University Challenge 2025 - Repechage 2 - Durham v. SOAS

The Teams

Durham

Joe Ancell

Emilia Brookfield -Pertusini

Jake Roberts (capt.)

Luke Nash

SOAS

Janet Delves

Ella Dorn

Tom Hasler (capt.)

Cameron Lambert

I couldn’t call how this one would go. Mind you, that’s not uncommon for me. So, as soon as the first starter mentioned a monumental tapestry of Christ I shouted Coventry Cathedral. A TV documentary about the building a few years ago made me want to visit and I’m really glad I did. The sheer monumental scale of the tapestry is absolutely breathtaking. I do like Jacob Epstein’s sculpture of St. Michael vanquishing the Devil too. Janet Delves was first in with the answer. Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities brought just one bonus. Luke Nash buzzed early for the next starter on pheromones. Which reminds me of a particularly funny episode of ‘Bottom’. But then that’s my problem. Towns or cities lying almost precisely on the Greenwich meridian did not include Greenwich but still brought a brace of correct answers. Tom Hasler knew that Canada has 10 provinces for the next starter. For the bonuses on probability distribution captain Tom used the time-honoured technique of giving the same answer to each bonus until it was the right one. So to the picture starter. We saw the name of a vegetable given in Spanish, French, German and Japanese. Sadly not English. I knew it wasn’t carrot since they are rather splendidly called zanahorias in Spanish. I’ll be honest, I have never had occasion to use the word navet, or turnip in French, but at least I know now. Nobody had that. Nobody knew Oscar Wilde’s ‘Salome’ either. The next question about Bennu suddenly launched a buzzer race when it became clear that Bennu was an Ancient Egyptian deity (as opposed to Richie Bennu, who was an Australian one.)

Jake Roberts won the race to answer that. This took us back to the picture bonuses. Only one more edible root was correctly identified. An early buzz from Luke Nash identified parts of the early telephone. Free time brought a timely full house. This meant that Durham led by 55 to 25 at a tad past ten minutes.

Cameron Lambert knew that Cannakale in Turkey is home to a statue of the Wooden Horse of Troy. Mythological figures in Botticelli’s Primavera yielded just the one bonus. Tom Hasler was in very quickly with the phrase Manifest Destiny for the next starter. Evolutionary biology brought two bonuses, and the lead to SOAS. So to the music starter and Emilia Brookfield -Pertusini was in very quickly to recognise a piece of music used as a theme to Peep Show. The bonuses – songs also used in Peep Show at times brought just one correct answer. This was turning into a bit of a grim old arm wrestle. Jake Roberts knew that element 116 was named Livermorium. Durham’s bonuses on Mexican president Benito Jarez provided two correct answers. Nobody knew Lake Volta for the next starter. The clue was in the question with the next stater. The August prize for literature, we were told, took its name from one of that country’s best known literary figures. August Strindberg, thought I, hence Sweden. Ella Dorn probably worked it out in the same way. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings turned out to be meat and drink to Cameron Lambert and he handed SOAS a rare full house. I’ll be honest, whenever you’re asked for an opera by Donizetti, if you say ‘Lucia di Lammermoor” you’ll be right more often than you’re wrong. Ella Dorn took her second consecutive starter with this. Plants and folk medicine did not exactly seem full of eastern promise but to be fair we both had ginseng and St. John’s Wort. This was enough to ensure that as we closed in on the twenty minute mark SOAS were now leading by 105 to 85.

The last lap began with the second picture starter. We were shown a well-known cover of a well-known novel. Emilia Brookfield-Pertusini knew it was Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar. More of the same followed. The only one Durham didn’t have a scooby about was the only one I knew – Vernon God Little by DBC Pierre. The time I spent reading that should best be described as hours of my life that I will never get back. Neither team knew about strangeness for the next starter. They should have tried teaching some of my old pupils, then they’d have been intimately acquainted with this particular concept. Ella Dorn knew Makaton – wasn’t he one of the Decepticons? – to keep SOAS edging towards round two. Two bonuses meant that Durham would need at least two visits to the table to take the lead. They didn’t get one from the next starter. Cameron Lambert recognised that the pirate Henry Avery – as featured on Doctor Who (played by Hugh Bonneville) – gained fame from attacking a convoy belonging to the Mughal Empire. Three questions on suspension bridges followed. Yum yum, thought I, but only had 2 of them. 2 more than SOAS managed – tricky set. A lovely UC special set gave stars in flags, and led Tom Hasler to work out that if you aligned the colours of the stars vertically you’d end up with the flag of Germany.  They could really have done with a nice easy set of bonuses at this point, but instead got a set on Hilma af Klint. They were pretty close to the first. They discarded the correct answer for the second, then took the third. Amol told us that there were only two minutes left and SOAS led by fifty. I didn’t get the next question but Luke Nash did. Two correct answers on Alexander Pope’s Essay on Criticism helped but Durham still needed two visits to the table. Jake Roberts earned one visit through recognising words from Shakespeare’s Richard II. Shorter wors that can be made with any letters from the word solstice brought a very useful full house. Now Durham trailed by just 10. Captain Marvel, Jake Roberts equalled the scores by answering scattering for the next starter. There was only time for one wrong answer on the bonuses.

We don’t often see tie breaks on UC. Amol asks a starter. If you interrupt and get it right, you win. If you interrupt and get it wrong, you lose. If you let the question be completed, then answer correctly you win. If neither of you do, then we have another starter. And so on. Neither team got the first. The second asked  - the guanaco was the ancestor of which domestic animal?  Cameron Lambert went for it before the question was finished. All or nothing. ’Alpaca?’ he answered. It was Llama. Heartbreak for SOAS, relief for Durham, who now automatically won.

With SOAS slightly better on the buzzer it came down to the bonuses. SOAS had a BCR of 48, while Durham’s was 60. It was that BCR which enabled them to reel in SOAS over the last frantic couple of minutes. Well played both teams – this was a match high on excitement at least.

Amol Watch

Amol does enjoy listening to the teams’ deliberations, and he told off the rest of SOAS for telling skipper Hasler ‘it’s all on you.’ In case we should forget Amol also used the opportunity to remind us that Bertrand Russell is his hero.

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

The word pheromone is ultimately derived from the Greek for ‘to carry’.

Baby Elephant Walk Moment

What probability distribution is the continuous analogue of the geometric distribution? It has a particular memoryless property, such that the time for an event to occur is not conditional on any time that has already passed.

Huh?

Dum de dumdum  dum dum dum dum dumdum.

Mastermind First Round - Heat Fourteen

After last week’s pyrotechnics it was only to be expected that we might return to earth a little with last night’s show. Nonetheless there was plenty of interest as the drama of the show unfolded.

First up was medical student Arnav Umranikar, answering on Winston Churchill’s wartime premiership. I helped myself to four points on this round. Arnav did a bit better with 6. He knew his subject, but somehow the questions exposed a few gaps and at 6 points he looked to have blown his chance.

I think it’s fair to say that I know more about Churchill’s wartime premiership than I do about Mariah Carey, yet I came close to equalling my score on the previous round with three. Tim Kew did considerably better. It wasn’t quite a perfect round, but it was pretty close. A splendid 11 put him very comfortably out in front with two contenders still to go.

Next came student Alice Perkins. Alice was answering on what I considered to be last night’s government health warning subject, seals. I guessed the grey seal at the start and that was my lot. Alice coped well with what certainly sounded like a difficult round – my lack of knowledge on seals prevents me from speaking authoritatively here. Ironically I do remember seeing an item on John Craven’s Newsround many years ago on the seal that said ‘Hello there!’ but couldn’t remember the name. Alice scored a battling 7.

Finally Elina Kharmats on Kandinsky. He’s another one of those 20^th century artists whose work I can appreciate but could never say that I particularly like. I took one to leave me with a very acceptable aggregate of 9 for the specialists. As with Arnav, during Elina’s round I definitely felt that it was a subject she knew, but the questions did not fall kindly enough to enable her to build what would appear to be a competitive score. She finished with 6.

I think that one of the more appealing things about Mastermind is its simplicity. This is the amount of time you have. Here’s the questions. Try to go like billy-o and give it some stick. There was a real never-say-die quality to Arnav’s GK round. It didn’t seem like the round of someone who had only scored 6 on specialist. If the five point deficit played on his mind at all during the round it certainly didn’t show. 12 was a good return. Did I think it was enough to win? Nah, but at least it would give the leader something to think about.

Neither Alice nor Elina came close to Arnav during their rounds. Both picked off what they could, but were unable to answer enough questions correctly to get close to double figures. Elia scored 8 and Emily 7 so that they both finished with fourteen.

Ad so to the Key round, should you pardon the pun. Tim needed 8 to win outright. 7 and no passes would bring a tie break. After the first four questions of the round you could have named your own price on Arnav winning. Tim answered his first four correctly. Then he had a couple wrong. Then he had another correct answer, and then some wrong answers. And this, it seemed, played on his mind, and the wrong answers just kept coming. It was compelling to watch for all the wrong reasons – every time he had to zig or zag he took the wrong option. I sometimes talk of rounds where the questions just don’t fall for you, and this was a prime example. In the end, Tim scored 7, but he incurred 1 pass, and that brought Arav the win.

Well done, sir! A fine example of what you can achieve when you put setbacks behind you and give it your best shot. Best of luck in the semi final.

The Details

Arnav Umranikar	Winston Churchill’s wartime premiership	6	0	12	0	18	0
Tim Kew	Mariah Carey	11	0	7	1	18	1
Alice Perkins	Seals	7	1	7	2	14	3
Elina Kharmats	Wassily Kandinsky	6	3	8	2	14	5

University Challenge 2025 Repechage 1 - UCL v. St. Andrews

The Teams

UCL

Callum Jack

Josh Mandel

Olivia Holtermann Entwistle (capt.)

Sanjay Prabhakar

St. Andrews

Diane Buffet-Mogel

George Capell

Freddie Skerrett (capt.)

Tom Rosas

Well, here we are at the repechage stage, peeps. The repechage games don’t always go to the highest scorers I their first round matches, but for what it’s worth UCL were the highest scoring runners up in the first round.

Josh Mandel, so impressive on the buzzer in the first round, took the first starter recognising clues to the word pastoral. ‘bad’ cities – that is cities ending with – abad – brought just the one bonus. Diane Buffet-Mogel was in very quickly for the next starter on Margaret Atwood’s The Penelopiad. A full house on flywheels brought St. Andrews an early lead. In the next starter I was pleased to see Casimir ‘Uptown’ Funk getting a namecheck, and both Josh Mandel and I thought that the question was heading in the direction of vitamins. This brought bonuses on the endings of Shakespeare plays and UCL took their own full house on these. So to the picture starter. This showed us two titles of works of fiction in French, both of which were missing their first word. Au centre de la Terre was obviously Verne’s Journey to the Centre of the Earth. Voyage! said I. Voyage! said George Capell, earning St. Andrews three more of the same. They took the Spanish and German but the Russian did for them. As it happened I worked out that the top of the two Russian titles contained Ivan Denisovitch, so we were looking for day. But I didn’t have a scooby what the Russian for day was so no cigar. Sanjay Prabhakar knew the term the golden mean and this earned a set on that old favourite, fourth declension latin nouns which retain their nominative endings when used as words in English. I remember being taught about this in the comp back in the late 70s – thanks Mr. Rose. And thanks to UC too for it’s the first place I ever heard of a golgi apparatus, many series ago. The answers proved to be easier than the question and UCL took a full house. As we closed in on the ten-minute mark UCL led by 65 to 40.

I don’t know Car Dyke, but it soon became clear that it is in the Fens, and Josh Mandel buzzed first for that starter. – isation terms named after places proved a tricky set. I guessed Finlandisation UCL took the other two. Nobody knew the answer about the two SI base units named after scientists. Diane Buffet-Mogel knew a building in Rockefeller Plaza New York is in Art Deco style. New York, which I visited in August, is a candidate for the city I’ve most enjoyed visiting, but that’s by the by. Gawd knows what the maths bonuses that followed were all about – well, they were about Maths, but you know what I mean – but they brought two correct answers. This was followed by the music starter. Josh Mandel was in very quickly to recognise a little bit of Holst. Three more pieces of music also performed at both of the last two coronations brought a quick full house. Freddie Skerrett knows his Mexican cookery terms and was in very quickly with mole for the next starter. Mythological women in the paintings of Evelyn de Morgan brought St. Andrews two correct answers and narrowed the gap between the teams. Nobody could get the word trapezium for the next starter. Olivia Holtermann Entwistle knew about the Met Gala for the next starter. Noun suffixes in English, for example – ship - were a rather lovely UC special set of bonuses which UCL were perfectly happy to knock over the boundary rope for a full house. Fair play to Josh Mandel. He knew that any question containing the words “English novel of 1871” is going to have the title ‘Middlemarch’ in the answer. Richard Hoggart once told me that Middlemarch was the perfect Victorian novel. I’ll not see days like that again. Diets of the Holy Roman Empire did not include the Scarsdale or the F Plan, so I was lucky to get one for Worms. UCL took two, and had the added bonus of witnessing Amol offer encouragement to St. Andrews. It didn’t stop the UCL onslaught, as Josh Mandel recognised the treaty that saw the creation of the modern state of Indonesia. This earned two hard and one not so hard question on dinosaurs. They took the not so hard one. Thus at the 20 minute mark UCL led by 170 to 75 and had one foot in the second round.

For the second picture starter Olivia Holtermann Entwistle was first to buzz in to identify the work of Edgar ‘turn up’ Degas. More works showing similar subjects brought just one bonus. Now, after identifying Hydragyrum as mercury I set off around the sofa on my lap of honour. Hg, you see. The irrepressible buzzing of Josh Mandel claimed that for UCL. Films that have won the BAFTA for best casting brought two bonuses and took UCL through the 200 points barrier. Freddie Skerrett fell foul of this week’s harsh but fair adjudication when he was disallowed panther for panthera. He got sympathy and explanation from Amol anyway. Tom Rosas took a small bite out of the lead by guessing that Bhutan was the country with the tiny population and the huge mountains. Places in England described in the 1876 Popular Encyclopaedia (an oxymoron, surely) brought St. Andrews two correct answers. Freddie Skerrett took the next starter with meiosis. Two bonuses on bacteriophages were taken. After a bit of thought Josh Mandel guessed that the play which Tennessee Williams flipped over was The Seagull. There was no time for bonuses, and the contest ended with UCL winning comfortably with 215 to 105.

St. Andrews had a BCR of 72, a figure that shows they were beaten on the buzzer. UCL for their part had a BCR of 68. They will not be an easy proposition for whoever thy face in round two.

Amol Watch

“Yugoslavisation? That’s a bit of a reach, isn’t it?” Bit mean there, Amol. Or should I say, mole?

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

Sorry – lots of things I didn’t know, but none quite blew my socks off.

Baby Elephant Walk Moment

Give (don’t look at him!) Give each word from the definition. Forst an algebraic expression that gives information about the number and type of solutions of an equation. An example is the expression b squared minus 4ac, which gives information about the roots of the quadratic equation ax squared plus bx plus c equals zero.  – I do accept that there are people to whom this means something, I just don’t understand how. Dum de dumdum dum dum dum dum dumdum.

Mastermind 2025 First Round Heat 13

Well, we’re trundling along nicely with the first round now, and frankly this latest heat did a lot more than just trundle. We saw both extremes, the agony and the ecstasy if you like. I’ll explain.

In last night’s show I felt that there were more than 1 government health warning subjects, and the first of these, offered by Sam Penberthy was the Two Ronnies. I say this subject should come with a warning because the show went on for a long time and each individual show was composed of many constituents you could be asked about. I liked the show, and I scored five. Now the fact of the matter is that Sam scored 3. Only she could explain why she didn’t score more. I think the effect of the chair might have had something to do with it. I hope that the trolls will leave her alone.

Ian Grieve took us to the other end of the spectrum with his round on Richard Feynman. I always think that biographical subjects are a good choice, because they’re finite and the boundaries are pretty clear. For all that, though, you still have to really know your stuff. So let’s be fair here – Ian really knew his stuff. He had a perfect round in which he answered all of his questions correctly. Now, I didn’t feel that he was going at all slowly, yet he ended on 11, where we’ve recently seen a perfect round of 13. Oh well.

Our second government health warning subject was the MLB side the Toronto Blue Jays, offered to us by Dimitri Sameresinghe. I don’t know how many games a season an MLB side plays, but I often think that subjects on a particular sports team present an overwhelming amount of potential questions, which is why we so often see them limited to a specific time period. Bearing this in mind I thought that Dmitiri did really well to amass 8 points in his round. But sadly, really well was not going to be well enough in this heat.

Bringing the specialist round to its conclusion was Richard Kimber who was answering on badgers. All of them. I don’t know enough about badgers to decide whether this subject should also come with a government health warning, but it made no difference to Richard since he went through the questions like a dose of salts, picking up 12 points in our second perfect round of the show. Like it or not, good people, from this point onwards we had a two-horse race on our hands.

Sam Penberthy kicked off the GK round. Unless you’re ever in the unenviable position yourself you can’t know how a disappointing specialist round plays on your mind when you return to the chair for GK. I’d say that it was playing on Sam’s mind. She ended with a total of 9. All I will say is before anyone says anything unkind, please remember the words of Magnus Magnusson that it’s only a bloody game.

If Dimitri felt that it was a two horse race, neither of which was him, he certainly didn’t show it in his GK round. After a slightly hesitant start he put on a very good 12 points. In this show his 20 probably was not going to be enough but at least it gave the two leaders something to think about. Job done, Dimitri.

Ian Grieve. I have to thank you for putting on your GK round and showing that it is still possible for a contender to score that highly. Ian hardly dropped anything and smashed his way to a score of 17 for GK and a total of 28. I have no hesitation in saying that was the best round of the series so far. Unless Richard could have something to say about it.

Well, Richard certainly gave it a lash and for the first minute or so there wasn’t a huge amount in it. But sadly a couple of wrong answers came. Maybe I was reading something into it which was only in my own head, but after those couple of dropped points it looked as if Richard knew that the game was up, and the momentum was just gone. Which is not to say that Richard did at all badly. His 10 points put him amongst the august ranks of those contenders who have managed a double figure GK round this series, and he finished second with 22 points.

Let’s get down to brass tacks. It is not fair to make a contender a favourite to win the series just based on a first round performance. So I won’t. I will say that Ian revealed that he is a regular in the Macclesfield Quiz League, and was helped in his preparation by champion Alice Walker. Good pedigree. Ian, many congratulations on a fantastic performance and I shall be watching your progress through the competition with great interest.

 

Sam Penberthy	The Two Ronnies	3	0	6	0	9	0
Ian Grieve	Richard Feynman	11	0	17	0	28	0
Dimitri Sameresinghe	The Toronto Blue Jays	8	0	12	0	20	0
Richard Kimber	Badgers	12	0	10	2	22	2

University Challenge 2025 - First Round - SOAS v. St. Edmund Hall, Oxford

The Teams

School of Oriental and African Studies

Janet Delves

Ella Dorn

Tom Hasler (Capt)

Cameron Lambert

St. Edmund Hall, Oxford

Jeffrey Liu

Robert Elkington

Sophia Bursey (Capt)

Daisy Prendergast

Well, dearly beloved, here we are at the last heat of the first round. To the victors the spoils of a place in round two and to the vanquished, well, it all depended on how highly they could score. 130 or more – happy days. Less than 125, on yer bikes. 125? Well, gawd knows what would happen.

The first starter wanted an object. As soon as Amol said Coppergate I went for helmet – it’s a fantastic object that I saw in York Castle Museum about forty years ago.  Once Sutton Hoo was added to the clues Jefrey Liu buzzed in with the same answer. This brought St. Edmund Hall bonuses on the Bantu language family. These were answered impressively well for a full house. For the second starter I again had it on the first clue – the deity in Connie Francis’ hit being Cupid. Ella Dorn opened SOAS’ account with this one. Bonuses followed on Pam ‘Who?’ Tanowitz. Funny enough the only bonus they knew, on Martha Graham was the only one I didn’t. There you go. This was followed by a question so long and so far removed from my areas of knowledge that I cannot even begin to understand what it might be asking – see my baby elephant walk moment.  Jeffrey Liu had the correct answer with Cantor. Eddie, possibly? Who knows. Some welcome refreshment came in the shape of bouses on wine in Northern Italy. St. EH managed 1 of these. For the picture starter skipper Tom Hasler recognised the national flag of Latvia for SOAS. Flags from countries who had their first female heads of government in 2023 brought two bonuses. SOAS came close to a full house, but I’ll say more about this later. Jeffrey Liu came to the same conclusion that I did that the clues in the next starter were pointing towards fear. This brought up bonuses on a lovely UC special set whereby each question called for pairs of German words which were the same apart from ie in the middle of one becoming ei in the middle of the other. They too were close to a full house but just missed out on one. Nonetheless ESH led by 55 – 35 at the ten-minute mark.

The next starter looked to be heading in the direction of Brasilia and Sophia Bursey thought so too. This earned bonuses on the solar system. – Hallo – thought I – get your lap of honour shoes on , boy.- I earned it too for a full house while St. EH took two. A long starter that followed had a simple answer with silage, as supplied by Tom Hasler. Sociologist Robert K. Merton (‘Mrs.” to his mates) brought SOAS a timely full house. Ella Dorn knew that Tokyo Story is the last film of the so-called Noriko trilogy. Bad years in history brought two bonuses. The music starter that followed was, announced Amol, a piece of classical music and he wanted the name of the composer. Beethoven! I shouted before it started. Bloody was too. Neither team had it. Ella Dorn recognised the work of Patricia Highsmith for the next starter which earned SOAS the dubious reward of the music bonuses. Three pieces of work inspired by Beethoven’s 9^th brought us both nowt. Jeffrey Liu recognised a description of mangrove plants to take the next starter. They took two bonuses on film versions of Tolstoy’s Anna Kareinininina (that’s the 12 inch version – oh, ask your grandparents!) The word satay was meat and drink to Robert Elkington, and this was washed down with bonuses on scientific terms named for creature of Greek mythology, of which they managed one. Localities marking the path to William the Conqueror’s throne gave Cameron Lambert his first starter and allowed SOAS to join St. EH on triple figures. Marianne Elliot, the theatre director gave SOAS two bonuses. Two Chopins brought Robert Elkington the next starter. Three bonuses on the hardy perennial that is the shipping forecast areas meant that Teddy Hall led by 130 to 110 as we approached the 20 minute mark.

Various clues gave Tom Hasler the word composite for the next starter. Bouses on terms from Buddhism delivered nowt. So to the second picture starter. Look, if it’s a picture of the back of a bloke’s bonce, you’ll be right more often than you’re wrong if you say Magritte. Jeffrey Liu took that one. Other works from the same collection yielded nothing. Arthur Griffith – soon as you hear that name it’s gonna be Sinn Fein. Tom Hasler took both that starter and his team into at least a repechage slot. Questions on names in various ‘Who is . . . ?” phrases brought just the one bonus. The royal residence redesigned in Scottish baronial style had to be Balmoral and it gave Robert Elkington another starter. Japanese sporting venues starting with S brought one bonus. Ella Dorn took the next starter with Democracy. A tricky set on winds known as the Doctor (my favourite was Tom Baker) took SOAS to within five points of Teddy Hall. Robert Elkington knew that Naples derives from words meaning new city. My old university mate, K.D. Johnson, always gets annoyed when teams on UC miss fairly simple questions about birds and he was annoyed again last night. To be fair suggesting a grouse as a wading bird really wasn’t a great answer. Teddy Hall didn’t trouble the scorer with that set. Carried by bees in the sacs on their legs, let’s be honest, Tom Hasler’s answer of nectar wasn’t daft, but it had to be pollen, surely? Yes, and it gave Daisy Prendergast a starter meaning that everyone on the Teddy Hall side had taken at least 1. A full house on events of 1720 allowed Teddy Hall to pull away and finish with a flourish. Teddy Hall won by 195 to 155.

St. Edmund Hall had a BCR of 51, to SOAS 48, so both teams pretty well matched, though both of those scores are a little on the moderate side compared with some of the other sides still left in the competition.

Amol Watch

You know, I have to pay tribute to Amol’s consistency over rulings. In some series I’ve felt that there was a little too much of the – well, that’s not quite right but it was clear you were trying to give the right answer so we’ll give you the points.-  Amol was dead right to disallow St. Kittis and Nevis for St. Kitts and Nevis. Yes, it looks harsh, but it is the only way to ensure fairness. Just my opinion, feel free to disagree.

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

According to one historian the worst year to be alive was 536. You heard it here first.

Baby Elephant Walk Moment

Though he was not the first to discuss it which Russian born German mathematician gives his name to a set of numbers that may be generated by taking the interval (0,1), removing the open middle third of the interval and the iteratively removing the open middle third of the two remaining pieces with a set consisting of all the numbers that are not removed by this process.

Need - I – say - More?  Dum de dumdum dum dum dum dum dumdum.

Mastermind First Round Heat 12

Yes, I’m sorry about that. Normally I write up Mastermind first thing the next morning. But today I was preparing for a job interview I had at work. No, haven’t heard yet. I gave it a lash and at the end of the day that’s all you can do, I reckon.

So, let’s have a look at the show from last night. First up was Olivia Woolley. Olivia was answering on eighties favourites, New Order. I would love to be able to regale you with tales of the times I went to see New Order, but I never did and that’s just something I have to live with. Still managed 3 points, though. Olivia got a double figure score and really knew her stuff. In fact it was a surprise that she dropped any points at all. In my day you needed to score about 17 in order to blow the opposition away in the specialist round. Nowadays you can achieve hat with a double figure score. I wondered if Olivia’s might be enough to do so.

Well, it seemed to me that last night’s government health warning subject was that taken by Alex Thomas. Fifty years of West Indies Men’s cricket. Having said that I was very grateful that he had taken the subject since I knew enough about 70s and 80s windies cricket that I took four points. Alex did a lot better, but the sheer scope of the subject restricted him to 7. A hard earned 7, but 7 nonetheless.

You know, I felt that I was in with a chance of a double figure aggregate having taken 7 in the first two rounds, with James Bond yet to come. Granted, I have only read three or four of them, but that and my knowledge of the films was enough to bring me another three. It was like reaching an oasis in the desert. 10 already and Amy Johnson still to come. Alan Marlow did better, scoring 9 which in this particular era of the show is a pretty good specialist score.

Amy Johnson came next. Or rather retired teacher Joyce Fulbrook, answering on Amy Johnson came next. I got one, which meant that I’d answered at least one on every round and scored my best specialist aggregate for quite some time. So how did Joyce get on with the Curse of the Clark sofa? Well she managed a perfectly respectable 8, but this was going to leave her with quite a bit of work to do if he was going to challenge for the win.

First, though, Alex returned to the chair. Give it a lash if you find yourself in the same situation – that’s all that you can realistically do. Alex did. I will be honest, his 9 wasn’t going to be enough to give the leaders pause for thought, but in terms of the personal battle we all have to fight with ourselves in the chair I thought he acquitted himself honourably.

Joyce rather struggled with her GK round. The chair can be a lonely place when you’re sitting there with the lights on you and the questions just won’t fall for you. 7 these days is a respectable score, but it looked like she was having to battle for every point that she got, and in the end she fell one short of Alex’s total when she had been one point to the good at the turnaround.

So much for the wines and spirits, now we approached the top end of the bill. The winner was surely going to come from our last two contenders and the first of these was Alan Marlow. Alan – thought I – you need double figures here if you’re going to give Olivia something to think about. So that’s exactly what he produced. Good general knowledge brought him 12 points. This had the effect of raising his score into the 20s which is a sure sign of quality and also set the target at 10 and no passes just to force a tie break.

Olivia’s GK round was deceptive. She passed once and didn’t seem to be scoring that quickly, but she passed the target and kept adding points until she had scored a fine 13 to finish with a total of 24. Well played. In her piece to camera she spoke of watching with her family, and how the show has been essential viewing for her. I know how she feels. Congratulations Olivia. Best of luck in the semis.

The Details

Olivia Woolley	New Order	11	0	13	1	24	1
Alex Thomas	The History of the West Indies Men’s Cricket team 1974 - Present	7	0	9	2	16	2
Alan Marlow	The James Bond books of Ian Fleming	9	0	12	0	21	0
Joyce Fulbrook	Amy Johnson	8	0	7	0	15	0

University Challenge 2025 - First Round - London School of Economics v Leicester

The Teams

London School of Economics (LSE)

Albert Nyang Ying Zhi

Grant Dalton

Sebastian Bramley (Capt.)

Christina Zhiang

Leicester

Noah Lister

Greg Beeden

George Gowland (Capt.)

Edward Owen-Shah

I knew that Mackenzie King was the PM of Canada at the start of WWII

so came in a little bit faster for the first starter than Grant Dalton of LSE. This earned the Londoners a set of bonuses on electric batteries. We both took a full house and I took an early honorary lap of honour. Honorary? Well, I’m not well, you know. Again it was Grant Dalton who was first in for the next starter when it became clear that the answer was going to be he Commonwealth. So this earned the LSE questions on E. (Economics, that is).They duly took a full house. Me? – well. When asked for a number value I usually go for zero and it brought me more than zero again. Albert Nyang came in way too early before the next starter became obvious. It’s a great question – many people know that Uranus’ moons are named after characters in Pope and characters in Shakespeare – but of them all, only Ariel is a character in both. Good stuff. George Gowland opened his team’s account with this one. The Polish sculptor Magdalena Abakanowicz – no, me neither – brought 1 correct answer on a gettable set. For the picture starter we saw a picture of the George Cross and were asked on which flag it featured. Too easy for Noah Lister who won the buzzer race to answer Malta. Three more flags featuring dragons did not sadly include Wales or Bhutan and once again Leicester only took one of them. The next question about a TV show seemed unfathomable until the title of an episode– The Prisoner of Benda – launched a buzzer race to answer Futurama. George Gowland won that one. Bonuses on fictional artists brought two correct answers. This gave Leicester a narrow lead of 55 – 45 as we closed in on ten minutes.

Madha and the Musandam Governorate are exclaves of Oman. I didn’t know that, but Grant Dalton did. The second Scottish war of independence brought the bonus that LSE needed to retake the lead. The fashion designer who passed away in 2022 had to be Vivienne Westwood for the next starter. LSE skipper Sebastian Bramley thought so and he was right. Bonuses on insects brought LSE nowt. The economics starter was easy meat for the LSE’s Albert Nyang who buzzed in very quickly with Ceteris Paribus. Well, what else? The film and TV work of Alice Birch provided a full house which stretched the LSE’s lead. I was pleased when mass extinction in the next starter gave me Triassic, confirmed when the start of the age of dinosaurs was also mentioned. Albert Nyang took his second starter with that one. LSE took one bonus on the netball world cup and his took us up to the music starter. A wee snatch of Cream led Noah Lister to identify the guitar work of Eric Slowhand Clapton. Leicester did not manage to identify any of the inspirational Chicago and delta bluesmen in the bonuses. When it became obvious that the next starter was looking for The Marriage of Figaro George Gowland buzzed in with the correct answer. Shorter words that can be made using any of the letters from Love Island – which I’m told is a popular TV show – provided Leicester with no answers and it was at this point that I felt that their chances were receding quite quickly. Nobody got the next starter which had clues pointing to the word elephant. Christina Zhiang recognised the work of Ursula LeGuin which meant that every member of the LSE had answered at least 1 starter. A rapid full house on South America meant that they led by 135 to 75. One foot in round two and at least the big toe of another.

Saturated fats gave Noah Lister the next starter. Flags in formula 1 provided a surprisingly tough set of bonuses and Leicester failed to add to their score with them. Sebastian Bramley knew that the former name of Harare was Salisbury for the next starter. Presidents of the Royal Society saw the LSE only manage 1 bonus, but Leicester just were not going to be able to bridge the gap. Albert Nyang identified a wee splodge of Van Gogh for the second picture starter. They took two bouses on other artists’ paintings featuring Autumn leaves. Albert Nyang took another starter with Samurai. Victoria sensation novels brought two correct answers and widened the gap into triple figures. The next question related to Cologne Cathedral, and Grant Dalton buzzed in with the right answer, which brought up LSE’s double century, and they earned a full house on well known bird lovers. The clue was in the question for the next starter, with melittin being a constituent of bee venom. Either team had that. A great early buzz from Greg Beeden identified four as the only regnal number of two consecutive British kings – George and William. German cities with four letter names yielded just one bonus on a gettable set. Sadly George Gowland buzzed too early for the next starter which allowed Albert Nyang in with derby winner Auguste Rodin. A difficult set on poetic terms yielded two bonuses. For the quark question that followed Noah Lister ignored my advice to chose strange or charm, and was right to do so. The answer he gave, correctly was up. Mind you, so was the game as far as Leicester were concerned for the gong ended the contest. LSE won by 235 to 100.

Sorry, Leicester, but LSE were better on the buzzer, and they were better on the bonuses. LSE’s BCR was 67, while Leicester’s was 29. Sometimes it just isn’t your night.

Amol Watch

It was interesting that Amol called the Leicester captain ‘Mr. Gowland’ when Greg Beeden also said the answer at the same time as his skipper. He soon corrected himself, and called him George.

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

Benjamin Franklin invented the word battery for an electric battery.

Baby Elephant Walk Moment

The statistical measure of inequality described by the relationship A/A+B is known by what two-word term, where A is the area between perfect equality and the Lorenz Curve and B is the total area under the perfect equality line? I mean, come on, dum de dumdum dum dum dum dum dumdum.

Mastermind First Round Heat 11

Good morning. We’re working through the first round at a pretty decent pace now, although I still think there’s something funny going on with the specialists. I’ll explain later.

Kaushik Bhattacharya kicked us off with the Sherlock Holmes stories. I feel I should tell you a story. Forty three years ago I took part in the inaugural Elthorne High School Mastermind competition, and I am far too vain not to admit that I won. A girl from the upper sixth, a year older than me, took Kaushik’s subject for specialist. She thought the subject was the four novels. The QM who set the questions thought that the subject was the four novels AND the more than fifty short stories. Result? Well, she didn’t do very well. It’s a massive subject that should come with a government health warning. Under those circumstances Kaushik’s 7 was not at all a bad score. But you felt for him a little as the higher scores piled on throughout the round.

Rachel Clapp’s was the first of these. She was answering on Sergei Rachmaninoff, and answering very well too, I might add. I had scored three on the Sherlock round and added another point here when I guessed Tchaikovsky for one of the answers. That was me done, but Rachel wasn’t, and by the end of the round I felt that her 9 would be one of the highest specialist scores in the show.

It wouldn’t be the highest, though. Her score was beaten by teacher – and latest recipient of the curse of support from the Clark sofa – Laura Rutherford. Laura was answering on “The West Wing.” You know, I still hear some people pour scorn on specialist rounds based on TV shows. All I can say is, if you think a round about a TV series that lasts many seasons and has many episodes is easy – you try it yourself! Laura did brilliantly, and scored 11, only really let down by a longish pause before answering on one of the questions.

Finally school administrator John Harden answered on Red Rum. I remember the day that the horse won his third Grand National – I was on a family visit to the National Railway Museum in York, and as we returned to the station to catch the train back to Kings Cross the news stands we passed all had the news of the win plastered over them. John’s round was brilliant. He too had a longish pause on one question, but got them all right to score 13. Which prompts my earlier comment about the specialist rounds. A fortnight ago we saw a perfect round from John Robinson on Futurism for which he scored 12. He hardly paused at all. Yet John H – and this is no criticism of him whatsoever – paused a little yet scored 13.

Well, it set up an interesting final round, that’s for sure. Kaushik, as all contenders must, gave it a lash, but the questions really didn’t seem to fall kindly for him. He ended with 12 points.

How must it feel to have a very good specialist round, as had Rachel, and find yourself four points adrift at half time? Well, she battled through her round, but it was fairly obvious that she was not going to be able to muster the kind of score to be able to open the corridor of doubt for the last two contenders. Rachel finished with 16.

So, Laura and John presented two different styles of answering in their GK rounds. Laura adopted the tactic of firing out the answer as quickly as she could after the question had been asked. Don’t knock it – I used such a tactic myself. Well, for me it wasn’t so much a tactic as force of habit. I have always been a blurter out, and I probably always will be. It took Laura into double figures for the round and she finished with 11 and no passes for a total of 22 and no passes. That would have been good enough to win quite a few of the shows we’ve seen this year.

John’s tactic was far more measured. Think about the question for a split second or more, then give a reasoned answer. Again, don’t knock it if it brings success. John needed it to bring at least 9 and no passes in order to force a tie break. But he took passes, and that meant he needed to win outright by scoring 10. At one point it looked by no means certain, but John carried on and in the end scored his own 11 to leave a little bit of daylight between himself and Laura. Honours even on the tactical front.

I must mention John’s very moving piece to camera. John explained that his wife had forced him to enter. He also explained that she had passed away before he made this appearance. Well, John, I am sure that I have never met either of you, but I hope you will forgive me for saying I am sure that she would be proud of you. I sincerely wish you every success in the semi.

Kaushik Bhattacharya	The Sherlock Holmes Stories of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle	7	0	5	3	12	3
Rachel Clapp	Sergei Rachmaninoff	9	0	7	2	16	2
Laura Rutherford	Aaron Sorkin’s “The West Wing”	11	0	11	0	22	0
John Harden	Red Rum	13	0	11	2	24	2