c4countdown

First semi-final sees another pairing between two amiable players- Elliott Mellor and Maggie Barlow. Will Elliott ensure that the seeding will still stick to plan, or will Maggie cause an upset and become the 1st non-Apterite to make the grand final since Moose Rosser in 2017 and the 1st female since Ann Dibben in 2016 to do the same feat? We shall see!

A great semi final!! Congrats on making the final Elliott but well done to Maggie who's been very enjoyable to watch and played so well. Hope to see Maggie again!! A couple of words I gambled in today's gamethat I'm curious about. Isolator and agames?

Owen Carroll wrote: ↑Wed Jun 26, 2019 2:01 pm A great semi final!! Congrats on making the final Elliott but well done to Maggie who's been very enjoyable to watch and played so well. Hope to see Maggie again!! A couple of words I gambled in today's gamethat I'm curious about. Isolator and agames?

Yes to 1, No to Agames.

Here we are, the first Semi-Finals with Elliott facing off Maggie! Hmm, another checkered shirt, wonder what that even means...

Letters: Resounding start with Elliott's OESTRIOL to beat Maggie's credible ORIOLES in R1. Wow, CAJEPUT in R5! (I genuinely thought we were heading for a Max game at that point) and after the anecdote, MELODION in R7, I've never even heard both of these words before in my entire life! (Not to mention Elliott's younger than me!) Furthermore, just like yesterday, Maggie proved herself worthy with her tying for most of the letters round with Elliott. Amazing!

Numbers: No surprise with Elliott going for six small and Maggie survives the hurdle thrown at her! Elliott then changed tactics for R9 but CECIL, why do you have to create such anticlimactic moments? :/ With the margin at 23 points just before R14 it was over for Maggie, but hey, why not go for 3L anyways just for fun?

Conundrum: My VPN stream decides to lag on me today so I didn't actually solve it real-time. But looking at the replay with Elliott pressing in without the first second even lighting up, he correctly solves it with POLITBURO!! My word!! I eventually solved it at around the 25 second mark but just like what I said last Thursday during my QF1 write-up, WAY TOO SLOW for me to beat him.

This is perhaps the first time since I've been doing predictions for a Series Final from 2017 onwards that my margin was on the dot at exactly 40 points with Elliott expected to make it into the Grand Final! The combined score also reached a perfect 200 (but sadly that's not going to make the cut on the Wiki ) which is excellent given that the last time such a scenario happened with 200+ was WAY back in February with Dinos!

Tom S wrote: ↑Wed Jun 26, 2019 1:09 pm ...or will Maggie cause an upset and become the 1st non-Apterite to make the grand final since Moose Rosser in 2017 and the 1st female since Ann Dibben in 2016 to do the same feat? We shall see!

Maggie, you probably knew this was an uphill battle right from the start with you mentioning at the end of the show that you were worried about Elliott, but as a non-apterite, you held him back with considerable opposition, something I've not seen perhaps since the days of when Moose and Ann appeared as Tom mentioned above! Just like Elliott said to you, I echo his words in that you have been a fantastic contestant, "terrific" and a "nice" person! In fact, you're so good that several people mentioned in the Daily Chat that you certainly are worthy to appear in the next Championship of Champions! Overall, your career as a librarian certainly hasn't gone to waste after all these years and you should be proud of yourself!

The other Semi-Final to watch out for tomorrow, will Dinos simply overpower Brendan or will the latter somehow fall behind and stage a dramatic comeback similar to what happened on Monday? May the best person there have fun facing Elliott on Friday!

Progress:
QF1 (20 June): Elliott Mellor (#1) vs Mark Decouto (#8) (109 - 73)
QF2 (21 June): Dinos Sfyris (#2) vs Sandra Pilson (#7) (118 - 71)
QF3 (24 June): Brendan Whitehurst (#3) vs Steven Turnbull (#6) (58 - 57)
QF4 (25 June): Maggie Barlow (#4) vs Fiona Titcombe (#5) (98 - 78)
SF1 (26 June): Elliott Mellor (QF1 Winner) vs Maggie Barlow (QF4 Winner) (120 - 80)
SF2 (27 June): Dinos Sfyris (QF2 Winner) vs Brendan Whitehurst (QF3 Winner)
GF (28 June): Elliott Mellor (SF1 Winner) vs (SF2 Winner)

A few 7s in R13, but I like AMIRITE.

Tom S wrote: ↑Wed Jun 26, 2019 2:15 pm

Owen Carroll wrote: ↑Wed Jun 26, 2019 2:01 pm A great semi final!! Congrats on making the final Elliott but well done to Maggie who's been very enjoyable to watch and played so well. Hope to see Maggie again!! A couple of words I gambled in today's gamethat I'm curious about. Isolator and agames?

Yes to 1, No to Agames.

Thanks!!

Incredible as ever Elliott and commisserations Maggie! Vwd both on the R3 solve and RAINBOWS in R4. I missed both of these. Annoyingly, I saw CAJEPUT after the time as Elliott said 7 and he would have just beaten me to POLITBURO.

Just one beater with ACAUSE in R8.

Fiona T wrote: ↑Wed Jun 26, 2019 2:35 pm A few 7s in R13, but I like AMIRITE.

Sorry Fiona, only one I

Toby McDonald wrote: ↑Wed Jun 26, 2019 3:43 pm Incredible as ever Elliott and commisserations Maggie! Vwd both on the R3 solve and RAINBOWS in R4. I missed both of these. Annoying, I saw CAJEPUT after the time as Elliott said 7 and he would have just beaten me to POLITBURO.

Just one beater with ACAUSE in R8.

Fiona T wrote: ↑Wed Jun 26, 2019 2:35 pm A few 7s in R13, but I like AMIRITE.

Sorry Fiona, only one I

Doh - good job it was Maggie in the challenger chair then!

Superb from Elliott. Great performance by Maggie too - would be surprised not to see her involved in the next CoC.