned piece of parsley". It's not quite clear how much of that was straight, and how much was deadpan ribbing of David; there is merriment, anyway.
Tim got the early lead when Tina used a letter twice in the first round, and three matched rounds followed. Then Tina ran away with the game, scoring unanswered points in all of the remaining rounds, including the conundrum, to finish with a decisive victory, 57 points to 26.
As usual, details after the jump.
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 Tina's fourth night, and a win here gives her an excellent chance of making the finals. Richard reveals that Tina came to Australia as a child from Denmark, and apparently had some troubles with the language. Tina expands on that: Her family came over on a boat, and they were taught English during the trip. But she found that when she went to school -- she was eleven at the time -- she was given a lot of grief about her accent. Tina's response was a determination to learn the language, get rid of her accent, and learn to spell. Now, when she does visit Denmark, people laugh at her because she speaks Danish with an Australian accent.
Facing off against Tina is Tim Hoffman, a freight and logistics consultant. Apparently, many years ago when they all lived in Sydney, David was flatmates with some of Tim's friends and so Tim got to know him briefly. He adds that he has sampled David's cooking. Richard asks if Tim can remember what David cooked, and Tim responds that he does not know what it was called; he is interrupted by laughter at that point, and Richard calls it "the closest thing to a non-compliment [he has] come across in a while". Tim continues by saying that he would describe it as a type of proto-puttanesca, and it was the first time he had ever seen a caper. He was impressed that it was garnished, however: "a very, very well-positioned piece of parsley". It's not quite clear how much of that was straight, and how much was deadpan ribbing of David; there is merriment, anyway.
Tim got the early lead when Tina used a letter twice in the first round, and three matched rounds followed. Then Tina ran away with the game, scoring unanswered points in all of the remaining rounds, including the conundrum, to finish with a decisive victory, 57 points to 26.
As usual, details after the jump.
Tuesday, 17 March 2015
Ep 282: Tina Rose, Kathryn Bickerton (March 17, 2015; originally aired September 27, 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.
Tina is back for her third night, and Richard asks whether she practises art as well as teaching it. Tina regrets that she does not at the moment -- she is working, and studying, and the inference is that it is taking up all her time. However, if she did have the time, Tina would do sculpting. She says that she works primarily with clay; also mixed media and found objects and such, but clay is her passion.
Tonight's challenger is Kathryn Bickerton, a former mathematics teacher, who is currently studying for her diploma of divinity. Richard asks what Kathryn what she will do with that diploma, and Kathryn responds that she would like to help out teaching scripture in her children's local primary school. She adds that she has done high school teaching, but now that she has kids in primary school she thought that she needed retraining for that age bracket.
The contestants were essentially evenly matched in the letters rounds today, with only round two producing a small advantage to Tina. Tina erred in the first numbers round, with her invalid answer allowing Kathryn to overtake her. But the other two numbers rounds were all Tina's, as she solved them both while Kathryn was unable to. Tina took an unbeatable lead going into the conundrum, and continued her good form on those to solve it for a final scoreline of 63 to 34.
As usual, details after the jump.
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.
Tina is back for her third night, and Richard asks whether she practises art as well as teaching it. Tina regrets that she does not at the moment -- she is working, and studying, and the inference is that it is taking up all her time. However, if she did have the time, Tina would do sculpting. She says that she works primarily with clay; also mixed media and found objects and such, but clay is her passion.
Tonight's challenger is Kathryn Bickerton, a former mathematics teacher, who is currently studying for her diploma of divinity. Richard asks what Kathryn what she will do with that diploma, and Kathryn responds that she would like to help out teaching scripture in her children's local primary school. She adds that she has done high school teaching, but now that she has kids in primary school she thought that she needed retraining for that age bracket.
The contestants were essentially evenly matched in the letters rounds today, with only round two producing a small advantage to Tina. Tina erred in the first numbers round, with her invalid answer allowing Kathryn to overtake her. But the other two numbers rounds were all Tina's, as she solved them both while Kathryn was unable to. Tina took an unbeatable lead going into the conundrum, and continued her good form on those to solve it for a final scoreline of 63 to 34.
As usual, details after the jump.
Monday, 16 March 2015
Ep 281: Tina Rose, Surya Raviganesh (March 16, 2015; originally aired September 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.
Tina takes her turn in the champion's seat to start off the week, and if Friday's game was representative then we would expect to see her for a while. Richard informs us that one of her talents is billiards, and Tina says that she has been playing for around ten years. Tina says that billiards is a challenge because it is counterintuitive -- whereas in pool or snooker you use the cue ball to sink the other ball, in billiards you're actually going in-off; she says that this means that you have to think about where your cue ball is going more than where the ball you're hitting is going.
(Nitpicking from me: In pool and snooker you also have to plan where your cue ball is going to end up, or you won't have a good next shot. It's a key part of the game, but one that is easy to overlook until you get reasonably competent. That said, billiards demands a more precise control of the positions of every ball because you emphatically do not want to sink the opponent's cue ball, and generally should aim to score points by canons rather than sinking.)
Tonight's challenger is Surya Raviganesh, who has just graduated with a master's degree in finance. Richard notes that Surya was working in the literacy field when he was in India. Surya explains that there is a charity called EVF (the Ekal Vidyalaya Foundation) which aims to eradicate illiteracy in tribal areas of India. Richard has it slightly wrong: Surya was actually working here and supporting the organisation, which was done by holding charity events -- such as a trivia night and a cultural dance night -- with the proceeds being giving to the EVF to help them build schools.
Tina took the early lead with a classic eight, but Surya did well in the first numbers round to close the gap to a point. Then Tina scooted away with two better words, and a shared numbers round meant she was ahead by sixteen at the second break. Against the run of play, Surya found a better word than her in the last letters round (an unpleasant mix, admittedly), and capitalised on that by solving the last numbers round to tie up the scores going into the conundrum. It was anyone's to win, but Tina solved the conundrum and so survived the challenge, winning 46 to 36.
I was too slow to see the best option in round two, but otherwise had a maximal game. I rounded it out with a fast conundrum solution, in what was a good game overall.
As usual, details after the jump.
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.
Tina takes her turn in the champion's seat to start off the week, and if Friday's game was representative then we would expect to see her for a while. Richard informs us that one of her talents is billiards, and Tina says that she has been playing for around ten years. Tina says that billiards is a challenge because it is counterintuitive -- whereas in pool or snooker you use the cue ball to sink the other ball, in billiards you're actually going in-off; she says that this means that you have to think about where your cue ball is going more than where the ball you're hitting is going.
(Nitpicking from me: In pool and snooker you also have to plan where your cue ball is going to end up, or you won't have a good next shot. It's a key part of the game, but one that is easy to overlook until you get reasonably competent. That said, billiards demands a more precise control of the positions of every ball because you emphatically do not want to sink the opponent's cue ball, and generally should aim to score points by canons rather than sinking.)
Tonight's challenger is Surya Raviganesh, who has just graduated with a master's degree in finance. Richard notes that Surya was working in the literacy field when he was in India. Surya explains that there is a charity called EVF (the Ekal Vidyalaya Foundation) which aims to eradicate illiteracy in tribal areas of India. Richard has it slightly wrong: Surya was actually working here and supporting the organisation, which was done by holding charity events -- such as a trivia night and a cultural dance night -- with the proceeds being giving to the EVF to help them build schools.
Tina took the early lead with a classic eight, but Surya did well in the first numbers round to close the gap to a point. Then Tina scooted away with two better words, and a shared numbers round meant she was ahead by sixteen at the second break. Against the run of play, Surya found a better word than her in the last letters round (an unpleasant mix, admittedly), and capitalised on that by solving the last numbers round to tie up the scores going into the conundrum. It was anyone's to win, but Tina solved the conundrum and so survived the challenge, winning 46 to 36.
I was too slow to see the best option in round two, but otherwise had a maximal game. I rounded it out with a fast conundrum solution, in what was a good game overall.
As usual, details after the jump.
Weekly summary: Episodes 276 to 280
I started the week with a solid enough game, and was fortunately not made to pay for missing several maximums in the letters rounds. The next three days I managed to tie David and Lily, and that may possibly be a record for me. Wednesday's result was a little flawed, as one numbers round was further away than Lily's result; they both scored seven points, however. I finished the week with an unsettled game, and needed to solve the conundrum quickly to avoid a loss to Tina. Fortunately I did so, and ended up with all solo scores above 70; definitely an above-average week for me.
Paul continued to have a series of close games, but got all the way to his sixth game before his luck ran out. Scott defeated him on Thursday, and was in turn defeated by Tina to close out the week. Tina's first game score was an impressively high 72 points. The limited leaderboard looks like this:
It was a parsimonious week, with just one full monty being on offer; David found it. That same game produced the first impossible numbers target for a while, too.
I had a symmetrical week as far as the maximums went, with many missed opportunities on Monday and Friday. The middle three days saw me drop one maximum on each day. I did get all the conundrums, which was nice.
Contestants sorted by average score:
| Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Me | 68 | 77 | 83 | 78 | 66 |
| Champion | 24 | 10 | 10 | 17 | 19 |
| Challenger | 14 | 10 | 0 | 17 | 49 |
| David + Lily | 77 | 77 | 83 | 78 | 76 |
| Me (solo) | 74 | 77 | 83 | 78 | 73 |
Paul continued to have a series of close games, but got all the way to his sixth game before his luck ran out. Scott defeated him on Thursday, and was in turn defeated by Tina to close out the week. Tina's first game score was an impressively high 72 points. The limited leaderboard looks like this:
| Brydon Coverdale | 43 | 47 | 56 | 61 | 70 | 52 | 329 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Paul Breen | 60 | 36 | 31 | 64 | 53 | 36 | 280 |
| Martin Gabor | 56 | 58 | 52 | 44 | 220 | ||
| Judithe Hall | 62 | 51 | 43 | 156 | |||
| Emily Hawker | 67 | 53 | 29 | 149 | |||
| Anushan Jegatheeswaran | 50 | 47 | 41 | 138 | |||
| Rachel Furness | 35 | 54 | 40 | 129 | |||
| Rebecca Skovron | 53 | 36 | 89 |
It was a parsimonious week, with just one full monty being on offer; David found it. That same game produced the first impossible numbers target for a while, too.
| Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full Monties | 1 | 1 | ||||
| Missed Full Monties | 0 | |||||
| Tough Numbers | 0 | |||||
| Impossible Numbers | 1 | 1 |
I had a symmetrical week as far as the maximums went, with many missed opportunities on Monday and Friday. The middle three days saw me drop one maximum on each day. I did get all the conundrums, which was nice.
| Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Maximums: L | 1 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 1 |
| N | 3 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 3 |
| C | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Invalid: L | - | - | - | - | - |
| N | - | - | - | - | - |
Contestants sorted by average score:
| Total | Games | Average | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tina Rose* | 72 | 1 | 72.00 |
| Martin Gabor | 220 | 4 | 55.00 |
| Brydon Coverdale | 329 | 6 | 54.83 |
| Judithe Hall | 156 | 3 | 52.00 |
| Emily Hawker | 149 | 3 | 49.67 |
| Niall Donohue | 48 | 1 | 48.00 |
| Billy Browne | 47 | 1 | 47.00 |
| Paul Breen | 280 | 6 | 46.67 |
| Anushan Jegatheeswaran | 138 | 3 | 46.00 |
| Sasha Quilty | 45 | 1 | 45.00 |
| Rebecca Skovron | 89 | 2 | 44.50 |
| Rachel Furness | 129 | 3 | 43.00 |
| Brad Tucker | 41 | 1 | 41.00 |
| Angela Miezis | 80 | 2 | 40.00 |
| Daniel McNamara | 40 | 1 | 40.00 |
| Scott Ingram | 78 | 2 | 39.00 |
| Jodi-Ann Menzies | 77 | 2 | 38.50 |
| Shyam Subramaniam | 72 | 2 | 36.00 |
| Sneha Pereira | 36 | 1 | 36.00 |
| Geoff Walker | 71 | 2 | 35.50 |
| Miles Tilly | 33 | 1 | 33.00 |
| Ajanthan Jegatheeswaran | 32 | 1 | 32.00 |
| Kim Butcher | 31 | 1 | 31.00 |
| Emma Watson | 31 | 1 | 31.00 |
| Karen Barber | 30 | 1 | 30.00 |
| Johanna Riley | 30 | 1 | 30.00 |
| Cormac Murtagh | 58 | 2 | 29.00 |
| Matthew Matten | 28 | 1 | 28.00 |
| Michael Lithgow | 27 | 1 | 27.00 |
| Barry Cook | 26 | 1 | 26.00 |
| Cameron Begley | 51 | 2 | 25.50 |
| Denver Quadros | 16 | 1 | 16.00 |
Friday, 13 March 2015
Ep 280: Scott Ingram, Tina Rose (March 13, 2015; originally aired September 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. (Actually, there was one moment of recognition after the fact, which I will mention in due course. It did not help.)
Scott takes his turn in the champion's seat, and Richard asks him about something he mentioned last night (that I did not mention then): The sport of camogie. (The connection is that his partner plays it, as well as Gaelic football.) A bit unfairly, Scott is asked what the game's history is -- I think that would be a tough question for most people about most sports. Scott is not able to make much answer, describing it as the female version of hurling, and much like hockey except for being able to put the stick above the shoulder.
Tonight's challenger is Tina Rose, a keen Scrabble player with a high game score of 491 points. Richard asks her to lend some perspective about how impressed they should be; Tina isn't able to make much answer to that, saying that she thinks it is reasonably good. She adds that most Scrabble players would be happy to get at least 300 -- anything above that is acceptable, anything below that is definitely not. So 491 is "pretty good".
(That's certainly a vastly higher score than I could aspire to in Scrabble, so I'm impressed. I tried to find out information about Tina's competitive Scrabble performance, but was not able to do so. In the process I did come across statistics for some other former Letters and Numbers contestants, so I'll mention them here: Naween Fernando has a high game of 706 points, and Andrew Fisher has a high game of 664. Perhaps more remarkably, Andrew Fisher once lost a game after scoring 506 points.)
The contestants ended up evenly matched in the letters tonight, declaring equal results in every round. But the numbers were all Tina's: She solved them all, and Scott was not able to solve any of them. Her solution to the last numbers round, in particular, was one that few of the show's contestants would be capable of finding. Tina rounded out her dominant performance by solving the conundrum, registering an impressive 72 to 32 victory in her first game.
I was off my game tonight, and I knew it from the first round. I guess there's a lesson here about playing when hungry. Tina's good numbers results meant I could not get too far away, and when I stumbled in the last letters round it made the conundrum matter. Fortunately I was able to solve it before Tina did, and so scraped home with the win.
As usual, details after the jump.
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. (Actually, there was one moment of recognition after the fact, which I will mention in due course. It did not help.)
Scott takes his turn in the champion's seat, and Richard asks him about something he mentioned last night (that I did not mention then): The sport of camogie. (The connection is that his partner plays it, as well as Gaelic football.) A bit unfairly, Scott is asked what the game's history is -- I think that would be a tough question for most people about most sports. Scott is not able to make much answer, describing it as the female version of hurling, and much like hockey except for being able to put the stick above the shoulder.
Tonight's challenger is Tina Rose, a keen Scrabble player with a high game score of 491 points. Richard asks her to lend some perspective about how impressed they should be; Tina isn't able to make much answer to that, saying that she thinks it is reasonably good. She adds that most Scrabble players would be happy to get at least 300 -- anything above that is acceptable, anything below that is definitely not. So 491 is "pretty good".
(That's certainly a vastly higher score than I could aspire to in Scrabble, so I'm impressed. I tried to find out information about Tina's competitive Scrabble performance, but was not able to do so. In the process I did come across statistics for some other former Letters and Numbers contestants, so I'll mention them here: Naween Fernando has a high game of 706 points, and Andrew Fisher has a high game of 664. Perhaps more remarkably, Andrew Fisher once lost a game after scoring 506 points.)
The contestants ended up evenly matched in the letters tonight, declaring equal results in every round. But the numbers were all Tina's: She solved them all, and Scott was not able to solve any of them. Her solution to the last numbers round, in particular, was one that few of the show's contestants would be capable of finding. Tina rounded out her dominant performance by solving the conundrum, registering an impressive 72 to 32 victory in her first game.
I was off my game tonight, and I knew it from the first round. I guess there's a lesson here about playing when hungry. Tina's good numbers results meant I could not get too far away, and when I stumbled in the last letters round it made the conundrum matter. Fortunately I was able to solve it before Tina did, and so scraped home with the win.
As usual, details after the jump.
Thursday, 12 March 2015
Ep 279: Paul Breen, Scott Ingram (March 12, 2015; originally aired September 22, 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.
Win or lose, this is Paul's last night on the show until the finals (which he will very likely make). Obviously he wants to become a retiring champion. Richard asks Paul if he has any highlights of his time on the show, and Paul says that probably solving the two conundrums would be his choice.
Tonight's challenger is Scott Ingram, a secondary school English teacher. Scott also plays Gaelic football, which he tries to explain as a cross between soccer and Aussie rules. Scott adds that it is the national game of Ireland, and fantastic fun -- he played it for about ten years in Queensland, and that's how he met his partner. She was the captain of the team and he became their coach.
Scott got the early jump on Paul in round one, but Paul equalised in the second round. Then a good numbers solution saw Scott get out to a ten point lead. There was no more swing left in the letters rounds, but Paul equalised once more in the second numbers round. Then Scott once again got a ten point lead in round eight, and we had the distinct possibility of a tiebreaker conundrum being necessary. But the conundrum proved to be too difficult for both of them, and Scott defeated Paul, 46 to 36.
I was running ahead of David and Lily at one point thanks to one word that eluded David's eagle eye. Alas, I overlooked an option in a later round -- my only non-maximal result -- and dropped back to a tie. Still a satisfactory game, of course.
As usual, details after the jump.
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.
Win or lose, this is Paul's last night on the show until the finals (which he will very likely make). Obviously he wants to become a retiring champion. Richard asks Paul if he has any highlights of his time on the show, and Paul says that probably solving the two conundrums would be his choice.
Tonight's challenger is Scott Ingram, a secondary school English teacher. Scott also plays Gaelic football, which he tries to explain as a cross between soccer and Aussie rules. Scott adds that it is the national game of Ireland, and fantastic fun -- he played it for about ten years in Queensland, and that's how he met his partner. She was the captain of the team and he became their coach.
Scott got the early jump on Paul in round one, but Paul equalised in the second round. Then a good numbers solution saw Scott get out to a ten point lead. There was no more swing left in the letters rounds, but Paul equalised once more in the second numbers round. Then Scott once again got a ten point lead in round eight, and we had the distinct possibility of a tiebreaker conundrum being necessary. But the conundrum proved to be too difficult for both of them, and Scott defeated Paul, 46 to 36.
I was running ahead of David and Lily at one point thanks to one word that eluded David's eagle eye. Alas, I overlooked an option in a later round -- my only non-maximal result -- and dropped back to a tie. Still a satisfactory game, of course.
As usual, details after the jump.
Wednesday, 11 March 2015
Ep 278: Paul Breen, Sneha Pereira (March 11, 2015; originally aired September 21, 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're into Paul's fifth night now, and maybe we have just run out of things to find out about him. Instead, Richard notes that Paul had his fourth conundrum showdown last night, and solved that conundrum very quickly. He asks how Paul did so, and Paul responds that the first thing he saw was "watch", and the remaining letters formed "stop"; once he decided that the answer was not "watchstop" then he found the answer.
Tonight's challenger is Sneha Pereira, a biomedical engineering graduate who is now focused on becoming a lawyer. Richard asks first about the biomedical engineering; Sneha explains that when she was studying that at university she dealt a lot with software programming "and more of signal and telemedicine". I can't quite parse that, but I think I get somewhat of the gist of it. Sneha adds that when she started she wasn't really sure what she wanted to do, but after she graduated she felt she was better off trying to study law.
It was yet another close game for Paul, with the two contestants finding equal results on the letters rounds throughout. But Paul was just a bit better than Sneha on the numbers, and that translated to enough of an advantage to be safe going into the conundrum. Neither managed to solve it, and Paul had the victory, 53 to 36.
I was just one round off maximal, and that was an impossible numbers round. A good game for me regardless.
As usual, details after the jump.
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're into Paul's fifth night now, and maybe we have just run out of things to find out about him. Instead, Richard notes that Paul had his fourth conundrum showdown last night, and solved that conundrum very quickly. He asks how Paul did so, and Paul responds that the first thing he saw was "watch", and the remaining letters formed "stop"; once he decided that the answer was not "watchstop" then he found the answer.
Tonight's challenger is Sneha Pereira, a biomedical engineering graduate who is now focused on becoming a lawyer. Richard asks first about the biomedical engineering; Sneha explains that when she was studying that at university she dealt a lot with software programming "and more of signal and telemedicine". I can't quite parse that, but I think I get somewhat of the gist of it. Sneha adds that when she started she wasn't really sure what she wanted to do, but after she graduated she felt she was better off trying to study law.
It was yet another close game for Paul, with the two contestants finding equal results on the letters rounds throughout. But Paul was just a bit better than Sneha on the numbers, and that translated to enough of an advantage to be safe going into the conundrum. Neither managed to solve it, and Paul had the victory, 53 to 36.
I was just one round off maximal, and that was an impossible numbers round. A good game for me regardless.
As usual, details after the jump.
Tuesday, 10 March 2015
Ep 277: Paul Breen, Billy Browne (March 10, 2015; originally aired September 20, 2011)
Rounds: Here.
Disclaimer: I watched this episode when it first aired, and although I did not recall any of it I cannot rule out memory being a factor.
It's Paul's fourth night, so Richard wheels out the technique question. Sigh. But Paul manages to give us a little insight into how things have gone for him, making this one of the few interesting responses to that question. Paul states what we had pretty much figured out, that he found himself really fatigued on Friday's game. So he is trying to deal with that by not doing anything prior to the show, in order to keep himself fresh.
Tonight's challenger is Billy Browne, a film editor who has worked on such films as Moulin Rouge and the (at the time) recently-released Red Dog. Richard opines that it must have been very exciting to be working on Moulin Rouge in particular, and asks what drew Billy to editing in the first place. Billy responds that he did it at school, and he likes storytelling, lateral thinking, and problem-solving (with the implication being that these are all involved in film editing).
It was yet another close game tonight, with the contestants having equal declarations in all but one of the rounds. Paul had the very slight advantage of it, going into the conundrum ahead but not safe. But he solved it very quickly to put the issue beyond doubt, and finished the victor by 64 points to 47.
I was just one round of optimal today, and even if I'd seen the better options in that round I'm not sure I would have risked them. Plus I found a word that eluded David's eye -- always a rare delight.
As usual, details after the jump.
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.
It's Paul's fourth night, so Richard wheels out the technique question. Sigh. But Paul manages to give us a little insight into how things have gone for him, making this one of the few interesting responses to that question. Paul states what we had pretty much figured out, that he found himself really fatigued on Friday's game. So he is trying to deal with that by not doing anything prior to the show, in order to keep himself fresh.
Tonight's challenger is Billy Browne, a film editor who has worked on such films as Moulin Rouge and the (at the time) recently-released Red Dog. Richard opines that it must have been very exciting to be working on Moulin Rouge in particular, and asks what drew Billy to editing in the first place. Billy responds that he did it at school, and he likes storytelling, lateral thinking, and problem-solving (with the implication being that these are all involved in film editing).
It was yet another close game tonight, with the contestants having equal declarations in all but one of the rounds. Paul had the very slight advantage of it, going into the conundrum ahead but not safe. But he solved it very quickly to put the issue beyond doubt, and finished the victor by 64 points to 47.
I was just one round of optimal today, and even if I'd seen the better options in that round I'm not sure I would have risked them. Plus I found a word that eluded David's eye -- always a rare delight.
As usual, details after the jump.
Monday, 9 March 2015
Ep 276: Paul Breen, Barry Cook (March 9, 2015; originally aired September 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.
Paul is back for his third night, hopefully refreshed after the rest as compared with Friday's game. Richard asks him for more information about the digital image manipulation that is Paul's job. Paul says that it is his job to make sure that the images they have look OK once they are in the magazine. This might involve tweaking colours, or changing or removing backgrounds, things like that.
Tonight's challenger is Barry Cook, a retired IT project manager. Richard suggests that computer technology has changed a lot since Barry entered the field, which Barry wholeheartedly agrees with. He started in 1961, it seems, and notes that everyone's laptop or desktop these days is much more powerful than the original machines that he started work on. Also, back then computers used drum memory; Richard comments that one of those would not fit on your mobile phone, and Barry retorts that it would be lucky to fit into the studio.
It's a shame that Barry's comparison with computers today was not put in more perspective; to take an example, the IBM 7090 cost almost three million dollars at the time and took up considerable room (see this picture for an example, and note that the computer is much more than just the console the man is sitting at -- it includes all the tape drives in the background, for instance, and more besides). A typical desktop today is over thirty thousand times faster (and capable of doing four things simultaneously at that speed), and much less than a ten-thousandth of the cost after converting the mainframe price to today's dollars.
Barry found a couple of very good words to take the early lead. Paul got some of the ground back in the first numbers round, but then Barry extended it again in round four. Paul managed to match Barry in the fifth round, and another good numbers result put him only a little behind. Then Barry faltered in the last letters round and Paul took the lead for the first time in the game. Neither contestant was able to make any headway on the last numbers round, and the conundrum also proved to be too difficult for them both. Paul wobbled home with the win, 31 to 26.
I missed a couple of longer words that I would have found within time on a better day. The numbers were handled all right, and I solved the conundrum with just a few seconds left. A decent but not exceptional performance.
As usual, details after the jump.
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.
Paul is back for his third night, hopefully refreshed after the rest as compared with Friday's game. Richard asks him for more information about the digital image manipulation that is Paul's job. Paul says that it is his job to make sure that the images they have look OK once they are in the magazine. This might involve tweaking colours, or changing or removing backgrounds, things like that.
Tonight's challenger is Barry Cook, a retired IT project manager. Richard suggests that computer technology has changed a lot since Barry entered the field, which Barry wholeheartedly agrees with. He started in 1961, it seems, and notes that everyone's laptop or desktop these days is much more powerful than the original machines that he started work on. Also, back then computers used drum memory; Richard comments that one of those would not fit on your mobile phone, and Barry retorts that it would be lucky to fit into the studio.
It's a shame that Barry's comparison with computers today was not put in more perspective; to take an example, the IBM 7090 cost almost three million dollars at the time and took up considerable room (see this picture for an example, and note that the computer is much more than just the console the man is sitting at -- it includes all the tape drives in the background, for instance, and more besides). A typical desktop today is over thirty thousand times faster (and capable of doing four things simultaneously at that speed), and much less than a ten-thousandth of the cost after converting the mainframe price to today's dollars.
Barry found a couple of very good words to take the early lead. Paul got some of the ground back in the first numbers round, but then Barry extended it again in round four. Paul managed to match Barry in the fifth round, and another good numbers result put him only a little behind. Then Barry faltered in the last letters round and Paul took the lead for the first time in the game. Neither contestant was able to make any headway on the last numbers round, and the conundrum also proved to be too difficult for them both. Paul wobbled home with the win, 31 to 26.
I missed a couple of longer words that I would have found within time on a better day. The numbers were handled all right, and I solved the conundrum with just a few seconds left. A decent but not exceptional performance.
As usual, details after the jump.
Weekly summary: Episodes 271 to 275
I started the week with a narrow win over Brydon, who played very well, registering the highest score we've seen from a contestant so far in these re-runs. Thereafter the margins were solidly in my favour, although I never quite managed to catch up with David and Lily. The week ended reasonably strongly, with Thursday's game seeing me just one point behind them, and Friday's lacking just the conundrum solution to equal.
Brydon continued his pattern of increasing scores, registering 70 points on Monday's game. He finally broke the trend on his final night but still managed the half century as he successfully retired. Niall put up a good fight on Tuesday, but ended up just short of the mark. Angela had a brief stint as champion, and then Paul took over to finish out the week. The limited leaderboard looks like this:
There were four full monties to be found this week, and David did so. That was just one short of the "Clayton's" grand slam that he has been searching for. I don't think he ever did get that. Lily solved everything this week, which must be her equivalent; it is an admittedly easier task, however.
My maximum counts for the main rounds were the same as last week, just shuffled around a bit. My conundrum solving was still decent, but failing to solve Friday's conundrum cost me a tie with David and Lily.
Contestants sorted by average score:
| Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Me | 64 | 78 | 71 | 84 | 66 |
| Champion | 59 | 31 | 13 | 30 | 0 |
| Challenger | 25 | 34 | 0 | 24 | 0 |
| David + Lily | 77 | 98 | 86 | 85 | 76 |
| Me (solo) | 74 | 78 | 71 | 84 | 66 |
Brydon continued his pattern of increasing scores, registering 70 points on Monday's game. He finally broke the trend on his final night but still managed the half century as he successfully retired. Niall put up a good fight on Tuesday, but ended up just short of the mark. Angela had a brief stint as champion, and then Paul took over to finish out the week. The limited leaderboard looks like this:
| Brydon Coverdale | 43 | 47 | 56 | 61 | 70 | 52 | 329 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Martin Gabor | 56 | 58 | 52 | 44 | 220 | ||
| Judithe Hall | 62 | 51 | 43 | 156 | |||
| Emily Hawker | 67 | 53 | 29 | 149 | |||
| Anushan Jegatheeswaran | 50 | 47 | 41 | 138 | |||
| Rachel Furness | 35 | 54 | 40 | 129 | |||
| Paul Breen* | 60 | 36 | 96 | ||||
| Rebecca Skovron | 53 | 36 | 89 |
There were four full monties to be found this week, and David did so. That was just one short of the "Clayton's" grand slam that he has been searching for. I don't think he ever did get that. Lily solved everything this week, which must be her equivalent; it is an admittedly easier task, however.
| Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full Monties | 2 | 1 | 1 | 4 | ||
| Missed Full Monties | 0 | |||||
| Tough Numbers | 0 | |||||
| Impossible Numbers | 0 |
My maximum counts for the main rounds were the same as last week, just shuffled around a bit. My conundrum solving was still decent, but failing to solve Friday's conundrum cost me a tie with David and Lily.
| Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Maximums: L | 5 | 4 | 2 | 3 | 4 |
| N | 2 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 3 |
| C | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | - |
| Invalid: L | - | - | - | - | - |
| N | - | - | - | - | - |
Contestants sorted by average score:
| Total | Games | Average | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Martin Gabor | 220 | 4 | 55.00 |
| Brydon Coverdale | 329 | 6 | 54.83 |
| Judithe Hall | 156 | 3 | 52.00 |
| Emily Hawker | 149 | 3 | 49.67 |
| Paul Breen* | 96 | 2 | 48.00 |
| Niall Donohue | 48 | 1 | 48.00 |
| Anushan Jegatheeswaran | 138 | 3 | 46.00 |
| Sasha Quilty | 45 | 1 | 45.00 |
| Rebecca Skovron | 89 | 2 | 44.50 |
| Rachel Furness | 129 | 3 | 43.00 |
| Brad Tucker | 41 | 1 | 41.00 |
| Angela Miezis | 80 | 2 | 40.00 |
| Daniel McNamara | 40 | 1 | 40.00 |
| Jodi-Ann Menzies | 77 | 2 | 38.50 |
| Shyam Subramaniam | 72 | 2 | 36.00 |
| Geoff Walker | 71 | 2 | 35.50 |
| Miles Tilly | 33 | 1 | 33.00 |
| Ajanthan Jegatheeswaran | 32 | 1 | 32.00 |
| Kim Butcher | 31 | 1 | 31.00 |
| Emma Watson | 31 | 1 | 31.00 |
| Karen Barber | 30 | 1 | 30.00 |
| Johanna Riley | 30 | 1 | 30.00 |
| Cormac Murtagh | 58 | 2 | 29.00 |
| Matthew Matten | 28 | 1 | 28.00 |
| Michael Lithgow | 27 | 1 | 27.00 |
| Cameron Begley | 51 | 2 | 25.50 |
| Denver Quadros | 16 | 1 | 16.00 |
Sunday, 8 March 2015
Ep 275: Paul Breen, Johanna Riley (March 6, 2015; originally aired September 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.
Paul takes his turn in the champion's seat tonight. This time we find out what he does for a living, which was an unusual omission last night. He works in the imaging department for a magazine company. But we're not going to talk about that; instead, Richard mentions that Paul plays baseball. Paul says that he does not play at a high level, but he plays OK. But the part that ties this in a bit more with the show's interests is that his uniform number is π.
Tonight's challenger is Johanna Riley, a fine arts student. Richard informs us that Johanna is hoping to have an exhibition maybe a bit later that year, and Johanna explains that she is going over to New York to apply for a school there. She has to bring a portfolio, so it seems like a good opportunity; she is hoping to have an exhibition there somewhere in the vicinity of the new year. At the moment her work includes a lot of realistic life-size portraits of her friends, and she is also working on a much larger piece: A Mylar foil sculpture using helium.
Johanna took the initial lead with a six-letter word to Paul's five, then extended her lead in the first numbers round when Paul made an invalid declaration. Paul clawed his way back into contention in the second half of the game when Johanna was only able to find five-letter words, and took the lead in the final numbers round. He was ahead but not safe going into the conundrum, and when he buzzed in early with a wrong answer he must have had a nervous wait. But Johanna was not able to solve it either, and Paul finished the week with a 36 to 30 win.
I matched David and Lily right up to the conundrum, which ended up being too difficult for me. A shame, but still a good result.
As usual, details after the jump.
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.
Paul takes his turn in the champion's seat tonight. This time we find out what he does for a living, which was an unusual omission last night. He works in the imaging department for a magazine company. But we're not going to talk about that; instead, Richard mentions that Paul plays baseball. Paul says that he does not play at a high level, but he plays OK. But the part that ties this in a bit more with the show's interests is that his uniform number is π.
Tonight's challenger is Johanna Riley, a fine arts student. Richard informs us that Johanna is hoping to have an exhibition maybe a bit later that year, and Johanna explains that she is going over to New York to apply for a school there. She has to bring a portfolio, so it seems like a good opportunity; she is hoping to have an exhibition there somewhere in the vicinity of the new year. At the moment her work includes a lot of realistic life-size portraits of her friends, and she is also working on a much larger piece: A Mylar foil sculpture using helium.
Johanna took the initial lead with a six-letter word to Paul's five, then extended her lead in the first numbers round when Paul made an invalid declaration. Paul clawed his way back into contention in the second half of the game when Johanna was only able to find five-letter words, and took the lead in the final numbers round. He was ahead but not safe going into the conundrum, and when he buzzed in early with a wrong answer he must have had a nervous wait. But Johanna was not able to solve it either, and Paul finished the week with a 36 to 30 win.
I matched David and Lily right up to the conundrum, which ended up being too difficult for me. A shame, but still a good result.
As usual, details after the jump.
Thursday, 5 March 2015
Ep 274: Angela Miezis, Paul Breen (March 5, 2015; originally aired September 15, 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.
Angela is back in the champion's chair, but this time as an actual champion. It turns out that she is interested in food, and its interaction with culture. Specifically, Angela is interested in how goods become luxury, and how they move out of luxury status. She gives an example of how spices have moved on the economic scale from the Middle Ages to the present day. Richard notes points out that such movements have had a huge impact on the development of the world, and Angela agrees, citing as an example the exploration of the Americas.
Opposing Angela tonight is Paul Breen, described only as "a cryptic crossword fan". Understandable, Paul finds David to be somewhat of a nemesis, and has yet to finish one of his crosswords. David responds with some wordplay about Paul's name, but we didn't exactly learn anything else about Paul.
Paul took the early lead thanks to rounds 2 and 3, then Angela found a good word in a tough mix on round 4 to narrow the gap a little. In the rest of the main rounds the contestants shared the points, so the match was alive going into the conundrum. Paul was ahead, but in any case solved it quite quickly to become the new champion, 60 to 42.
I was a bit slow to spot the best answer in the first round, but thereafter matched David and Lily. A fast conundrum solution saw me just beat Paul to it, and finish in the 80's. An enjoyable game, despite some parsimonious letter rounds.
As usual, details after the jump.
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.
Angela is back in the champion's chair, but this time as an actual champion. It turns out that she is interested in food, and its interaction with culture. Specifically, Angela is interested in how goods become luxury, and how they move out of luxury status. She gives an example of how spices have moved on the economic scale from the Middle Ages to the present day. Richard notes points out that such movements have had a huge impact on the development of the world, and Angela agrees, citing as an example the exploration of the Americas.
Opposing Angela tonight is Paul Breen, described only as "a cryptic crossword fan". Understandable, Paul finds David to be somewhat of a nemesis, and has yet to finish one of his crosswords. David responds with some wordplay about Paul's name, but we didn't exactly learn anything else about Paul.
Paul took the early lead thanks to rounds 2 and 3, then Angela found a good word in a tough mix on round 4 to narrow the gap a little. In the rest of the main rounds the contestants shared the points, so the match was alive going into the conundrum. Paul was ahead, but in any case solved it quite quickly to become the new champion, 60 to 42.
I was a bit slow to spot the best answer in the first round, but thereafter matched David and Lily. A fast conundrum solution saw me just beat Paul to it, and finish in the 80's. An enjoyable game, despite some parsimonious letter rounds.
As usual, details after the jump.
Wednesday, 4 March 2015
Ep 273: Angela Miezis, Denver Quadros (March 4, 2015; originally aired September 14, 2011)
Rounds: Here.
Disclaimer: I watched this episode when it first aired, and although I did not recall any of it I cannot rule out memory being a factor.
We have two new players tonight, due to Brydon successfully retiring yesterday. Taking the champion's seat is Angela Miezis, who works in community health and is also a keen softballer. She plays competitively, locally for the Comets in the North West League, based at Sunshine. She also plays masters softball (also for the Comets) every year or two.
Taking up the challenger's seat is Denver Quadros, who has a masters in applied statistics. Denver is interested in trivia, and used to be a trivia champion in his high school days. His specialties were sports and geography.
The game started off tamely enough with each contestant finding five-letter words in the first round. Denver got a small lead in the second when Angela chose an invalid word; it did not last too long, though, as Angela overtook him in round four. Then she ran away with the game, taking unanswered points in the last three rounds to be safe going into the conundrum. In the end it was too difficult for them both, and the scoreline remained 38 to 16 in Angela's favour.
I was a little off the pace in rounds 2 and 3, but otherwise did about as well as I could have. I solved the conundrum quickly by my standards, and overall it was a satisfactory game.
As usual, details after the jump.
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 have two new players tonight, due to Brydon successfully retiring yesterday. Taking the champion's seat is Angela Miezis, who works in community health and is also a keen softballer. She plays competitively, locally for the Comets in the North West League, based at Sunshine. She also plays masters softball (also for the Comets) every year or two.
Taking up the challenger's seat is Denver Quadros, who has a masters in applied statistics. Denver is interested in trivia, and used to be a trivia champion in his high school days. His specialties were sports and geography.
The game started off tamely enough with each contestant finding five-letter words in the first round. Denver got a small lead in the second when Angela chose an invalid word; it did not last too long, though, as Angela overtook him in round four. Then she ran away with the game, taking unanswered points in the last three rounds to be safe going into the conundrum. In the end it was too difficult for them both, and the scoreline remained 38 to 16 in Angela's favour.
I was a little off the pace in rounds 2 and 3, but otherwise did about as well as I could have. I solved the conundrum quickly by my standards, and overall it was a satisfactory game.
As usual, details after the jump.
Tuesday, 3 March 2015
Ep 272: Brydon Coverdale, Niall Donohue (March 3, 2015; originally aired September 13, 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.
Before we get to the contestant introductions tonight, David remarks that he was "poetically ambushed" last night (as I mentioned at the end of the write-up for episode 271). He feels it is only fitting that he gets a chance to respond, which he does:
Win or lose, this is Brydon's last night until the finals. Richard asks about his highlights from the previous games; I guess I find this slightly better than asking about technique, but not by that much. Brydon says that there were a couple of earlier games that went down to the conundrum, and he's not sure that he can handle another one of those.
Tonight's challenger is Niall Donohue, a worker in the energy industry. That involves installing things like shower heads, light globes, or other things -- anything that can reduce the electricity requirements and carbon footprint.
Niall chanced a colloquialism in the first round, and that was a costly mistake. The two contestants had equal-scoring results for the rest of the game, except for the last two numbers rounds. Niall took the points on the first of those to take the lead at last, but Brydon did well on the last one to sneak back into first place. With just four points separating the contestants going into the conundrum, we had the situation that Brydon was hoping to avoid. They both struggled with it, but with just a few seconds left Niall buzzed in and it looked like Brydon's run was at an end. However, Niall had done so out of desperation alone, and his answer was invalid. Brydon scraped by thanks to that first round result, winning 52 to 48, and successfully retired. We'll see him again in the finals.
I was in good shape until I tanked it on the last numbers round. I also had my difficulties with the conundrum, but was glad to solve it and push my score into the seventies again.
As usual, details after the jump.
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.
Before we get to the contestant introductions tonight, David remarks that he was "poetically ambushed" last night (as I mentioned at the end of the write-up for episode 271). He feels it is only fitting that he gets a chance to respond, which he does:
Letters are electric: They tell stories, excite.Heh. I do recall that opening from him rather vividly; he set the joke up well, getting a good scansion going, only to drop it completely to emphasise the flatness that he associates with the numbers. I had not recalled Lily's poem that prompted him to respond that way, however, so seeing the episodes again has restored some useful context. That said, at the time I was perhaps a little miffed, and I composed this in response:
They have flashes and fusions that sparkle all night.
Whereas numbers... are just numbers.
There's a beauty, when seen through math'matical eye,And now, back to our regular coverage.
In the simplicity of one, in the transcendence of π.
Or the dance of the primes; they've an endless supply
of curious and interesting patterns to spy.
Numbers lay the foundations on which we build high;
They guide us to truths that none may deny.
Language is fluid, tricksy, and sly;
Words may deceive, but the numbers... don't lie.
Win or lose, this is Brydon's last night until the finals. Richard asks about his highlights from the previous games; I guess I find this slightly better than asking about technique, but not by that much. Brydon says that there were a couple of earlier games that went down to the conundrum, and he's not sure that he can handle another one of those.
Tonight's challenger is Niall Donohue, a worker in the energy industry. That involves installing things like shower heads, light globes, or other things -- anything that can reduce the electricity requirements and carbon footprint.
Niall chanced a colloquialism in the first round, and that was a costly mistake. The two contestants had equal-scoring results for the rest of the game, except for the last two numbers rounds. Niall took the points on the first of those to take the lead at last, but Brydon did well on the last one to sneak back into first place. With just four points separating the contestants going into the conundrum, we had the situation that Brydon was hoping to avoid. They both struggled with it, but with just a few seconds left Niall buzzed in and it looked like Brydon's run was at an end. However, Niall had done so out of desperation alone, and his answer was invalid. Brydon scraped by thanks to that first round result, winning 52 to 48, and successfully retired. We'll see him again in the finals.
I was in good shape until I tanked it on the last numbers round. I also had my difficulties with the conundrum, but was glad to solve it and push my score into the seventies again.
As usual, details after the jump.
Monday, 2 March 2015
Ep 271: Brydon Coverdale, Karen Barber (March 2, 2015; originally aired September 12, 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 returns for his fifth night, and he's been getting better with each game. Can he keep that progression up? But first, we find out that Brydon's parents owned a dairy farm, and he lived there all through his childhood and then moved to the city. Richard informs us that somehow, despite that upbringing, Brydon avoided ever milking a cow. Brydon says that the main reason he was able to do that was that when he was thirteen he got a job off the farm, and that managed to get him out of it.
The first challenger of the week is Karen Barber, a primary school teacher. She's been very busy lately looking for houses, and Richard asks what the typical weekend is like for her at the moment. Karen states that it involves lots of research on the Internet on Friday night, picking out the possibilities and then walking through them. She says they all tend to "blend to one". Richard asks if she knows what she is looking for, and Karen says that they have a bit of an idea, but they often like each one they look at, so some kind of selection process is needed.
Karen may have been a little nervous, as her opening five-letter words were a bit off the pace. In particular, her round two answer was easily extendable to a six-letter word (as Brydon showed). Brydon took the early lead there, and then extended it when Karen missed a numbers option. Brydon then found a good word in the fourth round to jump out to a thirty point lead, and there was no coming back from that deficit for Karen. Karen did find better form after that point, matching Brydon in the remaining main rounds, but the damage was done. Brydon did quite well to solve the conundrum, and cruised home with a 70 to 30 victory. That sets him up to possibly become a retiring champion tomorrow.
I found maximal answers in most of the main rounds, before stumbling in round 8. Brydon beat me to the conundrum solution by a good ten seconds or so, and in the end I would have to say I was lucky to scrape by with the win over him. Still, I did manage it, so my current streak continues.
As usual, details after the jump.
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 returns for his fifth night, and he's been getting better with each game. Can he keep that progression up? But first, we find out that Brydon's parents owned a dairy farm, and he lived there all through his childhood and then moved to the city. Richard informs us that somehow, despite that upbringing, Brydon avoided ever milking a cow. Brydon says that the main reason he was able to do that was that when he was thirteen he got a job off the farm, and that managed to get him out of it.
The first challenger of the week is Karen Barber, a primary school teacher. She's been very busy lately looking for houses, and Richard asks what the typical weekend is like for her at the moment. Karen states that it involves lots of research on the Internet on Friday night, picking out the possibilities and then walking through them. She says they all tend to "blend to one". Richard asks if she knows what she is looking for, and Karen says that they have a bit of an idea, but they often like each one they look at, so some kind of selection process is needed.
Karen may have been a little nervous, as her opening five-letter words were a bit off the pace. In particular, her round two answer was easily extendable to a six-letter word (as Brydon showed). Brydon took the early lead there, and then extended it when Karen missed a numbers option. Brydon then found a good word in the fourth round to jump out to a thirty point lead, and there was no coming back from that deficit for Karen. Karen did find better form after that point, matching Brydon in the remaining main rounds, but the damage was done. Brydon did quite well to solve the conundrum, and cruised home with a 70 to 30 victory. That sets him up to possibly become a retiring champion tomorrow.
I found maximal answers in most of the main rounds, before stumbling in round 8. Brydon beat me to the conundrum solution by a good ten seconds or so, and in the end I would have to say I was lucky to scrape by with the win over him. Still, I did manage it, so my current streak continues.
As usual, details after the jump.
Sunday, 1 March 2015
Weekly summary: Episodes 266 to 270
I started the week with a maximal game, which is always nice. David and Lily were also on track, so I did not get the win over them, but there's only so much to be done. I stayed reasonably in touch with them both for the rest of the week, but a mental freeze on Thursday greatly reduced my score when I failed to declare anything in a numbers round. Friday brought better reward, as I managed to solve a numbers round that eluded Lily, and so achieved that rare solo victory. My scores were all above 70 for the week, which feels like it could be a first; certainly it's not a common thing.
Anushan won Monday's game, but went down to Brydon on Tuesday. Brydon carried the rest of the week, getting a bigger score on each game. He broke the third game barrier, and more importantly got past the fourth game, and we can reasonably expect him to turn up again in the finals unless he completely crashes in his next game. The limited leaderboard looks like this:
There were two full monties this week, both in the first rounds of their respective games. Hopefully next week will bring more -- they've been a bit thin on the ground recently. Lily encountered two tough numbers targets, one of which I was pleased to solve within time (although I was lucky to do so).
My maximum counts for the main rounds were essentially the same as last week -- one more letters maximum, one fewer numbers maximum. However, there was a complete turnaround on the conundrums: This week I solved them all. That's a pleasant change!
Contestants sorted by average score:
| Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Me | 86 | 74 | 71 | 76 | 76 |
| Champion | 26 | 27 | 24 | 35 | 41 |
| Challenger | 8 | 30 | 13 | 28 | 27 |
| David + Lily | 86 | 76 | 75 | 87 | 74 |
| Me (solo) | 86 | 74 | 71 | 76 | 76 |
Anushan won Monday's game, but went down to Brydon on Tuesday. Brydon carried the rest of the week, getting a bigger score on each game. He broke the third game barrier, and more importantly got past the fourth game, and we can reasonably expect him to turn up again in the finals unless he completely crashes in his next game. The limited leaderboard looks like this:
| Brydon Coverdale* | 43 | 47 | 56 | 61 | 207 | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Martin Gabor | 56 | 58 | 52 | 44 | 220 | ||
| Judithe Hall | 62 | 51 | 43 | 156 | |||
| Emily Hawker | 67 | 53 | 29 | 149 | |||
| Anushan Jegatheeswaran | 50 | 47 | 41 | 138 | |||
| Rachel Furness | 35 | 54 | 40 | 129 | |||
| Rebecca Skovron | 53 | 36 | 89 | ||||
| Jodi-Ann Menzies | 49 | 28 | 77 |
There were two full monties this week, both in the first rounds of their respective games. Hopefully next week will bring more -- they've been a bit thin on the ground recently. Lily encountered two tough numbers targets, one of which I was pleased to solve within time (although I was lucky to do so).
| Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full Monties | 1 | 1 | 2 | |||
| Missed Full Monties | 0 | |||||
| Tough Numbers | 1 | 1 | 2 | |||
| Impossible Numbers | 0 |
My maximum counts for the main rounds were essentially the same as last week -- one more letters maximum, one fewer numbers maximum. However, there was a complete turnaround on the conundrums: This week I solved them all. That's a pleasant change!
| Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Maximums: L | 5 | 2 | 4 | 4 | 3 |
| N | 3 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 3 |
| C | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Invalid: L | - | - | - | - | - |
| N | - | - | - | - | - |
Contestants sorted by average score:
| Total | Games | Average | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Martin Gabor | 220 | 4 | 55.00 |
| Judithe Hall | 156 | 3 | 52.00 |
| Brydon Coverdale* | 207 | 4 | 51.75 |
| Emily Hawker | 149 | 3 | 49.67 |
| Anushan Jegatheeswaran | 138 | 3 | 46.00 |
| Sasha Quilty | 45 | 1 | 45.00 |
| Rebecca Skovron | 89 | 2 | 44.50 |
| Rachel Furness | 129 | 3 | 43.00 |
| Brad Tucker | 41 | 1 | 41.00 |
| Daniel McNamara | 40 | 1 | 40.00 |
| Jodi-Ann Menzies | 77 | 2 | 38.50 |
| Shyam Subramaniam | 72 | 2 | 36.00 |
| Geoff Walker | 71 | 2 | 35.50 |
| Miles Tilly | 33 | 1 | 33.00 |
| Ajanthan Jegatheeswaran | 32 | 1 | 32.00 |
| Kim Butcher | 31 | 1 | 31.00 |
| Emma Watson | 31 | 1 | 31.00 |
| Cormac Murtagh | 58 | 2 | 29.00 |
| Matthew Matten | 28 | 1 | 28.00 |
| Michael Lithgow | 27 | 1 | 27.00 |
| Cameron Begley | 51 | 2 | 25.50 |
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