Spoilers for Tueday 23rd June 2026 - S93 QF4

[John Garcia]

R13 - AEROFOIL for 8

[Ryan Lam]

It’s nice to see other Finalists joining in to play along for this match and Charlie Harrison spoiling to us that “I don't remember much about this game other than the final score but I know it's a ludicrous display”. Does this mean sparks will fly here? I think it might and let’s see! Daniel’s unfortunately on holiday at the time his match airing and can’t be with us live to watch it, but I’m sure Ian is here behind-the-scenes and talk about not fooling everyone with an April Fools joke that he was going on the show. Speaking of which, this episode was filmed on the day of Ian’s second Preliminary airing, so if Daniel had a chance to watch his first game, then he would have been mentally prepared of what might come in this match! The Introduction by the way, makes me remind me of my late High School Physics Teacher (who passed away in 2022) where she was a champion in encouraging women to study in engineering, so if anything, thank you for raising up this topic as she introduced the occasion today to my class way back in 2015.

First Third: Just like the other three Quarter-Finals, a tie in the first round to start the day, and Colin, please can I beg you to stop your puns like what I mentioned yesterday? I couldn’t help point out there’s 14 seven-letter words as the Maximum in R2 next, as both scores are 14 a piece too. Daniel’s only tried this twice in his Preliminaries, but he goes 6 Small here to try to get away from Ian, and it does the trick with him spotting one of only two possible methods to get 462! Incredible!

Second Third: The first Teatime Teaser’s probably the easiest in ages, and going into R4, I wouldn’t be surprised if both Finalists got WAGGLES thanks to what they saw in R1 and can’t be COAXED into going easy in R5. Here comes 1 Large in R6 chosen by Ian to try to get some points back I bet. Uh oh with double “1”s, this looks hard, but he manages to get one away and reduce the score difference to three. Once Rachel started saying it’s 66 × 7, Daniel can only sheepishly smile, because he did all the hard work in R3, only to forget it here, bad luck, and I bet people like me at home who missed this were facepalming at ourselves . Brief banter in R7 as Daniel "demands" to see Ian's RATIONAL declaration , but what a round in R8 afterwards though with both getting ESTUARINE and both are Maxing on the letters round! Here comes 6 Small in R9 again, but fortunately this is easier if you follow Ian’s method. Credit to Daniel here for his obscure method which no one in the Daily Chat saw!

Last Third: What an interesting Teatime Teaser to remind me of the first Quarter-Final of Series 76 when Moose Rosser solved this. Wow, the numbers really are making the difference so far and the letters can’t separate these two Finalists heading into Origins of Words. Nice spot by Ian with DOUANE in R11 beforehand too! On with R12, oh wow Daniel’s going to risk a nine, is it in?! Unfortunately, just like Colin's reaction on-screen, his hopes of getting ahead massively were dashed instantly with Ian taking a five point lead!! With an expected tie in R13, the last Numbers Round will decide who takes the lead (or wins if someone misses). 1 Large it is from Ian, and…just like yesterday, CECIL goes easy and let’s skip it. Crucial Conundrum it is then with the first double century game since the Series 92 Semi-Finals (well done up to this point!), and I bet almost everyone didn’t catch Colin’s pun the first time round, “On the FACE of it, it was always going to be a close call, so much so we didn’t have to SELL it to you” (now you see it, thank me for that, just kidding… ). Here it comes, it’s DAVE making a SCENE, but can Daniel do so and pull an upset win? As the time ticked on, it became clear it was the most difficult one thus far (in my opinion at least) and just like the answer, Daniel’s chance of winning just faded away with each passing second. Time’s up and I would have blanked out, but Susie and Oti’s got the answer to save the day after confirming Ian’s win!

Starting from this Series, if I predict the games are going down to the wire with a 50-50 chance of either Finalist winning, I will form predictions of what will happen under both scenarios later in the Finals. This one was a hard one to predict although I correctly foresaw that it would end with a less than ten point margin with a crucial conundrum forced. In the end, Ian was the victor thanks to Daniel’s unfortunate gamble in R12 which cost him the game (and to a lesser extent, missing the Numbers in R6). You can’t help but feel sorry for him that small slip-ups like this are the difference between winning and losing, but I hoped that having had the opportunity to know Ian the day before this was filmed, his experience was nothing short of fantastic and it was humbling to see him say he couldn’t have lost to a better person, and more than happy to see Ian go through. Amazing performance all round!

Well I hope Ian’s ready for today’s match in a few hours (or in real-life, in ten minutes) as he prepares to face 4 Large Numbers there against Patrick as he knows too well. Will he have the right temperament like what Colin mentioned to head into the Grand Final and increase his chances of raising the Richard Whiteley Memorial Trophy, or will his run end at the hands of his opponent who’s looking to solve his tenth conundrum in less than three seconds?

Progress:
QF1 (18 June 2026): Patrick Thompson (#1) vs Tom Bashford (#8) (118 - 64)
QF2 (19 June 2026): Charlie Harrison (#2) vs Megel Barker (#7) (120 - 86)
QF3 (22 June 2026): Luke Selway (#3) vs Callum Ridley (#6) (102 - 76)
QF4 (23 June 2026): Daniel Face (#4) vs Ian Kinsella (#5) (102 - 107)
SF1 (24 June 2026): Patrick Thompson (QF1 Winner) vs Ian Kinsella (QF4 Winner)
SF2 (25 June 2026): Charlie Harrison (QF2 Winner) vs Luke Selway (QF3 Winner)
GF (26 June 2026): (SF1 Winner) vs (SF2 Winner)