The Chase - ITV1 - 5pm
Well, just as we were starting to get used to "Divided" - or not , as the case may be, ITV replace it with "The Chase". This one has been in the pipeline for a little while now, so its a pleasure to finally see it emerge from its chrysalis into the full glare of the early evening weekday schedule. But is it more butterfly or moth ?
The format of the show is relatively simple. 4 contestants take turns to face a round in which they must first earn an amount of money, and then bring it home to the team. Money is earned by answering general knowledge questions against the clock. So, for the sake of argument, 7 correct answers will bring you £7000. Then the contestant must bring the sum of money they have earned down a runway of a series of steps - one correct answer brings you down a step at a time. Ah, but here's the catch. At the same time that they answer questions, so does the Chaser, a well known figure from the world of serious quizzing. The contestant starts three steps down the runway. The Chaser will offer a reduced amount of money to allow the contestant to start from further down, and an increased amount to start from one step further up. Every time the contestant gets a question wrong, and the Chaser gets it right, then the Chaser gets one step closer. If the chaser catches the contestant before they get to the bottom, then the money is gone, and so are they.
For the final round the contestants who have eluded the Chaser team up and answer questions against the clock. Each question takes them a step further away from the Chaser. Then the Chaser must answer questions to catch them. If the Chaser gets a question wrong, then it is passed over to the team. If they get it right, then the Chaser goes a step back. If the Chaser catches them, to paraphrase a well known presenter, they leave with nothing. If the Chaser doesn't, then the money is theirs.
OK - is that all clear ? Don't worry if its not clear in writing. if you watch the show its pretty easy to follow as you go along. But is it any good ? Well, at this point I should announce that Chaser on tonight's show was a friend of mine, Mark Labbett. If you're a regular TV quiz watcher you'll know Mark from many shows - with possibly the best known being The People's Quiz of 2007, where he came runner-up in the Grand Final. Mark is actually a hell of a good guy, despite the way he was portrayed as an almost pantomime villain during The People's Quiz, and I thought he came across pretty well in this. Ian , our second contender tonight took the gamble of going for the £20,000, and it paid off, and I thought Mark was suitably gracious about this. On the other hand the last contender, Driss, seeing a large whack of £20,000 in the prize fund, opted to start further down for a measly £200, which predictably earned Mark's scorn. As for his own performance, I may be wrong, but I think that Mark answered all bar one of the contestants' questions correctly, which was a terrific performance. They were a real mixture of easy ones, old chestnuts, ones to make you think, and even a couple of snorters too.
I'm not clear whether Mark is just one of a group of Chasers, or whether he is the one and only. My guess is that there are more than one of them. Time will tell.
So what's my verdict ? Well, the show has its negatives. I think its a little too long, and could be trimmed. Gareth Kingston on the IQAGB forum has noted that there's no need for us to be shown the Chaser walking to the chair at the start of each round, and suggests that we could be shown the contestant and the Chaser's answers at the same time. I think he's spot on with that. He also made a telling point that the contestants have to buzz in to give an answer in the final round, which does put them at a disadvantage.
These are tweaks which could be made, though, rather than gaping flaws in the whole concept of the show. The show delivers a significant amount of questions. I hesitate to draw the comparison with Eggheads, but if I don't then I'm sure others will, Eggheads being the first 'pro - am' quiz show of the modern - and indeed probably any - era. Compare the number of questions Eggheads delivers per half hour with the number "The Chase " delivers per half hour - yes, I know that the chase is a longer show, but compare the ratio - and I suggest that it will come out heavily in the latter's favour. I found the final round genuinely exciting too, as Mark very nearly didn't make it - letting the pressure get to him enough that he answered "Henry VIII" when he knew very well that the answer was "Henry VII". I liked it, and will certainly watch again - whoever the Chaser is.
Its a butterfly, then ? Well, possibly so. However butterflies are delicate and fragile things, easily crushed. This looks and feels like a big prime time show. But its not on at prime time. Ironically, if it was on Channel 4, maybe as part of a Countdown - Deal or No Deal - The Chase triple whammy, I think its success would be assured. But how ambitious are ITV for it ? Or put it another way - what sort of audience will it need to deliver for its future to be assured. As with so many things in this life, only Time will provide the answer.
Monday, 29 June 2009
Friday, 26 June 2009
Answers to monthly quiz
1) Last month the High Court declared that Pringles must be called Potato crisps. What percentage of each Pringle is actually potato ?
Answer = 42%
2) The Minoan civilization is believed to have been dealt a death blow by the eruption of which volcano ?
Answer - Santorini on the island of Thera
3) Who wrote "The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner " ?
Answer - Alan Sillitoe
4) The worst ever colliery disaster in Britain happened in the Universal colliey in which welsh town or village near Caerphilly ?
Answer - Senghenydd
5) Dermast, Turkey and Common are all species of which tree ?
Answer - oak
6) The film "Happy Gilmore" centres on which sport ?
Answer - golf
7) Name two boxers who fought both Muhammed Ali and Mike Tyson during their careers
Answer - Larry Holmes and Trevor Berbick ( see last post ! )
8) Which BNP politician has pledged not to embarrass the Queen by attending a garden party ?
Answer - Nick Griffin
9) According to Mary Tudor, if you had cut her open what would you have found engraved upon her heart ?
Answer - the word Calais
10) Barbara Hepworth's sculpture 'single Form' which can be found outside the United Nations building, is a memorial to whom ?
Answer - Dag Hammerskjold
11) Mythology - in Norse Mythology what did Odin's horse Sleipnir have that normal horses lack ?
Answer - 8 legs rather than four
12) If you suffer from gynophobia, what are you afraid of ?
Answer - women
13) What was the name of the Hollywood mansion built by Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks (senior)
Answer - Pickfair
14) With which motor racing team did Jenson Button begin his formula 1 career ?
Answer - Williams BMW
15) Which song from the musical "Porgy and Bess" provided a hit for Bronski Beat in the 1980s ?
Answer - It Ain't Necessarily So
16) In John Bunyan's "The Pilgrim's Progress", which building is the dwelling place of Giant Despair ?
Answer - Doubting Castle
17) What was the title of Norway's winning Eurovision song ?
Answer - Fairytale ( by Alexander Ryback )
18) Name the sister ship of the Mayflower which was so unseaworthy it never left Plymouth with its sister ship ?
Answer - Speedwell
19) Complete the title of this opera by Michael Nyman - The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A - ?
Answer - Hat
20) If the mandible is the lower jaw, what is the upper jaw ?
Answer - the maxilla
21) Who is BBC News' Political Editor ?
Answer - Nick Robinson
22) Which Hollywood actor played Number 2 in the Austin Powers movies ?
Answer - Robert Wagner
23) Name the first and last of the 7 winners when Frankie Dettori went through the card in Ascot.
Answer - Fujiyama Crest and Wall Street
24) In which year were over 30 members of the clan Macdonald massacred in Glencoe ?
Answer - 1692
25) What is the capital city of Tanzania ?
Answer - Dodoma ( and no longer Dar Es Salaam )
26) What was the name of the novel written under a pseudonym by Kingsley Amis, after the death of Ian Fleming, which featured James Bond ?
Answer - Colonel Sun
27) The smallest town in Britain, Llanwyrtyd Wells, is home to the annual world championships in which alternative sport ?
Answer - Bog Snorkelling
28) Which driver holds the world land speed record ?
Answer - Andy Green
29) Which fictional resort was home to Jessica Fletcher in the series Murder she Wrote ?
Answer - Cabbit Cove
30) On the cover of which Albums do the Beatles spell out the word in semaphore ?
Answer - Help
31) Usain Bolt won the mens 200m at the Beijing Olympics. Who was the last Jamaican man to win the Olympic 200m before him ?
Answer - Donald Quarrie
32) Which nickname has Private Eye used for departing Speaker of the House of Commons, Michael Martin ?
Answer - Gorbals Mick
33) In Japan, where might you wear a zori ?
Answer - on your feet - its a type of sandal
34) The condition Rickets is caused by a deficiency of which vitamin ?
Answer - D
35) Eddy Grant and the Equals were first to have a hit with the song "Baby Come Back", but who else had a huge hit with the same song in 1994 ?
Answer - Pato Banton with UB40
36) Which Wrexham, Everton, Man Utd., Chelsea, Stoke, Leeds and West Brom footballer was jailed in the 1990s for passing forged £10 notes ?
Answer - Mickey Thomas
37) In which battle of 1917 were tanks used on a large scale for the first time, accepting that they were first actually used in small numbers in the Battle of the Somme in 1916 ?
Answer - Cambrai
38) The Mayor of Aberystwyth, Sue Jones-Davies, has just had the 30 year ban on the film "Life of Brian" lifted. This caused some media interest. Why in particular ?
Answer - because she was the female lead in the film, playing Judith
39) Who wrote the autobiographical works "'Tis" and "Angela's Ashes" ?
Answer - Frank McCourt
40) Name the player who knocked Rafael Nadal out of this year's French Open ?
Answer - Robin Soderling
Watch this space for the next one
Answer = 42%
2) The Minoan civilization is believed to have been dealt a death blow by the eruption of which volcano ?
Answer - Santorini on the island of Thera
3) Who wrote "The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner " ?
Answer - Alan Sillitoe
4) The worst ever colliery disaster in Britain happened in the Universal colliey in which welsh town or village near Caerphilly ?
Answer - Senghenydd
5) Dermast, Turkey and Common are all species of which tree ?
Answer - oak
6) The film "Happy Gilmore" centres on which sport ?
Answer - golf
7) Name two boxers who fought both Muhammed Ali and Mike Tyson during their careers
Answer - Larry Holmes and Trevor Berbick ( see last post ! )
8) Which BNP politician has pledged not to embarrass the Queen by attending a garden party ?
Answer - Nick Griffin
9) According to Mary Tudor, if you had cut her open what would you have found engraved upon her heart ?
Answer - the word Calais
10) Barbara Hepworth's sculpture 'single Form' which can be found outside the United Nations building, is a memorial to whom ?
Answer - Dag Hammerskjold
11) Mythology - in Norse Mythology what did Odin's horse Sleipnir have that normal horses lack ?
Answer - 8 legs rather than four
12) If you suffer from gynophobia, what are you afraid of ?
Answer - women
13) What was the name of the Hollywood mansion built by Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks (senior)
Answer - Pickfair
14) With which motor racing team did Jenson Button begin his formula 1 career ?
Answer - Williams BMW
15) Which song from the musical "Porgy and Bess" provided a hit for Bronski Beat in the 1980s ?
Answer - It Ain't Necessarily So
16) In John Bunyan's "The Pilgrim's Progress", which building is the dwelling place of Giant Despair ?
Answer - Doubting Castle
17) What was the title of Norway's winning Eurovision song ?
Answer - Fairytale ( by Alexander Ryback )
18) Name the sister ship of the Mayflower which was so unseaworthy it never left Plymouth with its sister ship ?
Answer - Speedwell
19) Complete the title of this opera by Michael Nyman - The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A - ?
Answer - Hat
20) If the mandible is the lower jaw, what is the upper jaw ?
Answer - the maxilla
21) Who is BBC News' Political Editor ?
Answer - Nick Robinson
22) Which Hollywood actor played Number 2 in the Austin Powers movies ?
Answer - Robert Wagner
23) Name the first and last of the 7 winners when Frankie Dettori went through the card in Ascot.
Answer - Fujiyama Crest and Wall Street
24) In which year were over 30 members of the clan Macdonald massacred in Glencoe ?
Answer - 1692
25) What is the capital city of Tanzania ?
Answer - Dodoma ( and no longer Dar Es Salaam )
26) What was the name of the novel written under a pseudonym by Kingsley Amis, after the death of Ian Fleming, which featured James Bond ?
Answer - Colonel Sun
27) The smallest town in Britain, Llanwyrtyd Wells, is home to the annual world championships in which alternative sport ?
Answer - Bog Snorkelling
28) Which driver holds the world land speed record ?
Answer - Andy Green
29) Which fictional resort was home to Jessica Fletcher in the series Murder she Wrote ?
Answer - Cabbit Cove
30) On the cover of which Albums do the Beatles spell out the word in semaphore ?
Answer - Help
31) Usain Bolt won the mens 200m at the Beijing Olympics. Who was the last Jamaican man to win the Olympic 200m before him ?
Answer - Donald Quarrie
32) Which nickname has Private Eye used for departing Speaker of the House of Commons, Michael Martin ?
Answer - Gorbals Mick
33) In Japan, where might you wear a zori ?
Answer - on your feet - its a type of sandal
34) The condition Rickets is caused by a deficiency of which vitamin ?
Answer - D
35) Eddy Grant and the Equals were first to have a hit with the song "Baby Come Back", but who else had a huge hit with the same song in 1994 ?
Answer - Pato Banton with UB40
36) Which Wrexham, Everton, Man Utd., Chelsea, Stoke, Leeds and West Brom footballer was jailed in the 1990s for passing forged £10 notes ?
Answer - Mickey Thomas
37) In which battle of 1917 were tanks used on a large scale for the first time, accepting that they were first actually used in small numbers in the Battle of the Somme in 1916 ?
Answer - Cambrai
38) The Mayor of Aberystwyth, Sue Jones-Davies, has just had the 30 year ban on the film "Life of Brian" lifted. This caused some media interest. Why in particular ?
Answer - because she was the female lead in the film, playing Judith
39) Who wrote the autobiographical works "'Tis" and "Angela's Ashes" ?
Answer - Frank McCourt
40) Name the player who knocked Rafael Nadal out of this year's French Open ?
Answer - Robin Soderling
Watch this space for the next one
Wednesday, 24 June 2009
When does an 'in the news' question become a general one ?
I'll explain why I pose the question. Went to the quiz in Cowbridge last night. Good quiz too, although we missed out by a point again as it happened. We had a near miss in the jackpot too, getting 6 out of the 7 questions right , but this one did for us : -
Which former World Heavyweight Boxing champion was murdered in Jamaica in 2006 ?
We wracked our memories, but the answer wasn't there, and so it came down to taking a wild stab in the dark. We thought that it was unlikely to be an undisputed champion, so we plumped for Michael Bent, who briefly held the WBO version of the title, before losing it to our own Herbie Hyde. Why ? Well, we were stumped and floundering around, and it was just a name which occurred.
Now, for all I know you may already be screaming
"You idiots ! It was Trevor Berbick !"
at the screen, and you would be correct. The annoying thing, is that 3 years ago, I knew it too. After we had been told the answers, it was one of those where you think back, and you can actually remember it being an 'in the news' question which did the rounds a few years ago. Why I mention it is that I just found it interesting that now it has come back as a general sport question, rather than an 'in the news' one. It just set me to thinking about why it is that some questions recur in quizzes long after they have ceased to be current or topical, and some don't ? Some questions there is absolutely no point in retaining the answer for more than a few months at a time, because once they are no longer news it will never be asked about again. Let me give you an example. What was the name of the man who pretended to have disappeared in his canoe, and then allowed himself to be photographed with his wife in a tourist brochure ? I'm sure that you remember the case now, but do you remember the name ? Well done if you do , and if you don't it was John Darwin. Its only a couple of years ago, but its a question which seems to have passed out of existence for the time being. Whether it will ever resurface I can't say.
------------------------------------------------------------
There was one other question in the main part of the quiz which gave rise to thought too.
"In which country was Mother Theresa born ? "
If the word "Albania" has spring into your head, well, you are at least in good company. That's the answer we put, and also the answer the team we were marking put, and possibly the answer which some of the other teams put as well. Unfortunately that didn't make it right. Quite rightly the QM announced that the answer was
"Yugoslavia, although I will accept the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia "
Don't take my word for it - check it on Google. It just interested me that the wrong answer is sometimes accepted as the right answer - and yes, I know that in my "The Question Master Is Always Right " series I have given more than a few examples of these in my time. In this case I guess its due to the fact that for most of us, our nationality comes from the country where we were born, and so we naturally assume that if Mother Theresa was Albanian - which she was - then she would have been born in Albania - which she wasn't.
Friday, 19 June 2009
Mastermind 2008 Grand Final
Warning - If you haven't seen the final yet - this contains the results
Well, its been a funny old week for one reason or another. Still, here we are again, and at long last its the Mastermind Grand Final. If you read my preview last week you'll know that I thought it was going to be very close , and possibly a great contest. So - how did it work out ?
Nancy Dickmann took to the chair first. She won her heat with the Amelia Peabody novels of Elizabeth Peters, and scored a brilliant 28 in the 2nd semi final with The Life and Films of Fritz Lang. Tonight Nancy was answering on The Lewis and Clark Expedition. In her short film, standing in front of what looked very like The Gateway to The West in St. Louis, Nancy explained that the story of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, and the key part it played in opening up the West, is a story known by every American schoolchild. I have to say that Nancy must have been an exceptionally good student when she was at school, because she blazed off the starting blocks with a brilliant 17. Standard duly set.
Roger Canwell won his heat with The Late Stuart Age, and his semi final with Norwich City FC. In his short film Roger outlined a Key principle of going through a round on Mastermind, explaining that the trick is not to worry about what you've just got wrong. Absolutely right, but a feat which requires a tremendous amount of concentration. Roger's specialist subject tonight must rank as one of the widest subjects we've seen for a while - Britain between the Wars. Yes, its only a little over 20 years, but theoretically they could ask anything in between those years. Roger proved that he'd put the hours of work into his preparation, and scored 12.
Next was Richard Smyth. Richard , like pretty much all of tonight's finalists has chosen a very diverse group of subjects, winning his heat with British Birds, then his semi-final with the final Antarctic Expedition of Captain Scott. Tonight he answered on Russian Novels between 1831, and 1894. In his film, he gave us a particularly appropriate quote,
"One must have the courage to dare ", even though he did compare himself to a non-league football team reaching a Wembley final. I was impressed with his round. I do actually love the novels of Tolstoy, but it has to be said, most of those he and Dostoevsky wrote are the size of housebricks. 13 was a good score on a tough round.
Richard Heller, who also contested the 1996 final, explained that he had finally given in to years of nagging from his step-children to have another go. Extremely impressive in the first round on W.C.Fields, and in the second round on The Napoleon Dynasty, tonight he again offered something completely different, as they say, in the form of Rodgers and Hart. In his film he explained quite a novel revision technique - playing the songs on the piano until the neighbours banged on the wall. I have no intention of piling on the agony here. The round didn't get off to a good start, and I'm afraid he only managed 9.
Stuart Macdonald won last week's semi final, you'll recall, on the hero Blair "Paddy " Mayne, and his fist round on Genghis Khan. he explained that tonight, having reached the Final, he wanted to do a more popular subject, and there are certainly few events in the sporting calendar much more popular both sides of the Atlantic than the Ryder Cup. Stuart explained his complete shock at even reaching the Final. this wasn't false modesty - Stuart really did only enter the audition out of curiosity, and never thought he would even get selected for the show. As has become customary for him, he posted a brilliant specialist round, and scored 15.
Finally then Ian Bayley. Ian won his first round heat on Tchaikovsky, and his second round heat in Dr. Who in the 1970s. Tonight he was to answer on American Presidents of the 19th Century. Now there's a truly fascinating subject, as he eloquently explained in his short film. I loved the revelation that James Garfield's assassin used a pearl handled revolver since he thought that it would look good in a museum. If you read last week's preview you'll know that Ian has been cursed with the Clark tip, but thankfully it didn't seem to hold him back, as he too scored a blistering 15 and no passes.
There was no nonsense between rounds, it was straight down to business as Richard Heller returned to the chair , and gave a well reasoned and interesting argument as to why Rodgers and Hart should be rated more highly than Rodgers and Hammerstein. Perhaps the first round was still playing on his mind. He has been a very strong performer all series on GK, but tonight he had a bad day at the office, and finished with 16.
Roger Canwell came next. Roger explained how even though the inter war period was one of great hardship , it was also a time that saw women getting the vote, and the formation of the BBC. John Humphrys of course replied that only one of these was a good thing - and you suspected somehow that maybe his tongue wasn't quite as much in his cheek as it seemed. Maybe its just me, but I felt that Roger had a tough set of GK questions, but pushed his score up to 20.
Richard Smyth returned to the chair, and gave John Humphrys a giggle by referring to the Russian novelists of his nominated period as 'barking mad'. Well, the line between genius and madness is sometimes so thin as to be virtually invisible, I suppose. Richard produced his very best GK form in what I thought was a terrific round. There were some tough questions, but Richard ploughed on like an express train, and scored 13 to take his score up to 26. You thought that with three good contenders to come it probably wasn't a winning score, but beating it wouldn't be a picnic either.
Stuart followed, and explained how the addition of the might of Europe to the Great Britain team saved the Ryder Cup at a time when it was dying on its feet. This wasn't Stuart's most successful GK round, but what the hell ? He's delighted with his performance in Mastermind 2008 and so he should be. As a practising doctor, with a young family its a miracle he found the time to learn three subjects. Stuart scored 7, and finished on 22.
Now one of the big questions of the evening. Could even as great a quizzer as Ian Bayley escape the burden of the Curse of being tipped to win from the Clark sofa ? Well, after a round of 13, the jury seemed still out. 13 is a fabulous score to produce in the pressure cooker atmosphere of a Mastermind Grand Final, but was 28 a winning score ? It certainly looked as if we were going to have an outright winner, since we had seen the full chat interludes between the rounds. Regular readers will appreciate that this always seems to mean that there won't be a tie-break.
Nancy, then, needed 12 to win. Certainly enough to bring on an attack of nerves if you're not quite 100% focused. She also revealed that she had been pregnant during the first round, and had the difficulty of learning subjects with a new baby in the house. Which of course I am sure that she didn't mind ! At this stage, in my own self defence, I want to say that I did say last week that if Nancy got out to a lead in the first round, then she is good enough to hold onto it. I also said way back months ago that we were overdue another lady champion. Nancy scored 13, and achieved the highest score of the whole series with 30. We have got our lady champion - and what a good champion too !
Many congratulations and also commiserations to Roger, and Stuart and Ian, all of whom have been good enough to share some of their experiences of the series with me in one form or another, and also to the two Richards. Congratulations also to Jon Kelly and the production team who work so hard to make such a great show, albeit that unsympathetic schedulers don't seem to give a monkeys about them. But above all else, Congratulations to our brand new Mastermind of the United Kingdom - Nancy Dickmann. Fantastic !
The Details
Well, its been a funny old week for one reason or another. Still, here we are again, and at long last its the Mastermind Grand Final. If you read my preview last week you'll know that I thought it was going to be very close , and possibly a great contest. So - how did it work out ?
Nancy Dickmann took to the chair first. She won her heat with the Amelia Peabody novels of Elizabeth Peters, and scored a brilliant 28 in the 2nd semi final with The Life and Films of Fritz Lang. Tonight Nancy was answering on The Lewis and Clark Expedition. In her short film, standing in front of what looked very like The Gateway to The West in St. Louis, Nancy explained that the story of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, and the key part it played in opening up the West, is a story known by every American schoolchild. I have to say that Nancy must have been an exceptionally good student when she was at school, because she blazed off the starting blocks with a brilliant 17. Standard duly set.
Roger Canwell won his heat with The Late Stuart Age, and his semi final with Norwich City FC. In his short film Roger outlined a Key principle of going through a round on Mastermind, explaining that the trick is not to worry about what you've just got wrong. Absolutely right, but a feat which requires a tremendous amount of concentration. Roger's specialist subject tonight must rank as one of the widest subjects we've seen for a while - Britain between the Wars. Yes, its only a little over 20 years, but theoretically they could ask anything in between those years. Roger proved that he'd put the hours of work into his preparation, and scored 12.
Next was Richard Smyth. Richard , like pretty much all of tonight's finalists has chosen a very diverse group of subjects, winning his heat with British Birds, then his semi-final with the final Antarctic Expedition of Captain Scott. Tonight he answered on Russian Novels between 1831, and 1894. In his film, he gave us a particularly appropriate quote,
"One must have the courage to dare ", even though he did compare himself to a non-league football team reaching a Wembley final. I was impressed with his round. I do actually love the novels of Tolstoy, but it has to be said, most of those he and Dostoevsky wrote are the size of housebricks. 13 was a good score on a tough round.
Richard Heller, who also contested the 1996 final, explained that he had finally given in to years of nagging from his step-children to have another go. Extremely impressive in the first round on W.C.Fields, and in the second round on The Napoleon Dynasty, tonight he again offered something completely different, as they say, in the form of Rodgers and Hart. In his film he explained quite a novel revision technique - playing the songs on the piano until the neighbours banged on the wall. I have no intention of piling on the agony here. The round didn't get off to a good start, and I'm afraid he only managed 9.
Stuart Macdonald won last week's semi final, you'll recall, on the hero Blair "Paddy " Mayne, and his fist round on Genghis Khan. he explained that tonight, having reached the Final, he wanted to do a more popular subject, and there are certainly few events in the sporting calendar much more popular both sides of the Atlantic than the Ryder Cup. Stuart explained his complete shock at even reaching the Final. this wasn't false modesty - Stuart really did only enter the audition out of curiosity, and never thought he would even get selected for the show. As has become customary for him, he posted a brilliant specialist round, and scored 15.
Finally then Ian Bayley. Ian won his first round heat on Tchaikovsky, and his second round heat in Dr. Who in the 1970s. Tonight he was to answer on American Presidents of the 19th Century. Now there's a truly fascinating subject, as he eloquently explained in his short film. I loved the revelation that James Garfield's assassin used a pearl handled revolver since he thought that it would look good in a museum. If you read last week's preview you'll know that Ian has been cursed with the Clark tip, but thankfully it didn't seem to hold him back, as he too scored a blistering 15 and no passes.
There was no nonsense between rounds, it was straight down to business as Richard Heller returned to the chair , and gave a well reasoned and interesting argument as to why Rodgers and Hart should be rated more highly than Rodgers and Hammerstein. Perhaps the first round was still playing on his mind. He has been a very strong performer all series on GK, but tonight he had a bad day at the office, and finished with 16.
Roger Canwell came next. Roger explained how even though the inter war period was one of great hardship , it was also a time that saw women getting the vote, and the formation of the BBC. John Humphrys of course replied that only one of these was a good thing - and you suspected somehow that maybe his tongue wasn't quite as much in his cheek as it seemed. Maybe its just me, but I felt that Roger had a tough set of GK questions, but pushed his score up to 20.
Richard Smyth returned to the chair, and gave John Humphrys a giggle by referring to the Russian novelists of his nominated period as 'barking mad'. Well, the line between genius and madness is sometimes so thin as to be virtually invisible, I suppose. Richard produced his very best GK form in what I thought was a terrific round. There were some tough questions, but Richard ploughed on like an express train, and scored 13 to take his score up to 26. You thought that with three good contenders to come it probably wasn't a winning score, but beating it wouldn't be a picnic either.
Stuart followed, and explained how the addition of the might of Europe to the Great Britain team saved the Ryder Cup at a time when it was dying on its feet. This wasn't Stuart's most successful GK round, but what the hell ? He's delighted with his performance in Mastermind 2008 and so he should be. As a practising doctor, with a young family its a miracle he found the time to learn three subjects. Stuart scored 7, and finished on 22.
Now one of the big questions of the evening. Could even as great a quizzer as Ian Bayley escape the burden of the Curse of being tipped to win from the Clark sofa ? Well, after a round of 13, the jury seemed still out. 13 is a fabulous score to produce in the pressure cooker atmosphere of a Mastermind Grand Final, but was 28 a winning score ? It certainly looked as if we were going to have an outright winner, since we had seen the full chat interludes between the rounds. Regular readers will appreciate that this always seems to mean that there won't be a tie-break.
Nancy, then, needed 12 to win. Certainly enough to bring on an attack of nerves if you're not quite 100% focused. She also revealed that she had been pregnant during the first round, and had the difficulty of learning subjects with a new baby in the house. Which of course I am sure that she didn't mind ! At this stage, in my own self defence, I want to say that I did say last week that if Nancy got out to a lead in the first round, then she is good enough to hold onto it. I also said way back months ago that we were overdue another lady champion. Nancy scored 13, and achieved the highest score of the whole series with 30. We have got our lady champion - and what a good champion too !
Many congratulations and also commiserations to Roger, and Stuart and Ian, all of whom have been good enough to share some of their experiences of the series with me in one form or another, and also to the two Richards. Congratulations also to Jon Kelly and the production team who work so hard to make such a great show, albeit that unsympathetic schedulers don't seem to give a monkeys about them. But above all else, Congratulations to our brand new Mastermind of the United Kingdom - Nancy Dickmann. Fantastic !
The Details
| Nancy Dickmann | The Lewis and Clark Expedition | 17 - 0 | 13 - 1 | 30 - 1 |
| Roger Canwell | Britain between the Wars | 12 - 2 | 8 - 4 | 20 - 6 |
| Richard Smyth | Russian Novels 1831 - 1894 | 13 - 2 | 13 - 0 | 26 - 2 |
| Richard Heller | Rodgers and Hart | 9 - 1 | 7 - 3 | 16 - 4 |
| Stuart Macdonald | The Ryder Cup from 1979 | 15 - 0 | 7 - 3 | 22 - 0 |
| Ian Bayley | American Presidents of the 19th Century | 15 - 0 | 13 - 0 | 28 - 0 |
Friday, 12 June 2009
Mastermind Grand Final Preview
Grand Final Preview
Well, here we are, just a mere seven days before the airing of the Grand Final of Mastermind 2008. What a final it promises to be. With so little to choose between all of the finalists, based on their first round and semi final performances, in all likelihood we could see a classic tussle. Yes, I will be making my prediction shortly, and no , in case any nasty suspicious thoughts are entering anyone's heads, I don't know who won, despite having had contact with four of the finalists over the last few weeks and months.
So, what are the factors that are going to have a decisive effect on the final ? Well, all of our finalists have demonstrated that they can cope very well with the demands of learning two specialists subjects. Yet can they learn a third ? Its more of a question than you might think. Choosing three good subjects isn't easy, and I know people in the past who have got to the final , and found that their specialist just hasn't worked out as well for them as the other two. Not only that, though. You might have as much as 10 weeks to learn for your first round. If you're lucky and have an early heat to be filmed you might have even longer to learn for your semi. All of you, though, have a mere 5 weeks to learn for the final. That's not a lot, especially if you're planning to spend some time brushing up on your weakest areas of GK.
This brings me to GK. By the time you get to the final, you can't expect that you are likely to win it on your Specialist Subject. The main thing is not to lose it on Specialist - not to be too far behind at half time. You need to be able to reproduce or even improve upon your best GK form. All of the contenders in the final have scored in the twelve or more in at least one of their two GK rounds. So all are capable of scoring well on GK, and if they outperform their best score so far, winning it on GK.
Lets not ignore the question of pressure. Everything changes for the final. Suddenly you have five fellow contenders, not three. Even if you don't worry about the opposition, and can put them out of your mind, it does mean that the programme takes much longer to make. For example, I was drawn to go fifth in the first round in my final. That's a lot of time to wait, especially if you're seeing all of the others racking up good scores. You probably try not to think about how important and serious it is, but you can't help thinking that this is the final. For all you know you may never be back again. That's the kind of thought that can stop you delivering of your best. Is experience an advantage ? I would say so.
So, what's my prediction ? Well. let's look at each of the contenders one by one.
1) Richard Smyth
Richard Smyth is not, for me, the most likely winner, but there is so little to choose between them that it would certainly not be a shock if he did win. He has advantages in as much as he always does well in Specialist - with 17 and 15. The disadvantage is that he has scored two 12s in GK, which is good, but I don't know that I can see him scoring much more than this, bearing in mind the questions he missed in the first round and semi. Prediction - possible podium, but not the top step.
2) Nancy Dickmann
Nancy for me is one of the three most likely winners. Her semi-final specialist round was highly impressive, and if she repeats this she'll be hard to beat. Advantages - Nancy went through the pain barrier in her first round, when she beat the very experienced Miriam Collard - she knows how to win a tight contest. she has good general knowledge - lets say for example she gets out to a lead of more than a couple of points on Specialist. Then she could certainly hold that lead. In another year Nancy might well be the outright favourite. I feel pretty confident that Nancy will overtake my friends Kath Drury and Sandra Piddock, who have both finished 4th in a Humphrys' era final, but I foresee a third, or possibly second place finish as most likely.
3) Richard Heller
Richard Heller has been consistently impressive in both of his appearences this year. He scored a perfect 16 on specialist in the semi. His GK has been consistent too. As an advantage, Mr. Heller has been this way before, being runner up to Richard Sturch in 1996. I don't see him falling below his first round or semi final performances, and this means we can expect him to score in the very high twenties. However, will he be able to find an extra couple of points to take it through the 30 point barrier ? I wouldn't be surprised if he won at all, but as it stands, I foresee a second silver.
4) Roger Canwell
Roger sent me a delightful email this week, thanking me for my review of his semi final. Believe me, Roger, the pleasure is mine. I do hope that he doesn't mind me saying that of all of the contenders in the Final, he probably has least to lose. He has performed admirably to keep his head and reach the grand Final, which is an achievement he can be very proud of. His advantage is probably that he will know in his heart of hearts that his score in the semi was a lowish one, and being realistic, this makes him look like an outsider. Paradoxically, though, this may actually free him from pressure, and allow him to produce his very best performance. He scored 26 in the first round. A couple of more points than this and he would genuinely be in contention. I see him , as I said, as an outsider, though, but Mastermind can be more like the Grand National than the Derby. Sometimes the outsiders come in.
5) Ian Bayley
Our other potential medallists have already produced very close to optimum performance. Ian, I have to say, still seems to have room to push the envelope a little more. His semi final performance was better, in terms of total score and specialist subject, than his first round performance. Potentially though, he could improve quite a bit more in the final. Of all the finalists, and I mean no disrespect to anyone else by this, he is in all probability the best 'pure' quizzer. In a written quiz of lets say 40 questions, I imagine he would win. As we know its not a simple as this. Yet all things considered, I tend to think that the contender most likely to find that little bit extra to get clear of the pack is Ian, and I pick him as my most likely winner.
6) Stuart Macdonald.
Last, but not least. Stuart didn't think he'd even get picked for the series, let alone win heat and semi-final. Yet he scored 28 in the semi final, and that is seriously good form for anyone else to contend with. He has the weight of the expectation of all Northern Ireland upon him, but if his semi final showed nothing else it showed that he can cope with pressure. A scan of the results of the whole of the Humphrys' era reveals that if he repeats his score of the semi-final, 28, then he should finish in the top three.
All of which gives me a problem. Reading this back, I think that I've just predicted that 5 people will end in the top 3 ! That's my problem, you see, based on performances in the series so far it really is that tight. So if I have to nail my colours to the mast, I take Ian Bayley to probably win, most likely with Richard Heller and Nancy Dickmann to contest silver and bronze, with Roger, Richard and Stuart not more than a gnat's whisker behind them.
So there you are. None of my predictions are made with any confidence, and it won't surprise me in the least if I turn out to be 100% wrong. Roll on next Friday.
The Raw Figures
Well, here we are, just a mere seven days before the airing of the Grand Final of Mastermind 2008. What a final it promises to be. With so little to choose between all of the finalists, based on their first round and semi final performances, in all likelihood we could see a classic tussle. Yes, I will be making my prediction shortly, and no , in case any nasty suspicious thoughts are entering anyone's heads, I don't know who won, despite having had contact with four of the finalists over the last few weeks and months.
So, what are the factors that are going to have a decisive effect on the final ? Well, all of our finalists have demonstrated that they can cope very well with the demands of learning two specialists subjects. Yet can they learn a third ? Its more of a question than you might think. Choosing three good subjects isn't easy, and I know people in the past who have got to the final , and found that their specialist just hasn't worked out as well for them as the other two. Not only that, though. You might have as much as 10 weeks to learn for your first round. If you're lucky and have an early heat to be filmed you might have even longer to learn for your semi. All of you, though, have a mere 5 weeks to learn for the final. That's not a lot, especially if you're planning to spend some time brushing up on your weakest areas of GK.
This brings me to GK. By the time you get to the final, you can't expect that you are likely to win it on your Specialist Subject. The main thing is not to lose it on Specialist - not to be too far behind at half time. You need to be able to reproduce or even improve upon your best GK form. All of the contenders in the final have scored in the twelve or more in at least one of their two GK rounds. So all are capable of scoring well on GK, and if they outperform their best score so far, winning it on GK.
Lets not ignore the question of pressure. Everything changes for the final. Suddenly you have five fellow contenders, not three. Even if you don't worry about the opposition, and can put them out of your mind, it does mean that the programme takes much longer to make. For example, I was drawn to go fifth in the first round in my final. That's a lot of time to wait, especially if you're seeing all of the others racking up good scores. You probably try not to think about how important and serious it is, but you can't help thinking that this is the final. For all you know you may never be back again. That's the kind of thought that can stop you delivering of your best. Is experience an advantage ? I would say so.
So, what's my prediction ? Well. let's look at each of the contenders one by one.
1) Richard Smyth
Richard Smyth is not, for me, the most likely winner, but there is so little to choose between them that it would certainly not be a shock if he did win. He has advantages in as much as he always does well in Specialist - with 17 and 15. The disadvantage is that he has scored two 12s in GK, which is good, but I don't know that I can see him scoring much more than this, bearing in mind the questions he missed in the first round and semi. Prediction - possible podium, but not the top step.
2) Nancy Dickmann
Nancy for me is one of the three most likely winners. Her semi-final specialist round was highly impressive, and if she repeats this she'll be hard to beat. Advantages - Nancy went through the pain barrier in her first round, when she beat the very experienced Miriam Collard - she knows how to win a tight contest. she has good general knowledge - lets say for example she gets out to a lead of more than a couple of points on Specialist. Then she could certainly hold that lead. In another year Nancy might well be the outright favourite. I feel pretty confident that Nancy will overtake my friends Kath Drury and Sandra Piddock, who have both finished 4th in a Humphrys' era final, but I foresee a third, or possibly second place finish as most likely.
3) Richard Heller
Richard Heller has been consistently impressive in both of his appearences this year. He scored a perfect 16 on specialist in the semi. His GK has been consistent too. As an advantage, Mr. Heller has been this way before, being runner up to Richard Sturch in 1996. I don't see him falling below his first round or semi final performances, and this means we can expect him to score in the very high twenties. However, will he be able to find an extra couple of points to take it through the 30 point barrier ? I wouldn't be surprised if he won at all, but as it stands, I foresee a second silver.
4) Roger Canwell
Roger sent me a delightful email this week, thanking me for my review of his semi final. Believe me, Roger, the pleasure is mine. I do hope that he doesn't mind me saying that of all of the contenders in the Final, he probably has least to lose. He has performed admirably to keep his head and reach the grand Final, which is an achievement he can be very proud of. His advantage is probably that he will know in his heart of hearts that his score in the semi was a lowish one, and being realistic, this makes him look like an outsider. Paradoxically, though, this may actually free him from pressure, and allow him to produce his very best performance. He scored 26 in the first round. A couple of more points than this and he would genuinely be in contention. I see him , as I said, as an outsider, though, but Mastermind can be more like the Grand National than the Derby. Sometimes the outsiders come in.
5) Ian Bayley
Our other potential medallists have already produced very close to optimum performance. Ian, I have to say, still seems to have room to push the envelope a little more. His semi final performance was better, in terms of total score and specialist subject, than his first round performance. Potentially though, he could improve quite a bit more in the final. Of all the finalists, and I mean no disrespect to anyone else by this, he is in all probability the best 'pure' quizzer. In a written quiz of lets say 40 questions, I imagine he would win. As we know its not a simple as this. Yet all things considered, I tend to think that the contender most likely to find that little bit extra to get clear of the pack is Ian, and I pick him as my most likely winner.
6) Stuart Macdonald.
Last, but not least. Stuart didn't think he'd even get picked for the series, let alone win heat and semi-final. Yet he scored 28 in the semi final, and that is seriously good form for anyone else to contend with. He has the weight of the expectation of all Northern Ireland upon him, but if his semi final showed nothing else it showed that he can cope with pressure. A scan of the results of the whole of the Humphrys' era reveals that if he repeats his score of the semi-final, 28, then he should finish in the top three.
All of which gives me a problem. Reading this back, I think that I've just predicted that 5 people will end in the top 3 ! That's my problem, you see, based on performances in the series so far it really is that tight. So if I have to nail my colours to the mast, I take Ian Bayley to probably win, most likely with Richard Heller and Nancy Dickmann to contest silver and bronze, with Roger, Richard and Stuart not more than a gnat's whisker behind them.
So there you are. None of my predictions are made with any confidence, and it won't surprise me in the least if I turn out to be 100% wrong. Roll on next Friday.
The Raw Figures
| Name | Round 1 S/S | R.1 - GK | R.1 - Total | Semi S/S | Semi GK | Semi Total |
| Richard Smyth | 17 - 0 | 12 - 0 | 29 -0 | 15 - 0 | 12 - 0 | 27- 0 |
| Nancy Dickmann | 13 - 0 | 14 - 1 | 27 - 1 | 16 - 0 | 12 - 0 | 28 - 0 |
| Richard Heller | 14 - 0 | 14-2 | 28 - 2 | 16 - 0 | 13 - 1 | 29 - 1 |
| Roger Canwell | 14 - 1 | 13 - 1 | 27 - 2 | 12 - 2 | 9 - 3 | 21 - 5 |
| Ian Bayley | 13 - 0 | 13 - 0 | 26 - 0 | 16 - 0 | 12 - 0 | 28 - 0 |
| Stuart Macdonald | 14 - 0 | 12 - 2 | 26 - 2 | 17 - 1 | 11 - 3 | 28 - 3 |
Mastermind Semi Final 6/6
Well, on paper this was going to be a close semi final with only 2 points difference between any of tonight's contenders' first round heat scores. But as we have noted before, Mastermind is not played on paper, and when you get to the semi finals, anything can happen.
Louise Mayer, last of this year's lady semi finalists kicked off tonight. In the beginning of March we saw Louise win heat 20, with a great score of 15 on the Canterbury Tales, and a good general knowledge round of 11 for 26. Kicking off tonight she excelled herself with a massive 17 and no passes on the poet Gerard Manley Hopkins. This was all the more impressive when you consider that she made a slip of the tongue on the 2nd question, substituting 'spring rhythm' for 'sprung rhythm ", which could have played on her mind. It didn't, and she recovered brilliantly.
Stuart Macdonald came next. Back in November Stuart won heat 13, which was certainly not unlucky for him , as he scored 26, with a good 14 on Genghis Khan, and a distinctly useful 12 on general knowledge. I've had the experience of waiting for my turn, watching someone else whack in a massive score of 17, and believe me it can be very daunting. Not to Stuart, though. He in turn put in a terrific showing on the hero Blair "Paddy" Mayne, an incredible all round sportsman, a soldier who won the DSO 4 times, and a highly important figure in the early days of the SAS. He too scored 17. The possibility of another determined assault on the 30 point barrier seemed to hove into view.
Gareth Kingston and I both post on the same internet forum. back in February I made a very unnecessary and pedantic posting about one of Gareth's questions on The Great Fire of London, his specialist subject in heat 16. Gareth is a gentleman, and his reply was full of courtesy and sweet reason. In that round, Gareth scored a great 16, and won with 24 points and no passes. Tonight he repeated that feat with a fantastic round on Northampton Town, to score 16. Believe me, the number of questions referring to pre-war - and by this I mean pre Great War - events would have quite phased a lesser fan. Three contenders down, three great scores, and three still very much in contention for the final spot.
Finally Paul Moorhouse. Three times a contender - three times a semi-finalist. If experience counted for all that much, then Paul would have been the favourite for tonight's show. Paul won heat 21, answering questions on British Trotskyism, where three contenders all tied with 25, but he had managed to go through the two rounds of questions without passing once. Tonight he took on Alfred Russel Wallace, the naturalist, and pioneer , along with Darwin, or the theory of Evolution. Twelve is a good score in specialist, but alas, in this company it wasn't going to be good enough, and left him languishing 4 points off the pace.
So it was a quick return to the chair for Mr. Moorhouse. John Humphrys seemed keen to push the claim that Wallace deserved at least as much recognition as the more celebrated Darwin. I'm sure that didn't have anything to do with the fact that Wallace, like the good Mr. Humphrys himself, was welsh. Mr. Moorhouse gave us a far more measured response, pointing out the acclaim that Wallace himself paid to Darwin. Mr. Moorhouse stuck to his guns, and didn't pass, but it seemed a bit of a struggle on general knowledge, and nine points gave him a total of 21.
Gareth returned to the chair to face, what I suppose was an obvious quip from John - "Cobblers is the nickname of Northampton Town - its also a good description of their record, isn't it ?!" Gareth was more than equal to this, and indeed got in a good one of his own when he quoted that the real miracle of 1966 wasn't England winning the world cup, but Northampton getting into the first division. As I hope I've made clear in the past, to do well in Mastermind sometimes you just need a little bit of the rub of the green, and for the questions to fall the right way for you. It didn't quite happen for Gareth, as he scored 9 for 25. That's a good score in a semi, but we've seen some high scores in the semis this year, and it looked like it might not be enough.
Next Louise Mayer. John Humphrys discussed with her the view that Manley Hopkins was the first 'green' poet. Actually, I think I might go along with that. She showed remarkable presence of mind to be able to quote a few lines on demand, when I'm sure that all she wanted to do was just get on with the questions. Two minutes later she had added ten to her score to take her to 27 and 3 passes, exceeding her performance in the first round heat. You can't really ask a great deal more than that.
So Stuart Macdonald also really needed to exceed his first round performance. I think that John Humphrys felt the same as I did about Blair "Paddy" Mayne, as in - why on earth have we never heard of him ? His life was aptly described as that of a real life Boy's Own Hero. Is his story not well known because of the covert missions which were alluded to ? Stuart got cracking, and did exactly what you must do. He kept on answering the questions, and that's not always as easy as it sounds. There were enough bouncers and googlies bowled at him during the round, that if he'd taken too long over one of them his whole round could have taken a nose dive. He didn't. He crossed the line with a little bit of time to spare, and becomes one of three finalists to go into the final with an excellent semi final score of 28.
So congratulations to all four contenders on an excellent, and yes, lets admit it, exciting show. A special word, now , about Stuart Macdonald. He emailed me earlier this week, and a very pleasant email it was, and I am honoured to have him join the august group that is the Life After Mastermind readership. I do hope that Stuart won't mind me saying this, but you have to salute him for the fact that he only ever went to the audition, because he wanted to see what an audition for a TV show would actually be like, and didn't expect to win his heat. He didn't tell me how he'd got on in this show, which added another level of excitement to an already terrific semi final.
So now we know the finalists. There are just 3 points separating five of them on their semi final performances - and I will be posting a preview of the final shortly.
The Details
Louise Mayer, last of this year's lady semi finalists kicked off tonight. In the beginning of March we saw Louise win heat 20, with a great score of 15 on the Canterbury Tales, and a good general knowledge round of 11 for 26. Kicking off tonight she excelled herself with a massive 17 and no passes on the poet Gerard Manley Hopkins. This was all the more impressive when you consider that she made a slip of the tongue on the 2nd question, substituting 'spring rhythm' for 'sprung rhythm ", which could have played on her mind. It didn't, and she recovered brilliantly.
Stuart Macdonald came next. Back in November Stuart won heat 13, which was certainly not unlucky for him , as he scored 26, with a good 14 on Genghis Khan, and a distinctly useful 12 on general knowledge. I've had the experience of waiting for my turn, watching someone else whack in a massive score of 17, and believe me it can be very daunting. Not to Stuart, though. He in turn put in a terrific showing on the hero Blair "Paddy" Mayne, an incredible all round sportsman, a soldier who won the DSO 4 times, and a highly important figure in the early days of the SAS. He too scored 17. The possibility of another determined assault on the 30 point barrier seemed to hove into view.
Gareth Kingston and I both post on the same internet forum. back in February I made a very unnecessary and pedantic posting about one of Gareth's questions on The Great Fire of London, his specialist subject in heat 16. Gareth is a gentleman, and his reply was full of courtesy and sweet reason. In that round, Gareth scored a great 16, and won with 24 points and no passes. Tonight he repeated that feat with a fantastic round on Northampton Town, to score 16. Believe me, the number of questions referring to pre-war - and by this I mean pre Great War - events would have quite phased a lesser fan. Three contenders down, three great scores, and three still very much in contention for the final spot.
Finally Paul Moorhouse. Three times a contender - three times a semi-finalist. If experience counted for all that much, then Paul would have been the favourite for tonight's show. Paul won heat 21, answering questions on British Trotskyism, where three contenders all tied with 25, but he had managed to go through the two rounds of questions without passing once. Tonight he took on Alfred Russel Wallace, the naturalist, and pioneer , along with Darwin, or the theory of Evolution. Twelve is a good score in specialist, but alas, in this company it wasn't going to be good enough, and left him languishing 4 points off the pace.
So it was a quick return to the chair for Mr. Moorhouse. John Humphrys seemed keen to push the claim that Wallace deserved at least as much recognition as the more celebrated Darwin. I'm sure that didn't have anything to do with the fact that Wallace, like the good Mr. Humphrys himself, was welsh. Mr. Moorhouse gave us a far more measured response, pointing out the acclaim that Wallace himself paid to Darwin. Mr. Moorhouse stuck to his guns, and didn't pass, but it seemed a bit of a struggle on general knowledge, and nine points gave him a total of 21.
Gareth returned to the chair to face, what I suppose was an obvious quip from John - "Cobblers is the nickname of Northampton Town - its also a good description of their record, isn't it ?!" Gareth was more than equal to this, and indeed got in a good one of his own when he quoted that the real miracle of 1966 wasn't England winning the world cup, but Northampton getting into the first division. As I hope I've made clear in the past, to do well in Mastermind sometimes you just need a little bit of the rub of the green, and for the questions to fall the right way for you. It didn't quite happen for Gareth, as he scored 9 for 25. That's a good score in a semi, but we've seen some high scores in the semis this year, and it looked like it might not be enough.
Next Louise Mayer. John Humphrys discussed with her the view that Manley Hopkins was the first 'green' poet. Actually, I think I might go along with that. She showed remarkable presence of mind to be able to quote a few lines on demand, when I'm sure that all she wanted to do was just get on with the questions. Two minutes later she had added ten to her score to take her to 27 and 3 passes, exceeding her performance in the first round heat. You can't really ask a great deal more than that.
So Stuart Macdonald also really needed to exceed his first round performance. I think that John Humphrys felt the same as I did about Blair "Paddy" Mayne, as in - why on earth have we never heard of him ? His life was aptly described as that of a real life Boy's Own Hero. Is his story not well known because of the covert missions which were alluded to ? Stuart got cracking, and did exactly what you must do. He kept on answering the questions, and that's not always as easy as it sounds. There were enough bouncers and googlies bowled at him during the round, that if he'd taken too long over one of them his whole round could have taken a nose dive. He didn't. He crossed the line with a little bit of time to spare, and becomes one of three finalists to go into the final with an excellent semi final score of 28.
So congratulations to all four contenders on an excellent, and yes, lets admit it, exciting show. A special word, now , about Stuart Macdonald. He emailed me earlier this week, and a very pleasant email it was, and I am honoured to have him join the august group that is the Life After Mastermind readership. I do hope that Stuart won't mind me saying this, but you have to salute him for the fact that he only ever went to the audition, because he wanted to see what an audition for a TV show would actually be like, and didn't expect to win his heat. He didn't tell me how he'd got on in this show, which added another level of excitement to an already terrific semi final.
So now we know the finalists. There are just 3 points separating five of them on their semi final performances - and I will be posting a preview of the final shortly.
The Details
| Louise Mayer | Gerard Manley Hopkins | 17 - 0 | 10 - 3 | 27 - 3 |
| Stuart Macdonald | Blair "Paddy " Mayne | 17 - 1 | 11 - 2 | 28 - 3 |
| Gareth Kingston | Northampton Town F.C. | 16 - 0 | 9 - 2 | 25 - 2 |
| Paul Moorhouse | Alfred Russel Wallace | 12 - 0 | 9 -0 | 21 - 0 |
Wednesday, 10 June 2009
What you will
Life has a way of springing little ironies upon your when you least expect it. Or to put it another way, now that I would actually like to perhaps go back to Newport on a Monday night and chance my arm, circumstances conspire against me to prevent me from doing so. for the last few weeks a combination of TV commitments ( watch this space ) , Bank Holidays and friends being indisposed has prevented me from doing so.
Thus the Sunday night quiz, and the fortnightly Tuesday night quiz have taken on additional importance. And lo - wonder of wonders, we actually got a win in the Pheasant on Sunday night. We conceded 12 points on the music round, but pulled back in a brilliant, if I do say it myself, round on identifying 20 classic novels by a brief synopsis. Alas , I failed to get a full house through my lack of acquaintance with Wilkie Collins' "The Woman in White". 4 points behind going into the GK round, we actually won with about 4 points to spare. Well and good.
Then last night. The Duke of Wellington in Cowbridge, and a good quiz. We dropped 2 points all night, and I was fairly certain that this would give us victory. No chance. A team full of young men in their late teens and early 20s only dropped 1 point. Was it kosher ? Who knows ? I was nowhere near close enough to see if any of them were using their phones, so lets let that one pass, and ascribe it to a brilliant performance on the night. Well, it might have been. Stranger things must have happened.
However, whatever brought them the win in the quiz, whether it was natural brilliance or WAP technology, it didn't do them any good in the jackpot. Never mind, maybe they'll win that next week. Still, it won't be worth a huge amount, since we emptied the cashbox, with my remembring that the actress involved with David Mellor was called Antonia de Sancha , and not de SanchEZ, and John dredging up the name of Anders Limpar. Justice not only done, but seen to be done, I think.
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I had to leave school a little early today. Well, I didn't have to , but it was convenient and helpfl to do so. I was contacted by a radio programme maker a couple of days ago, who is compiling a programme on London Bridge for her radio station, and she thought it might make a nice angle to interview yours truly. So much so that she hopped on a train from Paddington , interviewed me for an hour or so, and then hopped straight back on the next train. A good 5 hours travelling all together, just for the sake of an interview.
What was interesting was that the more she asked about quizzing in general, and Mastermind in particular, the less and less the interview became about London Bridge, and the more and more about quizzing. She seemed rather surprised when I told her that people who enjoy quizzing come from all age groups, and all walks of life, and all areas of society. Apparently she was expecting it to comprise of almost exclusively rather sad, quiz obsessed middle class 40 something white boys. Now, as a fully paid up member of this particular group myself I did feel obliged to point out that we are very well represented within quizdom.
One other passing thought. She seemed rather surprised when I said that I didn't go to many quizzes now, only normally 3 quizzes a week. For some reason she seemed to think that this was rather a large amount. Can't think why.
Once I know the details of when and where the programme is going to be aired, I will let you know.
Thus the Sunday night quiz, and the fortnightly Tuesday night quiz have taken on additional importance. And lo - wonder of wonders, we actually got a win in the Pheasant on Sunday night. We conceded 12 points on the music round, but pulled back in a brilliant, if I do say it myself, round on identifying 20 classic novels by a brief synopsis. Alas , I failed to get a full house through my lack of acquaintance with Wilkie Collins' "The Woman in White". 4 points behind going into the GK round, we actually won with about 4 points to spare. Well and good.
Then last night. The Duke of Wellington in Cowbridge, and a good quiz. We dropped 2 points all night, and I was fairly certain that this would give us victory. No chance. A team full of young men in their late teens and early 20s only dropped 1 point. Was it kosher ? Who knows ? I was nowhere near close enough to see if any of them were using their phones, so lets let that one pass, and ascribe it to a brilliant performance on the night. Well, it might have been. Stranger things must have happened.
However, whatever brought them the win in the quiz, whether it was natural brilliance or WAP technology, it didn't do them any good in the jackpot. Never mind, maybe they'll win that next week. Still, it won't be worth a huge amount, since we emptied the cashbox, with my remembring that the actress involved with David Mellor was called Antonia de Sancha , and not de SanchEZ, and John dredging up the name of Anders Limpar. Justice not only done, but seen to be done, I think.
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I had to leave school a little early today. Well, I didn't have to , but it was convenient and helpfl to do so. I was contacted by a radio programme maker a couple of days ago, who is compiling a programme on London Bridge for her radio station, and she thought it might make a nice angle to interview yours truly. So much so that she hopped on a train from Paddington , interviewed me for an hour or so, and then hopped straight back on the next train. A good 5 hours travelling all together, just for the sake of an interview.
What was interesting was that the more she asked about quizzing in general, and Mastermind in particular, the less and less the interview became about London Bridge, and the more and more about quizzing. She seemed rather surprised when I told her that people who enjoy quizzing come from all age groups, and all walks of life, and all areas of society. Apparently she was expecting it to comprise of almost exclusively rather sad, quiz obsessed middle class 40 something white boys. Now, as a fully paid up member of this particular group myself I did feel obliged to point out that we are very well represented within quizdom.
One other passing thought. She seemed rather surprised when I said that I didn't go to many quizzes now, only normally 3 quizzes a week. For some reason she seemed to think that this was rather a large amount. Can't think why.
Once I know the details of when and where the programme is going to be aired, I will let you know.
Sunday, 7 June 2009
Answers to May's Quiz
I never got around to posting the answers to the previous quiz, did I ? Shame on me. I'm sure you'll already have googled anything you weren't sure of - not many of them I'll be bound - but just in case, here they are : -
1) What was the first song that Susan Boyle sang on Britain's Got Talent ?
I Dreamed A Dream - she sang it again in the Final, but didn't quite produce the same magic IMHO
2) The Imperial War Museum North can be found in which English city ?
Manchester
3) Which mammal is responsible for more human deaths than any other mammal except for other humans ?
Well, according to QI its hippos
4) Who was the first commander of the British Expeditionary force in World War I ?
Sir John French, later replaced by Douglas Haig. Lord Gort commanded BEF2 in WWII
5) Which well known novel was set on the Canadian Province of Prince Edward Island ?
Anne of Green Gables- ( and sequels, although you couldn't call them famous )
6) Which seafood dish is named after a month in the french Revolutionary Calendar ?
Lobster Thermidor - and not as a team in the rugby club answered - lobster thermostat
7) Which were the first five words recorded by Thomas Edison on his first phonograph ?
Mary Had A Little Lamb
8) Which model of car is driven by Gene Hunt in Ashes to Ashes ?
The Audi Quattro
9) Kenny Rogers had 2 solo number 1s in the UK - Lucille was one - which was the other ?
The Coward of the County ( and NOT Ruby !)
10) The badge of which cricket county has the emblem of a Tudor rose ?
Northants (NOT Yorks - white - or Lancs - red )
11) News - how much do you have to earn per year in order to start paying the new 50p tax bracket announced in last week's budget ?
£150,000
12) Which world - famous thoroughfare is known as the Great White Way ?
Broadway
13) Which two diseases are caused by the varicella virus ?
Chicken Pox - and therefore Shingles too
14) Charlemagne was crowned as the very first what in 800 AD ?
Holy Roman Emperor
15) Which German composer was Liszt's son in law ?
Richard Wagner - who contrary to popular belief was not also the male star of TVs Hart to Hart
16) Which of the disciples of Jesus was his brother ?
James
17) Which number is represented by I00I in binary ?
9
18) You've got a friend in me is the theme to which animated film ?
Toy Story
19) Waterloo Road is set in which Lancashire town ?
Rochdale ( BTW - I love Waterloo Road, but amongst my profession it is nicknamed the Gross Professional Misconduct Show)
20) Current manager of Chelsea Guus Hiddink has had success with several international sides. Which country did he take to the semi finals of the 2002 world cup ?
South Korea
21) Which island combined with Tanganyika to form Tanzania ?
Zanzibar - all together now - the birthplace of Freddie Mercury
22) What is the name of the flap of cartilage that prevents food and drink from entering the windpipe when swallowing ?
The Epiglottis
23) Since Queen Anne, which monarch has had the most number of different Prime Ministers during his or her reign ?
Our own Elizabeth the 2nd ! - 11 as I write, but watch this space !
24) In which beach in the North of England can you find Anthony Gormley's cast iron life size statues standing on the beach, and out into the sea ?
Crosby Beach - despite originally being scheduled to be removed to the USA
25) What is the new name of Norwich Union ?
Aviva
26) Where would you find the volcano Mount Olympus, the highest mountain in the Solar System ?
Mars
27) The Specials have announced that they are reforming to go on tour. What were the titles of their 2 number 1 singles ?
Too Much Too Young and Ghost Town
28) Hannah Montana is played by an actress whose father had a top ten single in the UK - what was it called ?
He was Billy Ray Cyrus - and the song was the never to be forgotten ( unfortunately ) Achy Break Heart
29) Formula 1. Which other team has exactly the same markings as the red bull renault team ?
Toro Rosso - which as we all know actually means - red bull ! Difference - the engine.Red Bull has a Renault engine - Toro Rosso has a Ferrari engine
30) What is the name of the former Britain's top anti terrorist policeman who inadvertantly gave away details of suspects and then resigned ?
Robert Quick
31) The Croatian Seaport of Riyeka is located on which sea that forms part of the Mediterranean?
The Adriatic
32) What name is given to the two leg bones between the knee and the ankle ?
Tibia and Fibula
33) The Black Death first came to Britain during the reign of which King ?
Edward III
34) What number was Schubert's Unfinished symphony ?
8
35) What is obtained from the plant camelia sinensis ?
Tea
36) What does the acronym VTOL stand for ?
Vertical Take Off and Landing
37) Who or what links the Sheriff of Nottingham, and Tim Nice-But-Dim ?
Keith Allen is Lily Allen's Dad - Harry Enfield is her step -Dad
38) The TV series Total Wipeout sends contestants to take part in an assault course in which country ?
Argentina ( revenge for Beckham's penalty in 2002, perhaps ? )
39) Name the 2 scottish players selected for the Lions
The two in the original party were Hines and Murray
40) Gordon Brown recently made an unauthorised appearence in which cartoon show, trying to borrow money from aliens ?
hard lines - it was the other one - South Park
1) What was the first song that Susan Boyle sang on Britain's Got Talent ?
I Dreamed A Dream - she sang it again in the Final, but didn't quite produce the same magic IMHO
2) The Imperial War Museum North can be found in which English city ?
Manchester
3) Which mammal is responsible for more human deaths than any other mammal except for other humans ?
Well, according to QI its hippos
4) Who was the first commander of the British Expeditionary force in World War I ?
Sir John French, later replaced by Douglas Haig. Lord Gort commanded BEF2 in WWII
5) Which well known novel was set on the Canadian Province of Prince Edward Island ?
Anne of Green Gables- ( and sequels, although you couldn't call them famous )
6) Which seafood dish is named after a month in the french Revolutionary Calendar ?
Lobster Thermidor - and not as a team in the rugby club answered - lobster thermostat
7) Which were the first five words recorded by Thomas Edison on his first phonograph ?
Mary Had A Little Lamb
8) Which model of car is driven by Gene Hunt in Ashes to Ashes ?
The Audi Quattro
9) Kenny Rogers had 2 solo number 1s in the UK - Lucille was one - which was the other ?
The Coward of the County ( and NOT Ruby !)
10) The badge of which cricket county has the emblem of a Tudor rose ?
Northants (NOT Yorks - white - or Lancs - red )
11) News - how much do you have to earn per year in order to start paying the new 50p tax bracket announced in last week's budget ?
£150,000
12) Which world - famous thoroughfare is known as the Great White Way ?
Broadway
13) Which two diseases are caused by the varicella virus ?
Chicken Pox - and therefore Shingles too
14) Charlemagne was crowned as the very first what in 800 AD ?
Holy Roman Emperor
15) Which German composer was Liszt's son in law ?
Richard Wagner - who contrary to popular belief was not also the male star of TVs Hart to Hart
16) Which of the disciples of Jesus was his brother ?
James
17) Which number is represented by I00I in binary ?
9
18) You've got a friend in me is the theme to which animated film ?
Toy Story
19) Waterloo Road is set in which Lancashire town ?
Rochdale ( BTW - I love Waterloo Road, but amongst my profession it is nicknamed the Gross Professional Misconduct Show)
20) Current manager of Chelsea Guus Hiddink has had success with several international sides. Which country did he take to the semi finals of the 2002 world cup ?
South Korea
21) Which island combined with Tanganyika to form Tanzania ?
Zanzibar - all together now - the birthplace of Freddie Mercury
22) What is the name of the flap of cartilage that prevents food and drink from entering the windpipe when swallowing ?
The Epiglottis
23) Since Queen Anne, which monarch has had the most number of different Prime Ministers during his or her reign ?
Our own Elizabeth the 2nd ! - 11 as I write, but watch this space !
24) In which beach in the North of England can you find Anthony Gormley's cast iron life size statues standing on the beach, and out into the sea ?
Crosby Beach - despite originally being scheduled to be removed to the USA
25) What is the new name of Norwich Union ?
Aviva
26) Where would you find the volcano Mount Olympus, the highest mountain in the Solar System ?
Mars
27) The Specials have announced that they are reforming to go on tour. What were the titles of their 2 number 1 singles ?
Too Much Too Young and Ghost Town
28) Hannah Montana is played by an actress whose father had a top ten single in the UK - what was it called ?
He was Billy Ray Cyrus - and the song was the never to be forgotten ( unfortunately ) Achy Break Heart
29) Formula 1. Which other team has exactly the same markings as the red bull renault team ?
Toro Rosso - which as we all know actually means - red bull ! Difference - the engine.Red Bull has a Renault engine - Toro Rosso has a Ferrari engine
30) What is the name of the former Britain's top anti terrorist policeman who inadvertantly gave away details of suspects and then resigned ?
Robert Quick
31) The Croatian Seaport of Riyeka is located on which sea that forms part of the Mediterranean?
The Adriatic
32) What name is given to the two leg bones between the knee and the ankle ?
Tibia and Fibula
33) The Black Death first came to Britain during the reign of which King ?
Edward III
34) What number was Schubert's Unfinished symphony ?
8
35) What is obtained from the plant camelia sinensis ?
Tea
36) What does the acronym VTOL stand for ?
Vertical Take Off and Landing
37) Who or what links the Sheriff of Nottingham, and Tim Nice-But-Dim ?
Keith Allen is Lily Allen's Dad - Harry Enfield is her step -Dad
38) The TV series Total Wipeout sends contestants to take part in an assault course in which country ?
Argentina ( revenge for Beckham's penalty in 2002, perhaps ? )
39) Name the 2 scottish players selected for the Lions
The two in the original party were Hines and Murray
40) Gordon Brown recently made an unauthorised appearence in which cartoon show, trying to borrow money from aliens ?
hard lines - it was the other one - South Park
You Might Like This
Then Again You Might Not
As I was on my way out this morning to a local car boot sale, our friendly neighbourhood auctioneer stopped me to ask if I'd been on the channel 4 Pub Quiz website. I replied that I knew nothing about this - but then I don't think I've watched anything on channel 4 or any of its offspring for a while, so there's no great surprise there. Apparently she'd seen the adverts for it with Tony Robinson, David Starkey, Kevin McCloud and others.
Well, in the altruistic spirit I would like to think that I am well known for I went off to check it out as soon as I returned home, not for my own amusement, but purely for the benefit of you, my readers. I googled Channel 4 pub quiz Tony Robinson, and it was the first link that came up - apparently its More4 as opposed to Channel 4 - same meat, different gravy.
I'll be honest , I didn't pay much attention to all of the guff, just wanting to get on with playing the quiz. There was something about winning prizes, but the problem was after I logged out from playing the quizzes, and went off elsewhere, I found that I couldn't log back in again. For the last half an hour the site has told me that its loading, and it gets 3 quarters there, but never any further. Oh well, if you do get to go on, you have to register first, which is no real hassle. Then you get the choice - play on your own, or play against someone. I started playing on my own. You hvae to choose between the Clever Room, or the Really Quite Clever Room. Be warned - The Really Quite Clever Room is tougher than the Clever Room. For one thing you only have to choose between multiple choice answers on the clever room, whereas you have to type in answers in the other room, and if you make the slightest tiniest typo, then you get it wrong. The questions are harder as well.
Your score is calculated from the number of correct answers, and then from the average length of time it takes you to answer a question. I've always thought of myself as a quick quizzer, but I couldn't get my average for answering 10 questions down to less than 4 seconds, despite playing it for the best part of an hour.
Then I made the mistake of opting to play someone else. I really like the idea of being able to play a quiz against someone else online. However accepting a challenge from another player caused the whole website to freeze up on me, and I haven't been able to get back on it since.
Its worth having a look at, and hopefully you'll have better luck getting back onto the site than I have so far this afternoon.
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Its back to the Pheasant tonight. It pains me to say it, but its been a few months since I had a win on a Sunday night. There's no other quiz we've found at the moment, so its the pheasant, or nothing. The basic problem is the music round. There are two teams who are music specialists, and when you have 30 songs to identify song AND artist, then you can see how they can build up an impregnable lead which you can't make back up in the rest of the quiz. Not only that, though, on a quiz where we do keep within challenging distance, there always seems to be something in it which means we don't win.
Case in point. Take last week. We had a brilliant music round, where the answers were just provided by my daughter Phillippa and myself. We scored 49 points out of 60 to be lying in second place. However the team in front scored 60. The photo handout and list handouts came round. After that we had cut the lead to 5 points. If we could take another 2 out of them on the second handout, then we could surely do it on the GK round.
Second hand out was a picture of the human skeleton, and a list of 30 bones to label. We came second on that, dropping 6 points. However the team in the lead, who had a MALE NURSE on their team had a full house, and went back to 11 points in the lead. We took 5 points out of the lead in the GK round, but it was never going to be enough. They beat us by 6. We beat everyone else by over 10.
Did the QM know that the winning team had a nurse on their team ? Yes. Did he also know that they were very likely to have a lead over everyone after the music ? Yes.
In a quiz of 140 potential points, 90 of them were allotted to music or bones, where the winning team had a built-in advantage.
Bitter ? Me ? Probably. I mean, you accept that there is going to be a time when one team or another is going to have a little bit of the rub of the green, but when it happens week after week, its galling. So, I can't help wondering what we're going to have tonight - I know that one of the members of a team who haven't won for a couple of weeks is a keen ornithologist, so what's the betting we get a handout asking us to identify 30 different common garden birds. A case of 'name that tit' , I suppose.
As I was on my way out this morning to a local car boot sale, our friendly neighbourhood auctioneer stopped me to ask if I'd been on the channel 4 Pub Quiz website. I replied that I knew nothing about this - but then I don't think I've watched anything on channel 4 or any of its offspring for a while, so there's no great surprise there. Apparently she'd seen the adverts for it with Tony Robinson, David Starkey, Kevin McCloud and others.
Well, in the altruistic spirit I would like to think that I am well known for I went off to check it out as soon as I returned home, not for my own amusement, but purely for the benefit of you, my readers. I googled Channel 4 pub quiz Tony Robinson, and it was the first link that came up - apparently its More4 as opposed to Channel 4 - same meat, different gravy.
I'll be honest , I didn't pay much attention to all of the guff, just wanting to get on with playing the quiz. There was something about winning prizes, but the problem was after I logged out from playing the quizzes, and went off elsewhere, I found that I couldn't log back in again. For the last half an hour the site has told me that its loading, and it gets 3 quarters there, but never any further. Oh well, if you do get to go on, you have to register first, which is no real hassle. Then you get the choice - play on your own, or play against someone. I started playing on my own. You hvae to choose between the Clever Room, or the Really Quite Clever Room. Be warned - The Really Quite Clever Room is tougher than the Clever Room. For one thing you only have to choose between multiple choice answers on the clever room, whereas you have to type in answers in the other room, and if you make the slightest tiniest typo, then you get it wrong. The questions are harder as well.
Your score is calculated from the number of correct answers, and then from the average length of time it takes you to answer a question. I've always thought of myself as a quick quizzer, but I couldn't get my average for answering 10 questions down to less than 4 seconds, despite playing it for the best part of an hour.
Then I made the mistake of opting to play someone else. I really like the idea of being able to play a quiz against someone else online. However accepting a challenge from another player caused the whole website to freeze up on me, and I haven't been able to get back on it since.
Its worth having a look at, and hopefully you'll have better luck getting back onto the site than I have so far this afternoon.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Its back to the Pheasant tonight. It pains me to say it, but its been a few months since I had a win on a Sunday night. There's no other quiz we've found at the moment, so its the pheasant, or nothing. The basic problem is the music round. There are two teams who are music specialists, and when you have 30 songs to identify song AND artist, then you can see how they can build up an impregnable lead which you can't make back up in the rest of the quiz. Not only that, though, on a quiz where we do keep within challenging distance, there always seems to be something in it which means we don't win.
Case in point. Take last week. We had a brilliant music round, where the answers were just provided by my daughter Phillippa and myself. We scored 49 points out of 60 to be lying in second place. However the team in front scored 60. The photo handout and list handouts came round. After that we had cut the lead to 5 points. If we could take another 2 out of them on the second handout, then we could surely do it on the GK round.
Second hand out was a picture of the human skeleton, and a list of 30 bones to label. We came second on that, dropping 6 points. However the team in the lead, who had a MALE NURSE on their team had a full house, and went back to 11 points in the lead. We took 5 points out of the lead in the GK round, but it was never going to be enough. They beat us by 6. We beat everyone else by over 10.
Did the QM know that the winning team had a nurse on their team ? Yes. Did he also know that they were very likely to have a lead over everyone after the music ? Yes.
In a quiz of 140 potential points, 90 of them were allotted to music or bones, where the winning team had a built-in advantage.
Bitter ? Me ? Probably. I mean, you accept that there is going to be a time when one team or another is going to have a little bit of the rub of the green, but when it happens week after week, its galling. So, I can't help wondering what we're going to have tonight - I know that one of the members of a team who haven't won for a couple of weeks is a keen ornithologist, so what's the betting we get a handout asking us to identify 30 different common garden birds. A case of 'name that tit' , I suppose.
Saturday, 6 June 2009
This Month's Quiz
Ok - here's the quiz for the month of June. Just for fun, and answers will be posted in a week or two. If you can't wait, then drop me an email for the answers.
1) Last month the High Court declared that Pringles must be called Potato crisps. What percentage of each Pringle is actually potato ?
2) The Minoan civilization is believed to have been dealt a death blow by the eruption of which volcano ?
3) Who wrote "The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner " ?
4) The worst ever colliery disaster in Britain happened in the Universal colliey in which welsh town or village near Caerphilly ?
5) Dermast, Turkey and Common are all species of which tree ?
6) The film "Happy Gilmore" centres on which sport ?
7) Name two boxers who fought both Muhammed Ali and Mike Tyson during their careers
8) Which BNP politician has pledged not to embarrass the Queen by attending a garden party ?
9) According to Mary Tudor, if you had cut her open what would you have found engraved upon her heart ?
10) Barbara Hepworth's sculpture 'single Form' which can be found outside the United Nations building, is a memorial to whom ?
11) Mythology - in Norse Mythology what did Odin's horse Sleipnir have that normal horses lack ?
12) If you suffer from gynophobia, what are you afraid of ?
13) What was the name of the Hollywood mansion built by Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks (senior)
14) With which motor racing team did Jenson Button begin his formula 1 career ?
15) Which song from the musical "Porgy and Bess" provided a hit for Bronski Beat in the 1980s ?
16) In John Bunyan's "The Pilgrim's Progress", which building is the dwelling place of Giant Despair ?
17) What was the title of Norway's winning Eurovision song ?
18) Name the sister ship of the Mayflower which was so unseaworthy it never left Plymouth with its sister ship ?
19) Complete the title of this opera by Michael Nyman - The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A - ?
20) If the mandible is the lower jaw, what is the upper jaw ?
21) Who is BBC News' Political Editor ?
22) Which Hollywood actor played Number 2 in the Austin Powers movies ?
23) Name the first and last of the 7 winners when Frankie Dettori went through the card in Ascot.
24) In which year were over 30 members of the clan Macdonald massacred in Glencoe ?
25) What is the capital city of Tanzania ?
26) What was the name of the novel written under a pseudonym by Kingsley Amis, after the death of Ian Fleming, which featured James Bond ?
27) The smallest town in Britain, Llanwyrtyd Wells, is home to the annual world championships in which alternative sport ?
28) Which driver holds the world land speed record ?
29) Which fictional resort was home to Jessica Fletcher in the series Murder she Wrote ?
30) On the cover of which Albums do the Beatles spell out the word in semaphore ?
31) Usain Bolt won the mens 200m at the Beijing Olympics. Who was the last Jamaican man to win the Olympic 200m before him ?
32) Which nickname has Private Eye used for departing Speaker of the House of Commons, Michael Martin ?
33) In Japan, where might you wear a zori ?
34) The condition Rickets is caused by a deficiency of which vitamin ?
35) Eddy Grant and the Equals were first to have a hit with the song "Baby Come Back", but who else had a huge hit with the same song in 1994 ?
36) Which Wrexham, Everton, Man Utd., Chelsea, Stoke, Leeds and West Brom footballer was jailed in the 1990s for passing forged £10 notes ?
37) In which battle of 1917 were tanks used on a large scale for the first time, accepting that they were first actually used in small numbers in the Battle of the Somme in 1916 ?
38) The Mayor of Aberystwyth, Sue Jones-Davies, has just had the 30 year ban on the film "Life of Brian" lifted. This caused some media interest. Why in particular ?
39) Who wrote the autobiographical works "'Tis" and "Angela's Ashes" ?
40) Name the player who knocked Rafael Nadal out of this year's French Open ?
1) Last month the High Court declared that Pringles must be called Potato crisps. What percentage of each Pringle is actually potato ?
2) The Minoan civilization is believed to have been dealt a death blow by the eruption of which volcano ?
3) Who wrote "The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner " ?
4) The worst ever colliery disaster in Britain happened in the Universal colliey in which welsh town or village near Caerphilly ?
5) Dermast, Turkey and Common are all species of which tree ?
6) The film "Happy Gilmore" centres on which sport ?
7) Name two boxers who fought both Muhammed Ali and Mike Tyson during their careers
8) Which BNP politician has pledged not to embarrass the Queen by attending a garden party ?
9) According to Mary Tudor, if you had cut her open what would you have found engraved upon her heart ?
10) Barbara Hepworth's sculpture 'single Form' which can be found outside the United Nations building, is a memorial to whom ?
11) Mythology - in Norse Mythology what did Odin's horse Sleipnir have that normal horses lack ?
12) If you suffer from gynophobia, what are you afraid of ?
13) What was the name of the Hollywood mansion built by Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks (senior)
14) With which motor racing team did Jenson Button begin his formula 1 career ?
15) Which song from the musical "Porgy and Bess" provided a hit for Bronski Beat in the 1980s ?
16) In John Bunyan's "The Pilgrim's Progress", which building is the dwelling place of Giant Despair ?
17) What was the title of Norway's winning Eurovision song ?
18) Name the sister ship of the Mayflower which was so unseaworthy it never left Plymouth with its sister ship ?
19) Complete the title of this opera by Michael Nyman - The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A - ?
20) If the mandible is the lower jaw, what is the upper jaw ?
21) Who is BBC News' Political Editor ?
22) Which Hollywood actor played Number 2 in the Austin Powers movies ?
23) Name the first and last of the 7 winners when Frankie Dettori went through the card in Ascot.
24) In which year were over 30 members of the clan Macdonald massacred in Glencoe ?
25) What is the capital city of Tanzania ?
26) What was the name of the novel written under a pseudonym by Kingsley Amis, after the death of Ian Fleming, which featured James Bond ?
27) The smallest town in Britain, Llanwyrtyd Wells, is home to the annual world championships in which alternative sport ?
28) Which driver holds the world land speed record ?
29) Which fictional resort was home to Jessica Fletcher in the series Murder she Wrote ?
30) On the cover of which Albums do the Beatles spell out the word in semaphore ?
31) Usain Bolt won the mens 200m at the Beijing Olympics. Who was the last Jamaican man to win the Olympic 200m before him ?
32) Which nickname has Private Eye used for departing Speaker of the House of Commons, Michael Martin ?
33) In Japan, where might you wear a zori ?
34) The condition Rickets is caused by a deficiency of which vitamin ?
35) Eddy Grant and the Equals were first to have a hit with the song "Baby Come Back", but who else had a huge hit with the same song in 1994 ?
36) Which Wrexham, Everton, Man Utd., Chelsea, Stoke, Leeds and West Brom footballer was jailed in the 1990s for passing forged £10 notes ?
37) In which battle of 1917 were tanks used on a large scale for the first time, accepting that they were first actually used in small numbers in the Battle of the Somme in 1916 ?
38) The Mayor of Aberystwyth, Sue Jones-Davies, has just had the 30 year ban on the film "Life of Brian" lifted. This caused some media interest. Why in particular ?
39) Who wrote the autobiographical works "'Tis" and "Angela's Ashes" ?
40) Name the player who knocked Rafael Nadal out of this year's French Open ?
Friday, 5 June 2009
Mastermind Semi Final 5/6
The fifth and penultimate semi final, and I hope that I can be forgiven for saying that this was the semi final I had been waiting for, since it featured James Corcoran, one of the first people to latch onto this blog, and a regular reader. More about James later.
This was a seriously strong line-up. First to go was Ian Bayley. Ian, you'll remember, competed in 2008's "Are You An Egghead" and was a member of the hugely impressive winning team in "Only Connect ". Back in November Ian won heat 12 answering on Tchaikovsky. Then he scored 13 and no passes. Tonight he produced a majestic round on Dr. Who in the 1970s. Sixteen questions, and sixteen correct answers - and believe me, if you didn't see it, the round was as impressive as that sounds.
Second to go was Mel Kinsey. Mel Kinsey is the second former finalist to contest the semi finals this year. A few weeks ago we saw Richard Heller book his place in his second grand final. Could Mel Kinsey do the same ? When we last saw him in heat 8 back in October he scored 16 and 1 pass on baseball legend Ty Cobb. Tonight he posted his intent with a perfect round of 16 on JFK.
Some standard set for James to follow, then. James won heat 3 back in September, with a round of 16 on the Mod Movement in Britain. Fears that his nerves might have been unsettled having watched 2 perfect rounds before his turn proved ungrounded, as James sped through a round of questions on Billy Bragg, a far wider subject than you might think, and scored a handy 14 and 1 pass, to leave himself in contention.
On paper, Hugh Brady was the outsider in this semi final. He won heat 18 in February, scoring 13 points on sir Edward Carson. This time he offered us the Montalbano novels of Andrea Camilleri. Yes, alright, I'll admit it, I've never heard of them either. Mr. Brady had, though, since he scored a decent ten and 1 pass. In another semi this would have left him in contention. Not tonight, though. So he made a swift return to the chair. The Montalbano novels obviously don't float John Humphrys' boat, since he spent the inter round chat asking Mr. Brady, a research scientist, whether we will ever find a cure for cancer. Try to answer that one in two minutes. Mr. Brady did as well as anyone could. He didn't do badly on the questions, either, but was a little slow and hesitant. He didn't get many wrong, but he didn't get through enough questions to really put pressure on the other contenders. He scored 10, to finish on 20.
James came next, and was very cool and calm in the way he responded to John Humphrys rather snotty observation that Billy Bragg was not the best songwriter in the world. Being the serious music critic that he undoubtedly is, Mr. Humphrys summed up Billy Bragg as " a bit of an old leftie". Hmm, how impartial. In the middle of the round James looked in danger of falling into a pass spiral, but thankfully managed to pull out, and keep pushing the score along. He ended with 23, which put him into the lead. Lets pause for a minute to remember that this score would have won last week's semi final, with a bit to spare.
Ian Bayley is one of the top ranked quizzers in the country, and anyone who has seen one of his performances in a Grand Prix event will appreciate that his ranking is justified. To be honest I would not have been the least bit surprised if he had pushed through the 30 point barrier for the first time this series. He scored 12, and that's a good performance in a semi final, but I suspect he might well be kicking himself over dropping points by not identifying nicotiana as the tobacco plant, for example.
Mel Kinsey , then had two minutes to earn a grand final place. First , though, he delivered a thoughtful defence of JFK's record, and an argument for why he should be regarded as a hero. Back in the heat he scored 12 and 1 pass. He needed at least 12 and no passes to go into a tie break,and we knew this wasn't going to happen, because we'd had the full chat interludes. The round was less than a minute old, and it looked fairly clear that he wasn't going to get there, and a gritty battling performance brought him 9 to end with 25.
So congratulations to Ian, and commiserations to the others, especially James. To get to a Mastermind semi final at your first time of asking is a real achievement, and with a little bit more luck, had you been drawn in another semi final you could have made the final.
Looking forward to the final, now you have to say that of the 5 contenders through so far, there is little or nothing to choose between four of them going by their performances in the semis. Can't wait.
The Details
This was a seriously strong line-up. First to go was Ian Bayley. Ian, you'll remember, competed in 2008's "Are You An Egghead" and was a member of the hugely impressive winning team in "Only Connect ". Back in November Ian won heat 12 answering on Tchaikovsky. Then he scored 13 and no passes. Tonight he produced a majestic round on Dr. Who in the 1970s. Sixteen questions, and sixteen correct answers - and believe me, if you didn't see it, the round was as impressive as that sounds.
Second to go was Mel Kinsey. Mel Kinsey is the second former finalist to contest the semi finals this year. A few weeks ago we saw Richard Heller book his place in his second grand final. Could Mel Kinsey do the same ? When we last saw him in heat 8 back in October he scored 16 and 1 pass on baseball legend Ty Cobb. Tonight he posted his intent with a perfect round of 16 on JFK.
Some standard set for James to follow, then. James won heat 3 back in September, with a round of 16 on the Mod Movement in Britain. Fears that his nerves might have been unsettled having watched 2 perfect rounds before his turn proved ungrounded, as James sped through a round of questions on Billy Bragg, a far wider subject than you might think, and scored a handy 14 and 1 pass, to leave himself in contention.
On paper, Hugh Brady was the outsider in this semi final. He won heat 18 in February, scoring 13 points on sir Edward Carson. This time he offered us the Montalbano novels of Andrea Camilleri. Yes, alright, I'll admit it, I've never heard of them either. Mr. Brady had, though, since he scored a decent ten and 1 pass. In another semi this would have left him in contention. Not tonight, though. So he made a swift return to the chair. The Montalbano novels obviously don't float John Humphrys' boat, since he spent the inter round chat asking Mr. Brady, a research scientist, whether we will ever find a cure for cancer. Try to answer that one in two minutes. Mr. Brady did as well as anyone could. He didn't do badly on the questions, either, but was a little slow and hesitant. He didn't get many wrong, but he didn't get through enough questions to really put pressure on the other contenders. He scored 10, to finish on 20.
James came next, and was very cool and calm in the way he responded to John Humphrys rather snotty observation that Billy Bragg was not the best songwriter in the world. Being the serious music critic that he undoubtedly is, Mr. Humphrys summed up Billy Bragg as " a bit of an old leftie". Hmm, how impartial. In the middle of the round James looked in danger of falling into a pass spiral, but thankfully managed to pull out, and keep pushing the score along. He ended with 23, which put him into the lead. Lets pause for a minute to remember that this score would have won last week's semi final, with a bit to spare.
Ian Bayley is one of the top ranked quizzers in the country, and anyone who has seen one of his performances in a Grand Prix event will appreciate that his ranking is justified. To be honest I would not have been the least bit surprised if he had pushed through the 30 point barrier for the first time this series. He scored 12, and that's a good performance in a semi final, but I suspect he might well be kicking himself over dropping points by not identifying nicotiana as the tobacco plant, for example.
Mel Kinsey , then had two minutes to earn a grand final place. First , though, he delivered a thoughtful defence of JFK's record, and an argument for why he should be regarded as a hero. Back in the heat he scored 12 and 1 pass. He needed at least 12 and no passes to go into a tie break,and we knew this wasn't going to happen, because we'd had the full chat interludes. The round was less than a minute old, and it looked fairly clear that he wasn't going to get there, and a gritty battling performance brought him 9 to end with 25.
So congratulations to Ian, and commiserations to the others, especially James. To get to a Mastermind semi final at your first time of asking is a real achievement, and with a little bit more luck, had you been drawn in another semi final you could have made the final.
Looking forward to the final, now you have to say that of the 5 contenders through so far, there is little or nothing to choose between four of them going by their performances in the semis. Can't wait.
The Details
| Ian Bayley | Dr. Who in the 1970s | 16 - 0 | 12 - 0 | 28 - 0 |
| Mel Kinsey | JFK | 16 - 0 | 9 - 4 | 25 - 4 |
| James Corcoran | Billy Bragg | 14 - 1 | 9 - 4 | 23 - 5 |
| Hugh Brady | The Montalbano novels of Andrea Camilleri | 10 - 1 | 10 - 2 | 20 - 3 |
Wednesday, 3 June 2009
TV Watch - a new show is born
Divided - ITV 1 Weekdays 5pm - 6pm
It seems like an awfully long time since I wrote about any brand new quiz show, and indeed we have to go back to the 21st March when I put in my two penn'orth about BBC2's "A Question of Genius". Quite by chance tonight I happened to catch ITVs new show "Divided". Forgive me for making the obvious pun, but 'divided' is exactly what I am sure the audience's opinion of this show will be.
If you haven't seen it, well, it does have its good points. I'm pleased to say that there is some serious cash on offer- I make it that the maximum possible would be a quarter of a million pounds. That's serious spondulicks, and proof perhaps that the DOND syndrome hasn't taken as much of a stranglehold on the genre as I had feared. That's the good news. However the bad news is that each of three players will only get a share of the money, and the moment you start getting any questions wrong - and get them wrong they do - your money gets slashed in half.
You see , being as this is ITV it has to be a quiz show with a DIFFERENCE. The difference is this. Three players play as a team. They are asked rounds of questions, for rising amounts of cash. Ah, but the catch is that they all have to agree on the answer . Each time they get an answer wrong the money is halved. Three wrong answers, and to paraphrase Anne Robinson, they leave with nothing. Then there's the final part of the game. Once they have either answered all the questions, or decided to stop, then they have to decide how the money is divided up. The money in tonight's show, for example, was offered to them in three chunks - one in slightly over £6000, the second about £1700, and the third about £900. Now, there's a hell of a lot of difference between £6000 and £900. Lets be honest, however badly you'd played, and however little you'd contributed to the team, you'd be a mug to take the smallest amount. Wouldn't you ?
Each player has fifteen seconds to say which share they feel they should get, and then lock in which share they want. If they all pick a different amount, then that's what they get. If two or more want the same amount, then they get to argue and shout at each other about it for 100 seconds. However for each second that passes the money drops by 1%. So after 100 seconds, the arguments stop, because there is no money left in the pot to actually argue about.
I felt that the questions were OK, but as with Millionaire et al there is nothing like enough of them for an hour long show. To be honest, I can't help feeling that at an hour the show overstays its welcome by at least fifteen minutes. But at least the nasty bit at the end is fairly short and sweet. So you never know, it may catch on. But then again, do you remember Chris Tarrant's "The Great Pretender" ? No, I didn't think so. I rest my case.
It seems like an awfully long time since I wrote about any brand new quiz show, and indeed we have to go back to the 21st March when I put in my two penn'orth about BBC2's "A Question of Genius". Quite by chance tonight I happened to catch ITVs new show "Divided". Forgive me for making the obvious pun, but 'divided' is exactly what I am sure the audience's opinion of this show will be.
If you haven't seen it, well, it does have its good points. I'm pleased to say that there is some serious cash on offer- I make it that the maximum possible would be a quarter of a million pounds. That's serious spondulicks, and proof perhaps that the DOND syndrome hasn't taken as much of a stranglehold on the genre as I had feared. That's the good news. However the bad news is that each of three players will only get a share of the money, and the moment you start getting any questions wrong - and get them wrong they do - your money gets slashed in half.
You see , being as this is ITV it has to be a quiz show with a DIFFERENCE. The difference is this. Three players play as a team. They are asked rounds of questions, for rising amounts of cash. Ah, but the catch is that they all have to agree on the answer . Each time they get an answer wrong the money is halved. Three wrong answers, and to paraphrase Anne Robinson, they leave with nothing. Then there's the final part of the game. Once they have either answered all the questions, or decided to stop, then they have to decide how the money is divided up. The money in tonight's show, for example, was offered to them in three chunks - one in slightly over £6000, the second about £1700, and the third about £900. Now, there's a hell of a lot of difference between £6000 and £900. Lets be honest, however badly you'd played, and however little you'd contributed to the team, you'd be a mug to take the smallest amount. Wouldn't you ?
Each player has fifteen seconds to say which share they feel they should get, and then lock in which share they want. If they all pick a different amount, then that's what they get. If two or more want the same amount, then they get to argue and shout at each other about it for 100 seconds. However for each second that passes the money drops by 1%. So after 100 seconds, the arguments stop, because there is no money left in the pot to actually argue about.
I felt that the questions were OK, but as with Millionaire et al there is nothing like enough of them for an hour long show. To be honest, I can't help feeling that at an hour the show overstays its welcome by at least fifteen minutes. But at least the nasty bit at the end is fairly short and sweet. So you never know, it may catch on. But then again, do you remember Chris Tarrant's "The Great Pretender" ? No, I didn't think so. I rest my case.
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