Disclaimer: While I have not seen this episode before, I did play through the blue book (episodes 1 to 50) around ten months ago when I was scheduled to be a contestant on the show. Additionally, I did a quick flick through it a few months back to collect words for my posts about word validity.
David takes his place in the champion's seat tonight, and we learn that he has travelled widely over south-east Asia; he went there for a few months after university to postpone joining the real world. Richard asks whether there were particular parts that David enjoyed more; David responds that he did enjoy the entire trip, but possibly the highlight was in Indonesia where he got to see orangutans in the wild.
Tonight's challenger is Arthur Barrs, described as a jack of all trades and master of many. Some of his occupations include financial planning and being an air force pilot. Arthur acquired a nickname during that latter job, and he relates the experience as follows.
I was sitting in the departure lounge at RAAF base, Richmond, with my pilots course buddies and a flight sergeant walks in. He says, "I need an officer volunteer." Everyone's just looking around, and he goes, "You" (pointing at me) and he gives me this briefcase. He says, "I need you to take this to the other end" and he handcuffs it to my wrist.Thereafter his mates all started calling him James Bond, or double-0.
(Aside: I'm not at all certain about the spelling of Arthur's surname; corrections welcomed.)
As mentioned yesterday, I'll be referring to David Astle throughout as DA to avoid confusion about which David is which.
Arthur found a very nice word to start with, but it wasn't nearly as long as David's choice. He did get ground back in the next round, though, and then an easy numbers round led to shared points there. Then David was too good for the rest of the game, scoring unanswered points in every round including the conundrum to take a comprehensive 64 to 17 win.
I just could not shake David this game; I picked up a small lead early on, but then gave it back. We performed identically on the other five of the first seven rounds and then I managed to get ahead in the last numbers round. (I think David must have run out of time, as he was clearly on the right track there.) Once again David beat me to the conundrum, and that's the first time I've tied with a contestant this series.
