Spoilers for Wednesday 21st December 2022 (Series 86, SF 1)

[Ronan M Higginson]

Commiserations to all our Quarter Finalists, but onto the Semis we go now, the first of 2 tomorrow, and let's meet the competitors!

Firstly, No.1 Seed Tom Stevenson - 9 Wins, 1,121 Points (Avg. of 124.56 per game)
Highest Score (Of all time as well): 154 vs. Lauren Bowley (4th Game)
Lowest Score: 117 vs. Andy Keeble and Steve Robinson (4th and 5th Games)
9's Achieved: 5/10 (50%)
Total Points/Max/%: 1,121/1,215 (92%)
Letters Points/Max/%: 689/767 (90%)
Numbers Points/Max/%: 342/354 (97%)
Conundrum Points/Max/%: 90/90 (100%)


Secondly, No.5 Seed Joe Dobinson - 9 wins, 893 Points (Avg. of 99.22 per game)
Highest Score: 116 vs Richard Waldron (2nd Game)
Lowest Score: 81 vs Rahul Leal (5th Game)
9's Achieved: 2/9 (22%)
Total Points/Max/% 893/1,194 (75%)
Letters Points/Max/% 577/756 (76%)
Numbers Points/Max/% 256/348 (74%)
Conundrum Points/Max/% 60/90 (67%)


Tune in at 2:10pm tomorrow to find out who's going to be the first of the 2 finalists...

[Marc Meakin]

Will Joe win a round breaking the unbeaten streak?

[Ronan M Higginson]

Brilliant game, 150 undefeated rounds for Tom now. Great performance from Joe as well, 95 was excellent.

[Tracey Anne Mills]

Brilliant game, 150 undefeated rounds for Tom now. Great performance from Joe as well, 95 was excellent.

That was a great game , Joe can be proud of what he has achieved.

[Johnny Canuck]

Also exactly 1000 points in eight games and exactly 1250 points in ten games. This man is a machine.

[Fiona T]

Great game, and Joe gave him a great match. Well done both, and look forward to seeing you in the final Tom!

[Toby McDonald]

Great game guys. Well done again Tom, and commiserations Joe.

R9 Alt.: (9*8+6+5)*2 = 166

[Andres Sanchez]

Two people that can really hold their own, there.

Here's the play-along:

LOANED
BUMPER/AMPERE
453 (100+50)*3+75/25
TOOTSIE
LEGGIER
374 (100+25)*3+9-10
PATIOS
COUNTERS/FORTUNES
6*9*(5-2)+4
OVERAGES
AUTOMISE
WINTEROUS
FLOATED
75*6-25-50-10
Got beat to it

Excellent play you two.

Lost to Tom with 102 - 129 and got real close with 108 against Joe's 101.

[Howie Myers]

Brilliant game by both players. congratulations to Tom.
r9 alt: (9*6)*(5-2)+4=166

[Ryan Lam]

Just when you thought Channel 4 couldn't get weirder with a trailer about a year-end Prince Andrew musical airing before the start of the show, the episode mentions a hooker and people possibly thinking ASEXUAL is a rude word. I mean, what has this world come to? Jeez, anyways, here's some holiday fun with Tom wearing a sweater with a "L" missing (How did Colin not realise it until nearly the end?). I initially thought it was someone going to take the "L" (in cultural meme sense) but we now know it stands for the "L" in Driver's License. Oh, did I not mention Tom was with us in the Daily Chat again?

Letters: If anything, this was what defined the show. Neck and neck for the first three rounds of this type. Then came a breakaway in R5 when jiggler was disallowed and what's even worse, Tom mentioned Joe had REJIGGER but did not risk it (which meant Joe could have caused Tom to lose his first round) After the anecdote, a good spot of IMPASTO in R7 by Tom, but it was in the last third of the show that left me so impressed. Both of them scoring Maxes in all four rounds there especially with TIMEOUTS and AUTOMISE in R11 and not forgetting WINTEROUS in R12 by both (Tom stated he would not have gone for it if Colin had asked for his word first)! Well played and well done!

Numbers: Easy play all round surprisingly despite the selections. Tom goes for the 4 Large option early on in R3, but that didn't separate him from Joe as CECIL threw up a relatively easy target for the Finals. Afterwards, looks like Joe decides to go with a gamble in 3 Large in R6, and after both fail to reach the target, Rachel rubbed it in with an easy solution, pfft. Sensing how Joe hasn't been thrown off yet, Tom goes for the other extremity with 6 Small in R9. Unlucky, Joe misses it and the gap widens by ten points! (Tom could not confirm if Joe misread the target as 168 but imo, that seems quite plausible when you're under pressure). Fortunately, R14 made up for that so not all was lost

Conundrum: Even though Joe had lost by this point, it's not over as Tom could potentially have a ten-game streak without losing a single round. You literally have to use your BRAIN to RACE your way to the finish line in that case! He buzzes in and is unsure about the pronunciation, but it doesn't matter, he's done it!! Ten games in a row where he scores every single time!! I didn't even have time to start thinking about the answer, damn!

What a game that was! I predicted the margin to be around 50 points, but Joe proved to be so strong that the margin was slightly less than half of that at 24 points. Even though Joe discounted himself against facing Tom yesterday, look at where he ended up, that is amazing and he deserves a round of applause from all of us. Even though you were the #5 Seed, it didn't define your eventual performance, and I bet you went home feeling proud of how you fared against someone who has been so powerful thus far. All the best in your studies in University and perhaps you could say ending 10 games with 988 points in your name is something memorable and near perfect on the show! Cheer up, for you've done well (in fact, you're the best of Tom's opponents yet!)

The penultimate episode tomorrow with Edward and Quinn. Will Colin's predictions of a English and Irish finals happen or will it be the battle of the Englishmen instead? Let's see if this match will be as close and exciting as the one today!

Progress:
QF1 (15 December): Tom Stevenson (#1) vs Lewis Castling-Morey (#8) (121- 44)
QF2 (16 December): Edward Byrne (#2) vs Steven Etherington (#7) (105 - 34)
QF3 (19 December): Quinn Bartlett (#3) vs Daren Barnes (#6) (108 – 73)
QF4 (20 December): Alan Young (#4) vs Joe Dobinson (#5) (83 - 99)
SF1 (21 December): Tom Stevenson (QF1 Winner) vs Joe Dobinson (QF4 Winner) (129 - 95)
SF2 (22 December): Edward Byrne (QF2 Winner) vs Quinn Bartlett (QF3 Winner)
GF (23 December): Tom Stevenson (SF1 Winner) vs (SF2 Winner)

[Tom S]

Thanks all! Glad you enjoyed it!

[Johnny Canuck]

By the way, I did that exact same "Cara-BEE-ner? Cara-BY-ner?" thing on the conundrum when playing along at home.

[Andres Sanchez]

By the way, I did that exact same "Cara-BEE-ner? Cara-BY-ner?" thing on the conundrum when playing along at home.

I think it's the former if I were to put a stance on that.

[Johnny Canuck]

Yep seems to be

[Fiona T]

By the way, I did that exact same "Cara-BEE-ner? Cara-BY-ner?" thing on the conundrum when playing along at home.

If it's the climbing clip thing, it's "been"

[Gavin Chipper]

Great game guys. Well done again Tom, and commiserations Joe.

R9 Alt.: (9*8+6+5)*2 = 166

Standard method was 8×4×5+6=166. Just four numbers used.

[Tom S]

By the way, I did that exact same "Cara-BEE-ner? Cara-BY-ner?" thing on the conundrum when playing along at home.

In my head, I knew it was Cara-been-er, and that it was an outdoorsy thing, but it's different in the studio as they say, so I doubted myself. Even though I saw it before I buzzed in, I think I must have been trying to resist the urge to say Caribbean haha