In case you were considering the challenge

Yes, just in case you were considering having a go at the wiki challenge for tomorrow night’s final first round heat of Mastermind the subjects will be Christian Huygens, Jonathan Creek, the life and works of Artemisia Gentileschi and European Mammals. Sadly I don’t really have time for the challenge this week, and although I’ve had a good run of double figure specialist aggregates for the last few weeks I can see this un of fist round heats ending for me tomorrow with more of a whimper than a bang. I never used to watch Jonathan Creek. I know very little about Christian Huygens, and sadly not much more about Artemisia Gentilschi. I might get a couple on European mammals, but then there might not be any easy ones for me. If I get more than five in total for the aggegate I’ll have done well.

--------------

I’ve bitten the bullet and agreed to set the quiz for the club in three or four weeks’ time. I’m sticking to my resolution to only do I when asked and not volunteer but since Mr. N. asked me on Thursday last I wasn’t going to say no. Now this probably means that it will be at least a fortnight before I even think of it again, still, when I do start to think about it I will have to ask myself the perennial question. How low do you go? Or to put it another way, how easy do I want to make it? I’ve never had the experience of anyone coming up to me at the end of a quiz saying – thank you very much, but could you make it a bit harder next time? In my experience, and I’m sorry if this sounds like bragging (which it is, but I’m sorry if it sounds like it) what I think of as easy is not always what everyone else does. Mind you, on the other hand, what I think of as hard not everyone else does either.

If you have been setting quizzes regularly for the same venue for a long time, then maybe you’ve experienced what I’ve experienced. Namely that I’ll ask a question that I know I’ve asked in the past – quite a lot in some cases – and people still get it wrong. I mean we’ve all heard a question, thought – I’ve been asked this before – and then got it wrong. I find it can happen when you hear a question for the first time. You narrow it down to two options. You go for one of them, and the correct answer is the other one. Then, he next time you hear it you remember that you’ve heard it before and you had two options, but aaarrrrggghhh! You’ve got the wrong option fixed in your memory now. But those questions are thankfully few and far between. All part of the joy of quizzing, folks.