In The News
Who or what are the following and why have they been in the news?
1. Squee
2. Miffy
3. 3
4. The Ring O’Fire Anglesey Coastal Ultra Marathon
5. Lindsay Sandiford
6. Dan Evans
7. Tom Lackey
8. Sir John Chilcott
9. Major Nidal Hussain
10. Remploy
11. Gordon Taylor
12. Shakter Karagandy
13. Annette Iren Johansen
14. Peter Humphrey
In Other News
1. Who was not released from hospital despite early reports to the contrary?
2. Ohio State University is now being officially sponsored by which clothing brand?
3. Who caused controversy with her appearance at the MTV awards this week?
4. In which country did a mass wedding of police dogs take place?
5. A spoof advert by German media students caused a storm this week, showing a Mercedes car going back in time to do what?
6. There has been much opposition to the Miss World competition going ahead in which country?
7. Which Nobel Prize winning poet passed away last week?
8. A huge canyon was discovered where last week?
9. Who is returing to the BBC after 3 years to present a show on Radio5 live?
10. Which 83 year old faces charges of indecent assault and making indecent images?
11. Which all-time great welsh fly half passed away aged 83?
12. What was the score between Spurs and Dinamo Tbilisi?
13. – and between Swansea and Petrolul Ploesti?
14. Which team defeated Chelsea in the Super Cup?
15. Which English team are drawn in the same Champions League group as champions Bayern Munich?
16. What was the result of the Commons vote on military intervention in Syria?
17. Which actor funds a spy satellite to keep an eye on the Sudanese dictator?
18. Which children’s TV series of the 70s is set to reappear?
19. Name the 83 year old who played straight man to his brother in a double act who passed away last week?
Saturday, 31 August 2013
Answers to News Questions
In the News
Who or What are the following and why have they been in the news?
1. Dinenka Maguire
2. nomophobia
3. Bridget Christie
4. Sergeant Robert Bales
5. John Dubis
6. Kenny Miller
7. Matty Smith
8. Sir Peter Hendy
9. Elaine West
10. Bo Xilai
11. Gareth Southgate
12. Rose Brewer and Flame Brewer
13. Pervez Musharraf
In Other News
1. Lance Armstrong has settled his case with which newspaper he had successfully sued for claiming that he used performance enhancing drugs before his confession last year?
2. Which former world leader’s retrial began last week?
3. Whose estate is to start publishing 5 unpublished works in 2015?
4. What was the score in the Cardiff City v. Man City match ?
5. Who won the Belgian GP?
6. Which team beat England for the bronze medal in the European Hockey championship?
7. Which became the first council to withhold hardship payments to smokers and drinkers?
8. Tuesday 27th August is the 50th anniversary of which famous speech?
9. Which water company was fined £200,000 for dumping sewage in the sea?
10. Which singer is to star in a show about his own life?
11. A player who won two world cup winner’s medals, and featured in the tournaments of 1954, 58, 62 and 66 passed away last week. Name him
12. What was the score in the Rugby League Challenge Cup final?
13. What did convicted Bradley Manning announce last week?
14. Which 89 year old was sworn in as president of his country for another 5 years?
15. Who was fined 50% of his match fee for ranting about Stuart Broad’s failure to walk int eh first test?
16. What was the score between Swansea and Petrolul Ploiesti in their first leg Europa League match?
17. What was the Europa League score between Spurs and Dinamo Tbilisi?
harlequins’ captain has signed on for two more years – who is he?
18. What was the length of sentence handed out to Bradley Manning?
19. In which city did the devastating chemical attack in Syria take place?
20. Which entertainer was told last week that he will not face sexual assault charges due to lack of evidence?
21. The man who promoted the Beatles on visits to the USA passed away last week. Who was he?
22. What was the score in the Champions League match between Arsenal and Fenerbahce?
23. Last week a man was found dead at the US home of which Australian singer and film actress?
24. Which 87 year old novelist passed away last week?
25. Angela Merkel has become the first German leader to visit the site of what?
Answers
Who or what are the following?
1. She set a new record in the world bog snorkeling championships in Llanwyrtyd Wells
2. Fear of being without a mobile phone which half of Britons surveyed suffer from
3. She won the Edinburgh Festival Comedy Award ( formerly the Perrier)
4. US soldier sentenced to life imprisonment following massacre of Afghan civilians
5. Charged with stalking Jennifer Lopez
6. Scottish international striker who has retired from internationals
7. Winner of the Lance Todd trophy in the Rugby League Challenge Cup final
8. Boss of transport in London alleged to have had an affair with a call girl
9. She has been promoted to the rank of Air Vice Marshal in the RAF, becoming its first ever female two star officer
10. A former rising star of the Chinese Communist Party, on trial for corruption
11. He has been named coach of England U21 football side
12. They are cousins who became the world’s youngest formation wingwalkers
13. The former dictator of Pakistan has been charged with the murder of Benazir Bhutto
In Other News
1. The Times
2. Hosni Mubarak
3. J.D.Salinger
4. Cardiff 3 – Man City 2
5. Sebastian Vettel
6. Netherlands
7. Edinburgh
8. Martin Luther – I have a Dream
9. Southern Water
10. Russell Watson
11. Djalma Santos
12. 16 - 0
13. He intends to switch gender
14. Robert Mugabe
15. 5 – 1 to Swansea.
16. 5 – 0 to Spurs
17. Chris Robshaw
18. 35 years
19. Ghouta
20. Jim Davidson
21. Sid Bernstein
22. 3 – 0 to Arsenal
23. Olivia Newton John
24. Elmore Leonard
25. Dachau concentration camp
Who or What are the following and why have they been in the news?
1. Dinenka Maguire
2. nomophobia
3. Bridget Christie
4. Sergeant Robert Bales
5. John Dubis
6. Kenny Miller
7. Matty Smith
8. Sir Peter Hendy
9. Elaine West
10. Bo Xilai
11. Gareth Southgate
12. Rose Brewer and Flame Brewer
13. Pervez Musharraf
In Other News
1. Lance Armstrong has settled his case with which newspaper he had successfully sued for claiming that he used performance enhancing drugs before his confession last year?
2. Which former world leader’s retrial began last week?
3. Whose estate is to start publishing 5 unpublished works in 2015?
4. What was the score in the Cardiff City v. Man City match ?
5. Who won the Belgian GP?
6. Which team beat England for the bronze medal in the European Hockey championship?
7. Which became the first council to withhold hardship payments to smokers and drinkers?
8. Tuesday 27th August is the 50th anniversary of which famous speech?
9. Which water company was fined £200,000 for dumping sewage in the sea?
10. Which singer is to star in a show about his own life?
11. A player who won two world cup winner’s medals, and featured in the tournaments of 1954, 58, 62 and 66 passed away last week. Name him
12. What was the score in the Rugby League Challenge Cup final?
13. What did convicted Bradley Manning announce last week?
14. Which 89 year old was sworn in as president of his country for another 5 years?
15. Who was fined 50% of his match fee for ranting about Stuart Broad’s failure to walk int eh first test?
16. What was the score between Swansea and Petrolul Ploiesti in their first leg Europa League match?
17. What was the Europa League score between Spurs and Dinamo Tbilisi?
harlequins’ captain has signed on for two more years – who is he?
18. What was the length of sentence handed out to Bradley Manning?
19. In which city did the devastating chemical attack in Syria take place?
20. Which entertainer was told last week that he will not face sexual assault charges due to lack of evidence?
21. The man who promoted the Beatles on visits to the USA passed away last week. Who was he?
22. What was the score in the Champions League match between Arsenal and Fenerbahce?
23. Last week a man was found dead at the US home of which Australian singer and film actress?
24. Which 87 year old novelist passed away last week?
25. Angela Merkel has become the first German leader to visit the site of what?
Answers
Who or what are the following?
1. She set a new record in the world bog snorkeling championships in Llanwyrtyd Wells
2. Fear of being without a mobile phone which half of Britons surveyed suffer from
3. She won the Edinburgh Festival Comedy Award ( formerly the Perrier)
4. US soldier sentenced to life imprisonment following massacre of Afghan civilians
5. Charged with stalking Jennifer Lopez
6. Scottish international striker who has retired from internationals
7. Winner of the Lance Todd trophy in the Rugby League Challenge Cup final
8. Boss of transport in London alleged to have had an affair with a call girl
9. She has been promoted to the rank of Air Vice Marshal in the RAF, becoming its first ever female two star officer
10. A former rising star of the Chinese Communist Party, on trial for corruption
11. He has been named coach of England U21 football side
12. They are cousins who became the world’s youngest formation wingwalkers
13. The former dictator of Pakistan has been charged with the murder of Benazir Bhutto
In Other News
1. The Times
2. Hosni Mubarak
3. J.D.Salinger
4. Cardiff 3 – Man City 2
5. Sebastian Vettel
6. Netherlands
7. Edinburgh
8. Martin Luther – I have a Dream
9. Southern Water
10. Russell Watson
11. Djalma Santos
12. 16 - 0
13. He intends to switch gender
14. Robert Mugabe
15. 5 – 1 to Swansea.
16. 5 – 0 to Spurs
17. Chris Robshaw
18. 35 years
19. Ghouta
20. Jim Davidson
21. Sid Bernstein
22. 3 – 0 to Arsenal
23. Olivia Newton John
24. Elmore Leonard
25. Dachau concentration camp
Friday, 30 August 2013
Mastermind - Round One - Heat Four
I’ll be honest, I didn’t check out the contenders or the specialist subjects prior to tonight’s show, so this was another unwikied one. It would have been quite enlightening to have had a look at the contenders first, though, since there were a couple of very familiar faces on show.
First up tonight was Barry Humphrey. Barry has appeared on quite a number of TV quizzes. You might well remember him as a member of the Footballers, the team which took 4th place in the last but one series of Only Connect. Or failing that, winning the final of Breakaway in 2012. In what I believe is his first go at Mastermind he offered us the TV show “Six Feet Under”. Barry answered very quickly, and for the most part, very correctly. Now, I wonder if this struck anyone else who watched tonight’s show. A number of regulars have commented on the length of some of the questions, but tonight it seemed to go beyond a joke in the specialist rounds. There were very few questions that were not qualified by a piece of needless, and sometimes irrelevant extra information. I’ll be honest, it makes even a round which you might know something about into something of a chore. As I say, Barry answered well, but even so the length of the questions meant that he was only able to score 10. The only thing I can really say in the show’s defence was that the questions in the other three specialist rounds seemed equally prolix to me.
So to this show’s second familiar face. By my reckoning tonight’s show was the start of Hamish Cameron’s 6th Mastermind campaign. If my information is correct – which I can’t guarantee – then Hamish has reached the semis on three occasions, but never made it through to the final. I should imagine that the closest that he came was in the 2007 SOBM, where he had the third highest score in all the semis, but was in the same semi as Stuart Cross, who had the first highest score in all the semis. Few people, then, know more about winning first round shows than Hamish. The subject he was hoping would carry him part of the way there tonight was James Ramsey Macdonald – one time MP for Aberavon (although that question didn’t come up). Hamish knew the majority of those that did, though. Bearing in mind the length of the questions his 12 looked to be a quality round.
Philip Price certainly hasn’t made 5 previous attempts to win a show on Mastermind, but he did make one in 2012. Back then he came 4th in his heat, so full marks to him for having another go. We’ll maybe discuss that a little more fully later on. His subject was The City of London Parish Churches of Sir Christopher Wren. Actually that’s a good subject, although I only managed 3 on it myself. Philip knew his stuff, but he probably didn’t quite know it quickly enough. I’d guess that he could have managed another couple of questions if he’d answered a little more quickly. 11 and 1 pass, on these questions, was a good return, but judging from his previous GK performance I couldn’t see him living with Barry or Hamish.
You wait all series for a first round contender from 2012, and then two of them come along at once. Our fourth contender, Isabel Morgan, also played in the first round two years ago, although not in the same heat as Philip. She was joint runner up in her heat, losing out because of the GK round. Her subject tonight was Welsh poet Alun Lewis. She knew her stuff, too. 13 and 1 pass on these questions is pretty good going. I don’t see how you could score above 15 on a 2 minute round with questions this long. Well, let’s leave that to one side for now.
Barry was the first to return to the chair, however this was not necessarily significant bearing in mind that the most likely opposition – Hamish – was only 2 points ahead. All you can do in Barry’s position is to go as fast as you can, answer as many as you can, and set a target which is as high as you can. Barry answered very quickly for the most part, and although he seemed to lose momentum once or twice he battled his way through to 14, for a total of 24. That was enough to leave all of his opponents needing double figures to win, and that can put anyone into the corridor of uncertainty.
Philip certainly never looked convincing in his round. 6 correct answers and six passes wasn’t a great return. Slow answers and a pass spiral meant he was doing the Mastermind equivalent of trying to roll a pea uphill with his nose. I somehow expected that it would be a different kettle of fish when Hamish came to sit down for his second round, and I was right. To put it into perspective, Hamish needed to score 13 to go into the outright lead, and if we take 28 to be a safe repechage score, he needed 16 to be almost certain of reaching the semis. Not easy, but doable if you keep your head. Hamish certainly managed that. He didn’t answer them all correctly, although he answered a lot of them correctly, and he did pass, but each of those three passes were made at a moment when he was right to do so, to get his round moving again and just keep racking up the points. Alright, despite his 17 for a total of 29 he didn’t know for certain that he was through, but Isabel would have to produce something very special to deny him.
She certainly started well enough, but as we’ve seen so many times, 2 and a half minutes can be a very long time indeed when you're trying to maintain a full head of steam. After the third question she was asked who wrote ‘not waving , but drowning’ she just couldn’t remember, and that was it, her momentum had gone completely. She had the presence of mind to pick off the questions she knew for certain, but it’s momentum which helps you come up with answers to questions that you aren’t sure of, or don’t know. The round was not even half over before the total Hamish had set was out of reach, and it wasn’t long before the current repechage threshold passed as well. By the end she’d reached double figure respectability with 10 and 5 passes.
So many congratulations to Hamish on reaching another semifinal, and I do sincerely hope that you make it to the final now. Hard lines to Barry – it was bad luck meeting such a good, seasoned Mastermind veteran in the first round. I hope that he might make a repechage slot, but it's looking precarious, even now. Now, just before we move on to look at the details, I would like to return for a moment to the whole question about what makes people come back to Mastermind for more. Now, this is all speculation on my part, and they may each have reasons which I haven’t ever considered. Still, I can only tell you what I think. I came back for a second bite of the cherry myself, and I had two reasons for doing so. One, despite losing in the first round in 2006 I enjoyed it, and two, more importantly to me, I was sure that I could do better. Hamish , having reached the semifinal so many times, cannot reasonably be expected to stop trying until he at least reaches the final. As for Isabel, well, as I said she was the joint runner up in her previous show, so it wouldn’t have been unreasonable to enter in the hope that she could go one better this time. As for Philip, though, well, that might be a little harder to understand. In Philip’s previous show, he had another modest GK score, and finished a considerable way behind the 3rd placed contender. Maybe tonight was a shot at putting that to rights. Or maybe he just enjoyed the whole experience last time round. There is actually something to be said for putting yourself through the discipline of learning a specialist subject for Mastermind, something actually rather enjoyable. When you get right down to it, enjoyment is the only sensible reason for applying for the show in the first place.
The Details
Repechage Table
Beth Webster 28 – 2
Barry Nolan 26 – 3
Ricki Kendall 25 – 4
John Berridge 24 – 3
Barry Humphrey 24 - 7
Lauren White 23 – 4
First up tonight was Barry Humphrey. Barry has appeared on quite a number of TV quizzes. You might well remember him as a member of the Footballers, the team which took 4th place in the last but one series of Only Connect. Or failing that, winning the final of Breakaway in 2012. In what I believe is his first go at Mastermind he offered us the TV show “Six Feet Under”. Barry answered very quickly, and for the most part, very correctly. Now, I wonder if this struck anyone else who watched tonight’s show. A number of regulars have commented on the length of some of the questions, but tonight it seemed to go beyond a joke in the specialist rounds. There were very few questions that were not qualified by a piece of needless, and sometimes irrelevant extra information. I’ll be honest, it makes even a round which you might know something about into something of a chore. As I say, Barry answered well, but even so the length of the questions meant that he was only able to score 10. The only thing I can really say in the show’s defence was that the questions in the other three specialist rounds seemed equally prolix to me.
So to this show’s second familiar face. By my reckoning tonight’s show was the start of Hamish Cameron’s 6th Mastermind campaign. If my information is correct – which I can’t guarantee – then Hamish has reached the semis on three occasions, but never made it through to the final. I should imagine that the closest that he came was in the 2007 SOBM, where he had the third highest score in all the semis, but was in the same semi as Stuart Cross, who had the first highest score in all the semis. Few people, then, know more about winning first round shows than Hamish. The subject he was hoping would carry him part of the way there tonight was James Ramsey Macdonald – one time MP for Aberavon (although that question didn’t come up). Hamish knew the majority of those that did, though. Bearing in mind the length of the questions his 12 looked to be a quality round.
Philip Price certainly hasn’t made 5 previous attempts to win a show on Mastermind, but he did make one in 2012. Back then he came 4th in his heat, so full marks to him for having another go. We’ll maybe discuss that a little more fully later on. His subject was The City of London Parish Churches of Sir Christopher Wren. Actually that’s a good subject, although I only managed 3 on it myself. Philip knew his stuff, but he probably didn’t quite know it quickly enough. I’d guess that he could have managed another couple of questions if he’d answered a little more quickly. 11 and 1 pass, on these questions, was a good return, but judging from his previous GK performance I couldn’t see him living with Barry or Hamish.
You wait all series for a first round contender from 2012, and then two of them come along at once. Our fourth contender, Isabel Morgan, also played in the first round two years ago, although not in the same heat as Philip. She was joint runner up in her heat, losing out because of the GK round. Her subject tonight was Welsh poet Alun Lewis. She knew her stuff, too. 13 and 1 pass on these questions is pretty good going. I don’t see how you could score above 15 on a 2 minute round with questions this long. Well, let’s leave that to one side for now.
Barry was the first to return to the chair, however this was not necessarily significant bearing in mind that the most likely opposition – Hamish – was only 2 points ahead. All you can do in Barry’s position is to go as fast as you can, answer as many as you can, and set a target which is as high as you can. Barry answered very quickly for the most part, and although he seemed to lose momentum once or twice he battled his way through to 14, for a total of 24. That was enough to leave all of his opponents needing double figures to win, and that can put anyone into the corridor of uncertainty.
Philip certainly never looked convincing in his round. 6 correct answers and six passes wasn’t a great return. Slow answers and a pass spiral meant he was doing the Mastermind equivalent of trying to roll a pea uphill with his nose. I somehow expected that it would be a different kettle of fish when Hamish came to sit down for his second round, and I was right. To put it into perspective, Hamish needed to score 13 to go into the outright lead, and if we take 28 to be a safe repechage score, he needed 16 to be almost certain of reaching the semis. Not easy, but doable if you keep your head. Hamish certainly managed that. He didn’t answer them all correctly, although he answered a lot of them correctly, and he did pass, but each of those three passes were made at a moment when he was right to do so, to get his round moving again and just keep racking up the points. Alright, despite his 17 for a total of 29 he didn’t know for certain that he was through, but Isabel would have to produce something very special to deny him.
She certainly started well enough, but as we’ve seen so many times, 2 and a half minutes can be a very long time indeed when you're trying to maintain a full head of steam. After the third question she was asked who wrote ‘not waving , but drowning’ she just couldn’t remember, and that was it, her momentum had gone completely. She had the presence of mind to pick off the questions she knew for certain, but it’s momentum which helps you come up with answers to questions that you aren’t sure of, or don’t know. The round was not even half over before the total Hamish had set was out of reach, and it wasn’t long before the current repechage threshold passed as well. By the end she’d reached double figure respectability with 10 and 5 passes.
So many congratulations to Hamish on reaching another semifinal, and I do sincerely hope that you make it to the final now. Hard lines to Barry – it was bad luck meeting such a good, seasoned Mastermind veteran in the first round. I hope that he might make a repechage slot, but it's looking precarious, even now. Now, just before we move on to look at the details, I would like to return for a moment to the whole question about what makes people come back to Mastermind for more. Now, this is all speculation on my part, and they may each have reasons which I haven’t ever considered. Still, I can only tell you what I think. I came back for a second bite of the cherry myself, and I had two reasons for doing so. One, despite losing in the first round in 2006 I enjoyed it, and two, more importantly to me, I was sure that I could do better. Hamish , having reached the semifinal so many times, cannot reasonably be expected to stop trying until he at least reaches the final. As for Isabel, well, as I said she was the joint runner up in her previous show, so it wouldn’t have been unreasonable to enter in the hope that she could go one better this time. As for Philip, though, well, that might be a little harder to understand. In Philip’s previous show, he had another modest GK score, and finished a considerable way behind the 3rd placed contender. Maybe tonight was a shot at putting that to rights. Or maybe he just enjoyed the whole experience last time round. There is actually something to be said for putting yourself through the discipline of learning a specialist subject for Mastermind, something actually rather enjoyable. When you get right down to it, enjoyment is the only sensible reason for applying for the show in the first place.
The Details
| Barry Humphrey | Six Feet Under | 10 – 2 | 14 – 5 | 24 - 7 |
| Hamish Cameron | Life and Times of James Ramsey Macdonald | 12 – 1 | 17 – 3 | 29 – 4 |
| Philip Price | The City of London Parish Churches of Sir Christopher Wren | 11 – 1 | 6 – 6 | 17 - 7 |
| Isabel Morgan | Life and work of Alun Lewis | 13 – 1 | 10 – 5 | 23 – 6 |
Repechage Table
Beth Webster 28 – 2
Barry Nolan 26 – 3
Ricki Kendall 25 – 4
John Berridge 24 – 3
Barry Humphrey 24 - 7
Lauren White 23 – 4
Wednesday, 28 August 2013
Linkee on' Dragon's Den'
I think you probably know me well enough that it doesn’t come as a complete shock to you when I say that I have not been averse to making the odd bob or two from quizzing when the opportunity has arisen. A few months ago a friend of mine who supplies questions to, well, basically to anyone who wants them, asked if I fancied putting together some question sets for a game called Linkee. I won’t lie, I had a go. To be fair they do invite you within the game itself to have a go and send them questions for nothing, and if it gets used in a future edition, then your name will feature on the card. Sorry guys, but I prefer the cash. Well, the reason why I mention it now is that I’ve just got round to watching Sunday’s edition of “Dragon’s Den”. The Linkee people were featured on it, pitching the Linkee game and brand to the dragons offering £50,000 for 10% of the company. If you want to see it for yourself it’s 30 minutes into the show.
If you’re not familiar with the game, well, basically it’s all about connections. The game consists of question cards. Each card has 4 questions. The QM reads out the first, and the selected player answers – or not, in which case it goes across. The answers to all 4 questions on the card are linked. As soon as any player knows the link, they shout out ‘Linkee!’ and give the connection to win that set of cards. Each card has a letter on the back, one of the letters of the name of the game. Once you collect all 6 letters to spell out Linkee, then you win.
Well, that’s basically it, anyway. At the risk of biting the hand that has fed me I will make a couple of observations. Speaking as at least a student of the quiz games genre if not a connoisseur, it’s not a bad game at all, and there are a lot worse out there. However, on Dragon’s Den the guys described it as ‘anti genius’ , saying that you don’t actually have to know very much to be ‘the smartest person in the room’. In addition the packaging does make a boast of the fact that the most serious quizzers are no more likely to win than any other player. I beg to differ. Even allowing for the randomizing factor of the letter collecting a serious quizzer will have read, or encountered a lot of these connections before in quizzes, and is more likely to spot them earlier. Let me give you an example of how this works, although not one from the actual game. Last week Rob from Lemurs produced the quiz in the rugby club, and bloomin’ good it was, too. After the first round it was obvious that he was asking connections questions. So when one set started with the question “What did Yankee Doodle call the feather in his hat?” I immediately said "The connection is penguins!” George of my team looked at me, shook his head, laughed, and said “How do you know things like that?” or words to that effect. Well, it’s pretty simple really. Most people know that Yankee Doodle called it macaroni. So if the connection begins that way then it’s most likely to be either the mundane connection of types of pasta, or the better connection of species of penguin. Not only that, but whenever I hear macaroni as part of a connection, then that connection is penguins. I’ve even used the same connection in one of my own quizzes. So it’s penguin, alright?! No, I didn’t say this to George, but I’m sure you know where I’m coming from. Well, the same principle works with the game. There are some good, original questions sets in it, but a lot that regular quizzers will have encountered before.
During their pitch in ‘Dragon’s Den’ the three creators revealed that they had been approached by a TV producer and asked if they’d ever thought of doing a TV version. Hmmm. I can’t help thinking that what would come of it would be a weak, watered down version of ‘Only Connect’ , without Victoria Coren Mitchell to boot.
SPOILERS
I’ll be honest, I thought that they’d priced themselves out of the market completely by giving the company a £500,000 valuation, bearing in mind that they’d only sold 2000 units at the time of recording, still the creators did actually get one offer of funding. Duncan Bannatyne offered the money in return for 40%, which they didn’t want to go for.
Is that it for Linkee, then? Not necessarily. The Dragons have turned down winners before. Certainly the appearance on the show probably won’t do it any harm. Good luck, anyway.
If you want to read my take on Linkee and a lot of other quiz games, past and present, then you can either click on My Web Pages in the adjacent links section, or you could follow this link : -
My Quiz Games Page
If you’re not familiar with the game, well, basically it’s all about connections. The game consists of question cards. Each card has 4 questions. The QM reads out the first, and the selected player answers – or not, in which case it goes across. The answers to all 4 questions on the card are linked. As soon as any player knows the link, they shout out ‘Linkee!’ and give the connection to win that set of cards. Each card has a letter on the back, one of the letters of the name of the game. Once you collect all 6 letters to spell out Linkee, then you win.
Well, that’s basically it, anyway. At the risk of biting the hand that has fed me I will make a couple of observations. Speaking as at least a student of the quiz games genre if not a connoisseur, it’s not a bad game at all, and there are a lot worse out there. However, on Dragon’s Den the guys described it as ‘anti genius’ , saying that you don’t actually have to know very much to be ‘the smartest person in the room’. In addition the packaging does make a boast of the fact that the most serious quizzers are no more likely to win than any other player. I beg to differ. Even allowing for the randomizing factor of the letter collecting a serious quizzer will have read, or encountered a lot of these connections before in quizzes, and is more likely to spot them earlier. Let me give you an example of how this works, although not one from the actual game. Last week Rob from Lemurs produced the quiz in the rugby club, and bloomin’ good it was, too. After the first round it was obvious that he was asking connections questions. So when one set started with the question “What did Yankee Doodle call the feather in his hat?” I immediately said "The connection is penguins!” George of my team looked at me, shook his head, laughed, and said “How do you know things like that?” or words to that effect. Well, it’s pretty simple really. Most people know that Yankee Doodle called it macaroni. So if the connection begins that way then it’s most likely to be either the mundane connection of types of pasta, or the better connection of species of penguin. Not only that, but whenever I hear macaroni as part of a connection, then that connection is penguins. I’ve even used the same connection in one of my own quizzes. So it’s penguin, alright?! No, I didn’t say this to George, but I’m sure you know where I’m coming from. Well, the same principle works with the game. There are some good, original questions sets in it, but a lot that regular quizzers will have encountered before.
During their pitch in ‘Dragon’s Den’ the three creators revealed that they had been approached by a TV producer and asked if they’d ever thought of doing a TV version. Hmmm. I can’t help thinking that what would come of it would be a weak, watered down version of ‘Only Connect’ , without Victoria Coren Mitchell to boot.
SPOILERS
I’ll be honest, I thought that they’d priced themselves out of the market completely by giving the company a £500,000 valuation, bearing in mind that they’d only sold 2000 units at the time of recording, still the creators did actually get one offer of funding. Duncan Bannatyne offered the money in return for 40%, which they didn’t want to go for.
Is that it for Linkee, then? Not necessarily. The Dragons have turned down winners before. Certainly the appearance on the show probably won’t do it any harm. Good luck, anyway.
If you want to read my take on Linkee and a lot of other quiz games, past and present, then you can either click on My Web Pages in the adjacent links section, or you could follow this link : -
My Quiz Games Page
Tuesday, 27 August 2013
University Challenge - Round One - Match 7
Brasenose College, Oxford v. Manchester
In many people’s eyes Brasenose drew the short straw having to face Manchester in the first round. Manchester have made something of a speciality of winning this competition, and are in fact going for their hattrick of consecutive wins this year. Whatever the magic formula is they seem to have found it, a fact that JP alluded to in his opening remarks. Looking at it from the other side of the coin, though, is the fact that this Manchester team must feel tremendous pressure considering what their immediate predecessors have done. Whatever the case, Brasenose introduced themselves first, and the team were Joshua Phillips, James Burt, Turner Edwards, and their captain Ben Ralph. The Manchester team consisted of Ed Woudhuysen, Joe Day, Jonathan Collins and their captain Elizabeth Mitchell. On with the show.
Turner Edwards opened the Brasenose account, knowing that Paul Durand Ruel was particularly associated with the Impressionists – that’s Monet and co, not Bremner and co. Bonuses on US political figures born in 1913 was a nice set to start with, and they managed two , missing out on Jimmy Hoffa. Jonathan Collins knew that Paul Johnson wrote an essay on the fictional character James Bond, and was none too complimentary about him either. This won Manchester their first set of bonuses on the novel ‘We’ by Yevgeny Zamyatin. Manchester managed one, but a full set for me meant that we were 8 questions in, and I was yet to drop one. That was coming, though, don’t you worry about that. Something about triangles and hypotenuses came next. I didn’t get it, neither did either team.A good early buzz from Johnathan Collins took the starter which asked for the knowledge that the Boilerhouse Project became the Design Museum.The set of bonuses on inventions and medical procedures pioneered in Ireland or by Irish people only yielded one correct answer. For the first picture starter we were shown a diagram of the seating plan for an orchestra. It was skipper Elizabeth Mitchell who correctly identified where the violins would sit. More of the same followed for the bonuses brought them another ten points for two correct answers. James Burt came in with the answer of slush fund on a good early buzz for the next starter. A full set on Mathematics bonuses took the Brasenose total to 45, just 5 points behind Manchester at the 10 minute mark.
Ben Ralph knew that Matthew Syed, author of Bounce – The Myth of Talent and The Power of Practice ( brilliant book – if you haven’t read it – do ) – competed at table tennis. When he said Ping pong for some reason there was no reaction to his answer, so he had to qualify it with table tennis. Another of those nice sets of places which each begin with a greek letter – for example Taunton – Tau was to follow. They managed two, but missed on Nullarbor Plain and Nuremberg – Nu. Still, it was enough to give them the lead. Right, the next question asked for the condition whose name is derived from the greek for half skull. The answer,as given by Ed Woudhuysen was migraine. Would they have accepted hemicrania, I wonder, which is the actual Greek, and the medical term as well? I’m glad to say that I don’t tend to get the nausea with it, just the headaches and the visuals, which is quite enough, thanks all the same. Bonuses on Gloria Steinem eluded them, and the Brasenose lead, although reduced, held for the time being. The next starter was a good old opera chestnut, if there should be such a thing. Asked what the Italian title of the opera rendered into English as “Women Are Like That” – I’ve heard it asked as ‘thus do they all’ – or ‘they’re all at it’ or variations on the same theme – Ben Ralph took a stab at Cosi Fan Tutte and hit a bullseye. Given a gettable set on musicals they managed one bonus. At this stage of the competition it was a tense affair, certainly, with neither team quite managing to capitalize with their bonuses. At the same time as I shouted ‘amethyst’ when JP asked for a variety of quartz with a deep purple colour, Elizabeth Mitchell buzzed in early with the same answer. Bonuses on chemistry meant nowt to me, but a couple of bonuses brought the teams level, as we went on to the music starter. A fantastically quick buzz from Elizabeth Mitchell earned her 10 points for recognizing Colin Firth’s warbling from the film of Mamma Mia. Given more actors giving it a go in film musicals, I just knew that either Lee Marvin or Clint Eastwood from Paint Your Wagon would be coming. As it happened, it was Clint. Michael Medved said that they could have advertised the film with the tag line “Dirty Harry Sings!” This was the only one that Manchester missed, and they had taken back the lead. Ah, the innocents of both teams failed to see that a Steve Jones quote about a human activity he called ‘the great leveller’ referred to sex. A good buzz from Joe Day saw him correctly answer that the Roman empire reached its greatest extent under the emperor Trajan. The team managed 2 bonuses on countries bordering Iran. Joe Day buzzed in just too early on the next starter. Asked about the chemical symbols for Uranium and Animonty when combined he knew you get USB. Ah, but the fiendish question wanted to know what it stands for – Universal Serial Bus as any regular quizzer can tell you ( though for heaven’s sake don’t ask what it actually does! ). Brasenose couldn’t get it, and so this meant that Manchester led by 110 to 80. Not a winning lead, but it was noticeable that Manchester had been making all the running for the last 5 minutes. Brasenose would need to find momentum from somewhere.
James Burt knew about the Malacca Strait, and Brasenose were scoring again. Bonuses on fictional characters and the real people they were based on or inspired by yielded them nothing, and we moved on to the second picture starter. Nobody recognized David Haig playing Jim Hacker in the remake of Yes Prime Minister. Not surprised. He’s a fine performer, but you can’t, and probably shouldn’t even try to improve on perfection. Elizabeth Mitchell won the buzzer race to announce Titian as the venetian artist who gave his name to a hair colour. This brought Manchester the fictional politician picture bonuses. They managed two, but couldn’t dredge up the title of The New Statesman. Joe Day knew that you get 57 degrees to one radian. Nope, me neither. Three bonuses on the outbreak of World War I brought their total to 155, a lead of 60, and this did now look like a decisive lead. Turner Edwards recognized a succession of heroines created by Edith Wharton, which took Brasenose into three figures. I loved the set of bonuses on English football clubs that have been runners up in the football league, but never won it. They managed one of them. A nice starter saw Jonathan Collins answer that the northernmost towns of England and Scotland – Berwick and , er , Wick ? – are linked by the letters – er – wick. Bonuses on the letter M in science ( there’s no letter M in Science the way that I spell it, but I digress ) – pushed Manchester’s score to 175. The increasingly effective Joe Day knew that Beethoven was born in Bonn . Bonuses on Wagner – that’s the composer, not the X-Factor contestant of years gone by – brought another 10 points. In another rgood old UC chestnuit, Ed Woudhysen knew that if the words “speech . . . 1946 . . . Stettin . . . Balkans” are uttered, then you’ve got to go for it with Trieste. Animal behaviour brought them two bonuses. That was pretty much it. JP started a question about what I think was Graham’s Law, but the gong prevented us from finding out.
The score was Manchester 215 – Brasenose 105. A convincing win on paper, which denies Brasenose any chance of going further. Still, they can take consolation from the fact that it was a real contest up until the last 7 or 8 minutes. Well played Manchester – good luck in the 2nd round.
Jeremy Paxman Watch
JP kicked off with a wigging for Ben Ralph for buzzing in but not answering straightaway. Small stuff, but we could only hope that he was just warming up.
When Manchester suggested that Gloria Steinem had worked undercover as a waitress in the Pentagon he replied, “No, the New York City Playboy Club. Not dissimilar, I agree.” Satire, even!
This wasn’t the last of it, either. When Elizabeth Mitchell quickly identified the dulcet tones of Colin Firth in Mamma Mia he replied, “You’re obviously a fan. . . Don’t know why – he just about made it through unscathed, I thought.” I don’t know, can you see JP dancing in the aisles of his local fleapit during the late showing of Mamma Mia?
We did get to see a glimpse of the iron fist within the velvet glove when Brasenose offered Sally for Sally Bowles. “I need more, “ said our hero, then “and I need it now!”
The sledgehammer of his sarcasm descended when the Manchester team offered the Mastersinger of Nuremburg as the opera about a song contest in Wartburg ( then again, maybe it WAS that Wagner) . “No . . . That’s obviously in Nuremberg!!!”
Interesting Fact That I Didn’t Already Know Of The Week
The term slush fund originated from the practice of cooks collecting money from the sale of fat, grease and watery food.
In many people’s eyes Brasenose drew the short straw having to face Manchester in the first round. Manchester have made something of a speciality of winning this competition, and are in fact going for their hattrick of consecutive wins this year. Whatever the magic formula is they seem to have found it, a fact that JP alluded to in his opening remarks. Looking at it from the other side of the coin, though, is the fact that this Manchester team must feel tremendous pressure considering what their immediate predecessors have done. Whatever the case, Brasenose introduced themselves first, and the team were Joshua Phillips, James Burt, Turner Edwards, and their captain Ben Ralph. The Manchester team consisted of Ed Woudhuysen, Joe Day, Jonathan Collins and their captain Elizabeth Mitchell. On with the show.
Turner Edwards opened the Brasenose account, knowing that Paul Durand Ruel was particularly associated with the Impressionists – that’s Monet and co, not Bremner and co. Bonuses on US political figures born in 1913 was a nice set to start with, and they managed two , missing out on Jimmy Hoffa. Jonathan Collins knew that Paul Johnson wrote an essay on the fictional character James Bond, and was none too complimentary about him either. This won Manchester their first set of bonuses on the novel ‘We’ by Yevgeny Zamyatin. Manchester managed one, but a full set for me meant that we were 8 questions in, and I was yet to drop one. That was coming, though, don’t you worry about that. Something about triangles and hypotenuses came next. I didn’t get it, neither did either team.A good early buzz from Johnathan Collins took the starter which asked for the knowledge that the Boilerhouse Project became the Design Museum.The set of bonuses on inventions and medical procedures pioneered in Ireland or by Irish people only yielded one correct answer. For the first picture starter we were shown a diagram of the seating plan for an orchestra. It was skipper Elizabeth Mitchell who correctly identified where the violins would sit. More of the same followed for the bonuses brought them another ten points for two correct answers. James Burt came in with the answer of slush fund on a good early buzz for the next starter. A full set on Mathematics bonuses took the Brasenose total to 45, just 5 points behind Manchester at the 10 minute mark.
Ben Ralph knew that Matthew Syed, author of Bounce – The Myth of Talent and The Power of Practice ( brilliant book – if you haven’t read it – do ) – competed at table tennis. When he said Ping pong for some reason there was no reaction to his answer, so he had to qualify it with table tennis. Another of those nice sets of places which each begin with a greek letter – for example Taunton – Tau was to follow. They managed two, but missed on Nullarbor Plain and Nuremberg – Nu. Still, it was enough to give them the lead. Right, the next question asked for the condition whose name is derived from the greek for half skull. The answer,as given by Ed Woudhuysen was migraine. Would they have accepted hemicrania, I wonder, which is the actual Greek, and the medical term as well? I’m glad to say that I don’t tend to get the nausea with it, just the headaches and the visuals, which is quite enough, thanks all the same. Bonuses on Gloria Steinem eluded them, and the Brasenose lead, although reduced, held for the time being. The next starter was a good old opera chestnut, if there should be such a thing. Asked what the Italian title of the opera rendered into English as “Women Are Like That” – I’ve heard it asked as ‘thus do they all’ – or ‘they’re all at it’ or variations on the same theme – Ben Ralph took a stab at Cosi Fan Tutte and hit a bullseye. Given a gettable set on musicals they managed one bonus. At this stage of the competition it was a tense affair, certainly, with neither team quite managing to capitalize with their bonuses. At the same time as I shouted ‘amethyst’ when JP asked for a variety of quartz with a deep purple colour, Elizabeth Mitchell buzzed in early with the same answer. Bonuses on chemistry meant nowt to me, but a couple of bonuses brought the teams level, as we went on to the music starter. A fantastically quick buzz from Elizabeth Mitchell earned her 10 points for recognizing Colin Firth’s warbling from the film of Mamma Mia. Given more actors giving it a go in film musicals, I just knew that either Lee Marvin or Clint Eastwood from Paint Your Wagon would be coming. As it happened, it was Clint. Michael Medved said that they could have advertised the film with the tag line “Dirty Harry Sings!” This was the only one that Manchester missed, and they had taken back the lead. Ah, the innocents of both teams failed to see that a Steve Jones quote about a human activity he called ‘the great leveller’ referred to sex. A good buzz from Joe Day saw him correctly answer that the Roman empire reached its greatest extent under the emperor Trajan. The team managed 2 bonuses on countries bordering Iran. Joe Day buzzed in just too early on the next starter. Asked about the chemical symbols for Uranium and Animonty when combined he knew you get USB. Ah, but the fiendish question wanted to know what it stands for – Universal Serial Bus as any regular quizzer can tell you ( though for heaven’s sake don’t ask what it actually does! ). Brasenose couldn’t get it, and so this meant that Manchester led by 110 to 80. Not a winning lead, but it was noticeable that Manchester had been making all the running for the last 5 minutes. Brasenose would need to find momentum from somewhere.
James Burt knew about the Malacca Strait, and Brasenose were scoring again. Bonuses on fictional characters and the real people they were based on or inspired by yielded them nothing, and we moved on to the second picture starter. Nobody recognized David Haig playing Jim Hacker in the remake of Yes Prime Minister. Not surprised. He’s a fine performer, but you can’t, and probably shouldn’t even try to improve on perfection. Elizabeth Mitchell won the buzzer race to announce Titian as the venetian artist who gave his name to a hair colour. This brought Manchester the fictional politician picture bonuses. They managed two, but couldn’t dredge up the title of The New Statesman. Joe Day knew that you get 57 degrees to one radian. Nope, me neither. Three bonuses on the outbreak of World War I brought their total to 155, a lead of 60, and this did now look like a decisive lead. Turner Edwards recognized a succession of heroines created by Edith Wharton, which took Brasenose into three figures. I loved the set of bonuses on English football clubs that have been runners up in the football league, but never won it. They managed one of them. A nice starter saw Jonathan Collins answer that the northernmost towns of England and Scotland – Berwick and , er , Wick ? – are linked by the letters – er – wick. Bonuses on the letter M in science ( there’s no letter M in Science the way that I spell it, but I digress ) – pushed Manchester’s score to 175. The increasingly effective Joe Day knew that Beethoven was born in Bonn . Bonuses on Wagner – that’s the composer, not the X-Factor contestant of years gone by – brought another 10 points. In another rgood old UC chestnuit, Ed Woudhysen knew that if the words “speech . . . 1946 . . . Stettin . . . Balkans” are uttered, then you’ve got to go for it with Trieste. Animal behaviour brought them two bonuses. That was pretty much it. JP started a question about what I think was Graham’s Law, but the gong prevented us from finding out.
The score was Manchester 215 – Brasenose 105. A convincing win on paper, which denies Brasenose any chance of going further. Still, they can take consolation from the fact that it was a real contest up until the last 7 or 8 minutes. Well played Manchester – good luck in the 2nd round.
Jeremy Paxman Watch
JP kicked off with a wigging for Ben Ralph for buzzing in but not answering straightaway. Small stuff, but we could only hope that he was just warming up.
When Manchester suggested that Gloria Steinem had worked undercover as a waitress in the Pentagon he replied, “No, the New York City Playboy Club. Not dissimilar, I agree.” Satire, even!
This wasn’t the last of it, either. When Elizabeth Mitchell quickly identified the dulcet tones of Colin Firth in Mamma Mia he replied, “You’re obviously a fan. . . Don’t know why – he just about made it through unscathed, I thought.” I don’t know, can you see JP dancing in the aisles of his local fleapit during the late showing of Mamma Mia?
We did get to see a glimpse of the iron fist within the velvet glove when Brasenose offered Sally for Sally Bowles. “I need more, “ said our hero, then “and I need it now!”
The sledgehammer of his sarcasm descended when the Manchester team offered the Mastersinger of Nuremburg as the opera about a song contest in Wartburg ( then again, maybe it WAS that Wagner) . “No . . . That’s obviously in Nuremberg!!!”
Interesting Fact That I Didn’t Already Know Of The Week
The term slush fund originated from the practice of cooks collecting money from the sale of fat, grease and watery food.
In the News
In the News
Who or What are the following and why have they been in the news?
1. Dinenka Maguire
2. nomophobia
3. Bridget Christie
4. Sergeant Robert Bales
5. John Dubis
6. Kenny Miller
7. Matty Smith
8. Sir Peter Hendy
9. Elaine West
10. Bo Xilai
11. Gareth Southgate
12. Rose Brewer and Flame Brewer
13. Pervez Musharraf
In Other News
1. Lance Armstrong has settled his case with which newspaper he had successfully sued for claiming that he used performance enhancing drugs before his confession last year?
2. Which former world leader’s retrial began last week?
3. Whose estate is to start publishing 5 unpublished works in 2015?
4. What was the score in the Cardiff City v. Man City match ?
5. Who won the Belgian GP?
6. Which team beat England for the bronze medal in the European Hockey championship?
7. Which became the first council to withhold hardship payments to smokers and drinkers?
8. Tuesday 27th August is the 50th anniversary of which famous speech?
9. Which water company was fined £200,000 for dumping sewage in the sea?
10. Which singer is to star in a show about his own life?
11. A player who won two world cup winner’s medals, and featured in the tournaments of 1954, 58, 62 and 66 passed away last week. Name him
12. What was the score in the Rugby League Challenge Cup final?
13. What did convicted Bradley Manning announce last week?
14. Which 89 year old was sworn in as president of his country for another 5 years?
15. Who was fined 50% of his match fee for ranting about Stuart Broad’s failure to walk int eh first test?
16. What was the score between Swansea and Petrolul Ploiesti in their first leg Europa League match?
17. What was the Europa League score between Spurs and Dinamo Tbilisi?
harlequins’ captain has signed on for two more years – who is he?
18. What was the length of sentence handed out to Bradley Manning?
19. In which city did the devastating chemical attack in Syria take place?
20. Which entertainer was told last week that he will not face sexual assault charges due to lack of evidence?
21. The man who promoted the Beatles on visits to the USA passed away last week. Who was he?
22. What was the score in the Champions League match between Arsenal and Fenerbahce?
23. Last week a man was found dead at the US home of which Australian singer and film actress?
24. Which 87 year old novelist passed away last week?
25. Angela Merkel has become the first German leader to visit the site of what?
Who or What are the following and why have they been in the news?
1. Dinenka Maguire
2. nomophobia
3. Bridget Christie
4. Sergeant Robert Bales
5. John Dubis
6. Kenny Miller
7. Matty Smith
8. Sir Peter Hendy
9. Elaine West
10. Bo Xilai
11. Gareth Southgate
12. Rose Brewer and Flame Brewer
13. Pervez Musharraf
In Other News
1. Lance Armstrong has settled his case with which newspaper he had successfully sued for claiming that he used performance enhancing drugs before his confession last year?
2. Which former world leader’s retrial began last week?
3. Whose estate is to start publishing 5 unpublished works in 2015?
4. What was the score in the Cardiff City v. Man City match ?
5. Who won the Belgian GP?
6. Which team beat England for the bronze medal in the European Hockey championship?
7. Which became the first council to withhold hardship payments to smokers and drinkers?
8. Tuesday 27th August is the 50th anniversary of which famous speech?
9. Which water company was fined £200,000 for dumping sewage in the sea?
10. Which singer is to star in a show about his own life?
11. A player who won two world cup winner’s medals, and featured in the tournaments of 1954, 58, 62 and 66 passed away last week. Name him
12. What was the score in the Rugby League Challenge Cup final?
13. What did convicted Bradley Manning announce last week?
14. Which 89 year old was sworn in as president of his country for another 5 years?
15. Who was fined 50% of his match fee for ranting about Stuart Broad’s failure to walk int eh first test?
16. What was the score between Swansea and Petrolul Ploiesti in their first leg Europa League match?
17. What was the Europa League score between Spurs and Dinamo Tbilisi?
harlequins’ captain has signed on for two more years – who is he?
18. What was the length of sentence handed out to Bradley Manning?
19. In which city did the devastating chemical attack in Syria take place?
20. Which entertainer was told last week that he will not face sexual assault charges due to lack of evidence?
21. The man who promoted the Beatles on visits to the USA passed away last week. Who was he?
22. What was the score in the Champions League match between Arsenal and Fenerbahce?
23. Last week a man was found dead at the US home of which Australian singer and film actress?
24. Which 87 year old novelist passed away last week?
25. Angela Merkel has become the first German leader to visit the site of what?
Answers to News Questions
In the News
Who Or What are the following and why have they been in the news?
1. Hannah and Sean Gastonguay
2. Castlederg
3. Daniel Rosenthal
4. Erica Kacicova
5. Vitaly Milonov
6. Owen Morris
7. Ron Freeman
8. Colin Fleming
9. Trevor Storer
10. David McLetchie
11. Missy
12. Laszlo Csatary
13. James ‘Whitey’ Bulger
14. Amantle Montsho
15. Nate Silver
16. Michelle McCollum Connolly and Melissa Reid
17. Jon Brookes
18. Rickie Lambert
19. Dean Porter
20. Mick Deane
21. Joan Edwards
22. Stuart Wheeler
23. John Goss
24. Tony Eggington
25. Marion Bartoli
26. Sergey Kovalev
27. Darren Barker
28. Carmelo Flores
29. United Learning
30. Chris Hallam MBE
In Other News
1. Who was named Forbes Magazine highest TV earner ?
2. Which supermarket chain was attacked by the Labour party over claims about the use of’cheap immigrant labour’?
3. Who will step down after the next General Election to provide Boris Johnson with a safe seat?
4. Which media tycoon’s widow passed away last week?
5. Which disgraced former MP was appointed European manager of Zilkha Biomass Energy?
6. What was banned on trains and platforms last week by several rail companies?
7. Which spectacular meteor shower passed last week?
8. What was the score in the Community Shield ?
9. Who was the runner up in the men’s 100m at the world championships ?
10. Who scored his third century of the Ashes series in the 4th test?
11. Which water company asked for permission for a one-off rise in prices above the rate of inflation by on average £29 , despite making over £1 billion profit last year?
12. What are the two most popular names for newborns?
13. Whose 6 wickets in the fourth Ashes test gave England the win, and an unbeatable 3-0 lead in the series?
14. Which TV presenter found his new beard criticized last week?
15. Name the British athlete, a potential medalist, who was injured in the women’s 400m hurdles final in the World Championships
16. What was the score in the Northern Ireland v. Russia football match?
17. It was announced last week that who has been charged with 11 counts of indecent assault and one of sexual assault ?
18. What is the level of the new ‘on the spot fine’ for hogging the middle lane on a motorway?
19. Which World Athletics gold medal winner spoke in support of Russia’s anti gay laws?
20. Last week the US Government finally admitted the existence of what?
21. Which Coronation Street actor was suspended over a series of foul mouthed raps?
22. All five Respect Party councilors in Bradford resigned from the party last week over what?
23. Which racing circuit was sold off last week?
24. Which british runner became only the second teenager after Usain Bolt to run 200m in less than 20 seconds during the world championships last week?
25. Britain’s women took 4x100m bronze after which team were disqualified during the world championships?
26. How many medals did GB win in Moscow to reach their pre championship target?
27. What action was taken by Spanish fishermen last week?
Answers
1. Couple who were lost at sea after trying to leave USA on a boat , rescued and flown home.
2. Village in County tyrone where a controversial Republican march passed peacefully
3. Paranoid schizophrenic convicted of murder who went missing from Tatchbury Mount Hospital
4. Missing Sheffield 13 year old
5. Architect of Russia’s Anti Gay laws – branded Stephen Fry as ‘sick’
6. Ex of Brooke Magnanti – “Belle du Jour” – claimed that a lot of the exploits in the book are made up
7. Man who broke the record for the longest Worthing Birdman competition flight, but could not claim the £10,000 prize for a 100m flight ( he flew 106m) because winds took him sideways, and he only went ‘forward’ 63 metres 8. Andy Murray’s Doubles partner. They lost in the final of the Montreal Open
9. Founder of Pukka Pies – passed away
10. Former leader of Scottish Conservatives, passed away from cancer - 61
11. 38 year old penguin – world’s oldest – in Birdland, Gloucs
12. World’s most wanted Nazi – died ,98, just weeks before his trial
13. US Mobster found guilty last week, facing rest of his life behind bars
14. Runner who lost to Christine Ohuruogu in a photo finish for the women’s 400m in the World championships in Moscow
15. US Pollster who has predicted failure for the Yes campaign in the Scottish independence referendum
16. Two women held in Peru accused of attempting to smuggle £1.5 million of cocaine out of the country
17. Drummer with the Charlatans – passed away aged 44
18. Scored the winner in England’s 3 – 2 win over Scotland
19. He egged Ed Milliband
20. Sky cameraman shot dead in Egypt
21. The lady who left her fortune for ‘the government’ of the day – which created a storm last week
22. UKIP treasurer accused of sexism last week
23. Ryanair “Whistleblower” pilot who appeared on Channel Four ‘Dispatches’
24. Mayor of Mansfield told not to wear his chains of office by a section of the council
25. Wimbledon champion who has announced her retirement at 28 years of age
26. He won the WBO world light heavyweight title from Nathan Cleverley 27. He defeated champion Daniel Geale to win the IBF world Middleweight title
28. Peruvian farmer claimed to be 123 years old, the world’s oldest ever person
29. Britain’s biggest academy chain, offering 5% over the government’s public sector pay ceiling
30. All time great paralympian athlete, passed away last week
In Other News
1. Simon Cowell
2. Tesco
3. John Bercow
4. Robert Maxwell’s wife Betty
5. Chris Huhne
6. E-cigarettes
7. Perseids
8. Man Utd. 2 – Wigan Athletic – 0
9. Justin Gatlin
10. Ian Bell
11. Thames Water
12. Harry and Amelia
13. Stuart Broad
14. Jeremy Paxman
15. Perri Shakes-Drayton
16. 1 – 0 win for Northern Ireland
17. Dave Lee Travis
18. £100
19. Yelena Isinbayeva
20. Area 51
21. Chris Fountain
22. George Galloway’s intention to stand as a candidate in the election for the Mayor of London
23. Silverstone
24. Adam Gemili
25. France
26. Six
27. They blockaded Gibraltar
Who Or What are the following and why have they been in the news?
1. Hannah and Sean Gastonguay
2. Castlederg
3. Daniel Rosenthal
4. Erica Kacicova
5. Vitaly Milonov
6. Owen Morris
7. Ron Freeman
8. Colin Fleming
9. Trevor Storer
10. David McLetchie
11. Missy
12. Laszlo Csatary
13. James ‘Whitey’ Bulger
14. Amantle Montsho
15. Nate Silver
16. Michelle McCollum Connolly and Melissa Reid
17. Jon Brookes
18. Rickie Lambert
19. Dean Porter
20. Mick Deane
21. Joan Edwards
22. Stuart Wheeler
23. John Goss
24. Tony Eggington
25. Marion Bartoli
26. Sergey Kovalev
27. Darren Barker
28. Carmelo Flores
29. United Learning
30. Chris Hallam MBE
In Other News
1. Who was named Forbes Magazine highest TV earner ?
2. Which supermarket chain was attacked by the Labour party over claims about the use of’cheap immigrant labour’?
3. Who will step down after the next General Election to provide Boris Johnson with a safe seat?
4. Which media tycoon’s widow passed away last week?
5. Which disgraced former MP was appointed European manager of Zilkha Biomass Energy?
6. What was banned on trains and platforms last week by several rail companies?
7. Which spectacular meteor shower passed last week?
8. What was the score in the Community Shield ?
9. Who was the runner up in the men’s 100m at the world championships ?
10. Who scored his third century of the Ashes series in the 4th test?
11. Which water company asked for permission for a one-off rise in prices above the rate of inflation by on average £29 , despite making over £1 billion profit last year?
12. What are the two most popular names for newborns?
13. Whose 6 wickets in the fourth Ashes test gave England the win, and an unbeatable 3-0 lead in the series?
14. Which TV presenter found his new beard criticized last week?
15. Name the British athlete, a potential medalist, who was injured in the women’s 400m hurdles final in the World Championships
16. What was the score in the Northern Ireland v. Russia football match?
17. It was announced last week that who has been charged with 11 counts of indecent assault and one of sexual assault ?
18. What is the level of the new ‘on the spot fine’ for hogging the middle lane on a motorway?
19. Which World Athletics gold medal winner spoke in support of Russia’s anti gay laws?
20. Last week the US Government finally admitted the existence of what?
21. Which Coronation Street actor was suspended over a series of foul mouthed raps?
22. All five Respect Party councilors in Bradford resigned from the party last week over what?
23. Which racing circuit was sold off last week?
24. Which british runner became only the second teenager after Usain Bolt to run 200m in less than 20 seconds during the world championships last week?
25. Britain’s women took 4x100m bronze after which team were disqualified during the world championships?
26. How many medals did GB win in Moscow to reach their pre championship target?
27. What action was taken by Spanish fishermen last week?
Answers
1. Couple who were lost at sea after trying to leave USA on a boat , rescued and flown home.
2. Village in County tyrone where a controversial Republican march passed peacefully
3. Paranoid schizophrenic convicted of murder who went missing from Tatchbury Mount Hospital
4. Missing Sheffield 13 year old
5. Architect of Russia’s Anti Gay laws – branded Stephen Fry as ‘sick’
6. Ex of Brooke Magnanti – “Belle du Jour” – claimed that a lot of the exploits in the book are made up
7. Man who broke the record for the longest Worthing Birdman competition flight, but could not claim the £10,000 prize for a 100m flight ( he flew 106m) because winds took him sideways, and he only went ‘forward’ 63 metres 8. Andy Murray’s Doubles partner. They lost in the final of the Montreal Open
9. Founder of Pukka Pies – passed away
10. Former leader of Scottish Conservatives, passed away from cancer - 61
11. 38 year old penguin – world’s oldest – in Birdland, Gloucs
12. World’s most wanted Nazi – died ,98, just weeks before his trial
13. US Mobster found guilty last week, facing rest of his life behind bars
14. Runner who lost to Christine Ohuruogu in a photo finish for the women’s 400m in the World championships in Moscow
15. US Pollster who has predicted failure for the Yes campaign in the Scottish independence referendum
16. Two women held in Peru accused of attempting to smuggle £1.5 million of cocaine out of the country
17. Drummer with the Charlatans – passed away aged 44
18. Scored the winner in England’s 3 – 2 win over Scotland
19. He egged Ed Milliband
20. Sky cameraman shot dead in Egypt
21. The lady who left her fortune for ‘the government’ of the day – which created a storm last week
22. UKIP treasurer accused of sexism last week
23. Ryanair “Whistleblower” pilot who appeared on Channel Four ‘Dispatches’
24. Mayor of Mansfield told not to wear his chains of office by a section of the council
25. Wimbledon champion who has announced her retirement at 28 years of age
26. He won the WBO world light heavyweight title from Nathan Cleverley 27. He defeated champion Daniel Geale to win the IBF world Middleweight title
28. Peruvian farmer claimed to be 123 years old, the world’s oldest ever person
29. Britain’s biggest academy chain, offering 5% over the government’s public sector pay ceiling
30. All time great paralympian athlete, passed away last week
In Other News
1. Simon Cowell
2. Tesco
3. John Bercow
4. Robert Maxwell’s wife Betty
5. Chris Huhne
6. E-cigarettes
7. Perseids
8. Man Utd. 2 – Wigan Athletic – 0
9. Justin Gatlin
10. Ian Bell
11. Thames Water
12. Harry and Amelia
13. Stuart Broad
14. Jeremy Paxman
15. Perri Shakes-Drayton
16. 1 – 0 win for Northern Ireland
17. Dave Lee Travis
18. £100
19. Yelena Isinbayeva
20. Area 51
21. Chris Fountain
22. George Galloway’s intention to stand as a candidate in the election for the Mayor of London
23. Silverstone
24. Adam Gemili
25. France
26. Six
27. They blockaded Gibraltar
Friday, 23 August 2013
Mastermind - Round One - Heat Three
I didn’t wiki this week, after the excitement of last week’s show. None of the subjects looked like bankers to me this time, and so apart from not really wanting to put the time into looking up any of the subjects, I wanted to set a benchmark for an unwikied show. That’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it.
The first of last night’s contenders, Darren Martin, is not unknown in these parts. Most recently you might remember that he was third in this year’s Brain of Britain Grand Final. In terms of Mastermind Darren was also third in the Grand Final of Andy’s 2003 series. You might have seen him fairly recently in that on Classic Mastermind. With that kind of pedigree he was very much the form horse in this line up. Darren was answering on the films of Peter Sellers. If there was one thing that this round taught me it was that Sellers made quite a lot of films, and I haven’t actually seen that many of them. I was happy with my 4. Darren, on the other hand, looked as if he wasn’t that pleased with his own 10. That’s absolutely nothing to be ashamed of, especially with GK still to come.
I don’t believe that any of the other three contenders have been on mastermind before, and so they were each of them something of an unknown quantity. Pat Ready , next up, was to offer us Orchids. Given the number of species that’s a pretty big subject. Under the circumstances I was pleased enough with my 3 points. Pat took a good 11, and already it was shaping up to be one of those shows where there’s not much to choose between any of the specialist scores. Having said that there were still 2 to go, and everything could still change.
Chris Kilbride, on the Life and Music of Paul Robeson, took a very calm and measured approach to his round. He considered each question on its merits, then gave his answer. However speed is not something you can forget about completely in a Mastermind round, especially if you get a couple wrong, as did Chris, and so he too finished with 10 points, but only 1 pass. Me? I had 3, although I did get Proud Valley, which was the one Chris passed on. There is (or was) a mural on the railway club, where I began quizzing, and part of the mural is a poster for that same film.
The Open Golf Championship 1960 – 2012 was the subject which promised most points for me in this show. There’s been a lot said about the Olympics round last week, and for what it’s worth I do believe that it ended up being easier than it needed to be, so I was really interested to see whether the same would apply to this sports subject. On the whole I’d say not. I managed 7 of these, and that was dredging two or three up from heaven alone knows where. Barry Nolan certainly produced the pick of the specialist rounds, although his 12 points and 1 pass only gave him a cushion of 2 points over the contenders in third and fourth. Everything would come down to GK, then.My specialist aggregate was 17 - which incidentally was only 3 more than I had on the Olympic round last week.
Darren returned to the chair first of all. Being realistic, I think it will take a score of 27 to give a contender hopes of earning a repechage semi final slot. In Darren’s case that would have meant getting a score of 17 on GK. That is certainly do-able, but it’s quite an ask. So it was all the more important to push the target for the other contenders as high as possible, to win and earn the semi final slot by right. He certainly had a go. Darren used the old hand’s tactic of only giving the surname when asked for a person’s name in order to save a little time. He answered quickly, but somehow it just wasn’t quite there in this show. By the end of the round he’d added another 11 points, but by the look on his face he knew that he’d passed on things that, on another day, he’d have answered. It was just a round that didn’t work out for him, and that’s tough luck. He finished on 21.
Chris Kilbride’s round provided a contrast to Darren’s. There was no concession made in the interests of speed, but the first half of the round was actually very accurate. The second half wasn’t bad either, come to think of it. Chris answered every question, and judging from the number he had right – 16 – and the breadth of knowledge he displayed I’d dare say that he is a quizzer. A target of 26 looked more than enough to put the other two contenders well into the corridor of uncertainty.
Pat Ready started her round well enough, but never looked entirely comfortable. As the round progressed what head of steam she’d built up certainly evaporated, and I’m afraid that she had that most uncomfortable of black chair experiences, a pass spiral. It was only with the very last question that she managed to pull herself out of her nosedive, and take her score to 8 for the round, and 19 overall.
Barry Nolan needed 14 and no passes to tie, or 15 to win. even in a two and a half minute round that isn’t easy. Much as he had with his specialist round Barry snapped out answers to questions he knew. As we moved into the last 30 seconds it looked desperately tight, and it stayed that way up to the end. Barry did indeed add 14 to his total, but he also added another 2 passes, and that, as they say was that. It was hard lines. 26 is a useful total, but if I’m honest I think it may prove to be a point or two short of a semi final slot. Well done to Chris Kilbride though, and good luck for the semi finals.
Details
Repechage Table
Beth Webster 28 – 2
Barry Nolan 26 – 3
Ricki Kendall 25 – 4
John Berridge 24 – 3
Lauren White 23 – 4
Darren Martin 21 – 8
The first of last night’s contenders, Darren Martin, is not unknown in these parts. Most recently you might remember that he was third in this year’s Brain of Britain Grand Final. In terms of Mastermind Darren was also third in the Grand Final of Andy’s 2003 series. You might have seen him fairly recently in that on Classic Mastermind. With that kind of pedigree he was very much the form horse in this line up. Darren was answering on the films of Peter Sellers. If there was one thing that this round taught me it was that Sellers made quite a lot of films, and I haven’t actually seen that many of them. I was happy with my 4. Darren, on the other hand, looked as if he wasn’t that pleased with his own 10. That’s absolutely nothing to be ashamed of, especially with GK still to come.
I don’t believe that any of the other three contenders have been on mastermind before, and so they were each of them something of an unknown quantity. Pat Ready , next up, was to offer us Orchids. Given the number of species that’s a pretty big subject. Under the circumstances I was pleased enough with my 3 points. Pat took a good 11, and already it was shaping up to be one of those shows where there’s not much to choose between any of the specialist scores. Having said that there were still 2 to go, and everything could still change.
Chris Kilbride, on the Life and Music of Paul Robeson, took a very calm and measured approach to his round. He considered each question on its merits, then gave his answer. However speed is not something you can forget about completely in a Mastermind round, especially if you get a couple wrong, as did Chris, and so he too finished with 10 points, but only 1 pass. Me? I had 3, although I did get Proud Valley, which was the one Chris passed on. There is (or was) a mural on the railway club, where I began quizzing, and part of the mural is a poster for that same film.
The Open Golf Championship 1960 – 2012 was the subject which promised most points for me in this show. There’s been a lot said about the Olympics round last week, and for what it’s worth I do believe that it ended up being easier than it needed to be, so I was really interested to see whether the same would apply to this sports subject. On the whole I’d say not. I managed 7 of these, and that was dredging two or three up from heaven alone knows where. Barry Nolan certainly produced the pick of the specialist rounds, although his 12 points and 1 pass only gave him a cushion of 2 points over the contenders in third and fourth. Everything would come down to GK, then.My specialist aggregate was 17 - which incidentally was only 3 more than I had on the Olympic round last week.
Darren returned to the chair first of all. Being realistic, I think it will take a score of 27 to give a contender hopes of earning a repechage semi final slot. In Darren’s case that would have meant getting a score of 17 on GK. That is certainly do-able, but it’s quite an ask. So it was all the more important to push the target for the other contenders as high as possible, to win and earn the semi final slot by right. He certainly had a go. Darren used the old hand’s tactic of only giving the surname when asked for a person’s name in order to save a little time. He answered quickly, but somehow it just wasn’t quite there in this show. By the end of the round he’d added another 11 points, but by the look on his face he knew that he’d passed on things that, on another day, he’d have answered. It was just a round that didn’t work out for him, and that’s tough luck. He finished on 21.
Chris Kilbride’s round provided a contrast to Darren’s. There was no concession made in the interests of speed, but the first half of the round was actually very accurate. The second half wasn’t bad either, come to think of it. Chris answered every question, and judging from the number he had right – 16 – and the breadth of knowledge he displayed I’d dare say that he is a quizzer. A target of 26 looked more than enough to put the other two contenders well into the corridor of uncertainty.
Pat Ready started her round well enough, but never looked entirely comfortable. As the round progressed what head of steam she’d built up certainly evaporated, and I’m afraid that she had that most uncomfortable of black chair experiences, a pass spiral. It was only with the very last question that she managed to pull herself out of her nosedive, and take her score to 8 for the round, and 19 overall.
Barry Nolan needed 14 and no passes to tie, or 15 to win. even in a two and a half minute round that isn’t easy. Much as he had with his specialist round Barry snapped out answers to questions he knew. As we moved into the last 30 seconds it looked desperately tight, and it stayed that way up to the end. Barry did indeed add 14 to his total, but he also added another 2 passes, and that, as they say was that. It was hard lines. 26 is a useful total, but if I’m honest I think it may prove to be a point or two short of a semi final slot. Well done to Chris Kilbride though, and good luck for the semi finals.
Details
| Darren Martin | The Feature Films of Peter Sellers | 10 - 3 | 11 - 5 | 21 - 8 |
| Pat Ready | Orchids | 11 – 2 | 8 – 7 | 19 - 9 |
| Chris Kilbride | Life and Music of Paul Robeson | 10 - 1 | 16 – 0 | 26 - 1 |
| Barry Nolan | The Open Golf Championship 1960 - 20112 | 12 - 1 | 14 - 2 | 26 – 3 |
Repechage Table
Beth Webster 28 – 2
Barry Nolan 26 – 3
Ricki Kendall 25 – 4
John Berridge 24 – 3
Lauren White 23 – 4
Darren Martin 21 – 8
Embracing my inner swot - Mensa Test
You might remember back towards the end of June that I wrote about a Channel 4 TV series called “Child Genius”. If you don’t, well, it’s no big deal. Basically it was a Channel 4 documentary focusing on some of the children contesting the final stages of the Mensa child genius competition. Very interesting it was too. In my first post I wrote that I was interested that a General Knowledge test was one of the measures used. Well, one thing led to another, and I went to the Mensa website to try to find out more. I read all about the conditions for actually joining Mensa, basically that you have to sit two tesst, and achieve a score within the top 2% in either of them to be invited to join. In much the same spirit that I filled in my application for the 2007 SOBM of Mastermind, I filled in an application for a test, and posted it off ASAP before I had time for second thoughts.
Last Saturday I went and sat the tests in a rather cheap hotel in Cardiff. Worryingly neither the Mensa people running the tests, nor the candidates sitting them could work out how to work the coffee machines properly. Twice I was given hot chocolate when I wanted cappuccino, however, I digress. At the start of the test the nice lady who was running the whole show made a point of saying that knowledge had no part in the test, and would not help at all. Not that I was expecting it to do so, but even so it didn’t do a great deal for my confidence. I’ll come back to this whole thing of knowledge v. intelligence shortly.
The first test was called The Culture Fair Test. This was a non-verbal test, and basically, there were shapes. Lots of them, in sequences. It’s only been a few days since I took the test, but even so the details are blurring in my memory. I think that there were some – pick the one that completes the sequence, some – pick the odd one out, and so on and so forth. As you’d expect, they start with easy ones, and then get steadily harder. If it had just been down to this test, then I wouldn’t have fancied my chances much. The second test though, called the Cattell B, was much more to my liking, though. Most of this was word based, and this is where I want to come back to the idea of knowledge as opposed to intelligence. Large parts of this test seemed to me to be testing your appreciation of nuances of vocabulary, and I would have thought that vocabulary could be called an area of knowledge. Not that I’m complaining, for I felt on much surer ground on this test. As it happens, it wasn’t so much the word questions that I enjoyed, as much as what I thought were pure logic puzzles at the end.
When I asked after the test I was told it would be about two weeks before I would be sent the results, so I was a little surprised when the results came through the post today. As I suspected I scored better on the Cattell B than the Culture Fair, but the upshot is that I did well enough to be invited to join.
I posted about the invitation on my status on Facebook, and several friends whose opinions I respect and take notice of congratulated me, but also noted that they had been members before, but had left because of disillusionment and disappointment with the organization. Well, the thing is I’ve come this far now, and I’d like to see for myself. So I shall be sending in the form, and then we’ll see how it goes. One more thing to appease my inner swot, I suppose you could say.
Last Saturday I went and sat the tests in a rather cheap hotel in Cardiff. Worryingly neither the Mensa people running the tests, nor the candidates sitting them could work out how to work the coffee machines properly. Twice I was given hot chocolate when I wanted cappuccino, however, I digress. At the start of the test the nice lady who was running the whole show made a point of saying that knowledge had no part in the test, and would not help at all. Not that I was expecting it to do so, but even so it didn’t do a great deal for my confidence. I’ll come back to this whole thing of knowledge v. intelligence shortly.
The first test was called The Culture Fair Test. This was a non-verbal test, and basically, there were shapes. Lots of them, in sequences. It’s only been a few days since I took the test, but even so the details are blurring in my memory. I think that there were some – pick the one that completes the sequence, some – pick the odd one out, and so on and so forth. As you’d expect, they start with easy ones, and then get steadily harder. If it had just been down to this test, then I wouldn’t have fancied my chances much. The second test though, called the Cattell B, was much more to my liking, though. Most of this was word based, and this is where I want to come back to the idea of knowledge as opposed to intelligence. Large parts of this test seemed to me to be testing your appreciation of nuances of vocabulary, and I would have thought that vocabulary could be called an area of knowledge. Not that I’m complaining, for I felt on much surer ground on this test. As it happens, it wasn’t so much the word questions that I enjoyed, as much as what I thought were pure logic puzzles at the end.
When I asked after the test I was told it would be about two weeks before I would be sent the results, so I was a little surprised when the results came through the post today. As I suspected I scored better on the Cattell B than the Culture Fair, but the upshot is that I did well enough to be invited to join.
I posted about the invitation on my status on Facebook, and several friends whose opinions I respect and take notice of congratulated me, but also noted that they had been members before, but had left because of disillusionment and disappointment with the organization. Well, the thing is I’ve come this far now, and I’d like to see for myself. So I shall be sending in the form, and then we’ll see how it goes. One more thing to appease my inner swot, I suppose you could say.
Tuesday, 20 August 2013
University Challenge - Round One - Match Six
The University Of London School of Oriental and African Studies v. The University of Southampton
The London University School of Oriental and African Studies – SOAS for the sake of brevity, last played in 2008, and also featured two years previously. Last night they were represented by Maeve Weber, Luke Vivian-Neal, James Figueroa and their captain Peter McKean. Their opponents, the University of Southampton, included none other than our own Cromarty(IV) within their ranks. This is the sixth time the University have competed since the start of the Paxman era, including consecutive appearances in 2009, 10 and 11. The team were David Bishop, Richard Evans, Matt Loxham, and skippering the team was Bob De Caux. JP also urged viewers to check out the antics of the team’s cat mascot on Youtube and Facebook. Fair enough. Now, I don’t at this point know which one of the team is Cromarty(IV), but I know he’s there. So obviously I wanted them to do well. On the other hand I am an alumnus of the University of London myself, and so I also wanted SOAS to do well. Decisions decisions.
Bob De Caux knew that Hilary Mantel won her second Booker in 2012. First blood to Southampton. A set of bonuses on Brits born in 1913 and a full house was duly taken. Maeve Weber knew that the word interference describes the effect of one language on another causing deviations from the norm. Artists born in the Russian Empire provided SOAS with their first set. 25 apiece, and first impressions were that we could be in for another good contest. Now, funnily enough I did get the Science starter which came next, but only because I know that uric acid in synovial fluid causes arthritis, because I suffer from it. Matt Loxham knew it as well, and he was in with the answer for Southampton. I didn’t get any of the bonuses on Turing, I’m afraid. Southampton had two of them. The first picture starter came next. This showed us a badge issued by the UK Scouting Association, and asked what activity it represented. All I can say is that the organization has changed since I was in it 40 years ago. Neither side could quite see that the parachute canopy on the badge represented paragliding, or parascending. Neither team knew that want is often reckoned to be the first Science Fiction film, “Un Voyage Dans La Lune” – just think projectile in the eye of the Moon – was made by Georges Méliès. James Figueroa was in very quickly to say that the area which takes its name from the Greek for between rivers is Mesopotamia. This earned the scout badge bonuses, and camp cook and circus skills brought them points, although dragon boating eluded them. All square again. Richard Evans very quickly worked out that if the University term begins on 22nd September, then there are 100 days until the end of the calendar year. I’ll be honest, I didn’t do very well on the bonuses on 20th century British novelists. That’s a little embarrassing because I did once have breakfast with Graham Greene – grumpy old devil. The team managed one with George Orwell, and this was enough to give them a lead of 60 to 45 at the ten minute mark. On the evidence of the first ten minutes these were quite evenly matched teams.
Peter McKean gave the first evidence of his buzzer speed when he buzzed in early to say that the king John Evelyn had been describing was Charles II. That’s a good buzz. Evelyn’s diary does cover the reigns of Charles I and James II as well, but if you’re asked about which king he’s writing about you’ll be right a lot more often than wrong in saying Charles II. The bonuses were on wine regions, and they took two of them. The SOAS skipper took his second good interruption in a row with a quadrat. 1 bonus on stuff about atoms followed – do stop me if I get too technical. Maeve Weber got in on the interruption bandwagon with the next starter, correctly answering that a Nobel prize winner of 1951, and a multi gold medal winning paralympian athlete share the surname Cockroft. Good shout. Bonuses on logic followed. I’ll be honest, I just answered a priori to each of them until it was right, and that was the one that SOAS answered too. Logic told me that SOAS were building up a healthy head of steam in this mid section of the competition as we moved into the music round. Maeve Weber, with a rush of blood to the head buzzed very quickly but misidentified it as Schumann, but Matt Loxham knew a lovely bit of Chopin when he heard it. More nocturnes followed as bonuses, and Southampton took the first. Not the least deterred by the previous starter, Maeve Weber again buzzed early on the Royal Navy fortifications named after an area in Corsica, and gave the correct answer of Martello Towers. A good old UC chestnut, that one. A UC special set of bonuses followed, on place names and their anagrams – the country that surrounds the Gambia, and the second word in the name of the second largest city of the USA = Senegal – Angeles. You see how it works. SOAS did, for they had a full set. Peter McKean was first in with the answer that the examples given, containing the British General killed by the forces of the Mahdi were all linked by the name Gordon. Another full set on Archaeology and human ancestors followed. We were just seconds away from the 20 minute mark, and it had been an extremely good ten minutes for SOAS. By going for the buzzers as hard as they could, they had pulled out a lead of 145 to 75. Not yet a winning lead, but with plenty of time to go you have to say that SOAS looked a very good bet for at least a repechage slot.
Matt Loxham knew that when you roll two dice, the probability of rolling a combined score of 4 is 1 in 12. Now, it’s an unwritten rule that when you’re chasing a lead in UC your opponents get all the easy bonus sets, and you get all the crappy ones. Or that’s how it sometimes seems. So it was no surprise that Southampton got served up a portion of algae to deal with. Under the circumstances they did well to take one of them. Now, the second picture starter demonstrated the need for speed on the buzzer. Asked to identify a famous sculpture, we were given the extremely familiar image of Rodin’s The Kiss. James Figueroa took that one, and earned three more artworks with the same title. Bang, bang, bang, three bonuses taken and the lead increased, thank you very much! Given a quotation about a Shakespeare play Luke Vivian-Neal took his first starter with the answer Othello. A tricky set on Nobel Prize laureates followed. I had the Lee Duc Tho and Linus Pauling ones, but SOAS only had the last. Not to worry, it still gave them 185 to 90, and that did look like a winning lead. Luke Vivian-Neal also took the next starter, knowing that magazine, zenith, ghoul and giraffe are all ultimately derived from Arabic, which took his team up to the 200 mark. 19th century assassinations only yielded another one, but even so the match was decided, and the only question that remained really was whether Southampton could make a score that would give them a fighting chance of a repechage slot. The next starter didn’t help as Luke Vivian-Neal was first in with the answer of Vienna as the home of the Schonbrunn Palace. It was one of those sets you hope you’ll get asked, because if you get the first, then you’ll get all of them. In this case they were all on the prefix exo-, and SOAS took a full set. 225. Luke Vivian-Neal, flushed with success at his hattrick went one starter too far by buzzing in early, and answering that the Pleiades are in Orion. Bob De Caux supplied the correct answer of Taurus. That put Southampton into three figures, and 2 bonuses on cricket took them to 110. Matt Loxham buzzed early to identify the Nottingham Goose fair. 120. Two bonuses on nuts and seeds – 130. Richard Evans knew the term flash point. 140. US presidents provided a full set of bonuses – 155. There was an absolutely terrific buzzer race for the name of the South African president who shared the Nobel Peace Prize with Nelson Mandela, which was won by millimetres by Peter McKean. That was the final question, and at the gong the score was a win for SOAS by 230 to Southampton’s 155. Well played SOAS. The difference between the teams was that from the ten minute mark onwards SOAS were bussing early for the starters, and that paid dividends. As for Southampton, once they started going hell for leather for the starters and throwing caution to the wind they showed that they too are a quality side. I hope that 155 will be enough for them. Good show, in what is shaping up to be a very good series.
Jeremy Paxman Watch
There was nothing to report until Southampton offered Conan Doyle as one of the British novelists. JP gave them a real old fashioned sidelong look, before informing them it was D.H.Lawrence.
When Peter McKean corrected himself as he started saying Kenya in answer to the location of the Olduvai Gorge, then corrected himself to Tanzania, JP made a point of letting him know that he hadn’t fooled anyone “Luckily you stopped yourself!”
JP does hate it if you get an English literature question wrong, and never gives much praise if you get one right. When Luke Vivian-Neal took the Othello starter our man sniffed “Yes, of course!” as if he was insulted by the idea that anyone might possibly have got it wrong. I mean, alright, it’s not that difficult if you know the play, but then not everyone does, Jez.
Generally the man was in good spirits during this contest. He chuckled away at the fact that SOAS got the Arabic starter, quipping “You had to get that one, didn’t you.”
Interesting fact That I Didn’t Already Know Of The Week
Shakespeare’s Othello was once described by critic Thomas Rymer as “a warning to all good wives that they look well to their linen.”
The London University School of Oriental and African Studies – SOAS for the sake of brevity, last played in 2008, and also featured two years previously. Last night they were represented by Maeve Weber, Luke Vivian-Neal, James Figueroa and their captain Peter McKean. Their opponents, the University of Southampton, included none other than our own Cromarty(IV) within their ranks. This is the sixth time the University have competed since the start of the Paxman era, including consecutive appearances in 2009, 10 and 11. The team were David Bishop, Richard Evans, Matt Loxham, and skippering the team was Bob De Caux. JP also urged viewers to check out the antics of the team’s cat mascot on Youtube and Facebook. Fair enough. Now, I don’t at this point know which one of the team is Cromarty(IV), but I know he’s there. So obviously I wanted them to do well. On the other hand I am an alumnus of the University of London myself, and so I also wanted SOAS to do well. Decisions decisions.
Bob De Caux knew that Hilary Mantel won her second Booker in 2012. First blood to Southampton. A set of bonuses on Brits born in 1913 and a full house was duly taken. Maeve Weber knew that the word interference describes the effect of one language on another causing deviations from the norm. Artists born in the Russian Empire provided SOAS with their first set. 25 apiece, and first impressions were that we could be in for another good contest. Now, funnily enough I did get the Science starter which came next, but only because I know that uric acid in synovial fluid causes arthritis, because I suffer from it. Matt Loxham knew it as well, and he was in with the answer for Southampton. I didn’t get any of the bonuses on Turing, I’m afraid. Southampton had two of them. The first picture starter came next. This showed us a badge issued by the UK Scouting Association, and asked what activity it represented. All I can say is that the organization has changed since I was in it 40 years ago. Neither side could quite see that the parachute canopy on the badge represented paragliding, or parascending. Neither team knew that want is often reckoned to be the first Science Fiction film, “Un Voyage Dans La Lune” – just think projectile in the eye of the Moon – was made by Georges Méliès. James Figueroa was in very quickly to say that the area which takes its name from the Greek for between rivers is Mesopotamia. This earned the scout badge bonuses, and camp cook and circus skills brought them points, although dragon boating eluded them. All square again. Richard Evans very quickly worked out that if the University term begins on 22nd September, then there are 100 days until the end of the calendar year. I’ll be honest, I didn’t do very well on the bonuses on 20th century British novelists. That’s a little embarrassing because I did once have breakfast with Graham Greene – grumpy old devil. The team managed one with George Orwell, and this was enough to give them a lead of 60 to 45 at the ten minute mark. On the evidence of the first ten minutes these were quite evenly matched teams.
Peter McKean gave the first evidence of his buzzer speed when he buzzed in early to say that the king John Evelyn had been describing was Charles II. That’s a good buzz. Evelyn’s diary does cover the reigns of Charles I and James II as well, but if you’re asked about which king he’s writing about you’ll be right a lot more often than wrong in saying Charles II. The bonuses were on wine regions, and they took two of them. The SOAS skipper took his second good interruption in a row with a quadrat. 1 bonus on stuff about atoms followed – do stop me if I get too technical. Maeve Weber got in on the interruption bandwagon with the next starter, correctly answering that a Nobel prize winner of 1951, and a multi gold medal winning paralympian athlete share the surname Cockroft. Good shout. Bonuses on logic followed. I’ll be honest, I just answered a priori to each of them until it was right, and that was the one that SOAS answered too. Logic told me that SOAS were building up a healthy head of steam in this mid section of the competition as we moved into the music round. Maeve Weber, with a rush of blood to the head buzzed very quickly but misidentified it as Schumann, but Matt Loxham knew a lovely bit of Chopin when he heard it. More nocturnes followed as bonuses, and Southampton took the first. Not the least deterred by the previous starter, Maeve Weber again buzzed early on the Royal Navy fortifications named after an area in Corsica, and gave the correct answer of Martello Towers. A good old UC chestnut, that one. A UC special set of bonuses followed, on place names and their anagrams – the country that surrounds the Gambia, and the second word in the name of the second largest city of the USA = Senegal – Angeles. You see how it works. SOAS did, for they had a full set. Peter McKean was first in with the answer that the examples given, containing the British General killed by the forces of the Mahdi were all linked by the name Gordon. Another full set on Archaeology and human ancestors followed. We were just seconds away from the 20 minute mark, and it had been an extremely good ten minutes for SOAS. By going for the buzzers as hard as they could, they had pulled out a lead of 145 to 75. Not yet a winning lead, but with plenty of time to go you have to say that SOAS looked a very good bet for at least a repechage slot.
Matt Loxham knew that when you roll two dice, the probability of rolling a combined score of 4 is 1 in 12. Now, it’s an unwritten rule that when you’re chasing a lead in UC your opponents get all the easy bonus sets, and you get all the crappy ones. Or that’s how it sometimes seems. So it was no surprise that Southampton got served up a portion of algae to deal with. Under the circumstances they did well to take one of them. Now, the second picture starter demonstrated the need for speed on the buzzer. Asked to identify a famous sculpture, we were given the extremely familiar image of Rodin’s The Kiss. James Figueroa took that one, and earned three more artworks with the same title. Bang, bang, bang, three bonuses taken and the lead increased, thank you very much! Given a quotation about a Shakespeare play Luke Vivian-Neal took his first starter with the answer Othello. A tricky set on Nobel Prize laureates followed. I had the Lee Duc Tho and Linus Pauling ones, but SOAS only had the last. Not to worry, it still gave them 185 to 90, and that did look like a winning lead. Luke Vivian-Neal also took the next starter, knowing that magazine, zenith, ghoul and giraffe are all ultimately derived from Arabic, which took his team up to the 200 mark. 19th century assassinations only yielded another one, but even so the match was decided, and the only question that remained really was whether Southampton could make a score that would give them a fighting chance of a repechage slot. The next starter didn’t help as Luke Vivian-Neal was first in with the answer of Vienna as the home of the Schonbrunn Palace. It was one of those sets you hope you’ll get asked, because if you get the first, then you’ll get all of them. In this case they were all on the prefix exo-, and SOAS took a full set. 225. Luke Vivian-Neal, flushed with success at his hattrick went one starter too far by buzzing in early, and answering that the Pleiades are in Orion. Bob De Caux supplied the correct answer of Taurus. That put Southampton into three figures, and 2 bonuses on cricket took them to 110. Matt Loxham buzzed early to identify the Nottingham Goose fair. 120. Two bonuses on nuts and seeds – 130. Richard Evans knew the term flash point. 140. US presidents provided a full set of bonuses – 155. There was an absolutely terrific buzzer race for the name of the South African president who shared the Nobel Peace Prize with Nelson Mandela, which was won by millimetres by Peter McKean. That was the final question, and at the gong the score was a win for SOAS by 230 to Southampton’s 155. Well played SOAS. The difference between the teams was that from the ten minute mark onwards SOAS were bussing early for the starters, and that paid dividends. As for Southampton, once they started going hell for leather for the starters and throwing caution to the wind they showed that they too are a quality side. I hope that 155 will be enough for them. Good show, in what is shaping up to be a very good series.
Jeremy Paxman Watch
There was nothing to report until Southampton offered Conan Doyle as one of the British novelists. JP gave them a real old fashioned sidelong look, before informing them it was D.H.Lawrence.
When Peter McKean corrected himself as he started saying Kenya in answer to the location of the Olduvai Gorge, then corrected himself to Tanzania, JP made a point of letting him know that he hadn’t fooled anyone “Luckily you stopped yourself!”
JP does hate it if you get an English literature question wrong, and never gives much praise if you get one right. When Luke Vivian-Neal took the Othello starter our man sniffed “Yes, of course!” as if he was insulted by the idea that anyone might possibly have got it wrong. I mean, alright, it’s not that difficult if you know the play, but then not everyone does, Jez.
Generally the man was in good spirits during this contest. He chuckled away at the fact that SOAS got the Arabic starter, quipping “You had to get that one, didn’t you.”
Interesting fact That I Didn’t Already Know Of The Week
Shakespeare’s Othello was once described by critic Thomas Rymer as “a warning to all good wives that they look well to their linen.”
Monday, 19 August 2013
In the News
In the News
Who Or What are the following and why have they been in the news?
1. Hannah and Sean Gastonguay
2. Castlederg
3. Daniel Rosenthal
4. Erica Kacicova
5. Vitaly Milonov
6. Owen Morris
7. Ron Freeman
8. Colin Fleming
9. Trevor Storer
10. David McLetchie
11. Missy
12. Laszlo Csatary
13. James ‘Whitey’ Bulger
14. Amantle Montsho
15. Nate Silver
16. Michelle McCollum Connolly and Melissa Reid
17. Jon Brookes
18. Rickie Lambert
19. Dean Porter
20. Mick Deane
21. Joan Edwards
22. Stuart Wheeler
23. John Goss
24. Tony Eggington
25. Marion Bartoli
26. Sergey Kovalev
27. Darren Barker
28. Carmelo Flores
29. United Learning
30. Chris Hallam MBE
In Other News
1. Who was named Forbes Magazine highest TV earner ?
2. Which supermarket chain was attacked by the Labour party over claims about the use of’cheap immigrant labour’?
3. Who will step down after the next General Election to provide Boris Johnson with a safe seat?
4. Which media tycoon’s widow passed away last week?
5. Which disgraced former MP was appointed European manager of Zilkha Biomass Energy?
6. What was banned on trains and platforms last week by several rail companies?
7. Which spectacular meteor shower passed last week?
8. What was the score in the Community Shield ?
9. Who was the runner up in the men’s 100m at the world championships ?
10. Who scored his third century of the Ashes series in the 4th test?
11. Which water company asked for permission for a one-off rise in prices above the rate of inflation by on average £29 , despite making over £1 billion profit last year?
12. What are the two most popular names for newborns?
13. Whose 6 wickets in the fourth Ashes test gave England the win, and an unbeatable 3-0 lead in the series?
14. Which TV presenter found his new beard criticized last week?
15. Name the British athlete, a potential medalist, who was injured in the women’s 400m hurdles final in the World Championships
16. What was the score in the Northern Ireland v. Russia football match?
17. It was announced last week that who has been charged with 11 counts of indecent assault and one of sexual assault ?
18. What is the level of the new ‘on the spot fine’ for hogging the middle lane on a motorway?
19. Which World Athletics gold medal winner spoke in support of Russia’s anti gay laws?
20. Last week the US Government finally admitted the existence of what?
21. Which Coronation Street actor was suspended over a series of foul mouthed raps?
22. All five Respect Party councilors in Bradford resigned from the party last week over what?
23. Which racing circuit was sold off last week?
24. Which british runner became only the second teenager after Usain Bolt to run 200m in less than 20 seconds during the world championships last week?
25. Britain’s women took 4x100m bronze after which team were disqualified during the world championships?
26. How many medals did GB win in Moscow to reach their pre championship target?
27. What action was taken by Spanish fishermen last week?
Who Or What are the following and why have they been in the news?
1. Hannah and Sean Gastonguay
2. Castlederg
3. Daniel Rosenthal
4. Erica Kacicova
5. Vitaly Milonov
6. Owen Morris
7. Ron Freeman
8. Colin Fleming
9. Trevor Storer
10. David McLetchie
11. Missy
12. Laszlo Csatary
13. James ‘Whitey’ Bulger
14. Amantle Montsho
15. Nate Silver
16. Michelle McCollum Connolly and Melissa Reid
17. Jon Brookes
18. Rickie Lambert
19. Dean Porter
20. Mick Deane
21. Joan Edwards
22. Stuart Wheeler
23. John Goss
24. Tony Eggington
25. Marion Bartoli
26. Sergey Kovalev
27. Darren Barker
28. Carmelo Flores
29. United Learning
30. Chris Hallam MBE
In Other News
1. Who was named Forbes Magazine highest TV earner ?
2. Which supermarket chain was attacked by the Labour party over claims about the use of’cheap immigrant labour’?
3. Who will step down after the next General Election to provide Boris Johnson with a safe seat?
4. Which media tycoon’s widow passed away last week?
5. Which disgraced former MP was appointed European manager of Zilkha Biomass Energy?
6. What was banned on trains and platforms last week by several rail companies?
7. Which spectacular meteor shower passed last week?
8. What was the score in the Community Shield ?
9. Who was the runner up in the men’s 100m at the world championships ?
10. Who scored his third century of the Ashes series in the 4th test?
11. Which water company asked for permission for a one-off rise in prices above the rate of inflation by on average £29 , despite making over £1 billion profit last year?
12. What are the two most popular names for newborns?
13. Whose 6 wickets in the fourth Ashes test gave England the win, and an unbeatable 3-0 lead in the series?
14. Which TV presenter found his new beard criticized last week?
15. Name the British athlete, a potential medalist, who was injured in the women’s 400m hurdles final in the World Championships
16. What was the score in the Northern Ireland v. Russia football match?
17. It was announced last week that who has been charged with 11 counts of indecent assault and one of sexual assault ?
18. What is the level of the new ‘on the spot fine’ for hogging the middle lane on a motorway?
19. Which World Athletics gold medal winner spoke in support of Russia’s anti gay laws?
20. Last week the US Government finally admitted the existence of what?
21. Which Coronation Street actor was suspended over a series of foul mouthed raps?
22. All five Respect Party councilors in Bradford resigned from the party last week over what?
23. Which racing circuit was sold off last week?
24. Which british runner became only the second teenager after Usain Bolt to run 200m in less than 20 seconds during the world championships last week?
25. Britain’s women took 4x100m bronze after which team were disqualified during the world championships?
26. How many medals did GB win in Moscow to reach their pre championship target?
27. What action was taken by Spanish fishermen last week?
Friday, 16 August 2013
Mastermind - Round One - Heat Two
Tonight’s show, being the first of the season for which I accepted the wiki challenge, was something to which I’d been looking forward all day. I’ll be honest, I don’t tend to keep track of my specialist subject aggregate scores for each show, but I had an idea that t I might just set a decent total in this one.
The first of tonight’s specialist subjects, Catherine Howard, was one of the two which I chose for the wiki challenge, and it was offered to us by Lauren White. When I wrote about taking the wiki challenge earlier today I did say that on a History subject such as Catherine Howard I’d hope to get anything up to 8 points with no study. I would actually, I think, have had 4 of these without wiki. Having used wiki, though, I found that I answered 10 of these, based on the questions I gleaned from wiki, and other things I remembered from the article which I didn’t write down among the questions. Lauren did better, scoring 11 and no passes. That’s not at all bad, and there were some quite long questions.
I fought shy of taking the wiki challenge on Alan Forsyth’s subject , Green Lantern Comics. I won’t lie, I just didn’t think that it would lend itself to a good wiki challenge. I haven’t checked, but I bet this would be ne where you’d have to look at quite a few different pages. I’ll be honest, as this round progressed it started to look to me like one of those rounds where the contender and the setter seem to have had a different idea of the parameters of the subject. Maybe I’m wrong, but I wouldn’t be terribly surprised if Alan was expecting more questions about the Hal Jordan Green Lantern. I scored 2, and Alan scored 5 and 2 passes.
We last saw Brian Daughtery in the semi finals of Ian’s series. Back then he scored an impressive 31, including 15 on GK in his heat, so he was certainly the most experienced contender in the show. Brian was offering us the Robert Hooke round. In my earlier post I said that without any study I’d be lucky to get 2 points on a subject like Robert Hooke. Using the questions I posted earlier, and some other things I remembered from the Wikipedia article I again managed to score 10. That’s possibly my best ‘wiki’ score ever. Brian outscored me by 1 point, with 11 and 1 pass – albeit that I was doing it from the comfort of the Clark sofa, and he was doing it under the pressure in the black chair.
Wiki challenge notwithstanding, I had marked down Colin Foster’s subject, British Olympic Medalists 1960 – 2008 as my banker subject. Now, here’s a funny thing. Both Colin and I only got one wrong, and for both of us it was the same question – Pippa Funnell’s bronze and silver winning horse in 2004. So that provided us both with a score of 14 and no passes. I salute Colin for picking a great subject, but I must admit just a couple of the questions seemed a little easy for a specialist round. Let me give you an example. It would have made more sense to ask “Who partnered Tim Henman to silver in 1996 in the tennis men’s doubles?” rather than "Who partnered Neil Broad . . ." After all, if you asked the average person – name a British male tennis player of the mid 90s, the majority would probably answer Tim Henman. You’re not likely to pick Neil Broad out of thin air – it’s something you’d need to know. I don’t blame Colin for that. A very good performance on the round.
By my reckoning that gave me a total specialist aggregate of 36. I don’t say that it’s a personal record, well, I don’t have a personal record, - but it’s not bad.
With Colin leading by three it remained for either Lauren or Brian to set a GK score which would at least place him within the corridor of uncertainty. First, though, Alan returned to the chair. It can’t be easy that, having a very difficult specialist round, where you don’t do as well as you would have liked, then having to come back for the general round. Under these circumstances he started very well, picking off the first 4 questions on the bounce. It was harder going for him after that, though, but 10 points and two passes brought him to a respectable score of 15 and 4 passes.
Lauren didn’t go particularly quickly in her round, but then we have seen in the past that the 2 and a half minute GK round is a marathon, not a sprint. It’s usually better to maintain a steady pace, than to start off like an express, but ground to a halt at the 90 second mark. Lauren kept picking off the answers she knew or could guess, and had added 12 to her score with time left for three questions. Sadly she didn’t get any of these, but if that wasn’t maybe quite enough to put Colin into the corridor of uncertainty, it still mean that he had to produce at least 9 correct answers to win.
Before that it was Brian’s turn. We saw in his last first round appearance that Brian is capable of amassing a good GK score, and if he could get close to a 15 this time out, then he could certainly make things tricky for Colin. He took 4 correct answers in fairly short order, but then the wheels came off a bit. Believe me, all it takes is two or three questions you don’t know in a row and it can destroy your concentration, and send you headlong into a pass spiral. Even a partial recovery towards the end of the round meant that Brian only managed to take his score to 18.
9 points in 2 and a half minutes is not a huge ask, but the black chair can be a cruel mistress, and it is possible to be completely undone by nerves. So Colin was not guaranteed a win. He had the sense to take his round steadily, though, and pick off what he knew, and make a guess at what he didn’t. His score had reached the required 24 within two minutes, and in the remaining 30 seconds he added another 2 points, and no passes. So well played Colin, and good luck in the semis. Hard lines to Lauren – I’ll be honest, 23 is unlikely to stay on the repechage board for long, but well played.
The Details
The first of tonight’s specialist subjects, Catherine Howard, was one of the two which I chose for the wiki challenge, and it was offered to us by Lauren White. When I wrote about taking the wiki challenge earlier today I did say that on a History subject such as Catherine Howard I’d hope to get anything up to 8 points with no study. I would actually, I think, have had 4 of these without wiki. Having used wiki, though, I found that I answered 10 of these, based on the questions I gleaned from wiki, and other things I remembered from the article which I didn’t write down among the questions. Lauren did better, scoring 11 and no passes. That’s not at all bad, and there were some quite long questions.
I fought shy of taking the wiki challenge on Alan Forsyth’s subject , Green Lantern Comics. I won’t lie, I just didn’t think that it would lend itself to a good wiki challenge. I haven’t checked, but I bet this would be ne where you’d have to look at quite a few different pages. I’ll be honest, as this round progressed it started to look to me like one of those rounds where the contender and the setter seem to have had a different idea of the parameters of the subject. Maybe I’m wrong, but I wouldn’t be terribly surprised if Alan was expecting more questions about the Hal Jordan Green Lantern. I scored 2, and Alan scored 5 and 2 passes.
We last saw Brian Daughtery in the semi finals of Ian’s series. Back then he scored an impressive 31, including 15 on GK in his heat, so he was certainly the most experienced contender in the show. Brian was offering us the Robert Hooke round. In my earlier post I said that without any study I’d be lucky to get 2 points on a subject like Robert Hooke. Using the questions I posted earlier, and some other things I remembered from the Wikipedia article I again managed to score 10. That’s possibly my best ‘wiki’ score ever. Brian outscored me by 1 point, with 11 and 1 pass – albeit that I was doing it from the comfort of the Clark sofa, and he was doing it under the pressure in the black chair.
Wiki challenge notwithstanding, I had marked down Colin Foster’s subject, British Olympic Medalists 1960 – 2008 as my banker subject. Now, here’s a funny thing. Both Colin and I only got one wrong, and for both of us it was the same question – Pippa Funnell’s bronze and silver winning horse in 2004. So that provided us both with a score of 14 and no passes. I salute Colin for picking a great subject, but I must admit just a couple of the questions seemed a little easy for a specialist round. Let me give you an example. It would have made more sense to ask “Who partnered Tim Henman to silver in 1996 in the tennis men’s doubles?” rather than "Who partnered Neil Broad . . ." After all, if you asked the average person – name a British male tennis player of the mid 90s, the majority would probably answer Tim Henman. You’re not likely to pick Neil Broad out of thin air – it’s something you’d need to know. I don’t blame Colin for that. A very good performance on the round.
By my reckoning that gave me a total specialist aggregate of 36. I don’t say that it’s a personal record, well, I don’t have a personal record, - but it’s not bad.
With Colin leading by three it remained for either Lauren or Brian to set a GK score which would at least place him within the corridor of uncertainty. First, though, Alan returned to the chair. It can’t be easy that, having a very difficult specialist round, where you don’t do as well as you would have liked, then having to come back for the general round. Under these circumstances he started very well, picking off the first 4 questions on the bounce. It was harder going for him after that, though, but 10 points and two passes brought him to a respectable score of 15 and 4 passes.
Lauren didn’t go particularly quickly in her round, but then we have seen in the past that the 2 and a half minute GK round is a marathon, not a sprint. It’s usually better to maintain a steady pace, than to start off like an express, but ground to a halt at the 90 second mark. Lauren kept picking off the answers she knew or could guess, and had added 12 to her score with time left for three questions. Sadly she didn’t get any of these, but if that wasn’t maybe quite enough to put Colin into the corridor of uncertainty, it still mean that he had to produce at least 9 correct answers to win.
Before that it was Brian’s turn. We saw in his last first round appearance that Brian is capable of amassing a good GK score, and if he could get close to a 15 this time out, then he could certainly make things tricky for Colin. He took 4 correct answers in fairly short order, but then the wheels came off a bit. Believe me, all it takes is two or three questions you don’t know in a row and it can destroy your concentration, and send you headlong into a pass spiral. Even a partial recovery towards the end of the round meant that Brian only managed to take his score to 18.
9 points in 2 and a half minutes is not a huge ask, but the black chair can be a cruel mistress, and it is possible to be completely undone by nerves. So Colin was not guaranteed a win. He had the sense to take his round steadily, though, and pick off what he knew, and make a guess at what he didn’t. His score had reached the required 24 within two minutes, and in the remaining 30 seconds he added another 2 points, and no passes. So well played Colin, and good luck in the semis. Hard lines to Lauren – I’ll be honest, 23 is unlikely to stay on the repechage board for long, but well played.
The Details
| Lauren White | Catherine Howard | 11 - 0 | 12- 4 | 23 - 4 |
| Alan Forsyth | Green Lantern Comics | 5 - 2 | 10 - 2 | 15 – 4 |
| Brian Daugherty | The Life and Career of Robert Hooke | 11 - 1 | 7 - 5 | 18 – 6 |
| Colin Foster | British Olympic Medalists 1960 - 2008 | 14 - 0 | 12 – 0 | 26 – 0 |
Why don't they care about our quiz? - Answers on a postcard, please.
I warn you now that this has every chance of developing into another whinge. It was my turn to be question master at the rugby club last night. I’ve told you how my attitude about this has shifted over the years. 18 years ago when I first started I couldn’t wait for my turn to come around, and I would have done it every week if I could. Now, while I don’t mind doing it at all, it’s not something which really bothers me if I have to go four, five or six weeks between turns at being question master. It’s certainly not a chore, putting the quiz together, but I guess it’s just that I have other outlets for the creative urge, I suppose.
One of the recurring irritants of doing the quiz for the club is the technological problems we’ve got. Twice already this year I’d had to present the quiz, shouting out the questions and the answers from the bar because the microphone wasn’t working properly. Last night it wasn’t working at all. Consequently I’m sitting here feeling a little sorry for myself this morning with an aching throat. My ‘teacher voice’ works pretty well in this situation, but as much as I like the sound of my own voice I don’t tend to use it so much, at such a volume, over a period of about 2 hours at one go.
I don’t know, maybe I have no right to moan, but nobody likes it when they feel that what they do is not valued. If the rugby club does value the quiz, and the contribution it makes to the coffers by bringing 30 – 50 people into the club who wouldn’t otherwise be there on a Thursday evening, it has a very funny way of showing it. I don’t ask for remuneration, and in fact I always said that I’d do the quiz there for nothing, simply for the pleasure it’s given me over the years. But when the ‘reward’ for doing the quiz was downgraded from 6 ‘beer tickets’ – redeemable at any time, to £12 on a card behind the bar which HAS to be spent in the same evening – no chance of doing that on my part – I couldn’t help feeling a little narked. Then there’s the lighting issue. In the corner where my team, Boyks (don’t ask) always sit, the lightbulbs went about 6 months ago. The club has yet to replace a single one. Like I said, all subtle hints that the quiz is not really valued by the club at all.
I was in a bit of a, for want of a better word, ‘arsey’ mood when I got there last night. So when I was told that the mike was not working my first thought was ‘stuff this for a game of soldiers’, and I thought about getting up and going. But you can’t do that. I don’t know whether the club realizes it, but they’ve really got you over a barrel. Are you really going to turn up to a bar full of people, many of whom you think of as friends, all expecting a quiz, and say that you won’t do it because there’s no microphone? For most of us the answer is no, of course not.
We were talking about this after the quiz last night, and there is another issue as well. Let’s say that a QM did just that – refused to do the quiz without a working mike. So that evening there would be no quiz. Apart from the fact you’d be letting the quiz regulars down, there is also the whole question about the effect it would have on the quiz. It wouldn’t take more than one or two times of turning up to no quiz for teams to decide that they won’t bother, and that would be the end of the quiz. OK. Maybe that wouldn’t be the end of the world. Maybe that would make the powers that be at the club wake up a little when they see the drop in the bar takings on a Thursday night. It’s not as if there aren’t other places I could go on a Thursday night. But there aren’t other places I’d want to go, that’s the rub. But I suppose that’s life. In the words of Robert Frost
”Nothing gold can stay”
I must have missed the episode when David Jason came out with that one.
One of the recurring irritants of doing the quiz for the club is the technological problems we’ve got. Twice already this year I’d had to present the quiz, shouting out the questions and the answers from the bar because the microphone wasn’t working properly. Last night it wasn’t working at all. Consequently I’m sitting here feeling a little sorry for myself this morning with an aching throat. My ‘teacher voice’ works pretty well in this situation, but as much as I like the sound of my own voice I don’t tend to use it so much, at such a volume, over a period of about 2 hours at one go.
I don’t know, maybe I have no right to moan, but nobody likes it when they feel that what they do is not valued. If the rugby club does value the quiz, and the contribution it makes to the coffers by bringing 30 – 50 people into the club who wouldn’t otherwise be there on a Thursday evening, it has a very funny way of showing it. I don’t ask for remuneration, and in fact I always said that I’d do the quiz there for nothing, simply for the pleasure it’s given me over the years. But when the ‘reward’ for doing the quiz was downgraded from 6 ‘beer tickets’ – redeemable at any time, to £12 on a card behind the bar which HAS to be spent in the same evening – no chance of doing that on my part – I couldn’t help feeling a little narked. Then there’s the lighting issue. In the corner where my team, Boyks (don’t ask) always sit, the lightbulbs went about 6 months ago. The club has yet to replace a single one. Like I said, all subtle hints that the quiz is not really valued by the club at all.
I was in a bit of a, for want of a better word, ‘arsey’ mood when I got there last night. So when I was told that the mike was not working my first thought was ‘stuff this for a game of soldiers’, and I thought about getting up and going. But you can’t do that. I don’t know whether the club realizes it, but they’ve really got you over a barrel. Are you really going to turn up to a bar full of people, many of whom you think of as friends, all expecting a quiz, and say that you won’t do it because there’s no microphone? For most of us the answer is no, of course not.
We were talking about this after the quiz last night, and there is another issue as well. Let’s say that a QM did just that – refused to do the quiz without a working mike. So that evening there would be no quiz. Apart from the fact you’d be letting the quiz regulars down, there is also the whole question about the effect it would have on the quiz. It wouldn’t take more than one or two times of turning up to no quiz for teams to decide that they won’t bother, and that would be the end of the quiz. OK. Maybe that wouldn’t be the end of the world. Maybe that would make the powers that be at the club wake up a little when they see the drop in the bar takings on a Thursday night. It’s not as if there aren’t other places I could go on a Thursday night. But there aren’t other places I’d want to go, that’s the rub. But I suppose that’s life. In the words of Robert Frost
”Nothing gold can stay”
I must have missed the episode when David Jason came out with that one.
QuizFactz.com
Earlier this week I received an email from a gentleman, asking if I would put up a link to his website
QuizFactz.com
I don’t automatically put up links just because people ask me to, so I did want to check it out first. Granted that it does carry advertising, but I couldn’t see any catch to it when I visited the site. You can join, but I don’t see that you need to in order to get the benefit from it.
You might remember a couple of years ago I had an email from someone posing as an enthusiast, asking me to plug their website, and when I investigated it I found out that it was owned by a company which sells people’s details to other companies. So I was rather wary, and emailed the person behind the site to ask him a few questions. To his credit he replied ,
”I decided that one of the best ways (aside from attending quizzes) to improve my quizzing knowledge would be to set up a fun website around quizzing, trivia and facts and I would, in effect, absorb vastly more knowledge than I hitherto would have.
As it's only 7 weeks old, there is relatively limited content, especially given the gargantuan effort it will take to get the site to where I want it to be. The site does not sell anything except for advertising which is there as a by-product of the site rather than a causative factor in setting the site up.
. . . I wish to immeasurably improve my general knowledge to a considerable level. Ultimately, I want the website to become a top resource for people to find interesting facts but in a usable and interesting fashion where they can actually learn something. I would like to think the general ambiance of the website contributes to this informal environment where people can learn something as opposed to merely redirecting to other sites to just see a black and white list. . .
Quizzing will naturally form a core part of this endeavour as I hope to create quizzes for every article on my site meaning that people can read something and then try and test their memory by partaking in a quiz on the subject. . .
I can ensure that there is no nefarious plot and no list-building from any clandestine dodgy company. This is an open, honest, transparent website which as the mission statement has uttered, aims to provide an informal educational resource not only for quizzers but also for those interesting in learning new facts, trivia and other nuggets of information they may not otherwise have come across.
All laudable aims, and I’m happy to promote a site with this purpose. I rather enjoyed the quizzes I played, although if I’m being horribly critical I have to say that I did notice a mistake in one of them, unfortunately the first quiz I played. In one of the Geography quizzes it asked which is furthest south – Sydney, Melbourne or Perth, and gave the answer Perth, when it is in fact Melbourne by some distance. Oh well, such nitpicking aside, you now know what the site’s all about, and if you have a little time it might well be worth your checking it out.
QuizFactz.com
I don’t automatically put up links just because people ask me to, so I did want to check it out first. Granted that it does carry advertising, but I couldn’t see any catch to it when I visited the site. You can join, but I don’t see that you need to in order to get the benefit from it.
You might remember a couple of years ago I had an email from someone posing as an enthusiast, asking me to plug their website, and when I investigated it I found out that it was owned by a company which sells people’s details to other companies. So I was rather wary, and emailed the person behind the site to ask him a few questions. To his credit he replied ,
”I decided that one of the best ways (aside from attending quizzes) to improve my quizzing knowledge would be to set up a fun website around quizzing, trivia and facts and I would, in effect, absorb vastly more knowledge than I hitherto would have.
As it's only 7 weeks old, there is relatively limited content, especially given the gargantuan effort it will take to get the site to where I want it to be. The site does not sell anything except for advertising which is there as a by-product of the site rather than a causative factor in setting the site up.
. . . I wish to immeasurably improve my general knowledge to a considerable level. Ultimately, I want the website to become a top resource for people to find interesting facts but in a usable and interesting fashion where they can actually learn something. I would like to think the general ambiance of the website contributes to this informal environment where people can learn something as opposed to merely redirecting to other sites to just see a black and white list. . .
Quizzing will naturally form a core part of this endeavour as I hope to create quizzes for every article on my site meaning that people can read something and then try and test their memory by partaking in a quiz on the subject. . .
I can ensure that there is no nefarious plot and no list-building from any clandestine dodgy company. This is an open, honest, transparent website which as the mission statement has uttered, aims to provide an informal educational resource not only for quizzers but also for those interesting in learning new facts, trivia and other nuggets of information they may not otherwise have come across.
All laudable aims, and I’m happy to promote a site with this purpose. I rather enjoyed the quizzes I played, although if I’m being horribly critical I have to say that I did notice a mistake in one of them, unfortunately the first quiz I played. In one of the Geography quizzes it asked which is furthest south – Sydney, Melbourne or Perth, and gave the answer Perth, when it is in fact Melbourne by some distance. Oh well, such nitpicking aside, you now know what the site’s all about, and if you have a little time it might well be worth your checking it out.
Mastermind - Heat 2 - Wiki Challenge
I’m indebted to Daniel’s “Quiz Addict” blog for printing this week’s Mastermind specialist subjects. They are : -
Catherine Howard
The Green Lantern Comics
Robert Hooke
British Summer Olympic Medallists 1960 – 2012
Being as it’s still the summer holidays from work I decided that I should definitely have a go at the wiki challenge. For new readers, or those who might have forgotten, the wiki challenge works like this. You take a look at the list of subjects taken by contenders in the next Mastermind show. You pick one or more of the subjects, and then go to the relevant page of Wikipedia for the subject. Using only the page for reference, try to digest as much of its information as possible, and see how many specialist subject questions this allows you to answer correctly.
When I do it, I find it helps me to make up a set of questions from the information on the page. This week I decided upon two of the subjects. I took Summer Olympic Games as my very first specialist subject in my unsuccessful tilt at the crown in 2006, so I want to try and answer this one on my own merits. Being realistic, I thought that the wiki pages on Catherine Howard and Robert Hooke would be more useful than that on the Green Lantern, so I opted for these two. Mind you, this is not to say that I have anything against the Green Lantern -
In brightest day, in blackest night
No evil shall escape my sight
Let those who worship evil’s might
Beware my power – Green Lantern’s light!
etc. etc. Enough of such chaff. Here’s my question sets for the two subjects – 20 questions each
Catherine Howard
1. Which floral nickname did Henry VIII sometimes use for Catherine?
2. Catherine’s birth in about 1523 is usually believed to have taken place in which part of London?
3. Where did Catherine marry Henry VIII on 28th July, 1540?
4. Catherine was a daughter of Lord Edmund Howard and whom?
5. Who was Catherine’s paternal grandfather?
6. In 1531 her father Edmund was appointed to which post?
7. In which house belonging to her paternal grandmother, the Dowager Duchess of Norfolk, near Horsham did Catherine spend much of her time following the death of her mother in 1531?
8. What was the name of Catherine’s music teacher with whom she had a sexual relationship when she was 13 years old, who would go on to give evidence at her trial for adultery?
9. What position was held in the Dowager Duchess’ household by Francis Dereham, who became Catherine’s lover, and whom she would address as husband?
10. Catherine was first appointed to court as a lady in waiting for whom?
11. With which courtier did Catherine become romantically attached after marrying the king?
12. Which relative of Catherine’s by marriage arranged her meetings with Culpeper?
13. Which protestant reformer learned of Catherine’s infidelity through his sister, Mary Hall, a member of the Duchess’ household?
14. When sent to question her in November 1741, Thomas Cranmer ordered objects be removed from her rooms. For what reason?
15. When stripped of her title as queen, where was Catherine imprisoned on 23rd November 1541?
16. Which of Catherine’s lovers was hanged, drawn and quartered on 10th December 1541?
17. Which bill, passed on 7th February 1542, made it a treasonable offence for a queen consort to reveal details of her sexual history to the king within 20 days of their marriage?
18. At what time of day on the 13th February 1641 was Catherine’s execution scheduled?
19. To which chapel was Catherine’s body taken for burial immediately after her execution?
20. Who painted the miniature which is accepted to be the only painting from life we have of Catherine made in the short period she was queen?
Answers
1. Rose without a thorn
2. Lambeth
3. Oatlands Palace, Surrey
4. Joyce Culpeper
5. Thomas Howard, 2nd Duke of Norfol
6. Controller of Calais
7. Chesworth House
8. Henry Mannox
9. Secretary
10. Anne of Cleeves
11. Thomas Culpeper
12. Jane Boleyn, Lady Rochford
13. John Lascelles
14. He was afraid that she might attempt to commit suicide
15. Syon House
16. Francis Dereham
17. Act of Attainder
18. 7 am
19. St. Peter ad Vincula
20. Hans Holbein
Robert Hooke
1. Where on the Isle of Wight was Hooke born in 1635?
2. What was the profession of Hooke’s father , John?
3. Although Hooke went to London to study with Cowper and Lely, he became a pupil at which school?
4. Whose 14 volume “Early Science in Oxford” devotes 5 volumes to Hooke?
5. During the Protectorate, Hooke studied at which Oxford college?
6. Who headed Wadham College, and was a huge influence on Boyle during his time there? 7. During his time at Oxford, for whom did Hooke build vacuum pumps for his gas law experiments?
8. Hooke’s vacuum pump was based on whose earlier pump, which Hooke considered ‘too gross to perform any great matter’? 9. Who referenced Hooke’s incomplete autobiography for his “The Posthumous Works of Robert Hooke”?
10. On 12th November 1661, Hooke was appointed to which position within the Royal Society?
11. Hooke is believed to have developed what, 15 years before Huygens, who is credited with the invention?
12. To which position did Hooke succeed Arthur Dacres in 1664?
13. What was the name of the lab assistant with whom Hooke would often take tea? 14. Where was Hooke buried following his death in 1703?
15. By which other name is Hooke’s Law of 1660 also known?
16. In which work of 1665 did Hooke argue for a principle of gravitation?
17. Which biological term was first coined by Hooke in the Micrographia?
18. For which free standing doric column in the City of London did Hooke collaborate with Wren on the design?
19. In a 1682 lecture, Hooke put forward a model for which aspect of a human being?
20. In which position was Hook a chief assistant to Sir Christopher Wren?
Answers
1. Freshwater
2. Church of England clergyman
3. Westminster
4. Robert Gunther
5. Wadham College
6. John Wilkins
7. Robert Boyle
8. Ralph Greatorex
9. Richard Waller
10. Curator
11. Balance Spring
12. Gresham Professor of Geometry
13. Harry Hunt
14. St. Helen’s Bishopsgate
15. The Law of Elasticity
16. Micrographia
17. Cell
18. The Monument to the Great Fire of London
19. Memory
20. Surveyor to the City of London
They won’t all come up, of course, but it will be interesting to see if they make a difference. On a subject like Catherine Howard, History being one of my better subjects I would expect to get between 5 – 8 on an unprepared round. On a subject like Robert Hooke it’s more like 1 – 3. So I’ll let you know what my scores were after, and we’ll see whether it made a difference in this case.
Catherine Howard
The Green Lantern Comics
Robert Hooke
British Summer Olympic Medallists 1960 – 2012
Being as it’s still the summer holidays from work I decided that I should definitely have a go at the wiki challenge. For new readers, or those who might have forgotten, the wiki challenge works like this. You take a look at the list of subjects taken by contenders in the next Mastermind show. You pick one or more of the subjects, and then go to the relevant page of Wikipedia for the subject. Using only the page for reference, try to digest as much of its information as possible, and see how many specialist subject questions this allows you to answer correctly.
When I do it, I find it helps me to make up a set of questions from the information on the page. This week I decided upon two of the subjects. I took Summer Olympic Games as my very first specialist subject in my unsuccessful tilt at the crown in 2006, so I want to try and answer this one on my own merits. Being realistic, I thought that the wiki pages on Catherine Howard and Robert Hooke would be more useful than that on the Green Lantern, so I opted for these two. Mind you, this is not to say that I have anything against the Green Lantern -
In brightest day, in blackest night
No evil shall escape my sight
Let those who worship evil’s might
Beware my power – Green Lantern’s light!
etc. etc. Enough of such chaff. Here’s my question sets for the two subjects – 20 questions each
Catherine Howard
1. Which floral nickname did Henry VIII sometimes use for Catherine?
2. Catherine’s birth in about 1523 is usually believed to have taken place in which part of London?
3. Where did Catherine marry Henry VIII on 28th July, 1540?
4. Catherine was a daughter of Lord Edmund Howard and whom?
5. Who was Catherine’s paternal grandfather?
6. In 1531 her father Edmund was appointed to which post?
7. In which house belonging to her paternal grandmother, the Dowager Duchess of Norfolk, near Horsham did Catherine spend much of her time following the death of her mother in 1531?
8. What was the name of Catherine’s music teacher with whom she had a sexual relationship when she was 13 years old, who would go on to give evidence at her trial for adultery?
9. What position was held in the Dowager Duchess’ household by Francis Dereham, who became Catherine’s lover, and whom she would address as husband?
10. Catherine was first appointed to court as a lady in waiting for whom?
11. With which courtier did Catherine become romantically attached after marrying the king?
12. Which relative of Catherine’s by marriage arranged her meetings with Culpeper?
13. Which protestant reformer learned of Catherine’s infidelity through his sister, Mary Hall, a member of the Duchess’ household?
14. When sent to question her in November 1741, Thomas Cranmer ordered objects be removed from her rooms. For what reason?
15. When stripped of her title as queen, where was Catherine imprisoned on 23rd November 1541?
16. Which of Catherine’s lovers was hanged, drawn and quartered on 10th December 1541?
17. Which bill, passed on 7th February 1542, made it a treasonable offence for a queen consort to reveal details of her sexual history to the king within 20 days of their marriage?
18. At what time of day on the 13th February 1641 was Catherine’s execution scheduled?
19. To which chapel was Catherine’s body taken for burial immediately after her execution?
20. Who painted the miniature which is accepted to be the only painting from life we have of Catherine made in the short period she was queen?
Answers
1. Rose without a thorn
2. Lambeth
3. Oatlands Palace, Surrey
4. Joyce Culpeper
5. Thomas Howard, 2nd Duke of Norfol
6. Controller of Calais
7. Chesworth House
8. Henry Mannox
9. Secretary
10. Anne of Cleeves
11. Thomas Culpeper
12. Jane Boleyn, Lady Rochford
13. John Lascelles
14. He was afraid that she might attempt to commit suicide
15. Syon House
16. Francis Dereham
17. Act of Attainder
18. 7 am
19. St. Peter ad Vincula
20. Hans Holbein
Robert Hooke
1. Where on the Isle of Wight was Hooke born in 1635?
2. What was the profession of Hooke’s father , John?
3. Although Hooke went to London to study with Cowper and Lely, he became a pupil at which school?
4. Whose 14 volume “Early Science in Oxford” devotes 5 volumes to Hooke?
5. During the Protectorate, Hooke studied at which Oxford college?
6. Who headed Wadham College, and was a huge influence on Boyle during his time there? 7. During his time at Oxford, for whom did Hooke build vacuum pumps for his gas law experiments?
8. Hooke’s vacuum pump was based on whose earlier pump, which Hooke considered ‘too gross to perform any great matter’? 9. Who referenced Hooke’s incomplete autobiography for his “The Posthumous Works of Robert Hooke”?
10. On 12th November 1661, Hooke was appointed to which position within the Royal Society?
11. Hooke is believed to have developed what, 15 years before Huygens, who is credited with the invention?
12. To which position did Hooke succeed Arthur Dacres in 1664?
13. What was the name of the lab assistant with whom Hooke would often take tea? 14. Where was Hooke buried following his death in 1703?
15. By which other name is Hooke’s Law of 1660 also known?
16. In which work of 1665 did Hooke argue for a principle of gravitation?
17. Which biological term was first coined by Hooke in the Micrographia?
18. For which free standing doric column in the City of London did Hooke collaborate with Wren on the design?
19. In a 1682 lecture, Hooke put forward a model for which aspect of a human being?
20. In which position was Hook a chief assistant to Sir Christopher Wren?
Answers
1. Freshwater
2. Church of England clergyman
3. Westminster
4. Robert Gunther
5. Wadham College
6. John Wilkins
7. Robert Boyle
8. Ralph Greatorex
9. Richard Waller
10. Curator
11. Balance Spring
12. Gresham Professor of Geometry
13. Harry Hunt
14. St. Helen’s Bishopsgate
15. The Law of Elasticity
16. Micrographia
17. Cell
18. The Monument to the Great Fire of London
19. Memory
20. Surveyor to the City of London
They won’t all come up, of course, but it will be interesting to see if they make a difference. On a subject like Catherine Howard, History being one of my better subjects I would expect to get between 5 – 8 on an unprepared round. On a subject like Robert Hooke it’s more like 1 – 3. So I’ll let you know what my scores were after, and we’ll see whether it made a difference in this case.
Tuesday, 13 August 2013
University Challenge - Round One - Match Five
Loughborough v Clare, Cambridge
After a slow start with the first couple of heats this series has really taken off in the last couple of shows. So the omens were good for another interesting contest. Loughborough were making their second appearance of the Paxman era, having previously lost narrowly to St. John’s Cambridge in the second round in 2010. This year Loughborough’s team consisted of Ally Thornton, Kathy Morten, Kate Spalding, and Captain Grant Craig.
This is Clare’s 4th tilt at the title of the Paxman era. They last appeared in 2012, when they reached the quarter final stage. Their team were Tom Watson, Carys Redman-White, Mark Chonofsky and the skipper Tom Wright. Enough said – let’s get cracking.
The Clare skipper opened his team’s account with a good early buzz for the first starter, knowing that several sportsmen all share epithets containing the word ‘flying’. A full set of bonuses on Oliver Cromwell gave them the best possible start. Tom Wright came in too quickly for the next starter, incorrectly identifying Peter Mandelson as the author of ‘Last Man Standing’. Given the full question Grant Craig knew it was Jack Straw. Loughborough managed a bonus on Monet, which meant that they were five points behind at this stage. Mark Chonofsky knew that the beast of burden which is the last two letters of an infectious disease is ox. They took two bonuses on Robert Hooke. The painting, ‘The Raft of the Medusa’, is something of an old UC chestnut, but neither team knew that it was the work of Gericault. In the same vein, neither team knew that Shakespeare’s Richard III says “I am not in the giving mood today”. I didn’t either. Tom Wright knew that the language most likely to be written on a Sikh temple is Punjabi – good shout, that. A good UC set followed with pairs of people sharing the same surname – and in each pair one of them turned out to be a 2012 Olympic gold medalist. Clare missed Wales’ finest, Taekwondo gold medalist Jade Jones, but they had the other two sets. The picture set started with the crest of Newcastle United. Once again, the Clare skipper was first to the buzzer. The bonuses showed three more crests, each of which had been promoted to the Premier League in the last three seasons. Clare took all three. Ally Thornton struck for Loughborough on a question about ohms, amps and watts. It’s ironic that, given that Loughborough had metaphorically speaking woken up now, they were granted bonuses on sleep.A full set raised their score to 40, while Clare were comfortably in the lead with 85 at the ten minute mark.
Ally Thornton buzzed early for his second consecutive starter, knowing that the soon to be Sir Bradley Wiggins spoke of drawing the raffle tickets immediately after the final stage of the 2012 Tour de France. Women in Men’s clothes brought them another two bonuses, which cut the deficit to a single set. Neither team could quite manage to complete the Peter Pan quote beginning , “To die will be “ with the words “An Awfully Big Adventure”. Both teams thought themselves into knots on the next starter. It asked them to work out the city, the name for whose inhabitants is an anagram of the French for the analgesic made from salycilic acid. Got that? It is a little confusing. They had that it was aspirine, but gave the name for the inhabitant rather than the city. Ally Thornton, doing a sterling job for his team, took the next starter, knowing that algor mortis refers to the reduction in body temperature of a deceased body. Restoration drama was not one of Loughborough’s areas of expertise, and they failed to take any of the set of bonuses thereon. The music starter brought Ally Thornton his fourth starter when he was the first to recognize “Mr. Blue Sky” by the ELO. Bonuses followed on three other groups using string sections in one of their well known works . Like Loughborough, the only one I correctly answered was Bittersweet Symphony by the Verve. Still, that was enough to bring them up level with Clare. Good game. Chancing his arm Ally Thornton tried Orkney Mainland for the next Scottish island down in size after Shetland Mainland. but this was incorrect. Tom Wright suggested Mull, correctly, pushing his team back into the lead. A good set of words which begin with a greek letter – for example PHIlately and MUesli – brought a full set . Something about Kepler’s third Law and orbits didn’t mean a great deal to me, but Mark Chonofsky knew that the answer was 3/2. One Physics bonus followed. Grant Craig knew that Debussy composed La Mer. One bonus on place names beginning with –mur – was taken. The second picture starter showed a painting. Asked for the name of the artist neither team could supply Titian.
As Titian was mixing rose madder
His model posed nude on a ladder
Her position, to Titian
Suggested coition
So he climbed up the ladder and ‘ad ‘er.
Apologies, a slight attack of the limericks, there. At the 20 minute mark Clare led by 125 to 100. All to play for, and both teams were in a position to post scores good enough to give them a good chance of a repechage slot.
Neither team knew about Boolean algebra. A fine shout from Mark Chonofsky identified several US presidents as whigs. This gave Clare the painting bonuses, of which they managed two. Tom Wright won the buzzer race for one of the gentler starters of the evening, knowing that Connacht and Munster are the other two provinces of Ireland with Ulster and Leinster. 2 bonuses followed on Old Testament figures. At 165 Clare were already knocking on the door of at least a repechage spot. Grant Craig knew that the Ostwald process produces nitric acid. 2 bonuses on new world monkeys brought Loughborough to 120, still some way from safety. Grant Craig knew that if a question has the words ‘dark heavy wood’ in it, more often than not ebony will be the answer. It was this time. Gloucester Cathedral brought 1 bonus, enough to take Loughborough to 135. The win was not impossible, and looked even more possible when Grant Craig took the next starter recognizing two definitions of the word ensign. A full set of bonuses on the British – American War of 1812 brought them to 160, just 5 points behind, and themselves now in with a shout of a repechage place. Neither team knew that a square mile is roughly equivalent to 259 hectares. A mathematics thing which I didn’t understand followed, and Mark Chonofsky had it. 2 bonuses on wool were enough to take Clare to 180, pretty much guaranteeing their continued presence in the competition. Grant Craig took a flyer with the next starter, buzzing in early to identify the second president of the Weimar Republic, and losing 5. Clare couldn’t dredge up Hindenburg, and so we moved on to the next starter. The impressive Tom Wright knew a series of works all linked by the word beach. Islands of Sumatra, the last set of bonuses, did not allow them to add to their score of 195 before the gong.
It’s hard not to feel sympathy for Loughborough for that last unlucky buzz. They wouldn’t have won, but even so, for some reason 160 looks to be a more likely repechage score than 155, even though it’s only 5 points difference. Well done to Clare – good luck in the next round.
Jeremy Paxman Watch
After being exceptionally well behaved for the last few weeks, JP gave signs that he was chafing at the bit with the Madeleine Pelletier question. When Loughborough answered Marie Stopes – and let’s be honest, that’s not a stupid answer at all, he merely stayed looking down at the card, while his shoulders began to shake, and he fought to master his mirth.
With the awfully big adventure question JP seemed uncharacteristically confused, saying to Kate Spalding, who had been very close to the correct answer, “You were right. . . well you were wrong, but you were close. Sorry!” All of which goes to disprove the old adage that being Jeremy Paxman means never having to say you’re sorry.
He was in a funny mood, JP. Asked something about the name given to something in Physics, Clare, who, like me, didn’t have a Scooby, offered ‘Jeff’. This really tickled our Jez, who laughed and replied – If Only it were, eh? Much more of this kind of bonhomie and they’ll have him presenting something like Pets Make Prizes.
Mind you, if there were any danger of that, the picture starter did for it. Given a tentative guess of Heironymus Bosch our hero leaned theatrically closer to his screen as if studying the picture in disbelief before snapping “It doesn’t look the slightest bit like Heironymus Bosch! No!” Ah – the man himself is back in town.
Capping a good performance, the man signed off by complimenting Clare upon their stoat mascot. Well, quite.
Interesting Fact That I Did Not Already Know Of The Week
Boole – who gives his name to the algebra of logic basic to the design of digital computer circuits – was actually born in Lincoln in the early 19th century.
After a slow start with the first couple of heats this series has really taken off in the last couple of shows. So the omens were good for another interesting contest. Loughborough were making their second appearance of the Paxman era, having previously lost narrowly to St. John’s Cambridge in the second round in 2010. This year Loughborough’s team consisted of Ally Thornton, Kathy Morten, Kate Spalding, and Captain Grant Craig.
This is Clare’s 4th tilt at the title of the Paxman era. They last appeared in 2012, when they reached the quarter final stage. Their team were Tom Watson, Carys Redman-White, Mark Chonofsky and the skipper Tom Wright. Enough said – let’s get cracking.
The Clare skipper opened his team’s account with a good early buzz for the first starter, knowing that several sportsmen all share epithets containing the word ‘flying’. A full set of bonuses on Oliver Cromwell gave them the best possible start. Tom Wright came in too quickly for the next starter, incorrectly identifying Peter Mandelson as the author of ‘Last Man Standing’. Given the full question Grant Craig knew it was Jack Straw. Loughborough managed a bonus on Monet, which meant that they were five points behind at this stage. Mark Chonofsky knew that the beast of burden which is the last two letters of an infectious disease is ox. They took two bonuses on Robert Hooke. The painting, ‘The Raft of the Medusa’, is something of an old UC chestnut, but neither team knew that it was the work of Gericault. In the same vein, neither team knew that Shakespeare’s Richard III says “I am not in the giving mood today”. I didn’t either. Tom Wright knew that the language most likely to be written on a Sikh temple is Punjabi – good shout, that. A good UC set followed with pairs of people sharing the same surname – and in each pair one of them turned out to be a 2012 Olympic gold medalist. Clare missed Wales’ finest, Taekwondo gold medalist Jade Jones, but they had the other two sets. The picture set started with the crest of Newcastle United. Once again, the Clare skipper was first to the buzzer. The bonuses showed three more crests, each of which had been promoted to the Premier League in the last three seasons. Clare took all three. Ally Thornton struck for Loughborough on a question about ohms, amps and watts. It’s ironic that, given that Loughborough had metaphorically speaking woken up now, they were granted bonuses on sleep.A full set raised their score to 40, while Clare were comfortably in the lead with 85 at the ten minute mark.
Ally Thornton buzzed early for his second consecutive starter, knowing that the soon to be Sir Bradley Wiggins spoke of drawing the raffle tickets immediately after the final stage of the 2012 Tour de France. Women in Men’s clothes brought them another two bonuses, which cut the deficit to a single set. Neither team could quite manage to complete the Peter Pan quote beginning , “To die will be “ with the words “An Awfully Big Adventure”. Both teams thought themselves into knots on the next starter. It asked them to work out the city, the name for whose inhabitants is an anagram of the French for the analgesic made from salycilic acid. Got that? It is a little confusing. They had that it was aspirine, but gave the name for the inhabitant rather than the city. Ally Thornton, doing a sterling job for his team, took the next starter, knowing that algor mortis refers to the reduction in body temperature of a deceased body. Restoration drama was not one of Loughborough’s areas of expertise, and they failed to take any of the set of bonuses thereon. The music starter brought Ally Thornton his fourth starter when he was the first to recognize “Mr. Blue Sky” by the ELO. Bonuses followed on three other groups using string sections in one of their well known works . Like Loughborough, the only one I correctly answered was Bittersweet Symphony by the Verve. Still, that was enough to bring them up level with Clare. Good game. Chancing his arm Ally Thornton tried Orkney Mainland for the next Scottish island down in size after Shetland Mainland. but this was incorrect. Tom Wright suggested Mull, correctly, pushing his team back into the lead. A good set of words which begin with a greek letter – for example PHIlately and MUesli – brought a full set . Something about Kepler’s third Law and orbits didn’t mean a great deal to me, but Mark Chonofsky knew that the answer was 3/2. One Physics bonus followed. Grant Craig knew that Debussy composed La Mer. One bonus on place names beginning with –mur – was taken. The second picture starter showed a painting. Asked for the name of the artist neither team could supply Titian.
As Titian was mixing rose madder
His model posed nude on a ladder
Her position, to Titian
Suggested coition
So he climbed up the ladder and ‘ad ‘er.
Apologies, a slight attack of the limericks, there. At the 20 minute mark Clare led by 125 to 100. All to play for, and both teams were in a position to post scores good enough to give them a good chance of a repechage slot.
Neither team knew about Boolean algebra. A fine shout from Mark Chonofsky identified several US presidents as whigs. This gave Clare the painting bonuses, of which they managed two. Tom Wright won the buzzer race for one of the gentler starters of the evening, knowing that Connacht and Munster are the other two provinces of Ireland with Ulster and Leinster. 2 bonuses followed on Old Testament figures. At 165 Clare were already knocking on the door of at least a repechage spot. Grant Craig knew that the Ostwald process produces nitric acid. 2 bonuses on new world monkeys brought Loughborough to 120, still some way from safety. Grant Craig knew that if a question has the words ‘dark heavy wood’ in it, more often than not ebony will be the answer. It was this time. Gloucester Cathedral brought 1 bonus, enough to take Loughborough to 135. The win was not impossible, and looked even more possible when Grant Craig took the next starter recognizing two definitions of the word ensign. A full set of bonuses on the British – American War of 1812 brought them to 160, just 5 points behind, and themselves now in with a shout of a repechage place. Neither team knew that a square mile is roughly equivalent to 259 hectares. A mathematics thing which I didn’t understand followed, and Mark Chonofsky had it. 2 bonuses on wool were enough to take Clare to 180, pretty much guaranteeing their continued presence in the competition. Grant Craig took a flyer with the next starter, buzzing in early to identify the second president of the Weimar Republic, and losing 5. Clare couldn’t dredge up Hindenburg, and so we moved on to the next starter. The impressive Tom Wright knew a series of works all linked by the word beach. Islands of Sumatra, the last set of bonuses, did not allow them to add to their score of 195 before the gong.
It’s hard not to feel sympathy for Loughborough for that last unlucky buzz. They wouldn’t have won, but even so, for some reason 160 looks to be a more likely repechage score than 155, even though it’s only 5 points difference. Well done to Clare – good luck in the next round.
Jeremy Paxman Watch
After being exceptionally well behaved for the last few weeks, JP gave signs that he was chafing at the bit with the Madeleine Pelletier question. When Loughborough answered Marie Stopes – and let’s be honest, that’s not a stupid answer at all, he merely stayed looking down at the card, while his shoulders began to shake, and he fought to master his mirth.
With the awfully big adventure question JP seemed uncharacteristically confused, saying to Kate Spalding, who had been very close to the correct answer, “You were right. . . well you were wrong, but you were close. Sorry!” All of which goes to disprove the old adage that being Jeremy Paxman means never having to say you’re sorry.
He was in a funny mood, JP. Asked something about the name given to something in Physics, Clare, who, like me, didn’t have a Scooby, offered ‘Jeff’. This really tickled our Jez, who laughed and replied – If Only it were, eh? Much more of this kind of bonhomie and they’ll have him presenting something like Pets Make Prizes.
Mind you, if there were any danger of that, the picture starter did for it. Given a tentative guess of Heironymus Bosch our hero leaned theatrically closer to his screen as if studying the picture in disbelief before snapping “It doesn’t look the slightest bit like Heironymus Bosch! No!” Ah – the man himself is back in town.
Capping a good performance, the man signed off by complimenting Clare upon their stoat mascot. Well, quite.
Interesting Fact That I Did Not Already Know Of The Week
Boole – who gives his name to the algebra of logic basic to the design of digital computer circuits – was actually born in Lincoln in the early 19th century.
Sunday, 11 August 2013
Mail On Sunday Article - Break the Safe
I did actually watch the second half of Break the Safe on Saturday 3rd. It’s a lottery quiz game, so does fall within our remit. Basically, three pairs of contestants answer questions against each other in order to win the opportunity to play for big money in the final game. In the final game the two of them, independent of each other, have to both push a button after a 30 second countdown – when they can’t see the clock counting down. If they both do it before the 30 seconds, they get nothing. If they have answered questions correctly, they get a certain amount of leeway after the time. If one is within that leeway they get half the money. If both are within the margin, then they get all of the money. Got it? Well, it doesn’t really matter, because this isn’t really about that. There was an article in the (say it quietly) Mail on Sunday today. If you want to read it for yourself, try this link
Mail On Sunday Break the Safe Article
What it boils down to is this. The two contestants from Ammanford ( I know it well) , played and got to the final. IN their final the rule was that you either got all or nothing. One of them was within the margin, but they received nothing, because those were the original rules in play. The producers had a change of heart, deciding the all or nothing rule was too harsh, and so brought them back the next day to film the end all over again, with the rule as has been seen on the show, that one person succeeding means you get half the money.
Here’s the rub. In their first filmed ending – one of them managed to be within the margin. They won nothing, because that was the rule at the time. When they were brought back a day or two later because of the producers’ change of heart – neither of them were within the margin. So they still left with nothing. Had the half money rule been in operation when their show was first filmed, they would have won £22,000. Apparently the producers swore them to secrecy. Well, that worked well, didn’t it?!
There are a number of observations to make about this story. I can actually see why the ladies from Ammanford are so upset. To think that, if the rules had only been in place when they first filmed the show, then they would have taken home that much money must be ‘gutting’ for want of a better word. I threw away £15,000 on WWTBAM, and that was entirely my own fault, and that felt bad enough, I can tell you.
At the end of the article it says that a spokesman denied any wrongdoing, and from the BBC’s point of view, I can also see where they are coming from. Look at it this way. I’m pretty sure that the rules – at the time – would have been explained before the end game was played, and that the two ladies understood them and agreed with them. So according to the rules at the time – which are the only rules you can play by – they didn’t win any money on their first go.
When they were asked back onto the show, I would imagine that the new rules were explained to them, and again, by playing they agreed to abide by them. According to the new rules, the second time they played they also lost.
So what we are essentially doing is asking whether the BBC were actually giving them another go at the final game, or whether they were re-enacting the exact game that they had played, just with the new rules applied. The ladies involved seem to be arguing that the latter is the case, and in a way you can see where they were coming from. The BBC insisted that they wear the same clothes, and have the same hairstyles as they’d had previously. The new footage was spliced with the old footage to make it look like one seamless show. The BBC could argue with some justification that things often have to be reshot in quiz and game shows, but this does not constitute cheating or an attempt to deceive the public.
The most noteworthy thing about this, it seems to me, is that the producers would decide to make such a fundamental change to the show’s mechanics at such a late stage. I’m not an industry insider at all, but I would have thought that for what is a prime time game show, they would have sorted out such basic issues as – it’s too hard to win – at the pilot stage. In an interview printed in the Mirror the contestants claim that they were told that nobody had won during the pilot stage either. If it's true, well you have to say that this whole mess was pretty much of the producers' own making, don't you.
We only have one side of the story here, so we don’t actually know whether anyone involved with the programme stopped to think – ‘well, hang on a minute – we do have an issue here. We changed the rules, and if the original rules had applied when they filmed the final for the first time, then they would have won money. Yes, we’ve not done anything wrong as such, but it’s only human nature that they wouldn’t be happy about it. Perhaps this is something we need to discuss and sort out between us.’- Of course, for all I know discussions of this nature did take place at the time. I know that there are clauses in contracts dealing with discussing programme content after the recording, so maybe they were relying on these.
For what it’s worth, I do understand why the two contestants feel as aggrieved as they seem to be. But I do think that you have to look on appearances on game shows and quiz shows like this : -
(In most cases) You applied – and nobody made you go on the show. If you have an issue, discuss it with the producer by all means, but at the end of the day be prepared to walk away, and just chalk it down to experience.
Nobody has a God-given right to win
People who work on these shows are doing their best, but at the end of the day their first concern is to make a good piece of entertainment for the viewers.
You probably have a right to have your expenses paid so that you’re not actually out of pocket. Anything else you take away is a bonus
So if I put it another way, it is very bad luck the way that it all worked out. It isn't the best thing to do to invite people to come and play for a prize that is virtually unwinnable, and it certainly looks like the ensuing mess was of the producers' own making. What exacerbated the situation was that there probably was a better way of working it out so that all parties involved were happier at the conclusion of filming, but it didn’t happen, and that’s just one of those things. It's a bad break, and we all get them from time to time. I understand the grievance, but it really is probably best to just let it go now. Which come to think of it is probably just what the BBC will do with Break the Safe when the last recorded show has been broadcast - if not before.
Mail On Sunday Break the Safe Article
What it boils down to is this. The two contestants from Ammanford ( I know it well) , played and got to the final. IN their final the rule was that you either got all or nothing. One of them was within the margin, but they received nothing, because those were the original rules in play. The producers had a change of heart, deciding the all or nothing rule was too harsh, and so brought them back the next day to film the end all over again, with the rule as has been seen on the show, that one person succeeding means you get half the money.
Here’s the rub. In their first filmed ending – one of them managed to be within the margin. They won nothing, because that was the rule at the time. When they were brought back a day or two later because of the producers’ change of heart – neither of them were within the margin. So they still left with nothing. Had the half money rule been in operation when their show was first filmed, they would have won £22,000. Apparently the producers swore them to secrecy. Well, that worked well, didn’t it?!
There are a number of observations to make about this story. I can actually see why the ladies from Ammanford are so upset. To think that, if the rules had only been in place when they first filmed the show, then they would have taken home that much money must be ‘gutting’ for want of a better word. I threw away £15,000 on WWTBAM, and that was entirely my own fault, and that felt bad enough, I can tell you.
At the end of the article it says that a spokesman denied any wrongdoing, and from the BBC’s point of view, I can also see where they are coming from. Look at it this way. I’m pretty sure that the rules – at the time – would have been explained before the end game was played, and that the two ladies understood them and agreed with them. So according to the rules at the time – which are the only rules you can play by – they didn’t win any money on their first go.
When they were asked back onto the show, I would imagine that the new rules were explained to them, and again, by playing they agreed to abide by them. According to the new rules, the second time they played they also lost.
So what we are essentially doing is asking whether the BBC were actually giving them another go at the final game, or whether they were re-enacting the exact game that they had played, just with the new rules applied. The ladies involved seem to be arguing that the latter is the case, and in a way you can see where they were coming from. The BBC insisted that they wear the same clothes, and have the same hairstyles as they’d had previously. The new footage was spliced with the old footage to make it look like one seamless show. The BBC could argue with some justification that things often have to be reshot in quiz and game shows, but this does not constitute cheating or an attempt to deceive the public.
The most noteworthy thing about this, it seems to me, is that the producers would decide to make such a fundamental change to the show’s mechanics at such a late stage. I’m not an industry insider at all, but I would have thought that for what is a prime time game show, they would have sorted out such basic issues as – it’s too hard to win – at the pilot stage. In an interview printed in the Mirror the contestants claim that they were told that nobody had won during the pilot stage either. If it's true, well you have to say that this whole mess was pretty much of the producers' own making, don't you.
We only have one side of the story here, so we don’t actually know whether anyone involved with the programme stopped to think – ‘well, hang on a minute – we do have an issue here. We changed the rules, and if the original rules had applied when they filmed the final for the first time, then they would have won money. Yes, we’ve not done anything wrong as such, but it’s only human nature that they wouldn’t be happy about it. Perhaps this is something we need to discuss and sort out between us.’- Of course, for all I know discussions of this nature did take place at the time. I know that there are clauses in contracts dealing with discussing programme content after the recording, so maybe they were relying on these.
For what it’s worth, I do understand why the two contestants feel as aggrieved as they seem to be. But I do think that you have to look on appearances on game shows and quiz shows like this : -
(In most cases) You applied – and nobody made you go on the show. If you have an issue, discuss it with the producer by all means, but at the end of the day be prepared to walk away, and just chalk it down to experience.
Nobody has a God-given right to win
People who work on these shows are doing their best, but at the end of the day their first concern is to make a good piece of entertainment for the viewers.
You probably have a right to have your expenses paid so that you’re not actually out of pocket. Anything else you take away is a bonus
So if I put it another way, it is very bad luck the way that it all worked out. It isn't the best thing to do to invite people to come and play for a prize that is virtually unwinnable, and it certainly looks like the ensuing mess was of the producers' own making. What exacerbated the situation was that there probably was a better way of working it out so that all parties involved were happier at the conclusion of filming, but it didn’t happen, and that’s just one of those things. It's a bad break, and we all get them from time to time. I understand the grievance, but it really is probably best to just let it go now. Which come to think of it is probably just what the BBC will do with Break the Safe when the last recorded show has been broadcast - if not before.
In the News
In the News
Who or what are the following and why have they been in the news?
1. Sergei Brin
2. Mount Rokatenda
3. Michael Foale
4. Charlotte Church
5. Mary Beard
6. John Amis
7. Fran Halsall
8. Ian Tomlinson
9. Sir John ‘Sandy’ Woodward
10. Mohammad Sarwar
11. Walter Smith
12. Alex Rodriguez
13. Mairtin O’Muilleoir
14. Charlotte Green
15. Megaconus
16. Godfrey Bloom
17. Rory Lawson
18. Elfsborg
19. Jacob Rees-Mogg MP
20. Katie Gee and Kirstie Trup
21. GDS
22. Tian Tian
In Other News
1. A dead shark was photographed in which unlikely location?
2. The world’s first lab grown version of which food was unveiled last week?
3. It was suggested last week that what can help prevent dementia and memory loss?
4. Who called for a boycott of 2014 Winter Olympics in Russia due to its new anti-gay laws?
5. Scientists have opened a tomb in order to try to prove the identity of whom?
6. Which shadow cabinet member said Ed Miliband and Labour have 6 months to prove himself or risk losing the next general election?
7. Which town hosted this year’s Welsh National Eisteddfodd?
8. Who was unveiled as the new Dr. Who?
9. What was named in a survey as the most popular film quotation of all time?
10. Lego announced they will be making a series of special lego toys based on which TV show?
11. Which 83 year old entertainer was arrested a second time concerning further allegations regarding sexual offences?
12. Which performer pleaded not guilty in court to the charge that he attacked his ex girlfriend in California?
13. Which Spanish institution is to be tried in 5 states in the USA this summer?
14. Last week who was fined £1000 for drunkenly assaulting a railway security guard?
15. China and Russia have stopped importing dairy from where due to a botulism scare?
16. Which British and Irish Lion signed a new contract with his club Newport Gwent Dragons?
17. Which Olympic bronze medal winner announced her retirement last week?
18. How much is the charge that Spain’s foreign minister, Jose Garcia-Margallo threatened to levy on every vehicle crossing in or out of Gibraltar?
19. A keeper from which zoo has been suspended for punching a seal ?
20. Mark Carney promised to keep interest rates at same 0.5% for how long?
21. Which England cricketer was allegedly fined for urinating on nightclub bouncers, according to some newspapers?
22. The longest serving Lib Dem MP announced he will stand down at the next election. Who is he?
23. Which England cricketer was wrongly accused of using silicone tape to defeat hotspot technology?
24. Which move by the Irish edition of the Sun earned only one complaint from a member of the public?
25. What was the score in the Swansea v. Malmo second leg?
26. Oprah Winfrey accused a shop in which city of racism towards her last week?
27. Which Easy Rider actress died aged 74?
Who or what are the following and why have they been in the news?
1. Sergei Brin
2. Mount Rokatenda
3. Michael Foale
4. Charlotte Church
5. Mary Beard
6. John Amis
7. Fran Halsall
8. Ian Tomlinson
9. Sir John ‘Sandy’ Woodward
10. Mohammad Sarwar
11. Walter Smith
12. Alex Rodriguez
13. Mairtin O’Muilleoir
14. Charlotte Green
15. Megaconus
16. Godfrey Bloom
17. Rory Lawson
18. Elfsborg
19. Jacob Rees-Mogg MP
20. Katie Gee and Kirstie Trup
21. GDS
22. Tian Tian
In Other News
1. A dead shark was photographed in which unlikely location?
2. The world’s first lab grown version of which food was unveiled last week?
3. It was suggested last week that what can help prevent dementia and memory loss?
4. Who called for a boycott of 2014 Winter Olympics in Russia due to its new anti-gay laws?
5. Scientists have opened a tomb in order to try to prove the identity of whom?
6. Which shadow cabinet member said Ed Miliband and Labour have 6 months to prove himself or risk losing the next general election?
7. Which town hosted this year’s Welsh National Eisteddfodd?
8. Who was unveiled as the new Dr. Who?
9. What was named in a survey as the most popular film quotation of all time?
10. Lego announced they will be making a series of special lego toys based on which TV show?
11. Which 83 year old entertainer was arrested a second time concerning further allegations regarding sexual offences?
12. Which performer pleaded not guilty in court to the charge that he attacked his ex girlfriend in California?
13. Which Spanish institution is to be tried in 5 states in the USA this summer?
14. Last week who was fined £1000 for drunkenly assaulting a railway security guard?
15. China and Russia have stopped importing dairy from where due to a botulism scare?
16. Which British and Irish Lion signed a new contract with his club Newport Gwent Dragons?
17. Which Olympic bronze medal winner announced her retirement last week?
18. How much is the charge that Spain’s foreign minister, Jose Garcia-Margallo threatened to levy on every vehicle crossing in or out of Gibraltar?
19. A keeper from which zoo has been suspended for punching a seal ?
20. Mark Carney promised to keep interest rates at same 0.5% for how long?
21. Which England cricketer was allegedly fined for urinating on nightclub bouncers, according to some newspapers?
22. The longest serving Lib Dem MP announced he will stand down at the next election. Who is he?
23. Which England cricketer was wrongly accused of using silicone tape to defeat hotspot technology?
24. Which move by the Irish edition of the Sun earned only one complaint from a member of the public?
25. What was the score in the Swansea v. Malmo second leg?
26. Oprah Winfrey accused a shop in which city of racism towards her last week?
27. Which Easy Rider actress died aged 74?
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