Tuesday, January 27, 2015

Wheels

Hooray for me, because I've passed my driving test! I'm fully allowed to drive like one of those grown-ups I've been hearing about, scaring cyclists and shouting at other vehicles for getting in my way.

Four faults on the test, like a horse knocking off the top bar of a fence, only less cruel and inhumane. It was pretty straightforward, actually, but I still feel a great sense of pride in achieving what probably only half of the spotty, dim-witted 17-year-old population of this country do, and passing first time.

Now when someone says to me "And naturally you've got a full driving licence?" I can reply "Yes, naturally, wouldn't it be silly if I was a 38-year-old accountant who couldn't drive?" and we can all have a good laugh about it.

When they add "And you've got a car, of course," I'll still have to say "No, I can't afford one, but I've got a bike and the brakes still just about work."

Monday, January 26, 2015

Four down, one to go!


 Qualification for the XMT continues apace! Who will make the coveted top 16? Well, I think words will probably be a low-scoring discipline, with an extremely difficult target of 49 for 100 points, so the people sitting there at the moment are looking good.

Nelson's already submitted a words score before I had a chance to copy-and-paste the leaderboard, so he's in the wrong place here, but since he's not trying to qualify anyway it doesn't really matter.

Marlo looks safe, and Katie's still in with a good chance of joining Team Britain. And Clay's still an outside possibility, too! We'll be horribly outnumbered by Germans and Mongolians, but it'd be nice if we could beat the Phillipines, Sweden and the USA in the all-important number-of-competitors stakes.

Let's all put in a big push for the last week of qualifying, whatever country you come from! Good luck to one and all!
RankNameCardsImagesNamesNumbersWordsTotal
Simon Reinhard133.00123.61108.7081.16446.47
Boris Konrad74.96169.49100.0074.99419.44
1Johannes Zhou69.54154.00117.3971.41412.34
2Yanjindulam Altansuh52.15167.22113.0467.25399.66
Nelson Dellis52.3272.99117.3966.15308.85
Ben Pridmore107.08133.8765.2279.50385.67
3Enhkjin Tumur57.90158.2365.2292.97374.32
4Enkhmunkh Erdenebatkhaan89.3475.7878.26117.53360.91
5Johann Randall Abrina99.06116.28100.0037.85353.19
6Tuuruul Myagmarsuren46.29123.15113.0437.85320.33
7Marwin Wallonius58.70115.4373.9171.81319.85
8Lance Tschirhart70.1966.86100.0073.58310.63
9Marlo Knight62.88101.1191.3055.18310.47
10Tsogbadrakh Saikhanbayar51.58130.2678.2649.05309.15
11Alexander Mullen53.04101.9782.6169.70307.32
12Anne Reulke43.87125.47100.0037.38306.72
13Annalena Fischer42.18129.7086.9644.04302.88
14Purevjav Erdenesaikhan69.2384.2265.2276.92295.59
15Akjol Syeryekkhaan37.9680.52121.7452.92293.14
16Johnny Briones45.6993.87100.0038.33277.89
17Konstantin Skudler34.59116.9678.2642.71272.52
18Katie Kermode30.3776.36117.3942.44266.56
19Tsetsegzul Zorigtbaatar51.5094.1665.2249.92260.80
Mark Anthony Castaneda87.9095.6573.32256.87
20Tuvshintugs Nyamdorj53.9953.7465.2275.88248.83
21Clay Knight33.7496.9669.5745.43245.70
22Juliane Fischer23.62122.2565.2233.06244.15
23Norbert Reulke37.96104.5760.8740.46243.86
24John Graham24.4670.0395.6532.10222.24
25Brice Trejo44.6481.2643.4843.83213.21
26Florian Dellé30.3789.0760.8732.58212.89
27Oddbjørn By23.6281.3969.5737.38211.96
28Brad Zupp42.1862.8891.30196.36
29Khaliun Bolor-Erdene32.9055.3569.5736.42194.24
30Omkar Kibe29.5362.3760.8725.88178.65
31Chris Forde10.9771.7765.2214.38162.34
32David Billington25.3135.0069.5728.75158.63
33Luis Angel Echeverria22.7856.7852.1725.40157.13
34Javier Moreno19.4055.1165.2215.33155.06
35Kevin Horsley80.3964.68145.07
36Andrej Savickij26.9950.0026.0935.46138.54
Simon Orton59.9378.26138.19
Idriz Zogaj46.6722.0468.71
37Alexis Rodríguez23.6223.62