Spoilers for Wednesday 17th December 2025 - Series 92 1st Semi-final

[Philip A]

Jase Cullen plays John Payne for a place in Friday’s Grand Final.

[Philip A]

A very good win from Jase with no rounds lost, and that conundrum solve was class - best solve of the series so far I’d say.

I never see OPAQUE and its inflections (no pun intended!). I knew DRIPSTONE and got the conundrum in 2 seconds. I did get the first numbers after being stuck on 1 away for 20 seconds.

Good to see gettable conundrums not going unsolved compared to the past two series.

[John Garcia]

1st numbers:
Pretty much the usual method
(25 x 4) + 9 = 109; 109 x 9 = 981; 981 - (7x2) = 967

[George Pryn]

Great effort John, fun that we both ended up 5th seeds (with a 2 point difference), beating the 4th seed and getting knocked out at the SF

[Ryan Lam]

Time to put your devices away as Colin mentioned on "National Device Appreciation Day", and admit it, just like me, you're probably one that gets up an scrolls through your phone the moment you wake up. Here's the first Semi-Finals today with Jason (who's also here with us in the Discord Daily Chat) admiring John's gutsy move of 4 Large in R14 yesterday against Ciaran when the scores was so close and the latter saying he's in awe of being a Semi-Finalist and the daunting thought of being the last four standing gets to him. Well, at least the first thing he didn't say was "I'm looking forward to defeat" on camera or we would have all went , but he knows he is probably going to lose here, it's just a matter of how much. Jason did also mentioned in the Daily Chat he practiced 3 Large in anticipation of Ciaran facing him, but sadly that was not the case. We could only wonder what would have went down in an alternate universe I guess...

I never see OPAQUE and its inflections (no pun intended!).

First Third: Excellent start from Jase in R1 with OPAQUER and a good use of the "Q" there, and Philip beat me to the pun I wanted to say here. Unlucky to John with unopen though A good scrabble for the nine in R2 is NOTSPIDER (which I'm sure people spotted), but neither contestant spots it and goes for nice eights, with PERIDOTS getting a mention. Jase goes back to his usual 1 Large in R3 and the target is high! John misses and Jase gets one away with everybody pointing out Rachel had a bad miss since 109 × 9 - 14 was the way those who got it. Jase later said he was annoyed as he mentioned in the Daily Chat he got the solution out of time, aw

Second Third: I'm enjoying all these Christmas Teatime Teasers thus far and hope all of you are too. Can't wait for the remaining five to go! Another great spot of EGOSURF by Jase in R5 extends his lead to 21 points. Next up, if it looks like 4 Large, sounds like 4 Large and acts like 4 Large, then you guessed it, here comes that selection and Jase already was mentally prepared by writing it down on his paper (just to say, I would have too ) But, CECIL is kind here and the only hard bit was making out the "7", good work to both contestants. A "nice" spot by Dictionary Corner in R7 of LUNKHEAD afterwards just expanded my vocabulary to call someone an idiot in future , and after that, Jase keeps pounding good words such as ROGAINE in R8 to match John's JANITOR. 1 Large again in R9 to end off this segment with apologies from Jase's face, but this one is easy as pie unlike Rachel's prediction, allowing both to grab more points.

Last Third: Onto this last part and nice spot of SLUICE in R10 from both and in R11, NOTECASE and COGNATES, the only two eights there, fantastic. As Jase UNVEILS he is now a Grand Finalist, John trips up with uplines The last three rounds afterwards, were probably the most fun I've seen in a while. The selection in R13 where as Colin and John pointed out, had double "O"s (presumably for Eyes), "Foot", "Mouth" and "FMD" as part of it? With the maximum length of five, dang, no wonder that was a horrible round and John had his head in his hands. John may have conceded defeat by R14, but he'll finish what he started with 4 Large, why not even though he's sounds deflated? Imagine if the subtitles had said "John: I'm delighted by it. 4 Large (more enthusiastically)" after some encouragement from Rachel and Colin The latter wants an easy target of "800", but it's not that, it's "116" instead to big cheers from him and dismay from Christopher Biggins. Wow, Christmas came early and Rachel will now resign in protest, sack everyone (as Stephen Read our Daily Chat host would love to put it) That however, also allowed Jase to get another century already. Last round to go, and the SPECs doesn't say you have to dress as a ROYAL for this one. Wait, what's this? Another modern day word and Jase managed to get it in only three seconds??!! I would go bonkers if the Grand Final conundrum is another modern word the likes of PHOTOBOMB 11 years ago.

If Ciaran had played here, I predicted Jase would beat him by a margin of 40 points. However, even with John here instead, I predicted Jase would beat him by the same margin. Turns out that was almost accurate with the margin at 38 points. John knew the game was probably over from him at the top of the show, but he fought all the way until the end and gave a good show for us to watch. You have been a prodigy inside out, both on other game shows and here even though you may have not won, and I'm sure you'll be backstage cheering Jase on for the Grand Final. Enjoy your volunteering work and giving back especially during this festive season, and may you and your family enjoy Christmas together!

So, I guess Jase's friend now has to sponsor him and others to watch Friday's episode in a cinematic theatre, how about that? But first, it's time for the battle of the "B"s in the other Semi-Final with Brett against Ben! The former was clearly having fun today in the Daily Chat with all his semi puns and discussion (sorry I know this sounds so wrong ), but that fun will be over in less than 24 hours. Either way, Jase knows both of them will give him a tough fight for the Grand Champion title. Will this end up in a Crucial Conundrum as Colin predicts and will it end in someone having a heartbreaker as painful as Brett possibly extracting out teeth? Let's see...

Progress:
QF1 (11 December 2025): Jase Cullen (#1) vs Shemina Kirby (#8) (121 - 43)
QF2 (12 December 2025): Brett Davids (#2) vs Mark Allen (#7) (116 - 91)
QF3 (15 December 2025): Ben Hocking (#3) vs Ricky Cohen (#6) (108 - 61)
QF4 (16 December 2025): Ciaran McCarthy (#4) vs John Payne (#5) (79 - 82)
SF1 (17 December 2025): Jase Cullen (QF1 Winner) vs John Payne (QF4 Winner) (116 - 78)
SF2 (18 December 2025): Brett Davids (QF2 Winner) vs Ben Hocking (QF3 Winner)
GF (19 December 2025): Jase Cullen (SF1 Winner) vs (SF2 Winner)

[Gavin Chipper]

Midfoot not in in the last letters disappointingly enough.