University Challenge 2024 Second Round Open University v. University of East Anglia

The Teams

UEA

Melissa Shiress

Bryony Yates

Owen Tobin (Capt.)

Matthew Jennings

Open

Ellie Romans

Mike Holt

Anne Gavaghan

James Davidson

Already we’re on the second match of the second round. Last night the University of East Anglia, who gave Strathclyde a wee bit of a hiding last time out, played the Open University, comfortable winners of the second repechage match. The winners of the first repechage went through to the quarter finals last week. Were we going to see lightning striking in the same place this week?

In their last match the OU were much sharper on their buzzer than their opponents. James Davidson showed that he hasn’t lost any of that sharpness on the buzzer, coming in early for the first starter to give the answer of “The Silent Spring”. WD40 can help you get one of those. Two bonuses on blue plaques in Birmingham took their score to 20 for their first visit to the table. That man Davidson knew the next starter, that the Babadook (Babawhat?) was inspired by The Man In the Beaver Hat (Beaverwhat?) This brought them bonuses on the 2022 Mercury Music prize and they gratefully took a full house. UEA Skipper Owen Tobin did what you have to, and tried to come in early for the next starer before Open went for their buzzers. He guessed the latin American country referenced would be Peru, and sadly lost five for his pains. Give the cities Leon and Guadalajara I was surprised that OU didn’t get Mexico. “Keep still you little devil or I’ll slit your throat! – are the first words of . . . ” No, funnily enough it’s not Pride and Prejudice. I shouted Great Expectations just as James Davidson buzzed in with the same answer. Bonuses on computation brought OU another two correct answers and me nowt. Finally UEA got started when Matthew Jennings recognised various uses of the word classical. The bonuses on films with the word ‘tree’ in the title saw an always welcome name check for The Singing, Ringing Tree, some really weird shit  enchanting fantasy made in 1957 in East German and still being regularly shown on BBC children’s TV when I was growing up in the 70s. UEA managed 2 of these. The picture starter was a real UC special. We were shown a map of English postcode areas with one highlighted in red. Not only did the teams have to work out the postcode, but then they had to name the chemical element with the same symbol. Impressively quickly Bryony Yates worked out that it would be Lanthanum, for the Lancaster postcode area. Great work. UEA took two of the bonuses on other areas, but missed out on the Portsmouth Polonium pair. When Mary Anning was name checked in the next question, Bryony Yates zigged with Geology, allowing James Davidson to zag with Palaeontology. Bonuses on Virginia ‘Big Bad’ Woolf gave OU a lead of 80 – 30 as we closed in upon the 10 minute mark.

Now, if it’s a design and a Renfrewshire town, then it’s got to be Paisley. Melissa Shiress won the buzzer race for that one. One of a set on Plains was taken. Mike Holt recognised a description of the flag of Austria . 1 correct answer on the unpromising subject of pollen was given. James Davidson took another starter, recognising the title of a novel by Eleanor Catton. British Prime Ministers who all died in office in the 19^th century brought a full house, and stretched the lead so far that I felt it wouldn’t be long before Amol felt the need to encourage UEA. Without that though Matthew Jennings took the next starter with Friedrich Hayek. Marie ‘Qui?’ Laurencin yielded nothing for any of us. This was followed by the music set, and it was James Davidson who won the race to identify the work of Ludvig Van. Other composers who made symphonies with five movements brought a further two correct answers. With the lead beginning to approach close to triple figures Amol couldn’t hold himself back any more, and issued the exhortation to UEA, and the encouragement that there was plenty of time left. Owen Tobin found his range with the next starter, knowing that all the examples in the question could be symbolised by Tau. People whose initials are/were DD provided a brace of bonuses. James Davidson knew that a plaster and wood statue of an elephant used to stand in the Place de la Concorde in Paris. Physics questions I didn’t even begin to understand brought just the one correct answer. Nobody knew the term first principles for the next starter. Now, if a question references an album by the Clash, slam the buzzer through the desk and answer London Calling. Matthew Jennings did just that. Novels inspired by Don Quixote sullenly refused to relinquish any points to either of us. Surprisingly nobody knew the old quiz chestnut of the Chiltern Hundreds for the next starter. Melissa Shiress came in just too early for the next starter. Given that the surmae required also belonged to a New Zealand born Nobel prize wining scientist, Rutherford always looked like a good shout. Captain Anne Gavaghan took that one meaning that all of the OU team had answered at least 1 starter.. The writer Abu-Lughod brought us both a single correct answer. It was enough to ensure that OU now led by 170 – 80 at the 20-minute mark.

All over bar the shouting? Well, not necessarily but it was asking a lot of UEA to come back from this. Ellie Romans won the buzzer race to say that the two football clubs on either side of Stanley Park are Liverpool and Everton. One bonus on African leaders kept the ball rolling. So to the 2^nd picture starer – which was clearly Van Gogh’s Wheatfield with Crows. I just love Van Gogh’s work. James Davidson too recognised the work of Vincent Van. Other works cited in John Berger’s Ways of Seeing provided two more correct answers, after a misunderstanding about the first. Melissa Shiress correctly guessed that a Munsell Chart related to colour. Disaccharides – gesundheit – gave a full house that took UEA into tiple figures. They deserved that. But it was all too easy for Jams Davidson to take the next starter, answering that Monsieur Jean-Baptiste Poquelin was none other than Moliere. Planet Earth and Middle Earth provided a UC special set which rather stretched the idea of similarly sounding names a little too far for my liking. What the hell, OU still took a full house. Owen Tobin recognised various things called Flint – would James Coburn have been mentioned if we’d had the full set? Writers associated with the BBC World Service Caribbean Voices programme brought nowt to UEA. I was delighted to see Sam Selvon getting a namecheck. I read his excellent “The Lonely Londoners” a couple of years ago. Finally I got a Science starter to award myself a lap of honour. Yeah, I know Brownian Motion was a gimme, but I gotta take it where I can get it. Matthew Jennings had that one. Names of bicycle parts provided an interesting set which should have been a full house for UEA. Ellie Romans knew that Reading is at the western end of the Elizabeth Line for the next starter, and compounded it with a bonus on CERN. Nobody knew that 264 is the perfect square of a perfect square. The moment that Dwitt Wallace was mentioned it was clear that the next answer would be Reader’s Digest. One of my prouder achievements is managing to cancel a Reader’s Digest subscription that I had never actually taken out in the first place. It took a while to get to the end of the question and then Anne Gavaghan won the buzzer race. Okants mentioned in the Lady of Shallot – other than Shallots – allowed OU to give two correct answer just as the gong sounded. OU had won by 260 to 130.

A fair result, one thought. James Davidson scored a massive 9 starters, worthy of the Mastermind finalist that he is. They had a BCR of 62 while UEA who were having to live off scraps with some very tricky bonus sets had a BCR of 40.  Another great show, even if it wasn’t that close a contest.

How is Amol Doing?

I’m going to have to change the title for this section of the reviews, because you all know the answer – very well, thank you. I think I’ve worked it out now. While Jeremy Paxman was always the stern public schoolmaster who gave you a metaphorical six of the best if you didn’t do your prep, Amol is more the laid back, comprehensive school teacher who’s not that long ago completed his PGCE, and finds it easy to make friends with the kids, share a joke in class, lets you take five minutes off at the end of the lesson, and is not averse to having a quick puff of your ciggie behind the bike sheds.

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

The U shaped slots at the end of a pair of front forks that a bicycle wheel slips into are called dropouts.

Baby Elephant Walk Moment

When the force driving a harmonic oscillator approaches the natural frequency of the oscillator what phenomenon occurs whereby the amplitude of the oscillations increases significantly? That ain’t English! Dum de dumdum dum dum dum dum dumdum.

Mastermind First Round Heat 12

Good afternoon. Yes, it’s another Tuesday review for Mastermind this week. Apologies.

In my preview I noted that of all last night’s specialists, Peter the Great was looking like my best. Well, I was sort of right about that. I don’t know if the 2 points I gained particularly merit the use of the word best, but I didn’t score higher in any of the others. Seb Dwyer, who was answering in the chair put on a fine performance, getting into double figures with 10. Anything double figures nowadays puts you in with a shout in the GK round.

Caryn Ellis followed with questions on Exmoor National Park. As I hoped might happen I fluked a guess for a single point to add to the aggregate. Cary, like Seb before her, did an awful lot better. She too scored 10 points, a notable achievement considering just how wide ranging this sort of specialist round will often turn out to be.

Jonathan Paxton offered us the films of Quentin Tarantino. Considering that I’ve never watched any of the films, I thought that guessing two answers correctly as I did wasn’t bad going at all. Jonathan of course did better. He achieved respectability with a total of 7, but I’d guess that he maybe underestimate just how widely the net was going to trawl for questions in the round.

Last but not least Anne McElhinney. Now, I don’t dislike any contenders on Mastermind. However there are a couple of types I really, really like. First are the superstars, those who have prepared their subjects obsessively and then knock the GK out of the park. However I am also fond of those who just appear to be absolutely delighted to be on the show, and seem to thoroughly enjoy their turns in the chair. Anne was one of the latter – although her GK round is certainly worthy of mention shortly. She scored 5 on the Cicero trilogy, which didn’t seem to worry her in the least, even though it left her a whopping five points behind the leaders.

I have to be honest, though. Anne put it right with a storming GK roundin which she didn’t go particularly fast, but she did go accurately, seemingly conjuring answers out of thin air when she wasn’t sure. An excellent 13 took her running total to 18, and while I wasn’t sure she could win with that total, I was pretty sure she wouldn’t be last.

Anne’s round had opened the door to the corridor of doubt for the other three contenders. Jonathan, although he managed a perfectly respectable 9, could not find his way out of the other end of the corridor. It must play on your mind when you’re looking at needing 11 and no passes just to draw.

This meant that Anne could finish no lower than  3^rd. Surely Seb Dwyer would get the 9 he needed to surpass her total? Well, for much of the round it looked as if yes, he would. Only, he passed a couple of times, which meant that he could not force a tie break. If he scored 9 he would go into the lead. However, he only managed 8, and this was not enough considering the passes. Anne was still leader on the road, with only one more contender to come.

It must be said that after the first four or five questions it looked pretty clear cut that Caryn Ellis was going to overtake Anne, and indeed she did with several questions still to spare. In the end she added another three points to take her GK total to a good 11 and her overall score to 21. I applaud Caryn for saying that she was prompted to apply when she was recently diagnosed with autism. Our understanding of neurodivergence is far from complete, so it’s quite possible that this has helped Caryn in MM as she suggested. Whatever the case, very well done to you, and best of luck in the semis.

The Details

Seb Dwyer	Peter the Great of Russia	10	2	8	4	18	6
Caryn Ellis	Exmoor National Park	10	0	11	4	21	4
Jonathan Paxton	Films of Quentin Tarantino	7	0	9	0	16	0
Anne McElhinney	Robert Harris’ Cicero Trilogy	5	0	13	0	18	0

Why do you love Quizzing?

Sometimes, just sometimes, you play in a quiz that reminds you why you love quizzing.

On Thursday Adam from our team was question master. Now, it is true that I write in praise of Adam’s, Dan’s and Jess’ quiz more often than I ever write in praise of anybody else’s. But that’s because I do genuinely feel that they quizzes they’ve produced are clearly better than the quizzes produced by any of the other regular and semi regular setters.

It’s been a little while since any of us were question master and pretty much all of the quizzes in the club since have been a bit lacklustre for a variety of reasons that I’ve written about in the recent past in this very blog. I don’t plan to go on about this, because I’m still grateful that we have a quiz every week, and even if you are slapdash and careless about it, putting together a quiz takes mental energy.

But it does mean that for me, when Dan, Jess or Adam does a quiz at the club it tends to stand out a bit. Because, despite being amongst the least experienced quizzers at the club, they ‘get’ it. For one thing they all take into account the advanced average age of those taking part. For the number of times we get two regular question setters apologising to our team for asking entertainment questions from the 60s and the 70s, you couldn’t blame them for answering entertainment questions predominantly about the last 10 years and saying “I apologise to all of those of us who are old farts for asking this one”. But of course, they don’t. They go out of their way to make their quizzes accessible to all ages. Why? Because they get it – it being that the only reason for compiling the quiz in the first place is to give the teams an evening’s entertainment that they’ll enjoy.

What did I enjoy so much about Adam’s quiz? Well, for one thing there were no whythe’ells (as in why the ‘ell would anyone want to ask that question?) We only had one question wrong all evening, but that wasn’t because it was an easy quiz. No, it’s because all of the questions could succumb to logic if you really worked at them. As a team, we all played a blinder. With the picture quiz, it was all winners of the best actor Oscar in he last 60 years or so. Not all of them – 18 of them. We were pretty sure on all bar one, but again, it succumbed to the force of logic as we ticked off who it wasn’t, which led us to Jean Dujardin for The Artists – simply because if it wasn’t him, we couldn’t think who else it could possibly be.

And I guess that was the key to what I enjoyed so much. Unlocking the things we didn’t know for certain. Truffling out the answers. It’s one of the things I just love about quizzes. And as I said, it wasn’t that it was an easy quiz -which you could see from the scores of the rest of the teams – not trying to be harsh about it, but it’s a fact.

New Show: 007: Road to a Million

Did you know that Amazon owns MGM? I didn’t. Still, it also means that they own the James Bond franchise. Which brings me to 007: Road to a Million.

The USP, as I see it, in this show is putting pairs of everyday mops (members of the public) into a location from the movies and giving them Bond-esque challenges to achieve and general knowledge questions to answer.

Which is a tough ask for a production company to achieve. If we take the challenges, you can’t surely ask contestants to do anything that puts their lives at serious risk, and you don’t have all the special effects wizardry of the movies to use. So you are in danger of ending up with challenges which make the viewer think – what has this got to do with James Bond? Or even the Milk Tray man for that matter.

However, if you leave the Bond thing to one side until you get into the show, then there is certainly a level of challenge here. While it never quite matches the physicality of SAS: Who Dares Wins, or the gross out revulsion of some of the challenges on ‘I’m A Sleb Get Me Out of Here’, jumping from a helicopter, and estimating the weight of a tarantula (which involved picking it up) do make me glad to be sitting on the Clark sofa and not taking part.

I mean, if you do actually like taking on these kind of challenges, then I guess it’s an absolute blast, with visits to the Highlands of Scotland, Venice and Brazil amongst others thrown into the bargain.

But what about the questions, Dave? Well, like the first challenges, the first questions each pair get asked aren’t that challenging. Each question has three possible answers, and each is for serious, life changing amounts of money. But a scan among the credits reveals the name of Mr. David Bodycombe, and the questions get more and more difficult, and as a result, more and more interesting. I’m glad to say though that they did pretty much reward a certain amount of logical thinking. If one answer seemed more likely than the others it usually was because it was the correct answer.

I think that it helped me being able to binge watch several episodes one after another on Prime. Because I do think that certainly the first episode or two ask quite a lot of the viewer. There’s minimal explanation of the game play or what the game is really about. If you stick with the show you realise that it’s not a problem because it’s not that difficult to work out. IF you stick with it. Because I found the first episode to be a little disjointed in the way that it would suddenly jump from one contesting pair to another.

Another confusing thing is exactly what Brian Cox is doing. Now, I don’t blame Brian Cox for this. Dundee’s finest is a fantastic actor who always brings great value to anything in which he appears. But, I’m just not sure why he is in this. He plays a shadowy figure, who watches the contestants in a studio and whose voice asks the questions, when the contestants find them. Is he Blofeld? Is he M? It’s not clear, and keeping him apart from the contestants is maybe a bit of an own goal. Think what he would be like interacting with them like the various hosts of the different versions of The Traitors.

I’ve said before that shows that fall between two stools often just fall. As a viewer, it seems to me that you get more time devoted to the action adventure challenges than to the questions, yet it’s the questions that bring the contestants the wedge. But it has something. Hey, I like shows like SAS Who Dares Wins, Survivor and The Traitors so this always had a decent chance of appealing to me. But I’m really watching it as a show of this genre, and not as a quiz. I’d advise you to do the same.

Mastermind Prediction

Good morning. I’ve just been over to the BBC Mastermind website to have a look at tomorrow’s specialist subjects. They are – Peter the Great, Exmoor National Park, The films of Quentin Tarantino and The Cicero Trilogy by Robert Harris.

I will admit that I do have a tendency to play down my own chances. I didn’t make a preview last week, but if I had made a prediction it would not have approached the 17 that I actually did score. But in all honesty I really can’t see me scoring many points tomorrow. If we take the subjects individually:-

Peter the Great – if any of the subjects tomorrow could be called a banker I suppose that it would be this one, bearing in mind the fact that I once read an excellent biography of him, and watched Lucy Worsley’s documentary on him. But these were some time ago. Prediction – possibly 3 at a push.

Exmoor National Park -I’m ashamed to admit that I have never visited Exmoor National Park and know extremely little about it. It will need a lot of luck and a following wind for me to pick up anything here. Prediction – 0 to 1.

The films of Quentin Tarantino. You know I don’t believe that I have ever watched a Quentin Tarantino film. This is not so much through ever making a conscious decision not to watch one, as due to never making a conscious decision to watch one. Now even when there’s a round about a subject like this, there’s always just the chance something general might slip in. So my prediction, again is 0 – 1.

The Cicero Trilogy by Robert Harris. Again, I have never read the books. Now, presuming that the Cicero being trilogised in them is Marcus Tullius Cicero then a reasonably decent knowledge of Roman history gives me a chance of 1 or 2.

So, to summarise, I think that my most optimistic prediction is 7 points, and my most pessimistic is zero. Hopefully I’ll end up closer to the former than the latter.

University Challenge 2024 Round Two - Warwick v. Trinity, Cambridge

The Teams

Warwick

James Coe

Luke Beresford

Matthew Bliss (Capt)

Abby Akarapongpisakdi

Trinity, Cambridge

Sarah Henderson

Agnijo Banerjee

Ryan Joonsuk Kang (Capt)

Jeremi Jaksina

So a mere fortnight after their triumphant return in the repechage Trinity came looking to repeat and to gain their place in the quarters. First blood fell to Warwick though, and James Coe who knew the Fischer Tropsch process. Gesundheit. Two bonuses were taken on notable real-life robots. Nobody knew about he philosophical term disenchantment for the next starter. Jeremi Jaksina took the first points for Trinity, knowing that the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo are from Argentina. Writers who have been the subject of biographies by Hermione Lee brought just the one bonus. Jeremi Jaksina took a double, recognising the description of various women with the given name Rosa. I was waiting for Kleb, but it never came. TV shows linked by the US state of Oklahoma brought us both just the one bonus. Nobody knew a sunrise flag on a green background was used by the independence movement in Ireland prior to independence. Sarah Henderson knew that the Crawfords and Bertram’s feature in Jane Austen’s masterpiece, “Mansfield Park”. This earned the picture bonuses of three more flags featuring sunburst motifs. They took two but missed on the only one that I knew, Namibia. Ow, the chemistry starter that followed had a healthy slice of Greek Mythology attached to it or I’d never have known it was argonauts and earned myself a lap of honour. Agnijo Banerjee took that one. Bonuses on pairs of pendant paintings brought the first full house of the contest, and meant that Trinity led by 75 – 20.

Italian and Scottish symphonies were enough to put Sarah Henderson onto Mendelssohn for the next starter. Two bonuses on Thomas Cromwell put Trinity one question away from triple figures. Now it was that Warwick finally managed to win a buzzer race with skipper Matthew Bliss knowing the term simulacrum. Me? No – I could tell you about wasimacram, but that’s about it. The bonuses on subatomic particles earned me a bar to my lap of honour for correctly guessing neutrinos. (So much better than oldtrinos.) This was compounded by knowing cloud chamber and Thomson. I Can’t remember the last time I had a full house on science – if indeed I ever have. Warwick only managed two. I didn’t recognise the wee bit of Debussy for the music starter, but Sarah Henderson did. Other composers who composed works based on symbolist poetry Trinity took two which was two more than I did. Ryan Kang recognised the derivation of the word renegade to take the next starter. He became a little overexcited, raising his fists in the air in a momentary celebration. A dangerous thing to do with half the contest still to go. Playwrights associated with the Theatre of the Absurd (sounds like the plays we used to put on in dear old Elthorne High School in Ealing in the late 70s and early 80s. Not the plays – our ‘acting’) brought Trinity just the one correct answer. I would have answered Ionesco to all of them too in the hope of getting one. Just as Warwick were slipping out of the contest again, the skipper won the next starter knowing the method man, Stanislavski. A UC special set of pairs of places sharing the first three letters in their names brought just one bonus but at least they were moving again. James Coe maintained his momentum, providing the super answer of the prefix super for the next starter. 2 bonuses on cuisine followed. Agnijo Banerjee prevented Warwick from taking a treble, knowing that the most westerly borough of the West Midlands is Wolverhampton. They took a full house on chemical elements, and such was my science prowess in this show I took two of them too! But Warwick’s collective dander was up, and they struck back with Luke Beresford knowing that Mount Korab is the highest point of elevation in both North Macedonia and Albania. 2 bonuses were taken on grammar. I had a full house – thank you Lionel Rose (my latin teacher). Nevertheless, Trinity still had a commanding lead of 155 – 95 on 20 minutes.

Abby Akarapongpisakdi knew that the painting for the second picture starter was by a Russian artist. Three more late 19^th/early 20^th century paintings depicting bears brought two more bonuses. This set had taken Warwick into triple figures and they were stealthily creeping up on Trinity. Once again though Agnijo Banerjee beat them to the buzzer just when they were working up a head of steam. He knew the cryptocurrency Tether. Literature and Greek Mythology brought a full house, which lengthened the odds of a Warwick win somewhat. Nobody knew methyl violet for the next starter. Luke Beresford took the next starter on Egypt. This earned bonuses on Chad. Nice fella. No, not Chad the person, but Chad the country. TTwo bonuses meant that they were exactly fifty behind with four minutes left. Amazingly it was possible for them to draw. However they needed the next starter. They took it as well! Abby Akarapongpisakdi knew the Orange, Peach and others are all sporting Bowls in the USA. Only two bonuses on video games meant that they were still 30 behind and would need at least two visits to the table. However, with Sarah Henderson taking the next starter Warwick’s hopes wee all but extinguished. Monarchs who died from horse related incidents (No, not Catherine the Great! Wash your minds out with soap!) simultaneously ran down the clock and ran up the lead to forty five. Warwick needed two unopposed visits to the table. They got the first visit when Matthew Bliss correctly identified Emily ‘Cheap as Chips’  Dickinson for the next starter. Two bonuses on reptiles meant that Warwick really had to take a full house on he next set. If there was time. There was certainly enough time or James Coe to take the next starter. 2 bonuses on snakes in Shakespeare meant that the tie was possible if they took the starter. Oh, the narrow margin between success and defeat. Asked for a seven letter stage of cooking sugar, Abby Akarapongpisakdi came in with caramelisation. So close. It allowed Ryan Kang to seal the deal with caramel. Both he and Jeremi Jaksina put their hands together as if giving thanks to a deity. Rightly so for the contest was gonged before the first bonus was answered.

What a contest! What a fightback by Warwick! But congratulations too to Trinity who kept their heads. Warwick’s BCR was 60, while Trinity’s was 58, showing the closeness of the contes, which was played in an excellent spirit.

How is Amol Doing?

With 11 and a half minutes on the clock, Amol uncorked a dose of ‘plenty of time to get going, Warwick.’ That ole jedi magic was back, as captain Matthew Bliss won the next starter. As the contest went on the power of the Force became more and more evident as Warwick came within a gnat’s whisker of forcing a tiebreak.

I like the way that Amol shows his enthusiasm at the end of a contest – and that contest was certainly worth being enthusiastic about.

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

The name given to pairs of paintings that were painted together and meant to be displayed together is pendant paintings.

Baby Elephant Walk Moment

Nothing really this week. I can’t nominate the most convoluted Science question because I got it right.

 

 

Mastermind First Round Heat 11

You know, it occurs to me that I didn’t get round to previewing the specialists on Sunday. Had I done so I would have told you that this might well be one of my better weeks. Still, it’s easy to be wise after the event.

Let’s get started then. First into the chair in last night’s show was Tom Flowerdew. Tom was answering on Sir Isaac Newton. That’s one of those subjects where I always feel I have a chance of sneaking in an educated guess or two. In this case it was two. Tom did a lot better and for almost all of the round he looked on for a double figure score. The last question let him down but he still finished on 9, which was competitive at least.

Our second contender, Vicki Hingley, was answering on my ‘banker’ subject, “Red Dwarf”. Vicki achieved a respectable 7. She knew her stuff, but it seemed to me that nerves hampered her a bit, and in a couple of questions names I am sure she knew just wouldn’t come past the tip of her tongue – Jake Bullet and Tarka Dahl being two examples. Not wishing to brag – if you believe that you’ll believe anything – but I didn’t have the pressure on me sitting on the Clark sofa, and I managed my best specialist score of the series so far with 10.

On another night Gilliam McLean’s specialist subject, Mary, Queen of Scots, might well have been my banker. To be fair, I didn’t do badly either, taking five . Which was not as good as Gillian. She managed 7 points. It’s all in the eye of the beholder and the ear of the behearer, but I did think Gillian was given a tough old round here.

Bringin the specialists to an end was Paul Halliwell. He was answering on the Bard of Barking, Billy Bragg. I scored a big, fat zero, but nonetheless my aggregate of 17 was one of the best I’ve managed for a very long time. Paul started extremely well. I don’t know enough about Billy Bragg to comment on the relative difficulty of the questions, but in the second half of the round he slowed so that he finished with 8. Normally this would have put him amongst the wines and spirits, but in this show he was right on the leader’s shoulder.

Okay, Vicki’s GK round. My heart went out to her, because she seemed extremely nervous. She passed quite a few at the start but did manage to rally a little bit. Her 4 was not what she would have been hoping for. But judging from her reaction when Clive gave out the answers to her passes she knew a lot of them but was just struck by brain freeze. It happens. Vicki finished with 11.

It can’t have been easy for Gillian having to follow that. We’ve seen before that there are some shows where there’s something in the air that affects all of the contenders on GK. Gillian did a bit better, adding 7 to raise the target to 14.

It didn’t look to be enough to put Paul Halliwell into the corridor of doubt. Indeed, it wasn’t. Starting a point to the good, Paul fairly easily took the 6 he needed for the lead and went on to add another 4 for the first double figure round of the contest. It was a good round – anything in double figures these days is distinctly useful.

Still, it did mean that Tom, who’d had a long wait to return to the chair, only needed his own ten to win outright, or 9 and no more than 1 pass to win. 9 and 2 passes would mean a tie break, anything else and Paul would win. I liked Tom’s economic way of snapping out brief answers as quickly as he could. However the number that he was getting wrong seemed to increase as the round went on, and it was touch and go whether he would get to 9. He just managed it, and with just the one pass, that was enough for the win. Well done to you, sir.

Tom Flowerdew	Sir Isaac Newton	9	0	9	1	18	1
Vicki Hingley	Red Dwarf	7	2	4	6	11	8
Gillian McLean	Mary Queen of Scots	7	0	7	2	14	2
Paul Halliwell	Billy Bragg	8	1	10	1	18	2