University Challenge 2025 Quarter final Queen's Belfast v. Warwick

The Teams

Queen’s, Belfast

Sarah Carlisle

Jason McKillen

Daniel Rankin (capt)

Sam Thompson

Warwick

Ananya Govindarajan

Thomas Hart

Oscar Siddle (capt)

Benjamin Watson

Well, on paper it looked fairly difficult to pick a winner. Queen’s were outstanding in their first round match, looking like potential series winners, but they looked just a little less impressive while knocking out Cardiff in the second round. Warwick had looked good in both rounds – not necessarily up among the favourites, but good enough to give anyone a good match.

So Thomas Hart, his elbow bent ready to pounce on the buzzer, recognised various events belonging to the 112^th century for the first starter. He’s from Misgyn / Miskin not that far outside Cardiff. I won a quiz there once and was told that it behoved me to compile the quiz the next week. The winners that night were the most obnoxious team I think I’ve ever met, questioning every answer that was different from theirs, justifying their dissent with “We know all about this, we’re English teachers!” My response was spherical and in the plural. No. I haven’t been back since. Coming back to Thomas Hart his correct buzz earned three questions on the Mediterranean Sea. Two of them were correctly answered. The first clue that this might be a tough night for Queen’s came when Daniel Rankin buzzed far too early for the next question and lost five, allowing Benjamin Watson to identify Erno Goldfinger as the architect of the Balfron and Trellick Towers. He supposedly lived in the Balfron for a while so its first inhabitants could speak to him directly about it – presumably most of their comments being of the ‘why did you make it so ugly, you muppet?’ variety. Warwick cemented their lead with two correct answers on Portland cement – nice to see John Smeaton getting a name check. This time Daniel Rankin made no mistake as he answered Edward Teller to the next starter. Members of the Allahakbarries, a cricket team formed by Kirriemuir’s finest J.M.Barrie, brought a couple of bonuses. I mentioned Kirriemuir because Barrie grew up there at a time when I had ancestors living there just a street or two away. Gawd knows about Dogme 95, but Daniel Rankin came in early to give that answer correctly for the next starter. French ye-ye music – or as I like to think of it –  French non-merci music – brought just the one correct answer. So to the picture starter all about postcode areas. Nobody took it and frankly, I ain’t surprised. Now, to me the words “Kingsley Amis”, “friend” and “librarian” irresistibly suggest Philip Larkin.Benjamin Watson won the buzzer race for that one. All this brought was the flippin’ post code bonuses. Warwick got one more than I got. So, as we bore down on the 10 minute mark, Warwick led by 55 to 30.

Neither team knew that a heraldic two legged dragon is a wyvern – which is a little surprising since it’s a good old quiz chestnut. (Also the emblem of Vauxhall Cars – you can have that one for free.) The interminable science starter that followed – see Baby Elephant Walk Moment – actually brought me a lap of honour for saying Hydrogen just before Daniel Rankin did the same. Women appearing in the works of JE Millais tripped up Queen’s who failed to add to their score. Thomas Hart hadn’t had a starter for a few minutes but he elbowed his way back in with Kant’s definition of the sublime. (His definition of the ridiculous being - anyone who thinks it is possible to explain “The Black and White Minstrel Show to someone under fifty.) The Blood Brain Barrier – which surely featured in one of the worst episodes of season three of the original series of Star Trek – surprised me by allowing me a bonus in the shape of meningitis. When asked about the winner of the first Wolf Prize in Physics I thought Thomas Hart was cheering Amol’s delivery of the question, but apparently Woo was the answer. Delphine Seyrig may not be an actress whose name exactly trips off the tongue but she brought Warwick a full house nevertheless. So to the music starter and Bejamin Watson recognised the work of Mr.? Little Simz, whom one can only deduce is a performer whose work has yet to make any impression on the flinty cliff face of my indifference. More of the same brought neither of us any points.  A quote describing Botticelli’s Birth of Venus brought Warwick a bonus set on Rivers of Africa, one of which was correctly answered. The next starter asked for a fictional school. I wasn’t certain until Mr. Brocklehurst made it clear. Ananya Govindarajan dredged up the correct answer of Lowood from Jane Eyre. Ugh, Jane Eyre! Not for me. Sporting autobiographies brought one more correct answer. Now, I could tell you that I understood the next starter about Dutch economist Jan Tinbergen, but I won’t because my nose is quite long enough already. Nobody had it. I didn’t know about SUVAT equations but Thomas Hart did. Oh good, I enthused sarcastically as Amol announced a set of bonuses on industrial catalysts. Warwick had no more idea about them than I did and did not trouble the scorer. The Scottish Darien plan was all too easy for Thomas Hart for the next starter. Two bonuses on electoral systems meant that Warwick led by 165 – 40, and you could name your own price for backing Queen’s.

Whenever I see a very old photo of an actress Sarah Bernhardt is my go to answer and it rendered me good service for the second picture starter. Daniel Rankin took that one. Other photos of women taking men’s roles in Shakespeare on stage brought just the one bonus, but they were by no means an easy set. Zoltan ‘Who’ Kodaly fell to the imperious buzzing of Thomas Hart. A full house on works of philosophy put Warwick on the brink of 200 points. The next starter asked for a Strait. It was clearly off the coast of Australia, but was it the Bass or the Torres? Thomas Hart said the Bass Strait and he was right to do so. People who were born in 1902 and died in 1984 brought 1 bonus, and an end to any realistic hope of Queen’s winning. That man Hart took yet another starter, knowing Triton, the 7^th largest moon of the Solar System. Ahmed Zewail is not someone whose work I have any familiarity with, and after three baby elephant walk inducing questions I am no more familiar with him now than I was, although light, stimulated and emissions gave me lazers for the last of them. Daniel Rankin worked out that As stands for Arsenic for the next starter. Mythology of Japan brought them the one bonus. I knew that Memed, My Hawk is from Turkey – Peter Ustinov made a film of it many years ago – and so did Daniel Rankin. Musical melodrmas provided just the one bonus – which was pretty much the story of Queen’s night. That man Rankin very quickly worked out that King Charles III is King George V’s great grandson for the next starter. Brightest stars in constellations brought. . . well they brought just one bonus again. This brought Queen’s to triple figures, but sadly they dropped five for an incorrect buzz for the next starter. That was all the time that remained. Warwick won comfortably by 215 to 95.

When I reviewed Queen’s second round victory over Cardiff I made the point that Queen’s were heavily reliant on skipper Daniel Rankin’s buzzing ad that they could be in trouble if he had an off night. Well, he certainly didn’t have an off night, scoring 7 starters. But then that in itself was a problem since these were the only starters Queen’s managed. But it wasn’t just that.  For the record Warwick’s BCR was a relatively modest 46 to Queen’s 33.3. Well, both teams will play again, so nothing is over for anyone. Not yet.

Amol Watch

Kudos to Amol for saying what we were all thinking about the postcode picture starter. “That’s going to be a fun set of bonuses when that picture set comes up.” Amol at least did Queen’s the courtesy of telling them there was plenty of time left after the halfway mark. You know it’s not your night when he trots that one out in the first ten minutes.

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

Triton follows a retrograde orbit around Neptune. (Look, it’s what I find interesting, okay?!)

Baby Elephant Walk Moment

In kidney physiology, excretion of what element from the proximal tubule in the nephron is promoted by Angiotensin II ( who was also Tutankhamen’s great grandfather) and is concomitant with the increased reabsorption of sodium ions? The same element is pumped by V-Type ATPases into organelles such as lysozomes in order to maintain an acidic pH.

In the words of Gary Coleman – what you talkin’ ‘bout, Willus? I picked an element I know is in some acids, Hydrogen and got it right. And the question still made me feel dum de dumdum dum dum dum dum dumdum.

Mastermind 2025 - First Round Heat 20

Well, here we are at heat 20, dearly beloved with only another four heats to go after this one. Usually we see something a bit special in one of the last few heats. Was it last night’s show that provided this? Well, I know what I think, but see what you think.

Our first contender last night was Tamara Hon. Tamara was offering us the first elected president of the USA, founding father George Washington. This was a wide-ranging set of questions and decent general knowledge brought me two of them. Tamara took five. That’s by no means a disaster, but from the look on her face when Clive told her the score she knew she might have done better. It’s impossible to be certain why a round doesn’t turn out the way that a contender would have hoped – sometimes not enough preparation, sometimes a misunderstanding over the rage of the subject, sometimes just a nervous reaction to the chair. I’ll come back to this shortly.

Aine McMenamin was answering on Taylor Swift. Research tells me that Ms. Swift is a chanteuse of some renown these days. That’s nice. As you might guess I knew nothing about her or her oeuvre and failed to add to my aggregate. Aine by way of contrast knew an awful lot about her and reached double figures with a score of 10. Yes, I might be an ex-teacher now, but a good performance by one of my old profession always brings a little joy to my heart.

The closest thing I had to a fill yer boots subject last night was name derivations of elements of the Periodic Table, as was offered to us by Arvind Ramakrishnan. I say closest, but it was only close in the way that Uxbridge station is close to Cockfosters station. Yes, they’re both on the Piccadilly Line, but at opposite ends. So I was happy enough with my four. The subject seemed to be an especially narrow one – and the problem with a very narrow subject is that you have to know it in extreme detail. I won’t beat about the bush here. Arvind scored 2. I’d guess this was in part caused by nerves in the chair. While nothing was a gimme, they weren’t all bouncers either. There were enough slower balls in here too.

So Dan Payne came to finish the round with “The BBC Radio Series I’m Sorry I haven’t A Clue”. Now, If you’re a regular or semi regular listener than you have no need for me to describe the show while if you’re not then there’s no real point in me trying. I’ve never been a dedicated listener but I’ve dipped in and out enough over the years to take 3 points to leave me with a decent aggregate of 9 for the specialist rounds. Considering that the show has been running for decades I thought that Dan handled his round very well. A couple of errors left him just shy of double figures, but it meant that his fate was in his own hands, being just one point behind at the turn.

How do you force yourself to concentrate back in the chair when you’ve had such a disappointing specialist round? Well, in the case of Arvind the answer is with dignity and application. With a very respectable round of 8 points he managed to claw his way up to a double figure total.

Sadly, Tamara Hon did not quite reach Arvind’s total in her own GK round. She didn’t do very well, I’m afraid, adding four to take her own total to 9. Nerves, a reaction to her disappointment with her specialist round? Who knows? Altogether now – sometimes it just isn’t your night. Tamara, should you read this, try not to let it get you down.

So to the first of the runners in our two horse race. As we see with a lot of contenders, Dan started his round in very fine form. However it did seem to become more of a struggle as it progressed. In the end Dan gritted out a respectable 8 for a total of 17. He did incur another pass, to add to the one he’d taken in the specialist.

Just Aine remained. She needed a straight round of 7 correct answers and no more than one pass. Yes, it’s a relatively modest target, but funny things can happen when you’re in the chair. You can lessen the chances of anything happening by keeping your cool, though, which is something that Aine did admirably. She says that she runs a general knowledge club in her school – hey, I’m all for that – and this stood her in good stead as she put on 9 points to win with a little daylight between herself and Dan.

Well played Aine, best of luck in the semi finals.

The Details

Tamara Hon	George Washington	5	0	4	0	9	0
Aine McMenamin	Taylor Swift	10	0	9	0	19	0
Arvind Ramakrishnan	Name Derivations of Elements of the Periodic Table	2	0	8	0	10	0
Dan Payne	The BBC Radio Series “I’m Sorry I Haven’t A Clue”	9	1	8	1	17	2

 

University Challenge 2025 - Quarter Final - Imperial v. Christ's

The Teams

Imperial

Charlotte Stokes

Mattia Elkouby

Matthew Spry (Cap.)

Jaime Salamanca Camacho

Christ’s College, Cambridge

Anniko Firman

Brenda Bethlehem

Oscar Despard (Cap.)

Linus Luu

Well, be honest, you’d have put your money on Imperial for this one, wouldn’t you? It wasn’t just the cricket scores they’d racked up in both matches so far, but the BCR of over 70 too. Yeah, Christ’s looked a decent enough side, and they’d have a buzzer’s chance, but even so . . .

Well, if Christ’s were underdogs, nobody seemed to have told them. Both teams held their nerve with the first starter but when it became obvious that the Italian term for a long short story was novella Brendan Bethlehem won the buzzer race to give the answer. Ancient Greek theatres saw Christ’s take a full house in short time. Again both teams sat on their buzzers for the next starter which again played into Christ’s hands as Anniko Firman knew that the object being described in the question had to be an obelisk. As Amol might one day say, oodles of time left, still, if you were looking for omens. . . Extinct eastern Iranian languages promised but little, yet Brenan Bethlehem brought two of them to his team. However he came in too early for the next starter, just before it became obvious that the answer was leprosy. Matthew Spry tapped that one into the open goal. Old rocks and minerals brought two bonuses, and I was tempted to take a lap of honour for knowing that Zr is zirconium, but what the hell, I let it ride. So to the picture round. None of us could identify the Sinoatrial Node, who was one of the lesser known Doctor Who villains during the Peter Davison era if memory serves me right.  Matthew Spry earned the picture bonuses for knowing that Degas slashed one of Manet’s canvases once. Electrocardiograms saw me earn a bonus for saying tachycardia to each one until it was the right answer. Imperial got one bonus for the same answer. Mattia Elkouby knew about grape must for the next starter. Cinema brought Imperial just the one bonus but they had at least clawed their way into the lead. At the 10 minute mark the score stood 50 – 40 in their favour.

There were several clues to Wuthering Heights in the next starter and Oscar Despard was the first to buzz in. This earned them bonuses on old areas of Europe and they managed two of them. Amol had hardly had time to say a few words before Matthew Spry showed an equally swift buzzer finger to answer mass spectrometry. Bonuses on terms from French for ways of cooking potatoes – none of which was Le Mache - brought two bonuses. For the next starter Christ’s lost five while Jaime Salamanca Camacho recognised one definition of ellipsis. Gawd alone knows what the bonuses were all about but Imperial took a full house. Were they now starting to pull away from Christ’s? Well, no, because Brendan Bethlehem took the next starter, the music starter, with a wee bit of Schubert. More of Schubert’s lieder brought them two correct answer and kept the gap to a manageable 20 points. Following the lieder was the Mackenzie River, which fell to Matthew Spry. Fictional characters and the higher education establishments they attended brought two bonuses, but they zagged with Mr. Burns having attended Harvard when he really attended Yale. Still, the momentum remained with Imperial as Matthew Spry took the next starter with Parallel Lives and Parallel Lines. Bonuses on Indonesia brought just the one correct answer. Linus Luu made a timely early buzz with the concept of curvature for the next starter. Christ’s only took one bonus on works with very similar titles, but at least it meant that the score now stood at 130 – 90 at the 20 minute mark. Ominous, but still bridgeable.

Brendan Bethlehem recognised some vibraphone virtuosi to take the next starter. Energy storage in ecosystems brought two bonuses and the gap was down to 20. The second picture starter saw Jaime Salamanca Camacho identify a self portrait by Albrecht Durer. More youthful self portraits brought one bonus. Still, Christ’s were going to need at least two visits to the table now. It looked as if Jaime Salamanca Camacho’s buzz with Apollonius for the next starter might prove to be decisive. Bonuses on music saw them take just the one, missing out on an old quiz chestnut on Rule Britannia. All done and dusted? Well, cometh the hour, cometh the man. Oscar Despard buzzed early and accurately to give the answer of the well-known Decepticon, Synchrotron. Philosophy brought one bonus. But there was still hope for Christ’s as long as they could keep slinging buzzer. Brendan Bethlehem did so, taking the next starter with Sukkot. Historical figures in the plays of Shakespeare brought a correct answer, and the gap was down to 20. The Persian Sassanids saw Bendan Bethlehem strike again. Gap down to 10. Two bonuses on web design meant that the scores were level. All of the momentum was with Christ’s. Gastrulation sounds like a particularly nasty method of murder, but whatever it really means Oscar Despard knew it and took the lead back for Christ’s with it. Translators and languages brought two bonuses. Was there time for a last starter?

No. This meant that Christ’s had won a terrific contest with 180 – 160.

For the record, Imperial achieved a BCR of 52 while Christ’s achieved 60. The result, though was in doubt right up until the last starter. Nobody will fancy facing Christ’s after this, but then Imperial aren’t finished yet either. Could we see these two sides meeting again in the final? Well, there’s a long way to go yet.

Amol Watch

“Four minutes to go. Plenty of time, Christ’s, for you.” When Amol said this there was a gap of fifty points between the teams. Amol, when you’re making predictions like this I wish you’d give us the name of this year’s Grand National winner.

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

One of those rare occasions when nothing especially struck me.

Baby Elephant Walk Moment.

The eigenvalues of a matrix are usually represented by the lowercase form of which Greek letter? Elsewhere it is used to represent Lagrange multipliers and the radioactive decay constant.

Dum de dumdum dum dum dum dum dumdum.

Mastermind 2025 First Round Heat 19

Hey there, how’re you doing? Me? Mustn’t grumble. I made a list a couple of days ago consisting of things I really like which make life better. I left out family and friends because that they would head the list goes without saying. I was surprised by just how much was on the list, though, and yes, Mastermind was there too.

Royal Navy officer Krish Hook kicked off proceedings in last night’s show. He was answering on The Masters snooker tournament, a subject that I expected to bring me nowt. I actually got two which left me surprisingly satisfied with my round. Krish looked calm and confident – well, he’s a navy man after all – and didn’t seem to have much trouble knocking off 9. In fact in all respects other than the score, this was pretty much a double figure round.

Barrister Laura Knightly came second. I’m afraid that her round on Emmeline Pankhurst only serve to confirm to me that I know even less about Emmeline Pankhurst than I might have thought that I did. I’m sorry to say that I didn’t get any of them. Laura on the other hand knew her stuff pretty well and it was a bit of a surprise that she only managed 7 of them. I say ‘only’ – in the current era 7 is a perfectly respectable specialist performance. However it would leave her with at least a little bit of catching up to do in the GK.

Right. The next two specialist rounds were the kind that should be ‘fill yer boots, Dave’ subjects. Laura Playle offered us “Doctor Who:The David Tennant Years,” Doctor Who also made it onto my list of happiness-inducing things. I did okay, with five correct answers. Incidentally this was the same number that Laura achieved, although we didn’t do it on all of the same questions. It was a respectable performance, but Laura suffers basically because I know the subject well enough to know that there were a fair few she missed that were distinctly gettable. Hey, it happens.

My other fill yer boots subject was Henry VII, offered up by our final contender Anthony Thomas. Well, my boots stayed resolutely unfilled as I managed just the three. I didn’t think that this was an easy round at all. Yes, you’re right, of course it’s all in the eye of the beholder and the ear of the behearer. Anthony too scored a respectable five, but since, like Flora, he was four points behind when the half time oranges were being doled out you had to fancy that the contest had become a two horse race.

There seemed to be something in the air in the show last night. There were several times when I felt that a round had actually seemed to be a bit better than the score that it earned. Such a round was Flora Playle’s GK round. You’d have forgiven her for being daunted by lagging behind the leader to the tune of four and yet she showed no signs of this. She gave the round a good old lash, added 9 to her score and was maybe just a little unlucky not to get double figures. Anthony Thomas came close to tying the scores but his round never felt to me to be quite as good as Flora’s and he fell a point short.

Laura Knightly provided us with a round of two distinct halves. She seemed a little unsettled when the first question asked her the letter which a number of given words ended in. It seemed a case of her thinking – really? I can’t believe you’re asking something quite so simple.- To be fair, that was my reaction to the question too. There were a couple of long pauses too. Then, about halfway through, something clicked and Laura began to motor a bit. She rallied to finish with 8, which gave her 15 and the lead.

So Krish needed a modest 6 to tie and 7 to win outright. No, it’s not a huge target but then you still have to go back to sit in the chair and actually answer the questions. Funny things happen from time to time. Fair play to Krish, he wasn’t going to let them happen last night. Now, as I’ve said earlier, it was a funny old show and there seemed to be something in the air since none of our 8 rounds produced double figures. Krish did the next best thing though, scoring 9 to end with 18.

Well done, sir. Best of luck to you in the semi finals.

The Details

Krish Hook	The Masters Snooker Tournament	9	0	9	0	18	0
Laura Knightly	Emmeline Pankhurst	7	0	8	0	15	0
Flora Playle	Doctor Who: The David Tennant Years	5	0	9	0	14	0
Anthony Thomas	Henry VII	5	1	8	0	13	1

University Challenge 2025 Round Two - Warwick v. Oriel

 The Teams

Warwick

Ananya Govindarajan

Thomas Hart

Oscar Siddle (Capt.)

Benjamin Watson

Oriel,Oxford

Samin Taseen

Theo Sharkey

Danaan Kilburn (Capt.)

Tom Armstrong

Here we are dearly beloved at the last of the second-round matches. You see that’s what happens when a proper quiz show keeps the celebrity (well, academic celebrities in UC’s case) Christmas specials confined to Christmas rather than dragging them on throughout January – I’m looking at you, Mastermind.

Thomas Hart took his first starter of the night with various applications of the adjective alien. A lovely UC special set on golfing terms found in Shakespeare - “Is this a niblick I see before me? Nay, sirrah, for ‘tis Birnham 3 wood.” Neither of these was mentioned, but the set brought a single bonus from a gettable trio. For the next starter Thomas Hart identified a Ingmar Bergman quote about his film ‘Persona’. Slavonic epic paintings brought us both just the one bonus. Pioneering figures in palliative care gave Benjamin Watson his first starter. Now, I thought that kinematics were old films, but sadly no. Still, it did at least give us the answer ‘jerk’ with a question that wasn’t actually – how would you describe Piers Morgan? So that’s something. The picture starter showed us a description of a croissant in French. Tom Armstrong took that one to get his team into the black. More baked goods of French origin described in French brought just a single bonus for éclair. Works illustrated by Leonora Carrington fell to Oscar Siddle for the next starter. Composer Gerald Barry brought Warwick a full house. This meant that they led by 80 – 10 at the ten minute point.

Theo Sharkey came in too soon for the next starter on a city in Northern Ireland and thus missed the clinching information that it shared its name with towns and cities in Maine and Wales. Thomas Hart snapped up that piece of low hanging fruit. Video games set primarily underwater brought a brace of bonuses. Gawd alone knows what the chemistry starter that followed was on about but Samin Taseen knew the answer was kinase. Honestly, it’s a different language. Names of cities in the multilingual Austro-Hungarian Empire brought only the 1 bonus. Thomas Hart knew the Kimberley Diamond Mine for the next starter. Bonuses on the Torch Complex – me neither – brought a single correct answer. For the music starter Tom Amstrong recognised All Shook Up. Other original songs that Elvis would later make cover versions of brought Oriel 2 bonuses. I personally did not know that Elvis covered Tutti Frutti. Ate a lot of it, yes, but recorded it? Nobody knew the next starter about the word tower. Now, I’m very sorry, but knowing that astatine is directly below iodine in the periodic table was above and beyond the call of duty for me and thoroughly deserving of my lap of honour. Samin Taseen took that one as well. 19^th century French monarchism brought two bonuses for Oriel. With the next starter it became increasingly clear that it was referring to Poundbury and Benjamin Watson won the buzzer race to give the answer. Trickster animals in folklore brought a pleasing full house. Thomas Hart knew works either beginning or ending with Yes. I’ll be honest I missed much of the bonuses that followed, but Warwick had the lot of them. This meant that on twenty minutes they were sitting pretty, leading 170 – 60.

Phillippa Foot fell to Benjamin Watson for the next starter. Indian physicists proved very much to Warwick’s collective liking and they took a full house. Inexplicably I knew Bose for the last, but I have no idea how I knew it. I think that Thomas Hart mistook the Clifton suspension bridge for Telford’s Menai Bridge for the next picture starter. Theo Sharkey tapped that one into the open goal. More of IKB’s engineering works brought just one bonus. Still, at least Oriel had some momentum as Theo Sharkey identified the Hadean Aeon. 20^th century archaeological historian Sir John Summerson saw them take one, although failing a mispronunciation it would have been two. Theo Sharkey took another starter knowing the language Occitan. St, Teresa of Aston Vila did not provide any bonus points. Neither did St. Teresa of Avila for that matter. Oscar Siddle won the buzzer race to answer that the Trucial States were now known as the United Arab Emirates. Good old quiz chestnut, that one. The bonuses on the old adjective darkling meant I was able to predict Dover Beach and Ode to a Nightingale would feature. Warwick did not add to their score. They didn’t need to. They already had 200.Theo Sharkey was on the right lines with his early buzz for the next starter, which did refer to Bodyline, but he lost five because the answer required was Douglas Jardine, which Warwick could not dredge up. Thomas Hart recognised meanings of the word curl and this brought up bonuses on scientists who gave their name to pathogens. 2 bonuses added a little more gilding to the Warwick score. Tom Armstrong identified the trail of tears for the next starter. There was just the time for one correct bonus, then the gong ended the competition. Warwick had won by 215 – 110.

Warwick achieved a BCR of 70, to Oriel’s 41, so it wasn’t just down to superior buzzing. But from early doors Oriel were playing catchup, and Warwick were deserved winners.

Amol Watch

Amol’s ‘plenty of time Oriel’ was timed at 11:36 this time. There was no mention of BCRs this time, but I was pleased to see Amol insisting on the first answer rule. Harsh but definitely fair.

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

I loved the idea of alien priories, mostly for the mental pictures the phrase gave birth to.

Baby Elephant Walk Moment

In biochemistry, serine, receptor tyrosine and cyclin-dependent can all be followed by what word to give – yeah, it’s short. But my God, it’s soporific. Dum de dumdum dum dum dum dum dumdum.

Mastermind 2025 First Round Heat 18

Well, shall we call a spade a spade? Yes, we shall. Frankly it’s been too long since we saw the previous heat of his year’s series of Mastermind. There’s a place for Sleb Mastermind in the schedules, I guess, but this latest lot was strung out for far too long in my opinion.

So, back to real Mastermind then. First up was Fergus Navaratnam-Blair. He was answering on Harold Pinter. I was delighted that the question about his stage name David Baron came up. There is a rumour that Harold Pinter, as David Baron, donned a yeti costume for the mid 60s Doctor Who serial The Web of Fear. Sadly this appears to be grounded in myth. What wasn’t a myth was how well Fergus knew his subject. By way of a reminder a double figure round in Mastermind these days is a good score, and Fergus managed 10.

Look, all I really know about Rufus Wainwright is that his dad, Loudon Wainwright III had a regular slot singing strange songs on a Jasper Carrott TV series many years ago. How strange? Well, one of them involved waxing up a dead girlfriend and using her as a surfboard, if memory serves me right. Rosie Fletcher, thankfully, knew a lot more about the son than I knew about the father. She passed on one, but powered onwards and ended with 8, handily placed just a couple of points behind Fergus.

Solicitor Ivan Milatovic looked very much as if he meant business on his round on painter Diego Velasquez. This impression proved to be entirely accurate as he reeled off 12 perfect points. As I do often say when witnessing a perfect round, I think he could have sat there answering on Velasquez all night, or at least for the 30 minutes of the show. I have to thank Ivan, for it was his subject that brought me the only two points I would get in the whole of the specialist round. A pitiful performance that I can only put down to ring rust. That and not knowing any of the other answers.

We finished the specialists with Mickie Wynne-Davies and a very old-school Mastermind specialist, the Savoy Operas of Gilbert and Sullivan. Mickie just seemed to get on the wrong side of a number of these questions and by the time the white line had gone she had scored five. That’s nothing to be ashamed of, but 7 points adrift and out of the race.

This would prove to be something of a shame. For Mickie went on to serve up the best general knowledge round of the show. With barely a hesitation she added 12 points to her total, taking her to a very respectable 17, and leaving the audience (well, me ) to ponder on what might have been.

Rosie followed, and she had more of a struggle with her set of questions. In the end she came close to Mickie’s overall total, but she finished with 16. Judging by the smile on her face she was here to do as well as she could, but also to enjoy the experience and that’s probably the best way of approaching Mastermind. Well done.

In the current era of Mastermind it’s not uncommon to see contenders underperform a bit in one or other of the rounds. However it is a rarity to see a contender really undone by a set of questions. Sadly it happened to Fergus. He was determined not to pass which is in itself a laudable ambition, but question after question refused to yield easily. It was one of ‘those’ rounds, where every time there’s a fifty-fifty you zig when you should’ve zagged. Fergus scored 3. Very bad luck, sir, try not to let it get you down. It happens.

This left Ivan needing 7 correct answers to win the show. To be honest he answered so well at the start of his round that he was through the line in next to no time. The round seemed to stall after that – not that the 10 points that he scored is ever a bad total in this day and age. In the end he finished with 22, comfortably ahead of the pack. Well done, sir. This was an admirable first round performance, especially in terms of the specialist subject. Best of luck in the semi finals.

 

Fergus Navaratnam-Blair	The Life of Harold Pinter	10	0	3	0	13	0
Rosie Flecher	The Music of Rufus Wainwright	8	1	8	0	16	1
Ivan Milatovic	Diego Velasquez	12	0	10	0	22	0
Mickie Wynne-Davies	The Savoy Operas of Gilbert and Sullivan	5	0	12	0	17	0

Settling a tie

I’ve allowed this one to percolate for a while, rather than posting a knee-jerk reaction last week after it happened. What am I talking about? Well, it’s the film quiz in the Gwyn Hall. If you’re a regular reader you might remember the ongoing saga from this time last year of the prizes for winning the League. Well, not last Wednesday but the Wednesday before that we had the first monthly quiz of 2025. The outcome of the League for last year was announced, and it turned out what we were tied at the top with another team. Both teams were told to nominate 1 player. The two players were asked 1 question – with a numerical answer. Closest answer would win the league. No, we didn’t win.

Okay, that’s life. After last year’s prize fiasco I can’t say I was at all bothered about whether we won the league or not. We deliberately gave the last quiz of the year a miss, and we would have been given a point just for turning up, so you could argue (and indeed the organisers did) that we only had ourselves to blame. But it’s just – and Dan pointed this out on the night – I couldn’t help feeling that it was odd to have just the one player from both teams answering. It was even odder considering that the quiz itself on the night had to be also settled by a tie break, and this was open to the whole team.

Oh well, it could have been worse. I’m put in mind of The Office, where Brent and Finchy’s team lose on a tie break, yet decide that they’ve won because Finchy can throw Tim’s shoe over a building. I’m sure I also saw or heard of a tied quiz being settled by both teams building paper airplanes with the winners being the team whose plane flew furthest.

It takes all sorts.