Rounds: Here.
On Steve's second night we find out that he is training to be an ironman. No, not the Marvel superhero, an entrant in the ironman surf lifesaving event. Steve says that there are a couple of reasons for this; one is that he's reached the point in life where he has to fight the middle-aged spread and it's a good way of keeping control of that. It's also about the personal challenge, although when he is out there at four in the morning on a bicycle in the wind and the rain he does sometimes question whether it is worth it.
Tonight's challenger is Jane Taylor, a retired teacher and community development officer. Jane has been awarded the Centenary of Federation medal; she received that in 2001 as recognition of her paid work as a community development officer at a community centre, and her voluntary work in the same area as an elected member of council.
Jane showed good performance on the words today, outpointing Steve several times. Steve gained some of it back on the second numbers round, but he needed to outpoint Jane on the last to have a chance. Jane was able to outdo him on that round and be safe going into the conundrum; Steve solved a tough one very quickly, but Jane had the win, 47 to 37.
I was in decent form today, although there were some rocky spots and definite grounds to improve. Really, the only disappointing part was the second numbers round where I cunningly avoided following one line that would lead to a solution, and found another but had lost too much time in the process. I was slow on the conundrum as usual, but just barely got it within regulation time. All up it was easily enough for the win, but I'd like to do a bit better tomorrow.
Showing posts with label Steve Malcolm. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Steve Malcolm. Show all posts
Thursday, 12 April 2012
Tuesday, 10 April 2012
Ep 422: Mathew Thomas, Steve Malcolm (April 10, 2012)
Rounds: Here.
Mathew returns after thwarting Ben's attempt to become a retiring champion last night. Mathew grew up in New Zealand, and occasionally he does a hāngi at the local primary school. This involves cooking the food in the ground using hot rocks; there is a big fire that goes along with that, but it does not last too long. He usually does this in winter so that he does not get in any trouble with the fire brigade.
Tonight's challenger is I.T. manager Steve Malcolm. He has travelled in Africa recently, and in particular ended up working in Zimbabwe for Outward Bound. As he explains, Outward Bound is about using outdoor activities such as abseiling, rock climbing, and raft building to try and teach people life skills like teamwork and independence.
Steve also visited South Africa, where he rode an ostrich. He describes it as "a bit like sitting on a big crazy chicken". That pretty much conforms to expectations.
It was a close game; both managed to win a letters round, but Steve gained an early lead due to the first numbers round. A later invalid word from him gave Mathew a good chance at recovery, but Mathew returned the favour with a transcription error on his last numbers round. Either way it was coming down to the conundrum, but that error was the difference between Mathew being ahead or behind going into it. Steve buzzed in after eight seconds... but his answer was invalid. Mathew had the rest of the time to try and solve it but was unable to, and that let Steve scrape home, 34 to 25.
Once again I had two poor rounds today, which could be very costly. The first was failing to spot a seven-letter word, which in retrospect was perhaps not as bad as it felt at the time; the second, however, was a complete meltdown on the second numbers round resulting in nothing to declare at all. Another letters round I almost made a mess of and was very lucky that my risky recovery attempt paid off. Against that, I had optimal results in all the other main rounds, including another risky word in the final letters round, and a four second conundrum solve. A comfortable win despite some rocky play.
Mathew returns after thwarting Ben's attempt to become a retiring champion last night. Mathew grew up in New Zealand, and occasionally he does a hāngi at the local primary school. This involves cooking the food in the ground using hot rocks; there is a big fire that goes along with that, but it does not last too long. He usually does this in winter so that he does not get in any trouble with the fire brigade.
Tonight's challenger is I.T. manager Steve Malcolm. He has travelled in Africa recently, and in particular ended up working in Zimbabwe for Outward Bound. As he explains, Outward Bound is about using outdoor activities such as abseiling, rock climbing, and raft building to try and teach people life skills like teamwork and independence.
Steve also visited South Africa, where he rode an ostrich. He describes it as "a bit like sitting on a big crazy chicken". That pretty much conforms to expectations.
It was a close game; both managed to win a letters round, but Steve gained an early lead due to the first numbers round. A later invalid word from him gave Mathew a good chance at recovery, but Mathew returned the favour with a transcription error on his last numbers round. Either way it was coming down to the conundrum, but that error was the difference between Mathew being ahead or behind going into it. Steve buzzed in after eight seconds... but his answer was invalid. Mathew had the rest of the time to try and solve it but was unable to, and that let Steve scrape home, 34 to 25.
Once again I had two poor rounds today, which could be very costly. The first was failing to spot a seven-letter word, which in retrospect was perhaps not as bad as it felt at the time; the second, however, was a complete meltdown on the second numbers round resulting in nothing to declare at all. Another letters round I almost made a mess of and was very lucky that my risky recovery attempt paid off. Against that, I had optimal results in all the other main rounds, including another risky word in the final letters round, and a four second conundrum solve. A comfortable win despite some rocky play.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)