Ep 111: Matthew Thomason, Liam Murphy (May 25, 2016; originally aired January 3, 2011)

Rounds: Here.


This episode was the first of the new year, and so the pre-game banter is mostly about New Year's Eve.  It's Matthew Thomason's third night, and Richard continues the theme by asking how Matthew spent his New Year's Eve.  Matthew responds that he did the same as every year -- he slept through it.

Tonight's challenger is Liam Murphy, who has just finished a Bachelor of Pharmacy and spent the last two summers working at a chemist in a beachside town, meaning that he could surf every day.  That should endear him somewhat to Lily!  Furthermore, Liam has just accepted a job at a pharmacy in Noosa, for an intern year, so he hopes to continue the trend.

After the second break there's a bit more revealed.  (I think this is the third time in a row, or at least recently, that there's been some further contestant chatting done after the second break.  I wonder if they were trying to make it a thing, or maybe they suspected the contestants would lose and wanted to get a few more of their conversational snippets.  I don't recall it happening much by the time I had started watching.)  Anyway, like Dane Watkins from the previous episode, Liam was also a student of Chris Scholten-Smith, the show's first carryover champion.  In this case it was for year 9 English.


Liam started off well to take the early lead, but that was the high point of the show for him.  Matthew quickly overtook Liam, then the numbers rounds pushed Matthew past catching.  Liam managed to equal Matthew in the last two letters rounds, but was never able to stop Matthew scoring after the first round.  A tough conundrum proved beyond both contestants, but Matthew had cruised home to win, 49 to 18.

I managed to keep pace with David and Lily for most of the game, but then faltered on the last letters round.  The conundrum was also too difficult for me, but I'd done more than enough to beat the contestants.