Mastermind 2023: First Round Heat 6

Variety is the spice of life. I’m not sure I’d want my dose of Mastermind to be administered on a Wednesday evening every week, but just this once it went down a treat. Mind you, it did help that this was a pretty good first round heat.

First into the chair was Simon Durrant. Simon is the type of English teacher that I sincerely hope to be this time in a couple of years – namely, a retired one. I’ve never lied about this, I always want to see my brethren and sistren who’ve undergone trial by chalk (yes, my career did actually begin in the days of blackboard and chalk) do well. Simon? Well, he didn’t actually do badly on his subject of Offa’s Dyke Path. Crucially though he fell just a little short of a really challenging total, finishing with 9 and 3 passes. I enjoyed his round though, picking up 6 correct answers myself. I love Hay on Wye and the surrounding area – not during the Festival in June, mind you.

Pippa Smith gave us a round on the Life and Work of John Cage. As interesting as the man – and he was certainly that – I cannot claim to be a fan of the work. I was a fan of the way that Pippa went about her round though, snapping out answers, most of which were correct. In fact I thought that her round was a little bit better than just the 10 points she achieved. Still, I always think that if you can manage at least a double figure round on specialist it will give you sme kind of chance on GK.

Mind you, Pippa’s chances looked slightly less good after George Scratcherd posted 12 on The Wines of Portugal. Don’t think for one minute that’s any kind of soft or easy subject either. I remember my own first round heat in 2007. A vey nice guy called Tim Vick in my heat answered n German wines. He knew his subject really well, but so wide was the subject that he only scored 9 – at that time scores of mid teens were really not uncommon. So George’s round was a very fine performance indeed.

Which left Katie Williams to complete the first half with her round on perennial sitcom favourite Only Fools and Horses. Okay, shall we get it out of the way then? The first question asked the name of the actor who played Grandad, before he passed away. Other than that it seemed to me that all of the questions were about details of the shows themselves – again. I’ve stated my views on this already , so if I can pay a backhanded compliment, at least you can say that the question sets for works of fiction are consistent with each other if nothing else. I do still wish they’d be a little more wide ranging though. Katie achieved a respectable total of 9.

Simon kicked off the GK round, and he started rather well. He wasn’t answering extremely quickly, but he was answering accurately for the most part. And then, mid round, he wasn’t so much, and was taking a long time to dredge up the answers, not all of which were correct. He pulled his round back on track to finish with 11 for a very respectable total of 20. In all honesty though it really didn’t look like a winning one.

Katie adopted a tactic of – if you know it then answer it, if you don’t then pass quickly. It is a valid tactic, and meant that she could match her respectable 9 on specialist with another respectable 9 on GK. But tonight, as was to become clear, respectability was never going to be good enough.

Pippa returned to the chair, and produced a fine, fine GK round. I don’t know her quiz background, but she did extremely well with a wide ranging set of questions, and was answering as quickly and smoothly at the end of the round as she had been at the start. Fifteen is a very good GK score in this day and age. I don’t know if Pippa is a regular quizzer – but she certainly answered like one.

Now, I don’t care who you are. However calm you may feel sitting down to your round, when you’re faced with a target of 14 for an outright win, or 13 and no passes to earn the right to a tie break, you are going to have to walk through the corridor of doubt before you get there. If George did feel nervous, though, he certainly didn’t show it. No, he didn’t do quite as well as Pippa did, accruing 2 passes, and 14 correct answers. It was still a bloody good round though, and let’s not forget – Mastermind is a game of 2 rounds, not just one.

So, a deserved win for George. In his filmed insert he concentrated on talking about his subject and didn’t mention his quiz pedigree. All I can say though is judging by this performance – which is all I have to go on – he looks like a contender. Spare a thought for Pippa as well. Her score would have won both of the two previous heats. Them’s the breaks, but it's hard.

The Details

Simon Durrant	Offa’s Dyke Path	9	3	11	3	20	6
Pippa Smith	The Life and Work of John Cage	10	0	15	0	25	0
George Scratcherd	The Wines of Portugal	12	0	14	2	26	2
Katie Williams	Only Fools and Horses	9	2	9	5	18	7

University Challenge 2023: First round heat Oriel, Oxford v. Christ's, Cambridge

 The Teams

Oriel College, Oxford

Benjamin Thomas

Jerric Chong

Tanmayee Deshprabhu (Capt.)

Katy Marchant

Christ’s College, Cambridge

Isaac Jackson

Holly Wright

Chris Talbot (Capt.)

Abhimanyu Gowda

 Hello, good evening and welcome. Well, we’ve negotiated the first part of this disrupted fortnight of quizzy Not-Mondays, and we’re still in one piece. I have to say that I always enjoy Only Connect, but I particularly enjoyed last night’s. Enough of that though, for this is a review of UC. I will admit to usually enjoying and Oxford  v. Cambridge match, so I anticipated good things from this match up.

I will confess that I very nearly took a lap of honour for getting the answer to the first starter – mole – from SI unit for the amount of substance . . . But my son in law Dan was around so I was on my best behaviour. Jerric Chong also took it at that point. British entries to the Eurovision Tree Contest brought 1 bonus to Oriel. A list of the principal characters in Swan Lake provided a relatively easy starter, and Jerric Chong took his second consecutive starter with that piece of low hanging fruit. Cities that are higher than the summit of Ben Nevis (ie slightly higher than Ben Down and Ben Dover) provided an interesting set and another single bonus. Captain Chris Talbot, who would play a definite captain’s innings in this contest, opened Christ’s account, knowing that Wole Soyinka was the first Nigerian author to win the Nobel Prize for Literature. Cricket’s The Hundred competition yielded one bonus. After three sets we’d yet to see either team score more than one on the bonuses. This would change as Chris Talbot recognised the diagram of a neuron and then went on to identify two out of three parts of it to take the lead for Christ’s. Christ Talbot took his hattrick of starters Identifying Gaussian distribution as normal distribution. I’m glad we cleared that up. They picked up two more bonuses on the Cold War, missing out on Ernie Bevin. Nonetheless they led by 55 – 30 as we approached the 10 minute mark.

Asked for a Greek philosopher I juggled a couple of names before deciding Epicurus was worth a shout. Bloody was too, it was the correct answer. Benjamin Thomas had that – although it sounded suspiciously like Epicurius to me. Sometimes close enough really is close enough, I suppose. Oriel knew that BF Skinner taught pigeons to play table tennis, which I’m sure beats working for a living, but is the sort of thing that gets academics a bad name. They missed Erikson, but took Maslow. Now, a couple of years ago Fake or Fortune investigated a painting possibly by Tom Roberts. So as soon as JP mentioned his name I shouted “Australia!” Which did actually turn out to be the correct answer, which is just as well since I would have looked a right nana to Dan had it not been. It’s unusual to get a bonus set on popular music which doesn’t belong to the music set, but this time we had a set of bonuses on the work of Lil Nas X – yes, alright, Lil Nas Who in LAM Towers. I did not trouble the scorer. Not so Oriel, who took a pair. I impressed Dan by knowing that the pioneer of antisepsis was Semmelweiss (well, that was close enough to what I actually called him). Neither team knew that. Now, when asked which River enters the sea at South Shields, Chris of Christ’s zigged with Wear. He should’ve zagged with Tyne, as Benjamin Thomas did. This earned bonuses on Pelicans. They missed a couple of sitters. Nonetheless they were just a starter and bonus away from triple figures as we prepared for the music starter. A brilliantly quick buzz from Katy Marchant identified the Moody Blues from just a couple of notes of Nights in White Satin. Other songs using classical orchestration by Peter Knight (in white satin?)provided no more points. Katy Marchant took a second consecutive starter knowing that the whirlpool and rocky shoal in the Straits of Messina were probably the inspiration for the Greek mythological Scylla and Charybdis. A set concerned with the word agora yielded little, but the starters were keeping Oriel marching onwards. Telomere – word means nowt to me – gave Benjain Thomas the next starter. Trees and shrubs again provided the one bonus. Finally Holly Wright managed to get a buzz in for Christ’s, with the Mamluks. The ‘one bonus and no more, ye rascal’ disease seemed catching as that’s all Christ’s managed on a gettable set. So Oriel were in a very commanding position on the 20 minute mark, with 130 to 65.

Chris Talot took a 10 point bite out of the lead, knowing that Dame Sarah Storey won her 17^th Gold medal in the Tokyo games. Bonuses on chemical gobbledygook brought 2 correct answers and took another 10 point bite out of the lead. Nobody apart from me recognised a still from It Happened One Night for the second picture starter.None of us at all knew about the number on a painting. Asked which MP represented umpteen named constituencies in a 64 year career Holly Wright could only think of Winson Churchill – which was good because that was the right answer. Not so good was the fact that this earned the picture bonuses, which they didn’t know any of. Now, if it’s a dance originating in Argentina, shove the buzzer through the desk and say tango. Chris Talbot did. Scientists born in 1822 brought my first real opportunity for a lap of honour, and alright, Gregor Mendel was a very low hanging piece of fruit, but I’m not ashamed to say that I took it. 130 played 120 and still there was time for 2 or 3 sets. Nobody knew a museum with a shuttle on an aircraft carrier was in New York. Now, I’m very sorry but Peter Bloody Rabbit was NOT written in 1982, as stated in the next question. 1902 it was. Surprised the editor didn’t pick that one out. Whatever the case, Isaac Jackson had it. All square. Firths or inlets on the Scottish coastline brought a couple of bonuses and the lead. Dan and I are both fans of Bake Off and he beat me o the answer Gluten for the next starter. Abhimanyu Gowda won the buzzer race, and the match, for the gong went before the set was complete. Christ’s, having completely shut Oriel out for the last 9 minutes or so, won by 150 – 130.

I thank both teams for another exciting contest, although I wasn’t really impressed by the bonus conversion rate of both teams, less than fifty percent. Oriel have a chance of a repechage slot I think, but both teams will need to do better than this with the bonuses to have a chance of going very much further. Christ’s were slightly better, and deserved to win for their fine comeback, but there really wasn’t a massive amount to choose between the two.  

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

There really is a European Tree of the Year Competition. I feel that my faith in humanity is just a tiny bit restored.

Also

Santa Fe is the oldest US State Capital.

Quizzy Tuesday. . . or Wednesday

Even when there’s no rugby league world cup it’s not unknown for the BBC to mess about with our Quizzy Mondays at this time of year, so I guess we should be thankful that we’re not being made to wait for weeks at a time for out favourite quiz shows. So, in case you missed this, here’s when you can find them

Mastermind is on Wednesday this week.

Only Connect and University Challenge are both on Tuesday.

Then all 3 shows are on again on Tuesday 1^st November.

If this doesn’t make it any easier for you, don’t forget that you can get all 3 on the iplayer as well.

I’ll be honest, I’m not entirely sure when I’m going to be able to post the reviews next week, but watch this space, and I will do them as soon as I can.

University Challenge 2023: First Round: Sheffield v. University College London

The Teams

Sheffield

Rachel Haw

Andrew Fisher

Lewis Jones (capt.)

Danny Lardner

UCL

Rachel Collier

Michael Fleetwood-Walker

James Salmon (capt.)

Louis Collier

Well, there was one interesting thing about the make up of the teams in last night’s match. For the first time ever on the show, a mother and son represented the same team, in the shape of Rachel and Louis Collier of UCL.

Of course, that wasn’t the only interesting thing about last night’s match, which turned out to be an absorbing contest. For the first starter I guessed the architectural form we were talking about was an arch, even before the Gateway to the West confirmed it. Always looked like half a McDonalds sign to me. Andrew Fisher, who seemed a little jumpy at this stage of the contest, had it about the same time that I did. A full houses on varieties of apples promised good things from Sheffield. Skipper James Salmon came in too early for the next starter on Spanish royal ladies, and thus lost five, being too early to hear the clincher which made it clear we were dealing with Isabellas. Danny Lardner stuck that one into the open goal. Only 1 bonus on world war II followed, but a forty five point lead at this point was really not to be sniffed at. Skipper James Salmon atoned for his previous misbuzz by identifying Karl Benz as the creator of the first practical motor car. The astronomy bonuses brought me the lap of honour around the sofa for this week. Yeah, okay, the Crab Nebula question was an extremely gentle delivery, but I’ll take them in whatever shape or form they come. If I hadn’t have taken it for that I would have taken it for Tycho Star anyway. UCL claimed their own full house for this set. Picture, then. We saw an Aerial photo of a British city. Did nowt for me I’m afraid, but Michael Fleetwood-Walker said it was Plymouth, and he was blimmin’ right too. Of the bonuses I did correctly identify New York, but that was me done, while UCL managed a full house again. I didn’t understand the next question, but Louis Collier knew it was supersymmetry. Well, Sheldon Cooper won his Nobel Prize for his work on super-asymmetry, didn’t he? Why not ask about that? Nominees for the BAFTA rising star award proved to be as much of an Achilles heel for UCL as it did for me, as neither of us managed any of them. Still, UCL had responded well to the Sheffield lightning start, and now led by 55 – 40.

Rachel Collier knew the origin of the word Memorabilia for the next starter. Rococo paintings saw UCL return to form with another full house. Malaria was the answer to the next starter, and James Salmon knew it. At this stage of the competition it was beginning to look as if Sheffield’s buzzers had been disconnected. Appearances, though, can be deceptive. Back to UCL, they had a nice UC special set of words differing only in the way that one was the same as the other once the letters DI had been removed. Yeah, UCL took a full house on that set too. Andrew Fisher took his second starter, knowing that painter – impressionism – still life – Provence very much means Paul Cezanne. They only took a single bonus on platys, but at least they were on the move again. This took us up to the music starter, but nobody identified the work of John Coltrane. Incidentally I was very saddened that his brother Robbie passed away last week – brilliant actor, when all is said and done. For the Maths question that followed, I followed my preferred method of shouting out 0 or 1 – in this case 0 and I was right. Andrew Fisher, who’d had the dashed bad form to sit an work it out properly, also had the same answer. 3 pieces of music followed – 2 enjoyable pieces of jazz, and one god-awful atonal racket. Sheffield took one with Miles Davis, but the gap was narrowing. One mention of the Hangang River in the next starter and Michael Fleetwood Walker was after it like a rat up a drainpipe with South Korea, and rightly so. Indigenous people of North America provided two correct answers for UCL. ‘Air tight seal’ and ‘mysticism’ said hermetic to me, and to Andrew Fisher as well. He was suddenly having a very good evening, dragging his own team up by their collective bootstraps. Curves and cones – I’ll have a 99 if you’re offering – brought me nowt – didn’t even understand the questions – but then they didn’t bring Sheffield any points either. N-u-n- words brought Rachel Collier another starter, and the single bonus on H is for Hawk was taken. So that man Fisher took another starter, identifying Chagos from the description. The bonuses were linked by the word Thunderbolt – seeing Ealing Studios get a welcome name drop into the bargain and Sheffield took a full house. Which meant that at 20 minutes UCL still led by 140 – 105.

For the second picture we saw a house, and I though – it’s Mies van der Rohe, but I bet they say Frank Lloyd Wright. Right on both counts, neither team getting it. Captain Lewis Jones of Sheffield broker up the Fisher monopoly, knowing that Sumo takes its name from the Japanese for ‘to fight’. This earned the modern houses picture bonuses, of which Sheffield managed one, the famous Fallingwater by Frank Lloyd Wright. This reduced the gap to less than a full set. UCL already had a score that looked set for a repechage slot, and Sheffield were also in touching distance. Louis Collier didn’t recognise words by Browning, or ‘Gravy’ as I hope that his mates called him. Danny Lardner did, and earned bonuses on words beginning with Vol. They didn’t get them all, but what they got was enough to give them a narrow lead. You would have forgiven UCL for folding now, but instead Louis Collier took a great buzz on the periodic table to put them ahead again. Elements beginning with L brought me a rare science full house, and what’s more it brought UCL one as well. Whatever happened a repechage spot was surely in the bag here. Andrew Fisher wasn’t finished though, and he knew that Frank Abagnale makes a cameo appearance in the film based on his exploits, Catch Me If You Can. Two correct answers on Upton Sinclair (Top ‘Rankin’ as his mates probably didn’t call him) levelled the scores at 160 apiece. What a great contest. Nobody got Bruckner for the next starter. James Salmon knew that Bennu was an asteroid. 1 bonus on France was taken. So little time remained that unless Sheffield got the next starter, it was all over. They got the next starter! What’s more UCL lost five on an early wrong answer, leaving Danny Lardner to level the scores with The Mayor of Casterbridge. GONGGGGGG! The scores were level, which meant one final starter. Get it right, you win. Get it wrong, you lose. Michael Fleetwood-Walker knew three cities in Emilia-Romagna, and that was the win.

Very hard lines to Sheffield, but they’ll surely be back with this score. Congratulations to UCL, whose bonus conversion rate especially caught the eye tonight. Thanks both for a most enjoyable contest. Made no less enjoyable that for the first time in living memory we weren't treated to JP's 'Godless institution of Gower Street' Not gonna miss that, I'll be honest. 

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

There’s a variety of apple called topaz

Mastermind 2023: First Round Heat Five

Hello, dearly beloved, and thank you for joining me again. So. It’s Monday, and we’ve had another Mastermind heat. No novels this week, but there was a TV series, so we’ll pick up the thread from last week when we get to it.

For now, though, we began with Steve Brown, who was offering us the first ever double Nobel Prize winner, Marie Curie. Personally I wasn’t expecting much from myself on this round, so I wasn’t unhappy when I managed to scrape a modest three. Steve did better, naturally. At one stage I though he was going to do considerably better too. However, one thing I did notice was that he was going slowly, taking his time and delivering his answers in measured tones. This proved to be something of a luxury considering that just a couple of wrong answers began to creep in, which robbed him of the momentum he would have needed to boost his score at the finish. He scored 8, but he looked and sounded knowledgeable enough that he might well have got into double figures had he gone a bit faster.

Student Holly Franklin followed, answering on the BBC sitcom Ghosts. Following what I said last week about the fiction rounds concentrating almost totally on events from the story, there was at least one question about the writers in this round. I have to admit, I do rather like “Ghosts”, but I also have to admit that I don’t really find it funny, if I’m honest. When I watch it the show tends to put me in mind of a show I was rather fond of as a kid, “The Ghosts of Motley Hall”. Enough of such digressions. Holly produced a perfect round of 13 from 13, and effectively put Steve out of contention.

Lisa Sedge was answering on a subject in which I am sure that my daughter Jess will have scored many more than my rather measly 3 – Elizabeth Woodville. Now, I felt Lisa was putting in a very good round, but even so as the white line of death snaked its way around the score box she was still some way short of the target, finishing on 10. One or two wrong answers can really make such a difference. Maybe she was answering just a tad more slowly than Holly, who had certainly answered pretty quickly.

Thence to David Dury. David was answering on the street artist Banksy – and no, I don’t blame the setters for not really including any biographical detail questions, bearing in mind the subject matter. I was a little sorry we didn’t get any questions about the Banksy that appeared overnight on a garage wall in Port Talbot a few years ago, but there you go, you can’t have everything. David too scored 10. Putting that into perspective, it meant that unless either David or Lisa was a superb GK quizzer, or Holly totally imploded on the GK round, then it looked like the leader at the halfway stage was still going to be leader by the end of the show.

I felt a bit of a mixture of frustration and sympathy towards Steve Brown as he struggled with his general knowledge round. He wasn’t doing brilliantly not because he didn’t know stuff, but because he was giving each question a bit of consideration before answering – and time is a luxury you just don’t have in a Mastermind round. This meant that when he got one that he knew that he knew, but couldn’t get the answer past the tip of his tongue he just sat there, frozen while the seconds ticked away. In the end he added 6 to his score.

Lisa came next, and as with her specialist round, she started pretty well. She was faster than Steve, but not superfast. If she had been able to maintain momentum throughout her round then she might well have been able to post a challenging score, but the second half of the round saw the wrong answers creeping in, and this robbed her of a little momentum. As it was Lisa managed a double figure score of 10, which was, I felt, a couple short of what she would have needed to force Holly into the corridor of doubt.

Before we’d find out, though, David Dury returned to have a tilt at the target himself. He had a go, but it seemed pretty clear from early doors that his GK wasn’t going to be as strong as Lisa’s, and indeed it wasn’t. He posted a respectable 8 to take his total to 18.

Holly had shown a commendably clear head in her Specialist round, and it looked pretty much like all she had to do was keep the same calm, composed approach to the GK and she’d surely get the 8 points she needed to win clearly. She actually did quite a bit better than that. She top scored on the GK as well with a pretty good 11. Her  point win was well deserved, and she was certainly the pick of tonight’s contenders.

The Details

Steve Brown	Marie Curie	8	0	6	0	14	0
Holly Franklin	The BBC Sitcom Ghosts	13	0	11	2	24	2
Lisa Sedge	Elizabeth Woodville	10	0	10	1	20	1
David Dury	Banksy	10	0	8	0	18	0

University Challenge 2023: Round One: Gonville and Caius v. St. Andrews

 The Teams

Gonville and Caius

Zoe Zhang

Jasper Maughan

Abigail Tan (Capt)

Stefan Ivanov

St. Andrews

Alec Csukai

Simon Gibbons

Joseph Cryan (Capt)

Sofya Anisimova

Hello, good afternoon and welcome. Two venerable institutions locked horns in yesterday’s first round heat. I agree with JP that the rules are unchanging, but unchangeable? Really? They might not have changed before, but it’s not totally beyond the bounds of possibility. Enough of such chaff.

I didn’t have the first starter until it connected conservation with millinery which signposted the RSPB. Simon Gibbons took that one, which put him on the road to becoming the most successful buzzer of the evening. This brought St. Andrews a set of bonuses on photographer Eve Arnold. I knew little about her, but I did know that Marilyn Monroe’s last film was the Misfits. St. Andrews didn’t and failed to add to their score. Various rhyming words pointed the way to Wordle for the next starter and skipper Abigail Tan opened G and C’s account. Place names in England and Scotland ending in -ington – yielded a single bonus, and also the lead. A very good buzz from Joseph Cryan identified Sandra Mason as the first president of the new republic of Barbados. Good shout, that. Worthy of a triumphant raised fist, though? A little early for that, Mr. Cryan I would have thought. Former names of chemical elements were greeted by me putting on my trainers in anticipation of a lap of honour. Niobium set me off on the circuit of the sofa, and astatine and antimony added the gloss of a full house. St. Andrews managed the last, although weren’t far away from either of the other two. So to the picture starter and Simon Gibbons correctly identified the French City indicated as Le Havre. Other cities which have also hosted Olympic Sailing events where the main Olympic city was much further inland – like Weymouth in 2012 (not included presumably because as nice as it is, it’s not a city) brought a timely full house, which meant that right on the cusp of the 10 minute mark St. Andrews led by 50 – 15.

Stefan Ivanov got G&S on the move again, knowing the Exosphere. John Waters films saw the team chew over the three bonuses, but pass 2 and get 1 wrong. Both teams seemed to spend a lot of time on the bonuses last night. None of us knew the Pandora Papers for the next starter. The geometry starter was going nowhere until it mentioned the middle value in a range, at which a buzzer race ensued, won by Stefan Ivanov who gave the correct answer of median. Two bonuses, coupled with a five point deduction for St. Andrews’ early buzz for the Pandora Papers put the teams level. Now, if I hear the words ‘soviet films’ I’m always going to answer Andrei Tarkovsky, and this is what Sofya Anisimova did with the next starter. Semi autobiographical TV series (serieses? Gawd knows) brought two correct answers, although Sofya Anisimova had to verbally beat her team across the heads to get them to accept her correct answer for the last. So to the music starter, and what to me, sounded like the different section of the orchestra were playing completely different pieces from each other. ‘Gotta be Shostakovich!’ I said, and it was too. Sofya Anisimova took her double with that one. Two bonuses on classical composers followed, and the lead was stretching out again. However an interruption lost them five and allowed Abigail Tan to identify the city of Quebec from the clues. Philosophical works translated into English narrowed the gap to a starter and a bonus. Simon Gibbons knew a definition of genes, and this brought a set on measurements. Which was a complete waste of time as none of us knew any of them. It wasted a lot of time too, taking us through the 20 minute mark. St. Andrews led by 90-65.

When you take the number of EU members from the number of countries in the Commonwealth you get 27, which I amazed myself by working out. Alec Csukai was close enough with 28. I took a rare full house on sport on tennis while St. Andrews picked up a brace. This took us to the second picture starter. Alec Csukai took his double by recognising the work of Vermeer. Other works stolen in the largest art heist in history brought again a couple of bonuses, and things were looking highly dangerous for G&C. They weren’t done yet, though. Jasper Maughan correctly identified the work of Wordsworth, which enabled them to take a couple of bonuses on elections in Asia. Skipper Abigail Tan narrowed the lead further with the next starter, knowing that if its about a monkey and about its voice, just buzz and say Howler. A bonus on lager took them into three figures. Nobody knew that Tom Wolfe wrote the Electric Kool Aid Acid Test. Jasper Maughan knew various French words beginning with Fr. English words and their earliest OED citations narrowed the gap to just 10 points. It was close. . . but so was the gong. I didn’t understand the question, but Simon Gibbons did, and his fourth starter was probably the most important of the show. Had G&C got it, then it would have been a draw. As it was, the contest was gonged before JP finished reading out the first bonus, and St. Andrews won by 140 – 120.

I was a bit disappointed that JP had no words for G&C at the end – their fightback was worthy of comment. However the spoils go to St. Andrews, who go forward to the second round. Well played.

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

The Paul Bunnell test is used to detect the presence of Glandular Fever

Mastermind - about those Fiction Specialist Rounds.

Let’s start by stating a truth universally acknowledged, namely, that you cannot please all of the people all of the time. So I know that some people are going to disagree with me over this and that’s absolutely fine. As always, please feel free to disagree.

I wanted to make a point about something I think that I’ve seen happening in Mastermind specialist rounds over the last couple of years, particularly in rounds about works of fiction including films or TV shows. It seems to me that such rounds seem to have come to focus more and more on the specific events of the films or shows in question, and less and less on the production side of it. Now, I admit that this is not an opinion I’ve reached based on any kind of scientific analysis, it’s no more than an impression. However, I was reminded of this when one of the rounds last night concerned Lewis Carroll’s “Alice” books – yes, I know, books, not films or TV shows, but the same principle seemed to hold.

It’s hard to make hard and fast pronouncements about a specialist round when you really don’t know much about the subject involved. However, as I mentioned in the review yesterday, I do know a bit about these books. My grandfather had, back in the 40s or 50s, bought a large set of ‘classic’ British novels, and by the time I came along only a few of these were left. I remember – “Jane Eyre” – “David Copperfield” – “The Mill on the Floss” and “Alice in Wonderland”. The one which interested me from a tiny age was “Alice”. I started off being fascinated – and not a little scared – by the Tenniel illustrations, then read the book after learning to read. I wouldn’t say that my love of the surreal is completely due to this book – but on the other hand it surely played its part in fostering it. Then, earlier this year, following an internet sketching group prompt, I copied a large number of the Tenniel illustrations in ink. In the process I learned quite a bit about the background to the books, and Carroll himself. (Skip this bit if you’re not interested. There is no evidence whatsoever that a) Lewis Carroll used drugs while writing it, and b) that he ever had improper feelings for Alice and her sisters)

So, let’s get to the round. 13 questions were asked. 12 of them were specifically about details from the narrative or the text, and all of them were about the content of the books. The only question not specifically about the narrative asked about what is written on the ticket in the illustration of the Mad Hatter’s hat.

Yes -  you might well say – well, isn’t that the point? Shouldn’t a round on the Alice novels actually BE about the Alice novels? – Well, that’s certainly one point of view. But there are other things that might have been asked about the novels which aren’t from quite such a narrow field, for example:-

·       Which of the characters in “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” is based on Lewis Carroll himself?

·       What was the title of the original manuscript of the story which Carroll gave to Alice Liddell?

·       What was the name of the children’s author friend to whom Carroll showed the manuscript in order to help him decide whether to publish it or not?

·       What was the name of the clergyman who accompanied Carroll and the Liddells on the boating trip where the story was originally conceived?

·       Who illustrated the handwritten original manuscript of what became “Alice in Wonderland”?

(Answers are at the bottom of this post)

and so on.

Now, please don’t misunderstand me about this. I am not saying that having such a relatively narrow focus made the round easier, because I’m sure it didn’t. I’m not blaming the question setter either. I’ve known a couple of people who have set questions for the show and I’m aware that they are under fairly strict instructions about the range of questions, the level of difficulty, the length and style etc. What I can’t help wondering is why the decision seems to have been made somewhere along the line to do this with rounds about works of fiction – be they printed, televisual or filmed. Is it, I wonder because it’s felt that this will make it easier for people to play along at home, or more interesting for people playing along at home? Maybe. Off the top of my head I can’t really think of another reason.

Please feel free to disagree with me on this. I personally feel that a Mastermind specialist round should reflect the whole subject, not just the most interesting or accessible aspects of it, as much as is possible in up to 15 questions, anyway. I’ve picked on the Alice round, not to denigrate the setter or the contender who answered on it, but simply because it’s a subject that I know a little bit about. However, I could easily have picked on other rounds in this and the previous series. You know, I don’t know if this is necessarily the most apt analogy, but it’s a bit like doing an autobiographical subject, and only being asked about the subject’s years of fame and success, and nothing at all about the childhood or the background.

I’d be interested to hear your views on the subject.

Answers to the questions:-

1) The Dodo – it’s a pun on Carroll’s attempts to say his real name caused by his stutter – Do-Do-Dodgson

2) Alice’s Adventures Underground

3) George MacDonald

4) Robinson Duckworth

5) Lewis Carroll himself

Oh you don't want to see my pictures do you? Alright - these are copied freehand from Tenniel's originals - just a few

Mastermind 2023: First Round Heat Four

Hello and good evening, dearly beloved. Well, let’s call a spade a spade, tonight’s heat wasn’t a classic, but there was still a bit to enjoy, if you looked closely enough.

So let’s start with Julie Clifton. Julie was answering on the TV series Detectorists, which is not a series I can ever remember watching. Well, she started well, and she ended well. In between she faltered a wee bit. The late rally took her up to 9, which is certainly respectable, but bearing in mind some of the scores and performances we’ve already seen this series, it did look as if this was going to leave her with a lot to do.

Now, our second contender, Isabel Burgin, was answering on the Alice Novels of Lewis Carroll. These are books that fascinated me from a very early age indeed. Mostly this was to do with John Tenniel’s illustrations – so much so that I’ve made copies of many of them for my own amusement in the last year or so. And to be fair, it was enough to bring me 3 points on the round. Isabel did better, but, sadly, not that much better. I’m going to be a wee bit cheeky and suggest that Isabel just hadn’t prepared quite thoroughly enough for the demands of the round.

Pete Westcott’s subject – British Politics in the 1960s – brought me more points than the previous round, which rather surprised me. Not as many as it brought Pete though. After the two previous rounds it was a pleasure to see a round where the contender’s preparation enabled him to post a score in double figures.

Well, considering that I’d scored nowt on Detectorists, I was absolutely delighted that my knowledge of Sir Elton was enough to take my cumulative total for the specialist round up to 17, my best of the series so far. Yes, alright, Sam did much better. He said in his later filmed insert that pretty much everything he revised came up, and it certainly looked like it as he raced away to 12 points to take the lead at the half time interval.

So it was Isabel who was the first to return to the chair. I have every sympathy for contenders whose round just didn’t come off, and I’m afraid it was like this for Isabel. She scored five. Things weren’t much better for Julie when she returned to the chair, either. Once again she started well, but this time, after becoming bogged down in the middle of the round she didn’t manage to rally as she had done in the specialist round. 7 was enough to bring her a respectable total of 16.

So to the real contest. Pete Wescott, while never looking totally convincing in his GK round did at least manage double figures, adding 10 to his previous score to raise the bar to 21. Bearing in mind the winning scores we’ve seen so far this season – and quite a few of the totals that didn’t win, the target looked to be a quite achievable one. Well, it might well have looked that way, but Sam really had to grapple with his round, and it wasn’t until the last stages of it that he managed to equal and then surpass Pete’s total.

Well, there we are. You can’t have caviar every single week and sometimes a bit of marmite on toast provides a bit of welcome variety. Well done to Sam – you have nothing to lose in the semi finals.

The Details

Julie Clifton	Detectorists	9	1	7	0	16	1
Isabel Burgin	The Alice Novels of Lewis Carroll	7	0	5	3	12	3
Pete Wescott	British Politics in the 1960s	11	1	10	3	21	4
Sam Swift	Sir Elton John	12	0	10	0	22	0