At last I’ve managed to catch up with the BBC’s new(ish) daytime offering, Pressure Pad. Now, before I start, let’s set a few ground rules. I know that this is never intended to be a search for the UK’s finest quiz team, and I know that the show is not designed to especially appeal to serious quizzers. So I will try to consider the show on its own merits.
It’s presented by John Barrowman, whose last quiz gig, I seem to recall, was the Beeb’s god-awful The Kids Are Alright a few years ago. What can you say, other than you know what you’re going to get from John Barrowman. He’s a professional, and despite being born in Glasgow he spent his formative years in the USA, so everything he does in the presentation line is going to be slick. He seemed warm enough, and the conversations with the contestants ( of which I not a fan in any show, I’m afraid) looked genuinely friendly.
So to the mechanics of the show. Two teams of five people face each other. These would be friends/family/ work colleagues/whatever, but, if the evidence of the show I watched is anything to go by, not quizzers. Each team has a captain, and the other members go head to head in a series of quiz games which take place on the eponymous pressure pad. I’ll be honest, seeing two teams squaring off against each other in individual games is unhappily reminiscent of Family Fortunes – a show which has probably been responsible for more terrible pub quiz questions than any other. Well, it’s better than that, certainly. Basically all the games I watched involved using the gimmicky pressure pad. Just to give you an idea, the first game I saw was a king of question tennis, if you like. The two adversaries stood on either side of the pressure pad. A red line was in the middle between them. It started moving towards one of them, and the only way he could reverse its direction was by answering a question correctly. The other opponent then had to answer to try to reverse the direction. If it reached an end sector, then that contestant lost a life. 2 lives lost and the game was over. Another involved being given three options – say the number of UK top 40 singles by three different groups, and picking the right sector of the pie chart appearing in the pressure pad to represent one of them.
The questions were certainly no harder than you’d expect for a show at this time, for a general audience, and one suspects that conspicuously useful teams were weeded out during the application and audition process, so the level was certainly appropriate. There were more entertainment – and dare I say it, quite current entertainment questions than any other category. Pressure Pad is not alone in this. Following the tried and tested ‘Eggheads’ format, the contestant who wins a head to head can rejoin his/her team for the final game, while the defeated one is out. In the final game the two captains stand on each side of the pad. In front of them are a series of steps into the centre. The first step has two options, the second three, the third four and so forth. The captain with the biggest team left goes first. He has to pick the right options, with help from his remaining team members, as answers to a set of questions to get him into the middle and take the cash. If he gets one wrong he stops, the other team gets their set. If the other team gets one wrong, then we go back to the same question where the first team stopped, and they take another guess, having already eliminated one wrong option.
That’s almost it. One team will have won £2000. They are then given the chance for a Bullseye style gamble. They see six options. They will be asked a question, and have to pick the right option from the 6. Now, they don ‘t have to take the question, in which case they can walk away with £2000. £1000 is added to the jackpot every day that it’s not won. If a captain takes the gamble, and gets it wrong, then the team get nothing. Judging by the fact that the jackpot was up to £10000 on the show I watched I would say that a lot of teams were showing discretion rather than valour.
Well, there we are, then. That’s Pressure Pad. Did I like it? Not that much. Did I hate it? No. Would I go out of my way to watch it? No. Would I pay it that much attention if someone else happened to be watching it in the same room as me? Probably not. But hey, it’s not aimed at people like me in the first place. In line with a lot of shows in the genre, it’s a good ten minutes too long, and maybe fifteen. The FAQ ( Faffing About Quotient) is high – it isn’t just that it’s getting on for five minutes before the first question is asked, but then there’s the chat before each head to head as well. The games are alright, John Barrowman is alright, the questions are alright, although there’s nothing like enough of them. Not a lot more to say about it than that.
Saturday, 30 November 2013
News Questions
In the News
Who or what are the following and why have they been in the news? 1. Ryan Crotty
2. Howard Foster
3. Aravindan Balakrishnan
4. John Darwin
5. Ian Watkins
6. Jade Rabbit
7. Richard Silverwood
8. Elizabetta and Francesca Grillo
9. Sonny Bill Williams
10. Popcorn and Caramel
11. Ross Brawn
12. Tom James
13. Chann Sankaren and Sanjey Ganeshan
14. Michael Chopra
15. Ison
16. Dean Mohareb
17. Nilon Santos
In Other News
1. What was the score in the rugby union test between Ireland and New Zealand?
2. Which company were accused on BBC TV last week of night shifts that could cause illness?
3. Which bank was accused of driving viable firms to collapse?
4. Which became the 1000th UK number 1 album?
5. What was the score between Man Utd. and Cardiff?
6. – and Spurs and Man City?
7. IN which round did Carl Froch win his world title fight against George Groves?
8. Who won the Brazilian GP?
9. Whom did Manny Pacquaio defeat last week?
10. What was the score in the rugby league world cup semi final between England and NZ?
11. – and Australia v Fiji?
12. Who was the latest celebrity to leave Strictly Come Dancing?
13. Whose bones were put on show to the public for the first time last week?
14. Which 48 year old former footballer revealed he has suffered from skin cancer?
15. What was the score in the rugby union test between Scotland and Australia?
16. Which Welsh rugby player made the shortlist for the BBC Sports Personality of the Year?
17. What will be Scotland’s currency if it becomes an independent country?
18. France announced it is sending troops to which African country?
19. Which celebrity was accused of having a daily cocaine habit?
20. A Uk diplomat had his bag forcibly opened at which border last week?
21. What creatures escaped from Colchester Zoo last week?
22. Which software pioneer was accused of stalking last week?
23. What was the Champions League score in the match between Arsenal and Marseilles?
24. – and Chelsea and Basel?
25. – and Celtic and Milan?
26. what is the new name of Warwickshire’s T20 side?
27. Who left the England Ashes tour for stress related reasons?
28. A crane damaged a world cup stadium in which city?
29. Who was expelled from the Italian senate last week?
30. What was the score between Man Utd and Bayer Leverkeusen?
31. – and Man City and Victoria Plsen?
32. Why was Melanie Sykes in the news last week?
33. – and Louis Vuitton?
34. According to Yahoo what was the UK’s top obsession in 2013?
35. Which footballer celebrated his 40th birthday?
36. Which TV action hero passed away aged 67?
37. What was the score between Spurs and Tromso?
38. – and Wigan and Zulte Wagerem?
39. – and Swansea and Valencia
40. Who tweeted the names of the women in the Ian Watkins case?
41. Which former England Rugby captain announced his retirement last week?
42. Which city was confirmed as the Grand Départ for the 2015 Tour de France?
43. In which city did the tragic helicopter crash take place?
44. 3 unpublished stories by whom were leaked online last week?
Who or what are the following and why have they been in the news? 1. Ryan Crotty
2. Howard Foster
3. Aravindan Balakrishnan
4. John Darwin
5. Ian Watkins
6. Jade Rabbit
7. Richard Silverwood
8. Elizabetta and Francesca Grillo
9. Sonny Bill Williams
10. Popcorn and Caramel
11. Ross Brawn
12. Tom James
13. Chann Sankaren and Sanjey Ganeshan
14. Michael Chopra
15. Ison
16. Dean Mohareb
17. Nilon Santos
In Other News
1. What was the score in the rugby union test between Ireland and New Zealand?
2. Which company were accused on BBC TV last week of night shifts that could cause illness?
3. Which bank was accused of driving viable firms to collapse?
4. Which became the 1000th UK number 1 album?
5. What was the score between Man Utd. and Cardiff?
6. – and Spurs and Man City?
7. IN which round did Carl Froch win his world title fight against George Groves?
8. Who won the Brazilian GP?
9. Whom did Manny Pacquaio defeat last week?
10. What was the score in the rugby league world cup semi final between England and NZ?
11. – and Australia v Fiji?
12. Who was the latest celebrity to leave Strictly Come Dancing?
13. Whose bones were put on show to the public for the first time last week?
14. Which 48 year old former footballer revealed he has suffered from skin cancer?
15. What was the score in the rugby union test between Scotland and Australia?
16. Which Welsh rugby player made the shortlist for the BBC Sports Personality of the Year?
17. What will be Scotland’s currency if it becomes an independent country?
18. France announced it is sending troops to which African country?
19. Which celebrity was accused of having a daily cocaine habit?
20. A Uk diplomat had his bag forcibly opened at which border last week?
21. What creatures escaped from Colchester Zoo last week?
22. Which software pioneer was accused of stalking last week?
23. What was the Champions League score in the match between Arsenal and Marseilles?
24. – and Chelsea and Basel?
25. – and Celtic and Milan?
26. what is the new name of Warwickshire’s T20 side?
27. Who left the England Ashes tour for stress related reasons?
28. A crane damaged a world cup stadium in which city?
29. Who was expelled from the Italian senate last week?
30. What was the score between Man Utd and Bayer Leverkeusen?
31. – and Man City and Victoria Plsen?
32. Why was Melanie Sykes in the news last week?
33. – and Louis Vuitton?
34. According to Yahoo what was the UK’s top obsession in 2013?
35. Which footballer celebrated his 40th birthday?
36. Which TV action hero passed away aged 67?
37. What was the score between Spurs and Tromso?
38. – and Wigan and Zulte Wagerem?
39. – and Swansea and Valencia
40. Who tweeted the names of the women in the Ian Watkins case?
41. Which former England Rugby captain announced his retirement last week?
42. Which city was confirmed as the Grand Départ for the 2015 Tour de France?
43. In which city did the tragic helicopter crash take place?
44. 3 unpublished stories by whom were leaked online last week?
Answers to News Questions
In The News
Who or what are the following and why have they been in the news?
1. Miles Scott
2. Hurricane Fly
3. Sebastian Ogier
4. Paul Flowers
5. Paul Sykes
6. Elena Baltacha
7. Ewen Mackenzie
8. Jenny Dennehy
9. Nick Boles MP
10. Emma Way
11. Alberto Salazar
12. Telephone Boxes of Wales
13. Kevin Chenais
14. Chris Kermode
15. NEETs
16. Rangi CHase
17. Richard Hannon
18. Abdelhakim Dekhar
19. Magnus Carlsen
20. Michelle Young
21. Mike Naylor
In Other News
1. Which 94 year old author passed away, and for a bonus, in which country was she born?
2. Which European volcano suffered a small eruption last week?
3. Who pulled out of his scheduled boxing match with Tyson Fury following advice from doctors that a serious shoulder injury means that he should reitre?
4. Who won the US Grand Prix?
5. What was the score in the RU Autumn test match between Scotland and South Africa?
6. - and England and New Zealand?
7. – and Ireland and Australia?
8. – and Wales and Argentina?
9. – and Wales and Tonga?
10. Which country won the Davis Cup?
11. What was the score in the RL World cup quarter final between England and France?
12. Who was the 7th celebrity to leave Strictly?
13. Which former MP pleaded guilty last week to nearly £13,000 bogus expenses claims?
14. Which group announced they will be reuniting for a stage show?
15. A gunman opened fire at the offices of which French newspaper last week?
16. Who was guest editor of the Today Programme?
17. The rebuilding of which Liverpool Theatre was completed last week?
18. What was the score in the friendly between England and Germany?
19. Which team drew their first ever full international football match with Slovakia?
20. Portugal beat which team to qualify for the 2014 FIFA world cup?
21. What was the score in the match between Scotland and Norway?
22. Which team did France beat to qualify for the 2014 FIFA world cup?
23. Which company announced last week that they are to close all 44 of their UK stores?
24. Last week saw the 150 anniversary of which speech?
25. Who was named the world’s highest earning musician over the last year?
26. What was presented to Oprah Winfrey last week?
27. Which is the UK’s new City of CUlture
28. Who won this year’s Golden Boot?
29. Which is the only country that will be making its debut in the 2014 World Cup?
30. Who was sacked as manager of Scunthorpe?
31. Which composer was the subject of a mistake by the setters on University Challenge?
32. Who took 5 – 65 on the first day of the first Ashes test?
33. Whose 100th game as an international rugby union coach took place this week?
34. Which actor revealed that he has been treated for skin cancer?
35. Which former labour minister announced that she will not stand in the next election?
36. Who is the new face of Versace?
37. Which is the first UK supermarket chain to ban energy drinks for Under 16s?
Answers
Who or what are the following and why have they been in the news?
1. American boy who had been seriously ill who got to be Batman for a day through the Make A Wish foundation
2. Horse that has won 17 consecutive group 1 races
3. Won the Wales GB Rally
4. Former head of Cooperative Bank admitted drug abuse
5. Millionaire who has pledged to financially support UKIP
6. British tennis player - retired
7. Australian Rugby Union coach who disciplined 15 players for drinking 4 days before a match.
8. Pleaded guilty in court to three murders
9. Said that the young see Conservatives as aliens
10. Convicted after boasting on twitter that she had knocked a cyclist off his bike
11. Coach of Mo Farah who has agreed to act as consultant to UK Athletics
12. Calendar which has not sold a single copy since going on sale in September
13. 36 stone Frenchman stranded in UK after Eurostar refused to carry him. Eventually Virgin took him home.
14. New head of the ATP tour
15. Designation for young people Not in Employment, Education or Training
16. England RL fly half dropped for semi final v. NZ
17. Champion flat racer who announced retirement
18. Arrested in suspicion of being the Paris newspaper gunman
19. New world chess champion
20. Claimed £300m from her allegedly bankrupt ex husband, saying he was still a billionaire. Awarded £20 million in court.
21. Won the World’s Biggest Liar competition
In Other News
1. Doris Lessing - Iran
2. Etna
3. David Haye
4. Vettel
5. 28 – 0 South Africa
6. 30 – 22 New Zealand
7. 32 – 15 Australia
8. 40 – 6 Wales
9. 17 – 7 Wales
10. Czech Republic
11. 34 – 6 England
12. Fiona Fullerton
13. Dennis McShane
14. Monty Python
15. Libération
16. Eliza Manningham Buller
17. Everyman Theatre
18. 1 – 0 Germany
19. Gibraltar
20. Sweden
21. 1 – 0 Scotland
22. Ukraine
23. Tie Rack
24. The Gettysburg Address
25. Madonna
26. The Presidential Medal of Freedom
27. Hull
28. Lionel Messi
29. Bosnia
30. Brian Laws
31. Dvorak
32. Stuart Broad
33. Warren Gatland
34. Hugh Jackman
35. Tessa Jowell
36. Lady Gaga
37. Morrisons
Who or what are the following and why have they been in the news?
1. Miles Scott
2. Hurricane Fly
3. Sebastian Ogier
4. Paul Flowers
5. Paul Sykes
6. Elena Baltacha
7. Ewen Mackenzie
8. Jenny Dennehy
9. Nick Boles MP
10. Emma Way
11. Alberto Salazar
12. Telephone Boxes of Wales
13. Kevin Chenais
14. Chris Kermode
15. NEETs
16. Rangi CHase
17. Richard Hannon
18. Abdelhakim Dekhar
19. Magnus Carlsen
20. Michelle Young
21. Mike Naylor
In Other News
1. Which 94 year old author passed away, and for a bonus, in which country was she born?
2. Which European volcano suffered a small eruption last week?
3. Who pulled out of his scheduled boxing match with Tyson Fury following advice from doctors that a serious shoulder injury means that he should reitre?
4. Who won the US Grand Prix?
5. What was the score in the RU Autumn test match between Scotland and South Africa?
6. - and England and New Zealand?
7. – and Ireland and Australia?
8. – and Wales and Argentina?
9. – and Wales and Tonga?
10. Which country won the Davis Cup?
11. What was the score in the RL World cup quarter final between England and France?
12. Who was the 7th celebrity to leave Strictly?
13. Which former MP pleaded guilty last week to nearly £13,000 bogus expenses claims?
14. Which group announced they will be reuniting for a stage show?
15. A gunman opened fire at the offices of which French newspaper last week?
16. Who was guest editor of the Today Programme?
17. The rebuilding of which Liverpool Theatre was completed last week?
18. What was the score in the friendly between England and Germany?
19. Which team drew their first ever full international football match with Slovakia?
20. Portugal beat which team to qualify for the 2014 FIFA world cup?
21. What was the score in the match between Scotland and Norway?
22. Which team did France beat to qualify for the 2014 FIFA world cup?
23. Which company announced last week that they are to close all 44 of their UK stores?
24. Last week saw the 150 anniversary of which speech?
25. Who was named the world’s highest earning musician over the last year?
26. What was presented to Oprah Winfrey last week?
27. Which is the UK’s new City of CUlture
28. Who won this year’s Golden Boot?
29. Which is the only country that will be making its debut in the 2014 World Cup?
30. Who was sacked as manager of Scunthorpe?
31. Which composer was the subject of a mistake by the setters on University Challenge?
32. Who took 5 – 65 on the first day of the first Ashes test?
33. Whose 100th game as an international rugby union coach took place this week?
34. Which actor revealed that he has been treated for skin cancer?
35. Which former labour minister announced that she will not stand in the next election?
36. Who is the new face of Versace?
37. Which is the first UK supermarket chain to ban energy drinks for Under 16s?
Answers
Who or what are the following and why have they been in the news?
1. American boy who had been seriously ill who got to be Batman for a day through the Make A Wish foundation
2. Horse that has won 17 consecutive group 1 races
3. Won the Wales GB Rally
4. Former head of Cooperative Bank admitted drug abuse
5. Millionaire who has pledged to financially support UKIP
6. British tennis player - retired
7. Australian Rugby Union coach who disciplined 15 players for drinking 4 days before a match.
8. Pleaded guilty in court to three murders
9. Said that the young see Conservatives as aliens
10. Convicted after boasting on twitter that she had knocked a cyclist off his bike
11. Coach of Mo Farah who has agreed to act as consultant to UK Athletics
12. Calendar which has not sold a single copy since going on sale in September
13. 36 stone Frenchman stranded in UK after Eurostar refused to carry him. Eventually Virgin took him home.
14. New head of the ATP tour
15. Designation for young people Not in Employment, Education or Training
16. England RL fly half dropped for semi final v. NZ
17. Champion flat racer who announced retirement
18. Arrested in suspicion of being the Paris newspaper gunman
19. New world chess champion
20. Claimed £300m from her allegedly bankrupt ex husband, saying he was still a billionaire. Awarded £20 million in court.
21. Won the World’s Biggest Liar competition
In Other News
1. Doris Lessing - Iran
2. Etna
3. David Haye
4. Vettel
5. 28 – 0 South Africa
6. 30 – 22 New Zealand
7. 32 – 15 Australia
8. 40 – 6 Wales
9. 17 – 7 Wales
10. Czech Republic
11. 34 – 6 England
12. Fiona Fullerton
13. Dennis McShane
14. Monty Python
15. Libération
16. Eliza Manningham Buller
17. Everyman Theatre
18. 1 – 0 Germany
19. Gibraltar
20. Sweden
21. 1 – 0 Scotland
22. Ukraine
23. Tie Rack
24. The Gettysburg Address
25. Madonna
26. The Presidential Medal of Freedom
27. Hull
28. Lionel Messi
29. Bosnia
30. Brian Laws
31. Dvorak
32. Stuart Broad
33. Warren Gatland
34. Hugh Jackman
35. Tessa Jowell
36. Lady Gaga
37. Morrisons
Mastermind - Round One - Heat Fourteen
Yes, the powers that be graciously allowed Mastermind back on our screens last night. I noticed two former contenders amongst the line up. We’ll come to them in a little while, but the first of last night’s contenders was retired firefighter Tony Marwood. Tony was answering on the Life and Career of Lester Piggott. A few years ago I did read Lester’s autobiography, but as I say, that was a while ago. Nonetheless I thought that I might get a couple, and did eventually end up with 4. Tony himself managed 11 and no passes. In this series anything in double figures in specialist is a mark of respectability, so he could return to his original seat relatively satisfied with his night’s work so far.
Adrian Gorst was the second Mastermind virgin of the show. He was offering us a very traditional Mastermind subject in the shape of Robert the Bruce. I did think that he showed a few gaps in his knowledge with a couple of the first questions, and for a moment or two I feared that he might be struggling through nerves. However the round returned to the rails, as it were, and by the bell he had reached double figure.
The first former contender of this show, Euan McCulloch, last appeared in Jesse’s 2010 series, where he was unlucky to lose by a single point, with a score that did not get him into the repechage slots for the semis. Back then he answered on the Architecture of Aberdeen, scoring a fine 16. Last night he answered every single question correctly, and didn’t seem to dwell on any of them – yet he scored 14. Proof positive of the rather annoying current policy of asking annoyingly long specialist questions, if any were needed. As an indicator of potential, Euan had the highest specialist score, but the lowest GK score in his previous heat.
Our second former contender, Julie Aris, was a contender in Gary’s 2012 series. Back then she won a repechage slot scoring 30, where she answered on the What Katy Did novels of Susan Coolidge ( which consist of, I believe, What Katy Did – What Katy Did Next – Who did what with Katy – and – Son of Katy. Two Ronnies c. 1977) Last night Julie answered on the Simon Serailler novels of Susan Hill. Up to this round I’d answered some questions in each specialist round on this show, but never having read any of Susan Hill's work, that was me done. Julie, on the other hand, managed 13.
With each of the contenders some way away from achieving a repechage qualifying score it looked as if only a win was going to do in this show. First to put down a marker was Adrian Gorst. I’ll be honest, I thought he had a very nice set of GK, and I managed the – for me – rare feat of getting all the questions in a GK round right. Adrian didn’t do quite so well, but his 12 points meant that he was in the 20s, and so it had certainly been worth making the trip. Tony Marwood didn’t manage to measure up quite as well on GK as he had managed on specialist, and he leveled out at 9 points for a total of 20.
In 2012, Julie Aris had scored 12 on GK inn the first round heat, and 4 in the semi final. If she could set anything like her first round score, or even exceed it then she would take the lead, and set a challenging target for Euan. Actually she produced her best GK round yet, scoring 14. It was an admirable display of the technique of answering everything quickly, secure n the knowledge that if you do, then enough of your answers will be correct to push your score along well.
To put this into perspective, then, Euan needed to score 13 and 2 or fewer passes, or better to win. He started brightly enough too. However the wrong answers started creeping in, and I’m afraid that once or twice in the second minute of the round he came to a full stop with a couple of huge pauses. You just felt for him, as you could see that the answers to both were in the back of his mind, but stubbornly refusing to come any further forward. In the end the buzzer came as a blessed relief, and I’m sure that Euan didn’t really need John telling him “You didn’t do it.” at the end there.
So, well done Julie – you join the ranks of two time semi finalists. Good luck.
The Details
Repechage Places
Steven Broomfield 30 – 1
Beth Webster 28 – 2
Ron Wood 28 – 3
=Carol O’Byrne 27 – 2
=Peter Russell 27 – 2
=Chloe Stone 27 - 2
Adrian Gorst was the second Mastermind virgin of the show. He was offering us a very traditional Mastermind subject in the shape of Robert the Bruce. I did think that he showed a few gaps in his knowledge with a couple of the first questions, and for a moment or two I feared that he might be struggling through nerves. However the round returned to the rails, as it were, and by the bell he had reached double figure.
The first former contender of this show, Euan McCulloch, last appeared in Jesse’s 2010 series, where he was unlucky to lose by a single point, with a score that did not get him into the repechage slots for the semis. Back then he answered on the Architecture of Aberdeen, scoring a fine 16. Last night he answered every single question correctly, and didn’t seem to dwell on any of them – yet he scored 14. Proof positive of the rather annoying current policy of asking annoyingly long specialist questions, if any were needed. As an indicator of potential, Euan had the highest specialist score, but the lowest GK score in his previous heat.
Our second former contender, Julie Aris, was a contender in Gary’s 2012 series. Back then she won a repechage slot scoring 30, where she answered on the What Katy Did novels of Susan Coolidge ( which consist of, I believe, What Katy Did – What Katy Did Next – Who did what with Katy – and – Son of Katy. Two Ronnies c. 1977) Last night Julie answered on the Simon Serailler novels of Susan Hill. Up to this round I’d answered some questions in each specialist round on this show, but never having read any of Susan Hill's work, that was me done. Julie, on the other hand, managed 13.
With each of the contenders some way away from achieving a repechage qualifying score it looked as if only a win was going to do in this show. First to put down a marker was Adrian Gorst. I’ll be honest, I thought he had a very nice set of GK, and I managed the – for me – rare feat of getting all the questions in a GK round right. Adrian didn’t do quite so well, but his 12 points meant that he was in the 20s, and so it had certainly been worth making the trip. Tony Marwood didn’t manage to measure up quite as well on GK as he had managed on specialist, and he leveled out at 9 points for a total of 20.
In 2012, Julie Aris had scored 12 on GK inn the first round heat, and 4 in the semi final. If she could set anything like her first round score, or even exceed it then she would take the lead, and set a challenging target for Euan. Actually she produced her best GK round yet, scoring 14. It was an admirable display of the technique of answering everything quickly, secure n the knowledge that if you do, then enough of your answers will be correct to push your score along well.
To put this into perspective, then, Euan needed to score 13 and 2 or fewer passes, or better to win. He started brightly enough too. However the wrong answers started creeping in, and I’m afraid that once or twice in the second minute of the round he came to a full stop with a couple of huge pauses. You just felt for him, as you could see that the answers to both were in the back of his mind, but stubbornly refusing to come any further forward. In the end the buzzer came as a blessed relief, and I’m sure that Euan didn’t really need John telling him “You didn’t do it.” at the end there.
So, well done Julie – you join the ranks of two time semi finalists. Good luck.
The Details
| Tony Marwood | The Life and Career of Lester Piggott | 11 - 0 | 9 - 0 | 20 - 0 |
| Adrian Gorst | Robert the Bruce | 10 – 1 | 12 - 1 | 22 - 1 |
| Euan McCulloch | The Life and Career of Hugh Gaitskill | 14 - 0 | 10 - 4 | 24 - 4 |
| Julie Aris | The Simon Serailler Novels of Susan Hill | 13 - 0 | 14 - 3 | 27 – 3 |
Repechage Places
Steven Broomfield 30 – 1
Beth Webster 28 – 2
Ron Wood 28 – 3
=Carol O’Byrne 27 – 2
=Peter Russell 27 – 2
=Chloe Stone 27 - 2
Friday, 29 November 2013
University Challenge - Round Two - Match Four
Bangor v. Southampton
Bangor looked good in their first round match against Aberystwyth. The team comprised of Owain Jones, Daisy Le Helloco, Anna Johnson, and their skipper, Catriona Coutts. Their opposition, Southampton, who stormed past Loughborough in their repechage, having been beaten in the first round by the London School of Oriental and African Studies, were David Bishop, Richard Evans, Matt Loxham, and skippering the team was Bob De Caux. Let’s get on with it.
A long winded review of Darwin’s Origin of the Species saw Anna Johnson take first blood. Statues of fictional characters brought them a full set of bonuses. Bob de Caux came in too early on a question that required the answer mote spoon, but Bangor couldn’t capitalise. Matt Loxham, who was to have a good evening – well, so were all the members of Southampton’s team- came in for Southampton’s first with leptin. Bonuses on descriptions of painters brought 2 correct answers. A nice UC starter asked for the word made by the middle initials of Susan Anthony, Robert Lee and Nelson Rockefeller. Bob de Caux won the buzzer race with bed. Radio astronomy gave nothing to any of us, Catriona Coutts took a flyer on the next starter, which asked which creatures Tolkein created in response to the shabby use in Shakespeare’s Macbeth . . . That was enough to give the answer away, but she was just a tad too early and plumped for orcs, losing 5. Given time to work it out David Bishop correctly supplied ents. The bonuses were on the pantone colour of the year – otherwise known as the what? at LAM towers. I actually had 2 of these, although not the same two as Southampton. The picture starter showed us a New York Street Map. Matt Loxham supplied the correct identification of 5th Avenue. More of the same followed, of which the team managed two. A brisk start by Southampton then had put them well in the driving seat, and they led with a distinctly useful 70 to 20 at the ten minute mark.
Clockwise countries bordering Sudan was too tricky for either team to take the points, and so we moved on to a question about the cathode ray tube. Matt Loxham was in first, and this led to bonuses on the dominions. 2 were taken. David Bishop did well to recognise a description of the coat of arms of Lithuania. Graphic novels looked likely to provide a full set, but Southampton leaped in too quickly with the answer to the last, giving the magnificent ”Watchmen” when the answer required was “The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen.” The term Mountebank escaped both teams, and so we moved on to Matt Loxham’s answer of the Copenhagen Interpretation. Fair enough. The Orange Prize for Fiction, I must confess, yielded me nothing, rather as it did for Southampton. Not that it mattered since Southampton were winning the buzzer race hands down. As if to add insult to injury it was at this point that JP uttered the famous kiss of death, “Bangor, there’s plenty of time to come back.” Now, you know it’s just not going to be your night when he comes out with that one. The music starter gave us the dubious pleasure of a quick snatch of the Prodigy’s Firestarter. Other songs banned by the BBC followed, and Southampton took the first two quickly, but it needed Matt Loxham to mime playing the ukulele before they could dredge up the name George Formby, smutty little Herbert that he was. That’s George Formby, not Matt Loxham. Henry David Thoreau was the first to use the phrase civil disobedience but nobody knew it. Nobody knew that a quote from Shakespeare came from “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” Well, I mean I did, but only because I acted in it at school (Elthorne High School – Midsummer Night’s Dream – Summer Production 1981) Everyone was enthralled by my Bottom. I’m here all week, ladies and gents. Richard, our own Cromarty IV, gave the answer to a question about molecules – I think that was about the only word of the question that I understood. This gave Southampton bonuses on crystal structures in chemistry. Say one thing for Southampton, they knows their crystals, they does. Queen Anne’s Bounty – which probably wasn’t quite the taste of paradise – was the unanswered starter which came next. Schopenhauer was picked as the answer to the next by that man Loxham. African capital cities were snapped up by Southampton, and as we approached the 20 minute mark they approached the 200 point barrier, with 195, and the result in the bag. Sad to say, Bangor hadn’t managed one for over 15 minutes, since the very first starter of the show.
Richard knew that 5 decades separated Yuri Gagarin’s spaceflight, and the last flight of the last space shuttle. Vienna Secessionists were the subject of the next set of bonuses, and another full set was taken. Matt Loxham’s answer of Oxford to the next starter came in so quickly that I didn’t really catch what the starter was actually about. Historic routes only yielded 2 this time, but it led on to the picture starter. Thankfully Owain Jones managed to get in before Southampton, and correctly identified Simon Bolivar. 3 more military and political figures from the 19th century followed. I was pleased that I recognised Paul Kruger, but Bangor only managed Ulysses S. Grant. After that brief diversion Bob de Caux told us the 4 roots of unity in Maths. Fair enough. Bonuses on cell biology brought just 5 more points, but the score was purely academic. They were up to 255 anyway. David Bishop recognised a set of conflicts from the American War of Independence. Isograms - names in which no letter is repeated – brought ten more points. Owain Jones knew that apart from the pre-Cambrian and Cambrian, the names of the Ordovician and Silurian periods are also associated with Wales. But only one of them is associated with Doctor Who. The United Nations, and decades in which certain countries joined, gave Bangor another full set. Bob de Caux wasted no time in spelling out excerpt. Bonuses on the cardio vascular system took their score to 290. David Bishop knew the old chestnut that Pilsner is a word that come from a location in the Czech Republic. August only brought one bonus, but the team were now over 300. Not that it made them show any more mercy towards Bangor. Richard took the next, and earned bonuses on Indian languages and religion. By now Bangor were hitting the buzzer so quickly that Richard had buzzed in with the correct answer of Martin Scorsese almost immediately after just the words “Cape Fear”. Charles Laughton was the subject of the last set of bonuses, but there was no time for Southampton to add to their score of 335. A fantastic score, and a great performance. Look out quarter finals – here Southampton comes. Hard lines Bangor, it really wasn’t your night. Before anyone makes any derogratory comments, it should be remembered that you already won one show, and won it well too. Nothing to be ashamed of here.
Jeremy Paxman Watch
On the Orange Prize for Fiction questions Bob de Caux showed admirable honesty in admitting that if they did give answer s they’d just be making names up to which our hero replied,
”Well, it’s served you fine so far.” Cheeky monkey.
I knew there would be some comment if nobody got the Shakespeare starter ( I’m a Shakespeare starter, twisted Shakespeare starter – no? Well, please yourselves.) He couldn’t resist adding in terms more of sorrow than anger – “It was Helena!” as if that would lead to both teams slapping their own foreheads and going D’oh! in unison. It didn’t.
When Owain Jones took Bangor’s second starter at around the 21 and a half minute mark JP informed Bangor – “You’ve got a bit of ground to make up though – you may have time.” Come, come Jeremy – lies, even white lies such as this, ill become you. I think he regretted it too, for when Owain Jones took the team’s next starter he added the rather too sarky “Nice to have you with us.” Believe me Jez, it won’t have been that they weren’t trying.
Interesting Fact That I Didn’t Already Know Of The Week
The BBC decided that the Bangles’ “Walk Like An Egyptian” was a song to be avoided during the Gulf War .
Bangor looked good in their first round match against Aberystwyth. The team comprised of Owain Jones, Daisy Le Helloco, Anna Johnson, and their skipper, Catriona Coutts. Their opposition, Southampton, who stormed past Loughborough in their repechage, having been beaten in the first round by the London School of Oriental and African Studies, were David Bishop, Richard Evans, Matt Loxham, and skippering the team was Bob De Caux. Let’s get on with it.
A long winded review of Darwin’s Origin of the Species saw Anna Johnson take first blood. Statues of fictional characters brought them a full set of bonuses. Bob de Caux came in too early on a question that required the answer mote spoon, but Bangor couldn’t capitalise. Matt Loxham, who was to have a good evening – well, so were all the members of Southampton’s team- came in for Southampton’s first with leptin. Bonuses on descriptions of painters brought 2 correct answers. A nice UC starter asked for the word made by the middle initials of Susan Anthony, Robert Lee and Nelson Rockefeller. Bob de Caux won the buzzer race with bed. Radio astronomy gave nothing to any of us, Catriona Coutts took a flyer on the next starter, which asked which creatures Tolkein created in response to the shabby use in Shakespeare’s Macbeth . . . That was enough to give the answer away, but she was just a tad too early and plumped for orcs, losing 5. Given time to work it out David Bishop correctly supplied ents. The bonuses were on the pantone colour of the year – otherwise known as the what? at LAM towers. I actually had 2 of these, although not the same two as Southampton. The picture starter showed us a New York Street Map. Matt Loxham supplied the correct identification of 5th Avenue. More of the same followed, of which the team managed two. A brisk start by Southampton then had put them well in the driving seat, and they led with a distinctly useful 70 to 20 at the ten minute mark.
Clockwise countries bordering Sudan was too tricky for either team to take the points, and so we moved on to a question about the cathode ray tube. Matt Loxham was in first, and this led to bonuses on the dominions. 2 were taken. David Bishop did well to recognise a description of the coat of arms of Lithuania. Graphic novels looked likely to provide a full set, but Southampton leaped in too quickly with the answer to the last, giving the magnificent ”Watchmen” when the answer required was “The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen.” The term Mountebank escaped both teams, and so we moved on to Matt Loxham’s answer of the Copenhagen Interpretation. Fair enough. The Orange Prize for Fiction, I must confess, yielded me nothing, rather as it did for Southampton. Not that it mattered since Southampton were winning the buzzer race hands down. As if to add insult to injury it was at this point that JP uttered the famous kiss of death, “Bangor, there’s plenty of time to come back.” Now, you know it’s just not going to be your night when he comes out with that one. The music starter gave us the dubious pleasure of a quick snatch of the Prodigy’s Firestarter. Other songs banned by the BBC followed, and Southampton took the first two quickly, but it needed Matt Loxham to mime playing the ukulele before they could dredge up the name George Formby, smutty little Herbert that he was. That’s George Formby, not Matt Loxham. Henry David Thoreau was the first to use the phrase civil disobedience but nobody knew it. Nobody knew that a quote from Shakespeare came from “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” Well, I mean I did, but only because I acted in it at school (Elthorne High School – Midsummer Night’s Dream – Summer Production 1981) Everyone was enthralled by my Bottom. I’m here all week, ladies and gents. Richard, our own Cromarty IV, gave the answer to a question about molecules – I think that was about the only word of the question that I understood. This gave Southampton bonuses on crystal structures in chemistry. Say one thing for Southampton, they knows their crystals, they does. Queen Anne’s Bounty – which probably wasn’t quite the taste of paradise – was the unanswered starter which came next. Schopenhauer was picked as the answer to the next by that man Loxham. African capital cities were snapped up by Southampton, and as we approached the 20 minute mark they approached the 200 point barrier, with 195, and the result in the bag. Sad to say, Bangor hadn’t managed one for over 15 minutes, since the very first starter of the show.
Richard knew that 5 decades separated Yuri Gagarin’s spaceflight, and the last flight of the last space shuttle. Vienna Secessionists were the subject of the next set of bonuses, and another full set was taken. Matt Loxham’s answer of Oxford to the next starter came in so quickly that I didn’t really catch what the starter was actually about. Historic routes only yielded 2 this time, but it led on to the picture starter. Thankfully Owain Jones managed to get in before Southampton, and correctly identified Simon Bolivar. 3 more military and political figures from the 19th century followed. I was pleased that I recognised Paul Kruger, but Bangor only managed Ulysses S. Grant. After that brief diversion Bob de Caux told us the 4 roots of unity in Maths. Fair enough. Bonuses on cell biology brought just 5 more points, but the score was purely academic. They were up to 255 anyway. David Bishop recognised a set of conflicts from the American War of Independence. Isograms - names in which no letter is repeated – brought ten more points. Owain Jones knew that apart from the pre-Cambrian and Cambrian, the names of the Ordovician and Silurian periods are also associated with Wales. But only one of them is associated with Doctor Who. The United Nations, and decades in which certain countries joined, gave Bangor another full set. Bob de Caux wasted no time in spelling out excerpt. Bonuses on the cardio vascular system took their score to 290. David Bishop knew the old chestnut that Pilsner is a word that come from a location in the Czech Republic. August only brought one bonus, but the team were now over 300. Not that it made them show any more mercy towards Bangor. Richard took the next, and earned bonuses on Indian languages and religion. By now Bangor were hitting the buzzer so quickly that Richard had buzzed in with the correct answer of Martin Scorsese almost immediately after just the words “Cape Fear”. Charles Laughton was the subject of the last set of bonuses, but there was no time for Southampton to add to their score of 335. A fantastic score, and a great performance. Look out quarter finals – here Southampton comes. Hard lines Bangor, it really wasn’t your night. Before anyone makes any derogratory comments, it should be remembered that you already won one show, and won it well too. Nothing to be ashamed of here.
Jeremy Paxman Watch
On the Orange Prize for Fiction questions Bob de Caux showed admirable honesty in admitting that if they did give answer s they’d just be making names up to which our hero replied,
”Well, it’s served you fine so far.” Cheeky monkey.
I knew there would be some comment if nobody got the Shakespeare starter ( I’m a Shakespeare starter, twisted Shakespeare starter – no? Well, please yourselves.) He couldn’t resist adding in terms more of sorrow than anger – “It was Helena!” as if that would lead to both teams slapping their own foreheads and going D’oh! in unison. It didn’t.
When Owain Jones took Bangor’s second starter at around the 21 and a half minute mark JP informed Bangor – “You’ve got a bit of ground to make up though – you may have time.” Come, come Jeremy – lies, even white lies such as this, ill become you. I think he regretted it too, for when Owain Jones took the team’s next starter he added the rather too sarky “Nice to have you with us.” Believe me Jez, it won’t have been that they weren’t trying.
Interesting Fact That I Didn’t Already Know Of The Week
The BBC decided that the Bangles’ “Walk Like An Egyptian” was a song to be avoided during the Gulf War .
Birmingham wurrwawa Mega wurrwawurr Quiz 2013
Last night saw this year’s edition of the annual Birmingham Mega Quiz in aid of the Lord Mayor’s Charity. I will come clean at this point. I had been told the date by Trevor several weeks in advance, but Mr. Organised I am not, and through nobody’s fault but my own I found myself double booked for the evening. I had agreed to do the quiz in Aberavon Rugby club last night. So when I had the reminder from Trevor at the start of the week it did require a little bit of nifty footwork. Thankfully Brian agreed to do the rugby club quiz for me and I’d already made the questions and handout and everything necessary, so Brian, thank you very much. I owe you one.
Our team of Richie, Gordon, Trev and me have had quite a run of success in this event in recent years. We won in 2009, 2010 and 2012, although we were only second in 2011. That’s not being boastful – I would be the first one to admit that each time we won it was only by a tiny margin, and one of them was only by virtue of a tie-break. It’s always an enjoyable event, and although I hate letting the rugby club down, I really didn’t want to miss it if I could avoid it, albeit that Thursday isn’t the best night of the week for me if truth were told.
Last year we were about two tables away from the back of the hall. This year, when we arrived we found that we had been assigned a table right at the very back of the hall. Not quite in the car park mind you, but closer to the doors than the stage, if you know what I mean. Which wasn’t so much of a problem while the questions were being asked because - a) Pete Morgan was asking the questions again and he at least knows how to use a microphone properly – and b) All the questions came up on the big screen anyway. Well and good. The problem came about because it seemed as if the world and his wife were intent on all getting up to have a go on the mike before the start of the quiz. Which is fine inasmuch as it’s only fair to let the organisers, the Lord Mayor and other worthies to have their say before the start. Only . . . nobody at the back could understand a word that they were saying. The sound was echoing around the high roof of the hall, and even though there were speakers on either side throughout the length of the hall, all you could hear while each of them was talking was a sort of drone. Now, for all I know, maybe each one was actually saying
”Wurrr – wa wurr wurrr wawurrr”.
It’s unlikely, mind you, but that was all that those of us sitting at the back could hear. Cue comments from some of the teams around us – and ourselves – along the lines of -
“It’s Norman Collier/ Stanley Unwin/ The Swedish Chef/ Rowley Birkin QC (I was very, very drunk at the time.)and the teacher in the Charlie Brown cartoons"
All good, clean fun, and as I said, we could at least make out what Pete Morgan was saying. He’s done it twice in a row now, and I have to say he is my favourite Mega Quiz question master. Mind you, he didn’t have a huge amount to beat in the shape of Nick Owen, and, Heaven help us, Professor Carl Chinn. Now, probably the most difficult choice all evening was deciding which round we ought to play our joker on. Last year we plumped for what should have been our banker subject – History – and found out that it was the hardest round among some relatively gentle sets, and nearly lost the quiz through doing so. So of course we didn’t go for History this time. I suppose it follows that we had a full house on it now. It came down to a choice between round 9 – Geography – another should-be-banker subject, or the cryptically titled Days of the Week. This was the last round, and I know that Richie quite fancied leaving the joker to the very last round, so we could hopefully spring from being down among the minor places to snatch the lead on the last round. In the end we played supposedly safe with Geography.
This was just my opinion, and if you were there by all means feel free to disagree with me, but I thought that the quiz was set to be just a little bit easier than last year. To me there seemed to be more old chestnuts than you normally get. They weren’t all like that, but even some of the more unusual questions were gettable – for example : - “Which wine comes from worms?” I write it like that deliberately, because the question that came up on the small screen had worms without a capital letter as well. We assumed that it had to mean the city of Worms in Germany, and working on the principle – unusual question/easy answer plumped for leibfraumilch.
Now, by half time we had dropped two points – both on the animals round. We got a hinny and a mule the wrong way round for one of them. The crucial thing was that we were the highest of the teams who hadn’t played their jokers yet, and we were 8 points behind the leading team. What happened next was a little unusual. We answered all the questions on the next round correctly – well, we had the same answers as the question master did, anyway - but we were only given 9 points for it. We put in an official query, but that point was never reinstated. Then later on, along with I’m sure quite a few other teams, we were docked a point. Going back to the Animals round, one of the questions asked something like “At what age is a filly classed as a mare?” Now, the crucial thing I cannot remember is whether the question was asked like that, or whether the question asked “At what age IN THE UK is a filly classed as a mare?” It does make a difference. You see in many countries it is 4, but in the UK it is 5. So anyone who answered 5 should definitely have had a mark. If the question didn’t specify the UK, then I would have said that everyone who put 4 should have had a mark as well. I just couldn’t remember how the question had been phrased. The original answer given was 4, but then this was changed to 5, and those who’d put 5 were given an extra mark, and those who’d put 4, like us, were docked a mark. One of the organisers did come on the mike to explain, but all I caught was,
”Wawurr wurr sorry wwaa wurr wurr 4 wawurr wurr 5 wurr wu wa wurr warrr point docked from score.”
That’s wurrwaw life wurrwa wurr I warrwurr suppose.
The Geography round of doom approached , and we nearly made it out in one piece. We dropped a question, and by our reckoning it meant that we were not necessarily in the lead going into the last round. Now, had we adopted Richie’s preferred tactic of gambling everything on the last round, Days of the Week, then we’d have scored two more points, because we had a full house on that. I had a sneaking suspicion that we might be looking at a tiebreaker. Yet when the scores were announced it turned out that we’d won by a point. Somehow it always turns out like that in Birmingham, on the occasions that we win there’s never daylight between us and the runners up.
It was quite funny when the organizer announced the results, because when he said “So the winners are-“ for the first time all evening I could understand what he was saying clearly, and there seemed to be real disappointment in his voice when he quickly said “Pill Harriers” on a descending note . To be fair he did a few minutes later go on to say that we’ve won 4 times in the last five years, which made the thought – thanks mate, but you’re not making us many friends here – pass through my mind. -
If anything in this post seems critical, please accept that it really isn’t meant to be, and it’s all said in a spirit of affection. The Mega Quiz is a terrific event, and I wouldn’t miss it for the world. Thanks, Birmingham for another great fun evening. Hopefully see you again in 2014.
Our team of Richie, Gordon, Trev and me have had quite a run of success in this event in recent years. We won in 2009, 2010 and 2012, although we were only second in 2011. That’s not being boastful – I would be the first one to admit that each time we won it was only by a tiny margin, and one of them was only by virtue of a tie-break. It’s always an enjoyable event, and although I hate letting the rugby club down, I really didn’t want to miss it if I could avoid it, albeit that Thursday isn’t the best night of the week for me if truth were told.
Last year we were about two tables away from the back of the hall. This year, when we arrived we found that we had been assigned a table right at the very back of the hall. Not quite in the car park mind you, but closer to the doors than the stage, if you know what I mean. Which wasn’t so much of a problem while the questions were being asked because - a) Pete Morgan was asking the questions again and he at least knows how to use a microphone properly – and b) All the questions came up on the big screen anyway. Well and good. The problem came about because it seemed as if the world and his wife were intent on all getting up to have a go on the mike before the start of the quiz. Which is fine inasmuch as it’s only fair to let the organisers, the Lord Mayor and other worthies to have their say before the start. Only . . . nobody at the back could understand a word that they were saying. The sound was echoing around the high roof of the hall, and even though there were speakers on either side throughout the length of the hall, all you could hear while each of them was talking was a sort of drone. Now, for all I know, maybe each one was actually saying
”Wurrr – wa wurr wurrr wawurrr”.
It’s unlikely, mind you, but that was all that those of us sitting at the back could hear. Cue comments from some of the teams around us – and ourselves – along the lines of -
“It’s Norman Collier/ Stanley Unwin/ The Swedish Chef/ Rowley Birkin QC (I was very, very drunk at the time.)and the teacher in the Charlie Brown cartoons"
All good, clean fun, and as I said, we could at least make out what Pete Morgan was saying. He’s done it twice in a row now, and I have to say he is my favourite Mega Quiz question master. Mind you, he didn’t have a huge amount to beat in the shape of Nick Owen, and, Heaven help us, Professor Carl Chinn. Now, probably the most difficult choice all evening was deciding which round we ought to play our joker on. Last year we plumped for what should have been our banker subject – History – and found out that it was the hardest round among some relatively gentle sets, and nearly lost the quiz through doing so. So of course we didn’t go for History this time. I suppose it follows that we had a full house on it now. It came down to a choice between round 9 – Geography – another should-be-banker subject, or the cryptically titled Days of the Week. This was the last round, and I know that Richie quite fancied leaving the joker to the very last round, so we could hopefully spring from being down among the minor places to snatch the lead on the last round. In the end we played supposedly safe with Geography.
This was just my opinion, and if you were there by all means feel free to disagree with me, but I thought that the quiz was set to be just a little bit easier than last year. To me there seemed to be more old chestnuts than you normally get. They weren’t all like that, but even some of the more unusual questions were gettable – for example : - “Which wine comes from worms?” I write it like that deliberately, because the question that came up on the small screen had worms without a capital letter as well. We assumed that it had to mean the city of Worms in Germany, and working on the principle – unusual question/easy answer plumped for leibfraumilch.
Now, by half time we had dropped two points – both on the animals round. We got a hinny and a mule the wrong way round for one of them. The crucial thing was that we were the highest of the teams who hadn’t played their jokers yet, and we were 8 points behind the leading team. What happened next was a little unusual. We answered all the questions on the next round correctly – well, we had the same answers as the question master did, anyway - but we were only given 9 points for it. We put in an official query, but that point was never reinstated. Then later on, along with I’m sure quite a few other teams, we were docked a point. Going back to the Animals round, one of the questions asked something like “At what age is a filly classed as a mare?” Now, the crucial thing I cannot remember is whether the question was asked like that, or whether the question asked “At what age IN THE UK is a filly classed as a mare?” It does make a difference. You see in many countries it is 4, but in the UK it is 5. So anyone who answered 5 should definitely have had a mark. If the question didn’t specify the UK, then I would have said that everyone who put 4 should have had a mark as well. I just couldn’t remember how the question had been phrased. The original answer given was 4, but then this was changed to 5, and those who’d put 5 were given an extra mark, and those who’d put 4, like us, were docked a mark. One of the organisers did come on the mike to explain, but all I caught was,
”Wawurr wurr sorry wwaa wurr wurr 4 wawurr wurr 5 wurr wu wa wurr warrr point docked from score.”
That’s wurrwaw life wurrwa wurr I warrwurr suppose.
The Geography round of doom approached , and we nearly made it out in one piece. We dropped a question, and by our reckoning it meant that we were not necessarily in the lead going into the last round. Now, had we adopted Richie’s preferred tactic of gambling everything on the last round, Days of the Week, then we’d have scored two more points, because we had a full house on that. I had a sneaking suspicion that we might be looking at a tiebreaker. Yet when the scores were announced it turned out that we’d won by a point. Somehow it always turns out like that in Birmingham, on the occasions that we win there’s never daylight between us and the runners up.
It was quite funny when the organizer announced the results, because when he said “So the winners are-“ for the first time all evening I could understand what he was saying clearly, and there seemed to be real disappointment in his voice when he quickly said “Pill Harriers” on a descending note . To be fair he did a few minutes later go on to say that we’ve won 4 times in the last five years, which made the thought – thanks mate, but you’re not making us many friends here – pass through my mind. -
If anything in this post seems critical, please accept that it really isn’t meant to be, and it’s all said in a spirit of affection. The Mega Quiz is a terrific event, and I wouldn’t miss it for the world. Thanks, Birmingham for another great fun evening. Hopefully see you again in 2014.
Tuesday, 26 November 2013
Only Connect - Sudden Death Match
Science Editors v. Board Gamers
These two teams had contrasting fortunes in their first matches. The Eds, Andrew Cosgrove, Shreeya Nanda, and captain Kester Jarvis, who lost 28 – 10 to the Oenophiles before going on to beat the Press Gang on a vowel tie break in the sudden death match. As for the Gamers, Michael Wallace, Hywel Carver and skipper Jamie Karren beat the Globetrotters 26 – 21 in their first match, but lost their first qualification match by 28 – 18 against the highly impressive Lasletts. My reading of it was that the Gamers should have too much firepower for the Eds.
Round One – What’s the Connection?
The Eds kicked off with Water. We had wheat, rice , potatoes etc. – C.S.Lewis – Tubes for fastening oboe reeds – office supply superstore. All have a staples connection. 1 point. The Gamers tried to ride the Lion to victory and got music for their pains. I got it from the Paul Simon and Tom Jones – mothers – mother and child reunion and momma told me not come.. The Gamers got it from the last one. Two reeds gave the Eds Dungeons and Dragons: 1 to 10 – “Harry Potter”: - 1 to 17 – World of Warcaft: 1 to 100 – Aureus: 1 to 25. They are gold to silver conversion rates. Now that’s hard, and neither team nor I had it. Eye of Horus gave the Gamers Kniphofia – which is the scientific name for red hot pocker. I would never have gambled in the studio, but I did so at home, and went for red hot here. The next clue was Fighting Aids through pop culture and the third was 500 – 800 degrees and the last was Have Flea on Bass. The Gamers took the lot for a point. Twisted Flax gave the Eds Incognito – Unbeknownst – Misnomer – nonchalant. I didn’t get it but it’s a great set – they are all negatives with no opposite positives. Pictures lurked behind Horned Viper for the Gamers. We saw a set of things that are perfect , and the Gamers saw this early and took it for two points. This was enough to give them a lead of 5 – 1. I think that this may be the first time the Gamers have ever led after round 1.
Round Two – What Comes Fourth?
The Eds were given a picture set to kick off. It didn’t mean a lot for them or me, but the Gamers worked out that we had a set of fractions – 1/5 – ¼ - 1/3 and so the last would be a half. Yes, it made sense when it was explained. Perfect fifth – Latin Quarter etc. Eye of Horus brought the Gamers February – August – and they came up with a brilliant answer. February – with e – b – a – has three islands – enclosed bits within the letters. August with g has 2. March would have been next with one – so they worked out the last was July. Brilliant answer – I was nowhere near it. Two Reeds gave the Eds 4: Ludaeorum – 3rd: Rex – and here I had it : 2nd – Nazarenus. The Eds had it worked out, and were close enough to Iesus to get the point. A relatively gentle set followed for the Gamers with Clement Davies – Jo Grimond – Jeremy Thorpe. Neither team knew that David Steel – not the cricketer – came next to lead the Libs. The Eds had - just begun – nearly new – and with a rush of blood to the head guessed – walk out the door, wrongly. The last clue was Hardly me. The Gamers didn’t know it, neither did I. It’s the A.A.Milne poem The End, and the answer was Not Much More. Fair enough. The Viper waited for the Gamers, concealing 4th - hotel de ville – 3rd – Temple – 2nd – Bourse. They didn’t know, neither did the Eds. Funnily enough I had the correct answer for the wrong reasons. I went for 1st: Louvre, on something like the Metro stations with the most annual passengers. Which was wrong, but it was 1st: Louvre since these were Arrondissements de Paris. C’est la vie. Gamers led 9 – 3.
Round Three – The Connecting Walls
Pretty quickly the Gamers saw sets of Spanish wines and breeds of cat, but they couldn’t untangle them for quite a while. Rioja – Sangria – Cava and Queimada eventually emerged. I could see a set of island dwellers, which eventually emerged for the Gamers – Manx – Diurach – Vectian and Orcadian. I fancied there might well be a set of songs by the Four Seasons in there as well. The two lines they didn’t get were Rag Doll – Sherry – Let’s Hang On – Silver Star , which were the songs which the Gamers didn’t know. The last group – Korat – Burmese – Sphynx and Cornish Rex were the cats. 5 points.
If the Eds could take a maximum then they would be right back in the game. They saw a set of gamebirds from the start, but couldn’t unravel them quickly. There was also a set of words which become books of the old testament if you put an – s – on the end. These they isolated first – King – Chronicle – Judge – Number. - Gnome – Ptarmigan – Honour and Psalm, all bearing silent first letters fell next. The time was nearly gone though, and there was no time left to untangle the last two. The third line was Quail – Grouse – Pheasant and Francolin , the game birds. The last was Partridge – Ohanrahanrahan – Wintergreen and Sisters. I had the nagging feeling I should know this, but I confess that I didn’t, no more than did the Eds. Partridge being Alan, they were all characters from The Day Today. They too scored 5 which meant the Gamers had a useful lead of 14 – 8.
Round Four – Missing Vowels
I loved the first set. Last time out we had Impressionists a la Rory Bremner. This time we had Impressionists a la Paul Cezanne. They fell out 2 apiece. The next category was words that contain C-O-R-E-N in order. 3 – 1 to the Eds. Also known as Papa went 4 – 0 to the Gamers, and sadly the Eds lost a point for an incorrect buzz. That was the lot, and it made a comfortable win for the Gamers who won with a palindromic 21 – 12. Well played both, good luck to the Gamers in the semis.
As a complete aside, I noticed for the first time that the Producer’s name is Jenny Hawker. If that’s Jenny Heap as was, congratulations on your marriage, Jenny.
These two teams had contrasting fortunes in their first matches. The Eds, Andrew Cosgrove, Shreeya Nanda, and captain Kester Jarvis, who lost 28 – 10 to the Oenophiles before going on to beat the Press Gang on a vowel tie break in the sudden death match. As for the Gamers, Michael Wallace, Hywel Carver and skipper Jamie Karren beat the Globetrotters 26 – 21 in their first match, but lost their first qualification match by 28 – 18 against the highly impressive Lasletts. My reading of it was that the Gamers should have too much firepower for the Eds.
Round One – What’s the Connection?
The Eds kicked off with Water. We had wheat, rice , potatoes etc. – C.S.Lewis – Tubes for fastening oboe reeds – office supply superstore. All have a staples connection. 1 point. The Gamers tried to ride the Lion to victory and got music for their pains. I got it from the Paul Simon and Tom Jones – mothers – mother and child reunion and momma told me not come.. The Gamers got it from the last one. Two reeds gave the Eds Dungeons and Dragons: 1 to 10 – “Harry Potter”: - 1 to 17 – World of Warcaft: 1 to 100 – Aureus: 1 to 25. They are gold to silver conversion rates. Now that’s hard, and neither team nor I had it. Eye of Horus gave the Gamers Kniphofia – which is the scientific name for red hot pocker. I would never have gambled in the studio, but I did so at home, and went for red hot here. The next clue was Fighting Aids through pop culture and the third was 500 – 800 degrees and the last was Have Flea on Bass. The Gamers took the lot for a point. Twisted Flax gave the Eds Incognito – Unbeknownst – Misnomer – nonchalant. I didn’t get it but it’s a great set – they are all negatives with no opposite positives. Pictures lurked behind Horned Viper for the Gamers. We saw a set of things that are perfect , and the Gamers saw this early and took it for two points. This was enough to give them a lead of 5 – 1. I think that this may be the first time the Gamers have ever led after round 1.
Round Two – What Comes Fourth?
The Eds were given a picture set to kick off. It didn’t mean a lot for them or me, but the Gamers worked out that we had a set of fractions – 1/5 – ¼ - 1/3 and so the last would be a half. Yes, it made sense when it was explained. Perfect fifth – Latin Quarter etc. Eye of Horus brought the Gamers February – August – and they came up with a brilliant answer. February – with e – b – a – has three islands – enclosed bits within the letters. August with g has 2. March would have been next with one – so they worked out the last was July. Brilliant answer – I was nowhere near it. Two Reeds gave the Eds 4: Ludaeorum – 3rd: Rex – and here I had it : 2nd – Nazarenus. The Eds had it worked out, and were close enough to Iesus to get the point. A relatively gentle set followed for the Gamers with Clement Davies – Jo Grimond – Jeremy Thorpe. Neither team knew that David Steel – not the cricketer – came next to lead the Libs. The Eds had - just begun – nearly new – and with a rush of blood to the head guessed – walk out the door, wrongly. The last clue was Hardly me. The Gamers didn’t know it, neither did I. It’s the A.A.Milne poem The End, and the answer was Not Much More. Fair enough. The Viper waited for the Gamers, concealing 4th - hotel de ville – 3rd – Temple – 2nd – Bourse. They didn’t know, neither did the Eds. Funnily enough I had the correct answer for the wrong reasons. I went for 1st: Louvre, on something like the Metro stations with the most annual passengers. Which was wrong, but it was 1st: Louvre since these were Arrondissements de Paris. C’est la vie. Gamers led 9 – 3.
Round Three – The Connecting Walls
Pretty quickly the Gamers saw sets of Spanish wines and breeds of cat, but they couldn’t untangle them for quite a while. Rioja – Sangria – Cava and Queimada eventually emerged. I could see a set of island dwellers, which eventually emerged for the Gamers – Manx – Diurach – Vectian and Orcadian. I fancied there might well be a set of songs by the Four Seasons in there as well. The two lines they didn’t get were Rag Doll – Sherry – Let’s Hang On – Silver Star , which were the songs which the Gamers didn’t know. The last group – Korat – Burmese – Sphynx and Cornish Rex were the cats. 5 points.
If the Eds could take a maximum then they would be right back in the game. They saw a set of gamebirds from the start, but couldn’t unravel them quickly. There was also a set of words which become books of the old testament if you put an – s – on the end. These they isolated first – King – Chronicle – Judge – Number. - Gnome – Ptarmigan – Honour and Psalm, all bearing silent first letters fell next. The time was nearly gone though, and there was no time left to untangle the last two. The third line was Quail – Grouse – Pheasant and Francolin , the game birds. The last was Partridge – Ohanrahanrahan – Wintergreen and Sisters. I had the nagging feeling I should know this, but I confess that I didn’t, no more than did the Eds. Partridge being Alan, they were all characters from The Day Today. They too scored 5 which meant the Gamers had a useful lead of 14 – 8.
Round Four – Missing Vowels
I loved the first set. Last time out we had Impressionists a la Rory Bremner. This time we had Impressionists a la Paul Cezanne. They fell out 2 apiece. The next category was words that contain C-O-R-E-N in order. 3 – 1 to the Eds. Also known as Papa went 4 – 0 to the Gamers, and sadly the Eds lost a point for an incorrect buzz. That was the lot, and it made a comfortable win for the Gamers who won with a palindromic 21 – 12. Well played both, good luck to the Gamers in the semis.
As a complete aside, I noticed for the first time that the Producer’s name is Jenny Hawker. If that’s Jenny Heap as was, congratulations on your marriage, Jenny.
Saturday, 23 November 2013
Only Connect - Round One - Qualification Match
Oenophiles v. Bakers
The Oenophiles, Didier Bruyere, Scott Dawson and Jamie Dodding, scored the most impressive victory of the first tranche of matches when they comprehensively defeated the Science Editors. In terms of pure quizzing they certainly look to be the most accomplished team we’ve seen this series. But then it’s not always about pure quizzing. With an automatic place in the semis at stake their opponenets were first match winners The Bakers, Tim Spain, Matt Rowbotham and Peter Steggle, who narrowly defeated the Press Gang in a fine match earlier in the series. The form book said wine to defeat bread by a bit of daylight. Time would tell.
Round One – What’s the Connection?
The Bakers took the first set. Volleyball match has finished – Successful DRS Challenge – I do not want to receive communion were the first three clues, and it was enough to give the Bakers the answer that they are all signaled by crossed arms. 2 points. Lion gave the Philes the music set. Now, after the second Jamie accidentally pressed the button, and was therefore asked for an answer even though he really wanted another piece of music. They picked up on the only lead they had, went for Biblical characters, and it was correct. Two reeds brought pictures to the Bakers. We saw a boxer’s second – an Apple Newton – a mole – and here they had SI units. Henry VIII would have completed the set. A lovely set came behind Horned Viper for the Philes. Japan = Round – Poland = Zloty – and here I might well have gone for it – Mexico= Weight – and here I would have definitely gone for it. We finished with Denmark = crown and this is where the Philes gave the correct answer of the meanings of those countries’ words for their currencies. Lord knows where I heard that Zloty means golden. Eye of Horus gave the Bakers – Scandal in Jackson’s Cabinet – Triangular Pieces of shortbread – Political Control by Women – and here the word petticoat leapt irresistibly to mind – only to be confirmed by the final clue – Middlesex Street Market. The Bakers showed vulnerability for the first time in the contest by going for – gate – as in scandals. No cigar, I’m afraid, and a relative tap in for a bonus for the Philes. For their last set in round one . Male leads in Third Rock from the Sun –which I wasn’t sure about, then Tunnels in The Great Escape – which I absolutely was. Tom, Dick and Harry I said, just as the Philes were offering exactly the same thing. So the Bakers ha a very creditable 4, but the signs were already ominous as the Philes led with 8.
Round Two – What Comes Fourth?
Lion gave the Bakers Timor – were we talking seas ? – Arafura – sorry, meant nowt to me – Coral – seas again? Going around Australia, the only other one which occurred to me was Tasman. Didier thought the same, and earned himself a bonus by doing it. The Philes’ own first set was behind the eye of Horus, and it was 8: Latvia 7:- Slovenia 6: - Cyprus, Estonia and Luxembourg. Neither team had any more real clue than I did. It was the number of MEPs, and the only one with 5 is Malta. So even if you knew the precise connection you still had a lot of work to do to figure out the right answer. Tricky, tricky, tricky set. Horned Viper gave the Bakers – Task – Individual – Load. Apparently this is all to do with the TILE acronym. I’m not familiar with it, neither was either team. The answer was Environment. Fair enough. And some people have complained that some of the sets on this series have been too easy!! The Philes took water and had 4 of 7:cross – 5 of 7: Joyful – 6 of 7: Somnolent – Brilliantly they worked out that this was the seven dwarves, and what’s more, that the last would be Sneezy. Respect for that one. The Bakers took twisted flax and given receptor and sensory neuron they plumped incorrectly for brain. Relay neuron didn’t help the Philes who offered synapse. Not right either. The correct answer was motor neuron. Once again, fair enough. The Philes finished the round with two reeds. We saw a Harlequins Team photo – then some quadriceps. So anything twins would be the answer I reckoned. The Philes thought the muscles were triceps which held them up. We saw sets of three notes together next and they answered two, and when given another go, twins. Ironically the picture showed the Thompson Twins – ironic because there were three of them. It was enough to ensure that after a very tough round the Philes went forward with 13, while the Bakers remained on 4.
Round Three – The Connecting Walls
The Philes kicked off and quickly found things that can be used in baking bread– ironic, that – with shortening – yeast – arrowroot and gluten. Altogether – Momma’s little baby loves shortening, shortening, momma’s little baby loves shortening bread. Ah, those Tom and Jerry cartoons of years gone by. Carter – Reeves – Bale and Maguire they knew have all played superheroes. They certainly knew that a set of official titles was lurking there, but they had the wrong ones on their first stab. Two left. They kept mayor in there for the second stab, and only had one go left. Didier at first suggested getting rid of mayor, but they kept him in again and were frozen out. The officials were Nazim – Provost – Reeve and Grandee. This leaves dough – mayor – damn and yew, which all have homophones which mean female animals. They just hadn’t seen it, even when it was resolved. That’s the way sometimes – 5 points gained.
The Lion Wall yielded its secrets slowly to the Bakers. They isolated Maverick – Templar – Sinclair and Ivanhoe, but didn’t know why. They were all played by Roger Moore. I could see what looked like anagrams of countries – I didn’t know what Elchi was otherwise. I could also see songs by the Lightning Seeds, and these – Sense – Perfect – The Life of Riley and Three Lions were the Bakers’ second set. Pretty soon after the two last lines untangled with the countries – Elchi – Pains – Laity and Pure, and a set comprising of Food – Bond – Mail and Shop. – Junk ! I shouted, having only just seen it. The Bakers missed on the countries, scoring a total of 6. So 18 played 10 going into the final round. Bigger leads have been overturned, but not that often.
Round Four – Missing Vowels
The Philes won the first set – impressionists ( think John Culshaw, not Claude Monet ) 3 – 1. I thought that the Philes would go well on landlocked countries, and I was right – another 3 – 1. The bakers turned the tide somewhat with outer garments – with 2 -1 and one unclaimed.There was just time for three folk groups , and these went 2 -1 to the Philes. So no upset this week, as this brought a well deserved win for the Philes by 27 – 15. Well played gents, and as for the Bakers, nothing to be ashamed of, and still a chance to make the semis. Good show.
The Oenophiles, Didier Bruyere, Scott Dawson and Jamie Dodding, scored the most impressive victory of the first tranche of matches when they comprehensively defeated the Science Editors. In terms of pure quizzing they certainly look to be the most accomplished team we’ve seen this series. But then it’s not always about pure quizzing. With an automatic place in the semis at stake their opponenets were first match winners The Bakers, Tim Spain, Matt Rowbotham and Peter Steggle, who narrowly defeated the Press Gang in a fine match earlier in the series. The form book said wine to defeat bread by a bit of daylight. Time would tell.
Round One – What’s the Connection?
The Bakers took the first set. Volleyball match has finished – Successful DRS Challenge – I do not want to receive communion were the first three clues, and it was enough to give the Bakers the answer that they are all signaled by crossed arms. 2 points. Lion gave the Philes the music set. Now, after the second Jamie accidentally pressed the button, and was therefore asked for an answer even though he really wanted another piece of music. They picked up on the only lead they had, went for Biblical characters, and it was correct. Two reeds brought pictures to the Bakers. We saw a boxer’s second – an Apple Newton – a mole – and here they had SI units. Henry VIII would have completed the set. A lovely set came behind Horned Viper for the Philes. Japan = Round – Poland = Zloty – and here I might well have gone for it – Mexico= Weight – and here I would have definitely gone for it. We finished with Denmark = crown and this is where the Philes gave the correct answer of the meanings of those countries’ words for their currencies. Lord knows where I heard that Zloty means golden. Eye of Horus gave the Bakers – Scandal in Jackson’s Cabinet – Triangular Pieces of shortbread – Political Control by Women – and here the word petticoat leapt irresistibly to mind – only to be confirmed by the final clue – Middlesex Street Market. The Bakers showed vulnerability for the first time in the contest by going for – gate – as in scandals. No cigar, I’m afraid, and a relative tap in for a bonus for the Philes. For their last set in round one . Male leads in Third Rock from the Sun –which I wasn’t sure about, then Tunnels in The Great Escape – which I absolutely was. Tom, Dick and Harry I said, just as the Philes were offering exactly the same thing. So the Bakers ha a very creditable 4, but the signs were already ominous as the Philes led with 8.
Round Two – What Comes Fourth?
Lion gave the Bakers Timor – were we talking seas ? – Arafura – sorry, meant nowt to me – Coral – seas again? Going around Australia, the only other one which occurred to me was Tasman. Didier thought the same, and earned himself a bonus by doing it. The Philes’ own first set was behind the eye of Horus, and it was 8: Latvia 7:- Slovenia 6: - Cyprus, Estonia and Luxembourg. Neither team had any more real clue than I did. It was the number of MEPs, and the only one with 5 is Malta. So even if you knew the precise connection you still had a lot of work to do to figure out the right answer. Tricky, tricky, tricky set. Horned Viper gave the Bakers – Task – Individual – Load. Apparently this is all to do with the TILE acronym. I’m not familiar with it, neither was either team. The answer was Environment. Fair enough. And some people have complained that some of the sets on this series have been too easy!! The Philes took water and had 4 of 7:cross – 5 of 7: Joyful – 6 of 7: Somnolent – Brilliantly they worked out that this was the seven dwarves, and what’s more, that the last would be Sneezy. Respect for that one. The Bakers took twisted flax and given receptor and sensory neuron they plumped incorrectly for brain. Relay neuron didn’t help the Philes who offered synapse. Not right either. The correct answer was motor neuron. Once again, fair enough. The Philes finished the round with two reeds. We saw a Harlequins Team photo – then some quadriceps. So anything twins would be the answer I reckoned. The Philes thought the muscles were triceps which held them up. We saw sets of three notes together next and they answered two, and when given another go, twins. Ironically the picture showed the Thompson Twins – ironic because there were three of them. It was enough to ensure that after a very tough round the Philes went forward with 13, while the Bakers remained on 4.
Round Three – The Connecting Walls
The Philes kicked off and quickly found things that can be used in baking bread– ironic, that – with shortening – yeast – arrowroot and gluten. Altogether – Momma’s little baby loves shortening, shortening, momma’s little baby loves shortening bread. Ah, those Tom and Jerry cartoons of years gone by. Carter – Reeves – Bale and Maguire they knew have all played superheroes. They certainly knew that a set of official titles was lurking there, but they had the wrong ones on their first stab. Two left. They kept mayor in there for the second stab, and only had one go left. Didier at first suggested getting rid of mayor, but they kept him in again and were frozen out. The officials were Nazim – Provost – Reeve and Grandee. This leaves dough – mayor – damn and yew, which all have homophones which mean female animals. They just hadn’t seen it, even when it was resolved. That’s the way sometimes – 5 points gained.
The Lion Wall yielded its secrets slowly to the Bakers. They isolated Maverick – Templar – Sinclair and Ivanhoe, but didn’t know why. They were all played by Roger Moore. I could see what looked like anagrams of countries – I didn’t know what Elchi was otherwise. I could also see songs by the Lightning Seeds, and these – Sense – Perfect – The Life of Riley and Three Lions were the Bakers’ second set. Pretty soon after the two last lines untangled with the countries – Elchi – Pains – Laity and Pure, and a set comprising of Food – Bond – Mail and Shop. – Junk ! I shouted, having only just seen it. The Bakers missed on the countries, scoring a total of 6. So 18 played 10 going into the final round. Bigger leads have been overturned, but not that often.
Round Four – Missing Vowels
The Philes won the first set – impressionists ( think John Culshaw, not Claude Monet ) 3 – 1. I thought that the Philes would go well on landlocked countries, and I was right – another 3 – 1. The bakers turned the tide somewhat with outer garments – with 2 -1 and one unclaimed.There was just time for three folk groups , and these went 2 -1 to the Philes. So no upset this week, as this brought a well deserved win for the Philes by 27 – 15. Well played gents, and as for the Bakers, nothing to be ashamed of, and still a chance to make the semis. Good show.
In the News
In The News
Who or what are the following and why have they been in the news?
1. Miles Scott
2. Hurricane Fly
3. Sebastian Ogier
4. Paul Flowers
5. Paul Sykes
6. Elena Baltacha
7. Ewen Mackenzie
8. Jenny Dennehy
9. Nick Boles MP
10. Emma Way
11. Alberto Salazar
12. Telephone Boxes of Wales
13. Kevin Chenais
14. Chris Kermode
15. NEETs
16. Rangi CHase
17. Richard Hannon
18. Abdelhakim Dekhar
19. Magnus Carlsen
20. Michelle Young
21. Mike Naylor
In Other News
1. Which 94 year old author passed away, and for a bonus, in which country was she born?
2. Which European volcano suffered a small eruption last week?
3. Who pulled out of his scheduled boxing match with Tyson Fury following advice from doctors that a serious shoulder injury means that he should reitre?
4. Who won the US Grand Prix?
5. What was the score in the RU Autumn test match between Scotland and South Africa?
6. - and England and New Zealand?
7. – and Ireland and Australia?
8. – and Wales and Argentina?
9. – and Wales and Tonga?
10. Which country won the Davis Cup?
11. What was the score in the RL World cup quarter final between England and France?
12. Who was the 7th celebrity to leave Strictly?
13. Which former MP pleaded guilty last week to nearly £13,000 bogus expenses claims?
14. Which group announced they will be reuniting for a stage show?
15. A gunman opened fire at the offices of which French newspaper last week?
16. Who was guest editor of the Today Programme?
17. The rebuilding of which Liverpool Theatre was completed last week?
18. What was the score in the friendly between England and Germany?
19. Which team drew their first ever full international football match with Slovakia?
20. Portugal beat which team to qualify for the 2014 FIFA world cup?
21. What was the score in the match between Scotland and Norway?
22. Which team did France beat to qualify for the 2014 FIFA world cup?
23. Which company announced last week that they are to close all 44 of their UK stores?
24. Last week saw the 150 anniversary of which speech?
25. Who was named the world’s highest earning musician over the last year?
26. What was presented to Oprah Winfrey last week?
27. Which is the UK’s new City of CUlture
28. Who won this year’s Golden Boot?
29. Which is the only country that will be making its debut in the 2014 World Cup?
30. Who was sacked as manager of Scunthorpe?
31. Which composer was the subject of a mistake by the setters on University Challenge?
32. Who took 5 – 65 on the first day of the first Ashes test?
33. Whose 100th game as an international rugby union coach took place this week?
34. Which actor revealed that he has been treated for skin cancer?
35. Which former labour minister announced that she will not stand in the next election?
36. Who is the new face of Versace?
37. Which is the first UK supermarket chain to ban energy drinks for Under 16s?
Who or what are the following and why have they been in the news?
1. Miles Scott
2. Hurricane Fly
3. Sebastian Ogier
4. Paul Flowers
5. Paul Sykes
6. Elena Baltacha
7. Ewen Mackenzie
8. Jenny Dennehy
9. Nick Boles MP
10. Emma Way
11. Alberto Salazar
12. Telephone Boxes of Wales
13. Kevin Chenais
14. Chris Kermode
15. NEETs
16. Rangi CHase
17. Richard Hannon
18. Abdelhakim Dekhar
19. Magnus Carlsen
20. Michelle Young
21. Mike Naylor
In Other News
1. Which 94 year old author passed away, and for a bonus, in which country was she born?
2. Which European volcano suffered a small eruption last week?
3. Who pulled out of his scheduled boxing match with Tyson Fury following advice from doctors that a serious shoulder injury means that he should reitre?
4. Who won the US Grand Prix?
5. What was the score in the RU Autumn test match between Scotland and South Africa?
6. - and England and New Zealand?
7. – and Ireland and Australia?
8. – and Wales and Argentina?
9. – and Wales and Tonga?
10. Which country won the Davis Cup?
11. What was the score in the RL World cup quarter final between England and France?
12. Who was the 7th celebrity to leave Strictly?
13. Which former MP pleaded guilty last week to nearly £13,000 bogus expenses claims?
14. Which group announced they will be reuniting for a stage show?
15. A gunman opened fire at the offices of which French newspaper last week?
16. Who was guest editor of the Today Programme?
17. The rebuilding of which Liverpool Theatre was completed last week?
18. What was the score in the friendly between England and Germany?
19. Which team drew their first ever full international football match with Slovakia?
20. Portugal beat which team to qualify for the 2014 FIFA world cup?
21. What was the score in the match between Scotland and Norway?
22. Which team did France beat to qualify for the 2014 FIFA world cup?
23. Which company announced last week that they are to close all 44 of their UK stores?
24. Last week saw the 150 anniversary of which speech?
25. Who was named the world’s highest earning musician over the last year?
26. What was presented to Oprah Winfrey last week?
27. Which is the UK’s new City of CUlture
28. Who won this year’s Golden Boot?
29. Which is the only country that will be making its debut in the 2014 World Cup?
30. Who was sacked as manager of Scunthorpe?
31. Which composer was the subject of a mistake by the setters on University Challenge?
32. Who took 5 – 65 on the first day of the first Ashes test?
33. Whose 100th game as an international rugby union coach took place this week?
34. Which actor revealed that he has been treated for skin cancer?
35. Which former labour minister announced that she will not stand in the next election?
36. Who is the new face of Versace?
37. Which is the first UK supermarket chain to ban energy drinks for Under 16s?
Answers to News Questions
In the News
Who or what are the following and why have they been in the news?
1. Nazdezhda Tolokonnikova
2. Haiyan
3. Mariam Muller
4. Mylene Picquette
5. Nicky Blair
6. Sean Conway
7. Isra Almodallal
8. Gravity
9. Nadhim Zahawi
10. Marc Marquez
11. Hildebrand Gurlitt
12. Grace Jones
13. Genevieve Sabourin
14. Mahinda Rajapaksa
15. Ming
16. Pink Star
17. Pyotr Pavlensky
18. Beth Reeks
In Other News
1. Where did a state of emergency end officially last week?
2. Who sings the Keane song “Somewhere Only We Know” for this year’s John Lewis Christmas advert?
3. What became the tallest building in the USA last week?
4. Who is launching a new restaurant in Terminal 2 at Heathrow?
5. Which classical composer died aged 69?
6. What won’t Alan Titchmarsh be doing in 2014?
7. What does Hull City’s owner want to change the club’s name to?
8. Who won the ATP Tour Finals?
9. What shape of tattoo did David Dimbleby get last week?
10. Which former England international became manager at Hibernian last week?
11. Which country are England’s rugby league world cup quarter final opponents?
12. What is Britain’s most congested city?
13. Who apologized for filming war scenes in Britain during Remembrance Sunday?
14. What was the score in the RL world cup between France and Samoa?
15. What was the score between Man Utd and Arsenal?
16. From which landmark were Greenpeace banners hung last week?
17. In rugby union, what was the score between England and Argentina?
18. – and Wales and South Africa?
19. IN the RL World Cup what was the score between England and Fiji?
20. What ‘bribe’ for breastfeeding mums was announced last week?
21. Who was the 6th celebrity to leave Strictly?
22. Which US criminal was sentenced to life in prison?
23. Which world leader became an honorary black belt in Taekwondo last week?
24. How long an extension was Chris Coleman given to his contract as Wales manager last week?
25. What was Sachin Tendulkar’s score in his last ever test innings?
26. Who lost his ageism claim last week?
27. What became the world’s most expensive painting last week?
28. Whose death was ruled last week as probably accidental?
29. What award was given to Bob Dylan last week?
30. Which European country refused to host the dismantling of Syria’s chemical weapons last week?
31. It is announced that, in IT terms, London will be one of the world’s first cities to get what?
32. What was the score between England and Chile?
Answers
Who or what are the following and why have they been in the news?
1. Member of Pussy Riot sent to Siberia - literally
2. Super Typhoon which devastated the Philippines
3. Australian who had lived 9 years in the UK, then was given 28 days notice to leave by the UK Border Agency
4. Rowed solo across the Atlantic
5. Son of Tony Blair, has become a successful football agent
6. First person to swim from Land’s End to john O Groats
7. 1st woman to become a spokesperson for Hamas
8. European satellite which ran out of fuel and fell to Earht – AND – new film starring George Clooney and Sandra Bullock
9. MP who accidentally claimed expenses for the electricity to power his stables
10. Youngest rider to win Moto GP title
11. ‘Owner’ of the Munich art hoard
12. UKs oldest person who passed away aged 113
13. Jailed for stalking Alec Baldwin
14. President of Sri Lanka refused David Cameron’s call for an inquiry into war crimes during the Sri Lankan Civil War
15. World’s oldest living creature – a 507 year old clam
16. World’s most expensive gemstone, diamond auctioned last week
17. Performance artist who made a demonstration by nailing his scrotum to Red Square last week
18. Newport ( Wales ) teenager whose online novel made her the 14th most influential person on Twitter and earned a huge deal with Random House
In Other News
1. Egypt
2. Lily Allen
3. The New World Trade Centre
4. Heston Blumenthal
5. John Tavener
6. Presenting the Chelsea Flower Show
7. Hull Tigers
8. Novak Djokovic
9. A Scorpion
10. Terry Butcher
11. France
12. Belfast
13. Brad Pitt
14. France won 22 - 8
15. 1 – 0 Man Utd
16. The Sagrada Familia in Barcelona
17. 31 – 12 England
18. 24 – 15 South Africa
19. 34 – 12 England
20. £200 shopping vouchers
21. Dave Myers
22. James ‘Whitey’ Bulger
23. Vladimir Putin
24. 2 years
25. 74
26. John McCrirrick
27. Francis Bacon’s triptych of Lucien Freud
28. MI6 codebreaker Gareth Williams
29. The Legion d’Honneur
30. Albania
31. Its own internet domain - .london
32. 2 – 0 Chile
Who or what are the following and why have they been in the news?
1. Nazdezhda Tolokonnikova
2. Haiyan
3. Mariam Muller
4. Mylene Picquette
5. Nicky Blair
6. Sean Conway
7. Isra Almodallal
8. Gravity
9. Nadhim Zahawi
10. Marc Marquez
11. Hildebrand Gurlitt
12. Grace Jones
13. Genevieve Sabourin
14. Mahinda Rajapaksa
15. Ming
16. Pink Star
17. Pyotr Pavlensky
18. Beth Reeks
In Other News
1. Where did a state of emergency end officially last week?
2. Who sings the Keane song “Somewhere Only We Know” for this year’s John Lewis Christmas advert?
3. What became the tallest building in the USA last week?
4. Who is launching a new restaurant in Terminal 2 at Heathrow?
5. Which classical composer died aged 69?
6. What won’t Alan Titchmarsh be doing in 2014?
7. What does Hull City’s owner want to change the club’s name to?
8. Who won the ATP Tour Finals?
9. What shape of tattoo did David Dimbleby get last week?
10. Which former England international became manager at Hibernian last week?
11. Which country are England’s rugby league world cup quarter final opponents?
12. What is Britain’s most congested city?
13. Who apologized for filming war scenes in Britain during Remembrance Sunday?
14. What was the score in the RL world cup between France and Samoa?
15. What was the score between Man Utd and Arsenal?
16. From which landmark were Greenpeace banners hung last week?
17. In rugby union, what was the score between England and Argentina?
18. – and Wales and South Africa?
19. IN the RL World Cup what was the score between England and Fiji?
20. What ‘bribe’ for breastfeeding mums was announced last week?
21. Who was the 6th celebrity to leave Strictly?
22. Which US criminal was sentenced to life in prison?
23. Which world leader became an honorary black belt in Taekwondo last week?
24. How long an extension was Chris Coleman given to his contract as Wales manager last week?
25. What was Sachin Tendulkar’s score in his last ever test innings?
26. Who lost his ageism claim last week?
27. What became the world’s most expensive painting last week?
28. Whose death was ruled last week as probably accidental?
29. What award was given to Bob Dylan last week?
30. Which European country refused to host the dismantling of Syria’s chemical weapons last week?
31. It is announced that, in IT terms, London will be one of the world’s first cities to get what?
32. What was the score between England and Chile?
Answers
Who or what are the following and why have they been in the news?
1. Member of Pussy Riot sent to Siberia - literally
2. Super Typhoon which devastated the Philippines
3. Australian who had lived 9 years in the UK, then was given 28 days notice to leave by the UK Border Agency
4. Rowed solo across the Atlantic
5. Son of Tony Blair, has become a successful football agent
6. First person to swim from Land’s End to john O Groats
7. 1st woman to become a spokesperson for Hamas
8. European satellite which ran out of fuel and fell to Earht – AND – new film starring George Clooney and Sandra Bullock
9. MP who accidentally claimed expenses for the electricity to power his stables
10. Youngest rider to win Moto GP title
11. ‘Owner’ of the Munich art hoard
12. UKs oldest person who passed away aged 113
13. Jailed for stalking Alec Baldwin
14. President of Sri Lanka refused David Cameron’s call for an inquiry into war crimes during the Sri Lankan Civil War
15. World’s oldest living creature – a 507 year old clam
16. World’s most expensive gemstone, diamond auctioned last week
17. Performance artist who made a demonstration by nailing his scrotum to Red Square last week
18. Newport ( Wales ) teenager whose online novel made her the 14th most influential person on Twitter and earned a huge deal with Random House
In Other News
1. Egypt
2. Lily Allen
3. The New World Trade Centre
4. Heston Blumenthal
5. John Tavener
6. Presenting the Chelsea Flower Show
7. Hull Tigers
8. Novak Djokovic
9. A Scorpion
10. Terry Butcher
11. France
12. Belfast
13. Brad Pitt
14. France won 22 - 8
15. 1 – 0 Man Utd
16. The Sagrada Familia in Barcelona
17. 31 – 12 England
18. 24 – 15 South Africa
19. 34 – 12 England
20. £200 shopping vouchers
21. Dave Myers
22. James ‘Whitey’ Bulger
23. Vladimir Putin
24. 2 years
25. 74
26. John McCrirrick
27. Francis Bacon’s triptych of Lucien Freud
28. MI6 codebreaker Gareth Williams
29. The Legion d’Honneur
30. Albania
31. Its own internet domain - .london
32. 2 – 0 Chile
University Challenge - Round Two - Match Three
Clare, Cambridge v. Christ Church, Oxford
Clare’s team of Tom Watson, Carys Redman-White, Mark Chonofsky and the skipper Tom Wright defeated Loughborough by 195 to 160 in the first round. Well, Loughborough were well beaten by Southampton in their repechage match. Christ Church, Oxford represented by George Greenwood, Andreas Capstack, Philip Ostrowski and captain, LAM regular Ewan Macauley, managed to secure a repechage slot despite facing the might of Trinity, Cambridge in their first round match, and then comprehensively beat Durham by 245 to 140 in their own repechage match. A difficult one to call, then.
Buzzer speed, as always, was going to be crucial in this match, and it was Philip Ostrowski who struck fastest for the first answer, Hungarian born financier George Soros. 2 bonuses followed on the UN Security Council. Ewan buzzed in for the second starter, correctly identifying a quotation from H.G.Wells’ novelisation of the classic Jeff Wayne album “War of the Worlds”. The works of Oscar Wilde provided just the one bonus. Mark Chonofsky opened Clare’s account with the next starter, various definitions of the word saddle. As had Christ Church for their two starters, he didn’t wait until the completion of the question. Early signs were that we were looking at a good match. A gettable bonus set on places and their anagrams – for example Algeria and regalia – only yielded one bonus, but never mind, Clare were off and running. I’ll be honest, I didn’t really get the next question, but Mark Chonofsky did, buzzing in early for the second starter running, with the answer “Contrapositive”. Fair enough. This yielded a set of bonuses on complex function theory. Come again? Well, I didn’t get any of them but Clare had 2. Clare’s skipper, Tom Wright, heard the words Greek Mythology – and – Forethought – and did what he had to, which was buzzed straightaway with the name Prometheus. Good buzz. The set of bonuses on New York brought both of us our first full set of the show. Now, for the first picture starter Mark Chonofsky was a little unlucky. We were shown a fictional family tree, and asked to identify the missing family member. It was obviously the second Bennett sister from “Pride and Prejudice”. Mark buzzed in with “Eliza Bennett”. Now, the character is referred to as Eliza Bennett several times in the novel, notably by Miss Bingley, but the correct name was Elizabeth Bennett, as supplied by Ewan Macauley. The bonuses that followed were other similar fictional family trees from Jane Austen. I think it’s fair to say that Jane Austen is not especially to the team’s liking since they failed to trouble the scorer with this set. Still, this rather entertaining set brought us to almost the 10 minute mark, and the contest was shaping up nicely, with Clare leading by 60 to 45.
Andreas Capstack did what you should do, and buzzed in before the end of the question for the next starter, but sadly it was too early and he lost five. This gave Tom Watson his first starter of the night for the term autarchy. Optical illusions eluded Clare. Now – lap of honour round the living room time. Asked what type of things electrons and muons are, I guessed neutrinos and Ewan buzzed in to confirm that I was right. Cell biology brought one bonus to Christ Church. Mark Chonofsky’s early buzz identified 31 radio broadcasts as fireside chats, and the bonuses that followed were on Mells parish church. They passed Clare by as well. Tom Wright won the buzzer race to say that Sam Wanamaker was the driving force behind the reconstruction of Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre. The Orwell Prize for political writing brought two correct answers and took Clare into triple figures. The elastic between the teams was starting to stretch, but George Greenwood pulled it back in knowing a set of space telescopes. Their next set of bonuses was on ions – yuck! – and they managed the first and third of them. This brought us to the music starter, and Tom Watson very quickly recognised the work of Joe Green, or Giuseppi Verdi as they call him in Italy. Three more requiems, and I was surprised that they had the first one wrong. Even if they didn’t recognise Britten’s War Requiem, when you’re told it’s a requiem by a British composer you’ll be right saying Britten a lot more often than you’ll be wrong. Now then, the MOST CONTROVERSIAL MOMENT OF THE SERIES SO FAR!! Well, not really. The setters just made a mistake. You might have seen in the papers that the answer given to the second bonus was Dvorak, but they played some Gregorian plainsong, if I remember correctly. Mistakes happen. They knew that the last was Stravinsky. I didn’t know it, but I guessed from the rather unpleasant sound of it. Some Maths thing with the answer even integers passed all of us by for the next starter. A nice question about men who served as Chancellor before becoming Prime Minister – eg Gordon Brown and John Major followed. I predicted another buzzer dash, and this was won by George Greenwood. This narrowed the gap to 30 points. No bonuses on Robert Hughes kept it that way. Philip Ostrowski won the next sprint with the rhyming answers leek – meek – greek. I did hope that the question might be asking for the answers iron – lion – Zion, but it was not to be. Save that one for another show if you like. The bonuses asked Christ Church to identify European cities from their metro stations. Now, a full set of these meant that the gap was down to a mere 5 points. We weren’t quite at the 20 minute mark, but not far off, and Clare led by 115 to 110. A grandstand finish was surely in prospect.
Mark Chonofsky opened the gap again when he answered that the Emperor Maximilien was supported by Louis Napoleon, which did him naff all good since he was executed by firing squad, as depicted by Manet. That’s the Emperor Maximilien, not Mark Chonofsky. 1 bonus was answered correctly. Nobody recognised a picture by Toulouse Lautrec for the next starter. That man Chonofsky knew the term adiabatic for the next starter, thus earning the horse racing picture bonuses. None of them were taken. A great buzz from Andreas Capstack identified Bahrain as the other Asian country, apart from Singapore, connected to its neighbour by a bridge. Characters on The Tempest saw them take just one, thus risking more Paxman scorn, but this was the last and most important part of the contest, and at this stage JP usually just gets on with it. Neither knew the next starter, which was about works with surgeon in the title. Ho hum. Mark Chonofsky recognised the mnemonic for diatomic elements. A good set of bonuses here could be enough for Clare, but three gettable chances all went begging. With three minutes to go Philip Ostrowski recognised a quote from King Lear and two bonuses on Science narrowed the gap to five. George Greenwood won the buzzer race to identify the Romanovs as the last ruling dynasty of imperial Russia. For the first time for ages Christ Church were in the lead. July 1960 gave them no bonuses. I’m sorry guys, but the Mrs. Bandaranaike one is a real old quiz chestnut. Mark Chonofsky retook the lead saying that there are 1609 metres in a mile – and saying it very quickly as well. Now, bonuses on composers yielded Clare just 5 more points. Which meant that they now led by 10 with just seconds to go. We had time for one more starter, and it was Ewan who answered it, correctly spelling the word facsimile. That was that , the gong sounded, and we had a tie on our hands.
You probably remembered how this works. One more starter is asked. Whoever buzzes in first gets to answer. If a correct answer is given, that person’s team wins. If an incorrect answer is given the other team automatically wins. The question was “Elevators and ailerons are parts which affect the movement of – “ and at this point Tom Wright buzzed in with the answer ‘aeroplanes’. Game over.Very well done Clare for holding your nerve, and desperately bad luck to Christ Church. It’s not much of a consolation, but you played your part in a fabulous match. Well played all.
Jeremy Paxman Watch
There was more than a touch of disbelief in JP’s voice when, after they had failed on the Sense and Sensibility bonus, he asked Christ Church “Have any of you actually read Austen? “ as if disbelieving that anyone could reach adulthood in such a state without spontaneously combusting. When they failed to answer any of the bonuses correctly he added,
”Serves you right! You should read more!”
We’ve seen this before, being an English graduate himself he just hates it when anyone gets an English Literature bonus wrong. It’s a little unfair. You didn’t hear him tell Clare that they should look at things more when they didn’t get any of the optical illusions right, did you!
interesting Fact That I Didn’t Already Know Of The Week
An optical illusion in which a photograph is viewed upside down but with the eyes and mouth in the original orientation is named after Margaret Thatcher.
Clare’s team of Tom Watson, Carys Redman-White, Mark Chonofsky and the skipper Tom Wright defeated Loughborough by 195 to 160 in the first round. Well, Loughborough were well beaten by Southampton in their repechage match. Christ Church, Oxford represented by George Greenwood, Andreas Capstack, Philip Ostrowski and captain, LAM regular Ewan Macauley, managed to secure a repechage slot despite facing the might of Trinity, Cambridge in their first round match, and then comprehensively beat Durham by 245 to 140 in their own repechage match. A difficult one to call, then.
Buzzer speed, as always, was going to be crucial in this match, and it was Philip Ostrowski who struck fastest for the first answer, Hungarian born financier George Soros. 2 bonuses followed on the UN Security Council. Ewan buzzed in for the second starter, correctly identifying a quotation from H.G.Wells’ novelisation of the classic Jeff Wayne album “War of the Worlds”. The works of Oscar Wilde provided just the one bonus. Mark Chonofsky opened Clare’s account with the next starter, various definitions of the word saddle. As had Christ Church for their two starters, he didn’t wait until the completion of the question. Early signs were that we were looking at a good match. A gettable bonus set on places and their anagrams – for example Algeria and regalia – only yielded one bonus, but never mind, Clare were off and running. I’ll be honest, I didn’t really get the next question, but Mark Chonofsky did, buzzing in early for the second starter running, with the answer “Contrapositive”. Fair enough. This yielded a set of bonuses on complex function theory. Come again? Well, I didn’t get any of them but Clare had 2. Clare’s skipper, Tom Wright, heard the words Greek Mythology – and – Forethought – and did what he had to, which was buzzed straightaway with the name Prometheus. Good buzz. The set of bonuses on New York brought both of us our first full set of the show. Now, for the first picture starter Mark Chonofsky was a little unlucky. We were shown a fictional family tree, and asked to identify the missing family member. It was obviously the second Bennett sister from “Pride and Prejudice”. Mark buzzed in with “Eliza Bennett”. Now, the character is referred to as Eliza Bennett several times in the novel, notably by Miss Bingley, but the correct name was Elizabeth Bennett, as supplied by Ewan Macauley. The bonuses that followed were other similar fictional family trees from Jane Austen. I think it’s fair to say that Jane Austen is not especially to the team’s liking since they failed to trouble the scorer with this set. Still, this rather entertaining set brought us to almost the 10 minute mark, and the contest was shaping up nicely, with Clare leading by 60 to 45.
Andreas Capstack did what you should do, and buzzed in before the end of the question for the next starter, but sadly it was too early and he lost five. This gave Tom Watson his first starter of the night for the term autarchy. Optical illusions eluded Clare. Now – lap of honour round the living room time. Asked what type of things electrons and muons are, I guessed neutrinos and Ewan buzzed in to confirm that I was right. Cell biology brought one bonus to Christ Church. Mark Chonofsky’s early buzz identified 31 radio broadcasts as fireside chats, and the bonuses that followed were on Mells parish church. They passed Clare by as well. Tom Wright won the buzzer race to say that Sam Wanamaker was the driving force behind the reconstruction of Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre. The Orwell Prize for political writing brought two correct answers and took Clare into triple figures. The elastic between the teams was starting to stretch, but George Greenwood pulled it back in knowing a set of space telescopes. Their next set of bonuses was on ions – yuck! – and they managed the first and third of them. This brought us to the music starter, and Tom Watson very quickly recognised the work of Joe Green, or Giuseppi Verdi as they call him in Italy. Three more requiems, and I was surprised that they had the first one wrong. Even if they didn’t recognise Britten’s War Requiem, when you’re told it’s a requiem by a British composer you’ll be right saying Britten a lot more often than you’ll be wrong. Now then, the MOST CONTROVERSIAL MOMENT OF THE SERIES SO FAR!! Well, not really. The setters just made a mistake. You might have seen in the papers that the answer given to the second bonus was Dvorak, but they played some Gregorian plainsong, if I remember correctly. Mistakes happen. They knew that the last was Stravinsky. I didn’t know it, but I guessed from the rather unpleasant sound of it. Some Maths thing with the answer even integers passed all of us by for the next starter. A nice question about men who served as Chancellor before becoming Prime Minister – eg Gordon Brown and John Major followed. I predicted another buzzer dash, and this was won by George Greenwood. This narrowed the gap to 30 points. No bonuses on Robert Hughes kept it that way. Philip Ostrowski won the next sprint with the rhyming answers leek – meek – greek. I did hope that the question might be asking for the answers iron – lion – Zion, but it was not to be. Save that one for another show if you like. The bonuses asked Christ Church to identify European cities from their metro stations. Now, a full set of these meant that the gap was down to a mere 5 points. We weren’t quite at the 20 minute mark, but not far off, and Clare led by 115 to 110. A grandstand finish was surely in prospect.
Mark Chonofsky opened the gap again when he answered that the Emperor Maximilien was supported by Louis Napoleon, which did him naff all good since he was executed by firing squad, as depicted by Manet. That’s the Emperor Maximilien, not Mark Chonofsky. 1 bonus was answered correctly. Nobody recognised a picture by Toulouse Lautrec for the next starter. That man Chonofsky knew the term adiabatic for the next starter, thus earning the horse racing picture bonuses. None of them were taken. A great buzz from Andreas Capstack identified Bahrain as the other Asian country, apart from Singapore, connected to its neighbour by a bridge. Characters on The Tempest saw them take just one, thus risking more Paxman scorn, but this was the last and most important part of the contest, and at this stage JP usually just gets on with it. Neither knew the next starter, which was about works with surgeon in the title. Ho hum. Mark Chonofsky recognised the mnemonic for diatomic elements. A good set of bonuses here could be enough for Clare, but three gettable chances all went begging. With three minutes to go Philip Ostrowski recognised a quote from King Lear and two bonuses on Science narrowed the gap to five. George Greenwood won the buzzer race to identify the Romanovs as the last ruling dynasty of imperial Russia. For the first time for ages Christ Church were in the lead. July 1960 gave them no bonuses. I’m sorry guys, but the Mrs. Bandaranaike one is a real old quiz chestnut. Mark Chonofsky retook the lead saying that there are 1609 metres in a mile – and saying it very quickly as well. Now, bonuses on composers yielded Clare just 5 more points. Which meant that they now led by 10 with just seconds to go. We had time for one more starter, and it was Ewan who answered it, correctly spelling the word facsimile. That was that , the gong sounded, and we had a tie on our hands.
You probably remembered how this works. One more starter is asked. Whoever buzzes in first gets to answer. If a correct answer is given, that person’s team wins. If an incorrect answer is given the other team automatically wins. The question was “Elevators and ailerons are parts which affect the movement of – “ and at this point Tom Wright buzzed in with the answer ‘aeroplanes’. Game over.Very well done Clare for holding your nerve, and desperately bad luck to Christ Church. It’s not much of a consolation, but you played your part in a fabulous match. Well played all.
Jeremy Paxman Watch
There was more than a touch of disbelief in JP’s voice when, after they had failed on the Sense and Sensibility bonus, he asked Christ Church “Have any of you actually read Austen? “ as if disbelieving that anyone could reach adulthood in such a state without spontaneously combusting. When they failed to answer any of the bonuses correctly he added,
”Serves you right! You should read more!”
We’ve seen this before, being an English graduate himself he just hates it when anyone gets an English Literature bonus wrong. It’s a little unfair. You didn’t hear him tell Clare that they should look at things more when they didn’t get any of the optical illusions right, did you!
interesting Fact That I Didn’t Already Know Of The Week
An optical illusion in which a photograph is viewed upside down but with the eyes and mouth in the original orientation is named after Margaret Thatcher.
Saturday, 16 November 2013
University Challenge - Round Two - Match Two
Downing, Cambridge v. Queen’s, Belfast
In the first round Downing, Cambridge looked good seeing off St. John’s , Oxford. The team of Tom Claxton, Georgina Phillips, Tom Rees and captain John Morgan scored 260 and looked like an outfit to watch. Their opposition on Monday evening, Queen’s University Belfast, made rather heavier weather of their own first round match. Suzanne Cobain, Gareth Gamble, Alexander Green and their skipper Joseph Greenwood eventually overcame Aberdeen, scoring 140 points in the process in the first match of this series. On paper they were clearly the underdogs, but then what do we always say about first round form? It is notoriously unreliable.
Gareth Gamble kicked off the show, knowing that “Mrs Schofield’s GCSE” is a poem by Carol Anne Duffy. This earned Queen’s bonuses on snakes of which they took 2. Gareth Gamble took his double by gambling on an early buzz to identify words from the Monroe Doctrine. A bonus on dystopias and dystopian novels brought Queen’s score to 35 – already one quarter of their total from their first match. Nobody knew the term ‘continuous’ in the context of topology. The Queen’s skipper, Joseph Greenwood, knew that if the question contains the names – John Donne – and – Ernest Hemingway – then the words – for whom the bell tolls will never be far away from the answer. Chemical stuff followed as bonuses, and amazingly I had two – isotopes and allotropes, which were interestingly the same ones that Queen’s managed. John Morgan broke his side’s duck with the next starter, knowing the term panorama paintings. Answering on the works of Karl Marx I was really surprised that the team missed out on identifying a definition of communism, and sadly they managed neither of the other bonuses. I didn’t know Feuerbach, but the Paris Commune was certainly guessable. The first picture starter showed us a Delia Smith recipe for a Victoria sponge. Gareth Gamble had that one for this third starter in the first few minutes. They knew caramel for a bonus, but not béchamel sauce nor shortcrust pastry. I was a little surprised that neither team picked up on the definition of ideology for the next starter, but there we are. Nonetheless it had been a very good first period for Queen’s, who led by 70 to 10, a score which was already halfway towards their first round heat total.
I myself got the next starter, a description of Jacques, but it was only Jez and I who knew it. Gareth Gamble knew Tryptophan for the next starter. Royal spouses was a tricky set due to the presence of Philip of Spain, and they managed one. John Morgan knew that James Clark Maxwell was the Scottish scientist in question for the next starter. Scientists and eponymous principles brought them a full set of bonuses, and narrowed the gap to 50. That man Gamble knew that the gerund hopping follows a set of different words. African waterways didn’t promise a great deal of points, and to be fair it didn’t deliver them either. One bonus took Queen’s to triple figures. Alexander Green was close to the Southern Ocean, but Georgina Phillips had it spot on. Tetralogies gave Downing just the one bonus this time. The music starter was one even I could shout out after half a bar – being Nessun Dorma from Puccini’s Turandot. Joseph Greenwood won the buzzer race for that one. More pieces of classical music used for TV coverage of football tournaments followed, asking for the year and the tournament it was used for. John Morgan knew Deuteron to win a set of Maths bonuses. I knew the first – inverse! How did that happen?! I didn’t have any of the others, though. Downing had one of the others as well. Joseph Greenwood knew that Gorbachev resigned in 1991. A UC set of pairs of words differing only by the addition of a B to one to form the other promised much, and this gave Queen’s their first full set. Now they had their 140. Alexander Green knew that Mozilla created Firefox. I thought it was Clint Eastwood. This bonus set on decisive battles did not yield a full set,only the one. Tom Claxton buzzed too early for the next starter, allowing Alexander Green in to answer that Potassium has the same symbol as the Kelvin unit of Temperature. The Queen’s march into the second round continued with book prizes but again only managed 1 bonus. The second picture starter showed us a sculpture, and Tom Rees recognised the work of Anthony Gormley in the Yorkshire sculpture Park. More work from the same sculpture Park proved harder for Downing to identify, and they failed to add to their score. Gareth Gamble won the buzzer race to identify goulash as a Hungarian word. Optics gave me nothing at all, but Queen’s added another 10 points to what was looking like a winning score. By this time I realised that the 20 minute mark had been and gone, but Queen’s with 190 were looking impregnable, with Downing back on 80.
Tom Rees took his second starter with types of pendulum. Geography gave us a nice set of – iso – words. Suzanne Cobain knew that Maria Callas thought Carmen was too like a man. Palindromic years provided Queen’s with another 10 points. Tom Rees knew a set of novels with the number 84 in the title. Botany and medicine provided a nice set of bonuses, but they were not to Downing’s liking as they only managed digitalis. Ace inhibitors gave Georgina Phillips another starter. 20th century novelists gave Downing no bonuses. John Morgan recognised a quote from John Milton. Alas, all too late Downing were finally achieving parity in the buzzer race. Capital cities and rivers helped take their score to 135. That was that, a comfortable win for Queen’s with 210 to 135. Which just goes to show, when it’s a buzzer race you can throw the form book out of the window. Well played Queen’s, and bad luck Downing.
Jeremy Paxman watch
Gareth Gamble was the first recipient of the patented Paxman ‘old fashioned look’ for his correct answer to the sponge question. “How do you know that?!” he asked. When they failed on béchamel sauce and shortcrust pastry he observed that he is going to wait a year or two before inviting himself around for dinner. Avoid the quips Jez, Brucie you’re not.
JP was well impressed with the answers that Queen’s gave for the football music. He gave a rare ‘bad luck’ when they missed the last.
Interesting Fact That I Didn’t Already Know Of The Week
An isotach connects places of equal windspeed on a map.
In the first round Downing, Cambridge looked good seeing off St. John’s , Oxford. The team of Tom Claxton, Georgina Phillips, Tom Rees and captain John Morgan scored 260 and looked like an outfit to watch. Their opposition on Monday evening, Queen’s University Belfast, made rather heavier weather of their own first round match. Suzanne Cobain, Gareth Gamble, Alexander Green and their skipper Joseph Greenwood eventually overcame Aberdeen, scoring 140 points in the process in the first match of this series. On paper they were clearly the underdogs, but then what do we always say about first round form? It is notoriously unreliable.
Gareth Gamble kicked off the show, knowing that “Mrs Schofield’s GCSE” is a poem by Carol Anne Duffy. This earned Queen’s bonuses on snakes of which they took 2. Gareth Gamble took his double by gambling on an early buzz to identify words from the Monroe Doctrine. A bonus on dystopias and dystopian novels brought Queen’s score to 35 – already one quarter of their total from their first match. Nobody knew the term ‘continuous’ in the context of topology. The Queen’s skipper, Joseph Greenwood, knew that if the question contains the names – John Donne – and – Ernest Hemingway – then the words – for whom the bell tolls will never be far away from the answer. Chemical stuff followed as bonuses, and amazingly I had two – isotopes and allotropes, which were interestingly the same ones that Queen’s managed. John Morgan broke his side’s duck with the next starter, knowing the term panorama paintings. Answering on the works of Karl Marx I was really surprised that the team missed out on identifying a definition of communism, and sadly they managed neither of the other bonuses. I didn’t know Feuerbach, but the Paris Commune was certainly guessable. The first picture starter showed us a Delia Smith recipe for a Victoria sponge. Gareth Gamble had that one for this third starter in the first few minutes. They knew caramel for a bonus, but not béchamel sauce nor shortcrust pastry. I was a little surprised that neither team picked up on the definition of ideology for the next starter, but there we are. Nonetheless it had been a very good first period for Queen’s, who led by 70 to 10, a score which was already halfway towards their first round heat total.
I myself got the next starter, a description of Jacques, but it was only Jez and I who knew it. Gareth Gamble knew Tryptophan for the next starter. Royal spouses was a tricky set due to the presence of Philip of Spain, and they managed one. John Morgan knew that James Clark Maxwell was the Scottish scientist in question for the next starter. Scientists and eponymous principles brought them a full set of bonuses, and narrowed the gap to 50. That man Gamble knew that the gerund hopping follows a set of different words. African waterways didn’t promise a great deal of points, and to be fair it didn’t deliver them either. One bonus took Queen’s to triple figures. Alexander Green was close to the Southern Ocean, but Georgina Phillips had it spot on. Tetralogies gave Downing just the one bonus this time. The music starter was one even I could shout out after half a bar – being Nessun Dorma from Puccini’s Turandot. Joseph Greenwood won the buzzer race for that one. More pieces of classical music used for TV coverage of football tournaments followed, asking for the year and the tournament it was used for. John Morgan knew Deuteron to win a set of Maths bonuses. I knew the first – inverse! How did that happen?! I didn’t have any of the others, though. Downing had one of the others as well. Joseph Greenwood knew that Gorbachev resigned in 1991. A UC set of pairs of words differing only by the addition of a B to one to form the other promised much, and this gave Queen’s their first full set. Now they had their 140. Alexander Green knew that Mozilla created Firefox. I thought it was Clint Eastwood. This bonus set on decisive battles did not yield a full set,only the one. Tom Claxton buzzed too early for the next starter, allowing Alexander Green in to answer that Potassium has the same symbol as the Kelvin unit of Temperature. The Queen’s march into the second round continued with book prizes but again only managed 1 bonus. The second picture starter showed us a sculpture, and Tom Rees recognised the work of Anthony Gormley in the Yorkshire sculpture Park. More work from the same sculpture Park proved harder for Downing to identify, and they failed to add to their score. Gareth Gamble won the buzzer race to identify goulash as a Hungarian word. Optics gave me nothing at all, but Queen’s added another 10 points to what was looking like a winning score. By this time I realised that the 20 minute mark had been and gone, but Queen’s with 190 were looking impregnable, with Downing back on 80.
Tom Rees took his second starter with types of pendulum. Geography gave us a nice set of – iso – words. Suzanne Cobain knew that Maria Callas thought Carmen was too like a man. Palindromic years provided Queen’s with another 10 points. Tom Rees knew a set of novels with the number 84 in the title. Botany and medicine provided a nice set of bonuses, but they were not to Downing’s liking as they only managed digitalis. Ace inhibitors gave Georgina Phillips another starter. 20th century novelists gave Downing no bonuses. John Morgan recognised a quote from John Milton. Alas, all too late Downing were finally achieving parity in the buzzer race. Capital cities and rivers helped take their score to 135. That was that, a comfortable win for Queen’s with 210 to 135. Which just goes to show, when it’s a buzzer race you can throw the form book out of the window. Well played Queen’s, and bad luck Downing.
Jeremy Paxman watch
Gareth Gamble was the first recipient of the patented Paxman ‘old fashioned look’ for his correct answer to the sponge question. “How do you know that?!” he asked. When they failed on béchamel sauce and shortcrust pastry he observed that he is going to wait a year or two before inviting himself around for dinner. Avoid the quips Jez, Brucie you’re not.
JP was well impressed with the answers that Queen’s gave for the football music. He gave a rare ‘bad luck’ when they missed the last.
Interesting Fact That I Didn’t Already Know Of The Week
An isotach connects places of equal windspeed on a map.
In The News
In the News
Who or what are the following and why have they been in the news?
1. Nazdezhda Tolokonnikova
2. Haiyan
3. Mariam Muller
4. Mylene Picquette
5. Nicky Blair
6. Sean Conway
7. Isra Almodallal
8. Gravity
9. Nadhim Zahawi
10. Marc Marquez
11. Hildebrand Gurlitt
12. Grace Jones
13. Genevieve Sabourin
14. Mahinda Rajapaksa
15. Ming
16. Pink Star
17. Pyotr Pavlensky
18. Beth Reeks
In Other News
1. Where did a state of emergency end officially last week?
2. Who sings the Keane song “Somewhere Only We Know” for this year’s John Lewis Christmas advert?
3. What became the tallest building in the USA last week?
4. Who is launching a new restaurant in Terminal 2 at Heathrow?
5. Which classical composer died aged 69?
6. What won’t Alan Titchmarsh be doing in 2014?
7. What does Hull City’s owner want to change the club’s name to?
8. Who won the ATP Tour Finals?
9. What shape of tattoo did David Dimbleby get last week?
10. Which former England international became manager at Hibernian last week?
11. Which country are England’s rugby league world cup quarter final opponents?
12. What is Britain’s most congested city?
13. Who apologized for filming war scenes in Britain during Remembrance Sunday?
14. What was the score in the RL world cup between France and Samoa?
15. What was the score between Man Utd and Arsenal?
16. From which landmark were Greenpeace banners hung last week?
17. In rugby union, what was the score between England and Argentina?
18. – and Wales and South Africa?
19. IN the RL World Cup what was the score between England and Fiji?
20. What ‘bribe’ for breastfeeding mums was announced last week?
21. Who was the 6th celebrity to leave Strictly?
22. Which US criminal was sentenced to life in prison?
23. Which world leader became an honorary black belt in Taekwondo last week?
24. How long an extension was Chris Coleman given to his contract as Wales manager last week?
25. What was Sachin Tendulkar’s score in his last ever test innings?
26. Who lost his ageism claim last week?
27. What became the world’s most expensive painting last week?
28. Whose death was ruled last week as probably accidental?
29. What award was given to Bob Dylan last week?
30. Which European country refused to host the dismantling of Syria’s chemical weapons last week?
31. It is announced that, in IT terms, London will be one of the world’s first cities to get what?
32. What was the score between England and Chile?
Who or what are the following and why have they been in the news?
1. Nazdezhda Tolokonnikova
2. Haiyan
3. Mariam Muller
4. Mylene Picquette
5. Nicky Blair
6. Sean Conway
7. Isra Almodallal
8. Gravity
9. Nadhim Zahawi
10. Marc Marquez
11. Hildebrand Gurlitt
12. Grace Jones
13. Genevieve Sabourin
14. Mahinda Rajapaksa
15. Ming
16. Pink Star
17. Pyotr Pavlensky
18. Beth Reeks
In Other News
1. Where did a state of emergency end officially last week?
2. Who sings the Keane song “Somewhere Only We Know” for this year’s John Lewis Christmas advert?
3. What became the tallest building in the USA last week?
4. Who is launching a new restaurant in Terminal 2 at Heathrow?
5. Which classical composer died aged 69?
6. What won’t Alan Titchmarsh be doing in 2014?
7. What does Hull City’s owner want to change the club’s name to?
8. Who won the ATP Tour Finals?
9. What shape of tattoo did David Dimbleby get last week?
10. Which former England international became manager at Hibernian last week?
11. Which country are England’s rugby league world cup quarter final opponents?
12. What is Britain’s most congested city?
13. Who apologized for filming war scenes in Britain during Remembrance Sunday?
14. What was the score in the RL world cup between France and Samoa?
15. What was the score between Man Utd and Arsenal?
16. From which landmark were Greenpeace banners hung last week?
17. In rugby union, what was the score between England and Argentina?
18. – and Wales and South Africa?
19. IN the RL World Cup what was the score between England and Fiji?
20. What ‘bribe’ for breastfeeding mums was announced last week?
21. Who was the 6th celebrity to leave Strictly?
22. Which US criminal was sentenced to life in prison?
23. Which world leader became an honorary black belt in Taekwondo last week?
24. How long an extension was Chris Coleman given to his contract as Wales manager last week?
25. What was Sachin Tendulkar’s score in his last ever test innings?
26. Who lost his ageism claim last week?
27. What became the world’s most expensive painting last week?
28. Whose death was ruled last week as probably accidental?
29. What award was given to Bob Dylan last week?
30. Which European country refused to host the dismantling of Syria’s chemical weapons last week?
31. It is announced that, in IT terms, London will be one of the world’s first cities to get what?
32. What was the score between England and Chile?
Friday, 15 November 2013
Answers to News Questions
In the News
Who or what are the following and why have they been in the news?
1. Hakimullah Mehsud
2. Tracy Connolly
3. Curtain
4. Paul Allan
5. Lynton Crosby
6. Nick Matthew
7. Geoffrey Mutai
8. Priscah Jeptoo
9. Marcia Wallace
10. David Lloyd
11. Fresh Meat
12. Sascha Reither
13. Uli Hoeness
14. Zak Hardaker
15. Dorian Darch
16. Prism
17. ‘King of Gore’
18. Curtis Warren
19. Rob Ford
20. Fiorente
21. Mark Pritchard
22. Sweetie
23. Bill de Blasio
24. Kamala Khan
25. Yonas Kebede
26. Ron Elliot
27. Mullah Farzullah
28. Mohammed Ahmed Mohamed
29. Mountain Tunes
In Other News
1. Voters in Wales are due to have a referendum over what? 2. Who will be the presenter of the resurrected Celebrity Squares?
3. Who was bailed last week after an Operation Yewtree arrest?
4. Who was the celebrity about whom Andy Coulson is alleged to have said “Do his phone”?
5. What has happened to Dicky Bird’s sculpture?
6. Which former world leader went on trial in Africa last week?
7. Which London institution celebrated its 50th anniversary last week?
8. Millions of pounds worth of art stolen by the Nazis was found in an apartment in which city?
9. Who was the fifth celebrity voted out of Strictly?
10. What was the score between Cardiff and Swansea?
11. What was the rugby league world cup score between Scotland and Italy?
12. A defeat against which country knocked Wales out of the RL world cup?
13. Who won the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix?
14. What was the score in the Autumn Rugby Union test between England and Australia?
15. – and in the RL World Cup between England and Ireland?
16. Which Alton Towers rollercoaster closed for the third time?
17. In which prison was there a riot?
18. In which Warwickshire prison was there a demonstration?
19. Which country won the Fed Cup?
20. Who or what called for transparency in the Prince of Wales’ tax arrangements?
21. What is unusual about the new version of the Kama Sutra published last week?
22. Who said that, like Russell Brand he did not vote in the last election?
23. BAE shipyards are axing nearly 1000 jobs where?
24. Which novel did the Crime Writers’ Association vote the best Crime novel ever?
25. Prince Charles was guest editor of which magazine to celebrate his 65th birthday?
26. Fragments of which structure went on sale in Germany last week?
27. What was the Champions’ League score between CSKA Moscow and Man City? 28. – and Man Utd and Real Sociedad?
29. Gai Waterhouse, winning trainer in this year’s Melbourne Cup, was a former actress who once appeared in which long running show?
30. Which store have adopted the use of size 16 mannequins?
31. Who hit a golfball between two continents last week?
32. Which state benefit did the High Court rule that the government had unlawfully axed last week?
33. In the capital one cup what was the score between Southampton and Sunderland?
34. In the Champions League what was the score between Arsenal and Borussia Dortmund?
35. – and Chelsea and Schalke?
36. – and Celtic and Ajax
37. Which hospital trust is at the heart of the cancer scandal?
38. Whose death was it alleged last week was caused by polonium poisoning?
39. Which company made their first ever Christmas advert?
40. In the Europa League, what was the score between Wigan and Rubin Kazan?
41. – and Swansea and Kuban Krasnodar?
42. What was the score between Spurs and Sheriff Tiraspol? What was the score between Spurs and Sheriff Tiraspol?
43. Who beat Martin Chivers’ record to become Spurs’ record goal scorer in European competition?
44. Where did Tony McCoy ride his 4000th winner?
45. Who accused Jeremy Paxman of ‘sneering’ at the government?
46. Name the BBC former political editor who passed away aged 85?
47. Whose Olympic gold medal went up for auction?
Answers
Who or what are the following and why have they been in the news?
1. Leader of the Pakistan Taliban killed in US drone strike
2. Mother of Baby P released from prison
3. The last Poirot story – also David Suchet’s last appearance in the role
4. Winner of British Scrabble Championships
5. Australian election guru hired by David Cameron
6. Winner of world Squash championships
7. Winner of Men’s New York Marathon 8. Winner of Women’s New York marathon
9. Voice artist best known for Mrs. Krabappel in the Simpsons passed away
10. New President of the Professional Cricketers Association
11. Channel Four show criticized for a sexual joke about Prince Harry
12. 1st player to be charged by new FA referees panel
13. President of Bayern Munich on trial for tax evasion
14. Player who left the England RL World Cup squad due to personal reasons
15. Next opponent for Anthony Joshua
16. Katie Perry album banned as a bio hazard in Australia because it comes with a packet of seeds
17. Lythronax Argestes – new dinosaur
18. Drug smuggler ordered to pay £198 million or stay in jail for ten more years
19. Mayor of Toronto who admitted using crack cocaine
20. Winner of the Melbourne Cup
21. Tory MP accused of using political contacts to further his business career
22. 10 year old computer generated girl created to catch paedophiles online
23. New Democrat Mayor of New York
24. New Ms. Marvel – Marvel Comics’ first muslim superhero
25. Asylum seeker who wants the state to pay for flying lessons
26. He won £8 million on the lottery
27. New leader of the Pakistan Taliban
28. Suspect who escaped surveillance by leaving a mosque in Acton dressed in a burka 29. Tony McCoy’s 4000th winner
In Other News
1. Setting their own rate of income tax
2. Warwick Davies
3. Paul Gambaccini
4. Callum Best
5. It was moved to a higher plinth because people kept draping objects, including used condoms, over the upraised finger
6. Mohammad Morsi
7. The National Theatre
8. Munich
9. Rachel Riley
10. 1 – 0 to Cardiff
11. 30 - 30
12. USA
13. Sebastian Vettel
14. 20 – 13 to England
15. 42 – 0 to England
16. Smiler
17. Maidstone
18. Rye Hill
19. Italy
20. The Public Accounts Committee
21. It is a join the dots edition
22. Jeremy Paxman
23. Portsmouth
24. The Murder of Roger Ackroyd
25. Country Life
26. The Berlin Wall
27. 5 – 2 Man City
28. 0 – 0
29. Dr. Who
30. Debenhams
31. Tiger Woods
32. Independent Living Fund
33. 2 – 1 Sunderland
34. 1 – 0 Arsenal
35. 3 – 0 Chelsea
36. 1 – 0 Ajax
37. Colchester
38. Yasser Arafat
39. Cadburys
40. 1 – 0 Rubin Kazan
41. 1 - 1
42. 2 – 1 Spurs
43. Jermaine Defoe
44. Towcester
45. Nick Clegg
46. John Cole
47. Jesse Owens
Who or what are the following and why have they been in the news?
1. Hakimullah Mehsud
2. Tracy Connolly
3. Curtain
4. Paul Allan
5. Lynton Crosby
6. Nick Matthew
7. Geoffrey Mutai
8. Priscah Jeptoo
9. Marcia Wallace
10. David Lloyd
11. Fresh Meat
12. Sascha Reither
13. Uli Hoeness
14. Zak Hardaker
15. Dorian Darch
16. Prism
17. ‘King of Gore’
18. Curtis Warren
19. Rob Ford
20. Fiorente
21. Mark Pritchard
22. Sweetie
23. Bill de Blasio
24. Kamala Khan
25. Yonas Kebede
26. Ron Elliot
27. Mullah Farzullah
28. Mohammed Ahmed Mohamed
29. Mountain Tunes
In Other News
1. Voters in Wales are due to have a referendum over what? 2. Who will be the presenter of the resurrected Celebrity Squares?
3. Who was bailed last week after an Operation Yewtree arrest?
4. Who was the celebrity about whom Andy Coulson is alleged to have said “Do his phone”?
5. What has happened to Dicky Bird’s sculpture?
6. Which former world leader went on trial in Africa last week?
7. Which London institution celebrated its 50th anniversary last week?
8. Millions of pounds worth of art stolen by the Nazis was found in an apartment in which city?
9. Who was the fifth celebrity voted out of Strictly?
10. What was the score between Cardiff and Swansea?
11. What was the rugby league world cup score between Scotland and Italy?
12. A defeat against which country knocked Wales out of the RL world cup?
13. Who won the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix?
14. What was the score in the Autumn Rugby Union test between England and Australia?
15. – and in the RL World Cup between England and Ireland?
16. Which Alton Towers rollercoaster closed for the third time?
17. In which prison was there a riot?
18. In which Warwickshire prison was there a demonstration?
19. Which country won the Fed Cup?
20. Who or what called for transparency in the Prince of Wales’ tax arrangements?
21. What is unusual about the new version of the Kama Sutra published last week?
22. Who said that, like Russell Brand he did not vote in the last election?
23. BAE shipyards are axing nearly 1000 jobs where?
24. Which novel did the Crime Writers’ Association vote the best Crime novel ever?
25. Prince Charles was guest editor of which magazine to celebrate his 65th birthday?
26. Fragments of which structure went on sale in Germany last week?
27. What was the Champions’ League score between CSKA Moscow and Man City? 28. – and Man Utd and Real Sociedad?
29. Gai Waterhouse, winning trainer in this year’s Melbourne Cup, was a former actress who once appeared in which long running show?
30. Which store have adopted the use of size 16 mannequins?
31. Who hit a golfball between two continents last week?
32. Which state benefit did the High Court rule that the government had unlawfully axed last week?
33. In the capital one cup what was the score between Southampton and Sunderland?
34. In the Champions League what was the score between Arsenal and Borussia Dortmund?
35. – and Chelsea and Schalke?
36. – and Celtic and Ajax
37. Which hospital trust is at the heart of the cancer scandal?
38. Whose death was it alleged last week was caused by polonium poisoning?
39. Which company made their first ever Christmas advert?
40. In the Europa League, what was the score between Wigan and Rubin Kazan?
41. – and Swansea and Kuban Krasnodar?
42. What was the score between Spurs and Sheriff Tiraspol? What was the score between Spurs and Sheriff Tiraspol?
43. Who beat Martin Chivers’ record to become Spurs’ record goal scorer in European competition?
44. Where did Tony McCoy ride his 4000th winner?
45. Who accused Jeremy Paxman of ‘sneering’ at the government?
46. Name the BBC former political editor who passed away aged 85?
47. Whose Olympic gold medal went up for auction?
Answers
Who or what are the following and why have they been in the news?
1. Leader of the Pakistan Taliban killed in US drone strike
2. Mother of Baby P released from prison
3. The last Poirot story – also David Suchet’s last appearance in the role
4. Winner of British Scrabble Championships
5. Australian election guru hired by David Cameron
6. Winner of world Squash championships
7. Winner of Men’s New York Marathon 8. Winner of Women’s New York marathon
9. Voice artist best known for Mrs. Krabappel in the Simpsons passed away
10. New President of the Professional Cricketers Association
11. Channel Four show criticized for a sexual joke about Prince Harry
12. 1st player to be charged by new FA referees panel
13. President of Bayern Munich on trial for tax evasion
14. Player who left the England RL World Cup squad due to personal reasons
15. Next opponent for Anthony Joshua
16. Katie Perry album banned as a bio hazard in Australia because it comes with a packet of seeds
17. Lythronax Argestes – new dinosaur
18. Drug smuggler ordered to pay £198 million or stay in jail for ten more years
19. Mayor of Toronto who admitted using crack cocaine
20. Winner of the Melbourne Cup
21. Tory MP accused of using political contacts to further his business career
22. 10 year old computer generated girl created to catch paedophiles online
23. New Democrat Mayor of New York
24. New Ms. Marvel – Marvel Comics’ first muslim superhero
25. Asylum seeker who wants the state to pay for flying lessons
26. He won £8 million on the lottery
27. New leader of the Pakistan Taliban
28. Suspect who escaped surveillance by leaving a mosque in Acton dressed in a burka 29. Tony McCoy’s 4000th winner
In Other News
1. Setting their own rate of income tax
2. Warwick Davies
3. Paul Gambaccini
4. Callum Best
5. It was moved to a higher plinth because people kept draping objects, including used condoms, over the upraised finger
6. Mohammad Morsi
7. The National Theatre
8. Munich
9. Rachel Riley
10. 1 – 0 to Cardiff
11. 30 - 30
12. USA
13. Sebastian Vettel
14. 20 – 13 to England
15. 42 – 0 to England
16. Smiler
17. Maidstone
18. Rye Hill
19. Italy
20. The Public Accounts Committee
21. It is a join the dots edition
22. Jeremy Paxman
23. Portsmouth
24. The Murder of Roger Ackroyd
25. Country Life
26. The Berlin Wall
27. 5 – 2 Man City
28. 0 – 0
29. Dr. Who
30. Debenhams
31. Tiger Woods
32. Independent Living Fund
33. 2 – 1 Sunderland
34. 1 – 0 Arsenal
35. 3 – 0 Chelsea
36. 1 – 0 Ajax
37. Colchester
38. Yasser Arafat
39. Cadburys
40. 1 – 0 Rubin Kazan
41. 1 - 1
42. 2 – 1 Spurs
43. Jermaine Defoe
44. Towcester
45. Nick Clegg
46. John Cole
47. Jesse Owens
Mastermind - Round One - Heat Thirteen
Round One – Heat Thirteen
Those of us who managed to tear ourselves away from Children in Need last night were rewarded with another heat with four Mastermind virgins, to the best of my knowledge. Kicking off the show was John Abernethy. John offered us last night’s popular culture specialist subject, the Pogues. I’m afraid that I’m not enough of a fan to have been able to judge the relative difficulty of these questions, but John certainly didn’t make a bad job of them at all. His 12 meant that he was going to be in contention at the halfway stage, and that’s pretty much what you’re looking for from a specialist round. In this series it’s been made extremely difficult for anyone to blow away the opposition with their specialist set.
My favourite subject of the round was Military Aircraft of World War Two, and it was offered to us by Andrew Craig. When I was a lad I was quite interested in aviation, and although I could probably do a better round on the military aircraft of World War Two I still managed 6 of these. Andrew took 11, leaving him handily on John’s shoulder.
James Lockwood answered questions on Sir Edward Carson. If that sounds familiar, then you have a good memory. This was a specialist subject back in Nancy’s 2009 series, and if you’re looking for an omen, it took Hugh Brady into the semi finals. I’ll admit that my memory isn’t good enough to be able to tell you whether any of the same questions were recycled. As with the two previous contenders James Lockwood certainly knew his subject, answering every question, and most of them correctly to post a score of 12.
Finally Russell Clements completed the round by answering questions on the Novels of Jonathan Coe, or Jonathan Who? as we call him at LAM Towers. Apparently his novels have a preoccupation with political issues often expressed comedically in the form of satire. Well done. If you do sets of novels, then you have to know them inside out, as you can guarantee that some questions are going to be about obscure plot details. Some of these tripped Russell up, although his 9 was nothing to be ashamed about.
Returning to the chair first Russell faced the necessity of needing four points to put himself in profit, and take the lead. He managed that, but sadly points were not easy for him to come by in this round. Maybe it was nerves, and maybe he’s just not a quizzer, but he only managed 7 to take him to 16.
Andrew Craig came next. The task facing him was somewhat different from Russell’s. Andrew only trailed the two leaders by a point, and that’s nothing in the context of a 2 and a half minute round. So the task was to set the highest score possible and then let the other two worry about beating it. As much as I said that Russell didn’t answer like a quizzer, Andrew certainly did. His answers were quick and crisp, and he observed the essentials of making a good GK score in Mastermind – answer what you know, quickly guess what you don’t and don’t pass, and above all else, don’t panic when you get some wrong. His 14 wasn’t the best GK round we’ve seen this series, but it was pretty good, and certainly more than enough to put the remaining contenders at the wrong end of the corridor of uncertainty.
John gave it a lash, but I’m afraid that it was fairly obvious by halfway that he was behind the clock, and wasn’t going to get there. He leveled out at 9 for a score of 21. Anything in the 20s is a perfectly good Mastermind score, even if this wasn’t a winning one. This left just James Lockwood to try to match Andrew’s round. He gave it a good try, although a couple of popular culture questions did trip him up. The line was approaching, and James was close, but you felt not quite close enough. By the end he had scored 13, which too gave him 25. However he hadn’t managed to avoid any passes, incurring 4 of them. Well, one of them would have been enough anyway, as Andrew hadn’t passed at all. Very hard lines, but well done for making such a good contest. Congratulations to Andrew.
The Details
Repechage Places
Steven Broomfield 30 – 1
Beth Webster 28 – 2
Ron Wood 28 – 3
=Carol O’Byrne 27 – 2
=Peter Russell 27 – 2
=Chloe Stone 27 - 2
Those of us who managed to tear ourselves away from Children in Need last night were rewarded with another heat with four Mastermind virgins, to the best of my knowledge. Kicking off the show was John Abernethy. John offered us last night’s popular culture specialist subject, the Pogues. I’m afraid that I’m not enough of a fan to have been able to judge the relative difficulty of these questions, but John certainly didn’t make a bad job of them at all. His 12 meant that he was going to be in contention at the halfway stage, and that’s pretty much what you’re looking for from a specialist round. In this series it’s been made extremely difficult for anyone to blow away the opposition with their specialist set.
My favourite subject of the round was Military Aircraft of World War Two, and it was offered to us by Andrew Craig. When I was a lad I was quite interested in aviation, and although I could probably do a better round on the military aircraft of World War Two I still managed 6 of these. Andrew took 11, leaving him handily on John’s shoulder.
James Lockwood answered questions on Sir Edward Carson. If that sounds familiar, then you have a good memory. This was a specialist subject back in Nancy’s 2009 series, and if you’re looking for an omen, it took Hugh Brady into the semi finals. I’ll admit that my memory isn’t good enough to be able to tell you whether any of the same questions were recycled. As with the two previous contenders James Lockwood certainly knew his subject, answering every question, and most of them correctly to post a score of 12.
Finally Russell Clements completed the round by answering questions on the Novels of Jonathan Coe, or Jonathan Who? as we call him at LAM Towers. Apparently his novels have a preoccupation with political issues often expressed comedically in the form of satire. Well done. If you do sets of novels, then you have to know them inside out, as you can guarantee that some questions are going to be about obscure plot details. Some of these tripped Russell up, although his 9 was nothing to be ashamed about.
Returning to the chair first Russell faced the necessity of needing four points to put himself in profit, and take the lead. He managed that, but sadly points were not easy for him to come by in this round. Maybe it was nerves, and maybe he’s just not a quizzer, but he only managed 7 to take him to 16.
Andrew Craig came next. The task facing him was somewhat different from Russell’s. Andrew only trailed the two leaders by a point, and that’s nothing in the context of a 2 and a half minute round. So the task was to set the highest score possible and then let the other two worry about beating it. As much as I said that Russell didn’t answer like a quizzer, Andrew certainly did. His answers were quick and crisp, and he observed the essentials of making a good GK score in Mastermind – answer what you know, quickly guess what you don’t and don’t pass, and above all else, don’t panic when you get some wrong. His 14 wasn’t the best GK round we’ve seen this series, but it was pretty good, and certainly more than enough to put the remaining contenders at the wrong end of the corridor of uncertainty.
John gave it a lash, but I’m afraid that it was fairly obvious by halfway that he was behind the clock, and wasn’t going to get there. He leveled out at 9 for a score of 21. Anything in the 20s is a perfectly good Mastermind score, even if this wasn’t a winning one. This left just James Lockwood to try to match Andrew’s round. He gave it a good try, although a couple of popular culture questions did trip him up. The line was approaching, and James was close, but you felt not quite close enough. By the end he had scored 13, which too gave him 25. However he hadn’t managed to avoid any passes, incurring 4 of them. Well, one of them would have been enough anyway, as Andrew hadn’t passed at all. Very hard lines, but well done for making such a good contest. Congratulations to Andrew.
The Details
| John Abernethy | The Pogues | 12 - 0 | 9 - 5 | 21 - 5 |
| Andrew Craig | Military Aircraft of World War One | 11 – 0 | 14 - 0 | 25 - 0 |
| James Lockwood | Sir Edward Carson | 12 - 0 | 13 - 4 | 25 - 4 |
| Russell Clements | Novels of Jonathan Coe | 9 - 3 | 7 - 5 | 16 - 8 |
Repechage Places
Steven Broomfield 30 – 1
Beth Webster 28 – 2
Ron Wood 28 – 3
=Carol O’Byrne 27 – 2
=Peter Russell 27 – 2
=Chloe Stone 27 - 2
Monday, 11 November 2013
Happy Retirement, Daphne
A big story from the world of quizzing last week was that LAM reader and Egghead, Daphne Fowler, is retiring from Eggheads. I should imagine that most people are aware of Daphne's quizzing achievements, of which I offer only a small flavour here - winner of Brain of Britain - Two time winner of Fifteen to One - winner of Going for Gold - I could go on, but I have no wish to embarrass her.
Eggheads has a significant and loyal fan base, who have made the show a mainstay of the BBC2 evening weekday schedules, and all of the Eggheads themselves have played a significant part in this, especially the original 5 Eggheads, of whom Daphne was one. I'm sure that I speak for many people when I say Daphne, we're sorry to see you leave the show, but wish you a happy and long retirement.
Eggheads has a significant and loyal fan base, who have made the show a mainstay of the BBC2 evening weekday schedules, and all of the Eggheads themselves have played a significant part in this, especially the original 5 Eggheads, of whom Daphne was one. I'm sure that I speak for many people when I say Daphne, we're sorry to see you leave the show, but wish you a happy and long retirement.
Saturday, 9 November 2013
In the News
In the News
Who or what are the following and why have they been in the news?
1. Hakimullah Mehsud
2. Tracy Connolly
3. Curtain
4. Paul Allan
5. Lynton Crosby
6. Nick Matthew
7. Geoffrey Mutai
8. Priscah Jeptoo
9. Marcia Wallace
10. David Lloyd
11. Fresh Meat
12. Sascha Reither
13. Uli Hoeness
14. Zak Hardaker
15. Dorian Darch
16. Prism
17. ‘King of Gore’
18. Curtis Warren
19. Rob Ford
20. Fiorente
21. Mark Pritchard
22. Sweetie
23. Bill de Blasio
24. Kamala Khan
25. Yonas Kebede
26. Ron Elliot
27. Mullah Farzullah
28. Mohammed Ahmed Mohamed
29. Mountain Tunes
In Other News
1. Voters in Wales are due to have a referendum over what? 2. Who will be the presenter of the resurrected Celebrity Squares?
3. Who was bailed last week after an Operation Yewtree arrest?
4. Who was the celebrity about whom Andy Coulson is alleged to have said “Do his phone”?
5. What has happened to Dicky Bird’s sculpture?
6. Which former world leader went on trial in Africa last week?
7. Which London institution celebrated its 50th anniversary last week?
8. Millions of pounds worth of art stolen by the Nazis was found in an apartment in which city?
9. Who was the fifth celebrity voted out of Strictly?
10. What was the score between Cardiff and Swansea?
11. What was the rugby league world cup score between Scotland and Italy?
12. A defeat against which country knocked Wales out of the RL world cup?
13. Who won the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix?
14. What was the score in the Autumn Rugby Union test between England and Australia?
15. – and in the RL World Cup between England and Ireland?
16. Which Alton Towers rollercoaster closed for the third time?
17. In which prison was there a riot?
18. In which Warwickshire prison was there a demonstration?
19. Which country won the Fed Cup?
20. Who or what called for transparency in the Prince of Wales’ tax arrangements?
21. What is unusual about the new version of the Kama Sutra published last week?
22. Who said that, like Russell Brand he did not vote in the last election?
23. BAE shipyards are axing nearly 1000 jobs where?
24. Which novel did the Crime Writers’ Association vote the best Crime novel ever?
25. Prince Charles was guest editor of which magazine to celebrate his 65th birthday?
26. Fragments of which structure went on sale in Germany last week?
27. What was the Champions’ League score between CSKA Moscow and Man City? 28. – and Man Utd and Real Sociedad?
29. Gai Waterhouse, winning trainer in this year’s Melbourne Cup, was a former actress who once appeared in which long running show?
30. Which store have adopted the use of size 16 mannequins?
31. Who hit a golfball between two continents last week?
32. Which state benefit did the High Court rule that the government had unlawfully axed last week?
33. In the capital one cup what was the score between Southampton and Sunderland?
34. In the Champions League what was the score between Arsenal and Borussia Dortmund?
35. – and Chelsea and Schalke?
36. – and Celtic and Ajax
37. Which hospital trust is at the heart of the cancer scandal?
38. Whose death was it alleged last week was caused by polonium poisoning?
39. Which company made their first ever Christmas advert?
40. In the Europa League, what was the score between Wigan and Rubin Kazan?
41. – and Swansea and Kuban Krasnodar?
42. What was the score between Spurs and Sheriff Tiraspol? What was the score between Spurs and Sheriff Tiraspol?
43. Who beat Martin Chivers’ record to become Spurs’ record goal scorer in European competition?
44. Where did Tony McCoy ride his 4000th winner?
45. Who accused Jeremy Paxman of ‘sneering’ at the government?
46. Name the BBC former political editor who passed away aged 85?
47. Whose Olympic gold medal went up for auction?
Who or what are the following and why have they been in the news?
1. Hakimullah Mehsud
2. Tracy Connolly
3. Curtain
4. Paul Allan
5. Lynton Crosby
6. Nick Matthew
7. Geoffrey Mutai
8. Priscah Jeptoo
9. Marcia Wallace
10. David Lloyd
11. Fresh Meat
12. Sascha Reither
13. Uli Hoeness
14. Zak Hardaker
15. Dorian Darch
16. Prism
17. ‘King of Gore’
18. Curtis Warren
19. Rob Ford
20. Fiorente
21. Mark Pritchard
22. Sweetie
23. Bill de Blasio
24. Kamala Khan
25. Yonas Kebede
26. Ron Elliot
27. Mullah Farzullah
28. Mohammed Ahmed Mohamed
29. Mountain Tunes
In Other News
1. Voters in Wales are due to have a referendum over what? 2. Who will be the presenter of the resurrected Celebrity Squares?
3. Who was bailed last week after an Operation Yewtree arrest?
4. Who was the celebrity about whom Andy Coulson is alleged to have said “Do his phone”?
5. What has happened to Dicky Bird’s sculpture?
6. Which former world leader went on trial in Africa last week?
7. Which London institution celebrated its 50th anniversary last week?
8. Millions of pounds worth of art stolen by the Nazis was found in an apartment in which city?
9. Who was the fifth celebrity voted out of Strictly?
10. What was the score between Cardiff and Swansea?
11. What was the rugby league world cup score between Scotland and Italy?
12. A defeat against which country knocked Wales out of the RL world cup?
13. Who won the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix?
14. What was the score in the Autumn Rugby Union test between England and Australia?
15. – and in the RL World Cup between England and Ireland?
16. Which Alton Towers rollercoaster closed for the third time?
17. In which prison was there a riot?
18. In which Warwickshire prison was there a demonstration?
19. Which country won the Fed Cup?
20. Who or what called for transparency in the Prince of Wales’ tax arrangements?
21. What is unusual about the new version of the Kama Sutra published last week?
22. Who said that, like Russell Brand he did not vote in the last election?
23. BAE shipyards are axing nearly 1000 jobs where?
24. Which novel did the Crime Writers’ Association vote the best Crime novel ever?
25. Prince Charles was guest editor of which magazine to celebrate his 65th birthday?
26. Fragments of which structure went on sale in Germany last week?
27. What was the Champions’ League score between CSKA Moscow and Man City? 28. – and Man Utd and Real Sociedad?
29. Gai Waterhouse, winning trainer in this year’s Melbourne Cup, was a former actress who once appeared in which long running show?
30. Which store have adopted the use of size 16 mannequins?
31. Who hit a golfball between two continents last week?
32. Which state benefit did the High Court rule that the government had unlawfully axed last week?
33. In the capital one cup what was the score between Southampton and Sunderland?
34. In the Champions League what was the score between Arsenal and Borussia Dortmund?
35. – and Chelsea and Schalke?
36. – and Celtic and Ajax
37. Which hospital trust is at the heart of the cancer scandal?
38. Whose death was it alleged last week was caused by polonium poisoning?
39. Which company made their first ever Christmas advert?
40. In the Europa League, what was the score between Wigan and Rubin Kazan?
41. – and Swansea and Kuban Krasnodar?
42. What was the score between Spurs and Sheriff Tiraspol? What was the score between Spurs and Sheriff Tiraspol?
43. Who beat Martin Chivers’ record to become Spurs’ record goal scorer in European competition?
44. Where did Tony McCoy ride his 4000th winner?
45. Who accused Jeremy Paxman of ‘sneering’ at the government?
46. Name the BBC former political editor who passed away aged 85?
47. Whose Olympic gold medal went up for auction?
Mastermind - Round One - heat Twelve
After a two week break for Autumnwatch – ho hum – Mastermind was allowed back for the twelfth first round heat of this year’s series. The first contender, Stephen Dempsey, took my favourite subject of this show, Star Trek: The Original Series. I don’t know if it was nerves, but Stephen hesitated a bit on a few of his questions, and missed a few others. His score of 8 was certainly nothing to be ashamed of on a subject which really required detailed knowledge of a lot of episodes – I’ve watched them all several times over and I only had 5. 8, though, is not really going to give you much of a chance going into the GK round. There was a rather controversial moment at the end of the round as well. Stephen’s last question was interrupted by the buzzer, and he clearly told John that he didn’t catch it because of the buzzer. Now, I know the rule seems to be no repeat of the last question, but even so John didn’t even allow him the chance for a wild guess, and took it immediately as a pass. Alright, it wasn’t going to affect the overall result of the show, but even so it was fairly harsh on Stephen I felt.
James Ludden was offering my second favourite subject of the evening, The Rugby Union World Cup. Unwikied I had 7 of these. James, on the other hand, raced through to a highly impressive 15. Were the questions slightly shorter this week? I don’t know – it may be that I’ve just got used to the waffling question format that seems to have been adopted for this series. Whatever the case, James certainly knew his stuff, and didn’t look the least bit phased by sitting in the black chair, and was looking the favourite for the win already.
Chloe Stone last passed this way in 2009/10 in Jesse’s series. She won her first round heat with the Cazalet novels of Elizabeth Jane Howard. In the semi she took British History between Waterloo and the outbreak of world war 1. She had the misfortune to be in Jesse’s semi, so that was the end of her run. Last night she was answering on the Fethering Mysteries of Simon Brett. I have never read any, so I didn’t trouble the scorer. Chloe’s score of 12 was slightly lower than both of those she managed in 2010, and it did mean that she had a three point deficit to overcome in the GK. Not that it’s insurmountable, but it’s a significant hurdle.
Bringing the last round to a close Allan Cook answered questions on the life of Giordano Bruno. No, he didn’t win the World Heavyweight Title from Oliver McCall, he was an astronomer. I would probably have had more points if it had been Frank Bruno, as I managed just the one. Allan again knew his stuff, but you got the feeling that the 11 points he had scored just weren’t going to be enough. He needed four answers right to just pull level with James.
It was Stephen who was first to return to the chair, though. His round represented a lot of honest endeavour, but a few wrong answers, some passes, and some fairly long hesitations meant that he never really managed to establish any momentum. As it was he gritted his way to another 8 points for 16, and at least had the satisfaction of leading the contest again, even if it was going to be a short lived lead. Allan was the next to go, and his round had rather more bite and attack than the previous one. It never quite looked like it was going to be the kind of super score that he would need to push himself into serious contention, but any round in the teens in GK isn’t bad going at all, and Allan managed 13.
In her previous two GK rounds Chloe had scored 12 and 9 from 2 minutes. That suggested a potential of anywhere between 12 and 16. Her face remained a picture of concentration throughout the round, and she did what you must do in giving an answer to everything, a good guess where you can, and a correct answer when you know it. This resulted in a round of 15, which set the bar at 27. With 2 passes altogether it was enough to put Chloe into a repechage slot at this stage of the competition. Just as importantly it was the kind of score she needed to at least put James into the corridor of uncertainty.
Well, James himself seemed not the least bit bothered about being in the corridor, and made calm, comfortable progress through his round, picking off the answers well. He was always ahead of the clock, and had passed the finish line with enough of a margin to add another three points to take his score to 30. John commented that we rarely see scores of 30. I suppose that’s a fair comment when applied to this series – this is only the third so far. But then a super high score in the first round isn’t necessarily that significant, especially when you get put into a top heavy semi-final. In my series, for example, 6 people scored 30 or more in the first round. Only one of those made it through to the final. Nonetheless, this is not to take anything away from James; that was an impressive performance, as much for the manner in which the score was achieved as for the score itself.
John made the point that Chloe’s score could well see her back in a repechage slot. Well, yes, maybe it could. However we do have three people all tied on 27 and 2 passes. What happens if we have one more contender coming runner-up with a score of 27 and 1 or better? How do they decide who goes off the board? Answers on a postcard, please.
The Details
Repechage Places
Steven Broomfield 30 – 1
Beth Webster 28 – 2
Ron Wood 28 – 3
=Carol O’Byrne 27 – 2
=Peter Russell 27 – 2
=Chloe Stone 27 - 2
James Ludden was offering my second favourite subject of the evening, The Rugby Union World Cup. Unwikied I had 7 of these. James, on the other hand, raced through to a highly impressive 15. Were the questions slightly shorter this week? I don’t know – it may be that I’ve just got used to the waffling question format that seems to have been adopted for this series. Whatever the case, James certainly knew his stuff, and didn’t look the least bit phased by sitting in the black chair, and was looking the favourite for the win already.
Chloe Stone last passed this way in 2009/10 in Jesse’s series. She won her first round heat with the Cazalet novels of Elizabeth Jane Howard. In the semi she took British History between Waterloo and the outbreak of world war 1. She had the misfortune to be in Jesse’s semi, so that was the end of her run. Last night she was answering on the Fethering Mysteries of Simon Brett. I have never read any, so I didn’t trouble the scorer. Chloe’s score of 12 was slightly lower than both of those she managed in 2010, and it did mean that she had a three point deficit to overcome in the GK. Not that it’s insurmountable, but it’s a significant hurdle.
Bringing the last round to a close Allan Cook answered questions on the life of Giordano Bruno. No, he didn’t win the World Heavyweight Title from Oliver McCall, he was an astronomer. I would probably have had more points if it had been Frank Bruno, as I managed just the one. Allan again knew his stuff, but you got the feeling that the 11 points he had scored just weren’t going to be enough. He needed four answers right to just pull level with James.
It was Stephen who was first to return to the chair, though. His round represented a lot of honest endeavour, but a few wrong answers, some passes, and some fairly long hesitations meant that he never really managed to establish any momentum. As it was he gritted his way to another 8 points for 16, and at least had the satisfaction of leading the contest again, even if it was going to be a short lived lead. Allan was the next to go, and his round had rather more bite and attack than the previous one. It never quite looked like it was going to be the kind of super score that he would need to push himself into serious contention, but any round in the teens in GK isn’t bad going at all, and Allan managed 13.
In her previous two GK rounds Chloe had scored 12 and 9 from 2 minutes. That suggested a potential of anywhere between 12 and 16. Her face remained a picture of concentration throughout the round, and she did what you must do in giving an answer to everything, a good guess where you can, and a correct answer when you know it. This resulted in a round of 15, which set the bar at 27. With 2 passes altogether it was enough to put Chloe into a repechage slot at this stage of the competition. Just as importantly it was the kind of score she needed to at least put James into the corridor of uncertainty.
Well, James himself seemed not the least bit bothered about being in the corridor, and made calm, comfortable progress through his round, picking off the answers well. He was always ahead of the clock, and had passed the finish line with enough of a margin to add another three points to take his score to 30. John commented that we rarely see scores of 30. I suppose that’s a fair comment when applied to this series – this is only the third so far. But then a super high score in the first round isn’t necessarily that significant, especially when you get put into a top heavy semi-final. In my series, for example, 6 people scored 30 or more in the first round. Only one of those made it through to the final. Nonetheless, this is not to take anything away from James; that was an impressive performance, as much for the manner in which the score was achieved as for the score itself.
John made the point that Chloe’s score could well see her back in a repechage slot. Well, yes, maybe it could. However we do have three people all tied on 27 and 2 passes. What happens if we have one more contender coming runner-up with a score of 27 and 1 or better? How do they decide who goes off the board? Answers on a postcard, please.
The Details
| Stephen Dempsey | Star Trek: The Original Series | 8 – 2 | 8 - 5 | 16 - 7 |
| James Ludden | The Rugby Union World Cup | 15 - 0 | 15 - 1 | 30 - 1 |
| Chloe Stone | The Fethering Mysteries of Simon Brett | 12 - 1 | 15 - 1 | 27 - 2 |
| Allan Cook | Life of Giordano Bruno | 11 - 0 | 13 - 4 | 24 - 4 |
Repechage Places
Steven Broomfield 30 – 1
Beth Webster 28 – 2
Ron Wood 28 – 3
=Carol O’Byrne 27 – 2
=Peter Russell 27 – 2
=Chloe Stone 27 - 2
Only Connect - Qualification Match One
Lasletts v. Board Gamers
The Lasletts, Jake Laslett, Emma Laslett and their dad, Chris Laslett, dropped the Pilots to win by 25 – 21 in their first match. The Pilots sadly lost their second and have gone home. Well, neither of this week’s teams was going home whatever happened in this match, since their opponents, the Board Gamers, had also won their first round match. Michael Wallace, Hywel Carver and Jamie Karren had won their match against the Globetrotters 26 – 21, although they needed to come back from a 3 point deficit in the last round. The prize for the winner of this show was an automatic place in the semi final.
Round One – What’s the Connection?
The Lasletts put themselves into bat first with twisted flax. This gave them 461375808, and all four of us a five pointer. You might not get it from the way it’s written here, but if it was written in calculator figures, you’d see it. It’s one of those numbers which makes an upside down word if you type it into a calculator, bobsleigh in this case. Good shout, but that was always a potential 5 pointer. Come to think of it, so was the Gamers’ first. Lion revealed Khartoum’s Street Layout. Things inspired by, or taking the shape of flags, I said. I’m sure that Hywel had it at this point as well. Pizza Margherita confirmed it and they were happy to take 3 points. The music starter soon put an end to the setters’ generousity, as nobody recognised a set of second piano concertos. Eye of Horus gave the Gamers the chance to narrow, or even eradicate the gap with Test of Dissolved oxygen – climate of wine growing regions – Giles Coren’s first novel and Arthur Fonzarelli. I didn’t really have it, and neither did the Gamers nor the Lasletts. Winkler was the connection. Fair question, but I’d guess you’d need to know two of them rather than just the one. Horned Viper gave the Lasletts The George and Dragon=6 , and something rang a bell here. It certainly did for the Lasletts, who recognised the Legs game, but took another just to be on the safe side. The Red Lion=4 confirmed it. Two Reeds remained to give the Gamers a picture set. I didn’t recognise the first picture, but the second was Jack Vettriano’s The Singing Butler, so I plumped for ‘the singing – ‘ as the connection. The Singing Nun was next, and the last picture was Sir Michael Gambon in “The Singing Detective”. The Gamers just didn’t get it, offering songs from The Sound of Music. The Lasletts accepted the windfall of the bonus. The first picture was a sculpture called The Singing Ringing Tree, apparently. I remember the East German children’s serial of the same name from the early 70s. One word – weird. This ensured that the Lasletts had an impressive lead of 9 – 3.
Round Two – What Comes Fourth?
Eye of Horus gave the Lasletts a picture set, showing a certificate for a Doctor of Divinity. DD? The second picture showed Bette Midler in Beaches – and her character was CC. So I shouted AA Milne at this stage. Almost immediately after that, Chris offered Alcoholics Anonymous – which was just as acceptable. Double letters working backwards, you see. Now Twisted Flax for the Gamers brought another of those potential 5 pointers. The first clue said 4th: In the Footsteps of Hemingway, and you can believe it or not, but I immediately said “1st: Around the World in 80 Days”. Well, you see I’m a big fan of Palin’s travelogues. The Gamers are probably a shade too young to have found this easy, and benefitted from a little leniency from Victoria, who offered them another go after ‘all five continents’, which they changed to ‘around the world’ which was accepted. They were quite honest that they didn’t know the Palin connection. Now, the Laslett’s next set was one of those where you know the connection, but not what the last in the sequence is. Do I feel lucky? Well, do ya, punk?” was the first. This was a line from the first Dirty Harry movie, but neither team nor me really worked out that the second came from the next , and the third from the next, and so we wanted a line from Sudden Impact. Make my day – would have done. Oh well. Lion gave the Gamers Ron Francis – Gordie Howe – Mark Messier. They didn’t have any more of a Scooby Doo than I did, and offered, one suspects in hope rather than expectation, Ringo Starr. The Lasletts had it with Wayne Gretzky. They were the highest points scorers in NHL history. You had to feel for the Gamers a little. Sometimes you find you’re up against a team who are absolutely on fire, and there’s nothing you can do except applaud. The Lasletts found cap height – median – baseline and they tried origin. That wasn’t it. The Gamers explained that what was missing was the term for under the line in typography typeface. That was good enough for Victoria, although she would have preferred to hear descender height or descender. I was delighted to hear Jamie give full value to both vowel sounds in Horned as the Gamers were left to try their luck with Horned Viper. Nuclear missile launch – UBS logo. Now, I knew that the UBS logo has 3 keys, so working down I guessed that one key would be the answer. The sign of Saint Peter – two crossed keys – confirmed this. Unfortunately the Gamers took this a step too far and offered something with no keys. The Lasletts missed a bonus by going the other way and ending up with something with 5 keys. Still, they’d had the better of the round, and now led by 13 to 6.
Round Three – The Connecting Walls
The Gamers tried to change their fortunes with the lion wall. They almost immediately isolated a set of beers – corona – asahi – brahma and skol. Totality – Baily’s beads – Diamond ring – First contact – fell quickly afterwards, all features of a solar eclipse. They could see a set of things in the nursery rhyme – hush little baby don’t say a word etc. They isolated three, then waited to try and figure out the remaining line. That’s textbook technique for the wall. Looking Glass – Billy Goat – Mockingbird and Cart and Bull were the song items. There was an interesting digression about cheese at this stage while they were going through the answers with Victoria, but this left – Planet – Frigid – Sol – Honor. I’ll be honest, I didn’t see that you could put – arium after each of them, and neither did the Gamers. 7 points.
Water saw the Lasletts almost immediately sort out four characters from Blake’s Seven – Servalan – Cally – Tarrant and Avon. A lovely set of car key – read – rows and Wight followed – read them all out loud and you’ll see it. They could see a set of Radio 1 DJs past and present – a little controversial in this day and age potentially – with Grimshaw, Cox, Blackburn and Mayo. This left a set of Isles – Bute – Dogs – Grain and Man. 10 points, and Victoria hailed their performance as a wall masterclass.
Round Four – Missing Vowels
Trailing by 13 to 23, the Gamers needed to stage the best comeback since Lazarus to win. The first set, Rhodes scholars, fell to the Gamers 2 – 1. Nobody knew Edward De Bono. Monty Python quotes saw the Lasletts drop a point with an incautious buzz. The clues then fell two apiece. Two names for the same chemical element went to the Lasletts 3 – 1. Worked or work for Private Eye lost the Lasletts a point, but it made no difference. The Lasletts had won comfortably with 28 to 18. It's not all up for the Gamers, as they have one more chance to qualify, but you have to say, that was a very impressive performance from the Lasletts, who are now favourites for the final, and potential champions.
The Lasletts, Jake Laslett, Emma Laslett and their dad, Chris Laslett, dropped the Pilots to win by 25 – 21 in their first match. The Pilots sadly lost their second and have gone home. Well, neither of this week’s teams was going home whatever happened in this match, since their opponents, the Board Gamers, had also won their first round match. Michael Wallace, Hywel Carver and Jamie Karren had won their match against the Globetrotters 26 – 21, although they needed to come back from a 3 point deficit in the last round. The prize for the winner of this show was an automatic place in the semi final.
Round One – What’s the Connection?
The Lasletts put themselves into bat first with twisted flax. This gave them 461375808, and all four of us a five pointer. You might not get it from the way it’s written here, but if it was written in calculator figures, you’d see it. It’s one of those numbers which makes an upside down word if you type it into a calculator, bobsleigh in this case. Good shout, but that was always a potential 5 pointer. Come to think of it, so was the Gamers’ first. Lion revealed Khartoum’s Street Layout. Things inspired by, or taking the shape of flags, I said. I’m sure that Hywel had it at this point as well. Pizza Margherita confirmed it and they were happy to take 3 points. The music starter soon put an end to the setters’ generousity, as nobody recognised a set of second piano concertos. Eye of Horus gave the Gamers the chance to narrow, or even eradicate the gap with Test of Dissolved oxygen – climate of wine growing regions – Giles Coren’s first novel and Arthur Fonzarelli. I didn’t really have it, and neither did the Gamers nor the Lasletts. Winkler was the connection. Fair question, but I’d guess you’d need to know two of them rather than just the one. Horned Viper gave the Lasletts The George and Dragon=6 , and something rang a bell here. It certainly did for the Lasletts, who recognised the Legs game, but took another just to be on the safe side. The Red Lion=4 confirmed it. Two Reeds remained to give the Gamers a picture set. I didn’t recognise the first picture, but the second was Jack Vettriano’s The Singing Butler, so I plumped for ‘the singing – ‘ as the connection. The Singing Nun was next, and the last picture was Sir Michael Gambon in “The Singing Detective”. The Gamers just didn’t get it, offering songs from The Sound of Music. The Lasletts accepted the windfall of the bonus. The first picture was a sculpture called The Singing Ringing Tree, apparently. I remember the East German children’s serial of the same name from the early 70s. One word – weird. This ensured that the Lasletts had an impressive lead of 9 – 3.
Round Two – What Comes Fourth?
Eye of Horus gave the Lasletts a picture set, showing a certificate for a Doctor of Divinity. DD? The second picture showed Bette Midler in Beaches – and her character was CC. So I shouted AA Milne at this stage. Almost immediately after that, Chris offered Alcoholics Anonymous – which was just as acceptable. Double letters working backwards, you see. Now Twisted Flax for the Gamers brought another of those potential 5 pointers. The first clue said 4th: In the Footsteps of Hemingway, and you can believe it or not, but I immediately said “1st: Around the World in 80 Days”. Well, you see I’m a big fan of Palin’s travelogues. The Gamers are probably a shade too young to have found this easy, and benefitted from a little leniency from Victoria, who offered them another go after ‘all five continents’, which they changed to ‘around the world’ which was accepted. They were quite honest that they didn’t know the Palin connection. Now, the Laslett’s next set was one of those where you know the connection, but not what the last in the sequence is. Do I feel lucky? Well, do ya, punk?” was the first. This was a line from the first Dirty Harry movie, but neither team nor me really worked out that the second came from the next , and the third from the next, and so we wanted a line from Sudden Impact. Make my day – would have done. Oh well. Lion gave the Gamers Ron Francis – Gordie Howe – Mark Messier. They didn’t have any more of a Scooby Doo than I did, and offered, one suspects in hope rather than expectation, Ringo Starr. The Lasletts had it with Wayne Gretzky. They were the highest points scorers in NHL history. You had to feel for the Gamers a little. Sometimes you find you’re up against a team who are absolutely on fire, and there’s nothing you can do except applaud. The Lasletts found cap height – median – baseline and they tried origin. That wasn’t it. The Gamers explained that what was missing was the term for under the line in typography typeface. That was good enough for Victoria, although she would have preferred to hear descender height or descender. I was delighted to hear Jamie give full value to both vowel sounds in Horned as the Gamers were left to try their luck with Horned Viper. Nuclear missile launch – UBS logo. Now, I knew that the UBS logo has 3 keys, so working down I guessed that one key would be the answer. The sign of Saint Peter – two crossed keys – confirmed this. Unfortunately the Gamers took this a step too far and offered something with no keys. The Lasletts missed a bonus by going the other way and ending up with something with 5 keys. Still, they’d had the better of the round, and now led by 13 to 6.
Round Three – The Connecting Walls
The Gamers tried to change their fortunes with the lion wall. They almost immediately isolated a set of beers – corona – asahi – brahma and skol. Totality – Baily’s beads – Diamond ring – First contact – fell quickly afterwards, all features of a solar eclipse. They could see a set of things in the nursery rhyme – hush little baby don’t say a word etc. They isolated three, then waited to try and figure out the remaining line. That’s textbook technique for the wall. Looking Glass – Billy Goat – Mockingbird and Cart and Bull were the song items. There was an interesting digression about cheese at this stage while they were going through the answers with Victoria, but this left – Planet – Frigid – Sol – Honor. I’ll be honest, I didn’t see that you could put – arium after each of them, and neither did the Gamers. 7 points.
Water saw the Lasletts almost immediately sort out four characters from Blake’s Seven – Servalan – Cally – Tarrant and Avon. A lovely set of car key – read – rows and Wight followed – read them all out loud and you’ll see it. They could see a set of Radio 1 DJs past and present – a little controversial in this day and age potentially – with Grimshaw, Cox, Blackburn and Mayo. This left a set of Isles – Bute – Dogs – Grain and Man. 10 points, and Victoria hailed their performance as a wall masterclass.
Round Four – Missing Vowels
Trailing by 13 to 23, the Gamers needed to stage the best comeback since Lazarus to win. The first set, Rhodes scholars, fell to the Gamers 2 – 1. Nobody knew Edward De Bono. Monty Python quotes saw the Lasletts drop a point with an incautious buzz. The clues then fell two apiece. Two names for the same chemical element went to the Lasletts 3 – 1. Worked or work for Private Eye lost the Lasletts a point, but it made no difference. The Lasletts had won comfortably with 28 to 18. It's not all up for the Gamers, as they have one more chance to qualify, but you have to say, that was a very impressive performance from the Lasletts, who are now favourites for the final, and potential champions.
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