Just seen this puzzle, and haven’t the foggiest how to begin to solve it:

Xavier, Yolanda and Zorba play tennis all afternoon.

One against one, with the third sitting out the game then replacing the loser.

Xavier played 10 times.
Yolanda played 15 times.
Zorba played 17 times.

Who lost the 2nd match ?

How do you work it out ? What is the answer ?

Xavier….just a guess though!
Havent a clue how to solve it….cant even be arsed trying to be honest.
If its not Xavier its probably Yolanda 😀

It’s probably to do with Scrabble.

Bollocks misread the question.

They certainly sound like the names of kids playing tennis.

What did Smug Mumford score though?

Not sure if this is correct, but I have Xavier as the answer.

I changed the names to letters as follows:

Zorba – a (17 times)
Yolanda – b (15 times)
Xavier – C (10 times)

Number of games played = (10 + 15 + 17) / 2 = 21 matches

I just tried to make it work by starting with a vs b in the first match and ended up with this run of matches:

Match Player 1 Player 2 (Loser)

1 a vs b (b)
2 a vs c (c)
3 a vs b (b)
4 a vs c (c)
5 a vs b (a)
6 b vs c (c)
7 a vs b (a)
8 b vs c (c)
9 a vs b (a)
10 b vs c (c)
11 a vs b (a)
12 b vs c (c)
13 a vs b (b)
14 a vs c (c)
15 a vs b (b)
16 a vs c (c)
17 a vs b (b)
18 a vs c (c)
19 a vs b (b)
20 a vs c (c)
21 a vs b

Looking at the problem, I’d be suprised there aren’t more solutions to this. So I’m not sure my answer is always right.

Ian

40 Squares… oh. no hang on.

EDIT; talking nonsense..

It’s a trick question – there aren’t enough grains of rice in the whole world to complete the board.

What a coincidence — their names start with X, Y & Z!

Baby Robin.

Seriously though I’ve no idea even where to begin with that.

Xavier. There are 21 games played so the only way to play 10 games is to sit the first one out then play every other one, which also means you lost every game.

AAAAARGH..

All I can think it’s trick question to do with the word ‘match’.

Pathetic attempt really..

I dunno if ‘match’ and ‘game’ have their usual tennis meanings in this puzzle. Seems to me the word ‘match’ at the end should be ‘game’.

came to the same conclusion as nickjb, xavier loses every game he plays and sat out the first game

Xavier. There are 21 games played so the only way to play 10 games is to sit the first one out then play every other one, which also means you lost every game.

Bravo Sir! ..and if the word match is meant to be match, that answer still holds up..

Well reasoned, good logic. Beat my playing with spreadsheets.

For someone to lose that particular match and be the only possible answer, they’d have to be the lowest scorer (and have lost every time), so Xavier

Yolanda. Can’t trust her.