The Teams
Pembroke, Cambridge
Hebe Robertson
Arvin Boraghi
Timothy Ho (Capt.)
Rory Moloney
St. Andrews
Barney Young
Rowan Pelfrey
Harry Howard (Capt.)
Hugo Shaw
Respect to Hugo Shaw for buzzing very early on the year
that saw the proclamation of the Kingdom of Italy, but sadly he couldn’t make
it stick, offering 1869. Pembroke sensibly took the whole question, and once
other events like the Emancipation of serfs in the Russian Empire were
mentioned Arvin Boraghi knew it had to be 1861. 3 films each of whose titles
begins with the word Don’t yielded two correct answers. Don’t Look Now was the
only one I knew. The next Science starter set my internal orchestra playing
Baby Elephant Walk, but I half listened and had a flashback to a TV show in
which presenter Jon Tickle walked across a swimming pool full of custard. “Non
Newtonian Fluid!” I shouted, frightening the cat, and set off around the sofa
on my lap of honour – which was made all the sweeter considering neither team
had it. Skipper Harry Howard put the St. Andrews score into the black, knowing
inferior goods. Bought a few of them off eBay in my time, I can tell you. The 3rd
millennium BCE brought a couple of bonuses and levelled the scores at one
starter, 2 bonuses and one penalty apiece. Both teams sat on their buzzers a
bit with the next starter – if it’s a figure from Greek mythology being
compared to Eve, it’s gotta be Pandora (the Explorer?) A very well taken full
house on taxonomy followed. The picture starter showed us a geological map of
Great Britain, with areas of a particular building stone highlighted. I
reckoned limestone was a good percentage answer and so it was. Neither team had
it. A terrific observation from an entomology textbook, that Marx’s theories
applied better to ants than humans fell to Harry Howard. This earned the
picture bonuses. An igneous rock concentrated around the Aberdeen area amongst
others had to be granite. North Wales for the next gave me slate, but I missed
sandstone. St. Andrews took 1. For the next starter it wanted a musical
instrument and the moment eucalyptus was mentioned a buzzer race ensued, won by
Hugo Shaw to give us didgeridoo. (Giving didgeridoo sounds like a rather
unpleasant euphemism somehow.) One bonus on paintings within paintings, that
is, paintings which depict paintings by other artists somewhere within the
composition brought 1 bonus. This meant that St. Andrews led by 45 – 35 at just
past 10 minutes.
Hebe Robertson recognised the start of The Yellow Wallpaper
(me neither) for the next starter after St. Andrews lost 5. People buried in a cemetery
in Geneva known as the Genevan Pantheon brought a full set of bonuses. Harry
Howard recognised scientific terms which were completed by the word disc. They
took a single bonus on Chinese mythlogy. For the music starter none of us
recognised a wee bit of Gershwin’s An American in Paris. Hugo Shaw knew that
Karakalpac is a language spoken in an autonomous region of Uzbekistan – good shout.
Music bonuses featuring pieces that evoke automobiles brought nowt to the St. Andrews
score. Both teams really sat back on the next starter, eventually , seeing no
one else was going to buzz, Arvin Boraghi identified Krishna. Mary Somerville
(no mention of Mungo Somerville or Midge Somerville, sadly. Ask your
grandparents.) brought two bonuses. St. Andrews’ stalwart captain Harry Howard
knew that of the species Pan, chimpanzee is one, and bonobo the other. Works
created for the Stuttgart ballet did not in all honesty promise a great deal,
and brought nothing. This meant that for all of their good buzzing, St. Andrews
had fallen behind as we rounded down on 20 minutes as Pembroke led 80-75.
Arvin Boraghi recognised the words of Wittgenstein (the
beery swine) for the next starter. A full house on associates of Socrates meant
that Pembroke had begun their gallop off into the distance. Poor Barney Young
fell right into the trap in the Shakespeare starter that followed. Asked which
is the only Shakespeare play in which the title character appears as a ghost,
he answered Hamlet. Well, the ghost is actually also called Hamlet, yes, but
the title of the play refers to Hamlet the son, not his ghostly father. This
allowed Hebe Robertson in with Julius Caesar. The Bishopric of Liege brought
Pembroke another full house and the outcome of the match was starting to look
signed, if not sealed and delivered yet. Please with myself for recognising a
Watteau (Watteau, Jeeves) for the second picture starter, but neither team did.
Arvin Boraghi knew P is for pulmonary as well as papa for the next starter and
earned the picture bonuses to identify artists whose works were influenced by
rococo and who worked in Britain at one time or another. For once they failed
to score. Neither team picked up American IndyCar racing for the next. Captain
Timothy Ho knew that the largest island in the Caribbean – Cuba – beings with C
for the next starter. Biological terms ending in -tin brought a full house. The
estimable Harry Howard knew that welterbe is German for World Heritage. Two
bonuses on novels with titles beginning “Death Comes – “(true, but don’t rub it
in) took St. Andrews to 90. Neither team took the next starter on Macedon.
Arvin Boraghi knew about computer bugs for the next starter. Place names
brought two bonuses. That was it. In the end Pembroke won comfortably by 180 to
90, but this was a genuine contest for 20 minutes.
It might not have been the highest scoring contest, but I
was pretty impressed with Pembroke’s BCR of 74%. St. Andrews’ BCR of 35% gives
a pretty good indication of why there’s such an imbalance on the scoreboard,
despite St. Andrews being very competitive on the buzzer for 2/3 of the match.
Amol Watch
Normally I don’t like it when a QM says words to the effect
of – you should have known that – however matily they say it. But yes, Amol, I
do agree that when you know the question is about an artist, and it contains
the word Tahiti, then answering anything other than Gauguin really is cause to
kick yourself.
Interesting Fact That I Didn’t Already Know of
the Week
Lots of things I didn’t know, as always, but nothing stood
out this time. As you were.
Baby Elephant Walk Moment
Rheopectic, pseudoplastic, dilatant and thixotropic are
terms used to describe subtypes of what broad class of substances whose
viscosity – (incorrect buzz) – changes in response to applied stress or
force? Examples include ketchup, which becomes thinner when shaken and corn
starch water suspensions which harden under sudden impact. – Well, I had it
right so I guess I’m not so dum de dumdum dum dum dum dum dumdum.
No comments:
Post a Comment