Spoilers for Friday 20th June 2025 - S91 QF2

[Philip A]

No. 2 seed Tim Bridgstock, the only contestant this series to register a score above 125, plays No. 7 seed Tom Page. Take your pick between Tim VS Tom.

[Philip A]

R2: DEWLAPS https://www.google.com/search?q=DEWLAPS

[Philip A]

Exciting match. Tom just hit the post on the conundrum! Tim just held his own at the end and EMPTYING was an impressive find.

[Gavin Chipper]

I think this was a better game than the first one.

[John Garcia]

Yeah great game. DIRECTOR (and CREDITOR) as alt 8s to RHETORIC.

It's good to see the conundrums are gettable these finals!

[Philip A]

Concur with the above.

[Ryan Lam]

Well, this post is coming much, much later than expected as I was away on a three-day camping trip plus having been too tired to watch this episode over the weekend means that I was forced to wake up early and watch the repeat live even though I was on Apterous monitoring the chat (somewhat distractingly) on Friday itself. First time I've ever done that since my recapping days started, wow. Anyways, what a nice quiz at the start to guess which movie the soundtrack is from (and if you didn't get Toy Story at the end, how could you? ) Damn, Tom's like Michael but to a smaller extent where he doesn't let others know he was on the show! It begs the question how long one can hide about this if you come on that's for sure, but on with the game I guess, and it sure is easy to mix up Tim and Tom's first name with just a vowel difference!

First Third: Nice start to the letters in both rounds here, and I correctly predicted Tim was going to go for 3 Large in R3 given his choices in his Preliminaries. Just when I had so much hope for difficult numbers puzzles based on the match yesterday, just like Rachel, we all looked on in "agony" that this was terribly easy, but the scores are 25 a piece, maybe I shouldn't complain yet.

Second Third: Tom's turn to choose the Numbers in R6 and I also correctly guessed he was going to pick 6 Small for the same reason as Tim in the first third! This one was a case of "you either see it or you don't" (mainly because I got it), and both didn't with one away on either side. After the anecdote, the break came when Tim had EMPTYING to pull slightly ahead! He's not out of danger and tries again with another 3 Large puzzle for R9, but it fell flat once more with an easy way out. CECIL is so unpredictable, guess I should expect that for the last five episodes later on.

Last Third: We're back on and a brilliant beginning here with RHETORIC in R10 from Tim and he's out of the danger zone! Great spot of PITTAS and AUTISM from both contestants in R12 too if I might say! Then, came the all important R14, 6 Small gamble from Tom, and aha, a hard target again! But wait, Tim blanks out, no way, and with Tom getting the best possible solution, the crucial conundrum is on!! Oh my word, the same thing is happening just like Series 89's QF2 where the #7 Seed has a chance to clinch the Semi-Finalist spot at this point! Roll the next hard scrabble with a TIMER against both contestants and whoever loses will be the PREY! It's Tom with the buzzer, does he have it with premerity? No he doesn't, meaning Tim survives to the final week of the Series! Great job to Ricky Wilson who got the answer to end and I too initially thought the answer was related to Maths and not Optics despite correctly getting it.

I think this was a better game than the first one.

I definitely concur with Philip and Gavin that this game was better and my prediction was that Tim would win the match with a margin of 20 points, but it was so much narrower with just a nine-point difference and with a crucial conundrum forced! If there's any consolation for Tom, it's that this loss wasn't as painful as his final preliminary game where his of moving up the seed table further were dashed. Just like Jack Harvey this time last year, you have put up a very good fight and it's sad you both lost due to an incorrect conundrum answer. However, I'm sure you'll be rooting for Tim as he prepares for the Semi-Finals next week and you'll throw your support behind him. All the best in your career as well as a Data Analyst, I'm sure the numbers will come in handy!

The final week of Series 91 is upon us, and while Ricky's off to catch the hit acts at Glastonbury later in the week (although of course not at the time of recording), staying with the theme of music, we have Bob Harris as the DC guest (which has been spoiled for a few weeks now) to hopefully end off on a high note (no pun intended). Up next, it's "The Second Tim and someone who can boast that he's beaten a Countdown Semi-Finalist's Mother " Tim James and "The Scientist hoping to avoid a repeat of his disastrous chain reaction in his final Preliminary game" Matt Fife. Will the other two Quarter-Finals see even fiercer matches than what we've seen thus far? Find out soon!

Progress:
QF1 (19 June 2025): Rhys Jones (#1) vs Michael Kane (#8) (97 - 64)
QF2 (20 June 2025): Tim Bridgstock (#2) vs Tom Page (#7) (99 - 90)
QF3 (23 June 2025): Tim James (#3) vs Matt Fife (#6)
QF4 (24 June 2025): Amy Berry (#4) vs Christine Smith (#5)
SF1 (25 June 2025): Rhys Jones (QF1 Winner) vs (QF4 Winner)
SF2 (26 June 2025): Tim Bridgstock (QF2 Winner) vs (QF3 Winner)
GF (27 June 2025): (SF1 Winner) vs (SF2 Winner)