Well, there it is. The last first round heat before
Christmas. I didn’t hold out much hope for a reasonable score on specialist
aggregate, as you’ll know if you read my preview.
First off we had my supposed ‘banker’ subject, Meat Loaf,
offered to us by Thomas Roebuck. I will be honest, I was surprised to get 3 of
these. Oh. Don’t get me wrong, I was delighted as well. I doubt that Thomas
would have been delighted if he’d only got three. So it was probably just as
well that he got a highly respectable 8. It’s a funny score in this era of the
show, is 8. 15 years ago that would have put you out of it at half time in most
contests, but now it’s certainly competitive and gives you a springboard for
the GK round.
Our second contender last night was recidivist Helen
Lippell, who played in the first rounds of both 2016 and 2020. She is also an
alumnus of Only Connect. So I had no doubt that the black chair would not
affect her nerves at all. This was well founded. Answering on Grinling Gibbons
Helen produced a first class specialist round, amassing 12 points. I was
delighted to get 4 on this round myself – I wouldn’t claim to know a lot about
Gibbons, but I do know quite a bit about that period in London.
Sian Bladon was answering on cricket, specifically England
Women’s Cricket in the 21st century. Now, we saw last week that if
you take a subject like this with quite a small subject area, the setters are
going to expect you to know it inside out, and they’re going to throw more than
a few bouncers and doosras at you. I actually got two of these through pure
blind luck in guessing countries correctly. I was glad for Sian that she got
the last question on the buzzer correct to take her score up to 5.
Finally Jon Phillipson Brown took to the black chair to
answer his round on Gerard Manley Hopkins. Well, gentle reader, if you read my
preview I speculated how much I would remember after 40 years. The answer was
not a lot. I took two. By contrast Jon did exceptionally well. He didn’t quite get
to Helen’s 12, but did himself proud by getting 11. Now, the mathematically
gifted among us will have worked out that contrary to my Jeremiah-like
prediction, I did get my aggregate into double figures, with 11 points.
Not time for us to dwell on that though since the GK round
was starting. You know me, I am always impressed when a contender whose SS
round has not maybe gone as well as they would have hoped comes back to the
chair and gives it a really good lash in the GK. Welcome back Sian Bladon. In
cricketing parlance this was a really good example of building an innings. Sian
seemed to have decided on the tactic of pass if you don’t have a Scooby, and
this meant that she kept her round moving onwards until the beeps. She scored a
good 10 to take her total to 15.
Next up was Thomas Roebuck. You know how sometimes I say
that a contender’s GK answers lead me to suspect that they are a quizzer? Well,
that was the distinct impression that I formed as Thomas built his round of 13
points. This score took him to a total of 21 points. I’ve often banged on in
the past about how you need to put your opposition into the corridor of doubt
by making the highest score that you possibly can. Well, this was a fine
demonstration of just that.
John Phillipson Brown had a go. He needed 11 to go into the
outright lead, and 10 with no passes to force a potential tie break. As I say,
he gave it a go, but when he made his first pass it meant 10 would not be good
enough. He got as far as 9 but time ran out, leaving him a metre or two short
of the tape.
Which meant that Helen Lippell would do it if she scored 10
and any number of passes. If she fell short then she had to score 9 points with
no passes to force a tie break. Well, she did fall short of 10. She did score
9. And . . . she did not pass. Tie break! Thomas went first, and knowing the
answers to the questions, I knew that he’d only scored one. As Helen returned I
knew after the first three questions that she had won. Hard lines for Thomas,
but very well done to you both, and Helen, best of luck in the semis.
The Details
|
Thomas Roebuck
|
Meat Loaf
|
8
|
0
|
13
|
0
|
21
|
0
|
22
|
|
Helen Lippell
|
Grinling Gibbons
|
12
|
0
|
9
|
0
|
21
|
0
|
25
|
|
Sian Bladon
|
England Women’s
Cricket since 2000
|
5
|
1
|
10
|
4
|
15
|
5
|
|
|
Jon Phillipson Brown
|
The Life and Poetry
of Gerard Manley Hopkins
|
11
|
0
|
9
|
2
|
20
|
2
|
|
