Weekly Summary: Episodes 436 to 440

Regression to the mean definitely kicked in this week, or maybe it was the deleterious effects of work.  It sill included some good results, though, and prior to last week I would have been very happy with it.  The high point was managing to outscore the David and Lily combination on Monday -- it is a very rare occurrence, as you might expect.

	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri
Me	73	66	76	58	70
Champion	25	39	32	42	19
Challenger	24	37	34	10	15
David + Lily	72	77	77	87	76
Me (solo)	73	66	76	64	70

Simon managed to win his fourth game, although Jean took him all the way to the conundrum.  He went on to successfully retire and moved into second position on the leader board.  The week ended with Rob Fischer starting his run; we'll see next week if he can keep up those winning ways.

Norm Do	67	62	58	61	59	62	369
Simon Walton	65	47	49	47	45	55	308
Ann Russell	40	48	46	62	49	47	292
Ben Fisher	55	53	63	42	60	21	294
Jane Taylor	47	54	64	40			205
Mark Potter	41	51	51	40			183
Ian Phillips	57	59	49				165
Margaret Zimmer	38	37	52				127

There were some tricky number mixes this week, but only one of them eluded Lily's eagle eye.  On the letter front there was only one full monty on offer, but it was a doozy.  A great spot from Rob in his first game!

	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri
Full Monties				1		1
Missed Full Monties						0
Tough Numbers	1					1
Impossible Numbers						0

The maximums don't really tell the full story here, but the overall tenor of things is correct.  Three decent games to start, and then a rather sad drop towards the end.  Two of the conundrums proved beyond me, but solving three was still above my average.

	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri
Maximums: L	4	3	3	2	1
N	2	3	3	3	2
C	1	0	1	0	1

Contestants sorted by average score:

	Total	Games	Average
Norm Do	369	6	61.50
Ian Phillips	165	3	55.00
Rob Fischer*	105	2	52.50
Simon Walton	308	6	51.33
Jane Taylor	205	4	51.25
Louise Broadbent	99	2	49.50
Ben Fisher	294	6	49.00
Ann Russell	292	6	48.67
Mark Potter	183	4	45.75
Diana Greenslade	43	1	43.00
Mark O'Carrigan	43	1	43.00
Margaret Zimmer	127	3	42.67
Craig Hill	85	2	42.50
Jean Watson	42	1	42.00
Steve Hibbert	83	2	41.50
Andrea Boyd	40	1	40.00
Gavin Griffith	40	1	40.00
Carey McManus	76	2	38.00
Neil Croft	37	1	37.00
Mark Niciejewski	37	1	37.00
Steve Malcolm	71	2	35.50
James Cooper	35	1	35.00
Philip Scambler	35	1	35.00
Andrew Boyden	34	1	34.00
Donald Piggott-McKellar	34	1	34.00
Peter Ghalayini	30	1	30.00
Scott Morrow	30	1	30.00
Jack Maloney	29	1	29.00
Mathew Thomas	57	2	28.50
Brent Dalton	26	1	26.00
Marc Lissner	26	1	26.00
Ian Wanless	26	1	26.00
Zaid Abbas	24	1	24.00
Bonnie McAllister	23	1	23.00
Kylie Alexander	21	1	21.00
Nic Brown	21	1	21.00
Susan Morrison	21	1	21.00
Cassie Palmer	20	1	20.00
John Morris	16	1	16.00
Casey Duggan	13	1	13.00
Andrew Fischer	10	1	10.00
Vishal Gandhi	10	1	10.00
Patrick Johns	10	1	10.00
Hans Pieterse	6	1	6.00

Ep 440: Rob Fischer, Nic Brown (May 4, 2012)

Rounds: Here.


Rob returns after last night's excellent game, but can he match that performance without the sibling rivalry factor?  Rob enters a lot of competitions -- "when he sees them come up" -- and he has won a few here and there.  He has won a trip and a camera, and some "more random" things like an esky.

Tonight's challenger is Nic Brown, who has recently graduated as a radiographer.  He is also involved in a band called Skunk Stomp ("just imagine kicking Pepé le Pew", he clarifies).  They play blues, rock, and funk; they call it "blockfunk".

(The web page linked above seems a bit out of date, as often happens.  They have a Myspace (remember that?) page with samples of their music here, but for some reason my browser and Myspace don't get along so I have not been able to listen to them.)


Rob found some decent words without hitting the high notes, but Nic could not quite match that and Rob soon had a 26 point lead.  The second numbers round reduced that to 16, and the one after could have reduced it further still.  Nic made an error, however, and Rob was safe going into the conundrum.  He buzzed in at the 25 second mark with an incorrect answer that should have given it away, but Nic was not able to capitalise on that.  All in all, a wobbly game sees Rob home by 44 to 21.

I was well off my previous good form tonight, only managing one maximal result on the letters (on the plus side, it was a word that eluded David) and doing rather poorly on one numbers round.  I was very slow to get the conundrum, but managed to do so just before Rob's incorrect attempt.  It was enough for a comfortable win, but stands in stark contrast with my recent form.  I hope to improve again next week.

Ep 439: Rob Fischer, Andrew Fischer (May 3, 2012)

Rounds: Here.


After Simon's successful retirement yesterday, we have two new contestants.  The show producers were clearly hoping that this would happen, as the two contestants are brothers.  We don't really get to find out anything about them aside from the fact that Rob is a marketing specialist, as what chat there is is devoted to talking up the sibling rivalry.  I'm actually a bit vexed by that -- one of them is going home, so it would be nice to actually learn something about them first.


I'm afraid there was nothing close about this game; Rob comprehensively outplayed Andrew, and in fact Andrew only managed to score points once during the game; that was in a numbers round that was pretty easy.  Part of this was probably first-game nerves, but Rob did play quite well, including finding an exceptional full monty.  His numberwork was slightly off -- much to my relief! -- and the conundrum was too hard for everyone, but Rob stormed home to win by 61 points to 10.

I got away with a slightly risky word in the first round, was completely off the pace in the second, and thereafter was mostly playing catchup.  I was just a touch too slow in round four, took a conservative view in round five, and it was only the numbers that really let me pull away enough to be safe.  The conundrum was too hard for me, also, and I feel lucky to have escaped with a win.  A big contrast to previous games!  The effect of a full monty is large, as expected.

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.

Delays

Offline life caught up with me tonight, so the recap for Wednesday's episode will be delayed by a day.  This may end up causing further delays, but I should get back on track during the weekend if not before.  (Hopefully much sooner.)

I hope you've all been playing successfully!

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!