Spoilers for Friday 12th December 2025 - Series 92 2nd Quarter-final

[Philip A]

No. 2 seed Brett Davids vs the last non-returnee standing, Mark Allen.

[Philip A]

Very high standard game between two lovely people. Could easily have gone to a crucial.

Third numbers was hard to do.

In the past two series prior to this, only 1 conundrum was solved in the finals. This series, 2 out of 2 solved already.

[Ryan Lam]

It's the end of the year, and 20 days left when the episode aired, but yet somehow, I'm still very busy and jam packed with work-life stuff during this period which explains why this review is so late. I'll try my best to get the next four out before the succeeding episode airs for sure! Talk about coincidence (yes, it wasn't coordinated as per the Discord Daily Chat because Brett joined us to watch his match with us!), Brett and Mark are wearing red-coloured shirts! Interesting fact from Brett and fact check, I must point out it's not last year (Series 90), it was just last Series where the #1 Seed Rhys Jones only scored 800 Points in his preliminaries although I'm sure his fact wasn't meant to put Mark down when he said that almost all the Octochamps here averaged 100 points or above, don't take it the wrong way round! Speaking of which and given how "Stand Up to Cancer" is on (talk about yet another coincidence, really?!), well wishes and speedy recovery to Mark who had an operation to remove a pancreatic tumour between his last appearance and now which must be painful, so it's a miracle he's here smiling as if nothing happened and hope his performance won't be affected by this!

First Third: Judging by how the first two rounds went, this match could be a bit closer than I had anticipated. Then, R3, just when I was expecting Brett to pull out the big 4 Large, he doesn't and goes safe for 1 Large instead! Turns out he mentioned in the Daily Chat he had not watched Mark's preliminaries and thus had no idea what his tactics were, better to be safe than sorry! Their solutions match here, oh boy, strap in for possibly a tight match in that case!

Second Third: Have you not gotten festive yet with all these Teasers this season? Maybe you will if Countdown continues this next week Here comes R4 and Brett has an excellent spot of VESICATE (he did mention he had enactives but luckily did not risk it as it was invalid), but bad luck to Mark as he added a phantom "N", argh But, he doesn't take it to heart because the next four rounds afterwards were brilliant (excluding the easy 1 Large round in R6 which is as simple to get 999 just like yesterday), notably the ROMAINES/MORAINES spot in R7! Brett still goes "safe" in R9, but with a high numbered target and a "25" in the selection with no easy way out, it tripped up both contestants as they went horribly wrong! Oh no, but I bet that's what pressure does to people in 30 seconds!

Last Third: Gosh this Quarter-Finals is so exhilarating that maybe Mark can't feel the pain in his ABDOMEN in R10 (if he did have any) After OOW it's still him trailing by eight points and with both of them getting nice outdoor-related terms in R12, then, R13 came. Yikes, another phantom letter did Mark in and the gap is now 14 points , no crucial conundrum if R14 is manageable! Mark goes for his usual and it turns out it was, game over but yet, we could see a double century if he gets the conundrum and it would break the Series 90/91 curse of having only 1/7 solved for the Finals. Let's peek into some lady's DIARY then, and I'm sure she uses the answer (when unscrambled) after a shower I bet! Aw, Brett buzzes in with the correct answer and denies the double century, but hey, 2/7 Conundrums solved, that's already better than the past two Series, you can't complain!

I would like to quote Brett from the Daily Chat, "Comes to something when you 14 max and never feel comfortable all the way through. Mark was on his game today." The latter was definitely in tip-top shape and the fact that the margin was so much closer at 25 points compared to my prediction of 40 points says a lot about how he managed to defy the odds and probably practiced even in the midst of his diagnosis. Sadly, his ship has sunk, but even if he was the architect of his own downfall as Colin pointed out, he doesn't care, he's still smiling and I'm sure he had an enjoyable experience all round! Well done for giving us a high standard match as Philip also pointed out and enjoy your retirement days ahead, stay healthy and safe!

This match surely gave Brett the steel of nerves he needs for his Semi-Final (hopefully!) and well well well, no surprises as Christopher Biggins will be the final DC Guest of 2025 in this version of the show and of this Series (I'm starting to see a pattern here after three years...). We shall know soon who will face him on Thursday, will it be "Formula 1 Podcaster who probably was on the edge of his seat seeing how this year's Champion Title went ultimately" Ben Hocking, or "Back here 26 Years later, not having aged much (or 13 days depending on how you see things ) and having a chance at redemption" Ricky Cohen? Do not miss this and the other remaining four episodes as Colin mentioned, I'm sure it's going to be a blast of a week ahead!

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)
QF4 (16 December 2025): Ciaran McCarthy (#4) vs John Payne (#5)
SF1 (17 December 2025): Jase Cullen (QF1 Winner) vs (QF4 Winner)
SF2 (18 December 2025): Brett Davids (QF2 Winner) vs (QF3 Winner)
GF (19 December 2025): (SF1 Winner) vs (SF2 Winner)