Monday 29 February 2016

NG 786

New game 786 is now available.

The re-run is episode 49; its rounds are here and its writeup is here.

Friday 26 February 2016

NG 785

New game 785 is now available.

The re-run is episode 48; its rounds are here and its writeup is here.

Thursday 25 February 2016

Wednesday 24 February 2016

Tuesday 23 February 2016

Monday 22 February 2016

Friday 19 February 2016

Thursday 18 February 2016

NG 779

New game 779 is now available.

The re-run is episode 42; its rounds are here and its writeup is here.

Wednesday 17 February 2016

NG 778

New game 778 is now available.

The re-run is episode 41; its rounds are here and its writeup is here.

Tuesday 16 February 2016

NG 777

New game 777 is now available.

The re-run is episode 40; its rounds are here and its writeup is here.

Monday 15 February 2016

Friday 12 February 2016

NG 775

New game 775 is now available.

The re-run is episode 38; its rounds are here and its writeup is here.

Thursday 11 February 2016

NG 774

New game 774 is now available.

The re-run is episode 37; its rounds are here and its writeup is here.

Wednesday 10 February 2016

NG 773

New game 773 is now available.

The re-run is episode 36; its rounds are here and its writeup is here.

Tuesday 9 February 2016

NG 772

New game 772 is now available.

The re-run is episode 35; its rounds are here and its writeup is here.

Monday 8 February 2016

Friday 5 February 2016

NG 770

New game 770 is now available.  In case you missed it, the post for NG 769 is here.

The re-run is episode 33; its rounds are here and its writeup is here.

NG 769

New game 769 is now available.  Apologies for the delay; sleep debt caught up with me.

The re-run is episode 32; its rounds are here and its writeup is here.

Wednesday 3 February 2016

NG 768

New game 768 is now available.

The re-run is episode 31; its rounds are here and its writeup is here.

Tuesday 2 February 2016

NG 767

New game 767 is now available.

The re-run is episode 30; its rounds are here and its writeup is here.

Monday 1 February 2016

NG 766

New game 766 is now available.

The re-run is episode 29; its rounds are here and its writeup is here.

Ep 29: Naween Fernando, Frances Weinberg (August 16, 2012; originally aired September 9, 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.

There's a further wrinkle in this game, because I've been expecting a high-scoring one from Naween for some time.  It turned out to be today, so I was on the lookout for long words after the first round.  That may have been significant in at least one round.


This is Naween's fourth night, and once more there's no substance to the chat; Richard comments about Naween's consistent approaches to the selections, and asks if he has particular techniques.  Naween says that he aims to keep things simple, and remain calm if he can.

Tonight's challenger is Frances Weinberg, a physiotherapist and recent Mensa inductee.  She has two lifelong goals: To climb Mount Everest, and to become a quiz show champion.  Richard asks which she thinks is more likely, and she admits that -- having watched Naween the last few nights -- she might have to get her hiking shoes ready.

Frances looked a little nervous at the start -- fair enough, under the circumstances -- and doesn't really get to shine as Naween completely dominates in the letters.  She was recently interviewed on the SHTICK (about physiotherapy), and is a bit more vivacious there.


The letters lined up beautifully for Naween, and he started off with a pair of full monties that pretty much meant the game was over right then.  He found eight-letter words in the remaining letter rounds, and managed to keep up his scoring in the numbers rounds also.  Naween had the game wrapped up at the end of round five, the earliest it is possible to do so.  Frances was only able to get points in one round (a numbers round), and when Naween solved the conundrum the final scoreline was a devastating 94 to 10 in his favour.

I was a bit forewarned, thanks to knowing that Naween had a high-scoring game and recollecting some comments from finals episodes about his letters performance.  Once the first round produced a full monty I knew that eight was the minimum to look for elsewhere, which may have prompted me to risk a word I would not otherwise have done.  I was able to navigate the letters rounds safely and solve all the numbers rounds, and recovered from a conundrum slip to register an optimal game, although tainted by foreknowledge.