Ep 382: Alan Nash, Sam Cejvan (February 14, 2012)

We hear more about Alan's travels today; he has been to Iceland, and he describes it as a very interesting place, an adventure in itself.  Parts of it are so green that they could be confused for Ireland (although with fewer sheep, he notes) while other parts of it are so bleak and blasted that they might make you think you were on Mars.

Tonight's challenger is Sam Cejvan, a graphic designer.  Sam also designs and makes his own furniture, using 3D software to create virtual models of what he wants; he then gets local companies to make up the components from those models and puts it together.  It sounds to me like he could have a lot of fun with a 3D printer.

[Many thanks to Karen Anderson for identifying the correct spelling of Sam's surname.  Much appreciated!]


This is a very close game, and I feel that Alan was lucky again tonight.  Sam tried for invalid words in the first two rounds, but still managed to draw ahead at the second break courtesy of some good numbers work.  (I commented yesterday about how I felt there was an opportunity there against Alan.)  Unfortunately for Sam, he conceded the ground back and then some in the next two rounds, and Alan was safe going into the conundrum.  Neither managed to solve it, and Alan gained his fifth win, 43 points to 30.

I felt extremely out of form today, consistently a letter behind David except for one round where I tried an invalid word.  If I'd stayed with the safer option on that round I would have matched Alan on each letter round.  I was luckily able to overtake him due to the numbers rounds, and was just barely safe at the conundrum.  I managed to solve it to improve the scoreline, but I definitely feel that I had a lucky escape tonight.

As usual, details after the jump.