Mastermind Wiki Preview

Okay, so, as you know I got an aggregate of five points on specialist on Monday’s first show of Mastermind 2024. There’s two ways of looking at that. You could be mean and say it isn’t a very good score. It isn’t. On the other hand, you could say it’s not bad at all considering I knew very little about one subject and nothing about the other 3. I’ll leave you to work out for yourself which view I subscribe to myself.

Next Monday’s show offers more Eastern promise to me. Sorry about that. I get it from my old man. Following a long running series of adverts for Frys Turkish Delight, if something looked good he would often say it was full of Eastern Promise, and if it looked bad he would say it was full of Eastern Nothing. Well, be fair – he came from a line of parsimonious Scots who looked upon wit, (and silent letters on the end of a surname) as a sinful extravagance. Coming back to Mastermind, the specialist subjects on Monday are:-

Karl Marx

The Royle Family

Flags of British Counties

Django Reinhardt.

The only one about whom I know absolutely nothing is Django Reinhardt, although I was pleased to hear he’d been unchained a few years ago. The Royle Family is my banker subject, especially considering that TV and film rounds in the last few years do tend to focus very much on events on screen. I know a bit about Karl Marx – although not quite as much as I know about his brother Groucho. I think that the one that will most reward a bit of wiki-ing is the county flags. I already know a bit about some of them, being a closet vexillologist on the QT. So I’d like to get close to double figures. But I’ll be honest, after last Monday anything higher than five will be a bonus.

University Challenge 2024 Round 1 - University of East Anglia v. Strathclyde

The Teams

University of East Anglia

Melissa Shiress

Bryony Yates

Owen Tobin (Capt)

Matthew Jennings

Strathclyde

Nina Reid

Gregor MacDowall

Steven Gault (Capt)

Prys Hughes

For the first starter I didn’t know that the river Congo is named after a historical kingdom along its length, (apparently they drink Um Bongo there.). Melissa Shiress zigged with Niger, which allowed Gregor MacDowall to zag with Congo. Guggenheim Art Galleries brought 1 bonus – with a little rub of the green UAE might have had two. Bryony Yates won the buzzer race to answer that a former player for the Boston Red Sox was a character in the TV sitcom Cheers. The bonuses that followed were on video games. When it comes to video games, then if the answer isn’t Mario or Sonic, then I ain’t getting it. 2 bonuses for UAE levelled the score. Let’s be honest with each other here, for the next starter, about Major League Baseball and statistical analysis I didn’t understand the question, but Steven Gault knew that the answer was Moneyball. My heart sank when the bonus category of names of amino acids was announced. It turned out that none of them were Mario or Sonic either. So to the picture starter. We saw a badly drawn cartoon of a man blowing a kiss, which turned out to be a diagram of the functional unit of a kidney, a nephron. UAE skipper Owen Tobin opened his account with that one. Labelled parts of said diagram brought UAE just the one correct answer. For the next starter Amol accepted the phrase in res media for in media res. I think that’s just about fair enough. The second is the usual rendering, but if you change those two words round it doesn’t change the meaning. A bonus on ancient navigation meant that as we approached ten minutes, Strathclyde led by 45 – 35.

‘I need the name of a molecule here.’ announced Amol at the start of the next starter. ‘Mario or Sonic!’ I yelled to no one in particular. Bryony Yates put me straight with lactose. I haven’t had such a bad start to a UC match since I was at uni myself, but at least Paul Revere gave me a full house. Grant Wood’s American Gothic is better known, but his Midnight Ride of Paul Revere is a really stunning piece of work and well worth checking out. Melissa Shiress knew that the next starter referred to Dada to earn bonuses on commanders of the International Space Station. UAE were slightly fortunate to get 1 bonus, considering that Amol accepted Chris Hutfield for Chris Hadfield. Not sure about the validity of accepting that. After all, this is University Challenge, not Tipping Point. Owen Tobin came in far too early for the next starter on “Don’t Fear the Reaper”, losing five and allowing Steven Gault to provide the correct answer with ‘Blue’. A lovely set on shipping forecast areas brought me a much-needed full house and a single bonus to Strathcylde. So to the music starter. The unmistakable strains of Trevor Horn singing about an abandoned studio led both me and Owen Tobin to the conclusion that this was The Buggles. 3 tracks that the great Mr. Horn produced brought a full house to put UAE one more correct answer away from triple figures. I remember David Attenborough doing a series on children’s TV when I was a kid all about mythological creatures and what might have inspired them which is how I knew that the skulls of mammoths with their huge nasal cavities may have been the inspiration for the cyclops. Bryony Yates had that starter. UK general elections brought UAE 2 bonuses. Now, let me ask you. How do you react when you hear these words at the start of a question? ‘The trigonomic identity sine squared theta plus cos squared theta – ‘? I know that one of the great glories of UC is that it can and does ask questions like this. Sadly, though, when I hear a question start like that Henry Mancini’s ;Baby Elephant Walk’ starts playing on a loop in my head. Dum de dumdum, dumdum dum dum dumdum. I fought manfully to get my attention back to the question, which is just as well since it was easy, when it started mentioning the relationship between lengths of sides of a triangle. ‘Pythagoras!’ I screamed, setting off on the lap of honour even before Bryony Yates – having a fine night on the buzzer - confirmed I was right. Fonts and typefaces brought UAE two bonuses. With 17.06 minutes on the clock they led by a significant 80 points. Obi Wan Rajan then issued encouragement to Strathclyde. ‘Plenty of time to get going. See if you can answer this one.’ This particular phrase seems to be Amol’s version of ‘These aren’t the droids you’re looking for.’ And just as effective, for Gregor MacDowall buzzed in with the answer of Samarkand as the capital of the Timurid Empire. Novels set partly or wholly in hospitals  brought a correct answer on Alexander Solzhenitsyn’s Cancer Ward. Gregor MacDowall took a second consecutive starter with roti. Animals in Japanese poetry brought a couple of bonuses. This meant that by the 20 minute mark, since Amol’s magic words Strathclyde had cut the deficit by almost half, although UAE still led, by 130 – 85.

The deficit continued to shrink as Gregor MacDowall completed a hat trick of starters knowing that a question about the 1832 reform act had to be heading in the direction of rotten boroughs. (Londoners, supply your own puns, but please don’t include Ealing. Or Lewisham, for that matter.). Jazz and Bob Thiele took them into triple figures. At this point I think the Jedi mind trick wore off, as Melissa Shiress was quickly in to identify a still from Fritz Lang’s Metropolis for the second picture starter. More stills from films previously thought lost, or incomplete, brought us both a full house. Not willing to concede, though, Steven Gault was first in to identify “Things Fall Apart” as the line from Yeats’ The Second Coming’ used as a title by Chinua Achebe. They really needed a full house, and they got one in the shape of honorary captains of the German National Football Team. (Whose philosophers were beaten in the final of the World Cup by Ancient Greece with a single goal scored by Socrates. Franz Beckenbauer, name checked In one of the bonuses, was on the bench.) However it was the UAE skipper who took the next starter, knowing that the Little Curie was a mobile x ray machine developed by Madame C for use in WW1. Autumn celebrations around the world brought another full house. UAE’s Matthew Jennings took his first starter completing a quotation from Simone de Beauvoir. Portuguese royal history did nowt for UAE. Matthew Jennings took a second consecutive starter with the Franks (Butcher, Skinner and Spencer?) ‘Your bonuses,’ announced Amol, ‘are on interpretations of quantum mechanics.’ Cue the Baby Elephant Walk again. Once my internal orchestra stopped playing, UAE had got a full house. UAE were not going to be caught, but could Strathclyde force their way onto the repechage board? Little time remained. ‘Cephalopod – Dystopian – Netflix’ launched a buzzer race, but sadly for Strathclyde it was the UAE captain who got to answer ‘Squid’ as in game. The Marilyns – which incidentally were an interesting fact of the week that I didn’t already know some time back –saw UAE provide decent, but incorrect answers to the set. Bryony Yates took her fifth starter recognising the first political use of the phrase ‘Black Lives Matter’. The contest was gonged just before Amol could announce the subject of the bonuses. The final score was UAE – 235 – Strathclyde- 125.

I don’t think that Strathclyde actually did badly. They had a conversion rate of just over fifty percent. However UAE were just better. They were better on the buzzer and they had a better bonus conversion rate with 54 percent. Not necessarily worthy of Amol calling it a ‘phenomenal performance’, but good nonetheless. Strathclyde don’t make it onto the repechage board – the banker only pays scores above 145 at this point.

How is Amol Doing?

Maybe this is just me but I’m starting to think that some of the times Amol is being matey to the teams he says things that may come across as a tiny bit patronising. With the kidney picture he saluted UEA’s one correct answer with “– you got there in the end.” Then with the Paul Revere set when UAE could only answer the last question right on the Beastie Boys he replied ‘I’m glad you got that one at least.’ UAE copped it again when he explained ‘Cult isn’t actually an adjective’. They knew that Amol, trust me, they knew. I find his remarks at the end sometimes just a little hit and miss as well. I am sure he genuinely wanted to console Strathclyde at the end but saying that maybe if the German football questions had come earlier, or if there had been double the amount of engineering questions things might have been different just felt rather more of an application of salt to the wound rather than healing balm.

I considered changing the title of this section to – Is Amol a Jedi? – following last week. I still rather think he is. Last week his words of encouragement were enough to make Kings put on a spurt of answers and it did exactly the same to Strathclyde last night. Having said that, when he tried to refresh the trick after it had worn off, saying ‘Still got time for this, Strathclyde.’ in the last few minutes, it spurred Gregor MacDowall into buzzing, but sadly with a wrong answer. I guess this is one of those tricks to which you become immune after exposure.

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

Michael Foale is the only British Astronaut to serve on both Mir and the ISS.

Mastermind 2024 Round 1: Heat 1

This is one of the things that makes the end of the school holidays slightly more palatable, the return of Mastermind. Thankfully they didn’t keep us waiting until the dog end of September his year.

First up in this show, and this series, was Christine McBurney. Christine offered us The Poirot Novels of Agatha Christie. This was my banker subject for this show because while I know very little about Poirot, I know nothing about the other subjects. I was happy to take the ‘give up and go home if you get it wrong’ first question about ze leetle grey cells, and I also guessed another to give me 2. Christine didn’t get them all, but she settled well to her task, and scored 9.

Chas Bedford was answering on the cartoon strip Calvin and Hobbes. Again, guessing brought me a point – I don’t think that I knew that Calvin was 6, but that was my guess. Chas didn’t have to guess at all. In fact bearing in mind the way that he answered all of the other questions in the round I was most surprised when he passed on one. Even allowing for the pass, Chas equalled then passed Christine’s total, finishing the round with 12,

Sanjay Nath’s specialist subject was Drake. Neither Francis, nor Charlie, but apparently a popular musician. That’s Drake, not Sanjay Nath, who is a junior doctor. I applaud him for finding the time to apply for Mastermind – it was difficult enough doing this as a teacher all those years ago. Sadly, Sanjay was the first of this season’s contenders to have ‘one of those’ rounds. I’ve no doubt that he knows his stuff, but sadly he only managed to answer four questions correctly. I guessed one, which gave me an aggregate specialist score of five. Five more than I might have had, I might add.

So it fell to Ruth Hart to take us up to half time with Red Clydeside. No, that does not mean Sauchihall Street on a particularly raucous Friday night at chucking out time. I have half a mind that it was a specialist subject in the 2007 SOBM, but I may be mistaken. Ruth wasn’t though. She was more than up to the task of answering about this particular period of Glasgow History, and like Chas she ran up a fine score of 12. I ran up a not so impressive score of zilch on this round.

With all due respect to Sanjay this left us with three contenders in with a shout of a place in the semis. However, it was Sanjay who returned to the chair first. I’m glad that he got the 6 he needed to get to double figures. We’ve discussed this in the past, haven’t we, but the fact is that people who probably should do better can be very quick to make assumptions based on a modest score in Mastermind. Which is nonsense, when you consider that Sanjay is a doctor. Most accurate thing to say? He had one of those nights.

So, sitting behind the two front runners at the halfway stage we had Christine McBurney. With three to make up she needed to go some to set a challenging total, and I’d say she just about managed it. I didn’t think that Christine was answering as quickly as I like to see, but she was getting her fair share of them right. In the end she scored ten, which is good, but if she’d scored one more she would have set the psychologically more dauting total of twenty.

Chances were, then, that at least one of our remaining two contenders would score the 8 that they needed to overtake Christine. I’ve been watching the World Athletics Championships so I can’t resist saying that our next contender, Chas, faced the bell neck and neck with Ruth. Would he have the finishing kick? Well, again, his round wasn’t bad. The first minute and a half or so it was looking very good. However a few questions after this seemed to rob him of half a yard of pace. 11 for 23 set a challenging target, but it was not guaranteed this would be ood enough.

Ruth knew that if she crossed the line in the same time as Chas, then she would get the nod by virtue of not having passed. However, this would prove to be irrelevant to the result, since Ruth went on to provide clearly the best GK round of the show. She put on an extremely good 14, impressive in the breadth of subjects she knew about, and the calm composure she maintained throughout it. Very well done to you. Ruth spoke movingly about her late father, with whom she used to watch the show, and how proud he would have been. Well, on this performance, Ruth, it’s quite possible you may give him even more to be proud of. Best of luck to you.

Christine McBurney	The Poirot Novels of Agatha Christie	9	0	10	0	19	0
Chas Bedford	Calvin and Hobbes	12	1	11	3	23	4
Sanjay Nath	Drake	4	1	6	2	10	3
Ruth Hart	Red Clydeside	12	0	14	0	26	0

What Have You Learned? Summarise in no more than 350 words

I mentioned to a friend in passing a couple of days ago that having done my first stint as QM in the summer holiday of 1995, this month has seen the 28^th anniversary of the first quiz I compiled. Somehow it seems fitting that I was QM on Thursday last. In fact it was a pretty close run thing. There was traffic on the M4 – well, that’s the usual state of affairs, I meant there was non-moving traffic on the M4 – come to think of it that’s quite a usual state of affairs as well. Pip and Ollie and I stopped a few times on the way from Worthing to Port Talbot to ride a couple of trains as it happened, and we didn’t cross the bridge until gone 6. That’s by the by.

Still, when I mentioned this auspicious anniversary I was asked this question – well, what would you say you’ve learned through compiling all those quizzes over the years? Blimey, what a question. I fobbed the questioner off with ‘I’ll have to have a think about that and get back to you. “ Well, I’ve thunk about it and this is what I’ve come up with:-

·       Most obviously, I’ve learned a lot of answers to quiz questions I would otherwise never have known. It’s made me better at weak areas and areas of knowledge I was never interested in for their own sake.

·       I’ve also learned about quizzes and how they work, and gained something of an insight into the question setter’s intentions. This too has helped make me a better quizzer. I have no doubt that, as decent a quizzer as I was by 1995, I would never have reached the podium in finals of 3 of the greatest and toughest broadcast quizzes and twice become Brain of Mensa if I hadn’t been a question master.

·       It’s taught me something about the sheer joy that can be shared in a good question – something I’ve also used in the day job as a teacher when possible.

·       It’s taught me how little I actually know which is a salutary lesson for anyone.

·       It’s made me even more of a pedant than I already was – which is probably not quite so salutary.

What it hasn’t necessarily taught me is to be more tolerant of other question masters, and that’s something I would really like to work on.

Coming soon - Mastermind 2023/4

 Yes, the long wait is almost over. On Monday the 2023/4 series of Mastermind begins. And yes, let’s get it out of the way – unless a teacher wins this year, then I will finish my teaching career still being the last schoolteacher to win. Coming back to Monday’s show, I saw on All Things Quiz that the Specialist subjects will be The Poirot Novels of Agatha Christie, The Calvin and Hobbes cartoons, Drake and Red Clydeside. I don’t recall Drake being a subject before – unless it was Francis, Nick or possibly Charlie, but all of the others certainly have. Based on my knowledge of all four of the subjects there is a distinct possibility that I could be kicking off the series with a specialist aggregate of zero.

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Also returning – although not for some time, I think – will be Riddiculous, presented by Ranvir Singh with Henry Lewis in the PROF seat. (See what I did there? No? well have a look at the post about The Finish Line) There’s a call out for applications currently for the next series.

New Quiz Show: The Finish Line (BBC1 Weekdays)

Yes, there’s a new daytime TV quiz on the block, dearly beloved, ”The Finish Line” that I caught for the first time yesterday. Now I do always try to be fair to new quiz shows, so I think that it is important to judge it for what it is, namely, a daytime TV quiz, airing on BBC1 weekdays at 4:30pm. This is never going to be a high-level quiz that only those with a serious GK pedigree can play along with at home, let alone win. No, this is placed within a relatively crowded market, the best examples of which are (in my opinion and in no particular order) Pointless, Bridge of Lies, The Chase, Tenable and Impossible. Quizzes which, while aimed at the average family at home still offer something for the real quizzers to get their teeth into.

I first knew that this was coming when co-host Sarah Greene appeared on Claudia Winkleman’s Radio 2 show last Saturday to plug it. As all hosts of brand new quiz shows are expected to do she was selling ‘The Finish Line’ as something totally new in the field. – Heard that before – thought I. She was also making a virtue of the fact that a lot of the time when someone comes into the show feeling very confident because they have had a lot of success in pub quizzes over the years, most of the time these are not the people who win. I wasn’t sure that this would be a point in the show’s favour if I’m totally honest.

Well, I caught up with the 2^nd show yesterday. It’s fronted by Roman Kemp, which gives us a hosting team of young – mature – male – female. And he does perfectly well for the kind of show that it is and the timeslot that it occupies. I have to say that for an old Blue Peter watcher such as myself it was nice to see Sarah Greene, although there is an argument that she is a little underused in the PROF seat. (That’s the acronym for Pointless Richard Osman Friend – I just invented it. Good eh? No charge if you want to use it yourself, but a credit would be nice.)

So - what's the big idea of the show? What it says on the tin. Answer enough questions to get across the finish line. Ah, but how do you do that? Well, from what I saw , it seems to work like this. There are five contestants in the show. After the start, Roman introduces the first, has some inconsequential chat (yawn yawn- look, you know from previous reviews that I’m a misanthrope and really don’t care for this sort of thing.) then they get asked a set of quick fire questions of a variety of types, some of which are identificational. They must keep going until they have answered five correctly. Sarah then reveals how quickly they did so.

Now, the speed is important since it determines which lane each of the contestants will occupy on the track. I have to be honest, I was reminded just a little bit of the short lived Ejector Seat from years back. The contestants don’t have chairs, though, but moving podiums. So the contestant who answered five questions in the quickest time is in lane 1. When the track round starts, their podium starts moving towards the finish line. They are given a question and if they answer correctly their podium keeps moving. If they answer wrongly their podium stops. Meanwhile the podium in Lane 2 has started moving. If the contestant in lane 2 answers their question correctly they keep moving. If not, they stop. Whatever happens contestant three is now moving. . . look, you get the point. If your podium is first, second, third or fourth across the finish line, happy days. If it’s fifth, sorry but you leave with nothing. Then we come back off the track for another round to determine the lane order for the next track round.

And so it goes on, last across the line goes out. When we get down to two, the first across the line goes through to the final to play for the money, and the other one doesn’t. In the final, the contestant is chased down the rack by advancing arrows. Keep answering correctly and it’s a piece of cake. Start getting stopped by wrong answers and you’ll get caught by the arrows and leave with nowt. The prize? A very respectable five grand.

That’s the show. What’s the verdict, though? Well, there’s nothing in it that made me cringe. If you remember the recent ‘The Tournament’, there was a show that I rather liked, but I found that the battle cries at the start were toe-curlingly embarrassing. There’s nothing like that in “The Finish Line”. That’s good. Both hosts were professional, warm and avoided talking too much. That’s good. The questions? Well, you certainly had a real mix – nothing particularly difficult, but then it’s not that kind of show. As you might expect, being as it’s a daytime show there was just a wee bit too much current entertainment, but that’s just my opinion as a grumpy old git now galloping towards 60.

Unlike a lot of new shows, it seems to me that the gameplay itself has been pretty well worked out. I can’t off the top of my head suggest any tweaks. However, I do think that there is a fundamental issue with the show. This is it. I think that a lot of quiz shows of this sort in this time slot live or die on how much fun they are for viewers to play along with at home. Ok. Now as I said a minute ago, I’m getting on a bit. I’ve no doubt that my recall isn’t quite as quick as it once was, but it’s still pretty fast. And I’m afraid that there were times when I found I wasn’t quite keeping up with one or two of the contestants. Only for parts of a round here and there, but nonetheless it’s true. And I really like quickfire questions. I like getting through so many questions quickly. But even I found it frustrating at times. How well the average viewer can cope, I just don’t know. Now, that’s a tribute to how well the contestants did, but whether that will cut any ice with the casual viewer I just don’t know.

So I find myself sitting on the fence a little. I just don’t know whether this is going to appeal to enough viewers to build an audience that will bring it more than the BBC obligatory couple of series. Time will tell.

University Challenge 2024: Round One: Kings College. Cambridge v. UCL

The Teams

Kings College, Cambridge

Elizabeth Zachariah

Alexander Ward

Rex Phillips Dibb (capt.)

Krishnan Mulholland

University College, London

James Hall

Ali Izzatdust

Tayana Sawh (capt.)

Jacob Finlay

Yes, dearly beloved, I’ve been late with the last two weeks because I’ve been away, but I’m back on the job now and I’m giving it full attention.  

The first starter asked for a period of Japanese History – and I was already thinking Tokugawa Shogunate – and both teams kept their nerve until the year 1635 was mentioned. ‘Tokugawa’ said Ali Izzatdust, and fair play to Amol for resisting the temptation to say gesundheit in reply. This brought UCL a set on Herman Hesse, who was not apparently the lead singer of Herman’s Hermits. There was an interesting moment when UCL were uncertain as to whether ‘The Glass Bead Game’ is four words or not – Amol confirmed that it was. Good work by the team secured a full house. Neither team managed Vishnu – or – Nataraja for the next starter, while Kings lost five for coming in too early. Ali Izzatdust took his second starter, knowing that the term for members of the press coined by Edmund Burke and now the name of a publishing company is Fourth Estate. Faith Ringgold’s French Collection Quilts are a new one on me, I’ll admit. So I was pleased to get a full house, as did UCL. A very good early buzz from James Hall identified several terms each missing the word consciousness. Meteorology saw UCL drop their first bonus, confusing their Strabo with their Aristotle. They also missed on the old quiz chestnut about the inventor of the barometer. Then to cap off a pretty disastrous set they zigged with telegram when they should’ve zagged with telegraph for the third. Nonetheless, this was the point at which Amol issued the dreaded words of encouragement to Kings ‘Plenty of time’. After only 7 and a half minutes. That’s gotta hurt. Mind you, it seemed to sting Kings into action, since Krishnan Mulholland won the buzzer race to identify Sumatra for the picture starter. Not only that, but Kings took a full house with other islands or island groups of Indonesia. Kings’ capitalised when Rex Phillips Dibb took the next starer on Lviv. Two bonuses on operas set in India meant that the score was a much more competitive 60-40 to UCL as we approached the 10-minute mark.

Jacob Finlay recognised a description of a triple Axel for the next starter, although he didn’t seem at all sure of himself as he answered. A lovely UC special set followed on pairs of people whose names are antonyms of each other – Little and Large being a given example. Unforgivably in my opinion they didn’t know Becky Sharp, heroine of my all-time favourite comic novel Vanity Fair. However, they had both of the other questions to push the lead out again. *LAP OF HONOUR APPROACHING WARNING* Yes, as the next Science starter burbled on there was little hint that I would get it, but you can ask me about parsecs till the cows come home. Elizabeth Zachariah was slightly behind me in this one. Bonuses on penisulas (penisulae? I still remember reading in my first Latin lesson, in the book “Latin for Today”- which had ironically been published some 30 years previously – ‘Britannia est insula. Italia non est insula. Italia est paeninsula.’ They don’t write ‘em like that any more.) – brought a brace of correct answers. None of us knew the TV series Ramy. I must have heard of the Khartoum School before, but it was one of those that I didn’t know that I knew. Kings lost five with an incorrect interruption, leaving James Hall to supply the correct answer. Free and Imperial Cities of the Holy Roman Empire brought a couple of bonuses to be followed by the music round. I thought that this sounded very much like my main man Mozart. So did Elizabeth Zachariah, and this brought bonuses on other composers who seem to have been child prodigies like the great Wolfgang was. These brought both of us just the one correct answer. Five spice was the answer to the next starter, answered by Jacob Finlay. Now, I never thought I’d say that I enjoyed a set of bonuses on drosophilia fruit flies, but the next set of bonuses on this subject were very entertaining. After all, the bonuses referenced, respectively, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, The Wizard of Oz and Barbie and Ken. Mind you, I was surprised UCL didn’t know that it’s the Tin Man in The Wizard of Oz who wants the wizard to give him a heart. An excellent early buzz from Rex Phillips Dibb saw the Kings skipper identify the flag of Portugal from a description. Linguistic prescriptions (take a couple of adjectives and call me in the morning if you don’t feel better?) brought two correct answers and narrowed the gap between the teams. On the cusp of the 20-minute mark UCL still led by 115 – 90.

An exceptionally fast buzz by Tayana Sawh to answer a question about Lamarck which probably wasn’t about his 2003 hit ‘If there’s Any Justice in the World’ earned respect from Amol. Fictional PMs in small screen dramas brought a full house. Elizabeth Zachariah won the buzzer race to identify venerable UC warhorse Les Parapluies as the work of Renoir. 3 more artworks featuring umbrellas brought one bonus. Now, you hear ‘4 words’ and ‘Sojourner Truth’ then you buzz for all you’re worth and answer ‘Ain’t I a Woman?’. Ali Izzatdust did that. He’d had an excellent start on the buzzer, but it had been a while since he’d won a race like this. Literary criticism brought UCL 1 bonus which was 1 more than it brought me. Elizabeth Zachariah heard ‘Somerset’ for the next starter, but ignored ‘South American’ losing five points. UCL couldn’t capitalise. Neither could I. Unfortunately she lost another with the next starter as well. Listen, had she been correct, then she’d have been the heroine of the evening. You have to buzz. If you don’t buzz, you lose, it really is that simple. UCL didn’t know Joy Division’s two albums referenced in the question either. I think we all knew that Malorie Blackman wrote Pig Heart Boy, but Tayana Sawh won the buzzer race. Words beginning with cata- were the opposite of catastrophic for UCL who took a full house and were looking good to retain the lead until the finishing line. Alexander Ward knew the term buffer in chemistry – which incidentally now meant that each of the 8 players in this match answered at least 1 starter correctly. Terms taken from the names of Scientists did nothing for Kings, but I awarded myself a bar to my lap of honour for knowing that William Perkin invented the first synthetic dye (accidentally. He set up a factory in Greenford in the London Borough of Ealing. Yay.) Still Alexander Ward kept Kings’ hopes up by knowing a German term which is the equivalent of and so on. A full house on UC favourite Kandinsky boosted their hopes further. Krishnan Mulholland threw caution the wind on the next starter, and fortune now favoured the brave as he correctly answered about a number of places in modern day Turkey. Bonuses on Purcell saw them give 1 correct answer. They were still more than a full set behind with precious little time on the clock. James Hall sealed the deal for UCL, knowing the ending -ley – in place names. The gong struck before the bonuses could be asked, leaving UCL winners by 190 – 145.

Looking at the stats, it rather came down to the bonuses and interruptions. Kings achieved a good 55 percent conversion rate with four penalties, while UCL managed an impressive 70 percent conversion rate with one penalty.

At the moment Kings are in a repechage slot. Looking at the runner up scores so far I would say that their place is in jeopardy.

Repechage board

Oxford Brookes – 205

Trinity, Cambridge - 175

Southampton - 155

Kings Cambridge – 145

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Birmingham - 125

Jesus, Cambridge - 60

How did Amol do?

If I hadn’t already seen that Amol is his own man and this is a new era, when UCL being allowed to go through a whole match without being called the Godless Institution of Gower Street has convinced me. I’ll be honest, I’m not sorry we were spared that one of JP’s faves.

I have the increasing feeling that Amol may be a Jedi on the QT. For once there actually was plenty of time to go when Amol issued his words of encouragement. And for once. . . it worked! Kings sprang into action as if released from a trance. I have the feeling that  Amol must have played a Jedi mind trick, and I shall be looking out for further evidence of his powers through the series. In fact further evidence followed in the Geography bonuses on Penisulas. As Krishnan Mulholland answered the first correctly he replied ‘You’re good at Geography, aren’t you?!’ – as if to say that he’d soon see about that. Inevitably they answered the next incorrectly. Amol, it would appear that the Force is strong within you.

Interesting Fact That I Didn’t Already Know of the Week

Scientists have named a gene in the mitochondria of drosophilia (fruit flies) that, when deficient results in an increased lifespan INDY. This is short for I’m Not Dead Yet – a quote from Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Those biologists – what wags, eh?

University Challenge 2024: Round One: Emmanuel, Cambridge v. Jesus, Oxford.

The Teams

Emmanuel, Cambridge

Jerry Chen

Alex Sutton

Jay Alagar (Capt)

Alexander Harrison

Jesus, Oxford

Andy Deng

Andy Schwebel

Ben Biggs (Capt)

Meg Goundry-Napthine

Yeah, look, I’m sorry about this – posting late for the second week in a row. Would you believe that it’s because today was the date for the semi annual filial visit to Worthing? Well, it doesn’t really matter, but I do think that these little personal vignettes add a little flavour to a review, don’t you?

The first Oxbridge Derby of the Amol Rajan years, then. The first starter was one of those where it pays to keep your nerve, and a steady finger on the buzzer. It was Alexander Harrison who struck first, recognising references to FW Murnau’s original film version of “Nosferatu.” Now, look, I’m no expert on goats, (I ain’t ‘fraid of no goats) but pair the topic with Greek Mythology and I’ll usually give a good account of myself. Both Emmanuel and I managed a full house on a relatively gentle set. For the next starter Alexander Harrison took his second correct buzz knowing that the names Chatterton et al. can be preceded by – the death of -. T.S. Eliot’s “The Waste(of time)land” provided me with a second consecutive full house, while Emmanuel took just the last one. Lusophones took me to 9 in a row and gave Jesus their start when skipper Ben Biggs identified them as speakers of Portuguese. A rather wonderful UC special set followed, which asked Jesus for the names of countries that begin and end with two letter symbols for chemical elements. Senegal brought my streak to an end at 9. I took Argentina, as did  Jesus, but they failed to get Cuba.Now I did consider taking a lap of honour after recognising a diagram of a cosine for the next starter. In the end I gambled and let it ride. Graphs of other trigonometrical functions brought Jesus a full house, and me nowt, and levelled the scores. I did cash in my lap of honour for knowing that the nucleus of a cell contains most its genetic material, as did Alexander Harrison. Science bonuses saw me get Mr. Van De Graff which Emmanuel missed, but miss the next two which Emmanuel got. A great fast buzz from Alexander Harrison saw him identify Thomas Hobbes’ Leviathan from its subtitle. Bonuses on professional football clubs associated with industrial concerns brought the 10 points that gave Emmanuel a lead of 70 – 40 at just after the 10-minute mark.

Ben Biggs did just what a captain should by taking the bull between the horns and buzzing when he thought he might know the answer to the question – who was the last British monarch prior to Elizabeth II to die in Scotland? He was wrong, sadly, but the tactic was right. This allowed Alex Sutton in with the correct answer of James V of Scotland. They managed two words ending in tic. That man Alexander Harrison piled on the agony for Jesus, recognising the Sorrows of Young Werther. ‘That’s original’ I punned to the empty room. The Earth’s atmosphere continued what had already been an unusually successful evening on Science for me as I managed a full house as opposed to the two taken by Emmanuel. None of us recognised Shostakovitch’s Leningrrad Symphony for the music starter. Now, believe it or not, I had the Science starter that came next before either team did. Yes, I knew that if it’s radiation and has something to do with a black hole, then Hawking Radiation’s yer man. Alexander Harrison had that one. This earned the music bonuses, that asked Emmanuel to identify the composers of pieces named after cities. They only took one, but it was enough to give them a 100 point lead. A lead which grew when the Emmanuel skipper knew that the second largest city of Washington state is Spokane (birthplace of Bing Crosby) which starts with SPO. Brazilian states brought us both just the one bonus with Amazonas. Weber’s definition of the word state saw Alexander Harrison just beat Ben Biggs to the buzzer with the next starter. The set of bonuses on culinary plants included one about the mango being a member of the cashew family. Hang about a cotton picking minute. Haven’t we already had a virtually identical question in an earlier match in this series? Ironically Emmanuel had that one wrong. This completed a shut out of Jesus for the ten minutes since the ten-minute mark, and Emmanuel had what looked to be a game-over lead of 170 – 30.

Both teams had the name Fourier in their answers to the next starter but neither also had the word transform which is what Amol wanted to hear. Again Alexander Harrison outbuzzed Ben Biggs for the next starter, knowing works containing the word Beyond. Funny enough, - the Poseidon Adventure – wasn’t one of them. Final plays brought one bonus. So to the second picture starter. Finally Ben Biggs won a buzzer race to answer that the house we saw was the work of Frank Lloyd Wright. More buildings brought one correct answer. Jerry Chen took his first starter knowing that in Entertainment terms BET stands for Black Entertainment Television. A couple of maths bonuses brought Emmanuel to 200. It was all too easy for Alexander Harrison who took the next starter  - his ninth - on aromatic compounds. A nice UC set on years consisting of three consecutively descending digits brought just the one bonus, but it was all academic in terms of the effect on the result of the match. Alex Sutton took the next starter, knowing that if the name’s Jinnah, the answer must be Pakistan. A full house on defaced works of art followed.  Ben Biggs took another starter recognising the translated title of a chapter of the Tale of Genji. There was only time for one bonus on the US penal system. Emmanuel had won by 240 – 60.

How is Amol Doing?

We were just over 12 minutes into the show when Amol issued the dreaded ‘Plenty of time to go, Jesus.’ Sadly, this really did seem to act as the kiss of death for them. He repeated this when Emmanuel stretched their lead to 100 a couple of minutes later, but then added “See if you can get going with this.” It’s tricky for a question master, trying to encourage the team who are lagging behind, without it sounding like ‘let’s hope this is a nice easy one for you.’ Would JP have accepted Amazon for Amazonas as Amol did? Not sure, the coin is in the air on that one. Especially considering he had to apologise to Jesus for not accepting Vienna School, when he had asked for a three word name. “Sorry Jesus. And Emmanuel, you’re just wrong.” Miaow! Fair play to Amol for telling Jesus “It just wasn’t your night.” At the end of the day, that’s what the scale of victory and defeat often comes down to.

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

In the Southern hemisphere, more people speak Portuguese as a first or second language than any other single language.

University Challenge 202: Southampton v. Christ Church, Cambridge

The Teams

Southampton

Elise Harrington

Rhys Counsell

Roshana Wickremasinghe (Capt)

Chris Meredith

Christ Church, Cambridge

Eliza Dean

Melika Georgianeh

Arthur Wotton (Capt)

Elliott Lowe

What’s that you say? Me? Oh yes, I had a very nice time in wonderful, wonderful Copenhagen, thank you for asking. Now, let’s get down to business.

For the first starter Roshana Wickremasinghe showed commendable confidence buzzing in early, but considering the starter was about a description of a building in Rome she only had a one in several chance of being right, and she wasn’t. Given the full question, and the invaluable clue that the building bears the name of a renaissance pope Arthur Wotton took his first starter with the Sistine Chapel – from Pope Sixtus IV, you see. Trilingual inscriptions led me to predict to my empty sitting room that the Rosetta Stone would come into this and indeed it was the last of this set. That was the one that Christ Church managed. I didn’t understand the next starter on Maths, but I rather liked the correct answer given by Chris Meredith, namely Big O notation. I never would have known that the great Roy Orbison was also a mathematician. I wasn’t disappointed that Southampton didn’t know Edward Casaubon is a main character in Middlemarch. Richard Hoggart once told me that Middlemarch is the perfect 19^th century novel. There you go. Mind you, he also told me that Mastermind was a most ridiculous programme in his opinion, so what can you do? 2 bonuses levelled the scores. Roshana Wickremasinghe buzzed early to correctly identify Rita Hayworth’s Gilda as an example of a femme fatale. Winners of the John Maddox Prize for people who promote Science and Evidence brought me my first lap of honour round the living room since returning from Denmark for knowing HPV stands for Human Papillomavirus. I actually had a full house on this set. So did So’ton. So, to the picture starter. We were shown a passage from The Great Gatsby, with two highlighted compound verbs. Neither team recognised the present perfect. Not surprised. Chris Meredith won the race to identify the island of Hispaniola as the birthplace of Wyclef Jean. This gave So’ton the picture bouses of more passages from famous novels and more tenses to identify. Ah, but the novels were all in their original languages, there’s the rub. I was able to take a full house more by luck than judgement, while So’ton took one. Now, the mammals of the class Sirenia, asked for in the next starter, were always going to be Manatees or Dugongs. But which one? Arthur Wotton zigged with Manatee and he was right to do so. A nice UC set on bathing in mythology brought a full house. This meant that the two teams were pretty evenly matched at the 10-minute mark, with Southampton just slightly ahead by 55 – 40.

The lead increased when Roshana Wickremasinghe buzzed in early to identify Doughnut, Edible and Poor as words that can precede Economics. Yeah, I still don’t think I’ll be using this as a connections set in Thursday’s quiz.  African National Parks yielded just the one bonus. Both teams waited patiently with the next starter. It asked about the oldest written text in a language, but when Amol mentioned Pamplona Arthur Wotton won the race to answer Basque. Both of us managed 2 on modern British sculptors. I’ll be honest, I’m not very familiar with the Southern Gothic genre of fiction and neither were the teams for the next starter. Arthur Wotton added to his already impressive collection of starters, recognising a description of the word electricity. One bonus on Bell Labs followed. For the music starter we heard a guitar solo, and Roshana Wickremasinghe played the percentages answering Jimi Hendrix. Don’t blame her since I did the same. Other guitar solos played backwards on the records themselves brought two bonuses. Now, given Helluland and Markland, Elliott Lowe knew that the more well-known name give to an area of North America he explored by Leif Ericsson was Vinland. I guess this was before he starred in ‘The High Chapparal (ask your grandparents). That’s Leif Ericsson, not Elliott Lowe. Japanese film actor Takashi Shimura saw Christ Church fail to add to their score. And to be fair, the answers were all very well-known Japanese films. Would their profligacy with bonuses give them a cause for regret? Time would tell. Various things connected with Queen Anne saw Arthur Wotton give his team back the lead and bonuses on overseas departments of France gave Kings a full house. The Cambridge skipper had the bit between his teeth now and took the next starter knowing a mango when he heard a description of one. Abandoned invasions of Britain gave a couple more bonuses. As we approached the 20 minute mark the buzzing of Arthur Wotton and his team in the last few minutes had changed the complexion of the competition, for Christ Church now led by 130 – 90.

I didn’t know that ilmenite contains the ore of titanium but Elise Harrington did for the next starter. The bonuses on metals had a memorable moment when Elise Harrington made a slip of the tongue and gave skipper Roshana Wickremasinghe F203 as the chemical formula of magnetite rather than Fe203. When Amol commiserated that he couldn’t accept it she gasped ‘Oh my God, I’m so sorry!’ Relax – no need for such apology, we’ve all done it. Well, not on a Science question in my case, but you know what I mean. Two bonuses took So’ton to within a full set of the Cambridge team. I was impressed with the speed that the excellent Arthur Wotton recognised the work of El Greco (‘Buddy’ to his mates) for the second picture starter. More paintings of funerals brought one bonus. A really good shout from Eliza Dean saw her correctly answer the de facto state of Somaliland for the next starter. Sociology bonuses pushed the lead to 55. That man Wotton knew that artists including John Singer Sargent(when he wasn’t inventing the sewing machine and conducting orchestras) had painted presidential portraits. Authors born in Ohio added nowt to the Christ Church score, but the set ran down the clock which in itself was helpful to their cause. Neither team could get the term free verse for the next starter. Now, had I not been suffering a little from my arthritis I would have awarded myself a bar to my earlier lap of honour for guessing that the molecules affecting the atmosphere being asked for were CFCs. Chris Meredith had that too. He didn’t do a lap of honour either. A UC special set on pairs of words where one is the other prefixed by we- . A full set helped their cause, but So’ton were still more than a full set behind. Now, if you’re asked for a Tudor cardinal, go for Wolsey. That’s what Roshana Wickremasinghe did. The history of cereal crops, as a set of bonuses, were not full of eastern promise. Nonetheless two correct answers brought the gap down to 15 points. Once again, though, it was Arthur Wotton whose buzzing made the difference. He was first in with the term greenwashing. There surely would not be time for another starter after the bonuses. In fact there wasn’t even time for a full set of bonuses. The gong ended the competition leaving Christ Church the winners by 155 – 180.

Another good contest, well fought by both teams. It’s probably fair to say that it was Arthur Wotton’s 9 starters that made the difference. Especially when you consider that they had a relatively modest bonus conversion rate of forty three percent, as against Southampton’s sixty-seven. I doubt that Southampton will be back, though, bearing in mind the scores I the series so far.

How is Amol Doing?

On the Middlemarch set one of the questions asked for the Smiths song which paraphrased a sentence from the novel in the lyrics. In order to get ‘How Soon is Now’ Roshana Wickremasinghe sang a wee bit of the lyrics – you know the bit, it was used as the theme to Charmed. I think Amol was a wee bit charmed as well, since he replied, “You can sing it as long as you want if you give me the answer.”

A few weeks ago I did note that Amol will say that there’s plenty of time left in the same breath as saying there’s only a couple of minutes to go. He did it again in this show. Look, as far as QM habits go it’s far from the worst you could have, but I couldn’t help noticing it again.

Southampton were never more than a couple of sets behind Christ Church, but Amol seemed to think they had almost pulled off the most unbelievable recovery since Lazarus, saying “I thought you were going to pull of the most incredible, incredible recovery.” Steady on, Amol. Cool head.

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

Sir Thomas Browne was the first person known to use the term electricity in English. It is derived from the Latin for ‘like amber’

True or False Rounds do not a good quiz make. Is that True or False?

Here’s a thing. We won at the club again last night. Well there’s no point me pretending any more that just winning the quiz is enough to keep my curmudgeonly tendencies in check. But there are just some nights when I find the post mortem of the quiz on the way home in the car to be more enjoyable than the quiz itself. And yes, last night was such a night.

I find myself becoming something of a scratched record whenever I write about the quiz at the club at the moment. But I keep coming back to one thing. I honestly believe that your job as a question master is to give people the most enjoyable evening that you can. And for the second time in three weeks I found myself asking – did the question setter really think that people would enjoy the quiz they asked?

Last night’s QM was one of our semi regulars. She’s lovely and to be fair the last quiz she did was enjoyable. To be fair, four of last night’s rounds were enjoyable again. Unfortunately four of them weren’t. I don’t know what your opinion is about True or False rounds. Personally I don’t like them at all. I don’t like guessing games. Actually let me rephrase that. I like educated guessing games, but I really don’t like the kind that asks you something that you are not going to know and so you have to mentally flip a coin. You know the sort of thing I'm talking about - 

The second largest crater in the Solar System is about 2500 km in diameter. True or False? 

There is no reason why you could expect people to know that it's true. Unless you were the geezer who set the quiz a couple of weeks ago you'd never ask -

What is the diameter of the second largest crater in the solar system?

Even when the true or false questions are fair I don’t really like the way that they rob you of the satisfaction of knowledge. What I mean by that is that instead of being asked, for the sake of argument,

Virginia Woolf actually wrote ‘Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?’ True or False?

I would far rather be asked 

Who wrote ‘Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?’. 

The majority of the True or False questions were of this easy variety. Of the forty true or false questions last night we had only 2 wrong, I think and the lowest scoring team didn’t have more than four or five wrong. Now, I don’t know, maybe the setter really likes this kind of question. Maybe she thought it would be a great leveller between the teams. But judging by the groans she got from teams when she announced – the next round is another true or false round – she can’t now think that it’s something people like. Personally, I wouldn’t even include one whole true or false round in a quiz, but four is definitely too much. In my opinion.

There was one question last night that set alarm bells ringing.

Usain Bolt holds 9 Olympic Gold medals – true or false? – 

I’m sure you know why the alarm bells were ringing. Usain Bolt now holds 8 Olympic gold medals, but he won 9 – being stripped of one of his 3 relay golds when his relay teammate Nesta Carter was later found guilty of doping. This is going to sound horrible, but the fact is that I know some question masters who are knowledgeable enough, and precise enough in their use of language in the question whom I would not have had a quiet word with. But I didn't think that last night's QM would appreciate the problems with the question last night. As soon as she finished reading out the questions in that round I went and had a quiet chat with her about the question. It’s well that I did, for the QM had it from an old quiz book and had the answer as true. When she realised what had happened it's to her credit that she didn't stick with the tried and trusted - well, that's my answer and the question maser is always right (and to be fair she would have been perfectly within her rights to do so)  she had the common sense to tell people that either answer - true or false - would be acceptable. 

I’m finally off to Copenhagen on Monday so there will be no UC review until I get back at the weekend. See you then.

University Challenge Round One - Birkbeck, London v. Oxford Brookes University

The Teams

Birkbeck, London

Danny McMillan

Olivia Mariner

Samir Chadha (Capt)

Margherita Huntley

Oxford Brookes

David Caldecott

Lara Gardner

John Manton (Capt)

James Broadbent

Oh, don’t the Mondays come round quickly now that Quizzy Monday is back? That’s not a complaint, by the way. It’s an expression of gratitude.

So, it was Birkbeck, the only college still part of London University that has won UC before, v. Oxford Brookes, who in just five series have reached the quarters twice already. The Curse of the Clark sofa was firmly on Birkbeck, being as I am an alumnus of London University (although not Birkbeck) and also because Birkbeck Captain Samir Chadha is from my home borough, Ealing. Would Birkbeck be strong enough to withstand the effect of Clark support?

John Manton misfired on the first starter. To be fair to the Oxford skipper he was going to have a good night on the buzzer, so he can be forgiven this. It was Danny McMillan – who would have an excellent night on the buzzer, who recognised that Maria Therese of Austria was a Habsburg. This brought a set of bonuses on films whose titles include the surname of a British Prime Minister. “Blair Witch Project!” I shouted before the first was asked. And indeed, it was one of the answers. “Douglas-Home Alone” was not. This was a relatively gentle set and we both took a full house. John Manton recognised James Joyce’s description of the word epiphany to move his team’s score from red to black and earn bonuses on the Biafran crisis. They too took a full house. The next starter was one of those where it paid to wait, as it became obvious that the answer required was Mount Fuji once Hokusai’s The Great Wave was mentioned. Incidentally, did you know that you can get a lego set of The Great Wave? Very good it is too – my daughter Jess made one at the weekend. Danny McMillan took that one. Twentieth century novels whose titles all include a nationality saw our first dropped bonus when none of us got Frenchman’s Creek. Still 10 bonuses out of the first 11 was pretty good going by both teams. Lara Gardner took the next starter with Karst. Supply your own puns for that. Given constellations OB also missed the second in their set of bonuses. I’m a little surprised that they didn’t know Betelgeuse is in Orion. For the next starter, when asked what Woody Guthrie’s guitar claimed to do Danny McMillan buzzed in very sharply to answer ‘Kills Fascists’. Sporting terms from their origins was an interesting set and Danny McMillan pulled himself back from the incorrect scrum to the correct ruck on the first. They also took the third of the set. So to the picture starter, showing us a national flag. “Togo!” I shouted – hey, I love Sporcle. Maybe James Broadbent does too because he was very quickly in with the same. More flags with stars and stripes brought another full house. This meant that both teams were level with 65 at the 10-minute mark – and only three incorrect answers had been given so far. What a good contest.

David Caldecott recognised a description of Clive Barker’s Candyman character for the next starter. The artist Fuseli was the subject of the bonuses. Curiously enough none of them asked about his 2006 hit ‘Chelsea Dagger’. OB took a brace of these. John Manton recognised a description of the term sophist to earn a set on Italian chef Giuseppe Cipriani – and once again curiously enough none of the bonuses mentioned his spell as England’s fly half. Now, when it came to the acronym SCOBY, I didn’t have a scooby. Margherita Huntley knew that the Y stands for yeast. Googling reveals that the whole thing stands for Symbiotic Culture of Bacteria and Yeast. Mmm, bacteria and yeast. Yum yum. A terrific UC special set on Shakespeare gave clues to the main locations where one of his tragedies is set. Birkbeck took two missing out on Tony and Cleo. Halfway through the show and we finally came to the first starter neither team could answer, on Alan Dawson’s “The Relative Hills of Britain”. Well, we’d had a good long run at the start of the show, but the time had come for a Science starter. The answer was Young’s Modulus – nope, didn’t even understand the question since you asked. The next starter suddenly became obvious when it mentioned workers smashing machinery and it was Danny McMillan who won the buzzer race to answer Luddites. Economics brought 2 bonuses. So to the music round. I’m not overly familiar with the musical Funny Girl, but the lyrics of the extract made this the most likely answer to the starter. Both teams took their time to mull it over Samir Chadha came in first with the correct answer. More biographical musicals brought just the one correct answer. John Manton knew various definitions of the word break for the next starter. Scientific terms beginning with the letters comp brought a full house. It also brought me a lap of honour for knowing the word compound. Yes, I know it was the easiest of the three, but you have to take it where you can get it, don’t you. The set gave OB the lead, by 135 – 110.

Australia, Japan and South Korea are the only three countries outside Europe and North America to host the Summer Olympics during the 20^th century. Asked for 2, John Manton gave Australia and Japan. The excellent Danny McMillan had Australia but went for China – which was 2008. Female heads of state stretched the lead by a further 10 points. Danny McMillan ate into the lead by knowing that Kodiak is the second largest island of the US. Government departments or offices brought another full house. Samir Chadha recognised a still from The Handmaiden for the next starter. Three more films in non-European languages that won BAFTAs for Best film not in English brought another full house, and more surprisingly it brought me a full house as well. This was enough to give Birkbeck a narrow lead. This was extended by that man McMillan as he buzzed in early with Chatham House for the next starter.  Sunsetting Empires provided another fine UC special set brought the London side another full house. I earned a potential second lap of honour with the term precipitation for the chemistry starter that followed. Lara Gardner took that one. Words used in English of Hungarian origin brough OB their own full house and reduced the deficit to a single bonus. James Broadbent knew that the 1972 Magnavox Odyssey was the first games console. The Fields Medal and some of its recipients brought a full house. I also got a full house on these. What was going on in this show?! Less than 3 minutes left on the clock, and OB led by 20.It was Danny McMillan who knew that Hawkeye’s alter ego in the Avengers has the surname Barton for the next starter. A full house needed for the lead. The subject? Literature, novels linked with labyrinths. Birkbeck took the first two – and they took the third as well! Surely, whoever took the next starter would win. Again, I ask what was going on in this show, because the starter asked about a contemporary singer who produced and directed her own video, and I had it right! Okay, Taylor Swift was always the percentage answer, but come on! I am nearly 60! Samir Chadha played a captain’s innings getting that one right. The match was gonged before Amol completed the first bonus. Birkbeck had won by 220 – 205.

What a contest! Both teams deserve huge congratulations for the excellent performances on display tonight. Birkbeck had an incredible 80 percent bonus conversion rate while OB had a mind-boggling 88 percent rate. I cannot remember the last time that a team scored over 200 in the first round and still lost.

On a personal note, I always set my target at answering forty questions correctly. In the last couple of JP years this became difficult. Last night I answered 56 correctly. I think a combination of factors worked in my, ad both teams’ favour. Amol’s speedy delivery is one. The fact that these were two teams who didn’t as a rule argue the life out of the bonuses and just got on with it. And for me, the questions were rather more accessible than is sometimes the case.

How is Amol Doing?

We’ve already noted Amol’s partiality for cricket in this series, and he was indignant when Birkbeck dropped a googly by confusing their googlies with their doosras. “It is very much NOT a googly!” Alright Amol, don’t take it personally. When James Broadbent took the flag starter he suggested it was just because he watches a lot of football. This is not perjorative – you ask schoolkids to identify national flags, and you’ll be surprised how many the football fans will identify. Maybe it was just me, but it seemed to me that Amol was even more conversational and matey towards the teams in this show. When Harry’s Bar in Venice was an answer he replied ‘Very pricey – you wouldn’t be able to afford it on usual student finances.’ Then almost immediately after, when the answer given was Bellini cocktail he chaffed ‘You’ve obviously had a few, haven’t you?’ Woah here, Amol. You can’t go suggesting that a player has an alcohol problem. Then at the end there was an almost Paxonian rubbing of salt into OB’s wounds when he said “I bet you thought until the last minute that you were going to win!”

Levity aside, Amol continues to seem calm, relaxed, and enjoying himself as much as the audience at home, and that’s really a lot of what I’m asking for from the host of UC. Keep it up.

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

Medecins Sans Frontieres was established in 1971 in response to the Biafran Famine.

In his 1992 book, Alan Dawson gave any peak of 492 feet or higher the name Marilyns – inspired by Munros, geddit?!

The word coach is derived from the name of a town between Vienna and Budapest.

Sorry for the three way tie this week.