Weekly summary: Episodes 181 to 185

This week may well have the biggest aggregate difference between myself and David and Lily, starting off with a whopping 30 point gap on Monday.  I struggled with the letters this week, missing several full monties and conundrums.  I ended up averaging 14 fewer points a game, a statistic I hope is not repeated.

	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri
Me	65	70	59	93	64
Champion	20	27	25	58	24
Challenger	10	17	52	26	15
David + Lily	95	87	71	97	77
Me (solo)	65	76	59	93	64

Tom won the first two games of the week, then Tony Loui burst onto the scene with three strong games, including the best score by any contestant this series.  If he keeps that performance up then he will easily take the top spot from Tamara.  Greg's only hope of staying in contention is for Tony to lose his next game.

Tamara McMahon	54	64	63	52	54	48	335
Barry Harridge	75	51	45	54	39	59	323
Matthew Thomason	46	64	49	44	52	65	310
Victor Tung	44	29	51	43	47	42	256
Oli Bryant	71	46	60	55	54	32	318
Richard Hartley	56	53	57	42	42	32	282
Jack Dell	59	73	40	50	36		258
Greg Beers	35	59	46	38	33		211

It was a week with many full monties available: David found five of them, and there was an obscure sixth one also on offer.  This might be the highest-scoring week, although Wednesday's set was very parsimonious.  Lily was confronted by one unreachable target this week, but otherwise solved everything.

	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri
Full Monties	2	1		2		5
Missed Full Monties					1	1
Tough Numbers						0
Impossible Numbers			1			1

My numbers performance was on part with previous weeks, but my letters work was way down and I missed three conundrums.  Combined with a glut of missed full monties, it's no wonder that my scores were so far behind David and Lily.

	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri
Maximums: L	2	2	3	4	2
N	2	3	3	2	3
C	0	1	0	1	0
Invalid: L	1	-	-	-	-

Contestants sorted by average score:

	Total	Games	Average
Tony Loui*	179	3	59.67
Tamara McMahon	335	6	55.83
Barry Harridge	323	6	53.83
Oli Bryant	318	6	53.00
Peter Kougi	52	1	52.00
Matthew Thomason	310	6	51.67
Jack Dell	258	5	51.60
Rohan Long	153	3	51.00
Jason Dunn	102	2	51.00
Colwyn Buckland	51	1	51.00
Brian Morgan	151	3	50.33
Luke Brattoni	149	3	49.67
Mel Cox	149	3	49.67
Rob Hunt	99	2	49.50
Raf Goodens	98	2	49.00
Gary Beer	49	1	49.00
Ryan Turk	48	1	48.00
Jeremy Rosen	95	2	47.50
Richard Hartley	282	6	47.00
Samuel Hastings	186	4	46.50
Daniel Drumm	92	2	46.00
Tom Fooks	133	3	44.33
Jonathan Goodman	44	1	44.00
Victor Tung	256	6	42.67
Greg Beers	211	5	42.20
Kannan Sethuraman	210	5	42.00
Kathryn James	123	3	41.00
Jodi Knight	82	2	41.00
Avi Chanales	163	4	40.75
Margaret Frangos	79	2	39.50
Peter Stephenson	78	2	39.00
Paula Messer	77	2	38.50
Brett Chaiyawat	188	5	37.60
Janine Huan	37	1	37.00
Had Thomas	37	1	37.00
Aram Kalyanasundaram	36	1	36.00
Luke Warden	72	2	36.00
Pat Sincock	71	2	35.50
David Waddell	71	2	35.50
Damien Chua	35	1	35.00
Ralph Lurie	35	1	35.00
Helen Hewitt	34	1	34.00
Jayden Spudvilas-Powell	34	1	34.00
Michael Bakker	66	2	33.00
Nathan Boadle	33	1	33.00
Alison Crowe	33	1	33.00
Chris Cincotta	32	1	32.00
Everson Kandare	32	1	32.00
Cameron Ling	32	1	32.00
Neil McInnes	32	1	32.00
Ben Ripley	32	1	32.00
Felix Johnson	95	3	31.67
Mike Vitale	63	2	31.50
Howard Smith	62	2	31.00
John Marsiglio	31	1	31.00
Alex Ford	30	1	30.00
Bryce Lawrence	30	1	30.00
Jon Avotins	29	1	29.00
Matt Pitcher	29	1	29.00
Kapil Chauhan	28	1	28.00
Tim Shiel	28	1	28.00
Graham Smith	55	2	27.50
Phillip Gao	27	1	27.00
Anna Gunn	27	1	27.00
David Gunn	27	1	27.00
Glen Chandler	26	1	26.00
Nicky Henderson	24	1	24.00
Preeti Goel	23	1	23.00
Louise Kuchmar	23	1	23.00
Vikas Ahuja	22	1	22.00
Laurence Guttman	21	1	21.00
Richard King	21	1	21.00
Rob Carter	20	1	20.00
Rosemary Stafford	20	1	20.00
Nicky Betts	19	1	19.00
Liam Murphy	18	1	18.00
Basil Theophilos	18	1	18.00
Jenni Bradford	17	1	17.00
Seb Dworkin	17	1	17.00
Frank Rice	15	1	15.00
Vanessa Rule	15	1	15.00
Dane Watkins	15	1	15.00
Dan Boxshall	14	1	14.00
Cathy Henry	14	1	14.00
Susan Bee	13	1	13.00
Mali Konda	13	1	13.00
Rhys McCaig	13	1	13.00
Matthew Ball	12	1	12.00
Matt Bolton	12	1	12.00
Kym Logan	6	1	6.00

Ep 185: Tony Loui, Laurence Guttman (September 23, 2016; originally aired April 15, 2011)

Rounds: Here.

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


Tony Loui is back for his third night, and Richard refers to Tony as a keen traveller.  Tony states that he loves travelling, and last year was lucky enough to go to the last remaining ancient wonder of the world: The Great Pyramid of Giza.  Richard asks about the wonders of the modern world, and Tony indicates that he has seen four of them already, with the three left to see being the Taj Mahal, the statue of Christ the Redeemer in Rio, and Machu Picchu.

Tonight's challenger is Laurence Guttman, a secondary school teacher who teaches both mathematics and English -- a combination that Richard describes as slightly unusual.  Laurence says that he has always enjoyed English, but has had mixed fortunes in the past with mathematics.  In particular, in his first year of university, when he "possibly wasn't taking things as seriously as [he] should", his father was the lecturer.  That is something that Laurence advises against if anyone else is in a similar situation, which I think is very understandable.  He also advises against then failing the course taught by one's father, which is something that he did.  Oops!


Tony was a little unfortunate to start off with an invalid word in the first round, as the Macquarie did not list the medical term that he found.  But a spate of invalid answers from Laurence (four invalid answers in the following five rounds) gave Tony a comfortable lead, and he was twenty-six points ahead going into the second break.  Tony scored points in the last letters round, ensuring his victory, and although Laurence rallied a little after that it was too late.  Tony gained his third win, 44 to 21.

Ep 184: Tony Loui, Alison Crowe (September 22, 2016; originally aired April 14, 2011)

Rounds: Here.

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


Tony Loui gets his turn in the champion's seat tonight, and we find out that he took a year off from being a doctor and instead worked as a flight attendant (travelling overseas); he adds that he loves travelling.  Richard asks how Tony found the experience, and Tony agrees with Richard's remark that it was a huge change.  Coping with the effects of flying can be difficult, and it was hard work, but he found it to be thoroughly enjoyable.

Tonight's challenger is Alison Crowe, a physical education student and competitive rower.  In fact, Alison has twice represented Australia in rowing -- she has been in two under-23 teams.  That involved racing overseas, in Germany and the Czech Republic (some details can be found here).  She lists that as probably one of the greatest things she has done so far.


It was a dominant performance from Tony tonight: He started off by finding a full monty, and followed up with an eight-letter word to sprint out to a huge early lead.  He continued to score well with the letters, and the numbers offered little scope for Alison to regain the lost ground.  Tony was a certain victor going into the second break.  He rounded off an excellent game by solving the conundrum quickly, posting a final winning score of 83 to 33.

I was having an even better game than Tony, as it turns out, but then the SBS website became uncooperative, refusing to advance past the end of round five.  I had to give up on it and come back a day or so later; that interruption, I believe, was responsible for my poor performance in round six as I came back to it cold (as it were).  A shame, as I felt in really good form at the time.

Ep 183: Tom Fooks, Tony Loui (September 21, 2016; originally aired April 13, 2011)

Rounds: Here.

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


It's the third night for Tom Fooks, and the topic turns to knitting.  Tom says that he is part of a very esteemed club of motorcycle riders who knit.  (Sadly, he does not mean an actual club.)  He mostly knits little toys for cousins and friends and such, but occasionally does other things.  For instance, he has just completed a scarf, which he hopes will help out come winter.

Tonight's challenger is Tony Loui, a medical officer in a regional private hospital.  Tony also works as a hotel doctor in the Sydney CBD, so when a four- or five-star hotel has a guest who is ill, he might get called in to look at them.


The game started out quite closely, with matched scores in the first two letters rounds.  An error from Tony in the first numbers round saw Tom take the lead, but Tony levelled the scores again in the next letters round.  The remaining letters rounds provided no advantage to either contestant, but Tom was just slightly off the pace in the numbers; Tony solved them exactly, giving him a winning lead going into the conundrum.  It turned out to be too hard for everyone, so the game finished 52 to 32 in Tony's favour.

Ep 182: Tom Fooks, Helen Hewitt (September 20, 2016; originally aired April 12, 2011)

Rounds: Here.

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


Tom Fooks is back in the champion's seat tonight, but this time he has a win under his belt.  We find out that Tom rides a motorbike -- he loves the feeling of being on it -- and his favourite place to ride is down the Great Ocean Road.

Tonight's challenger is Helen Hewitt, a primary school teacher and netball umpire.  Helen has been an umpire for some time: She started off playing netball, then after she got older and had a few injuries she still wanted to be involved so she switched to umpiring.  Helen supervises over at Netball Victoria.


Helen fell victim to a phantom letter in the first round, allowing Tom to take an early lead.  A couple of shared rounds followed; then a good find from Helen put her ahead by a single point.  The fifth round was also shared, but then Helen faltered in the second numbers round, missing a relatively easy solution and catapulting Tom back into the lead.  He found an excellent word in round seven to push further ahead, but then he blanked on the last numbers round.  That gave Helen a chance, but she was unable to capitalise on the opportunity; she entered the conundrum behind by eleven points.  Tom solved it quickly in any case, finishing the winner with 55 points to 34.

Ep 181: Tom Fooks, Phillip Gao (September 19, 2016; originally aired April 11, 2011)

Rounds: Here.

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


We have two new contestants tonight, after Victor Tung's successful retirement in the previous episode.  That's somewhat good for me, given that I'm kind of starting anew after a gap.  First up, taking the champion's seat is Tom Fooks, a law student.  Richard notes that Tom is still at the study stage of the process, but asks what areas of law interest Tom the most.  Tom responds that he first got into studying law through working as a judge's associate last year, in the area of industrial relations, and that is something that he is really keen to get back into.  He takes the rosy view that it is helping employers and employees work together for the best possible outcomes.

Taking the challenger's seat is Phillip Gao, an accounting and finance student who is also a part-time auditor.  Richard informs us that Phillip does voluntary work with youth, and Phillip expands on that -- he is a volunteer with Wesley Mission Victoria, in their Kids Under Kanvas program.  (I sigh at the gratuitous misspelling in the program's name.)  That involves going on weekend outings with disabled children, to such places as Luna Park, the AFL sailing, and such.  Phillip finds it a really rewarding program.


Tom took the early lead by finding a seven-pointer in the first round, and was never headed thereafter.  Phillip really struggled on the words, never managing to find longer than five, and the only round where he managed to outpoint Tom was the second numbers round (where again he scored five points).  Tom's better handling of the letters gave him a comfortable margin, and he was safe going into the conundrum.  Neither contestant could solve it, so the game finished with Tom the victor, 46 to 27.

Weekly summary: Episodes 176 to 180

A consistent week for me, with all scores in the low seventies.  Equally consistently, I was not able to match David and Lily -- the closest I came was arguably on Tuesday, where I found a longer word than David but missed solving a numbers round.

	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri
Me	71	72	74	75	74
Champion	24	25	37	30	30
Challenger	17	24	10	15	14
David + Lily	76	74	75	76	76
Me (solo)	71	72	74	75	74

Victor beat all comers this week, becoming the second retiring champion in two weeks and pushing Kannan off the leaderboard (Greg holds on by a single point).  Victor's total was a bit low -- the next three people in contention all had higher totals -- but it's wins that count.

Tamara McMahon	54	64	63	52	54	48	335
Barry Harridge	75	51	45	54	39	59	323
Matthew Thomason	46	64	49	44	52	65	310
Victor Tung	44	29	51	43	47	42	256
Oli Bryant	71	46	60	55	54	32	318
Richard Hartley	56	53	57	42	42	32	282
Jack Dell	59	73	40	50	36		258
Greg Beers	35	59	46	38	33		211

No full monties on offer this week; Lily solved all numbers rounds and made it look easy.

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

No Wednesday drop for me this week; Monday was my worst performance.  I solved all of the conundrums this time, which helped to keep my scores healthy.

	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri
Maximums: L	3	5	4	4	3
N	2	2	3	3	3
C	1	1	1	1	1

Contestants sorted by average score:

	Total	Games	Average
Tamara McMahon	335	6	55.83
Barry Harridge	323	6	53.83
Oli Bryant	318	6	53.00
Peter Kougi	52	1	52.00
Matthew Thomason	310	6	51.67
Jack Dell	258	5	51.60
Rohan Long	153	3	51.00
Jason Dunn	102	2	51.00
Colwyn Buckland	51	1	51.00
Brian Morgan	151	3	50.33
Luke Brattoni	149	3	49.67
Mel Cox	149	3	49.67
Rob Hunt	99	2	49.50
Raf Goodens	98	2	49.00
Gary Beer	49	1	49.00
Ryan Turk	48	1	48.00
Jeremy Rosen	95	2	47.50
Richard Hartley	282	6	47.00
Samuel Hastings	186	4	46.50
Daniel Drumm	92	2	46.00
Jonathan Goodman	44	1	44.00
Victor Tung	256	6	42.67
Greg Beers	211	5	42.20
Kannan Sethuraman	210	5	42.00
Kathryn James	123	3	41.00
Jodi Knight	82	2	41.00
Avi Chanales	163	4	40.75
Margaret Frangos	79	2	39.50
Peter Stephenson	78	2	39.00
Paula Messer	77	2	38.50
Brett Chaiyawat	188	5	37.60
Janine Huan	37	1	37.00
Had Thomas	37	1	37.00
Aram Kalyanasundaram	36	1	36.00
Luke Warden	72	2	36.00
Pat Sincock	71	2	35.50
David Waddell	71	2	35.50
Damien Chua	35	1	35.00
Ralph Lurie	35	1	35.00
Jayden Spudvilas-Powell	34	1	34.00
Michael Bakker	66	2	33.00
Nathan Boadle	33	1	33.00
Chris Cincotta	32	1	32.00
Everson Kandare	32	1	32.00
Cameron Ling	32	1	32.00
Neil McInnes	32	1	32.00
Ben Ripley	32	1	32.00
Felix Johnson	95	3	31.67
Mike Vitale	63	2	31.50
Howard Smith	62	2	31.00
John Marsiglio	31	1	31.00
Alex Ford	30	1	30.00
Bryce Lawrence	30	1	30.00
Jon Avotins	29	1	29.00
Matt Pitcher	29	1	29.00
Kapil Chauhan	28	1	28.00
Tim Shiel	28	1	28.00
Graham Smith	55	2	27.50
Anna Gunn	27	1	27.00
David Gunn	27	1	27.00
Glen Chandler	26	1	26.00
Nicky Henderson	24	1	24.00
Preeti Goel	23	1	23.00
Louise Kuchmar	23	1	23.00
Vikas Ahuja	22	1	22.00
Richard King	21	1	21.00
Rob Carter	20	1	20.00
Rosemary Stafford	20	1	20.00
Nicky Betts	19	1	19.00
Liam Murphy	18	1	18.00
Basil Theophilos	18	1	18.00
Jenni Bradford	17	1	17.00
Seb Dworkin	17	1	17.00
Frank Rice	15	1	15.00
Vanessa Rule	15	1	15.00
Dane Watkins	15	1	15.00
Dan Boxshall	14	1	14.00
Cathy Henry	14	1	14.00
Susan Bee	13	1	13.00
Mali Konda	13	1	13.00
Rhys McCaig	13	1	13.00
Matthew Ball	12	1	12.00
Matt Bolton	12	1	12.00
Kym Logan	6	1	6.00

Ep 180: Victor Tung, Dan Boxshall (September 16, 2016; originally aired April 8, 2011)

Rounds: Here.

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

Just the summary for now, as I'm still very behind.

Ep 179: Victor Tung, Jon Avotins (September 15, 2016; originally aired April 7, 2011)

Rounds: Here.

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

Just the summary for now, as I'm still very behind.

Ep 178: Victor Tung, Preeti Goel (September 14, 2016; originally aired April 6, 2011)

Rounds: Here.

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

Just the summary for now, as I'm still very behind.

Ep 177: Victor Tung, Ralph Lurie (September 13, 2016; originally aired April 5, 2011)

Rounds: Here.

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

Just the summary for now, as I'm still very behind.

Ep 176: Victor Tung, Kapil Chauhan (September 12, 2016; originally aired April 4, 2011)

Rounds: Here.

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

Just the summary for now, as I'm still very behind.

Weekly summary: Episodes 171 to 175

A full monty from David on Monday kept me from equalling there, and although I got close a couple of times later on I just was not able to bridge the gap.  Top quality solving from David and Lily, as ever.

	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri
Me	78	84	64	76	65
Champion	34	22	13	10	7
Challenger	7	16	23	35	37
David + Lily	88	86	77	77	76
Me (solo)	78	84	64	76	72

As predicted, Tamara won her last two games to become the third champion to successfully retire this series.  Her consistent high scoring -- only once below fifty, and that was with a forty-eight -- gets her a well-deserved top spot, edging out Barry, while Bretty drops off the leaderboard.  The challengers won each game in the rest of the week, but maybe next week will bring a bit more longevity to the champion.

Tamara McMahon	54	64	63	52	54	48	335
Barry Harridge	75	51	45	54	39	59	323
Matthew Thomason	46	64	49	44	52	65	310
Oli Bryant	71	46	60	55	54	32	318
Richard Hartley	56	53	57	42	42	32	282
Jack Dell	59	73	40	50	36		258
Greg Beers	35	59	46	38	33		211
Kannan Sethuraman	42	53	45	41	29		210

There were two full monties on offer this week, with Tuesday's one having three possible nines from the same letter mix.  Monday's one was hard to spot, at least for me, but David did well to find it.

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

My letters performance dropped a bit this week, while my numberwork was better -- just the one maximum dropped on those.  Wednesday continues to be my trouble day, substantially below my results from the other days.

	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri
Maximums: L	4	3	2	4	3
N	3	3	3	3	2
C	1	1	0	1	1

Contestants sorted by average score:

	Total	Games	Average
Tamara McMahon	335	6	55.83
Barry Harridge	323	6	53.83
Oli Bryant	318	6	53.00
Peter Kougi	52	1	52.00
Matthew Thomason	310	6	51.67
Jack Dell	258	5	51.60
Rohan Long	153	3	51.00
Jason Dunn	102	2	51.00
Colwyn Buckland	51	1	51.00
Brian Morgan	151	3	50.33
Luke Brattoni	149	3	49.67
Mel Cox	149	3	49.67
Rob Hunt	99	2	49.50
Raf Goodens	98	2	49.00
Gary Beer	49	1	49.00
Ryan Turk	48	1	48.00
Jeremy Rosen	95	2	47.50
Richard Hartley	282	6	47.00
Samuel Hastings	186	4	46.50
Daniel Drumm	92	2	46.00
Victor Tung*	44	1	44.00
Jonathan Goodman	44	1	44.00
Greg Beers	211	5	42.20
Kannan Sethuraman	210	5	42.00
Kathryn James	123	3	41.00
Jodi Knight	82	2	41.00
Avi Chanales	163	4	40.75
Margaret Frangos	79	2	39.50
Peter Stephenson	78	2	39.00
Paula Messer	77	2	38.50
Brett Chaiyawat	188	5	37.60
Janine Huan	37	1	37.00
Had Thomas	37	1	37.00
Aram Kalyanasundaram	36	1	36.00
Luke Warden	72	2	36.00
Pat Sincock	71	2	35.50
David Waddell	71	2	35.50
Damien Chua	35	1	35.00
Jayden Spudvilas-Powell	34	1	34.00
Michael Bakker	66	2	33.00
Nathan Boadle	33	1	33.00
Chris Cincotta	32	1	32.00
Everson Kandare	32	1	32.00
Cameron Ling	32	1	32.00
Neil McInnes	32	1	32.00
Ben Ripley	32	1	32.00
Felix Johnson	95	3	31.67
Mike Vitale	63	2	31.50
Howard Smith	62	2	31.00
John Marsiglio	31	1	31.00
Alex Ford	30	1	30.00
Bryce Lawrence	30	1	30.00
Matt Pitcher	29	1	29.00
Tim Shiel	28	1	28.00
Graham Smith	55	2	27.50
Anna Gunn	27	1	27.00
David Gunn	27	1	27.00
Glen Chandler	26	1	26.00
Nicky Henderson	24	1	24.00
Louise Kuchmar	23	1	23.00
Vikas Ahuja	22	1	22.00
Richard King	21	1	21.00
Rob Carter	20	1	20.00
Rosemary Stafford	20	1	20.00
Nicky Betts	19	1	19.00
Liam Murphy	18	1	18.00
Basil Theophilos	18	1	18.00
Jenni Bradford	17	1	17.00
Seb Dworkin	17	1	17.00
Frank Rice	15	1	15.00
Vanessa Rule	15	1	15.00
Dane Watkins	15	1	15.00
Cathy Henry	14	1	14.00
Susan Bee	13	1	13.00
Mali Konda	13	1	13.00
Rhys McCaig	13	1	13.00
Matthew Ball	12	1	12.00
Matt Bolton	12	1	12.00
Kym Logan	6	1	6.00

Ep 175: Paula Messer, Victor Tung (September 9, 2016; originally aired April 1, 2011)

Rounds: Here.

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

Just the summary for now, as I'm still very behind.

Ep 174: Howard Smith, Paula Messer (September 8, 2016; originally aired March 31, 2011)

Rounds: Here.

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

Just the summary for now, as I'm still very behind.

Ep 173: Chris Cincotta, Howard Smith (September 7, 2016; originally aired March 30, 2011)

Rounds: Here.

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

Just the summary for now, as I'm still very behind.

Ep 172: Tamara McMahon, Alex Ford (September 6, 2016; originally aired March 29, 2011)

Rounds: Here.

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

Just the summary for now, as I'm still very behind.

Ep 171: Tamara McMahon, Cathy Henry (September 5, 2016; originally aired March 28, 2011)

Rounds: Here.

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

Just the summary for now, as I'm still very behind.

Weekly summary: Episodes 166 to 170

Tamara gave me a bit of a scare on Wednesday: I was only able to outpoint her on one main round, so I went in to the conundrum ahead but not safe.  It turned out to be a difficult conundrum, so I escaped with my winning record this series intact.  Aside from that, I managed to track David and Lily reasonably closely on three of the days, with just Friday leading to another drop due to missing a full monty and the conundrum.  A high-scoring week!

	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri
Me	84	66	65	76	65
Champion	35	34	58	56	33
Challenger	20	34	52	6	16
David + Lily	85	86	86	76	86
Me (solo)	84	83	72	76	65

Mel fell to Tamara on his third game, and Tamara closed out the week with a series of high-scoring games.  Even a zero-point loss in her next game will put her into sixth position on the leaderboard, and she's looking strong enough to go all the way.

Barry Harridge	75	51	45	54	39	59	323
Matthew Thomason	46	64	49	44	52	65	310
Oli Bryant	71	46	60	55	54	32	318
Richard Hartley	56	53	57	42	42	32	282
Jack Dell	59	73	40	50	36		258
Greg Beers	35	59	46	38	33		211
Kannan Sethuraman	42	53	45	41	29		210
Brett Chaiyawat	25	59	28	42	34		188

It was an excellent week for the full monties, with David finding four of them.  There was also a (rather obscure!) missed full monty on the remaining day, so this week held the potential for that grand slam that David was always aiming for.  Lily cruised through the numbers yet again.

	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri
Full Monties	1	1	1		1	4
Missed Full Monties				1		1
Tough Numbers						0
Impossible Numbers						0

My performance in the main rounds was consistently better this week, although once again there was a dip on Wednesday; I'm not sure why that seems to often be the case.  I found the conundrums tough going this week, missing two of them.

	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri
Maximums: L	4	5	3	4	4
N	3	2	2	3	3
C	1	1	0	1	0

Contestants sorted by average score:

	Total	Games	Average
Tamara McMahon*	233	4	58.25
Barry Harridge	323	6	53.83
Oli Bryant	318	6	53.00
Peter Kougi	52	1	52.00
Matthew Thomason	310	6	51.67
Jack Dell	258	5	51.60
Rohan Long	153	3	51.00
Jason Dunn	102	2	51.00
Colwyn Buckland	51	1	51.00
Brian Morgan	151	3	50.33
Luke Brattoni	149	3	49.67
Mel Cox	149	3	49.67
Rob Hunt	99	2	49.50
Raf Goodens	98	2	49.00
Gary Beer	49	1	49.00
Ryan Turk	48	1	48.00
Jeremy Rosen	95	2	47.50
Richard Hartley	282	6	47.00
Samuel Hastings	186	4	46.50
Daniel Drumm	92	2	46.00
Jonathan Goodman	44	1	44.00
Greg Beers	211	5	42.20
Kannan Sethuraman	210	5	42.00
Kathryn James	123	3	41.00
Jodi Knight	82	2	41.00
Avi Chanales	163	4	40.75
Margaret Frangos	79	2	39.50
Peter Stephenson	78	2	39.00
Brett Chaiyawat	188	5	37.60
Janine Huan	37	1	37.00
Had Thomas	37	1	37.00
Aram Kalyanasundaram	36	1	36.00
Luke Warden	72	2	36.00
Pat Sincock	71	2	35.50
David Waddell	71	2	35.50
Damien Chua	35	1	35.00
Jayden Spudvilas-Powell	34	1	34.00
Michael Bakker	66	2	33.00
Nathan Boadle	33	1	33.00
Everson Kandare	32	1	32.00
Cameron Ling	32	1	32.00
Neil McInnes	32	1	32.00
Ben Ripley	32	1	32.00
Felix Johnson	95	3	31.67
Mike Vitale	63	2	31.50
John Marsiglio	31	1	31.00
Bryce Lawrence	30	1	30.00
Matt Pitcher	29	1	29.00
Tim Shiel	28	1	28.00
Graham Smith	55	2	27.50
Anna Gunn	27	1	27.00
David Gunn	27	1	27.00
Glen Chandler	26	1	26.00
Nicky Henderson	24	1	24.00
Louise Kuchmar	23	1	23.00
Vikas Ahuja	22	1	22.00
Richard King	21	1	21.00
Rob Carter	20	1	20.00
Rosemary Stafford	20	1	20.00
Nicky Betts	19	1	19.00
Liam Murphy	18	1	18.00
Basil Theophilos	18	1	18.00
Jenni Bradford	17	1	17.00
Seb Dworkin	17	1	17.00
Frank Rice	15	1	15.00
Vanessa Rule	15	1	15.00
Dane Watkins	15	1	15.00
Susan Bee	13	1	13.00
Mali Konda	13	1	13.00
Rhys McCaig	13	1	13.00
Matthew Ball	12	1	12.00
Matt Bolton	12	1	12.00
Kym Logan	6	1	6.00

Ep 170: Tamara McMahon, Richard King (September 2, 2016; originally aired March 25, 2011)

Rounds: Here.

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

Just the summary for now, as I'm still very behind.

Ep 169: Tamara McMahon, Kym Logan (September 1, 2016; originally aired March 24, 2011)

Rounds: Here.

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

Just the summary for now, as I'm still very behind.

Ep 168: Tamara McMahon, Peter Kougi (August 31, 2016; originally aired March 23, 2011)

Rounds: Here.

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

Just the summary for now, as I'm still very behind.

Ep 167: Mel Cox, Tamara McMahon (August 30, 2016; originally aired March 22, 2011)

Rounds: Here.

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

Just the summary for now, as I'm still very behind.

Ep 166: Mel Cox, Had Thomas (August 29, 2016; originally aired March 21, 2011)

Rounds: Here.

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

Just the summary for now, as I'm still very behind.

Weekly summary: Episodes 161 to 165

My early-week performance was a bit off the pace, with Tuesday and Wednesday being rather poor.  I was just a bit too slow to spot a full monty on Monday; if I had, that would have given me a huge win in the solo game.  I did finish the week strongly, though, dropping just a single point in two games.

	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri
Me	73	76	68	74	86
Champion	40	14	12	15	34
Challenger	6	7	26	15	51
David + Lily	76	87	78	74	87
Me (solo)	73	76	68	74	86

No movement on the leaderboard this week; Rohan won on Monday, but thereafter the champions lost each game.  Mel Cox won a high-scoring game on Friday, so maybe there is some potential there.

Barry Harridge	75	51	45	54	39	59	323
Matthew Thomason	46	64	49	44	52	65	310
Oli Bryant	71	46	60	55	54	32	318
Richard Hartley	56	53	57	42	42	32	282
Jack Dell	59	73	40	50	36		258
Greg Beers	35	59	46	38	33		211
Kannan Sethuraman	42	53	45	41	29		210
Brett Chaiyawat	25	59	28	42	34		188

David found two full monties this week, but missed the one on Monday.  Lily deftly handled the numbers once more; it's been over five weeks since she missed the best answer in a numbers round.

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

I had some decent games, including a maximal one on Thursday, but again I am having problems with consistency.  Tuesday and Wednesday greatly dragged down my performance, with Wednesday in particular being a shocker.  I did get all the conundrums, though, which is nice.

	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri
Maximums: L	4	2	2	5	4
N	2	3	1	3	3
C	1	2	1	1	1

Contestants sorted by average score:

	Total	Games	Average
Mel Cox*	57	1	57.00
Barry Harridge	323	6	53.83
Oli Bryant	318	6	53.00
Matthew Thomason	310	6	51.67
Jack Dell	258	5	51.60
Rohan Long	153	3	51.00
Jason Dunn	102	2	51.00
Colwyn Buckland	51	1	51.00
Brian Morgan	151	3	50.33
Luke Brattoni	149	3	49.67
Rob Hunt	99	2	49.50
Raf Goodens	98	2	49.00
Gary Beer	49	1	49.00
Ryan Turk	48	1	48.00
Jeremy Rosen	95	2	47.50
Richard Hartley	282	6	47.00
Samuel Hastings	186	4	46.50
Daniel Drumm	92	2	46.00
Jonathan Goodman	44	1	44.00
Greg Beers	211	5	42.20
Kannan Sethuraman	210	5	42.00
Kathryn James	123	3	41.00
Jodi Knight	82	2	41.00
Avi Chanales	163	4	40.75
Margaret Frangos	79	2	39.50
Peter Stephenson	78	2	39.00
Brett Chaiyawat	188	5	37.60
Janine Huan	37	1	37.00
Aram Kalyanasundaram	36	1	36.00
Luke Warden	72	2	36.00
Pat Sincock	71	2	35.50
David Waddell	71	2	35.50
Damien Chua	35	1	35.00
Jayden Spudvilas-Powell	34	1	34.00
Michael Bakker	66	2	33.00
Nathan Boadle	33	1	33.00
Everson Kandare	32	1	32.00
Cameron Ling	32	1	32.00
Neil McInnes	32	1	32.00
Ben Ripley	32	1	32.00
Felix Johnson	95	3	31.67
Mike Vitale	63	2	31.50
John Marsiglio	31	1	31.00
Bryce Lawrence	30	1	30.00
Matt Pitcher	29	1	29.00
Tim Shiel	28	1	28.00
Graham Smith	55	2	27.50
Anna Gunn	27	1	27.00
David Gunn	27	1	27.00
Glen Chandler	26	1	26.00
Nicky Henderson	24	1	24.00
Louise Kuchmar	23	1	23.00
Vikas Ahuja	22	1	22.00
Rob Carter	20	1	20.00
Rosemary Stafford	20	1	20.00
Nicky Betts	19	1	19.00
Liam Murphy	18	1	18.00
Basil Theophilos	18	1	18.00
Jenni Bradford	17	1	17.00
Seb Dworkin	17	1	17.00
Frank Rice	15	1	15.00
Vanessa Rule	15	1	15.00
Dane Watkins	15	1	15.00
Susan Bee	13	1	13.00
Mali Konda	13	1	13.00
Rhys McCaig	13	1	13.00
Matthew Ball	12	1	12.00
Matt Bolton	12	1	12.00

Much overdue status update

Apologies for the long silence here.  Once I got behind, the effort involved in catching up made it less appealing, leading to the obvious negative feedback loop.  So here's what will be happening: On Monday night I'll be putting up the rest of the bare-bones summaries (and placeholder statistics pages).  I'll then aim to resume the detailed writeups from Monday, and gradually work through the backlog and put up the longer descriptions.  There were a couple of good contestant runs in that period (particularly Tamara) that I'm sad I did not get around to blogging in a timely fashion.

Ep 165: Jeremy Rosen, Mel Cox (August 26, 2016; originally aired March 18, 2011)

Rounds: Here.

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

Just the summary for now, as I'm still very behind.

Ep 164: Pat Sincock, Jeremy Rosen (August 25, 2016; originally aired March 17, 2011)

Rounds: Here.

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

Just the summary for now, as I'm still very behind.

Ep 163: Graham Smith, Pat Sincock (August 24, 2016; originally aired March 16, 2011)

Rounds: Here.

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

Just the summary for now, as I'm still very behind.

Ep 162: Rohan Long, Graham Smith (August 23, 2016; originally aired March 15, 2011)

Rounds: Here.

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

Just the summary for now, as I'm still very behind.

Ep 161: Rohan Long, Nicky Betts (August 22, 2016; originally aired March 14, 2011)

Rounds: Here.

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

Just the summary for now, as I'm still very behind.

Weekly summary: Episodes 156 to 160

I was back to an erratic performance this week; the highlights were Tuesday and Friday, where I managed to equal David and Lily on the solo totals.  In fact, I had an optimal game on Tuesday, which is always nice.  The other days I ended up rather further away than I would have liked; on Monday the key issue was failing to solve a conundrum, while on Wednesday and Thursday I had great difficulties with the numbers.  I definitely want to improve on that.

	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri
Me	59	77	61	63	77
Champion	34	25	42	23	16
Challenger	20	10	23	17	32
David + Lily	77	77	73	75	77
Me (solo)	65	77	61	70	77

Richard Hartley made it all the way to his sixth game, but was defeated by Rohan on Friday.  That pushes Samuel Hastings out of contention for the finals; only contestants with five or more games remain.  We're less than two-thirds of the way through the series, so we'd expect a few more finalists to come; at this point, I'd say that Greg, Kannan, and Brett are likely to miss the cut.

Barry Harridge	75	51	45	54	39	59	323
Matthew Thomason	46	64	49	44	52	65	310
Oli Bryant	71	46	60	55	54	32	318
Richard Hartley	56	53	57	42	42	32	282
Jack Dell	59	73	40	50	36		258
Greg Beers	35	59	46	38	33		211
Kannan Sethuraman	42	53	45	41	29		210
Brett Chaiyawat	25	59	28	42	34		188

Just the one round of interest this week, an impossible numbers target on Wednesday.  That broke Lily's solving streak, although she still would have found the best answer.

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

My maximum count in the main rounds again equalled that of last week, but my performance was less consistent.  I really need to hit those numbers targets; as Lily demonstrates, the best results are achievable.  A tough conundrum contributed to a poor scoreline on Monday, but I managed to solve the remaining ones.

	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri
Maximums: L	3	5	3	4	4
N	3	3	2	1	3
C	0	1	1	1	1

Contestants sorted by average score:

	Total	Games	Average
Barry Harridge	323	6	53.83
Oli Bryant	318	6	53.00
Rohan Long*	52	1	52.00
Matthew Thomason	310	6	51.67
Jack Dell	258	5	51.60
Jason Dunn	102	2	51.00
Colwyn Buckland	51	1	51.00
Brian Morgan	151	3	50.33
Luke Brattoni	149	3	49.67
Rob Hunt	99	2	49.50
Raf Goodens	98	2	49.00
Gary Beer	49	1	49.00
Ryan Turk	48	1	48.00
Richard Hartley	282	6	47.00
Samuel Hastings	186	4	46.50
Daniel Drumm	92	2	46.00
Jonathan Goodman	44	1	44.00
Greg Beers	211	5	42.20
Kannan Sethuraman	210	5	42.00
Kathryn James	123	3	41.00
Jodi Knight	82	2	41.00
Avi Chanales	163	4	40.75
Margaret Frangos	79	2	39.50
Peter Stephenson	78	2	39.00
Brett Chaiyawat	188	5	37.60
Janine Huan	37	1	37.00
Aram Kalyanasundaram	36	1	36.00
Luke Warden	72	2	36.00
David Waddell	71	2	35.50
Damien Chua	35	1	35.00
Jayden Spudvilas-Powell	34	1	34.00
Michael Bakker	66	2	33.00
Nathan Boadle	33	1	33.00
Everson Kandare	32	1	32.00
Cameron Ling	32	1	32.00
Neil McInnes	32	1	32.00
Ben Ripley	32	1	32.00
Felix Johnson	95	3	31.67
Mike Vitale	63	2	31.50
John Marsiglio	31	1	31.00
Bryce Lawrence	30	1	30.00
Matt Pitcher	29	1	29.00
Tim Shiel	28	1	28.00
Anna Gunn	27	1	27.00
David Gunn	27	1	27.00
Glen Chandler	26	1	26.00
Nicky Henderson	24	1	24.00
Louise Kuchmar	23	1	23.00
Vikas Ahuja	22	1	22.00
Rob Carter	20	1	20.00
Rosemary Stafford	20	1	20.00
Liam Murphy	18	1	18.00
Basil Theophilos	18	1	18.00
Jenni Bradford	17	1	17.00
Seb Dworkin	17	1	17.00
Frank Rice	15	1	15.00
Vanessa Rule	15	1	15.00
Dane Watkins	15	1	15.00
Susan Bee	13	1	13.00
Mali Konda	13	1	13.00
Rhys McCaig	13	1	13.00
Matthew Ball	12	1	12.00
Matt Bolton	12	1	12.00