Jen's Recommendation - The Common Denominator

Yesterday night my daughter Jennifer and her boyfriend Shaun flew back from Spain where they’d been visiting my mother-in-law, and it was down to me to pick them up from Bristol. It’s about a 90 minute drive home from Bristol airport, and so they had plenty of time for a pretty much blow by blow account of their week in Alicante. Now, one of the things Jen mentioned was a new quiz/game show on Channel 4 which they’ve been watching in the afternoons, called "The Common Denominator”. She's really been enjoying it, and suggested that it might be worth me having a look. I hadn’t heard anything about it, and so, in a spirit of bold investigation I checked out one of last week’s episodes on 4OD this morning.

Is “The Common Denominator” really a quiz? Fair question. It’s certainly a game show . There’s only one question, which basically is ‘which word connects two seemingly unconnected words/ pictures?’. Now, if you haven’t yet seen this Channel 4 mid-afternoon show, don’t get too excited. It’s about connections, but Only Connect it certainly isn’t. Mind you, it isn’t trying to be, and so it wouldn’t be fair to judge it against The Best Thing On BBC4 Ever.

What’s it all about, then? Host Phil Spencer has, for the time being at least, changed his vocation vocation vocation from property show presenter to game show presenter. He challenges three contestants to find the words connecting pairs of words, pictures or ideas. In the first round each of three contestants is called up to the front in turn, and each is given four sets of pairs to solve. For each one they have ten seconds once the pair are revealed, and they can shout out as many answers as they like. It might be a good idea if I give you an example of one of these. So for –Obi Wan – and – Toucan – we wanted the answer Guinness. At the end of the round the contestant to solve the fewest is out. In the event of a tie, the two or three of them all try to solve the same clue. Buzz in and get it right, you’re through. Get it wrong and you’re out. In round two you play head to head. There are four sets, and some of these could be pictures. You take it in turns. If you don’t solve yours within 10 seconds, then it goes across to the opposition. So it’s either first one to three, or the one with the highest score when all four have been asked. The winner goes to the final, and the loser doesn’t. In the Final, the winner has to answer a sequence of pairs. For each one, he wins a rising amount of money. These aren’t huge. However for the final pair the prize leaps from £2500 to £10,000. Nice. You get one lifeline, a pass. That means that pair goes, but you have to answer another pair for the same amount of money. You can bail out at any stage on the prize ladder. However here’s the rub. If the time runs out while you’re still trying to solve one, then you leave with nothing.

I go back to my original question – is it a quiz? I ask, because you do actually need general knowledge to work out the answers. So although it’s certainly not a ‘straight’ quiz, it probably does fall within our remit. Is it any good, though? Well, actually, yes – I rather think it is. There are many different factors which have a bearing on whether a quiz game is a smash hit, or an oven ready turkey, or something in between the two. Not the least of these is the basic format/gameplay. The format of Common Denominator is simple, and virtually foolproof. It’s easy to play along at home as well. Taking another positive, on the show that I watched the FAQ ( Faffing About Quotient) was fairly low, and this meant that the pacing of the show was fine. There are presenters – Victoria Coren and Jeremy Paxman being two very different examples – who add to the overall enjoyment of their shows, but these, like jockey’s legs, are few and far between, and I don’t ask a great deal of a presenter – just speak clearly , keep the puns and catchphrases to a bare minimum, and try not to get in the way. It’s fair to say that Phil Spencer manages this much.

Of course, in the interests of balance I should probably add that this is a Channel 4 show, so 43 year old Phil is by some distance the oldest thing on the menu. I somehow doubt we’ll be seeing any wrinklies or mingers on it any time soon. But there we are, Channel Four likes young, pretty people and that’s just the way it is, I’m afraid. It might just be me, but on the show that I watched it did seem that a lot (although not all) of the pairs were constructed to be particularly accessible to the Big Brother generation, but then if tat’s Channel Four’s target audience, then that makes sense anyway.

In my opinion, and as always, feel free to disagree, this is a well thought out and pretty engaging show. It moves along at a decent pace, and is quite fun to play along with at home. I think it certainly has legs, and you never know, if the right audience discover it, then maybe it could have a decent run ahead of it.

Best Behaviour

Allow me to ask you a question if I may. What would you say is the connection between Fred PERRY – SCOTCH Broth – Richard MEADe – Hospital PORTER ? We thought it was fairly clear , and so we wrote down ‘alcoholic drinks’. For which we did not receive a point. Why not? You may well ask. Was there, perhaps, some esoteric connection which had nothing to do with this? In a word, no. The connection wanted was – things you can drink! His explanation – scotch broth is not alcoholic! True. We pointed out, quite reasonably , that even if scotch broth isn’t alcoholic, scotch as in scotch whisky very much is. He wouldn’t have it. Now, you probably know how I felt about this. The fact is, as we all know, that the questionmaster isn’t actually always right. While I agree that at the end of the day it has to rest with the questionmaster to say ‘this is the answer that I want, and this is the only one I will accept’, then along with this right a questionmaster also has the responsibility to say ‘you know what – I hadn’t thought about that, but you are right, so you can have the point’ – when all common sense points obviously in that direction. However after briefly joining in the general chorus of catcalls and protests from all corners of the club, I let it go.

It’s OK, I’m not ill. The fact is this. I’ve felt for the last few weeks that I need to be on my best behaviour in the club. I’ve mentioned about my friend Brian, who has been the organizer and leading light in the quiz in the club since long before I started playing in it 17 years ago. Brian’s not been at all well for the last 6 or so weeks. I went to see him on Wednesday, and I’m delighted to say that although he’s been through a terrible time, he’s looking a bit better, and he’ll be back to the quiz hopefully within the next few weeks. Still, this has meant that it’s been down to me to keep things going with the quiz while Brian’s been ill. And that’s the rub. I just feel as if while I’m in charge of the quiz at the moment I should be on my best behaviour. It doesn’t come naturally, I can tell you.

What has been nice is to see how many people have made a point of saying to me words to the effect of ‘you will keep the quiz going, won’t you? - .Things like that just tell me that the quiz in the club means as much to them as it does to me. Now, as it is, Brian will hopefully be back very soon, and he is welcome to take the ceremonial carrier bag full of clean answer sheets back from me, and I’m quite sure everyone will be happy about that. When he does, will I maintain my good conduct? Don’t hold your breath.

Brain of Britain - Semi Final 1

Here we are then, the semifinal stage already. The first four contestants to try to earn a place in the Grand Final were

Rob Cruise ( 15th in my unofficial table)
Clive Dunning (=4th in the table)
Gill Goodwin ( 2nd in the table)
Darren Martin (=10th)

Now, as I said in my Mastermind review, first round form isn’t always the most reliable guide to potential semifinal performance. In my preview I did mention Darren Martin, for example, as a dangerous competitor from the lower half of the table. So what did actually happen?

Rob didn’t know Ermine Street, and Darren was in very quick. Clive didn’t know that a tod was a fox. Darren had it. Gill didn’t know what TNT stands for. Clive was in for that bonus. Darren was given 4 straightforward General Knowledge questions, then a tricky one – which 1859 novel has chapters called ‘knitting’ and ‘Still knitting’? Darren didn’t know it, neither did I, but Gill got a good bonus with “A Tale of Two Cities” , which brings up visions of the tricoteuses. Not that Darren should have worried. he had a 5 point lead at the end of the first round, and was going to take some beating already.

Rob got off the mark with 2, but didn’t know an emperor between Domitian and Commodus. Clive took two, but didn’t know that Einstein was a patent clerk in Bern. A little surprised at that. Gill didn’t know a gamete, and neither did anyone else. Darren took one, but didn’t know that the Dromedary is also called the Arabian Camel. A bonus for Clive there. That actually made the gap a little less gaping, as Darren now led by 7 to Clive’s 5.

Rob didn’t know that Bobby McFerrin’s hit “Don’t Worry Be Happy”, much to his annoyance, was used as a campaign song by George Bush senior. Another point for Clive. He got a nasty starter with the medical term for the eyelids. Gill took four, but got a nasty fifth asking in which year Persia officially became Iran. Darren knew it – 1935, what a good shout that was. Darren didn’t know his first, about fish which have no jaws. Gill had raced up to 5, Clive had gone up to 6, and Darren to 8. What a good show this was turning out to be.

This brought us up to the Beat the Brains interval. The first question they were asked was – who is married to the Duke of Lancaster ( rather easy ) – and Who is married to the Earl of Strathearn ( not quite so easy – the answer being The Duchess of Cambridge). They just about got the second one wrong – saying Prince William instead.

Back to the contest. Rob took one, but missed on the lunula. Darren had that one. Clive didn’t know his first, a piece of music from the Goldberg Variations. Gill didn’t know about the British Thermal Unit – not surprised. Darren didn’t know that Julius II had commissioned Michelangelo to paint the Sistine Chapel ( apparently a liberal helping of undercoat and two coats of magnolia weren’t good enough for the fussy devil ) . Clive had that , and so now he had 7 to Darren’s nine. Rob didn’t know who killed Verwoerd – and that was Darren’s. Clive took his first but didn’t know Ernest Rutherford was appointed to Manchester University. Rob had that. Gill didn’t know that old chestnut, that “Vienna” by Ultravox was kept off number 1 by Joe Dolce’s “Shudduppa ya face”. Of course Darren had that. Darren then didn’t know the equally chestnutty – which was the last Road film? He said Bali, Clive said Hong Kong, and Clive had the point. It was very much a battle between Clive and Darren now, and the gap remained at two, as Clive had 9, and Darren, 11.

Rob answered his first but missed on the strong nuclear force – which gave Gill a bonus. Clive missed on Bradford West – George Galloway’s constituency. Rob had that. Gill answered 4 , but oh, she couldn’t tell us the last Space Shuttle to be grounded for good. You have just got to keep up with the news , I’m afraid. Darren knew it. For his own questions Darren took a couple but nobody knew Lenz’s law. Again, not surpri. . . . The round had made a hell of a difference. Gill had put on a major spurt to come up to 10, but Darren now led by 4 with 14.

The last round began, then, and Darren took a bonus with Tallahassee, being uncaptured in the US Civil War. Clive’s question about old kingdom’s foxed everyone with Gwynedd and Northumbria. Gill took one, but didn’t know Robert Graves, and that was it. Game over. Darren finished the game missing the title to put on a letter to the Queen – May It Please Your Majesty. Nobody had it. Very well done Darren – a win by 3 points. Well played to all three runners up as well – this was a high quality contest which I really enjoyed.

The Details

Rob Cruise – 6
Clive Dunning – 11
Gill Goodwin – 11
Darren Martin – 14

University Challenge - Quarter Final Stage - Match 3

Pembroke, Cambridge v. St. George’s, London

In round two Pembroke, represented by Robert Scanes, Emily Maw, Jemima Hodkinson and their captain Tom Foxall, beat the University of Bath very comfortably. Their opposition in this show, St. George’s, London represented by Shashank Sivaji, Alexander Suebsaeng, Sam Mindel, and captain Rebecca Smoker beat Lancaster by 90 points in their own second round show. Both teams showed ability in their first two matches, and it was difficult for me to pick a winner before the start of the show.

Alexander Suebsaeng knew that the last Borubon king of France, and the last Habsburg King of Spain were both called Charles. British currency gave St. George’s a relatively benign full set of bonuses. Alexander Suebsaeng took his second in a row, correctly answering that George Orwell said that Bernard Shaw’s problem with Shakespeare was that Shakespeare wasn’t a member of the Fabian Society.The team didn’t know that Raphael Holinshed’s Chronicles was used as a source for several of Shakespeare’s plays, and didn’t manage any bonuses on this set. Me, I thought that Kelvin’s Wedge was what Mr. McKenzie used to be paid for editing the Sun, but no, it was some geometrical thing, with the answer 39 degress.Nobody had it. Then there was the Beveridge Curve, and again, this one went begging. Not surprised. Sam Mindel knew “On the Nature of prejudice”, and bonuses on US presidents took St. George’s to the 50 mark, with Pembroke yet to get off the mark. A nice picture starter followed. We were shown a set of national flags, and asked what the sequence represented. Shashank Sivaji couldn’t get it, which left Tom Foxall to supply the correct answer of secretaries general of the United Nations. Three more flag sequences followed. I had the first - the last five presidents of the European Commission, which the team didn’t, and also the last , the last five countries to joint he UN – South Sudan and Montenegro being the giveaways, as it were. Pembroke failed to score on the bonuses, but they were up and running, and sometimes that is half the battle. Tom Foxall took a good starter, knowing that Wilmington in Delaware is named after a village in Sussex. Bonuses on emzymes didn’t help me add to my score. At one stage I though JP was saying ‘upsydaisies’, but it on the subtitles it turned out to be oxidases. One correct answer took them to 25, precisely half St. George’s score of 50 at the ten minute mark.

Emily Maw buzzed in too early on the next starter. We were given a set of ingredients and asked which cleaning product might contain them. It fell to Alexander Suebsaeng to supply the correct answer of toothpaste. Columns in the Economist provided St. George’s with a full house. That man Suebsaeng also knew that the Abolition of Sefdom in Russia, the Death of Prince Albert and the start of the American civil War all occurred in the year of 1861. The Venetian School of Renaissance artists didn’t promise a lot to me. I answered Titian to each of them, and thereby secured one correct answer. St. George’s did better with two of them. The Music round gave us a snatch of a song sung by Charlotte Church, which was a timely starter for Robert Scanes. The gap wasn’t a decisive one in St. George’s favour yet, but it was a significant one, and this would help to narrow it. More bonuses on other recipients of Classical Brit awards. I had Nigel Kennedy and Howard Goodall, who composed the Red Dwarf theme, and guessed Only Men Allowed. Sadly Pembroke drew a blank from them. Captain Rebecca Smoker knew the term niche from ecology, and the gap was widened again. Epidemiology sounded promising for medical students. They missed the first and the last. I should say anything – I wasn’t even close. There was something about Fermat and an Equation next. Robert Scanes knew it was 2. Pilgrims’ paths offered possibilities for guessing if nothing else, but they didn’t have to guess the last, knowing Lindisfarne Island and its link to St. Cuthbert.Sam Mindel knew that if Lao Tzu is in the question, then the answer Taoism won’t be far out. A good set on world capitals followed, and St. George’s showed just a little vulnerability by missing out on them completely. Neither of the teams, nor me, knew that the largest city of Siberia is Novosibirsk. The gap remained considerable, then, as we reached the 20 minute mark, with St. George’s leading by 120 to 45.

The next starter was a real buzzer race to provide the word compound, as in eye and fracture. Bonuses on vertebrate bone structure did them few favours. They managed the only one that I knew, in cartilage. The second picture showed us the Hubble Space telescope, and Shashank Sivaji won the race to the buzzer for it. Objects photographed from the Hubble provided one bonus. Alexander Suebsaeng guessed that the world record we were quoted in the nest starter was for running up the 1576 steps of the Empire State Building. Politicians and their written works provided another ten points, and to be honest the game was pretty much up for Pembroke by this stage. Nobody knew the chess term ‘zubzwang’. Sam Mindel buzzed in too early with wasps, when the answer to the next starter was honey bee, which was supplied by Jemima Hodkinson. Bonuses on Liszt provided Pembroke with their first full set. Sam Mindel knew that ‘bach’ is welsh for small. Bonuses on fictional architects provided another 10 points. Sam Mindel took his second starter in a row, knowing that Tunbridge Wells and other places have earned the title “Royal”.Organic chemistry didn’t promise me anything, but I did actually have methanol. St. George’s had the other 2 as well. Sam Mindel missed the next starter on alpha particles, but Emily Maw knew it was Helium. One bonus needed, then, to take Pembroke to triple figures. Novels whose titles were taken from plays by Shakespeare provided just that, and another 5 points to boot. That was that, though. The final score was an emphatic win for St. George’s by 195 to 105. Impressive all round knowledge and fast buzzing did the trick for them. Well done, and good luck to both teams in the next matches.

Jeremy Paxman Watch

The great man provided us with relatively little for a long time. There was the mild rebuke “You took a long time to come to that conclusion” when Pembroke could offer no guess for the Nigel Kennedy interlude. Then the rather redundant “All the other team know, you know!” when Pembroke answered their first two bone bonuses incorrectly. Kicking a team when they’re down, that was. Still there was a pretty decent aside when St. George’s offered the answer “Tony Benn” as the writer of the political memoir “A Walk On Part”. “Tony Benn?! No – he’s not so modest!”

Interesting Fact That I DIdn’t Already Know Of The Week

The Philosophy of Taoism was explained in a book which has a title that translates into English as “Classic of the Way”

News Questions

In the News

Who Or What are the Following and why have they been in the News?

1. Robbie Rogers
2. Joaquin ‘Shorty ‘ Guzman
3. Ernst Von Freyberg
4. Malcolm Walker
5. Sam Woodhead
6. Our Lady of the Assumption Church, Warwick St., Soho
7. Gavin Rees
8. Tropika Island of Treasure
9. Tony Sheridan
10. Danica Patrick
11. Aamir Khan
12. Helvetic Airways
13. Kelly Hoppen
14. Heather Frost
15. David Gill
16. Matt Coles and Ben Stokes
17. Irfan Naseer, Irfan Khalid and Ashik Ali
18. Hilton Botha
19. Shadow Morton
20. Seeboks 87 Ltd.
21. Michael Edwards

Other News

1. A meteor blast injured hundreds of people in which country?
2. Which company announced plans to buy 49 Blockbuster video stores?
3. Which organization is celebrating its 150th anniversary
4. Which mass event took place in Gapyeong?
5. Which club knocked Arsenal out of the FA Cup?
6. Which team beat non league Luton Town in the FA Cup?
7. Which 52 year old announced the birth of his first son last week?
8. Which new musical by the creators of South Park is opening in the West End?
9. Which firm have been accused of hiring German neo Nazi security guards
10. Why was the BBC unable to show Breakfast News for one day last week?
11. When will Richard Burton’s Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame be unveiled?
12. Statues of Buddha were banned where last week?
13. What was the FA Cup score between Chelsea and Brentford?
14. What was the FA Cup score between Man City and Leeds?
15. By which score did Liverpool beat Swansea City last week?
16. Which country won the cricket women’s World Cup last week?
17. Who won cycling’s Tour of Oman last week?
18. Jay – Z will be headlining the Wireless Festival this summer? Where is the venue?
19. Which virus has been causing record numbers of lambs to be stillborn ?
20. Who has announced that she will be forming a new political party in South Africa?
21. Which 79 year old actor passed away?
22. What was the score between Man Utd. and Reading in the FA Cup?
23. Who became the oldest women’s world number 1 in tennis at 31?
24. Who has become England’s record wicket taker in all forms of cricket?
25. Who became the new manager of Blackpool FC?
26. Who called the Duchess of Cambridge a “shop window mannequin”?
27. Who quit as manager of Swindon Town?
28. By which score did Bayern munich defeat Arsenal?
29. In which airport did the £32million heist take place
30. Which has been voted by consumers as the worst supermarket chain in Britain?
31. Which former Game Show host passed away aged 85?
32. What did FIFA announce will be used for the first time in the 2014 World Cup?
33. Which National Park in the UK has won protected Dark Sky status?
34. Which British beach came third in a poll of the best beaches as voted for by global travelers?
35. How many questions did the Vicky Pryce Jury ask before failing to reach a verdict?
36. How much money has the government raised from the 4G auction?
37. Brits – who won
Best british Female –
Best British Male –
Best Single –
Best Album –
Best Group?
38. Which resort is the ‘divorce capital of the UK’?
39. What has been banned by the Rugby League
40. Why can’t Italian captain Sergio Parisse play in the 6 Nations match against Wales?
41. What score saw Tottenham Hotspur go through in the Europa League v. Lyon?
42. What was the score in Newcastle v. Kharkiv?
43. What was the score in Chelsea v. Sparta Prague?
44. What was the score in Liverpool v. Zenit St. Petersburg
? 45. Who defeated whom in the Rugby League world club Challenge?
46. Bail for Oscar Pistorius was set at which figure?
47. The creator of “Roobarb and Custard” and “Henry’s Cat” passed away. What was his name?
48. Who is the first person ever to be nominated in a career in all 6 major categories?
49. Who is the new world men’s Keirin champion?

Answers to News Questions

In the News

Who or what are the following and why have they been in the news?

1. Mark Roberts
2. Argo
3. Emanuelle Riva
4. Denny Dolan
5. Babel
6. Chris Christie
7. Lee Mears
8. Farmbox
9. Chi
10. Alberto Mallenco
11. Reeva Steenkamp
12. Bonka Kostova
13. Trevor Grills
14. Love is in my blood
15. Desmond Nair
16. 2012 DA14
17. Damien Shannon
18. Christopher Dorner
In Other News

1. Who won the BAFTA for Best Actor?
2. Name the Environment Secretary who warned that there is more bad news in Horsemeatgate ahead.
3. The Royal Horticultural Society have lifted the ban on what at the Chelsea Flower Show?
4. Who won Best Director at the BAFTAs?
5. Which soul artist died last week?
6. What was the score in the 6 Nations England v. Ireland?
7. And Scotland v. Italy ?
8. And Wales v. France?
9. Which country won the African Cup of Nations?
10. Which team did GB defeat in the Fed Cup?
11. What did Joseph Ratzinger do last week?
12. Who headed the inaugural Woman’s Hour Power List?
13. Which star of the Onedin Line passed away last week?
14. Name the deadly virus contracted by a man in Manchester last week
15. Who designed the T Shirts for this year’s Comic Relief?
16. What was the score between West Brom and Liverpool?
17. Why have Mick and Mairead Philpott been in the news?
18. Which author said that kids should leave school at 11, and that libraries need to go ?
19. What was the score between Real Madrid and Man Utd. ?
20. Which two teams reached the final of the Women’s Cricket World Cup?
21. Who received a 3 week ban after being cited for stamping in the England v. Ireland match?
22. What is Warren Buffet buying for £28 billion?
23. Whose flintlock pistol was sold for a record £150,000?
24. Which product has Asda withdrawn as its contribution to Horsemeatgate?
25. Labour have pledged to bring back which Income Tax rate if elected?
26. Who is Team Sky’s leader in the tour of Oman?
27. What was the score between Chelsea and Sparta Prague?
28. What was the score between Spurs and Lyon?
29. What was the score between Liverpool and Zenit St. Petersburg?
30. And between Newcastle and Kharkiv?
31. Which newspaper celebrated its 125th anniversary?
32. Which Coronation Street actor has been charged with raping a child?
33. Which British designer received a Blue Peter Gold Badge this week?

Answers

Who or what are the following and why have they been in the news?

1. Streaker who has retired after 518 incidents
2. Film that won best Picture BAFTA
3. Actress who won best actress BAFTA – for film Amour – 85 years old
4. Baby boy whose finger was bitten off by urban fox
5. Best Album Grammy Award winner by Mumford and Sons
6. New Jersey Governor criticized over his weight
7. England RU Hooker forced to retire through ill health
8. Aberystwyth firm investigated in Horsemeatgate
9. Italian magazine that published bikini pictures of Duchess of Cambridge
10. Referee Neil Lennon called ‘pro-Juventus’
11. Model girlfriend of Oscar Pistorius killed in his home
12. Nurse in Stafford hospital struck off
13. Singer with Fisherman’s Friends killed in accident
14. Elton John’s thumb pricking Valentines Day Aids Awareness campaign
15. Magistrate in first Pistorius hearing
16. Asteroid that passed within 30000km of Earth
17. Took St. Hugh’s College Oxford to court when they insisted he prove he can raise £12,900 before being allowed on his postgraduate course
18. Former US cop suspected of killing 3 people, caught and killed last week.

In Other News

1. Daniel Day Lewis
2. Owen Patterson
3. Garden Gnomes
4. Ben Affleck - Argo
5. Cecil Womack
6. 12 - 6
7. 34 – 10
8. 16 - 6
9. Nigeria ( bt Burkina Faso 1 – 0)
10. Bulgaria
11. He resigned as Pope Benedict XVI
12. Queen Elizabeth II
13. Peter Gilmore
14. Coronavirus
15. Stella McCartney
16. 2 - 0
17. They are in court on trial for causing the fire that killed their children
18. Terry Deary
19. 1 - 1
20. West Indies and Australia
21. Cian Healy
22. Heinz
23. Captain James Cook’s
24. Beef Bolognese
25. 10p in the pound
26. Chris Froome
27. 1 - 0
28. 2 – 1
29. 0 - 2
30. 0 - 0
31. The Financial Times
32. Michael Le Vell
33. Jonathan Ive

Mastermind - Semi Final 1

Tonight’s five contenders for the first spot in the Grand Final were : -

Matthew Bradshaw – 24th on my unofficial table
Michael Wright – 12th in my table
Aidan McQuade – 28th in my table
Kathryn Palmer – 6th on my table
Mark Grant – 13th on my table

Now, mere figures and statistics rarely tell the full story, but first round form suggested that Kathryn, with 31 overall and a good 15 on GK, and Mark who had a massive 18 on GK in the first round, would be the frontrunners, with Aidan – only 9 on GK in the first round, very much an outsider

This was a semi final remember, and the time limits change for the semis. So tonight the contenders were only given 90 seconds for their specialist rounds, meaning that double figures was the mark of a good round. Michael Wright, who kicked us off didn’t quite manage this . Still, for a ninety second round 9 is perfectly respectable, and didn’t mean that he would be completely out of the competition yet. I only had a couple. Mind you, maybe it was me, but I’m sure in one of the questions that John said that Don Warrington played Alan, and Richard Beckinsale Philip, while it was definitely the other way round. I am convinced that Don Warrington played Philip. That’s the sort of thing they normally reshoot. I guess nobody noticed it.

Michael Wright’s round on US Military Aircraft proved a surprisingly happy hunting ground for me tonight. I managed 8 to Michael’s 10, and I can only put it down to a few lucky guesses, and lingering memories of my old Airfix models from when I was a kid. Michael’s 15 in the first round heat marked him out as a dark horse for this show, and his specialist would certainly give him every chance of making the final.

So to the seeming outsider. Aidan McQuade had done what you must do, and picked his specialist subject well. His was only slightly better than Michael’s had been, but in a show like a semifinal where the margins can be so tight, then that one point can prove to be a godsend. Me? None whatsoever I’m afraid – Dennis Lehane is not someone with whose work I am familiar.

Kathryn Palmer impressed back in heat 4, where she scored an impressive 16 on Duran Duran. Her performance on the S. John’s Wood Clique maybe wasn’t quite such an impressive score, but it was a good one. 10 points put her just one point behind Aidan, with the GK to come. She had certainly scored a lot more in her heat on GK than Aidan had scored in his.

You might remember Mark taking third place in Jesse’s remarkable 2010 Grand Final, and you may even remember him being the runner up in Pat’s 2005 Grand Final. Mark has a superb Mastermind pedigree, and here he was bidding to become the first person ever to reach three Grand Finals. In the heat mark had answered on Henry Mayhew, and suffered from a set of nastily long questions. He didn’t have the same problem tonight, and scored 10 and no passes on the film collaborations of Marlene Dietrich and Josef von Sternberg. It hadn’t quite been a perfect round, but it was a very good one, and with only a point between himself and the leader mark looked favourite to make his third Grand Final

First, though, Matthew Bradshaw came back to the chair. Having only managed 10 in a two and a half minute round in the heats it looked as it he might struggle in this company. He did manage to add another 7 to his score, but to be honest 16 didn’t look as if it would stay the top score for very long. Never mind. Making the Mastermind semis is an achievement worth being proud of. Michael Wright didn’t provide us with one of the fastest rounds that we’ve seen, passing no less than 4 times. Still, he did raise the target to 19, and that meant that the others would at least have to negotiate their way through the corridor of uncertainty.

Kathryn produced a strangely polarized round. For the best part of the first minute she really struggled to get started. However the second minute was much more what the doctor ordered, and she grew in confidence as it progressed, She too added nine to her score, but a smaller pass tally now gave her the lead. Mark, though, lurked in the wings. I will be honest and say that although this round was not as impressive as his fantastic GK round in the heats, I did think it was going to be good enough. He reached the target of 19, with no passes, and there was still time for three questions. mark did not get the right answer to any of them though, which left Aidan McQuade in a position which had looked unlikely before the start of the show. He needed to find 9 correct answers – not easy, and not a given in a 2 minute round, but distinctly doable if you keep your head. Aiden did pause excruciatingly on one question, and he wasn’t going as quickly as many we’ve seen. However he was concentrating hard, and making sure he picked off what he knew. In the end he managed 10, to put just a little daylight between himself and his pursuers. Very well played , sir! You’ve taken a scalp there. Hard lines to the other four contenders, but well played all.

The Details

Matthew Bradshaw	Rising Damp	9 – 1	7 – 2	16 – 3
Michael Wright	US Military Aircraft of the Second World War	10 – 1	9 – 4	19 – 5
Aidan McQuade	The Novels of Dennis Lehane	11 – 0	10 – 1	21 – 1
Kathryn Palmer	St. John’s Wood Clique	10 – 1	9 – 1	19 – 2
Mark Grant	Films of Dietrich and Von Sternberg	10 – 0	9 – 0	19 – 0

Brain of Britain - First Round Review

Here’s the table for the qualifiers for the BoB semi final. Now I’m every bit as cautious of making predictions for BoB as I am of making predictions for Mastermind. For one thing they don’t seem to practice any form of seeding in this show, and it’s not unknown to get three of the highest scorers from the first round together duking it out in the same semi final. With that caveat, though, you can see there are a few names which tend to leap out at you. David Stainer heads the table, and he has the ability and the quiz pedigree to take the whole thing, and become the second person after Ian Bayley, his Crossworders teammate, to do the OC/BoB double. You have to say that Jill Goodwin’s 24 was very impressive as well. Beneath that, well, Barry Simmons is always a name to conjure with, and he’s been this way before as well. He’s one of the ones that everyone else will be hoping to avoid in their semis. I shall also put forward the name of my mate George Sheldrick as one to watch out for as well. Like Barry, George has been to the final before, and really should never be underestimated. David Buckle is lurking mid table, but as a finalist in both the People’s Quiz and Mastermind he’ll be looking to add this one to his collection. Don’t ignore the challenge of Darren Martin either, while we’re at it.

Good luck to all involved.

David Stainer	26
Jill Goodwin	24
Rufus Stilgoe	19
Jenny Dunn	17
Clive Dunning	17
Barry Simmons	17
Paul Jordan	16
George Sheldrick	16
Scott Dawson	15
David Buckle	14
Anthony Fish	14
Darren Martin	14
John Colman	13
Rod Riesco	12
Rob Cruise	11
John Harris	9

Brain of Britain - Round One - Heat 12

And so to the last of the first round heats. Monday’s contestants were : -
Phil Beckett
John Harris
Gina Jollif
Peter Russell
but they all came up clean, as it were. In its most basic terms a score of 13 would secure a berth in the second round, accepting that this was a second place score.

Phil Beckett kicked off with 2, but didn’t know an aubade would be sung in the morning. A bonus for Gina there. John took 2 but didn’t know that an anonymous letter to Lord Monteagle tipped him off about the Gunpowder plot. A gettable one that, certainly. Gina didn’t know that Lord Liverpoool still holds the record of being the longest continually serving British PM since 1801. I was quietly pleased with myself for getting that one. On to Peter to finish the round, then. He took 3, but probably should have known the traditional name of the dog in Punch and Judy shows. It fell to John to tell us it was Toby. John and Peter led with three each.

Phil didn’t know the quetzal and neither did the others. John knew his first, but didn’t know that the stick used in hurling his the Hurley. Gina, I’m sorry to say let an astronomy gimme go begging when she failed to answer that the asteroid belt lies between Mars and Jupiter, a bonus for Phil. Peter got one of those I should have known but couldn’t remember – that Joey is the name of Michael Morpurgo’s “The War Horse”. A low scoring round. On with the third, then, and Phil got a snatch of Barry Manilow singing “I write the Songs”. The question being, who actually did write that song? I didn’t know, and neither did anyone else that it was one time Beach Boy Bruce Johnston. John Harris didn’t know that it was Antigone who helped her blinded father Oedipus. Gina took her first but didn’t know about HG Wells’ Invisible Man. Peter didn’t know that David McCallum played that very character on TV. One point separated all four contestants going into round 4. Phil didn’t know heroic couplets, neither did anyone else. John answered his first two but didn’t known chitin, which gave Phil a bonus. Gina knew her first, but didn’t know that a Piccadill was a collar. Peter knew his first , but didn’t know that when someone puts the words “Oliver Goldsmith” and “novel” into a sentence, you’ll invariably be right when you answer with “The Vicar of Wakefield”. Nobody else could manage it, and so it meant that heading into the Beat the Brains interval John had a one point lead with 6.

The first Beat the Brains question was this – An item made in any one of 4 precious metals has to be hallmarked before it can be traded. What are they? – The brains managed gold – silver – platinum, but missed on palladium. The second was – where would you be most likely to find a welsh harlequin, an indian runner and an Egyptian thingummybob . They knew that these are all breeds of chicken, and so gave the correct answer.

Back to the serious business and round five. Phil didn’t know the Hindi word which equates to 10 million. Not surprised. John took his first but didn’t know the Centurion tank. Gina didn’t know the singer Gil Scott Heron, and Peter had the bonus. For his own questions Peter took one, but didn’t know the Portland Club. John and Peter now led with 7 apiece. Phil answered his first, but didn’t know that the Queen’s representative on the Isle of Man is the Lieutenant Governor. John answered one, but missed out on a group of water colour artists, which Gina took for a bonus. For her own questions she took two but missed out on two categories of twilight – civil and nautical. You don’t say. Peter probably should have known that it was Mussorgsky who composed Night on Bald Mountain – well, it was in Fantasia, after all, and this gave a bonus to Phil. Gina had been the net gainer in this round. John led by one, but anyone could win.

On to the last round. Phil took his first, but didn’t know the modern spelling of Christmas Island – Kiritimati. John didn’t know his first, that the Battle that ended the American – Mexican war was the Battle of San Jacinto River. Gina missed her first, not knowing that Zeus turned Callisto into a bear. Phil had it. Now, I happen to have read “The Bandsman’s Daughter”. I can’t vouch for Peter Russell having read it, but he had it. he didn’t know that the heir apparent of Belgium is given the title Duke of Brabant. All of which meant that Gina, on 7, was definitely 4th. But Phil, John and Peter each had 8. The rules are clear on what happens next. A single question is asked, and the first to buzz in gets the point. It was John Harris who knew that Amy Johnson took off from Croydon on her epic flight to Australia, and so he won the last semi final slot.

A good and exciting show, even if it wasn’t of the highest quality that we’ve heard all series. All of the contestants were knowledgable, and displayed this at times, but it’s just that they are probably none of them quizzers, judging by some of the answers that went begging. Well played, though.

The Details

Phil Beckett – 8
John Harris - *9 (AET)
Gina Joliff – 7
Peter Russell – 8

Classic Mastermind

Well, I will admit that I am not the sharpest knife in the cutlery drawer when it comes to remembering to set the recorder before I go to work, and so I hadn’t caught up with Classic Mastermind before this week. It’s been nice seeing people like Darren Martin and Geoff in the semis. In fact Geoff’s semi was on today, and in it he faced Isabelle Heward. If you’ve not been a Mastermind regular for more than a couple of years then maybe the name won’t mean a lot, but by my reckoning she was three times a semi finalist, but never a finalist.

I’ve written about people making multiple appearences before, a couple of years ago, so I won’t labour the point. But I did end up reflecting for a moment or two on the reasons why people do want to come back on the show. I’m sure that we probably each of us have reasons that are slightly different. In my case, well it was a lot to do with a sense of underachievement. Not just in Mastermind, I hasten to add. My first appearance in 2006 was my third appearance on a quiz show, after Come and Have A Go . . . and Eggheads, and was followed almost immediately after by Millionaire. I didn’t win any of the first three, and as for Millionaire, I took home £1000 but it didn’t feel like a win considering I could have taken home at least £16,000 if I’d had any sense. I was arrogant enough to think – well, what the hell, if you’d only seen those four appearences of mine, then you’d have thought that I was a bit of a choker. So I gave it another go. Whether I would have become a multiple contender rather than just a double contender, I don’t know. I mean I distinctly remember in my Grand Final , as I was walking to the chair for the GK round thinking to myself,- well, enjoy this one Dave, cos you ain’t coming back here for the foreseeable future. – I’d made up my mind that, as much as I enjoyed preparing for a specialist subject (and I did always enjoy that. It appealed to the slightly obsessive side of my nature) it really wouldn’t be fair to my family to put them through it again. Besides that, getting to the final was enough. I reapplied for 2007 because I thought I could do better. Had I not won my final I would never have been so arrogant as to say, oh, I can do better than just making the final, and applied a third time for that reason. But who knows, the temptation might well have proved too much a few years down the line.

Of course, I’m not saying that every multiple contender applies simply out of a sense of an ability to do better. The fact is that it is fun. Maybe not what everyone would call fun, but there is a pleasure in it, even if it’s a kind of masochistic pleasure. I always enjoyed learning my specialist subjects, even when, as with the Summer Olympics, it looked at one stage like I’d bitten off more than I could chew. The meeting and talking to the other contenders can be really enjoyable – I still have friends whom I only met through Mastermind. There’s the adrenaline rush of playing, then. The satisfaction of putting yourself to the test on specialist, and the sense of satisfaction when you post a good score. I don’t know, maybe some contenders develop this kind of feeling about the show because of the amount of time you have to invest in it to give yourself a chance of doing well.

Coming back to my original point, one of the things that struck me about the 2003 shows is that the inter round chats – of which I was never a fan- seem somewhat shorter than I recalled. Of course, what you see on the screens is only the tip of the iceberg, since these chats would go on in the studio for quite a bit longer than you’d ever see on the screen. In fact I made a halfway decent joke in my semi-final chat, and was a bit miffed to see that it had been cut out in the edit. I understood why they introduced the chats, the purpose being, I believe, to show that contenders are not just one dimensional quiz machines, but have knowledge of their subjects, and life beyond the black chair. The problem with this was that I – and I guess a significant proportion of the audience – didn’t really give a stuff about that. As a viewer I always felt that they were an unwelcome hold up to the action, and as a contender I always felt that the poor researchers had to spend far too long on the phone with you trying to find an angle which John could explore with you in the chat. They were spending a hell of a lot of time on the least important aspect of the show. In the studio I used to just sit there wishing we could just get on with it. So full marks to the team for junking this feature of the show a few years ago. Replacing this with more GK questions showed, to my mind, and understanding of the show’s real strength in the first place.

Mastermind - First Round Review

Here’s a look at the table then, of all the qualifiers for the semi-finals. It’s been a little complicated for me, because there seems to have been a change of qualification rules. Regular readers may remember that Jon Kelly, the previous producer, said that only those coming second in their heats would be eligible for runner up slots. However from things which have been said in other places I gather that Chris Quinn qualified, which could only happen if third place finishers with high enough scores could now qualify, as it was in Magnus’ day. So working on that principle, this is how I make the table.

The first figure is the overall score, and the second the overall passes. Third comes the GK score, and last the GK passes.

Now, the first thing I have to say is how delighted I am that two friends, Roger Canwell and Rachael Neiman are both so high up the table . It doesn’t guarantee anyone a place in the final, but it suggests that they have a good chance, providing they’re not drawn against each other.

There are a lot of high scoring GK rounds up there. Noticeably far more of them occurred in the first half of the series, and it certainly seemed to me that the first round was rather top heavy. I’d like to draw your attention to a couple of names in the middle of the table. Both Mark Grant and Chris Quinn produced great GK rounds after doing less well than they’d hoped on specialist. I can’t see either of them scoring so modestly on Specialist again, but I can definitely see them doing so well on GK. Anyone in their semis is in with a serious fight, and you’d be a very, very brave person to bet against Mark becoming the first person to reach three Mastermind finals. I don't want to ruin his chances by saying how well I think he'll do, but certainly he is one to watch. Likewise Chris. Either of them could go a very long way. Mind you, to be honest, if you look at the GK marks of the top 8 or 9 there's no duffers there at all.

What can we predict with any certainty? Only that there are going to be surprises. As always we won't really know until we see how well they all cope with the demands of learning a second specialist subject, and that's something which has caused people who have done really well in the first round to come a cropper in the semis before. Now, I don't know if this is true now, but in Magnus' day the idea was to make the questions a bit harder for the semis, to sort out the wheat from the chaff as it were, then make them a bit easier for the grand final to produce an exciting contest. Harder questions can change everything. So again, there's no guarantee that the 6 finalists will all come from the top positions in this table.

Congratulations though to Andrew Frazer, who heads the table. You don’t win anything for having the best score in the first round, but it was a might impressive performance all the same.

Mastermind - Round One - heat 24

I wouldn’t say that I’ve been exactly overdosing on Mastermind this week, but this is the 4th I’ve watched. Yes, Classic Mastermind, and I’ll say more about that in another post. Still, the current series has now reached the last heat of the first round unless I am very much mistaken. I checked out tonight’s contenders on the database, and three of them came up clean, as you might say. Tony Wheeler, though, the first of them, last featured in Ian’s 2011 series, when he came second in his heat to our own Peter Reilly. Peter was himself the runner up in the final. Back then Tony was taking the Louie Knight novels of Malcolm Pryce. Tonight he was answering on the Life and Music of Ian Dury. I thought there might be three or four for me here. As it turned out there were just three, but at least I did know that the last top 10 hit with the Blockheads was Reasons to Be Cheerful. All together now – Hammersmith Palais, the Bolshoi Ballet, jump back in the alley and nanny goats - ah, they don’t make them like that any more, sadly. Tony managed 9, and I thought that with this start he was more likely to end up the bridesmaid again.

Mature student Rob Hymer never looked quite comfortable as he settled in to answer his round on the Red Army in World War II. The only one I could answer was the gimme about the T34 tank, but Rob certainly did better than that. His 9 correct answers matched Tony’s, but he had made sure not to pass. Sometimes that is the difference between a win and a second place.

Our third contender, Ann Yourston, answered on the Life and Work of Gerald Durrell. It’s a very, very long time since I tried to read “My Family and Other Animals” with a class at school, and I’ve never read any of his others, so I did predictably badly with just a point. Ann, though, took us into double figures, which was uncharted territory for the show so far this week. Her 12 didn’t necessarily look as if it had given her a winning advantage, but a lead of three is never to be sniffed at in the show.

John Savage took to the chair last of all, to be tested on his knowledge of Celtic FC. This surprised me by providing me with my best score of the night, with 4, of which 1 was a guess. At one stage I thought John was on for a very good score, but he must have been flattering to deceive just a little since he finished with 11. Mind you, being only a point behind the leader is not a bad place to be at the turn around, especially if you feel that you can trust your general knowledge not to let you down.

Returning first to the chair Tony had the admirable presence of mind to not become too bothered by what he didn’t know, to use his passes to keep the round moving, and to pick up the 11 questions that he did know. You can’t really do a lot more than that, and so he could be pretty satisfied with reaching 20 and respectability. Rob, now, actually did not look quite as relaxed in the chair as Tony had been, and yet he set a better score, a good example of what can be achieved by concentrating hard, gritting your teeth, and just getting on with it. Alright, 13 is not one of the highest rounds we’ve seen this series, but it’s not bad at all, and it took him up to 22. Maybe it was a bit of a long shot to think that this might win it, but on the other hand the target it gave the others was at least enough to put them into the corridor of uncertainty.

Faced with the challenge of finding 12 more correct answers to take the outright lead John Savage provided us with the best GK round of the night. In fact for about 2/3 of the round it looked like being a very good round indeed. Just a couple of questions slowed him down coming up to the 2 minute mark, and what had looked like a potential 17 pointer or more remained a 14 pointer. Still good, and potentially game winning. Now, I don’t take any great pleasure in recounting when a contender hasn’t done as well as they would have liked. So let’s just say that it seemed as if Ann was struck by a combination of nerves, and maybe being phased by a couple of questions early on, which sent her into a bit of a pass spiral. It can happen, and it’s just one of those things. Until you’re actually in the chair you can’t know how you’re going to react. By the end of the round she’d raised her score to 17. So a good win for John in the end. Well played.

The Details

Tony Wheeler	The Life and Music of Ian Dury	9 - 2	11 - 4	20 – 6
Rob Hymer	The Red Army in World War II	9 - 0	13 - 4	22 – 4
Ann Yourston	Gerald Durrell	12 - 3	5 - 8	17 – 11
John Savage	The History of Celtic FC	11 - 0	14 - 0	25 – 0

Answers to News Questions

Sorry - forgot that I hadn't posted last week's answers - here they are: -

In the News

Who or What Are the Following, and why have they been in the news?

1. Luciano Orquera
2. Simon Zebo
3. Daniel Harding
4. Ashley Gill-Webb
5. Bill Furniss
6. Debrecen
7. Reg Presley
8. David Jones
9. Fred
10. Mark Carney
11. Dale Cregan
12. A Good Way To Die
13. Liberty Global

In Other News

1. What was the score between Man City and Liverpool?
2. By which score did Italy beat France in the 6 Nations?
3. By which score did England beat Scotland
4. By which score did Ireland beat Wales?
5. Which country’s ambassador claimed only workers from his country built the 2012 Olympic village?
6. Which London attraction last week sold off props prior to moving location?
7. A ban on women wearing what in Paris has been rescinded
8. Who changed his plea in court to guilty this week
9. Which group reformed for the Superbowl half time show?
10. Which team won the Superbowl?
11. Whose identity was confirmed by DNA last week?
12. Which children’s TV series is set to return 50 years after it was first made?
13. Which company have become the first official sponsors of test match tea breaks in England?
14. Which airline covered up their tail markings on a plane that had veered off the runway?
15. Pakistan have announced plans to build a giant theme park where?
16. Which famous British athletics club has withdrawn from the British League due to a lack of volunteers?
17. How many MPs in total voted in favour of the same sex marriage bill?
18. Who announced her retirement from TV at the age of 71?
19. According to figures published las week, which are the world’s two least expensive cities to live in?
20. What is Chris Huhne’s consituency that now faces a bye election?
21. Who won his 100th cap against Brazil
22. Who has left Nottingham Forest after 41 days in charge
23. How many Conservative MPs voted against the same sex marriage bill?
24. Which two players scored England’s goals in the friendly v. Brazil?
25. Which Monopoly playing token was dropped last week, and by which token was it replaced?
26. Which broadcaster made his Twitter debut last week?
27. Which U Turn was taken by Michael Gove last week?
28. Which bank was fined £390million for its role in the LIBOR fixing scandal?
29. Which group began a series of gigs at the Tate Modern in London?
30. Which North African government dissolved last week?
31. What was the score in the football match between Scotland and Estonia?
32. What was the score in the football match between wales and Austria?
33. What was the score in the football match between Northern Ireland and Malta?
34. Which two teams reached the final of the African Nations Cup?
35. Who asked to be banned from driving when he appeared in court for speeding?
36. What did a survey reveal to be the least romantic place in Britain?
37. Which Findus frozen meal was revealed to contain up to 100% horsemeat?
38. Who is leaving “Dragon’s Den”?
39. Who is the only author to be in the top 10 most borrowed from British libraries for the last 30 years?
40. As well as taking penalty points for speeding, what else did Vicky Pryce claim that Chris Huhne had forced her to do?
41. Mark Cavendish won several individual stages, as well as the overall classification in which stage race?
42. Which longstanding Liverpool FC stalwart announced his retirement?
43. Whose uniform is being leant to the French Army Museum?
44. Which country is currently enveloped in a doping in sport scandal?
45. A fatal crash occurred in which Belgian airport?
46. What was England’s record T20 score v. New Zealand?

Answers

Who or what are the following and why have they been in the news?

1. Italian fly half who orchestrated his country’s 6 nations victory over France
2. Irish winger – scorer of ‘wonder try’ against Wales
3. British conductor at La Scala – accused of ‘making Wagner sound effeminate’
4. Man convicted of throwing bottle at Usain Bolt just before start of men’s 200m final in London 2012
5. New head coach of Great Britain swimming team
6. Football team whose 2009 game against Liverpool is at the centre of match fixing allegations
7. Lead singer of 60s group the Troggs – and writer of ‘Love Is All Around’ – passed away last week
8. Welsh secretary – criticized for driving 100 yards to the office
9. Scorer of Brazil’s goal in friendly v. England
10. Governor of the Bank of England who defended his £800k per annum salary to MPS
11. On trial for shooting Policewomen Nicola Hughes and Fiona Bone
12. New Die Hard film ( number 5 )
13. Company that has taken over Virgin media

In Other News

1. 2 - 2
2. 23 - 18
3. 38 - 18
4. 30 -22
5. Romania
6. The London Dungeon
7. Trousers
8. Chris Huhne
9. Destiny’s Child
10. Baltimore Ravens
11. King Richard III
12. Thunderbirds
13. Yorkshire Tea
14. Alitalia
15. Abbotabad
16. Belgrave Harriers
17. 400
18. Delia Smith
19. Mumbai and Karachi
20. Eastleigh
21. Ashley Cole
22. Alex MacLeish
23. 134 – and another 43 abstained
24. Frank Lampard and Wayne Rooney
25. The iron was dropped in favour of a cat
26. Sir David Attenborough
27. The plan to replace GCSEs with the EBacc
28. RBS
29. Kraftwerk
30. Tunisia
31. 1 - 0
32. 2 - 1
33. 0 - 0
34. Nigeria and Burkina Faso
35. Sir Ranulph Fiennes ( he’s leaving the country for a while, and his ban would be up when he got back. The magistrates weren’t having any of it)
36. Scunthorpe
37. Beef lasagne
38. Theo Paphitis
39. Danielle Steel
40. To have an abortion
41. Tour of Qatar
42. Jamie Carragher
43. Nelson’s Trafalgar uniform
44. Australia
45. Charleroi
46. 214 for 7

In the News

In the News

Who or what are the following and why have they been in the news?

1. Mark Roberts
2. Argo
3. Emanuelle Riva
4. Denny Dolan
5. Babel
6. Chris Christie
7. Lee Mears
8. Farmbox
9. Chi
10. Alberto Mallenco
11. Reeva Steenkamp
12. Bonka Kostova
13. Trevor Grills
14. Love is in my blood
15. Desmond Nair
16. 2012 DA14
17. Damien Shannon
18. Christopher Dorner
In Other News

1. Who won the BAFTA for Best Actor?
2. Name the Environment Secretary who warned that there is more bad news in Horsemeatgate ahead.
3. The Royal Horticultural Society have lifted the ban on what at the Chelsea Flower Show?
4. Who won Best Director at the BAFTAs?
5. Which soul artist died last week?
6. What was the score in the 6 Nations England v. Ireland?
7. And Scotland v. Italy ?
8. And Wales v. France?
9. Which country won the African Cup of Nations?
10. Which team did GB defeat in the Fed Cup?
11. What did Joseph Ratzinger do last week?
12. Who headed the inaugural Woman’s Hour Power List?
13. Which star of the Onedin Line passed away last week?
14. Name the deadly virus contracted by a man in Manchester last week
15. Who designed the T Shirts for this year’s Comic Relief?
16. What was the score between West Brom and Liverpool?
17. Why have Mick and Mairead Philpott been in the news?
18. Which author said that kids should leave school at 11, and that libraries need to go ?
19. What was the score between Real Madrid and Man Utd. ?
20. Which two teams reached the final of the Women’s Cricket World Cup?
21. Who received a 3 week ban after being cited for stamping in the England v. Ireland match?
22. What is Warren Buffet buying for £28 billion?
23. Whose flintlock pistol was sold for a record £150,000?
24. Which product has Asda withdrawn as its contribution to Horsemeatgate?
25. Labour have pledged to bring back which Income Tax rate if elected?
26. Who is Team Sky’s leader in the tour of Oman?
27. What was the score between Chelsea and Sparta Prague?
28. What was the score between Spurs and Lyon?
29. What was the score between Liverpool and Zenit St. Petersburg?
30. And between Newcastle and Kharkiv?
31. Which newspaper celebrated its 125th anniversary?
32. Which Coronation Street actor has been charged with raping a child?
33. Which British designer received a Blue Peter Gold Badge this week?

University Challenge - Quarter Final Match 2

UCL v. Bangor

Last week we saw one London team, Imperial, taken down in the first of their quarter final matches. Were we going to see it happen again this week? Not if the UCL team of Adam Papaphilippopoulos, Tom Tyzsczuk-Smith, Tom Parton and their captain Simon Dennis were to have anything to say about it. But were they to have anything to say about it? Their opponents were this year’s surprise package, in the shape of the University of Bangor, represented by our own Adam Pearce, Mark Stevens, Simon Tomlinson, and captain Nina Grant. I hope I’m not being unfair if I say that they have already exceeded many people’s expectations, but why stop here?

Adam struck first for Bangor, correctly deducing that Mark Twain had been writing about his difficulty in learning German. Ja. Their bonuses on Machiavelli’s The Prince brought ten more points. Adam struck again with the second starter, knowing that the poet killed in the last week of the first World War was Wilfred Owen. 19th century periodicals started well, with the old chestnut about ‘Household Words’ but that was it. Tom Parton opened UCL’s account with our old friends, the halogens. ( Have you met the Halogens? Frightfully nice couple, don’t you know. ) Empedocles didn’t mean a lot to me, and neither did it do much for UCL, though we both guessed since he was born in Sicily, the volcano had to be Etna. Adam Papaphilippopoulos leapt in a little too quickly on a question asking for the Newspaper that came to be seen as the mouthpiece for conservative Middle England, losing five and allowing Simon Tomlinson in for his first of the contest with the Daily Telegraph. I like its Cryptic Crossword, myself. An early UC special set raised its head over the parapet for this one. Clues were given to pairs of towns or cities, whose names ended with the same element – eg Winchester and Chichester . They took the first two, but Gloucester and Worcester did for them. Simon Tomlinson took the picture starter for good measure, recognising an Austrian Passport, even though the name of the country had been removed. More of the same followed, and Bangor took all 3, impressing JP into the bargain. So the opening phase of the contest was emphatically Bangor’s, and they led by 80 to 10.

Put yourself in the position of UCL. You know that you’re a good team. You know that there’s a lot of time to go. Yet you’re being consistently beaten to the buzzer by Bangor. You have the choice to either go into your shell, or give it a damn good lash. Tom Parton tried the latter, but came in too early for Count Metternich. Simon Tomlinson had that. Works of the French Enlightenment only yielded one on a tricky set. Nobody knew the velum, but Adam buzzed in a little too early for a speculative punt and lost five. Tom Tyzsczuk-Smith buzzed in too early on the next , returning the favour, thus allowing Simon Tomlinson to inform us that Edmund Burke wrote Reflections on the Revolution in France. Bonuses on Physics meant that my mind could go bye byes for a moment or two, and when it came back Bangor hadn’t added any more points, but were leading by 100 – 0. Blimey! Time for UCL to start getting into the game if they were to have any hope, before JP could utter his dreaded ‘plenty of time left for you to get into the game’ which as we all know is the ultimate kiss of death to any team’s chances. Tom Tyzsczuk –Smith obliged with madrigal – which term is apparently derived from Mother Church – didn’t know that. First lines of novels written in the 1960s followed, and they managed one of them. Neither team knew some insecticide thingummybob. Tom Tyzsczuk – Smith knew that recusant and Etruscan are anagrams. The Wallace Collection brought them another 10 points, and the gap was down to 65. The music starter followed this, and the last moments of Romeo and Juliet were recognised by Tom Parton. More operatic characters on the point of death based on figures from literature brought 5 more points, and the gap was now down to 50.The increasingly effective Tom Tyzsczuk-Smith knew The Diving Bell and the Butterfly – which happen to be two of the less popular luxury items chosen by castaways on Desert Island Disks. This starter, and its accompanying bonuses on Triton halved the gap again. Neither team knew about the derivation of the term Baker’s Dozen. Simon Dennis, quiet so far in this match, knew that Uttar Pradesh is the most populous state of India, so its US equivalent would be California. The bonuses on the Arab League, of which they took one, meant that they were within a starter and a bonus of the lead. Adam Papaphillipopoulos buzzed in too early on Max Ernst, but Bangor couldn’t capitalise.Tom Parton knew his geometry for the next starter, and this put his team 5 points behind. Spanish drinks provided the nest set of bonuses for UCL, and 3 correct answers put them into the lead. At just after the 20 minute mark they led by 110 to 100. Now, on paper, that’s a close game. However UCL had comprehensively won the last 10 minutes, and Bangor weren’t getting a look in. Talk about a game of two halves. Was it going to be a game of three thirds, though?

Maybe so. Simon Tomlinson took Bangor’s first starter for what seemed like a long time identifying a painting of the Lady of Shallot. Other paintings of the same theme gave them a 10 point lead again. Adam buzzed in too early for the next starter. When given the year connected with the landing of a monarch – 1688 – Tom Tyzsczuk – Smith was two too early with William Ist. Simon Dennis was first to win the buzzer race for Agra, site of the Taj Mahal. Amazingly I did know Dennis Gabor, but that was it for me on the holography bonuses. UCL were only a little way ahead , but they were in control now, and so Tom Tyczsczuk _ Smith was very quickly in for Georges Braques, co founder of cubism. Cross Fell proved rather unforgiving, and landed them no more points. Tom Parton knew that some complicated Physics stuff gives you mass. Novels whose titles contain one or more points of the compass yielded 2 more correct answer. 40 points wasn’t a huge lead for UCL, but it was looking more and more like they’d pulled this one out of the bag. Films of Sidney Lumet fell to Simon Dennis, but Botany didn’t yield much in terms of bonuses, although they did get the last. Pretty safe as UCL were by now they kept piling on the agony, when Adam Papaphillipopoulos answered that Laos is an anagram of a word which means as well as. Bonuses on place names beginning with AZ yielded enough to take them to 190. Simon Tomlinson knew that the focal length of a perfectly planar mirror is infinity. People born in Rouen yielded them nul points, tant pis. The gong went before either team could have a stab at the next starter. The final score was a fairly conclusive 190 to 125 win for UCL – well done there. Still, Bangor aren’t out of it. For the first ten minutes they showed that they can outplay what is reckoned to be one of the strongest teams in this year’s competition. Winning the buzzer race when you’re under the cosh, though, that’s the secret, and UCL showed that they can certainly do that.

Jeremy Paxman Watch

It was almost 15 minutes before there was anything at all from JP in this show. Tom Parton’s suggestion of Paraquat as the safest natural insecticide to use on foodstuffs, while not in the same class as last week’s Inspector Clouseau, was met with a disdainful snort.

Right – now, only this morning I saw someone defending JP against accusations of bullying, which I guess can only refer to his reaction to the answer of William Ist – “Noo! William the First !!! No, I’m sorry, no you know, that’s VERY wrong ( pause ) It’s only out by 600 years or so anyway. “Fairly innocent stuff for JP that. Tom Tyzsczuk – Smith seemed to take it in good part. Apparently the BBC received 47 complaints. All I can say to those who took the time and trouble to contact the BBC is – Have you NEVER watched UC before?

Interesting Fact That I Didn’t Already Know Of The Week

W.B.Yeats deliberately excluded the work of Wilfred Owen from the Oxford Book of Modern Verse.

Honour Among Quizzers

I’ve written about this before, although it was some years ago. We all of us have subjects in which we think we’re on safe ground. Then there are subjects where everyone else thinks we should be on safe ground, with some justification, it must be said. These might be connected with our work, or our place of birth, or whatever. These are what I think of as the real ‘pressure’ subjects. The ones where everyone expects you to get them right, so if you do, then there’s little or no glory to be had from doing so, because you jolly well should have known it anyway. If, on the other hand, you get it wrong . . .

I’ll tell you why I bring it up. On Monday night, in our latest League match, we were ahead going into the individual round. The way it works is that each team takes it in turns to select numbers from 1 – 8. Each number represents a different subject. For our first we were given Shakespeare. Now, I don’t claim to be an expert – well, there’s no bones about it, I’m not – but I’m an English teacher, my degree is in English Lit and I know more about his work than the other guys in the team. So with a due sense of foreboding I volunteered, and then gasped an inward sigh of relief as I was asked
”From which play is the quotation ,”Cry havoc, and let slip the Dogs of War” taken?
Well, I mean you would, wouldn’t you? Like me you might never have seen or read ‘Julius Caesar’, but you still know it as the source of the quote. In fact everyone probably knew the source of the quote, except the guy who wrote the question. He gave the answer as “Romeo and Juliet”!

There is a process for making an appeal , or protesting, but our opponents, who were frankly thinking a lot more clearly and calmly than I was, sensibly suggested we wait until the end of the quiz to see if it made any difference or not. Well, to cut a long story short, my head went. They played brilliantly for the next round and a half, wiping out our lead through the individual questions, and then taking a four point lead when I missed an absolute sitter on films because my head was in the shed, and I wasn’t listening to my teammates, all three of whom actually knew the correct answer. Sorry boys. I pulled myself together for the last five questions, and we kept the gap at 4 points. Then in the last pair we were asked about the 1980 British Lions touring party. Their question was about an Irish flanker selected for the 1980 Lions. Understandably they opted for Fergus Slattery, but I was fairly sure that he didn’t tour then, which left me with one name – Dr. John O’Driscoll. Correct. Ours was about an Irish prop who played on the same tour. Phil Orr? I speculated. Correct.

The more mathematically gifted among you will have worked out that this would have given us 2 for a correct answer, and one for a bonus, which meant that we finished 1 behind. If you’re thinking, well, I bet you made the protest then, Dave, then you know me all too well. As soon as we checked each other’s scores, I said words to the effect of – well, I’m sorry boys, but we’re going to have to protest that answer to the Shakespeare question. – Then it happened. Our opponents, good and honourable men all of them, turned round and told me that there was no need for us to protest. They had thought at the time that my answer of Julius Caesar was correct, and in the interval, one of them had googled to check. They wouldn’t necessarily have said anything had the result been clear cut on one side or the other, but due to the way the scoreline had finished, they were going to concede that answer without us needing to make a protest. I have rarely been so glad that somebody brought their iphone with them to a quiz.

So a metaphorical bouquet to the gents of the Crown A of Maesteg, very good quizzers, and men of honour. Good luck tomorrow evening guys.

Brain of Britain - Round One - Heat 11

Right, well, now we’ve tackled that debate head on, as it were, let’s get on with the main event – the show itself. First up was David Love. Rings a bell with you? It did with me. A quick check on the database, and voila! He took part in the first round of Mastermind in Pat’s 2005 series, and then again in the 2007 SOBM. The second contestant was Richard Moss, who comes up blank on my database. Third, of course, was our Barry Simmons, clear favourite for the show and then some, and finally John Snedden. That was another one which rang a bell for me as well, and I didn’t need to check the database to remember that John was in Gary’s 2012 Mastermind series, where he lost in the semis to our own Nick Reed and Gareth Kingston. So certainly some experience was on show during this contest.

David kicked off with 2 correct answers, but didn’t know that the most densely populated Scandinavian country was Sweden. Barry knew that. Richard opened his account with 2, but really probably should have known that the missing Leatherstocking Tale from the list was the Last of The Mohicans. John made no mistake with that one. Now to Barry. He took his first, but didn’t get the phrase for being in the nude popularized by Danny Kay. Nobody had it – in the Altogether. John took two, but nobody knew that a sign in Milan would lead you to the Last Supper. Fair enough. John led with three and the others had two. David probably should have known the fair Maid of Perth – as did Barry. Richard didn’t know the literal meaning of KGB – Barry did – committee of state security. Barry then switched into a higher gear, and reeled off a set of five, to sprint into a lead. No gimmes there either! 8 points in a row – very impressive. John didn’t know, and neither did anyone else that Orta Benga was the star exhibit in a 1906 zoo exhibition, and he was a human being. Barry now led with 10 to John’s 3. Game over? Maybe.

David missed his first, an excerpt from Rigoletto. Altogether now – Barry had that. Now, this was my moment of the show. I knew the Immelman Roll, and nobody else, including Barry did. I also knew Ahenobarbus made the quote he was given from “Antony and Cleopatra”, but then that’s my job. Right , controversial moment of the show. John didn’t have a clue where the Moho discontinuity can be found. Barry clearly said “between the Core and the Mantle. I thought it was the crust and the mantle, and when Russell said yes, he then went on to say between the crust and the mantle. Okay, now it’s a small thing and made no difference to the outcome, but it’s not the same, is it? Or was it just because all they wanted was in the centre of the Earth? It was difficult to tell. Barry’s lead was now 9.

The Listener’s questions went on to beat the Brains. when asked for the only pair of brothers to both be nominated for acting Oscars they went for the Fabulous Bridges Boys ( alright, not hilarious, I know, but not that bad ), when the Phoenix Bros – River and Joaquin – were required. The second asked for the two currently married couples who have both won an award in an acting category. I knew that the ‘currently’ ruled out Woodward and Newman, but I had Douglas and Zeta-Spartacus-Jones straightaway, but I didn’t get Bardem and Cruz. A well-earned book token there. Now back to the show.

David ran out of time on his first, but Richard knew a set of diseases all transmitted by ticks. For his own set, amazingly nobody knew that “I’m Just a Girl who Can’t say No” comes from Oklahoma! (Rodgers and Hammerstein’s exclamation mark, and not mine). Barry took his first, but each of the contenders floundered on the spelling of Merckx, as in Eddie. John, perhaps with his eyes fixed on a runner up slot in the semis, took two. Some chemistry thing about elements followed. I didn’t really get it, but Barry knew it. 14 points now gained, and John up to 5. David didn’t know his first about Yeats – Barry did. Richard didn’t know his about an island in Washington State, and gave away a bonus on Seattle. Barry didn’t know that Ewan McCall wrote “The first Time Ever I saw your face.” Richard had a bonus there. John really should have known a lava lamp when he heard it described. David took that. David didn’t know that Two Faced Woman was the last film to star Garbo . John knew that. Nobody knew that the three words at the base of memorial stones for unidentified soldiers is ‘known unto God’. Barry , and let’s be honest, he didn’t actually need to answer another question in this show, didn’t know the philosopher Otto Weininger. Not surprised. never heard of him myself. John had as his first a musical question, about hardy perennial Peter and the Wolf. He didn’t know that what we had heard represented the Cat, but David did. That was enough to give him 7 to John’s 6. Barry, mind you, was on 15.

So to the last round. David took his first , but didn’t know that the Puddings of Pudding Lane were originally disposed offal. Nobody had that. Richard didn’t know about the recently knighted Quentin Blake, and that was another one for David. By the way, I was delighted to hear Russell using one of my favourite phrases – a good egg – to describe Sir Quentin as well. Onto Barry. He juggled with the acronym LED, but had it right, although I was a little surprised to see him go for County Down as the County where Malin Head lies. Russell did say in the question that it wasn’t in Northern Ireland. Still, the job was done, so you can’t blame him for taking his foot off the gas by this time. John took a bonus. Only his questions remained to take us to the end of the contest. Alas, nobody could remember that the writers who created Outnumbered are Andy Hamilton and Guy Jenkin. The final scores then were: -

David Love – 9
Richard Moss – 3
Barry Simmons – 17
John Snedden – 7


Well played all. I’ve made my feelings about the whole subject of Barry playing in BoB clear in my previous post, but it still can’t have been easy for the other three when they saw who they were up against, and they did well to keep their heads, and pick off what they could. But well done to Barry, who I think I detected just easing off a bit in the last couple of rounds once the job was done. There’s a lot more to come from him this series, I dare say. Good luck in the semis!

Brain of Britain - Discussion Point

If you listened to “Brain of Britain” this week, you’ll surely have noticed that one of the Brains in contention this week was none other than Egghead (and good egg) Barry Simmons. So before we start on the show it’s probably a convenient place to raise a discussion point. In the circles within which I move in my everyday life a lot of people tend to see me as a source of authority on all things quiz, due to having been on the telly a few times and having won a well known quiz show back in the day. So a colleague of mine who's a fan of Radio 4 in general and a regular listener to BoB asked me whether Barry Simmons who was on BoB on Monday was Barry Simmons from Eggheads. Indeed he is. His supplementary question was, “Well how is he allowed on the show then?”

I understand the question, without necessarily agreeing with the attitude behind it. I think that the argument probably goes that people tend to see Eggheads and Chasers as professional quizzers, while they see contests such as BoB and Mastermind as bastions of amateurism. People who hold this viewpoint probably think that it’s unfair to allow ‘professionals’ to take part against people who have to fit in their quizzing with the demands of a job. Like I say, I understand the argument, but there are problems with this viewpoint. I’ll try my best to explain my views here.

In the first place, I don’t know whether Eggheads and Chasers do make all of their living from their TV appearences. I have no idea how much they are paid, and I wouldn’t want to know. It is none of my business. But even if quizzing is their only ‘day job’ as it were, then what of it? For the fact is that they are not the only people to make a living from quizzing. I doubt the number of people who can do this is very large at all, and I doubt that it’s a bed of roses, and I doubt that anyone is ever going to make a fortune through doing it, but there are people who do it. Should they all be barred too? Let’s take it a step further. I know a question master who thinks that teachers, lecturers and other such professional knowledge brokers automatically have an unfair advantage in quizzing. He is, of course, wrong, but he’s not the only one who thinks it. So should people involved in education be barred? And so on.

Of course, each show has its own policy of whom they allow to appear, and reappear - Barry, as you may recall contested Geoff’s 2008/9 final. BoB is only being consistent by allowing Barry to appear. Back in 2005 Chris Hughes, already an Egghead, completed his Mastermind / BoB double. BoB are quite clear about this. They want the best quizzer in the series to win, and they don’t preclude people from entering because they might be too good. Compare this with something I heard during the semi finals of Mastermind 2006. Now, I stress, this is what I heard being said by a member of the production team. The team has changed since then, and what appeared to be the policy then may not be the policy now. But a member of the production team told me in 2006 that Daphne Fowler applied to take part, and was given an audition. She did as brilliantly as you would expect, but in the end the decision was made not to invite her to participate in that series. Why? That she didn’t explain, but reading between the lines, what else could it be? Now, if I have got the wrong end of the stick about this, I apologise unreservedly, especially since I’ve been told that Daphne is a fan of the blog. Now, if ever there was a glaring omission from the serried ranks of Mastermind champs, surely it’s Daphne.

For me it all comes down to this. Do we want these great shows to be contests of excellence, or not? If we do , then we don’t exclude anyone, be they Eggheads, Chasers, or anything else.

Of course, this is just my opinion, and as always, feel free to disagree.

University Challenge - Quarter Final Match 1

Manchester v. Imperial

Here we are in the quarter final stages then. On paper Imperial looked the more impressive in the first two rounds. But Manchester – well, I mean, they’re Manchester, aren’t they. And nobody is ever going to get rich betting against Manchester in UC. Their team of David Brice, Adam Barr, Debbie Brown, and captain Richard Gilbert came back from the dead in the first round to beat Lincoln, Oxford, and then looked much more convincing in knocking out Magdalen, Oxford in the second round. As for Imperial they impressively disposed of Jesus , Cambridge in their first round, and of Bristol in the second. The team of Pietro Aronica, Dominic Cottrell, Henry Guille and captain Martin Evans looked like a distinctly useful outfit, and were fancied by many – including this columnist – as one of the teams to watch.

The adjective short gave Debbie Brown the first starter, and this gave Manchester a set on Alexandre Dumas. 2 were taken.Richard Gilbert had a rush of blood to the head and leapt in too quickly for the next starter, losing five, but Pietro Aronica recognised a description of varieties of Kurdish. A nice set of bonuses on archaeologists brought 5 more points. Richard Gilbert again twitched too early on the next start, offering the term nouvelle vague instead of cinema verité, Martin evans had it. The Pulitzer prize brought just one bonus, but even so Imperial now had a lead of 30 to 10, and so far all seemed to be going according to the script.The next starter was the first picture. This time Richard Gilbert allowed JP to finish asking the question before buzzing in to tell us that the archaic English letter we saw was none other than yogh. More of the same gave both me and Manchester a full set, with eth , ash and thorn. Adam Barr knew that the greek letter mu is the symbol for a micron, and this led to bonuses on Philosophy.I had a couple, but Manchester had to let them go begging. Richard Gilbert had well and truly found his range now, as he buzzed in early for the name of King henry I’s daughter, the pretender Matilda. A great OC special set followed – two words, which between them contain the name of a greek letter – for example – tiresOME GAme gives you omega. Manchester were glad to accept the set, which meant that they had scored 60 unanswered points in the last few minutes. It was just past the 10 minute mark, and they led by 70 to 30.

Neither team, not I , knew about the Ethernet for the next starter. The Imperial skipper, seeing that Manchester were throwing caution to the wind with the buzzer decided that this was the tactic to adopt himself now, and buzzed impressively early to correctly answer on Small is Beautiful. Bonuses on fish brought another ten points to cut the deficit a little further. As soon as the name Ray Kroc was mentioned in the next starter I expected an immediate buzz, but JP was allowed to almost finish the question before David Brice buzzed in with the correct answer of McDonalds. The set of bonuses was on chemical energetics. No, me neither. Manchester got one of them. This brought up the music round. We heard a wee snatch of Handel, recognised by David Brice. Three more choral pieces followed. I only had the one, as did Manchester . JP was not impressed – “ of course – it’s Nimrod” he sniffed when we both offered Elgar as an answer. Neither team knew gastrula – but Dominic Cottrell lost five for Imperial through buzzing in too early. A great early buzz restored these points and more besides when Pietro Aronica offered Attila the Hun for the next starter. Asked about plays by Sophocles Imperial answered Antigone to each, and were right on the last one. That good old chestnut a cete of badgers followed. Dominic Cottrell buzzed early again and lost 5, but Manchester were unable to capitalise. Henry Guille knew the term algorithm to earn a set on algebra. Imperial managed 1. Still they were coming back at least. Martin Evans won the buzzer race on the 1916 Easter Rising, and the gap was down to 20. A set of amusing quotations from Johnson as related by Boswell, failed to yield any more. The gap then remained at 20 as we hit the 20 minute mark, so only one good set separated the teams. A good match, this.

The second picture set showed us Whitby Abbey, but nobody recognised it. Pietro Aronica unwittingly provided us with The Finest Comedy Moment Of The Series So Far with the next starter. when asked which romantic creation of Charlotte Bronte’s had been played on film by, among others, Timothy Dalton and Orson Wells he buzzed in to offer “Inspector Clouseau”. More about that later.Debbie Brown gave the correct answer of Mr. Rochester. Manchester , then , earned the bonuses on pictures of abbeys. I had Glastonbury, but that was me done. The team didn’t manage any. Richard Gilbert knew that the first US president to die in office was William Harrison. Walt Disney’s Fantasia – a film I love – gave Manchester 2 bonuses. Martin Evans, not giving up, buzzed in very early to give us the Ruhr. Bonuses on Astronomy took Imperial to triple figures, and only 30 behind. Henry Guille didn’t know that the Campbell Stokes apparatus records hours of sunshine, but Debbie Brown did. Unfortunate political predictions was the set of bonus that this starter brought up . 2 bonuses were taken. Martin Evans again played a captain’s innings by buzzing in early to identify the line “A thing of beauty is a joy forever” as the work of John Keats. The Merry Wives of Windsor provided another ten points, but the gap remained at 30. When the question which began 2Which activity precedes Kicking the Hornet’s nest and . . . “ Henry Guille did exactly the right thing buzzing in on instinct. Alas, the answer, which had been I am sure on the tip of his tongue fled, and he lost five. This let in Richard Gilbert, and the 10 points he derived virtually sealed the win. Cthonic stuff gave Manchester a full set, and with the gap now doubled to 60 and hardly any time left the game looked over. To hammer the point home Richard Gilbert won the buzzer race to name Henry VII as the monarch threatened by the pretender Lambert Simnel. A set of novels was the subject for the bonus, but we only had time for one before the gong. The final score 185 of to 115 certainly looked like an emphatic victory for Manchester, and they certainly look fair set for the semis now. However Imperial, despite being a little outplayed on the buzzer, were in the contest right up until the last three minutes or so, and they can still make it. Well played both – a thoroughly enjoyable show.

Jeremy Paxman Watch

You had to play close attention to see anything worthy of note in the first fifteen minutes this week. When he announced that the bonus that Manchester had earned for the McDonalds starter was on ‘chemical energetics’ he just paused momentarily and gave them a look which said ‘ your guess is as good as . . . ‘

I can’t quite make up my mind whether he was trying to wind up Manchester or Imperial when he said “The Imperial Team are all champing at the bit they know the answers to all of these I bet”. Probably both of them.

Mind you, there was a lot to enjoy later on. The great man was in his element with the Inspector Clouseau answer – “I don’t know how you GOT that – it’s COMPLETELY wrong!” he expostulated, while pulling the face of a rottweiler sucking on a lemon. He allowed Debbie Brown to answer, then went back for another dig at the unfortunate Mr. Aronica – “That’s one of the funniest misapprehensions we’ve ever had on this show!” – Ah, it’s all a far cry from dear old Bamber’s “That’s a veeerrryyyy good answer, but I’m afraid it’s incorrect.”

A little later he put on his best schoolteacher frown , as Manchester persisted in giggling in the back row while he was asking a bonus question , and he asked “ Are you listening while I’m talking ? “ Ah, I’ve been THERE before, Jez, and I know how you feel.
He earned a few titters by referring to the Chancellor of the Exchequer as “The Great George Osborne”.

Finally, to cap off what had developed into a virtuoso performance from the great man, in his words of consolation to Imperial he said “You had some pretty catastrophic buzzing in then, but it’s just nerves . . . or short circuit of the brain. “ That’s our JP, never see a team down without missing the opportunity to send them on their way with a little salt in their wounds.

Interesting Fact That I Didn’t Already Know Of The Week

Sweetheart Abbey is a ruined Cistercian monastery a few miles south of Dumfries.

In the News

In the News

Who or What Are the Following, and why have they been in the news?

1. Luciano Orquera
2. Simon Zebo
3. Daniel Harding
4. Ashley Gill-Webb
5. Bill Furniss
6. Debrecen
7. Reg Presley
8. David Jones
9. Fred
10. Mark Carney
11. Dale Cregan
12. A Good Way To Die
13. Liberty Global

In Other News

1. What was the score between Man City and Liverpool?
2. By which score did Italy beat France in the 6 Nations?
3. By which score did England beat Scotland
4. By which score did Ireland beat Wales?
5. Which country’s ambassador claimed only workers from his country built the 2012 Olympic village?
6. Which London attraction last week sold off props prior to moving location?
7. A ban on women wearing what in Paris has been rescinded
8. Who changed his plea in court to guilty this week
9. Which group reformed for the Superbowl half time show?
10. Which team won the Superbowl?
11. Whose identity was confirmed by DNA last week?
12. Which children’s TV series is set to return 50 years after it was first made?
13. Which company have become the first official sponsors of test match tea breaks in England?
14. Which airline covered up their tail markings on a plane that had veered off the runway?
15. Pakistan have announced plans to build a giant theme park where?
16. Which famous British athletics club has withdrawn from the British League due to a lack of volunteers?
17. How many MPs in total voted in favour of the same sex marriage bill?
18. Who announced her retirement from TV at the age of 71?
19. According to figures published las week, which are the world’s two least expensive cities to live in?
20. What is Chris Huhne’s consituency that now faces a bye election?
21. Who won his 100th cap against Brazil
22. Who has left Nottingham Forest after 41 days in charge
23. How many Conservative MPs voted against the same sex marriage bill?
24. Which two players scored England’s goals in the friendly v. Brazil?
25. Which Monopoly playing token was dropped last week, and by which token was it replaced?
26. Which broadcaster made his Twitter debut last week?
27. Which U Turn was taken by Michael Gove last week?
28. Which bank was fined £390million for its role in the LIBOR fixing scandal?
29. Which group began a series of gigs at the Tate Modern in London?
30. Which North African government dissolved last week?
31. What was the score in the football match between Scotland and Estonia?
32. What was the score in the football match between wales and Austria?
33. What was the score in the football match between Northern Ireland and Malta?
34. Which two teams reached the final of the African Nations Cup?
35. Who asked to be banned from driving when he appeared in court for speeding?
36. What did a survey reveal to be the least romantic place in Britain?
37. Which Findus frozen meal was revealed to contain up to 100% horsemeat?
38. Who is leaving “Dragon’s Den”?
39. Who is the only author to be in the top 10 most borrowed from British libraries for the last 30 years?
40. As well as taking penalty points for speeding, what else did Vicky Pryce claim that Chris Huhne had forced her to do?
41. Mark Cavendish won several individual stages, as well as the overall classification in which stage race?
42. Which longstanding Liverpool FC stalwart announced his retirement?
43. Whose uniform is being leant to the French Army Museum?
44. Which country is currently enveloped in a doping in sport scandal?
45. A fatal crash occurred in which Belgian airport?
46. What was England’s record T20 score v. New Zealand?

Answers to News Questions

Who or what are the following and why have they been in the news?

11      Adam Afriyie
22    Alan Levers

33  Graham Hughes

44   Elijah Joseph

55   Acer Nethercott

66   Fendi

77   Triage

88   Movie 43

99   Pishgam

110.  Sherwyn Sarabi

111.  Julian Ponder

112.  Tom Georgeson

113.  Sheila Fogarty

114.  Harriet and Bridget Mills

115.  Alex Thompson

116.  Nic Jones

117.  Patty Andrews

In Other News

11    In which three cities in Egypt was a state of emergency declared?

22  Britons were told by the FO to leave which part of Somalia?

33  Which famous song celebrated its centenary?

44  Who knocked Spurs out of the FA Cup?

55   Which club drew 2-2 with Chelsea in the FA Cup?

66  Which song was chosen by Aung San Suu Kyi on Desert Island Discs. even though she had never heard it before?

77   Which team knocked Liverpool out of the FA Cup?

88   Who praised Mussolini on Holocaust Day?

99.      Which team knocked QPR out of the FA Cup?

110.  What was the FA Cup score between Manchester United and Fulham?

111.  2013 is the 2ooth anniversary of which novel?

112.  Who quit the Fox News Channel in the USA?

113.  Which group announced they will be reuniting to play the Isle of Wight festival?

114.  Who abdicated in favour of her son?

115.  Which boxing veterans announced that they are to fight?

116.  Which England centre was ruled out of the Calcutta Cup, and who replaced him?

117.  What did the UCI do to the commission to investigate collusion in the Armstrong drug cover up?

118.  Who won the Costa Book prize?

119.  The bodies of 78 executed men were found where in Syria?

220.  Mario Balotelli is being sold to which Italian club?

221.  What was the score between QPR and Man City?

222.  Whose Times cartoon was criticized for anti Semitism?

223.  Which Scottish rugby player was born in the Netherlands, and played under-19 for England?

224.  Who took the tube from Farringdon to Kings Cross?

225.  What is the new Blackberry phone called?

226.  Which Tory minister says that leaving the EU would be a mistake?

227.  What is now the most commonly spoken non native language in England and Wales?

228.  Which country launched a satellite from its own soil for the first time?

229.  Which Olympic Gold medalist announced her retirement?

330.  David Attenborough said that he would choose whom as his successor?

331.  Which was crowned the speediest supermarket in which to shop?

332.  Didier Drogba was involved in a contested move from Shanghai to which club?

333.  Nine new bronze bells were made for where?

334.  David Beckham signed with which club for five months?

Answers

Who or what are the following and why have they been in the news?

11.      Tory MP who denied being lined up as Cameron’s successor

22      Gas mask wearing robber who died in Ladbrookes, Plymouth

33.      He completed the remarkable feat of visiting every country on Earth without flying

44.      New son of Elton John and David Furnish

55.      Olympic 2008 silver medalist cox who sadly passed away

66.      Italian fashion house paying for the restoration of the Trevi fountain

77.      Firm responsible for delivering the Government’s work programme, which allegedly labeled the disabled and jobless as LTB ( Lying, Thieving Bastards)

88.      New movie – dubbed The ‘Citizen Kane of Awful’

99.      Iranian rocket that put a monkey into space

110.  3 year old new member of Mensa

111.  Sentenced to 6 years for cocaine smuggling in Bali

112.  Artist who hid an £8000 cheque in Milton Keynes Art Gallery

113.  Presenter who swore on Radio5 Live interview when she saw a mouse in the studio

114.  Sisters who played on opposite sides in women’s England v. Scotland rugby match

115.  Sailor who got third place in Vendee Globe

116.  Radio 2 Folk Singer of the Year

117.  Last of Andrews Sisters – passed away.

In Other News

11.      Suez – Port Said – Ismalia

22      Somaliland

33.      Danny Boy

44.      Leeds

55.      Brentford

66.      The Green green Grass of Home – Tom Jones

77.      Oldham

88.      Silvio Berlusconi

99.      MK Dons

110.  4 – 1

111.  Pride and Prejudice

112.  Sarah Palin

113.  The Boomtown Rats

114.  Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands – in favour of her son Prince William Alexander

115.  Steve Collins and Roy Jones

116.  Manu Tuilagi

117.  They scrapped it

118.  Bring Up the Bodies – Hilary Mantel ( first to win both Booker Prize AND Costa prize)

119.  Aleppo

220.  AC Milan

221.  0 – 0

222.  Gerald Scarfe

223.  Tim Visser

224.  Charles and Camilla

225.  Blackberry 10

226.  Ken Clarke

227.  Polish

228.  South Korea

229.  Rebecca Adlington

330.  Brian Cox

331.  Lidl

332.  Galatasaray

333.  Notre Dame Cathedral

334.  Paris St. Germain