University Challenge 2018: Quarter Finals - Elmination match - Bristol v. Ulster

The executioner’s axe loomed large over this contest for the first time in this set of quarter finals. Put in simple terms, the team that won would not yet be through to the semis, but the team that lost would be going home. Bristol’s team were Oliver Bowes, Kirsty Biggs, Tom Hewett and captain Sam Hosegood. They lost a rather close contest with Newcastle, where it was even for all but the last few minutes when Newcastle cut loose. Their opponents, Ulster, were Cathal McDaid, Kate Ritchie, Matthew Milliken and their own skipper, Ian Jack. Their own first quarter had seen them lose to St. John’s Cambridge in a match which had seen them snooze for the first half of the contest, before matching St. John’s stride for stride, and even having the better of the last quarter of an hour. So for me, one of the big questions of this match was how quickly Ulster would get into their stride.

First indications were that it might be some time. Oliver Bowes was first in to recognise a description of the Royal Standard. African winners of the Nobel Prize for Literature brought a full house. Now, with the second starter, as soon as JP mentioned a painting with ‘Cookham’ in the title I knew it was by Stanley Spencer, and since we wanted a given name, the answer was obviously Stanley. I saw Ian Jack twitch on the buzzer, but he was beaten by Tom Hewett. Now, a full house of bonuses on essential oils was almost enough to send me off on a lap of honour, but inertia won and I stayed put. Bristol managed one. A lovely UC special starter followed. If you take the initial letters of the 8 planets of the solar system, the name of which planet can be spelled using some of them? Sam Hosegood was the first to work it out, and buzzed in with Venus. Good shout. 19^th century Science writer Mary Somerville promised but little, but when I worked out that the second bonus must refer to Herschel’s sister I set off on my trot around the sofa. I considered making it a double for knowing Ada Lovelace, but then that would have been gilding the lily. Bristol had 55 points, and Ulster couldn’t get into the contest. For the picture starter we showed a map showing what the effect of a rise in sea level of 60 metres would look like. The teams were asked to name two of the 5 capital cities which would have been submerged. Neither team could manage two. Nobody knew the investigative journalist Nick Davies for the next starter, and sadly Cathal McDaid put his team into negative equity with an incorrect early buzz. A fantastic buzzer race ensued for the next starter. I saw at least 5 reaching for their shootin’ irons, but it was Kirsty Biggs who got to supply the three answers – folk – Polk – yolk. The picture bonuses – more ‘drowned Earth’ maps – provided a further 10 points. This took their score to 80, while Ulster languished on -5. History repeating? It certainly appeared so.

Using the atomic numbers of the periodic table, if boron (5) plus carbon (6) is sodium (11), what is nitrogen plus oxygen? Working quickly through magnesium – aluminium – silicon – I got to phosphorus just as Sam Hosegood did the same. Too knackered by the mental effort for a lap of honour this time I watched as Bristol managed a single bonus on Oscar awards of 1976. Now, when you hear ‘sculpture’ and ‘Paolo and Francesca – “ you go for your buzzer and answer’ the Kiss’. That’s what Matthew Milliken did to put his team in the black. A hard set of bonuses on Russian cities yielded no further points. Ian Jack was at least slinging some buzzer as well now, but his punt of Henry II as the king who prosecuted the 7 bishops for seditious libel was way short of the mark. People whose surnames began with Ner provided 10 more points, and the lead was now in triple figures. Nobody managed sorrel – as in Hetty – for the next starter. Tom Hewett knew that C.S.Lewis wrote ‘Mere Christianity’ but components of the brain provided none of us with any points. For the music starter nobody recognised the work of the great Alan Menken from the wonderful “The Little Mermaid”. The next starter was one of those which became patently obvious in its last word – namely – pouch. Ian Jack won that buzzer race to answer marsupials. The Ulster team earned the scorn of my daughter who was watching with me by failing to answer any of the music bonuses which required them to identify the actor singing and the Disney film from which the song came. Sam Hosegood threw a slender lifeline to Ulster, coming in too early for the next starter, allowing Matthew Milliken to answer that Germany’s first university was in the state of Hesse. The French Directory again proved a set of bonuses too far for them. So, with Ulster having taken three starters but missed out on 9 bonuses, the score at the 20 minute mark stood at 120 – 25.

Oliver Bowes won the race to answer Valkyries for the next starter. Fundamental constant in Physics saw me take a full house. Nah, just joshing, I got zilch. Bristol took 2. Sam Hosegood added to Ulster’s woes by knowing that Eugenius Warming is regarded as the founder of the science of ecology. Greta Garbo (Great bloody Garbo – God bless the memory of Peter Cook) saw Bristol add a further ten points to their score. Ian jack won the buzzer race to identify Billie Jean King for the second picture starter, brought up a set of bonuses on other tennis players who have had stadia or courts named after them. At last they accrued a couple of bonus points. Kirsty Biggs knew that Scott Fitzgerald wrote This Side of Paradise – which was also the title of an episode of Star Trek, the original series, although I don’t think that was written by Scott Fitzgerald. Poor devil had already been dead for decades – although I’d  like to think he’d have wanted to write for Star Trek. Literary characters with three letter names brought both of us just the one correct answer. Tom Hewett knew that Khaleda Zia was the first female prime minister of Bangladesh. Bonuses on Chabrier took Bristol, who had long since passed over the event horizon, to 185. An astronomy bonus on degrees of Ascension saw me have a wild stab of 45 which proved correct both for me and Sam Hosegood. Bonuses on India provided nothing, but this was immaterial bearing in mind that their opponents were already lying prone upon the canvas. The final moments saw Tom Hewett identify Fort William from a description. Gonged out before we got any of the bonuses, the final score was 205 to 45 for Bristol.

Hard lines Ulster. I think it’s fair to say that this was a match too far for them, and I shudder to think what their bonus conversion rate was.

As for Bristol, well played, and good luck in the sudden death match to come. Without wishing to be horrible, I doubt that their own bonus conversion rate quite reached 50%. It will need to be better to have a chance of going much further, I dare say.

Jeremy Paxman Watch

Rather sniffy our Jez when referring to the picture starter – “the picture starter which everyone had such difficulty with – “ they got it wrong Jez, that’s all.

He was less sneery and more amused when Ulster suggested that Marshal Ney was Napoleon’s chief diplomat, “No. . . he wasn’t a diplomat in the slightest!” The words ‘pot’, ‘kettle’ and ‘black’ spring irresistibly to mind, Jeremy.

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

‘Anna Christie’ – Garbo’s first talkie, was based on a play by Eugene O’Neill

Mastermind 2018 : Semi Final 5

At last the Beeb have deigned to allow us to watch the next semi final. As has become traditional, let us have a look at the first round form book.

Christine Quigley	Margaret Atwood’s Maddaddam novels	15	0	12	6	27
Claire Slater	The Life and Works of Leonardo da Vinci	12	1	13	3	25
Jonathan Frere	Julius Caesar	10	0	12	0	22
Brian Chesney	Harold Wilson	15	0	15	1	30
Jonathan Wright	The History of the Tour de France	12	0	15	0	27

Now, even before we consider previous experience, Brian Chesney rather stuck out as the man to beat according to first round form. When we consider he is a former finalist, and runner up in Clive’s series, then you can see why it was difficult for me to look beyond him for the favourite to last night’s show. However we’ve also seen already this season that Mastermind can be no respecter of reputations. So if not Brian, well, Jonathan Wright, although a runner up, had shown well in his heat, and neither Christine Quigley nor our own Claire Slater should be dismissed out of hand. 

So to the show. Now, last time out I set a new record aggregate specialist round total for this year’s semis. Casting an eye down the list of subjects for last night’s show, it soon became obvious that I was more likely to set a record lowest aggregate total . Jonathan Wright’s round on Manchester Music offered me a little, and I was glad to take two points and run on that one. Jonathan had scored 12 on the Tour de France in the first round – off 30 seconds less he scored 7 on this round. That’s perfectly respectable, but as we’ve seen already in this series, it’s just not going to be enough to allow you to make a realistic challenge for a win. 

I scored 2 on Christine Quigley’s round on The Battle of Clontarf. I expected to get one by answering Brian Boru to every question, but I did know the Jarl of Orkney as well, much to my surprise. Christine Knew her subject, but the semi final is a funny old beast. I know a number of people whose opinion I value and respect who reckon that the semi final can often be harder than the final, and so even Christine dropped a couple of points. Nevertheless, 9 is a good score, and can keep you in contention at this stage. 

I don’t recall ever having watched an episode of E.R. I know that years ago, when it first began showing in the UK, it was shown on a Thursday evening at the same time as I was playing it he quiz in the Aberavon Rugby Club. Besides, doctors, or cops for that matter don’t do it for me. Courtroom dramas, that’s a different matter, however, I digress. So I scored zilch. LAM reader Claire posted a perfectly respectable 7, but too many obscure plot details prevented her from building a higher total. 

I have actually visited the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford. So I did think that I might maybe nick a point or two on Jonathan Frere’s round on Augustus Pitt Rivers. In short, I did not. Jonathan, like Brian, took part in a previous series. Unlike Brian he didn’t make it to the semis. So Jonathan had dne well to reach this stage. Like Christine he posted 9, a good performance, but was still caught out on a couple of questions. 

So to Brian Chesney. Brian was offering The Giordano Bruno Novels of SJ Parris, or SJ Who? as he/she is known in LAM Towers. Which probably gives you a clue that I posted another duck on this round. On the other hand Brian managed to answer every one of them. A double figure round in the semi final specialists is a terrific performance, and bearing in mind Brian’s prowess with GK, you could probably have named your own price on any of the other four contenders at this stage of the game. 

Still upsets can happen, and the contest was far from over yet. Jonathan Wright was first to return to the chair. Now, going back to my comment about some people thinking that the semi final stage actually being the hardest, what does sometimes happen in the semis is that the GK is ramped up a little bit, and so some contenders who have done well in GK in the heat seem to underperform when it comes to the semi. Jonathan had scored an excellent 15 in the heat in GK. Sadly he never hit these heights in this semi final round. It just wasn’t his night, and he dropped a few which I dare say he’d have had on another evening. A respectable 8 put him on 15.

Claire did rather better. Her battling 9 put her onto 16, a point ahead of Jonathan. It didn’t look likely to remain the top score for long, but never mind. Claire, you can be pleased with your 2018 campaign, and I hope you really enjoyed it. 

Realistically, if either Christine or Jonathan Frere was going to put Brian into the corridor of doubt, then they were going to need to post a very good score in GK. This looked a little unlikely bearing in mind that they posted good rather than great scores in their GK rounds in the heats. Christine matched Jonathan Wright’s 8, and having started 2 points to the good she leapfrogged Claire into the lead, with a score of 17. So far, each of our contenders had been in the lead following their GK round. Would Jonathan Frere repeat this feat? Yes indeed. In his heat Jonathan scored 12 on GK. In real terms, with 30 seconds less, his score of 10 in this semi was statistically better. That was the good news. The bad news was that I couldn’t see it being enough to put Brian into the corridor of doubt.

Brian is a pretty nerveless performer in my experience of watching him in Mastermind, and listening to him in Brain of Britain. I’ll be honest, I thought he had quite a few bouncers to contend with in his GK round, but nothing phased him, and he made relatively short work of the 9 he needed to go into the lead, finishing with 12 and a 4 point margin of victory. Well played sir. AM I going to jinx Brian by tipping him to win the final. No, sir, I am not, well, not yet, anyway. But I will say this. It wouldn’t surprise me at all if Brian, the ‘bridesmaid’ in Mastermind and BOB in the past, turns out to be the bride in this series. Time will tell. 

The Details

Jonathan Wright	Manchester Music 1978 - present	7	1	8	3	15	3
Christine Quigley	The Battle of Clontarf	9	1	8	4	17	5
Claire Slater	E.R.	7	2	9	1	16	1
Jonathan Frere	The Life and Word of Augustus Pitt Rivers	9	0	10	0	19	0
Brian Chesney	The Giordano Bruno Novels of SJ Parris	11	0	12	1	23	1

University Challenge Quarter Finals stages - Qualification Match - Newcastle v. St. John's, Cambridge

Newcastle v. St. John’s Cambridge

Newcastle, represented by Jack Reynard, Molly Nielsen, Adam Lowery, and their skipper Jonathan Noble, had a victory over Bristol in their first quarter match, which looked more comfortable on the scoreline than it actually was. Their unbeaten opponents in this first qualification match were St. John’s, represented by John-Clark Levin, Rosie McKeown, Matt Hazell, and their captain James Devine-Stoneman defeated the University of Ulster, where their blitz start gave the enough of a cushion to ride out a late onslaught. The prize in this show? Qualification for the semi finals. 

I’ll be honest, even before Jonathan Noble came in with an incorrect interruption for the first starter, the name Alfred Waterhouse rang a bell, and the moment JP mentioned a building with facades of terracotta I went for the Natural History Museum. Rosie McKeown put the all into the open goal for that one. Biopics provided me with a full house, and St. John’s with 2.I’ll be honest, when I hear the word ‘monetarism’ I tend to automatically think of Milton Friedman – who I used to think was also theatre critic for the Evening Standard – and it was Jonathan Noble who atoned for his earlier misfire by winning the buzzer race for this one. Nobel laureates yielded both of us only the one correct answer. I’ve no idea where I’ve read about Bird in Space, but the moment it was mentioned I came up with the name Brancusi. So did Molly Nielsen. Astronomy bonuses whose answers began with H provided  a full house.For the picture starter we saw the titles of three paintings by the same artist, given in the language in which they were originally titles. Le Fils de l’Homme (1964) made me chance my arm with Rene Magritte (surely Le Fils De la Pomme? Oh, come on folks – puns in French as well, that’s gotta be worth the price of admission today.) Molly Nielsen took her second successive starter with this one. I had Giacometti from L’Homme Qui Marche, and also Salvador Dali, but I missed Malevitch. Newcastle took just the last of these. I’ll be honest, I have no idea whether my school had any Brady’s Reagent to destroy, but neither team managed to identify it from the question – Jack Reynard losing 5 for an incorrect interruption. Rosie McKeown won the buzzer race to identify the language group including Finish and Hungarian as taking it’s name from the Urals. Animal sanctuaries in India, and the states in which they are located promised me little, and delivered less – St. John’s managed one. So at the 10 minute mark we had a nicely balanced contest, as Newcastle led 45 – 30.

John Clark Levin knew that Deo Vindice was the motto of the Confederate States of America. Artists sponsored by Queen Cristina of Sweden saw St. John’s quickly grab a full house and the lead. A lovely UC starter saw Johnathan Noble link a Henry James novel and a Canterbury tale with the word Miller. Experiments concerned with the theory of Biogenesis – aren’t they a Phil Collins tribute band? – gave me a lap of honour moment when Louis Pasteur proved correct for the last question. Newcastle had also managed the first bonus. Nobody knew WV Quine for the next starter, but John Clark Levin lost five. Now, when the next starter asked for apes of South East Asia, James Devine Stoneman zigged with orangutan, allowing Newcastle a shot at an open goal. After all, the other ape, as opposed to monkey of the area is the gibbon. They spurned the chance to zag that way, and thus an opportunity was missed. For the third starter in a row, St. John’s lost five through an incorrect interruption. I’m sure that Rosie McKeown was going for Albrecht Durer, which made perfect sense, but the two letters being looked for had to be those of the domain name of the country that won the world cup in 2010. Spain = es, but nobody in Newcastle knew, and a second chance to capitalise went begging. Now, when JP said Chulalongkorn, apart from an urge to say bless you, a memory of that being the name of the Crown Prince in the 1970s TV series Anna and the King – based on The King and I – based on Anna Leonowens’ experiences as governess at the court of the King of Siam – also came into my head. So I answered Thailand just before John Clark Levin did the same to get his team out of reverse gear. Bonuses on battles whose names began with the same three letters gave them the full house they needed to take back the lead. This seemed to galvanise St. John’s, and James Devine Stoneman came in very quickly to identify Mossbauer for the next starter. Phosphorus and phosphates provided another 5 points. For the music starter we wanted an Austrian composer. Since Jonathan Noble zigged with Mozart, both Rosie McKeown and I zagged correctly with Haydn. The bonuses gave us three more works constructed with the help of palindromes. They only yielded the one for either of us. Oh, Jack Reynard was very unlucky when he came in early for the next starter. Given the names of Andrew Johnson, Chester Arthur, Theodore Roosevelt and Lyndon Johnson, he gave the answer ‘succeeded a dead president.’ Now, while they all did that, it sadly didn’t fit the rest of the question , which specified that these were the ONLY men to do what? The first man to succeed a dead president was, I believe, John Tyler, when W.H. Harrison caught a chill on his inauguration and obligingly died a matter of days later. Given the whole question John Clark Levin supplied the answer. Jack Reynard did look a little cheesed off, which I understand, but that’s what can happen sometimes. Hard luck, I’m afraid. Shutdowns of the US Federal Government didn’t look promising, but I managed the same 2 that St. John’s did. Right on the cusp of the 20 minute marked it seemed as if St. John’s had begun to kick for the line, leading as they did by 120 – 60.

In a fabulous starter neither team knew that the favourites in Shakespeare’s Richard II who share their names with Royal Parks are Bushey and Green. Which is also the answer to the question, what does a privet hedge look like, but I digress. Medical student Molly Nielsen was very quick to recognise a description of the peritoneum for the next starter. A full house was provided on bonuses about Emma of Normandy and Harthacanute. Well, Harthacanute is better than none, I suppose. For the second picture starter both Rosie McKeown and I recognised the work of John Singer Sargent. More works by artists commissioned by the British War Memorials Committee provided them with one bonus, which was one more than they provided me. QUIZ CHESTNUT ALERT. Right, be honest. How many of you shouted out pheasant the moment that JP said nide? It took a little while longer, but Jack Reynard provided the answer for Newcastle. Physics delivered just a single bonus, but this was enough to take Newcastle to triple figures and give them a chance. Which was enhanced when Jonathan Noble recognised a quote relating to Eamonn De Valera. Events of the 20^th century summarised in We Didn’t Start The Fire by Billy Joel saw them come close for all three bonuses but only take one. Nobody knew that the word chino comes from the Spanish for toasted. Jack Reynard knew what PEP stands for – no, I have no intention of trying to transcribe his answer. The South coast of England gave them the 10 points to draw level with St. John’s, with just minutes to go. Times like this are when you want a buzzer like Rosie McKeown on your team. In the time that it took me to work out which two of the 4 US States beginning with New are contiguous, she had already answered New York and New Jersey. Unit conversions added just 1 correct answer for both of us, but it did run the clock down a little further, which was all in St. John’s favour. Newcastle had to take the next starter, but it was the marvellous Miss McKeown who recognised that we were being asked for cogito ergo sum, or I think therefore I am. That really applied the coup de grace, earning bonuses on Symphonies. Didn’t matter, since the gong ended the contest, giving St. John’s a winning score of 160 – 135.

Good contest, good show. Congratulations to St. John’s, and Newcastle, well, don’t count them out yet. 

Jeremy Paxman Watch

I was absolutely delighted to hear JP pronounce the dinosaur as diPLODacus- my childhood pronunciation of the beast - rather than a diplOH-dockus as seems to have become pretty universal in intervening years. 

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

Based on the Russell – Einstein Manifesto, the conference which brings together scientists concerned about the proliferation of nuclear weapons is called Pugwash. Apparently the conference which brings together scientists who aren’t concerned about it is called Cutthroat Jake.

Mastermind 2018 Semi Final 4

Sorry I didn’t post last night, folks, but it was a bit of a special day, as I became a grandad again for the third time. My grandson is Alfie James Clark, and he's an absolute little cracker. 

That’s enough about me. Let’s have a look at the field for last night’s show: -

Kyle Hobman	Parks and Recreation	12	0	12	0	24	0
David Sutherland	John George Lambton, 1st Earl of Durham	13	1	13	5	26	6
David Love	The Life and Paintings of Pieter Brueghel the Elder	13	0	15	2	28	2
Ken Morland	Red Dwarf	14	0	14	3	28	3
Nicola Nuttall	Kirsty MacColl	15	0	13	1	28	1

Well, what conclusions could we draw from that, bearing in mind that three contenders had the same number of correct answers in the first round? If we’re looking for ways to separate the wheat from the chaff, to use an unkind phrase, Nicola’s score was based on the solid bedrock of a fantastic score on Specialist. You can argue that with 30 seconds less this would be less of a factor. Both David Love and Ken Morland had passed more than once in their GK, and for reasons I’ve gone into before, I think clear rounds can be a better option. Just my opinion and feel free to disagree. If we’re looking to separate these two, then David has been this way before, coming third in the Grand Final in 2012, so he is an experienced hand at this game. So is David Sutherland come to that, a semi finalist back in 2010 in Jesse’s series, although again, I was worried by the number of passes he incurred in the first round. As for Kyle Hobman, well, you may recall that he knocked out the great Didier Bruyere back in his heat, so he was not to be discounted. 

In fact it was Kyle who kicked the whole contest off last night. Kyle offered us the subject of my favourite band when I was a teenager, Pink Floyd. If I tell you that I spent a lot of money and my 17^th birthday watching them perform The Wall at Earl’s Court, maybe that will give you a clue how much I liked them. Mind you, I did think that if they asked that many questions after about 1986 I’d be sunk. Thankfully they didn’t, and I knew the one about Douglas Adams anyway. Kyle had obviously done his homework, but even so he’d left a couple of gaps in his knowledge, and he and I both scored 7 on the round. It’s a good score, but not the great one that I though he’d need to compete in this heat.

Our first recidivist then was David Sutherland. David was answering questions on Marshall Georgy Zhukov, the man who did more than probably any other single individual to defeat the German Army during World War II. Having started with a 7 I had high hopes of improving on my best semi final SS aggregate of 16 for this season, but I only managed to garner 2 more pieces of low hanging fruit to bring my total to 9. Last time out David had a bit of a mare in his semi specialist. His 6 last night was quite a bit better than that, but it was never going to give him a realistic shot at the win, sadly.

My pre contest favourite for the win, David Love, was answering on Stan Cullis. Now, my knowledge of the history of English football is not encyclopaedic, but I did reckon on getting at least one or two, and two it was that I managed. David did considerably better. On a semi final SS round, once you get into double figures you’ve had a great round. David scored 11. If he could come anywhere close to the superb GK round he’d delivered during the heats, then I couldn’t see anyone beating him.

Ken Morland’s round on the Works of H.P. Lovecraft (I've just noticed that I originally typed the WOKS of HP Lovecraft. Chinese cooking with Cthulhu? ) was the one round last night that offered me nothing in terms of points, and to be fair, that’s exactly what it delivered. Never been tempted to read any of them. Ken’s round wasn’t as good as David’s. He took one pass which I thought might well prove significant, but at least he scored 9 which meant that he was only 2 points behind. I couldn’t see Ken winning, but at least he was close enough to David to make it interesting, provided that he could produce a GK performance which matched or bettered his performance in the heats. 

Finally Nicola Nuttall on my second banker subject of the show, the films of Tom Hanks. I’m not a great film goer at all, and this becomes more and more pronounced as the years go by.  However I do like Tom Hanks, and I’ve watched an awful lot of his films. This was borne out by my score of 7, which gave me a new aggregate record of 18 for this season’s semis. Nicola did slightly better, scoring 8. A good performance, but not as good as her performance in the heats, and I fancied she’d finish somewhere down among the wines and spirits when all the shouting was over. 

First back into the chair was David Sutherland. In a 2 minute GK round, with the length of the questions being asked, anything in double figures in GK is good, and anything in the teens is excellent. So David certainly produced a good, battling round with 11. However, the heat winners of the previous 3 semis had all scored better on GK, and with David starting 5 points to the good, you just couldn’t see this putting him into the corridor of doubt at all. Kyle Hobman was next to return to the chair. He started like an express train, picking off the first few questions with ease. He’d obviously decided on a no-pass tactic, and you already know my feelings about that. While the rest of his round was not quite as good as the start, he too picked up a good score of 11 to raise the target to 18. Still not high enough to worry David L unduly, I thought.

Nicola Nuttall couldn’t match what had gone before. Her round of 9 was perfectly respectable, but to be fair she never looked like overhauling Kyle, and finished with 17, although on strict pass countback she was ahead of David S. So to Ken Morland. With hindsight, did Ken really reckon he was in with a chance at the start of his round? Who knows? What I do know is that Ken did what you must do when you’re a couple of points behind, answer as many questions as you possibly can to make it as difficult as you can for the contender who has to follow. Ken too scored 11. Now, this put him on 20, and although there’s only 1 point’s difference between 19 and 20, it represents an important psychological barrier. As did the fact that David L. now needed a double figure score in order to win without recourse to pass countback. 

He looked like he was going to do it, too. He ripped through the first three questions, not all of which were low hanging fruit at all. Then suddenly 5 consecutive questions stopped him in his tracks. Firstly he couldn’t dredge up the name Dorothy L. Sayers, then made an error when asked about Gods worshipped by a South American people. He zigged with Aztecs – North American – when he should have zagged with Incas. You could see from his facial expressions that this was playing on his mind, and another 3 questions and a precious 30 seconds went by before he could manage another correct answer. This pretty much set the seal on this as ‘one of those rounds’, as David dropped another couple which he’d have answered correctly on another day, and he finished the round with 6 for 17. It’s a horrible thing, but however good you are sometimes it’s just not your night, and this was one of those times for David. 

So very well played Ken. He looked a little shocked – whether this was because he didn’t expect to win, or because he’d have to go through it all over again for the final, only he could tell us. 

The Details

Kyle Hobman	Pink Floyd	7	0	11	0	18	0
David Sutherland	Marshall Georgy Zhukov	6	1	11	2	17	3
David Love	Stan Cullis	11	0	6	2	17	2
Ken Morland	The Works of HP Lovecraft	9	1	11	0	20	1
Nicola Nuttall	The Films of Tom Hanks	8	1	9	0	17	1

University Challenge Quarter Final Stages - Edinburgh v. Emmanuel

Edinburgh v. Emmanuel, Cambridge 

Yes, dearly beloved, it’s half term, and so what better way to start a Tuesday than a UC review? Another two teams made their first attempt to win a quarter match. First up were Edinburgh, represented by John Heaton-Armstrong, Stanley Wang, Philippa Stone and their captain, Innis Carson. Their opposition, Emmanuel Cambridge, represented by Ed Derby, Kitty Chevallier, James Fraser and their captain Alex Mistlin are not, to my mind, one of the most fancied teams, but useful dark horses who can cause any side problems at this stage of the competition. 

A very good early buzz from Kitty Chevallier linked an edible tuber and a city with the name Jerusalem. Their first set of bonuses, on alliteration brilliantly brought a bonus bonanza. Stanley Wang opened Edinburgh’s account, being the first to recognise a question relating to Richard Feynman. Huge statues and their Geographical coordinates were an interesting although highly gettable set which gave Edinburgh their own full house.Neither team knew that a particular style of art belonged to Buddhism for the next starter. John Heaton-Armstrong came in too early for a term for a particular variety of language with pidgin, losing 5 and allowing Kitty Chevallier to tap in patois to the open goal. Psychology brought me two and Emmanuel one bonus. Now, the next starter gave us a definition of the word ‘methinks’, which was taken by the Edinburgh starter. A good shout, and it looked even better when this led to a full house on a set of islands named after explorers. The picture starter showed a photo still from a film which people of my vintage probably had no difficulty recognising, “My Beautiful Laundrette”. Of course, no one in either team is even remotely close to my age, and so both missed out. Philippa Stone did a lot of the hard work on the next starter, yet ended up losing 5 for Edinburgh. She recognised a description of the fist ever kidney machine and buzzed early with the answer – dialysis. So close but no cigar, for the rest of the question actually asked for the organ whose function it replicated. Bad luck, and it allowed James Fraser to tap in for the points. This brought up the picture bonuses, more stills from films representative of ‘the new queer cinema movement’. Emmanuel only managed the one, which meant that they led 50 – 40 at the 10 minute mark. 

A lovely UC special asked for 2 of the three city names that appear in the names of properties in the London standard version of Monopoly. A rush of blood to the head saw John Heaton-Armstrong chance his arm with Kent, allowing Kitty Chevallier in with Coventry and Leicester. A bonus on Alphas in Science followed. Now, for the next starter, I’m sure John Heaton-Armstrong knew that the list JP had started all featured in works by Pushkin, but the name escaped him, and he knew he was wrong with Shostakovitch. Given then that the writer concerned was killed in a duel Kitty Chevallier was there to provide the correct answer. Pushkin also wrote a verse about my 5x great Uncle, George Dawe. Not very interesting, but true. The Seven Churches of Asia only brought the one bonus. None of us recognised the work of Saint-Saens for the music starter. I guessed that the Oyo Empire and the Aro Confederacy would have been in Nigeria, neither of the teams could. It had been several minutes since and Edinburgh correct buzz, but this was supplied by Innes Carson who was in quickly with the word fulcrum. This brought the dubious benefit of the music bonuses. No points were taken, but at least Edinburgh had found something of their range. I do like periodic table questions, and when I supplied VAN as the first three letters of the element between titanium and chromium just before James Fraser I decided to get while the going was good, and set off on my lap of honour. The playwright Laura Wade didn’t do much for them, and this meant that, as we approached the 20 minute mark, Emma had a lead of 100 -45. They’d had by far the better of the buzzer in this middle period of the contest. However it seemed to me that they weren’t making the most of the bonuses, and because of this, Edinburgh were closer than they might have been.

Edinburgh knocked ten points off the lead with skipper Innes Carson knowing that teleost relates to fish. Chaim Weiszman surprisingly gave me a full house – too knackered for another lap of honour, I’m afraid. Edinburgh managed just the one. Still, Edinburgh were moving forward, with the skipper taking a second consecutive starter with French sociologist Durkheim. Again, they only managed one bonus, this time on human prehistory. Surprisingly neither team recognised a picture of Jonathan Swift for the second picture starter. Both James Fraser and I knew that it was two years before Edward I was crowned – I’ve heard of long holidays, but that one takes the biscuit. This won the picture bonuses where Emma could only identify one of a set of pictures of writers of speculative fiction about Mars. Now, if you’re asking about alloys with different amounts of carbon, even I know that iron is going to be a good shout. So did Innes Carson.  Again, though, Edinburgh themselves could only take a single bonus on a set on jolly German funster Angela Merkel. The contest at this stage saw only a full house separating both teams, but neither team had been close to one of those for ages. Philippa Stone seemed disbelieving that her answer of Cuthbert as the sainted Bishop of Lindisfarne was correct for the next starter, but it was. When I was a kid I loved dinosaurs, and can stull remember the meanings of some of their names. So I took an easy full house on the set of bonuses on dinosaurs of the late Jurassic. So, amazingly, did Edinburgh. Thus, after everything which had already happened, both teams were level on points. Captain Alex Mistlin chanced his arm with an early buzz on the Olympic football champions, but the gamble lost five points. This was compounded when Stanley Wang supplied the correct answer of Brazil. There was only time for two bonuses, neither of which Edinburgh could take. On the gong, the final score was Edinburgh 125 to Emmanuel’s 110. 

Congratulations to Edinburgh for resilience. That crucial full house might have just pushed their bonus conversion rate towards respectability. As for Emmanuel, well, I doubt that their own conversion rate makes pleasant reading, for make no mistake, this was where they lost the match. Without wishing to be too horrible, on this form you wouldn’t fancy either team making the semis, but there’s still a long way to go in these quarter stages. 

Jeremy Paxman Watch

The great man started by sniffily apologising to Emmanuel for the set on alliteration being so easy – and you sensed that this was only half in jest. 

A fine splutter came when, asked for one of the 7 churches of Asia which shared its name with a large city in North America, Emmanuel replied Toronto. JP’s eyebrows headed for the ceiling, and the indignant reply, “The church of Toronto!” gave us all a good idea what he thought of this answer. Later on Jez seemed rather peeved that both teams missed the Jonathan Swift picture, and when Emmanuel won the right to the bonuses he harked back to “Jonathan Swift, who was the GEEZER you failed to identify.” Jez, don’t try to get down with the kids, mate. It’s just embarrassing. He went on to reply to the Emmanuel suggestion that HG Wells’ photo was really Franz Kafka, “ It doesn’t look a BIT like Kafka.” Harsh – but actually quite right. 

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

Jonathan Swift speculated that Mars had two moons in Gulliver’s Travels

University Challenge - Quarter Final Match - St. John's Cambridge v. Ulster

St. John’s, Cambridge v. Ulster

Last week we saw what I believe to be the best Oxford team this season, Merton, over come a good Fitzwilliam side. This week we saw what many people – this writer included – believe to be the strongest of the Cambridge teams, St’ John’s. The team, consisting of John-Clark Levin, Rosie McKeown, Matt Hazell, and their captain James Devine-Stoneman have made very smooth progress up to this point in the competition. Their opponents were the doughty battlers of Ulster, Cathal McDaid, Kate Ritchie, Matthew Milliken and their own skipper, Ian Jack. They had to fight their way through the repechage, but have shown good resilience and spirit already in the competition.

Now, the commander of the Army of Northern Virginia had the surname Lee, as in Robert ., which gave first blood to John-Clark Levin of St. John’s. Literary figures who were also MPs were a nice set, and they brought us both a full house. However 5 points of this was lost by an incorrect interruption for the next starter. Neither team could dredge up the term horizon from the definitions given. I could, but decided to gamble on there being another lap of honour question for me later. Both teams sat on the buzzer a bit for the next starter. Even after the clinching clue – opera inspired by two lovers in celtic legend – it was a good second or so before Rosie McKeown buzzed in with Tristan and Isolde. Museums and Art Galleries brought 2 more correct answers for St. John’s, and meant that I had answered the first 9 questions on the bounce. I didn’t get into double figures – the Kennelly Heavyside layer did for me next. Did for both teams as well. The answer was E. No, me neither. The next starter took a moment or two to get going, but when the novel Coningsby came into it, both I and Rosie McKeown knew it was Disraeli. Apparently he wrote it during one of Gladstone’s shorter speeches. Experiments at CERN did none of us any good for the bonus set. The picture starter showed us a map of Africa with a body of water highlighted. John-Clark Levin buzzed in just after I said The Gulf of Guinea with the same correct answer. More alliterative Geographical features brought a couple, but they missed out on Cape Cod. I know nowt about marginal utility, but John-Clark Levin took a double with it. Bonuses on Academy awards for best foreign language films brought a further ten points. This meant that just past the ten minute mark St. John’s led with 95 to 0, and Ulster had been completely shut out to this point. 

Now, the next question on sub atomic particles saw me answer neutrinos, and as I set off on the lap of honour the St. John’s skipper gave the same answer, That was over a hundred unanswered points now. Annie Kenney, the political activist, was a new one on me, but St. John’s took one. JP must have been thinking about offering the doom -laden words of encouragement – plenty of time to get going Ulster – but refrained long enough to allow John-Clark Levin to take what I think was already a fourth starter with the term Life Force. The Primordial Soup Theory – they used to serve that in my old school – provided more bonuses for the St. John’s express. Still no encouragement from Jeremy for Ulster. Rosie McKeown took a punt on Kalisz being in Poland, and was rewarded with another starter to her name. Poetry brought two more correct answers. I’ll be honest, I don’t remember the last time we got as far as the music round with one of the teams not managing a shot on target, but this is where we were. Was it me, or was there genuine surprise in Roger Tilling’s voice as he announced ‘Ulster Milliken’ as Matthew Milliken correctly identified the work of Cole Porter. Phew. More songs performed by Ella Fitzgerald yielded another five points. Still, thus encouraged Kate Ritchie buzzed early to identify Banting as one Scientist who’d won the 1923 Nobel for the discovery of insulin. I knew that, but I was not going to take another lap of honour in the same show, thank you very much. The Biblical Book of Judges built on this good work and saw Ulster score a full house. Again, Kate Ritchie was in very early with the word timbre for the next starter. Volcanoes didn’t bring anything to the table. Now, Cathal McDaid knew that if you hear ‘author’ and ‘Prague’ in the same question, you’ll be right a hell of a lot more often than you’ll be wrong if you answer Kafka. Organic chemistry offered chances – even I knew that carbolic acid is phenol. Ulster took that and had a full house – and so did I! Yes, ladies and gents, this meant that I had to set off on another lap of honour. Exhausted, I sank back to the sofa to see that Ulster were now 75 points behind, with 75 to St. John’s 150 at the 20 minute mark.

It got even better for Ulster as Cathal McDaid took their 4^th consecutive starter, identifying a still from Twin Peaks for the second picture starter. Three other examples of feature film directors working on the small screen provided 5 points and took them to 90. Now, I’m sorry, but you just can’t sit back on a question which says ‘spacecraft’ and ‘Yuri Gagarin’. That’s a gimme, and their should have been a buzzer race. Sadly for Ulster Kate Ritchie took a complete guess with ‘soyuz’ , while Matt Hazell was if anything even further away with Mir. Sorry guys, but first man in space – Vostok 1, and you should know it. James Devine-Stoneman decided that Ulster had seen quite enough of the ball now, and answered correctly that the Southernmost point of the Indian peninsula is in Tamil Nadu. The Danish author Karen Blixen brought a further five points. Kate Ritchie practically leapt out of her chair in her haste to identify formaldehyde for the next starter. This brought Ulster to triple figures, which had looked unlikely at one point. Cities of the UK brought them to within 55 points of the leaders, but so little time remained. What slim chance remained for Ulster was stamped out by the St. John’s’ skipper, as he provided the term Lemma for the next starter. John Pym bonuses saw the Cambridge side stretch their lead again. Still, Matthew Milliken won the buzzer race to identify “The Raven” by Edgar Allen Poe. Italian composers offered me but little, but allowed Ulster to add a further 5 points to their score. That was it. At the gong, St. John’s had won by 185 to 130. 

A curious contest that. For the first half, St. John’s looked like world beaters, but then what happened afterwards suggested that they had been shooting at an open goal. John-Clark Levin and Rosie McKeown completely buzzed Ulster out of the game during the first 15 minutes or more. Yet when Ulster finally started to throw caution to the wind they at least matched them, and actually had the better of the second half. Well played, though, St. John’s, and as for Ulster, if they play their next match the way that they played the second part of this one, then they’re still not out of it by any means.

Jeremy Paxman Watch

I was keeping an eye open in this one, for Jez has made a habit of directing jibes towards Ulster in their previous contests. Maybe this was just due to their difficulty in finding buzzer range, but he was remarkably subdued, not even telling them that there was plenty of time to come back, and just smiling when cheers greeted their first starter, which he simply acknowledged with ‘Okay, you’re off the mark.” Jez was enjoying this contest, openly chuckling when Ulster considered both Alaska and Hawaii for one of the volcano bonuses, and zagged when they should have zigged, causing Matthew Milliken to splutter. 

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

Right – now by no means did I already know everything in this week’s show, nothing like. However I can’t say that any specific fact jumped out at me this week. Sorry.