Ep 120: Peter Stephenson, Oli Bryant (June 7, 2016; originally aired January 14, 2011)

Rounds: Here.


Peter Stephenson gets his turn in the champion's seat tonight, and the talk is about his marathon-running again.  Or rather, about one particular marathon that he would like to run.  As Peter explains, the Médoc region in south-west France is one of the main wine-producing regions of France.  They have a marathon there, where not only are there the normal water stations, but there are also wine-tasting stations as well.  (In fact, the situation appears to be rather more elaborate than that, at least according to this participant's description.)

Tonight's challenger is Oli Bryant, a sustainability consultant with a backround in economics and a passion for photography.  (His nameplate reads Oliver, but Richard notes that he prefers to be called Oli, so we'll go with that form.)  Oli takes photos mainly of urban and street landscapes.  His interest in photography developed at a very young age -- his stepmother was a professional photographer and Oli used to spend hours in the darkroom learning the different processes involved in turning film into photos.  Since then, he has had a couple of exhibitions in cafes and restaurants, which he hopes to continue.


It was a somewhat one-sided game tonight; Peter chanced risky words in the first two rounds, both of which were invalid.  When Oli outdid him in the first numbers round, the difference was suddenly an alarmingly large 22 points at the first break.  Peter managed to match Oli in the next two letters rounds, but again Oli drew clear on the numbers round.  The remaining main rounds were shared but the damage had long been done.  Oli finished it off by solving the conundrum, scoring points in every round on his way to victory, 71 to 29.

I managed to find a few better answers than Oli, happily putting me safely ahead at the conundrum.  I was even very briefly ahead of David and Lily when David uncharacteristically missed some better options in the first letters round, but he soon made that up.  I managed to beat Oli to the conundrum, posting another score in the seventies for a good start to the week.

Ep 119: Jack Dell, Peter Stephenson (June 6, 2016; originally aired January 13, 2011)

Rounds: Here.


Jack Dell is back for his fifth night, but we may have run out of talking points for him, as the chat is just about his performance in the games so far.  That always feels like a missed opportunity.

Tonight's challenger is Peter Stephenson, an accountant at the Auditor-General's office with a background in science and physics.  (I'm amused by the implication that physics is not science.)  Peter has also run a great many marathons -- twenty six of them since he was a teenager.  That's certainly a lot!  Richard asks how Peter manages to maintain a sufficient level of fitness to keep doing that.  Peter does not quite answer that, but indicates that his motivation is terror of getting too big, as he drinks lots of beer.


Jack started off with a nice find in round one for the early lead, then extended it in round two when Peter saw a phantom letter.  Peter quickly recovered, though, with a good numbers solution allowing him to reduce the deficit to three points.  Jack tried for too much in round five, ending up with an invalid word to give Peter the lead.  Two shared rounds followed, and then the final numbers round gave Peter a winning lead going into the conundrum.  Neither could solve it, and Peter won 49 to 36.

I did well tonight, except for missing the conundrum.  It was solvable, but I just did not see it within time.  I was happy to find a full monty in the main rounds, and between that and the letter rounds I was able to open up a decent lead over the contestants for a solid win even without the conundrum.