Wow.

That was one game of great performances. I think I'll talk about how well Lydia played today firstly. :-) Hitting both of her Dirty Half Dozen questions, keying the last-minute KV rally, she certainly played most excellently today - I was VERY impressed :-) In fact on the bus ride home I felt Lydia was most impressive...

...And then I watched the tape.

There is one reason why Merivale won this game today. Sarah played one of the most amazing games that I have ever watched on Smart Ask. Both her performances in the 50-point round and the Lightning Round (250 and 350 points respectively) matched the season-best total for that round and brought Merivale out of fairly big holes.

That being said, both teams played amazingly well and both teams more than deserved to win.

Wait a second - I lied. There are two reasons why Merivale won this game. After KV ran the opening category, Sarah and Ben put their heads together, and it looks like what they came up with turned the game dead around. They did something that shocked us all (or at least me sitting in the corner of the audience)

They ran the Athenian.

With great success in the 50-point round.

Without Merivale's successes in the 50-point round, we're sitting here tonight lauding a different champion. Way to go Sarah and Ben! (and Imran for his help too)

About the three minute Lightning Round, I firmly believe that Merivale's reputation won them this match. The reaction from the KV team when they found out that the Lightning Round was going to be 3 minutes, against Merivale, brought back the nerves, and it took about a minute and a half to get rid of them. By that time it was too late. However, KV did make a game of it in the last 45 seconds and should be commended for doing so. The game wasn't decided until Ben got in on the Benin question, with 10 seconds to go, finally putting the championship out of reach.

All in all, it was a great game, both Lydia and Sarah played amazingly well for their teams, and congratulations to Sarah, Ben, Imran, and Jayson for becoming the champs!