University Challenge - Round Two - Oxford Brookes v. Merton, Oxford

Oxford Brookes v. Merton, Oxford

Thus we come to the last of the 2^nd round matches. Oxford Brookes, represented by Chiswick’s Inigo Purcell and also by Pat O’Shea, Emma-Ben Lewis and their captain Thomas De Bock. Much fancied Merton were Edward Thomas, Alex Peplow, Akira Wiberg and skipper Leonie Woodland. As JP himself would say, let’s get on with it. 

For the first question Alex Peplow won the buzzer race after the question mentioned Upper and Lower Kingdoms, which gave us both Egypt. Bonuses on Edward Seymour, Duke of Somerset, gave us both a full house. The next starter saw Alex Peplow take a second consecutive starter, completing a quote from Aristotle. Classical music saw them take a second consecutive full house, and to be fair their favourites tag was looking well justified in these early exchanges. I set off early on my lap of honour in this contest for identifying a description of the Mesosphere. What do you mean it must have been a guess – of course it was. Still counts, though. Leonie Woodland was in for that one. 9 questions in and Merton had answered every one of them correctly. Animals protected in the UK slightly applied the brakes to their runaway juggernaut, though. They zigged with butterfly when they should have zagged with moth for the first. Nonetheless they took the other two, and Alex Peplow took his third starter, knowing that Georges Bizet was the composer behind L’Arlesienne. Cities in the USA sharing the same initial letter were all gettable, but Merton took two of them. All of which took them to 90 unanswered points out of a potential 100 in the space of a few minutes. The picture starter showed us a fictional family tree and asked for the name of the fictional dynasty. For once Alex Peplow showed just a little vulnerability, buzzing then being unable to give an answer. Thus presented with an open goal, Thomas De Bock tapped it in with the name Buendia from One Hundred Years of Solitude (or as my grandmother once called it, One Hundred Years of Soliciting). Bonuses gave three more fictional family trees, of which they identified two, missing out on DH Lawrence’s Brangwen clan from The Rainbow and Women in Love. Alex Peplow was back on form for the next starter, knowing Lolita to be the title of an earlier novel appearing in the title of a work by Azar Nafisi. French words ending in – sque which are used in English took their score to 105, as opposed to Oxford Brookes’ 20 at the 10 minute mark. 

The fightback began with Thomas De Bock coming in very early to answer that Reamur and Rankine both have something to do with temperature. Italian physicists brought us both one correct answer with Fermi. The next starter was a UC special which asked for any of the 8 US states that contain only one of the 5 vowels other than Alaska, Kansas, Maryland or New Jersey. “Alabama” I shouted. A rush of blood to the head saw Pat O’Shea buzz in with Utah. Asked for two Akira Wiberg got one with Tennessee. The other two neither of us mentioned were Arkansas and Mississippi. Once again it was that man Peplow who got the ball rolling again recognising that it was Oliver Cromwell who said “I would not build Jericho again”. A full set of bonuses on British Dominions during world war I gave them a three figure lead. Pat O’Shea atoned for her earlier mishap, being the first to recognise a group of people linked by the surname Hutton. Two bonuses on words beginning with idio – reduced the gap to double figures and brought us to the music starter. Akira Wiberg gave one of the fastest correct buzzes on a music starter that I’ve ever seen to identify an overture by Wagner from possibly two notes. Three more notable ‘phantoms of the opera’ provided a couple of bonuses, and the gap widened again. I was in very quickly to say that Tim Peake departed from Baikonur, and both teams sat on their buzzers a little until Thomas De Bock gave the correct answer. Bonuses on the brain brought a timely full house. The highly effective Oxford Brookes captain was in very quickly for the next starter, the philosophical term Dasein. A bonus on bends in rivers reduced the gap to 65 points. Akira Wiberg widened it again, knowing that of the 7 SI base units, 2 are eponymous. Maths and Logic promised me but little and delivered nowt, while Merton took 2. Alex Peplow came back into the game, knowing a couple of American painters whose works were described as ‘black’. Bonuses on Alice Walker provided a single bonus, which meant that Merton led by 190 to 90 at the 20 minute mark. So despite Oxford Brookes’ more spirited performance in this midsection of the contest, Merton had still had the better of it.

Not that Thomas De Bock was conceding anything yet, as he won the buzzer race to supply the word subpoena. Pairs of word differing by the addition of ca- to the first to make the second were a lovely little UC special set, and they gave Oxford Brookes a useful full set. The picture starter showed us a young miss cuddling a bull. “Europa!” I shouted, and inevitably Alex Peplow was first in to echo my answer. More paintings of erotic metamorphoses of Zeus brought a couple of bonuses. They might have had Danae (Zeus certainly did. I’m here all week, ladies and gents.). Thomas de Bock’s spirited buzzing was maybe now spreading to the rest of his team, as Inigo Purcell came in early to identify a quotation from a translation of the Iliad. This won bonuses on the heather family and one correct answer brought another five hard won points. Another terrific early buzz from Thomas De Bock saw him identify the Canadian Government’s term First Nations. Ken Loach gave them another full house, and although you never quite felt that they were going to catch Merton, you had to concede that they were building a healthy score of their own. Pat O’Shea continued the charge, knowing that Constable was born in Suffolk in 1776. Bodies of water saw them get 2 bonuses, which actually put them within 35 points of Merton, the closest they’d been since the very early stages of the match. It was as if the Merton skipper was telling them – that’s quite enough of that – as she buzzed in to identify cassiterite as a main ore of tin. German Universities saw them push the gap past two full sets, and make the contest absolutely safe. Alex Peplow recognised characters from Cymbeline for the next starter to earn a set of bonuses on castles. A great shout on a UC special about cities and their size and population size, saw Alex Peplow work out that Leeds would be E. That really was it since we were gonged before we heard any of the bonuses. 

A fine win for Merton with 255 to 175, all the better considering the very good performance they had to contend with from Oxford Brookes. I didn't count, but I would imagine that their bonus conversion rate for this show was a thing of beauty. This must be one of the highest aggregates from the series so far, and justifies Merton’s position amongst the favourites. Good show, and well played all. 

Jeremy Paxman Watch

Nothing to see here. Go back to your lives, citizens.

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

Cromwell was responsible for the saying “I would not build Jericho again”

Mastermind - Round One - Heat 24

Right, here we are at the last heat. Now, I can’t swear to it that my workings out are 100% accurate, but I believe that going into the show, if all 4 contenders scored better than 26 and 6 passes, then they could all qualify for the final. If one contender scored less than 26, then any other score of 26 would be good enough. Well, that’s how I worked it out anyway.  

Our first contender, Ken Morland, offered us a round on the TV show Red Dwarf, which made me ask myself an interesting question. Suppose you were a contender on the show, who had put real time and effort into preparing your subject? Suppose then you got a set of questions which, well, not to put too fine a point on it didn’t really test your knowledge? It doesn’t happen often, which makes it stand out a bit more when it does. I know enough about Red Dwarf to know that this question set, the vast majority of which were about specific details from some pretty well known episodes, were not all that testing to be honest. I haven’t watched an episode of the show for years, but I got 10 of them sitting in the Clark armchair. I don’t blame Ken – he can only answer what he’s asked, and he did so perfectly. But I wouldn’t be surprised if he himself was a wee bit disappointed that he wasn’t put to more of a test, judging by the perfect answers he gave to the few more difficult questions in this round.  

Faced with the daunting task of following that round was Andy Davies. To be honest I did think that his round on St. Helena, Ascension Island and Tristan da Cunha might scupper my chances of a halfway decent aggregate, but actually a smattering of historical knowledge, geographical knowledge and knowledge of the natural world brought me another half dozen to make a 20+ score a distinct possibility. Andy’s 9 was of course a lot better than that, but sadly a few seeming gaps in knowledge resulted in him being five points behind, and that’s just too big a gap to make up under normal circumstances.  

I wonder if Sarah Jane Bodell, our third contender, was originally a Kentuckian? I ask because I felt I detected a hint of an accent there. Well, that and the fact that she was answering on the History of Kentucky from 1792 until the present day. Once again, on paper this one didn’t promise me a great deal, but again, a wee bit of knowledge about American politics and History, together with those gimmes on Colonel Sanders and the McCoys, brought me another 6 points. This put me on an aggregate of 22, and meant that 5 on the last subject (on paper my second best of the show) would bring a record aggregate for this series. As for Sarah Jane, well, unlike Ken she didn’t quite manage a perfect round, but it was still a very good one, and with 13 on specialist there was every good chance she might be able to get a place in the semis.  

Now, a confession. I have known for a few weeks that our very own Neil Wright, LAM reader and previous semi-finalist, was taking part in this heat. Kindly, Neil made sure that he did not let me know how he had got on. His subject was the Roman Emperor Tiberius. For the first 8 questions or so I thought that Neil was going to put on a perfect performance. I wasn’t – I’d already had three wrong by this time – but just a couple of the questions in the round tripped him up. In the end, he scored 10 – and I know enough about Tiberius (thanks to Tacitus, Suetonius, and especially Robert Graves) to know that this was a good performance on this set of questions. However it did leave him 4 points off the lead. As for me – well my 6 was good enough to give me a new record specialist aggregate for this series of 28.  

First to return to the chair, then, was Andy. I didn’t think that he started his round particularly well, missing a couple of gettables. However that changed and he picked up momentum through the middle part of the round. At the speed he was going he looked likely to get as many as 14, but a couple of hiccups on the way to the line saw him finish with 12, and a total of 21. Perfectly respectable, but it was never going to stay the top score for long in this show.  

And so to Neil. Neil has proven his worth on GK in previous appearances on Mastermind, so I felt pretty certain that he would put in a high enough score to give him at least a good shout of getting to the semi finals. I was right. Neil added a further 16 points and 1 pass in what was an excellent demonstration of how to handle a Mastermind GK round, one of the best we’ve seen all series. As a point of interest, there was one question which seemingly put us both off our stride. When John asked for the name of the family to which potatoes, tomatoes and several poisonous species belong I answered ‘solonaceae’ while Neil answered something similar. Neither of us were given a point since John answered ‘Nightshade’. I looked back at the show on the iplayer, though and John does actually ask for the common name , so fair enough.  

Sarah Jane Bodell does have a bit of TV previous herself. She was a member of a good University of Warwick team that competed in the 2012 series of UC. So it wasn’t unreasonable to expect that she might go well, and remember, she had a 3 point head start on Neil. Without wishing to be horrible, it was clear before the one minute mark that she wasn’t going to match Neil’s round. But then, she didn’t have to. If she could manage 13 of her own, then she’d be pretty much guaranteed a slot in the semis. Well, she actually scored 12 and no passes. Which, if my working out is correct, put her into equal 6^th place on the repechage list. How the production team decide who goes through – I have no idea.  

All of which probably suggests to you that Ken Morland outscored her – and that’s true. Did he outscore Neil, though? Yes, and no. Yes, his overall score of 28 gave him the win with a little bit of daylight between himself and Neil. No, in as much as his GK round was not as good as Neil’s. Having said that, I really enjoyed watching Ken work his way through his round. When you’re in the chair answering against the clock there is a tendency to snap out an answer so you can get to the next question, but Ken gave each of his a bit of thought, and you could watch him working out some questions as he went along. That takes quite a bit of presence of mind.  

So, we know for a fact that Ken is in the semis – well played, sir. I believe that Neil’s score puts him into the semis as well – but over to you on that one, Neil. As for Sarah Jane – well, if my calculations are correct, then the coin is in the air on that one.  

The Details 

Ken Morland	Red Dwarf	14	0	14	3	28	3
Andy Davies	St. Helena, Ascension Island and Tristan da Cunha	9	3	12	4	21	7
Sarah Jane Bodell	The History of Kentucky 1792 - Present	13	0	12	0	25	0
Neil Wright	Emperor Tiberius	10	3	16	1	26	1

Mastermind 2018 - Round One - Heat 23

Nearly at the end of the first round heats now, dearly beloved, with only next week’s heat to go after last night’s. And a very interesting show it was too, demonstrating as it did some of the enduring truths about Mastermind. We’ll come to that as and when.

I liked a bit of Blur, back in the day in the mid 90s, although I was on the side of Oasis in the so called Battle of the Bands. I still didn’t do very well on James Ratclif’s round, scoring just a couple for my pains. I did know that, like me, several of the members attended Goldsmith’s College, but that was almost it. James’ definitely knew his stuff, but his score of 10 was one of those which, while it shows you prepared and knew your stuff, it’s still likely to leave you quite a bit to do in the GK round.

Gemma Wilson offered us The Thursday Next Novels of Jasper Fforde. Now, as it happens I have read all of the first series, although this still means I haven’t read the second series of four novels. Funnily enough, the Novels of Jasper Fforde was the specialist subject of Matthew Williamson who was runner up in my semi final in the 2007 SOBM. So I am ashamed to say that I managed precisely nowt on this round. Gemma though breezed through the whole thing, and had scored a fine 13 by the time that she was beeped. 

In the last 6 months or so I’ve read a couple of books about The American Civil War and associated topics, and so I hoped at least to score more than a couple on Don Crerar’s round. And while I was never in any danger of achieving a double figure score, the 8  did achieve at least put my aggregate for the SS scores in this show just into double figures. Which is just as well since I wasn’t going to add to it with the next round. I did think that Don was going to equal Gemma’s score, but he just missed out n his last question to finish with 12. A really useful performance, which gave him every chance in the GK round.

If you were watching the show last night it’s quite possible that you recognised our final contender, Ewan MacAulay. He was the captain of a useful Christ Church, Oxford outfit in the 2014 UC series, and then one of the Mixologists in Only Connect in 2015. So he is an experienced TV quiz campaigner, and something of a known quantity in GK – put simply, when it came to that round he looked likely to do well. However, as I’ve said before, while you can win MM on your GK, you have to make sure that you at least don’t lose it on your SS. That’s an enduring truth, which I mentioned earlier. I’m not trying to be horrible, or to suggest that Ewan’s 8 on The Short Stories of David Foster Wallace was a bad round, it certainly wasn’t. However, on 5 behind the leader, it left a huge question mark on whether it would be good enough to give him a realistic chance of a win.

Of course, when he returned to the chair, Ewan went on to deliver a great GK round, in my opinion one of the best that we’ve seen this series. It wasn’t quite perfect, and he did miss a couple and pass on 1, but even so it was still an excellent display of nerveless GK quizzing. He finished on 24, meaning that everyone who followed would need 12s or over to win outright, and that is the kind of target which definitely forces you to confront the corridor of doubt which can so affect a GK performance. He could do no more. 

Within the first minute or so of his round I was fairly sure that James Ratclif was not going to get the 14 and few passes he needed to go into the lead, and I wasn’t wrong about that. Nonetheless he too managed a double figure score, a good 12 to enable him to finish on a perfectly respectable 22. 

Don Crerar’s round , while it might not quite have matched Ewan’s, was in itself a demonstration of some of the enduring truths in its own way. If you have a good general knowledge, which Don clearly does, and keep your head, maintaining a steady rhythm and having a good guess when you don’t know the answer, then you can rack up a good score. Make no mistake, 15 on GK is a good score, and more importantly, it put daylight between himself and Ewan. 

It meant that Gemma had to score 15 to win outright, and I just couldn’t see this show providing us with 3 15+ rounds. Gemma never lost her head, and kept picking off answers, but it was clear that her GK was not going to be good enough on this occasion from the first minute or so of her round. No shame in that, you can only do your best. As it was Gemma’s round saw her into double figures for GK, and she finished 3^rd with 23.

Well played all. Especially well played Don. On this performance he certainly won’t be just making up the numbers in the semis. Best of luck to you, sir. 

The Details

James Ratclif	Blur	10	1	12	3	22	4
Gemma Wilson	The Thursday Next Novels of Jasper Fforde	13	0	10	2	23	2
Don Crerar	The American Civil War	12	1	15	1	27	2
Ewan MacAulay	The Short Stories of David Foster Wallace	8	2	16	1	24	3

University Challenge - Round Two - Fitzwilliam, Cambridge v. Magdalen, Oxford

Fitzwilliam, Cambridge v. Magdalen, Oxford

Yes, dearly beloved, it’s an Oxbridge match up this week. In the light blue corner we had Fitzwilliam, represented by Theo Tindall, Theo Howe, Jack Maloney and one of my favourite captains of this series, Hugh Oxlade. In the dark blue corner were Magdalen, who consisted of Winston Wright, Christopher Stern, Sarah Parkin, and captain Johnny Gibson. 

Hugh Oxlade was in as quickly as I was to know that the Army subdued by King Alfred was known as the Great Army. Bonuses on ducal residences saw 5 points bounce off the rim into the middle distance as they rejected Belvoir Castle, but they took the other two. White Surrey was the horse of Richard III, according to Shakespeare, as Johnny Gibson answered to open Magdalen’s account. Environmental agreements certainly didn’t promise a great deal, but we both had the same one right – the fact that the city in question is no longer the capital was pretty much a good indicator for that one. Many year ago, part of the next starter provided one of my favourite moments in the sadly defunct Neath Quiz League. Asked what the mythical Welsh ‘Cwn Annyn” was, I guessed cwn – from latin canis (a significant number of Welsh words are derived from latin)- might well be dog, and so answered the Hound of Hell. Which was close enough to get the points. If I told you that I never again reminded my 3 Welsh team mates that it was an Englishman who’d got the right answer, then you’d know I was lying. It was Johnny Gibson who correctly answered that this and other examples were all manifestations of dogs. This gave them a set of bonuses on Richardson’s “Pamela”, and Henry Fielding’s glorious parody thereof, “Shamela”, and they took a full house. Christopher Stern came in too early for the next starter on elements, losing 5. As soon as JP said it took its name from the Greek for violet I shouted ‘Iodine’ and took off on my lap of honour. Jack Maloney answered that one. Biology refused to yield them any bonuses. This brought us the picture bonus, and a map showing the location of a British port. Jack Maloney was first in with Felixstowe, and more ports which can cater for super containers on the map brought a full house, and catapulted Fitzwilliam back into the lead. Sarah Parkin was in very quickly for the next starter, recognising a quote from Nye Bevan. Novels about dictators yielded a further 10 points, which meant that we were all square on 55s at the 10 minute mark.

Christopher Stern was in too early for the next starter, allowing Jack Maloney to take another starter, recognising that the ancient area to which the question referred was Bactria. They took one bonus on Goethe and works inspired by his own. They missed a trick here, obviously not knowing that the moment you hear the name Paul Dukas, you give the answer The Sorcerer’s Apprentice. It was that man Maloney who won a real UC Special buzzer race to explain that you need to add IA to change one moon – Titan – into another – Titania. Data compression bonuses did none of us any favours. Johnny Gibson had a rush of blood to the head and came in too early for the next starter. A set of steps up Cheddar Gorge is Jacob’s Ladder, and that name was the answer, as supplied by, well, who else, Jack Maloney. Bonuses on the original members of the Football League added a further ten points to what was becoming a significant lead. At this stage Magdalen were certainly not out of the contest, but they really needed a clean buzz to find some momentum again. The music starter saw Theo quickly in to identify the artist as Drake. More pieces of music that have made use of the Jamaican dembow rhythm provided 10 more points. Fitzwilliam at this stage were making it look easy, winning the starters, and taking points at every visit to the table. Johnny Gibson struck back for his team, being the first to recognise a description of the artist Paul Klee. Bonuses on George Sand seemed to be sure to provide Magdalen with a full house, but they zigged with Minorca when they ought to have zagged with Majorca for the last. Theo Howe was first in to identify Reindeer moss as a species of lichen.This earned a lovely UC special where the team were given two African cities for each question, and asked to name the countries which a straight line between the two would pass through. We both managed a full house on this one. Daring was rewarded as Johnny Gibson hit and hoped that Gordon Lamb House is the HQ of the Scottish National Party. It is. This earned bonuses on hormones, which to be honest did nothing for any of us. Johnny Gibson had the bit between his teeth though, and knew about vectors in physics for the next starter. 17^th and 18^th century philosophers were another bonus set offering me but slim pickings, but provided Magdalen with 10. Thus at the 20 minute mark the gap had at least been pulled back to manageable proportions, as Fitzwilliam led by 145 – 95.

Jack Maloney showed the first chink in his armour, losing five when asked for either of the French rivers whose name can preceded maritime. Magdalen’s inspirational skipper capitalised with the answer Seine. Only one bonus on crickets was taken, but nonetheless the gap was reduced to 30 points. For the second picture starter it was that man Gibson who recognised the work of Vermeer. Other paintings from Isabella Stewart Gardner’s collection yielded just one bonus, but now the gape was down to 15 points. What a good game this was turning out to be. Who else but Johnny Gibson would be first in to link Uhuru – Urdu and Uluru ( well, the clues to them) with the letter U. The gap was now down to 5. Bonuses on towns or cities beginning with Ul saw them draw level, but Ulverston, birthplace of the great Stan Laurel, just elude them. Both teams rather sat on their buzzers when asked for a five letter name for the largest species of the deer family. That’s a quizzer’s question which needs to be despatched to the boundary without a second thought. Finally Theo Howe gave the right answer, and put his team back in front. Still, they only managed one bonus on Charlotte Bronte, so the game was not over. Jack Maloney, back on form, identified JPL as the Jet Propulsion Lab,and two bonuses on Magna Graecia pushed them further ahead. With the scent of victory in Magdalen’s collective nostrils, Theo Tindall took his first starter by recognising the first lines of Virgil’s Aeneid. Birthplaces of British monarchs stretched the lead to 50 points – still only two full houses. There was time, if only just enough. Sarah Parkin did the first thing in taking the starter. I’ll be honest, I didn’t really get it, but the answer was milligram. Asteroids only yielded 1 bonus though, and so Magdalen still required two consecutive starters. That hope was dashed as Theo Tindall identified a bird’s syrinx as the source of its call. There wasn’t time for a full set of bonuses on Scotland, and the final score was 200 – 155 for Fitzwilliam.

That was a very enjoyable match between two good teams. There was more buzzing throughout the whole of the Fitzwilliam team, which is what won it for them in the end, but no shame for Magdalen, who were by no means outclassed. 

Jeremy Paxman Watch

He was up and at ‘em early on the Belvoir Castle question, rubbing it in that the correct answer was ‘on the table’ for Fitzwilliam.

Later on he clearly approved of the tone of voice Hugh Oxlade used to say the name ‘Justin Bieber’, to which he chuckled and saluted the ‘wonderfully disdainful’ way that he said it. 

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

George VI is the only future British Monarch to be born at Sandringham

University Challenge - Round Two - Newcastle v. Southampton

University Challenge – Round 2 – Newcastle v. Southampton

Yes, my friends, I can only apologise to those teams whose matches I’ve missed. If you’re a regular you know that I have my problems from time to time, and sometimes you have to bend a little so that you don’t break. 

Onto the show then. Newcastle’s first opponents, Sheffield Hallam, weren’t great to be honest, so this show at least would maybe give us a clearer idea of how good Newcastle were. The team consisted of Jack Reynard, Molly Nielsen, Adam Lowery, and their skipper Jonathan Noble. Cardiff, Southampton’s first round opponents, had a similarly lowly score to Sheffield, however Southampton’s 280 points against them was an impressive performance however you look on it. They were Juan-Pablo Ledesma, Andrew Knighton, Niall Jones and their captain Lorna Frankel. 

There is a reason why I immediately answered “Bayeux Tapestry” after the words ‘depicting 49 trees’ has passed JP's lips. It was the specialist subject on which I had my highest ever MM specialist score (17 in 2 minutes, thanks for asking.) Jack Reynard took a little longer than me to give the correct answer – but not a lot. This brought up a set of bonuses on the importance of tea. 2 bonuses on a tricky set saw the on their way. Jack Reynard doubled up his total of early buzzed in starters knowing Dalton’s Law. Bonuses on cinnabar provided us both with a full house. Niall Jones opened his team’s account, knowing that the Volga rises near Moscow and discharges into the Caspian Sea. The set of Physics bonuses delivered the same to me as my Physics O Level exams delivered in 1980 – that is, nowt. However Southampton managed 2. Game on. You had to wait with the next starter, but once the words “In the bleak midwinter” passed JP’s lips it was a mad scramble for the buzzer, won by Niall Jones, who knew it was Christina Rossetti. The Palace of Versailles was one of those sets where you know you can get at least one right if you just keep answering the Hall of Mirrors – and indeed this was the only one that either of us got. So to the picture starter. We saw part of the details of the contents page of a notable work of non-fiction. Phrases like “Causes of Improvement” and “political economy” led me to take a punt with The Wealth of Nations, and both teams had to think about it. Juan-Pablo zigged with Das Kapital, allowing Molly Nielsen to zag with my answer. This earned Newcastle 3 more notable 18^th century works. They took one, should have had 2, and there was enough help on the first for them to have had all 3, but you don’t always think clearly in the heat of battle in the studio. As we approached the ten minute mark Newcastle seemed to have had the better of the opening exchanges as they led by 60 – 35.

A UC special starter followed asking for the sum of the atomic numbers of the elements whose symbols spell the word pwn (that’s what it said on the subtitles). Niall Jones was only one out, but you get nowt for a good try in this game. Jack Reynard came in early to identify Albert the Bear as the first Margrave of Brandenburg. Were the second and third called Winnie and Paddington, I wonder? It looked as if they weren’t going to get any of their bonuses on Scotland, but a good shout saw them correctly answer that Sutherland has a comparable population density to Wyoming. Andrew Knighton took his first starter, knowing that the Sabin oral vaccine is used against polio. The Mahabharata provided another five points, and a giggle at JP's discomfort in trying to pronounce the word. Johnathan Noble was in extremely quickly to identify the Critique of Pure Reason – I suspect he may even have had it just from the date of 1781. Terms used in astronomy gave Newcastle one correct answer, which is one more correct answer than I managed. This brought us to the music starter. Even though it was obviously from Swan Lake, Lorna Frankel was in exceptionally quickly, after about a note and a half. Three other classical works mentioned in Susan Sontag’s work on Camp. Both of us could only name Il Trovatore. Now, for the UC special which was the next starter, I didn’t know that Stokely Carmichael was born on Trinidad, but I knew that Brian Lara was. So the answer – the last two letters, was - ad. A little more of the question was given before the impressive Jack Reynard buzzed in for another correct interruption. Compromises in US History only gave me a correct answer with the Missouri Compromise, but Newcastle had this and the 1850 compromise. Now, if I’m ever asked for the name of a female French Impressionist painter, I always offer Berthe Morisot for the very good reason that she’s the only one I know. It worked for the next starter. Neither team had it, but Newcastle lost five for an incorrect interruption. For the next UC special we were given clues to the words frieze and sneeze, and asked which river of northern England they rhymed with. Jonathan Noble worked out early that it was the Tees. Things were starting to look ominous for Southampton, as Newcastle were having by far the best of this part of the contest. Islands and peninsulae based on their descriptions by Strabo brought a couple of more correct answers. Pelion was veritably piled upon Ossa as Jonathan Noble buzzed extremely early to identify the brightest star in the constellation as Antares. A rather gentle set on elements and words which they – sort of – resemble – provided a full house. Which meant that just part the 20 minute mark Newcastle had a commanding lead of 150 to Southampton’s 70.

A lead which only increased when Jonathan Noble, leading from the front, buzzed in to identify France as the European power left with the Indian province of Chanda Nagar. South East Asian history only provided five more points, but the lead was by now just a smidgeon away from triple figures. It was Juan-Pablo Ledesma who began the Southampton fightback, identifying a still from Curse of the Were Rabbit. Three more stop motion films nominated for best animated picture Oscars were not ones I knew, but Southampton took two. The next starter was one of those Maths ones where I always either answer 0 or 1. Actually it was minus 1 as the Newcastle skipper correctly answered. Bonuses on George Eliot saw them miss out on a gimme with Adam Bede, and a gettable one with Romola, but nonetheless the gap was back up to 90, and I just didn’t think there was enough time left for Southampton. They had a go though, with Niall Jones recognising various species of zebra. Electronics bonuses gave them sadly nothing. Lorna Frankel knew that in a calendar year hebdomidal events occur 52 times. Works to be found in the Prado brought in just 5 points. Again, Niall Jones won a buzzer race to identify Phileas Fogg as a member of the Reform Club. Bonuses on English cities saw them zig when they should have zagged on the first 2, to add just another 5. As it was the Newcastle skipper took the next starter on various connections with the word sage. 19^th century novels gave them the 2 bonuses they needed to hit 200. This increased as Adam Lowery knew that you use Coomassie Blue to stain proteins. Fair enough. We only had time for one bonus on islands of the River Thames before the gong ended the contest with Newcastle winning by a score of 215 – 130.

Well played Newcastle. Hard lines Southampton. One felt that they were not undone by any great lack of knowledge, but by the precision buzzing of the firm of Reynard and Noble, Early Buzz Purveyors to the Gentry. 

Jeremy Paxman Watch

Apparently Boris Johnson once called Jez a swot. He didn’t say that he himself had called Boris something that rhymed with swot, but I’d like to think that’s what happened.

I was amused by JP’s struggles to pronounce the Mahabharata. He mentioned the word three times, and used a different way of saying it for each one.

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

George Eliot’s translation of the works of Spinoza were not published until 1981

Mastermind 2018 - Heat 22

Heat 22

Just a couple of weeks to go, dearly beloved, and then we’ll definitely have seen this year’s winner, because we’ll have seen all of the contenders. 

The first to attempt to book a place in the semis by right of winning was Claire Slater. Claire offered us a good, old traditional MM specialist in the shape of the life and work of Leonardo da Vinci. I didn’t think that this would be a great subject for me, but I’d scraped together enough knowledge of the great man from here and there to get 5. In a show which wouldn’t see me get anywhere near my aggregate achievements of last week. Claire’s 12 and 1 pass was a good performance, and experience suggested that she would be in contention by half time.

Now, if the word ‘Jaws’ comes into your mind when you hear the words ‘Dreyfus’ and ‘Affair’, then you’re probably of a similar vintage to myself. However, Jim Mason was not answering on the career of the youngest winner of a Best Actor Oscar prior to Adrien Brody, but on the shocking and scandalous framing and punishment of the Jewish captain Alfred Dreyfus in France in the late 19^th century. I bagged only the 1 on this round, but Jim did I though very well on one of those subjects which I would imagine needs copious amounts of revision if you’re not going to let the round get away from you.

Burdened with support from the Clark sofa was schoolteacher Craig Thomson, who offered us another traditional MM specialist subject in the life and works of Johann Sebastian Bach. Again, that’s another subject where I know just enough about the subject to know how complex a round it could provide, without knowing enough to actually score many points on it myself. I did think Craig answered just a little slowly, and it seemed to me that this was the main reason why he didn’t quite make it across the line into double figures. A perfectly respectable score, but with 9 he was three points behind and facing a bit of a mountain to climb in the GK.

It was a mountain which became somewhat steeper after John Stitcher’s round on the TV series The Inbetweeners. I can’t swear to it, but I wouldn’t be at all surprised if John is the first professional poker player to be a contender on Mastermind. That may be significant too, since I would imagine a good memory must be pretty useful if you are. John made mincemeat of his round, hardly breaking metaphorical sweat as he provided, dare I say it, a full house ( see what I did there?) of 15 correct answers to 15 questions. Leading by three, he seemed to be holding all the aces going into the GK. 

Craig was the first to return to the chair, and he took his overall total to 16, so at leat it meant that he did hold the lead for a couple of minutes. Now, with regards to Jim’s round, this is all in the eye of the beholder and the ear of the behearer, but I found Jim’s round a little tougher than most of the GK rounds this series. Playing along at home I usually score between 16 – 18, depending on how quickly the contender answers and how many questions are actually asked. On Jim’s round I limped home with 13. That’s just an observation, and I’m not trying to make any particular point. Jim himself scored 10, and raised the bar to 21.

As you know, I can’t help making an assessment of whether I think contenders are quizzers or not based on their responses to their GK rounds. Well, for much of Claire Slater’s round I was impressed, and pretty sure that she must be a quizzer. She had taken her aggregate to 24 with about 7 questions still to be asked. However, she only managed one of these, and so what had all the makings of a great round had to be satisfied with being a good round. 25 didn’t necessarily look like a winning total, but it was certainly enough to put John into the corridor of doubt. 

John started his GK round confidently. He was picking off what he did know, and guessing what he didn’t. However, he’d maybe get a couple right, but then be pulled up by a wrong answer, and when you get a couple wrong in a row it makes it extremely difficult to get any momentum going. John never panicked, and he never passed. However, with about thirty seconds to go it looked in doubt as to whether he might even get the ten he needed to win on pass countback. Agonisingly, he didn’t, falling just one short. As John announced his score he looked absolutely gutted, and I don’t blame him for that. I think it was Vince Lombardi who once said – if winning isn’t important, why do they bother keeping the score? – but he rallied quickly and offered Claire fulsome congratulations on her win. 

So well played Claire, a good all round performance, and best of luck in the semis. 

The Details

Claire Slater	The Life and Works of Leonardo da Vinci	12	1	13	3	25	4
Jim Mason	The Dreyfus Affair	11	0	10	3	21	3
Craig Thomson	The Life and Works of J.S.Bach	9	1	7	3	16	4
John Stitcher	The Inbetweeners	15	0	9	0	24	0

Mastermind 2018 - Recap - Heat 20

Mastermind 2018 – Heat 20

I can only apologise to the 4 contenders in heat 20. Here is my belated review.

Ben Holmes’ specialist subject promised to be my best of this season, bearing in mind how unlikely it is that any contenders in one of the remaining heats would take the Life and Times of Dave Clark as a specialist. (Believe me, it would be a very ordinaryist subject). I’ve been a huge Dr. Who fan since about 1966, when I was 2, and I’ve even written books on the subject. Alright, I’d rather have had a round on the classic series rather than the revived, but beggars can’t be choosers. I was delighted with my 13 – however this paled into insignificance against Ben’s perfect 15 from 15. Game on.

I’d only quite recently watched a decent documentary on the Concorde, so Kevin Howell’s round on the same promised a few points. Actually I did better than I thought, scoring 7, and putting myself on an aggregate of 20 with 2 rounds still to come. A record aggregate looked likely. Mind you, Kevin knew his stuff a lot better than I did. In normal circumstances a score of 12 on specialist will put you well up with the leaders at half time, however in this show it meant that he lagged 3 points behind Ben.

My first chance to break my aggregate record for the series came from Tony McConnell’s round on The Clash. Frankly, it wasn’t much of a chance at all. When you get right down to it, I just don’t know very much about The Clash, and only managed to get a single point. Tony obviously knew most of his stuff, but the fact is that when you’re up against perfection, knowing most of your stuff can still let you down. A double figure score on specialist is a good performance, and speaks of proper preparation, but sadly 10 points still meant that Tony was 5 points off the lead, and in all likelihood out of contention. 

Finally Diane Hardman offered us the Life of Sir Francis Walsingham. Now for me the issues were simple – 6 points would give me a new highest specialist aggregate for a show in this series of 27. So I went and scored 5. Ah, a show which had promised so much after the Doctor Who round. Well, returning to the real contest, Diane wasn’t quite perfect, but she kept on picking off the answers, and indeed seemed to even speed up as the round progressed. Scoring 13 gave her a chance. It’s a funny thing, but being a couple behind sounds so much better than being three behind. 

Tony McConnell returned to the chair, and added 10 general knowledge points to the 10 specialist points he had scored earlier. It’s probably not much consolation, but two double figure rounds, and a total of 20 is a perfectly respectable performance. It doesn’t help that it meant that the target after his round was only 5 points more than Ben had scored in his first round, but that’s just the way that this particular heat worked out.

Kevin Howell looked somewhat more nervous in his GK round than he had in his specialist. He was caught in a mid round pass spiral, and did well to eventually free himself from its clutches. Nonetheless, this limited his round to 8, which meant that he too finished with 20. 

The question, then, was whether Diane, starting on 13, could score enough points to at least make Ben have to cross the corridor of doubt. The answer was, well, almost. I really think that you need at least a double figure lead to really make the other contenders think that they have a sizeable task ahead of them, and Diane, who gave it a fair old lash, scored 11 to finish with 24. 9 and no passes would do it – 10 would provide and outright win.

Ben had provided the pick of the specialist rounds, and he provided the pick of the GK rounds as well. I often say this, but I do dare say that Ben is a quizzer, based on the breadth, speed and confidence of his answers. 14 is a good score, maybe not quite top drawer, but it’s the mark of a serious contender. In the end he won by a margin of 5 points. Well done Ben, and the best of luck in the semi finals.

The Details

Ben Holmes	Dr. Who 2005 - date	15	0	14	1	29	1
Kevin Howell	Concorde	12	1	8	4	20	5
Tony McConnell	The Clash	10	1	10	2	20	3
Diane Hardman	The Life of Sir Francis Walsingham	13	0	11	1	24	1

Mastermind 2018 - Heat 21

Mastermind 2018 – Heat 21

Hi everyone, and a Happy New Year to all. I’m sorry it’s been getting on for a month since my last post. I just found that things were starting to get on top of me again, and so I needed a bit of time to face down my demons, at least for the time being. Enough of me, though.

The first contender we would get to see in 2018, then, was Steve Rhodes. Steve was offering us the TV series The Royle Family. I have to say that Steve did appear to be extremely nervous – hence giving the answer Henry Norman when I’ve no doubt that he knew it was Henry Normal. To paraphrase John H., that’s what the chair can do to you. Other than that, though, he put on a fine performance to score 13. I’m a bit of a fan of the series myself, and it seemed to me that there was quite a bias in favour of the Christmas specials, as opposed to the regular series. For all that, though, I was pleased to kick off my own attempt at a plus 20 score with 8. 

I recognised Magda Biran as the captain of the very useful SOAS team in a recent series of University Challenge. Thinking back to that, I was fairly certain that she was going to go well in GK. So it was all a question of how well could she do on her specialist subject, Lord Melbourne. For all that this was a very traditional specialist subject, I’ve always said that biographicals make good MM subjects, since they’re finite and learnable within a restricted time frame. Magda had certainly learned her stuff, and managed a 12, which put her only one point behind the leader. She also showed the skill of a TV quiz veteran in avoiding any passes in her round.

Pop groups and artists have become one of the staple SS genres of each series of MM since the 2003 revival, and our third contender, Tim Footman, offered us one of the biggies in The Beach Boys. With my half dozen points on Lord Melbourne, another half dozen here put me on 20. Tom, needless to say, did considerably better than that – twice as well, in fact. He passed on one, and finished with 12. Only a point behind the leader, and level with Magda, I couldn’t help wondering whether that pass was going to be significant. 

This was all speculation, though, especially considering that we still had our fourth contender, Matt Leighton, to go. Matt was answering on British General Elections 1945 – 2017, which may on the surface sound like a bit of a dry, old subject. Far from it actually. Even foregone conclusions like Tony Blair’s second and third election victories are interesting in their own way. I was happy to take five to give me one of my best aggregates of the whole season. Matt as well showed real depth of knowledge to take 11, putting himself just 2 points off the lead, and in contention.

So at the turn all 4 of the contenders were still in it. Matt was first to return to the chair. He’d passed a couple of times in his specialist round, and so it seemed his tactic was to answer at once if an answer came to him, and to pass quickly if it didn’t. That’s a perfectly valid tactic, and it did have the effect of ensuring that he never lost momentum as the round progressed. I dare say that Matt may well have done a bit of quizzing in his time, judging by the speed and breadth of his answers. 11 points was a more than decent return on the round – unlikely to win – I thought – but enough to put others into the corridor of doubt.

Not that it looked as if Magda was in any doubt whatsoever. In contrast to Matt, Magda was not going to pass any questions. She scarcely missed anything for the first minute, and even when she didn’t know the answer to questions she made sensible suggestions, and kept off picking off the majority. There was just a slight hiatus in the middle of the round, but even so she accumulated a good 13 to raise the target significantly.

Tim Footman I did not know before the start of this show. However he is obviously a quizzer, judging by the range of answers he provided while posting a magnificent 17. If he was the least bit daunted by the size of the task he faced in the round he didn’t show it. In fact, Tim actually did something that many people told me I was prone to doing in the 2007 SOBM – he smiled several times while John was asking the question, obviously knowing the answer before the question was finished. As he walked back to the chair, I felt certain that his score of 29 was a winning one.

Nonetheless, Steve Rhodes had been in the lead as the half time oranges were distributed, and although it was going to take a remarkably good round for him to win, it was still possible. I mentioned that he’d looked nervous in the first round, and sadly, this seemed to be the case in the GK. In the end he finished with a total of 20 points. 

So, well played Tim. A great performance which is one of the most impressive of this season so far. On this kind of form he looks a good bet in the semis, and you never know. . . Best of luck. 

The Details

Steve Rhodes	The Royle Family	13	1	7	3	20	4
Magda Biran	William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne	12	0	13	0	25	0
Tim Footman	The Beach Boys	12	1	17	0	29	1
Matt Leighton	British General Elections 1945 - 2017	11	2	11	4	22	6