Deal or No Deal - 8th-14th October

Well, well, well, who’d have thought we’d see this…

Monday 8th: Josh

Winnings: £8,000

Dealt at: 14-box!

Highest offer: £41,000 (5-box)

Box value: £15,000

Yep, the first ever 14-box deal! And who’d have thought it’d be for a sum as low as £8,000?

I admire Josh for having the commitment to do the deal, but this wasn’t really the right situation to do it. He should really have done it on a strong 14-box board like Ben from a couple of weeks back.

The usual suspects may scoff, but it has been worked out that, when he dealt, there was an 11% chance of him keeping the top two in play all the way to 5-box, so he was unlucky in that respect.

The fact that this unusual deal backfired will mean less are likely to follow suite, at least not in a situation like this. Some may take the second offer on a strong board with a strong offer, and that I’d have no trouble with. But, for the time being, I’d like Josh to have a club all to his own.

Tuesday 9th: Gill

Winnings: £24,000

Dealt at: 8-box

Highest offer: £164,000 (2-box)

Box value: £250,000

After Josh’s historic game, we had a pretty tense game with Gill, playing on her 27^th show. The top three were exposed early on, and, under the circumstances, she was brave to reach 8-box, and get the decent bailout of £24,000. Unfortunately, having made a reasonable decision, the proveout was really mean to her, leaving her with the top three in play at 3-box (something which has only happened once before, to Kirsty Hardle way back in April 2006!).

Wednesday 10th: John

Winnings: £4,00

Dealt at: 3-box extra offer

Highest offer: £8,500 (14-box)

Box value: £20,000

Another game dogged by bad luck, and, under the circumstances, John’s decision to deal wasn’t a bad one. Just a shame that, after leaving £20,000 exposed and vulnerable, it was in his box all along.

It’s a shame Josh didn’t play John’s board, and take the second offer there. But then, I suppose it would have been really annoying for the first 14-box dealer to be denied a Banker spanking only at the box opening. That would’ve been much more annoying than what actually happened.

Thursday 11th: Alice

Winnings: £12,500

Dealt at: 8-box

Highest offer: £17,000 (11-box)

Box value: 10p

The one time this week that the player did not make a loss on their box! And even then, Alice’s deal was still cautious. She later admitted that, if her husband hadn’t cautioned her prior to her making her decision, she’d have gambled. After countless players who missed out on more due to relatives influencing them, it was good to see something like this pay off for a change.

Friday 12th: Robbie

Winnings: £19,000

Dealt at: 5-box

Highest offer: £74,000 (2-box)

Box value: £100,000

Another case of a perfectly reasonable deal being made to look bad by an against-the-odds proveout. Robbie admitted that he was after the £250,000, and, when it went in the fifth round, he was rattled, and took the sensible decision. Terribly cruel that, if he’d turned his attention to chasing the £100,000, he’d have won it.

Sunday 14th: Sue

Winnings: £17,500

Dealt at: 8-box

Highest offer: £70,000 (2-box)

Box value: £250,000

In a week of cautious deals gone wrong, this was probably the most cautious deal of the lot (more cautious even than Josh’s, by a long way). Sue had made it clear early on that she was not a risk taker, meaning the Banker was always going to go low when there were still low sums there.

The problem that has been highlighted on the forums a lot is that the wingers, when they advise the player, bring up the 1 in 56 chance of disaster at 8-box way too much, and phrase it as if there’s a good chance of it happened (when there really isn’t). Richie and Gavin have been the best advisors of recent times; their games should be interesting (Gavin is on the radar for next week; Richie should be playing around Halloween-ish short of time).

So, after a week of five undersellings, what next? One forum member has predicted next week’s players will be braver, only to crash and win a low sum, which is a typical response to a run like this. Again, only time will tell, and we can only hope for better things to come.

University Challenge: Round 1: Match 11: Bath vs Liverpool

We seem to be going through a phase at the moment of UC matches that aren’t that memorable, but are full of good Paxo moments that keep our interest up. Tonight’s match was very much one of those.

Bath University was founded in1966, but had been around in various other forms since 1856; alumni include Scottish Labour MP Eric Joyce, and weatherman Bill Gyles. The university has entered UC twice before (in 2008-09 and 2011-12), but has not made it beyond the first round. Hoping to put an end to that were:

Joe Kendall, from Bristol, studying Economics and International Development

Adam Salvesen, from Oxford, studying Biology

Captain: Matthew Wise, from Surrey, studying the Modern Applications of Mathematics

Toby Smith, from Clitheroe in Lancashire, studying Physcis

Liverpool University was established in 1903, and is the original redbrick, it’s building materials having given rise to the term. Former students include the current poet laureate Carol Ann Duffy, whose work I am currently studying in college as part of the ‘Textual Analysis’ unit of my course. The university last fielded a team two years ago, where they were trounced by Christ’s College Cambridge in the first round. Hoping to do better tonight were:

Sasha Torregrosa-Jones, from London, studying Physics

Jonathan Tinsley, from Newcastle, studying Physics

Captain: Andy Jones, from Omskirk in Lancashire, studying Dentistry

Agneau Belanyek, from Southampton, studying Computer Science

The match began with the first two starters being shared by the teams, but no bonuses being answered correctly. Liverpool annoyed Paxo early on by suggesting Julius Caesar was born in 1834! And then Bath angered him further by suggesting Paul O’Grady was an Irish playwright who was around in 1907! Throughout the first half of the match, most of the starters were answered correctly, but barely any bonuses followed.

At the music round, Bath led by 65-25. Liverpool took the music starter, on award winning film scores, and took their first bonus of the night with the bonuses. Throughout the third phase, Bath remained the dominant team, generally beating Liverpool to the buzzer. With the amount of bonuses being dropped, the match was going to be decided on the starters, and Bath seemed to have the upper hand. At the picture round, Liverpool began a brief surge which saw them close the gap to 100-80.

Bath took the next starter, and began to pull away again, leading 125-80 with surely not much time left. Liverpool took the next starter, but no bonuses followed yet again. Then, Mr Jones made a costly mistake, buzzing, answering, then correcting himself. His team was not given the points. But Mr Tinsley made up for it with the next starter, and the side hurried through the bonuses by shouting the answers over Paxo! Amidst this, they got all three. But this wasn’t quite enough, and Bath took the match 125-110.

A low scoring game, the teams combining for just 18 starters and 14 bonuses. Bath answered 9 bonuses out of 27 with one penalty, Liverpool managed 6 out of 27 with two penalties; that’s what won the match. The two captains were the best buzzers, with Matthew Wise getting three starters for Bath, and Andy Jones doing likewise for Liverpool. The other six players all got two each. Well split!

Safely through to the repechage: Lincoln College Oxford (175)

Next week’s match: UCL vs Exeter

Only Connect was another pretty uneventful affair this evening. The better team won, and did so with a very respectable score, which means they must be taken seriously later in the contest.

And then there’s Deal or No Deal, which saw quite a significant first today. Check back later in the week for a brief report of it.

Deal or No Deal - 1st-7th October

Well, after a pretty uneventful September, we began the new month on Monday with a clear mind, and, boy, did we get a good game to go with it!

Monday 1st: Ollie

Winnings: £26,000

Dealt at: 11-box

Highest offer: £26,000 (11-box)

Box value: £500

Ollie came across as a good strong board reader on the wings, and also stood out for the unusually high number of big sums he had in his box. The Banker was clearly prepared for a good scrap with him, as shown by an ultra-generous first offer of £19,000. An equally generous £21,000 followed at the second offer. £26,000 at 11-box was perhaps the most generous offer of the game, so dealing it was absolutely sensible, no matter what the Wakey brigade will say.

And you couldn’t have asked for a better proveout, with the highest value going in the first two proveout rounds (£250,000 in Round 4, and £100,000 in 5), and, although £35,000 stayed to the end, it was not in the box. A superb game to lift our spirits at the start of the new month.

Unfortunately, the rest of the week failed to live up to the high standards of Ollie’s game.

Tuesday 2nd: Zara

Winnings: £10,000

Dealt at: 8-box (for £9,000)

Highest offer: £60,000 (2-box)

Box value: £250,000

Zara was a pleasant enough young lady, but she certainly made things easy for the Banker. She let slip early on that £10,000 was her target, which is not sensible, as the Banker will then know he can get you cheap. £9,000 at 8-box would be far too low for most of us, but Zara took the money. Unfortunately, a horrendous proveout saw the Jackpot be in her box. The disappointment was suffered somewhat when the Banker gave Zara a mystery envelope as part of her deal, which read ‘£1,000, so you have your target’.

Wednesday 3rd: Barbara

Winnings: £7,500

Dealt at: 5-box

Highest offer: £15,000 (2-box)

Box value: £50,000

Another case of a perfectly sensible deal being made to look bad by a big sum being on the table.

Thursday 4th: Perminder

Winnings: £6,000

Dealt at: 5-box

Highest offer: £9,000 (14-box)

Box value: £750

Similar to Barbara’s, only Perminder got the proveout her sensible deal deserved.

Friday 5th: Steve

Winnings: £5,000

Dealt at: 2-box

Highest offer: £9,000 (5-box)

Box value: 50p

Steve’s no deal to £9,000 at 5-box has to be one of the most surprising we’ve seen for a long time, as well as the biggest gamble for a while, despite the low stakes. Unfortunately, it didn’t pay off, as the £100,000 went in the final round. But, he did at least recover to a decent bailout, which is a good thing considering his 5-box gamble wasn’t a stupid one at all.

Sunday 7th: Skevy

Winnings: £9,000

Dealt at: 8-box

Highest offer: £17,500 (11-box)

Box value: £3,000

Skevy may have dealt at a much lower offer than her previous one, but, statistically, it was a better offer, and the right decision for her, given how emotional she was getting. Another low tariff game to end the week.

So, all in all, the first week of October was, apart from Ollie’s game, not truly spectacular, but definitely much more respectable than some of the past weeks. Again, we can only hope things will pick up in the coming weeks.

University Challenge: Round 1: Match 10: Pembroke vs Lancaster

Well, with the obvious exception of Lincoln vs Manchester, it’s been a pretty tepid series of University Challenge so far. Would that change tonight?

Pembroke College Cambridge was founded in 1347, and is the third oldest college of the university. Alumni include Eric Idle, Bill Oddie and Tim Brooke-Taylor. The college were runners-up in the last series, losing to Manchester in the final. Hoping to go one step further this year were:

Robert Scanes, from North London, studying Natural Sciences

Emily Maw, from Oxford, studying Maths

Captain: Tom Foxall, from Birmingham, studying Classics

Jemima Hodkinson, from Portsmouth, studying Natural Sciences

Lancaster is one of the ‘plate-glass’ unis founded in 1964, and it’s alumni include Alan Milburn M.P. and the actor Andy Serkis. It last entered the contest two years ago, where they lost to Nottingham in the first round, but survived to the repechage, where they were thrashed by Birmingham 315-50, despite going into the match as favourites. Playing tonight were:

Alan Webster, from Preston, studying Resource and Environmental Management

Anne Kretzschmar, from Chesterfield, studying Environmental Modelling

Captain: George Pinkerman, from Surrey, studying History, Philosophy and Politics

Ian Dickson, from Stirling, studying Ecology and the Environment

Bit of a theme in there, somewhere.

The match started off evenly, with the two sides generally swapping starters. Pembroke began to pull away a bit in the second quarter, but not totally out of sight. The music round, on birds in classical music, provided some hilarity, when Lancaster began to struggle hilariously on one of the bonuses, leading to a superb facepalm from Paxo!

Pembroke continued to pull away in the third quarter of the match. The second picture round, on actors portraying Hamlet, was dropped as well; Mr Webster of Lancaster got a stern telling-off from Paxo for not answering quickly enough after buzzing. A slightly amusing moment came during the bonuses when Lancaster suggested Vincent Price was born in the 19th century; Paxo said it wasn’t a bad guess.

At this point, Pembroke led by 160-95, and another starter edged them further towards safety. Lancaster broke back into the match with the next starter (cue some rather noisy cheers from their supporters), and began a sprint that saw them just manage enough points to get them into contention for the repechage. Pembroke got another starter, and were unlucky to say ‘327’ for one bonus when the answer was ‘326.85’!

In the end, Pembroke won the match by 200-140. Lancaster may have done enough to make the repechage, which would be fair, as they were a decent enough team. George Pinkerton answered three correct answers for them; the side managed 12 bonuses out of 23. Tom Foxall’s five starters were best for the Cambridge team, who answered 18 bonuses out of 33. There were no penalties, which is always good to see.

Next week’s match: Bath vs Liverpool

Tonight’s Only Connect was a bit of a trouncing, I’m afraid, with the winning team winning by 34-18. They should definitely be taken seriously for the next round. Their opponents weren’t a bad team; they just got off to a slow start, and had trouble catching up.