Somehow it seems like a very long time since we actually had Quizzy Mondays on a Monday, rather than just the few weeks that it’s actually been. Here we are again, though.
First out of the traps then was Alison Rose. Alison was
offering us the Life of Anne Lister. If that name doesn’t really ring a bell,
then maybe the nickname Gentleman Jack might jog your memory. For this is that
same Anne Lister upon whose diaries the drama series of the same name was based.
Alison’s round was an object lesson in how to deal with a specialist round. She
snapped out the answers quickly, and I was certain she had prepared thoroughly.
I was right too, as she revealed she’d made five hundred and ninety seven
flashcards for her revision, which is something I can run up the flagpole and
salute.
It would be very wicked of me to ask how many flashcards
Alan McLarty had used in his preparation for his round on the show Dear Evan
Hansen. After all, flashcards are not the only way to prepare, they just
happened to be one that I found effective. I’m not very familiar with this show
myself. Alan, a fellow teacher, started really well, but I think he was stymied
a little by some of the questions that concentrated more on the production
details rather than the plot details. Interesting that this happened with a
stage show, while TV show rounds are almost entirely about plot details
nowadays. Well, leaving that to one side, the curse of support from the Clark
sofa struck again as Alan scored five.
So to our third contender, Sangeetha Navaratnam-Blair.
Sangeetha was answering on Elizabeth Ist. This actually was my own best round
of the night. Not that my score approached Sangeetha’s. Unlike me, she scored a
respectable 8. It was a decent performance, but you couldn’t help thinking that
she’d have her work cut out in the general knowledge round being four points
off the lead.
Finishing off the round for us was Harry Hodson. Harry was
answering on the Feature Films of David Lynch. I will confess that I’d forgotten
that David Lynch made the first ever feature film version of one of my all-time
favourite novels, Dune. It’s a funny thing that two of my favourite novels are practically
unfilmable. Vanity Fair is the other, in case you were wondering. And David
Lynch’s film of Dune certainly proved that Dune is. Coming back to Harry’s
round, it was one of those where, after a bright start, no matter how hard he
tried Harry was treading water for much of it. Like Alan, he ended with five.
With Alison Rose having a four point lead you could have
probably named your own odds on any of the other three contenders winning.
Nevertheless, even when the result looks to be a foregone conclusion there’s
always still plenty to enjoy in a general knowledge round. Alan returned to the
chair first. His score of 9 was respectable, and he was not far short of a
double figure score either. Of course, this only raised the combined score
target to fourteen, but at least it meant that he got to sample the flavour of
being in the lead for a while.
To me Harry Hodson had looked uncomfortable for at least
the last minute of his specialist round, and I’m afraid that he looked uncomfortable
all the way through his general knowledge round. Harry looked to me to be one
of this year’s younger contenders, and so maybe this was just too early in his
quiz career to be having a bite at this particular cherry. He scored 6 to take
his total to 11.
Sangeetha faced two tasks in her own GK round. Firstly she
needed to get 7 correct answers in order to take the outright lead from Alan.
The second task was to pile on as many correct answers after this to put as
much pressure as possible on Alison. Well, she achieved the first, but only
managed to take another correct answer to raise the bar to 16. She had the
satisfaction of scoring a respectable 8, of taking the lead, and of knowing
that she would not finish lower than second. With the best will in the world,
mind you, his was never going to be enough for a win.
Nor was it, either. For a while Alison was a little
becalmed in her round on 16 points, but once she cleared the log jam she piled on
another 6 points for a final total of 22. I mentioned her use of flashcards for
preparation, which she mentioned in her winner’s piece to camera at the end. It’s
a method I’ve always found effective, and it’s nice to see successful
contenders who’ve found the same for themselves. Well done Alison, best of luck
in the semi-finals.
The Details
|
Alison Rose |
The Life of Anne
Lister |
12 |
0 |
10 |
0 |
22 |
0 |
|
Alan McLarty |
Dear Evan Hansen |
5 |
1 |
9 |
0 |
14 |
1 |
|
Sangeetha
Navaratnam-Blair |
Elizabeth Ist |
8 |
0 |
8 |
2 |
16 |
2 |
|
Harry Hodson |
The Feature Films of
David Lynch |
5 |
1 |
6 |
2 |
11 |
3 |
2 comments:
I noticed the Dear Evan Hansen thing focussing on production details rather than plot points as well, but I think this was as a result of not necessarily the format of stage versus screen, but the fact that it's ultimately one story. If your specialist subject is a TV show that's run for five series, I think it's fair to ask primarily about plot points because there are going to be a LOT of them, and revising it enough to remember them all is a task in itself. Focussing just on plot details for Dear Evan Hansen would make me think this round was far too easy, as you'd only have to watch it a few times to remember most things that happen. (I had similar thoughts about the round on Lewis Carroll's Alice books a few weeks back - I thought, and still think, that a series of just two books is a little too short to be a specialist subject in its own right - but still... two books is more than one, and those books are full of obscure little pieces of trivia that it takes quite an expert to remember them all; I thought a lot of the questions were pretty difficult considering.)
I think Sangeetha was on Only Connect last year, I seem to recall her. I've actually written a play about Queen Elizabeth I which required a ton of research into her life so I was excited for that round, but I really didn't do very well! Clearly, my knowledge of her has dried up in the few years since I wrote that play.
Hi George- re: production details v. plot details, yeah, I know where you're coming from, but I'd still like to see just a little more of a wider focus in TV and film rounds, like they used to be. There's no pleasing some people.
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