Mastermind: Round One: Heat 20

Now this, ladies and gents, was a good show and a good contest.

John H. does seem to have a bee in his bonnet over the GK rounds. In the past he’s made observations I’ve disagreed with in his opening comments, along the lines of the GK round being the one that the contestants fear, a sweeping generalisation if ever there was one. Likewise, his assetrtion last night that you cannot prepare for a GK round is understandable, but wrong. It’s very much a question of timescale, and how you actually target your revision. Still, let’s not get bogged down in that for now.

You have to applaud any contender who manages a perfect round, and that’s exactly what we were served up by our first contender, Ian Fennell. I wonder how many people applied to answer questions on the late David Bowie for this season? However many, Ian picked this plum, and given the opportunity he grabbed it with both hands. From early doors it was clear that he was going great guns, and I’ll be honest, it looked as if John could have continued asking him specialist questions for the full half hour and he wouldn’t have dropped any. That’s great preparation making a great performance.

Which is an observation we might well make about Alan Diment’s round on Edvard Munch as well. I turned to Zara, my middle daughter, who had ignored that the show had started and thus not vacated the living room, and observed that the answer to the first question would be The Scream. It was, and so that was my work done for the round. Alan, I noticed, often gave a little smile as he produced correct answers to his questions, and as you can tell by his score, there were an awful lot of smiles in the round. Another brilliant performance.

In any other week Chris Rabbitt’s round on Postwar British Motorcycles would have left him well in contention by the time that the half time oranges were being handed out. 11 was a good score on such a searching round. Me? I managed 2 – the Triumph Bonneville, and also that Geoff Duke rode for the Norton team. I knew that because a dear friend who introduced me to quizzing used to manufacture replica Nortons, called Manxman, in a room in the downstairs of his house. Sadly he passed away a few years ago, but I couldn’t help thinking of him.

Karen Fountain, then, would have had every justification had she felt daunted coming to the chair, seeing her opposition all in such fine fighting form. She too had prepared herself thoroughly though, and ended with a great score of 13 on the Occupation of Jersey, 1940-45. This was the only round on which I failed to add to my aggregate. My best round of last night’s specialists was the Bowie round, where the first half of the questions were kind enough to allow me to get about half a dozen. Well done to all of last night’s contenders, since this is the first time we’ve seen an aggregate over 50 since Daniel’s heat, which I think was heat 5.

So to the GK. Chris Rabbitt, unlucky to be a couple of points adrift in 4^th, manfully stuck to his task, and built up a score of 20, and I’m glad he got out of the teens. It was no more than he deserved, for having put up the show that he did on specialist if for nothing else. 20, though, was never going to be enough in last night’s heat. So to Karen. Being realistic, I reckoned that a score of about 25 in total would be necessary to put the boys into the corridor of doubt, and to be honest, right up until the last 20 seconds or so it looked like Karen was going to do it. At this point though the round just refused to go any further, and a string of questions to which she didn’t know the answer brought her a little short, at 23. Nonetheless, that’s a performance which falls into the category of giving Mastermind a good old lash. Well done.

Ian Fennell’s task, while not crystal clear, was still pretty straightforward. Go like billy-o, put as many points on the board as possible, and let the devil take the hindmost. Unlike most of the last few heats there was a realistic chance that last night’s second place might achieve a repechage score. What Ian produced, then, was not a fantastic score, but it was what I would call a decent quizzer’s score of 13, and when you put that together with his specialist score, that gave him a highly useful 27. That could have been a winning score.

No, alright, it wasn’t, but it did mean that Alan Diment had to produce a terrific round in order to surpass the target. Which he proceeded to do, putting on a fine 15 to end with a great overall score of 29. According to John he only just did it. Cobblers. With no disrespect intended to Ian, two clear points represents daylight between first and second. That, sir, is one of the best performances we’ve seen for quite some time in this series, and if you reproduce that form in the semis, then you could go a very long way.

Well done and thank you to all of last night’s contenders. Great show.  

The Details

Ian Fennell	David Bowie	14	0	13	1	27	1
Alan Diment	The Life and Work of Edvard Munch	14	0	15	0	29	0
Chris Rabbitt	Postwar British Motorcycles	11	1	9	3	20	3
Karen Fountain	The German Occupation of Jersey 1940 - 45	13	2	10	3	23	3

University Challenge: Round Two: East London v. Warwick

East London v. Warwick

East London last night were represented by LAM reader Christopher Ducklin, Kelly Travers, Rachel Evans and their skipper, Jerushah Jardine. Warwick’s team consisted of Sophie Hobbs, Sophie Rudd, Thomas Van and their captain Giles Hutchings.

I think that both teams sat on their buzzers a little with the first question, unable to believe that a question asking which order of mammals a Siberian chipmunk belonged to was as easy as it sounded. It was, and Sophie Rudd took that one. The team ummed and ahhed about questions on St. Peter’s basilica, but they got them all right. It was another buzzer race for the next question where it suddenly became obvious that the answer was the word emoji. It was Sophie Rudd again who took this one. Bonuses on heavenly bodies and elements followed. *LAP OF HONOUR AROUND THE LIVING ROOM WARNING ALERT* - I had a full house, and Warwick two. Respect to Thomas Van for knowing the former name of Donetsk for the next starter. 19^th century light verse promised but little, yet 2 bonuses were quickly snaffled up. Nobody knew about the glottal catch, or stod in the Danish language, and sadly Chris Ducklin lost 5 for an incorrect interruption. Likewise, nobody knew that a chap called Waddington attended the 1878 Berlin peace conference as the Foreign Minister of France. I was surprised that nobody had a pop at tributaries of the Ebro. So three in a row went begging, until Kelly Travers broke East London’s duck, knowing that Sri Lanka begins SRI. It wasn’t as easy as that sounds. The team were unable to convert any of a set of bonuses on Sheila Grant Duff. For the picture starter my latin O level came into its own as I saw Insula Thesauraria and shouted ‘Treasure Island!’ Thanks, Mr. Rose. Giles Hutchings had that one. More latinised book titles gave Warwick a full house, and a fulsome lead at just over 11 minutes, with 90 playing 5.

Cosmic Microwave Background. Nope, no idea myself, but it gave Giles Hutchings another starter. Sewage bonuses brought them two correct answers and one near miss. Sophie Rudd buzzed back into the competition with the categorical imperative. A science thing followed yielded the by now obligatory couple of bonuses. Right – you hear the words ‘Hermes’ and ‘staff’ and you fling caution to the wind and buzz in with Caduceus. Giles Hutchings did. Medieval European history yielded a solitary bonus. Nobody, including me, recognised part of the William Tell Overture. A good sports starter went begging when neither team could answer which city became the first to host both the summer Olympic Games and the FIFA world cup finals – Paris. Giles Hutchings knew that both Alaska and Wyoming are larger than the UK, but have a smaller population than Leeds. One of the music bonuses was taken. Sophie Rudd was the first to recognise a series of definitions of the word meniscus. Words ending in ville added 5 more points.On the cusp of the 20 minute mark the score was 175 – 5 – following a 10 minute shut out. Sorry, but this was game over.

Chris Ducklin tripled his team’s score, and brought up a set of bonuses on literary titles, and these added another 5 points. Nobody knew the Fuggers. (I’ve taught a few in my time – oops, naughty boy, cheap joke, apologies.)Rachel Evans knew some things written by Brecht, and sadly the chemical element bonuses did them no favours at all. Rachel Evans took the picture starter, recognising a self portrait of Sir Joshua Reynolds. More paintings brought them a much needed 5 points. Roman philosopher and orator? Cicero’s always worth an early buzz, which is exactly what Kelly Travers did. 10 points. Canterbury Cathedral bonuses yielded 5 more. That was enough for Warwick. Breather over Sophie Rudd buzzed in with the answer the Dominica’s domain code thingy is made up solely of letters that are also roman numerals. 2 bonuses on Japanese fiction followed swiftly. There just wasn’t the time for another starter, and Warwick had won comfortably with 195 to East London’s 55. Hard lines East London. When you get right down to it, this just wasn’t your night – we’ve all had one of those. Well done Warwick.

Jeremy Paxman Watch

He’s Back! The Treasure Island starter led him to grumpily concede “Wasn’t very difficult. Don’t know why it took you so long.” Oh, Jez, I’ve missed the real you.

After Chris Ducklin buzzed in on the music starter after some time, JP offered it to Warwick with the dismissive “you can hear a little more, if there is any left.”

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

The line “There was a little girl that had a little curl” etc. – oft recited to my granddaughter – was originally written by Henry Longfellow

Alan Connor: The Joy of Quiz

I've sometimes thought how poorly off we quizzers are for books specifically about our pastime of choice. Not quiz books, I hasten to add, of which there are more than you can shake a stick at, nor even self-help books about how to become a better quizzer (may I recommend Be A Quiz Winner!, currently available on Amazon? Too late, I already did.) No, actual books about quizzing, as a hobby, a phenomenon, call it what you will. I've read and enjoyed Marcus Berkman's "Brain Men" and Ken Jennings "Brainiac", also Mark Mason's "The Importance of Being Trivial".

Adding to that list, then, may I point you in the direction of Alan Connor's "The Joy of Quiz"? Alan Connor is the Question Editor on "Only Connect" - or he was last time I watched. So he definitely knows his subject. He's a very entertaining writer, and I thoroughly enjoyed this book which I read in the matter of a couple of evenings. Of course, it maybe helped that I did get a namecheck, even if it was just in reference to my appearance on the Antiques Roadshow (nobody wanted to look at my Queen Anne legs or my walnut kneehole).

The book is about quizzing in general, but particularly about broadcast quizzes. As you may have gathered, I look on myself as at least a student of the genre, if not actually a connoisseur, so this was right up my street, for all the fact that it's been a pretty long time since I've written much other than reviews on LAM.

Cutting to the chase, if you love quizzes, I think you'll really enjoy it. Just google it, or go to Amazon and search for either The Joy of Quiz, or Alan Connor.

University Challenge: Round Two - Birmingham v. St. Andrews

Birmingham v. St. Andrews

First up in this week’s match were Birmingham, represented by Elliot Jan-Smith, Fraser Sutherland, Chris Rouse and skipper George Greenlees. Their opposition from St. Andrews were Matt Eccleston, James Green, Andrew Vokes, and captain Toby Parker.

George Greenlees understandably thought that the moment you hear the words “American astronomer” you should buzz in with Edwin Hubble, but sadly this one wanted Carl Sagan, allowing James Green to take first blood for St. Andrews. A full set of bonuses on devices gave them the best possible start to the competition. No prizes to James Green for buzzing in too early when he heard the next question mention the Devil’s Dictionary. It’s a fine line to tread between taking a flier, and taking a foolhardy gamble. The question had several definitions from different sources, all pointing to the word habit. Elliot Jan-Smith took that one. Bonuses on events of November 5^th in different years only yielded one bonus. Chris Rouse knew the film “The Last Of Us” to take the next starter. A trilogy of bonuses on trilogy saw them add another 5 points. A sciencey thing about a guy called Van der Waals – wasn’t he a detective in Amsterdam? – gave George Greenlees his own first starter, and a bonus on cycling saw them increase their score to twice that of St. Andrews. Their bonus conversion rate at this point, though, was a concern. For the picture starter Elliot Jan-Smith recognised that Sein und Zeit is the original title of Being and Time by Heidegger (who, according to Monty Python was a boozy beggar – that’s Heidegger, mind you, and not Elliot Jan-Smith.) More of the same followed, and almost inevitably they took one. Birgmingham, then, had dominated proceedings up to the 10 minute mark, and yet for all of their seeing superiority the score was only 55-20. Would they regret those missed bonuses later?

Elliot Greenlees recognised definitions of the names of some towns in Somerset. Right – bonuses on cell biology. When I heard the word ‘organelle’ I remembered a question which I commented on years ago, when several correspondents were kind enough to explain to me what a golgi apparatus was. So I gave this answer, and the result was a lap of honour round the Clark sofa. It seemed to galvanise Birmingham as well, since they managed a full set. George Greenlees and I both recognised a definition of the word phalanx at the same time. Another full set on food fish followed. Finally Andrew Vokes stopped the rot for St. Andrews, knowing about the films of Kevin Smith. The American Film Institute’s list of screen legends brought a couple of bonuses, and the fightback had started. Nobody recognised Haydn’s Hungarian Rondo for the music starter. George Greenlees knew about the Summer Triangle, for which they received the deferred music bonuses. One was taken, and I can’t say anything because it was the only one I managed too. James Green knew that Welsh, Cornish and Breton are Brythonic languages, but unfortunately for them they inherited a nasty set of bonuses on cities, and the parallels on which they stand. Fraser Sutherland won the buzzer race to answer a good old hardy perennial about Edouard Manet’s Olympia. A UC special set requiring pairs of words, the last letters of the first being the first letters of the second. These are often quite productive, but only yielded 1. Didn’t matter. At the 20 minute mark Birmingham had an 80 point lead – 135 – 55 – and it looked as if St. Andrews had the Himalayas to climb.

Andrew Vokes ate into the deficit by recognising a painting of Descartes. I think it was Descartes, therefore it was. Three more writers whose works featured on the Vatican’s naughty books list took 15 more points off the lead. George Greenlees knew about major cities of Guangzhou, or Canton. We both picked up the same two bonuses on museums. A very good early buzz from George Greenlees saw him give the Alaskan name of Mount McKinley – Denali. Elections of the 90s brought a bonus, but at this stage what mattered most was that Birmingham were comfortably in front, and running the clock down with every set. Identifying El Cid was just too easy for George Greenlees, and so much were Birmingham enjoying the contest that they snapped out 3 correct biology answers in double quick time. To be fair to James Green he did manage the next starter on Mars, but a really rather difficult set on Shakespeare yielded nothing to any of us. Nobody knew my favourite Ben Jonson play, “The Alchemist” for the next starter. Nobody knew economist Robert Solow either. James Green did know a range of currencies used by Lithuania – the litas was the real giveaway. Bonuses on English and Spanish brought St. Andrews’ score to triple figures. Toby Parker knew that there were mad, bold and victorious king Charleses of France. That was it. The final score was 195 to 115 – a comprehensive victory for Birmingham, who proved far faster on the buzzer.

Jeremy Paxman Watch

I have absolutely nothing to say. Neither did he.

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

Deneb, Altair and Vega make up an asterism known as The Summer Triangle.

Mastermind: Round One: Heat 19

I kind of expected tonight’s Mastermind to be sacrificed to Children in Need, so I was glad to see it still twinkling away there in the schedule. First up was Sinead Jein, answering on the soap opera Eastenders. -Ullo,- I thought – this’ll have the chattering classes up in arms about dumbing down again. Not that it should. I’ll be honest, anyone who would willingly immerse herself in the over 3 decades of misery represented by the chronicles of Albert Square has my respect, and Sinead finished her round with 7 points.

I have to say that following a round on Eastenders with a round on Puccini operas is a very Mastermind juxtaposition. Anne Wray knew her stuff, so it seemed, and fairly comfortably notched up a double figures score of 10. No, of course I don’t know enough about Puccini to be able to comment on how easy, fair or hard this set was.

I do know enough about the late Bill Shankly to be able to vouch for the fact that Peter Bonnell’s round was testing enough. Considering that Bill Shankly was the source of more great football one liners than any one man has a right to be, it was a bit of a shame that we didn’t get at least a couple of questions about these. Nonetheless, it was a pretty decent round which saw Peter also end on 10.

Martin Lloyd’s round on The Battle of Trafalgar – a good old fashioned Mastermind subject if ever there was one – looked quite a bit better than any of the three rounds we had seen so far. So at the end it was a bit of s reprise to see that Martin was only one point in the lead. Mind you, a one point lead is enough provided that you still have it at the end of the show. Still, I guess I’m trying to say that the round seemed to be worth a little more.

So to the GK round, and Sinead. I thought it was rather unfair of the show to draw attention to her nerves, by focusing on her tightly clasped hands at one point during the round. I would imagine only Sinead herself could tell us how nervous she really felt, but the upshot of her round was that she finished with a total of 10.

By contrast, Anne Wray seemd not to be feeling any shred of nerves at all, in fact she seemed to be thoroughly enjoying her round. Once again she managed double figures, and the 4 passes meant that the target was now 20 and 4 passes or better. I had a feeling that this point that what with the scores of the top 3 being so close at half time. This feeling only intensified as Peter’s round saw him close equal but not surpass the target. Could we possibly be in for a tie break?

No, we couldn’t. Martin’s round started with a terrific first 70 seconds or so when he hardly missed anything – and there was a fair old variety of questions in there as well. Had he continued in this vein I think he would have set an exceptionally good GK total. He lost a little momentum after this, throwing in a few passes, and missing some questions. For all the loss of momentum, though, he was comfortably through with time to spare. A final score of 24 was no more than he deserved.

  

The Details

                                                                    

Sinead Jein	Eastenders	7	3	3	7	10	10
Anne Wray	The Life and Operas of Puccini	10	1	10	4	20	5
Peter Bonnell	Bill Shankly	10	0	10	5	20	5
Martin Lloyd	The Battle of Trafalgar	11	1	13	5	24	6

University Challenge: Round Two: Match One - Open v. Edinburgh

University Challenge: Round Two – Open University v. Edinburgh

The Open, who defeated Salford in round One, were represented by Rob Mitchell, Dale Crawford, Mags Adamson and captain Sarah Banks. Edinburgh defeated Durham in their own first round match, and they were represented by Luke Dale, Euan Smith, Emily Goddard and their captain, Joe Boyle.

Euan Smith took first blood, knowing that when you hear “Friedrich Engels” you buzz in with “Das Kapital”. This brought bonuses for Edinburgh on Dunstanburgh Castle, of which they took one. Now, unlike many people whose opinion I respect, I thought that “The Great Gatsby” was nothing special when I read it, just my opinion, feel free to disagree. So I was really impressed when Dale Crawford recognised it from a description which didn’t sound like anything I remembered. Epitaphs came and went without any of us adding to the score. I knew Ishtar Terra is on Venus, and so did Sarah Banks. Scientific mnemonics gave me 2 bonuses – not quite lap around the living room territory, but not far off – while Open managed a full house. For the picture starter Euan Smith recognised a list of minor characters from Shakespeare’s “Macbeth”. Three more of the same brought Ednburgh’s first full house, and an approving well done from JP. Another good interruption from Dale Crawford identified the Central African Republic, best known for featuring often in Pointless, and for being one of only 6 countries whose full name both begins and ends with the same consonant. Two word rhyming phrases such as hob nob brought another full house. Rob Mitchell waited and buzzed at exactly the right moment, just as the phrase ivory tower became clear for the next starter. Bonuses on George Curzon took them to 75, a lead of 30 at the 10 minute mark.

Luke Dale took his first starter knowing that a sea cow would probably be a manatee starting with m – a – n. An extremely easy set on greek mythlogy was despatched to the boundary with the contempt it deserved. The next starter was about possibly my favourite Booker Prize winner, “Midnights Children”. Rob Mitchell made an incorrect interruption, allowing Euan Smith in. Edinburgh received bonuses on physics, and my mind went wandering for a bit. When it came back, Edinburgh had a ten point lead. Right, you hear “opera” and “British composer” you buzz in and say Benjamin Britten. I have a tin ear and wouldn’t be able to distinguish the difference between almost any classical composers, but I still played the percentages with this one and was right. So was Dale Crawford. 1 opera bonus followed. Euan Smith restored the lead, knowing the Bishops’ War, and there was a lovely moment immediately after when the whole Edinburgh team took swigs from their glasses in unison.  Bonuses on common names of birds took them to 100. Both teams waited on the next starter about an artist, until it became obvious that Beryl Cook was the answer, and Dale Crawford won that buzzer race. People whose lives spanned a similar period to Sir Winston Churchill saw a full house which took Open back into the lead. Good contest. I’ve never heard of the thermocline, but Joe Boyle had, and the bonuses on US state flags gave them the five points necessary to edge ahead again. Sarah Banks answered what has become an old chestnut in the last 12 months, knowing that the youngest MP in the 2015 general election is Mhairi Black. They might have done better than the one they managed on Dickens, nonetheless, they led by 125 to 115 at the 20 minute mark.

For the second picture starter Luke Dale recognised an iconic still from “The Day The Earth Stood Still”. If you like your 50s and 60s B films the set of pictures that followed were easy. I guess that Edinburgh don’t, because they failed to trouble the scorer. Joe Boyle had an incorrect interruption on the next question about greek symbols used in physics, allowing the impressive Mr. Crawford in again. By the time I mentally switched on after the chemisty bonuses the Open had a lead of 30. Luke Dale ate into the deficit knowing that Justinian oversaw the reconquest of Italy. Portrayals of Thomas More saw a full set reduce the deficit to a single bonus. Right – it works like this. If you hear the words British Thinker it’s usually Bertrand Russell. Euan Smith knew that and made sure of winning the buzzer race. Bonuses on Cordoba gave them a 15 point lead. “The team that gets the next correct starter wins this” I announced to the empty living room. “Rubidium” said Dale Crawford, thus condemning his team, since predictions from the Clark sofa are almost invariably wrong. Bonuses on Ivan the Terrible – one of which was controversial and I will discuss later – saw captain Sarah Banks just a little flustered. Arguably she was given one she shouldn’t have been given, and then rather than nominating Dale Crawford who had the correct answer, misheard it, said what she misheard, and lost the points. So instead of taking the lead, Open only managed to pull up alongside Edinburgh, and were, seemingly, feeling the pressure. Far from flustered though was Joe Boyle of Edinburgh who didn’t hesitate to buzz in to say that there were two apostrophes in the original title of Love’s Labours Lost. Well, fair play, you wouldn’t have asked if it was one, would you. Cities gave Edinburgh a 20 point lead. Now at this point we arrived at another potentially decisive moment. If Open took the next starter, then they could do it. If Edinburgh did, then a full set would not be enough for Open – at this stage that would mean game over to all intents and purposes. Rob Mitchell knew Jerry Rawlings and Kwame Nkrumah had been heads of state of Ghana. Food additives with e Numbers saw captain Sarah Banks play a blinder. She took two to put them level, and you just knew the gong would go at that moment. It did too. So after a frankly wonderful contest it all came down to the tie break. Both teams understandably sat on their buzzers a bit, but Euan Smith knew his Tolkein when he heard it. Game over.

Ladies and gentlemen of both teams, you gave us wonderful entertainment, and I thoroughly enjoyed this match. Thank you. Commiserations to Open, and best of luck to Edinburgh in the quarter finals.

Jeremy Paxman Watch

There was just the flash of the old Paxman when Open misattributed Pope’s epitaph to Spenser. “He was long dead by then!” he snapped. Nice to see him still getting shirty over English literature.

Then when he asked for a decade on the first Ivan the Terrible bonus and Sarah Banks offered “16^th Century” he snapped “It’s a decade!” and allowed them a second bite of the cherry. Then when they gave the right answer he allowed it, saying “I’m being kind.” Oooh, I don’t like this kind Jeremy. It’s creepy. On a point of order as well, look – I like the Open too. But they gave a wrong answer. They should not have been allowed another go – in a tight match like this it might have been crucial to the outcome. Just my opinion, of course.

As for the ending, JP hit the nail on the head when he sincerely said “You were both brilliant,n either of you deserve to lose.” Amen.

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

The razorbill – symbol of the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park as it happens – is the largest living member of the auk family. 

Mastermind: Round One: Heat 18

The BBC did an odd thing last night. Unless I’m very much mistaken they swopped Mastermind with Newsnight. Which was actually fine by me for once, since the later time fit better in with last night’s schedule.

So, the first of last night’s staying up late contenders was Jon Clatworthy. Jon was answering on the islands of Scotland – and answering pretty well, it might be said. He was probably kicking himself for missing the Robert the Bruce question, even though that one was really only tangentially about the islands. This was my best round of the night as I managed 8 of these from the safety of the Clark sofa. Generally I didn’t have a dreadful night, since I managed at least one correct answer on each of the specialists.

Right, I can’t say I’m a huge fan of the late Laurie Lee, which is something I doubt that he ever lost any sleep over. So I’m not really in a position to comment much n the difficulty of Lena Gazey’s round on the writer of “Cider with Rosie” and other works. It was one of those rounds where the contender obviously knows their stuff, but never quite managed to post a really competitive score upon the board, and this was a shame. I’ll come back to that point.

I was pleased with myself for knowing that Lester Piggott had ridden Red Rum in a couple of races, and a couple more of the gentlest questions in Kevin Baker’s round took me to 4. This paled into insignificance against Kevin’s 11. I do like to see a contender having covered pretty much all of the bases in a specialist round, and yes, ok, this wasn’t quite a perfect round, what with the 2 passes. Still, it was a good ‘un, and it put Kevin into contention for the win.

Talking of perfect rounds, this was exactly what Alan Morgan gave us in his round on the Films of David Fincher. I loved Benjamin Button, although others of his films I haven’t been quite so enamoured of, and I only scored a couple. Alan, though, did what we all dream of doing in a specialist round, listening to each and every question, and providing the correct answer. It wasn’t quite an express round, and so it meant that he had a lead of 1, having scored 12. Nonetheless, a very impressive display.

Right, let’s go back to Lena. Now, ok, I have made the point that I feel that in most heats the GK rounds have been a bit gentler than in previous series, and I felt this agin last night. For all that though I felt Lena’s 15 was actually a great round. I think that with the GK rounds the way that they are a halfway decent quizzer should be able to get a dozen. 15 though, even on an easier round, is quite a bit harder to achieve. You could hear that this is the case through the respect in John’s voice when he announced Lena’s score. It’s just such a shame that she was starting the round 4 points behind Alan. Still, at least it was a score that made a passage through the corridor of doubt into a necessity for the other three.

Jon looked for much of the round as if he just might do it. With about 30 seconds to go he was just a few short of the line. However the brakes came on at this point. A run of questions he didn’t know left him languishing on 20. So Lena had overhauled one of the leaders. Were we going to see something very unusual?

Well, no. I liked Kevin’s technique answering his specialist questions, and the same technique ensured that he scored the 13 that he needed to take the outright lead. A salutary lesson – he was asked who played the lead witch in the film version of Roald Dahl’s “The Witches” and passed, then when given the answer said that he thought that was the answer, and even John could not resist telling him that he should have said it – the point being that if you always say an answer you have no ore to lose than if you pass, and potentially you could be right.

So the target was clear for Alan Any score better than 13 and 3 passes and he’d win. Now, you couldn’t say that he looked as if he’d do it easily during the round, but he never looked as if he wouldn’t either. In the end he accrued a very respectable 14 to put daylight between himself and the pack. Well, played, sir, and well played all – an enjoyable show, and it’s nice to see all 4 contenders managing to get into the 20s.

The Details

Jon Clatworthy	The Islands of Scotland	11	1	9	1	20	1
Lena Gazey	Laurie Lee	8	0	15	3	23	3
Kevin Baker	Red Rum and Ginger McCain	11	2	13	1	24	3
Alan Morgan	The Films of David Fincher	12	0	14	1	26	1

University Challenge: Repechage 2 - Durham V. SOAS

Repechage 2: Durham v. SOAS

A welcome back bouquet to UC (and a bunch of raspberries to the person who decided to take it off for a week again.) In this, the second of our repechage matches, Durham were represented by Thomas Brophy, Owen Stenner-Matthews,  Nat Guillou and their captain Cressida O’Connor. The School of Oriental and African Studies were represented by David Bostock, Magda Biran-Taylor, Odette Chalaby  and their captain, Henry Edwards.

A lovely early buzz by Owen Stenner-Matthews to identify Leviathan as the philosophical work which takes its title from the Book of Job started off proceedings. This earned Durham bonuses on literary characters from the Sherlock Holmes stories linked by the same names. They managed one, but should have done better on a very gettable set. Both teams commendably waited through the next starter until the answer became clear, at which point the SOAS skipper Henry Edwards won the buzzer race to identify the word stereotype. Mary Anning – supposedly the inspiration for the nursery rhyme she sells icthyosaurs by the sea shore – provided them with a couple of bonuses. A good interruption from David Bostock identified a social policy emanating from Sweden. Bonuses on towers in European cities provided the first full house of the night, and SOAS, so it seemed, were on useful form. Now, when you hear the words ‘primate’, slow’ and ’slender’ in the same question you slap the buzzer and answer ‘loris’. That’s what Magda Biran-Taylor did, thus earning the set of bonuses on Roman history. Another full house followed, and it seemed as if they had gathered 70 points in very quick time indeed. The picture starter was more of the same as Henry Edwards was first in to identify a map showing the Peloponnese. Three more maps of peninsulae provided 2 correct answers. Durham, though, hadn’t quite wilted under the SOAS onslaught, and Cressida O’Connor knew that if a question has the name ‘Walsingham’ in it, occasionally it might be about Our Lady of Walsingham, but 9 times out of 10 Elizabeth I will be the answer, which she correctly gave. My favourite type of Science questions are those on elements, so I was delighted these provided Durham’s bonuses. I had a full house, Durham managed the 1. So at the ten minute mark they had pulled up to 30, but SOAS had a fine lead with 90.

The next starter was a great example of how sometimes you have to wait and wait and wait, then go like the clappers for the buzzer. For example, if the question started with the words ‘William Gibson’ it would be well worth chancing your arm at that point and going for ‘cyberspace’. With this, though, the name was wanted, and cyberspace was actually the last word of the question. Henry Edwards won that race. Pairs of words like garLIC – LICentious followed, of which they managed two, and burst through the 100 point barrier very early. David Bostock knew the economist Pigou – who is also a wee penguin on CBBC, isn’t he? – and boundary demarcation lines brought their lead to 100 points. Volhynia is apparently a historical territory now in Ukraine. Another good shout from Henry Edwards there. Art in 1911 didn’t promise a great deal, and to be fair, it delivered me one, but SOAS still managed two. On to the music starter, and this time it was Durham in the shape of Thomas Brophy who were quickest out of the starting blocks to identify that Springtime for Hitler was from The Producers. Three more songs from musicals winning the big 6 Tony awards gave them a full house, and pushed them over the 50 point barrier. A great answer from Henry Edwards identified an example of Spondee from Hamlet. Optical effects gave me another two Science answers with Doppler and Faraday, but SOAS only managed the latter. Then JP started spouting something which began “If x and y. . . “ and so my mind went bye byes for a little bit, and when it came back nobody had answered the question correctly. A nice question about US States and how many states border them also went begging. I knew that Donizetti had written an opera about Mary Queen of Scots, but nobody else did. Finally Thomas Brophy stopped the rot, knowing that HDF stands for Hubble Deep Field. 17^th century History gave them a much needed full house, but still at the 20 minute mark they had a mountain to climb, trailing by 80 to SOAS’ 165.

Magda Biran-Taylor knew that the Seikan tunnel links Hokkaido and Honshu. Dickens’ Hard Times brought a quick full house. The picture starter showed a Toulouse Lautrec lithograph, and again Magda Biran-Taylor identified it. Three more examples of the poster as art form provided another SOAS full house, and took them through the 200 barrier, and surely into the 2^nd round proper. Nobody knew that Allan Jay Lerner was the lyricist of such musicals as Gigi. Points dropped there.  When you’re so far in front you can afford to throw caution to the winds and buzz with abandon, and Odette Chalaby took a flyer to answer that John Jay was the first Chief Justice of the USA. She didn’t say that exactly, but JP gave her the point after giving her a mild ticking off. Mountains in Asia brought one more correct answer. Owen Stenner-Matthews managed to win the buzzer race to identify the Garden of Gethsemane, but only one bonus of a difficult set on the Holy Roman Empire left them languishing on 95. Nobody knew about making nitric acid for the next starter. Sadly Cressida O’Connor tried a little too hard on the next starter and lost five, as neither team knew about collective bargaining. Henry Edwards knew that it was Apollo who chased Daphne. Velma, Freddie, Shaggy and Scooby later proved that he was really the fairground owner, apparently. 2 bonuses on the derivation of London Underground station names followed. A UC special followed which involved concatenating the symbols for various SI units to form a word. Henry Edwards knew it was MASK. Naughty old Henry Miller provided SOAS with nowt, which was what I managed as well. When you’re asked about features on the Moon, seas will always be a good shout, and it certainly worked for Magda Biran-Taylor. Sadly Durham lost five on that. Which was pretty much it. The final score then was 270 – 85.

I don’t know that the questions were that much harder in this show than in the first round, which was JP’s crumb of comfort offered to Durham. No, Durham handled the questions they got pretty well. But crucially they were comprehensively outbuzzed, and there’s little or nothing you can do when that happens. Hard lines, but very well played SOAS.

Jeremy Paxman Watch

As has become the norm, very little to report nowadays. Even when he was telling Odette Chalaby off for not saying Chief Justice of the United States, his heart wasn’t really in it, and you sensed it was more in sorrow than in anger that he did so.

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

Maida Vale is actually named after a battle in Italy.

Mastermind Round One: Heat 17

Once Mastermind has its claws into you, it can be very difficult to turn your back on her. Yeah, you might leave it for several years, but it can be like a persistent itch, and sooner or later you're going to be back to scratch it. I’ll say a little bit more about that anon.

We start, though, with Barry Devine. He was offering us “The Life and Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Anderson”. The life? I think you could fairly say that I knew not so much about that, as in nothing worthy of any points. I had a good half dozen on the fairy tales though, and this would prove to be my best specialist round of the night. A good round, and with the way the specialists tend to be now this was one which looked guaranteed to leave Barry in contention by half time.

I don’t recall meeting Nathan Jones from Llanelli, despite being a fellow South Wales quizzer, but then I never did play in either the Llanelli or Ammanford quiz leagues. He was answering question on “The Russian Civil War”. Thanks to Mr. Wheeler-Robinson’s A Level Russian History lessons I scraped 3 of these . Nathan, though, well Nathan was going for accuracy, and this he managed with a perfect round. A couple of the questions had made him seemingly drag answers up from his boots, and so he got through fewer questions than Barry had, finishing also on 12, but nonetheless a perfect round is a terrific achievement. Very well done.

Phil Boor was answering on Ipswich Town FC, the Tractor Boys. Sadly the question about the nickname didn’t come up, otherwise I might have doubled my score and got two. For the first 30 seconds or so Phil was going great guns, then something happened, he had one wrong and this seemed to sap the confidence out of him. A late rally saw him pull up to 8, but this left him 4 points adrift of contention, and promised a grim old slog in the general round.

Coming back to my opening paragraph, our final contender, Isabelle Heward, has made, I believe, 4 previous appearances, reaching the semi final on the last three. Her career goes back to 1983, and of course back in those days you were only allowed to play in one series. So it was 13 years before she could reappear, and did so in 1996, making her first semi. She took part in Andy’s first revived BBC TV series in 2003, reaching the semi and did the same again in Pat’s 2005 series. So, unless I’ve missed an appearance – which is not impossible – it’s been over a decade since her last appearance. There was no noticeable ring rust in her performance on her round on Rita Hayworth. There were about 4 I had from general knowledge, but Isabelle’s crisp, quick answering style meant that even though she had a couple wrong, she still managed to post 12 and 0 passes.

So to the GK round. Phil Boor put in a solid 9, which took him up to 17. With the best will in the world that was never going to stay the top score for very long on this particular show. Barry Devine , although having the same number of correct answers had actually been lying third on pass countback at the turn, and so it was down to him to post an outright winning score. To be fair he managed double figures, which is what you’re really looking for in a 2 and a half minute round with the somewhat gentler questions of this series. For me setting the target at 11 for an outright win is just enough to put the opposition into the corridor of doubt. If you’re a good general knowledge quizzer it’s a total you should be capable of with a little bit to spare, but it’s a total you’re going to have to work for too.

Nathan Jones – who’d been gone too long (sorry) – certainly worked for it. What he’d done in his specialist round, taken care and not panicked when he didn’t know an answer straightaway, he repeated in this round. Unlike the specialist round sometimes the right answers didn’t come, but it didn’t rob him of forward momentum. With the last question he took his total to 22, but he was in front by virtue of passes. Here’s a question – who did they have in the audience for this show? I ask because there was a clearly audible ‘ooohhh!’ when Nathan’s score was announced. Have a little decorum chaps, please. This is Mastermind, not The Generation Game.

Well, you had to take into account the fact that Isabelle has 3 times before made it to the semis, and so my thought was that bearing this in mind, she’d have the technique and the knowledge to be able to negotiate her passage safely again. Which is a pretty accurate assessment of what she did. Isabelle’s was the round of an experienced Mastermind hand who has worked out that incorrect answers don’t matter – chances are you’re going to give some, so do it as quickly as you can, forget about it and move on to the next question. I wouldn’t say that her 14 was the best display of GK we’ve seen so far this series, but it was pretty good, and gave her a clear win, and a passage into her 4^th semi. Best of luck Isabelle – hope that you make the final. Well played.

The Details

Barry Devine	The Life and Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Anderson	12	1	10	2	22	3
Nathan Jones	The Russian Civil War	12	0	10	1	22	1
Phil Boor	History of Ipswich Town FC	8	2	9	3	17	5
Isabelle Heward	The Life and Films of Rita Hayworth	12	0	14	0	26	0