University Challenge Round 1 Goldsmiths, London v. Southampton

I pride myself on being impartial, dearly beloved, when it comes to University Challenge. Well, I’m sorry, but stuff that for a game of soldiers when Goldsmiths are playing. At least I’m being honest about it from the start.

Representing my alma mater, then, were Alex Wilkins, Catherine Coldstream, Greg Sibley and skipper Henry Coburn. Opponents Southampton’s team consisted of Josh Holland, Rory Fleminger, James Carrigy and captain Steve Barnes.

First blood fell to Goldies’ Greg Sibley, who incidentally hails from the same home town as Eric Monkman. He was first to recognise various definitions of the word jolly. Jolly good. Bonuses on the Black Sea brought Goldies a full house. Greg Sibley took a double, knowing the words of David Mamet for the next starter. However bonuses on astrophysics passed them by completely, although I’m sure that they would be consoled if they knew that I earned a lap of honour for estimating Earth’s escape velocity as 11km per second – I knew that it was 7 miles a second. Mind you, I could have taken a second for the next starter, where I guessed that physicist born in 1831 in Scotland would possibly be James Clerk-Maxwell. Alex Wilkins did the same. Guess the answer, that is, not take a lap of honour. Early 16^th century paintings yielded another full set. The first picture starter invited us to identify the cities of Bristol and Guangzhou on a brace of maps. Nobody managed that. Not surprised. I am surprised that nobody even chanced a buzz at a question to which the answer fairly obviously seemed to be the Tower of London, but there we are. You pays yer money. The next question concerned Marianne Who North and nobody knew it. Finally Henry Coburn took the next starter, knowing that if you mix Taylor Swift’s 4^th album ad a Coldplay song you get Jason Orange. Of course you do. This brought Goldies the picture bonuses, and three nearish misses but no cigars. Nonetheless it had all gone pretty well for them in the first ten minutes, as they led by 70 – 0.

Greg Sibley came in too early and lost five for saying that K2 is in the Himalayas. This left Steve Barnes to open his team’s account with the correct answer of the Karakoram. A couple of correct answers on the Lake District seemed to do wonders for Southampton’s collective spirits. For the net question Steve Barnes knew that the moment you hear ‘welsh born journalist’ and ‘Africa’ in the same question, then you slam the buzzer down and confidently answer Henry Morton Stanley. Authors born in 1946 only provided another 5 points, and took us to the music starter. Steve Barnes took his triple, being first in to identify a song from Wicked. Two out of three more ‘I want’ songs narrowed the gap to a mere 10 points. Greg Sibley stopped the rot by knowing the naturalist Rachel Carson, but Goldies could only manage a single bonus on birds. Still, the Goldies mini revival continued as Henry Carson won the buzzer race to say that Tess of the D’Urbervilles was apprehended in Stonehenge. 2 bonuses on Ancient Egypt put Goldies into triple figures, and as we approached the 20 minute mark, they led by 100 – 55.

At this stage, then, it all looked fairly good for Goldies, and they seemed to have an excellent chance of at least getting a repechage score, while Southampton had a lot of work to do. So they started doing it. I didn’t even know that Pascal played the triangle, but Steve Barnes did. The Arts and playing cards brought two bonuses of their own. The second picture starter showed two 18^th century chaps on horseback, ne shooting the other, from the Newgate Calendar. Greg Sibley thought it might be Alexander Hamilton from his fatal duel with Aaron Burr, but that was a real shot in the dark (see what I did there?). James Carrigy gave the obvious answer of Dick Turpin, and was right to do so. This earned a set of bonuses on other illustrations from the Newgate Calendar. Two correct answers meant that the gap between the teams stood at 5 points. A lovely UC starter saw Steve Barnes concatenate the first letters of the capitals of Kenya, Canada, Cabo Verde and Scotland to get the word nope. Yep. Chemical elements in haiku form brought two correct answers, and lead of 15 points. Goldies really needed an answer at this stage since the momentum was all Southampton’s. Fair play, Greg Sibley tried but his early answer to the next starter was speculative in the extreme and lost 5. Southampton couldn’t capitalise with a Stevenson screen. I’d guess that Rory Fleminger like me knew that the 1998 Olympic Winter Games were held in Nagaon, which enabled him to answer Naga for the next starter. Expressions with the initial CI brought a full house, and the death knell, sadly , was tolling for Goldies. James Carrigy came in early for the next starter with the name ‘Nora’ and Rory Fleminger raised his fists in triumph. A UC special set on the directions between Spanish cities in a straight line provided two bonuses, and what was a close victory was now turning into a rout. Josh Holland piled Pelion on Ossa, giving the correct answer of ellipse to the next starter. Answers beginning with ped – brought the inevitable 2 correct answers for Southampton, and the gong ended the contest. Southampton won by 175 – 95.

Poor old Goldies actually ended the contest with a lower score than they’d had at the 20 minute mark. They were shut out and buzzed out, sadly. So congratulations to Southampton. Bear in mind that they were scoreless by the 10 minute mark, and this was an increasingly sure and confident performance. With a conversion rate of slightly more than 60%, they’ll be in with a shout in round two.

Jeremy Paxman Watch

When Henry Coburn suggested that Georgia O’Keefe might have painted the contents of a gallery of botanical paintings in Kew Royal Botanical Gardens, JP trotted out his ever popular ‘crikey no!”

When Southampton identified a song from Disney’s “The Little Mermaid” JP relied “Yes, embarrassing, isn’t it?” Er, that would be a no, Jez. It’s a lovely film.

Southampton earned a rare plaudit from JP for knowing that the capital of Cabo Verde begins with P.

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

The Confucius Institutes promote Chinese language and culture.

Mastermind 2020 - First Round Heat 7

So once again to Mastermind, then, dearly beloved. Last week’s heat was not, in all honesty, one of the finest first round heats we’ve ever seen, so I did wonder what the show might have in store for us last night.

Well, the first of the GK rounds wasn’t at all bad. Diane Howe was offering us the Life and Career of Sir Kenny Dalglish, and she did a pretty good job with it, scoring 11 and no passes. I didn’t hold out any great hopes of a high aggregate this week, and felt that the 7 points I took on this round were probably more than I was going to score on the rest of the specialists all combined.

I once started to read one of Gabriel Garcia Marquez’ books, but then he never read any of mine, so I thought – stuff it. So under those circumstances I was quite happy to take the one point that I did. I felt that Evan Lynch, whose specialist this was, was rather unlucky not to squeeze in just one more question. As it was he scored 9, but somehow the round did feel just a tiny bit better than that.

As little as I knew about Marquez, I knew even less about the Student Non Violent Co ordinating Committee. Or I thought I did. Actually I scored a couple on this round – Marion Barry and Black Panthers being particularly low hanging pieces of fruit I managed to pluck. I felt for Amy Latimer, whose round this was. She was going great guns for the first few questions, then suddenly, bang, one wrong answer and it was as if she had just hit a road block. What we might think of as the black chair effect saw her struggling with questions to which she seemed to know the answer, wasting valuable seconds before passing. In the end she scored 6.

Alright, I have seen some Christopher Nolan films, but that still didn’t help me a great deal. I bottomed out with an aggregate of 12 specialist points for the show. Which actually was just one more point than Naveed Azam scored just on this one round.

So to General Knowledge. I think that Amy was still suffering a bit from the experience of her GK. I say this not because 8 is a bad score – it isn’t – but because again there were a number of times when those valuable seconds just ticked by while she wrestled with an answer which just refused to come. She finished with 14.

Evan’s task was relatively simple. Both Diane and Naveed had scored two points more on specialist than he had, and so it was vital he score enough points to make things as difficult for them as possible. With the current series, I’d say that once a target gets into double figures, then that’s enough to put most contenders into the corridor of doubt. Even shaped up pretty well. He didn’t miss a great deal and not all of those he answered were gimmes by any stretch of the imagination. 13 points for a total of 22, and a lead of 11 were going to be enough to give him a fighting chance. I felt.

It didn’t look as if he’d still be in the lead after a minute of Diane Howe’s round. But as I’ve often said, especially in the heats, a GK round is a marathon and not a sprint. After scoring her first 7 points, the correct answer Diane needed just refused to come. She managed to add one more to take her total to 19, but I’m afraid that you have to expect to do better if you have serious aspirations to win a heat of Mastermind.

So only Naveed Azam remained. Right, being objective, I have to say that his round really wasn’t very good. The plain fact was that he scored 4 off a set of questions which certainly weren’t noticeably harder than any of the other rounds in the same show. Only Naveed himself could say whether this was due to nerves. It’s certainly possible that they played their part. However quite a few of his answers weren’t near misses. In the end he finished with a total of 15.

Well played to Evan. In his piece to camera he said that he’d like to go on and win the semi and the final. Good – you should aim high, certainly. Best of luck in the semi finals.

The Details

Diane Howe	The Life and Career of Sir Kenny Dalglish	11	0	8	3	19	3
Evan Lynch	The Novels and Novellas of Gabriel Garcia Marquez	9	0	13	2	22	0
Amy Latimer	The Student Non Violent Coordinating Committee	6	4	8	3	14	7
Naveed Azam	The Films of Christopher Nolan	11	0	4	4	15	4

University Challenge 2020 - Round One - LSE v. The Courtauld Institute

LSE v. The Courtauld Institute

Last Monday was another London University Derby. Now, yes, being a London University old boy myself I always enjoy this, but I have to say that I did have a couple of qualms. You see, a specialist institution like the Courtauld and the LSE, for example, is always I feel at a disadvantage because by their nature they aren’t going to field teams with such a wide range of specialisms. Still, let’s see how it all worked out. Representing LSE were Kevin Schilling, Finn Dignan, James Engels and captain Zara Elstein. For the Courtauld we had Asher Silver, Morgan Haigh, Nancy Collinge and their skipper Harry Prance.

Right, as the first question was unfolding, ‘award held annually’ had me thinking Nobel, and ‘witheld on 19 occasions’ irresistibly pointed to the Peace prize. Both teams sat on their buzzers until the question was completed until Harry Prance won the buzzer race to supply the correct answer. The Muses from Stephen Fry’s Mythos – a good read too – provided just the one bonus. Kevin Schilling buzzed fairly quickly to identify the work of the film director Ang Lee. LSE’s bonuses on tortoises and turtles were all despatched to the boundary fairly quickly. The next starter, on molecular biology surprisingly gave me a very early lap around the living room for recognising hormones. Neither team managed that one. I don’t blame Harry Prance for going early with the London Underground river and offering the best known of them, the Fleet. However the full question required the Tyburn, which let Finn Dignan in. This gave the LSE bonuses on coal tar, and they took 2, (even though they don’t study coal tar at the LSE, Jeremy). Pictures, then. We were shown a section from the opening scene of a Shakespeare play and asked for the two missing words, which presumably rhymed in Shakespeare’s time, even though they don’t now. Morgan Haigh supplied both heath and Macbeth. More of the same brought one bonus, for which modest return they still earned the coveted Paxman well done. On the cusp of the 10 minute mark, then, LSE led by 40 – 25.

Guruparabs, as Harry Prance knew, are events in Sikhism. This gave the Courtauld a set of bonuses on great paintings of the 1880s. JP took pleasure in pointing out that one of the paintings they failed to identify – Manet’s Bar at the Folies Bergere, is actually in the Courtauld. Never mind. The next starter was about an artist. Hmm. Morgan Haigh took that with Augustus John. Trees in Britain gave another bonus, and Courtauld were in the lead. Neither team managed to dredge up catastrophe theory for the next starter. Neither team managed a gettable starter involving knowing works by Hill and Mill thus giving them herb which rhymes with them – dill. A third consecutive starter went unanswered about studies into the behaviour of honeybees. It seemed like a long time since we’d had a correct answer, so it was a blessed relief when Finn Dignan identified Thomas Carlyle as the man who coined the phrase ‘ the dismal science’. Actors’ directorial debuts did nowt for any of us. This brought us to the music set. I wonder how many people said Andrew Lloyd Webber for the next starter. It was of course Paganini with his well known ‘Theme of the South Bank Show’. Morgan Haigh took that. More variations on this particular piece by different composers brought just a single bonus, but in this low scoring contest every bonus looked like it was going to count. Zara Elstein took a starter for her team with the term fam. Organic Chemistry provided me with another lap of honour answer, since I remember from the old Pears Quiz Companion that Kekule is noted alongside the words benzene ring. Amazingly I also knew toluene and naphthalene. Well, I’m very sorry, but doing 4 laps of honour in one show is taking the proverbial. LSE managed a brace of these. The next question had a helpful reference to a painting by Monet – you didn’t even need to be an art student to know that this was obviously Rouen, and Morgan Haigh picked that particular piece of low hanging fruit. Royal Parks brought what I think was Courtauld’s first full house of the contest. This meant that by the 20 minute mark they led by 85 – 60.

Finn Dignan was the first to recognise a set of Eagles for the next starter. Oh, look, I said - it's another art set of bonuses. What were the chances of that happening? These went begging. Finn Dignan was nowhere near with his reckless buzz to the next starter, but the Courtauld couldn’t identify the widely acclaimed world’s worst poet, William Topaz McGonagall. Nonetheless, Courtauld seemed to have their collective tail up, since Harry Prance even took the next Maths starter. Astronomy and Geography provided one bonus. To be fair the second picture starter is often art based, so we can’t really complain that this week’s showed us a sculpture. Harry Prance identified the composition as a pieta. Unsurprisingly the set of paintings that followed brought the Courtauld a full house, and unless the LSE were to develop an hitherto undisplayed turn of foot, they were going to win now. Nancy Collinge won the buzzer race to identify Geraint Thomas as the writer of The Tour According to G. National capitals beginning with the same two letters brought nowt. Finn Dignan hadn’t given up and won the buzzer race to identify the term pastoral. Terms used in newspaper titles brought a full house, and at least gave the LSE a fighting chance of a triple figure final score. No point asking the next chemistry starter, and so we moved on without anyone buzzing. Nobody fancied a punt at various Siegfried’s, so Harry Prance took that unconsidered trifle. Royal figures who appeared in Hugh Thomas’ History of the Slave Trade saw them incorrectly answer the first and then the contest was gonged, Courtauld winning by 165 – 90.

Well done Courtauld. In all honesty this really wasn’t a great contest. Courtauld only managed a 42% conversion rate. LSE did better with 56%, but they had so few bonuses to try and convert since only Finn Dignan was slinging any buzzer for them. Against a decent buzzing team with more balanced team, and a less friendly set of questions I’d suggest that the Courtauld might struggle in round 2, but hey, what do I know?

Jeremy Paxman Watch

When the Courtauld failed to hazard a guess for the hormones starter he chuckled, “No, I can see the problem, Courtauld. You don’t study much of that, do you?!” No Jez, neither do the LSE for that matter, although you chose not to patronise them as well.

Interesting that, because this seemed to be an overt acknowledgement that the Courtauld weren’t going to be able to do anything with questions on the Sciences. Maybe it was just me, but it did seem to me that this was a very Arts heavy, Science light show this week. Coincidence? Maybe. When the Courtauld only scored on the last bonus for great paintings of the 1880s he rather sneered, “It may be enough to salvage some honour . . . but I doubt it.”

Harry Prance offered a speculative punt of Swinburne as the world’s worst poet, to which JP replied in indignation “Swinburne?! He would be mortified!” Quite right – everyone knows he was the jockey who rode Shergar to the 1981 Derby.

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

There are no flower beds in Green Park because Catherine of Braganza didn’t want Charles II picking them to give to his floozies.

Mastermind 2020 - Heat 6

Good morning, dearly beloved. Yes, fine, thanks for asking. How about you? Well, Mastermind returned last night after a week off, to cap a pretty good week.

First up was experienced Mastermind hand, Marga Scott-Johnson. Marga was answering on William Armstrong. William Armstrong, frankly, should be a lot better known than he is, but Marga, at least, knew pretty much everything there was to know about him. Indeed, she only missed the last question. Bearing that in mind, her 10 points seemed a little stingy, bt nonetheless meant she was going to have a say in the final outcome of the contest.

Helen Lippell has been this way before as well. In 2016 she featured in a high scoring first round heat, and answering on REM. This time she was answering on a subject after my own heart, the London Underground. In odd moments I occasionally ask myself which subjects I would take if there was ever another champions series and I was invited to take part, and this is right up there towards the top of the list. As such I was pleased although not surprised to get 9. Helen, though, took 12 correct answers from 12 questions, a really fantastic display.

If Jake Ockenden, our third contender, was at all daunted by the impressive rounds he’d seen the first two contenders post, then he certainly didn’t show it. Jake was answering on the famous 1969 Woodstock Festival, and answering very well too. For the third round in a row, a double figure score was posted. As he too scored 10. If you’d switched off after these three rounds, you’d have been forgiven for drawing the conclusion that this specialist subject business was a doddle.

Sadly, Ashraf Laidi’s round proved that this was not the case. Ashraf was answering on the Life and Films of Al Pacino, and the plain truth of the matter was that he scored 3 points. Only Ashraf himself could really explain what exactly went wrong in the round, but I can vouch for the fact that the chair can do strange things to you. Ashraf didn’t get his first question, and it looked as if this bowled him completely for 6.

One of the worst things about going last in the first round and posting a low score is that you have precious little time to recover your composure before you’re back in the chair to face the GK. Whatever had affected Ashraf in the Specialist round seemed to be still casting its spell in the GK, and he eventually finished with 9 points.

In contrast to Ashraf, Marga had not shown the slightest hint of nerves thus far, and she maintained this throughout her GK round. This ensured that she had the presence of mind to take every question on its own merits, and keep answering what she knew. This is essential if you want to get a double figure score in GK, and Marga managed 10 and no passes to set the target.

Jake couldn’t match it. Not that he didn’t try, no. He struggled manfully with the round, but never managed to establish the kind of momentum that would give him a chance, and by the last minute he was clearly behind the clock. In the end he added 7 to his score.

All of which left Helen. Starting two points to the good, a score of 9 would be sufficient to secure an outright win. Let’s be honest, as well, if you have serious aspirations to win a Mastermind heat, it’s the kind of GK score you need to be fairly confident of achieving in 2 and a half minutes. After the first 30 seconds I thought that this one would go right to the wire, as Helen appeared to be rather struggling. Indeed it did go right down to the wire as Helen scored her 20^th point overall with the very last question. However, she accrued a couple of passes along the way, and that was the margin by which Marga won.

Well played Marga, and the best of luck to you. As a match, well, it would be a lie to say that I was blown away, but at least it was a close contest.

The Details

Marga Scott-Johnson	The Industrialist William Armstrong	10	0	10	0	20	0
Helen Lippell	The History of the London Underground	12	0	8	2	20	2
Jake Ockenden	The Woodstock Festival of 1969	10	2	7	0	17	2
Ashraf Laidi	The Life and Films of Al Pacino	3	0	6	0	9	0

University Challenge 2020 Round One Heat 8

Durham v. Trinity, Cambridge

Right then, ready for the next? Bad luck if you’re not, for here it is. Durham, then, first into the lists in this match, were represented by Charles Bland, William Tams, Arthur Raffle and captain Joe Cooper. Representing three times winners Trinity were Nadia Hourihan, Lillian Crawford, Liam Hughes, and skipper Joseph Webber. Let’s crack on.

Joe Cooper took the first starter, buzzing early to identify the term default. Two bonuses on cave systems could have been a full house, had they not zagged with Cheddar when they should have zigged with Wookey Hole – which incidentally is the punchline to a very rude joke I once heard about Star Wars which I have no wish to repeat. William Tams knew that Cameroon was a German protectorate until 1916. The bonuses on sporting positions were a deceptively easy set which Durham were happy to take a full house from. Respect to Laim Hughes who very quickly worked out that in binary a 1 followed by 5 zeroes is equivalent to 32. Scientific memoirs brought Trinity a brace, but I’m a little surprised that cartilaginous fish didn’t make them think of sharks. Knowing about imehouse I was fairly quickly in with Chinatown for the next starter, but Joe Cooper eventually took it for Durham. Battles named after rivers gave Durham another rather gentle full house. A terrific UC special picture starter showed us Greenland, White Sea and Orange County, from which we could deduce the national flag of the Republic of Ireland. William Tam was first to work this out. More of the same – although harder clues, I felt, brought a very good two bonuses to Durham. This meant that by the ten minute mark Durham led by 90 – 20.

I’ve never knowingly heard of Chebyshev, but Liam Hughes had and that was enough for the next starter. Two bonus on a good set on artists who were also muses to other artists made their score look a little less anaemic. Nobody knew that the Knights Templar were founded in the 12^th century. Joseph Webber knew that Faure composed Pavane. JP announced bonuses on elements of the Periodic Table, so I put my trainers on in preparation. Both Trinity and I took a full house. By the time I returned, wheezing, to the much maligned Clark sofa neither team had been able to say that Fagus refers to Beech trees, and Trinity had lost 5. Nadia Hourihan was the first to recognise titles by Cormac McCarthy for the next starter. He must have written them before he became Roman Catholic Primate of England. The Architect Amanda Who – apologies, Amanda Levete – provided us both with 2 correct answers, and put Trinity in with the chance of taking the lead on the next set. Being mere youngsters, it took both teams a while to recognise the immortal Kylie Minogue version of The Locomotion (I believe she is a big fan of George Stephenson). It was Lillian Crawford who reached up to pick this particular piece of low hanging fruit. Three other artists or groups performing songs by Carole King brought them the two correct answers which took them into triple figures, and also the lead. I don’t think that I could even type out the mathematics starter which followed – but nobody knew the answer – affine transformation – anyway. William Tams came in early to identify the kingdom formed by Picts and Scots as Alba, and bring the teams level. Scientific terms offered little to me, but delivered me one bonus, and Durham one. I nearly awarded myself another lap of honour for guessing Thermoplastic for the next starter, but inertia won the day. Joseph Webber had that one. Two bonuses on a gettable set on Mrs. Gaskell were taken. So, teetering on the brink of the 20 minute mark, Trinity had reestablished a narrow lead of 120 – 110.

Anyone’s game, then. A great buzz from Liam Hughes to supply the term quincunx showed that Trinity meant business now. Bonuses on the town of Gainsborough earned a further bonus and brought us to the second picture starter. This showed the copy of a lost painting. To be honest, it was absolutely shouting out Brueghel, and I’m surprised that both teams sat on their buzzer before Lillian Crawford gave the correct answer. More paintings brought just the one bonus. Arthur Raffle pushed Durham closer to at least a shot at a repechage score by correctly identifyin the work of Robert ‘Gravy’ Browning. Films based on French Language Comics saw them edge 5 points closer. Again, a superfast buzz from Liam Hughes edged Trinity away, as he correctly gave the answer permutation to the next half completed starter. Chinese Emperors, and the years of their reigns, saw none of us get any correct answers. I’ll be honest, the work of Orlan has somehow passed me by all these years, but Nadia Hourihan knew her for the next starter, pretty much putting her team out of Durham’s reach. They took a couple of bonuses. As for Durham, well with 125 it was entirely conceivable they could win a repechage slot with just one more full house. That would involve winning a starter, though, which is exactly what Joe Cooper did, knowing that young Amy Tinkler won an Olympic medal in Gymnastics. With two bonuses and a total of 145 they now had at least a chance. Nadia Hourihan knew that Dun Laoghaire and Cobh were previously known as Kingstown and Queenstown. Recent winners of the Booker Prize showed us all 3 clean pairs of heels. I didn’t really understand the next Physics starter, but the answer, as supplied by Joseph Webber was excited. Biblical patriarchs were announced but the contest was gonged before the first question was completed. Trinity deservedly won by 200 – 145. Well played both teams – another very enjoyable contest.

Trinity’s win was more impressive considering Durham’s blitz start in the first few minutes – conceivably this Trinity team could play even better than they did here. Their conversion rate was 50%, but they won on the buzzer. As for Drham, well, they’re worth keeping an eye on as well. Should they reach the repechage stage an impressive bonus conversion rate of over 60% suggests that they could be a handful for another team.

Jeremy Paxman Watch

Nothing worthy of note here.

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

Cameroon ultimately derives its name from the Portuguese for River of Prawns

University Challenge Round One - Heat 7 - Jesus, Oxford v. Manchester

Jesus, Oxford v. Manchester

Good evening, dearly beloved. Look, I’m really sorry that I’ve been so tardy about posting reviews of the last two UC matches. It’s not much of an excuse, but I did start back at my school a couple of weeks ago, and while things have been going just fine, I just haven’t found time in my hectic schedule up to now.

So, then, a couple of weeks ago we had two of the teams you might expect to do well battling it out with each other. The Jesus team consisted of Lucy Clarke, James Cashman, Miranda Stevens and captain Matt Cook. Manchester were represented by Jack Rogers, Melissa Johnson, Adam Booth and skipper James Green.

Both James Cashman and I got the word mandate early from the first clue for the first starter. Films directed by Alfred Hitchcock provided one bonus. James Green struck back for his team, recognising that Generals January and February probably belonged to Russia. Eugene Ysaye – yes, Eugene Who? – might have provided LAM Towers with nul points, but Manchester knew enough to level the scores. A tricky starter on the periodic table saw me take a lap of honour – in fact I nearly did a double since I thought it was that good – for knowing that W only appears in the element Lawrencium, although it does symbolise another element – tungsten – in whose name it does not appear. Kudos to Jack Rogers for working that one out as well. Pairs of words differing only by the addition of the letter j  ape and jape for example – promised a full set, and indeed delivered one to all of us. Already we had reached the picture starter.We were shown a graph of the finishing positions of an English Premier League football club and asked which it was. Adam Booth answered with Arsenal, yet didn’t get a telling off for bad language from JP, who actually congratulated him on a correct answer. More of the same brought one bonus. James Green came in early to identify bated breath as a phrase which first appears in “The Merchant of Venice”. Blinking idiot also appears in that play, although I don’t know if that’s its first appearance. Test matches played by the West Indies were easy enough that I managed a full house, with Manchester getting just the one. So by the ten minute mark, Manchester led by 65 – 15. They had clearly had the better of the buzzing, however a certain profligacy with bonuses suggested that there was still a lot of this match to be played.

Adam Booth played with fire by hesitating for a moment or two before supplying a correct answer to the next starter – knowing that the Kelvin – K – is named after William Thompson. Biology did little for me, more importantly it did little for Manchester, either. The next starter was one of those where you had to wait and wait, until suddenly it became obvious, at the mention of the word Halcyon in this case. Melissa Johnson won that buzzer race. European History bonuses finally brought Manchester a full house. With Jesus College languishing on 15, I did wonder whether the dreaded Paxman encouragement would soon be on the way. Lucy Clarke forestalled this by buzzing early on the nest starter to identify Lucan as a favourite of the Emperor Nero. Till he disappeared to run a beach bar on Bali, that is. Bonuses on Serbia in World War I brought another 5 points. This was added to when Miranda Stevens buzzed in to correctly identify the stigma in a flower’s reproductive parts. This earned a set of bonuses on true flies, which starred Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jamie Lee Curtis, if I remember correctly. Jesus managed two bonuses, and this brought us to the music set. Now, I’m not familiar with the oeuvre of the performer Kesha, but Lucy Clarke is, since we hardly heard any of her distorted warblings – Kesha’s, not Lucy’s – before Lucy buzzed in with the correct answer. The song quotes the tune known as “Streets of Cairo”, which is often used as musical shorthand for an Arabian setting – three more of the same sort of thing brought two bonuses, one maybe a little controversial. I’ll say more about that after. Melissa Johnson unfurled the sails for her becalmed Manchester vessel, being first in to recognise a description of a Stegosaurus. The novels of Robert Harris brought a timely full house. Adam Booth took a flier on the next starter. To be fair, if you’re asked for an Italian scientist Galileo is always going to leave you in with a shout, but this time it lost five, because he didn’t invent the barometer. Jesus were unable to dredge up the name of Torricelli. I was a little surprise that the mention of Flatford Mill didn’t suggest The Haywain to any of the 8 contenders, but then again nobody knows everything. Matt Cook won the buzzer race to identify “First Man” from a number of clues. Bonuses on Physics brought 5 more points, taking them to 85 at the 20 minute mark. Manchester led with 120, but at least Jesus were now slinging buzzer, and matching Manchester blow for blow.

Now, be honest, when you heard the name Jubba in the next starter, how any of you involuntarily thought – The Hutt -? I did. It’s a river which, as Adam Booth answered, reaches the sea in Somalia. People in the Art world brought two bonuses. So to the second picture starter and a still from West Side Story. As I shouted this out, I added – more films based on plays by Shakespeare (which indeed turned out to be the subject of the bonuses) and correctly predicted Forbidden Planet as one of them, and Ran as another. Coming back to the starter, James Green took that one. I didn’t have 10 Things I hate About You and Taming of the Shrew, while Manchester took a full house. The Manchester skipper took a double, recognising a description of Glengarry Glen Ross. Electronics should have excluded me from answering, but I’m glad to say I managed 2. The Chi squared test saw Manchester lose five, allowing Miranda Stevens in for Jesus. Manchester were over the event horizon by now, but a repechage worthy score was possible. New York’s Chelsea Hotel gave them a fighting chance, delivering a full house. This was followed by a very good shout by Lucy Clarke identifying the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V. Poisonous plants found in the UK delivered a second full house, giving Jesus 8 correct answers in a row. Matt Cook gave Jesus a reasonable shout at a repechage slot, knowing some characters created by Evelyn Waugh. Bonuses on US Geography took Jesus to within a full house of an improbably draw. Lucy Clarke was very unlucky to incur an interruption penalty for being just a millisecond too early with an incorrect answer to the next starter. This was compounded when Melissa Johnson answered that the world’s oldest artificial sweetener is saccharine. The periodic table saw me rubbing my hands together, prematurely as it happened. The contest was gonged as JP read out the first question, with Manchester winning by 185 to 145.

Well played both teams. Not much to choose in bonus conversion rates – Manchester recovered after a bad start to post a rate just slightly above 50%, as did Jesus. If Manchester had emerged from their collective shell 5 minutes earlier, well they could even have won. As it is though, I think we’ll see them again. We’ll definitely see Manchester again, and rightly so.

Jeremy Paxman Watch

A slight flicker when Manchester suggested that a 1990 Test Match might have been switched to Buenos Aires, but there was no real effort at derision, I’m afraid. As for controversy corner – well, for the second musical bonus Jesus College offered They Must Be Giants instead of There Might Be Giants – as JP confirmed while still awarding the points. My opinion – and as usual, please feel free to disagree – is that they clearly knew the correct answer . . . however they didn’t actually SAY the correct answer. I know it’s very, very harsh. However, when you accept near misses, then you are opening a can of worms. It might not have made a difference to the outcome of this match, but it’s the sort of thing where five points might make the difference between a place in the repechage and going out.

Indignation came late from JP when neither team knew that the town of Navan is in the Republic of Ireland.

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

The first known appearance of the phrase ‘bated breath’ occurred in Shakespeare’s “The Merchant of Venice”.

Mastermind 2020 - First Round Heat 5

Good morning, dearly beloved. If, like me, you live in the BBC Wales area you were treated to the delights of premiership rugby instead of Mastermind, but that’s what the iplayer is for.

First up, then, in heat 5 was John Larkin. John’s subject was the islands of Great Britain. That’s one of those subjects where the scale of the subject is a lot broader than you might think, being as there are over 6000 of them, and over 100 are inhabited. While John was answering, I got the impression that he was very sound on the purely Geographic questions, but this round was far more wide ranging than that, with questions about local customs, and who was buried on which island etc. which threw him off balance a bit. He battled to a 7, but it looked like he would be out of contention by the time that the half time oranges were being passed around.

Going into the show, my current record specialist aggregate for this series is 23. A score of 8 on the islands promised good things, however my knowledge of Tamsen Hiles’ subject, The Pop Larkin Chronicles, is limited to a couple of episodes of the TV series The Darling Buds of May. That, and a couple of good guesses, brought me three points, which was enough to keep the pot boiling. Tamsen all the while looked as if she was going to take a full house. Well, she didn’t quite manage that, but it was still a speedy and very impressive round which brought a total of 13.

One reason why I thought I had a good chance to set a new target was that our third contender, Nathan McLelland, was answering on “Doctor Who “ 2005 – present. No bones about it, I love Doctor Who, have watched every episode of the post 2005 series more than once, and have written books about it. So it really is something of a banker subject. Nathan himself did very well. He only missed two questions, although he might be kicking himself for not remembering that Roger Lloyd Pack played John Lumic. I added 12 to mean that ‘d equalled the target with one specialist set to spare.

This set, on The League of Gentlemen, fell to Paul Gurrell. Now, to be honest, I liked the radio series , but never really warmed to the TV version, although I know people who absolutely loved it. So I had to be fairly satisfied with the 4 points I earned to set the new target of 27. Paul was very unlucky. John seemed to have just started voicing what was presumably the next question as the buzzer went, and the ruling was that he hadn’t actually started the question proper. It didn’t, in the end, make a huge difference to the result, but Paul can count himself a bit unlucky there. He scored a highly respectable 10.

So to the General Knowledge. Now, usually, when the contender in 4^th does his or her GK round, it is a little bit of a side show to the main event. Not so with John Larkin. After John’s irritating plenty of time to catch up call to arms, John provided one of the two best GK rounds we’ve seen all series so far. This was, to my mind, a quizzer’s round. 14 took him to 21, and at least did enough to put the others into the corridor of doubt.

Paul Gurrell again put on a respectable performance in his own round, and for much of the round looked as if he was going to at least match John’s total of 21. However he ran out of a little bit of momentum as the tape came into view, and fell one short, scoring 10 to take his total to 20.

As for Nathan, he started very well, and was ahead of schedule by the halfway mark of his round. However the wrong answers began to outnumber the correct answers, and in the end he finished with 8 to take his total to 19.

So, as Tamsen returned to the chair, the big question was, could John hang on and win the contest from 4^th at the halfway stage. We have seen it happen before, but it’s rare. Once again, we had a contender, in Tamsen, who looked as if she was going to smash it for the first few questions. After that, though, it was a little bit more a struggle, and it needed a late spurt to put her over the top with one question left. 9 points meant that she finished on 22.

Well done Tamsen. Hard lines John, but with GK like that, if you choose the right specialists for a future appearance, you, my friend, could be a contender. As for Tamsen, throughout both of her rounds, I thought – judging by the look on her face she is clearly having the time of her life – I bet she’s been a fan of the show for years, and I’m glad to say her piece to camera at the end of the show pretty much confirmed it. Best of luck in the semis.

The Details

John Larkin	Islands of Great Britain	7	0	14	0	21	0
Tamsen Hiles	The Pop Larkin Chronicles by H.E. Bates	13	0	9	1	22	1
Nathan McLelland	‘Doctor Who’ 2005 - present	11	0	8	1	19	1
Paul Gurrell	The League of Gentlemen	10	2	10	3	20	5