Spoilers for Friday 21st June 2024 (Series 89, Quarter-final 2)

[Philip A]

Mark Finnerty up against Jack Harvey; neither are regular online players, but Mark impressively has 8 centuries in 8 so far, while Jack has solved the most conundrums among this series’ finals with 6.

[Philip A]

Unlucky!

To be fair, ‘plentier’ and ‘plentiest’ don’t appear in any dictionary, even if a dictionary does label as an adjective, but that was a nasty trap to fall into and a horribly unfortunate way to lose after that fightback. So sorry for Mark.

[Gavin Chipper]

I saw plentiest too. Tough one.

[Toby McDonald]

RANJAUS in R5
ATROPHIED in R10

Fantastic game, extremely unlucky Jack.

[Howie Myers]

r14 alt: 4*(8*6+2)+3+2=205

[Ryan Lam]

Catching up with this episode was no easy feat for me given I had so many events to attend after my flight, not to mention making up for some lost time because of the delay. Nevertheless, I managed to watch this a few hours back and I'll try to keep up the pace! Congratulations to Jack as he prepares to get married at the end of the month although he had a sore throat when this episode was filmed, so hopefully he'll be like Isabelle and perform better under sickness!

Letters: Excellent start with both contestants hitting maximums in the first third with the commendable spot being Mark's OGIVE in R2. They then tie in the second third, even going so far as to having the invalid word "rewilling" in R7 and bounce back shortly after with STATIONED in R8! The separation finally came in R11 with Jack narrowing the difference with PAGODA and it goes the other way after Mark had REQUOTE in R12. Last but not least, an exciting end with MILKINESS in R13 with double nines!

Numbers: Mark contemplates with 1 Large in R3 but decides not to and goes for 6 Small instead! At least it's an easy round with a low target to start off. Then, 3 Large from Jack in R6 and it's literally either a hit or miss here. He misses as Mark pulls ahead with ten solid points, unlucky. Easy R9 again with 1 Large but then came the all important R14, low target with 6 Small again and Mark needs to beat or equal Jack to stay in the game. Both get the same target, but Mark hesitates on his solution and is timed out by the directors! Damn, if Jack has it now, six crucial conundrums he will have in his overall stint, and he does the trick with the game having a double century score now!

Conundrum: This is it...if Jack has the correct answer, he will be the first #7 Seed since Philip Aston six years ago to topple the #2 Seed. I hear his buzzer and he tries plentiest, my mouth gaped open; it's not correct and I knew right from the start because not only was this a falseagram that I had knowledge beforehand, the conundrum's answer was in fact last used in the Series 77 Finals back in December 2017 when John Cowen solved it in almost the same amount of time. Colin shouts it's a lap of glory for Mark, and he went something like "What?!" as he put his hands into his head. Time's up, no one got it meaning Mark lives to fight another day! Unfortunately, as per Colin's quote on Thursday, conundrums in the Finals are never going to be that easy (with a few exceptions imo) and to have one ending in -iest or -est is very unlikely (Correct me if I'm wrong).

What a game, and you know it definitely was if Susie said even her heart was racing. I thought Mark would win comfortably with a margin of 30 points but it was completely different with the margin at only four points! Sadly, Jack's streak of surviving crucial conundrums came to an end and it's sixth time unlucky for him. However, that was his best performance overall and it shows how he can perform under so much pressure, even to the point where Mark mistakenly thought he had snatched victory from the jaws of defeat and applauded on-camera (I'm not sure if there was any part of it cut out but it does seem like it)! Nevermind about the near-losses especially with the controversial GUNPOWDER episode, you fought hard to be here and that's what matters the most. You deserve a round of applause as you bow out of the show, and hopefully your fighting spirit will encourage future contestants to never give up!

One more week of the show to go, and in a few hours, we will know who faces Mark on Thursday. Will it be "Definitely extremely busy right now with General Election 2024 and probably determining the 4 Largest parties (see what I did there? )" Toby Byfield or "Helped by a filming break and looking much more mature 15 years after his last appearance" Michael Calder? Forget about the Euros and the Election fever for now, this is more important at hand here!

Progress:
QF1 (20 June 2024): Arthur Page (#1) vs Isabelle Heward (#8) (123 - 51)
QF2 (21 June 2024): Mark Finnerty (#2) vs Jack Harvey (#7) (104 - 100)
QF3 (24 June 2024): Toby Byfield (#3) vs Michael Calder (#6)
QF4 (25 June 2024): Jessica Pratesi (#4) vs Mark Goodliffe (#5)
SF1 (26 June 2024): Arthur Page (QF1 Winner) vs (QF4 Winner)
SF2 (27 June 2024): Mark Finnerty (QF2 Winner) vs (QF3 Winner)
GF (28 June 2024): (SF1 Winner) vs (SF2 Winner)