Only 2 more to go after this one, dearly beloved. Since I haven’t mentioned anything prior to this post, I think I should say that I hadn’t even looked at the website before watching. So even if I had wanted to do the wiki challenge, I had no idea what the specialists were. Still, it meant I was going for a hattrick of unwikied double figure aggregates. Ooh, it’s exciting, isn’t it?
The Plays of
Tennessee Williams, as answered by Shaun Cairns, didn’t really promise a bumper
crop of points. Under the circumstances, then, I was pleasantly surprised to
get 3 of them. Poor old Shaun himself only managed 4. It was difficult to see
exactly why he didn’t do better, mind you, it must be hard for a graduate student
to find the time to revise. It’s not a disaster, but the poor fellow looked
absolutely devastated as he returned to his chair. At the end of the day, it’s
only a game, as the great Magnus himself said on more than one occasion.
Rema Wilkins
was answering on US First Ladies since 1945. Now, I don’t claim to know a
massive amount about the First Ladies. I do, however, know quite a bit about
their husbands and it turned out that this would be enough to get me a pretty
useful five on the round. Two rounds down and the aggregate was already 8. Ream
did a lot better with a praiseworthy 9, so at least she would be in the shakeup
after the half time oranges had been handed out.
I also knew
next to nothing about NBA MVP winners since 2000. This time there was nothing I
did know about which could help me very much and so I failed to add to the aggregate.
Ronan McKenna on the other hand provided the best specialist round of the
night. I know nothing about basketball, or next to nothing, but I found Ronan’s
round of 10 to be pretty impressive. It only yielded 10 marks though, while I
thought it looked a point or two better than that. Well, that’s the way it goes.
Stephen Finn’s
Mithridates the Great actually did hold up hope that I’d get the couple that I
needed for double figures. I didn’t know that much about the lad himself – that’s
Mithridates, not Stephen – but I do know just a bit about the last century of
the Roman Republic, and that was enough o bring me three points and an
aggregate of 11 for specialist. I’ll settle for that. Stephen managed 9 points,
and so obviously knew his stuff. One point then covered the top three at the
half time turnaround. All to play for.
Heaven knows
Shaun Cairns gave it his best shot. He tried, in fact he tried so hard you
could see him getting annoyed with himself when he gave a wrong answer. 6
points behind is a hell of a long way to come back from though. At least a
valiant effort gave him 11 points and the brief lead. As we’ve seen a number of
times this series, when it’s not your night, then it’s just not you night.
I thought
after a few questions that it wasn’t going to be Rema Wilkens’ night either.
Yet she rallied, steadied the ship n adjust kept taking each question on its
merits and taking he points where they were there to be had. Yes, she gained 8
which didn’t necessarily look like a winning performance, but I just had the
feeling that this would be one of those shows when there was something in the
air, something infectious which was going to strike throughout the GK round. 17
probably wouldn’t be enough . . . but then it might.
Well, no, it
wasn’t. Stephen Finnhad begun his round on 9, just as had Rema, but it was a
bit of a struggle for him on the way to getting the 9 he needed to take the
lead by one point. There were some long pauses, and sometimes these can be
disastrous for the contenders. Yet he did manage to keep going, and breasted
the tape just before the white line of death encircled the score.
So this put
the task facing Ronan McKenna into fairly simple terms. He needed 8 and 1 pass
or fewer to win. 8 and 2 passes would mean a tie break, and anything less
wouldn’t be enough. Remember that I said a moment ago that there was something
in the air in the GK rounds? Well, poor Ronan took the full brunt of it. Once
he got stuck after a couple of questions he just couldn’t build up any momentum
at all, and the answers came singularly, and sporadically. By the time the
white line was on its way round, it was too late for him to get the 8 he
needed. In the end he added 6 to his total.
So,
commiserations to the other contenders but to Stephen, the spoils. I wish you
the very best of luck in your semi final, sir.
The
Details
|
Shaun Cairns |
The Plays of Tennessee Williams |
4 |
0 |
7 |
0 |
11 |
0 |
|
Rema Wilkens |
US First ladies 1945 - present |
9 |
0 |
8 |
1 |
17 |
1 |
|
Ronan McKenna |
NBA MVP Winners 2000 – present day |
10 |
0 |
6 |
0 |
16 |
0 |
|
Stephen Finn |
Mithridates the Great |
9 |
0 |
9 |
2 |
18 |
2 |
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