Ep 429: Mark Potter, Jack Maloney (April 19, 2012)

Rounds: Here.


On Mark's second night we find out that he is a fan of the Tour de France; that lets Richard sneak in a quick plug for SBS's coverage of the event.  Richard asks if Mark would like to be there and watch it; Mark responds that once he stops paying school fees -- which is still a few years away yet -- he is planning to get a van and follow the whole course; it is something that he has been wanting to do for a long time.

Tonight's challenger is Jack Maloney, a high school student.  Jack is 17 years old, and has been a keen football and basketball player.  He has been playing basketball for around eight or nine years, and now he also umpires and coaches it.  The team he coaches is a group of under-14's, who are the juniors of the Melbourne Tigers.


It was quite a tough night on the letters; Jack found a couple of good sevens, but Mark matched him on one of those and picked up ground with a pair of sixes in other rounds.  But it was the numbers rounds where Mark shone, proving my comments from yesterday incorrect and gaining a solid advantage there.  The net result was that he was safe going into the conundrum.  It proved to be a difficult one that neither solved, and Mark won by 51 points to 29.

It seems that my habit of an end-of-week drop in performance is continuing, as tough letters today kept me from finding the maximums within time.  It is a minor consolation that neither did David.  Still, I have solved every numbers round so far, which must stand me in good stead.  The conundrum was too hard for me to get within time, but in any case I blew my chance with a reflexive buzz at the one second mark.  I'd managed to do enough for the win regardless, although that final letters round could be quite costly against some players.