Andy here with the second of the two Teacher’s Tournament semifinals!
Your semifinalists today: Kate Wilson, Marcia Edmundson, and Marion Penning!
J! round categories: EDUCATION ABBREVIATION; QUICK HISTORY; APPROXIMATE WEIGHTS & MEASURES; CROSSWORD CLUES “A”; THE JUNIOR VARSITY; 2 PEOPLE, SAME POSITION
2 PEOPLE, SAME POSITION – a sports category that seemed to give our contestants difficulty today! Lots of negs on that one (but with very reasonable, yet slightly wrong answers, unfortunately)
Over the first segment, things seemed pretty competitive! Your scores at the first break:
Kate $2,600
Marion $1,400
Marcia $1,200
After a couple of video clues early on in QUICK HISTORY, I was dreading the possibility that a Daily Double might be hidden somewhere there! And, in fact, there was, at $800. Marion gets to play it, with the following scores:
Kate $2,600
Marion $2,000
Marcia $1,200
(I’d go for the full $2,000 here.)
Marion chose the same strategy. Her clue: In German it was called “Heiliges Romisches Reich”. I didn’t have the foggiest idea whatsoever (I really need to learn German!) – but Marion got it straight away! Her score moved to $4,000.
At the end of 30, our scores were:
Marion $5,600
Kate $4,200
Marcia $2,000
DJ! round categories: KNOW YOUR BOUNDARIES; LEADING INTO THE SONG TITLE; ESSAYS; GET “REAL”!; SYSTEMS OF THE BODY; SAMURAI (a video category)
I bet there’ll be a Daily Double in that SAMURAI category. I hate that.
Meanwhile, we go through 4 full categories with no Daily Double found. ESSAYS and SAMURAI are left.
The first of the Daily Doubles were found by Marion under ESSAYS $1200. After a scoring change was announced (where one of Kate’s negs was deemed acceptable, we saw a very close game, with the following scores:
Marion $11,600
Kate $11,400
Marcia $6,400
Her bet: $2,000. Her clue: His essay “On the Decay of the Art of Lying” was “read at a meeting of the Historical and Antiquarian Club of Hartford”. No answer was forthcoming from Marion; and her score fell to $9,600.
Meanwhile, our contestants decided to take SAMURAI in order. The Daily Double was under the $1,600 clue – with Kate having taken the $400, $800, $1,200 clues already. Scores:
Kate $15,800
Marion $9,600
Marcia $6,400
My bet here in Kate’s position, especially considering significant knowledge in the category has been demonstrated, would be $4,000. A correct answer puts you in a lock position (even with one clue remaining), whereas you’re guaranteed of having a lead if you’re wrong as well.
However, her bet was just $2,000. Oh well, at least I have a good post title now!
Her clue: Tsubas are sword guards. They protected the hand in battle. As you can see, they were decorated with different symbols, including this one, the flower long associated with Japan’s imperial house. Needless to say, the correct response from Kate brought her to $17,800.
Additionally, Marcia picked up the final $2,000 clue to keep Kate from getting the lock game that she should have had — a get that also gave her a glimmer of hope going into Final!
Scores going into FJ!:
Kate $17,800
Marion $9,600
Marcia $8,400
FJ! category: MATH MEN
FJ! clue: In 1880 he wrote, “We draw two circles, and make them include or exclude or intersect one another”
Marcia 8400 + 8400 = 16800
Marion 9600 + 9000 = 18600
Kate 17800 + 1401 = 19201
Kate is your second finalist; I’ll be back tomorrow with the final semifinal blog!