Ep 345: Sam Gaffney, Andy Welland (December 23, 2011)

Rounds: Here.


Richard asks Sam what sort of techniques he brings to the show -- is this a game five tradition?  Sam notes that there are some tricks you can learn for his favourite number mix of four large and two small; I emphatically agree, and may write a post about it some day.  With the main letter mixes there's not too much to be done, but with the conundrums it can sometimes be helpful to pick a letter and start with that.  Given that when he does solve a conundrum he does so very quickly, it looks like that technique is working well for him.

Tonight's challenger is Andy Welland, a doctor of biochemistry who spent a year in Thailand teaching English.  As Richard notes, Andy has quite a strong Scottish accent; Andy remarks that this did make the teaching somewhat of a learning experience for him.  He first noticed how strong his accent was when he said something and it was repeated back to him in fifty Thai-Glaswegian accents.


Sam's in very good form today.  There's a reach for a nine that isn't there, but aside from that he's just one letter short of optimal and with another very quick conundrum solution to boot.  Andy is consistently behind in the lettes rounds and is unable to make any headway during the numbers, as Sam takes the game 64 to 20.

It continues to be very close between Sam and I; equal performances all the way, but he outdid me comprehensively on the conundrum and I've got my third loss.  This puts my record against Sam as two from five, with just six points difference on aggregate.  Hopefully I'll catch him tomorrow... if not, there's always the finals for revenge, as he must make them now.

As usual, details after the jump.