Mastermind 2018 Semi Final 2

Shall we start with the form guide? Here’s how last night’s contenders did in their heats: - 

Adam Gilchrist	The Battle of Agincourt	12	0	11	2	23	2
Cliff Houghton	Everton FC	12	0	14	0	26	0
Chris Cummins	Paul Simon	13	0	13	4	26	4
Madeline Grant	The Harry Potter Novels	15	0	10	0	25	0
Alfred Williams	The Life and Times of Alfred the Great	15	0	16	3	31	3

Now, being honest you have to say that one name stands out. Step forward Alfred Williams. If that GK performance was not a flash in the pan, and I had no reason to suspect it was, then Alfred was going to go very well indeed. The only former semi finalist was Chris Cummins, who’d done well in his previous campaign, but had left himelf too much to do on GK in his previous semi.

So Adam Gilchrist kicked us off with the sitcom Frasier. Very well he did it, too. Last time out he scored a useful 12 off 120 seconds on Agincourt. So realistically, his 10 on Frasier was an improvement. Ironic that this should be show the week that British born John Mahoney, who played Marty, Frasier’s dad, passed away. I watched the show from time to time, but only managed the three easiest questions. Not a great start if I was going to improve on last week’s aggregate SS total.

Cliff Houghton was this week’s repechage semi finalist. He was a contender in that remarkable 9^th first round heat where the winner David Love, Cliff and Teresa De Billot all qualified for the semis. He too had scored 12 on his specialist subject – Everton FC. Switching codes to Rugby League, he too improved in real terms, scoring 10 on Warrington Rugby League Football Club. Just the one for me, and prospects were looking bad.

By now, Chris Cummins isn’t just an old Mastermind hand, he’s experience in other broadcast quizzes as well, most notably being part of a team which reached the finals of Only Connect a few years ago. Like Adam, Chris offered us a sitcom that I watched from time to time, but didn’t know anything like enough about – namely Absolutely Fabulous. There was a sense of inevitability in the way that he too claimed a score of 10. Three for me took me to 7 overall.

Madeline Grant participated previously in Marianne’s 2015 series, where she was just a point or two short of a repechage semi slot. In her heat she was allowed to use one of those subjects I don’t think we’ll see again for a while – The Harry Potter Novels where she scored an excellent 15. She did very well again last night with the novels of Jane Austen. Madeline’s round demonstrated the way that if you really snap the answers quickly back at John H, then he sometimes speeds up his delivery. I noticed that in a couple of rounds last night. Madeline’s 11put her into the lead, and my 5 put me into respectable territory.

Finally Alfred Williams, my pre-match favourite. He was answering on Eric Satie, which meant it was a case of Dave C – nul points. Alfred too fired back the answers at machine gun speed and was rewarded by a quick delivery of the questions. He finished with 10, but being only one point behind Madeline, the Clark 50p looked to be backing the right runner. Without wishing to sound horrible, I felt in my heart of hearts that even despite the fact that only 1 point separated the 5 contenders, it would be a two horse race, between Chris and Alfred.

Adam returned first to the chair, and I’m afraid that his GK round was a bit of a struggle for him. He never go the run of questions he needed to build up any momentum, and when John told him he’d scored a total of 18 overall, his face told the story. He knew it wasn’t going to be enough. Cliff Houghton pushed the target into the 20s. A double figure round on GK in 2 minutes is a good round, but you have to say that with the big hitters still to come, his score of 10 for 20 never looked like it was going to be enough. 

This was emphasised as Chris took the first minute of his own GK round and pretty much ripped it to shreds. He was well ahead of the clock, and was always going to take the lead. However the second minute of his round was not as good as the first. Oh, don’t misunderstand me, 13 off 2 minutes is a very good score, but at one stage I thought he was heading for 15 or more. Yes, the remaining two contenders would have to pass throught the corridor of doubt, but the corridor was not quite as long as it might have been.

Like Chris, Alfred ripped the first minute of his GK round to shreds. He continued to do so through the second minute as well. It wasn’t a perfect GK round, but then how often do you see that? That didn’t matter. It was a great GK round, and 15 off 2 minutes is top drawer quizzing. Alfred finished with 25, and the mountain that Madeline had to climb had assumed Everest proportions.

I’m not just saying this. Normally I manage to score a similar amount on all the GK rounds in a given show, allowing for the speed of the contender’s answers and the number of questions asked. I have to say though that I rather struggled with Madeline’s round. I’m not saying it was necessarily harder than others, just that it was harder for me. So I have some sympathy with Madeline. By the minute mark she was out of contention for the win, and it was just a question of how close to the top she could get. In the end she finished with 18.

Well played all, and many congratulations to Alfred – a very serious contender for the title, I would say. 

The Details

Adam Gilchrist	Frasier	10	1	8	3	18	4
Cliff Houghton	Warrington RLFC 1895 - present	10	0	10	1	20	1
Chris Cummins	Absolutely Fabulous	10	1	13	3	23	3
Madeline Grant	Life and Works of Jane Austen	11	1	7	2	18	3
Alfred Williams	The Life and Music of Eric Satie	10	0	15	1	25	1

Univeraity Challenge 2018 - Quarter Final match 1

Quarter Final 1: Bristol v. Newcastle

Here we are then, the quarter final stages. Not quite as labyrinthine as JP’s comment that the rules were devised by Torquemada would suggest, if truth be told. Bristol, then, were Ollie Bowes, Kirsty Biggs, Dom Hewett and captain Sam Hosegood. Their opponent were Newcastle, represented by Jack Reynard, Molly Nielsen, Adam Lowery, and their skipper Jonathan Noble.

Ollie Bowes took first blood for Bristol, knowing that ‘device’ plus ‘A Tale of Two Cities’ equals guillotine. A set of bonuses on Roald Dahl brought a full set, which served ample proof of Bristol’s serious intentions. The next starter was one of those you had to wait for, before the name of the African country it wanted for the answer became obvious. Molly Nielsen didn’t wait, losing 5. However – once the words – entirely surrounded by the republic of – were uttered it became clear it was Lesotho, which answer was supplied by the Bristol skipper. Temporary capital cities brought nowt, and so we moved to the net starter. Jonathan Noble was the first in for a rather lovely starter, working out that the character in the Harry Potter world whose name is derived form the Greek messenger of the Gods is Hermione. Star clusters brought me an unexpected correct answer with the Pleiades, but Newcastle managed a great full house. Right, if you multiply the three numbers sharing keys with the £, the $ and the %, what do you get? Easy if you have the keyboard in front of you, but not so easy if you don’t. Jack Reynard was the first to get 60. Bonuses on pointillism were a bit of a giveaway, and Newcastle duly despatched them to the boundary for a full house. The picture starter showed us a map highlighting one of the stem duchies of the Holy Roman Empire ( it wasn’t Holy, it wasn’t Roman and it wasn’t an Empire. Oh, you’ve heard it before? Sorry.) None of us recognised Saxony. Ollie Bowes did well to work out that the Maori moko and the Japanese yakuza were linked through distinctive styles of tattoos. So more stem duchies followed, of which C was obviously Munich. I didn’t get any of the others and neither did Bristol. For the next starter we were asked for a disease. Molly Nielsen buzzed, collected her thoughts for half a second, and just as JP was going to give her a wigging gave the correct answer of Typhus. Insects brought them a couple of bonuses, which meant that Newcastle led by 65 to 50 just after the 10 minute mark.

So it had been a lively opening to the contest with both teams showing a little sprightly form on the buzzer. Judging by the way they sat on their buzzers, neither team had heard of King Louis Philippe’s dad, Louis Egalite, but it was Jonathan Noble who chanced his arm, and fortune did indeed favour the brave. This brought bonuses on the novels of Saul Bellow. Well, I only know Herzog, but I still guessed Trotsky for the first, ending with two, the same two that Newcastle managed. Molly Nielsen was very quickly in with the Hindu festival of Holi for the next starter. Bonuses on logic brought none of us any joy, so let’s move on. Now, if you get any question which mentions Buddhism, and the Odyssey, then you slam the buzzer through the desk and answer lotus. Both teams dwelt a little before Ollie Bowes picked that particular low hanging fruit. For the first two bonuses on molecular biology JP might just as well have been speaking Klingon for all that I understood them, but ATP is an old chestnut, and gave both Bristol and me our only correct answer of the set. Mind you, Bristol, to be fair, did not set off on a lap of honour as I did. The music starter offered us an American composer. Now, if it’s American I used to always say Copland (That’s Aaron, not Stewart). However now half of the time I say Glass. I did this time, as did Ollie Bowes and we were both right. 3 more composers who have written music in a minimalist form brought Bristol 1 and me nowt. Asked a question about the moons of a specific planet for the next starter, Jack Reynard tied himself in knots, saying “Titan – oh, Saturn”, allowing the Bristol skipper to come in with Saturn.” Harsh but fair. The first answer is the one that must be accepted. Mothers who gave birth to two kings of England gave Bristol two bonuses, which meant they took the lead again and became the first o the two teams into double figures. A terrific early buzz from Dom Hewett saw him identify a couple of the subjects of Eliot’s Four Quartets. Politics and social science offered me but little although I actually got the same two as Bristol. There may be another word which can come after dialectical, but materialism is the one I’ve heard. Jack Reynard knew that the human skeleton has 12 thoracic vertebrae, which took his team into treble figures. 2 bonuses on genetics meant that only 5 points separated the two teams on the cusp of the 20 minute mark. Great game.

So, as we entered what in boxing would be called the championship rounds, or in football, ‘squeaky bum time’, neither team leapt in to answer the Hemingways – Ernest and Wayne. Skipper Noble chanced his arm, but Bristol couldn’t capitalise. Ollie Bowes knew the huckleberry for the next starter earning bonuses on battles of the Civil War, of which they managed one. Johnathan Noble identified a picture of Andromeda for the Art starter. (Isn’t that a defibrillator, an art starter?) More pictures of Andromeda brought just the one correct answer. Asked for three of the next five most spoken languages in England in the 2011 census, Jack Reynard opted for Polish, Urdu and Punjabi, and he was right to do so. Dependencies in the Caribbean Sea brought a great full house, and pushed Newcastle’s collective nose in front for the first time for what seemed like ages. Jack Reynard also knew that GWP stands for global warming potential. H.L. Mencken brought two more correct answers. Importantly this meant that Bristol would need two visits to the table to pull ahead now. Jonathan Noble widened the gap further, knowing that the terms feng shui and kamikaze both refer to wind. Words originating in the quechua languages of South America had the double bonus of providing another ten points, but also running the clock down. Surprisingly, nobody on either team knew two of the three 20^th century queens regnant of the Netherlands – Juliana, Beatrix and Wilhelmina. Adam Lowery knew that Staten Island holds the Southernmost point of the city and state of New York. Wives of Roman Emperors gave another 10 points, and game was well and truly safe for Newcastle now. Adam Lowery knew that Transnistria is part of Moldova, and that was it, as we were gonged before any of the bonuses could be asked.

For once JP hit the nail on the head, saying that the match felt closer than the 225 – 130 scoreline suggested. It’s very difficult to go on to win the whole shooting match after you’ve lost your first quarter, but Bristol are still in there, and good enough to give anyone trouble in their next match. Well played Newcastle, a deserved win. Good show, everyone. 

Jeremy Paxman Watch

Well, I thought we were on course for another show with nothing worthy of note, until Jack Reynard’s starter fluff. JP’s reaction was as if this was a personal affront – although having said that this tone only lasted for the first couple of words of his utterance, and he even included the words ‘I’m sorry’ in his response. Oh, is it just me who longs for the good old days of responses like ‘Swaziland . . . in the EU? Are you MAD?”

There was just a hint of the old JP. On the genetics bonuses, when Jonathan Noble gave the correct answer of colchicine, he rather sniffily replied, “Col KYE SEEN I think it’s normally called, yes.”

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

The word quinine comes to us from Quechua, as does puma and guano.

Mastermind 2018 - Semi Final One

Now, I love the Six Nations as much as the next man, but come on, you don’t postpone Mastermind until Saturday in Wales just for a preview. Or rather, that’s exactly what BBC Wales did do last night. Sod ‘em. I watched it on BBC2 England. 

Let’s begin by studying the form book.

Teresa De Billot	British Oscar winning Actors and Actresses	14	0	12	3	26	3
Richard Chaney	Porridge	11	0	13	1	24	1
Pam Poole	Top 10 singles 1963 - 1973	10	1	13	0	23	1
Ben Holmes	Dr. Who 2005 - date	15	0	14	1	29	1
Philip Isaac	Some Mothers Do ‘Ave ‘Em	13	0	13	3	26	3

As you can see, there wasn’t a lot to choose between the GK rounds of any of last night’s contenders in their heats – and those, you remember, were all 2 and a half minute rounds. Rather more of a range between the SS rounds. And of course, we have to consider the enduring truth that while all semi finalists have managed to get to grips with one specialist subject well enough, not everyone can manage to prepare a second subject to that standard. 

So to begin. Teresa De Billot was the repechage semi finalist in this show. She appeared in Heat 9 – which incidentally would provide another repechage semi finalist in Cliff Houghton, where she was beaten by former finalist David Love. Last night she offered us Olympic Track and Field 1972 – 1992. – Yum yum – thought I. Love Olympics, love track and field, and that era in particular. So under the circumstances I was disappointed with myself not to get double figures, finishing with 9. This was 1 less than Teresa – and remember, anything double figures is an excellent SS score for a semi these days. 

Now, it isn’t very nice of me to mention this, but last time Richard Chaney was in a semi final, in Clive’s 2014 series, he had a bit of a 'mare on his specialist, having been one of the more impressive qualifiers from the first round. For the first couple of questions on his specialist last night, the Tolpuddle Martyrs, it looked as if lightning might strike twice. To his immense credit he steadied the ship, and picked his way through what looked like tricky set, to earn a highly respectable 7. With things seeming so tight on GK though, this looked likely to leave him as an outsider by the time the half time oranges were passed round.

I was always quite proud of the diversity of my 5 SS rounds during my time on MM, and Pam Poole’s SS of the Gods and Goddesses of Ancient Egypt was certainly different from her round on top 10 singles from the first round. Now, for me there really wasn’t much in the way of controversy in this semi final, but I did note one question. To be honest, it was one of only three questions that I answered correctly in the round. The architect of the Step Pyramid of King Djoser I knew was Imhotep. Pam answered ImhoPET. John said “Yes, ImhoTEP.” So here’s my issue. For all I know, Imhopet was a perfectly acceptable alternative – I know that translation of Ancient Egyptian names can vary. In which case, though, why did he feel the need to give the more common form, wasting her valuable time as he did so? If it wasn’t an acceptable alternative – well, I’m sorry, but it would have been an incorrect answer and then should treated accordingly, you don’t, or shouldn’t, get marks for a near miss. If anyone can fill me in on this one I’d be grateful. Whatever the case Pam finished with 8, and a two point gap to negotiate.

The top first round performer of last night’s contenders was Ben Holmes, who’d answered on my favourite specialist subject, Doctor Who. Last night he gave us The Graphic Novels of Daniel Clowes, or as he is known in LAM Towers, Daniel Who? Last time he was in the semi finals in 2014, like Richard he too was undone by a relatively modest specialist performance. No chance of that happening tonight. With 10 points and 2 passes he was matching Teresa stride for stride at the head of the field with only one contender to go.

Philip Isaac has been a semi finalist before, although this was in 2015 rather than 2014. Would you believe it if I told you that he too was undone by his specialist score? Doesn’t matter whether you believe it or not, for it’s the truth. Whatever it was that proved his downfall three years ago there was no repeat last night, since he’d obviously thoroughly prepared, and posted a fine 8 points in another tricky historical round, on president of the USA Andrew Jackson. My one point on this round was enough for me to set my first SS aggregate of this year’s semis with scores of 9 – 2 – 3 – 0 – 1 for a total of 15. 

Richard was unfortunate, in my opinion, to get a few more difficult questions at key points in his round. Every time he got a couple right, and had the chance to pick up a wee bit of steam, he’d be bowled another chest high bouncer. As a result his round never really got going, and he finished with a total of 13.

With Pam Poole, though, it was a different story. Pam answered the first 9 questions on the bounce, and let’s be fair, there was a real mix of subjects and levels of difficulty within these. She missed a couple after that, but the Force was with her, and she continued sticking them in the back of the net from all angles. Her round of 14 and no passes in 2 minutes was a round of real quality, and from looking an outsider at the turn around, she now looked as if she had every chance of becoming a Mastermind finalist. 

Philip Isaac, though, would have his say about that first, though. Far from being cowed by such a big total, Philip set off confidently to traverse he corridor of doubt. At one point I did think he might be behind the clock, but this was an illusion, as he maintained steady progress throughout the round. By the buzzer he too had posted a splendid 14 points. Sadly this didn’t quite put him in contention for the win, since he had incurred a couple of passes during his brace of rounds. Nonetheless this was an excellent performance. 

Teresa de Billot, then, needed 12 and no passes just to equal Pam. If she was at all nervous, it certainly didn’t show. Let’s remind ourselves – these are all Mastermind semi-finalists, and they can all handle general knowledge, so we shouldn’t be surprised when they do well. And Teresa’s round was a double figure round in its own right, which is a mark of quality in a 2 minute GK round in this day and age. However, it was 10 rather than the 12 she needed.

So only Ben remained to challenge Pam. There’s a famous quote from the Duke of Wellington about the Battle of Waterloo, “It has been a damned nice thing - the nearest run thing you ever saw in your life” Mind you, he also said that it was won on the playing fields of Eton, which is complete tosh, so what can you do? Nonetheless, this was a near run thing as well. A total of 22 would not be enough for Ben, since he had incurred an earlier pass. He’d scored 12 for 22 as the blue line of death began to encircle the score box, and Pam had one foot in the final. However there was time for that last question, and I felt sure that Ben would know the term malware. He did, and this got him just over the line.

Well played all. Very hard lines to Pam and to Philip especially, but take solace from fine performances which were good enough to have earned a final place in another semi. Very well done Ben – good luck in the final. 

The Details

Teresa De Billot	Olympic Track and Field 1972 - 1992	10	0	10	1	20	1
Richard Chaney	Tolpuddle Martyrs	7	0	6	0	13	0
Pam Poole	Gods and Goddesses of Ancient Egypt	8	0	14	0	22	0
Ben Holmes	The Graphic Novels of Daniel Clowes	10	2	13	0	23	0
Philip Isaac	President Andrew Jackson	8	1	14	1	22	2

Neil Phillips - My Friend, the Legend.

Before we start, it would remiss of me if I did not say a few words about Neil Phillips, who passed away last week.  

Neil was a stalwart quizzer, whom I first met when we both made our Mastermind debut in the same heat of the 2006 series, where we were both beaten by the redoutable Kath Drury. It’s a measure of the man that, to the best of my knowledge, Neil remained friends with all of the other contenders from our show.  

Neil and I remained friends, and thus in 2010, the two of us came to form two thirds of the Radio Addicts, along with 2012 Mastermind champ Gary Grant, our inspirational skipper. I knew that Neil was good company before we met up for the audition in Cardiff, but I didn’t realise just how true that was, and the time we spent together during the filming of that series was an absolute pleasure.

To me, Neil will always be The Legend. I gave him this moniker following his incredible performance in the missing vowels round in our semi final. We had been thrashed all ways till Tuesday for most of the contest, yet Neil just kept buzzing and buzzing through the final round, and we won by a point. It was an incredible performance. 

We didn’t meet again in person, but stayed in fairly regular contact, and Neil’s support during my depression last year was totally typical of the man, but still very much appreciated.  

Thanks for being a good mate, Legend. Rest in peace.

University Challenge - Round Two - Oxford Brookes v. Merton, Oxford

Oxford Brookes v. Merton, Oxford

Thus we come to the last of the 2^nd round matches. Oxford Brookes, represented by Chiswick’s Inigo Purcell and also by Pat O’Shea, Emma-Ben Lewis and their captain Thomas De Bock. Much fancied Merton were Edward Thomas, Alex Peplow, Akira Wiberg and skipper Leonie Woodland. As JP himself would say, let’s get on with it. 

For the first question Alex Peplow won the buzzer race after the question mentioned Upper and Lower Kingdoms, which gave us both Egypt. Bonuses on Edward Seymour, Duke of Somerset, gave us both a full house. The next starter saw Alex Peplow take a second consecutive starter, completing a quote from Aristotle. Classical music saw them take a second consecutive full house, and to be fair their favourites tag was looking well justified in these early exchanges. I set off early on my lap of honour in this contest for identifying a description of the Mesosphere. What do you mean it must have been a guess – of course it was. Still counts, though. Leonie Woodland was in for that one. 9 questions in and Merton had answered every one of them correctly. Animals protected in the UK slightly applied the brakes to their runaway juggernaut, though. They zigged with butterfly when they should have zagged with moth for the first. Nonetheless they took the other two, and Alex Peplow took his third starter, knowing that Georges Bizet was the composer behind L’Arlesienne. Cities in the USA sharing the same initial letter were all gettable, but Merton took two of them. All of which took them to 90 unanswered points out of a potential 100 in the space of a few minutes. The picture starter showed us a fictional family tree and asked for the name of the fictional dynasty. For once Alex Peplow showed just a little vulnerability, buzzing then being unable to give an answer. Thus presented with an open goal, Thomas De Bock tapped it in with the name Buendia from One Hundred Years of Solitude (or as my grandmother once called it, One Hundred Years of Soliciting). Bonuses gave three more fictional family trees, of which they identified two, missing out on DH Lawrence’s Brangwen clan from The Rainbow and Women in Love. Alex Peplow was back on form for the next starter, knowing Lolita to be the title of an earlier novel appearing in the title of a work by Azar Nafisi. French words ending in – sque which are used in English took their score to 105, as opposed to Oxford Brookes’ 20 at the 10 minute mark. 

The fightback began with Thomas De Bock coming in very early to answer that Reamur and Rankine both have something to do with temperature. Italian physicists brought us both one correct answer with Fermi. The next starter was a UC special which asked for any of the 8 US states that contain only one of the 5 vowels other than Alaska, Kansas, Maryland or New Jersey. “Alabama” I shouted. A rush of blood to the head saw Pat O’Shea buzz in with Utah. Asked for two Akira Wiberg got one with Tennessee. The other two neither of us mentioned were Arkansas and Mississippi. Once again it was that man Peplow who got the ball rolling again recognising that it was Oliver Cromwell who said “I would not build Jericho again”. A full set of bonuses on British Dominions during world war I gave them a three figure lead. Pat O’Shea atoned for her earlier mishap, being the first to recognise a group of people linked by the surname Hutton. Two bonuses on words beginning with idio – reduced the gap to double figures and brought us to the music starter. Akira Wiberg gave one of the fastest correct buzzes on a music starter that I’ve ever seen to identify an overture by Wagner from possibly two notes. Three more notable ‘phantoms of the opera’ provided a couple of bonuses, and the gap widened again. I was in very quickly to say that Tim Peake departed from Baikonur, and both teams sat on their buzzers a little until Thomas De Bock gave the correct answer. Bonuses on the brain brought a timely full house. The highly effective Oxford Brookes captain was in very quickly for the next starter, the philosophical term Dasein. A bonus on bends in rivers reduced the gap to 65 points. Akira Wiberg widened it again, knowing that of the 7 SI base units, 2 are eponymous. Maths and Logic promised me but little and delivered nowt, while Merton took 2. Alex Peplow came back into the game, knowing a couple of American painters whose works were described as ‘black’. Bonuses on Alice Walker provided a single bonus, which meant that Merton led by 190 to 90 at the 20 minute mark. So despite Oxford Brookes’ more spirited performance in this midsection of the contest, Merton had still had the better of it.

Not that Thomas De Bock was conceding anything yet, as he won the buzzer race to supply the word subpoena. Pairs of word differing by the addition of ca- to the first to make the second were a lovely little UC special set, and they gave Oxford Brookes a useful full set. The picture starter showed us a young miss cuddling a bull. “Europa!” I shouted, and inevitably Alex Peplow was first in to echo my answer. More paintings of erotic metamorphoses of Zeus brought a couple of bonuses. They might have had Danae (Zeus certainly did. I’m here all week, ladies and gents.). Thomas de Bock’s spirited buzzing was maybe now spreading to the rest of his team, as Inigo Purcell came in early to identify a quotation from a translation of the Iliad. This won bonuses on the heather family and one correct answer brought another five hard won points. Another terrific early buzz from Thomas De Bock saw him identify the Canadian Government’s term First Nations. Ken Loach gave them another full house, and although you never quite felt that they were going to catch Merton, you had to concede that they were building a healthy score of their own. Pat O’Shea continued the charge, knowing that Constable was born in Suffolk in 1776. Bodies of water saw them get 2 bonuses, which actually put them within 35 points of Merton, the closest they’d been since the very early stages of the match. It was as if the Merton skipper was telling them – that’s quite enough of that – as she buzzed in to identify cassiterite as a main ore of tin. German Universities saw them push the gap past two full sets, and make the contest absolutely safe. Alex Peplow recognised characters from Cymbeline for the next starter to earn a set of bonuses on castles. A great shout on a UC special about cities and their size and population size, saw Alex Peplow work out that Leeds would be E. That really was it since we were gonged before we heard any of the bonuses. 

A fine win for Merton with 255 to 175, all the better considering the very good performance they had to contend with from Oxford Brookes. I didn't count, but I would imagine that their bonus conversion rate for this show was a thing of beauty. This must be one of the highest aggregates from the series so far, and justifies Merton’s position amongst the favourites. Good show, and well played all. 

Jeremy Paxman Watch

Nothing to see here. Go back to your lives, citizens.

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

Cromwell was responsible for the saying “I would not build Jericho again”

Mastermind - Round One - Heat 24

Right, here we are at the last heat. Now, I can’t swear to it that my workings out are 100% accurate, but I believe that going into the show, if all 4 contenders scored better than 26 and 6 passes, then they could all qualify for the final. If one contender scored less than 26, then any other score of 26 would be good enough. Well, that’s how I worked it out anyway.  

Our first contender, Ken Morland, offered us a round on the TV show Red Dwarf, which made me ask myself an interesting question. Suppose you were a contender on the show, who had put real time and effort into preparing your subject? Suppose then you got a set of questions which, well, not to put too fine a point on it didn’t really test your knowledge? It doesn’t happen often, which makes it stand out a bit more when it does. I know enough about Red Dwarf to know that this question set, the vast majority of which were about specific details from some pretty well known episodes, were not all that testing to be honest. I haven’t watched an episode of the show for years, but I got 10 of them sitting in the Clark armchair. I don’t blame Ken – he can only answer what he’s asked, and he did so perfectly. But I wouldn’t be surprised if he himself was a wee bit disappointed that he wasn’t put to more of a test, judging by the perfect answers he gave to the few more difficult questions in this round.  

Faced with the daunting task of following that round was Andy Davies. To be honest I did think that his round on St. Helena, Ascension Island and Tristan da Cunha might scupper my chances of a halfway decent aggregate, but actually a smattering of historical knowledge, geographical knowledge and knowledge of the natural world brought me another half dozen to make a 20+ score a distinct possibility. Andy’s 9 was of course a lot better than that, but sadly a few seeming gaps in knowledge resulted in him being five points behind, and that’s just too big a gap to make up under normal circumstances.  

I wonder if Sarah Jane Bodell, our third contender, was originally a Kentuckian? I ask because I felt I detected a hint of an accent there. Well, that and the fact that she was answering on the History of Kentucky from 1792 until the present day. Once again, on paper this one didn’t promise me a great deal, but again, a wee bit of knowledge about American politics and History, together with those gimmes on Colonel Sanders and the McCoys, brought me another 6 points. This put me on an aggregate of 22, and meant that 5 on the last subject (on paper my second best of the show) would bring a record aggregate for this series. As for Sarah Jane, well, unlike Ken she didn’t quite manage a perfect round, but it was still a very good one, and with 13 on specialist there was every good chance she might be able to get a place in the semis.  

Now, a confession. I have known for a few weeks that our very own Neil Wright, LAM reader and previous semi-finalist, was taking part in this heat. Kindly, Neil made sure that he did not let me know how he had got on. His subject was the Roman Emperor Tiberius. For the first 8 questions or so I thought that Neil was going to put on a perfect performance. I wasn’t – I’d already had three wrong by this time – but just a couple of the questions in the round tripped him up. In the end, he scored 10 – and I know enough about Tiberius (thanks to Tacitus, Suetonius, and especially Robert Graves) to know that this was a good performance on this set of questions. However it did leave him 4 points off the lead. As for me – well my 6 was good enough to give me a new record specialist aggregate for this series of 28.  

First to return to the chair, then, was Andy. I didn’t think that he started his round particularly well, missing a couple of gettables. However that changed and he picked up momentum through the middle part of the round. At the speed he was going he looked likely to get as many as 14, but a couple of hiccups on the way to the line saw him finish with 12, and a total of 21. Perfectly respectable, but it was never going to stay the top score for long in this show.  

And so to Neil. Neil has proven his worth on GK in previous appearances on Mastermind, so I felt pretty certain that he would put in a high enough score to give him at least a good shout of getting to the semi finals. I was right. Neil added a further 16 points and 1 pass in what was an excellent demonstration of how to handle a Mastermind GK round, one of the best we’ve seen all series. As a point of interest, there was one question which seemingly put us both off our stride. When John asked for the name of the family to which potatoes, tomatoes and several poisonous species belong I answered ‘solonaceae’ while Neil answered something similar. Neither of us were given a point since John answered ‘Nightshade’. I looked back at the show on the iplayer, though and John does actually ask for the common name , so fair enough.  

Sarah Jane Bodell does have a bit of TV previous herself. She was a member of a good University of Warwick team that competed in the 2012 series of UC. So it wasn’t unreasonable to expect that she might go well, and remember, she had a 3 point head start on Neil. Without wishing to be horrible, it was clear before the one minute mark that she wasn’t going to match Neil’s round. But then, she didn’t have to. If she could manage 13 of her own, then she’d be pretty much guaranteed a slot in the semis. Well, she actually scored 12 and no passes. Which, if my working out is correct, put her into equal 6^th place on the repechage list. How the production team decide who goes through – I have no idea.  

All of which probably suggests to you that Ken Morland outscored her – and that’s true. Did he outscore Neil, though? Yes, and no. Yes, his overall score of 28 gave him the win with a little bit of daylight between himself and Neil. No, in as much as his GK round was not as good as Neil’s. Having said that, I really enjoyed watching Ken work his way through his round. When you’re in the chair answering against the clock there is a tendency to snap out an answer so you can get to the next question, but Ken gave each of his a bit of thought, and you could watch him working out some questions as he went along. That takes quite a bit of presence of mind.  

So, we know for a fact that Ken is in the semis – well played, sir. I believe that Neil’s score puts him into the semis as well – but over to you on that one, Neil. As for Sarah Jane – well, if my calculations are correct, then the coin is in the air on that one.  

The Details 

Ken Morland	Red Dwarf	14	0	14	3	28	3
Andy Davies	St. Helena, Ascension Island and Tristan da Cunha	9	3	12	4	21	7
Sarah Jane Bodell	The History of Kentucky 1792 - Present	13	0	12	0	25	0
Neil Wright	Emperor Tiberius	10	3	16	1	26	1