Ep 363: Susan Pickett, Maurie Williams (January 18, 2012)

Rounds: Here.


On Susan's second night it's revealed that she has been on several gameshows before, many years ago.  She lists Wheel of Fortune, Concentration, and Catchphrase, and is about to add another but gets cut off by Richard (she paused too long, making it seem like she had finished, before she attempted to resume the list).  She won at least some of them, according to her StarNow profile, although the only show she mentions explicitly is Letters and Numbers.

Challenging Susan is Maurie Williams, a sales manager and very keen fisherman.  Richard asks what it is about fishing that really appeals to Maurie; Maurie responds that it's the hunt (insert your own Rex Hunt joke here), the catch, the chase... I admit that I don't really associate either hunting or chasing with fishing (unless, perhaps, using a speargun rather than a fishing line), but I can see how some aspects of it -- particularly the sometimes hours-long struggle to land a fish which is capable of exerting more force than the breaking strain of the line -- could evoke similar feelings.


It's a close match, with Susan getting off to an early lead in the letters; Maurie is able to get back exactly the same amount in later letters rounds (assisted by an error from Susan).  The numbers produce what could have been the key difference, with Maurie scoring a 5 early on and Susan a 7 at the end.  That is a two point advantage to Susan going into the conundrum, which is always a preferable place to be.  As time ticks down she must be feeling better about things, but with just five seconds left on the clock Maurie finds the answer and takes the win, 45 points to 37.

I was a touch off in the letters -- missing a seven that I should have seen (and have seen before) -- and struggled with one of the numbers rounds, but other than that I was in pretty good shape.  The conundrum was a little awkward, but I got there soon enough to seal a good win.

As usual, details after the break.

Ep 362: Trevor Armstrong, Susan Pickett (January 17, 2012)

Rounds: Here.


It's Trevor's fourth night; if he can win this then he will probably make the finals.  Richard asks about the patterns that Trevor has been choosing; Trevor responds that in the letters he looks for -ING, -S, -ED, and -ER.  In the numbers (as is clear from his play) he has been practicing with the four large mix.

Challenging Trevor is professional home renovator Susan Pickett.  Richard asks how many homes so far, and Susan has to think about this, emerging with the answer of "four or five".  She adds that they have moved house a lot.  She does carpentry, tiling, painting, and her favourite power tool is the mitre saw.


Trevor is way off the pace in this game, as Susan outdoes him considerably in the main rounds.  This is in part due to Trevor declaring two invalid answers for the letters; he never finds a valid word longer than six and only finds his way to the numerical target once.  He ends up still on zero after five rounds, and that's infeasible to recover from.  Susan does well in each facet of the game, especially in what were some unproductive mixes (although that's partly her doing), and her numbers performance was very good tonight.  Neither solves the conundrum (although Trevor had a try at it), and Susan takes a very comfortable victory 60 to 16.

I had a subjectively bad game tonight, missing some words I should have found and a target that I should have got.  In fact, I was behind going into the conundrum; the only other times that has happened are against Sam (although episode 340 was close, where I only managed a single point advantage over Jimmy Driscoll at that stage).  When Trevor buzzed in to solve it I thought my chances were gone, but luckily for me he was incorrect and I solved it within the remaining time to take a somewhat fortunate win.

As usual, details after the jump.