Ep 438: Simon Walton, Andrea Boyd (May 2, 2012)

Rounds: Here.


This is Simon's sixth night, and his last until the finals regardless of the result.  Richard asks about highlights, and Simon understandably mentions his must-get conundrum solution in episode 436.  He was very nervous, shaking hand, etc.

The last obstacle between Simon and becoming a retiring champion is Andrea Boyd, a control systems engineer.  Andrea commutes to work every week by plane, to what she describes as a very remote site in the middle of South Australia -- the Olympic Dam mining centre.  She has a work house there that she uses throughout the week.  Andrea is part of the team that handles the automation for the entire site, both underground and above ground.  It sounds like quite the task!


It was another close game, and got off to a good start with both contestants finding the only eight-letter word in the first round.  That was followed by a pair of invalid entries, as Andrea miscounted (or misdeclared) the length of her word, and Simon tried for a risky nine that did not come off -- the perils of the Scrabble-players lexicon!  Andrea pulled ahead in the numbers round, only for Simon to get most of that ground back in the next round with a risky but valid eight.  The next numbers round saw him manage to get closer than Andrea and gain the lead, but with the remaining rounds not providing any swing it was either player's game to win at the conundrum.  Simon solved it at the nine second mark to win the game 55 to 40, and successfully retired.

I had to risk a couple of words, but they both came off.  I knew I was short of best on one round, but it still took me a while after time to spot the better option.  I solved the conundrum quickly, and in the end there was just that one round between me and optimal.  Another good day for me!

Update: Thanks to Victor for pointing out a better word in round seven in the comments.  So I was two rounds off optimal, which is better in some ways.

Ep 437: Simon Walton, Mark Niciejewski (May 1, 2012)

Rounds: Here.


On Simon's fifth night Richard asks about his preference for the balanced mix in the numbers.  Simon explains that there are two reasons for this: The first is that he has practised the 75-times tables and really wants to use that practice; the second is that he has noticed that his opponents mostly prefer only one or two large numbers, so he is trying to throw them off a bit.  Sound strategy!

Before the first numbers round Richard points out that Simon could guarantee having the 75 by choosing the heavyweight mix, but Simon is not swayed by that.  Rightly so, since one still needs the right small numbers to multiply by and there's better odds of that with three instead of two of them.  (Also, the balanced mix can always make a 75 from 50 + 25 or 100 - 25, if need be.)

Tonight's challenger is Mark Niciejewski, a serving member of the Australian Army.  At his house Letters and Numbers is a family affair -- his (nearly) two-year-old daughter dances to the theme song when it comes on, and as soon as she hears Richard's voice she sits down and watches the entire episode.  When Lily puts up the consonants Mark's daughter says what they are along with Lily -- I'd hope she does so with the vowels, also, but he only mentions the consonants.  This is one of the reasons I really like this show; it has great potential to get the quite young interested in words and arithmetic.


Simon returned to form with the letters, finding a good eight and several sevens.  Mark was not able to keep up on that front, and Simon acquired a sizeable lead.  However, two surprising misses in the numbers rounds from him let Mark catch up enough to have a chance going into the conundrum.  In the end it proved to be too difficult for them both and Simon won his fifth game, 45 to 37.

I rushed through my play of this game as I had a dinner engagement to get to.  That may be why I did not quite feel on top of things again, but I managed to do pretty well regardless; I'm vexed at missing the best answer in round five, but aside from that only the conundrum was a stumbling block.  My mini-streak of solved conundrums comes to an end at six, but it's been a good run.  I was not able to get clear of Simon for a while, but those numbers slips let me forge ahead and I ended up winning by a comfortable margin.

Ep 436: Simon Walton, Jean Watson (April 30, 2012)

Rounds: Here.


This is the crucial fourth night for Simon; can he get past it, and earn a probable spot in the finals?  We'll find out shortly, but first we hear that when he was twelve or thirteen years old he won his year eight spelling bee.  I'm guessing this was for his school rather than a larger group; it is not (ahem) spelled out.  Richard asks if Simon has strategised for his appearances on the show; Simon has not done so specifically, but he does note that he has done crosswords for a long time.  It was his father's parents who got him into those, and he thinks this love of crosswords has helped develop his word power.  David is nodding approvingly at all of this.

Tonight's challenger is Jean Watson, a retired teacher.  Jean is a keen bushwalker, and engages in walks every weekend; she says "Saturdays and Sundays... and on Wednesdays".  She tries to go twice a week.  Richard asks how long these walks are, and Jean admits that she is coming down to the shorter walks these days; that turns out to be twelve to fifteen kilometres.  I admire her stamina!  (Particularly at her age, but regardless.)  She mostly walks in the hinterland behind the Gold Coast.


It was somewhat of a nervous start to the game from Simon, and he declared his first sub-seven-letter words for a while.  Jean was able to outpoint him in those first two rounds, and when he made an error in the first numbers round she had a daunting 20 point lead.  There was not that much scope for gain in the next few rounds, but then Jean ended up oddly far away from the target in the second numbers game.  Simon seized his chance, and an eight-letter word in the last letters round saw him get within striking distance at last.  The final numbers round was unchallenging and it came down to the conundrum.  It turned out to need very little adjustment, and Simon buzzed in at the two second mark with the solution and a no-doubt relieving 47 to 42 win.

I did not feel as on top of things tonight as I did last week; I think I will have to put this down to being back at work again.  It must take more out of me than I realise at the time.  I ended up scrambling to get answers down in time, but fortunately ended up on the right side of the clock in this regard each time, and the result was actually quite a good game.  I was surprised to outdo David in one round, and I solved the conundrum quickly to notch up a solo score beating the combined David and Lily pair.  It was not a perfect game, but it was a good one.  A hopeful sign for the week!

Ep 435: Simon Walton, Neil Croft (April 27, 2012)

Rounds: Here.


On Simon's third night we find out that he also teaches for Open Access College.  As he explains, this is a distance education school in South Australia.  The teaching happens both over the phone and online; he notes the difficulties in trying to explain some of the spatial mathematics over the phone, which is one reason for the increased use of online materials.

Tonight's challenger is Neil Croft, an I.T. manager and sports enthusiast.  Neil is particularly interested in the Melbourne Cup; he does not bet on it, but has (as he puts it) a predilection for learning the winners of the race.  For some reason a few years back he attempted to learn them, and has persisted in that.  Richard puts him to the test starting at 1960; Neil rattles off eight of them before they bring it to a stop.


Simon continued his impressive word lengths with sevens and eights the order of the day; one of them turned out to be invalid (the drawbacks of having a Scrabble vocabulary) but the rest were good.  Neil matched him with a seven at first but was limited to six-letter words in the remaining rounds; however, Neil picked up some handy points on the numbers and was just two points behind going into the conundrum.  Had Neil solved the final numbers round he would have been a point ahead at the conundrum, in fact.  Simon managed to solve the conundrum first, a little over ten seconds in, to escape with his third victory by a margin of 49 to 37.

I did not feel that I was hitting any high notes today, and investigations afterwards showed that I had only managed one maximum on the letters.  I was never going to find those other four maximums, as it turns out, but I should have managed to go one better that I did in the fourth round.  I managed to do as well as was possible in the numbers, and solved the conundrum relatively quickly, so I really only made the one mistake this game.  It ended up being a comfortable win again, to round off the best week of playing I have had.

Ep 434: Simon Walton, Mark O'Carrigan (April 26, 2012)

Rounds: Here.


Simon once competed in a 24-hour Scrabble tournament.  It started at midday, and it was going quite well -- he did not have his first coffee until around one or two in the morning -- but in the last couple of games he started to feel a bit sleepy.  Fatigue really set in once he was in the tram afterwards as he started to doze off, but fortunately he woke up before the end of the line.

Tonight's challenger is Mark O'Carrigan, a carpenter and builder.  He is wearing a leather cap that he made himself a long time ago; he says that he does not often take it off because people always ask him if he has had a haircut.  Mark owns a property in the Blue Mountains that includes a natural sandstone cave that people can stay at; he has set up a small tourism business around it that enables him to stay there and gives him a lifestyle that he enjoys.  Pictures and some details are at his website.


Simon got off to an early lead in the first round, and extended it in the first numbers round.  Mark regained some of that ground when Simon tried an eight that the Macquarie does not list, but again conceded ground in rounds six and seven.  That guaranteed Simon the win, and he needed all of that advantage as Mark found a late rally to win the final two rounds and close the gap to four points.  But Simon was still the winner, 47 to 43.

I had another very good game, again just one round short of optimal.  That was a word that I might have found on a better day, but I definitely was not anywhere near it today.  The only other blemish was a slightly slower conundrum solve than I would have liked on that mix, but it was still acceptably fast.  I'm hoping I can keep this form up tomorrow to round out an excellent week!

Ep 433: Ian Phillips, Simon Walton (April 25, 2012)

Rounds: Here.


One of Ian's non-travel activities is setting orienteering courses.  As he explains, orienteering is a sport of running and navigating in the bush.  Ian used to participate competitively, but as his age increased his speed decreased... so now he sets the courses for others to follow instead.  His challenge is to set interesting courses for both elite and novice participants; this includes varying the length of the course, the terrain, and the route involved.  Competitors might take a long easy route or a short difficult route; they have to weigh their choices and wear the consequences.

Tonight's challenger is Simon Walton, a secondary school teacher.  It seems that Simon has become quite interested in statistics and would like to learn more about it.  He was not that interested fifteen years ago when he walked out of a statistics lecture (at the University of Adelaide) because he found it so boring.  I've certainly had my share of lectures like that, but a good book goes a long way.  However, since then Simon has become a teacher of mathematics and learned to appreciate how useful statistics is.  For that matter, I wish that I had taken some statistics courses when I was a university student.

A little later in the show it is pointed out that Ian is a qualified statistician.  He encourages Simon in his interest, and says that statistics is a great way to go.


There were some good words being found tonight, and Simon picked up three eights.  Two of those were better than Ian's efforts, and when Ian overlooked his 75-times tables in the second numbers round Simon was 26 points ahead and safe going into the final numbers round.  Ian solved the conundrum quickly again to make the scores look better, but this was Simon's night and he won handily by 65 to 49.

I found everything possible tonight, including the full monty and the conundrum in a second.  But on one of those rounds I took the conservative choice and lost my optimal game.  It's a bit disappointing to miss out due to making the wrong decision, but better than not seeing the option at all.  In any case, my score of 88 is the highest I've recorded on this blog.