How do YOU select a speciaist?

It was a week ago last Friday. Just haven’t got around to writing about it yet. When I was a young and brand newly qualified teacher, in the summer of 1987 I attended my first interview for a teaching position. I got the job in a comprehensive school in Neath, South Wales. I clung tenaciously to that same school for 29 years until it was closed for good (or not so good, if I’m honest) A week ago we had the first real reunion for staff from the school. I saw some colleagues I haven’t seen since before Mastermind happened, and of course, I was asked the inevitable question – what was your specialist subject? I have a wee speech prepared for this, which I duly trotted out. However then one of them asked me – well, how do people go about selecting their specialist subject?

The honest answer is, of course, I have no idea how other people do it, I can only tell you how I did it. I thought very carefully about which subjects I would do before putting them on the application form. Then when I got to the audition I was told I couldn’t do any of them, and had to think of three more off the cuff. I picked the Olympic Summer Games because it is my favourite sporting event, and Henry Ford and the Prince Regent because they’re very interesting and I have great biographies of both. I got knocked out in the first round, so never used Ford and Regent, which is why I used them again in my application the next year. I picked the History of London Bridge for the final because I had read a wonderful book on the subject. Contrary to what you might think, it wasn’t because I was hoping to get a free trip to Lake Havasu from it – although that would have been nice!

You do sometimes hear people saying or see people writing that they could take such and such as a Mastermind subject, such is their obsession with and knowledge on the subject. Certainly it seems to be common sense to pick what you’re interested in and know something about. If you prepare thoroughly as you should then you will be living with the subject for weeks. I think it helps to pick something with clearly defined parameters too, and it’s worth asking the production team exactly what these are. I wanted to just do the first stone London Bridge – to be fair it had over 600 years of history – and it was only by asking the production team that I found out no, I was doing the history of every bridge to have borne the name. Picking subjects that are learnable in a relatively short space of time helps too. The modern Summer Olympics as a subject was too wide, although I didn’t actually do that badly on it.

There is one other consideration that comes to mind as well. Picking a very different specialist subject can make you a more attractive proposition to a production team, whereas if you put down, let’s say Harry Potter, Father Ted and Fawlty Towers on your application form, don’t expet to get a call any time soon.

Mastermind Specialists tomorrow

Heads up about tomorrow’s Mastermind. Specialist subjects are Billy Joel, JMW Turner, the BBC Sitcom Miranda and Antoine Lavoisier. Looking att my chances of scoring any points – well, I rather liked Billy Joel back in the day, so it’s not impossible I might pick up one or two. A member of my family once said that the BBC sitcom Miranda should have been retitled ‘Large Lady Falls Over a Lot”. I watched an episode once, and while I think that’s a little uncharitable I think there’s a grain of truth in it. Prediction – Royaume Uni nul points. Antoine Lavoisier – hmm, maybe a scraped point. JMW Turner – I’m not saying he will bring me any points, but I do have a slightly tenuous family connection.  Through my Cobden grandmother, I’m descended from a family of artists and engravers, the Dawes. My five times great grandfather Philip Dawe was an artist and engraver, who reputedly learned from Hogarth, and tutored George Morland. He may even have given instruction to Turner at one time. Even if this was not the case, his son Henry Edward Dawe, my four times great grandfather was and engraver who definitely worked with Turner. Mind you, the real star of the family was Henry’s brother George Dawe, who became official first court portrait painter to the Tsar of Russia. Over 300 of his paintings hang in the Hermitage. Not that this connection will necessarily bring me points. I predict – I hope that I’ll manage four or five as a total aggregate.

University Challenge 2024 : First round heat: Lincoln, Oxford v. King's, London

The Teams

Lincoln, Oxford

Ella Warde

Mehmed Tatoğlu

Alexander Baker (Capt)

Anna Drummond Young

King’s, London

Alex Halliwell

Alessandro Bogo

Taiga Clarke (capt)

Zahra Sultan

Yeah, I know. It’s Wednesday. Sorry about that. Let’s no waste any more time then. Eyes down and devil take the hindmost. First question was about all of the Balboas – explorer, currency, and doubtless fictional boxer would have followed. Not before Alessandro Bogo buzzed in with the right answer. This brought King’s a set of bonuses on islands that follow the word ‘and’ – like Barbuda in Antigua and -. This set brought us both a full house. Mehmed Tatoğlu recognised the epitaph from the tomb of Robert Frost to get Lincoln off and running. The historian Doris Kearns Goodwin brought another full house, and for the moment the scores were tied. Amazingly I carried my streak to 9 consecutive correct answers even though we had a starter on mathematical terms, which all ended with -ix. Subgenres of science fiction and fantasy brought me another full house, although Lincoln missed on one. The picture starter took me to 13, guessing correctly that the seal we were shown belonged to the EPA. Mehmed Tatoğlu had that one. More seals of US federal agencies brought my streak to an end with 13. Lincoln managed one. The kingdom of Aksum pushed me to the Ethiopia area, so it stood to reason that Eritrea was the country that derived its name from the Greek and Latin for red. Mehmed Tatoğlu took his third starter with that one. The architect Eric Mendelsohn I didn’t know, but I’m a fan of his De La Warr pavilion in Bexhill. He brought just the one to Lincoln. This was enough to give the Oxford team a lead of 75 – 25. It was already looking a bit ominous for King’s.

Both teams sat on their buzzers a little for the next starter, but it was the Oxford skipper who provided the answer that pimento is also known as allspice. The lifetime of a cell promised me nothing, but the one that Lincoln got right pushed them to the brink of triple figures. The next starter was asking for the word pillars and Ella Warde won hat particular buzzer race. Top goal scorers at FIFA world cup tournaments brought just the one correct answer. Mehmed Tatoğlu took a fourth starter, knowing of the derivation of the name Burkina Faso. Three bonuses on langue and parole – no, me neither – yielded nothing for Lincoln, but I did know that fabula is Latin for story, I did not know it means the same in Russian. This brought us to the music starter and a little bit of Britten. None of us recognised it. The agony for King’s continued as Alexander Baker correctly provided the answer simple machines for the next starter. Other pieces of music from 1962, the year of UC’s first broadcast, brought two more correct answers. For once Mehmed Tatoğlu miscued on a starter, but King’s could not capitalise with roman a clef. You could see Henry VII coming up for the next question and Mehmed Tatoğlu made no mistake this time to take his fifth. Female heads of government brought two correct answers. It never rains but it pours. Alessandro Bogo came in too early for the next starter and lost five. That man Mehmed Tatoğlu came in with the language Turkic to earn a set of bonuses on translations of Japanese anime and manga. 2 correct answers brought the score to 165 – 20 at twenty minutes.

Mehmed Tatoğlu continued in the same vein, getting the next starter about Kansas. Literature, communism and US politics coalesced in the next set which again brought two for Lincoln. Unsurprisingly neither team recognised a photo of the moon Callisto. Finally Alessandro Bogo hit the starter target knowing that some silly sod had created a symphony using data output from Black Holes. Beats working for a living, I suppose. More photos of Jupiter’s moons as taken by the Galileo probe followed. (The photos taken by the Figaro and Magnifico probes were crap.) King’s took one, which was one more than I managed. Still, at least King’s were away now. Alessandro Bogo knew that the total number of provinces and states in respectively Canada and Australia is 16. Theatre and the Law brought two bonuses. A triple figure score sill looked a long way away. Nobody knew that the pipe organ is deadly from close up for the next starter. Mehmed Tatoğlu brought a hiatus to the King’s mini revival, knowing the term realism. Questions on the river Taff brought nowt to Lincoln, but at least we could enjoy a name check for Richard Trevithick. Alessandro came in too early for the next starter. As clues to peacock and mustard were revealed, Ella Warde gave the correct answer of characters from Cluedo. Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy added 10 points and a little more gilding to the Lincoln total. Taiga Clarke finally forced his way onto the stater board , knowing a reference to Just Stop Oil when he heard it. One bonus on winter bird visitors brought another bonus. Ella Warde knew the element Lutetium takes its name from the roman name for Paris. That was it, he contest was gonged with the score at 225 to 65 in Lincoln’s favour.

Well, very much a case of SIJNYN (Sometimes it’s just not your night) for King’s. They had a BCR of 58, but that was just off 12 bonuses. As for Lincoln, their BCR of 46 was one of the less impressive we’ve seen from winners thus far this series.

How is Amol Doing?

There’s just a couple of times when Amol says things and I’m not quite clear whether he’s being mean or ot. For example, when Lincoln struggled with the seals he rather dismissively said ‘well you got that one at least’ when they had the CIA.

The encouragement to the trailing team came at a relatively early 12 and 3 quarter minutes.  The fact that he felt the need to do so again a mere four minutes later should give an idea of how successful the first was.

Interesting Fact That I Didn’t Already Know of the Week

Mensa was originally formed in Lincoln College, Oxford.

Baby Elephant Walk Moment

Not this week.

Mastermind 2023 - First Round Heat 7

We’re forging on with Round 1, good people, and (say it quietly) a show that produced my lowest specialist round aggregate for the entire series so far. The first of these tight fisted rounds was offered by Robert Hemming. Robert was answering on the battleship Bismarck. Now, I did think that there might be a chance of a couple here. No chance. I was lucky to scrape one. Robert, as I so often say, clearly knew his stuff. You can’t score 8 on such a round if you don’t. But it was just a couple of marks short of a score that would put him up with the leaders by half time.

Someone who did get a score that put her up with the leaders at half time was Reena Patel. Reena was answering on the late Syd Barrett, the musical genius behind so much of what was good about the very early Pink Floyd. Again, I thought I might get more than one. Nope, in fact I had to really dredge my memory to scrape one point. Reena on the other hand produced 10 and as we so often note, anything in double figures on specialist is good going these days.

Isobel Murray almost repeated the double figure feat in round 2, but finished just one point away on 9. She was answering on the poet Frederico Garcia Lorca, executed by Nationalists during the Spanish Civil War. I’ve taken a lot more interest in the Spanish Civil War since visiting the monument to the political prisoners in the San Isidro camp in the village where my mother in law used to live. Not enough, obviously as I only scraped one point again.

Finally Paul Judge on the basketball player Earvin ‘Magic’ Johnson. Look, the fact is that some sports you like, and some leave you could and I’m afraid that basketball is the latter for me. I’m not dissing the game, but just saying I can’t get up any interest in it. Paul obviously could. He too scored 10 and apart from the first question there appeared to be precious few gimmes in the round. The first question, incidentally, was the only 1 I got right to leave my aggregate on a measly 4.

We saw a week ago how it’s possible to come from a few points behind to win with a strong GK, so all 4 contenders were certainly in with a chance going into the GK. Robert was first to return to the chair, and he gave it a decent lash. With the best will in the world though he really needed more than the 9 he scored to force the other three contenders to all have to negotiate the corridor of doubt.

Isobel, on the other hand, put in a useful turn at the quiz face in her own GK round. She often looked as if she didn’t know the answer and was a little surprised when it turned out to be right. And she had 11 correct answers in all, taking her total to 20. This is a significant number. There’s a whole world in the one point that separates 19 and 20.

Renna took her turn. What she scored was a perfectly respectable 8 points, but this was not enough to give her the lead. Reena looked a little downhearted when she sat back in her chair. I hope that she wasn’t, as she had nothing to be ashamed of, even if she wasn’t going to win this time.

Only Paul Judge remained, then. He started one point ahead of where Isobel had started her round, so matching her score of 11 would be enough for an outright win. I wouldn’t necessarily say that he ripped the round apart, but he did score 12, which is not bad going by anyone’s book. In his piece to camera at the end I liked his comments about watching as a fan and finally deciding to give it a go. Well done sir! If we didn’t have people willing to give it a go, we wouldn’t have a show. Best of luck.

The Details

Robert Hemming	The Battleship Bismarck	8	0	9	2	17	2
Reena Patel	Syd Barrett	10	0	8	4	18	4
Isobel Mosely	Frederico Garcia Lorca	9	1	11	1	20	2
Paul Judge	The Life and Career of Magic Johnson	10	1	12	0	22	1

 

Mastermind Specialist Subjects tomorrow

I don’t have time today myself but if anyone fancies the wiki challenge for tomorrow night’s Mastermind – here are the specialist subjects:-

The battleship Bismarck

Syd Barrett

Frederico Garcia Lorca

The Career of Magic Johnson

I can maybe scrape 1 or 2 on the Bismarck. There’s a chance of doing better with Syd Barrett – when I was a teenager I was a huge Pink Floyd fan and nerd, Lorca I predict no points on and Magic Johnson – perhaps I'll scrape 1 . Aggregate forecast – 3 to 7. Telegram claims not required (ask your grandparents.)

So Farewell, then, 'Sitting on a Fortune' and 'Moneybags'

I’ve heard on the grapevine that both Moneyball and Sitting on A Fortune have been cancelled. I reviewed both shows in November 2021. Neither of these ex-footballer hosted quiz games gained my full approval, but neither of them was a complete turkey either. For me they could both have been a little shorter and a lot more fast moving. Either would have been a decent enough evening opener, but neither was strong enough to stand against, for the sake of argument, Strictly Come Dancing.

Run of the Mill night down the club

Well, there were no themes or gimmicks in Thursday night’s quiz and we should at least be grateful for that. It was a perfectly decent, run of the mill general knowledge quiz and it was – and I know that I’m a heel for saying this – a bit of a bore.

You know, I couldn’t take a huge issue with any individual question that was asked, which is something of a rarity for me, I know. But the quiz as a whole somehow managed to be less than the sum of its parts. There was no handout, for one thing. I’m ambivalent on handouts. I’m not a fan of ‘name the vacuous celebrity’ type picture quiz handout but I do rather enjoy anything more cryptic or anything that rewards a bit of knowledge.

Since I’m in full grumpy old sod more I’ll say that I think that it works like this. You don’t have to be a great quizzer to make a great quiz. However, it does help if you are at least good enough to know the difference between a hard question, a ridiculously hard question and a ridiculously easy one. Thursday night’s quiz lurched drunkenly from one extreme to the other.