Rounds: Here.
It's the sixth and final night for Barry Harridge, and the question is whether he can successfully retire. But first we get to find out a little more about his past activities: Barry went to the first (English language) World Scrabble Championship, in London in 1991. He attended as just a "Scrabble groupie"; however, when the Nigerians failed to turn up the organisers drew a name out of a hat as a replacement, and that is how he ended up playing in the tournament. Barry adds that it was not too bad, because the rest of his team-mates had spent a sleepless night previously, but he'd had a really good sleep. (Incidentally, Barry ended up coming 32nd out of 48, behind two of the other Australians but ahead of the other two. A brief table of results is here.)
Standing between Barry and successful retirement is Gary Beer, an operations manager for an insurance brokerage firm. Gary left the UK in 2005 for what was meant to be a twelve-month trip, but five years down the track has become an Australian citizen. As he relates it, he had spent three months travelling around South-East Asia, and arrived in Australia needing to earn some extra money before he continued with the rest of his trip. He started working for a company (that he is still working for), and back then it was only allowed to work for three months as a temporary employee. So the company offered to sponsor him, and five years down the track he is still there, and has gained citizenship. Obviously, he is very happy to be here.
Whoo-ee, this one went down to the wire. In every single main round the contestants declared equal results, and they were identical in all but two cases. One of those almost led to a swing, since it was a numbers round with calculation errors, but it turned out that both contestants managed to make errors and there was no swing. So it came down to the conundrum, with both contestants on equal score. It was a difficult one, but Barry managed to solve it and so successfully retire with a 59 to 49 victory. Well done, Barry!
I was similarly matched with the contestants, right up until that late-game pair of invalid rounds. That gave me just enough breathing space to scrape home with the win, despite not solving the conundrum within time. Phew!
Showing posts with label Retiring Champion. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Retiring Champion. Show all posts
Sunday, 3 July 2016
Tuesday, 31 May 2016
Ep 114: Matthew Thomason, Bryce Lawrence (May 30, 2016; originally aired January 6, 2011)
Rounds: Here.
Here we are at Matthew Thomason's sixth game, his last until the finals. There's basically no chat with him beyond pointing out that fact, which lends credence to my observation in yesterday's game that they may well have run out of talking points for him.
Standing between Matthew and successful retirement is Bryce Lawrence, a project management student who has just deferred his studies in order to live in South America. Bryce expands on that: He has deferred for two years in order to go and live with the Matis indigenous tribe; he will be living in the same conditions as they do for his time there. That certainly sounds interesting (although decidedly not something that I would enjoy) but we don't find out why he is doing this -- what does he hope to do there, that kind of thing. That really feels like a missed opportunity.
It started out as a very close game, with the contestants finding equal results in the first three rounds. It looked like it might go down to the wire, but the second third went all Matthew's way, with two good words from him and an arithmetical error from Bryce giving him a commanding lead. Matthew sealed the game in the last letters round, then finished off emphatically with another fast conundrum solution to make the scoreline 65 to 30. That makes him the first retiring champion of the series.
I was in decent shape tonight, only missing the one maximum. It also eluded David's eye, so my solo total will end up the same as him and Lily, and that's always nice. I was slow on the conundrum, but had done more than enough to beat the contestants.
Here we are at Matthew Thomason's sixth game, his last until the finals. There's basically no chat with him beyond pointing out that fact, which lends credence to my observation in yesterday's game that they may well have run out of talking points for him.
Standing between Matthew and successful retirement is Bryce Lawrence, a project management student who has just deferred his studies in order to live in South America. Bryce expands on that: He has deferred for two years in order to go and live with the Matis indigenous tribe; he will be living in the same conditions as they do for his time there. That certainly sounds interesting (although decidedly not something that I would enjoy) but we don't find out why he is doing this -- what does he hope to do there, that kind of thing. That really feels like a missed opportunity.
It started out as a very close game, with the contestants finding equal results in the first three rounds. It looked like it might go down to the wire, but the second third went all Matthew's way, with two good words from him and an arithmetical error from Bryce giving him a commanding lead. Matthew sealed the game in the last letters round, then finished off emphatically with another fast conundrum solution to make the scoreline 65 to 30. That makes him the first retiring champion of the series.
I was in decent shape tonight, only missing the one maximum. It also eluded David's eye, so my solo total will end up the same as him and Lily, and that's always nice. I was slow on the conundrum, but had done more than enough to beat the contestants.
Tuesday, 3 March 2015
Ep 272: Brydon Coverdale, Niall Donohue (March 3, 2015; originally aired September 13, 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.
Before we get to the contestant introductions tonight, David remarks that he was "poetically ambushed" last night (as I mentioned at the end of the write-up for episode 271). He feels it is only fitting that he gets a chance to respond, which he does:
Win or lose, this is Brydon's last night until the finals. Richard asks about his highlights from the previous games; I guess I find this slightly better than asking about technique, but not by that much. Brydon says that there were a couple of earlier games that went down to the conundrum, and he's not sure that he can handle another one of those.
Tonight's challenger is Niall Donohue, a worker in the energy industry. That involves installing things like shower heads, light globes, or other things -- anything that can reduce the electricity requirements and carbon footprint.
Niall chanced a colloquialism in the first round, and that was a costly mistake. The two contestants had equal-scoring results for the rest of the game, except for the last two numbers rounds. Niall took the points on the first of those to take the lead at last, but Brydon did well on the last one to sneak back into first place. With just four points separating the contestants going into the conundrum, we had the situation that Brydon was hoping to avoid. They both struggled with it, but with just a few seconds left Niall buzzed in and it looked like Brydon's run was at an end. However, Niall had done so out of desperation alone, and his answer was invalid. Brydon scraped by thanks to that first round result, winning 52 to 48, and successfully retired. We'll see him again in the finals.
I was in good shape until I tanked it on the last numbers round. I also had my difficulties with the conundrum, but was glad to solve it and push my score into the seventies again.
As usual, details after the jump.
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.
Before we get to the contestant introductions tonight, David remarks that he was "poetically ambushed" last night (as I mentioned at the end of the write-up for episode 271). He feels it is only fitting that he gets a chance to respond, which he does:
Letters are electric: They tell stories, excite.Heh. I do recall that opening from him rather vividly; he set the joke up well, getting a good scansion going, only to drop it completely to emphasise the flatness that he associates with the numbers. I had not recalled Lily's poem that prompted him to respond that way, however, so seeing the episodes again has restored some useful context. That said, at the time I was perhaps a little miffed, and I composed this in response:
They have flashes and fusions that sparkle all night.
Whereas numbers... are just numbers.
There's a beauty, when seen through math'matical eye,And now, back to our regular coverage.
In the simplicity of one, in the transcendence of π.
Or the dance of the primes; they've an endless supply
of curious and interesting patterns to spy.
Numbers lay the foundations on which we build high;
They guide us to truths that none may deny.
Language is fluid, tricksy, and sly;
Words may deceive, but the numbers... don't lie.
Win or lose, this is Brydon's last night until the finals. Richard asks about his highlights from the previous games; I guess I find this slightly better than asking about technique, but not by that much. Brydon says that there were a couple of earlier games that went down to the conundrum, and he's not sure that he can handle another one of those.
Tonight's challenger is Niall Donohue, a worker in the energy industry. That involves installing things like shower heads, light globes, or other things -- anything that can reduce the electricity requirements and carbon footprint.
Niall chanced a colloquialism in the first round, and that was a costly mistake. The two contestants had equal-scoring results for the rest of the game, except for the last two numbers rounds. Niall took the points on the first of those to take the lead at last, but Brydon did well on the last one to sneak back into first place. With just four points separating the contestants going into the conundrum, we had the situation that Brydon was hoping to avoid. They both struggled with it, but with just a few seconds left Niall buzzed in and it looked like Brydon's run was at an end. However, Niall had done so out of desperation alone, and his answer was invalid. Brydon scraped by thanks to that first round result, winning 52 to 48, and successfully retired. We'll see him again in the finals.
I was in good shape until I tanked it on the last numbers round. I also had my difficulties with the conundrum, but was glad to solve it and push my score into the seventies again.
As usual, details after the jump.
Friday, 26 October 2012
Ep 77: Dom Saric, Rebecca Daley (October 23, 2012; originally aired November 16, 2010)
Rounds: Here.
This is Dom Saric's sixth night, so the last we'll see of him before the finals. Retiring undefeated is his goal, of course, and speaking of goals Richard mentions that Dom is a big soccer fan. Dom has been playing outdoor soccer since the age of six, and picked up indoor soccer in the last five or six years.
Tonight's challenger is Rebecca Daley, a student of biomedicine who recently came to Australia from America. Rebecca met her boyfriend on New Year's Eve in New York City, where she was living at the time. They lived there while he finished up law school in the vicinity, and then the next New Year's they moved to Australia so that he could start work here and she could start studying.
Dom finished on a high note, or at least on a comprehensive victory. He found some good words throughout, with Rebecca unable to match him in any of the letters rounds (in part due to two invalid words). He had the better of the numbers rounds, and when he solved the conundrum quickly the final scoreline was an imposing 57 to 7 in his favour. Dom successfully retired, the sixth person to do so.
I had a good game, except for one major problem that cost me that rare chance of outscoring David and Lily. That was a truly careless slip of the mind that gave me an invalid numbers round -- always frustrating when that happens. I was much slower than Dom to see the conundrum, also, so there were a couple of features that needed improving. The strong plus here was finding a longer word than David in one round (and a second such after time, but for the same round); that is always something to be cherished.
This is Dom Saric's sixth night, so the last we'll see of him before the finals. Retiring undefeated is his goal, of course, and speaking of goals Richard mentions that Dom is a big soccer fan. Dom has been playing outdoor soccer since the age of six, and picked up indoor soccer in the last five or six years.
Tonight's challenger is Rebecca Daley, a student of biomedicine who recently came to Australia from America. Rebecca met her boyfriend on New Year's Eve in New York City, where she was living at the time. They lived there while he finished up law school in the vicinity, and then the next New Year's they moved to Australia so that he could start work here and she could start studying.
Dom finished on a high note, or at least on a comprehensive victory. He found some good words throughout, with Rebecca unable to match him in any of the letters rounds (in part due to two invalid words). He had the better of the numbers rounds, and when he solved the conundrum quickly the final scoreline was an imposing 57 to 7 in his favour. Dom successfully retired, the sixth person to do so.
I had a good game, except for one major problem that cost me that rare chance of outscoring David and Lily. That was a truly careless slip of the mind that gave me an invalid numbers round -- always frustrating when that happens. I was much slower than Dom to see the conundrum, also, so there were a couple of features that needed improving. The strong plus here was finding a longer word than David in one round (and a second such after time, but for the same round); that is always something to be cherished.
Thursday, 20 September 2012
Ep 53: Liam Bastick, Tristan Leech (September 19, 2012; originally aired October 13, 2010)
Rounds: Here.
This is Liam Bastick's sixth night, and his last appearance until the finals series. Obviously he is hoping to become a retiring champion, and a win here will move him from fifth to fourth in the rankings. Richard asks him the frequent question about his strategies, and Liam says something a little interesting: One of the things he has learned while playing instead of watching is that he loses thinking time while picking the letters, so he does better by choosing fewer vowels. Interesting! That also explains his rapid-fire consonant choices, to an extent. No point giving the opponent too much of an advantage over you in that regard.
Tonight's challenger is Tristan Leech, a trainee surgeon at the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons. Tristan also DJ's, with the nickname of "Hot Pants". That obviously leads to further questions; Tristan explains that it began a long time ago when he played the evil Doctor Clown Pants in a staged wrestling event. Then when he was doing student radio around the turn of the millennium he took it to Hot Pants. Richard remarks that this was not quite what he expected from a surgeon; Tristan responds that one is expected to exercise a certain amount of decorum at work so it is good to have some outlets to express other sides of his personality.
The game started quietly enough with a pair of shared letters rounds, then Liam pulled ahead in the first numbers round. He extended that lead in the next letters round, and then again in the second numbers round when Tristan used a number that was not present. A further gain in the final letters round guaranteed Liam the win, which he rounded off in fine style by solving the conundrum to finish with his best total so far and a 72 to 28 victory.
I dropped two maxima that I should have found (they were easily seen after time once the pressure was off); the rest all went as well as possible, including finding a longer word than David in one round. A fast conundrum finished things off on a positive note, and I had a decent win.
This is Liam Bastick's sixth night, and his last appearance until the finals series. Obviously he is hoping to become a retiring champion, and a win here will move him from fifth to fourth in the rankings. Richard asks him the frequent question about his strategies, and Liam says something a little interesting: One of the things he has learned while playing instead of watching is that he loses thinking time while picking the letters, so he does better by choosing fewer vowels. Interesting! That also explains his rapid-fire consonant choices, to an extent. No point giving the opponent too much of an advantage over you in that regard.
Tonight's challenger is Tristan Leech, a trainee surgeon at the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons. Tristan also DJ's, with the nickname of "Hot Pants". That obviously leads to further questions; Tristan explains that it began a long time ago when he played the evil Doctor Clown Pants in a staged wrestling event. Then when he was doing student radio around the turn of the millennium he took it to Hot Pants. Richard remarks that this was not quite what he expected from a surgeon; Tristan responds that one is expected to exercise a certain amount of decorum at work so it is good to have some outlets to express other sides of his personality.
The game started quietly enough with a pair of shared letters rounds, then Liam pulled ahead in the first numbers round. He extended that lead in the next letters round, and then again in the second numbers round when Tristan used a number that was not present. A further gain in the final letters round guaranteed Liam the win, which he rounded off in fine style by solving the conundrum to finish with his best total so far and a 72 to 28 victory.
I dropped two maxima that I should have found (they were easily seen after time once the pressure was off); the rest all went as well as possible, including finding a longer word than David in one round. A fast conundrum finished things off on a positive note, and I had a decent win.
Thursday, 30 August 2012
Ep 38: David Jones, Brendan Murphy (August 29, 2012; originally aired September 22, 2010)
Rounds: Here.
Disclaimer: While I have not seen this episode before, I did play through the blue book (episodes 1 to 50) around ten months ago when I was scheduled to be a contestant on the show. Additionally, I did a quick flick through it a few months back to collect words for my posts about word validity.
This is the sixth and final night for David Jones, at least until the finals series. Richard asks whether David is more comfortable with the letters rounds or the numbers rounds; the answer to that is pretty obvious from anyone who has been following the play. But David still manages to add a twist to it, saying that nine conundrums would suit him best. Heh! That's fairly true, as he has solved four of the five so far (Kiao Inthavong beat him to the other one).
David does then grant that the letters have been much better for him than the numbers, and Richard reminds us that David found a nine-letter word yesterday. David goes too far when he states that it proved the difference in that game; the winning margin was greater than that, so he would have had to actually give up points to Beckett to have lost. Since that would have required either an invalid word or at most a five, it was highly unlikely.
Tonight's challenger is Brendan Murphy, an I.T. manager at a secondary college. Brendan has travelled extensively within Australia; one of his favourite spots is the Gold Coast, which he says is a great place to take the family and have a really relaxing holiday.
As mentioned before, I'll be referring to David Astle throughout as DA to avoid confusion about which David is which.
David got off to an early lead, then several shared rounds followed (including a numbers round that neither was able to make any progress on). Then David extended his lead in the next three rounds, and was safe going into the final numbers round. Both shared points in that, but the conundrum was too difficult for either of them -- David buzzed in halfway through with an incorrect answer -- and David became the show's fourth retiring champion with a 53 to 22 win.
I had a reasonable game -- the only maximum I missed in the main rounds was rather obscure and I was not prepared to risk it -- but the conundrum was also too difficult for me. I finished comfortably ahead, but was disappointed to break what has been a pretty good streak on the conundrums -- 17 in a row solved within regulation time, even if contestants have beaten me to them sometimes.
Disclaimer: While I have not seen this episode before, I did play through the blue book (episodes 1 to 50) around ten months ago when I was scheduled to be a contestant on the show. Additionally, I did a quick flick through it a few months back to collect words for my posts about word validity.
This is the sixth and final night for David Jones, at least until the finals series. Richard asks whether David is more comfortable with the letters rounds or the numbers rounds; the answer to that is pretty obvious from anyone who has been following the play. But David still manages to add a twist to it, saying that nine conundrums would suit him best. Heh! That's fairly true, as he has solved four of the five so far (Kiao Inthavong beat him to the other one).
David does then grant that the letters have been much better for him than the numbers, and Richard reminds us that David found a nine-letter word yesterday. David goes too far when he states that it proved the difference in that game; the winning margin was greater than that, so he would have had to actually give up points to Beckett to have lost. Since that would have required either an invalid word or at most a five, it was highly unlikely.
Tonight's challenger is Brendan Murphy, an I.T. manager at a secondary college. Brendan has travelled extensively within Australia; one of his favourite spots is the Gold Coast, which he says is a great place to take the family and have a really relaxing holiday.
As mentioned before, I'll be referring to David Astle throughout as DA to avoid confusion about which David is which.
David got off to an early lead, then several shared rounds followed (including a numbers round that neither was able to make any progress on). Then David extended his lead in the next three rounds, and was safe going into the final numbers round. Both shared points in that, but the conundrum was too difficult for either of them -- David buzzed in halfway through with an incorrect answer -- and David became the show's fourth retiring champion with a 53 to 22 win.
I had a reasonable game -- the only maximum I missed in the main rounds was rather obscure and I was not prepared to risk it -- but the conundrum was also too difficult for me. I finished comfortably ahead, but was disappointed to break what has been a pretty good streak on the conundrums -- 17 in a row solved within regulation time, even if contestants have beaten me to them sometimes.
Tuesday, 21 August 2012
Ep 31: Naween Fernando, Paul Hughes (August 20, 2012; originally aired September 13, 2010)
Rounds: Here.
Disclaimer: While I have not seen this episode before, I did play through the blue book (episodes 1 to 50) around ten months ago when I was scheduled to be a contestant on the show. Additionally, I did a quick flick through it a few months back to collect words for my posts about word validity.
Once more the pre-game chat tells us essentially nothing more about Naween; in fact, he doesn't even get to speak. It really does seem that they squeezed every fact about him into the first episode's brief, and that's a shame.
Tonight's challenger is Paul Hughes, a retired I.T. specialist who solves cryptic crosswords and sudoku puzzles daily. Paul also volunteers at the Red Cross two days a week; he works in a call centre, and the primary role is to make sure that the people they call -- elderly housing department tenants for the most part -- are OK each morning. But it has the secondary function of giving those people someone to talk to each day, and Paul says that you get to hear some lovely stories.
Naween needed 60 points this episode in order to match Andrew Fisher's total. He started off a little quietly with a safe word, but was still able to outpoint Paul in each round of the first third (aided by an invalid numbers declaration from Paul) to quickly take a 23 point lead. Paul got on the scoreboard at last in the next letters round, and then Naween risked a nine that was Scrabble-legal but not in the Macquarie. Paul's word for that round was also invalid, so neither scored. The following numbers round was similarly scoreless, and then Naween finished well to take points in the rest of the rounds. It was his fastest solution to a conundrum yet, and a solid 56 to 6 victory.
I started well enough, but lost my way in the middle section of the game, missing two longer words that I might have seen on other days and being too slow to solve the numbers round. I followed up by being overly conservative on the last letters round, but then recovered to take the last two rounds, including the conundrum. A good game, but could easily have been better.
Disclaimer: While I have not seen this episode before, I did play through the blue book (episodes 1 to 50) around ten months ago when I was scheduled to be a contestant on the show. Additionally, I did a quick flick through it a few months back to collect words for my posts about word validity.
Once more the pre-game chat tells us essentially nothing more about Naween; in fact, he doesn't even get to speak. It really does seem that they squeezed every fact about him into the first episode's brief, and that's a shame.
Tonight's challenger is Paul Hughes, a retired I.T. specialist who solves cryptic crosswords and sudoku puzzles daily. Paul also volunteers at the Red Cross two days a week; he works in a call centre, and the primary role is to make sure that the people they call -- elderly housing department tenants for the most part -- are OK each morning. But it has the secondary function of giving those people someone to talk to each day, and Paul says that you get to hear some lovely stories.
Naween needed 60 points this episode in order to match Andrew Fisher's total. He started off a little quietly with a safe word, but was still able to outpoint Paul in each round of the first third (aided by an invalid numbers declaration from Paul) to quickly take a 23 point lead. Paul got on the scoreboard at last in the next letters round, and then Naween risked a nine that was Scrabble-legal but not in the Macquarie. Paul's word for that round was also invalid, so neither scored. The following numbers round was similarly scoreless, and then Naween finished well to take points in the rest of the rounds. It was his fastest solution to a conundrum yet, and a solid 56 to 6 victory.
I started well enough, but lost my way in the middle section of the game, missing two longer words that I might have seen on other days and being too slow to solve the numbers round. I followed up by being overly conservative on the last letters round, but then recovered to take the last two rounds, including the conundrum. A good game, but could easily have been better.
Sunday, 5 August 2012
Ep 20: Andrew Fisher, Les Ramsay (August 3, 2012; originally aired August 27, 2010)
Rounds: Here.
Disclaimer: While I have not seen this episode before, I did play through the blue book (episodes 1 to 50) around ten months ago when I was scheduled to be a contestant on the show. Additionally, I did a quick flick through it a few months back to collect words for my posts about word validity.
Win or lose (and who could picture him losing at this point?), this is Andrew's last night until the finals. Richard reminds us of the rules of retiring champions, and nothing much more is said.
Tonight's challenger is Les Ramsay, a retired electrical engineer. Some of the activities that Les spends his time on are "cooking curries, reading intrigue novels, playing golf, and he also loves to travel". Richard asks if there is any particular destination that Les has enjoyed most; Les answers in the affirmative -- last year he spent some time travelling through Mexico and South America, and he thinks that Mexico City is a fascinating place. It has such a cultural diversity, and there are more people in Mexico City than in the entirety of Australia.
Andrew got off to a great start with two excellent words, then outdid Les in the first numbers round and soon had a commanding lead of more than thirty points. The only minor blip came when Andrew tried for too much and ended up with an invalid word; Les managed to gain a tiny bit of ground back in the last numbers round also, but Andrew solved the conundrum for another emphatic win (although his lowest scoring game to date), 59 to 25.
I did well in most rounds, but one of Andrew's words was just too good for me. Although I gained some back on his invalid word and in one of the numbers rounds, it proved to be just short of enough; when he solved the conundrum first it gave him the win over me by a point.
Disclaimer: While I have not seen this episode before, I did play through the blue book (episodes 1 to 50) around ten months ago when I was scheduled to be a contestant on the show. Additionally, I did a quick flick through it a few months back to collect words for my posts about word validity.
Win or lose (and who could picture him losing at this point?), this is Andrew's last night until the finals. Richard reminds us of the rules of retiring champions, and nothing much more is said.
Tonight's challenger is Les Ramsay, a retired electrical engineer. Some of the activities that Les spends his time on are "cooking curries, reading intrigue novels, playing golf, and he also loves to travel". Richard asks if there is any particular destination that Les has enjoyed most; Les answers in the affirmative -- last year he spent some time travelling through Mexico and South America, and he thinks that Mexico City is a fascinating place. It has such a cultural diversity, and there are more people in Mexico City than in the entirety of Australia.
Andrew got off to a great start with two excellent words, then outdid Les in the first numbers round and soon had a commanding lead of more than thirty points. The only minor blip came when Andrew tried for too much and ended up with an invalid word; Les managed to gain a tiny bit of ground back in the last numbers round also, but Andrew solved the conundrum for another emphatic win (although his lowest scoring game to date), 59 to 25.
I did well in most rounds, but one of Andrew's words was just too good for me. Although I gained some back on his invalid word and in one of the numbers rounds, it proved to be just short of enough; when he solved the conundrum first it gave him the win over me by a point.
Monday, 16 July 2012
Ep 6: Chris Scholten-Smith, Alan Stewart (July 16, 2012; originally aired August 9, 2010)
Disclaimer: While I have not seen this episode before, I did play
through the blue book (episodes 1 to 50) around ten months ago when I
was scheduled to be a contestant on the show. Additionally, I did a
quick flick through it a few months back to collect words for my posts about word validity.
Since this is the first time it has come up, Richard explains the mandatory retirement of champions after six wins. Chris notes that he can see that he will be addicted to the show once he gets a chance to go home and view it on television.
Standing (or sitting, if you wish to be pedantic) between Chris and successful retirement is tonight's challenger, Alan Stewart. Alan is an editor and a poet; he collects board games and stamps. He also organises science fiction conventions, and his dream is to travel into space. Richard picks up on the science fiction aspect, and asks whether Alan has a favourite science fiction book and film. Alan opts for Shadow of the Torturer, by Gene Wolfe, and Star Wars. Richard suggests that maybe Blade Runner is worthy of the top spot, and Alan concedes that it is a good movie, but Star Wars was what hooked him on science fiction.
The first third of the game went well for Chris, with Alan risking an invalid word and otherwise being just a bit behind. That gave Chris a commanding twenty-one point lead, and by the second break Alan needed an eight-letter word (at least) to have a chance. It just was not on the cards, and Chris was safe with two rounds to go, although if Alan had managed to solve the conundrum the margin of victory would have been a single point. Neither managed it, though, and Chris became the show's first retiring champion with a 40 to 29 victory.
I was mostly in good shape, but it so easily could have been another optimal game. There were just two letters rounds in it; in the first, I saw the best answer a little after time -- as is so often the case -- and in the second I actually saw the best option in potentia as the letters went up, but had forgotten it by the time the last of its letters appeared on the board. Bother. Aside from that, it was all optimal, including a single-second conundrum solution. A hopeful start to the week, although flawed.
Since this is the first time it has come up, Richard explains the mandatory retirement of champions after six wins. Chris notes that he can see that he will be addicted to the show once he gets a chance to go home and view it on television.
Standing (or sitting, if you wish to be pedantic) between Chris and successful retirement is tonight's challenger, Alan Stewart. Alan is an editor and a poet; he collects board games and stamps. He also organises science fiction conventions, and his dream is to travel into space. Richard picks up on the science fiction aspect, and asks whether Alan has a favourite science fiction book and film. Alan opts for Shadow of the Torturer, by Gene Wolfe, and Star Wars. Richard suggests that maybe Blade Runner is worthy of the top spot, and Alan concedes that it is a good movie, but Star Wars was what hooked him on science fiction.
The first third of the game went well for Chris, with Alan risking an invalid word and otherwise being just a bit behind. That gave Chris a commanding twenty-one point lead, and by the second break Alan needed an eight-letter word (at least) to have a chance. It just was not on the cards, and Chris was safe with two rounds to go, although if Alan had managed to solve the conundrum the margin of victory would have been a single point. Neither managed it, though, and Chris became the show's first retiring champion with a 40 to 29 victory.
I was mostly in good shape, but it so easily could have been another optimal game. There were just two letters rounds in it; in the first, I saw the best answer a little after time -- as is so often the case -- and in the second I actually saw the best option in potentia as the letters went up, but had forgotten it by the time the last of its letters appeared on the board. Bother. Aside from that, it was all optimal, including a single-second conundrum solution. A hopeful start to the week, although flawed.
Saturday, 17 March 2012
Ep 405: Norm Do, Hans Pieterse (March 16, 2012)
Rounds: Here.
The chat with Norm is pretty contentless tonight, as it was last night. I don't really feel that we've had much chance to learn about him at all.
Tonight's challenger is Hans Pieterse, a sales manager. He works in the bearing industry, and points out (with some prompting from Richard) that an awful lot of things today depend on them. As he puts it, "everything that moves or rolls uses a bearing", so (amongst other things) there would be no power or transport without bearings.
Norm is in very good form tonight -- it's easily the best he has played -- and left very little chance to overtake him. Hans found some good words, but they were just short of being long enough, and Norm kept scoring the points. Norm did well on the numbers also, and very much against form it took the conundrum to stop him. He steamrolled his way to a 62 to 6 victory, and becomes a retiring champion with a total of 369 points. Last series that would have put him in second place, and I'm predicting that he will be either first or second this series.
I actually had a good game also, but I just could not get away from Norm. There were chances, but they certainly weren't easy ones. I had an eight point lead going into the conundrum, which was very nervous territory; it proved too difficult for me also, and I was fortunate that Norm was likewise stumped as he has been excellent throughout on the conundrums. So a tense win by default, that could easily have gone another way.
The chat with Norm is pretty contentless tonight, as it was last night. I don't really feel that we've had much chance to learn about him at all.
Tonight's challenger is Hans Pieterse, a sales manager. He works in the bearing industry, and points out (with some prompting from Richard) that an awful lot of things today depend on them. As he puts it, "everything that moves or rolls uses a bearing", so (amongst other things) there would be no power or transport without bearings.
Norm is in very good form tonight -- it's easily the best he has played -- and left very little chance to overtake him. Hans found some good words, but they were just short of being long enough, and Norm kept scoring the points. Norm did well on the numbers also, and very much against form it took the conundrum to stop him. He steamrolled his way to a 62 to 6 victory, and becomes a retiring champion with a total of 369 points. Last series that would have put him in second place, and I'm predicting that he will be either first or second this series.
I actually had a good game also, but I just could not get away from Norm. There were chances, but they certainly weren't easy ones. I had an eight point lead going into the conundrum, which was very nervous territory; it proved too difficult for me also, and I was fortunate that Norm was likewise stumped as he has been excellent throughout on the conundrums. So a tense win by default, that could easily have gone another way.
Thursday, 16 February 2012
Ep 383: Alan Nash, Richard Gadsby (February 15, 2012)
Richard asks Alan if there have been any highlights or particular moments that he remembers from his games. Alan responds that he has learned two things: Firstly, that the heavyweight number mix is not always your friend (something I have been noticing for him, and will comment more on later); and secondly, that every time you think you see a seven you can rely on David to find an eight.
Tonight's challenger is subeditor Richard Gadsby. At one point in his journalism career he was reporting on a local football team; on his last day in charge of that the club management sent him a surprise farewell gift on the pitch. He went down to receive it and when the announcer broadcast who he was a section of the crowd started booing. He hypothesises that they were fans of some of the players that he had "given a bit of a drubbing to".
Alan obviously hopes to win this game to be a retiring champion; as I mentioned in yesterday's post, he will move into second place if he can win with a score of 55 or more. He finds some good form with the letters again, only bettered twice by David and solving the conundrum very quickly. Yet again the numbers prove difficult for him and he only gets to the target once. Richard does not manage to do as well as Alan in either realm, however, and on the final numbers round Alan passes the desired 55 points. The conundrum seals it, and Alan retires with a comprehensive 69 to 15 victory.
I made two errors in the letters rounds, missing words I should have seen. The first was a poor result that conceded points, while the second was missing a longer word to gain points with a risky fallback that fortunately came good. I wasn't able to solve the conundrum within time, either, but fortunately I had solid results on the numbers tonight and just edged out Alan for a narrow win.
As usual, details after the jump.
Tonight's challenger is subeditor Richard Gadsby. At one point in his journalism career he was reporting on a local football team; on his last day in charge of that the club management sent him a surprise farewell gift on the pitch. He went down to receive it and when the announcer broadcast who he was a section of the crowd started booing. He hypothesises that they were fans of some of the players that he had "given a bit of a drubbing to".
Alan obviously hopes to win this game to be a retiring champion; as I mentioned in yesterday's post, he will move into second place if he can win with a score of 55 or more. He finds some good form with the letters again, only bettered twice by David and solving the conundrum very quickly. Yet again the numbers prove difficult for him and he only gets to the target once. Richard does not manage to do as well as Alan in either realm, however, and on the final numbers round Alan passes the desired 55 points. The conundrum seals it, and Alan retires with a comprehensive 69 to 15 victory.
I made two errors in the letters rounds, missing words I should have seen. The first was a poor result that conceded points, while the second was missing a longer word to gain points with a risky fallback that fortunately came good. I wasn't able to solve the conundrum within time, either, but fortunately I had solid results on the numbers tonight and just edged out Alan for a narrow win.
As usual, details after the jump.
Wednesday, 11 January 2012
Ep 358: Kerin White, Zac Newnham (January 11, 2012)
Rounds: Here.
It's Kerin's last night (until the finals, anyway); Richard wheels out the question about techniques. Kerin starts with the numbers, where she remarks that she finds the usual family mix the easiest, and she really dislikes the six-small option. That's a close match for the solving probability, so no real surprise there. With the letters, she likes to get those four consonants out first; it helps her envisage possible words from the start. I have to say, it was nice of her to tell her opponent how he should make his selections in order to put her out.
Speaking of whom, tonight's challenger is Zac Newnham, a pathology student who has written two novels. The first was a drama/romance novel (he describes it as "not what an eighteen-year-old boy would write", but he did); the second is a wartime drama novel, set at home -- it's about the consequences of war, of coming back from war and what happens to the people who have gone to one. He has not yet put them out for publication, but he hopes to be able to do so in a few years' time.
Zac finds a couple of decent words, but is mostly outdone by Kerin who is in good form for her final night, at least with the letters. The numbers don't go so well, but a careless error from Zac takes away his chance of a recovery, and a final rat pack selection leaves them both stumped. With neither solving the conundrum Kerin still manages to get the half-century, taking the game 51 to 24 and becoming the season's fourth retiring champion. (And second-highest scorer, too.)
I had seven excellent rounds, and then the ratpack likewise defeated me. I was unable to solve a tough conundrum so the round fizzled out; against that, I found a nine that eluded everyone, although I am in part relying on the show's laxness about plurals. More on that in the appropriate round. (For anyone keeping track of statistics, even if it were ruled invalid I would still scrape home a three-point victory on this game.)
As usual, details after the jump.
It's Kerin's last night (until the finals, anyway); Richard wheels out the question about techniques. Kerin starts with the numbers, where she remarks that she finds the usual family mix the easiest, and she really dislikes the six-small option. That's a close match for the solving probability, so no real surprise there. With the letters, she likes to get those four consonants out first; it helps her envisage possible words from the start. I have to say, it was nice of her to tell her opponent how he should make his selections in order to put her out.
Speaking of whom, tonight's challenger is Zac Newnham, a pathology student who has written two novels. The first was a drama/romance novel (he describes it as "not what an eighteen-year-old boy would write", but he did); the second is a wartime drama novel, set at home -- it's about the consequences of war, of coming back from war and what happens to the people who have gone to one. He has not yet put them out for publication, but he hopes to be able to do so in a few years' time.
Zac finds a couple of decent words, but is mostly outdone by Kerin who is in good form for her final night, at least with the letters. The numbers don't go so well, but a careless error from Zac takes away his chance of a recovery, and a final rat pack selection leaves them both stumped. With neither solving the conundrum Kerin still manages to get the half-century, taking the game 51 to 24 and becoming the season's fourth retiring champion. (And second-highest scorer, too.)
I had seven excellent rounds, and then the ratpack likewise defeated me. I was unable to solve a tough conundrum so the round fizzled out; against that, I found a nine that eluded everyone, although I am in part relying on the show's laxness about plurals. More on that in the appropriate round. (For anyone keeping track of statistics, even if it were ruled invalid I would still scrape home a three-point victory on this game.)
As usual, details after the jump.
Tuesday, 27 December 2011
Ep 346: Sam Gaffney, Cameron Profitt (December 26, 2011)
Rounds: Here.
On Sam's final night, it's remarked that it was his birthday during the break. Supposedly he promised to bring the hosts birthday cake but didn't, but they'll forgive him. (No such promise made it to air, I should add.)
(I'm assuming that Sam's birthday was on December 24th, rather than at the time of filming. There's a lot of maintenance of the pretence of live filming in this episode, as David and Richard back-and-forth about what they got for Christmas. It does seem a bit forced, to be honest.)
Tonight's challenger is Cameron Profitt, a GP working in "a small Victorian township". (Their surgery appears to have nine GPs for a little under 2500 people (as of the 2006 census, the population of Bannockburn was 2468); I don't know if that's an unusual ratio or not.) Richard asks what the attraction is of being a GP in a small country town; Cameron responds that he's been there for 20 years, and the main appeal is that you get to know people very well over that time, and their family and background. So when they present with a problem, you can take that knowledge into consideration when determining treatment.
Cameron just isn't able to get started in this game, with no answer for the first two numbers rounds and consistently outdone in the early letters rounds. Sam is uncatchable going into the second break, and ends up winning 55 to 15 to cap off an excellent performance in all six games. Easily the best contestant we've seen this series, and I look forward to his reappearance in the finals.
I was horribly patchy in this one, falling apart completely in the middle rounds. Fortunately (from my perspective) Sam had some difficulties also, and I was able to take a narrow lead into the conundrum. It proved elusive for Sam but not for me and so I levelled the game score in our informal competition at three games apiece... but six points ahead on aggregate. It goes to show how closely matched we are!
As usual, details after the jump.
On Sam's final night, it's remarked that it was his birthday during the break. Supposedly he promised to bring the hosts birthday cake but didn't, but they'll forgive him. (No such promise made it to air, I should add.)
(I'm assuming that Sam's birthday was on December 24th, rather than at the time of filming. There's a lot of maintenance of the pretence of live filming in this episode, as David and Richard back-and-forth about what they got for Christmas. It does seem a bit forced, to be honest.)
Tonight's challenger is Cameron Profitt, a GP working in "a small Victorian township". (Their surgery appears to have nine GPs for a little under 2500 people (as of the 2006 census, the population of Bannockburn was 2468); I don't know if that's an unusual ratio or not.) Richard asks what the attraction is of being a GP in a small country town; Cameron responds that he's been there for 20 years, and the main appeal is that you get to know people very well over that time, and their family and background. So when they present with a problem, you can take that knowledge into consideration when determining treatment.
Cameron just isn't able to get started in this game, with no answer for the first two numbers rounds and consistently outdone in the early letters rounds. Sam is uncatchable going into the second break, and ends up winning 55 to 15 to cap off an excellent performance in all six games. Easily the best contestant we've seen this series, and I look forward to his reappearance in the finals.
I was horribly patchy in this one, falling apart completely in the middle rounds. Fortunately (from my perspective) Sam had some difficulties also, and I was able to take a narrow lead into the conundrum. It proved elusive for Sam but not for me and so I levelled the game score in our informal competition at three games apiece... but six points ahead on aggregate. It goes to show how closely matched we are!
As usual, details after the jump.
Friday, 9 December 2011
Ep 335: Toby Baldwin, Richard Stevens (December 9, 2011)
Rounds: Here.
Richard asks Toby for his review of memorable moments of the episodes so far. Toby notes that there have been several themes -- some of them his own generation -- and remarks with mild amusement that he has been trying to make David's life difficult when trying to match words to themes. From my perspective, only episode 333 really delivered in terms of a running theme for the show, but it did so very well.
Tonight's challenger is... another Richard. I'm going to avoid having to clarify which Richard I mean by not referring to Richard Morecroft again for the rest of this post.
Anyway, Richard Stevens is up; he is the managing director of a medical device distribution company who plays keyboards for a rock band. There's been quite a few musicians recently! His band is called Bang Shang a Lang and they play 70's and 80's covers at corporate events, and at pubs and clubs around Sydney.
It's yet another close game tonight, in part because the numbers once again pose stumbling blocks for the contestants -- a whopping five out of six declarations are invalid. They mostly match on the letters rounds, having the same word three of the five times, and the scores are tied going into the conundrum. Toby finds the solution seven seconds in to win the game 44 to 34, and becomes the second retiring champion of the series.
I almost had a very good game tonight; just some confusion over the final numbers stopped that. Once again I missed a full monty, but I'm not that upset about it this time -- it would have been good to find it, but icing on the cake.
As usual, details after the jump.
Richard asks Toby for his review of memorable moments of the episodes so far. Toby notes that there have been several themes -- some of them his own generation -- and remarks with mild amusement that he has been trying to make David's life difficult when trying to match words to themes. From my perspective, only episode 333 really delivered in terms of a running theme for the show, but it did so very well.
Tonight's challenger is... another Richard. I'm going to avoid having to clarify which Richard I mean by not referring to Richard Morecroft again for the rest of this post.
Anyway, Richard Stevens is up; he is the managing director of a medical device distribution company who plays keyboards for a rock band. There's been quite a few musicians recently! His band is called Bang Shang a Lang and they play 70's and 80's covers at corporate events, and at pubs and clubs around Sydney.
It's yet another close game tonight, in part because the numbers once again pose stumbling blocks for the contestants -- a whopping five out of six declarations are invalid. They mostly match on the letters rounds, having the same word three of the five times, and the scores are tied going into the conundrum. Toby finds the solution seven seconds in to win the game 44 to 34, and becomes the second retiring champion of the series.
I almost had a very good game tonight; just some confusion over the final numbers stopped that. Once again I missed a full monty, but I'm not that upset about it this time -- it would have been good to find it, but icing on the cake.
As usual, details after the jump.
Thursday, 27 October 2011
Ep 304: Shaun Ellis, Kate Philip (October 27, 2011)
Rounds: Here.
Win or lose, Shaun will be heading home after this game. Asked about moments that stand out for him, he is embarassedly amused about trying GASHEAD on his first night. (It's not valid, I should add, which is part of the amusement.) In an amusing reference to round two of episode 302, he adds that he has a new life mission now: To write a screenplay wherein a character says "I'm just going to go and re-lock the door".
The challenger tonight is former air traffic controller Kate Philip, who is now studying for her bachelor of science. Richard tries to draw some connection between being an air traffic controller and playing the game, and Kate helps the link by saying that being able to form patterns out of disparate information should be useful. Richard follows up on her use of 'disparate', using it to segue into noting that she's involved in the business of vintage clothing. She responds that she's always loved the style, fit, and form of vintage clothes, and she's started a plus-size vintage clothing store online called Curvy Vintage.
I had a much better relative performance this game -- I came close to keeping both contestants scoreless. On the other hand, I missed some of the higher scoring options, including a full monty. There's something to be said for the French version's more generous time limit of 45 seconds per round...
Shaun cruised to an easy 44 to 6 victory over Kate, and retires undefeated with a total of 280 points. The season starts off with someone going the distance, which is hopefully a sign of good things to come.
As usual, details after the jump.
Win or lose, Shaun will be heading home after this game. Asked about moments that stand out for him, he is embarassedly amused about trying GASHEAD on his first night. (It's not valid, I should add, which is part of the amusement.) In an amusing reference to round two of episode 302, he adds that he has a new life mission now: To write a screenplay wherein a character says "I'm just going to go and re-lock the door".
The challenger tonight is former air traffic controller Kate Philip, who is now studying for her bachelor of science. Richard tries to draw some connection between being an air traffic controller and playing the game, and Kate helps the link by saying that being able to form patterns out of disparate information should be useful. Richard follows up on her use of 'disparate', using it to segue into noting that she's involved in the business of vintage clothing. She responds that she's always loved the style, fit, and form of vintage clothes, and she's started a plus-size vintage clothing store online called Curvy Vintage.
I had a much better relative performance this game -- I came close to keeping both contestants scoreless. On the other hand, I missed some of the higher scoring options, including a full monty. There's something to be said for the French version's more generous time limit of 45 seconds per round...
Shaun cruised to an easy 44 to 6 victory over Kate, and retires undefeated with a total of 280 points. The season starts off with someone going the distance, which is hopefully a sign of good things to come.
As usual, details after the jump.
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