In my defence, I never really planned such a heavy quiz week as this last one has been. As originally planned, this week would have just consisted of a trip to the Duke of Wellington in Cowbridge on Tuesday night, and my turn as quiz master in Aberavon Rugby club on Thursday night. Nothing too taxing there.
On Monday, though, we made a return to Newport, to Trevor’s quiz in the Pill Harriers Rugby Club. Its been a good three weeks since we last played there, not, I hasten to add for any reason other than illness and work. My good friend Alan was feeling OK, and Barry fancied it as well. I didn’t need to be persuaded either. It was a good quiz. In fact all of the quizzes I’ve been to this week have been very enjoyable. We managed to give the handicapper a good run for his money this week, drawing for second place with a team who’d had a five point head start, and finishing one point behind the winners, who’d been given an 8 point head start. My favourite question of the night was on the handout. I have to say this, you get two handouts in Newport – Round Two which is a pictures handout, and Round Four which is a multiple question handout, and is a work of joy , and often , of genius . On the multiples handout this week we were asked for the ten countries with the smallest populations. Helpfully we were given the initials of each. Having become a devotee of sporcle.com, I greatly enjoyed this one. By the way, if you haven’t checked it out yet, sporcle is great fun. But be warned, it is addictive, and it absolutely devours spare time.
On Tuesday evening John and I returned to the Duke of Wellington. They’re a really nice crowd down there, and seemed to have forgiven us for scoring 100% on the last one we attended a fortnight ago. Thankfully the Lucky Seven was apparently won last week, so at least the money is getting shared around a bit. It’s a good little quiz as I’ve said before. We had most of them right, but amongst those we missed was the Guess the Year question.
“In which year did Eric Cantona do his famous karate kick at a member of the crowd in a game against Crystal Palace ?” You can probably appreciate the discussion this engendered . - I know that it was after the season of Ferguson’s first double, in 1994. But was it at the tail end of 94, or early 95 ? - We plumped for the end of 94, but were a year out, 95 being the right answer.
Let me go back to Monday night. It was at the end of the evening that Trevor called me over, and invited me to the Mega Quiz on Wednesday. I really wanted to play, but that’s the kind of thing I wouldn’t take Mary for granted about. Thankfully she agreed, and you can read all about the quiz in my previous post.
Last night, then, last quiz before Sunday, and it was my quiz for the Rugby Club. I hope that people enjoyed it. Sometimes its difficult to tell, after all, the good people who make up the regulars in the quiz there would never be rude to you. This was a connections quiz, I tend to do these for about one in every three quizzes I make. In its basic form it works like this. Each round comprises of 10 questions, 6 of which will be normal GK questions. However three of the questions will have answers which can be connected in some fashion, and the last question asks what the connection actually is. This one none of the teams managed to answer last night : -
When he became King, which name ( name and regnal number needed ) did the Prince Regent take ?
Who invented logarithms ?
Name the British artist, with no arms, and shortened legs, who received the MBE in 2003 .
What is the connection between your last three answers ?
Now, if you’re really tuned in you might get it from the first two. However for me it’s the third one that is the clincher, and unfortunately none of the teams knew the answer to the third one. For the record, the answers are : -
King George IV
(John) Napier
Alison Lapper
The connection ? All have had statues on plinths in Trafalgar Square. George IV and General Napier’s are permanent, while the statue “Alison Lapper Pregnant “ occupied the 4th plinth for some time. By way of an aside – Havelock is the other permanent one. Also by way of an aside, General Napier made one of the best, most educated puns I have ever heard. On the conclusion of a successful campaign in the sub-continent, he sent the war office the one word telegram
Peccavi
which even my schoolboy latin enables me to know means “ I have sinned ( Sind ! )” Oh well, please yourselves.
Please believe me when I say that a week like this really is the exception rather than the rule. If I wasn’t virtually teetotal then I couldn’t do it at all. Very early on in my career ( teaching or quiz, take your pick ) I realized that for me, alcohol on a school night is just a no-no. Don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against it, but if I even just have the one I find it can make me just that tiny bit more tired the next day. That’s why I don’t drink at the quiz. Sometimes I’d like to, but I just can’t. It works like this. I won’t have a drink on a school night. Well, during term time that leaves me with Friday and Saturday evenings. When I never go to a quiz.
Friday, 9 October 2009
Thursday, 8 October 2009
Thank you , Birmingham
Birmingham has, in its time, given us many fine things. Think of Bourneville chocolate, think of Balti, think of the Electric Light Orchestra, if you will. In the field of quizzing, one of the fine things that Birmingham has given us is the Lord Mayor’s Mega Quiz.
Its quite an event this. If you’re looking for something akin to a grand prix event, or even a national CIU final, then you’re going to be disappointed. However if you are looking for a quiz event which is more grand than prix, then you certainly won’t be. Of course, you’ll have to wait until the next one, since the 2009 Lord Mayor’s Mega Quiz took place last night.
I can’t be certain whether that will be next year, mind you. I also played in the mega quiz the last time it was held which was in November 2007. The one before that, though was in June 2006. Last time out the team I was with ended up 4th, and the quiz was won by a team containing, amongst others, the pride of Wales, aka David Edwards, the 1990 Mastermind champion. This year David was back with a different team. As for me, I was with three quarters of the oft-conquering Maesglas team. Scribe for the night was Richie Parnell, probably best known for being one third of the Rugby Boys who won this year’s Only Connect. Richie had been part of a multi winning Battle of the Brains team called The Ant Hill Mob, as had second team member Gordon Galliford, a big winner on WWTBAM in the past. Team Captain was the redoubtable Trevor Parry, the doyen of question masters. That’s quite a team to live up to – no pressure there then.
If I say that the Mega Quiz is no grand prix event, I must also state quite clearly that it is a great quiz event. This year attendance was a little down on last time’s, so much so that only 92 teams competed. No, that’s not a misprint. Almost 100 teams came together in the Great Hall of the University of Birmingham to do battle over 10 rounds of 10 questions. That’s not bad at all. You already know that as far as I’m concerned the more questions that you ask in an evening, the more I like it, so this got the Clark seal of approval. The ten rounds were – and apologies if I don’t remember all of these in the correct order –
General Knowledge
TV
Geography
History
Sport
Entertainment
Science
Literature
Current Affairs
Food and Drink
a pretty broad cross section I think you’ll agree. As for the rounds themselves, they tended to consist of 6 straightforward questions, two or three difficult but gettables, and one or two absolute snorters. In addition to this each team had a joker, for double points, which had to be played on one of the rounds. The rule was that you had to nominate which round you wanted to play it on before the start of the quiz.
A great GK round, a stunningly good TV round, and good rounds on Geog and Sport, and a well played joker on History saw us with a good lead at half time. Our second half wasn’t quite so impressive, but we managed just to hold on to win by two points from previous winners Utopia Limited. You probably know me well enough to know I’d be lying if I said that winning the quiz didn’t matter to me. Although I know it can’t and won’t happen, I still want to win every quiz I take part in. But regardless of that it was a great event to be part of. Compere and question master for the evening was Nick Owen , Breakfast TV’s Mr . Dependable in the old days of TVAM. Yes, I thought he must have retired a while ago too. He’s not been on national TV for a long time, but apparently he’s quite big in BBC Midlands. Very nice if you like that sort of thing. He’d obviously prepared a few quips for the occasion, and this one,
“I’ve just become chairman of Luton Town – Yes ! When I was 10 I asked my Dad to get me a cowboy outfit for Christmas. Now I’m 60 its finally come true ! “ should give you the flavour. He’d dressed for the occasion too, in his tux and his dickie bow, and looked quite dapper. However the effect was spoiled a little when someone shouted “Waiter !” as he walked down he main aisle.
To be fair to him, he performed his main task – Getting On With The Quiz – surprisingly well. Allowing for a half hour half time break he cracked on through the rounds at a fair old canter, which always adds to the enjoyment of a quiz I find.While I'm at it I have to pay tribute to the organisation of the quiz. Collecting all the papers in, for example, was run as smoothly as silk by a veritable army of blue t-shirt clad volunteers. Yes, volunteers. This was all for charity, lets not forget it.
In fact the only drawback to the quiz was that it took place in Birmingham. No , I don’t mean that as it sounds. Birmingham is actually a great city, and I look forward to staying overnight in one of its top hotels as my prize very much. However Birmingham is a good couple of hours’ drive from home, and that’s the bugbear of the quiz being midweek.
Let me leave you with a question they asked. This is a little selfish, since it’s a question I had to really dredge the depths of my memory to find the answer to.
What was the surname of Jim Bergerac’s boss in the first few series ?
You might well be saying Hungerford, but wily old Charlie Hungerford was his former stepfather. It was actually Crozier – Barney of that ilk. I don’t know that I contributed a huge amount to the win, but at least I had that one eventually.
Its quite an event this. If you’re looking for something akin to a grand prix event, or even a national CIU final, then you’re going to be disappointed. However if you are looking for a quiz event which is more grand than prix, then you certainly won’t be. Of course, you’ll have to wait until the next one, since the 2009 Lord Mayor’s Mega Quiz took place last night.
I can’t be certain whether that will be next year, mind you. I also played in the mega quiz the last time it was held which was in November 2007. The one before that, though was in June 2006. Last time out the team I was with ended up 4th, and the quiz was won by a team containing, amongst others, the pride of Wales, aka David Edwards, the 1990 Mastermind champion. This year David was back with a different team. As for me, I was with three quarters of the oft-conquering Maesglas team. Scribe for the night was Richie Parnell, probably best known for being one third of the Rugby Boys who won this year’s Only Connect. Richie had been part of a multi winning Battle of the Brains team called The Ant Hill Mob, as had second team member Gordon Galliford, a big winner on WWTBAM in the past. Team Captain was the redoubtable Trevor Parry, the doyen of question masters. That’s quite a team to live up to – no pressure there then.
If I say that the Mega Quiz is no grand prix event, I must also state quite clearly that it is a great quiz event. This year attendance was a little down on last time’s, so much so that only 92 teams competed. No, that’s not a misprint. Almost 100 teams came together in the Great Hall of the University of Birmingham to do battle over 10 rounds of 10 questions. That’s not bad at all. You already know that as far as I’m concerned the more questions that you ask in an evening, the more I like it, so this got the Clark seal of approval. The ten rounds were – and apologies if I don’t remember all of these in the correct order –
General Knowledge
TV
Geography
History
Sport
Entertainment
Science
Literature
Current Affairs
Food and Drink
a pretty broad cross section I think you’ll agree. As for the rounds themselves, they tended to consist of 6 straightforward questions, two or three difficult but gettables, and one or two absolute snorters. In addition to this each team had a joker, for double points, which had to be played on one of the rounds. The rule was that you had to nominate which round you wanted to play it on before the start of the quiz.
A great GK round, a stunningly good TV round, and good rounds on Geog and Sport, and a well played joker on History saw us with a good lead at half time. Our second half wasn’t quite so impressive, but we managed just to hold on to win by two points from previous winners Utopia Limited. You probably know me well enough to know I’d be lying if I said that winning the quiz didn’t matter to me. Although I know it can’t and won’t happen, I still want to win every quiz I take part in. But regardless of that it was a great event to be part of. Compere and question master for the evening was Nick Owen , Breakfast TV’s Mr . Dependable in the old days of TVAM. Yes, I thought he must have retired a while ago too. He’s not been on national TV for a long time, but apparently he’s quite big in BBC Midlands. Very nice if you like that sort of thing. He’d obviously prepared a few quips for the occasion, and this one,
“I’ve just become chairman of Luton Town – Yes ! When I was 10 I asked my Dad to get me a cowboy outfit for Christmas. Now I’m 60 its finally come true ! “ should give you the flavour. He’d dressed for the occasion too, in his tux and his dickie bow, and looked quite dapper. However the effect was spoiled a little when someone shouted “Waiter !” as he walked down he main aisle.
To be fair to him, he performed his main task – Getting On With The Quiz – surprisingly well. Allowing for a half hour half time break he cracked on through the rounds at a fair old canter, which always adds to the enjoyment of a quiz I find.While I'm at it I have to pay tribute to the organisation of the quiz. Collecting all the papers in, for example, was run as smoothly as silk by a veritable army of blue t-shirt clad volunteers. Yes, volunteers. This was all for charity, lets not forget it.
In fact the only drawback to the quiz was that it took place in Birmingham. No , I don’t mean that as it sounds. Birmingham is actually a great city, and I look forward to staying overnight in one of its top hotels as my prize very much. However Birmingham is a good couple of hours’ drive from home, and that’s the bugbear of the quiz being midweek.
Let me leave you with a question they asked. This is a little selfish, since it’s a question I had to really dredge the depths of my memory to find the answer to.
What was the surname of Jim Bergerac’s boss in the first few series ?
You might well be saying Hungerford, but wily old Charlie Hungerford was his former stepfather. It was actually Crozier – Barney of that ilk. I don’t know that I contributed a huge amount to the win, but at least I had that one eventually.
TV Watch - University Challenge
University Challenge – First Round Heat 13 – St. Andrews v. Somerville College Oxford
Two days late with your review, Mr. Clark ? What is the world coming to ? Yes, apologies to anyone who has come to check out the review of the latest heat, only to find that LAM seems to be neglecting its public duties. The only mitigation I can plead is that its not through sloth, only through the fact that this has been an exceptionally busy quiz week, which I will only too gladly tell you all about. However, let us deal with UC first.
This match paired two former series’ champions, the University of St. Andrews, and Somerville College Oxford. St. Andrews apparently have a student population of about 3,000 to draw from, while poor old Somerville have about a 6th of that number. Once again , we were reminded that the red cloaks of St. Andrews were originally meant to make their students easily identifiable, and thus help keep them out of houses of ill-repute. Nothing quite so juicy about Somerville, and we had to content ourselves with the titbit that both Shirley Williams and her mother Vera Brittain were both former students, as indeed was Dorothy Parker.
St. Andrews made most of the early running, although it was noticeable that they failed to score on a set of bonuses which required them to identify which cities various test cricket grounds could be found in. After ten minutes they had carved out a very healthy lead for themselves, but then captain Guy Fletcher-Wood of Somerville began almost single handedly to haul his team back into contention, finding range with a number of starter answers.
The fight back began to look temporary though, as St. Andrews , and in particular Christopher Flaherty began to apply a stranglehold on the match. The team passed the 200 point mark before twenty minutes had passed, and were clearly going to win. The foot came off the gas pedal in the last four minutes though. Having reached 255, they failed to answer another starter correctly. This allowed Somerville to finish with 150 points. If I’m correct, then that put them just 5 points away from a repechage spot, actually a really good performance. Special honours to Guy Fletcher – Wood of Somerville, with 6 starters. However the star turn was really Christopher Flaherty, whose individual haul of starters was amongst the finest I’ve seen this series.
Jeremy Paxman Watch
A disappointing week for Paxman watchers. Mild and congenial throughout. The only comment I particularly noted was in his explanation to an unanswered starter,
“They’re the people who conferred the blessed Arndale Centres on us. “ Even when he told Somerville “ You were a bit slow “ – meaning on the buzzers – he qualified this with “You got some brilliant answers “ All of which leads LAM to ask – has someone been slipping happy pills into his tea ? I think we should be told.
Interesting Fact I Didn’t Already Know Of The Week
I really liked the question which required the three separate answers of Dunk, Flunk and Munk – sorry – Monk. However the two which really stood our for me were –
a) That nostalgia is greek for a return to native land and pain
b) JK Rowling is actually one of the top ten mispronunciations !
Two days late with your review, Mr. Clark ? What is the world coming to ? Yes, apologies to anyone who has come to check out the review of the latest heat, only to find that LAM seems to be neglecting its public duties. The only mitigation I can plead is that its not through sloth, only through the fact that this has been an exceptionally busy quiz week, which I will only too gladly tell you all about. However, let us deal with UC first.
This match paired two former series’ champions, the University of St. Andrews, and Somerville College Oxford. St. Andrews apparently have a student population of about 3,000 to draw from, while poor old Somerville have about a 6th of that number. Once again , we were reminded that the red cloaks of St. Andrews were originally meant to make their students easily identifiable, and thus help keep them out of houses of ill-repute. Nothing quite so juicy about Somerville, and we had to content ourselves with the titbit that both Shirley Williams and her mother Vera Brittain were both former students, as indeed was Dorothy Parker.
St. Andrews made most of the early running, although it was noticeable that they failed to score on a set of bonuses which required them to identify which cities various test cricket grounds could be found in. After ten minutes they had carved out a very healthy lead for themselves, but then captain Guy Fletcher-Wood of Somerville began almost single handedly to haul his team back into contention, finding range with a number of starter answers.
The fight back began to look temporary though, as St. Andrews , and in particular Christopher Flaherty began to apply a stranglehold on the match. The team passed the 200 point mark before twenty minutes had passed, and were clearly going to win. The foot came off the gas pedal in the last four minutes though. Having reached 255, they failed to answer another starter correctly. This allowed Somerville to finish with 150 points. If I’m correct, then that put them just 5 points away from a repechage spot, actually a really good performance. Special honours to Guy Fletcher – Wood of Somerville, with 6 starters. However the star turn was really Christopher Flaherty, whose individual haul of starters was amongst the finest I’ve seen this series.
Jeremy Paxman Watch
A disappointing week for Paxman watchers. Mild and congenial throughout. The only comment I particularly noted was in his explanation to an unanswered starter,
“They’re the people who conferred the blessed Arndale Centres on us. “ Even when he told Somerville “ You were a bit slow “ – meaning on the buzzers – he qualified this with “You got some brilliant answers “ All of which leads LAM to ask – has someone been slipping happy pills into his tea ? I think we should be told.
Interesting Fact I Didn’t Already Know Of The Week
I really liked the question which required the three separate answers of Dunk, Flunk and Munk – sorry – Monk. However the two which really stood our for me were –
a) That nostalgia is greek for a return to native land and pain
b) JK Rowling is actually one of the top ten mispronunciations !
Monday, 5 October 2009
Just A Quickie -
To congratulate the Wales team for winning the series of Radio 4's "Round Britain Quiz" that ended today. Da iawn !
Sunday, 4 October 2009
News about BoB - Mastermind Plant Cymru
I found out last night that Robert Robinson won’t be presenting this year’s Brain of Britain. Ok, as a piece of news that’s hardly up there with the Berlin Wall being knocked down, or 9/11. To be honest, as far as the Great British Public are concerned its not even up there with any of the non-stories currently generated by Katie Price and Peter Andre. Still, for those of us who know and love BoB, it’s a bit of a shame.
I’ve checked out the Radio 4 website, but since the new series doesn’t start within the next 7 days its giving no details, even on BoB’s own dedicated page. However the quiz community being what it is the word has already gone out that Russell Davies has been at the helm of the shows that have so far been recorded. Mr. Davies took the presenter’s chair for the 2004 series, as I recall, and actually did a pretty good job of it. Peter Snow took over the chair for 2007, where I personally felt he was a little too ‘chummy’ with the contenders for my liking, and without the reassuring presence of Kevin Ashman’s Jorkins beside him I felt that some of his adjudications were rather inconsistent. Sorry Peter, but if there’s no Robert, then its Russell for me, every time.
The very best presenters put a certain stamp on the shows they front, don’t you think, which can make life very difficult for those who have to step into their shoes. If we take Robert Robinson himself, even such a robust and reliable format as “Ask the Family “ never really prospered when revived twice without him. Can anyone honestly imagine a Fifteen to One without William G. Stewart, or a WWTBAM without Chris Tarrant ? I’m tempted to add a Weakest Link without Anne Robinson, which would certainly be different. Lets leave that to one side for now. I suppose that the trick must be to do it like a Dr. Who regeneration. From the first of these onwards the production teams of the show seemed to grasp the idea that a new doctor offered a chance to go in a new direction, and they never made the mistake of having the new doctor try to replicate his predecessor. Of the top of my head I can only think of one quiz that has pulled this off. University Challenge, where the BBC were smart enough to offer us Jeremy Paxman’s chalk to Bamber Gascoigne’s cheese after Bamber turned them down himself.
However good Robert Robinson has been, he’s never had his Christian name become synonymous with his role, in the way that both Magnus Magnusson and Bamber Gascoigne did. Its funny how the use of a TV question master’s name, either as an accolade for someone with a demonstrably good GK, or a perjorative term for someone patently lacking in such, seems to have passed out of fashion. The last time I can personally recall this happening was in about 2003. John and I won a quiz we’d never been to before, where the question master congratulated us for beating ‘Bamber’ , which apparently was the nickname for the captain of the team who usually won. Its probably something to do with the name itself. In their 1970’s and 80’s heydays there were precious few Bambers or Magnuses ( should that be Magni ?) out there for them to be confused with. Whereas today’s top TV inquizitors must content themselves by being known by their surnames – Paxman, Humphrys, Tarrant, Robinson , Murnaghan etc.
I believe that the first of this year’s Brain of Britain will be broadcast a week on Monday, which will be the 12th October. I wish Russell Davies and everybody else taking part in the show the very best of luck.
Mastermind Plant Cymru
Look, I can only hold my hands up to this one and apologise. You know by now my love of all things Mastermind, so I am very sorry that I have not yet mentioned the start of the new series of Mastermind Plant Cymru , which is the welsh language Junior Mastermind. The series, a competition to find the successor to last year’s champion, Seren Jones, actually began on S4C, the mainly welsh language Channel 4, on Thursday 10th September.
I can’t review the shows, neither having seen them, nor having the command of the welsh language necessary to enjoy them. However I would like to pay tribute to all of those children – and remember that these are all of primary rather than secondary school age – brave enough and gifted enough to take part. So congratulations to
who have so far competed in the series, with special congratulations to the winners whose names are underlined.
I’ve checked out the Radio 4 website, but since the new series doesn’t start within the next 7 days its giving no details, even on BoB’s own dedicated page. However the quiz community being what it is the word has already gone out that Russell Davies has been at the helm of the shows that have so far been recorded. Mr. Davies took the presenter’s chair for the 2004 series, as I recall, and actually did a pretty good job of it. Peter Snow took over the chair for 2007, where I personally felt he was a little too ‘chummy’ with the contenders for my liking, and without the reassuring presence of Kevin Ashman’s Jorkins beside him I felt that some of his adjudications were rather inconsistent. Sorry Peter, but if there’s no Robert, then its Russell for me, every time.
The very best presenters put a certain stamp on the shows they front, don’t you think, which can make life very difficult for those who have to step into their shoes. If we take Robert Robinson himself, even such a robust and reliable format as “Ask the Family “ never really prospered when revived twice without him. Can anyone honestly imagine a Fifteen to One without William G. Stewart, or a WWTBAM without Chris Tarrant ? I’m tempted to add a Weakest Link without Anne Robinson, which would certainly be different. Lets leave that to one side for now. I suppose that the trick must be to do it like a Dr. Who regeneration. From the first of these onwards the production teams of the show seemed to grasp the idea that a new doctor offered a chance to go in a new direction, and they never made the mistake of having the new doctor try to replicate his predecessor. Of the top of my head I can only think of one quiz that has pulled this off. University Challenge, where the BBC were smart enough to offer us Jeremy Paxman’s chalk to Bamber Gascoigne’s cheese after Bamber turned them down himself.
However good Robert Robinson has been, he’s never had his Christian name become synonymous with his role, in the way that both Magnus Magnusson and Bamber Gascoigne did. Its funny how the use of a TV question master’s name, either as an accolade for someone with a demonstrably good GK, or a perjorative term for someone patently lacking in such, seems to have passed out of fashion. The last time I can personally recall this happening was in about 2003. John and I won a quiz we’d never been to before, where the question master congratulated us for beating ‘Bamber’ , which apparently was the nickname for the captain of the team who usually won. Its probably something to do with the name itself. In their 1970’s and 80’s heydays there were precious few Bambers or Magnuses ( should that be Magni ?) out there for them to be confused with. Whereas today’s top TV inquizitors must content themselves by being known by their surnames – Paxman, Humphrys, Tarrant, Robinson , Murnaghan etc.
I believe that the first of this year’s Brain of Britain will be broadcast a week on Monday, which will be the 12th October. I wish Russell Davies and everybody else taking part in the show the very best of luck.
Mastermind Plant Cymru
Look, I can only hold my hands up to this one and apologise. You know by now my love of all things Mastermind, so I am very sorry that I have not yet mentioned the start of the new series of Mastermind Plant Cymru , which is the welsh language Junior Mastermind. The series, a competition to find the successor to last year’s champion, Seren Jones, actually began on S4C, the mainly welsh language Channel 4, on Thursday 10th September.
I can’t review the shows, neither having seen them, nor having the command of the welsh language necessary to enjoy them. However I would like to pay tribute to all of those children – and remember that these are all of primary rather than secondary school age – brave enough and gifted enough to take part. So congratulations to
| Lowri – Carmarthen | Henry VIII and his wives |
| Geraint – Wrexham | 2nd Series of Doctor Who with David Tennant |
| Owen - Brecon | Books by Rick Riordan |
| Rhys - Bridgend | The Roman Empire |
| Sara – Carmarthen | Alex Rider books |
| Daniel – Bangor | Greek Mythology |
| Ffion – Colwyn Bay | Roald Dahl Novels in Welsh |
| Gruffydd – Pontypridd | High School Musical 1 – 3 |
| Sarah – Bridgend | Harry Potter films 1 – 5 |
| Rhun – Llanbrynmair | Life and works of Gwynfor Evans |
| Lowri – Abergavenny | The Roman Mysteries Books |
| Matthew – Caerphilly | Oes y Dinosoriad |
| Aran – Bangor | The First 12 Tintin Books |
| Elliot – Llanelli | The Titanic |
| Isabelle – Abergavenny | The Inheritance Cycle Series |
| Rhys – Bridgend | The Vicar of Dibley |
who have so far competed in the series, with special congratulations to the winners whose names are underlined.
Saturday, 3 October 2009
Does it make me mellow, or yellow ?
I’m not proud of this, but I have been known to argue with question masters on occasion. I try to stop myself, because I know that its not a good thing to do, and that its absolutely pointless, but it still happens, I confess. Twice during these last seven days I’ve been to quizzes where a question has been asked, where either the question or the answer given to it has been wrong. No surprise in that. Many many question compilers and question masters get things wrong from time to time in good faith, me included, as those of you who read my monthly quiz will be well aware of. I accept that. I do my best to check the accuracy, but no doubt I could do more.You can’t expect perfection from a question master. But both times last week the questions or the answers have been SO wrong that I’ve been too shocked or stunned to remonstrate with the question master. Which is probably a good thing, when you think about it.
On Sunday night we were asked this multiple question.
Name the 6 countries outside of Africa that have a letter Z in their names
Taking the question at face value we wrote down Switzerland – Czech Republic – New Zealand – Bosnia-Herzegovina – Azerbaijan – Brazil
Good answers ? Not good enough – instead of New Zealand, he offered us Venezuela ! All of a sudden other countries’ names also popped into our heads – among them Kazakhstan – Uzbekistan – Kyrgyzstan to name but three. Now, if he had also left out Azerbaijan, I could accept that I’d misheard, and he had in fact said countries outside of Africa AND Asia. But leaving out New Zealand ?
Then on Thursday night we were offered this one –
In which Shakespeare play do Florizel and Perdita appear ?. Now, OK, I do know that we all get a little protective, a little touchy about what we believe to be our own subjects, and being as I once studied and now teach English Literature I knew I should be on the firmest ground with this question. As I’m sure you know, the answer is “The Winter’s Tale “. All of which begs the questions, how the hell did the question master come up with the answer “The Tempest” ? All I can think of is that maybe he was using a reference which listed the plays in order of composition, next to which there was a list of main characters from each. Winters Tale and Tempest were both very late plays, so possibly his eye just slipped. What made this one worse, apart from being a subject that I think I know a bit about, was that none of my team mates had known the answer, and so had just accepted Winters Tale with a very touching blind faith. In such a case it doesn’t matter how much you remonstrate that the answer you gave is actually the right one, you know what’s going through their minds. Exactly the same thing that would be going through my mind if the boot was on the other foot. It was a little bit of a sod's law night, really. You may remember that we were asked a question to which the answer was Threepenny bit last week ? Well, this week we were asked how many sides one actually had. All three of my compadres fell into the trap of saying 7 - which is the 50p and the 20p of course. I replied that I'd looked at photos in my post mortem googling last week, and could confirm it was definitely an even number, and I reckoned about 12. I let them beat me down to 10. Then I began to beat myself when it was revealed that the answer was of course 12.
Returning for the moment to the subject of my leaving the question masters alone despite, or maybe because of the magnitude of the wrong'uns, is it , I wonder, a sign of old age ? Is this just a one – off, or does it mean that I am finally beginning to see the error of my ways ? Is it a usual thing to get more mellow about wrong’uns as you get older. Any other ‘mature’ quizzers ( is this an oxymoron ?) out there I’d really welcome your views on this one.
As for the two quizzes themselves, it didn’t really make a lot of difference. We won fairly comfortably on Sunday night anyway. On Thursday night at the rugby club we were well beaten on the picture round, so would have lost the quiz overall anyway.
On Sunday night we were asked this multiple question.
Name the 6 countries outside of Africa that have a letter Z in their names
Taking the question at face value we wrote down Switzerland – Czech Republic – New Zealand – Bosnia-Herzegovina – Azerbaijan – Brazil
Good answers ? Not good enough – instead of New Zealand, he offered us Venezuela ! All of a sudden other countries’ names also popped into our heads – among them Kazakhstan – Uzbekistan – Kyrgyzstan to name but three. Now, if he had also left out Azerbaijan, I could accept that I’d misheard, and he had in fact said countries outside of Africa AND Asia. But leaving out New Zealand ?
Then on Thursday night we were offered this one –
In which Shakespeare play do Florizel and Perdita appear ?. Now, OK, I do know that we all get a little protective, a little touchy about what we believe to be our own subjects, and being as I once studied and now teach English Literature I knew I should be on the firmest ground with this question. As I’m sure you know, the answer is “The Winter’s Tale “. All of which begs the questions, how the hell did the question master come up with the answer “The Tempest” ? All I can think of is that maybe he was using a reference which listed the plays in order of composition, next to which there was a list of main characters from each. Winters Tale and Tempest were both very late plays, so possibly his eye just slipped. What made this one worse, apart from being a subject that I think I know a bit about, was that none of my team mates had known the answer, and so had just accepted Winters Tale with a very touching blind faith. In such a case it doesn’t matter how much you remonstrate that the answer you gave is actually the right one, you know what’s going through their minds. Exactly the same thing that would be going through my mind if the boot was on the other foot. It was a little bit of a sod's law night, really. You may remember that we were asked a question to which the answer was Threepenny bit last week ? Well, this week we were asked how many sides one actually had. All three of my compadres fell into the trap of saying 7 - which is the 50p and the 20p of course. I replied that I'd looked at photos in my post mortem googling last week, and could confirm it was definitely an even number, and I reckoned about 12. I let them beat me down to 10. Then I began to beat myself when it was revealed that the answer was of course 12.
Returning for the moment to the subject of my leaving the question masters alone despite, or maybe because of the magnitude of the wrong'uns, is it , I wonder, a sign of old age ? Is this just a one – off, or does it mean that I am finally beginning to see the error of my ways ? Is it a usual thing to get more mellow about wrong’uns as you get older. Any other ‘mature’ quizzers ( is this an oxymoron ?) out there I’d really welcome your views on this one.
As for the two quizzes themselves, it didn’t really make a lot of difference. We won fairly comfortably on Sunday night anyway. On Thursday night at the rugby club we were well beaten on the picture round, so would have lost the quiz overall anyway.
Friday, 2 October 2009
Mastermind - First Round Heat 6/24
After last week’s excitement at seeing Mike Hely , who had last competed in the inaugural series of 1972, we were once again dealt a complete hand of Mastermind virgins tonight.
Tonight’s first contender to face what John Humphrys called “the short but daunting walk to the black chair “ was Chloe Stone, a part time teacher. If I have this correct, then no less than 8 champions have been schoolteachers, and another five have been University or College lecturers. That’s not including the 3 radio 4 champions, but only because I don’t have any record of their occupations, and no slight is intended there. So Chloe Stone had quite a lot to live up to. She was answering questions on “The Cazalet novels of Elizabeth Jane Howard” . Before you ask, yes, I have definitely heard of Elizabeth Jane Howard, so this does not qualify as an obscure authors round. I liked Chloe Stone’s technique. There was no nonsense wasting time over questions she didn’t know the answer to, no. Such questions were met with a firm and decisive ‘pass’, which ensured that she got through no less than 19 questions in the round, scoring a fine 14.
Shaun Deehan followed, answering on “The Life and Times of John Hume”. John Hume you will remember was the former leader of the SDLP, and recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize. In his film Mr. Deehan described him as a man who went into politics for the right reason. In the round of questions itself it rather seemed to me that Mr. Deehan was a little better on the politics rather than the life, but he managed 9 points by the end of the round.
Ron Ragsdale was offering the potentially huge specialist subject of Egyptology. Mr. Ragsdale’s accent suggested a well travelled man, and indeed he said that he had learned about his subject while actually living in Egypt, and looked on Mastermind as “A good opportunity to test my knowledge”. Yes, Mastermind will certainly do that for you. About halfway through the round Mr. Ragsdale lost his way somewhat, falling into the dreaded pass spiral, and the round never really recovered from this hiatus. He ended the round with 8.
It had been a rather highbrow week so far, but at least Joe Docherty offered us an entertainment subject, even if this was one with precious few laughs, as it happened. His subject “British New Wave Cinema” focussed on a generation of gritty British film dramas, which he explained that British cinema had no option after the war but to film in black and white. This was a pretty wide ranging round. The only film mentioned in the questions that I’ve actually seen was “This Sporting Life” but I managed to answer a good half dozen through knowledge of authors, etc. Of course, Mr. Docherty did considerably better than this, scoring 14 .
A somewhat shellshocked-seeming Ron Ragsdale kicked off the GK round. In truth he was given a very fair set of questions, but he struggled , and finished with 14. By way of comparison Shaun Deehan was given what seemed to me to be a rather tough set of GK, and coped admirably to take his total to 21. Yes, this is just my opinion, and I know that they are all easy if you know the answers. Speak as you find, and I found that Mr. Deehan put up a good performance on GK.
Chloe Stone, then , came to the chair knowing that if she was going to win, then she would have to do it on GK. Which didn’t seem to upset her one little bit. Granted that in my opinion her GK round seemed slightly easier than Mr. Deehan's, still she showed a good width of knowledge to confidently handle the round, and post a fine score of 12 to set the target at 26. Even if this could be beaten, it still gave her a very good chance of claiming a runner up semi final spot.
Joe Docherty was less than a minute into his GK round, and I’m afraid that he already looked unlikely to reach the target. Was his round tougher than Chloe Stone’s ? Maybe, maybe not, but you have to say that her performance was better, as Mr. Docherty fell somewhat short, levelling out at 22.
So, well done Chloe Stone. 26 is a fine score, and this was a good performance. Her chances in the semi finals should not lightly be dismissed, even though John Humphrys seemed none too impressed, saying “She held on, Chloe Stone !” Sorry to correct you there, John, but a 4 point win is hardly just holding on.
The Details
Current Highest Scoring Runners Up
Tonight’s first contender to face what John Humphrys called “the short but daunting walk to the black chair “ was Chloe Stone, a part time teacher. If I have this correct, then no less than 8 champions have been schoolteachers, and another five have been University or College lecturers. That’s not including the 3 radio 4 champions, but only because I don’t have any record of their occupations, and no slight is intended there. So Chloe Stone had quite a lot to live up to. She was answering questions on “The Cazalet novels of Elizabeth Jane Howard” . Before you ask, yes, I have definitely heard of Elizabeth Jane Howard, so this does not qualify as an obscure authors round. I liked Chloe Stone’s technique. There was no nonsense wasting time over questions she didn’t know the answer to, no. Such questions were met with a firm and decisive ‘pass’, which ensured that she got through no less than 19 questions in the round, scoring a fine 14.
Shaun Deehan followed, answering on “The Life and Times of John Hume”. John Hume you will remember was the former leader of the SDLP, and recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize. In his film Mr. Deehan described him as a man who went into politics for the right reason. In the round of questions itself it rather seemed to me that Mr. Deehan was a little better on the politics rather than the life, but he managed 9 points by the end of the round.
Ron Ragsdale was offering the potentially huge specialist subject of Egyptology. Mr. Ragsdale’s accent suggested a well travelled man, and indeed he said that he had learned about his subject while actually living in Egypt, and looked on Mastermind as “A good opportunity to test my knowledge”. Yes, Mastermind will certainly do that for you. About halfway through the round Mr. Ragsdale lost his way somewhat, falling into the dreaded pass spiral, and the round never really recovered from this hiatus. He ended the round with 8.
It had been a rather highbrow week so far, but at least Joe Docherty offered us an entertainment subject, even if this was one with precious few laughs, as it happened. His subject “British New Wave Cinema” focussed on a generation of gritty British film dramas, which he explained that British cinema had no option after the war but to film in black and white. This was a pretty wide ranging round. The only film mentioned in the questions that I’ve actually seen was “This Sporting Life” but I managed to answer a good half dozen through knowledge of authors, etc. Of course, Mr. Docherty did considerably better than this, scoring 14 .
A somewhat shellshocked-seeming Ron Ragsdale kicked off the GK round. In truth he was given a very fair set of questions, but he struggled , and finished with 14. By way of comparison Shaun Deehan was given what seemed to me to be a rather tough set of GK, and coped admirably to take his total to 21. Yes, this is just my opinion, and I know that they are all easy if you know the answers. Speak as you find, and I found that Mr. Deehan put up a good performance on GK.
Chloe Stone, then , came to the chair knowing that if she was going to win, then she would have to do it on GK. Which didn’t seem to upset her one little bit. Granted that in my opinion her GK round seemed slightly easier than Mr. Deehan's, still she showed a good width of knowledge to confidently handle the round, and post a fine score of 12 to set the target at 26. Even if this could be beaten, it still gave her a very good chance of claiming a runner up semi final spot.
Joe Docherty was less than a minute into his GK round, and I’m afraid that he already looked unlikely to reach the target. Was his round tougher than Chloe Stone’s ? Maybe, maybe not, but you have to say that her performance was better, as Mr. Docherty fell somewhat short, levelling out at 22.
So, well done Chloe Stone. 26 is a fine score, and this was a good performance. Her chances in the semi finals should not lightly be dismissed, even though John Humphrys seemed none too impressed, saying “She held on, Chloe Stone !” Sorry to correct you there, John, but a 4 point win is hardly just holding on.
The Details
| Chloe Stone | The Cazalet Novels of Elizabeth Jane Howard | 14 - 5 | 12 - 3 | 26 - 8 |
| Shaun Deehan | The Life and Times of John Hume | 9 - 2 | 11 - 4 | 20 - 6 |
| Ron Ragsdale | Egyptology | 8- 4 | 6 - 4 | 14- 8 |
| Joe Docherty | British New Wave Cinema | 14 - 0 | 8 - 5 | 22 – 5 |
Current Highest Scoring Runners Up
| Les Morrell | 26 - 3 |
| Colin Wilson | 25 - 0 |
| William de'Ath | 25 - 4 |
| Vishal Dalal | 23 - 4 |
| Joe Docherty | 22 – 5 |
| Adam Lister/Mike Hely | 21 - 5 |
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