Ep 374: Alice Wheeler, Pam Fichtner (February 2, 2012)

As mentioned yesterday, Alice came to Australia at 18 to study.  Her parents followed about a year later and now have a farm where they breed alpacas.  This is partly responsible for Alice's interest in textiles; she says that she has always loved sewing, but once they started getting wool from the alpacas she learned everything she could about it.  (Presumably "it" means the wool in this context.)

Tonight's challenger is Pam Fichtner, who works for the bureau of statistics.  She is also an occasional extra in TV shows.  Richard asks what it is like, and she responds that you need a lot of patience.  She adds that she has been a patient quite often on All Saints, so she got to have a bit of a sleep now and then.  She had to wake up at the right times, however.


It's sixes and sevens from the contestants tonight, with a bit each way.  The first two numbers rounds provide no separation, and scores are level at the second break.  What seemed like a risky play in the final letters round comes off for Alice, and when Pam cannot get near the target in the final numbers round Alice has the win.  The conundrum eludes them both -- it's only been solved once this week -- and that makes the final scoreline 53 to 39 in Alice's favour.

I had a decent game tonight, finding both full monties within time... but one of them only at the last moment without enough time to finish writing it down.  Still, I was mostly in pretty decent touch with the letters.  Once again the numbers could have used a little improvement, but it wasn't a case of overlooking something obvious this time (or so I claim).  The conundrum likewise eluded me tonight, but the full monty success kept me happy and comfortably ahead.

As usual, details after the jump.