Impromptu lunchime quizzes

When I started compiling quizzes in the mid-late 90s I would take them into the staff room at the school and road test them on a colleague at lunch time. Before too long more and more of my colleagues started joining in, and it grew to the stage that it wasn’t uncommon for them to ask me when I was doing a quiz next. It become the kind of little mini event that made life just that little bit more enjoyable. I miss that staff room and I miss those days.

It kind of died the death, what with people moving on and times changing and it certainly wouldn’t have worked in the new school when we were amalgamated in 2016. There was a staff room but it was in the other block and as a result most people stayed in their area’s workrooms at break and lunch. Also we were three separate staffs combined into one, and we didn’t all know each other well enough.

Come last year, and when I turned 60 and qualified for my full teacher’s pension I took it, making a Dave shaped hole in the door as I got out as fast as my short fat hairy legs would carry me. But this wasn’t the end of my working life. I didn’t want my experience of the working world to end the way that my teaching career had. My few months on the sick from March to the end of August convinced me that I wasn’t ready for retirement from any work just yet. So I decided to try to put the admin skills that I’d acquired in nearly forty years of the day job to work for me and applied for a number of jobs. I had a couple of counts against me, namely my age, and the fact that I was overqualified and yet underexperienced. I took a temporary post with NHS dental services in the Swansea Bay University Health Board, on the reasoning that a) it would give me a bit of breathing space to find something else – and b) it might be easier to find a permanent position from within. Which is exactly what happened.

I think that I’ve shed a huge amount of baggage I was carrying in the school, and I’m pretty much living in the moment now. Trust me, it’s a very nice place to spend some time. I really like the team in the Dental Referral Management Centre with whom I’m working and wonder of wonders, they seem to like me as well. Sonia, a propos of nothing, said on Monday that she had a little prezzie for me. They know all about the Mastermind thing – come on, I’m never going to keep that quiet. Sonia saw a quiz book in a charity shop over the weekend, and bought it for me. She gave it to me on Monday and we had a little quiz session with it. And, I gotta be honest, it brought back to me just how much I used to enjoy those staff room sessions. Will we do it again? I think I need to pick my moment, but it would be great if we did.

That Strange Chess Thing

It’s not really my inclination to write about non-quiz games, but I feel I should make an exception in the case of “Chess Masters – The Endgame” I mentioned it yesterday when complaining about the BBC postponing the last Mastermind semi-final while keeping this show in place. After all, it wasn’t me who decided to make this show the filling in a Mastermind – UC sandwich. If you don’t want me to comment on it then keep it the hell away from Quizzy Mondays.

Let me state my lack of chess credentials before I start. Draughts was my game when I was five years old – nobody in the house could beat me. Apart from my Dad, that is. I never once managed to beat him and Lord knows, I tried. Mind you, he never beat me at Scrabble, so fair’s fair. I knew about chess from reading “Alice Through The Looking Glass”, and I was desperate to learn how to play it. Here I have to pay tribute to my father. He saved his cigarette coupons and traded them in for a chess set. A family friend taught me the moves and the point of the game, but this was a bit of a waste since nobody else in the family could play.

I began playing against school friends and it didn’t take that long to convince me that this was not necessarily going to be my game. I’ve played sporadically since, but have never been much cop. So bear that in mind.

So let’s get down to Chess Masters – the Endgame. My first thought was that this was a bit of a rum old show. Now that the final has been and gone I see no reason to change this assessment. I mean, I’m not entirely sure who it was for. Yeah, there was a spark of interest in the game when “Queen’s Gambit” became an unexpected Netflix hit. But come on, that was five years ago! Have I learned much more about chess? Well, I already knew that it is a psychological game, a fact that all concerned with the show seemed desperate to ram home with monotonous regularity. I can’t see that it will have convinced many who don’t know much about the game, that it really is a great game – which it is. But somehow I can’t see it having had great appeal for those who love and understand the game either. In a nutshell:-

-        Although games were played in each show, you got to see very little of each.

-        As much time as was given to the games was also given to chess puzzles, used to eliminate some of the contenders. In case we might be tempted to try to work it out for ourselves Grand Master David Howells would explain the solution before even showing us the contenders giving it a go.

-        There was a ridiculous attempt to ‘sex – up’ the games. Each of our contestants was given a nickname – The Unruly Knight – The Chess Princess – Jet – Wolf (alright, those last two were really original gladiators.) Co-expert, Anthony Mathurin so relentlessly oversold every move that each contender made that you just wished someone would have chucked a bucket of water over him and told him to calm down.

-        It was presented by Sue Perkins – undoubtedly an intelligent and witty person, but she seemed to be in full frothy and light Bake-off mode.

I felt, to be honest, a bit patronised by the show. It seemed to me to say that we, the audience, do not possess the attention span to be able to take more than five minutes of actual chess at a time.

The sad thing is that a TV chess competition is not actually a terrible idea. But if you’re going to do it, then do one game per show, and credit the audience with having the attention span to follow it for 20 – 25 minutes.

The BBC has an admirable record of allowing a show a couple of series to find its audience, so Chess Masters: The Endgame might be back for a second series. Without major surgery to the format though I wouldn’t put money on it getting a third.

University Challenge 2025 Semi Final 2

The Teams

Darwin, Cambridge

Rebeca McClelland

Sophie Willis

Harrison Whittaker (Capt)

Rowan Stewart

Warwick

Ananya Govindarajan

Thomas Hart

Oscar Siddle

Benjamin Watson

Well, last night was second semi-final time peeps. Undefeated Darwin faced Warwick, whose only loss prior to this was to last week’s winning semi finalists, Christ’s College Cambridge. Was that a clue to the result? Not necessarily, for Darwin had never yet faced Christ’s themselves in this series. Yet.

I’ve mentioned before Thomas Hart’s dramatically raised elbow during the starters, but his skipper Oscar Siddle was doing it as well for the first starter. It didn’t help either for it was Harrison Whitaker who recognised clues to various Rachels and won the buzzer race. The abhorrent transatlantic slave trade provided three near misses but no points. Mr. Whitaker beat the combined elbows again with the next starter to identify a description of Honduras. Alcoholic drinks in Chinese sounded an interesting set and were actually easier than you might have thought. Full house to Darwin. Nobody took the next starter on obese serial wife killer and all-round git, Henry VIII. Warwick took their first starter on the next  question, but it was Ananya Govindarajan whose own buzzer work proved less showy but more effective, when delivering the answer Kirchoff. Gesundheit. Ancient Greek Grammar proved to be all Greek to me, but Warwick did manage one. Now, when I’m asked for a French philosopher’s name I do sometimes say Derrida if I don’t think it’s Sartre or Descartes. I did this with the picture starter which showed a quotation against a background of the tricouleur. So did Benjamin Watson and we were both right. More French thinkers associated with post structuralism (who has time to spend thinking about the structure of a post these days?) brought one bonus. You had to wait and wait for the next starter to become obvious, then when RIBA was mentioned Benjamin Watson won the buzzer race to give the answer architecture. Eponymous gas laws yielded nowt so Warwick led by 40 – 35 at just after the 10 minute mark.

Rowan Stewart came in too early for the next starter. Pacific island nation with lots of languages seemed certainly to point to PNG, but the mention of New Hebrides in the rest of the question allowed Oscar Siddle to get off the mark with Vanuatu. Textile art brought Warwick a full house. Having found his range the Warwick captain took a second consecutive starter with perennial crowd pleaser Elizabeth of Bohemia. Medieval Welsh poetry saw Warwick take a second consecutive full house. You and I both know that I know nowt about chemistry. Personally, I thought that pyruvate was the name of the monsters who were responsible for the destruction of Pompeii in Doctor Who but it was the correct answer to the next starter for Sophie Willis, who raised her arms skywards in joy at halting the Warwick onslaught. Books of the Hebrew Bible, the Five Megillot, brought a timely full house. For the music starter we heard the song ‘Ain’t Misbehavin’” but neither team associated this with Fats Waller. Rowan Stewart knew Dim Sum for the next starter. I’m pretty dim at sums myself. A full house of music bonuses narrowed the gap to 10 points. It was halved when Thomas Hart came in too early for the next starter but Darwin could not capitalize with La Sylphide. Oscar Siddle struck back knowing the Kariba Dam is on the Zambezi. Eponymous results in Group Theory – yeah, I know – brought two correct answers. Again Darwin struck back as the magnificent Mr. Whitaker gave the given name Charlotte for the next starter. A full house meant that the scores were level just on the cusp of 20 minutes. What a good contest.

Finally Thomas Hart managed a starter. By his very high standards last night gave him famine rations, and even now when he gave the correct answer of bitumen he thought it was wrong. German cities originally styled as Hanseatic brought two correct answers for a twenty point lead. Back came Harrison Whitaker with the term public sphere. Two bonuses on Anna Swir levelled the scores again. For the picture starter nobody could recognise a little bit of Fragonard. Now, if you’re asked in any way for a flower, give it a shot with rose. Harrison Whitaker did to take the lead. Other artworks featuring Cupid and Psyche brought just the one bonus. You felt at this stage that if either team could get 30 points ahead then the game would be over. Oscar Siddle took back 10 points of he lead with the next starter on pain receptors. Sciencey stuff represented by the letter Q gave Warwick a five point lead. Planck length – the answer to the next starter - suggests too many puns, but nobody had it. Likewise thick description – no, I’m not making this up. Again Harrison Whitaker won a buzzer race, this time to identify Gerard Manley Hopkins as the poet who wrote the Wreck of the Deutschland. Glory be to God for dappled things. Collaborations between Kurasawa and Toshiro Mifune brought two bonuses and a lead of fifteen.Thomas Hart knew that bamboo is a type of grass. I took a lap of honour for knowing the Henry is the SI unit of Inductance. Warwick took the lead by five. Thomas Hart had found his rage now and knew that the PM the Marquess of Salisbury had the given name Robert. That was the game. Yeah, Warwick had time for one bonus on European Geography but it all came down to that starter.

For the record Darwin achieved a BCR of 71 to Warwick’s 61, so it was Warwick’s buzzing which gave them just the slight advantage needed for the win. It was a wonderful match, and kudos to both teams.

Amol Watch

I love it when a question master is visibly gripped by the drama unfolding and such a man last night was Amol. The way he kept reminding us when the scores were level showed he was as invested in the outcome as we were.

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

Vanuatu has the highest linguistic density in the world

Baby Elephant Walk Moment

Named after a French scientist who made the first ascent in a hydrogen balloon, which law states that the volume occupied by a fixed quantity of gas is directly proportional to its absolute temperature, assuming that the pressure remains constant. Je pense que ca serait dum dedumdum dum dum dum dum dumdum.

You couldn't bloody resist it, BBC, could you?

 Look, I don't have anything against snooker, as such. But come on, BBC. Postponing Mastermind just so you can put the bloody snooker on, that's mean, especially considering that this is the last of the semi finals. Couldn't you have put off that strange chess thing in between Mastermind and University Challenge and put Mastermind on at 8? (I'm sure that there must be people who watch it for itself and not just because they can't be bothered to turn over before UC comes on. . . but not many.) Also, it puts Mastermind and UC out of synch. Grrrr!!

Whither Stadler and Waldorf?

This is just a short post. One of the things I often enjoy about a pub quiz is the strange conversations that get thrown up. When you think about it there’s plenty of time between rounds – and depending upon the question master, between questions even. Last night there was one of the best. Adam, who is the most knowledgeable person on the subject of the Muppets that I have ever met was bemoaning the fact that the Muppets only ever made two film takes on works of classic literature – the truly wonderful Muppets Christmas Carol, and the truly meh Muppets Treasure Island. This led to us speculating whether it would be possible to make a Muppets Lord of the Rings. I ventured that it would be possible and it would quite possibly be rather wonderful. This led to Adam and Dan discussing which muppet could possibly be which part. On reflecion my issue was that I’d want Stadler and Waldorf in it, but I couldn’t see which part(s) they could possibly play an still be recognisably Stadler and Waldorf. Answers on a postcard, please.

Calling next year's contenders.

 I've just had an email from Natasha Bormann inviting applications for Mastermind 2026:-

Hi there!

BBC Two’s Mastermind is currently scouring the UK to find contenders for the next series, which will be filmed in Belfast!   

I just thought I'd reach out to you again to see if you wouldn't mind sharing our attached flyer and details on how to apply amongst your Quizzing group, your friends, family and colleagues; or anyone else you think could face the black chair!

We would encourage you to apply as soon as possible as casting is currently underway, with applications for the latest series closing soon.  

To apply, please click: Cast It Reach

Or email mastermind.hth@hattrick.com (the application takes just 10 minutes to complete).  

Entry is open to UK residents (including Channel Islands & the Isle of Man) who are aged 18 or over.  

Hat Trick/Hindsight are committed to making programmes as inclusive as possible.   

University Challenge 2025 - Semi Final 1 - Christ's. Cambridge v. Bristol

The Teams

Christ’s, Cambridge

Anniko Firman

Brendan Bethlehem

Oscar Despard (Capt.)

Linus Luu

Bristol

Ted Warner

Bridie Rogers

Kevin Flanagan (Capt.)

Olivia Watts

This contest always looked as if it was going to be all about the buzzer. Christ’s had a candidate for the top buzzer finger of the whole series in Brendan Bethlehem. Skipper Oscar Despard is no slouch on the buzzer either, and both Anniko Firman and Linus Luu make important contributions with the buzzer as well. On balance, I had them slightly ahead of the very productive Ted Warner - Kevin Flaagan axis of Bristol, although Bristol have usually been able to count on Bridie Rogers and Olivia Watts for timely buzzes too.

Unusually Brendan Bethlehem buzzed in early for the first starter. That’s not unusual, but the fact that he had it wrong was. This allowed Bridie Rogers in with the name Mary, from a clue about Mary Seacole. I’ll be honest, I’ve never read The Anatomy of Melancholy – and doing so is not on my to do list – so I only managed the Keats bonus. Bristol didn’t trouble the scorer. Nothing daunted by his earlier misfire Brendan Bethlehem went early for the next starter, with the Bronze Age Collapse. This earned bonuses on Sichuan dishes which brought two correct answers and the lead. The splendidly complicated term ergative-absolutist alignment from linguistics brought Brendan Bethlehem a second consecutive starter. I took a full house on early Welsh historians while Christ’s missed out on Nennius. The first picture starter showed a diagram of the function of a bodily cell. Brendan Bethlehem earned his hattrick recognising it must be a cone cell. Parts of the eye brought two bonuses. Now, it’s been noticed on social media that here was a bit of a private contest going on between the two captains, with both Oscar Despard and Kevin Flanagan being men of Dublin – a wonderful city it was my great pleasure to visit last summer. Well, first blow in this duel was struck by Kevin Flanagan, who knew the term quantum entanglement for the next starter. Argentinian laureates in the sciences promised me nowt and delivered it, while Bristol took two. This gave us a scoreline of 55 – 30 just approaching 10 minutes.

Oscar Despard struck back in the Dublin Duel, recognising works of literature with the word Ghost in the title. The Hindu Kumbh Mela festival brought us both just the one bonus. Oscar Despard knew Bill Phillips of the eponymous curve for the next starter which earned the extremely dubious honour of bonuses of sociological approaches to love. Sometimes I think they just make these categories up to see if anyone calls them on it. None of the questions mentioned the work of Jennifer Rush, Frankie Goes to Hollywood or Huey Lewis and the News (ask your parents) so I was out with the washing. Christ’s managed one. Oscar Despard clinched his own hattrick by recognising references to cymbals. Geographical Regions of South America saw Christ’s use the old quizzer’s trick of giving the one answer they knew to each question until it was right. So to the music round and it was classical this time. Unusually I recognised it, a little bit of Wagner (who also starred in Hart to Hart in the 80s) while neither team had it. I’ll be honest, when I hear ‘part of the brain’ I often say hippocampus, and Oscar Despard took his fourth starter with the same. Christ’s managed one of the music bonuses that followed. Brendan Bethlehem took the next starter on Colorado. A couple of bonuses on – well, I think it might have been maths but to be honest Amol could have read them out in Finnish and they would  have made no less sense to me – brought a couple of correct answers. An Italian name followed by ‘film director’ meant that the film in question for the next starter had to be 81/2 and Oscar Despard won the buzzer race for that one. Archigram? Don’t ask me, but it was the subject for the bonuses, bringing both of us just the one with the Centre Georges Pompidou (Pompidou being the Argentinian goalkeeper in the 1986 FIA World Cup, I believe.) It completed a ten minute shutout for Christ’s who now led by 155 - 30.

Brendan Bethlehem knew the Italian musical term con legno, named after the popular Italian cartoon character Fogorno Conlegno. US presidential elections where the candidate who wo the popular vote lost out in the electoral college (if you know about the US electoral system then you already know what that means and if you don’t, well, that’s what Google is for. Remember kids, every day’s a school day.) brought us both a full house. I knew the building in the second picture starter was associated with the Vienna Secessionists, but neither team did. I love it that Mimas is nicknamed the Death Star. Kevin Flanagan had that one. People associated with the Vienna Secession inevitably included Gustav Klimt, although not Egon Schiele, which limited me to just the one correct answer on the picture bonuses. The same went for Bristol. The Lieber Code did nowt for any of us. That man Bethlehem knew that the first sin depicted in Dante’s Inferno is Pride. Geographical names ending in Va brough two correct  answers to Christ’s and they were unlucky not to quite get the first. I answered carotene to the next starter, while the teams tried alpha carotene and beta carotene. I was right by Amol’s ruling and so claimed my lap of honour around the sofa. Brendan Bethlehem knew monasteries in the Meteora earning bouses on the films of Park Chan Wook. Two correct answers fell to the Christ’s juggernaut. Finally Ted Warner took a starter with the Bystander effect. He’s been so excellent on the buzzer this series it would have been a real shame if he had not managed at least one in the semi-final. There was only time for one starter on non-Newtonian fluids. Christ’s were in the final, having won by 220 to 50.

Well, let’s be honest. With their dominance on the buzzer Christ’s probably didn’t need a great Bonus Conversion Rate. As it was, theirs was pretty good at 58. Poor old Bristol had relatively few bonus chances and this means that their BCR of 30 looks a worse than it really was. It’s not fair to hang the gold medal around Christ’s’ collective neck at this point, but it looks as if it will take a hell of a performance to deprive them of it.

Amol Watch

Well done again, sir. A fine show that you handled with a lightness of touch that helped make it such a enjoyable experience. Again, I agree with the rather strict ruling on the carotene starter. Sorry, but it’s either the right answer to the question that is actually asked, or it’s not.

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

Saturn’s moon Mimas is nicknamed the Death Star because of a large crater on it.

Baby Elephant Walk Moment

Which German mathematician, born in 1826, gives his name to a definite integral that may be defined as the limit of the sum of the areas of regular partitions of the area under a curve between two integrals, as the width of these two partitions approaches zero?

Umm. . . would the answer be dum de dumdum dum dum dum dum dumdum?

Mastermind 2025 Semi Final 5

 

Nancy Braithwaite	11	0	14	0	25	0	3
Gary Austin	12	0	10	3	22	3	11
Krish Hook	9	0	9	0	18	0	=22
James Barrow	9	0	9	0	18	0	=22

 Well, that shows last night’s contenders’ relative performances in the first round heats. So if this was a true reflection of their chances, then it looked like it would be a fairly easy night’s work for Nancy Braithwaite. Although Gary was also in the top half of the table, his GK performance was significantly down on Nancy’s, so it was hard to see where he was going to make up the ground. If it all went according to first round form, that is, and that is not always what happens.

Nancy came first, answering on Caravaggio. I saw a wonderful exhibition in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, dedicated to his work and Cellini’s, and he has been one of my favourite painters for decades. So I scored 2. Which is 2 more than I scored in any of the other specialist rounds last night. Based on previous GK performances, if Nancy could manage a barnstormer of a round then she would very much be in the driving seat for the rest of the contest. This is very much what she did with an excellent 12.

Krish Hook had absolutely nothing to lose in his specialist round on Premier League darts. Here’s a funny thing. Ask me a round about darts from forty years ago and I reckon I’d do pretty well. Anything from the last three decades and it’s sorry, no cigar. I didn’t get any of these. Krish didn’t fare so badly. He took six and looked close to a couple more. But Mastermind can be a cruel taskmaster. In another show, this would have looked decent. But after Nancy’s round he was out of the running.

James Barrow was answering on the TV series Inside Number 9. I’ve never watched it and know nothing about it – which I showed to great effect when I wasn’t even close to coming up with an answer to any of the questions. James never quite looked like he was going to challenge Nancy’s score but he kept his head and kept on building his own. He managed double figures and ten points meant that he was only two behind at the turnaround.

Based on the performances in the heat it looked as if Gary Austin was going to need a huge score on specialist to challenge. He was answering on US mathematician Grace Hopper. Answering well for the most part as well. But as we’ve seen in this series of semi finals, doing well is not the same as doing well enough. I scored 0 on this set and this shows that I don’t know anything like enough about the subject to suggest whether this was a hard, fair or easy set. I suspect the former rather than the latter. Gary scored 8.

We often say that when it’s not your night it really isn’t your night. Krish Hook’s round bore testament to this. He zigged when he should’ve zagged and struggled manfully with a set that never let him settle comfortably into a rhythm. At such times it probably helps to hold onto the fact that you’ve already shown your worth by reaching the semi final in the first place. He finished with a total of 10.

Gary did better. Having posted a decent 8 in his specialist round he now went on to score a very decent 9 on GK. This put the target at 17. Let’s be honest about it, you are unlikely ever to win a semi final with this score, but at least he was giving the leaders something to think about.

James Barrow did, to be fair, overtake Gary by the end of the round. It was only on pass countback though. He scored 17 and no passes, his 7 on GK being a couple of points down on his first round heat performance.

All of which meant that Nancy required 6 for an outright win. I’m not going to pretend that it was touch and go because it wasn’t. Her GK round was not as good as her fourteen in the heats, nor as good as we’ve seen from any of the other semi finals winners thus far. But it doesn’t matter. It was clearly the best of the night and that means she won by some considerable distance with 23.

I have resolved not to make predictions about the final and I don’t plan to. But it has not escaped my notice that we now have two teachers through to the final. Nancy, that was a very good performance, and I wish you well in the Grand Final. I’m looking forward to it tremendously.

The Details

Nancy Braithwaite	Caravaggio	12	0	11	0	23	0
Krish Hook	Premier League Darts	6	0	4	0	10	0
James Barrow	Inside Number 9	10	0	7	0	17	0
Gary Austin	Grace Hopper	8	0	9	2	17	2

Let's Make a Wrong'Un

What links these two questions? A) Who played the saxophone solo on Gerry Rafferty’s mega hit “Baker Street?” B) What were the original names of the pirate underlings in “Captain Pugwash?”

Well, as I’m sure you know, they are questions which both have very popular wrong 'urban myth' answers. The saxophone solo on “Baker Street” was played by Raphael ‘Raff’ Ravenscroft. The pirate underlings of Captain Pugwash were Seaman Willy, Seaman Barnabas, Master Mate and Tom the Cabin Boy. Ah yes, but if you’ve been going to quizzes as long as I have you’ll have been told by a question master that the late Bob Holness played the sax on Baker Street, and that the original names of the pirates were Seaman Staines, Master Bates and Roger he Cabin Boy. Of course, he didn’t and they weren’t. You may even know that Stuart Maconie once claimed to have started the Bob Holness business, and Victor Lewis-Smith claimed the Pugwash prank.

In an idle moment over his bank holiday weekend, I did have a fleeting wish to have created one of this sort of non-question myself, and watched it spread throughout quizdom. It isn’t easy. For one thing, you’d have to have something plausible. Although to be honest, this preliminary hurdle is surely one that should have unseated the rider of the Pugwash question. For another thing, there needs to be the ‘no-really?!’ factor about the invented fact. What I mean by this is it’s the sort of thing which is so interesting that I makes you go ‘No? Really?!” when you first hear it. As a question master, you know that the first time that you ask it, it’s going to go down a storm. So what if it might not necessarily be true? After all, it MIGHT be.

It must be admitted that it is far easier to fact check in 2025 than it was when I made my first quiz in 1995. For example, Mozart was only four feet 9 inches tall. It would take you less than 30 seconds to disprove his with Google. Pre-internet it wasn’t so easy. But then that wouldn’t really have the No Really factor anyway. So let’s try a little harder. In 1981 Smokey Robinson, who was topping the charts with his song “Being with You” performed the Tweets’ Birdie’s Song on Top of the Pops when one member of the band was taken sick, donning the costume and miming along. – It’s utter cobblers – although I have been told that certain famous pop stars did at one time or another don Womble suits on Top of the Pops when invited by Mike Batt just for the hell of it. So, as I said, utter cobblers and so I urge you to try it in the next quiz you compile – Motown legend Smokey Robinson appeared on Top of the Pops in May 1981 with his hit “Being With You.” He also put on a mask and costume so that he could perform on which one hit wonder on the same show?

Yes! Let’s make it happen.

Where did that come from?

Has the world gone mad? It’s mark your own in the rugby club. At the end of the penultimate round last night I totalled up our score incorrectly and robbed ourselves of a point. That’s not the mad thing. As I always say, I was truanting the day we did Maths in school. I was happy to get my grade C O level and run. No, the highly unusual thing about it was that I didn’t take our answer paper up to the question master and ask him to amend our score. This, in a very tight quiz, might have cost us. As it was we won by a point.

I’m no sure if this new found laissez faire attitude is something positive or not.

University Challenge 2025 - Quarter Final Sudden Death - Queen's, Belfast v. Bristol

The Teams

Queen’s University, Belfast

Sarah Carlisle

Jason McKillen

Daniel Rankin (Capt)

Sam Thompson

Bristol

Ted Warner

Bridie Rogers

Kevin Flanagan (Capt)

Olivia Watts

Here we are then, the last gasp of this year’s quarter finals. We’ve take up semi-permanent residence in the last chance saloon; since last week every match left is sudden death.

Both of the teams had one buzzer they could rely on for a steady stream of starters – Daniel Rankin of Queen’s and Ted Warner of Bristol. So it would pretty much come down to which team could supplement their star buzzer best and which could do most with the bonuses they earned. Daniel Rankin struck the first blow for his team, knowing that the Hebrew term shophet is used for a Judge in the Bible. Scottish architect Thomas ‘Housing’ S. Tait (see what I did there?) brought just the one bonus. Ted Warner struck back immediately for Bristol with the writer Joan ‘Who?’ Didion. Former Dutch colonies in the Americas brought two bonuses. Ted Warner recognised a series of events that all occurred during the reign of the longest reigning Plantagenet king, Henry III. Long term scientific experiments promised me nowt but I did know that the biggest killer yutta yutta is cardiovascular diseases, so took one to Bristol’s 2 and wheezed my way around the sofa on my lap of honour. For the picture starter we had the final stage direction of a modern play. None of us knew “Our Country’s Good.” Well, on a good day, anyway. I’ll admit I could see where Daniel Rankin was coming from when he buzzed in early with Hubble for the next starter, but was incorrect. So this told me to go for the other Big Bang man with Lemaitre. It had to be that or Doctor Sheldon Cooper. Kevin Flanagan shook his head as he buzzed in with Lemaitre, but it was right. The stage directions picture bonuses escaped Bristol, but I did correctly guess Noises Off. Max Ernst’s paining of Saint Anthony brought Bristol the next starter. Fine art in the films of Andrei Tarkovsky brought us both two correct answers. Bristol led by 70 – 10, and looked decent value for their lead too.

Daniel Rankin narrowed the gap with the next starter on the word belt. Hmm – word belt– that sounds like a type of puzzle in a newspaper. You heard it here first, folks. Queen’s were not rubbing their collective hands together when they got a set on the Japanese Takarazuka theatre company and none of us troubled the scorer on that set. Still, Daniel Rankin does tend to devour film starters and he knew film editor Thelma Schoonmaker (wasn’t she Fred Flintstone’s mother-in-law?) for the next. Bonuses on me old cock linnet brought a smile to the face and one correct answer to Queen’s. The fact that two consecutive starter and bonus sets had yielded just twenty five points highlights how difficult Queen’s were finding it to make headway. For the music starter Sam Thompson suggested Raye, and to be fair it did sound like Corinne Bailey Raye. Well more than it sounded like Ted Ray (Ask your grandparents) Bristol’s suggestion of Amy Winehouse earned Amol’s scorn. Nobody knew the term International Gothic for the next starter. Olivia Watts knew Lewis, the photon man and earned the music bonuses on Neo Soul practitioners. Neo Soul – tough on music, tough on the causes of music. Only one was taken. The island of Bioko is in Equatorial Guinea. Ted Warner knew that. Me? Never even heard of it. Topologicians ( if the word doesn’t exist you can credit me with coining it) brought little to any of us, just the one for Bristol. Daniel Rankin identified the first known person of African descent to vote in a British election as Sancho. Philosopher Queens brought a couple of bonuses keeping Queen’s within contention. Opera Verismo escaped all of us. So as we zeroed in on the 20 minute mark Bristol led by 90 – 50.

Ted Warner stretched the gap by knowing the answer modern synthesis for the next starter. East Asian cities brought two bonuses and Bristol rolled on closer to victory. Nobody identified the statue of Scott of the Antarctic by his wife – it seemed like insult to injury when one of the teams identified him as Amundsen. Olivia Watts knew the term tempering chocolate and this won the picture bonuses. Mrs of the Antarctic was a fine sculptor and we saw three more of her works. Bristol took two of them. By this stage Ted Warner was snapping up anything that Queen’s were uncertain of and he knew the Robbers Cave Experiment for the next starter. Ancient regions of Asia Minor brought one bonus but that was enough to give Bristol a 100 point lead. Algorithms to find the shortest path to something brought Kevin Flanagan the next starter. Robert Burns Woodward brought a full house and extinguished the faintest flicker of Queen’s hopes. Kevin Flanagan took a double with the next starter and Gerlach Peak, the highest mountain in the Carpathians. Health economics didn’t bring much to the Bristol total, but what did it matter at this stage. Daniel Rankin knew that the Zand dynasty ruled the Iranian Empire to earn three bonuses on Shakin Shakespeare brought just one bonus. Ted Warner knew Baltimore for the answer to the next starter, about the American city that took its name from the performer of unforgettable 80s hit “Tarzan Boy”. Notable students of Arnold Sommerfeld were the last set of bonuses and the gong sounded while the third was being read out. Bristol comfortably won by 200 – 65.

Sometimes it’s not your night and you get the feeling that this is as far as your campaign goes. Queen’s were comfortably outbuzzed and also they had one of their lowest BCRs of the whole series with 33. When it ain’t your night that’s the way the questions fall for you. Bristol finished with 51 and earned their place in the last four.

Amol Watch

After the first picture starter went unanswered Amol announced “We’ll take your picture bonuses when we get started, right. I think those picture bonuses might take some time.” When I first watched I thought he was criticising the teams but now I think it may well have been the question setters. Bit uncalled for, whatever the case.

Also a bit uncalled for was his reaction to the teams’ failure to recognise Erykah Badu. I mean, she might be a household name chez Rajan, but she ain’t in LAM Towers either.

I have to pay tribute to Amol’s genuine warmth when commiserating with the teams – his words about Daniel Rankin’s last gasp sudden death buzzing in a previous match was a very nice touch.

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

My Old Man/ Don’t Dilly Dally on the Way is actually about a couple doing a moonlight flit. Gawd alone knows how I’ve managed 6 decades on this Earth without figuring that out before.

Baby Elephant Walk Moment

Which Polish mathematician gives his name to a theorem which states that every contraction mapping on a complex metric space has a unique fixed space. Short but deadly. Dum de dumdum dum dum dum dum dumdum.

Mastermind 2025 - Semi Final 4

 

							Table Position
Dom Tait	11	0	16	0	27	0	2
Dan Shoesmith	7	2	13	1	21	3	14
James Waller	7	0	13	0	20	0	15
Aine McMenamin	10	0	9	0	19	0	=17

Alright then, if you looked at the relative performances of tonight’s contenders from the heats, then this could be rather unkindly called a ‘bottom-heavy’ semi. . . except for the presence of Dom Tait, second on my unofficial table of first round heat performances.. On paper, he looked the favourite. But as in the sport of kings, in Mastermind the favourite doesn’t always come first past the post. Was this going to be one of those occasions?

Well, I have to be honest, there was precious little sign of any weakness in Dom’s specialist round on Wild Cats of the World. Now, like Dom, I do like cats, big and small, very much, but this was no guarantee that I would be able to score any points. After the last couple of weeks’ pyrotechnics I was due for a fall so under the circumstances I was really glad that we kicked off with the Asian lion in the Forest of Gir, which I remember learning about in school. Two other answers brought me to 3 altogether. Dom didn’t have a perfect round but only having one wrong answer and with a commendable speed of delivery Dom managed to get 12 and no passes. So nobody was going to be far ahead of him at half time.

Teacher Aine McMenamin carried my hopes for another teacher win in this semi-final. She was answering on the Tragedies of Euripides. Altogether now - Euripides trousers, Eumenides trousers. Boom boom. Aine started strongly, but a wrong answer in mid round seemed to upset her rhythm and the rest of it was a wee bit of struggle. In the end she’d scored a good 8, but it left her too much to do. She did seem a bit upset as she returned to her own seat, and that’s a shame.

Unfortunately, I would not add any more points to my aggregate total of 7 from this point forward. I did think that I might sneak one or two points on James Waller’s specialist, The Battle of Gettysburg, since I do find the American Civil War to be an interesting subject, ever since first watching Ken Burns’ epic documentary series decades ago. But I didn’t. James, on the other hand, did very well indeed, managing to get himself into double figures by the end of the round.

Had Dan Shoesmith’s round on West Ham extended back as far as about 1980 I reckon I might have got one or two. But I’m afraid that my knowledge of he beautiful game really tails off by the time that we get to the Premier League and all that. I should probably have had Alan Curbishley but I didn’t, and that was that. Dan put on a bravura performance, and would have taken the outright lead were it not for a wee bit of a stinker question that caught him out at the end of the round. Nonetheless, 12 gave him a chance.

I felt for Aine when she returned to the chair. You can only read so much from a person’s facial expression, but she did seem to be undergoing an unpleasant ordeal when she returned to the chair. It looked like a struggle and sadly her answers for the last part of the round failed to hit the mark and she rather stalled on 6. Just remember this thought – she is a Mastermind heat winner and that deserves respect. She finished with 14.

What remained looked an interesting prospect. Both James and Dan had exceeded their first round specialist performances and both of them were among the better GK performers in the first round. If one of them could have the performance of their lives in the GK round, then that upset might even become a reality. James was the first to give it a go. What he produced was a good, double figure round. However, tellingly, it was not as good as his first round performance. 10 gave him a total of 20. A good total, but not, you felt, the kind of score that was going to win this particular semi-final.

Well, like James, Dom Tait did not match his first round GK score. However that score had been a titanic 16 and he only missed it by 1. Don’t be in any doubt about the quality of this round. Getting 15 of these right in these conditions was by any standards a magnificent performance. You could almost feel Dom’s determination pouring out of the telly, and surely this highest score of the semis so far would be rewarded with the win.

Well, nothing is certain in life other than death or taxes, and Dan certainly started his round pretty well. But, you know it can weigh on the mind chasing a huge total and Dan began to snatch at answers, to pass and to get things wrong he maybe might have answered on another night. By halfway through the round the game was pretty much up. Fair play, he battled on bravely, but in the end his 7 points and four passes were only enough for third place.

Well done Dom! You set your heart on a place in the final and put in the hard work you needed to give yourself the best chance of getting there. I too share your love of cats, which it was nice to see you mention in the piece to camera at the end. I wish you good luck in the final.

The Details

Dom Tait	Wild Cats of the World	12	0	15	0	27	0
Aine McMenamin	The Tragedies of Euripides	8	0	6	1	14	1
James Waller	The Battle of Gettysburg	10	0	10	0	20	0
Dan Shoesmith	West Ham United 1992 - Present	12	0	7	4	19	4