Friday 30 September 2016

Weekly summary: Episodes 181 to 185

This week may well have the biggest aggregate difference between myself and David and Lily, starting off with a whopping 30 point gap on Monday.  I struggled with the letters this week, missing several full monties and conundrums.  I ended up averaging 14 fewer points a game, a statistic I hope is not repeated.


MonTueWedThuFri
Me6570599364
Champion2027255824
Challenger1017522615
David + Lily9587719777
Me (solo)6576599364


Tom won the first two games of the week, then Tony Loui burst onto the scene with three strong games, including the best score by any contestant this series.  If he keeps that performance up then he will easily take the top spot from Tamara.  Greg's only hope of staying in contention is for Tony to lose his next game.

Tamara McMahon546463525448335
Barry Harridge755145543959323
Matthew Thomason466449445265310
Victor Tung442951434742256
Oli Bryant714660555432318
Richard Hartley565357424232282
Jack Dell5973405036258
Greg Beers3559463833211


It was a week with many full monties available: David found five of them, and there was an obscure sixth one also on offer.  This might be the highest-scoring week, although Wednesday's set was very parsimonious.  Lily was confronted by one unreachable target this week, but otherwise solved everything.

MonTueWedThuFri
Full Monties2125
Missed Full Monties11
Tough Numbers0
Impossible Numbers11


My numbers performance was on part with previous weeks, but my letters work was way down and I missed three conundrums.  Combined with a glut of missed full monties, it's no wonder that my scores were so far behind David and Lily.


MonTueWedThuFri
Maximums: L22342
N23323
C01010
Invalid: L1----


Contestants sorted by average score:


TotalGamesAverage
Tony Loui*179359.67
Tamara McMahon335655.83
Barry Harridge323653.83
Oli Bryant318653.00
Peter Kougi52152.00
Matthew Thomason310651.67
Jack Dell258551.60
Rohan Long153351.00
Jason Dunn102251.00
Colwyn Buckland51151.00
Brian Morgan151350.33
Luke Brattoni149349.67
Mel Cox149349.67
Rob Hunt99249.50
Raf Goodens98249.00
Gary Beer49149.00
Ryan Turk48148.00
Jeremy Rosen95247.50
Richard Hartley282647.00
Samuel Hastings186446.50
Daniel Drumm92246.00
Tom Fooks133344.33
Jonathan Goodman44144.00
Victor Tung256642.67
Greg Beers211542.20
Kannan Sethuraman210542.00
Kathryn James123341.00
Jodi Knight82241.00
Avi Chanales163440.75
Margaret Frangos79239.50
Peter Stephenson78239.00
Paula Messer77238.50
Brett Chaiyawat188537.60
Janine Huan37137.00
Had Thomas37137.00
Aram Kalyanasundaram36136.00
Luke Warden72236.00
Pat Sincock71235.50
David Waddell71235.50
Damien Chua35135.00
Ralph Lurie35135.00
Helen Hewitt34134.00
Jayden Spudvilas-Powell34134.00
Michael Bakker66233.00
Nathan Boadle33133.00
Alison Crowe33133.00
Chris Cincotta32132.00
Everson Kandare32132.00
Cameron Ling32132.00
Neil McInnes32132.00
Ben Ripley32132.00
Felix Johnson95331.67
Mike Vitale63231.50
Howard Smith62231.00
John Marsiglio31131.00
Alex Ford30130.00
Bryce Lawrence30130.00
Jon Avotins29129.00
Matt Pitcher29129.00
Kapil Chauhan28128.00
Tim Shiel28128.00
Graham Smith55227.50
Phillip Gao27127.00
Anna Gunn27127.00
David Gunn27127.00
Glen Chandler26126.00
Nicky Henderson24124.00
Preeti Goel23123.00
Louise Kuchmar23123.00
Vikas Ahuja22122.00
Laurence Guttman21121.00
Richard King21121.00
Rob Carter20120.00
Rosemary Stafford20120.00
Nicky Betts19119.00
Liam Murphy18118.00
Basil Theophilos18118.00
Jenni Bradford17117.00
Seb Dworkin17117.00
Frank Rice15115.00
Vanessa Rule15115.00
Dane Watkins15115.00
Dan Boxshall14114.00
Cathy Henry14114.00
Susan Bee13113.00
Mali Konda13113.00
Rhys McCaig13113.00
Matthew Ball12112.00
Matt Bolton12112.00
Kym Logan616.00

Thursday 29 September 2016

Ep 185: Tony Loui, Laurence Guttman (September 23, 2016; originally aired April 15, 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.


Tony Loui is back for his third night, and Richard refers to Tony as a keen traveller.  Tony states that he loves travelling, and last year was lucky enough to go to the last remaining ancient wonder of the world: The Great Pyramid of Giza.  Richard asks about the wonders of the modern world, and Tony indicates that he has seen four of them already, with the three left to see being the Taj Mahal, the statue of Christ the Redeemer in Rio, and Machu Picchu.

Tonight's challenger is Laurence Guttman, a secondary school teacher who teaches both mathematics and English -- a combination that Richard describes as slightly unusual.  Laurence says that he has always enjoyed English, but has had mixed fortunes in the past with mathematics.  In particular, in his first year of university, when he "possibly wasn't taking things as seriously as [he] should", his father was the lecturer.  That is something that Laurence advises against if anyone else is in a similar situation, which I think is very understandable.  He also advises against then failing the course taught by one's father, which is something that he did.  Oops!


Tony was a little unfortunate to start off with an invalid word in the first round, as the Macquarie did not list the medical term that he found.  But a spate of invalid answers from Laurence (four invalid answers in the following five rounds) gave Tony a comfortable lead, and he was twenty-six points ahead going into the second break.  Tony scored points in the last letters round, ensuring his victory, and although Laurence rallied a little after that it was too late.  Tony gained his third win, 44 to 21.


Tuesday 27 September 2016

Ep 184: Tony Loui, Alison Crowe (September 22, 2016; originally aired April 14, 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.


Tony Loui gets his turn in the champion's seat tonight, and we find out that he took a year off from being a doctor and instead worked as a flight attendant (travelling overseas); he adds that he loves travelling.  Richard asks how Tony found the experience, and Tony agrees with Richard's remark that it was a huge change.  Coping with the effects of flying can be difficult, and it was hard work, but he found it to be thoroughly enjoyable.

Tonight's challenger is Alison Crowe, a physical education student and competitive rower.  In fact, Alison has twice represented Australia in rowing -- she has been in two under-23 teams.  That involved racing overseas, in Germany and the Czech Republic (some details can be found here).  She lists that as probably one of the greatest things she has done so far.


It was a dominant performance from Tony tonight: He started off by finding a full monty, and followed up with an eight-letter word to sprint out to a huge early lead.  He continued to score well with the letters, and the numbers offered little scope for Alison to regain the lost ground.  Tony was a certain victor going into the second break.  He rounded off an excellent game by solving the conundrum quickly, posting a final winning score of 83 to 33.

I was having an even better game than Tony, as it turns out, but then the SBS website became uncooperative, refusing to advance past the end of round five.  I had to give up on it and come back a day or so later; that interruption, I believe, was responsible for my poor performance in round six as I came back to it cold (as it were).  A shame, as I felt in really good form at the time.


Friday 23 September 2016

Ep 183: Tom Fooks, Tony Loui (September 21, 2016; originally aired April 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.


It's the third night for Tom Fooks, and the topic turns to knitting.  Tom says that he is part of a very esteemed club of motorcycle riders who knit.  (Sadly, he does not mean an actual club.)  He mostly knits little toys for cousins and friends and such, but occasionally does other things.  For instance, he has just completed a scarf, which he hopes will help out come winter.

Tonight's challenger is Tony Loui, a medical officer in a regional private hospital.  Tony also works as a hotel doctor in the Sydney CBD, so when a four- or five-star hotel has a guest who is ill, he might get called in to look at them.


The game started out quite closely, with matched scores in the first two letters rounds.  An error from Tony in the first numbers round saw Tom take the lead, but Tony levelled the scores again in the next letters round.  The remaining letters rounds provided no advantage to either contestant, but Tom was just slightly off the pace in the numbers; Tony solved them exactly, giving him a winning lead going into the conundrum.  It turned out to be too hard for everyone, so the game finished 52 to 32 in Tony's favour.


Wednesday 21 September 2016

Ep 182: Tom Fooks, Helen Hewitt (September 20, 2016; originally aired April 12, 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.


Tom Fooks is back in the champion's seat tonight, but this time he has a win under his belt.  We find out that Tom rides a motorbike -- he loves the feeling of being on it -- and his favourite place to ride is down the Great Ocean Road.

Tonight's challenger is Helen Hewitt, a primary school teacher and netball umpire.  Helen has been an umpire for some time: She started off playing netball, then after she got older and had a few injuries she still wanted to be involved so she switched to umpiring.  Helen supervises over at Netball Victoria.


Helen fell victim to a phantom letter in the first round, allowing Tom to take an early lead.  A couple of shared rounds followed; then a good find from Helen put her ahead by a single point.  The fifth round was also shared, but then Helen faltered in the second numbers round, missing a relatively easy solution and catapulting Tom back into the lead.  He found an excellent word in round seven to push further ahead, but then he blanked on the last numbers round.  That gave Helen a chance, but she was unable to capitalise on the opportunity; she entered the conundrum behind by eleven points.  Tom solved it quickly in any case, finishing the winner with 55 points to 34.


Tuesday 20 September 2016

Ep 181: Tom Fooks, Phillip Gao (September 19, 2016; originally aired April 11, 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.


We have two new contestants tonight, after Victor Tung's successful retirement in the previous episode.  That's somewhat good for me, given that I'm kind of starting anew after a gap.  First up, taking the champion's seat is Tom Fooks, a law student.  Richard notes that Tom is still at the study stage of the process, but asks what areas of law interest Tom the most.  Tom responds that he first got into studying law through working as a judge's associate last year, in the area of industrial relations, and that is something that he is really keen to get back into.  He takes the rosy view that it is helping employers and employees work together for the best possible outcomes.

Taking the challenger's seat is Phillip Gao, an accounting and finance student who is also a part-time auditor.  Richard informs us that Phillip does voluntary work with youth, and Phillip expands on that -- he is a volunteer with Wesley Mission Victoria, in their Kids Under Kanvas program.  (I sigh at the gratuitous misspelling in the program's name.)  That involves going on weekend outings with disabled children, to such places as Luna Park, the AFL sailing, and such.  Phillip finds it a really rewarding program.


Tom took the early lead by finding a seven-pointer in the first round, and was never headed thereafter.  Phillip really struggled on the words, never managing to find longer than five, and the only round where he managed to outpoint Tom was the second numbers round (where again he scored five points).  Tom's better handling of the letters gave him a comfortable margin, and he was safe going into the conundrum.  Neither contestant could solve it, so the game finished with Tom the victor, 46 to 27.


Weekly summary: Episodes 176 to 180

A consistent week for me, with all scores in the low seventies.  Equally consistently, I was not able to match David and Lily -- the closest I came was arguably on Tuesday, where I found a longer word than David but missed solving a numbers round.


MonTueWedThuFri
Me7172747574
Champion2425373030
Challenger1724101514
David + Lily7674757676
Me (solo)7172747574


Victor beat all comers this week, becoming the second retiring champion in two weeks and pushing Kannan off the leaderboard (Greg holds on by a single point).  Victor's total was a bit low -- the next three people in contention all had higher totals -- but it's wins that count.

Tamara McMahon546463525448335
Barry Harridge755145543959323
Matthew Thomason466449445265310
Victor Tung442951434742256
Oli Bryant714660555432318
Richard Hartley565357424232282
Jack Dell5973405036258
Greg Beers3559463833211


No full monties on offer this week; Lily solved all numbers rounds and made it look easy.

MonTueWedThuFri
Full Monties0
Missed Full Monties0
Tough Numbers0
Impossible Numbers0


No Wednesday drop for me this week; Monday was my worst performance.  I solved all of the conundrums this time, which helped to keep my scores healthy.


MonTueWedThuFri
Maximums: L35443
N22333
C11111


Contestants sorted by average score:


TotalGamesAverage
Tamara McMahon335655.83
Barry Harridge323653.83
Oli Bryant318653.00
Peter Kougi52152.00
Matthew Thomason310651.67
Jack Dell258551.60
Rohan Long153351.00
Jason Dunn102251.00
Colwyn Buckland51151.00
Brian Morgan151350.33
Luke Brattoni149349.67
Mel Cox149349.67
Rob Hunt99249.50
Raf Goodens98249.00
Gary Beer49149.00
Ryan Turk48148.00
Jeremy Rosen95247.50
Richard Hartley282647.00
Samuel Hastings186446.50
Daniel Drumm92246.00
Jonathan Goodman44144.00
Victor Tung256642.67
Greg Beers211542.20
Kannan Sethuraman210542.00
Kathryn James123341.00
Jodi Knight82241.00
Avi Chanales163440.75
Margaret Frangos79239.50
Peter Stephenson78239.00
Paula Messer77238.50
Brett Chaiyawat188537.60
Janine Huan37137.00
Had Thomas37137.00
Aram Kalyanasundaram36136.00
Luke Warden72236.00
Pat Sincock71235.50
David Waddell71235.50
Damien Chua35135.00
Ralph Lurie35135.00
Jayden Spudvilas-Powell34134.00
Michael Bakker66233.00
Nathan Boadle33133.00
Chris Cincotta32132.00
Everson Kandare32132.00
Cameron Ling32132.00
Neil McInnes32132.00
Ben Ripley32132.00
Felix Johnson95331.67
Mike Vitale63231.50
Howard Smith62231.00
John Marsiglio31131.00
Alex Ford30130.00
Bryce Lawrence30130.00
Jon Avotins29129.00
Matt Pitcher29129.00
Kapil Chauhan28128.00
Tim Shiel28128.00
Graham Smith55227.50
Anna Gunn27127.00
David Gunn27127.00
Glen Chandler26126.00
Nicky Henderson24124.00
Preeti Goel23123.00
Louise Kuchmar23123.00
Vikas Ahuja22122.00
Richard King21121.00
Rob Carter20120.00
Rosemary Stafford20120.00
Nicky Betts19119.00
Liam Murphy18118.00
Basil Theophilos18118.00
Jenni Bradford17117.00
Seb Dworkin17117.00
Frank Rice15115.00
Vanessa Rule15115.00
Dane Watkins15115.00
Dan Boxshall14114.00
Cathy Henry14114.00
Susan Bee13113.00
Mali Konda13113.00
Rhys McCaig13113.00
Matthew Ball12112.00
Matt Bolton12112.00
Kym Logan616.00

Ep 180: Victor Tung, Dan Boxshall (September 16, 2016; originally aired April 8, 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.

Just the summary for now, as I'm still very behind.


Ep 179: Victor Tung, Jon Avotins (September 15, 2016; originally aired April 7, 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.

Just the summary for now, as I'm still very behind.


Ep 178: Victor Tung, Preeti Goel (September 14, 2016; originally aired April 6, 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.

Just the summary for now, as I'm still very behind.


Ep 177: Victor Tung, Ralph Lurie (September 13, 2016; originally aired April 5, 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.

Just the summary for now, as I'm still very behind.


Ep 176: Victor Tung, Kapil Chauhan (September 12, 2016; originally aired April 4, 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.

Just the summary for now, as I'm still very behind.


Weekly summary: Episodes 171 to 175

A full monty from David on Monday kept me from equalling there, and although I got close a couple of times later on I just was not able to bridge the gap.  Top quality solving from David and Lily, as ever.


MonTueWedThuFri
Me7884647665
Champion342213107
Challenger716233537
David + Lily8886777776
Me (solo)7884647672


As predicted, Tamara won her last two games to become the third champion to successfully retire this series.  Her consistent high scoring -- only once below fifty, and that was with a forty-eight -- gets her a well-deserved top spot, edging out Barry, while Bretty drops off the leaderboard.  The challengers won each game in the rest of the week, but maybe next week will bring a bit more longevity to the champion.

Tamara McMahon546463525448335
Barry Harridge755145543959323
Matthew Thomason466449445265310
Oli Bryant714660555432318
Richard Hartley565357424232282
Jack Dell5973405036258
Greg Beers3559463833211
Kannan Sethuraman4253454129210


There were two full monties on offer this week, with Tuesday's one having three possible nines from the same letter mix.  Monday's one was hard to spot, at least for me, but David did well to find it.

MonTueWedThuFri
Full Monties112
Missed Full Monties0
Tough Numbers0
Impossible Numbers0


My letters performance dropped a bit this week, while my numberwork was better -- just the one maximum dropped on those.  Wednesday continues to be my trouble day, substantially below my results from the other days.


MonTueWedThuFri
Maximums: L43243
N33332
C11011


Contestants sorted by average score:


TotalGamesAverage
Tamara McMahon335655.83
Barry Harridge323653.83
Oli Bryant318653.00
Peter Kougi52152.00
Matthew Thomason310651.67
Jack Dell258551.60
Rohan Long153351.00
Jason Dunn102251.00
Colwyn Buckland51151.00
Brian Morgan151350.33
Luke Brattoni149349.67
Mel Cox149349.67
Rob Hunt99249.50
Raf Goodens98249.00
Gary Beer49149.00
Ryan Turk48148.00
Jeremy Rosen95247.50
Richard Hartley282647.00
Samuel Hastings186446.50
Daniel Drumm92246.00
Victor Tung*44144.00
Jonathan Goodman44144.00
Greg Beers211542.20
Kannan Sethuraman210542.00
Kathryn James123341.00
Jodi Knight82241.00
Avi Chanales163440.75
Margaret Frangos79239.50
Peter Stephenson78239.00
Paula Messer77238.50
Brett Chaiyawat188537.60
Janine Huan37137.00
Had Thomas37137.00
Aram Kalyanasundaram36136.00
Luke Warden72236.00
Pat Sincock71235.50
David Waddell71235.50
Damien Chua35135.00
Jayden Spudvilas-Powell34134.00
Michael Bakker66233.00
Nathan Boadle33133.00
Chris Cincotta32132.00
Everson Kandare32132.00
Cameron Ling32132.00
Neil McInnes32132.00
Ben Ripley32132.00
Felix Johnson95331.67
Mike Vitale63231.50
Howard Smith62231.00
John Marsiglio31131.00
Alex Ford30130.00
Bryce Lawrence30130.00
Matt Pitcher29129.00
Tim Shiel28128.00
Graham Smith55227.50
Anna Gunn27127.00
David Gunn27127.00
Glen Chandler26126.00
Nicky Henderson24124.00
Louise Kuchmar23123.00
Vikas Ahuja22122.00
Richard King21121.00
Rob Carter20120.00
Rosemary Stafford20120.00
Nicky Betts19119.00
Liam Murphy18118.00
Basil Theophilos18118.00
Jenni Bradford17117.00
Seb Dworkin17117.00
Frank Rice15115.00
Vanessa Rule15115.00
Dane Watkins15115.00
Cathy Henry14114.00
Susan Bee13113.00
Mali Konda13113.00
Rhys McCaig13113.00
Matthew Ball12112.00
Matt Bolton12112.00
Kym Logan616.00

Ep 175: Paula Messer, Victor Tung (September 9, 2016; originally aired April 1, 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.

Just the summary for now, as I'm still very behind.


Ep 174: Howard Smith, Paula Messer (September 8, 2016; originally aired March 31, 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.

Just the summary for now, as I'm still very behind.


Ep 173: Chris Cincotta, Howard Smith (September 7, 2016; originally aired March 30, 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.

Just the summary for now, as I'm still very behind.


Ep 172: Tamara McMahon, Alex Ford (September 6, 2016; originally aired March 29, 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.

Just the summary for now, as I'm still very behind.


Ep 171: Tamara McMahon, Cathy Henry (September 5, 2016; originally aired March 28, 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.

Just the summary for now, as I'm still very behind.


Weekly summary: Episodes 166 to 170

Tamara gave me a bit of a scare on Wednesday: I was only able to outpoint her on one main round, so I went in to the conundrum ahead but not safe.  It turned out to be a difficult conundrum, so I escaped with my winning record this series intact.  Aside from that, I managed to track David and Lily reasonably closely on three of the days, with just Friday leading to another drop due to missing a full monty and the conundrum.  A high-scoring week!


MonTueWedThuFri
Me8466657665
Champion3534585633
Challenger203452616
David + Lily8586867686
Me (solo)8483727665


Mel fell to Tamara on his third game, and Tamara closed out the week with a series of high-scoring games.  Even a zero-point loss in her next game will put her into sixth position on the leaderboard, and she's looking strong enough to go all the way.

Barry Harridge755145543959323
Matthew Thomason466449445265310
Oli Bryant714660555432318
Richard Hartley565357424232282
Jack Dell5973405036258
Greg Beers3559463833211
Kannan Sethuraman4253454129210
Brett Chaiyawat2559284234188


It was an excellent week for the full monties, with David finding four of them.  There was also a (rather obscure!) missed full monty on the remaining day, so this week held the potential for that grand slam that David was always aiming for.  Lily cruised through the numbers yet again.

MonTueWedThuFri
Full Monties11114
Missed Full Monties11
Tough Numbers0
Impossible Numbers0


My performance in the main rounds was consistently better this week, although once again there was a dip on Wednesday; I'm not sure why that seems to often be the case.  I found the conundrums tough going this week, missing two of them.


MonTueWedThuFri
Maximums: L45344
N32233
C11010


Contestants sorted by average score:


TotalGamesAverage
Tamara McMahon*233458.25
Barry Harridge323653.83
Oli Bryant318653.00
Peter Kougi52152.00
Matthew Thomason310651.67
Jack Dell258551.60
Rohan Long153351.00
Jason Dunn102251.00
Colwyn Buckland51151.00
Brian Morgan151350.33
Luke Brattoni149349.67
Mel Cox149349.67
Rob Hunt99249.50
Raf Goodens98249.00
Gary Beer49149.00
Ryan Turk48148.00
Jeremy Rosen95247.50
Richard Hartley282647.00
Samuel Hastings186446.50
Daniel Drumm92246.00
Jonathan Goodman44144.00
Greg Beers211542.20
Kannan Sethuraman210542.00
Kathryn James123341.00
Jodi Knight82241.00
Avi Chanales163440.75
Margaret Frangos79239.50
Peter Stephenson78239.00
Brett Chaiyawat188537.60
Janine Huan37137.00
Had Thomas37137.00
Aram Kalyanasundaram36136.00
Luke Warden72236.00
Pat Sincock71235.50
David Waddell71235.50
Damien Chua35135.00
Jayden Spudvilas-Powell34134.00
Michael Bakker66233.00
Nathan Boadle33133.00
Everson Kandare32132.00
Cameron Ling32132.00
Neil McInnes32132.00
Ben Ripley32132.00
Felix Johnson95331.67
Mike Vitale63231.50
John Marsiglio31131.00
Bryce Lawrence30130.00
Matt Pitcher29129.00
Tim Shiel28128.00
Graham Smith55227.50
Anna Gunn27127.00
David Gunn27127.00
Glen Chandler26126.00
Nicky Henderson24124.00
Louise Kuchmar23123.00
Vikas Ahuja22122.00
Richard King21121.00
Rob Carter20120.00
Rosemary Stafford20120.00
Nicky Betts19119.00
Liam Murphy18118.00
Basil Theophilos18118.00
Jenni Bradford17117.00
Seb Dworkin17117.00
Frank Rice15115.00
Vanessa Rule15115.00
Dane Watkins15115.00
Susan Bee13113.00
Mali Konda13113.00
Rhys McCaig13113.00
Matthew Ball12112.00
Matt Bolton12112.00
Kym Logan616.00

Monday 19 September 2016

Ep 170: Tamara McMahon, Richard King (September 2, 2016; originally aired March 25, 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.

Just the summary for now, as I'm still very behind.


Ep 169: Tamara McMahon, Kym Logan (September 1, 2016; originally aired March 24, 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.

Just the summary for now, as I'm still very behind.


Ep 168: Tamara McMahon, Peter Kougi (August 31, 2016; originally aired March 23, 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.

Just the summary for now, as I'm still very behind.


Ep 167: Mel Cox, Tamara McMahon (August 30, 2016; originally aired March 22, 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.

Just the summary for now, as I'm still very behind.


Ep 166: Mel Cox, Had Thomas (August 29, 2016; originally aired March 21, 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.

Just the summary for now, as I'm still very behind.


Weekly summary: Episodes 161 to 165

My early-week performance was a bit off the pace, with Tuesday and Wednesday being rather poor.  I was just a bit too slow to spot a full monty on Monday; if I had, that would have given me a huge win in the solo game.  I did finish the week strongly, though, dropping just a single point in two games.


MonTueWedThuFri
Me7376687486
Champion4014121534
Challenger67261551
David + Lily7687787487
Me (solo)7376687486


No movement on the leaderboard this week; Rohan won on Monday, but thereafter the champions lost each game.  Mel Cox won a high-scoring game on Friday, so maybe there is some potential there.

Barry Harridge755145543959323
Matthew Thomason466449445265310
Oli Bryant714660555432318
Richard Hartley565357424232282
Jack Dell5973405036258
Greg Beers3559463833211
Kannan Sethuraman4253454129210
Brett Chaiyawat2559284234188


David found two full monties this week, but missed the one on Monday.  Lily deftly handled the numbers once more; it's been over five weeks since she missed the best answer in a numbers round.

MonTueWedThuFri
Full Monties112
Missed Full Monties11
Tough Numbers0
Impossible Numbers0


I had some decent games, including a maximal one on Thursday, but again I am having problems with consistency.  Tuesday and Wednesday greatly dragged down my performance, with Wednesday in particular being a shocker.  I did get all the conundrums, though, which is nice.


MonTueWedThuFri
Maximums: L42254
N23133
C12111


Contestants sorted by average score:


TotalGamesAverage
Mel Cox*57157.00
Barry Harridge323653.83
Oli Bryant318653.00
Matthew Thomason310651.67
Jack Dell258551.60
Rohan Long153351.00
Jason Dunn102251.00
Colwyn Buckland51151.00
Brian Morgan151350.33
Luke Brattoni149349.67
Rob Hunt99249.50
Raf Goodens98249.00
Gary Beer49149.00
Ryan Turk48148.00
Jeremy Rosen95247.50
Richard Hartley282647.00
Samuel Hastings186446.50
Daniel Drumm92246.00
Jonathan Goodman44144.00
Greg Beers211542.20
Kannan Sethuraman210542.00
Kathryn James123341.00
Jodi Knight82241.00
Avi Chanales163440.75
Margaret Frangos79239.50
Peter Stephenson78239.00
Brett Chaiyawat188537.60
Janine Huan37137.00
Aram Kalyanasundaram36136.00
Luke Warden72236.00
Pat Sincock71235.50
David Waddell71235.50
Damien Chua35135.00
Jayden Spudvilas-Powell34134.00
Michael Bakker66233.00
Nathan Boadle33133.00
Everson Kandare32132.00
Cameron Ling32132.00
Neil McInnes32132.00
Ben Ripley32132.00
Felix Johnson95331.67
Mike Vitale63231.50
John Marsiglio31131.00
Bryce Lawrence30130.00
Matt Pitcher29129.00
Tim Shiel28128.00
Graham Smith55227.50
Anna Gunn27127.00
David Gunn27127.00
Glen Chandler26126.00
Nicky Henderson24124.00
Louise Kuchmar23123.00
Vikas Ahuja22122.00
Rob Carter20120.00
Rosemary Stafford20120.00
Nicky Betts19119.00
Liam Murphy18118.00
Basil Theophilos18118.00
Jenni Bradford17117.00
Seb Dworkin17117.00
Frank Rice15115.00
Vanessa Rule15115.00
Dane Watkins15115.00
Susan Bee13113.00
Mali Konda13113.00
Rhys McCaig13113.00
Matthew Ball12112.00
Matt Bolton12112.00

Sunday 18 September 2016

Much overdue status update

Apologies for the long silence here.  Once I got behind, the effort involved in catching up made it less appealing, leading to the obvious negative feedback loop.  So here's what will be happening: On Monday night I'll be putting up the rest of the bare-bones summaries (and placeholder statistics pages).  I'll then aim to resume the detailed writeups from Monday, and gradually work through the backlog and put up the longer descriptions.  There were a couple of good contestant runs in that period (particularly Tamara) that I'm sad I did not get around to blogging in a timely fashion.

Sunday 4 September 2016

Ep 165: Jeremy Rosen, Mel Cox (August 26, 2016; originally aired March 18, 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.

Just the summary for now, as I'm still very behind.


Ep 164: Pat Sincock, Jeremy Rosen (August 25, 2016; originally aired March 17, 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.

Just the summary for now, as I'm still very behind.


Ep 163: Graham Smith, Pat Sincock (August 24, 2016; originally aired March 16, 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.

Just the summary for now, as I'm still very behind.


Ep 162: Rohan Long, Graham Smith (August 23, 2016; originally aired March 15, 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.

Just the summary for now, as I'm still very behind.


Ep 161: Rohan Long, Nicky Betts (August 22, 2016; originally aired March 14, 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.

Just the summary for now, as I'm still very behind.


Saturday 3 September 2016

Weekly summary: Episodes 156 to 160

I was back to an erratic performance this week; the highlights were Tuesday and Friday, where I managed to equal David and Lily on the solo totals.  In fact, I had an optimal game on Tuesday, which is always nice.  The other days I ended up rather further away than I would have liked; on Monday the key issue was failing to solve a conundrum, while on Wednesday and Thursday I had great difficulties with the numbers.  I definitely want to improve on that.


MonTueWedThuFri
Me5977616377
Champion3425422316
Challenger2010231732
David + Lily7777737577
Me (solo)6577617077


Richard Hartley made it all the way to his sixth game, but was defeated by Rohan on Friday.  That pushes Samuel Hastings out of contention for the finals; only contestants with five or more games remain.  We're less than two-thirds of the way through the series, so we'd expect a few more finalists to come; at this point, I'd say that Greg, Kannan, and Brett are likely to miss the cut.

Barry Harridge755145543959323
Matthew Thomason466449445265310
Oli Bryant714660555432318
Richard Hartley565357424232282
Jack Dell5973405036258
Greg Beers3559463833211
Kannan Sethuraman4253454129210
Brett Chaiyawat2559284234188


Just the one round of interest this week, an impossible numbers target on Wednesday.  That broke Lily's solving streak, although she still would have found the best answer.

MonTueWedThuFri
Full Monties0
Missed Full Monties0
Tough Numbers0
Impossible Numbers11


My maximum count in the main rounds again equalled that of last week, but my performance was less consistent.  I really need to hit those numbers targets; as Lily demonstrates, the best results are achievable.  A tough conundrum contributed to a poor scoreline on Monday, but I managed to solve the remaining ones.


MonTueWedThuFri
Maximums: L35344
N33213
C01111


Contestants sorted by average score:


TotalGamesAverage
Barry Harridge323653.83
Oli Bryant318653.00
Rohan Long*52152.00
Matthew Thomason310651.67
Jack Dell258551.60
Jason Dunn102251.00
Colwyn Buckland51151.00
Brian Morgan151350.33
Luke Brattoni149349.67
Rob Hunt99249.50
Raf Goodens98249.00
Gary Beer49149.00
Ryan Turk48148.00
Richard Hartley282647.00
Samuel Hastings186446.50
Daniel Drumm92246.00
Jonathan Goodman44144.00
Greg Beers211542.20
Kannan Sethuraman210542.00
Kathryn James123341.00
Jodi Knight82241.00
Avi Chanales163440.75
Margaret Frangos79239.50
Peter Stephenson78239.00
Brett Chaiyawat188537.60
Janine Huan37137.00
Aram Kalyanasundaram36136.00
Luke Warden72236.00
David Waddell71235.50
Damien Chua35135.00
Jayden Spudvilas-Powell34134.00
Michael Bakker66233.00
Nathan Boadle33133.00
Everson Kandare32132.00
Cameron Ling32132.00
Neil McInnes32132.00
Ben Ripley32132.00
Felix Johnson95331.67
Mike Vitale63231.50
John Marsiglio31131.00
Bryce Lawrence30130.00
Matt Pitcher29129.00
Tim Shiel28128.00
Anna Gunn27127.00
David Gunn27127.00
Glen Chandler26126.00
Nicky Henderson24124.00
Louise Kuchmar23123.00
Vikas Ahuja22122.00
Rob Carter20120.00
Rosemary Stafford20120.00
Liam Murphy18118.00
Basil Theophilos18118.00
Jenni Bradford17117.00
Seb Dworkin17117.00
Frank Rice15115.00
Vanessa Rule15115.00
Dane Watkins15115.00
Susan Bee13113.00
Mali Konda13113.00
Rhys McCaig13113.00
Matthew Ball12112.00
Matt Bolton12112.00