Ep 377: Rhonda Jefferson, Andrew Krein (February 7, 2012)

Rhonda is involved in her local theatre group (the Highlands Theatre Group); she makes particular mention of playing Mrs. Squeezum in a production of Lock Up Your Daughters five years ago.  She says that it was a lot of fun and she sang some really funny songs, then adds that it was set in the 1900's and would have been very risque in those days but not so much now.  She enthuses that it had some wonderful songs, and names The Gentle Art of Seduction and When Does the Ravishing Begin? specifically.

(The play is actually set in 1735, but it was first performed in 1959; I'm guessing that this is what Rhonda meant by the 1900's, unless her theatre group put on an adapted version of it.)

Tonight's challenger is payroll manager Andrew Krein.  He describes it as a job where you're either everyone's best friend or their worst enemy, depending on whether you've got it right or wrong.  Richard suggests, and Andrew agrees, that this might mean that Andrew is better with the numbers than the letters.

I'll make an aside here that Andrew got married a month or so after this episode was filmed.  If you happen to read this, Andrew: Congratulations!


It ends up being a close game, aided by several invalid answers.  The contestants did find some good words along the way, and the net result was a slender two point advantage to Rhonda from them.  The numbers went each way -- Andrew did drop crucial points in the first numbers game when he only managed to get five away from the target -- so Rhonda carried that lead into the conundrum.  She buzzed in just after the five second mark with an invalid answer, giving Andrew a chance, but he was not able to solve it within the remaining time.  Rhonda scraped home, 39 to 37.

I felt off-balance early today, with the first round feeling like it should have produced a longer word (although it turns out I had matched David) and only just getting my second-round answer down in time.  I settled down a bit, and it was actually a decent performance except for the second numbers round where I delayed looking at the right idea for too long.  This time I was faster to the conundrum than Rhonda's buzz-in (although only just), and ended up with another comfortable win.

As usual, details after the jump.

Ep 376: Cem Gurkan, Rhonda Jefferson (February 6, 2012)

Cem is interested in photography, and particularly likes black and white photography.  He enjoys taking photographs, developing, and printing, although in these days of digital photography there's less call for the latter two and he hasn't done them recently.  His preferred subject matter is buildings, and he enjoys being able to give photos as presents to his friends.

Tonight's challenger is Rhonda Jefferson, a retired physiotherapist who was become a farmer.  Richard points out that Rhonda has gone from living in a beachside suburb to a farm -- he calls it a "tree change" -- and that is a significant shift in environment.  Richard calls her a very practical farm worker; Rhonda has learned to drench cattle, and inject them, and "do all sorts of things".  She adds that she's very much enjoying living in a lovely little village (Exeter, in the southern highlands region of New South Wales).


Cem was a bit unlucky in this game; a fairly reasonable word was deemed invalid (more fuel for my claims about the risk of comparatives) which meant 6 points to Rhonda instead of 7 to him -- a 13 point turnaround.  Also, he made a careless slip in a numbers round (of a type that is easy enough to make -- he knew he was one off the target, but wrote down the wrong one); that cost him 7 points as well.  Those two rounds were the only main rounds on which Rhonda outscored him, and he managed to outscore her in a later one to give him a chance going into the conundrum.  Rhonda did solve it very quickly, however, for a slightly fortunate 61 to 45 victory.

I was in passable form today; the first two rounds could have been better, but there wasn't much likelihood of improvement elsewhere.  I got beaten to the conundrum, but only just, so it was definitely a quicker solve than usual for me, and a relatively comfortable win.  The numbers were very friendly today, which certainly helped.

As usual, details after the jump.

Weekly summary: Episodes 371 to 375

This week started slow for me, but improved in the last couple of games.  I found a full monty this week which is rare enough to celebrate, and almost found two.  I've shown a tendency to not quite get to numbers targets that are a little high, and that's a bit disappointing.  Against that, my letters performance has been keeping me well in contention throughout.  Overall a mixed but decent week, and one that sees my first tie with a contestant.

	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri
Me	61	49	69	75	65
Champion	51	24	0	27	27
Challenger	25	49	7	20	47
David + Lily	87	78	78	89	73

Alice came close to getting into the rankings, but couldn't get that fourth win.  Once again, there's no change to the finals rankings and I'm clinging to seventh spot.

Sam Gaffney	51	81	62	67	64	55	380
Kerin White	55	56	46	63	65	51	336
Toby Baldwin	59	48	54	43	48	44	296
Shaun Ellis	43	56	38	59	40	44	280
Daniel Chua	44	59	56	53	36	52	300
Sebastian Ham	39	49	58	40	45		231
Geoff Bailey	55	64	65	63			247
Nick Terry	71	46	55	35			217

Three potential full monties this week, with David doing well to find two of them.  The conundrums proved very difficult for contestants, with only one of them being solved.

	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri
Full Monties	1			1		2
Missed Full Monties				1		1
Tough Numbers					1	1
Impossible Numbers						0

Good averages from the contestants again this week, with only Paul not getting over 30 (and he had exactly 30). Contestants averaging over 30 points a game:

	Total	Games	Average
Sam Gaffney	380	6	63.33
Geoff Bailey	247	4	61.75
Jimmy Driscoll	61	1	61.00
Leanne Cox	57	1	57.00
Ryan Sutton	57	1	57.00
Kerin White	336	6	56.00
Nick Terry	217	4	54.25
Geraldine Yam	52	1	52.00
Tim Clay	51	1	51.00
Peter Crop	152	3	50.67
Daniel Chua	300	6	50.00
Lainie Mercieca	99	2	49.50
Toby Baldwin	296	6	49.33
Susan Pickett	97	2	48.50
Colin Shnier	144	3	48.00
Matt Williams	48	1	48.00
Alice Wheeler	189	4	47.25
Cem Gurkan	47*	1*	47.00
Natasha Podesser	47	1	47.00
Shaun Ellis	280	6	46.67
Brett Edwards	139	3	46.33
Sebastian Ham	231	5	46.20
Brian McEvoy	46	1	46.00
Michael Nichols	90	2	45.00
Karla Treves	90	2	45.00
Sandy Clarke	45	1	45.00
James Godfrey	45	1	45.00
Trevor Armstrong	178	4	44.50
Megan Marks	133	3	44.33
Maurie Williams	176	4	44.00
Nick Compton	44	1	44.00
Mark Arnold	87	2	43.50
John Day	42	1	42.00
John O'Connor	125	3	41.67
Nathan Dixon	41	1	41.00
Nick Mann	41	1	41.00
Pam Fichtner	39	1	39.00
David Bradley	77	2	38.50
Alex van der Kooij	153	4	38.25
Adrian Lonigro	38	1	38.00
Richelle Patrick	38	1	38.00
Colin Jones	111	3	37.00
Cherie Brody	37	1	37.00
Colin Mallard	37	1	37.00
Chris Miller	37	1	37.00
Ann Vasconcelos	73	2	36.50
Ilona Coote	36	1	36.00
Angie Pearce	71	2	35.50
Kane Gross	34	1	34.00
Paul Merry	67	2	33.50
Duncan Butler	33	1	33.00
Mitchell Fly	33	1	33.00
Cameron Tyson	33	1	33.00
Hannah Marshall	33	1	33.00
Hiep Do	98	3	32.67
Susan Cumming	32	1	32.00
Sushma Garudadwajan	62	2	31.00
David Armstrong	31	1	31.00

Ep 375: Alice Wheeler, Cem Gurkan (February 3, 2012)

Alice likes to rock-climb "anywhere there's cliffs".  She likes the climbing up, but she likes abseiling down even more -- she absolutely loves that feeling of falling down.

Tonight's challenger is bank manager Cem Gurkan.  Before becoming a bank manager he has had several somewhat different jobs: He used to own a cafe; he was the manager of a toy store; and his first job was as an analyst in a small start-up high-tech company.


Alice hits the fourth game wall here; three of her first four letters rounds are invalid, and the valid one is beaten by Cem's selection.  She is 27 points behind after the first five rounds, and although Cem follows up with some invalid options of his own to allow her closer, the final numbers round is too easy and Cem has an unbeatable lead going into the conundrum.  Once again it remains unsolved -- it has been a tough week for the conundrums! -- and Cem takes the game 47 points to 33.

This was another case of me finding answers around the point that time ran out, but today I mostly had enough time to get them written down.  I actually had a pretty good game except for one round where the only seven I managed to find turned out to be invalid.  I still could have lost the game at the conundrum stage, but fortunately I solved it to seal the win.

As usual, details after the break.

Ep 374: Alice Wheeler, Pam Fichtner (February 2, 2012)

As mentioned yesterday, Alice came to Australia at 18 to study.  Her parents followed about a year later and now have a farm where they breed alpacas.  This is partly responsible for Alice's interest in textiles; she says that she has always loved sewing, but once they started getting wool from the alpacas she learned everything she could about it.  (Presumably "it" means the wool in this context.)

Tonight's challenger is Pam Fichtner, who works for the bureau of statistics.  She is also an occasional extra in TV shows.  Richard asks what it is like, and she responds that you need a lot of patience.  She adds that she has been a patient quite often on All Saints, so she got to have a bit of a sleep now and then.  She had to wake up at the right times, however.


It's sixes and sevens from the contestants tonight, with a bit each way.  The first two numbers rounds provide no separation, and scores are level at the second break.  What seemed like a risky play in the final letters round comes off for Alice, and when Pam cannot get near the target in the final numbers round Alice has the win.  The conundrum eludes them both -- it's only been solved once this week -- and that makes the final scoreline 53 to 39 in Alice's favour.

I had a decent game tonight, finding both full monties within time... but one of them only at the last moment without enough time to finish writing it down.  Still, I was mostly in pretty decent touch with the letters.  Once again the numbers could have used a little improvement, but it wasn't a case of overlooking something obvious this time (or so I claim).  The conundrum likewise eluded me tonight, but the full monty success kept me happy and comfortably ahead.

As usual, details after the jump.

Ep 373: Alice Wheeler, Paul de Boer (February 1, 2012)

Tonight we learn that Alice came to Australia (from England) at the age of eighteen, having decided to go to university here (more specifically in Fremantle, so presumably it was the University of Notre Dame).  That's quite a big decision, really, given that she has stayed since.

Challenging Alice tonight is Paul de Boer, an account manager.  The theme of discussing countries of origin continues; Paul was born in the Netherlands and came over to Australia when he was eight.  Somewhat stereotypically (he says "ironically"), he grew up on a tulip farm.


There wasn't that much to choose between the contestants on the letters today -- they were equal except for one instance where Alice declared an invalid word.  They were a little off the pace there, with mostly sixes where sevens or eights were available, but not overly so.  Neither solved the conundrum, and the real difference came from the numbers where Paul failed to score -- each time being just a little bit further away than Alice (or in one case, having an invalid answer).  Alice never got closer than three, but that was enough.  If Paul's invalid answer had been correct then the scores would have ended up tied, but as it was Alice won the game, 42 to 30.

I had a mixed and ultimately unsatisfactory game.  I ended up with seven points from all but one of the main rounds, which was passable in some of the letters rounds but not so good in the numbers.  Against that I did solve the conundrum in what felt like decent time for a change.  The net result was that I almost kept the contestants scoreless, but failed to find some better-scoring options that I should have seen.

As usual, details after the break.

Ep 372: Colin Shnier, Alice Wheeler (January 31, 2012)

Colin doesn't necessarily believe it, but the family myth (as he puts it) is that when he was four his parents used to have him perform mathematical calculations at dinner parties.  Whether or not that is true, he does know that he has always enjoyed playing with numbers in his head.

Tonight's challenger is Alice Wheeler, another primary school teacher.  There's mention (contrasted with the mathematics games days that Colin has organised) of how she loves to get her students doing things with textiles, fabrics, and sewing.  She comments that generally the students don't get a chance to do much with that, so they find it very exciting.


Colin has a lot of trouble in the letters rounds tonight -- his first two words are invalid, for instance -- and Alice finds good words throughout to have Colin well behind.  The numbers don't give Colin enough room to gain back lost ground, and Alice has the victory well in hand before the conundrum.  She solves it quickly, winning by 61 points to 37.  (And semi-fulfilling my prediction about Colin losing to a conundrum, except that she outscored him sufficiently in the main rounds.)

I had a terrible game today; my mind just kind of shut down.  I missed several chances, and conceded crucial points that I would not have on a better day.  I went into the conundrum only ten points ahead, and was my usual slow self in solving it.  Since Alice solved it more quickly, the result is the first draw of the blog (although I have little doubt that a second conundrum would have seen me lose).

As usual, details after the jump.