Posting my thoughts a bit late partly because I was busy on Saturday. End-of-week vibes, TGIF, you name it, and to top off, both the players for this match are in the Daily Chat with a larger than normal crowd, yay!
Richard has also been such an excellent first guest, that tada! He's been made temporary host after the First Teatime Teaser!
Stressful one round in R4 especially when you have two Grand Champions in the chairs, but it shows he would make an excellent host if Colin (or Jimmy in Catsdown) was ever unavailable in future! We've got our most recent champion, Tom Stevenson back after two weeks (in reality, three) and the champion three series before that, Adam Latchford. Congratulations on buying your first house especially in difficult times like this, hope your investment would be worth it in the long-term!
Adam S Latchford wrote: ↑Sat Jan 07, 2023 5:17 pm
R5: If i was under 10 ahead, or I was behind, I was going yawniest. I felt it was good but 17 ahead just felt like it was a silly risk at round 5. Tricky really.
Letters: What a TITANIC start for Adam in R1 as Tom is forced to concede for only the second time ever! The second third of the game saw both contestants tied with the same declarations which doesn't happen very often (although Adam did have YAWNIEST, commiserations)! After the second teaser, both have a nine in R10! Argh, teaslings isn't in which is brutal as Tom take the lead with a one point gap now with SLANGIEST, in a similar fashion to how Stu came back against James (he did mention there were gasps behind-the-scenes the moment it happened) yesterday!
Oh man, it's literally game on now!
Adam S Latchford wrote: ↑Sat Jan 07, 2023 5:17 pm
R12: Completely blanked everything. Went the 7 hoped Tom would join me.
Unlucky to both as they had ozonate in R12 (Don't we all hate the ODO when words invalid there are valid in another Dictionary?
). Finally, even with Adam risking foreshot in R13 and not being in, it would not have mattered as explained by Colin quite well, because a Crucial Conundrum would happen if both get points on the numbers.
Tom S wrote: ↑Sat Jan 07, 2023 2:43 pm
Had played a few apterous games with Adam in the run-up, and kept on being bettered by him on 4 large..Whether intentional or not, Adam putting his pen down after about 10 secs was a great move on his part- led me to think that I was missing something easy...
Numbers: Tom goes with Four Large in R3 and with most of us in the Daily Chat only having 310 or 312, Adam has it with his wacky solution, forcing Tom to shrug and go "Ok, I give up!" after the former puts pressure on him!
(By the way, Adam did have some negative comments directed at him on social media after that solve was broadcast; to those authors of the posts, please get a life.) Adam on the other hand goes with something more gentle (as per what he mentioned, "let's not be a prick"), 2 Large in both his selections and both were easy here (with Tom checking very hard in R14 to make sure his solution is absolutely correct). Good solve from Rachel in R9 as most of us had no idea how to get to the perfect solution within the time limits.
Tom S wrote: ↑Sat Jan 07, 2023 2:43 pm
Was stuck on Trebochet by the time Adam buzzed in for the conundrum- a great spot! I reckon I probably would have been able to get to Brochette within the 30 secs, but it would have been a Minacious-esque guess. Never heard of the word before, and would have thought that it was a smaller version of a Brochure or something like that...
Conundrum: Second crucial conundrum and a consecutive one. Who will take the day?
Adam buzzes in with BROCHETTE and it is correct!! What a game, that's all I can say. I never would have gotten the conundrum in that short span of time!! Marvellous! Unlucky to Tom who did not have it with victory slipping out of his hands just like that!
First off, I must say thank you to both Tom and Adam for your active participation not only on the Daily Chat, but here as well with your post-game thoughts. Bad luck Tom, and with that both players in Series 86 have fizzled out, but you made this episode very worth watching not because of you facing another Grand Champion, but because of your calibre and your capability of what you have done in the last half a year. I've thoroughly enjoyed watching all your episodes, enjoy your newly found fame of being the best player in terms of win-loss ratios in rounds and here's to seeing you on the Wiki and Apterous in many years to come! It'll definitely be a record so hard to beat that I guess I may never see it happen again in my lifetime!
James is facing Adam on 17 January in another Grand Champion showdown, and what a week it has been! We've still got two more to go, so hoped all of you have rested well over this first full weekend of the year and get ready for more action on Monday with the next pair! We've got the sole Series 79 contestant who's had to wait for four years just for this, Martin May up against another 1000 point player in his Heats, Luke Johnson-Davies whose total stint lasted more than a year thinking back! The last six yet to play, let's see who will face the formidable Ahmed the day before that!
Progress:
Preliminary 1 (02 January 2023):
Florence Cappleman-Lynes (Series 84 Runner-Up) vs Leo Smith (Series 82 Semi-Finalist) (
100 - 69)
Preliminary 2 (03 January 2023): Dinos Sfyris (Series 80 Grand Champion) vs
Elliott Mellor (Series 80 Runner-Up) (88 -
110)
Preliminary 3 (04 January 2023):
Ahmed Mohamed (Series 84 Grand Champion) vs Edward Byrne (Series 86 Runner-Up) (
121 - 76)
Preliminary 4 (05 January 2023): Stu Harkness (Series 84 Semi-Finalist) vs
James Haughton (Series 81 Grand Champion) (97 -
111)
Preliminary 5 (06 January 2023): Tom Stevenson (Series 86 Grand Champion) vs
Adam Latchford (Series 83 Grand Champion) (95 -
97)
Preliminary 6 (09 January 2023): Martin May (Series 79 Runner-Up) vs Luke-Johnson Davies (Series 82 Grand Champion)
Preliminary 7 (10 January 2023): Steve Hyde (Series 85 Semi-Finalist) vs Dan Byrom (Series 85 Grand Champion)
Preliminary 8 (11 January 2023): Matt O'Connor (Series 85 Runner-Up) vs Sam Cappleman-Lynes (Series 82 Runner-Up)
Quarter-Finals 1 (12 January 2023): Florence Cappleman-Lynes (Preliminary 1 Winner) vs (Preliminary 8 Winner)
Quarter-Finals 2 (13 January 2023): Elliott Mellor (Preliminary 2 Winner) vs (Preliminary 7 Winner)
Quarter-Finals 3 (16 January 2023): Ahmed Mohamed (Preliminary 3 Winner) vs (Preliminary 6 Winner)
Quarter-Finals 4 (17 January 2023): James Haughton (Preliminary 4 Winner) vs Adam Latchford (Preliminary 5 Winner)
Semi-Finals 1 (18 January 2023): (Quarter-Finals 1 Winner) vs (Quarter-Finals 4 Winner)
Semi-Finals 2 (19 January 2023): (Quarter-Finals 2 Winner) vs (Quarter-Finals 3 Winner)
Championship Final (20 January 2023): (Semi-Finals 1 Winner) vs (Semi-Finals 2 Winner)