Ep 83: Nick Carr, Christine Hodges (October 31, 2012; originally aired November 24, 2010)

Rounds: Here.


Nick Carr takes his place in the champion's seat tonight, having done well to beat Christopher Weldon yesterday with a couple of good conundrum solutions.  Richard reveals that Christopher is a fanatical player of real tennis, which Nick clarifies is what used to be called "royal tennis" -- the original game of tennis.  (As opposed to "lawn tennis", which is what most people would think of when tennis is mentioned.)  He calls it "the Henry VIII game" and adds that it was -- and still is -- played in Hampton Court.  Nick plays it several times a week; whenever he can, really.

Tonight's challenger is Christine Hodges, who is enjoying her retirement after twenty-seven years of teaching French and Japanese.  Richard asks if she is fluent in both, and Christine responds that she is not as fluent as she was (due to the retirement) but travel is a great way to keep the fluency up.


Nick took an early lead in the first round, and then extended it in the third round when Christine bobbled with an invalid answer.  She had another invalid option in the fourth round but Nick's word was better in any case; that put him more than twenty points ahead.  Nick pushed the lead out past thirty with the second numbers round, and with no full monty available in the last letters round that ensured his victory.  Christine rallied a bit in the last two main rounds to cut back the deficit, but the damage was done.  Nick buzzed in late on the conundrum with an invalid answer, but Christine was not able to solve it in the remaining time and the final scoreline was 44 to 26 in Nick's favour.

I had a somewhat poor game tonight, starting off with a pair of invalid words.  The second I thought was unlikely, but the first took me completely by surprise.  I was able to claw back some ground in two of the numbers rounds, but for the first time in over seven weeks I was not safe going into the conundrum (the last such occasion was over seven weeks ago in episode 47, the high-class confrontation between Esther Perrins and Sam Chow).  Fortunately I had my quickest conundrum solution ever, at least by the clock; the first segment had only barely begun to light.  I was rather relieved to get home safely after that start!