TV Watch - Mastermind - Battle of the Brains

Mastermind - First Round Heat 18 of 24

A check on my list of past contenders reveals that once again we have four newcomers. Bearing in mind my piece earlier this week on the performance of women in Mastermind, and the fact that we are overdue another woman champion, it was interesting that there were two women in the heat this week.

First up was Anne South. Her interestingly different specialist subject was Chester Zoo. Apparently Chester Zoo was one of the first devoted to moving away from the concept of a zoo as being animals in cages. I thought that she had some nasty questions, in particular there was one where she had to take a deep breath before giving an answer which required her to use a quadruple-barrelled surname ! That's below the belt. So in the circumstances a score of 9 was something of a triumph over adversity.
Christopher Boote offered us a specialist subject that would not have looked out of place in any Mastermind series since 1972, the Father Brown stories of G.K. Chesterton. He too had a lot of long questions, but dealt with them well to score 12, so he was still very much in the running at the half way stage. Hugh Brady took on The Life and Career of Sir Edward Carson, and made a pretty good job of if too. This despite the fact that John Humphrys fell back into his annoying habit of repeating back some of the correct answer, instead of getting on with asking the next question.
Finishing off the first round, Caroline Fitzsimons gave us Tony Hancock, our popular culture subject for this week, albeit one more suitable for the over 50's than the under 40's. She maybe was expecting to be asked quite a bit more about his life, and less about nitpicking details of individual shows, and this was reflected in her score of 7.

So Caroline Fitzsimons returned to the chair first of all for General Knowledge. I don't think that our John can be much of a Hancock fan, since he spent his couple of minutes discussing the contender's profession as a District Nurse. Her progress through the round was slow, but steady, and she had some good answers. She reached the magical double figures, scoring a pretty decent 10 , for 17 overall.
Anne South was drawn by John Humphrys into a spirited defence of modern zoos, and forced from him the statement that old style zoos were horrible places. Her round too was a slow and steady one, but she reached the magical 10 as well, pushing the target up to 19. John Humphrys expressed the opinion that Father Brown was a rather unusual detective. I thought that was the point. Novels about very mundane, everyday detectives don't tend to sell that well. Apparently, he was based on father John O'Connor, a friend of Chesterton. After this revelation, unfortunately Christopher Boote fell in the middle of his round into a pass spiral, after starting quickly. He managed to pull out of the death dive in the last 30 seconds to score a respectable 9 for 21, but this didn't look like it was going to be enough.
So Hugh Brady brought the round to a close. It was interesting that in their talk about Sir Edward Carson, John Humphrys concentrated almost entirely on the salacious trial of Oscar Wilde, and avoided the still politically sensitive issue of Home Rule. Mr. Brady's general knowledge round was an interesting round. IMHO he had a lot of very hard questions right, but missed some points on what looked like easier questions. Still, he scored 11 to win with a little bit to spare, on 24.

Everybody please repeat after me - anything can happen in the semi finals -Still, I will be interested to watch Mr. Brady's progress. I think he can do better in his GK round, and you never know, with an even better specialist round he could , just could, mount a serious challenge in the semis.

The Details

Anne South	Chester Zoo	9 - 4	10 - 4	19 - 8
Christopher Boote	The Father Brown Stories of GK Chesterton	12 - 4	9 - 4	21 - 8
Hugh Brady	Sir Edward Carson	13 - 1	11 - 4	24 - 5
Caroline Fitzsimons	Tony Hancock	7 -5	10 - 3	17 - 8

Battle of the Brains - BBC 2 - 6pm - Monday - Friday

Maybe its just because I post on the same internet forum as the members of this week's top team, the Quizzee Rascals, but I did enjoy this week's shows. I don't think that's the only reason , though. If you read my post about the show last week you'll know that I outlined some of the criticisms which were made of the show's first series, and the ways in which some of these criticisms seemed to be addressed, giving the show a cautious endorsement. I'm pleased to say that I've continued to enjoy it this week, thanks in no small part to the presence of the Quizzee Rascals.

The Quizzee Rascals have a pedigree which matches that of the fine teams we saw in the first series. What's more, as well as being a first class quizzer, Will Jones is also a regular reader of this blog, which makes him a man of rare wit and discretion. Captain Craig, and Andrew are fine quizzers. Viewers of the series "Are You An Egghead ? " may remember both Rob and Danielle as contestants. As for my internet friend Andy Page - well he was none other than the first Mastermind champion of the John Humphrys era, in 2003. As for Darren, well, Darren was also a finalist in 2003, and in Discovery Mastermind in 2001 as well. So it came as a relief to see the team debut on Tuesday, after the two teams on Monday's show failed to make an impression.

Leaving out the guess the numbers round is a huge plus. I do agree with people who say that it still works out that one person on each team only has the chance to answer one question, but at least it is the Who Am I question, where you may actually get several bites of the cherry. What a pleasure to see the team win £7000 on Wednesday for their pains. I think its a good idea to let the money roll over, a la Eggheads. A thousand quid each seems like a decent payday for the team. Having said that, the questions in the money round did become noticeably harder on Thursday and Friday. Whether this was deliberate or not I wouldn't like to say, but it certainly appeared like a conscious decision to allow the team only the one pay day.

I may be wrong, but I don't think Nicky is shouting quite so much now, either. I'm also delighted to report that Rob of Quizzee Rascals has told me that the team felt they were treated very well, and so the legitimate complaints aired by some of last year's teams seem to have been addressed.

Finishing with Newport

Well, its been half term this week, and so I have had a little bit of extra time on my hands. Since Sunday I've played in 4 quizzes, with a record of 2 wins, one second place, and, shame though it is to admit it, a last place. Lets deal with that one first.

I've discussed the Monday night quiz in Newport in this blog on a few occasions before. If you've read any of these you'll know that my bugbear with this quiz is the fact that the QM uses handicaps to supposedly counteract the ability gap between the teams. For me this came to a head on Monday night. Firstly the QM changed his mind, and a good team who were capable of beating us without any handicap had their head start upgraded from 0 to 4 points. Everyone except for us was given a head start. What made it all so unpalatable was that the handicaps bore no relations to the standard of quiz that was actually asked. There are times when the standard of questions that are asked will give the best teams the possibility of overcoming those teams who are given a 15 - 20 point head start. Then there are times when he standard of questions gives you no chance. What gets me is that the QM seems to have no conception of this at all. Monday night's wasn't a good quiz, and in each round of 20 there were 16 or 17 questions so easy that all the teams would get them right, and 3 questions so difficult that if you managed to get one of them you were doing really well. So I've come to the decision that I'm going to give this quiz a miss for a while from now on. Every week I whinge about it all the way home now, and I'm still angry about it on a Tuesday, so its better off to leave well alone, I think. I've chatted to Barry and Alan about it, and laid my cards on the table, and I'm glad I went on Monday rather than leaving them in the lurch. At least now they've got time to make up their own minds what they want to do.

Sunday, then, was the Culverhouse Hotel. We'd never lost this quiz before Sunday night. As it was it couldn't have been much closer. We lost by 71 points to 72. To use the vernacular, I think we've been rumbled. We're not very good at picture quiz handouts. Up to now every handout has been a written one requiring some amount of knowledge, rather than facial recognition. In terms of team size, when it comes to picture quizzes bigger is very often better, and the two of us were beaten by a team of 8 or 9 people. I think we've made our mark though, as there was a massive cheer when it was announced that we'd been beaten. That's fair enough. If you didn't lose now and again, then you wouldn't get so much pleasure from winning. I just hope they don't realise that it was the pictures that proved our achilles heel. I wouldn't put it past the QM to use pictures every week from now on if he does.

Tuesday night was Cowbridge. I only go to this once in a blue moon, because its a bit of a journey, and its a little irresponsible for me to be doing more than one midweek quiz during term time. But then it is half term this week, and so that proved no obstacle. Its a good quiz, 40 questions and a bonus jackpot round. We messed up 2 questions on football managers in the lower division of the English League, and another two on other things, to score 43 - some of the questions carried more than one point. This score was matched by two other teams, so it was announced that there would be a tie break. I smiled, since I knew that my quiz partner, the mighty Davies, is the King of the Tie Break. My daughter Phillippa and I sat back , and left it to John.
"In which year was Coca Cola invented ? "
was the question. John immediately jotted down 1884, and strolled over to hand it to the QM. Actually, he was one year out, since its 1885, but it was still close enough, and we got another one to add to the win column.

On Wednesday I wanted to go to the cinema to see "Slumdog Millionaire". However my local cinema only had it on once a day , the late showing. Mary didn't want to come with me, neither did Phillippa. Now, if it had been earlier in the day, then I would have gone on my own anyway. But going alone to the late showing like Billy No-Mates just wasn't on. And I am fully aware that when its written down on the page that appears even more sad and pathetic than it felt at the time.

Yesterday brought a phonecall from Andrew Pugh, of the Neath Port Talbot Guardian. He's been reading the blog - so you see, you are in good company. They're thinking about doing a follow up article . So we had a very pleasant conversation for a while. One thing he'd picked up on was the entry I made about the tie break in a quiz in the Haywain a few weeks back . He was interested in the idea that there are facts - like the fact that there are 336 dimples on a golf ball - that the average person on the street wouldn't know, but a regular quizzer would, and he asked if I could send them some. So I sent him these five : -

) Which actor, who played the villain in a Bond film, was actually a cousin of Bond's creator, Ian Fleming ?
(Answer - Christopher Lee, who played Scaramanga in The Man With the Golden Gun )

2) Which rank in the Royal Air Force is equivalent to a Major in the Army and a Lieutenant-Commander in the Royal Navy ?
(Answer - Squadron Leader )

3) In the Bible, who or what killed a quarter of the world's population ?
(Answer - Cain , who killed his brother Abel when there were only 4 human beings )

4) In which part of the UK are cars banned ?
(Answer - the Island of Sark , in the Channel Isles )

5) FA Cup. Sunderland did it in 1979. Villa did it in 1981. Who did it in 1980 ?
( Answer - ALAN Sunderland scored the winner in the final in 1979 - RICKY Villa did it in 1981 - so the answer is Trevor Brooking, who scored the winner in 1980 !)

Then yesterday evening was the quiz in Aberavon Rugby Club. I haven't lost a quiz there this year yet, although its bound to happen soon. The only 2 quizzes that my team has lost in 2009 were the ones where I was question master ! We looked to be in trouble since there were only three of us. Not only that but our main rivals, the Lemurs had both of their very good quizzers in their team last night. In my experience, if you have one very good all rounder in your team, and none of the others teams do, then you're favourites to win. Well, we had one in our team - yours truly ( arrogant, I know ) . However Lemurs had two - which made them the favourites. It was nip and tuck all evening, all square going into the last round, but we eked out 2 points more than Lemurs did. Even allowing for the fact that they got a point back on the picture handout, that still gave us a 1 point win.

That, thinking about it, is what its all about for me. We won a few bob for second place on Sunday, and a bit more for winning on Tuesday, but that meant nothing compared to the satisfaction of winning a good quiz, against a very good team.

My Uncle Won A Crackerjack Pencil

TV Top of the Form - Celebrity Contestant finally Unearthed !

You may recall that a couple of weeks ago I made an appeal for anyone who appeared as a contestant on TV Top of the Form , or Blockbusters, to get in contact by dropping me an email so that I could pay belated tribute to their appearences on said shows.

Well, I have to tell you now that I have thus far received no replies. The quest, as they say , continues. However I found this little site on the net earlier, and if you are interested on reading a few personal recollections of taking part in the show, and the international version - Transworld Top Team - then you might find it of interest -
http://www.staugs.org/television.htm

However, according to wikipedia, we do have a celebrity contestant ! The informant who suggested to me that both Arnold Schwarzenegger and Mother Theresa of Calcutta had appeared on the show in their younger days was, apparently, pulling my leg. However, we have unearthed a genuine celebrity contestant. Yes, none other than Hugh Grant made his first appearence in front of the cameras playing for Latymer Upper School ! Like all the other contestants, Hugh has not yet emailed me, but being that, like me, he is a good old West London boy, I'm sure its only a matter of time, and I await his recollections with interest.

Before we leave Top of the Form, I notice that one of my very favourite contemporary poets, Carol Ann Duffy, actually wrote a poem called
"The Captain of the 1964 Top of the Form team "
If you'd like to read it, then follow this link
http://home.clara.net/stevebrown/html/captain_of_the_1964_top_of_the_f.htm
As far as I know this is purely imaginary - I don't believe that she ever appeared on the show herself. Certainly not in 1964 - she was too young at the time.

As for Blockbusters, as well as Stephen Merchant it appears that former Big Brother contestant and Brainiac Presenter Jon Tickle also appeared in the show, as one of the two contestant teams, rather than on his own. There is also a persistent rumour that Blue Peter's Konnie Huq - an Ealing girl ! - appeared as a contestant, but up to now I have found no corroborating evidence of this, so until such time as any is forthcoming we probably have to discount this. However, here I really need to make an apology. I have actually played against a successful Blockbusters contestant ! Yes, none other than Mastermind 2007 finalist Anna Torpey ! Like Jon Tickle she was one half of a team of two, and I believe that they won all 3 gold runs that you were entitled to at that time in the show's history.

Conversations with quiz friends have led me to broaden the challenge. So as well as "Top of the Form" and "Blockbusters", I'd also absolutely love to hear from anyone who ever appeared on "Ask The Family". My father , when he was sober, threatened a couple of times to apply for us to go on the show. Mum, me, and either of my brothers would have done alright, but he'd have really struggled unless they had a round of questions on Autumn Gold Cider and Old Holborn. However, I digress. I can't find any record of anyone going on to achieve fame after an early appearence on the show, but that really doesn't matter. If you ever appeared on "Ask The Family", please, please please drop me an email, and share your experience with me.

Actually, come to think of it, lets go even further. If you've ever appeared on any TV show - and you'd be prepared to answer a few question for me about it, then I will personally see to it that your achievement is publicly recognised in this blog.
You can contact me at
londinius@yahoo.co.uk
So in this bold spirit, let us pay tribute to our first

Hero of the Week

Yes, the first hero of the week is actually my uncle,

Dennis Joyce

who selflessly, and for the entertainment and amusement of others appeared in

Double or Drop - in - Crackerjack

Yes, back in the days of Eamonn Andrews, my uncle won a Crackerjack pencil. Now how many of you out there can make that proud boast ?

Will we have a woman champion ?

In my recent blog entry on Mastermind India I remarked upon the fact that three out of the five champions were women, and commented that its high time that Mastermind had another woman as champion. My contention was that there are enough good women quizzers out there.

Its an interesting question to ask - have women performed worse than men in the show since it returned to BBC TV ? I've been taking a look at the statistics since the return of the series to BBC TV, and this is what emerges. There are many points to make, many inferences you can draw. So here they are, in no particular order : -

* Women have made up between 17 % and 26% of the total number of competitors in each series. Lowest was 17% in my 2007 series, highest was 26% in the 2004 series. The BBC always stresses that they do their best to encourage women to apply to take part, and the number of women contenders each year is a pretty fair reflection of the proportion of applications for the show that are received from women.

* Women have been proportionately under-represented in each of the Grand Finals except 2007. In 2003,4 and 5 there were no women finalists. The first woman to reach a Humphrys era final is my friend and 2006 conqueror, Kath Drury. In 2007 there were 2 women, Sandra Piddock and Anna Torpey, who reached the finals. This meant that statistically in 2007 you were actually more likely to reach the final if you were a woman, since only 4.1 % of all men contenders reached the final. The best position achieved by a woman in a Humphrys final is 4th - Kath Drury in 2006, Sandra Piddock in 2007.

* Statistically women have been quite a bit more successful in winning their heats and reaching the semi final. You would expect 25% of all men, and 25% of all women to reach the semis. However, with the exception of 2004, in every year women have outperformed this by between 1 and 15%. In those same years, with the exception of 2004, less than 25% of all men have reached the semi finals, with the exception of 2003 where some losing contenders qualified for the semis through highest scores. Even in 2003 women were still proportionately more successful in reaching the semis.

* Figures suggest that although the proportion of women contenders is not growing, those women who do take part are becoming more successful. If the trends of 2006 and 2007 continue, then its reasonable to suggest that there could well be another woman champion within the next couple of years.

Its reasonable to suggest that sheer weight of numbers is one reason why men have dominated the finals since 2003. If you look at the actual performances of the women who have reached the semi finals since 2003, the majority, although not all, scored less in their semi specialist subject than they did in their first round heat. But then that's true of the majority of men as well.

What are the chances of a woman being the 2008 champion ? Well, with 7 shows still to go in the first round we have 4 women through to the semis so far. I think its reasonable to expect that we may get as many as another two women through to the semis . Of the four, Nancy Dickman had the most impressive General Knowledge, and currently has the joint highest GK score of the series so far with 14. Of course, if I was a betting man I would point to the fact that there are 2 previous finalists - Richard Heller and Mel Kinsey - who have already claimed their place in the semi final. Not only that, but there is a certain Dr. Ian Bayley lurking in the middle of the draw, and woe betide anyone who does not take his challenge seriously.



The Statistics


2003 Series

48 contenders overall.
10 women took part 20.8%
38 men took part 79%
4 women reached the semi final 25 % (40% of all women contenders reached the semi final )
12 men reached semi final 75% (31.5 % of all men reached the semi final )
No women reached the final
4 men reached the final 100% (10.5%)

2004 Series

96 contenders
25 women took part 26%
71 men took part 74%
5 women reached the semi final 20.8% (20% of all women contenders reached the semi final )
19 men reached the semi final 79% (26.7% of all men reached the semi final )
No women reached the final
6 men reached the final 100% (8.4% of all men reached the final )

2005 Series

96 contenders
23 women took part 24%
73 men took part 76%
6 women reached the semi final 25% (26% of all women contenders reached the semi final )
18 men reached the semi final 75% (24.6% of men reached the semi final )
No women reached the final
6 men reached the final 100% (8.2%)

2006 Series

96 contenders
23 women took part 24%
73 men took part 76%
9 women reached the semi final 37.5 %(39.1% of all women contenders reached the semi final)
15 men reached the final 62.5% ( 20.5% of men reached the semis )
1 woman reached the final 16% (4% of all women contenders reached the final )
5 men reached the final 83% (6.8 % of all men reached the final)

2007 Series

96 contenders
17 women took part 17.7%
79 men took part 82%
6 women reached the semi final 25% (35.2% of all women contenders reached the semi final )
18 men reached the semi final 75% (22.7% of all men reached the semi final )
2 women reached the final 33.3% (11.7% of all women reached the final )
4 men reached the final 66.6% (4.1% of all men reached the final )

2008

(After 17 shows )

68 contenders
14 women 20.5%
54 men 79.5%
4 women reached semi final 23.5% (28.5% of all women reached semi final )
13 men reached semi final 76.5% (24% of all men reached the semi final )

University Challenge Semi Final 2 - Congratulations to Corpus Christi

University Challenge - Second Semi Final - Monday 16th February
St. John's College Cambridge v. Corpus Christi, Oxford

Such has been the imperious form shown by Corpus Christi throughout the series that they were red hot favourites going into this semi final. In the end they won comfortably enough, but St. John's can take heart from the fact that they restricted them to their lowest score, and their lowest winning margin.

Those who witnessed Corpus Christi's quarter final performance will remember that it was very much The Gail Trimble Show, the most impressive performance by an individual in the show that I have ever seen. Well, last night's was more of a team performance, with some good starter buzzes by the other members of the team as well. Gail Trimble still had more correct starters than any of them, and some of her buzzes showed exceptional reactions and anticipation.

What of St. John's ? They can take a lot of pride from their performance throughout the series, and also from their performance last night. For make no mistake, they made a real competition of this match. After seeming shellshocked for the first few minutes by Corpus Christi's customary blitz start, they fought back well. Mr. Dolan was particularly effective, and I should think he was the most successful buzzer for St. John's. They weren't quite as clinical on the bonuses as Corpus Christi, and they buzzed too early a couple of times, but even so they played very well, and kept their heads even though they must have been aware that the match was gently slipping away from them. The final score was
Corpus Christi - 260
St. John's - 150

So, what are Corpus Christi's chances in the final ? Well I tipped them to be champions after their quarter final win, and I see no reason to change now. There are a couple of points which I think will determine the outcome next week.

* Both Manchester and Corpus Christi have what seem to be 'star' players - Pertinez of Manchester, and Gail Trimble of Corpus Christi. We know from the semi final that Manchester don't need Pertinez to be absolutely on song to perform brilliantly. We don't know how well Corpus Christi could perform if Gail Trimble was not on top form.

* We don't honestly know who is faster on the buzzer. If I had to nail my colours to the mast I would say that Corpus Christi seem to buzz in a little faster on starters than Manchester do. But having said that, Manchester were able to destroy a very fine side in the semi finals by being consistently a fraction of a second quicker on the buzzer.

* Neither side have shown the slightest sign of nerves so far. But will the pressure of being in the final affect either of them ?

So I take Corpus Christi to win, by a margin of less than 100, but nothing would surprise me. Best of luck to both teams.

Mastermind India

I was very interested when John Humphrys asked this week's Mastermind heat winner Shrirang Raddi about his appearence in Mastermind India,so I've been ferreting around on the interweb the last couple of days to find out what I can about the show. Apologies if any of what follows is inaccurate.

The idea behind Mastermind India belonged to Siddhartha Basu. Siddhartha Basu began his television career in the late 70s as a documentary filmmaker, and he has a highly impressive list of credits as both a producer and presenter of quiz programmes . I may be wrong but I believe that he was the man behind the licensed Indian version of "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire", which of course is at the heart of the smash hit film "Slumdog Millionaire"

Apparently, on a visit to his in-laws home in Surrey in 1985, Siddhartha Basu saw Mastermind for the first time. He liked the show and decided that he would try to bring it to India one day. Eventually this saw him collaborating with BBC World. In a neat little irony, BBC Mastermind India aired for exactly the same five years that Mastermind was taken off BBCTV in England , from 1998 - 2002 !

By all accounts the show was very faithful to its british original, with black chair and all. Like the Magnus Magnusson shows in the UK, Mastermind India travelled around the country and shows were presented from heritage sights. This was enough of an undertaking in the UK. In a country the size of India the mind boggles at the logistics that must have been involved in the staging of the show.

As with the 25 champions of the Magnus Magnusson shows, the 5 series champions of Mastermind India achieved a certain level of celebrity for their achievements. They were : -

1998 Dayita Dhatta
1999 Ajai Banerji
2000 K.E.Priyamvada
2001 Archana Garodia
2002 Ramanand Janardhanan

In 2002 there was also a tournament between the first four champions, which was won by Archana Garodia. Its food for thought that the first, 3rd and 4th champions were all women, the champion of champions was a woman, and the record score was set by a woman, K.E.Priyamvada, in 2000. All of which just points up the fact that is is high time that Mastermind in the UK had another woman champion. Believe me there are women quizzers out there who are good enough, given that little bit of luck that all successful contenders need.

The show was successful enough that it gave rise to several Mastermind India quizbooks, all compiled by Sidhartha Basu

Weekend Mini Quiz - answers and Quiz Three

OK, here's the answer to weekend mini quiz number two : -

Round One- Water Water Everywhere

1) Name the famous lighthouse built off the coast of Tiree by Robert Louis Stevenson's uncle Alan Stevenson
- Skerryvore
2) In which British dockyard did Peter the great once work as a ship's carpenter ?
Deptford
3) In which novel by Charles Dickens is a heroine the daughter of a man who drags dead bodies out of the River Thames for a living ?
Our Mututal Friend
4) Name the last British swimmer before Rebecca Adlington to win two gold medals in the same Olympics
Henry Taylor - who won 3 in 1908
5) Who played the scheming civil servant in the film "Water" ?
Leonard Rossiter

Round Two - General Knowledge

1) Who is the only person other than the 6 Pythons to receive a writing credit on an episode of "Monty Python's Flying Circus " ?
Douglas Adams - 4th series
2) Name the writer behind "The Henry Root Letters "
William Donaldson
3) If its spelled with - er - then its too high , but if its spelled with an - o - then its too low. Which medical conditions am I referring to ? ( There's a couple of different acceptable answers to this one ) Hyper - hypo - eg High blood pressure - Hypertension - Low Blood Pressure - Hypotension
4) In which English town or city would you find the national Bagpipe museum ?
Morpeth
5) If William Stayley was the last, and William Wallace the first, what am I referring to ?
People whose heads were displayed on London Bridge

Now, here's the Weekend Mini Quiz Three

Round One - Happy Valentines

1) Anthony Valentine played "Raffles" in the ITV Tv series, but who played his sidekick Bunny, and what was Bunny's surname ?
2) Which Roman Emperor condemned St. Valentine to death ?
3) For what reason was St. Valentine executed ?
4) Valentine was one of two what in Shakespeare ?
5)Which Valentine played the Black Guardian in the Key to Time season of Dr. Who ?

General Knowledge
1) Whose father was called Poopdeck ?
2) Which british butterfly has the scientific name inachis io ?
3) Which element makes up between 15 and 20% of the alloy pewter ( and for a bonus, which element USED to make up 15 - 20 % of pewter ?
4) Fifty years ago, when the austin mini first went on the market, how much change would you have got out of £500 if you bought one ?
5) Norse Mythology - what killed the God Baldur ?

Answers to be posted next weekend - drop me a line if you can't wait.