Rounds: Here.
Veronica Corrigan is back for her fifth night, hoping to get closer to successful retirement. But first, some more about her, and in particular her interest in wine. As mentioned earlier, Veronica went away for a while after she finished school; when she returned she started working in a wine store. She was rather fortunate as her boss owned a winery and so was able to teach her a lot about winemaking, as well as tasting and things like that.
Tonight's challenger is Ian Campbell-Fraser, a native titles lawyer and public servant who is also a huge Elvis fan. (He probably liked slim Elvis, too. *rimshot*) Richard asks if Ian has "made the pilgrimage" to Graceland, and Ian responds that he has -- several years ago now -- and it was quite moving. At the end of the tour they take you past Elvis's grave and he confesses that he shed a tear.
The contestants start off equally matched in the letters rounds, then Veronica gained the lead by solving the first numbers round. They both had good words in the next round but Ian's was the longer, cutting into that lead of Veronica's. Another matched round, and then Veronica got back that lost ground in the second numbers round. She was ten points ahead going into the last numbers round and looking strong, but then a surprising miss from her in a rather easy round saw Ian level the scores going into the conundrum. That greatly improved his chances, of course, and he was able to take advantage of it with a quick solution to what could have been a very tough conundrum. Veronica's run comes to an end as Ian wins, 53 to 43.
I started out fairly well, finding a couple of less easy maxima. Two more difficult rounds followed where I missed better options that were findable -- Lily missed the numbers answer too, which is some comfort -- and then things continued back on track until the conundrum, which I only just solved with a few seconds left. A good game except for that conundrum speed, really.
Showing posts with label Veronica Corrigan. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Veronica Corrigan. Show all posts
Friday, 5 October 2012
Thursday, 4 October 2012
Ep 63: Veronica Corrigan, Jonathan Campbell (October 3, 2012; originally aired October 27, 2010)
Rounds: Here.
This is the crucial fourth night for Veronica Corrigan: Even a loss will get her into the finals rankings if she can score 12 points, but she'll need over 60 points or a win (the more likely option) in order to move up to seventh position. Richard asks where her word-finding background comes from, and Veronica says that her family plays lots of word games at home; her strengths are Take Two and particularly Boggle, where she has a ten year unbeaten streak in her family.
Taking up the challenge tonight is Jonathan Campbell, a schoolteacher who enjoys writing and recording music. Jonathan played in a band called Foregone Conclusion (I have to wonder if the name was chosen as a reference to The Office's David Brent, who used to be in a band of that name) that covered 80's love songs. Richard asks if Jonathan sang in it, but Jonathan responds that he has a shocking singing voice and he played guitar.
Jonathan found a rather nice word in the first round to get an early lead, but Veronica overtook him in the second round with the top spot. An error from her in the numbers round saw him get in front again; a little later two good results from Veronica saw her get more than a conundrum's worth ahead. That could have been game to her, but she chose an unfortunately invalid word in the final letters round and that was enough to allow Jonathan back within striking distance going into the conundrum. Veronica buzzed in early with an invalid answer and had a nervous wait to see if Jonathan would find the solution in the remaining time. He did not, so Veronica survived with a slightly fortunate win, 35 to 29.
I had a decent game on the whole. I dropped two maxima on the letters in the middle of the game, but I would not have found the longer options in any case. An impossible numbers target livened things up toward the end, and I was comfortably ahead at the conundrum. Just as well, as I also buzzed in with the same invalid answer that Veronica tried later; I could not recover in time, taking probably another five seconds to find the right answer.
This is the crucial fourth night for Veronica Corrigan: Even a loss will get her into the finals rankings if she can score 12 points, but she'll need over 60 points or a win (the more likely option) in order to move up to seventh position. Richard asks where her word-finding background comes from, and Veronica says that her family plays lots of word games at home; her strengths are Take Two and particularly Boggle, where she has a ten year unbeaten streak in her family.
Taking up the challenge tonight is Jonathan Campbell, a schoolteacher who enjoys writing and recording music. Jonathan played in a band called Foregone Conclusion (I have to wonder if the name was chosen as a reference to The Office's David Brent, who used to be in a band of that name) that covered 80's love songs. Richard asks if Jonathan sang in it, but Jonathan responds that he has a shocking singing voice and he played guitar.
Jonathan found a rather nice word in the first round to get an early lead, but Veronica overtook him in the second round with the top spot. An error from her in the numbers round saw him get in front again; a little later two good results from Veronica saw her get more than a conundrum's worth ahead. That could have been game to her, but she chose an unfortunately invalid word in the final letters round and that was enough to allow Jonathan back within striking distance going into the conundrum. Veronica buzzed in early with an invalid answer and had a nervous wait to see if Jonathan would find the solution in the remaining time. He did not, so Veronica survived with a slightly fortunate win, 35 to 29.
I had a decent game on the whole. I dropped two maxima on the letters in the middle of the game, but I would not have found the longer options in any case. An impossible numbers target livened things up toward the end, and I was comfortably ahead at the conundrum. Just as well, as I also buzzed in with the same invalid answer that Veronica tried later; I could not recover in time, taking probably another five seconds to find the right answer.
Wednesday, 3 October 2012
Ep 62: Veronica Corrigan, Dave Wilson (October 2, 2012; originally aired October 26, 2010)
Rounds: Here.
This is Veronica Corrigan's third night, and we are informed that she is a great baker. Richard asks what her specialty is, and Veronica responds that her brownies have developed quite a following. Not only does she get introduced as "the girl that makes brownies", but a couple of friends of hers made a Facebook page about her brownies, and by the end of the day another twenty-five people had joined. So she was rather literal when she said that they have a following.
Tonight's challenger is Dave Wilson, a fencing contractor with a green thumb. Dave has built a golf course on his ten-acre property. That's quite an endeavour! He says that it is still a work in progress, but it has taken three years so far. Every Australia Day he has a golf day and earlier that year (2010) 67 people turned up to play. Impressive!
The contestants started off with the same answer in the first round, and then Veronica impressed David in the second round with a word he had not heard of before. That gave her a small lead which she extended in the numbers round. The middle third of the game produced matched results throughout, and then Veronica found another good word in the final letters round to get a twenty point lead. Dave still had a chance if he could solve the final numbers round, but he was not able to do so; his actual answer was invalid, not that it made a difference to the result. The conundrum turned out to be too difficult for them both, and Veronica ended up with a comfortable 54 to 27 win.
It was a night of really tough letters mixes, and I was only able to do better than six once. The numbers behaved themselves, though, and a decently fast conundrum solution pushed my score up into the seventies again for another decent game.
This is Veronica Corrigan's third night, and we are informed that she is a great baker. Richard asks what her specialty is, and Veronica responds that her brownies have developed quite a following. Not only does she get introduced as "the girl that makes brownies", but a couple of friends of hers made a Facebook page about her brownies, and by the end of the day another twenty-five people had joined. So she was rather literal when she said that they have a following.
Tonight's challenger is Dave Wilson, a fencing contractor with a green thumb. Dave has built a golf course on his ten-acre property. That's quite an endeavour! He says that it is still a work in progress, but it has taken three years so far. Every Australia Day he has a golf day and earlier that year (2010) 67 people turned up to play. Impressive!
The contestants started off with the same answer in the first round, and then Veronica impressed David in the second round with a word he had not heard of before. That gave her a small lead which she extended in the numbers round. The middle third of the game produced matched results throughout, and then Veronica found another good word in the final letters round to get a twenty point lead. Dave still had a chance if he could solve the final numbers round, but he was not able to do so; his actual answer was invalid, not that it made a difference to the result. The conundrum turned out to be too difficult for them both, and Veronica ended up with a comfortable 54 to 27 win.
It was a night of really tough letters mixes, and I was only able to do better than six once. The numbers behaved themselves, though, and a decently fast conundrum solution pushed my score up into the seventies again for another decent game.
Tuesday, 2 October 2012
Ep 61: Veronica Corrigan, Paolo Navidad (October 1, 2012; originally aired October 25, 2010)
Rounds: Here.
Veronica Corrigan is back after the weekend, getting her turn in the champion's chair. Veronica has a long-term goal to work as a doctor in France. She explains that she took a year off after school finished and spent two of those months in Paris and just loved it. It's a great place, so she would love to be able to go back and work there.
Tonight's challenger is Paolo Navidad, a project manager with a master's degree in biotechnology. Paolo's biggest personal achievement has been getting a research paper published in a science journal. The paper was about the method they had developed to detect developing viruses in animal cells. In particular it was about a pig virus, so the research had implications with regard to detection and diagnosis of pig diseases.
It started off as a close match, with the first three rounds shared. Paolo gained the lead in the fourth round only for Veronica to get most of it back in the next. Paolo was not able to get close enough to the target in the second numbers round and Veronica claimed the lead, then ensured her win with a solution in the final numbers round. Veronica capped it off by solving the conundrum first to make the game look much less close than it was with a 60 to 34 scoreline in her favour.
I had a reasonable game, but talked myself out of the best option in one round, thereby failing to match David. I got to the conundrum relatively quickly, and everything else went about as well as it could have (I missed out on another tough maximum, admittedly) for a solid win.
Veronica Corrigan is back after the weekend, getting her turn in the champion's chair. Veronica has a long-term goal to work as a doctor in France. She explains that she took a year off after school finished and spent two of those months in Paris and just loved it. It's a great place, so she would love to be able to go back and work there.
Tonight's challenger is Paolo Navidad, a project manager with a master's degree in biotechnology. Paolo's biggest personal achievement has been getting a research paper published in a science journal. The paper was about the method they had developed to detect developing viruses in animal cells. In particular it was about a pig virus, so the research had implications with regard to detection and diagnosis of pig diseases.
It started off as a close match, with the first three rounds shared. Paolo gained the lead in the fourth round only for Veronica to get most of it back in the next. Paolo was not able to get close enough to the target in the second numbers round and Veronica claimed the lead, then ensured her win with a solution in the final numbers round. Veronica capped it off by solving the conundrum first to make the game look much less close than it was with a 60 to 34 scoreline in her favour.
I had a reasonable game, but talked myself out of the best option in one round, thereby failing to match David. I got to the conundrum relatively quickly, and everything else went about as well as it could have (I missed out on another tough maximum, admittedly) for a solid win.
Saturday, 29 September 2012
Ep 60: Yolanda Sztarr, Veronica Corrigan (September 28, 2012; originally aired October 22, 2010)
Rounds: Here.
This is Yolanda Sztarr's third night, and we find out that her greatest achievement was renovating a derelict Victorian home. Yolanda expands on this a bit: Her boyfriend is an architect and builder, and he has done a really good design for the house, one that is quite sustainable and beautiful and minimalist. She says it is just a beautiful place to live; obviously she is very proud of the contributions she has made towards its existence.
Challenging Yolanda tonight is Veronica Corrigan, a third-year medical student who has recently taken up ballet... again. Veronica first started ballet when she was five and then stopped after school, which was about four years ago. She has only just taken it up again and has found it a bit of a struggle but is enjoying it; she finds it good to have an artistic outlet to balance the rigorous study required by medicine.
The game started with a matched round, and then Yolanda drew ahead thanks to a good word and a tough numbers round. But Veronica turned the tables in the second third, finding the longer word and a better numbers answer to take the lead by a point. Two shared rounds followed and the difference was still one point going into the conundrum. It proved to be rather difficult and neither solved it, so Veronica got the win by 41 points to 40.
There were some tough letters rounds today -- too many vowels tends to do that -- and I missed a couple of findable maxima, one of which was depressingly clear in hindsight. Ah, well. The numbers behaved themselves for me, and although I was slow on the conundrum I got there in the end. Overall a decent game with not too much potential.
This is Yolanda Sztarr's third night, and we find out that her greatest achievement was renovating a derelict Victorian home. Yolanda expands on this a bit: Her boyfriend is an architect and builder, and he has done a really good design for the house, one that is quite sustainable and beautiful and minimalist. She says it is just a beautiful place to live; obviously she is very proud of the contributions she has made towards its existence.
Challenging Yolanda tonight is Veronica Corrigan, a third-year medical student who has recently taken up ballet... again. Veronica first started ballet when she was five and then stopped after school, which was about four years ago. She has only just taken it up again and has found it a bit of a struggle but is enjoying it; she finds it good to have an artistic outlet to balance the rigorous study required by medicine.
The game started with a matched round, and then Yolanda drew ahead thanks to a good word and a tough numbers round. But Veronica turned the tables in the second third, finding the longer word and a better numbers answer to take the lead by a point. Two shared rounds followed and the difference was still one point going into the conundrum. It proved to be rather difficult and neither solved it, so Veronica got the win by 41 points to 40.
There were some tough letters rounds today -- too many vowels tends to do that -- and I missed a couple of findable maxima, one of which was depressingly clear in hindsight. Ah, well. The numbers behaved themselves for me, and although I was slow on the conundrum I got there in the end. Overall a decent game with not too much potential.
Saturday, 12 May 2012
Ep 95 [QF2]: Naween Fernando, Veronica Corrigan (May 11, 2012; originally aired December 10, 2010)
Rounds: Here.
No mention of the original airdate this time; maybe someone caught the error. Tonight is the second quarterfinal of series one and pits second seed Naween Fernando against seventh seed Veronica Corrigan. Naween has a reputation essentially equal to that of Andrew Fisher from my perspective; I gather that they have been rivals for some time. So again I am in a position of hoping for the same things I wanted from the previous game: Challenging numbers rounds, and perhaps some overreaching on the word front. Last night I got lucky; can it happen again?
Richard introduces accountant Naween Fernando as the second seed for the finals series. Richard points out that Naween successfully retired after winning six games, and that in one particular game Naween scored three eight-letter words and two nine-letter ones. Wow! Throw in the conundrum and perfect numbers results and that would be a hundred point game.
Taking up the challenge is seventh seed Veronica Corrigan, a third year medical student. Veronica won her first game by a single point and then "went on to win convincingly over the next three nights". That sounds like she got to play five games, so the first series seems to have similar results to the fourth one on that front.
In contrast to yesterday's tight game this one was a very one-sided affair. Naween was never outpointed on the letters (and found a full monty early to take a commanding lead), and Veronica was consistently further away on the numbers. Naween had wrapped up the victory by the second break, and solved the conundrum first to round out his 75 to 13 win.
I did poorly on the first round, throwing away seven points that I would often have gained. Naween's full monty then made the lead commanding, and the numbers rounds ended up being somewhat too easy for me to gain anything back there. I did manage to get some back in one letters round thanks to the Scrabble-vs-Macquarie difference, and the last numbers round had just enough challenge for me to finally gain some ground there. That actually left me in contention at the conundrum, which is again better than I expected to be doing. It proved to be too difficult for me, and although Naween seemed to dawdle a little over it he still comfortably solved it and had the victory.
No mention of the original airdate this time; maybe someone caught the error. Tonight is the second quarterfinal of series one and pits second seed Naween Fernando against seventh seed Veronica Corrigan. Naween has a reputation essentially equal to that of Andrew Fisher from my perspective; I gather that they have been rivals for some time. So again I am in a position of hoping for the same things I wanted from the previous game: Challenging numbers rounds, and perhaps some overreaching on the word front. Last night I got lucky; can it happen again?
Richard introduces accountant Naween Fernando as the second seed for the finals series. Richard points out that Naween successfully retired after winning six games, and that in one particular game Naween scored three eight-letter words and two nine-letter ones. Wow! Throw in the conundrum and perfect numbers results and that would be a hundred point game.
Taking up the challenge is seventh seed Veronica Corrigan, a third year medical student. Veronica won her first game by a single point and then "went on to win convincingly over the next three nights". That sounds like she got to play five games, so the first series seems to have similar results to the fourth one on that front.
In contrast to yesterday's tight game this one was a very one-sided affair. Naween was never outpointed on the letters (and found a full monty early to take a commanding lead), and Veronica was consistently further away on the numbers. Naween had wrapped up the victory by the second break, and solved the conundrum first to round out his 75 to 13 win.
I did poorly on the first round, throwing away seven points that I would often have gained. Naween's full monty then made the lead commanding, and the numbers rounds ended up being somewhat too easy for me to gain anything back there. I did manage to get some back in one letters round thanks to the Scrabble-vs-Macquarie difference, and the last numbers round had just enough challenge for me to finally gain some ground there. That actually left me in contention at the conundrum, which is again better than I expected to be doing. It proved to be too difficult for me, and although Naween seemed to dawdle a little over it he still comfortably solved it and had the victory.
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