University Challenge 2019 - round two - Hertford, Oxford v. Manchester

Hertford, Oxford v. Manchester

Well, dearly beloved, last week we watched the first of our repechage winners go on to claim a spot in the quarter final stages. Aiming to do the same in Monday’s match were Hertford, Oxford, represented by Steffi Woodgate, Pat Taylor, Chris Page and skipper Richard Tudor. To do that, though, they would have to defeat Manchester, whose team of Alex Antao, Georgia Lynott, Joe Hanson and skipper James Ross won a close contest against East London in the first round.

Both teams rather sat on their buzzer for the first starter, which was gettable from the first clue. Even if you didn’t know, you could surely have guessed that the French version of The Office had the word Bureau in it. Richard Tudor finally took that piece of low hanging fruit. Unbuilt cities provided particularly fertile ground, yielding them a full house. Now, I didn’t know that the last word of the quotation – Half of Science is putting forward the right – would be -questions, but it seemed obvious that this would be the answer, which indeed it was. After a bit of an interval Chris Page lobbed the same word in to earn a set of bonuses on books of the Old Testament referring to the King James Bible. These, it must be said were by no means gimmes, and Hertford failed to trouble the scorer. Kati Horna, Remedios Varo and Leonora Carrington were all ex pat surrealists who made Mexico City their home. I didn’t know that but Joe Hanson did, to open Manchester’s account for the evening. Pairs of letter – used for both a chemical element and an American state postal abbreviation – provided a lovely UC special set of which they took a full house. The splendidly named Fred Whipple – who surely missed his metier and should have been an ice cream salesman rather than an astronomer -  hypothesized about the make up of the nucleus of a comet. Chris Page edged out Joe Hanson in the buzzer race to win that starter and win bonuses on shades of green. They took two correct answers, but didn’t know chartreuse. So to the picture starter, and an interesting world map in which the size of each country was directly proportional to the number of kilowatt hours of electricity generated from a major fuel source. The teams had to deduce the fuel source. From the relative hugeness of the UK I guessed coal, but neither of the teams saw it. James Ross was very quickly in to confirm that “To A Wild Rose” was a piano piece composed by Macdowall – although he didn’t say whether this was Roddy or Andi. This earned the picture bonuses, more strangely distorted fuel maps. 2 bonuses meant that, although it appeared that Hertford had had the better of the opening exchanges in the first ten minutes only 10 points separated the teams, with Hertford leading by 55 – 45.

Okay. Did you know the acronym MOGREPS? Me neither, and nor did the teams, so none of us knew that the E stands for ensemble forecasting. Moving swiftly on, for the next starter I did know that Sir Harrison Birtwhistle composed the opera Punch and Judy, which linked nicely with Harrison Schmitt, one of the last 2 astronauts to walk on the moon. I gave myself a pat on the back for guessing that the next clue would relate to Harrison Ford – and indeed this was the clue which gave Chris Page the answer. Sadly he had a rush of blood to the head and gave the surname – “Ford”, then realised what he’d done and corrected himself – “Harrison”. He still lost 5, and then JP passed it over. I’ll be honest, I’ve seen times when similar things have happened and JP has administered a severe wigging, but not passed it over. For what it’s worth, I think passing it over was the right thing to do in this case. It was bad luck, and these things can happen in the heat of the moment, but Manchester were entitled to their crack and the bonuses that ensued. James Ross tapped that one into the hole, and Queens of France provided them with one correct answer and me with a full house. Well, I do have Huguenot ancestors, you know. I also have a far-from-Francophile sister in law – whom I love dearly - who was horrified when I let her know that particular aspect of her husband’s genetic makeup, but I digress. Nobody knew about Sikkim, which apparently gets its name from a command used by dog handlers. Nobody knew that typhus, caused by the Rickettsia bacteria, is also known as Jail Disease. Chris Page was the first to buzz in to identify John Montagu as the Earl of Sandwich. (Insert your own jokes here) Elements of the names of Chinese capitals gave me an unexpected bonus – I knew that Nanking means Southern capital, so got Nan for the first. Didn’t have a scooby about the others, though. Neither did Hertford, with both of us getting just the first. None of us knew the term contact inhibition – although I’ve experienced what could certainly be described as contact prohibition a few times in the past. Alex Antao was the first to recognise a series of clues indicating the letters B and R for the next starter. Chemical stuff provided Manchester with a full house. This brought us to the music starter, and nobody recognised the work of Stravinsky. Not surprised – what we heard sounded far too musical for Stravinsky. Miaow. Georgia Lynott buzzed too early for the next starter, allowing Richard Tudor to supply the correct answer – that Stilwell’s nickname was Vinegar Joe, as opposed to other condiments. This gave Hertford a shy at the music bonuses. More composers brought the one bonus needed to level the scores. Nobody knew that the first proper name in Paradise Lost is the location The Garden of Eden. Good question – I was wrong. I went for Pandemonium. Did you know that nasturtium takes its name from the latin for nose twister? None of us did, but it’s a blooming good question, should you pardon the pun, and I’m going to be asking that one in the rugby club next time I’m QM. Right, I don’t pretend to understand the next Maths starter, but the answer was 168, which neither team had. Alex Antao knew that if the question is about ancient religion and Iran, then it’s Zoroastrianism. Bonuses on immortality in Shakespeare’s tragedies brought two bonuses, and a lead of 20 points – 100 – 80, as we reached the twenty minute mark in what was an absorbing and closely matched contest up to this point.

A terrific captain’s early buzz from James Ross identified Prasutagus as the husband of Boudicca. Scales and measures brought another two correct answers, and it was vital for Hertford that they took the next starter, since the gap was widening at precisely the time they needed it to be narrowing. However this was the picture starter and it was Alex Antao who identified the work of Goya. Only one bonus accrued, but the momentum was with Manchester. Chris Page pulled Hertford back from the brink, recognising the planned trilogy, the Book of Dust. Bonuses on literature earned a further ten points to reduce arrears to 35. The impressive Chris Page pulled a further 10 points back, knowing that if the question asks about watchmaker John Harrison, you’ll never be far away with the word longitude. The British exploration of Africa. helped narrow the gap further. Manchester, though, were also holding their collective nerve. Alex Antao took the next starter on various verse forms in Japanese poetry. Roman provinces helped them reestablish a 30 point lead. That’s crucial. It meant that Hertford couldn’t draw level with just one visit to the table. Alex Antao again displayed a finely tuned buzzing finger winning the buzzer race to identify Herr Messerchmidt ( Willy? I think so.) as the designer of the BF109. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland provided one bonus, but that was rather immaterial. There just couldn’t be enough time left for Hertford now. Neither team managed the next starter, but it was that man Antao who took the next, working out that since Rosario is a prominent city in Argentina, then Operation Rosario may well have taken place during the Falklands Conflict. African cities provided Manchester with a lightning fast full house. We were gonged seconds later with the score at 185 – 115. It looks like a comfortable victory for  Manchester, yet they were pushed all the way by this good Hertford team, and on this showing look like useful dark horses in the quarters. Well done both teams, and best of luck to Manchester.

Jeremy Paxman Watch

After the very first starter JP chided the Hertford skipper with “Some people find that question difficult, you know. There’s no need to look so dismissive.” Jez – have you ever looked in a mirror after a team fails to get a question on Shakespeare right? Physician, heal thyself, that’s all I’m saying.

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

Typhus is also known as jail fever.

University Challenge 2019 - Round Two - St. Peter's, Oxford v. Emmanuel, Cambridge

Chins up, dearly beloved, it’s the start of the second round proper. St. Peter’s, Oxford, in the shape of James Hodgson, Seb Braddock, Laura Cooper and captain Nick Williford, he of the splendid handlebar moustache, saw off one Cambridge team in the first round in the shape of Pembroke. More Cambridge opponents came in the shape of battle-hardened Emmanuel, for whom Connor Macdonald, Vedanth Nair, Ben Harris and skipper Daniella Cugini narrowly lost to Glasgow in round one, before comfortably beating King’s London in the repechage.

Okay, the first starter. Any question which mentions Ireland and geological formation is pretty much suggesting Giant’s Causeway right from the off, but neither team took a real flyer, until Connor Macdonald buzzed in with e right answer. The French town of Valenciennes didn’t look particularly fertile ground for a full house, but that’s exactly what it yielded. Laura Cooper’s sharp buzzing in the first round heat was a huge advantage for St. Peter’s, but she was in too soon for the next starter, misindentifying the poet in question as Thomas Hardy. The English specialists really should have got it for ‘dapple down dawn.’ Dapple is like a huge signpost saying Gerard Manley Hokins – Glory be to God for Dappled Things etc. I earned my lap of honour early in this show, for I knew that a cell converts chemical to electrical energy. So did James Hodgson. The Scriblerians yielded just the one correct answer. Laura Cooper’s twitchy buzzer finger struck again and saw her lose 5 points for the next starter, which mammal description wanted the answer tapir. Emmanuel couldn’t capitalise. For the second time in the show I was underwhelmed by the English specialists – nobody in either team had any idea that Confessio Amantis was written by John Gower. Vedanth Nair stopped the rot, knowing the term camel case, which I certainly didn’t. Bonuses on WHO lists of essential medicines brought one bonus, and led ont o the picture starter. This spliced together the opening lines of two sonnets. I recognised Anthem for Doomed youth by Wilfred Owen, and guessed the other would be by Siegfried Sassoon. I’m sure that Daniele Cugini recognised the Wilfred Owen lines, but she zigged with Rupert Brooke, allowing Laura Cooper to zag with Sassoon. More of the same brought a correct answer to St. Peters. I had that one and also the Milton and Donne, but didn’t have a Scooby about Rosetti and Barrett-Browning. This was a timely set for St. Peter’s though, since it at least gave them a toehold in the match, and they trailed Emmanuel by 40 – 20.

Credit where it’s due, there was a terrific fast buzz by Daniela Cugini to identify element 100 as being named after Fermi. The year 1991 in feminism didn’t provide much for the team, just the one bonus. Nick Williford made an equally impressive early buzz to identify words attributed to French King Louis XIV. Misreadings and mispronunciations gave rise to some amusement when it mentioned the Indian newsreader who rendered Chinese leader Xi Ji Ping’s name as Eleven Ji Ping. Reminds me of a Sunday league quiz in Cardiff once. When asked which king of England was crowned King of both England and France when only a babe in arms we answered Henry VI. Nope said the question master. The home team answered Henry IV. Nope, replied the poor hapless individual – you’re both wrong. It says Henry Vie here. – St. Peter’s took one bonus, but really and truly one of them should have known that the Hundred Years war began in the reign of Edward III, I would have thought. Vedanth Nair was again in early to identify the Dravidian language family. German Grand Duchies provided Emma with a timely full house, and led us nicely into the music round. The first to buzz in to identify the cat singing scat was Cameron Macdonald, who didn’t mistake the unmistakable voice of Louis Armstrong. 3 more examples of scat singing were always going to include Ella Fitzgerald, but like Emma I didn’t have a clue about the second. I recognised Sammy Davis Jr, though.  I didn’t even understand the next question, but Laura Cooper knew the answer was DNA. The architect David Adjaye brought another bonus. St. Peters were hanging on there in the match, but really needed to up their bonus conversion rate if they were going to have a hope of pegging back what already looked like a significant lead for Emmanuel. Vedanth Nair, having another good match on the buzzer, knew that the Titulus Regius was the instrument used by king Richard III to give a veneer of legality to his usurpation of the throne. Astrophysics promised me but little and delivered less, although Emmanuel did pick up a single bonus themselves. The St. Peter’s skipper was impressively quick on the buzzer again to identify Wellington – the city, not the footwear, duke, or educational establishment – as soon as a reasonable clue had been given. Dorothy Coade Hewitt – Dorothy Who? in LAM Towers – provided them with nowt. They really were not getting the rub of the green at all in their bonus sets. Now, whenever the question mentions the Ismaili sect, just buzz and say Aga Khan. That’s what Cameron Macdonald did. 2 bonuses on works published by past or future prime ministers pushed their score to 125 against St. Peter’s 60 at the 20 minute mark. Not quite over the event horizon, but not far off.

Good old astronomy gave me a Science starter, as both Ben Harris and I knew that the planet with 4 large moons (and a shedload of wee ones) is always going to be Jupiter. Chemistry didn’t look likely to offer me much and indeed there was never much chance of me earning a further lap of honour here. Emmanuel, though managed a full house. For the second picture starter Nick Williford won the buzzer race to identify Sir Roger Bannister. More athletes photographed making sporting history brought two correct answers. Didn’t phase Emmanuel though. Cameron Macdonald took a real flyer on the next starter, identifying Nietzsche very quickly. Bonuses on foreign language film Oscar winners promised none of us very much but Emmanuel did manage a single bonus. That man Nair knew something about pi which earned the next set of bonuses on literary works using reverse chronology took their score to 175, and the game was up for St. Peter’s. Nobody knew the next starter about the River Clyde. To be fair to St. Peter’s they didn’t just give up, and Laura Cooper was the first in to identify the novel Last Exit to Brooklyn. A bonus on Asian dog breeds took them to 95. Now, I’ve never heard of the mirror test, but I guessed it from the terms of the question. Daniela Cugini took that starter for Emmanuel. A full house on dystopian novels took Emmanuel to 200. None of us knew the opening words to Lady Chatterley’s Lover. Ben Harris lost 5 when he came in too early for the next starter, while Nick Williford, who had been playing a captain’s innings all evening, came in to give the correct answer of Afghanistan to take his team into triple figures. A full house on national flags was too late, but at least they got one. That was it, though. The contest was gonged halfway through the next starter, and Emmanuel had won by 195 to 120. JP couldn’t quite resist rubbing a little salt into the Oxford team’s wounds by telling them that they never really had a chance to get into their stride. Cobblers. They had their chance, but just couldn’t convert enough bonuses to compete. It happens.

Jeremy Paxman Watch

Little to report here. There was a mild case of apoplexy when Emma suggested Sammy Davis Jr may in fact have been Miles Davis, but really there was nothing more of note. Must try harder, Jez.

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

Camel case is the correct term for the use of upper case letters in the middle of a string of lower case letters, particularly in proprietary or commercial names.

Mastermind 2019 - Heat 8

My wife has many excellent qualities. She is not, however, a lover of Mastermind, and indeed, I’m not sure that I blame her. She virtually lost me to Mastermind for large chunks of 2007 when I was, as she would put it, ‘mumbling away to yourself in the dining room for hours at a stretch’. Well, the fact is that if you want to really learn your specialist subject you’ve got to put the effort in. As I said, though, she isn’t a lover of the show, and last night was the first time this series that she joined me in watching it. Her reaction to the portal of portent was, and again I quote,

“Oh, how bloody ridiculous! What on earth are they making them do that for?” I found that I was unable to give her a satisfactory answer.

So to the show. Sarah Turner offered us Cher for the first of last night’s specialist subjects. This was one of those subjects where I thought I might snaffle a couple of points, but I did a bit better than I expected, taking 5. Sarah’s was a good round, but not a great one, as she passed on a couple. As one does, I did wonder whether those passes might prove to be significant in the final reckoning.

The Cambridge Spy Ring offered me, I believed, the chance of a big fat zero, so again, I was pleased and surprised to be able to take another 4 out of this round. Alister Jones did a lot better than that, mind you His 12 wasn’t quite a perfect round, but as we’ve seen throughout the series, 12 is the kind of score that will invariably leave you in contention coming into the GK round.

If the Cambridge Spy Ring offered me the chance of nowt, then Tove Jansson, the subject offered by Fi Withers, actually delivered it. I mean, I do recall reading a couple of the Moomin books maybe 45 years ago, but apart from the fact that the illustrations made the Moomins look a little like tiny cute hippos, that’s about all I could remember. Of course, this round ranged a lot wider than just the Moomin books, and Fi Withers obviously knew her stuff. However a few questions went begging, and while 9 is a perfectly respectable score in this day and age, I fancied it would leave her too much to do in the GK.

Lastly Linda King. Maybe it was just me, but I felt that her walk to the chair had something of the air of ‘let’s stop all of this faffing around and just get on with it, shall we?!’ Well, she certainly meant business in the chair. She was answering on The Derby 1955 – 1990. I do wonder sometimes how people manage to negotiate these specific time parameters. Way back in the mists of time when I was making my first appearance, I wanted to do the Modern Summer Olympics from 1948 to the present and was told in no uncertain terms, no, sorry, you’ll do the lot of them, my boy, and like it! For my 2007 final I wanted to just do Old London Bridge 1179-1831, and again was told, no, you do ALL of the London Bridges that came before and the ones that have come after as well. Well, whatever the case, Linda too took a fine 12 to give herself every chance in the GK round.

Fi returned to the chair. Now, let’s be fair, it is only a game so it’s not a case of there ever being any real cause to feel shame or regret about a round, or an appearance on the show. But I do always feel that if you can get double figures in a round then you can feel perfectly at ease with how you’ve done. Fi managed that in her GK round, scoring 10, Ah, what might have been. One more point and she’d have made 20 overall, which is only one point more than 19, but psychologically sounds so much more.

That target was unlikely to last very long, and indeed was overhauled by Sarah Turner when she returned to the chair. Sarah herself did only manage the 9 points on GK, not quite getting into double figures, but having started two points ahead of Fi, this put her into the 20s. Again, though, it didn’t really look as if the target was going to last for very long.

About 2 and a half minutes, actually. Alister Jones achieved the feat of scoring the same in both his specialist and his GK rounds. 24 is not a bad score at all, and it is the kind of score which can sometimes win a heat though. It wasn’t going to win this one. Linda’s GK round enlivened what had been up to this point a relatively quiet show. Without wishing to be harsh, my socks had remained firmly on my feet throughout the whole show up to this point. Linda’s round, though, was quality. This, I thought, is a person with a pretty good general knowledge. It wasn’t just the number of correct answers that she had. In this season, I’ve thought that the average GK rounds have been mostly relatively gentle, although each has had a sprinkling of harder questions. I’ always more impressed when the contenders do pretty well with the few harder questions that they get, and this was the case with Linda. From early on in her round she was obviously going to win, and in the end she’d added a very good 16 to win with 28. Well done, and good luck in the semis.

The Details

Sarah Turner	Cher	11	2	9	6	20	8
Alister Jones	The Cambridge Spy Ring	12	1	12	0	24	1
Fi Withers	Tove Jansson	9	0	10	0	19	0
Linda King	The Derby 1955 - 1990	12	2	16	1	28	3

I'm a Celebrity

Can I make a plea for all readers to be kind to my friend Anne Hegerty on "I'm A Celebrity"? I don't know if you're the kind of person who would normally never phone in for such a show - I certainly am - but if I could ask for your help keeping Anne away from any more of those horrible bush tucker trials. Apart from being a fantastic quizzer, she's a really lovely person and absolutely does not deserve to be put through some of trial by television which this show is so renowned for.

Thanks in advance.

University Challenge 2019 - Repechage Match 2 - Hertford, Oxford v. Exeter

So to the second repechage match. Hertford, Oxford, represented by Steffi Woodgate, Pat Taylor, Chris Page and skipper Richard Tudor, lost on the buzzer to Clare of Cambridge in the first round, while Exeter, whose team were Simon Waitland, Will Klintworth, Jessica Brown and their skipper Danny Lay, lost a thriller to Warwick in the very first match of the series, back in July.

Possibly mindful of the way that his team were buzzed out of their heat, Chris Page came in very early for the first starter, and lost five, allowing Simon Waitland to buzz in, and rather amusingly give the correct answer while JP was burbling on telling them that they could hear the whole question. The answer was paradise papers. No, me neither. Meetings and assemblies gave Exeter a further 10 points, but I wondered if they’d rue saying enclave rather than conclave. I felt that both teams rather sat on their buzzers for the next starter, asking where Plato taught, until Richard Tudor buzzed in with Academy after a number of other clues to the word. Karl Pearson , (altogether now – known in LAM Towers as Karl Who) promised but little, but actually served me up a lap of honour for knowing that Francis Galton is considered the father of Eugenics. That was the only one that Hertford knew as well. I didn’t know that 40,000 doctors cooperated in a study that established a link between smoking and cancer, but I guessed for the next starter. Steffi Woodgate knew. Doping in sport provided a further two bonuses. Both Richard Tudor and I recognised the names of two of the tutors of Elizabeth I. for the next starter. Lorraine Hansberry added another bonus to both of us. Hertford were outbuzzing Exeter at this stage, but not making the most of the bonus opportunities. Early days though. On to the picture starter which showed us a map on which a major forest, obviously the Forest of Dean, had been marked. First to identify it was Will Klintworth. More of the same brought another two correct answers. This meat that just before the ten minute mark Hertford still led, but only by 45 – 35.

Chris Page won the buzzer race to say that YBA in a particular context stands for Young British Artists. Manet’s Le Dejeuner Sur l’Herbe provided Hertford with their first full house of the evening. Danny Lay knew that for the most part, if you hear the words Charles Goodyear at the start of a question, if you answer vulcanisation at once, you’re going to be right a lot more often than you’re going to be wrong. Bonuses on the sciences promised me but little, although I did know that a gram stain is used to distinguish between bacteria. Exeter took two. Will Klintworth knew that the Visegrad contains Poland, Czech Republic and Slovakia as well as Hungary. Good shout, that. Early Gothic cathedrals only provided a single bonus for Exeter, but more importantly it gave them the lead. Neither team could manage to dredge up the proverb ‘good fences make good neighbours’ for the next starter. Despite a very helpfully worded question, neither team knew the Belvedere Palace in Vienna. Exeter nonetheless seemed to have warmed up now, and Will Lay won the buzzer race to idenfity the term Dustbowl, as in the Great American of the 1930s. Agricultural products beginning with co provided no more points, but took us up to the music starter. Will Lay very quickly recognised the work of Edvard Grieg. Three exercises in musical nostalgia brought Exeter two correct answers, and me nowt. However I atoned for it knowing that a neotenic Mexican salamander must be an axolotl – giving me ax for the next starter. Chris Page wasn’t far behind either, with a timely back to put his own team’s effort back onto the rails. I was surprised that they didn’t know that Napoleon Bonaparte is buried in Les Invalides – you can’t afford to miss gimmes like that in a tight match. They did rally to recognise the name of the composer of the Marseillaise to score one bonus on the set. Thus galvanised skipper Richard Tudor took a good early buzz to identify Purple as the colour in the title of a 1985 Woody Allen film – The Purple Rose of Cairo if you’re not certain. Elements known since antiquity gave me that rarest or rara aves, a full house on Science. Hertford too took a full house, which gave them back the lead. Good match. Simon Waitland knew about Coriolis to snatch back that lead with the next starter. Meera Nair’s work has, I’m afraid, passed me by, but I did guess the last. Exeter went one better than me for that set of bonuses. Thus, on the cusp of the 20 minute mark they led, but the contest was nicely poised at 125 – 110.

Pat Taylor took a good early buzz to identify the phonetics term rhotic. South American capital cities offered a potential full house, and indeed that’s what they delivered, handing Hertford back the lead. A still from the biographical film about Iris Murdoch saw neither team able to identify its subject. A rush of blood to the head saw Will Lay throw away 5 points by buzzing early to identify the Red Fort as located in Beijing. This was compounded when Pat Taylor gave the correct answer of Delhi. The Picture bonuses from films about writers brought a full house to Hertford, who must have felt that the wind was well into their sails at this point. Steffi Woodgate buzzed early to recognise parts of an insects eye – each ot their own, I suppose. Bonuses on the Berlin Wall took the Hertford lead to 60 points, and with just 4 minutes to go, that looked decisive. It wasn’t over yet though. Will Klintworth won the buzzer race to identify L’Eminence Rouge as Richelieu. Bonuses on India didn’t help a great deal, yielding just the one correct answer. At this stage there was no point in Exeter sitting back on their buzzers, so I don’t blame Will Klintworth for taking a flyer with the next starter, but he failed to identify that Blair, Major etc were all Leaders of the Opposition. Richard Tudor confirmed Hertford’s win by giving the correct answer. History bonuses brought a further ten points. Haemaglutinin – gesundheit – was right up Steffi Woodgate’s street, and she left everyone else trailing in her wake for the next starter about said antigen. Meteorites provided just the one bonus, but this was immaterial since the job was done. Nobody could dredge up the term epicene for the next starter. Will Lay did well to buzz early to identify Le Figaro as the newspaper named after a character created by Beaumarchais, but Exeter’s chance had passed several minutes earlier. US Golf courses at least allowed Exeter to finish with a flourish with a full house. Indeed the final answer of the evening was supplied by Will Klintworth who recognised a description of General Gordon. This took Exeter’s score to 165 – higher than the first round, while Hertford won with 215. Make no mistake, this was a quality match, and a pleasure to watch – well played to both teams.

Jeremy Paxman Watch

Nothing to see here, citizens. Go on with your lives.

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

The first case of competitors losing their medals for doping offences was the 1968 Swedish Modern Pentathlon team.

Mastermind 2019, Heat 7

Well, I think we’re getting into the swing of it with this series now, aren’t we, dearly beloved. For the first time this series, BBC Wales actually consented to show this one at the same time as the rest of the UK. Won’t last.

Enough of such grumping. First through the portentous portal was Corinne Male. Speaking of the portal, it suddenly occurred to me the other day to ask myself bigheadedly whether the idea of the portal was inspired the metaphorical corridor of doubt, so often mentioned in this very blog. Answers on a postcard, please. Corinne was offering us the Life and Works of Rudyard Kipling. Well and good, but was it an exceedingly good round? Well, not quite. She had a bit of a hesitant start, which meant that when she did get into her stride the finish line came a little too quickly. She still managed double figures with 10.

I had 4 on the Kipling round, and added another 5 on Mik Levin’s round on Clement Atlee. A consistently underestimated figure in his own career and lifetime, Clement Atlee remains, to my mind, by far one of the most important Prime Ministers of the 20^th century. Mik’s round was if anything the opposite of Corinne’s. He began with great confidence, and seemed destined for something around the 12 mark. However hesitancies and wrong answers began to creep in, which left him on 9. That’s a perfectly respectable SS score in this day and age, but it isn’t the platform you need to launch a bid for a win in GK.

Glamorgan County Cricket Club are my local county, as it were, so maybe I ought to have done better than the 4 points I managed on David Cowan’s round. Not really, though, when ou consider that it’s cricket, and I just can’t really get into cricket. I haven’t got the attention span. David has. He produced the best round of the night, and I particularly liked his crisp and quick answering style. This meant that although it was never a perfect round, he still managed to amass 12 points by the time the BLOD (Blue Line Of Doom) had completed its circuit.

It fell to Matilda Southwood to complete the round. Matilda was offering a traditional type Mastermind subject in the stiff and starched form of Florence Nightingale. Another 4 points took my aggregate to 15, one of my better Specialist aggregates of this series. Matilda knew her stuff, no doubt about that, but never looked quite as convincing as David. She seemed rather nervous, although still managed to push him close, scoring 11.

It fell to Mik, then, to begin the GK round. His round was actually something of a reprise of what had happened in the Specialist. Mik started extremely well, and although there was a quite a bit of bread and butter amongst the questions that he was asked, he was getting all of the harder stuff as well. The last 45 seconds or so of his round see him lose momentum in sight of the line, and incur a string of passes. He still managed a score of 13, though, and that’s not a bad score at all by anyone’s standards. Setting the target at 22 I fancied that he wouldn’t still be in last place come the end of the show.

Indeed he wouldn’t. Corinne never really managed to build up a head of steam with her GK round, and it was pretty obvious that she wasn’t going to make the target quite a while before her round actually ended. Hard lines. Corinne finished with 8 for a total of 18.

With Matilda, it was all rather closer. Still sounding rather nervous and unsure of a number of answers, she managed to keep pushing her total onwards, closer to the target. However she ran out of road, to coin a phrase, having only scored 10 for 21 by the time the buzzer trilled to bring an end to the round.

So Mik would be second at least. But could he pull off the rare feat of moving from last to first in the space of the GK round? Well, no. David’s crisp, calm answering style brought him past the winning post with quite a bit of time to spare. In the end he added an impressive 15 to take his total to 27. It’s all in the eye of the beholder, but I did think that last night’s GK rounds were a little easier than the average rounds we’ve seen this series, but nonetheless you can only answer what you’re asked, and David did that extremely well. Good luck in the semi finals, sir.

Corinne Male	The Life and Works of Rudyard Kipling	10	1	8	3	18	4
Mik Levin	Clement Atlee	9	3	13	5	22	8
David Cowan	Glamorgan CCC	12	0	15	0	27	0
Matilda Southwood	Florence Nightingale	11	0	10	2	21	2

University Challenge, Repechage 1, Emmanuel, Cambridge v. King's, London

Connor Macdonald, Vedanth Nair, Ben Harris and skipper Daniella Cugini, representing Emmanuel, Cambridge, put on a very good performance narrowly missing out to Glasgow in their first round heat while scoring 175. Their opponents, Kings, London, Liam Tsang, Rhianne Jones, Katie Heath and their own skipper Anthony Chater, lost out in the Central London derby against old rivals UCL. They’d scored 145. Advantage Emmanuel? Time would tell.

Daniella Cugini, impressive in the first round match, started much the same way in this one, recognising a quote from “To Kill A Mockingbird” very early to take first blood for Emmanuel. Bonuses on the word cosmos brought just the one correct answer. Both teams rather sat on the buzzer for the next starter, with Connor Macdonald finally springing to life to answer Golda Meir just before the question was finished. Composers in London brought a full house. Liam Tsang hit back for UCL, recognising the definition of a bacterial colony for a timely early buzz. Astronomy and Physics I thought maybe offered me the chance of a lap of honour. Indeed, knowing that Chiron is a centaur from Greek Mythology, that’s exactly what happened. By the time I returned to the sofa, puffing and wheezing, (and it’s not even a big room) both King’s and I had taken our own full houses. Anthony Chater narrowed the gap further, knowing that Winchester Cathedral fitted the description given for the next starter. Barbara Hepworth yielded nowt for the bonuses, in what was a reasonably gettable set. So to the picture starter, and a map of part of the USA, with a city marked out in California. Vedanth Nair recognised that it was the state capital Sacramento. More American cities which were terminals of North American railroads provided a far from easy full house. Connor Macdonald took his second starter, recognising a description of sugar cane. Films of 2017 brought two bonuses, which meant that Emmanuel, who’d had the better of the opening exchanges, led by 85 to 35.

It was pretty obvious that the country in question, neighbouring Switzerland, was Liechtenstein, and Vedanth Nair won the buzzer race to supply that answer. This time Emmanuel’s bonuses were on female military leaders in China – can’t wait – I thought as JP announced these. Actually I still managed two, while Emmanuel took a good full house. Some chemistry thing to which Ben Harris supplied the correct answer Friedel-Crafts followed. Pressure brught another full set of bonuses, and at this stage the odds on a King’s win were getting longer and longer. There was a long time still to go, but Emmanuel had a 100 point lead. Nobody knew about ephedrine for the next starter. Now, if you ever get a question which contains the words “a German philologist” then it’s going to be about one or both of the Brothers Grimm. Daniela Cugini knew this as she buzzed in really quickly to answer Grimm’s Law to the next starter. Names often heard in pairs gave us a wonderful UC special set which earned Emmanuel two bonuses. So to the music starter. Anthony Chater quickly recognised that the Trolley Song was from the musical Meet Me In St. Louis. Three more MGM musicals from this period brought the ten points they needed to reduce the gap to an even hundred. A UC special set saw Ben Harris give us auk and ork, and then almost curse himself as he realised it is auk and orc, a fact which didn’t escape Katie Heath. Bonuses on various Engelberts brought the gap down to 75. Katie Heath then committed the fatal error of not listening to the question. Asked for an island in a novel by Swift, she gave us the title of the novel, “Gulliver’s Travels” allowing Ben Harris to take revenge by giving us Lilliput. To bonuses of their own on impact craters in the solar system followed. Rhianne Jones knew various latin words beginning with AL. Countries that formerly possessed nuclear weapons brought a couple more bonuses for King’s, and right on the cusp of the 20 minute mark the score stood at 175 – 95 to Emmanuel. The task was not totally beyond King’s at this stage, but it would require some phenomenal buzzer work.

Nobody knew the geometry starter which followed. Vedanth Nair recognised that the other person from the one named who shared the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize was Malala Yousafzai. The anatomy of fish brought up a full house, and magnified the scale of the mountain that King’s still had to climb. The second picture starter brought a photograph of a British historical figure. Connor Macdonald did the old quizzer’s trick of only offering the surname “Pankhurst”. JP was having none of it, “Which one?” he asked, his eyes narrowing with suspicion. Connor Macdonald zigged correctly with Emmeline. Three more people involved in the Women’s Suffrage Movement brought one bonus. Now, if it’s a beverage and it’s a cantata, it’s coffee. Anthony Chater knew that, and struck like a coiled cobra. Madness in Shakespeare brought 2 bonuses. However, every time King’s scored, Emmanuel would just take the next starter, and Vedanth Nair recognised a description of Baku for the next starter. National trails in Southern England brought just one bonus, but it really didn’t matter. The clock was running down and King’s were pretty much out of time, even if they answered every remaining question. They took the next one, Liam Tsang knowing osteoblasts. Fictional spacecraft did them no favours and they failed to add to their score. The impressive Vedanth Nair took the next starter giving the terms of supply and demand in economics. Pele did them no favours, but it was immaterial. Anthony Chater won a fast buzzer race to identify the opening line of “The Go Between” which I once mistakenly thought was written by J.R.Hartley, (younger readers may wish to consult their parents or grandparents about that specific cultural reference). Island countries did at least allow King’s to reduce the gap to double figures. That was it. Emmanuel won by 235 to 140, in a pretty convincing performance. Hard lines King’s.

Jeremy Paxman Watch

‘Is it Alexander von Humboldt? is that the brother you were thinking of?’ asked Jez, teasingly. ‘Yes? Well, you didn’t get him!’ He started early this week. For the film question, asked for a city in Yorkshire, Daniella Cugini, acting on advice from Vedanth Nair that the answer began with T, offered Truro. Cue the Paxman eyebrows shooting towards the ceiling. “Truro’s NOT in Yorkshire!” he sniffed, his nose wrinkling as if it had just detecting an unpleasant odour. Actually, though, I think that there was a bit of sympatico between Jez and the Cambridge skipper. When she offered Apollo and Daphne instead of Daphnis and Chloe, she shrugged her shoulders and went ‘Ach’ in a ‘hey, whaddya gonna do?’ gesture, which caused the great man to laugh, and replicate the same. Down, boy, down, or they’ll be putting bromide in your Horlicks again.

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

Chopin gave his final performance in London in 1848 after fleeing the unrest in Paris (which saw the overthrow of Louis Phillipe)

Mastermind 2019 Heat 6

Ah, Mastermind. A good way to end a rather fraught week – my school has had a visit from the Inspectors of Estyn.

First into the chair was journalist Mic Wright. His specialist subject was Mark E Smith and The Fall. Now, I will be honest, I thought that I knew nothing whatsoever about Mark E Smith and The Fall, but it turned out I just knew next to nothing, since I scored one. Mic knew his stuff alright. He had a couple wrong but still managed a total of 13 points for his round, which proved he must have been going like the clappers.

Through the portal of portent came Tom Cappleman. Tom reached the semi finals of University Challenge with New College , Oxford a few years ago, where he proved to be a bit of a star on the buzzer for his team, so I expected good things from him last night. I certainly got them from him in the specialist round. Answering on the letters of the New Testament he scored another 13. I, on the other hand, obviously know a little bit more about them than Mr. Smith and The Fall, since I managed 4.

Okay, without wishing to be at all mean, I’d better start off Mary Breading’s round by stating that she scored 5. I’ll be honest, judging from her reactions to some of the answers and the two passes, I don’t think that this was all down to nerves. It just seemed that there were certain areas of her subject, The History of the Wrens, she didn’t know about from her preparation, and I’m afraid that Mastermind can be a cruel old show, sometimes. If you’ve left gaps in your knowledge, it will find them out, even if they’re tiny ones. I added 3, and needed a point on Isaac Newton to take me into double figures.

As it happened I got 6, my highest score of the night which took me to a very respectable specialist aggregate of 15. Offering us the great – although seriously weird – Newton was Pat Lucas. She did very well too, finding 13 of her own answers, with just the one pass. So although behind Tom on pass countback, having the same number of correct answers she would go last on the GK round.

There was a certain irony in the fact that Mary Breading, first to return to the chair, would actually put on the best GK round of the night. In fact, had she answered just a little more quickly there was every good chance that she would have scored even more than the 11 she produced. Trailing by 8 points there was no way she was going to produce a big enough target to put any of the other three into the corridor of doubt, nonetheless, it was a good performance.

The first of the contenders with a realistic chance of winning to return to the chair was Mic Wright. He started brightly too, but ah, what do we often say? The GK round is a marathon, not a sprint, and the last 90 seconds or so looked to be something of a grim old slog. It was kind of typified by his last question, an old 50 / 50 about the animal name used to describe a falling market. Yes, it was going to be either bull or bear, but which? He zagged with bull, and the answer was bear. On such small margins. He finished with 9 for 22.

Tom Cappleman took his first two or three questions comfortably. Based on his UC record I did think he’d make the target comfortably. In fact another 4 questions would pass by before he added another correct answer, and it was a while before he built up any momentum after that. He finished just ahead of Mic with 23. His tactic had obviously been to pass if the answer did not quickly occur. It’s a valid tactic, but a risky one. He’d passed on 6 questions. Would he regret it?

Well, for much of Pat’s round, it looked as if he might not. But what Pat was doing was giving herself valuable thinking time for each question. It meant that while there were a significant number of things she didn’t know, she took points for everything that she did know, and for those questions which were guessable to her. She maximised her performance that way, and took her own score to 23 and 1 pass. John Humphrys did a rather strange thing next. Before she’d even had a chance to get her breath back John told her she’d scored 21 points and 1 pass and had won. Strange. The usual procedure is to let her the last contender go back and sit down, announce there’s been a tie, say how many passes the contestants involved in the tie had scored, and THEN announce the winner. Much more effective in my opinion.

Well, there we are. Congratulations, Pat. Not the highest scores we’ve seen so far this series, but enjoyable nonetheless.

The Details

Mic Wright	Mark E Smith and The Fall	13	1	9	2	22	3
Tom Cappleman	The Letters of the New Testament	13	0	10	6	23	6
Mary Breading	The History of the Wrens	5	2	11	0	16	2
Pat Lucas	Isaac Newton	13	1	10	0	23	1

Mastermind Heat 5

Another Friday brought us another first round heat, dearly beloved. First up was Monisha Rajesh. She was answering on the films of John Hughes. I’ll be honest, I’ve only seen about 3 or 4 of the films referenced during the round, so I wasn’t all that unhappy to only score 4 points of my own. Monisha, though, achieved what is still a relative rarity, a perfect round of 14 correct answers to 14 questions. Game on.

Now, I wouldn’t say that I’m especially knowledgeable about Billie Holliday, but I’ve loved her voice for years now, ever since I heard ‘God Bless the Child’ used on a TV advert donkeys years ago. So when Zoe Alford announced that she was answering on Lady Day, I didn’t expect to garner a cricket score. I was pretty pleased with the 6 I managed. Zoe didn’t quite match Monisha’s performance, but her 12 is a competitive score, of the kind you can’t achieve unless you’ve put the time and effort into preparation.

As Mark Grant stepped through the portal of portent, I announced to the empty sofa – “Here’s tonight’s winner.” Yes, very premature, I know, but I can be forgiven such hyperbole when you consider Mark’s track record. Brain of Britain winner. Member of the unbeaten (and possibly unbeatable) Crossworders from Only Connect. Twice a finalist in Mastermind, having placed 2^nd and 3^rd. I shan’t go on. Mark was answering on the poet Keith Douglas. He took 14 questions and supplied 14 correct answers, but only the last question caught him out. A fantastic performance.

Lightning is not supposed to strike twice in the same place. I’ll explain that in a moment. Emma Swift, final contender to brave the chair last night, was answering on Abraham Lincoln. I added another 6 to my score, for my second highest aggregate of the series so far. Emma, though, as had Mark and Monisha, ripped through her round, taking 14 consecutive correct answers. Lightning struck again when she failed on the very last question. Didn’t really matter, as 14 was enough to ensure that she would be the final contender in the GK round as well.

Congratulations to all 4 contenders for very fine specialist rounds. I know that I go on about this, but I don’t want to see contenders doing badly in specialist rounds, and all 4 contenders had obviously prepared thoroughly.

You can, to an extent, predict some of the things you’re likely to be asked about in specialist rounds, and because of that it is possible to prepare effectively. Not so with GK. This is why it can transpire that there’s such a difference between some contenders’ performances in specialist and in general knowledge. Zoe Alford was unable to reproduce the quality of her specialist round, and added 7 to her score to take her total, and the target to 19. As for Monisha, I may be wrong but her GK round looked badly affected by nerves, or possibly dwelling on a wrong answer given early in the round. She took her total to 18.

Mark’s round was interesting. Make no mistake, Mark is one of a number of players who could rip through a whole round of GK with a perfect round. For the first six or seven questions he was definitely on target. However then the round was becalmed with 4 wrong answers in a row, before he managed to get the show back on the road. In the end, one more wrong answers meant that he just failed to fulfil my prediction that he’d get to 30 points. Never mind, his 29 points looked a very good bet to fulfil my prediction that he was going to win this heat.

Which is not to say that Emma didn’t give it a try, because she did. 10 points in a first round GK set is a respectable score, and that’s what she managed. 24 in total gave her second place, but in all honesty I think it’s very unlikely to get her into the semi finals based on what we’ve seen so far in this series. As for Mark, well, I have no wish to jinx his chances by making predictions at this stage. However, I leave you with this to consider.  Last year’s series was won by Brian Chesney, who’d been runner up in Clive’s series. The season before was won by Isabelle Heward, who’s certainly also know the slings and arrows of outrageous Mastermind fortune. I’m not saying that there’s a pattern emerging. But let’s put it this way, Mark is very much a contender to watch.

The Details

Monisha Rajesh	The films of John Hughes	14	0	4	5	18	5
Zoe Alford	Billie Holiday	12	0	7	4	19	4
Mark Grant	Keith Douglas	14	0	15	0	29	0
Emma Swift	Abraham Lincoln	14	0	10	3	24	3