Compliments of the Season

Maybe it’s the Christmas spirit. Maybe I’m just getting soft in my old age. Probably it’s a combination of both. Let me explain. Last night was probably my last quiz of 2016, and it was of course in Aberavon Rugby Club. Dai Norwich was question master, and he gave us a Christmas themed quiz. Yeah, I know, I’ve never been the biggest fan of themed quizzes, but fair enough, tis the season to be jolly and all that. Fair play to the rugby club, they provided a very nice buffet to say thanks to all the people who turn up to the quiz, week in, week out. Now, in one of the rounds, Dai asked this question –

“In which year was London’s last Frost Fair? If you’re within 3 years you’ll get 1 point, and if you’re spot on you’ll get two.”

Many years ago I studied London Bridge as my specialist subject for a well known quiz show. So I knew that the icing up of the Thames for the last ever frost fair inflicted mortal wounds on old London Bridge – albeit that it was over a decade before it was finally replaced. I fairly confidently gave the date of 1814. Dai gave the answer – “Two teams of you were actually very close with 1814, but it was in fact 1813.”

Which is where we come to my point. You see, I was pretty certain it was 1814 – and I’ve checked this morning – and time was that I would have argued pointlessly with Dai until I was blue in the face. Time was I would have waved my metaphorical quiz credentials in his face, and insisted (to no avail) that we be given the points. But last night I just sat there, grinned and bore it. This means one of two things – either I’m growing up, or it must be Christmas Time.

Thanks for staying with the blog this year, and my compliments of the season to all of you.

Brian Jones

My friend Brian Jones passed away on Tuesday morning. I'm not going to write a long eulogy here, for his wife, Gail,who is also a member of our team in the Bridgend quiz league has been very clear that neither she nor Brian ever held with doom and gloom, and long, mournful obsequies, and that's fair enough. Brian's funeral is on Wednesday and we've all been asked to wear bright colours - Aberavon rugby club colours if possible. But I wouldn't feel right if I didn't state for the record here and now that Brian was a great quiz man, and more than that, simply the best pub quiz question master I ever met. I didn't know until last Thursday night that Brian and Gail first met at the rugby club Thursday night quiz, but I do know that the club owes him a huge debt of gratitude for keeping it going - and keeping it going so well - for so long. Rest in peace.

University Challenge: Round Two: Robinson, Cambridge v. Balliol, Oxford

Robinson, Cambridge v. Balliol, Oxford.

Robinson’s team were David Verghese, Catherine Hodge, George Barton and skipper James Pinder. Opponents Balliol were Freddy Potts, Jacob Lloyd, Ben Pope and captain Joey Goldman.

Joey Goldman was the first in to identify ”Islands in the Stream” as a posthumously published work of Ernest Hemingway. Let’s be fair about this – the phrase ‘Joey Goldman was first in’ will probably feature quite prominently in this review. This earned a set of bonuses on political insults, and Balliol scored a full house. James Pinder hit back with the next starter. When I heard the words ‘which greenhouse gas’ I guessed methane rather than CO2, and this was the correct answer supplied by Mr. Pinder. A set of bonuses on Nobel prizes for the sciences brought none of us anything. Once again Joey Goldman was far too fast for anyone else when he recognised a set of examples all connected with the morpheme mono. Authors cited as major influences by Mahatma Gandhi provided another full house. Balliol, to be fair, had started like a thoroughbred. There was no sign of them slowing down on the next starter either as Joey Goldman was in with a great interruption to provide the term syzygy. Gesundenheit. How did they do on bonuses on religious iconography? Not at all badly, taking 2 out of three, but did this offer hope to Robinson by showing that they were merely brilliant, and not invincible? A UC special followed for the first picture starter. We were shown a concert programme, with three works by different composerd. Each was rendered in the first language of the composer – all 3 composers were required. I had 2, Mendelssohn and Rossini, which was better than either team, but it wouldn’t have been enough. The answer to the next rather involved starter was Adolf Hitler, and for once it was Freddy Potts rather than Joey Goldman who took the points for Balliol. Three more concert programmes saw Balliol get 2 out of 3 on 2 of them, but no points. So, on the cusp of the 10 minutes mark it looked ominous for Robinson who trailed by 10 to 80.

Freddy Potts took a double, recognising works by people called Bragg. Railways in Africa provided another full house, and took Balliol through the 100 point barrier. Something about mass, velocity and value meant nowt to me, but James Pinder said it was 3, and he was right to do so. Solvents provided them with one correct answer. David Verghese was in too quickly for the next starter on an Asian river. Freddy Potts complete his hat trick by offering, albeit reluctantly, the Oxus. Bonuses on the theatre went begging. For the music starter Freddy Potts identified the dulcet strains of Daft Punk. More duos brought a further 10 points, but I was sorry that the young whippersnappers missed out on Sparks. Joey Goldman, not to be outdone by Freddy Potts, came in extremely early to identify a Byzantine Emperor as having the name “Born in the Purple”. I thought that was the late singer Prince. A couple of bonuses saw them manage to name mallards and eiders, but not goldeneyes. A UC special starter on capital cities and names of the days of the week saw Catherine Hodge stop the rot for Robinson, and it would only have been fair if they’d had a nice easy set of bonuses. They didn’t, though – a tricky set on Historical personages and the centuries in which they lived still yielded 2 correct answers. Annual average rainfall in Manchester was not, it must be admitted, the most interesting question that has ever been asked on UC, and neither team quite managed to be close enough to the answer. So approaching the 20 minute mark the scores were 155 to 40, and although games are often won and lost in the last few minutes, it looked as if Balliol had at least one of their collective feet in the quarters.

James Pinder knew about saturated compounds, which is just as well because I didn’t have a Scooby meself. Standard abbreviations of the titles of Shakespeare plays proved rather more fruitful for me, while Robinson managed their first full house. For the second picture starter Catherine Hodge was the first to recognise a photograph of the Duchess of Windsor. Sadly more celebrities wearing Elsa Schiaparelli designs failed to add to their score. Nobody knew the play/film “The Women”. Ben Pope and I both knew that when you discount the Sun and the centauri lot, the next closest star to Earth is Barnard’s Star. Protein degradation only yielded the one bonus, which was one more bonus than I managed, but that didn’t matter, for the clock was very much on Balliol’s side at this stage. Joey Goldman’s speed on the buzzer came into play in the next starter where he was very early in to identify the Harappa as a civilisation in the Indus Valley. Places that delimit areas of the BBC coastal weather forecast saw them fail to add to their score in what was a distinctly gettable set. Catherine Hodge took her third starter for Robinson, knowing the Scandinavian detective Lund. Pulitzer prize winning novels took them to 85 – another starter and bonus would see them into triple figures. They didn’t get I on the next, which saw Ben Pope identify the amanita strain of fungi. 2 bonuses on Anglo Saxon coinage brought them up to their double century. Once again Joey Goldman was in way early for the next starter, and he was right with Viktor Frankl. Ecology bonuses gave them nothing, but by this time anything they added to their score was merely gilding. Indeed, that was that with the gong bonging before the next starter. The final score was 210 – 90. Hard lines Robinson, no shame in being outbuzzed in round two. Well played indeed Balliol, and that buzzing display all bodes well for future matches.

Jeremy Paxman Watch

On the theatre questions a rather theatrical outburst from our hero when a rather anachronistic answer was given - “Sir Laurence Olivier?! He was old, but he wasn’t that old!”. Other than that another very quiet week.

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

Gandhi named an idealistic community in South Africa after Tolstoy, with whom he had corresponded.

Cookie Monster on Mastermind

- and before anyone says - yes, I remember the cookie monster on Mastermind, didn't he win the 2008 series answering questions on the History of London Bridge? - this mildly amusing send up surfaced on BBC Sport a little while ago, and you might like to give it a try if you have a spare couple of minutes.

Cookie Monster on Mastermind

Mastermind: Round One: Heat 23

Nearly there for the first round now, brethren – only one more and we’ll know who all of the semi finalists are.

So let’s begin this round up with Gerald Chong. It’s only fair, since he was the first to go, after all, and he was answering on Steve Jobs. I actually haad my best specialist round of the night on these questions. When I tell you that I managed two of them it should also give you a good idea of just how well I fared on the other rounds. Gerald, on the other hand, made rather a decent fist of it, ending up with a good 11, and importantly no passes either.

I can’t begin to tell you whether Esther Lisk-Carew’s questions on the TV series Farscape were hard, fair or easy, since I never watched the series. For me Esther’s round illustrated the pitfalls of picking a TV series as a specialist subject. Going by Esther’s 5 correct answers I would hazard the guess that she is a big fan, and knows the series well, as a fan. However that is not usually enough for a Mastermind specialist, for the setters will sniff out the kind of stuff that you wouldn’t remember specifically . . . unless you were trying to. Which is what makes a TV round a much harder prospect than many people who have never sat in the chair seem to think that it is. Sadly this put Esther out of contention at the halfway mark.

The History of Hungary brought me my other specialist point – singular – from tonight’s show. Retired army officer Jonathan Frere produced a fine display, as he equalled Gerald’s score of 11 and no passes. I think that it’s fair to say that in the majority of the heats we’ve seen in this series, a score of 11 on specialist has often been enough to make sure that you are at least still in contention at the halfway mark.

Back in the early 80s when I was young and stupid, and didn’t have my hair cut for about 2 years, (all photographs have been hunted down and destroyed since) I was quite partial to a bit of heavy metal. I was into the mainstream stuff, though, and so I can’t claim any familiarity with Black Metal, which John helpfully explained was particularly associated with the occult. Fair enough. Jim Longhurst, our last contender for this evening obviously knew his stuff, and just one slight momentary recall failure prevented him from equalling Gerald’s and Jonathan’s scores of 11. On 10 though, and only one point behind, all things were still possible.

There isn’t a great deal positive that one can say about Esther’s GK round. I don’t think that she’s probably a quizzer, and in those circumstances you need the questions to fall for you. The questions didn’t fall for her, and when that happens all you can do is guess and hope. Sometimes it works, and sometimes it don’t. Esther finished with a total score of 9, but genuinely looked as if she was thoroughly enjoying her time on the show. I can salute that.

Next up was Jim, and he was in the positions we see so often – just a short head behind the leaders, and with the chance to set a score which would place the two of them on the threshold of the corridor of doubt. Certainly for the first minute or so this looked like a distinct possibility. However it was one of those rounds which became bogged down in the second minute, and although he never ground to a halt entirely, it was rather a grim old struggle which saw Jim add 9 to his score to raise the bar to 19.

There are certain signs – none of them infallible, mind you – that a contender is a bit of a quizzer. Now, I don’t know if Gerald Chong regularly plays in quizzes or not. But the breadth of his answers, and his dedication to ignoring his wrong answers and just getting on with the next questions were for me pretty good signs that he may well be. He added 14 to take his total to 25. “Now that’s a corridor of doubt score” I opined to my mother and step dad (pre-Christmas visit to Worthing this weekend), who both gave me a ‘what the hell are you waffling on about?’ look before going back to sleep on the sofa.

Not that you could see any doubt on the face of Jonathan Frere as he worked his way manfully through his round. Still, he was dropping questions that you felt Gerald would probably have answered correctly, and even when he picked up some more momentum in the last 30 seconds you couldn’t help thinking that he had conceded too much ground in the first minute and a half. In the end his 11 and no passes was a perfect mirror image of his specialist round.

So well played Gerald – pick of the contenders tonight and a worthy winner. Best of luck in the semis.   

The Details

Gerald Chong	Steve Jobs	11	0	14	3	25	3
Esther Lisk-Carew	Farscape	6	3	3	5	9	8
Jonathan Frere	History of Hungary 850 - 1920	11	0	11	0	22	0
Jim Longhurst	Black Metal	10	1	9	6	19	7

University Challenge: Round Two : Wolfson, Cambridge v. Jesus, Cambridge

Wolfson were represented by Justin Yang, Ben Chaudri, Paul Cosgrove and their skipper Eric Monkman. Opponents Jesus, Cambridge were Sam Fairbrother, Rosa Price, Daniel Petrides and captain Theo Morris Clarke.

Justin Yang won the buzzer race to identify Romeo of the Shakespeare play for the first starter. Bonuses on Bruce Chatwin only brought 5 points – I was a little surprised that they didn’t know that Werner Herzog directed Fitzcarraldo. Eric Monkman did exactly what you must do, buzzing in the moment that a question becomes obvious. As soon as we’d had ‘battle named after which city’ and ‘Nelson’ he buzzed in with the obvious answer Copenhagen. When JP announced that the bonuses were on chemical elements I paused the Tivo box, and spent a couple of moments putting on my trainers in preparation for a lap of honour.This was a terrific set, whereby the team had to get the clue – Dr. No, and the element rom the abbreviation – No = Nobelium. Yes, of course I had them all, as did Wolfson. A rush of blood to the head saw Eric Monkman buzz in with an incorrect interruption, when, had he waited, it gradually became obvious that the instrument being described was a theodolite. Jesus, seemingly shell shocked at this stage, could not capitalise. Again, Eric Monkman came in too early for a pure guess for the next question. We were asked which is the 3^rd densest planet of the solar system – didn’t know – with the most circular orbit – I could have guessed but wasn’t certain – with the highest albedo. Now that really was the giveaway since Venus is by far the brightest planet. Again, though, this went begging. Ben Chaudri committed the cardinal sin of not listening to the question for the next starter, and arguably his answer of “Berwick” gave Theo Morris Clarke the opportunity to provide the right answer of the River Tweed. A full set of chestnuts on the Bible gave them 25 points, and left them only 5 points off the lead, despite Wolfson’s brisk start. The picture starter showed us an important junction on a rail map of England, and Sam Fairbrother correctly identified it as Crewe, which gave Jesus the lead. They managed one of the bonuses which were all more of the same. A great buzz from Ben Chaudri identified the Manor of Rothamsted to put the scores level, and a full house on languages of Asia gave them a lead of 55 – 40 on the cusp of the 10 minute mark.

Now, if you’re asked for the name of an Italian neo-classical sculptor, you hit the buzzer, and say Canova. Neither team could do that. Right, the next starter basically asked for one of the two US baseball players that the average man on the Clapham Omnibus might have heard of. Daniel Petrides zigged with the wrong one – Joe DiMaggio – while Eric Monkman zagged with the right one – Babe Ruth. Bonuses on Jadwiga, Queen of Poland (which sounds like a title of a very bad film) promised but little, but delivered a useful 10 points. Wolfson’s determined skipper also took the next starter, recognising a description of a ratchet. A full house on The Fellowship of the Ring brought up Wolfson’s century. Sam Fairbrother was the first to recognise that Baron Richmond is not actually a character in a pantomime, but William Hague (you’re making up your own punchlines now, I bet.) Astronomy provide one bonus. So to the music starter, and Sam Fairbrother obeyed the unwritten rule that if it’s a piano solo, you’ll be right more often than you’re wrong with Chopin. 3 more classical music lullabies provided a terrific full house for Jesus. Ben Chaudri was the first to buzz in to identify the Azores for the next starter. Less well known colours as described by the Fount Of All Human Knowledge (Wikipedia) brought ten more points. Now, I felt Eric Monkman was a little unlucky with the next starter. Asked which Empire Bayezid ruled, he answered Turks. The correct answer was the Ottoman Empire, but as we know, The Ottoman Empire was what eventually became Turkey. I don’t question the adjudication, but I feel sorry for the Wolfson skipper since I’d say that he obviously knew the right answer. Daniel Petrides supplied that. Authors usually known just by initials and surnames – eg – E.M. Forster – brought 2 correct answers. I’d argue that neither team boasts a cycling fan, since there was no rush to the buzzer when JP asked for the name of the city in which the annual classic race to San Remo starts. “Milan?” asked Eric Monkman with a gesture which seemed to ask – it can’t be that, can it? – It could and it was. A couple of correct answers on National Trust properties brought the score to 135 – 95 in Wolfson’s favour at the 20 minute mark.

Nobody got the answer haplotype to the next question. Don’t be silly, of course I didn’t. Right then, you hear “Prime Minister” and “Birmingham” you answer Neville Chamberlain. That’s what Ben Chaudri did. Wolfson took their time over the biology bonuses, but they had them all right. The second picture starter showed us Kate Bush – ahhh, Kate Bush – and was identified by Sam Fairbrother. More photos of musicians and bands brought a full house, but Jesus still trailed by 40. Paul Cosgrove took his first starter of the evening, completing the quote that Physics is too hard for physicists. It’s too hard for English teachers as well, matey. As little as Wolfson collectively know about cycling, they know even less about cricket, and failed to trouble the scorer on a set on Lord’s test matches. Eric Monkman knew that the Delmarva peninsula takes its name from Delaware, Maryland and Virginia. Bonuses on apples were easier than they sounded, and yielded a further 10 points. The match wasn’t exactly over, but you could probably have named your own odds if you’d wanted to back Jesus at this point. Apparently 1 kilowatt hour is equivalent to 3,600,000 joules. Fair enough. None of us knew. That man Monkman knew that Ashkelon and other cities were home to the Philistines – a visit to the Tate Modern a few years ago convinced me that I’m one myself – and bonuses on The Odyssey were all too easy for them. A fine buzz from Rosa Price saw her identify major symphonies written in C Minor – good shout. 2 bonuses on years of the 19^th century ending in a 6 brought 10 points. The inevitable Eric Monkman buzz saw him correctly identify Tie Square from its description. There was only time for two bonuses on polymers, of which Wolfson took one. The final score was 225 – 140 in their favour.

Hard lines Jesus, but on the night Wolfson were the better team, with the chief difference between the two being Wolfson’s highly effective captain.

Jeremy Paxman Watch

Sadly JP was in his most Bamberish mood tonight, which gives us nothing to report.  

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

The little finger within a ratchet that permits movement only in one direction is called a pawl.

Mastermind: Round One: Heat 22

There he goes again – ‘you can’t prepare or revise for the General Knowledge Round.’ John, you can, and some people do. It’s just a question of focus and timescale. Still, I don’t plan to get bogged down with this issue again.

I remember in my first Mastermind audition that Andy Warhol was the answer to one of the 20 GK questions I was asked. He was the subject of every question Gary Gilday was asked in the first round last night , which is hardly surprising since this was his specialist subject. Gary knew his stuff, and in the context of this particular series anything in double figures is a good return for a specialist round. Looking at the last few shows, though, 10 never looks like it is going to be enough to give the contender a realistic chance in the GK rounds.

Gary didn’t pass during his round, and neither did Louise Earnshaw-Brown in hers, which was on the Life of Septimius Severus. As Roman Emperors go, Severus was one of the more successful. I may be wrong but I think he died in Eboracum – York to you and me. If you gotta go, then there’s worse places to do it. Louise too obviously had prepared and knew her stuff, but didn’t quite manage to make it into double figures.

Nicholas Hawksmoor should be a lot better known than he is, since he built many beautiful churches in London. However, there was the fact that he came just a tiny bit after this fellow Wren, with whom Hawksmoor worked on a number of projects, and as we all know, the sequel never quite get the same amount of credit as the original. Steven Marc Rhodes frankly left little on the table with a fine round, and he looked to be worth his two point lead and then some more.

It was an outright lead, though, which was not going to be preserved into the GK round, for teacher Samantha Hills equalled it with a fine round of 12 on The X Files. Yes, of course I’m biased towards teachers. All in all, then, we had seen a set of SS rounds in which the lowest score was a respectable 9, and not one single pass was accrued. That’s great. Of course, I don’t have the right to ask anything from contenders, but I do like to see a set of specialists where all 4 contenders have obviously prepared their rounds thoroughly.

So to GK. Louise wasn’t actually going along too badly. There was a good 30 seconds or more left in the round and she was on 18, so a score in the low 20s looked possible. A couple of passes, and a couple of wrong answers did for that, and all in all, she managed just the one more point to finish with 19. Gary Gilday achieved the same number of correct answers in his own GK round, still, having started one point to the good this was enough to give him the lead. However, with 2 contenders still to go it looked highly unlikely that he would still be leading by the end of the show. 9 being required to take the lead just isn’t enough really to put a decent contender into the corridor of doubt.

Every now and then a round comes along which makes you feel like standing up and applauding the television. Such a round was Steven Marc Rhodes’. I’m indebted to John Humphrys for pointing out when it was all over that he had missed only the one question. A total of 19 is the finest GK round that we’ve seen for a very long time, and let’s be honest, it’s a Hall of Fame performance. With no disrespect to Samantha Hills who had yet to go, you could have named your own odds against Steven winning. In fact, with a score like that Steven was in the semi-finals whatever happened in Samantha’s round.

What did happen in Samantha’s round? She did a perfectly decent job to earn double figures, and take her score to 22, that’s what. In fact all of the contenders in last night’s show managed double figure scores on GK, and that’s always nice to see. Still this wasn’t the story of the show. The story of the show was Steven’s GK score, as shown by the unprecedented amount of time John spent talking to him about it afterwards. Why on Earth not, too. Magnificent performance and many congratulations.

The Details

Gary Gilday	Andy Warhol	10	0	10	2	20	2
Louise Earnshaw-Brown	The Life of Septimius Severus	9	0	10	2	19	2
Steven Marc Rhodes	Nicholas Hawksmoor	12	0	19	0	31	0
Samantha Hills	The X Files	12	0	10	1	22	1

Shaun's Bowl - How Quizzing Became Cool

I don’t know if you saw the BBC4 documentary on quizzing, “How Quizzing Got Cool” during last week. If you didn’t it was very enjoyable, and is still available on the iplayer here : -

How Quizzing Became Cool - iplayer

One thing which did make me sit up and take notice was seeing Shaun Wallace talking about his Mastermind Bowl, and how it got broken. I’ve since googled this, but couldn’t find any mention of this happening anywhere on the web. Shaun, I hope that I got the wrong end of the stick, but if I did hear correctly, of course you’re right that it’s the title, knowing that you became Mastermind of the United Kingdom that mattered, but even so you have my sympathy.

University Challenge Round Two: SOAS v. Emmanuel, Cambridge

Right, dearly beloved, it’s the one we’ve been waiting for – SOAS, the team that fortifies the over-forties (and to be fair the under-forties as well) v. Emmanuel, Cambridge, led by our very own Bobby Seagull. SOAS were represented by David Bostock, Magda Biran-Taylor, Odette Chalaby and captain Henry Edwards. Bobby’s able lieutenants for Emmanuel were Tom Hill, Leah Ward and Bruno Barton-Singer.

Captain Bobby took a flyer on the first question, but didn’t know that Sir Sonny Ramphal amongst others had been a former Secretary General of the Commonwealth. That lost five and allowed Magda Biran-Taylor to take first blood for SOAS. Terms that were first coined during the first World War netted a further 15 points from a full house. A great buzz from Magda Biran-Taylor identified Churchill and Asquith as the two men from the 1906 Liberal Government who would be Chancellor, Home Secretary and Prime Minister during their careers. Be honest, how many of us would have said Lloyd George, forgetting that Churchill crossed the floor of the House to join the Liberals in the early 20^th century? I did. Bonuses on novels whose titles are pronouns provided a lovely UC set, and another 15 points. In fairly short order SOAS had established a lead of 55. What was going on here? Nobody knew some historical regions of Latvia. Leah Ward put Emma into the black by recognising the speed of light. Physics bonuses gave them another 5 points, and there wasn’t even a sniff of a lap of honour round the living room for yrs truly. Emma had seemingly set themselves the tactic of using lightning buzzing to stun SOAS into submission, however it wasn’t quite coming off yet, since Leah Ward buzzed in too early and dropped five on the next question. She gave Cancer when Tropic was required. Hard lines. SOAS couldn’t capitalise this time. The tactics paid dividends though, when Leah Ward buzzed in early after hearing “The History of a Young Lady” with the correct answer “Clarissa”. You can afford a couple of misfires when you can buzz that quickly. Leeds Blue plaques gave them just one bonus. I knew the last one myself, because Samuel Smiles, author of Self Help might well also have a blue plaque in Leeds, but he had one in Granville Park Road in Lewisham too, and I know that since it was just a matter of yards away from my student hall, all those years ago. *sigh*. For the picture starter, Bruno Barton-Singer identified the name Archimedes as written in the modern Greek alphabet. Good shout that. Three more of the same taken in quick succession earned an approving well done from JP. At the ten minute mark then the gap had been reduced to a mere 5 points, and things were looking ominous for SOAS now that the Emma juggernaut was gaining momentum.

Bruno Barton-Singer knew about Durkheim to earn the lead, and also a set of bonuses on Shakespeare sonnets. Emma had two and I had a full house – one of precious few in this show. *LAP OF HONOUR WARNING* I recognised the definition of peristalsis just before Tom Hill buzzed in to confirm my answer. Plant names were quite a happy hunting ground for me as well, while Emma managed 1. I loved that Bobby for a brief moment thought that JP had said ‘sacrificial insects’ rather than ‘sacrificial incense’. Henry Edwards brought his team back into the competition knowing that it was Ovid who put his exile down to a poem and a mistake. First rule of living in the Roman Empire, Ovid old son, don’t pee the Emperor  off. Indian states gave me nothing, but SOAS managed one. To be fair to JP he managed to keep a straight face when he had to read out the title “Roger the Rabbit” (make up your own punchlines please) for the answer to the next starter. Bruno Barton-Singer knew that China is one of the two non contiguous countries that share borders with 5 stans. (Laurel? – Lee? – Wawrinka? - Boardman? – Flashman? ) Dairy farming in the UK was as unproductive as it sounds and yielded nowt. Unusually I was in extremely quickly for the music starter, just ahead of Tom Hill who was the first to recognise George Gerschwin’s Rhapsody in Blue. More recordings held within the collection of the US Library of Congress yielded a full set for Emma. Now, another slightly controversial point came next. In answer to the next question Miranda Biran-Taylor clearly said the Hapgar score with an H. JP accepted it, but corrected her with the Apgar score with an A. Look, let’s not make a big thing out of this – it didn’t affect the outcome of the competition. I really like SOAS as a team, and I didn’t want to see them get well beaten. But please, a wrong answer is a wrong answer. If the question had wanted the answer Paris, and you said Daris, I guarantee you would not be given the point. Sorry to be so pedantic, but you know, wrong is wrong. Works on the shortlist of academic books that changed the world were a very nice set, and SOAS duly answered all of them, keeping themselves in the game. Now, I’m sorry, but when both teams had the sense to wait when asked about Mirandese until they were told it is spoken in the region around Miranda du Duoro, Duoro itself should have been enough to point at Portugal. Both teams should count that as gettable points dropped. Bruno Barton-Singer, for whom this ten minute period had proven exceptionally fruitful, recognised clues to the word spiral. Chromosmal proteins made me very happy when one of the team echoed what was going through my head saying ‘I don’t understand any of that!’ I hear you there, brother, I hear you. When they were finished, Emma led by 125 to 90. They were in the driving seat, but that was not by any means a winning lead yet.

That man Barton-Singer took the next starter with literary references to the Ash tree. Symphonic music brought a further 10 points. The second picture starter showed a photograph of Quito. Hardly surprisingly this went begging. The next starter saw Magda Biran-Taylor incorrectly interrupt, which gave the almost inevitable Bruno Barton-Singer the chance to give us foal – mole and vole. Photos of other UNESCO cities brought 5 more points to their growing lead. For the next starter Bobby beat his own team mate to give the answer Cultural Hegemony after the bare minimum of the question had been asked. Years of the 19^th century ending in the number 6 provided me with another full house, and Emma with 10 more points. The lead was just one bonus away from being triple figures. David Bostock reduced arrears, recognising a reference to Mozart. Film directors of the silent era provided them with 10 more points. Something about nitrogen in nitric acid gave Bruno Barton-Singer another starter, although JP had to pump him for whether the answer was plus or minus five. French nobel Literature laureates provided much amusement, when for the last answer Tom Hill smilingly turned to Bobby and said – It’s the one you mentioned on the train! – Nice one. Needless to say they didn’t quite dredge it up. Leah Chalaby knew the state of Tennessee – and well done to SOAS for keeping buzzing at this stage when the game had clearly slipped away from them. The 1919 Treaty of Versailles gave them a full house. Ah, this encapsulated the contest. When they got a chance, SOAS showed their class with the bonuses. I bet they had a very healthy conversion rate for the show. But . . . you gotta win the buzzer race to win the show. Or put it another way, its bonuses for show, but starters for dough. The gong sounded before the next question was finished, and the final score was 195 to 130. Well played both teams, and Emma – looking good for the quarters.

Jeremy Paxman Watch

He really has been taking his happy pills, has our Jez. When Bobby announced the answer to the last music bonus as “Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five” JP practically jumped out of his seat with elation. “VERY good!” he cried. Was he by any chance a fan of their work back in the day? I think we should be told.

I think he was getting frustrated with Bruno Barton-Singer answering most of the starters by the end of the match, though. When he answered the nitrogen one with five JP asked “specifically?”, and then when supplied the correct answer of plus five, he dismissed it sniffily with “Of course”. There’s no of course about it Jez, and don’t act as if you knew and it was obvious, because you didn’t, and it wasn’t.

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

A guy called Le Prince took what were probably the world’s first moving pictures, of Leeds Bridge.

Mastermind: Round One: Heat 21

Yes, my singing debut in the school concert seemed to go okay, thanks for asking. Well, that was my week – how about last night’s Mastermind contenders? First to take to the chair was Sally Budd, who was offering the great Eric Clapton. That’s 2 shows in a row where the first specialist has been on an iconic British musician – who will we get next week? Answers on a postcard to the usual address. As for Sally’s round, well, I don’t know if she was affected by nerves, but I have a feeling there were questions she probably knew the answer to, but just couldn’t dredge up. Maybe it’s just me, but whenever I hear a question asking about a British blues musician I always answer Alexis Korner, and it’s right a hell of a lot more often than it’s wrong. She finished with 7, and with the best will in the world it looked as if she was going to be some way behind at the half time whistle.

Lee Holmes took part in Ian’s 2011 season, which was rather a star studded affair in terms of the contenders, and he produced a great first round performance then to make the semis. Once again, my daughter was totally uninterested when I pronounced him the favourite to win last night’s show. Answering on the Emperor Hadrian he managed 11 points, in a round which looked rather better than just 11 – was it me or did his questions seem even longer than usual? Probably just me. Still, Lee had at least done what you must do, and produced a ‘put you in contention’ score.

I like Tintin. There we are, I’ve said it. When I was just a wee lad I was given a GAF stereo viewmaster for a birthday, and it had several discs, including Tintin’s “Destination Moon”. I only ever had about 5 discs, and they tended to get used endlessly, so I came to know this one very well, and it was my favourite. So I like Tintin. Not as much as Asterix the Gaul, mind you, but that’s another story. I don’t, however, believe I like Tintin anything like as much as Abhimanyu Chatterjee does. There are no fewer than 24 books, and Abhimanyu’s knowledge of them could fairly be called encyclopaedic. The fact that he too only accrued 11 points after such a display rather suggested that my feeling about longer questions was probably accurate.

I managed 2 points on Robert Fenner’s round on Damon Runyon, and both of these came from a passing acquaintance with the music “Guys and Dolls”. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, I do like to see that contenders, whatever the state f their general knowledge may be, have prepared thoroughly for the specialist rounds, and this was another round which left me in no doubt of the effort put in to prepare it. For the third round running we saw a performance which looked rather better than the score that it earned, which was 10. In the context of last night’s show that was certainly enough to give Robert his chance when the GK came round.

Maybe I’m wrong about Sally suffering from nerves, but the impression was reinforced by her performance in the GK round, where it seemed that the last 90s seconds was a bit of a grim old slog for her. She finished with 14. So to Robert. He had the chance to really lay down a marker. I reckoned that if he could get a score in the teens, then that would place both of the others yet to come at the doorway to the corridor of doubt. He started brightly enough, but as we’ve seen so often in the past, starting your GK round well is a lot easier than maintaining your momentum through it, and he could only add 9 to his total.

You know what I’m going to say, don’t you? I honestly think that it gets easier to cope with the pressures of sitting in the black chair each time that you do it, and Lee has been this way before. So what we saw was a round which, while not the best that we’ve seen all season, was an admirable display of concentration and technique. You listen to the questions. You answer those that you know correctly. You guess those you don’t, and don’t worry if you get it wrong. If nothing comes to mind you pass as quickly as you can. Written down like that it sounds rather simple. It isn’t simple – try it for yourself if you don’t believe me. But it’s what Lee managed to do, and he finished with 23.

Certainly for the first half 60 seconds or so of his round Abhimanyu looked as if he was in with a chance. However by the 90 second mark he hit a horrible pass spiral. As we know, a pass spiral is the Mastermind equivalent of a black hole, and once you’ve passed beyond its event horizon you can’t pull yourself free of its clutches. Sadly Abhimanyu finished with a total of 18, which really belies the fine specialist performance he put in.

So a clear win for Lee Holmes, and a second semi final to come. Well played.  

The Details

Sally Budd	Eric Clapton	7	1	7	2	14	3
Lee Holmes	Emperor Hadrian	11	1	12	2	23	3
Abhimanyu Chatterjee	Tintin	11	1	7	9	18	10
Robert Fenner	The Life and Broadway stories of Damon Runyon	10	0	9	2	19	2