Ep 65: Ian Campbell-Fraser, Michael Phillips (October 5, 2012; originally aired October 29, 2010)

Rounds: Here.


Ian Campbell-Fraser is back, getting his turn in the champion's chair after defeating Veronica Corrigan last night.  Ian enjoys cryptic crosswords and also building, especially with blocks of Lego.  He has two young children and he likes nothing better than getting down onto the floor with them and putting the pieces together, constructing some amazing things.  Ian jokes that his wife might be starting to realise that getting to play with Lego could have been his main reason for having children.

Tonight's challenger is Michael Phillips, a student who is studying a double degree in arts and science with the intention of becoming a teacher; specifically, he aims to be part of the Teach for Australia program.  Richard asks what that involves; Michael explains that, as a Teach for Australia associate, he will be placed in an educationally-disadvantaged school.  Then over the ensuing two years he will be teaching there in his own classroom, while also studying towards a diploma in teaching.

At a later point in the show there is some further chat, and it is mentioned that Michael plans to specialise in mathematics for his teaching.


Michael got the early lead in a tough first letters round, then extended it again in the fifth round.  Lack of experience in the options of the large numbers cost him in round six, though, as Ian clawed back some lost ground there and then took the lead in the following letters round.  The final numbers round was shared -- both quite far from the target -- and so it came down to the conundrum.  That ended up being too difficult for them both, and Ian scraped home the winner by 40 to 38.

I felt rather out of sorts tonight, and had some mixed results.  I ended up trying an invalid word in one round, and missed some findable better options in the final letters round.  I followed that up by failing to solve the last numbers round and then getting the conundrum only a fraction of a second before time expired.  Rather wobbly, all things considered, but it was fortunately good enough.