Rounds: Here.
It's Barry Harridge's third night, and Richard notes that Barry organises Scrabble tournaments, on quite a major scale. He asks how Barry has managed that; Barry responds that he has been involved with Scrabble for many years, but never been a very good player. What he does do is invoke the power of computing, having written programs to help look up words and see if they're available, or sort out the details of who should be playing who in the next round, or make results available on the internet. Richard suggests that Barry might be understating his ability, given the quality of some of the words he has found so far.
Tonight's challenger is John Marsiglio, who has a science background and works for the Environment Protection Agency. Naturally enough, Richard enquires as to what is involved in that. John explains that they assess proposals by people who may want to build a new factory, or engage in some similar project, and make sure that those proposals meet the relevant environmental criteria for Victorian policies.
This game started out similarly to Barry's previous games, with him taking the first two letters rounds handily and then having some issues with the numbers. John was able to steady in the middle third, matching Barry throughout, but was not able to recoup lost ground. Barry sealed the win in the final letters round; John pegged back the scoreline a little in the final numbers round, but neither solved the conundrum and the final score was 45 to 31 in Barry's favour.
I was just unable to get clear of Barry for most of the game, in part due to a very poor miss in the first numbers round where I ended up with nothing to declare. It was only in the last numbers round that I managed to outscore him, and that raised the possibility of a tie if he beat me to the conundrum. Happily I got there quickly enough, but it's definitely been a shaky set of matches for me against Barry so far.
Thursday, 30 June 2016
Tuesday, 28 June 2016
Delays
Apologies for the sudden silence (as it were). Work became extremely busy for a while, and I've not had the time for this, not even to play through the games. My next post should be on Wednesday (tomorrow) evening, and it will no doubt take me a while to churn through the backlog.
Wednesday, 22 June 2016
Ep 129: Barry Harridge, Nathan Boadle (June 20, 2016; originally aired January 27, 2011)
Rounds: Here.
Barry Harridge gets his turn in the champion's chair, and Richard opens by saying that, back in Barry's teaching days, there was a time that Barry "brought together the letters and the numbers". Barry explains that he had a mathematics class to teach, and the class included both computer science and literature students; they did some work with Lewis Carroll's symbolic logic, and on the final exam they were asked to use this symbolic logic to analyse the fundamental premise of Catch-22.
Tonight's challenger is Nathan Boadle, a circus performer, trainer, and fitness coach. Nathan used to be part of the Flying Fruit Fly Circus, a circus for people between eight and eighteen that is based in Albury, where Nathan grew up. His main area of performance was aerial, so he could swing off anything that hung from the roof. Richard simplifies this a bit to Nathan being a trapeze performer, which Nathan mostly goes along with.
The game started out much like yesterday's game, with Barry dominating in the letters and the first numbers round being too easy to pose a problem for either contestant. Barry was a daunting thirty-one points ahead after five rounds, and it looked like we were slated for another blowout. But a tricky numbers round gave Nathan a chance, and then two invalid answers from Barry allowed Nathan to close the gap to just seven points going into the conundrum. Barry recovered to solve it quickly and scrape through with the win, 51 to 33.
Barry Harridge gets his turn in the champion's chair, and Richard opens by saying that, back in Barry's teaching days, there was a time that Barry "brought together the letters and the numbers". Barry explains that he had a mathematics class to teach, and the class included both computer science and literature students; they did some work with Lewis Carroll's symbolic logic, and on the final exam they were asked to use this symbolic logic to analyse the fundamental premise of Catch-22.
Tonight's challenger is Nathan Boadle, a circus performer, trainer, and fitness coach. Nathan used to be part of the Flying Fruit Fly Circus, a circus for people between eight and eighteen that is based in Albury, where Nathan grew up. His main area of performance was aerial, so he could swing off anything that hung from the roof. Richard simplifies this a bit to Nathan being a trapeze performer, which Nathan mostly goes along with.
The game started out much like yesterday's game, with Barry dominating in the letters and the first numbers round being too easy to pose a problem for either contestant. Barry was a daunting thirty-one points ahead after five rounds, and it looked like we were slated for another blowout. But a tricky numbers round gave Nathan a chance, and then two invalid answers from Barry allowed Nathan to close the gap to just seven points going into the conundrum. Barry recovered to solve it quickly and scrape through with the win, 51 to 33.
Tuesday, 21 June 2016
Weekly summary: Episodes 124 to 128
I started out poorly, risking an invalid word on Monday and generally being off the pace in every round. Tuesday was marginally better, and then the latter half of the week was quite good. Friday's game was somewhat challenging, with Barry putting in a strong performance.
Oli beat Rob, then Avi stopped him just short of successful retirement. Oli has the highest combined total so far, and must be back for the finals. Avi got to four games, but ran into Barry on the last and that ended his run.
There were three full monties to be had this week; David and I each found two of them, although I did not risk one of them. Lily was in good solving form, with just the one impossible target making things difficult.
I had a terrible start to the week, with my first solo total in the 50's thanks to an invalid answer. The next day was not much better, but thereafter things picked up. Wednesday was particularly good, and could well have been maximal if I had just been a little faster in round two.
Contestants sorted by average score:
| Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Me | 59 | 61 | 74 | 72 | 77 |
| Champion | 26 | 20 | 0 | 26 | 30 |
| Challenger | 13 | 34 | 0 | 22 | 61 |
| David + Lily | 71 | 85 | 75 | 74 | 88 |
| Me (solo) | 59 | 61 | 74 | 72 | 77 |
Oli beat Rob, then Avi stopped him just short of successful retirement. Oli has the highest combined total so far, and must be back for the finals. Avi got to four games, but ran into Barry on the last and that ended his run.
| Matthew Thomason | 46 | 64 | 49 | 44 | 52 | 65 | 310 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oli Bryant | 71 | 46 | 60 | 55 | 54 | 32 | 318 |
| Jack Dell | 59 | 73 | 40 | 50 | 36 | 258 | |
| Brett Chaiyawat | 25 | 59 | 28 | 42 | 34 | 188 | |
| Avi Chanales | 53 | 37 | 43 | 30 | 163 | ||
| Luke Brattoni | 53 | 52 | 44 | 149 | |||
| Kathryn James | 46 | 41 | 36 | 123 | |||
| Jason Dunn | 59 | 43 | 102 |
There were three full monties to be had this week; David and I each found two of them, although I did not risk one of them. Lily was in good solving form, with just the one impossible target making things difficult.
| Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full Monties | 1 | 1 | 2 | |||
| Missed Full Monties | 1 | 1 | ||||
| Tough Numbers | 0 | |||||
| Impossible Numbers | 1 | 1 |
I had a terrible start to the week, with my first solo total in the 50's thanks to an invalid answer. The next day was not much better, but thereafter things picked up. Wednesday was particularly good, and could well have been maximal if I had just been a little faster in round two.
| Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Maximums: L | 1 | 3 | 4 | 2 | 4 |
| N | 0 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 3 |
| C | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| Invalid: L | 1 | - | - | - | - |
Contestants sorted by average score:
| Total | Games | Average | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Barry Harridge* | 75 | 1 | 75.00 |
| Oli Bryant | 318 | 6 | 53.00 |
| Matthew Thomason | 310 | 6 | 51.67 |
| Jack Dell | 258 | 5 | 51.60 |
| Jason Dunn | 102 | 2 | 51.00 |
| Luke Brattoni | 149 | 3 | 49.67 |
| Raf Goodens | 98 | 2 | 49.00 |
| Ryan Turk | 48 | 1 | 48.00 |
| Jonathan Goodman | 44 | 1 | 44.00 |
| Kathryn James | 123 | 3 | 41.00 |
| Jodi Knight | 82 | 2 | 41.00 |
| Avi Chanales | 163 | 4 | 40.75 |
| Peter Stephenson | 78 | 2 | 39.00 |
| Brett Chaiyawat | 188 | 5 | 37.60 |
| Janine Huan | 37 | 1 | 37.00 |
| Aram Kalyanasundaram | 36 | 1 | 36.00 |
| David Waddell | 71 | 2 | 35.50 |
| Jayden Spudvilas-Powell | 34 | 1 | 34.00 |
| Neil McInnes | 32 | 1 | 32.00 |
| Ben Ripley | 32 | 1 | 32.00 |
| Bryce Lawrence | 30 | 1 | 30.00 |
| Louise Kuchmar | 23 | 1 | 23.00 |
| Rob Carter | 20 | 1 | 20.00 |
| Liam Murphy | 18 | 1 | 18.00 |
| Basil Theophilos | 18 | 1 | 18.00 |
| Seb Dworkin | 17 | 1 | 17.00 |
| Vanessa Rule | 15 | 1 | 15.00 |
| Dane Watkins | 15 | 1 | 15.00 |
| Rhys McCaig | 13 | 1 | 13.00 |
| Matt Bolton | 12 | 1 | 12.00 |
Monday, 20 June 2016
Ep 128: Avi Chanales, Barry Harridge (June 17, 2016; originally aired January 26, 2011)
Rounds: Here.
Avi Chanales is back for the crucial fourth game tonight, and Richard turns the topic of conversation back to Avi's childhood fascination with countries and flags. After Avi had mastered the flags he went on to the capital cities; he printed out a list of all the capitals and taped it above (his bed, presumably -- he breaks off here to point out that he had a bunk bed). He started with Afghanistan and went on from there.
Standing in Avi's way is Barry Harridge, a retired secondary and university mathematics and statistics teacher. Barry was also very much involved in the early days of computing, back in the days of punched cards. As he puts it, "you had to sit at this great... enormous great machine, punch away at the cards, and you fitted, say, about twenty or so characters on one card. Then you'd start another card, and so on. You might have about fifty or so cards; submit it overnight, get it back the next morning, and then find you'd left a comma out." It was certainly a time-consuming way to work.
It was quite the one-sided game tonight. Barry consistently outdid Avi in the letters rounds, and the numbers rounds were easy enough that both solved them. Barry found the full monty on offer, too, and had the game wrapped up going into the second break -- an impressive achievement! The conundrum ended up proving too difficult for both contestants, but Barry had still scored quite highly in his 75 to 30 win.
I was just able to keep ahead of Barry thanks to a couple of good finds, but nearly lost it at the end when I dropped a findable maximum and could not solve the conundrum. Fortunately for me he was not able to gain on those rounds, or I could have had my first loss for the series.
Avi Chanales is back for the crucial fourth game tonight, and Richard turns the topic of conversation back to Avi's childhood fascination with countries and flags. After Avi had mastered the flags he went on to the capital cities; he printed out a list of all the capitals and taped it above (his bed, presumably -- he breaks off here to point out that he had a bunk bed). He started with Afghanistan and went on from there.
Standing in Avi's way is Barry Harridge, a retired secondary and university mathematics and statistics teacher. Barry was also very much involved in the early days of computing, back in the days of punched cards. As he puts it, "you had to sit at this great... enormous great machine, punch away at the cards, and you fitted, say, about twenty or so characters on one card. Then you'd start another card, and so on. You might have about fifty or so cards; submit it overnight, get it back the next morning, and then find you'd left a comma out." It was certainly a time-consuming way to work.
It was quite the one-sided game tonight. Barry consistently outdid Avi in the letters rounds, and the numbers rounds were easy enough that both solved them. Barry found the full monty on offer, too, and had the game wrapped up going into the second break -- an impressive achievement! The conundrum ended up proving too difficult for both contestants, but Barry had still scored quite highly in his 75 to 30 win.
I was just able to keep ahead of Barry thanks to a couple of good finds, but nearly lost it at the end when I dropped a findable maximum and could not solve the conundrum. Fortunately for me he was not able to gain on those rounds, or I could have had my first loss for the series.
Ep 127: Avi Chanales, Neil McInnes (June 16, 2016; originally aired January 25, 2011)
Rounds: Here.
It's the third night for Avi Chanales, and Richard turns the conversation to the subject of tutoring that Avi does. Avi explains that his university is located in a notoriously underprivileged community, so once a week he goes to public schools in the area to tutor fifth graders in mathematics and reading.
Tonight's challenger is Neil McInnes, a managing director of a company called Way Out Evacuation Systems. It's unusual for a company to get explicitly mentioned like that; I would have thought the show's producers were wary of providing advertising. Anyway, that company's main business is 'glow in the dark' technology, used for escape signs on ships and submarines, or incorporated into stair-nosings in stadiums. As Richard says, this is for cases when an emergency happens and the ordinary lights fail.
Neil started off with a small gain in the first round, then was unlucky that his declaration in the second round was not in the Macquarie. That let Avi tie up the scores, and then a second invalid answer from Neil in the first numbers round put Avi into the lead. A shared round followed, then Neil closed the gap to a single point in round five. Avi fought back immediately, solving the second numbers round to go a crucial eleven points ahead. The next two rounds were shared, and Avi was safe going into the conundrum. Neither contestant was able to solve it, so Avi got through with the win, 43 to 32.
I had a decent game; I did drop three letters maxima, but only one of those was findable for me. The numbers were cooperative, and I managed to solve the conundrum to push my solo total into the seventies again, which is where I like to be.
It's the third night for Avi Chanales, and Richard turns the conversation to the subject of tutoring that Avi does. Avi explains that his university is located in a notoriously underprivileged community, so once a week he goes to public schools in the area to tutor fifth graders in mathematics and reading.
Tonight's challenger is Neil McInnes, a managing director of a company called Way Out Evacuation Systems. It's unusual for a company to get explicitly mentioned like that; I would have thought the show's producers were wary of providing advertising. Anyway, that company's main business is 'glow in the dark' technology, used for escape signs on ships and submarines, or incorporated into stair-nosings in stadiums. As Richard says, this is for cases when an emergency happens and the ordinary lights fail.
Neil started off with a small gain in the first round, then was unlucky that his declaration in the second round was not in the Macquarie. That let Avi tie up the scores, and then a second invalid answer from Neil in the first numbers round put Avi into the lead. A shared round followed, then Neil closed the gap to a single point in round five. Avi fought back immediately, solving the second numbers round to go a crucial eleven points ahead. The next two rounds were shared, and Avi was safe going into the conundrum. Neither contestant was able to solve it, so Avi got through with the win, 43 to 32.
I had a decent game; I did drop three letters maxima, but only one of those was findable for me. The numbers were cooperative, and I managed to solve the conundrum to push my solo total into the seventies again, which is where I like to be.
Saturday, 18 June 2016
Ep 126: Avi Chanales, Louise Kuchmar (June 15, 2016; originally aired January 24, 2011)
Rounds: Here.
Avi Chanales gets his turn in the champion's seat tonight, having prevented Oli from successfully retiring last night. Richard opens by saying that, even as a small child, Avi had always enjoyed the idea of travel and different countries. Avi says that he used to have a map over his bed, and before he went to sleep he would memorise the locations of the various countries, as well as their flags along the bottom. Richard suggests that this meant that Avi would put himself to sleep by counting flags instead of sheep.
Tonight's challenger is Louise Kuchmar, an office manager with a background in psychology. Louise also sings as lead vocalist of a wedding band, so she gets to go to a lot of people's weddings, which she loves. If I'm getting the timing right, not long after this show aired Louise helped form the acapella group Mint26, and a little over a year later they appeared on Australia's Got Talent (audition video).
It was a low-scoring and see-sawing game tonight. Avi was a little unlucky that his answer in round one was invalid, then a shared round followed. The first numbers round stumped both contestants, with Avi having a very unexpected invalid declaration, then a couple of invalid answers from Louise allowed Avi to take the lead. The lead swapped twice more in rounds seven and eight, and it was Avi who was ahead going into the conundrum. He managed to solve it, and so won a close contest, 37 to 23.
I had a nearly-maximal game tonight, just dropping the one maximum. A nice change after the previous two games!
Avi Chanales gets his turn in the champion's seat tonight, having prevented Oli from successfully retiring last night. Richard opens by saying that, even as a small child, Avi had always enjoyed the idea of travel and different countries. Avi says that he used to have a map over his bed, and before he went to sleep he would memorise the locations of the various countries, as well as their flags along the bottom. Richard suggests that this meant that Avi would put himself to sleep by counting flags instead of sheep.
Tonight's challenger is Louise Kuchmar, an office manager with a background in psychology. Louise also sings as lead vocalist of a wedding band, so she gets to go to a lot of people's weddings, which she loves. If I'm getting the timing right, not long after this show aired Louise helped form the acapella group Mint26, and a little over a year later they appeared on Australia's Got Talent (audition video).
It was a low-scoring and see-sawing game tonight. Avi was a little unlucky that his answer in round one was invalid, then a shared round followed. The first numbers round stumped both contestants, with Avi having a very unexpected invalid declaration, then a couple of invalid answers from Louise allowed Avi to take the lead. The lead swapped twice more in rounds seven and eight, and it was Avi who was ahead going into the conundrum. He managed to solve it, and so won a close contest, 37 to 23.
I had a nearly-maximal game tonight, just dropping the one maximum. A nice change after the previous two games!
Thursday, 16 June 2016
Ep 125: Oli Bryant, Avi Chanales (June 14, 2016; originally aired January 21, 2011)
Rounds: Here.
In the pre-show chat, David mentions that it was Richard's birthday yesterday, and there's the usual television fauxness of asking what he did for an event that was still in the future at the time of screening. Richard says that he and Alison went out to a nice dinner "to celebrate [his] 73rd birthday". That prompts some laughter from David, as Richard is overstating things somewhat -- it would have been his 55th birthday.
Anyway, on to the contestants. It is Oli Bryant's final night tonight, and we definitely are out of conversational topics since Richard asks him about highlights from the experience so far. Oli says that he thought the numbers were his strength, so he is particularly pleased by some of the words that he has found; he then spins out a sentence using several of his better finds.
Standing between Oli and successful retirement is Avi Chanales, an American student currently studying in Australia. Avi majors in cognitive neuroscience at the University of Pennsylvania, and in response to Richard's question explains that this is the study of the higher mental functions of the brain, such as attention, memory, and language.
We were set for a close game, with the contestants finding matching results in the first three rounds. Then Oli faltered, his five-letter words not enough to match Avi's sevens, and Avi had a potentially winning lead at the second break. A tough letters round offered little scope for advancement, but it was Avi who navigated the final numbers round better and ensured his victory. Neither could solve the conundrum, and Avi won the game, 53 to 32.
I started out well enough, but felt a little off-kilter once David found a full monty that I did not. I dropped a few maxima after that point, culminating in a complete miscalculation in the final numbers round that left me nothing to declare. I did solve the conundrum to bring some respectability to my solo total, and fortunately I had done enough to beat the contestants, but I'm never happy about scoring zero in a round.
In the pre-show chat, David mentions that it was Richard's birthday yesterday, and there's the usual television fauxness of asking what he did for an event that was still in the future at the time of screening. Richard says that he and Alison went out to a nice dinner "to celebrate [his] 73rd birthday". That prompts some laughter from David, as Richard is overstating things somewhat -- it would have been his 55th birthday.
Anyway, on to the contestants. It is Oli Bryant's final night tonight, and we definitely are out of conversational topics since Richard asks him about highlights from the experience so far. Oli says that he thought the numbers were his strength, so he is particularly pleased by some of the words that he has found; he then spins out a sentence using several of his better finds.
Standing between Oli and successful retirement is Avi Chanales, an American student currently studying in Australia. Avi majors in cognitive neuroscience at the University of Pennsylvania, and in response to Richard's question explains that this is the study of the higher mental functions of the brain, such as attention, memory, and language.
We were set for a close game, with the contestants finding matching results in the first three rounds. Then Oli faltered, his five-letter words not enough to match Avi's sevens, and Avi had a potentially winning lead at the second break. A tough letters round offered little scope for advancement, but it was Avi who navigated the final numbers round better and ensured his victory. Neither could solve the conundrum, and Avi won the game, 53 to 32.
I started out well enough, but felt a little off-kilter once David found a full monty that I did not. I dropped a few maxima after that point, culminating in a complete miscalculation in the final numbers round that left me nothing to declare. I did solve the conundrum to bring some respectability to my solo total, and fortunately I had done enough to beat the contestants, but I'm never happy about scoring zero in a round.
Tuesday, 14 June 2016
Ep 124: Oli Bryant, Rob Carter (June 13, 2016; originally aired January 20, 2011)
Rounds: Here.
Oli Bryant returns for his fifth night, hoping to secure his place in the finals. Richard makes a passing reference to Oli's playing of lawn bowls, but then wheels out that tired question about strategy. I guess it was inevitable, when it did not turn up yesterday. Oli responds that the longer you are on, the more you relax, which I think is true; certainly the first game is often the hardest in its way. He then amuses by picking up the pen and commenting that normally it would have been chewed down, but since it is intact he seems to be doing rather well.
Tonight's challenger is Rob Carter, who has been a CEO across four business sectors and is now an alliance facilitator. Richard picks up on that last term and asks what it involves; Rob explains that when a series of companies come together to work on projects they effectively create a virtual organisation, and it is his job to help them work together. He adds that it is all about people, relationships, and behaviours, and it is not simple because all the participants come from their own cultures and business traditions.
Once more it is a rather one-sided affair. The contestants shared points on the first round, but that was as close as it ever got. Rob twice fell victim to phantom letters, and in the second numbers round he used a number twice as well. That let Oli get to a sizeable lead, and Rob was not able to come back. He did find a good word in round seven to take points there, but the damage had been done. Oli rounded it off by solving the conundrum, scoring above fifty again to win, 54 to 20.
I was all over the place this game, only able to find one maximum in the main rounds. I did not solve a single numbers round (although one of the targets was genuinely unreachable). The sole highlights were finding two longer words than David did, although I did not risk one of them. My solo total of 59 points is the lowest I've had this series. The lesson here, I think, is that I should not play at one in the morning.
Oli Bryant returns for his fifth night, hoping to secure his place in the finals. Richard makes a passing reference to Oli's playing of lawn bowls, but then wheels out that tired question about strategy. I guess it was inevitable, when it did not turn up yesterday. Oli responds that the longer you are on, the more you relax, which I think is true; certainly the first game is often the hardest in its way. He then amuses by picking up the pen and commenting that normally it would have been chewed down, but since it is intact he seems to be doing rather well.
Tonight's challenger is Rob Carter, who has been a CEO across four business sectors and is now an alliance facilitator. Richard picks up on that last term and asks what it involves; Rob explains that when a series of companies come together to work on projects they effectively create a virtual organisation, and it is his job to help them work together. He adds that it is all about people, relationships, and behaviours, and it is not simple because all the participants come from their own cultures and business traditions.
Once more it is a rather one-sided affair. The contestants shared points on the first round, but that was as close as it ever got. Rob twice fell victim to phantom letters, and in the second numbers round he used a number twice as well. That let Oli get to a sizeable lead, and Rob was not able to come back. He did find a good word in round seven to take points there, but the damage had been done. Oli rounded it off by solving the conundrum, scoring above fifty again to win, 54 to 20.
I was all over the place this game, only able to find one maximum in the main rounds. I did not solve a single numbers round (although one of the targets was genuinely unreachable). The sole highlights were finding two longer words than David did, although I did not risk one of them. My solo total of 59 points is the lowest I've had this series. The lesson here, I think, is that I should not play at one in the morning.
Weekly summary: Episodes 119 to 123
It was a pretty good week, although I was only able to match David and Lily once. I nearly did so on Monday, but was too slow on the conundrum. On Tuesday and Friday I was just a point behind (thanks to some good solving from David), and on Thursday I did manage to match them. Wednesday was really the only day I was rather off the pace, and I did pick up the consolation prize of outdoing Lily in one numbers round.
Jack was beaten in his fifth game, then Peter lost to Oli. Oli swept the rest of the games, sometimes in quite one-sided fashion. We'll see him in the finals, I'm sure.
David found three full monties this week (and I was happy that I matched him there). One obscure one eluded us, though. A difficult numbers round on Wednesday proved troublesome, but aside from that it was smooth sailing for Lily.
I was close to maximal games three times this week, and can take comfort from David missing the maximal options in the round I dropped (although he did find a better word once). I was too slow for Monday's conundrum, but the rest fell into line, and the numbers maxima were right up there (with the exception on Wednesday that also eluded Lily). All in all, a lot to be happy about.
Contestants sorted by average score:
| Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Me | 75 | 74 | 69 | 76 | 77 |
| Champion | 17 | 23 | 28 | 34 | 28 |
| Challenger | 36 | 43 | 4 | 7 | 10 |
| David + Lily | 85 | 75 | 74 | 86 | 88 |
| Me (solo) | 75 | 74 | 69 | 86 | 87 |
Jack was beaten in his fifth game, then Peter lost to Oli. Oli swept the rest of the games, sometimes in quite one-sided fashion. We'll see him in the finals, I'm sure.
| Matthew Thomason | 46 | 64 | 49 | 44 | 52 | 65 | 310 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jack Dell | 59 | 73 | 40 | 50 | 36 | 258 | |
| Brett Chaiyawat | 25 | 59 | 28 | 42 | 34 | 188 | |
| Oli Bryant* | 71 | 46 | 60 | 55 | 232 | ||
| Luke Brattoni | 53 | 52 | 44 | 149 | |||
| Kathryn James | 46 | 41 | 36 | 123 | |||
| Jason Dunn | 59 | 43 | 102 | ||||
| Raf Goodens | 59 | 39 | 98 |
David found three full monties this week (and I was happy that I matched him there). One obscure one eluded us, though. A difficult numbers round on Wednesday proved troublesome, but aside from that it was smooth sailing for Lily.
| Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full Monties | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | ||
| Missed Full Monties | 1 | 1 | ||||
| Tough Numbers | 1 | 1 | ||||
| Impossible Numbers | 0 |
I was close to maximal games three times this week, and can take comfort from David missing the maximal options in the round I dropped (although he did find a better word once). I was too slow for Monday's conundrum, but the rest fell into line, and the numbers maxima were right up there (with the exception on Wednesday that also eluded Lily). All in all, a lot to be happy about.
| Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Maximums: L | 4 | 2 | 1 | 4 | 4 |
| N | 3 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 3 |
| C | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
Contestants sorted by average score:
| Total | Games | Average | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Oli Bryant* | 232 | 4 | 58.00 |
| Matthew Thomason | 310 | 6 | 51.67 |
| Jack Dell | 258 | 5 | 51.60 |
| Jason Dunn | 102 | 2 | 51.00 |
| Luke Brattoni | 149 | 3 | 49.67 |
| Raf Goodens | 98 | 2 | 49.00 |
| Ryan Turk | 48 | 1 | 48.00 |
| Jonathan Goodman | 44 | 1 | 44.00 |
| Kathryn James | 123 | 3 | 41.00 |
| Jodi Knight | 82 | 2 | 41.00 |
| Peter Stephenson | 78 | 2 | 39.00 |
| Brett Chaiyawat | 188 | 5 | 37.60 |
| Janine Huan | 37 | 1 | 37.00 |
| Aram Kalyanasundaram | 36 | 1 | 36.00 |
| David Waddell | 71 | 2 | 35.50 |
| Jayden Spudvilas-Powell | 34 | 1 | 34.00 |
| Ben Ripley | 32 | 1 | 32.00 |
| Bryce Lawrence | 30 | 1 | 30.00 |
| Liam Murphy | 18 | 1 | 18.00 |
| Basil Theophilos | 18 | 1 | 18.00 |
| Seb Dworkin | 17 | 1 | 17.00 |
| Vanessa Rule | 15 | 1 | 15.00 |
| Dane Watkins | 15 | 1 | 15.00 |
| Rhys McCaig | 13 | 1 | 13.00 |
| Matt Bolton | 12 | 1 | 12.00 |
Monday, 13 June 2016
Ep 123: Oli Bryant, Vanessa Rule (June 10, 2016; originally aired January 19, 2011)
Rounds: Here.
Oli Bryant is back for the crucial fourth night: A good win here should ensure his place in the finals, but a loss will almost certainly prevent him from making them. But first, there's some chat to get to, and for a nice change the fourth game chat is not about technique. Instead, Richard informs us that Oli is a highly competitive lawn bowls player, and asks how that came about. Oli explains that it started a couple of years ago -- "the day after a night before", he puts it -- when he had been at a wedding and a few friends got together the next day for breakfast. They decided that it would be a good idea to get some fresh air and play some lawn bowls. And that seems to be it; we don't find out anything to suggest this was more than a once-off. Oh, well.
Tonight's challenger is Vanessa Rule, a secondary maths teacher with a degree in astrophysics. Richard enquires what prompted the interest in astrophysics, and Vanessa responds that she loves maths and being able to apply her maths skills to something so fascinating just seemed like a great idea.
Oli took the early lead with a good find in round one. A tough mix in round two saw both contestants choose invalid words, then Oli navigated the numbers better in round three to be fifteen points ahead at the first break. Oli extended that lead in the next two letters rounds, before Vanessa finally got on the board in the second numbers round. The gap was far too great by that point, and an invalid answer from Oli in the last numbers round was too late to matter. Oli did well to solve the conundrum again, sealing a 55 to 15 victory.
I had an almost-maximal game tonight, just dropping the one. David found a better option there, so I missed out on the tie, but it's been a good week for me so far.
Oli Bryant is back for the crucial fourth night: A good win here should ensure his place in the finals, but a loss will almost certainly prevent him from making them. But first, there's some chat to get to, and for a nice change the fourth game chat is not about technique. Instead, Richard informs us that Oli is a highly competitive lawn bowls player, and asks how that came about. Oli explains that it started a couple of years ago -- "the day after a night before", he puts it -- when he had been at a wedding and a few friends got together the next day for breakfast. They decided that it would be a good idea to get some fresh air and play some lawn bowls. And that seems to be it; we don't find out anything to suggest this was more than a once-off. Oh, well.
Tonight's challenger is Vanessa Rule, a secondary maths teacher with a degree in astrophysics. Richard enquires what prompted the interest in astrophysics, and Vanessa responds that she loves maths and being able to apply her maths skills to something so fascinating just seemed like a great idea.
Oli took the early lead with a good find in round one. A tough mix in round two saw both contestants choose invalid words, then Oli navigated the numbers better in round three to be fifteen points ahead at the first break. Oli extended that lead in the next two letters rounds, before Vanessa finally got on the board in the second numbers round. The gap was far too great by that point, and an invalid answer from Oli in the last numbers round was too late to matter. Oli did well to solve the conundrum again, sealing a 55 to 15 victory.
I had an almost-maximal game tonight, just dropping the one. David found a better option there, so I missed out on the tie, but it's been a good week for me so far.
Friday, 10 June 2016
Ep 122: Oli Bryant, Basil Theophilos (June 9, 2016; originally aired January 18, 2011)
Rounds: Here.
It's Oli Bryant's third night tonight, and we find out that he has relatively recently become an Australian citizen; he is originally from a village called Hale, south of Manchester. Richard remarks that his parents and grandparents came from near Manchester -- Congleton and Macclesfield -- so they have something in common.
Tonight's challenger is Basil Theophilos, a retired computer software developer and masseur, who still teaches computers to adults. Richard suggests that it would be fascinating to teach computers to people who may be completely unfamiliar with them, and asks how old some of those students are. Basil says that the oldest woman was 89, and the oldest man was 93. He adds that, at the end of the first lesson, the 89-year-old came up to him and asked where she could go to buy a computer.
The contestants started off equal in the first two letters rounds, then Oli took a small lead when Basil faltered on the first numbers round. The next letter round was shared, but thereafter it was all Oli. Basil did not score after that point, and the final scoreline was an impressive 60 to 18 in Oli's favour.
I matched David and Lily throughout, with the only blemish being a slightly slow conundrum solution. There was one better answer to be had, so it was not a maximal game, but a tie is rare and I'm glad to have it.
It's Oli Bryant's third night tonight, and we find out that he has relatively recently become an Australian citizen; he is originally from a village called Hale, south of Manchester. Richard remarks that his parents and grandparents came from near Manchester -- Congleton and Macclesfield -- so they have something in common.
Tonight's challenger is Basil Theophilos, a retired computer software developer and masseur, who still teaches computers to adults. Richard suggests that it would be fascinating to teach computers to people who may be completely unfamiliar with them, and asks how old some of those students are. Basil says that the oldest woman was 89, and the oldest man was 93. He adds that, at the end of the first lesson, the 89-year-old came up to him and asked where she could go to buy a computer.
The contestants started off equal in the first two letters rounds, then Oli took a small lead when Basil faltered on the first numbers round. The next letter round was shared, but thereafter it was all Oli. Basil did not score after that point, and the final scoreline was an impressive 60 to 18 in Oli's favour.
I matched David and Lily throughout, with the only blemish being a slightly slow conundrum solution. There was one better answer to be had, so it was not a maximal game, but a tie is rare and I'm glad to have it.
Ep 121: Oli Bryant, Ben Ripley (June 8, 2016; originally aired January 17, 2011)
Rounds: Here.
Oli Bryant is back, in the champion's chair this time. The word seems to have gotten around about his name, and the nameplate now reads Oli. Richard asks how Oli ties in sustainability and environmental concerns with his photography; Oli explains that the idea is to raise awareness through portrayal and imagery. For example, of mining in the Kakadu area, or the proposed desalination plants in Victoria.
Tonight's challenger is Ben Ripley, who works in publishing and has written several books for children. Those are non-fiction titles, and most recently he's done some books on invention; in particular, he has one coming out soon. (That would be Freaky Fact or Fiction Inventions, which came out two and a half months after this episode aired.) Ben adds that the most fun to be had with that (as an author) was making up some of the "facts".
The contestants started out evenly matched, and went into the first break with tied scores. Oli managed to get a small lead in the next letters round, but again the next two rounds were matched; a surprisingly difficult numbers round that stumped both contestants certainly contributed to that. In the last letters round Oli again managed to take unanswered points, and that put him more than a conundrum's worth ahead, a potentially winning margin. He sealed it by solving the final numbers round; Ben solved the conundrum, but Oli won the game, 46 to 32.
I had some difficulties, missing out on some findable longer words in the letters round. I also dropped some points on the middle numbers round, but that's less troublesome -- it was hard enough that I actually outdid Lily on that round. Despite my complaints, I still was able to solidly outpoint the contestants and round it out by solving the conundrum quickly.
Oli Bryant is back, in the champion's chair this time. The word seems to have gotten around about his name, and the nameplate now reads Oli. Richard asks how Oli ties in sustainability and environmental concerns with his photography; Oli explains that the idea is to raise awareness through portrayal and imagery. For example, of mining in the Kakadu area, or the proposed desalination plants in Victoria.
Tonight's challenger is Ben Ripley, who works in publishing and has written several books for children. Those are non-fiction titles, and most recently he's done some books on invention; in particular, he has one coming out soon. (That would be Freaky Fact or Fiction Inventions, which came out two and a half months after this episode aired.) Ben adds that the most fun to be had with that (as an author) was making up some of the "facts".
The contestants started out evenly matched, and went into the first break with tied scores. Oli managed to get a small lead in the next letters round, but again the next two rounds were matched; a surprisingly difficult numbers round that stumped both contestants certainly contributed to that. In the last letters round Oli again managed to take unanswered points, and that put him more than a conundrum's worth ahead, a potentially winning margin. He sealed it by solving the final numbers round; Ben solved the conundrum, but Oli won the game, 46 to 32.
I had some difficulties, missing out on some findable longer words in the letters round. I also dropped some points on the middle numbers round, but that's less troublesome -- it was hard enough that I actually outdid Lily on that round. Despite my complaints, I still was able to solidly outpoint the contestants and round it out by solving the conundrum quickly.
Wednesday, 8 June 2016
Ep 120: Peter Stephenson, Oli Bryant (June 7, 2016; originally aired January 14, 2011)
Rounds: Here.
Peter Stephenson gets his turn in the champion's seat tonight, and the talk is about his marathon-running again. Or rather, about one particular marathon that he would like to run. As Peter explains, the Médoc region in south-west France is one of the main wine-producing regions of France. They have a marathon there, where not only are there the normal water stations, but there are also wine-tasting stations as well. (In fact, the situation appears to be rather more elaborate than that, at least according to this participant's description.)
Tonight's challenger is Oli Bryant, a sustainability consultant with a backround in economics and a passion for photography. (His nameplate reads Oliver, but Richard notes that he prefers to be called Oli, so we'll go with that form.) Oli takes photos mainly of urban and street landscapes. His interest in photography developed at a very young age -- his stepmother was a professional photographer and Oli used to spend hours in the darkroom learning the different processes involved in turning film into photos. Since then, he has had a couple of exhibitions in cafes and restaurants, which he hopes to continue.
It was a somewhat one-sided game tonight; Peter chanced risky words in the first two rounds, both of which were invalid. When Oli outdid him in the first numbers round, the difference was suddenly an alarmingly large 22 points at the first break. Peter managed to match Oli in the next two letters rounds, but again Oli drew clear on the numbers round. The remaining main rounds were shared but the damage had long been done. Oli finished it off by solving the conundrum, scoring points in every round on his way to victory, 71 to 29.
I managed to find a few better answers than Oli, happily putting me safely ahead at the conundrum. I was even very briefly ahead of David and Lily when David uncharacteristically missed some better options in the first letters round, but he soon made that up. I managed to beat Oli to the conundrum, posting another score in the seventies for a good start to the week.
Peter Stephenson gets his turn in the champion's seat tonight, and the talk is about his marathon-running again. Or rather, about one particular marathon that he would like to run. As Peter explains, the Médoc region in south-west France is one of the main wine-producing regions of France. They have a marathon there, where not only are there the normal water stations, but there are also wine-tasting stations as well. (In fact, the situation appears to be rather more elaborate than that, at least according to this participant's description.)
Tonight's challenger is Oli Bryant, a sustainability consultant with a backround in economics and a passion for photography. (His nameplate reads Oliver, but Richard notes that he prefers to be called Oli, so we'll go with that form.) Oli takes photos mainly of urban and street landscapes. His interest in photography developed at a very young age -- his stepmother was a professional photographer and Oli used to spend hours in the darkroom learning the different processes involved in turning film into photos. Since then, he has had a couple of exhibitions in cafes and restaurants, which he hopes to continue.
It was a somewhat one-sided game tonight; Peter chanced risky words in the first two rounds, both of which were invalid. When Oli outdid him in the first numbers round, the difference was suddenly an alarmingly large 22 points at the first break. Peter managed to match Oli in the next two letters rounds, but again Oli drew clear on the numbers round. The remaining main rounds were shared but the damage had long been done. Oli finished it off by solving the conundrum, scoring points in every round on his way to victory, 71 to 29.
I managed to find a few better answers than Oli, happily putting me safely ahead at the conundrum. I was even very briefly ahead of David and Lily when David uncharacteristically missed some better options in the first letters round, but he soon made that up. I managed to beat Oli to the conundrum, posting another score in the seventies for a good start to the week.
Tuesday, 7 June 2016
Ep 119: Jack Dell, Peter Stephenson (June 6, 2016; originally aired January 13, 2011)
Rounds: Here.
Jack Dell is back for his fifth night, but we may have run out of talking points for him, as the chat is just about his performance in the games so far. That always feels like a missed opportunity.
Tonight's challenger is Peter Stephenson, an accountant at the Auditor-General's office with a background in science and physics. (I'm amused by the implication that physics is not science.) Peter has also run a great many marathons -- twenty six of them since he was a teenager. That's certainly a lot! Richard asks how Peter manages to maintain a sufficient level of fitness to keep doing that. Peter does not quite answer that, but indicates that his motivation is terror of getting too big, as he drinks lots of beer.
Jack started off with a nice find in round one for the early lead, then extended it in round two when Peter saw a phantom letter. Peter quickly recovered, though, with a good numbers solution allowing him to reduce the deficit to three points. Jack tried for too much in round five, ending up with an invalid word to give Peter the lead. Two shared rounds followed, and then the final numbers round gave Peter a winning lead going into the conundrum. Neither could solve it, and Peter won 49 to 36.
I did well tonight, except for missing the conundrum. It was solvable, but I just did not see it within time. I was happy to find a full monty in the main rounds, and between that and the letter rounds I was able to open up a decent lead over the contestants for a solid win even without the conundrum.
Jack Dell is back for his fifth night, but we may have run out of talking points for him, as the chat is just about his performance in the games so far. That always feels like a missed opportunity.
Tonight's challenger is Peter Stephenson, an accountant at the Auditor-General's office with a background in science and physics. (I'm amused by the implication that physics is not science.) Peter has also run a great many marathons -- twenty six of them since he was a teenager. That's certainly a lot! Richard asks how Peter manages to maintain a sufficient level of fitness to keep doing that. Peter does not quite answer that, but indicates that his motivation is terror of getting too big, as he drinks lots of beer.
Jack started off with a nice find in round one for the early lead, then extended it in round two when Peter saw a phantom letter. Peter quickly recovered, though, with a good numbers solution allowing him to reduce the deficit to three points. Jack tried for too much in round five, ending up with an invalid word to give Peter the lead. Two shared rounds followed, and then the final numbers round gave Peter a winning lead going into the conundrum. Neither could solve it, and Peter won 49 to 36.
I did well tonight, except for missing the conundrum. It was solvable, but I just did not see it within time. I was happy to find a full monty in the main rounds, and between that and the letter rounds I was able to open up a decent lead over the contestants for a solid win even without the conundrum.
Weekly summary: Episodes 114 to 118
The week started off well, as I managed to match David and Lily in the solo totals. The rest was closer than the scores might make it seem: On Tuesday I saw a full monty but was not sure about it, which accounts for eleven points of difference. On Wednesday I ended up a point behind, again due to a word I had written down but not been confident enough in. Thursday's difference was again due to a single full monty, and on Friday I had an invalid answer that would have given me a tie if it were valid. Regardless of all that, might solo totals were all above seventy, and that's always nice.
Matthew became the first retiring champion of the series, and then the rest of the week was all about Jack. He started with two strong wins, then had two very close games to follow. He survived them both with a combined total that should put him into the finals regardless of what happens in his next game.
It was a good week for the full monties, and David found all four of them. Lily was in good shape too, with only one numbers round proving troublesome.
I was close to maximal games twice this week, and even had the missing maximum written down on Wednesday but was not sure about it. I managed to get all the conundrums this week, but dropped a couple of numbers maxima that I should have found.
Contestants sorted by average score:
| Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Me | 64 | 72 | 77 | 83 | 78 |
| Champion | 33 | 10 | 44 | 25 | 40 |
| Challenger | 17 | 45 | 10 | 23 | 29 |
| David + Lily | 74 | 87 | 78 | 94 | 86 |
| Me (solo) | 74 | 72 | 77 | 83 | 78 |
Matthew became the first retiring champion of the series, and then the rest of the week was all about Jack. He started with two strong wins, then had two very close games to follow. He survived them both with a combined total that should put him into the finals regardless of what happens in his next game.
| Matthew Thomason | 46 | 64 | 49 | 44 | 52 | 65 | 310 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brett Chaiyawat | 25 | 59 | 28 | 42 | 34 | 188 | |
| Jack Dell* | 59 | 73 | 40 | 50 | 222 | ||
| 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 |
It was a good week for the full monties, and David found all four of them. Lily was in good shape too, with only one numbers round proving troublesome.
| Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full Monties | 1 | 2 | 1 | 4 | ||
| Missed Full Monties | 0 | |||||
| Tough Numbers | 1 | 1 | ||||
| Impossible Numbers | 0 |
I was close to maximal games twice this week, and even had the missing maximum written down on Wednesday but was not sure about it. I managed to get all the conundrums this week, but dropped a couple of numbers maxima that I should have found.
| Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Maximums: L | 4 | 2 | 4 | 3 | 3 |
| N | 3 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 3 |
| C | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Invalid: L | - | - | - | - | 1 |
Contestants sorted by average score:
| Total | Games | Average | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jack Dell* | 222 | 4 | 55.50 |
| Matthew Thomason | 310 | 6 | 51.67 |
| Jason Dunn | 102 | 2 | 51.00 |
| Luke Brattoni | 149 | 3 | 49.67 |
| Raf Goodens | 98 | 2 | 49.00 |
| Ryan Turk | 48 | 1 | 48.00 |
| Jonathan Goodman | 44 | 1 | 44.00 |
| Kathryn James | 123 | 3 | 41.00 |
| Jodi Knight | 82 | 2 | 41.00 |
| Brett Chaiyawat | 188 | 5 | 37.60 |
| Janine Huan | 37 | 1 | 37.00 |
| Aram Kalyanasundaram | 36 | 1 | 36.00 |
| David Waddell | 71 | 2 | 35.50 |
| Jayden Spudvilas-Powell | 34 | 1 | 34.00 |
| Bryce Lawrence | 30 | 1 | 30.00 |
| Liam Murphy | 18 | 1 | 18.00 |
| Seb Dworkin | 17 | 1 | 17.00 |
| Dane Watkins | 15 | 1 | 15.00 |
| Rhys McCaig | 13 | 1 | 13.00 |
| Matt Bolton | 12 | 1 | 12.00 |
Monday, 6 June 2016
Ep 118: Jack Dell, Jonathan Goodman (June 3, 2016; originally aired January 12, 2011)
Rounds: Here.
It's the crucial fourth night for Jack Dell, and we find out that his name is not actually Jack, but rather Alan. He has three brothers (older ones, by inference), and when they were all home the eldest brother would be given a job by one of the parents. He'd look at the next brother and say, "Good on you, Jack", thereby delegating the job. That brother would also be "Good on you, Jack" to the next one, and you can see how this goes. When it reached Alan he had no-one to pass it on to, and so became the designated Jack. It seems the name ended up sticking.
Tonight's challenger is Jonathan Goodman, an American bioiphysics student studying in Australia. Jonathan has had a few misfortunes when travelling, and in the past year has managed to miss three flights and left his luggage on the carousel twice. He only provides details about one of those incidents: The second time he missed a flight, he got to the gate and was all ready to go... and then he fell asleep.
It was a close game tonight, with the contestants always being near to each other. Jack took the early lead with a good find in round one, then a couple of shared rounds followed. Jack overreached in round four, which allowed Jonathan to narrow the gap to a single point, and then Jonathan found another good word in round five to take the lead. He lost it just as quickly with a numerical error, recovering when the final numbers round went more in his favour. Jonathan had a small lead going into the conundrum, but Jack continued his good form on those to snatch victory, 50 to 44.
I was mostly on target tonight, but I also took the risky and incorrect option in round four. Aside from that I only dropped one other maximum, and a fast solution to the conundrum gave me another solid win.
It's the crucial fourth night for Jack Dell, and we find out that his name is not actually Jack, but rather Alan. He has three brothers (older ones, by inference), and when they were all home the eldest brother would be given a job by one of the parents. He'd look at the next brother and say, "Good on you, Jack", thereby delegating the job. That brother would also be "Good on you, Jack" to the next one, and you can see how this goes. When it reached Alan he had no-one to pass it on to, and so became the designated Jack. It seems the name ended up sticking.
Tonight's challenger is Jonathan Goodman, an American bioiphysics student studying in Australia. Jonathan has had a few misfortunes when travelling, and in the past year has managed to miss three flights and left his luggage on the carousel twice. He only provides details about one of those incidents: The second time he missed a flight, he got to the gate and was all ready to go... and then he fell asleep.
It was a close game tonight, with the contestants always being near to each other. Jack took the early lead with a good find in round one, then a couple of shared rounds followed. Jack overreached in round four, which allowed Jonathan to narrow the gap to a single point, and then Jonathan found another good word in round five to take the lead. He lost it just as quickly with a numerical error, recovering when the final numbers round went more in his favour. Jonathan had a small lead going into the conundrum, but Jack continued his good form on those to snatch victory, 50 to 44.
I was mostly on target tonight, but I also took the risky and incorrect option in round four. Aside from that I only dropped one other maximum, and a fast solution to the conundrum gave me another solid win.
Sunday, 5 June 2016
Ep 117: Jack Dell, Janine Huan (June 2, 2016; originally aired January 11, 2011)
Rounds: Here.
It's Jack Dell's third night tonight, and Richard informs us that Jack used to be involved in amateur dramatics. Jack says that they did melodramas "and things like that" and he was sort of the comic hero. But now the only local theatre companies are singers, and no-one wants to hear him sing.
Challenging Jack tonight is Janine Huan, an integration aid in a primary school. Janine is also fond of cryptic crosswords, and in particular the ones that David makes. As she says, she likes David's ones in particular because most of the others have lots of anagrams in them, whereas David will challenge the solver with such things as Greek mythology, chemistry, and French. She does sometimes solve them, too.
(I'll add that I've noticed this pattern, too: Less experienced cryptic composers will generally head straight for an anagram as their first thought about how to clue a word. It makes them much more solvable when half the clues are anagrams. David, on the other hand, is much more parsimonious with them, generally only having a handful in each crossword.)
This game was quite the swinging one! Jack started out with an unanswered full monty, and that's often a death blow. Janine got a small amount back in the next round, but Jack took the points in the next two rounds to be twenty four points ahead at the halfway mark. Somehow, Janine rallied, and was the sole scorer in the remaining four main rounds; that not only enabled her to catch up, but also put her ahead by seven points going into the conundrum. We don't see turnarounds of that magnitude very often! But Jack just barely managed to hang on, solving the conundrum first to steal the victory, 40 to 37.
I found that first full monty thanks to Jack's body language, and thereafter was able to keep clear of both contestants. I slipped up in the first numbers round and missed a solution, but pegged that back when Lily likewise stumbled in the second. But my dreams of another tie with David and Lily were gone when I missed the game's second full monty. Oh, well, there's always next game...
It's Jack Dell's third night tonight, and Richard informs us that Jack used to be involved in amateur dramatics. Jack says that they did melodramas "and things like that" and he was sort of the comic hero. But now the only local theatre companies are singers, and no-one wants to hear him sing.
Challenging Jack tonight is Janine Huan, an integration aid in a primary school. Janine is also fond of cryptic crosswords, and in particular the ones that David makes. As she says, she likes David's ones in particular because most of the others have lots of anagrams in them, whereas David will challenge the solver with such things as Greek mythology, chemistry, and French. She does sometimes solve them, too.
(I'll add that I've noticed this pattern, too: Less experienced cryptic composers will generally head straight for an anagram as their first thought about how to clue a word. It makes them much more solvable when half the clues are anagrams. David, on the other hand, is much more parsimonious with them, generally only having a handful in each crossword.)
This game was quite the swinging one! Jack started out with an unanswered full monty, and that's often a death blow. Janine got a small amount back in the next round, but Jack took the points in the next two rounds to be twenty four points ahead at the halfway mark. Somehow, Janine rallied, and was the sole scorer in the remaining four main rounds; that not only enabled her to catch up, but also put her ahead by seven points going into the conundrum. We don't see turnarounds of that magnitude very often! But Jack just barely managed to hang on, solving the conundrum first to steal the victory, 40 to 37.
I found that first full monty thanks to Jack's body language, and thereafter was able to keep clear of both contestants. I slipped up in the first numbers round and missed a solution, but pegged that back when Lily likewise stumbled in the second. But my dreams of another tie with David and Lily were gone when I missed the game's second full monty. Oh, well, there's always next game...
Thursday, 2 June 2016
Ep 116: Jack Dell, Seb Dworkin (June 1, 2016; originally aired January 10, 2011)
Rounds: Here.
Jack Dell gets his turn in the champion's chair tonight, and Richard returns to the topic of Jack's many jobs. (We get a little more information about his teaching: It is secondary-level mathematics.) Jack gets to slip in a small joke about being called a Jack of all trades, and that's about it for the chat.
Tonight's challenger is Seb Dworkin, a research scientist with a PhD in neurobiology. But he has another occupation, as he has started up a company to host trivia nights. Richard asks how that came about; Seb expands that he has always enjoyed trivia, obscure bits and pieces of knowledge, and standing up in front of an audience making a fool of himself. So he hopes that if anyone wants trivia hosted, he'll be the man to go to. (If anyone in Melbourne is interested in that, his company is Trivia Buffs.)
The game started off much like the previous episode, with Jack taking points in the first two letters rounds. Seb struggled with the numbers, which put Jack's lead dangerously high going into the first break. Then an invalid answer from Seb pushed that lead even higher. He briefly stopped the rot by tying round five, but more number difficulties gave Jack a winning lead going into the second break. Jack continued to score points in every round, just beating Seb to the conundrum to close out a 73 to 17 game.
I was in good shape tonight, although I don't think many of the maxima were that hard to find. I did drop one because I decided not to risk the best option, but aside from that it was all smooth sailing.
Jack Dell gets his turn in the champion's chair tonight, and Richard returns to the topic of Jack's many jobs. (We get a little more information about his teaching: It is secondary-level mathematics.) Jack gets to slip in a small joke about being called a Jack of all trades, and that's about it for the chat.
Tonight's challenger is Seb Dworkin, a research scientist with a PhD in neurobiology. But he has another occupation, as he has started up a company to host trivia nights. Richard asks how that came about; Seb expands that he has always enjoyed trivia, obscure bits and pieces of knowledge, and standing up in front of an audience making a fool of himself. So he hopes that if anyone wants trivia hosted, he'll be the man to go to. (If anyone in Melbourne is interested in that, his company is Trivia Buffs.)
The game started off much like the previous episode, with Jack taking points in the first two letters rounds. Seb struggled with the numbers, which put Jack's lead dangerously high going into the first break. Then an invalid answer from Seb pushed that lead even higher. He briefly stopped the rot by tying round five, but more number difficulties gave Jack a winning lead going into the second break. Jack continued to score points in every round, just beating Seb to the conundrum to close out a 73 to 17 game.
I was in good shape tonight, although I don't think many of the maxima were that hard to find. I did drop one because I decided not to risk the best option, but aside from that it was all smooth sailing.
Wednesday, 1 June 2016
Ep 115: Jayden Spudvilas-Powell, Jack Dell (May 31, 2016; originally aired January 7, 2011)
Rounds: Here.
There are two new contestants tonight, after Matthew Thomason successfully retired in the previous episode. Occupying the champion's seat is Jayden Spudvilas-Powell, who is currently doing a bachelor of arts and plans to teach English in Japan. Richard asks why Jayden is specifically interested in Japan; Jayden responds that he visited Japan earlier this year and was fascinated by the culture. He adds that he found Japanese people to be very helpful, and relates how he and a friend got lost on their first night in Japan; at one point they had three Japanese people looking at a map, trying to work out how to get them back to their hotel.
Taking up the challenger's position is Jack Dell, who is currently juggling three part-time jobs: school groundsman, computer technician, and teacher. But Richard is more interested in another tale: Jack is a member of a book club that ended up on TV. Richard asks how that came about, and Jack provides some details. He belongs to an all-male book club (it is not made clear if this is policy or circumstance), which is very unusual; at the time, about ten years ago, there were only two such in Victoria. They formed because they wanted to prove to their wives that they could be in a book club, because their wives had one. He jokes that the difference is that the host of the woman's book club has a bottle of wine, whereas they have one each.
Jack started off with a good word in round one to take the points, and the same again in round two. This pretty much set the pattern for the rest of the game, with Jack winning every letters round while the numbers were shared. Jayden did end up solving the conundrum at the last possible moment, but Jack was the victor, 59 to 34.
I made a careless mental error in round three that cost me points, and then did not risk a full monty in round four. After that I was never going to catch up with David and Lily, and Jack was playing well enough that I was not able to get clear of him. Fortunately for me, he stumbled on the last numbers round and I was safe at last going into the conundrum. I hope I can do better next game.
There are two new contestants tonight, after Matthew Thomason successfully retired in the previous episode. Occupying the champion's seat is Jayden Spudvilas-Powell, who is currently doing a bachelor of arts and plans to teach English in Japan. Richard asks why Jayden is specifically interested in Japan; Jayden responds that he visited Japan earlier this year and was fascinated by the culture. He adds that he found Japanese people to be very helpful, and relates how he and a friend got lost on their first night in Japan; at one point they had three Japanese people looking at a map, trying to work out how to get them back to their hotel.
Taking up the challenger's position is Jack Dell, who is currently juggling three part-time jobs: school groundsman, computer technician, and teacher. But Richard is more interested in another tale: Jack is a member of a book club that ended up on TV. Richard asks how that came about, and Jack provides some details. He belongs to an all-male book club (it is not made clear if this is policy or circumstance), which is very unusual; at the time, about ten years ago, there were only two such in Victoria. They formed because they wanted to prove to their wives that they could be in a book club, because their wives had one. He jokes that the difference is that the host of the woman's book club has a bottle of wine, whereas they have one each.
Jack started off with a good word in round one to take the points, and the same again in round two. This pretty much set the pattern for the rest of the game, with Jack winning every letters round while the numbers were shared. Jayden did end up solving the conundrum at the last possible moment, but Jack was the victor, 59 to 34.
I made a careless mental error in round three that cost me points, and then did not risk a full monty in round four. After that I was never going to catch up with David and Lily, and Jack was playing well enough that I was not able to get clear of him. Fortunately for me, he stumbled on the last numbers round and I was safe at last going into the conundrum. I hope I can do better next game.
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