Ep 416: Craig Hill, Ben Fisher (April 2, 2012)

Richard's opening spiel includes a very large number of spoonerisms, which he impressively delivers.  As part of that it is noted that Lily's name spoonerises to Silly Learner.

Craig enjoys cricket, and says that he used to play until recently.  He liked getting out in the sun and spending some time with the guys.  Unfortunately, in the last game he played, he was on the fielding side and stood closer to the bat than turned out to be wise.  On the first ball of the game he discovered the limits to his reflexes and (in Richard's words) "tried to eat the ball".  It made a bit of a mess of his face and he lost a front tooth, but he's recovered now.  He does not know if he'll make it back out onto the cricket field any time soon, however.

Tonight's challenger is commercialisation manager Ben Fisher.  Ben loves to get out and see the world -- he thinks it has a lot to offer. He has been on treks across Africa, treks through the Grand Canyon, and did a driving trip around Northern Ireland not so long ago.  Richard asks what the perfect ingredients are for Ben's kind of travel; Ben responds that he likes to travel with someone who is willing to be spontaneous and do something on the spur of the moment.  He adds that planning can sometimes get in the way of the most amazing experiences.  He finishes with an exhortation to people who travel to take the opportunities when they arise.

Later conversation reveals that Ben plays trivia regularly at a pub, and on at least one occasion a few months back he noticed that Lily was on one of the other teams.


The contestants were fairly close throughout; Ben gained in two early letters rounds but Craig got some of that ground back in the first numbers round.  They were mostly matched for the rest of the game, but Ben found a good solution to the last numbers round to be safe going into the conundrum.  Ben buzzed in with an incorrect answer, but Craig was not able to solve it either; Ben finished the victor, 55 to 40.

I had a very good game, but felt obliged to risk a nine that I didn't entirely like and it turned out not to be valid.  The other seven main rounds were optimal, though, and that was enough for a comfortable win even though the conundrum likewise eluded me.

Ep 415: Louise Broadbent, Craig Hill (March 30, 2012)

Louise is trying to reduce her carbon footprint.  She says that there is so much waste and that people should do a lot more recycling and reuse what they can.  She makes specific mention of there being too many cleaning products, and that a different product is not necessary for each task.  I'm happy to believe this, but using one product twice as much would seem to have essentially the same impact as using two separate products, so I'm not entirely following the reasoning here.

Challenging Louise is systems engineer Craig Hill.  He has taken flying lessons... or at least, a flying lesson.  Craig says that it unfortunately was too expensive to continue right now, but it was a great experience.  Under an instructor's guidance he did the take-off, landing, and the flying in-between; that seems impressive for a first lesson!  It was great fun, and he'd love to do it again one day.


The game twists each way; Craig wins two early letters rounds to get a potentially winning lead, but then Louise wins the last two to level the scores again.  The first two numbers rounds fail to distinguish the contestants, and although Craig gets ahead in the last numbers round it comes down to the conundrum.  Louise buzzes in with an incorrect answer, and that gives the game to Craig, 45 to 38.

I started out decently, but then had some oversights after the first third, culminating in mental shutdown on the final numbers round.  The conundrum proved too difficult for me again, and the game fizzled out in disappointment although I had done enough to win.