Andy back with another recap; Matt Samberg goes for his fourth win today! His challengers: Jennifer Emmett and Ron King. I’m personally hoping Matt can keep this going for awhile, if only because it’ll keep some of my co-blogger’s personal favourites in contention for the Tournament a little bit longer!
Being Canadian, my Independence Day (we call it Canada Day up here) was Sunday, but I hope that everyone reading this in the U.S. had an excellent Fourth of July!
J! round categories: ROYAL DYNASTIES, LONG RUNS IN PRIME TIME, THE BEST OF DEAR ABBY, SEAPORTS, ANCHORS AWEIGH, “FUL” STEAM AHEAD
I was happy to see that we had contestants willing to select clues quickly today, though it was very much a Matt and Ron show to open; Jennifer only was able to get in once or twice in the show’s opening clues.
That being said, as it seems to happen more often than not in these cases, it was Jennifer that got to the Daily Double, hiding under SEAPORTS $800.
The scores:
Ron $6,200
Matt $2,400
Jennifer $1,200
Jennifer bet only the clue value, and her clue: 21 miles from Dover, this French seaport is closer to England than any other city in mainland Europe. Her correct response put her to $2,000.
I found the DEAR ABBY clues rather humourous, though having to pinpoint an exact word out of a quote (as opposed to a bit of a synonym) a bit harsh, as evidenced by the $1,000 clue: “To someone asking if a 10-pound baby born 5 months after a marriage could be premature: “The baby was on time.” This “was late”. I hope the lost $1,000 doesn’t come back to hurt Jennifer after her incorrect response.
Scores after 30 clues:
Ron $6,200
Matt $2,200
Jennifer $0
DJ! round categories: PEOPLE WITH BRADY KID NAMES, RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARCHAEOLOGY, SPIRITUALS, ISN’T IT AN -“ISM”?, TITLE CHARACTERS, HALLEY’S CATEGORY
Early on in the round, I thought it was odd to ask for a “be more specific” on Ron’s response under RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARCHAEOLOGY $1200: In 1978 she found at Laetoli, south of Olduvai Gorge, footprints in Volcanic ash made by hominins living 3.5 million years ago. A Google revealed a granddaughter, but being that the clue said “she”, I figured the answer would have pointed singularly. Oh well, what do I know? I’m just a blogger!
Ron got to the first Daily Double of the round, under HALLEY’S CATEGORY $1600. It’s a video, so my head goes skyward cursing the trivia gods and the fact that I have to transcribe the clue from hearing it.
The scores:
Ron $11,800
Matt $5,400
Jennifer $2,800
Ron bet $3,000 and his clue: In 1677, Edmund Halley observed one of these rare astronomical events, the passage of a planet across the sun’s bright disk; in his case, it was Mercury. His incorrect response, sadly, brought his score down to $8,800.
The lead changed hands on ISN’T IT AN -“ISM” $1200: A term originating from Greek myth, it’s an inordinate fascination with onself, after Ron negged and Matt picked up the rebound.
The lead felt like it was changing on a clue-by-clue basis as we neared the final Daily Double, but it was Ron, $200 off the lead, that found the final Daily Double, under TITLE CHARACTERS $1200.
The scores:
Matt $10,600
Ron $10,400
Jennifer $3,600
Ron’s bet: $2,000. The clue: In a 17th century French comedy, mankind hater Alceste. Ron seemed to have a tough time coming up with an answer, and his guess wasn’t correct.
Jennifer got her buzzer mojo going and took advantage of another phrasing error by Ron to nearly catch him going into the Final!
Scores going into FJ!:
Matt $13,400
Ron $7,200
Jennifer $6,800
FJ! category: NUCLEAR NATIONS
On May 18, 1974 this country tested its first nuclear device, nickname “Smiling Buddha”
Jennifer 6800 – 6800 = 0
Ron 7200 + 6401 = 13601
Matt 13400 – 1001 = 12399
I went the Marktiple Choice route on this one, eventually settling on the correct country.
I’m glad to see that Ron won this game after some bad luck on Daily Doubles and phrasing; he did seem very strong until through the first three quarters of the game!
Jeanie’s got the rest of the week here on the blog, see you again next week!
Shy Ronnie
On that last played clue on DJ!, Ron started with a question but didn’t say “When is “When The Saints Go Marching In”?” which cost him but not enough to make it a runaway for Matt.