Spoilers For Wednesday June 22nd 2016

[James Robinson]

So, we're now at the semi-final stages, and we have the top 4 seeds qualifying, some reaching this stage in more comfort compared to others.

First up, we have the #1 seed, Paul "The Pinner Pulveriser" Erdunast taking on the #4 seed, Conrad "The Manchester Marvel" Teixeira.

Who will be the first series finalist of 2016

Statistics Corner:

Firstly, No.1 Seed Paul "The Pinner Pulveriser" Erdunast - 9 Wins, 1,039 Points. (Average: 115.44)
Highest Score: 130 vs. Ben Dali (3rd Game)
Lowest Score: 98 vs. Colin Mills (7th Game)
9's Achieved: 4/8
Total Points/Max/%: 1039/1188 (87%)
Letters Points/Max/%: 659/741 (89%)
Numbers Points/Max/%: 300/357 (84%)
Conundrum Points/Max/%: 80/90 (89%)

Secondly, No.4 Seed Conrad "The Manchester Marvel" Teixeira - 9 Wins, 891 Points. (Average: 99)
Highest Score: 124 vs. Graham Lazenby (8th Game)
Lowest Score: 82 vs. Paul Bloom (7th Game)
9's Achieved: 2/13
Total Points/Max/%: 891/1232 (72%)
Letters Points/Max/%: 578/794 (73%)
Numbers Points/Max/%: 263/348 (76%)
Conundrum Points/Max/%: 50/90 (56%)

I'll be around with the recap in due course.....

[Ray Wilding]

(50-6)*5-(100+75)/25 an alternate method in the last numbers

[Jojo Apollo]

Great game, very well done chaps. Very well played Paul, congrats on getting to the final, tremendously high standard as ever and well done Conrad on making the final four.

[Johnny Canuck]

With apologies to any untrustable people mentioned in this post, these finals thus far have been literally heart-stopping. Almighty performance by Paul today (14 maxes in a finals gameyes, including ORTHIAN, before you ask!!!), and many, many commiserations to Conrad on being in contention against the man until the very last moment.

No beaters available today, but PITHOI and SLALOMED as nice alts to KATIPO and MODALISE. Credit for the former is due to Rawlo, of course.

More "standard" 2nd numbers alt.: (4 + 9) * 6 * 10 + 8 - 3.

[Gavin Chipper]

Yes, great game. Well played by both players.

But bullshit that they gave us no indication on the show of how to spell ROSULATE, given that it sounded like ROSULET. What's the board for?

[Jojo Apollo]

Interesting tactics for Conrad's last numbers game. I thought he would play it safe(ish) and go for 1 large and have the shootout on the conundrum because it would still be one if he got the target and Paul didn't, then again the conundrum may have been so tough that neither got it and Conrad would win if he was the only one to get the numbers target.

[Peter Clarke]

Brilliant semi-final! I wasn't expecting it to be that close!! Paul was on excellent form, Conrad was on top form too!!

I got Paul's 213 method too and was proud

[Tony Atkins]

Cracking game again.

DOWERING as alt to ORGANDIE and lots of 7s in R4.

Alt 2nd numbers (((6+4)x10)-3)x8 +9
Alt 4th numbers (25-(100/50))x6 +75

[Peter Mabey]

ATHANOR alt to ORTHIAN

[Mark Kudlowski]

3rd numbers alt: ((7 x 4) + 1) x 25 + 10 - 2

[Tim Down]

Great game and a really high standard. Conrad did brilliantly to keep up with Paul's phenomenal level. I would've gone 4-large at the end there too but that's not really a surprise.

Alternative 203-based solution to last numbers: ((100 + 5) x 50 + 75) / 25

[JJ Smith]

Interesting tactics for Conrad's last numbers game. I thought he would play it safe(ish) and go for 1 large and have the shootout on the conundrum because it would still be one if he got the target and Paul didn't, then again the conundrum may have been so tough that neither got it and Conrad would win if he was the only one to get the numbers target.

I was honestly never going to get a single one of those conundrums. I didn't practice conundrums at all after the heat games and Paul would beat me to any I did get.

That said, I did get the second numbers as soon as it was over, in which case I would have gone 1 large on R14 and probably been 10 points ahead on the crucial. But Paul would have got spirulina anyway, and then beat me on a tie-breaker. I suppose I may have learned stems of RATION and done more practice on numbers if I'd had more time, but this is a game where every single letters round went for me and I still had no chance really. As soon as I knew Robin was appearing in this series, I figured I would be 4th seed, and never once considered that I would make it past a semi (if I even got that far). It was nice to be able to relax, I was nervous as hell in the octorun.

So yeah, I just went 4L for the sake of it. I might have gone for 1L if I knew I could have scored a century. Oh yeah I remember now actually, I had done a decent amount of practice on 4L because it's my worst and I thought I'd play Tim in the QF, so I didn't want it to go to waste, haha.

[Jojo Apollo]

Interesting tactics for Conrad's last numbers game. I thought he would play it safe(ish) and go for 1 large and have the shootout on the conundrum because it would still be one if he got the target and Paul didn't, then again the conundrum may have been so tough that neither got it and Conrad would win if he was the only one to get the numbers target.

I was honestly never going to get a single one of those conundrums. I didn't practice conundrums at all after the heat games and Paul would beat me to any I did get.

That said, I did get the second numbers as soon as it was over, in which case I would have gone 1 large on R14 and probably been 10 points ahead on the crucial. But Paul would have got spirulina anyway, and then beat me on a tie-breaker. I suppose I may have learned stems of RATION and done more practice on numbers if I'd had more time, but this is a game where every single letters round went for me and I still had no chance really. As soon as I knew Robin was appearing in this series, I figured I would be 4th seed, and never once considered that I would make it past a semi (if I even got that far). It was nice to be able to relax, I was nervous as hell in the octorun.

So yeah, I just went 4L for the sake of it. I might have gone for 1L if I knew I could have scored a century. Oh yeah I remember now actually, I had done a decent amount of practice on 4L because it's my worst and I thought I'd play Tim in the QF, so I didn't want it to go to waste, haha.

Cheers, good to hear the thinking process.

[Paul Erdunast]

Thanks very much all for the kind comments again! Conrad had me bricking it here... really didn't fancy the crucial. And as he said, another 10 seconds and he'd have got it. I considered that method but never had the time to properly look for the right numbers to make it work.

Conrad getting KATIPO was the most frustrating, as I only saw it late, and had PITHOI which I thought might be a darrenic winner - and even then I hoped KATIPO might win it. But yeah as I've said before, incredible play Conrad - it's not luck when you know the words.