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.

Round 1: L I S U Q T A E N

I had a speculative QUAILS, QUILTS, QUANTILES, INSULATE, and ANTIQUES.  Unfortunately, the Macquarie does not list QUANTILE.  I was a little concerned about that possibility, but would have felt worse if I had not tried it and it had been valid.  Still, it is annoying to start off with an invalid answer when I had safe eights.

The contestants have started off with sevens: Anthony has UTENSIL while Samantha has ENTAILS.  David was hoping for a fifth vowel to be chosen, as an I would allow QUALITIES (the next vowel would have been an O, however).  With the actual mix he has found TEQUILA and thus TEQUILAS for eight.

The other eights are QUANTISE, LIQUATES (LIQUATE: "to heat (a metal, etc.) sufficiently to melt the more fusible portion and so separate a metal from impurities or other metals"), ALUNITES (ALUNITE being a mineral), and QUINTALS (QUINTAL: "a unit of mass equal to 100 kg").

Samantha: ENTAILS
Anthony: UTENSIL
Me: [invalid -- QUANTILES]
David: TEQUILA, TEQUILAS

Scores: Samantha 7, Anthony 7, me 0


Round 2: D R K T O I E A R

I had TROD, a speculative TROIKA, EDITOR, KERATOID ("resembling a horn"), and TARRIED.

Samantha appears to have been put off by that K -- she has been limited to TREK for four.  Anthony has found the six of ADROIT to take an early lead.  David points out the sevens of TARRIED / TARDIER.  So I've found a longer word than him -- if it were not for the first round disaster I'd be hoping for a win at this point.  Oh, well.

The other potential seven is DORKIER*.

Samantha: TREK
Anthony: ADROIT
Me: KERATOID
David: TARRIED, TARDIER

Scores: Samantha 7, Anthony 7 (13), me 8


Round 3: Target 646 from 50 75 25 4 10 10

The aim must be to make this as 650 - 4, so the question is how to get to 650.  I pulled out the factor of 10 and so found 646 = 10*(75 - 10) - 4.  Seen while writing this up is an alternative of 646 = (10 + 75/25)*50 - 4.

Samantha has not managed to get within the scoring range, but Anthony has solved this with 646 = (50 + 10)*10 + 75 - 25 - 4.  That was also Lily's solution.

So Anthony's lead is extended to 16, and the early signs are not good for Samantha.

Samantha: [not in range]
Anthony: 646
Me: 646
Lily: 646

Scores: Samantha 7, Anthony 17 (23), me 18


First break: SIRE SPUR ("An unexpected knighthood")

That would be a SURPRISE (or a "sir prize", presumably).

David's talk is about the phrase "Gone to Gowings".


Round 4: G H N W O U I O P

I had a speculative WHINGE (but this time the required E did not turn up), GOWN, WHOOPING, HOPING, and wondered about POOHING (not valid).  That final P was a very lucky result for this mix.

It's a stark contrast between the contestants' answers here, with Samantha having WING for four while Anthony has found WHOOPING for eight.  David also found WHOOPING.

The seven here is HOOPING (HOOP as a verb: "to bind or fasten with a hoop or hoops").  The other sixes are WOOING and POOING.

Samantha: WING
Anthony: WHOOPING
Me: WHOOPING

Scores: Samantha 7, Anthony 25 (31), me 26


Round 5: D S E A T F O L A

A shame about that last A -- an E for DESOLATE or DEFLATES would have been appreciated.  Instead, I had SATED, FASTED, and FOLATES.  After time I noted the more common seven of FLOATED.

Anthony has found SALTED for six, but Samantha gets some much-needed points back by having found FLOATED.  David points out the alternative seven of FOLATES.

Those are the only sevens, and the best to be done.

Samantha: FLOATED
Anthony: SALTED
Me: FOLATES
David: FOLATES

Scores: Samantha 14, Anthony 25 (31), me 33


Round 6: Target 717 from 25 6 9 2 2 8

The offset for the standard method is 8, so that is clearly tempting.  725 is 25*29, and making a 29 is feasible with the remaining numbers, yielding the solution 717 = (9*6/2 + 2)*25 - 8.

Samantha continues her numeric woes by being "not even close".  Anthony thinks he has just scraped in with 708; his answer starts (9 - 2 - 2)*6 = 30... at which point he stops.  He must have either subtracted yet another 2 (for (30 - 2)*25 + 8), or miscalculated and got to 758 (with 30*25 + 8).  It's not valid, anyway.  Lily demonstrates the solution that I found, and it turns out that there is only that one solution to this target.

A missed opportunity for both contestants here, but Samantha needed the points more.  I'll note that a findable one-off is 718 = (8 + 6)*2*25 + 2*9.

Samantha: [not in range]
Anthony: [invalid]
Me: 717
Lily: 717

Scores: Samantha 14, Anthony 25 (31), me 43


Second break: TUNE WORD ("Pulls you from down below")

That would be an UNDERTOW.


Round 7: B E E D H I A R S

I had HEBE (a type of shrub), HEED, BEHEAD, BEADIER, BRAISED, and SHADIER.  After time I noted other sevens of BEHEADS and BEARISH, and finally saw the eight of BEARDIES (BEARDIE: "a variety of sheepdog with very long hair; bearded collie").

It's a pair of sixes from the contestants, who have appropriately each chosen SHARED.  There is some amusement at that.  David points out the sevens of BEHEADS, BEARISH, and BRAISED before coming up with BEARDIES for eight.

The Macquarie does list HEBRAISED (HEBRAISE: "to make Hebrew"), but only capitalised so it is not valid.  So BEARDIES is the best to be done, and the only eight (HEBRIDES, of course, is also proper).  The other sevens are BEARDIE, ADHERES / SHEARED / HEADERS, SEABIRD / SIDEBAR / ABIDERS / DARBIES (prison colloquial for handcuffs) / BARDIES (plural of BARDI: "an edible wood-boring grub, Bardistus cibarius, or its larvae"), READIES / DEARIES, DEBASER, DERBIES, HEADIER, and AIRSHED ("a volume of air confined to a distinct geographic region, and within which pollutants are contained") / HARDIES (HARDY: "a chisel or fuller with a square shank for insertion into a square hole (hardy-hole) in a blacksmith's anvil") / DASHIER*.

Samantha: SHARED
Anthony: SHARED
Me: BRAISED
David: BEHEADS, BEARISH, BRAISED, BEARDIES

Scores: Samantha 14 (20), Anthony 25 (37), me 50


Round 8: Target 675 from 50 1 2 5 4 3

The target is 9*75, which means it is 27*25.  It seems pretty clear to make a 25 as 50/2, and the 9 and 3 are easily manageable from the rest: 675 = (5 + 4)*3*50/2.

Once again, Samantha is too far away.  It's not been a good night for her on the numbers, and that has been too costly.  She needed unanswered points here to still have a chance, but in any case Anthony had guaranteed his win by finding the solution listed above.  It was also Lily's approach.

Samantha: [not in range]
Anthony: 675
Me: 675
Lily: 675

Scores: Samantha 14 (20), Anthony 35 (47), me 60


Round 9: DRAMA MEAL

This was just one of those ones that I spotted quickly.  Fortunately, too, because Anthony was also quite quick off the mark to see it, pushing his score into the fifties.

Samantha: [no answer]
Anthony: MARMALADE (3s)
Me: MARMALADE (1s)

Scores: Samantha 14 (20), Anthony 35 (57), me 70


Anthony had the better of the letters, with a couple of good finds, but it was the numbers where he really ran away with the game.  Samantha did not end up able to declare anything for any of those, and that's an awfully big handicap.  Anthony rounded it off with a good solution to the conundrum, and ends up just short of sixty.  A decent game, and it will be interesting to see how he goes next week.