All-Star Puzzles
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"High School Quiz Bowl"
Local teams compete in a first-round match on the long-running academic TV show.
November 1, 2004
From the introduction, the players are seated by team left-to-right as seen on television in chairs numbered 1-9; the team captains sit in the middle of the three chairs occupied by their teams. By clue 1, Chad was in one of the chairs where contestants are seated only next to teammates, so Chad was in chair 1, 2, 5, 8, or 9. However, by clue 8, Chad isn't a team captain, so he sat in chair 1 or 9. Arbitrarily, we'll place him in chair 1 and will later determine if our solution needs reversed. Similarly, by clue 1, Miss Updike was in one of the chairs where contestants are seated only next to teammates; she too isn't a team captain (clue 11) and must therefore be at the other end of the row from Chad in chair 9. By clue 4, Greg was flanked by Dave and a player from opponents Sierra Vista. Greg thus sat in chair 3, 4, 6, or 7. If Greg had sat in chair 4, then Chad would be on the Sierra Vista team (4)--no (8). If Greg had sat in chair 6, then Dave would have been in 5 and the Sierra Vista team would have been in chairs 7-9. By clue 9, Will was flanked by Anne and an opponent from Maple Mill; so Will would have been in chair 3 or 7. If Will had sat in chair 3 with Anne then in chair 2 and Dave and Greg on the Maple Mill squad (9), the Wild Lake and Sierra Vista teams both would be coed. By clue 12, then, Maple Mill's team would be all-male, so that Mike would have sat in chair 4. However, Mike sat next to Miss Miller (6), so this arrangement fails. If Will had sat in chair 7 with Anne then in chair 8 and Dave and Greg on the Maple Mill squad (9), to complete the all-male team given in clue 12, Mike would have sat in chair 4 for Maple Mill; and chairs 2 and 3 would have been occupied by girls. Mr. Zellar in clue 1 then would be Dave--but Zellar isn't on the Maple Mill team (5). So, since Will also couldn't have sat in chair 7, Greg didn't sit in chair 6. If Greg had sat in chair 7, Dave would have been in 8 and the Sierra Vista team would have been in chairs 4-6 (4). In order to have an all-male team (12), by clue 9, Will would have been on the team with Chad, in chair 3--but then the team in chairs 4-6 would have been Maple Mill, a conflict. So, in clue 4, Greg sat in chair 3, with Dave in chair 2 and the Sierra Vista team in chairs 4-6. By clue 9, Will sat in chair 4 or 6. If Will had been in chair 4, with Anne in chair 5 and Chad, Dave, and Greg on the Maple Mill squad (9), in order to compose two coed teams (12), Mike would have been in seat 7 or 8. If Mike had been in chair 7, then one of the girls would have been in chair 8 as captain. Mr. Zellar in clue 1 would be Dave--but Mr. Zellar isn't on the Maple Mill team (5). If Mike had been in chair 8, there would be no place for Beth in clue 1 to have sat. So, Will was in chair 6, with Anne in 5 and the Maple Mill team in chairs 7-9. By elimination, Chad, Dave, and Greg are on Wild Lake's team. By clue 12, Mike must make the Maple Mill team coed. He can't have sat in chair 8, or there would be no room for Beth in clue 1. Mike sat in chair 7, with Miss Miller then in 8 (6). In clue 1, then, Mr. Zellar is Dave, Beth is Miss Miller, and Lopez is Anne. Miss Rowan in clue 2 must have sat in chair 4; also by clue 2, she is Jen, and Grace is Miss Updike. Neither Chad, Greg (3), nor Mike (6) is Goldman, so Will is. By clue 10, Greg is Simpson. By clue 7, Mike is Finley and Chad Wilcox. If the order of the chairs were to be reversed, with Chad in 9, Dave in 8, etc., Mike Finley would have sat in chair 3, which he did not (7). So, the seating arrangement is as we recovered it:

  • 1 -- Chad Wilcox, Wild Lake
  • 2 -- Dave Zellar, Wild Lake captain
  • 3 -- Greg Simpson, Wild Lake
  • 4 -- Jen Rowan, Sierra Vista
  • 5 -- Anne Lopez, Sierra Vista, captain
  • 6 -- Will Goldman, Sierra Vista
  • 7 -- Mike Finley, Maple Mill
  • 8 -- Beth Miller, Maple Mill, captain
  • 9 -- Grace Updike, Maple Mill

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