Ep 6: Chris Scholten-Smith, Alan Stewart (July 16, 2012; originally aired August 9, 2010)

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.


Since this is the first time it has come up, Richard explains the mandatory retirement of champions after six wins.  Chris notes that he can see that he will be addicted to the show once he gets a chance to go home and view it on television.

Standing (or sitting, if you wish to be pedantic) between Chris and successful retirement is tonight's challenger, Alan Stewart.  Alan is an editor and a poet; he collects board games and stamps.  He also organises science fiction conventions, and his dream is to travel into space.  Richard picks up on the science fiction aspect, and asks whether Alan has a favourite science fiction book and film.  Alan opts for Shadow of the Torturer, by Gene Wolfe, and Star Wars.  Richard suggests that maybe Blade Runner is worthy of the top spot, and Alan concedes that it is a good movie, but Star Wars was what hooked him on science fiction.


The first third of the game went well for Chris, with Alan risking an invalid word and otherwise being just a bit behind.  That gave Chris a commanding twenty-one point lead, and by the second break Alan needed an eight-letter word (at least) to have a chance.  It just was not on the cards, and Chris was safe with two rounds to go, although if Alan had managed to solve the conundrum the margin of victory would have been a single point.  Neither managed it, though, and Chris became the show's first retiring champion with a 40 to 29 victory.

I was mostly in good shape, but it so easily could have been another optimal game.  There were just two letters rounds in it; in the first, I saw the best answer a little after time -- as is so often the case -- and in the second I actually saw the best option in potentia as the letters went up, but had forgotten it by the time the last of its letters appeared on the board.  Bother.  Aside from that, it was all optimal, including a single-second conundrum solution.  A hopeful start to the week, although flawed.

Ep 5: Chris Scholten-Smith, Jason Stockdale (July 13, 2012; originally aired August 6, 2010)

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.


Nothing much to the pre-game chat with Chris again.  Tonight's challenger is Jason Stockdale, who is studying a double degree in commerce and law.  Jason has a part-time job as a soccer referee on weekends, and is also a highly competitive Scrabble player.  In fact, he placed seventh in the recent (at the time of filming) 2010 Australian Championship.  Readers with good memories will notice a few Letters and Numbers contestants among his opponents, and in particular that he managed to beat Andrew Fisher.


There were some much better words in play tonight, which was nice to see.  Jason appeared to pay the price of the Scrabble vocabulary, twice ending up with invalid words, while Chris managed to avoid that fate (for the first time) and it proved an important difference.  Jason had slightly the better of the numbers rounds, but it was Chris who had the lead by a single point going into the conundrum.  In the end it proved to be too difficult for them both, and Chris scraped through with a 38 to 37 win, his lowest score so far.  (Note that if he had solved the conundrum he would have ended up yet again with a score in the high forties.  He's arguably quite consistent!)

I had a fairly mixed game.  I found some good words early on, but the first was tainted by foreknowledge.  My numberwork was on target throughout, but I finished with two invalid words and failed to solve the conundrum, ending the game on a disappointing note.  I'd done enough to win, but it could have been significantly better.

Ep 4: Chris Scholten-Smith, Chaitanya Rao (July 12, 2012; originally aired August 5, 2010)

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.


Chris returns for his fourth night, and the pre-game chat has nothing much to it -- just some banter about his book plans.

I was surprised to see that I recognised tonight's challenger (and this kind of experience is one reason why Letters and Numbers will play better to Australian audiences than Countdown will).  He is Chaitanya Rao, described as an electrical engineer who has spent five years studying his PhD in the US.  He was studying mathematics and then migrated into electrical engineering, which he carried on into postgraduate study.  That's a lot of time spent as a student, which is why he says that if he wrote an autobiography it would be titled "Finally in the real world: A young man's delayed journey".

(I know Chaitanya from the mathematical olympiad training, as I was involved in that training back at the time; he ended up representing Australia in the 1994 International Mathematical Olympiad, where he gained an honourable mention.)


It was an unpromising night for the letters rounds, with nothing longer than seven on offer.  Chris continued his pattern of one invalid answer per game, but picked up a little on the letters rounds as Chaitanya only once exceeded five.  Chaitanya did well on the first numbers round -- a round that proved too tough for Lily within time -- to get within one of the target, and that gave him a single point lead going into the final numbers round.  The victory was there for the taking, but he missed his chance and both contestants were still in contention at the conundrum.  It was Chris who solved it first to record a 47 to 38 point victory for his fourth win.

I started off with an invalid word when I simply could not see one of the more plausible options of that length, which was a shame.  Thereafter I was optimal, including safely (but fortunately) navigating the numbers round that caused Lily to falter.  Coupled with a two second conundrum solution, only that invalid first round prevented my second optimal game in a row, and had I just settled for a safer shorter word I could have outpointed David and Lily.  Still, a good game all things considered.

Ep 3: Chris Scholten-Smith, Helen Robinson (July 11, 2012; originally aired August 4, 2010)

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.


On his third night, we learn that Chris plays the piano and sings as well.  Richard mentions that Chris also hopes to be a published novelist; he asks Chris whether he has a clear idea of what his novel will be, and in particular whether he can visualise the cover for it.  Chris replies that he has it all worked out: It is going to be an existential thriller and there will be a cliff on the front cover.  He adds that he has only written around 250 words so far, so he has quite a way to go.

Challenging Chris tonight is Helen Robinson, a published author with a background in social welfare, teaching, and criminology.  Her book was about rage (which is also its title); Helen clarifies that it isn't a novel, and is very much written for the layman.  It talks about a lot of different types of rage and anger; Richard asks if it is about anger management, and Helen agrees to an extent.  She explains that it is more about the escalation of anger that leads to rage.


Fortunately it was a rage-free game.  Helen unfortunately had three invalid answers, which made it hard to keep up with Chris, despite him having an invalid answer of his own.  It was the numbers rounds that really proved the difference in this game, with Chris doing well to get close each time and Helen not able to match that.  Once again Chris had the game wrapped up by the end of round seven, and although Helen solved the conundrum first Chris was the victor, 48 to 27.

I wasn't quite as fast as I would have liked to be in the letters rounds, but I got there within time and that's what counts.  There weren't any nasty surprises lurking in the main rounds and I ended up with an optimal game, including a one second conundrum solution.  Both very nice things to have!

Ep 2: Chris Scholten-Smith, Nick Taubert (July 10, 2012; originally aired August 3, 2010)

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.


Chris is the show's first carryover champion, but the talk with him today is just about yesterday's game coming down to the conundrum.  Did we already run out of things to say about him?  I noticed that the contestant introductions so far have been a bit more information-dense than in more recent episodes; maybe they started off by mentioning everything and then realised that this left them poorly placed for later shows with the same contestant.  Or maybe it was just that they felt more like talking up yesterday's show at this point.

Challenging Chris is Nick Taubert, an administrator for a superannuation company.  Nick also works for a children's charity, and has played indoor soccer for eight years.  But it is another recent experience of his that Richard chooses to ask about: For the past year Nick and his housemates have been participating in couch surfing, where people who are travelling stay on their couch for a night or two.  Nick describes it as a brilliant way to meet people from all over the world.


This game was a much more one-sided affair than last night's effort, with Nick twice seeing phantom letters and ending up with invalid words.  Chris had an invalid word of his own in the first round, but picked up gains in both letters and numbers rounds to be safe after round seven.  The conundrum proved to be too difficult for both contestants and Chris gained his second win, 47 to 19.

I had a reasonable game today, but missed several better answers with the letters.  Two of those I found not long after, and a third I should have seen as it is a frequent appearer on the show.  That was a bit disappointing, but my answers were still adequate.  The conundrum was also too difficult for me -- vastly harder than last night's doddle -- but I still finished with a solid win.

Ep 1: Chris Scholten-Smith, Elaine Miles (July 9, 2012; originally aired August 2, 2010)

It used to be that each episode of Letters and Numbers had a repeat screening a week later, at three in the afternoon.  Now that all filmed episodes have been shown, SBS has made the excellent decision to continue to use that timeslot to show the episodes from the very beginning.  That gives a lot of people a chance to see episodes that they missed out on the first time, and I'm pretty happy about that.

Episodes of Countdown are scheduled to start three weeks from now, and it remains to be seen whether they will then migrate into that repeat slot or whether (as I hope) the reruns of Letters and Numbers will continue.  Regardless, I intend to enjoy this while it lasts.


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.  One particular word did stay in my mind from that, which I will mention in due course.


So... the very first episode of Letters and Numbers.  There's a certain bittersweet irony to this one given the current decision to rest the show: Richard opens with a little spiel that mentions how the format has lasted a long time in France and the UK, and that they hope the show will prove just as popular here.  I honestly think that they nailed that brief in the time that they had, and were picking up a groundswell of school viewers that would really have paid off in five years time or so.

It will be interesting to see how the cast settles into their roles.  There's a few moments of stiffness here and there tonight, and David is wearing an uncharacteristically bland shirt by the standards of later episodes.  His opening response to Richard is a little more subdued than I'm used to, and drives home just how good a rapport the three of them built with each other in a short time.  I'm looking forward to seeing that develop.


Taking up what will come to be known as the champion's position is Chris Scholten-Smith, a secondary school teacher of literature, Latin, the ancient classics, and Chinese.  That's an interesting combination, and Richard asks how come Chris chose both Latin and Chinese.  Chris responds that Latin was still a compulsory subject when he was at school, and later on in life he went to China, living and working in Nanjing.  That was a wonderful experience for him, and how his other passion was awakened.

Occupying the challenger's position is Elaine Miles, who is studying a PhD in physics and arts conservation.  Elaine is writing a thesis on the non-destructive testing of artwork; on a lighter note, she is part of a knitting group called Yarncore.  Elaine explains that this is a group of twenty physicists who have been knitting for the past three years and made over a hundred items, including some for street festivals.

(This sounds unrelated to the Seattle-based YarnCore, but maybe there is a connection after all.)


It was a vowel-heavy night from both contestants, which kept word lengths down.  Elaine risked a longer word in the first round and an unusual decision saw it validated to give her an early advantage.  The next round saw both contestants try invalid words, and the remaining letters rounds provided no further swing.  The first numbers round was shared, but a surprising miss from Elaine in the second numbers round saw Chris take the lead.  With the last numbers round proving too difficult for both contestants, Chris was ahead but catchable going into the conundrum.  Chris solved it in quick time to get the win, 45 points to 33.

I had a decent game, only dropping two maximums.  One of those I might have seen if I had been a bit more careful, but the other was a numbers game that was simply too tough for me (but not the ever-impressive Lily, even this early in the show's history).  The conundrum was pretty clear, but I was still a second slower than desirable; I'm confident that I'd have been beaten to it by a goodly percentage of finalists.