Sleb Mastermind - Show 9

OK – next on our list of sleb catchups is Thursday night’s show. This pitted Charlie Slater – alright, Derek Francis – against comedian Alex Horne, solicitor, pundit and former England and Lions rugby international Brian Moore and Arthur Smith. Derek’s specialist subject was Western Films. This is similar to one of Kevin’s subjects in the semi finals of the 1995 series. Poor old Derek, who was looking vainly for the 7th Cavalry to ride over the hill to his rescue long before the buzzer put him out of his misery, managed 7 points.

Alex Horne, not a comedian I was previously aware of, tried his hand at answering questions on the career of Ken Dodd, and I have to say that he made rather a good fist of it. I did actually know that Ken Dodd’s ‘Tears’ was one of the biggest selling singles of the whole of the 60s, but it was still nice to hear this one being asked. Forgive my ignorance, but is Doddy still going strong ? I haven’t seen him on telly much, but then I suppose that the outlets for a stand up on TV, such as panel games like HIGNFY really aren’t for him. I digress. Alex scored 13.

Here’s a coincidence. Earlier this week I bought a copy of Brian Moore’s autobiography “Beware of the Dog “. In it he does mention that Peter Gabriel is something of a god to him, so its no surprise that he opted to take Genesis as his specialist subject. Well, when I did get to see Genesis in about ’83 Peter Gabriel had long since departed , still, I was happy with my total of 10 on the round – one of which Brian himself didn’t get. I knew that the two groups which eventually became Genesis were called The Garden Wall and The Anon. There you go. Brian, as competitive as you would expect, scored a very good 14.

Cards on the table, I like Arthur Smith. With his striking looks, and a voice that would make a cement mixer sound like an elocution teacher, he seems like something from a bygone era. As was his subject, really and truly, Radio Comedy since 1950. I think it says a lot about me that I answered almost every question on comedy before about 1995, and almost none of them on comedy since. Arthur , lets make no bones about it, was playing for the fun of taking part, and as such he did just that- took part. He scored 6, thus ensuring himself a quick return to the chair.

Despite the carefully cultivated image Arthur Smith is no mug, and he duly posted a perfectly respectable 12 to take his overall score to 18. Derek didn’t fare quite so well on his round. He knew more than he answered, but he was having one of those days when the memory just wouldn’t shove the words past the tip of his tongue, and so he added 9 to finish with 16. Alex Horne didn’t show any great urgency in his round, but he did let the answers keep coming, and eventually he, like Arthur, added another 12 to his score. This set the bar at 25.

Needing 12 for an outright win, this seemed well within Brian Moore’s grasp. He set off at a good pace too, and even though he grimaced each time an answer passed him by he was through the finish line well in advance of the buzzer, and produced the best GK round of the evening, with a good 16, to take his score to 30. All the more impressive since he had the burden of support from the Clark sofa to contend with. Yes, I might live in Wales – in fact I’ve lived in Wales for longer than I lived in England – but when it comes to rugby I’m sorry, but I’m English. Good on you, Brian.

The Details

Derek Francis	Western Films	Grand Order of Water Rats	7 - 3	9 - 1	16 - 4
Alex Horne	Ken Dodd	Save The Children	13 - 2	12 - 1	25 - 3
Brian Moore	Genesis	NSPCC	14 - 2	16 - 1	30 - 3
Arthur Smith	Radio Comedy Since 1950	Vitalise	6 - 4	12 - 0	18 – 4