University Challenge Quarter Final Qualification Match: Durham v. Royal Holloway

The Teams

Durham

Harry Scully

Chloe Margaux

Alex Radcliffe

Bea Bennett

Royal Holloway

Joel Abramovitch

Joanna Brown

George Harvey

Micka Clayton

It’s a funny old game, this University Challenge punditry, isn’t it? In this quarter final qualification match we had two unbeaten teams, Royal Holloway and Durham. In my unofficial round 1 and 2 table Royal Holloway were the strongest team – because they were propping up all the rest of them. Boom boom, I’m ‘ere all week, ladies and gentlemen. Durham, by contrast were top of the table. Had this been both teams’ first quarter final match, then matters would have appeared a little more clear cut.

But their last matches changed the complexion of this match. Durham had a much lower score than their average, having just beaten Southampton in an excellent close match. A bonus conversion rate of 65.8% sealed the deal for them. Royal Holloway had a more comfortable win against Robert Gordon. Partly this was built on their superior buzzing. However, it was also down to a bonus conversion rate that was much better than their average from the first two rounds. So while I still fancied Durham to win, the signs that things were not going to necessarily be quite so clear cut were there, had I just had eyes to see them.

The first starter asked us for a 193 play, and that date was enough for me to blurt out The Crucible. Massachusetts Bay Colony and 1690s were enough to give Harry Scully the same answer. This brought Durham a set of bonuses on Martha Gellhorn brought us both two bonuses. Several musical clues to the name Johnny brought Harry Scully a second starter, although he juggled the ball a little bit and was lucky not to knock on. Events of the 1450s brought just the one bonus. Harry Scully, trying for a hattrick came in far too early for the next starter – it was only after he buzzed and gave away five that it became obvious that Dido’s brother was called Pygmalion. Royal Holloway’s star buzzer from previous rounds, Joanna Brown, took that one. Pioneers of Radio Telescopy saw us both take a single bonus with Sir Bernard Lovell. So to the picture starter. This showed us a leitmotif and asked which character it represented. This involved working out that it was Peter and the Wolf and then recognising it represented Peter himself. Alex Radcliffe did so very quickly indeed. The bonuses were other character leitmotifs from the same. I answered duck to the first two and got it right for the second. Durham took a full house on this set. This meant that as we approached the 10-minute mark they appeared to be well in control at 55 – 15.

This impression was strengthened when Joel Abramovitch lost five for the next starter. Alex Radcliffe recognised the two titles as belonging to work by Alfred Russel Wallace – hell of a good shout, that. The Chinese installation artist Xu ‘Who’ Bing provided us both with a single bonus for the Analects of Confucius. Alex Radcliffe gambled on the next question by going early only to have the distressing experience of hearing his proposed answer become part of the question. Nobody knew that it was Nobel Prize winners Laue and Franck whose medals were dissolved in aqua regia to prevent them from getting into the hands of the Nazis. For the second starter in a row Alex Radcliffe jumped in too early. He lost . Joel Abramovitch didn’t lose five, but he came in too early to hear significant parts of the question. Because it didn’t actually want the golden ratio to four significant numbers, but the king on the throne if you read the numbers as a date. Some inscrutable thing about microfarad conductors (can you get driver operated microfarads which don’t need a conductor?) saw nobody get the right answer of 300.Nothing daunted Alex Radcliffe buzzed early again to get the word brassica. We both identified Derek Walcott for one of the bonuses on verse novels. Now, I thought that I knew Keats quite well, but I didn’t recognise the lines that gave Joanna Brown the next starter. Science stuff about magnetic fields did as little for Royal Holloway as it did for me. For the music starter Chloe Margaux won the buzzer race to identify music from the Musical Hairspray. Hairspray is a film that became a stage musical that became a musical film, and three others of the same delivered just the one correct answer with Little Shop of Horrors. Harry Scully, asked for an Italian city featuring in the title of a novel by Stendahl came close but lost five for Parmigiano. I’m surprised that Joanna Brown didn’t know that one, but she went with scarlet from Le Rouge et Le Noir. A truly lovely UC special starter asked which was the middle county of the 7 on the English channel coast. Skipper George Harvey came in first to correctly answer Hampshire. Words in the titles of Assassins Creed games brought two bonuses, and this made the score look slightly better for RH, even though they trailed by 90 – 40 at the twenty-minute mark.

Triton – Titania- Titan – Ganymede began the next starter. Phobos! I shouted, hoping that I had correctly remembered which is the larger of Mars’ moons. I was as George Harvey confirmed. Historic cities of West Africa brought just the 1 bonus, but the gap was narrowing and that was what was important. George Harvey clearly had the bit between his teeth now as he took the next starter recognising that it must have something to do with a Rubik’s Cube. Bonuses on plastids amazingly brought me a bonus and a lap of honour. I knew that one based on the Greek for white could be a leucoplast. Not even Royal Holloway had that one. For the next starter we were shown photos of two writers who shared their first and second initials. Well, I recognised JM Barrie, who was probably known to my 3x great grandparents when he was growing up in Kirriemuir. More authors linked by middle initials brought just one more correct answer. That was enough to mean that RH were going to need more than one visit to the table, but there were still a good few minutes to go before the gong. Harry Scully went too early. One of my new years questions was which country became the first in the world to accept the bitcoin as legal currency, and George Harvey dredged it up. I did know Edith Head for the first bonus which RH didn’t, but they took the other two. This meant that Durham led by a mere five points. I didn’t really get the next question but Joel Abramovitch came in early with actin. That put RH into the lead for the first time in the match.Bonuses all beginning with voc – stretched the lead by five more points. Essentially, then, what we had was a one buzz game. If RH took the next starter, then there surely wouldn’t be time for Durham to come back. If Durham took it,, we were all square, with bonuses to come. I was surprised when neither team buzzed at the name of Frieda Von Richthofen, but when JP said she was the model for Ursula Brangwen then Joanna Brown made no mistake, buzzing in with DH Lawrence. A single bonus on culinary sauces put just a little more gloss on the victory. Royal Holloway won by 125 – 100.

Royal Holloway deserved their win and took a place in the semi finals that I, for one, did not think that they could get. Sorry Royal Holloway, and best of luck in the semis. This despite a bonus conversion rate of 45.4%. As for Durham, well, they are not out of it at all, and will still get there if they win their next match. They had slightly the better bonus conversion rate at 52.3% but their five penalties cost them dearly tonight, and it remains to be seen if this will make them more cautious on the buzzer.

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

Jean-Phillipe Leo Smet was the real name of Johnny Hallyday

Mastermind 2023 Semi Final 3

I’m fine, there’s no need to worry, and you can tell the King to stop blubbing. Alright, I don’t actually know that His Majesty is a LAM reader, but I’d like to think so. I didn’t post last night after the show simply because I’d had a full day of teaching followed by a three hour Parents’ evening with appointments non stop from 3 until 6 pm. I was cream crackered.

Enough excuses then. Let’s begin with the observation that for the third semi in a row we had another rather polarised lineup. No aspersions meant towards any of the four worthy semi-finalists, but again, no contestants from amongst the top half of my table of the first round scores. Here’s how they did in their heats.

So, Darren Ross kicked us off with the PDC World Darts Championship. In the 6^th form at school we played darts in the common room before and after school and then at University I played for the Duke of Cambridge in Lewisham. I used to follow professional darts quite closely at that time. Back then the BDO world championship was the only game in town in those days when darts legend Jocky Wilson’s picture adorned the set of Top of the Pops while Dexy’s Midnight Runners performed ‘Jackie Wilson Said’. Heady days indeed. Well, the Duke of Cambridge was knocked down to provide room for the new bus station and the DLR station, I left London anyway and I stopped watching darts. So I was very pleased to scrape 2 points with lucky guesses on Darren’s round. I doubt very much that any of Darren’s 10 points came from lucky guesses – he knew his stuff alright and took 10 well deserved points.

None of Alison Rose’s questions on the History of Transportation to Australia concerned my several times great uncle Jabez Rainbow. Not surprising really. For the record, once his sentence was up he became a postman, and his descendants still live in Tasmania. I did not manage to sneak any points in this round. How long do you think Transportation to Australia actually went on? It’s funny – I knew when the First Fleet arrived in 1788, but I didn’t know it was still going on until 1868. Somehow I’d conceived that it ended about 1850. Oh well. This was, I would think, one of those tricky subjects where you don’t know how wide the parameters are going to be set by the question setters. Under those circumstances I think that Alison did very well indeed to get into double figures.

Sam Swift was answering on the TV series Parks and Recreation. Once again, the questions were almost exclusively about details from individual episodes. I mean, I can understand this, but surely they could ask about 1 or 2 production details. I don’t know how many episodes there were, but I believe that there were 7 series. That means a hell of a lot of time needing to be spent watching through them all to try to glean the details, some of which were I would have thought pretty obscure. Me? Although I have never watched it, there was just one question about a song request at Halloween. I threw in a guess of The Monster Mash and it was right. I don’t care where they come from, if I’m right I’m having it.

So I’d reached my predicted target of 3 points on the specialist aggregate with one contender to spare. As it worked out fourth contender James Davidson was answering on my best subject of the night, Queen Anne. I mean it wasn’t my best subject by much. I only answered 3 of them correctly, and sitters all three were, too. Still an aggregate of 6 is twice my target of three and I have to be satisfied with that. The target was 10 and James’ round couldn’t quite match that score. Crucially though it was very close, just one point less giving him 9. All to play for in the second half.

Sam came out and gave us a rousing double figure round on General Knowledge. In fact it was something of a round of two halves. Hardly anything passed him by at the start, but he slowed down from the middle, and the wrong answers started cropping up. When this happens it is absolutely crucial that you don’t dwell on what you’ve got wrong – I rather did in my own first ever appearance in Geoff’s 2006 series. Concentrate on the next question and try to get it right, then the next and the next. I think that Sam did this.

For all of that, though, 17 did not look like a winning total. Next to go was James. He too put in a good shift at the quizface, delivering a double figure round. He scored 11. Now, to put this in context within this semi final, it didn’t look as if the kind of score that would guarantee a win by blowing all other contenders out of the water. However bearing in mind how well matched these contenders all seemed, it certainly looked competitive.

Darren couldn’t beat it. His score of 8 reflected a perfectly decent effort, but from about halfway through the round he did look as if he was going to struggle to reach the target. Nothing to be ashamed of. All four contenders are now Mastermind Semi-Finalists and I do know a few people who would give a lot to be able to make that boast about themselves.

Only Alison remained. There was hardly anything to choose between her own performance in the heat and James’ so it was difficult to predict whether she was going to do it or not. From some of the answers that Alison missed I got the impression that she is a bit of a casual quizzer at best. Nothing wrong with that either. You can get a long way just by playing the percentages and making your guesses to what you don’t know of the more obvious variety. If it might be right, go for it. For me Alison didn’t quite manage to do so enough in her round, and this is why she fell agonisingly one point short, scoring 9 to finish with 19. Bad luck.

So James takes the third place in the semis. I enjoyed his piece to camera at the end, where he seemed genuinely surprised and delighted at getting to the final at his first attempt. If I could give a little piece of advice, it would be not to let reaching the final be the limit of your ambitions. I didn’t think I would win my final, and when I said as much to a friend, she replied ‘well, if that’s your attitude then you definitely won’t win.” So I took this to heart, and thought – well, look, I don’t THINK I’ll win, but I’m going to act as if I do think so, and I’m going to prepare as if I do think so. I suppose it was a little bit of kidology. So act as if you think you can win. You’ve nothing to lose by doing so.

The Details

Darren Ross	The PDC World Darts Championship	10	0	8	1	18	1
Alison Rose	The History of Transportation to Australia	10	0	9	0	19	0
Sam Swift	Parks and Recreation	7	0	10	1	17	1
James Davidson	Queen Anne	9	0	11	0	20	0

 

Rise and Fall - not a quiz, but

I think that I should warn you that this post doesn’t actually have a great deal to do with quizzes. Well, come to think of it, it doesn’t really have anything to do with quizzes.

You may recall that a few months ago I reviewed BBC’s The Traitors, a non-quiz reality/game show. It’s the first time I’ve reviewed a show which has nothing whatsoever to do with quizzes. Well, last week on Channel Four another show made by the same production company that gave us The Traitors was trailed across Sunday to Friday evening. It’s called “Rise and Fall” and I thought I’d like to share my views about it with you.

The first thing that struck me in the first minutes of Sunday’s show was that it all takes place in 55 Broadway. I recognised the building immediately. I knew that this building was built as the headquarters for the Underground electric Railways of London group, the predecessors of Transport for London and London Transport. It was completed in 1931. Frank Pick (the Great Frank Pick – trust me, he was) commissioned the building from one of my favourite architects, Charles Holden, designer of many of the finest London Underground stations built in the inter-war years. When it was completed in 1931 it was the tallest office building in London. I didn’t know that TfL had moved out, but they did a few years ago.

Once I got over that revelation, though, I started concentrating on the show. Now, the fact that I’ve watched every episode so far shows that it is not totally lacking in interest. Add to this the fact that 10 o’clock on a school night is too late for me to start watching an hour long show, so I’ve been watching it the next evening. But I can’t say it’s a comfortable watch.

Like “The Traitors” this show divides contestants into two groups. 6 become Rulers, and all of the rest become Grafters. Only Rulers can win the prize pot. Only Grafters can work to put money into the prize pot. Compare this with The Traitors in which both Faithfuls and Traitors worked together to put money into the pot in the challenges. The Rulers go to the Penthouse to live in the lap of luxury, while the Grafters get sent to the cold, dirty squalor of the basement, where they get a basic meal always consisting of tasteless broth, bread and water for breakfast, dinner and tea. The Grafters are given a range of work tasks to achieve which range from the relatively pointless, like blowing up balloons to the frankly distressing and cruel. The Rulers have to set targets of what the Grafters must achieve. So let me summarise the first challenge. The Grafters had to hold cables into electric sockets to complete a circuit for a given amount of time. All the while they were being zapped with electric shocks. The Rulers had to decide how many rounds of this they had to endure. The more rounds they completed, the more money they banked. If they failed in a round, though,  they would have lost all the money. I was uncomfortable watching this, and my daughter, who has a degree in Sociology said it was like watching a version of the Milgram Experiment. I know what she meant. In another challenge the poor starving grafters had to eat several extremely unpalatable things, including dog food.

Ah, but this is a game, isn’t it? So where’s the incentive for the Grafters? Where’s the jeopardy for the Rulers? Well, it works like this. Every so often the Rulers must vote out one of their number. This is when the show becomes Big Brother. Rulers make alliances with other Rulers and conspire against other Rulers and one is kicked out. I’ve never been a huge fan of Big Brother.

Which brings me to a point. The game mechanics mean that the Rulers are going to be forced to display their most unlikeable traits. Judging by the comments that many of the Digital Spies who commented on the show made, we were all disappointed when the first Ruler to be kicked out was not sent down to join the Grafters, but allowed to go home scot free as it were. Then, on Friday’s show it was announced that the Grafters are going to be choosing two of the Rulers to become Grafters. You’d almost think that the producers were responding to the criticisms. Well, actually this is possible. Greg James – and there’s a reason why I haven’t mentioned him yet – the presenter, allegedly, was on Claudia Winkleman’s Radio 2 show yesterday morning and he revealed that he is still filming the series. So maybe the producers DID see the criticism and made the format change on the hoof. Then again, maybe not.

Thus far, a Ruler expulsion is followed by a vote among the Grafters. The two Grafters with the highest votes are sent to the Penthouse. After a champagne reception, the Rulers choose one to become the next Ruler. I can’t say that these sequences have been particularly enjoyable. I don’t need a ‘secret’ piece to camera from one of the Grafters telling me hat he or she really wants to go to the Penthouse and become a Ruler. You’d be daft to want to stay in the basement. Likewise, I don’t want to see a Ruler doing a piece to camera telling me ‘I DON’T trust Tiffany (name changed to protect the guilty) she is NOT a strong ruler!’ They can cut those down as soon as they like.

I’ve already mentioned the nagging feeling the show gives me that either the show hasn’t really been completely worked out before the start, or the producers are changing the gameplay on the hoof. The arbitrary way the original Rulers were selected was strange. Told by the rather anonymous Greg James to sort it out amongst themselves, basically it came down to who had the gall to just walk into the lift at the end. From the few words that Greg James said I had the impression that they all had to agree. Likewise when Grafters were given the opportunity to make requests for items from the Rulers, the items they asked for really were small potatoes – well they didn’t actually ask for potatoes, large or small but you know what I mean. Were the Grafters told – these are the items you can ask for and nothing bigger? Who knows? We weren’t told. Here’s another thing. How is the end game going to work? So we’re told, only one Ruler can win. So how will this work? I mean, keep something back, by all means but give us an idea, producers.

Were the Producers unsure of whether they wanted to use Greg James or not? I ask because the poor devil is seen so little on screen or heard so little in voice over. I’m guessing Claudia wasn’t available for this one.

Yes, and that’s another thing. I must admit that I was not previously aware of Sophie Corcoran’s work as an internet pundit. I am now. It’s safe to say that she has her views and I have mine and never the twain shall meet. Still, bearing in mind her media profile I think the very least that Channel Four might have done is list her as Politics student AND Political Pundit on Twitter. Maybe I’m influenced by memories of the Traitors where so many of the contestants turned out to have acting or performance experience despite this not being their primary occupation or career.

For all I know “Rise and Fall” may yet come galloping home in the ratings. A lot will depend on the endgame, I think. I mean, if you watched the British version of “The Traitors” and then a few weeks later the American version of “The Traitors” which was also shown on the BBC, then that was a good demonstration. In the British version the last Traitor was expelled at the fifty ninth minute of the eleventh hour and the money was shared between those nice last three Faithfuls. A successful conclusion that left simple hearted me satisfied with the outcome. In the US version, the Traitor won. Granted, as a person she had come across no worse than the Faithfuls had, but nonetheless it was a moment that I found surprisingly deflating.

But as I say, for all the flaws I have highlighted, I will probably continue to watch it. I won’t necessarily like myself very much for doing so, though.

Mastermind Semi Final Monday 27th March - fancy a wiki?

An interesting list of specialists for anyone thinking of doing the wiki challenge on tomorrow night’s Mastermind semi final specialist subjects. As listed on the BBC Mastermind website they are:-

The PDC World Darts Championship

The History of Transportation to Australia

Parks and Recreation

Queen Anne

I say with some confidence that I will not be matching last week’s aggregate total. I have a parents’ evening to prepare for so shan’t be googling any of them. For the record, here’s my prediction

PDC World Championship – maybe I might sneak 1 point. My interest in darts really peaked in the early 80s BDO era – Bristow and Wilson and Keith Deller and all that.

The History of Transportation to Australia is a subject on which I might well draw a blank – unless it asks about my several times great uncle, Jabez Rainbow who was a British Army officer who took a cutthroat razor to the throat of his ‘common-law wife’ in the 1840s when he was off his face on the opium derivative laudanum. She survived, and it was her testimony in his favour that meant his death sentence was commuted to transportation to Van Diemen’s Land – Tasmania. Interesting, but hardly likely to bring me any points.

Parks and Recreation. I know it’s a TV show but have never watched it. Royaume Uni nul points.

Queen Anne – well I always fancy that British monarchs give me a bit of a chance. So if I say 2 on this, then I’ll be disappointed if I don’t get that many. So basically, for the aggregate for the whole lot of tomorrow’s specialist, anything higher than three points will be a bonus for me.

So tell us, Dave, how did Thursday's quiz go?

Well, what would you like me to say? I could be modest – actually I’m not sure that I could –but I could say that the quiz was alright in the club on Thursday. But judging it by my own set of criteria and they’re the only ones I’ve got, judging by them I think it went down pretty well. In case you’re wondering, the criteria can be pretty much summarised as – no low scores in any round – no complaining about the answers I gave – plenty of laughs around the club and all four teams separated by a measly two points at the end of the night. My team, who were down to just Jess, Dan and George because Adam has been in contact with Covid and wanted to make sure that he didn’t inadvertently pass it on to anyone else even though he is showing no symptoms. Going into the last round they were two points behind the leaders, but they had won the handout, and were actually the joint leaders on the road, to use a Tour de France analogy. They didn’t quite do it in the end, but you mark my words. They are going to win one of my ordinary quizzes (they’ve already won my end of year quiz twice) and they are going to do it soon.

Why do I think so? Well, because they’re improving. And I don’t think any of the other teams are. It works like this. I honestly believe that over a period of a good three or four years, regularly setting a quiz will make you a better quizzer – or it will if you do it properly. After that ou maybe become a little set in your ways, and it probably tails off. For example, I wouldn’t kid myself that I’m anything like as good a quizzer as I was maybe 10 years ago. But Dan, Jess and Adam are all taking their turn in setting the quiz for the rugby club now. And over the last couple of months each of them has said, in response to questions – oh, I think I read that when I was putting my quiz together – or words to that effect and supplied an answer we wouldn’t otherwise have had.

Jess is the question master next week. I know she gets a little bit like I do – when I’ve put a few questions that I like together, or a handout I think is quite clever together I want to tell people about it before the quiz takes place – I have a feeling she does as well. For that reason I think she’ll be glad when Thursday comes.

For example, last week I came up with this set of connections. Not the hardest in the quiz, but for some reason I really liked this set when it occurred to me. See what you think:-

1.    Which 70s band, with Nile Rogers on base, scored hits with The Greatest Dancer and Le Freak, among others?

2.    Which instrument can be lever, celtic or concert, among others?

3.    Who or what is Oscar, who lives in a trash can on Sesame Street?

4.    What is the connection between your last three answers?

I’m sure that you’ve figured it out. In case not: -

1.    Chic

2.    Harp

3.    The Grouch

4.    Add an O to each and you have a Marx Brother

No? Oh well, little things please little minds, I suppose.

University Challenge Quarter Finals Jesus, Cambridge v. UCL

The Teams

Jesus, Cambridge

Josh Kaye

Juliette Tindall

Hamish MacGregor (Capt)

Samir Aggarwal

UCL

Rachel Collier

Michael Fleetwood-Walker

James Salmon (Capt)

Louis Collier

The Tale of the Tape

So, what were the prognostications for last night’s contest, then? Well, I picked out UCL as one of the two teams I felt most likely to be destined for the semis. The other one, Bristol are already halfway there. I just thought that they would have a little too much firepower for what is in it’s own right a pretty useful Jesus outfit.

For the first starter, asked for an animal I got it from the first clue, referring to talking the hind leg off a donkey. Coming in after me Michael Fleetwood-Walker went for dog, losing five. I think it was the allusion to Donkey Kong that maybe meant that Juliette Tindall saw the light and gave the correct answer. Sweyn Forkbeard – now that’s what you call a name isn’t it, boys and girls – brought them two bonuses. Godel may have been a clever mathematician, but dying from starvation due to his fear of poisoning puts him firmly into the stupid git category as far as I’m concerned. James Salmon put his team on the board with that one. Systems of nomenclature saw them mix up Flamborough with Flamsteed, but they still managed the other two. Knowing Messier stirred me to an early lap of honour around the Clark living room. You had to stay with the next starter, but once it mentioned the General in Question shared his name with George Washington’s Virginia Estate it became clear that this was Admiral Vernon. James Salmon took a second starter with this one. Fowler’s (Harry? Robbie? ) Dictionary of Modern English Usage provided two more correct answers to push UCL into the lead. Nobody recognised an overhead map view of Rio de Janeiro for the next starter. James Salmon knew his coelocanths when he heard about them, and took his third starter with the world’s best known living fossil. This on the picture bonuses on three other cities that are home to the largest favelas in Brazil. Both of us only managed to get Manaus. Detection of residue on non-porous surfaces? Surely fingerprints I felt. James Salmon zigged with blood, allowing Samir Aggarwal in with my answer. Picnics in Art brought just one bonus. The mention of Laurent de Brunhoff brought me to my feet shouting ‘Elephants! Elephants! That’s the Babar man!” This all meant that the scores were nicely poised at 45 – 35 to UCL at a little after the 10-minute mark.

Rachel Collier knew a pair of creoles when she heard them. This meant that we had a UC special set on pairs of words where the first letter of the first word is replaced by the next letter of the alphabet for the second, as in cart and dart. We both got a couple of them. James Salmon knew Corrie Ten Boom for the next starter and his fourth. Bonuses on East Africa saw JP asking them to clarify which Kenyatta they were referring to. Were there that many? John-Boy Kenyatta, Jim-Bob Kenyatta and Mary-Ellen Kenyatta? Despite this we both took a full house on this set. This was followed by the music starter where we were given a none-too-pleasant snatch of Rigoletto, which was identified by Hamish MacGregor. Three more excerpts from operatic depictions of storms saw us both get Berlioz, but fail to identify Ethel ‘Who’ Smyth and Richard Wagner. Now, had Borussia Dortmund not been a specialist subject in Mastermind only half an hour earlier I might well not have guessed that Dortmund was where the Bundesliga was formed. But it had so I did. So did James Salmon taking his fifth. Bonuses on gothic church architecture beginning with T provide two more correct answers. Primes – quantum computation – it’s all Greek to me, but Samir Aggarwal knew that the answer was fifteen. W.H.Auden’s clerihews – hmmm, an acquired taste I dare to say – brought one bonus. Michael Fleetwood-Walker came in too soon for the next starter, allowing Jesus a free shot, but they couldn’t dredge up Seine Maritime. James Salmon took his sixth starter recognising definitions of anagrams of triangle. Bonuses on philosophy brought one correct answer. I did know Emerson, who must have become a philosopher after he stopped playing for Middlesbrough. It had been a ten minute period which UCL had made the better of, and they now left by 120 – 65.

James Salmon took a seventh starter recognising a lovely bit of Raphael – the artist, not the turtle. The work of three more artists brought two bonuses. I didn’t know any of them I’m afraid. Josh Kaye knew that the Dacians were in modern day Romania in Roman times. Five letter anatomical words beginning with V didn’t help Jesus at all. Hamish MacGregor knew that Teddy Roosevelt said to speak softly and wield a big stick. Titles beginning with A Brief History Of – brought two bonuses and showed that the outcome of the match was still to be decided. However James Salmon took his eighth starter with chromatography. Bonuses on backgammon again brought UCL a couple of bonuses. Josh Kaye recognised a wee bit of Richard III for the next starter. A frankly rather difficult series on battles passed all of us by without troubling the scorer. Nw, since Dee and Mersey were both mentioned it looked as if the county in question had to be Cheshire. Michael Fleetwood-Walker found his range and knocked that one to the boundary. Scotland’s great ways saw UCL fail to score on what I felt was a distinctly gettable set. Never mind. Skipper James Salmon soon took his ninth starter with the Beaux Arts style of architecture. Artists and author with the surname Brown brought just the one for Ford Maddox of that ilk. Hamish MacGregor knew that M as in MIC stands for Methyl. That was it, though. The contest was gonged before there was any time for bonuses, leaving UCL the winners on 185 – 115.

One felt that UCL were the stronger team through the contest, and the stats seem to bear this out. They managed a 54.5 percent bonus conversion rate, while Jesus could only manage 33.3 percent. Mind you, they had some very tricky sets in that. Well, they can still make the semis, but have to win their next match.

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

The Comoros National Football team, who qualified for the African Cup of Nations in 2021 have the splendid nickname of the Coelocanths

Mastermind 2023 Semi Final 2

 The Tale of the Tape

Well, the handicappers do seem to have a sense of humour this year, don’t they? After last week’s top heavy semi final which pitted highest and second highest scoring players from the first round against each other, this week saw the two lowest scoring qualifiers pitted against each other. No fewer than 12 other qualifiers scored more than Blake Robinson in their first round heats. Proof positive that the production team really don’t apply any kind of seeding.

Well, you can’t blame any of this week’s semi finalists for the way that the semi-final places are allotted. You can only beat the people up against you. Hoping to do this was Stephen Finn, first to go, who was offering my banker subject for the evening, the Norman Conquest. I was right to think that this was the way it would prove to be too. I took five of these, most of them about the immediate aftermath of Hastings and the first couple of decades of Norman England. Stephen did a lot better. I remember in the filmed end piece of his heat he talked of going away to start work on his next specialist and this all appeared to have been time well spent, since he posted a score of 10. Good start.

Blake Robinson by way of contrast was offering my least fancied subject of this semi-final, Borussia Dortmund. I speculated in a recent post that I might just be able to sneak an odd point and that is pretty much how it turned out. Blake seemed to be going pretty well, but just a couple of wrong answers kept sneaking in as he was building up a head of steam. Nothing to be ashamed of in a 7 point round for a semi-final, but that three point deficit looked worrying, especially considering that there were still two more contenders to go.

Anna Milford Goldstein had built her first round win on a great general knowledge round overhauling the deficit she faced at half time. You can’t reckon on doing that in a semi so it was vital for her to post the highest total that she could on her round on Popes of the Renaissance. Well, she gave it a lash, and I’ve no doubt that she knew her stuff. But as with Blake’s round she just couldn’t quite get the uninterrupted run of correct answers that she needed to push her score close enough to Stephen’s. Like Blake she ended with 7, while I ended with 3.

Colin Rogers-March – and I don’t want to be horrible here – looked down and out after his first round heat specialist round on Judy Garland. Yet he came back to take the win. Then he had scored four on Judy Garland. Now he was answering on the Film Musicals of Alan Menken. Now, granted, he knew more about it than I did. I took three to take my aggregate to 13, and I’m very happy to take the money, er, points and run on that. However he only took a couple more to end with five. I did know Poor Unfortunate Souls, and I thought that there were at least a couple which I was surprised that he couldn’t dredge up. No doubt that he had shown he could be a big hitter in GK, but you just can’t afford to leave yourself that far behind at half time.

It was a quick turnaround for Colin, then. And fair play to him, after a rather disappointing specialist round he put in a rousing, battling performance in GK to add another 10 to his score. Double figures in a semi final GK round is something to be pleased with even if his overall total of 15 didn’t look likely to win.

Blake started a couple of points to the good on 7, and indeed he too added his own double figure round, going one better than Colin had. His 11 points took the target to 18. Well, at least it meant that those who came after couldn’t afford a collapse.

Anna had won her heat with a most rousing 14 on General Knowledge. Sadly she wasn’t able to quite repeat such heroics this time out. She was caught out by a few, and she needed a couple of the questions to be repeated, which you cannot blame her for but which can’t have helped her at all. In the end she scored 7 to finish with 14.

I wonder what was going through Stephen’s mind as he walked to the chair. In my semi final I needed 11 and no passes on GK to get to the final and I walked to the chair thinking – keep a cool head here, son, coz you’ll never have a better chance of getting to the Mastermind Grand Final - . Well, dare I say it, the place in the final wasn’t exactly being handed to him on a plate, but Stephen was never going to be presented with a better chance of reaching the final than he was now. To be fair, he made no mistake. Had he just repeated the 9 he scored on GK in the heat it would have been enough, but he did considerably better than that. Very little in the round gave him much trouble and in fact he gave us the best GK round of the night, ending with 13 for a total of 23. Very well done sir.

Two places in the final down, and four still to go.

The Details

Stephen Finn	The Norman Conquest	10	0	13	0	23	0
Blake Robinson	Borussia Dortmund	7	0	11	0	18	0
Anna Milford Goldstein	Popes of the Renaissance	7	0	7	0	14	0
Colin Rogers-March	Film Musicals of Alan Menken	5	0	10	0	15	0

 

That "Jane Eyre" and "Vanity Fair" connection I was talking about

I’ve just realised that I haven’t explained the comment that I made in my last University Challenge review that there is a strange connection between “Jane Eyre” and “Vanity Fair”. Allow me to remedy that situation. Charlotte Bronte was rather taken with Thackeray’s book, and in the preface to the second edition of “Jane Eyre” she waxed lyrical about Thackeray’s crusading zeal for social reform in his satire and dedicated the edition to him.

She was rather overstating the crusading zeal for social reform. I yield to no one in my admiration for and love of Thackeray and his greatest work, but I somehow feel he was far more interested in making his readers laugh than making them rise up and demand social justice in the way that Dickens, for example, did. But then Charlotte Bronte did have something of a lack of a sense of humour. She visited Thackeray and stayed with him for a while in 1851 to pay a visit to the Great Exhibition and by all accounts her found her intense nature and lack of humour to be quite trying. Personally, I don’t think Charlotte Bronte quite ‘got’ “Vanity Fair”

Thackeray’s wife Isabella had been confined to a mental institution before Jane Eyre was published and she remained there for the rest of her life, which ended decades after Thackeray’s. This was well known in literary circles in London. So when the unknown author Currer Bell published this story in which the main male protagonist had a wife who was locked up in an attic, speculation linked the unwitting Thackeray with the mysterious Currer Bell.

Tomorrow's Semi Final Subjects

I’ve just had a look at the Mastermind website, dearly beloved. Here’s the subjects for tomorrow’s second semi-final.

The Norman Conquest

Borussia Dortmund

Popes of the Renaissance

The film Musicals of Alan Menken

It’s been a busy weekend so I haven’t really had time to wiki anything. Thinking personally none of the subjects make it look impossible that I’ll nick one or two points, but I wouldn’t say any of them are absolute bankers. Yeah, I fancy I might do OK on the Norman Conquest. (not bragging but I scored my highest total of 17 off a two minute round on the Bayeux Tapestry in Champ of Champs , yeah, ok I am bragging.) Other than that though I think Alan Menken’s film musicals is my next best shot, followed by Popes of the Renaissance with Borussia Dortmund in the – if I get any it’ll be a flipping miracle – position. Taget – well, look, double figures would be amazing, but frankly if I did better than my specialist aggregate of 8 in the first semi I’d be very happy.

Looking forwards to it.

I have broken a personal rule

Yeah, I have. To be honest there’s few personal rules that I’ve set for myself that I haven’t broken at one time or another. I’ll try my best to elucidate.

So, if we go back to talking about the quiz in the rugby club, I returned to playing in it in August of 2021. Before my quizzing lost weekend I’d taken my turn as Question Master and setter as much as anyone else and at least once a month. For a lot of that time I would have done it every week if I’d been allowed. I’ve said in the past that from when I first started playing in quizzes in 1988 I was a pretty useful quizzer, but that period from 1995 for the next few years, when I’d started putting together quizzes for the club, that was when I became the quizzer that I was, however good or bad that might have been. I loved making the quiz as much as I enjoyed playing in it. But when I came back my attitude was – look, for over 2 decades I did more quizzes than pretty much anyone else – allowing for the fact that Brian passed away in 2017 – so let other people do it.

Well, over a few months that changed into I’ll do the New Year quiz, but not others, and then to I’ll do the New Year Quiz, and if I’m asked I’ll think about doing an ordinary quiz. Well, I was asked again a couple of weeks ago, and the quiz is going to be next Thursday evening.

So what’s this personal rule I’ve broken? It’s like this. I don’t like picture quizzes. I’ve mentioned this before. I just don’t have the recognition skills for it, and to be honest one blonde haired starlet or musician looks much the same as any other to me. But – and this is the important thing – I think that many people who play in the quiz do like picture quizzes. There are quite a few regular setters who don’t often do picture quizzes now, so when I do a quiz I really feel that I should have a picture handout. Remember, dearly beloved, it’s not about what you like when you put a quiz together, it’s about giving people playing the best evening that you can.

But . . . I was putting the quiz together today and I had an idea for a cryptic handout. So I did it. No names, no pack drill at the moment, just in case any of the players are reading this. I did think twice, bearing in mind that I’m using connections in the quiz as well. I don’t want the quiz to feel ‘too much like hard work’ for anyone. Well, what the hell, I can always go back to pictures for the next time . . . if there is a next time. I have tried to make sure that the questions are fair. I’ll try my best to explain that.

One of the questions we had in Thursday night’s quiz was “Who won I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out of Here in 2017” Alright, it’s not unfair as such. But it’s the kind of question where – bearing in mind that this is only a pub quiz – I don’t see why you’d think anyone might know the answer to it. It’s over five years ago, so it’s not what you would call a current question. I wouldn’t say that it was a particularly notable winner either – I’m sure that Georgia Toffolo, despite her political views, is a very nice person but come on, she’s not exactly a household name.

I can feel a rant coming on about the kind of questions that I really don’t like in quizzes, so I shall stop now.

Oscars Quiz - and the winners were -

Yes, I know and I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have kept you waiting so long to let you know how we did in this month’s film quiz in the Gwyn Hall which took place in Wednesday this week. Just to set the scene a little you might recall that we very narrowly lost the last one in February on musicals. That was also the first quiz I’ve lost in the 2020s – not quite so much of a boast as it seems since I didn’t hardly play at all in 2020 or up until August 2021, and even since then for the most part of just been playing in the one quiz a week. Still, we did hope for a win again to keep up our place at the head of the table for this year.

The subject was Oscar winners. As a quiz I did rather enjoy this one. Wiki challenging for last week’s MM specialist subject on winners of the 1990s helped on Wednesday as well, and also I was able to supply a number of answers to old Oscar chestnuts like who’s had the most nominations without winning. In fact everyone in the team had answers on Wednesday which was great. I have to be honest, there are times when we go to the movie quiz and I feel embarrassed because I’m answering so few of them.

Having said that we still had some rounds where we didn’t do as well as we thought we’d done, and weren’t even sure we were going to be on the podium, and in fact we felt our best chance of a prize was the spot prize for coming in fifth. There were well over 20 teams, so it takes a while to read out all of the scores. Fifth eventually came and went, so our hopes were not so much about a prize as about being in the top 3. Th and 3^rd went. Then second and that wasn’t us. We’d won, and more than that with a little bit of daylight between our score and the score of the team in second. So as hard as the quiz was for us, so it was for all of the other teams.

Next month is from page to screen, so I will let you know how we did.

Congratulations Only Connect Winners

 Yes, congratulations to the Strigiformes, winners of last night's Only Connect Final. Worthy winners. Commiserations to Dani Cugini and the Crustaceans, who would have been worthy winners themselves had events turned out differently. Another great series, which I thoroughly enjoyed. 

University Challenge Quarter Final: Newnham, Cambridge v. Bristol

The Teams

Newnham, Cambridge

Bethan Holloway-Strong

Hannah Bowen

Roma Ellis (capt)

Chen Zhiyu

Bristol

Sam Kehler

Jacob McLaughlin

Tess Richardson (capt)

Alejandro Ortega

The Tale of the Tape

So there we are. This quarter final tie matched the two repechage winners, Bristol and Newnham. Bristol had the more impressive stats from their first three matches, having a highly impressive average bonus conversion rate of over 62 percent. Newnham on the other hand have a far more modest bonus conversion ate, but had won through great early buzzing, with captain Roma Ellis particularly impressing. With Bristol also being one of this year’s most impressive teams on the buzzer, the odds seemed to be stacked in their favour. But as we so often say, matches aren’t played on paper.

Newnham had won their previous two matches through slinging buzzer early and often and they were obviously planning on using the same tactics in this match. Chen Zhiyu came in too early for the first starter, though and lost five. This allowed Bristol’s Jacob McLaughlin to put Dennis ‘Hologram’ Gabor and the Holocene epoch together to come up with holo. This earned bonuses on History and Poetry. Living up to their reputation Bristol took a full house. Again, captain Roma Ellis went early n the next starter, and again the team lost five, giving Bristol another shot at the open goal. Which was again gratefully accepted by Jacob McLaughlin who supplied the answer of the Chilterns. Fabrics beginning with C saw Bristol drop their first points – I’m just a little surprised that they didn’t get corduroy. No points from a tricky set. An early buzz from Sam Kehler saw him identify Colin in black and White as a series about the early life of Colin Kaepernick. Cholera gave Bristol two bonuses – and thankfully not vice versa – and it was interesting to see the team play a German variant on the old – if in doubt just answer Smith -tactic so beloved of quizzers through the ages. For the picture starter we saw a list of titles in German, the original language in which the works were published and asked for the author’s name. Me? No idea. Hannah Bowen knew these were works by Freud – Sigmund presumably rather than Clement or even Emma. Definitions in German of concepts in Freudian psychoanalysis saw me surprise myself by getting superego (which unlike ego is vulnerable to kryptonite) and Oedipus complex. More impressively Newnham had all three. Nothing daunted by previous setbacks Roma Ellis came in very early for the next starter about the shape of an orbit and this time struck gold with parabola. Civil Rights cases in the United States saw the team miss a bit of a sitter in Dred Scott but still take the other two bonuses. Which meant that they had pulled back after a shaky start, yet Bristol led by 55 – 35 at the 10-minute mark.

Art exhibitions 1905 and 1908 begged the term cubism for the next starter. Jacob McLaughlin thought so too. We could have had fauvism for that matter. Mechanisms that produce electromagnetic waves saw my heart sink a little when it was announced as the next bonus set. No, of course I didn’t get any. Be fair, Bristol only managed the one. Now, Miss Pinkerton’s Academy on Chiswick Mall features in the early part of my favourite 19^th century novel, Vanity Far. Roma Ellis zigged with Jane Eyre and lost, although there is a strange connection between the two novels (answers on a postcard please) then Jacob McLaughlin also went all Bronte with Wuthering Heights. Sadly Hannah Bowen also lost five coming in too early for the next starter on economics allowing Jacob McLaughlin in with Hotelling’s Law. Supply your own puns please. Bonuses on terms in Economics produced just the one bonus. This can’t have been doing much for their conversion rate. Being an old codger myself, the name LCD Soundsystem means nowt to me, but it meant something to Hannah Bowen who was first to buzz in when we heard their work for the music starter. Three more tracks paying tribute t other artists saw us both get two right, with Newnham strangely missing out on Bowie – too young, I guess. Jacob McLaughlin failed to spot a description of the location of Zagreb in the next starter and offered Bratislava instead, allowing Roma Ellis to supply the right answer. This brought Newnham bonuses on the Event Horizon Telescope, one of which we both knew. This reduced the gap to a single full set. The next starter saw Bristol’s go-to man Jacob McLaughlin recognise words from the ending of Paradise Lost. Depictions of Hercules – the mythological figure, not Steptoe and Son’s horse – brought two bonuses and took Bristol into triple figures. A region dedicated to sufferers of which disease? is usually going to bring you success if you answer leprosy. Sam Kehler won the buzzer race. Bonuses on Song dynasty China brought them just one bonus. Mind you, I can’t say anything, since I was having a bit of a mare on the bonuses in this show myself. Even so, they had stretched the lead out again and at the 20-minute mark led by 120 – 60.

Still Newnham continued to throw caution to the wind. Bethan Holloway-Strong false started this time, allowing Bristol a free throw. Knowing that Once is also the Spanish and Elf is also the German for eleven brought Tess Richardson the correct answer. Victor Moritz ‘Who?’ Goldschmidt surprisingly brought me points for knowing that chalco denotes copper.I had two on this set while Bristol only had the one. The picture starter was obviously a pre Raphaelite work, but whose? I guessed Millais, just before Tess Richardson confirmed it. 3 more depictions by artists of scenes from Shakespeare’s comedies brought two more correct answers. I was surprised how long both teams sat on their buzzer for the next starter but once it became obvious that vulcanisation was the answer Jacob McLaughlin won the buzzer race. Philosophy brought two bonuses as the Bristol machine picked up speed with the finishing line now in sight. I think Sam Kehler only listened to the second half of the next starter which asked for Greek letters three of the symbols on a play station controller resembled, giving only the shapes themselves. This allowed Chen Zhiyu in with the right answer of Delta, Omicron and Chi – which are essentially a triangle circle and cross. The Bookseller’s Young Adult Book Prize brought two correct answers, but Newnham were still slightly more than 100 points behind. Jacob McLaughlin won the buzzer race to identify JJ Abrams as the director of films in both Star Trek and Star Wars franchises. American state capitals with 2 word names delivered a full house. Hannah Bowen knew that the mammal whose name can preceded a species of shrew is elephant. Dmitri Muratov brought two bonuses and put Newnham just one correct buzz away from a triple figure score. Chen Zhiyu was in very quickly to identify the use of the letter X in the pinyin system of notation. Waltham Forest brought just the one bonus before the gong brought the match to a close. Bristol had won by 205 – 110 and for once the form book had got it right.

Not the end of the world by any means for Newnham. It was a wee bit of a topsy turvy night for them – a great bonus conversion rate of 62 percent, but being second best on the buzzer, with four deduction that didn’t help. As for Bristol despite having a testing time with bonuses they still managed 57.5 percent.

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

In Germany corduroy trousers are often known as Manchesters.