Rounds: Here.
Richard notes the colourful outfits that Christopher has been wearing so far, and asks him whether he takes his stylish look seriously. Christopher demurs with good humour, saying that it shouldn't be taken seriously but he certainly enjoys wearing it.
Tonight's challenger is Katie Richer, a writer and proofreader. In particular, she proofreads mathematics textbooks, and has done so for a couple of years now. In addition to the proofreading, she does worked solutions and checks other people's worked solutions (although I'd class the latter as part of mathematical proofreading, myself).
It's almost a reversal of recent games, with Katie having consistent letters results of six (capped off by a lovely final seven-letter word) while Christopher varies from five to an unluckily invalid eight. The numbers aren't able to provide much traction to either contestant -- they were a pretty tricky set -- and with Christopher's final answer being invalid Katie is safe going into the conundrum. Christopher solves it quickly to move the scoreline into "might-have-been" territory, but Katie has the win, 39 to 30.
I felt in worse form than I probably was, but did miss a seven that I should have seen and the final numbers solution. The latter was a particularly careless oversight. Still, it was enough for a solid win in the circumstances.
As usual, details after the jump.
Showing posts with label Christopher Piggott-McKellar. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Christopher Piggott-McKellar. Show all posts
Thursday, 23 February 2012
Tuesday, 21 February 2012
Ep 387: Christopher Piggott-McKellar, John Crone (February 21, 2012)
Rounds: Here.
The pre-show banter involves talking about superpowers, which is why Richard asks Christopher what superpower he would choose. Christopher responds that if he had his way he would erase people's memories after seeing skinny black ties. He honestly thinks they do ongoing psychological damage and are ruining a generation of Australians. It's certainly a more interesting answer than I would have been able to give; I've not mentioned this before, but Christopher has shown a certain urbane wittiness on the show that comes across well.
Tonight's challenger is John Crone, a glazier and ballet enthusiast. He really enjoys the ballet -- the fluid movements are a pleasure to watch. He likes classical music as well, so it's "a bit of a double treat". He adds that late last year he was lucky enough to see the Russian Imperial Ballet.
John's mention of Russian ballet prompts Richard to reveal that some thirty years or more ago he danced on stage with the Bolshoi Ballet. The camera catches Lily's look of amazed disbelief. Richard explains that it was in the early days of him thinking he might do some acting, and he ended up as an extra with them. He had to wear a huge polystyrene dog's head and skip across the stage holding it. Richard admits that it was not done with the grace usually associated with the ballet.
It is an interesting tussle, with only the final two main rounds allocating shared points. John makes an elementary mistake in the first round to miscount his answer, and is soon 23 points behind. A full monty gets him back within range, but a mistake in the next numbers round proves decisive. Christopher ends up winning by 22 points, 53 to 31.
I basically did as well as feasible, except that I wimped out of declaring a full monty that I was quite unsure about. It did turn out to be valid, alas. I was also slow on the conundrum but got there in the end. Still, a very comfortable win, and if I'd gone for the full monty it would have been my personal best solo score.
As usual, details after the jump.
The pre-show banter involves talking about superpowers, which is why Richard asks Christopher what superpower he would choose. Christopher responds that if he had his way he would erase people's memories after seeing skinny black ties. He honestly thinks they do ongoing psychological damage and are ruining a generation of Australians. It's certainly a more interesting answer than I would have been able to give; I've not mentioned this before, but Christopher has shown a certain urbane wittiness on the show that comes across well.
Tonight's challenger is John Crone, a glazier and ballet enthusiast. He really enjoys the ballet -- the fluid movements are a pleasure to watch. He likes classical music as well, so it's "a bit of a double treat". He adds that late last year he was lucky enough to see the Russian Imperial Ballet.
John's mention of Russian ballet prompts Richard to reveal that some thirty years or more ago he danced on stage with the Bolshoi Ballet. The camera catches Lily's look of amazed disbelief. Richard explains that it was in the early days of him thinking he might do some acting, and he ended up as an extra with them. He had to wear a huge polystyrene dog's head and skip across the stage holding it. Richard admits that it was not done with the grace usually associated with the ballet.
It is an interesting tussle, with only the final two main rounds allocating shared points. John makes an elementary mistake in the first round to miscount his answer, and is soon 23 points behind. A full monty gets him back within range, but a mistake in the next numbers round proves decisive. Christopher ends up winning by 22 points, 53 to 31.
I basically did as well as feasible, except that I wimped out of declaring a full monty that I was quite unsure about. It did turn out to be valid, alas. I was also slow on the conundrum but got there in the end. Still, a very comfortable win, and if I'd gone for the full monty it would have been my personal best solo score.
As usual, details after the jump.
Ep 386: Christopher Piggott-McKellar, Michael Vnuk (February 20, 2012)
Lily damaged her right shoulder since the last game, so will be using her left hand for the rest of the week. People who kept an eye on the Letters and Numbers updates (facebook, twitter, etc.) last year may recall how there was an unexpected announcement of audience seating for finals on a Saturday. The reason, as I understand it, is that the filming of the episodes for this week and next week were pushed back a day so as to allow Lily some extra recovery time. I really hope that it was enough for her.
Christopher (as implied last game) is a keen AFL player. He notes that there is a distinction between skilful and keen, and he is definitely keen. He would love to be an AFL commentator; in response to Richard's query, Christopher concedes that he has not practiced it, except maybe sometimes in the shower. "In lieu of singing, because [he is] a bit tone deaf."
Tonight's challenger is Michael Vnuk, a freelance editor. He met his wife through playing Scrabble, and they still play against each other at home. That's pretty much all we find out about him, so I'm going to add things that weren't mentioned on the show. This year he'll be representing South Australia in the State Team Challenge Scrabble event; he is currently ranked 65th nationally, although he has been as high as 31st place. The following further information is taken from the Society of Editors (South Australia) Past meetings page:
Michael gets off to a good lead in the first round, as the retsina mix offers up easy fodder for a tournament Scrabble player. He has another good find in the fourth round to extend the lead to fifteen points, and he manages to maintain that through the last letters game. But then Christopher comes storming home with a good solve of the final numbers game to close the gap to five, and a fast solve of the conundrum to take a five point win, 54 to 49. Now that was a great finish!
I was on target with the numbers today, and in decent shape with the letters. I was a little too slow with one better word, and completely missed another. Aside from that it was decent stuff, with just a split second of slowness on the conundrum to regret. But I'd done enought for a comfortable win regardless.
As usual, details after the jump.
Christopher (as implied last game) is a keen AFL player. He notes that there is a distinction between skilful and keen, and he is definitely keen. He would love to be an AFL commentator; in response to Richard's query, Christopher concedes that he has not practiced it, except maybe sometimes in the shower. "In lieu of singing, because [he is] a bit tone deaf."
Tonight's challenger is Michael Vnuk, a freelance editor. He met his wife through playing Scrabble, and they still play against each other at home. That's pretty much all we find out about him, so I'm going to add things that weren't mentioned on the show. This year he'll be representing South Australia in the State Team Challenge Scrabble event; he is currently ranked 65th nationally, although he has been as high as 31st place. The following further information is taken from the Society of Editors (South Australia) Past meetings page:
Michael Vnuk, AE, started his working life as a geologist, but has always been fascinated with words. Although he'd dabbled in Scrabble over the years, it wasn't until the 1990s that he got serious and began playing in Scrabble tournaments. This led to his running a Scrabble club, organising and directing tournaments, serving on committees, and editing Across the Board, the quarterly Australian Scrabble newsletter. Michael enjoyed the voluntary editing and went on to complete a TAFE editing diploma. He's been a freelance editor since 2007, working mainly on science-related materials.
Michael gets off to a good lead in the first round, as the retsina mix offers up easy fodder for a tournament Scrabble player. He has another good find in the fourth round to extend the lead to fifteen points, and he manages to maintain that through the last letters game. But then Christopher comes storming home with a good solve of the final numbers game to close the gap to five, and a fast solve of the conundrum to take a five point win, 54 to 49. Now that was a great finish!
I was on target with the numbers today, and in decent shape with the letters. I was a little too slow with one better word, and completely missed another. Aside from that it was decent stuff, with just a split second of slowness on the conundrum to regret. But I'd done enought for a comfortable win regardless.
As usual, details after the jump.
Friday, 17 February 2012
Ep 385: Christopher Piggott-McKellar, Donna McDaid (February 17, 2012)
Christopher's hobby is cross-stitch; he finds it a great way to unwind. During the AFL season there's nothing he likes more than watching or playing a game of AFL and then going home to unwind with a bit of embroidery. It's what he likes to call "going from the pitch to the stitch". He has been doing it for probably around ten years now (it was noted yesterday that he is 23); his mother first got him into it when he was "a young whippersnapper".
Tonight's challenger is Donna McDaid, an accounts assistant and keen traveller. She has been in Australia for a year and a half now, but before that she travelled a lot. When she first left England she went to South America: Peru, Bolivia, Brazil, Argentina. At Machu Picchu she learned to never climb another mountain. Heh.
I'm afraid that Donna isn't able to show her best form tonight; she only manages four valid answers during the game. Christopher had two more valid answers which is a considerable advantage, but it was the final numbers round that was most significant. He was eight points ahead going into that, so if things went well for Donna she could have taken a lead into the conundrum. The result went the other way, however, with Christopher finding a good solution to take an unbeatable lead and eventually the game, 36 to 18.
I wasn't really in bad form today, but I wasn't hitting the high notes. I stumbled in the last numbers round where a solution was tough but findable, but finished in positive fashion by solving the conundrum. That lifted my score into the 60's yet again, for a fairly consistent week.
As usual, details after the jump.
Tonight's challenger is Donna McDaid, an accounts assistant and keen traveller. She has been in Australia for a year and a half now, but before that she travelled a lot. When she first left England she went to South America: Peru, Bolivia, Brazil, Argentina. At Machu Picchu she learned to never climb another mountain. Heh.
I'm afraid that Donna isn't able to show her best form tonight; she only manages four valid answers during the game. Christopher had two more valid answers which is a considerable advantage, but it was the final numbers round that was most significant. He was eight points ahead going into that, so if things went well for Donna she could have taken a lead into the conundrum. The result went the other way, however, with Christopher finding a good solution to take an unbeatable lead and eventually the game, 36 to 18.
I wasn't really in bad form today, but I wasn't hitting the high notes. I stumbled in the last numbers round where a solution was tough but findable, but finished in positive fashion by solving the conundrum. That lifted my score into the 60's yet again, for a fairly consistent week.
As usual, details after the jump.
Thursday, 16 February 2012
Ep 384: Christopher Piggott-McKellar, Tiahn Hannaford (February 16, 2012)
Two new contestants tonight after Alan's successful retirement yesterday. In the champion's seat is Christopher Piggott-McKellar, a policy advisor for the Queensland government. He did a little freelance radio journalism after he finished university and before he started working for the government. That let him travel a lot and visit some pretty amazing places in northern Australia, and Arnhem Land in particular. He feels very privileged to have done so, and thinks that everyone should explore our continent -- it's a marvellous place.
In the challenger's seat is high school student Tiahn Hannaford. Tiahn wants to study psychology after she finishes school; she is really interested in looking at how the human brain works, and how people relate to one another. She's interested in more than "just counselling people"; she wants to look at the quirky things that they do and find out why. This makes me think of The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat.
The contestants mostly find sixes in the letters, with some lower and a single seven. The numbers go a bit each way, but Tiahn missed a findable target in the first numbers round and that ten point difference carried over all the way to the conundrum. She still had a chance if she could have solved it, but it was a tough one tonight; Chrisopher took the win, 45 to 35.
Nine-letters words were my weakness in this game, which is not unusual. I missed the available full monty, and was not able to solve the conundrum until well after time was up. Still, it was a pretty comfortable win in the end, continuing this week's run of scores in the sixties.
As usual, details after the jump.
In the challenger's seat is high school student Tiahn Hannaford. Tiahn wants to study psychology after she finishes school; she is really interested in looking at how the human brain works, and how people relate to one another. She's interested in more than "just counselling people"; she wants to look at the quirky things that they do and find out why. This makes me think of The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat.
The contestants mostly find sixes in the letters, with some lower and a single seven. The numbers go a bit each way, but Tiahn missed a findable target in the first numbers round and that ten point difference carried over all the way to the conundrum. She still had a chance if she could have solved it, but it was a tough one tonight; Chrisopher took the win, 45 to 35.
Nine-letters words were my weakness in this game, which is not unusual. I missed the available full monty, and was not able to solve the conundrum until well after time was up. Still, it was a pretty comfortable win in the end, continuing this week's run of scores in the sixties.
As usual, details after the jump.
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