Rounds: Here.
Alex returns for his fourth night, and Richard comments that Alex has been a church organist for many years. Alex says that organ music has grown on him but that it's not a very popular instrument these days "because 'organ' has the same letters as 'groan'".
Challenging Alex tonight is Colin Jones, a crew assignment officer for New South Wales Railways. There is some discussion about how stressful the logistics can get when there is some kind of infrastructure failure.
There's not too much to separate the contestants as far as words go, but Alex's weakness with the numbers is highlighted in this game -- he fails to score any points at all, even when Colin has an invalid answer. Aided by a very quick conundrum solution, Colin becomes the new champion with a score of 46 to 25.
My performance was all right here, and might even have given me a victory against David depending on how well he handled the numbers. In any event, I scored points in every round for an easy victory, and my highest score so far this series.
As usual, details after the jump.
Showing posts with label Alex van der Kooij. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Alex van der Kooij. Show all posts
Tuesday, 8 November 2011
Friday, 4 November 2011
Ep 310: Alex van der Kooij, Sujaya Parvathi (November 4, 2011)
Rounds: Here.
In his third night, Alex is revealed to be a keen cyclist. He's been cycling for 70 years, and like Crockett Cooke from episode 302, has done the Great Victorian Bike Ride -- although presumably not on a tricycle!
Challenging Alex tonight is Sujaya Parvathi, a software developer with a degree in microbiology and genetics. Richard thinks that it is an interesting combination, with software dealing with non-living computers, whereas biology by definition deals with the alive.
On the personal front, it's been a bad day today, and I'm not feeling in great form for this game. It shows a couple of times, but neither contestant is having a very good game -- there's three invalid words declared, and only one valid target number (even that was five away from the target) -- and I run out to a comfortable victory.
Sujaya may perhaps have been a little overwhelmed by the filming process, as her only points came from two of Alex's three invalid answers. In a low-scoring game Alex gets the conundrum to bring some respectability to his total (35 to 12), but I don't think either would be particularly satisfied with their performance.
As usual, details after the jump.
In his third night, Alex is revealed to be a keen cyclist. He's been cycling for 70 years, and like Crockett Cooke from episode 302, has done the Great Victorian Bike Ride -- although presumably not on a tricycle!
Challenging Alex tonight is Sujaya Parvathi, a software developer with a degree in microbiology and genetics. Richard thinks that it is an interesting combination, with software dealing with non-living computers, whereas biology by definition deals with the alive.
On the personal front, it's been a bad day today, and I'm not feeling in great form for this game. It shows a couple of times, but neither contestant is having a very good game -- there's three invalid words declared, and only one valid target number (even that was five away from the target) -- and I run out to a comfortable victory.
Sujaya may perhaps have been a little overwhelmed by the filming process, as her only points came from two of Alex's three invalid answers. In a low-scoring game Alex gets the conundrum to bring some respectability to his total (35 to 12), but I don't think either would be particularly satisfied with their performance.
As usual, details after the jump.
Thursday, 3 November 2011
Ep 309: Alex van der Kooij, Adrian Lonigro (November 3, 2011)
Rounds: Here.
Alex returns after yesterday's close game; it is revealed that he is a cryptic crossword fan, which must make David happy. Alex has written guides for people to help them get into the mindset of how to solve cryptic crosswords (distributed to his students at the University of the Third Age, I believe). Richard mentions David's book Puzzled which also has a similar theme -- I must acquire a copy at some point.
Today's challenger is student teacher Adrian Lonigro, whose ambition is to become a commentator for the Eurovision Song Contest. He has apparently loved it ever since he first watched it back in 1993 (he was nine at the time), and has watched it every year since, as well as some of the older ones. He's not been to one in person, but he has attended the Swedish and Danish national finals.
Prior to the second round, Lily mentions that the Eurovision Song Contest is a big event in her family, too, and in fact they have a tradition of filling out a spreadsheet with all of their votes. In the post-show chat Lily also mentions that her favourite Eurovision character is Epic Sax Guy (part of Moldova's 2010 entry).
This is another close match for Alex, but he was ahead going into the conundrum and solving it sealed his victory over Adrian, 51 to 38.It didn't feel like a very convincing performance from either competitor, though, with six-letter words being the order of the day.
On the other hand, I was not always able to find the better options in time, and with a failure on one numbers round my final score of 65 is perhaps more flattering than it should be. The highlight here was once again finding a longer word than David, although the reverse happened twice. No full monty this game, which dooms the grand slam but the Clayton's one is still alive.
As usual, details after the jump.
Alex returns after yesterday's close game; it is revealed that he is a cryptic crossword fan, which must make David happy. Alex has written guides for people to help them get into the mindset of how to solve cryptic crosswords (distributed to his students at the University of the Third Age, I believe). Richard mentions David's book Puzzled which also has a similar theme -- I must acquire a copy at some point.
Today's challenger is student teacher Adrian Lonigro, whose ambition is to become a commentator for the Eurovision Song Contest. He has apparently loved it ever since he first watched it back in 1993 (he was nine at the time), and has watched it every year since, as well as some of the older ones. He's not been to one in person, but he has attended the Swedish and Danish national finals.
Prior to the second round, Lily mentions that the Eurovision Song Contest is a big event in her family, too, and in fact they have a tradition of filling out a spreadsheet with all of their votes. In the post-show chat Lily also mentions that her favourite Eurovision character is Epic Sax Guy (part of Moldova's 2010 entry).
This is another close match for Alex, but he was ahead going into the conundrum and solving it sealed his victory over Adrian, 51 to 38.It didn't feel like a very convincing performance from either competitor, though, with six-letter words being the order of the day.
On the other hand, I was not always able to find the better options in time, and with a failure on one numbers round my final score of 65 is perhaps more flattering than it should be. The highlight here was once again finding a longer word than David, although the reverse happened twice. No full monty this game, which dooms the grand slam but the Clayton's one is still alive.
As usual, details after the jump.
Ep 308: Nick Terry, Alex van der Kooij (November 2, 2011)
Rounds: Here.
Nick is back for his fourth time, remarking that last night's very close game against James was a heart-stopper.
Challenging Nick today is octogenarian Alex van der Kooij, who teaches at the University of the Third Age.
A close match for the contestants tonight, coming down to a difficult conundrum that neither was able to solve. With Nick having fallen a little behind -- he must be ruing that second numbers game -- Alex took the victory by 42 to 35, leaving Nick with a four-game total of 217. It's a bit thin, but it might possibly get him to the finals.
This was a good game for me, managing to find two words longer than David's selections. With a perfect turn on the numbers, it's one of the very rare instances where I might possibly have outpointed him in a head-to-head match. It was certainly a comfortable victory over both contestants.
As usual, details after the jump.
Nick is back for his fourth time, remarking that last night's very close game against James was a heart-stopper.
Challenging Nick today is octogenarian Alex van der Kooij, who teaches at the University of the Third Age.
A close match for the contestants tonight, coming down to a difficult conundrum that neither was able to solve. With Nick having fallen a little behind -- he must be ruing that second numbers game -- Alex took the victory by 42 to 35, leaving Nick with a four-game total of 217. It's a bit thin, but it might possibly get him to the finals.
This was a good game for me, managing to find two words longer than David's selections. With a perfect turn on the numbers, it's one of the very rare instances where I might possibly have outpointed him in a head-to-head match. It was certainly a comfortable victory over both contestants.
As usual, details after the jump.
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