Tonight we find out that Colin is one of several teachers across the state that organise maths games days (Colin teaches at Wesley College, incidentally). They get about two hundred students in a room and spend the day giving them maths puzzles, games, competitions, videos, and so on. Colin says that "it's just a chance to celebrate the exploration and the puzzling and the thinking... it's a lovely day."
Tonight's challenger is Colin Mallard, a senior data analyst for the Queensland government. In the last year Colin has managed to shed twenty kilograms of weight, which is quite impressive. It involved a lot of watching what he ate, and doing exercise every week. He says that the food side was easy, but the exercise was the hard part.
Obviously both contestants being named "Colin" has some potential for confusion. I will use their second initials to distinguish them; on the show Colin M agreed to be called "Col" to alleviate this.
Both contestants do well on the letters round, matching each other on all but one round; Colin S found a good six in a tough mix to gain the advantage there. But the numbers prove more decisive as Colin S solves all three of them while Colin M misses two completely, despite the low targets on offer. Colin S has won before the conundrum, and with neither solving it takes the win, 63 to 37.
I had troubles in this game, as I tried for a nine that wasn't valid in the first round; that left me eight points adrift from the start. I managed to get back in front fairly soon, but then that same good six from Colin S levelled the scores. I missed my chance to draw away in round seven, and the numbers offered no scope for advancement, so it was level-pegging going into the conundrum. I was slow again, but fortunately solved it to squeak home with a win.
As usual, details after the jump.
Tuesday, 31 January 2012
Saturday, 28 January 2012
Weekly summary: Episodes 366 to 370
It's been a week of decent-to-good letter solving, but with some careless misses on the numbers. I solved five of the six conundrums within time (Tuesday had two of them), although I was just beaten by a contestant on one of them. My totals this week were a little lower than they might have been, with contestants three times finding eight-letter words to beat me in those rounds. It's been a week with some great finds!
Maurie missed out on his chance to make the (current) top eight, and there was a fair amount of turnover in the champions this week. Once again, there's no change to the finals rankings.
The vowel mix this week was much better than the last one, although the contestants did not always exercise the best judgement as to how to go (from the point of view of making longer words possible). David did get a full monty at last, two weeks after his last one, but there was the potential for more with different choices of that final letter.
Each of the contestants this week averaged over 30, which I think is the first time that has happened. Contestants averaging over 30 points a game:
| Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Me | 66 | 60 | 56 | 66 | 70 |
| Champion | 22 | 21 | 14 | 33 | 29 |
| Challenger | 27 | 7 | 28 | 24 | 38 |
| David + Lily | 76 | 77 | 74 | 88 | 73 |
Maurie missed out on his chance to make the (current) top eight, and there was a fair amount of turnover in the champions this week. Once again, there's no change to the finals rankings.
| 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 |
The vowel mix this week was much better than the last one, although the contestants did not always exercise the best judgement as to how to go (from the point of view of making longer words possible). David did get a full monty at last, two weeks after his last one, but there was the potential for more with different choices of that final letter.
| Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full Monties | 1 | 1 | ||||
| Missed Full Monties | 0 | |||||
| Tough Numbers | 1 | 1 | 2 | |||
| Impossible Numbers | 0 |
Each of the contestants this week averaged over 30, which I think is the first time that has happened. 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 |
| Matt Williams | 48 | 1 | 48.00 |
| 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 |
| Colin Shnier | 44* | 1* | 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 |
| 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 |
| 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 370: John O'Connor, Colin Shnier (January 27, 2012)
Richard asks John what he finds so satisfying about teaching really young children. (There's more behind this question than is apparent at this point, but we'll get to that soon.) John responds that the big satisfaction as a primary school teacher is to see massive changes in children over the course of a single year. His example is that if you can get a child reading well then it affects not only their English performance, but they are able to use it in maths and everything else.
Tonight's challenger is Colin Shnier, a secondary school mathematics teacher. Richard follows on from his question to John by asking Colin what he finds appealing about teaching to older children. Colin starts with some minor trash-talk about the first requirement being to fix what John (and his colleagues) have done; fortunately he is not serious, nor does anyone take him as such. Actually answering the question, Colin says that the continuation of that growth that John talked about is quite beautiful; Colin adds that he really loves working with teenagers because you get such an honesty of the feedback -- you can see immediately how they are thinking and feeling.
It's another close game tonight, with the letters rounds being a little parsimonious and the numbers serving up some difficult targets. Colin takes the lead in the first round, John gets some back and then loses that ground again in the middle rounds, and finally in the last letters round John finds a good word to hit the lead for the first time, by a single point. But Colin retakes the lead in the ensuing numbers round, and with neither solving the conundrum that makes Colin the winner by 44 points to 35.
I did as well as possible on the letters tonight (I believe) but once again missed a number solution that I should have found. I solved the conundrum relatively quickly, and overall it was a good game that was just short of being excellent.
As usual, details after the jump.
Tonight's challenger is Colin Shnier, a secondary school mathematics teacher. Richard follows on from his question to John by asking Colin what he finds appealing about teaching to older children. Colin starts with some minor trash-talk about the first requirement being to fix what John (and his colleagues) have done; fortunately he is not serious, nor does anyone take him as such. Actually answering the question, Colin says that the continuation of that growth that John talked about is quite beautiful; Colin adds that he really loves working with teenagers because you get such an honesty of the feedback -- you can see immediately how they are thinking and feeling.
It's another close game tonight, with the letters rounds being a little parsimonious and the numbers serving up some difficult targets. Colin takes the lead in the first round, John gets some back and then loses that ground again in the middle rounds, and finally in the last letters round John finds a good word to hit the lead for the first time, by a single point. But Colin retakes the lead in the ensuing numbers round, and with neither solving the conundrum that makes Colin the winner by 44 points to 35.
I did as well as possible on the letters tonight (I believe) but once again missed a number solution that I should have found. I solved the conundrum relatively quickly, and overall it was a good game that was just short of being excellent.
As usual, details after the jump.
Friday, 27 January 2012
Ep 369: John O'Connor, Nick Mann (January 26, 2012)
Richard tries to draw a parallel between John's old job (chief purser on a cruise ship) and his current one (primary school teacher); John remarks that the antics of some of the six- and seven-year olds are similar to those he has experienced with passengers in the past. Nonetheless, John is very happy with his late career shift to teaching.
Challenging John is Nick Mann, a personal injury lawyer. He says that there's a lot of medicine in the area of law that he deals with, so he has gone back to university for further study; he has just started a masters degree in health and medical law.
John finds a couple of excellent words tonight, but gives back most of that ground in other letters rounds. The first numbers round proves difficult for both but Nick has just the better of it, while the others do not distinguish between the contestants; the net result is a slender two-point lead for Nick going into the conundrum. John solves it reasonably quickly, and gets his second win with a score of 49 points to 41.
I was slightly behind where I would have liked to be on both types of game, but still managed to forge a decent lead. I solved the conundrum very quickly for a change, for a workmanlike win.
As usual, details after the jump.
Challenging John is Nick Mann, a personal injury lawyer. He says that there's a lot of medicine in the area of law that he deals with, so he has gone back to university for further study; he has just started a masters degree in health and medical law.
John finds a couple of excellent words tonight, but gives back most of that ground in other letters rounds. The first numbers round proves difficult for both but Nick has just the better of it, while the others do not distinguish between the contestants; the net result is a slender two-point lead for Nick going into the conundrum. John solves it reasonably quickly, and gets his second win with a score of 49 points to 41.
I was slightly behind where I would have liked to be on both types of game, but still managed to forge a decent lead. I solved the conundrum very quickly for a change, for a workmanlike win.
As usual, details after the jump.
Thursday, 26 January 2012
Ep 368: Angie Pearce, John O'Connor (January 25, 2012)
The talk with Angie is about how exciting the previous game was; we learn nothing new about her, alas.
Tonight's challenger is primary school teacher John O'Connor, but it's a previous job of his that Richard wants to talk about. John used to be the chief purser on a cruise ship whose typical occupancy was nearly four thousand guests and over a thousand crew. It's not necessarily the "fantasy world" that Richard suggests, but John concedes that it was like living in a village of its own. Apparently John was often mistaken for the captain as his uniform had quite a few bars on the sleeves.
There's some excellent letter play today, including an absolutely beautiful find from Angie. The net result is even on those, but John does slightly better in the numbers to take a slender lead into the conundrum. He solves the conundrum very quickly, and takes the win 41 to 28.
I had a good round today but with a careless blunder that rather took the shine off it. For the second time (when playing at home) I was just pipped to the conundrum, hearing the buzzer start to sound as I paused. Good work from John to get that, but I still had enough leeway for a comfortable win.
As usual, details after the jump.
Tonight's challenger is primary school teacher John O'Connor, but it's a previous job of his that Richard wants to talk about. John used to be the chief purser on a cruise ship whose typical occupancy was nearly four thousand guests and over a thousand crew. It's not necessarily the "fantasy world" that Richard suggests, but John concedes that it was like living in a village of its own. Apparently John was often mistaken for the captain as his uniform had quite a few bars on the sleeves.
There's some excellent letter play today, including an absolutely beautiful find from Angie. The net result is even on those, but John does slightly better in the numbers to take a slender lead into the conundrum. He solves the conundrum very quickly, and takes the win 41 to 28.
I had a good round today but with a careless blunder that rather took the shine off it. For the second time (when playing at home) I was just pipped to the conundrum, hearing the buzzer start to sound as I paused. Good work from John to get that, but I still had enough leeway for a comfortable win.
As usual, details after the jump.
Wednesday, 25 January 2012
Ep 367: Paul Merry, Angie Pearce (January 24, 2012)
There's a little talk with Paul about the psychology of poker playing, but there's nothing of substance said.
Tonight's challenger is Angie Pearce, a retired teacher and quiz show aficionado. She has been on The Einstein Factor, Sale of the Century (twice, which may simply mean that she won once and returned the next day), Pass the Buck, The Weakest Link, Mastermind, Jeopardy, and a couple of others that slip her mind at the moment. Richard asks if she needed different talents or approaches to them, but as she points out they were mostly all games of general knowledge; the only other ability required was to buzz in first.
(As an aside, her appearance on The Einstein Factor was in episode ten of series two, originally aired on April 17, 2005; her special topic was "CS Lewis and the Chronicles of Narnia". I was given the show's quiz book for Christmas, so I looked up the associated questions and was able to get 11 of the 15 correct, which I'm pleased with given how long it is since I last read them. Of course, I wasn't under the time pressure that she would have been (which was often exacerbated by Peter Berner stumbling over reading the questions), although I did aim to answer them quickly.)
Angie gets a good lead on Paul in the first two rounds -- in much the same way that Paul did to Maurie in yesterday's game -- but Paul reclaims it in the next two rounds due to good numbers work and an invalid word from Angie. The remaining letters rounds are equal and they trade results in the numbers, so the scores are all tied up going into the conundrum. It proves to be too difficult for them both so a second is required, and Angie solves that to take the victory, 43 to 33.
I had good letters performance today, but let myself down badly in the numbers. I solved the second conundrum but not the first, for what ended up being a very easy win.
As usual, details after the jump.
Tonight's challenger is Angie Pearce, a retired teacher and quiz show aficionado. She has been on The Einstein Factor, Sale of the Century (twice, which may simply mean that she won once and returned the next day), Pass the Buck, The Weakest Link, Mastermind, Jeopardy, and a couple of others that slip her mind at the moment. Richard asks if she needed different talents or approaches to them, but as she points out they were mostly all games of general knowledge; the only other ability required was to buzz in first.
(As an aside, her appearance on The Einstein Factor was in episode ten of series two, originally aired on April 17, 2005; her special topic was "CS Lewis and the Chronicles of Narnia". I was given the show's quiz book for Christmas, so I looked up the associated questions and was able to get 11 of the 15 correct, which I'm pleased with given how long it is since I last read them. Of course, I wasn't under the time pressure that she would have been (which was often exacerbated by Peter Berner stumbling over reading the questions), although I did aim to answer them quickly.)
Angie gets a good lead on Paul in the first two rounds -- in much the same way that Paul did to Maurie in yesterday's game -- but Paul reclaims it in the next two rounds due to good numbers work and an invalid word from Angie. The remaining letters rounds are equal and they trade results in the numbers, so the scores are all tied up going into the conundrum. It proves to be too difficult for them both so a second is required, and Angie solves that to take the victory, 43 to 33.
I had good letters performance today, but let myself down badly in the numbers. I solved the second conundrum but not the first, for what ended up being a very easy win.
As usual, details after the jump.
Tuesday, 24 January 2012
Ep 366: Maurie Williams, Paul Merry (January 23, 2012)
It's Maurie's fourth night, and the conversation is back to fishing. Richard asks what Maurie's "best version of fishing" is, and Maurie doesn't really answer that but does get to talk a bit about his various fishing activities. Where he lives ("in the bay" -- presumably Hervey Bay from later remarks) there's quite a long pier and they get some good mackerel and giant trevally there. But he and his kids like to go out to the reefs in his "small tinnie" (a boat with a lightweight metal hull, for any non-Australians who end up reading this) and catch some reef fish; every now and then they make it over to Fraser Island to catch some mud crabs and fresh prawns.
Tonight's challenge is Paul Merry, a mechanical engineer and poker player. He's been in Las Vegas as a professional poker player; he notes the benefits of being able to set your own hours, but the important (more profitable) games are on the weekend so that you have to work very hard then. A poker player's weekend is during the week, as he puts it.
Paul gets off to a flying start with fifteen unanswered points from the first two rounds. Maurie manages to gain back the ground in numbers rounds and the scores are tied at the second break. Maurie gets ahead in the letters, only for Paul to outdo him in the final numbers round. The one-point advantage that this gives Paul proves decisive as neither is able to solve the conundrum. Paul wins, 34 to 33.
I was slightly off the pace on the early letters rounds, and slow on the conundrum. although I got it; solid numbers play and a good final letters round saw me home for a comfortable win.
As usual, details after the jump.
Tonight's challenge is Paul Merry, a mechanical engineer and poker player. He's been in Las Vegas as a professional poker player; he notes the benefits of being able to set your own hours, but the important (more profitable) games are on the weekend so that you have to work very hard then. A poker player's weekend is during the week, as he puts it.
Paul gets off to a flying start with fifteen unanswered points from the first two rounds. Maurie manages to gain back the ground in numbers rounds and the scores are tied at the second break. Maurie gets ahead in the letters, only for Paul to outdo him in the final numbers round. The one-point advantage that this gives Paul proves decisive as neither is able to solve the conundrum. Paul wins, 34 to 33.
I was slightly off the pace on the early letters rounds, and slow on the conundrum. although I got it; solid numbers play and a good final letters round saw me home for a comfortable win.
As usual, details after the jump.
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