Rounds: Here.
It's Kathryn James' third night on the show, and we find out that she likes to read. And in particular, she recently bought a copy of 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die. Remember that fad? It will certainly provide her with a lot of suggestions for upcoming reading material, although Kathryn indicates that it will not be the entirety of her reading list.
Tonight's challenger is David Waddell, a secondary school teacher who is currently studying a masters of divinity. In response to Richard's questioning, David explains that it is a graduate degree in theology for someone with a degree in a different discipline. He intends to use it to go over to Africa and do some aid and development work in Malawi, Mozambique, or Tanzania.
As a minor policy change from previous writeups, I'll be referring to David Astle as DA in the rest of this writeup to avoid confusion over which David is meant.
It was a close game tonight, with some good back-and-forth from the contestants. David took the first advantage, but Kathryn struck back in the second round to take the lead, then extended it in the numbers. Both contestants did well in the next letters round, and David managed to close the gap to just one point in the following one. A couple of matched efforts followed, then Kathryn extended her lead on the last numbers round, putting her eight points ahead going into the conundrum. It was a good position to be in, but not quite good enough: David solved the conundrum first, sneaking home for victory, 38 to 36.
I dropped a few maxima tonight, but it was the numbers ones that made me unhappy. They were findable, and I solved both of them shortly after time. I just need to be a bit faster! If I had found the solutions I would have outpointed DA and Lily -- a very rare occurrence!
Showing posts with label Kathryn James. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Kathryn James. Show all posts
Thursday, 19 May 2016
Wednesday, 18 May 2016
Ep 106: Kathryn James, Rhys McCaig (May 18, 2016; originally aired December 27, 2010)
Rounds: Here.
Kathryn James gets her turn in the champion's seat tonight, and we find out that she plays indoor soccer. She has done so for a couple of years, and is "more of a defender", having scored a total of one goal last year.
Tonight's challenger is Rhys McCaig, and IT consultant with an interest in politics, to the extent that he attended the inauguration of Barack Obama. Rhys happened to be nearby at the time for a wedding, and knowing that the inauguration was coming up he scrambled to find a ticket online; he paid an exorbitant amount of money for it, but says it was possibly one of the most exciting moments of his life.
It was a low-scoring affair tonight, with no number targets being reached and only one word as long as seven letters found. Rhys was in trouble from the start, finding only very short words (at one point declaring a three); Kathryn also had a bit of trouble finding long options, so her advantage was smaller than might have been expected. Rhys managed to score points in the first numbers round to reduce the gap, but Kathryn stretched her lead over the next two letters rounds. Rhys finally scored points in the last letters round, putting him barely within conundrum range, but then Kathryn sealed the win in the final numbers round. She followed that up by solving the conundrum, for a 41 to 13 victory.
I was doing quite well until the last two rounds, and on track for a maximal game. But I got lost in the final numbers round and so missed my chance to equal David and Lily. Kathryn beat me to the conundrum, but I had a comfortable lead over both contestants in any case.
Kathryn James gets her turn in the champion's seat tonight, and we find out that she plays indoor soccer. She has done so for a couple of years, and is "more of a defender", having scored a total of one goal last year.
Tonight's challenger is Rhys McCaig, and IT consultant with an interest in politics, to the extent that he attended the inauguration of Barack Obama. Rhys happened to be nearby at the time for a wedding, and knowing that the inauguration was coming up he scrambled to find a ticket online; he paid an exorbitant amount of money for it, but says it was possibly one of the most exciting moments of his life.
It was a low-scoring affair tonight, with no number targets being reached and only one word as long as seven letters found. Rhys was in trouble from the start, finding only very short words (at one point declaring a three); Kathryn also had a bit of trouble finding long options, so her advantage was smaller than might have been expected. Rhys managed to score points in the first numbers round to reduce the gap, but Kathryn stretched her lead over the next two letters rounds. Rhys finally scored points in the last letters round, putting him barely within conundrum range, but then Kathryn sealed the win in the final numbers round. She followed that up by solving the conundrum, for a 41 to 13 victory.
I was doing quite well until the last two rounds, and on track for a maximal game. But I got lost in the final numbers round and so missed my chance to equal David and Lily. Kathryn beat me to the conundrum, but I had a comfortable lead over both contestants in any case.
Tuesday, 17 May 2016
Ep 105: Luke Brattoni, Kathryn James (May 17, 2016; originally aired December 24, 2010)
Rounds: Here.
It's the third night for Luke Brattoni, and Richard lets us know that Luke is a keen cartoonist. That ties in with yesterday's story about him drawing cartoon licenses for kids. Luke says that this goes back to primary school -- when he first got a computer he started doodling in the paint program. He adds that he is OK at ink drawing, but the ability to adjust digital images is something that he finds really appealing.
Challenging Luke tonight is Kathryn James, a project officer in the international development sector. Richard asks what it is that Kathryn does within that sector; she responds first by explaining that international development includes both emergency relief and long term projects. At the moment, Kathryn is working on integrating disability into that, both in making people more aware of it and in making projects more accessible to disabilities.
(On first viewing, I don't think that I was left any the wiser as to what "international development" meant -- development spanning nations? I think that Kathryn could have explained that better, but it might be one of those situations where you're so immersed in the subject that you just assume everyone else knows what you mean. (Or maybe I am just less well-informed than I should be.) Anyway, at the time of filming, Kathryn had recently started working for CBM Australia, which aims to improve the quality of life of people with disabilities in the poorest communities of the world. So in this case, "international development" appears to mean the ongoing development of poorer countries by more affluent countries; similar to disaster relief, but taking a longer-term view.)
It was a very close game tonight -- definitely the closest of the series so far. Kathryn took the lead early with a good word in round one, but Luke rebounded in the next round to close the gap to a single point. An invalid word from Kathryn in round four saw Luke extend his lead, and the next few rounds were shared. In the last third of the game, Kathryn retook the lead in the letters only for Luke to take it back again in the numbers. It was anyone's game in the conundrum, and both contestants spotted the answer quickly and pressed the buzzers nearly simultaneously. But Kathryn was just that little bit quicker, coming from behind to win 46 to 44.
I had a good game, dropping two maxima but one of those I would not have chanced even if I had seen it. I did get beaten to the conundrum by both contestants, however, so there was room for improvement on that front.
It's the third night for Luke Brattoni, and Richard lets us know that Luke is a keen cartoonist. That ties in with yesterday's story about him drawing cartoon licenses for kids. Luke says that this goes back to primary school -- when he first got a computer he started doodling in the paint program. He adds that he is OK at ink drawing, but the ability to adjust digital images is something that he finds really appealing.
Challenging Luke tonight is Kathryn James, a project officer in the international development sector. Richard asks what it is that Kathryn does within that sector; she responds first by explaining that international development includes both emergency relief and long term projects. At the moment, Kathryn is working on integrating disability into that, both in making people more aware of it and in making projects more accessible to disabilities.
(On first viewing, I don't think that I was left any the wiser as to what "international development" meant -- development spanning nations? I think that Kathryn could have explained that better, but it might be one of those situations where you're so immersed in the subject that you just assume everyone else knows what you mean. (Or maybe I am just less well-informed than I should be.) Anyway, at the time of filming, Kathryn had recently started working for CBM Australia, which aims to improve the quality of life of people with disabilities in the poorest communities of the world. So in this case, "international development" appears to mean the ongoing development of poorer countries by more affluent countries; similar to disaster relief, but taking a longer-term view.)
It was a very close game tonight -- definitely the closest of the series so far. Kathryn took the lead early with a good word in round one, but Luke rebounded in the next round to close the gap to a single point. An invalid word from Kathryn in round four saw Luke extend his lead, and the next few rounds were shared. In the last third of the game, Kathryn retook the lead in the letters only for Luke to take it back again in the numbers. It was anyone's game in the conundrum, and both contestants spotted the answer quickly and pressed the buzzers nearly simultaneously. But Kathryn was just that little bit quicker, coming from behind to win 46 to 44.
I had a good game, dropping two maxima but one of those I would not have chanced even if I had seen it. I did get beaten to the conundrum by both contestants, however, so there was room for improvement on that front.
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