Ep 57: Peter Stegelman, Rolli Pick (September 25, 2012; originally aired October 19, 2010)

Rounds: Here.


SBS has switched how the online video is delivered yet again, resulting in somewhat glitchy viewing for me.  Fortunately it only impacted the game seriously once, costing me about five seconds in a round where I found a best answer early.


Peter Stegelman gets his turn in the champion's seat, and Richard informs us that Peter is a keen traveller.  Peter likes visiting other cultures and seeing other places around the world.  He also likes to watch the football (soccer) where possible; he has been to a few games in Australia and also some in the English Premier League, which he says was quite an experience -- they have to segregate the crowds and such.

Challenging Peter is Rolli Pick, a financial services student and part-time travel sales and product manager.  Rolli wants to own a bookkeeping business; this is because his son Max (six years old at time of filming) has Asperger's Syndrome and a love of numbers.  Rolli would really love for Max -- assuming that he is interested! -- to be able to walk into a family business when he is old enough.


The game opened with a very helpful mix that neither contestant made much use of but which Rolli handled slightly better.  Several of the remaining rounds were shared, but the general trend was that Rolli did a touch better in the letters and Peter managed to stay in touch thanks to the numbers rounds.  Rolli was ahead but not safe going into the conundrum; Peter buzzed in first but without a valid answer, and Rolli was not able to solve it either but won the game, 39 to 33.

I had quite a good game tonight, just dropping the one letters maximum.  I was pretty sure the longer answer was available but it took me a while after time to find it.  My conundrum speed was a bit slower than I would have liked but still decent, and I managed to find a good solution to a numbers round that eluded Lily, meaning that my solo total was better than David and Lily's; that is always treasured.

Ep 56: Jayanthi Viswanathan, Peter Stegelman (September 24, 2012; originally aired October 18, 2010)

Rounds: Here.


Jayanthi Viswanathan has her third game tonight, and we find out that she is a huge crime fiction enthusiast.  Jayanthi's favourite way to relax is with some Agatha Christie -- "a little bit of murder, a little bit of intrigue", as she puts it.

Tonight's challenger is Peter Stegelman, an accountant who loves travelling, watching cricket and football, and enjoys baking.  Peter very much enjoys getting in the kitchen and whipping up a cake or a slice; he says that what he does best is probably chocolate cake, and I have to say that is a fine thing to be proficient in.


Jayanthi started well in the letters, getting a good early lead, but Peter pegged some of it back in the first numbers round.  Jayanthi extended her lead again in the next letters round, then an invalid declaration cost her points.  Two shared rounds followed, and then Peter capitalised on Jayanthi's weakness in the numbers to take the lead going into the conundrum.  He solved it first in any case, getting a 49 to 34 point win.

I missed a few words I would have liked to have found, but it was still a reasonable performance.  I solved the conundrum quickly, although in part that was due to buzzing in with the wrong answer in mind but correcting that within time.  Once more I avoided the trap of a tempting invalid word, and finished with quite a comfortable victory.