Ep 114: Matthew Thomason, Bryce Lawrence (May 30, 2016; originally aired January 6, 2011)

Rounds: Here.


Here we are at Matthew Thomason's sixth game, his last until the finals.  There's basically no chat with him beyond pointing out that fact, which lends credence to my observation in yesterday's game that they may well have run out of talking points for him.

Standing between Matthew and successful retirement is Bryce Lawrence, a project management student who has just deferred his studies in order to live in South America.  Bryce expands on that: He has deferred for two years in order to go and live with the Matis indigenous tribe; he will be living in the same conditions as they do for his time there.  That certainly sounds interesting (although decidedly not something that I would enjoy) but we don't find out why he is doing this -- what does he hope to do there, that kind of thing.  That really feels like a missed opportunity.


It started out as a very close game, with the contestants finding equal results in the first three rounds.  It looked like it might go down to the wire, but the second third went all Matthew's way, with two good words from him and an arithmetical error from Bryce giving him a commanding lead.  Matthew sealed the game in the last letters round, then finished off emphatically with another fast conundrum solution to make the scoreline 65 to 30.  That makes him the first retiring champion of the series.

I was in decent shape tonight, only missing the one maximum.  It also eluded David's eye, so my solo total will end up the same as him and Lily, and that's always nice.  I was slow on the conundrum, but had done more than enough to beat the contestants.

Weekly summary: Episodes 109 to 113

I got a bit behind this week, due to other engagements; I'm not sure if this ended up affecting any results.  I mostly managed to stay comfortably clear of the contestants, with the exception being Tuesday where Matthew would have tied me if he'd solved the last numbers round.  That was also the highlight game, though, as my solo total managed to equal that of David and Lily.  Aside from that game I was always more than ten points adrift of them, which is disappointing.

	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri
Me	64	54	62	73	57
Champion	16	44	32	10	24
Challenger	41	15	13	0	30
David + Lily	87	70	74	87	78
Me (solo)	72	70	62	73	64

This week was all about Matthew, who defeated Jodi in a close game on Monday and then cruised through the next three games.  Ryan gave him a good scare on Friday, but Matthew's excellent conundrum solving ability saw him safely home.  He looks quite likely to be the first retiring champion of the series.

Matthew Thomason*	46	64	49	44	52		245
Brett Chaiyawat	25	59	28	42	34		188
Luke Brattoni	53	52	44				149
Kathryn James	46	41	36				123
Jason Dunn	59	43					102
Raf Goodens	59	39					98
Jodi Knight	48	34					82
David Waddell	38	33					71

David found both full monties this week, and it's been an excellent set of games from him.  There was one numbers round that temporarily stumped Lily (and was responsible for my rare tie in the solo totals).

	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri
Full Monties	1			1		2
Missed Full Monties						0
Tough Numbers		1				1
Impossible Numbers						0

I've not been close to a maximal game this week, averaging two letters maxima per game.  A tough conundrum on Wednesday also broke my good solving streak on that front.  There's certainly room left for improvement in the coming week.

	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri
Maximums: L	2	2	2	3	1
N	2	3	3	2	2
C	1	1	0	1	1
Invalid: L	-	-	-	-	1

Contestants sorted by average score:

	Total	Games	Average
Jason Dunn	102	2	51.00
Luke Brattoni	149	3	49.67
Matthew Thomason*	245	5	49.00
Raf Goodens	98	2	49.00
Ryan Turk	48	1	48.00
Kathryn James	123	3	41.00
Jodi Knight	82	2	41.00
Brett Chaiyawat	188	5	37.60
Aram Kalyanasundaram	36	1	36.00
David Waddell	71	2	35.50
Liam Murphy	18	1	18.00
Dane Watkins	15	1	15.00
Rhys McCaig	13	1	13.00
Matt Bolton	12	1	12.00

Ep 113: Matthew Thomason, Ryan Turk (May 27, 2016; originally aired Janury 5, 2011)

Rounds: Here.


It's Matthew Thomason's fifth night, and a win here should put him into the finals.  His scoring has been decent, too, so even a loss tonight would stand him a decent shot at it, provided he scores adequately in the process.  Richard wheels out the question about technique, suggesting that perhaps we are running short of anecdotes for Matthew to tell, unlikely though that would seem -- he strikes me as somewhat of a raconteur.  In any case, Matthew indicates that there is no technique; he has done crosswords, including those by a certain DA, for many years, and he does the Target, but there doesn't seem to be a strategy behind any of it.  Sometimes he just sees a word, and other times he does not.

Tonight's challenger is Ryan Turk, an I.T. network engineer who was once verbally abused by Jim Courier, the famous tennis player, while Ryan was working as a line umpire for the Australian Open.  As Ryan relates it, he had called a ball out, and Courier responded by running over to him and screaming in his face.  There was a certain amount of instant karma here, though, although this may not have been apparent at the time: Ryan had reconsidered his call and decided that the ball was in, and was going to correct himself, but was not able to do so after that behaviour.

(This matter is covered in the ITF's Rules of Tennis, in appendix VI: Role of Court Officials, and I imagine that the line umpires are also given explicit instruction about this.  The relevant case decision is: If a line umpire realises a mistake, a correction should be made as soon as possible provided it is not as the result of a protest or appeal of a player.  Also, the result must stand in such a situation: A chair umpire must never overrule as the result of the protest or appeal by a player.)


The contestants started out with matching words in the first round, but Matthew found an excellent word in the second round to take the early lead.  He did so again in round four, pushing him clear by more than a conundrum.  The remaining letter rounds were shared, but Ryan made some good tactical choices in the numbers rounds to score points there and take over the lead going into the conundrum.  It was not enough, though, as Matthew continued his streak of very fast conundrum solutions to secure the win, 52 to 48.

I had decent results in most rounds, but unfortunately hit an invalid word in round two that set me back a bit.  I was a touch too slow with the right approach in the second numbers round, but overall managed to do enough to be comfortably clear of the contestants.  So far the winning run is continuing.

Ep 112: Matthew Thomason, Matt Bolton (May 26, 2016; originally aired January 4, 2011)

Rounds: Here.


This is the crucial fourth night for Matthew Thomason, and Richard informs us that Matthew has done a lot of travel programs as part of his TV writing and directing career.  He points out that they look glamorous, but asks about the life.  Matthew responds that it is very enjoyable, but you don't get to "sit and do the touristy thing".  On the other hand, some great experiences can result.  Matthew relates an anecdote from one time when he was shooting in Pompei (and possibly in Pompeii, for that matter).  At lunchtime, the guide took them to a place where tourists don't generally go; the owner of the establishment took them aside, cooked them a special pasta and served them home-made wine, and they ended up having lunch in a 3000-year-old gymnasium.

Tonight's challenger is Matt Bolton, a database administrator who works for Oxfam Australia, and owns a geodesic dome house.  Richard asks why he decided on such an interesting architecture for his house.  Matt says that the unique structure of it was what appealed to him and his partner.  The house is actually two domes, made up of triangular sections that combine into hexagons and pentagons, making a shape somewhat similar to a soccer ball.


The contestants started with a nice pair of sevens, but then the wobbles set in -- each of their answers for the next two rounds were invalid.  Matthew managed to creep ahead in the fourth round, but it was the sixth round that effectively ensured his victory, as an error from Matt gave Matthew the unanswered points.  A good find in the final letters round ensured Matthew's victory; the final numbers round was too challenging for both contestants, but Matthew solved the conundrum in very quick time to pad out his scoreline, finishing the victor with 44 points to 12.

I missed a full monty in the second round, but managed to avoid the invalid options that the contestants found.  Aside from that I managed to hit maxima most of the way, except for the final numbers round where I discarded an approach too soon.  I was happy to solve the conundrum just ahead of Matthew, giving me a good final score with some nice words found.

Ep 111: Matthew Thomason, Liam Murphy (May 25, 2016; originally aired January 3, 2011)

Rounds: Here.


This episode was the first of the new year, and so the pre-game banter is mostly about New Year's Eve.  It's Matthew Thomason's third night, and Richard continues the theme by asking how Matthew spent his New Year's Eve.  Matthew responds that he did the same as every year -- he slept through it.

Tonight's challenger is Liam Murphy, who has just finished a Bachelor of Pharmacy and spent the last two summers working at a chemist in a beachside town, meaning that he could surf every day.  That should endear him somewhat to Lily!  Furthermore, Liam has just accepted a job at a pharmacy in Noosa, for an intern year, so he hopes to continue the trend.

After the second break there's a bit more revealed.  (I think this is the third time in a row, or at least recently, that there's been some further contestant chatting done after the second break.  I wonder if they were trying to make it a thing, or maybe they suspected the contestants would lose and wanted to get a few more of their conversational snippets.  I don't recall it happening much by the time I had started watching.)  Anyway, like Dane Watkins from the previous episode, Liam was also a student of Chris Scholten-Smith, the show's first carryover champion.  In this case it was for year 9 English.


Liam started off well to take the early lead, but that was the high point of the show for him.  Matthew quickly overtook Liam, then the numbers rounds pushed Matthew past catching.  Liam managed to equal Matthew in the last two letters rounds, but was never able to stop Matthew scoring after the first round.  A tough conundrum proved beyond both contestants, but Matthew had cruised home to win, 49 to 18.

I managed to keep pace with David and Lily for most of the game, but then faltered on the last letters round.  The conundrum was also too difficult for me, but I'd done more than enough to beat the contestants.

Ep 110: Matthew Thomason, Dane Watkins (May 24, 2016; originally aired December 31, 2010)

Rounds: Here.


Matthew Thomason gets a taste of the champion's seat, and it seems to be to his liking.  Tonight we find out that Matthew once shared a stage with Dame Joan Sutherland.  It was his professional stage debut, and he was working as a supernumerary (essentially, an extra), which he describes as "the lowest of the low [...] we stand around and keep very still, and try not to bump into people".  The production was an opera called Adriana Lecouvreur.  Matthew jokingly claims that at the first rehearsal he pulled Dame Joan aside, they had a chat, and agreed that she should do the singing and he should do the standing around, and that worked very well.

Tonights challenger is high school student Dane Watkins, who wants to study physiotherapy and eventually run his own clinic.  Over the last couple of years Dane has gotten into subjects such as physical education, which he says is about the theory and biomechanics of how the body works, how to heal it and prevent ourselves from damaging it any further.  (I must say, that's a far cry from what P.E. was when I was at school.)  He has found that he loves it, and he would like to grow up and learn how to apply that to help people involved in sports such as the ones he competes in himself.

At the start of round six there's another snippet revealed: Chris Scholten-Smith, the show's very first champion from episode 1, was Dane's English teacher in year 7.  Dane watched all his episodes, and apparently Chris had a big fan base back at school.


It's one of those soul-crushing games for Dane tonight -- Matthew just kept finding options that were marginally better.  It took until round six before Dane managed to get on the board at all, and I'm sure it was a relief!  Matthew scored points in every round, including a quick conundrum solution, and unsurprisingly finished greatly ahead, 64 to 15.

My game was mostly good, but once again it would have been so much better with an extra few seconds on the clock.  Three times I found better words just after the expiration of time, and one of those even eluded David's eagle eye, so that's a very rare chance to outdo him lost.  Lily stumbled in the last numbers round so that I ended up tying her and David on the solo score, but that just emphasises how much I needed to find those better words faster and so outdo them.  Maybe next time...

Ep 109: Jodi Knight, Matthew Thomason (May 23, 2016; originally aired December 30, 2010)

Rounds: Here.


Jodi Knight returns for her second game, and Richard notes that Jodi is involved in an indigenous education program.  He asks for more details, and Jodi responds that she works as an Aboriginal education worker at a high school from "where [she is] from".  She works on anything that they need help with, which is mostly mathematics and English.

There's also a little more of a chat with Jodi later on in the show, at the start of the last third.  Richard refers back to yesterday's talk where it was mentioned that Jodi coaches cricket, and asks if she is doing any of that at the moment.  Jodi responds in the affirmative; in fact, she is coaching two teams: a local under-12's boys side, and a regional representative primary girls side.

Tonight's challenger is Matthew Thomason, a TV writer and director who has created shows about everything from travel to backyard science experiments, and once wrote scripts for Michelle Obama.  Richard naturally asks how that came to be about.  Matthew explains that he works for the company that produces Mythbusters, and they are doing an alternative version incorporating backyard science and Q&A's based on science.  In addition to their regular presenter, they also included some special guest presenters, of which one was Michelle Obama.  She wanted to talk about fighting childhood obesity, so he wrote some scripts for that.  (Unfortunately, I cannot figure out what that show would have been; it was most likely part of her Let's Move campaign, which would place it in 2010, but I haven't found a good match for the available information.)

Richard adds another snippet here, that over twenty years ago he and Matthew worked together.  Matthew describes it as Richard doing "in-flight videos for a very well-known commerical airline", and Matthew was the producer of those videos.


Jodi found an excellent word in the first game, but was blown out of the water by Matthew's even better find of a full monty.  Another good find from Matthew in the second round put him a daunting 25 points ahead, and that ended up being just too much to recover from.  It was mostly level-pegging after that, with Jodi making a couple of small pickups but not quite enough.  She needed to solve the last numbers round to have a chance, but it was too hard and Matthew was safe going into the conundrum.  Neither managed to solve it, and Matthew won with 46 points to Jodi's 34.

I was just a fraction too slow to see two words tonight, including that full monty.  But the remaining rounds provided enough fodder for me to come back, particularly a couple of challenging numbers rounds.  I was just safe going into the conundrum; I was a bit slow to solve it, but got there, and was rather relieved to get the win after missing that full monty.  It always makes such a big difference!

Weekly summary: Episodes 104 to 108

Once again I forgot about doing the summary until Monday.  Whoops!  There's not too much difference from last week; decent results but never quite finding those high notes.  As I've noticed happening before, it seems that my performance dropped off toward the end of the week, although that could partly be attributed to some excellent finds from Jodi Knight on Friday.

	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri
Me	75	60	59	69	57
Champion	40	23	6	29	33
Challenger	20	32	10	28	48
David + Lily	77	86	72	74	73
Me (solo)	75	75	69	69	70

Luke managed to break that trend of the champion losing, but only for one game.  Kathryn also managed to defend the champion's position once, but lost in turn to David, who then lost to Jodi on the final night.  Jodi had some good results in that game; let's hope she can keep that up!

Brett Chaiyawat	25	59	28	42	34		188
Luke Brattoni	53	52	44				149
Kathryn James	46	41	36				123
Jason Dunn	59	43					102
Raf Goodens	59	39					98
David Waddell	38	33					71
Jodi Knight*	48						48
Aram Kalyanasundaram	36						36

There was one full monty available this week, ably found by David.  The numbers were a bit more lively in the latter half, with one genuinely unreachable target and two others that were rather difficult.

	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri
Full Monties		1				1
Missed Full Monties						0
Tough Numbers				1	1	2
Impossible Numbers			1			1

I started out the week doing pretty well on the maxima, and if not for a very poor result in a numbers round would have had a maximal game on Wednesday.  But the late-week curse hit, and I dropped a lot on Thursday and Friday.  The silver lining is that I've solved every conundrum so far, although twice contestants have beaten me to it.

	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri
Maximums: L	3	3	5	2	1
N	3	3	2	1	2
C	1	1	1	1	1

Contestants sorted by average score:

	Total	Games	Average
Jason Dunn	102	2	51.00
Luke Brattoni	149	3	49.67
Raf Goodens	98	2	49.00
Jodi Knight*	48	1	48.00
Kathryn James	123	3	41.00
Brett Chaiyawat	188	5	37.60
Aram Kalyanasundaram	36	1	36.00
David Waddell	71	2	35.50
Rhys McCaig	13	1	13.00

Ep 108: David Waddell, Jodi Knight (May 20, 2016; originally aired December 29, 2010)

Rounds: Here.


David Waddell gets his turn in the champion's seat tonight, and Richard reveals that it is David's wedding anniversary tonight.  (I'm guessing that was the airdate rather than the date of filming, although they would have been fairly close at that point -- the show's organisers only found out quite late that they were being renewed after the end of the first series.)  Four years ago he married "[his] lovely wife Jen".  He proposed to her during a climb of the Sydney harbour bridge, right at the top of it.

Tonight's challenger is Jodi Knight, a radiography student and education worker who describes herself as "sports crazed".  Jodi plays basketball and tennis, and coaches cricket.  That's all we find out -- it was a strangely short introduction.

To avoid confusion between the Davids, I will be referring to David Astle as DA for the rest of this writeup.


Jodi took a small risk in the first round that paid off, and then the next round was split.  Both contestants rather strangely ended up with invalid answers to the first numbers round, but then Jodi stretched her lead with an excellent find in round 4.  Shared rounds followed -- the remaining numbers rounds were too easy to be useful -- and again both contestants had invalid answers in round 7.  Jodi was safe going into the conundrum, and with neither solving it the scoreline remained at 48 to 33 in her favour.

I was not able to find my best options that well, and only those invalid answers from Jodi kept me close.  Thanks to those I was just a point behind going into the conundrum, and fortunately managed to solve it to scramble home to the win.  Phew!

Ep 107: Kathryn James, David Waddell (May 19, 2016; originall aired December 28, 2010)

Rounds: Here.


It's Kathryn James' third night on the show, and we find out that she likes to read.  And in particular, she recently bought a copy of 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die.  Remember that fad?  It will certainly provide her with a lot of suggestions for upcoming reading material, although Kathryn indicates that it will not be the entirety of her reading list.

Tonight's challenger is David Waddell, a secondary school teacher who is currently studying a masters of divinity.  In response to Richard's questioning, David explains that it is a graduate degree in theology for someone with a degree in a different discipline.  He intends to use it to go over to Africa and do some aid and development work in Malawi, Mozambique, or Tanzania.

As a minor policy change from previous writeups, I'll be referring to David Astle as DA in the rest of this writeup to avoid confusion over which David is meant.


It was a close game tonight, with some good back-and-forth from the contestants.  David took the first advantage, but Kathryn struck back in the second round to take the lead, then extended it in the numbers.  Both contestants did well in the next letters round, and David managed to close the gap to just one point in the following one.  A couple of matched efforts followed, then Kathryn extended her lead on the last numbers round, putting her eight points ahead going into the conundrum.  It was a good position to be in, but not quite good enough: David solved the conundrum first, sneaking home for victory, 38 to 36.

I dropped a few maxima tonight, but it was the numbers ones that made me unhappy.  They were findable, and I solved both of them shortly after time.  I just need to be a bit faster!  If I had found the solutions I would have outpointed DA and Lily -- a very rare occurrence!

Ep 106: Kathryn James, Rhys McCaig (May 18, 2016; originally aired December 27, 2010)

Rounds: Here.

Kathryn James gets her turn in the champion's seat tonight, and we find out that she plays indoor soccer.  She has done so for a couple of years, and is "more of a defender", having scored a total of one goal last year.

Tonight's challenger is Rhys McCaig, and IT consultant with an interest in politics, to the extent that he attended the inauguration of Barack Obama.  Rhys happened to be nearby at the time for a wedding, and knowing that the inauguration was coming up he scrambled to find a ticket online; he paid an exorbitant amount of money for it, but says it was possibly one of the most exciting moments of his life.


It was a low-scoring affair tonight, with no number targets being reached and only one word as long as seven letters found.  Rhys was in trouble from the start, finding only very short words (at one point declaring a three); Kathryn also had a bit of trouble finding long options, so her advantage was smaller than might have been expected.  Rhys managed to score points in the first numbers round to reduce the gap, but Kathryn stretched her lead over the next two letters rounds.  Rhys finally scored points in the last letters round, putting him barely within conundrum range, but then Kathryn sealed the win in the final numbers round.  She followed that up by solving the conundrum, for a 41 to 13 victory.

I was doing quite well until the last two rounds, and on track for a maximal game.  But I got lost in the final numbers round and so missed my chance to equal David and Lily.  Kathryn beat me to the conundrum, but I had a comfortable lead over both contestants in any case.

Ep 105: Luke Brattoni, Kathryn James (May 17, 2016; originally aired December 24, 2010)

Rounds: Here.


It's the third night for Luke Brattoni, and Richard lets us know that Luke is a keen cartoonist.  That ties in with yesterday's story about him drawing cartoon licenses for kids.  Luke says that this goes back to primary school -- when he first got a computer he started doodling in the paint program.  He adds that he is OK at ink drawing, but the ability to adjust digital images is something that he finds really appealing.

Challenging Luke tonight is Kathryn James, a project officer in the international development sector.  Richard asks what it is that Kathryn does within that sector; she responds first by explaining that international development includes both emergency relief and long term projects.  At the moment, Kathryn is working on integrating disability into that, both in making people more aware of it and in making projects more accessible to disabilities.

(On first viewing, I don't think that I was left any the wiser as to what "international development" meant -- development spanning nations?  I think that Kathryn could have explained that better, but it might be one of those situations where you're so immersed in the subject that you just assume everyone else knows what you mean.  (Or maybe I am just less well-informed than I should be.)  Anyway, at the time of filming, Kathryn had recently started working for CBM Australia, which aims to improve the quality of life of people with disabilities in the poorest communities of the world.  So in this case, "international development" appears to mean the ongoing development of poorer countries by more affluent countries; similar to disaster relief, but taking a longer-term view.)


It was a very close game tonight -- definitely the closest of the series so far.  Kathryn took the lead early with a good word in round one, but Luke rebounded in the next round to close the gap to a single point.  An invalid word from Kathryn in round four saw Luke extend his lead, and the next few rounds were shared.  In the last third of the game, Kathryn retook the lead in the letters only for Luke to take it back again in the numbers.  It was anyone's game in the conundrum, and both contestants spotted the answer quickly and pressed the buzzers nearly simultaneously.  But Kathryn was just that little bit quicker, coming from behind to win 46 to 44.

I had a good game, dropping two maxima but one of those I would not have chanced even if I had seen it.  I did get beaten to the conundrum by both contestants, however, so there was room for improvement on that front.

Ep 104: Luke Brattoni, Aram Kalyanasundaram (May 16, 2016; originally aired December 23, 2010)

Rounds: Here.


Richard welcomes Luke back as the carry-over champion, and Luke remarks that he is "delightfully surprised to be here".  Richard then asks for more details about the work that Luke does with primary school children.  Luke explains that it is an after school activity; they prepare an afternoon tea for the kids, clean up after them, and supervise them on the playground.  Apparently there is a minor fad at the moment for fake IDs, so he has been drawing little cartoons on pieces of paper for seven-year-olds.

In the challenger's seat we have Aram Kalyanasundaram, an IT consultant in the retail industry whose dream job is to be a TV presenter.  Aram has taken steps in that direction by working as a radio jockey in his college days, but since then has had to focus on work responsibilities.


Luke took the early lead, with Aram unable to score points in the first two rounds.  But Aram struck back in the first numbers round, closing the gap to just three points.  The letters continued to favour Luke -- Aram was only able to score points in one letters round, and that was shared with Luke -- and the numbers were not kind enough to Aram.  Luke sealed the game by solving the final numbers round; Aram got the consolation prize of solving the conundrum, but Luke got the win, 52 to 36.  That's the first time this series that the challenger has not won.

I had a much better game than last week.  I only dropped two maxima; one was a word I had written down but did not chance, while the other I found somewhat too late.  So that's definitely progress for me.

Weekly summary: Episodes 101 to 103

Wow, it's been so long since I've last done these writeups that I forgot about the weekly summaries until now.  It's a short week, since the schedule got rotated due to a few delays in the re-runs a while back so the new series started on Wednesday instead of Monday.

I'd mark my performance so far as solid without being great.  Certainly I've never looked like matching David in the words, although the numbers and conundrums have gone well enough.  I hope to improve in the coming weeks.

	Wed	Thu	Fri
Me	65	71	54
Champion	28	29	33
Challenger	38	49	47
David + Lily	75	74	77
Me (solo)	72	71	71

The challengers won each game so far, and with scores over fifty.  Brett's run thus came to an end on the first night, and he will probably miss out on the finals, although he has a slight chance of getting there.  Luke is the carryover champion.

Brett Chaiyawat	25	59	28	42	34		188
Jason Dunn	59	43					102
Raf Goodens	59	39					98
Luke Brattoni*	53						53

There were no potential full monties so far, nor any overly difficult numbers.  Well, none that stumped Lily, anyway.

	Wed	Thu	Fri
Full Monties				0
Missed Full Monties				0
Tough Numbers				0
Impossible Numbers				0

I was playing way below my best this week, due to a combination of rustiness and mental fatigue brought on by the (enjoyable!) MUMS Puzzle Hunt.  I got very few letters maximums as a result.  The numbers were mostly straightforward, and happily I solved each of the conundrums.

	Wed	Thu	Fri
Maximums: L	1	1	2
N	3	3	2
C	1	1	1

Contestants sorted by average score:

	Total	Games	Average
Luke Brattoni*	53	1	53.00
Jason Dunn	102	2	51.00
Raf Goodens	98	2	49.00
Brett Chaiyawat	188	5	37.60

Ep 103: Raf Goodens, Luke Brattoni (May 13, 2016; originally aired December 22, 2010)

Rounds: Here.

Raf Goodens gets to try out the champion's seat tonight.  Richard informs us that Raf moved to Australia from Belgium two and a half years ago, and says that Raf is quite an exception to the rest of his family.  Raf says that he is the son of a pig farmer, and many of the rest of his family are pig farmers also.  He adds that numbers have always appealed to him more.

Challenging Raf is Luke Brattoni, who currently works with primary school children.  However, last year he completed a media degree, and hopes to work in TV, film, or internet entertainment.  Richard segues a bit awkwardly from that to note that Luke is involved in rapping.  Luke takes the opportunity to demonstrate, with something he prepared a little earlier:

Throw me a letter or number, I'll make my competitor wonder how a veteran was bettered by a kid admittedly dumber, causing a vendetta of umbrage, bitter and sombre, once I flip the alphabet and get the nine-letter conundrum.

We'll see whether he manages to live up to that challenge.


Luke stumbled to start with, chancing a spelling that turned out not to be valid.  But he recovered in the next round to take a marginal lead, then extended it in the first numbers game.  It was mostly level-pegging after that, but Raf managed a key fightback in one of the middle letters rounds to close the gap to just four points.  So it continued until the conundrum, and true to his word, Luke solved it first to seal the win, 53 to 39.

I'm still not playing near my best, and had a bad miss in the first numbers round.  Fortunately I managed to scrape together enough of an advantage in the letters to be safe going into the conundrum, and it was sorely needed as I got just pipped to it.  A wobbly end to the week, but I'll hope next week will be better once I've had some sleep.

Ep 102: Jason Dunn, Raf Goodens (May 12, 2016; originally aired December 21, 2010)

Rounds: Here.


Jason Dunn takes up the champion's position tonight, after a good win over Brett yesterday.  Richard picks up on Jason's find of ELUTES in yesterday's game, and Jason gives a brief explanation of what elution is.  That doesn't really lead to us finding out anything about Jason, which seems a shame.

Tonight's challenger is Raf Goodens, a scientist whose life goal is to contribute to the advancement of theoretical physics.  Richard asks what theoeretical physics is; Raf responds that it is about trying to discover the laws of physics, the mathematical equations underlying the real world.


Raf grabbed a small early lead in the first letters game, but thereafter they were matched on that front.  But the numbers were all in Raf's favour, as he solved all three numbers rounds.  Jason was only able to solve the last one, but the game was already lost by that point.  He took the consolation prize of the conundrum, but Raf is the victor, 59 to 43.

I did reasonably, although again my letters maxima were low.  The best options were hard to see, so I'm happy enough despite that.  And I just pipped Jason to the conundrum, so that helped my scoreline.  I still don't feel that on top of things, but I'm hoping to settle into the groove in the next week or so.

Ep 101: Brett Chaiyawat, Jason Dunn (May 11, 2016; originally aired December 20, 2010)

Rounds: Here.


Whoo, it's been a while; we'll have to see whether I can remember how to do this again!  My brain is a bit frazzled from the MUMS Puzzle Hunt (currently going on), so this could be a rocky start.  Certainly I've become used to the more relaxed pace of guessing at time.  Anyway, on to the show:


Brett Chaiyawat is the returning champion, having finished the previous season on four wins without loss; a fifth win will almost certainly put him into the finals.  Richard points out that there has been quite a gap due to the finals series, and asks if Brett has been practising.  Brett responds that he has been learning from the finals and they were amazing.  Richard notes that Brett is now the longest carry-over champion, due to the long gap, a record Brett is quite happy to hold.

The first challenger of the new season is Jason Dunn, who has spent time working in a chemistry lab, is a budding novelist, and also is part of an improvisational theatre group.  Richard opines that improvisational theatre can be quite challenging, and Jason agrees, but adds that you do have moments of magic when you get up and do it.


Brett started out with an excellent word to take the early lead, but then stumbled in the next round with an invalid spelling.  Jason took the lead thanks to a tough first numbers round, and Brett continued to have difficulties with word validity.  He needed to make back ground with the numbers, but the remaining ones were just too easy.  Jason was safe going into the conundrum, and solved it some twenty seconds in to win by 25 points, 59 to 34.

I was showing the signs of brain fatigue as well as rustiness, mostly unable to hit the letters maxima and only just getting there in the first numbers round.  Fortunately I managed a couple of small pickups, and solved the conundrum quickly to get home ahead of the contestants.  Phew!

NG 837

New game 837 is now available.  Apologies for the lateness; there seemed to be some network congestion or something that was preventing access to Blogger.

The re-run is episode 100; its rounds are here and its writeup is here.

NG 836

New game 836 is now available.

The re-run is episode 99; its rounds are here and its writeup is here.

It looks like SBS are going to continue the repeats straight through into series two, which makes me happy.  I first encountered the show somewhere around episode 150, so have around fifty completely new (to me) episodes in store.  I'll have to remember how to do the writeups.

While I'm covering new (to this blog, anyway) episodes, I won't be providing new games -- it takes up too much of my time.  Writeups will be a bit erratic this week regardless due to other commitments, but I hope to settle down to a regular schedule of having them up by 10pm Sydney time.

NG 835

New game 835 is now available.

The re-run is episode 98; its rounds are here and its writeup is here.

NG 834

New game 834 is now available.

The re-run is episode 97; its rounds are here and its writeup is here.

NG 833

New game 833 is now available.

The re-run is episode 96; its rounds are here and its writeup is here.

NG 832

New game 832 is now available.

The re-run is episode 95; its rounds are here and its writeup is here.

NG 831

New game 831 is now available.

The re-run is episode 94; its rounds are here and its writeup is here.