Ep 187: Tony Loui, Mark Povey (September 27, 2016; originally aired April 19, 2011)

Rounds: Here.

Disclaimer: I watched this episode when it first aired, and although I did not recall any of it I cannot rule out memory being a factor.


It's Tony Loui's fifth night, and Richard wheels out the question about strategy.  Tony manages to give more of an answer than most contestants do, which is a nice change.  With the letters, he tries to make the longest he can from the first five or six letters so that he has a four- or five-letter word, then builds from that.  For the numbers, he tries to make it simple by using the biggest number first and get the closest that he can, and then adjust.  That's certainly an approach that I advocate, and it works quite often.

Tonight's challenger is Mark Povey, a storeman who served in the Royal Australian Navy for twenty-one years.  Richard asks about highlights of Mark's career in the navy; Mark does not get very specific, but does mention that he was on the ground for six months doing services with the United Nations in Mogadishu.  Aside from that, just a lot of time spent away from home, and that is when his fondness for crosswords, particularly David's cryptics, blossomed.  He has yet to finish one, but hopes to do so one day.


Things started out poorly for Tony, as he duplicated a letter in the first letters round.  Mark capitalised on that swing by finding a good word in the second round, building a 13 point lead after just two rounds.  But Tony rallied in the numbers, scoring points to narrow the gap to six.  A shared round followed in the letters, then Tony levelled the scores in round five.  The second numbers round was too difficult for both contestants, so they were tied going into the second break.

It looked like we were heading for a nailbiter of a finish, but Tony blew the game wide open by finding a full monty in the last letters game.  Mark was still in with a chance, but the numbers were not cooperative for him and instead Tony extended his lead.  The conundrum also turned out to be too hard for the contestants, so it was round seven that decided it all.  Tony won by 49 points to 21, a winning margin that does not reflect most of the game.