Ep 124: Oli Bryant, Rob Carter (June 13, 2016; originally aired January 20, 2011)

Rounds: Here.


Oli Bryant returns for his fifth night, hoping to secure his place in the finals.  Richard makes a passing reference to Oli's playing of lawn bowls, but then wheels out that tired question about strategy.  I guess it was inevitable, when it did not turn up yesterday.  Oli responds that the longer you are on, the more you relax, which I think is true; certainly the first game is often the hardest in its way.  He then amuses by picking up the pen and commenting that normally it would have been chewed down, but since it is intact he seems to be doing rather well.

Tonight's challenger is Rob Carter, who has been a CEO across four business sectors and is now an alliance facilitator.  Richard picks up on that last term and asks what it involves; Rob explains that when a series of companies come together to work on projects they effectively create a virtual organisation, and it is his job to help them work together.  He adds that it is all about people, relationships, and behaviours, and it is not simple because all the participants come from their own cultures and business traditions.


Once more it is a rather one-sided affair.  The contestants shared points on the first round, but that was as close as it ever got.  Rob twice fell victim to phantom letters, and in the second numbers round he used a number twice as well.  That let Oli get to a sizeable lead, and Rob was not able to come back.  He did find a good word in round seven to take points there, but the damage had been done.  Oli rounded it off by solving the conundrum, scoring above fifty again to win, 54 to 20.

I was all over the place this game, only able to find one maximum in the main rounds.  I did not solve a single numbers round (although one of the targets was genuinely unreachable).  The sole highlights were finding two longer words than David did, although I did not risk one of them.  My solo total of 59 points is the lowest I've had this series.  The lesson here, I think, is that I should not play at one in the morning.