Going into the games, I thought I was slight favourite from by 7-1 record against him, but I haven't practised a lot recently and I knew he was in good form and it would go to 4 or 5 games. I made mistakes in the first two games but was outplayed and Ryan took a well-deserved 2-0 lead. In game 3, I managed to capitalise on Ryan's misses to win it despite missing DISLOCATE. Game 4 was the most enjoyable, with us getting 25/29 maxes and I was relieved to see FLOWERPOT straight away.Ryan Taylor wrote:Ryan T vs Oliver G
Going into this match I had only won 1 of our previous 8 games and that was back in October, confidence was low.
Game 1: And sure thing, I am beaten in round 1 by a darrenic 7. Here we go...I think, but no! I went on to beat OG in four rounds (with 8's of RAMPAGED and TOMATOES) to leave him squashed. I got the conundrum too and ran out a comfortable winner by 31 points, only my second win against him.
Ryan Taylor 113-82 Oliver Garner
http://www.apterous.org/viewgame.php?game=203015
Game 2: Once again an opening round darren and pencil gives OG the lead. Immediately he is pegged back and a poor ending from Oliver (not scoring in any of the last 5 rounds) gives me another, somewhat, shock victory.
Ryan Taylor 84-64 Oliver Garner
http://www.apterous.org/viewgame.php?game=203024
Game 3: With me having one foot in the last 8, OG had to do something to keep his dreams of Masters Champion alive. Spots of COAXED, CAUTIONS, IMPROV and the 9 ASTEROIDS put Oliver 90-52 ahead with 3 rounds to go. Only a nine could salvage a glimmer of hope for me and I did indeed respond with DISLOCATE to set up the possibility of taking the game to a crucial, but those hopes were soon dashed with a correct numbers solution by both players.
Ryan Taylor 80-100 Oliver Garner
http://www.apterous.org/viewgame.php?game=203035
Game 4: Definitely the most entertaining game, and played 3 days after the previous 3. Oliver took an early lead in round 2 after the invalid submission of ERUVIMS by me. We then maxed the next 13 rounds apart from one when I had CRINOID to draw level. 98-98 going into a crucial conundrum. (I switched on my light at this point as the room was quite dark so I wanted to have a good view of the keyboard). FELWORTOP revealed and before I had time to correct my initial fumbling for the F key it was over in a Hansford-esque manner. Bit of a naff conundrum to have on such a tight game, oh well!
Ryan Taylor 98-108 Oliver Garner
http://www.apterous.org/viewgame.php?game=204558
Game 5: After being so close to the next stage of the competition I kind of felt I would never get there. With the tie poised at 2-2 Oliver kicked off strongly maxing the first 7 rounds to open a 52-38 lead. A spot of INTUBATES in the next round put me back in the game with a lead of 4 points. A tough numbers game gave OG the lead again before my error of thinking CAPITIOUS was a word, only to find out the darrenic 8 was CAPTIOUS. With Oliver offering COPITAS, this gave him a 10 point lead. This lead remained 10 points and so it was a crucial conundrum (or perhaps semi-crucial?). A great solve of BIOSOCIAL gave Oliver victory.
Ryan Taylor 87-107 Oliver Garner
http://www.apterous.org/viewgame.php?game=205178
So a 2-0 cushion was not enough for me, and Oliver stormed back to snatch the place in the last 8. A very enjoyable tie and pleasing 5 games played to a decent standard. The better player managed to pull through and deservedly so. Well played Mr Garner!
Ryan Taylor 2-3 Oliver Garner
Game 5 was also a cracker where I took a solid 14 point lead, felt in top form, and looked good for the quarters but Ryan had other ideas! A 9 I never would have seen put him ahead and when I didn't get the chance to enter my numbers solution, I ended up screaming at the computer to tell him not to have it. Fortunately, this worked and Ryan didn't have the 14 point cushion and I led by 3. In round 11, I had COPITAS and thought of CAPTIOUS but instantly dismissed it. Since COPITAS was the only word I entered, I didn't know he had a 9 until the end-of-round screen. This was a relief and, to add to the relief, his 9 was disallowed and I led by 10. It stayed like this until the crucial conundrum in which I saw social and then spent ages unscrambling the other 3 but eventually I did.
Thanks Ryan for 5 top-quality games and on another day, it could have easily been you in the quarters and not me. Unlucky mate!