That was a strange old show, wasn’t it, dearly beloved? I fancy I might end up having a bit of contender defending to do around the metaphorical water-cooler at school tomorrow. Well, let’s see how I do.
First up was Catherine the Great. Well, actually it was
Jane Worrall answering on Catherine the Great. Perusing the subjects prior to
the show I did think that this was a subject where I might just nick the odd
couple of points but no, not a sausage. For me there was no low hanging fruit,
and apparently not for Jane either. She had one of those nights, ending with a total
of 3.
Yes, alright, if you’re thinking that it was more likely
that I’d get my highest score on specialist of the show on Paul Warrington’s
round on Wallace and Gromit, then you’re very clever. And right – I had three
of them. Mind you, I didn’t think there were many gimmes on this set either.
Yes, their address is a wee bit of a pub quiz old stager, but there wasn’t a
lot else. Not that it bothered Paul at all. He seems to know these wonderful
shows and films inside out. Yes, he had to pass on a couple, but this set seemed
pretty damn testing, and I fancied that the 11 he posted might well leave him
out in front when the half time oranges were passed around.
Egon Schiele is an artist whose work I can respect, and to
which I do have an emotional response. Not liking, I hasten to add, though.
Maybe this is why I didn’t get any on Cristina Murray-Radulescu’s round. In the
Belvedere Museum in Vienna, Schiele’s work shares wall space with Klimt’s, and
for me theirs are head and shoulders above other lesser lights around them, but
having seen some of the works referenced in the round didn’t seem to help.
Cristina did better, but she too was forced to endure one of those nights, and
scored four.
Teacher alert! English teacher alert!! Yes, Stewart McNicol
who was answering on Hyenas is an English teacher, a fact which should have
ruled him completely out of contention, landing him with a double dose of
support from the Clark sofa. Yet he managed to overcome this handicap, and by
the end of the round he had posted a highly respectable 8. Yes, he was still 3
behind Paul, but that’s within range if you have the general knowledge to match
your specialist. Whether this would be the case with Stewart remained to be
seen.
I don’t care who you are, you have to feel sympathy for a
contender for whom things didn’t go as they would have liked in the specialist
and then has to return for the General Knowledge Round. It can’t be the most
pleasant or comfortable of experiences, so let’s pay tribute to first Jane, and
then Cristina for the calm and composed way that they faced their respective
returns to the chair. Let’s also acknowledge that both of them managed scores
which were respectable if unremarkable. Jane scored 8 and Cristina 7 which
meant that both of them ended up with totals of 11 and 3 passes. My first
thought was that we were unlikely to see a tie break between them – which was a
bit of a fatuous thought considering that Paul already had 11 and 2 passes.
Before Paul retuned to the chair, though, it was Stewart’s
turn. He set about accumulating points very well, and at one point I thought he
looked good for the teens. A few wrong answers and a few he really didn’t know
started creeping in during the last minute. Nevertheless he scored 11 – and as
we know, in the current era if you manage double figures in either round you’ve
done well. Well enough to win? Well . . .
Maybe I write this with the benefit of hindsight, but I
thought Paul looked nervous when he came back to the chair. He needed a score
of 9 since Stewart had not passed and therefore a tie break was out of the
question. That was enough of an ask to put him into the corridor of doubt – and
he hadn’t reached the end of it by the end of the round. Paul scored 7 to end
with 18.
Stewart, I don’t know if you’ll read this ever, but in case
you do, I have to tell you that it did my heart good to see a fellow English
teacher winning in the chair. Beating the curse of the Clark sofa is no mean
feat, and I really do wish you all the luck in the world in the semi finals.
The Details
|
Jane Worrall |
Catherine the Great |
3 |
1 |
8 |
2 |
11 |
3 |
|
Paul Warrington |
Wallace and Gromit |
11 |
2 |
7 |
4 |
18 |
6 |
|
Cristina Murray-
Radulescu |
Egon Schiele |
4 |
0 |
7 |
3 |
11 |
3 |
|
Stewart McNicol |
Hyenas |
8 |
0 |
11 |
0 |
19 |
0 |
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