Saturday 16 February 2013

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 Goodwin24
Rufus Stilgoe19
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 Colman13
Rod Riesco12
Rob Cruise11
John Harris9


8 comments:

jim360 said...

Perhaps I shouldn't really be surprised but even so, it's interesting to see the same names come up again and again in quizzes. I recognise David Stainer of course from OC, and Barry from Eggheads. In this year#s Mastermind I think Rachael Neiman jumps out at me -- wasn't she on UC a few years back? And I'm sure I saw Thomas Grinyer on the show as some point recently.

I don't normally listen to BoB but might tune on now and then. Good luck to all!

Londinius said...

Hi jim

With regards to recurring names, well, the world of really competitive quizzing is a fairly incestuous one. I have written recently about why people keep coming back for another go in Mastermind. I haven't spoke to Barry about it recently, but I shouldn't be surprised if he sees BoB as a bit of unfinished business.

Rach Cherryade was on Mastermind a couple of series ago, when she reached the quarters, and she also got to the quarter finals in UC in the year that Alex Guttenplan and the team from Emmanuel won.

Thomas Grinyer was one of the stars of UC last year.

dxdtdemon said...

Great call on Darren Martin there. With Jill Goodwin and Clive Dunning out of the way, it looks like a Stainer-Simmons final is even more cemented, unless they unfortunately both get put in the same semifinal.

HughTube said...

I feel that Scott Dawson should be considered a contender, as he sits eighth on the BQA rankings (David Stainer is fifth and Barry Simmons fourteenth).

delilahcat said...

Stainer and Simmons aren't in the same semi-final.

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