University Challenge 2025 - Round Two - Wadham, Oxford v. Imperial University

The Teams

Wadham,Oxford

Aarav Billore

Athur Bellamy

Johnny Worden (Capt.)

Anjali Cheung

Imperial University

Charlotte Stokes

Mattia Elkouby

Matthew Spry (Capt.)

Jaime Salamanca Camacho

The tale of the tape suggested that Wadham were going to find this match hard going and even Amol seemed to think so judging from his introduction of both teams. A list of films with the same word in their titles saw a rare misfire from Imperial, allowing Arthur Bellamy in with ‘my’ to give Wadham an early lead. Bonuses on psychotherapy yielded nowt. Wadham lost half of their points through an incorrect early buzz for the next starter allowing Imperial the full question, to which they supplied the correct answer of Burundi. One of my all-time favourite artists, Aubrey Beardsley – who was also the joint winner of the first London Marathon- brought a first full house of the night. It wouldn’t be the last. Jaime Salamanca Camacho took his first starter of the contest with Leonard Euler. Terms beginning with polyp brought another full house. For the picture starter we saw an elegantly written out speech from Macbeth, and first to identify it was Mattia Elkouby. Three more of the same saw Imperial take just the one bonus. Jaime Salamanca Camacho took a second starter recognising a description of the work of Courbet – that’s Gustave rather than Harry H. The jazz musician Terence ‘Who’ Blanchard brought another full house. At the words Bartolomeo Cristofori Jaime Salamanca Camacho buzzed in with the answer that he invented the piano. (You ‘ave it son, I’ll play it.) Imperial gobbled up types of sushi for another full house which meant that on 11 minutes they led by 110 – five.

The agony continued for Wadham. When you’re under the cosh like this you have to try to break the other team’s rhythm. Buzzing in early was the right tactic, but sadly they lost their remaining five points for an incorrect answer. Which allowed a free shot on goal to Imperial which they duly converted. Osmium brought another full house. Charlotte Stokes took a ridiculously long-winded starter on the term checkpoint ensuring that all four members of her team had taken at least one starter. Union territories of India saw the inexorable onslaught continue with another Imperial full house. For the music starter nobody recognised the work of prog rock dinosaurs King Crimson. Charlotte Stokes knew that Thomas ‘Kiss Me’ Hardy invented the term cliffhanger. This earned the music bonuses, three tracks on which Robert Fripp played, They took just the one. Mattia Elkouby won the buzzer race to identify Dr. Strangelove for the next starter. Manga bonuses did nothing to slow Imperial’s progress – the resulting full house brought Imperial to 200 unanswered points. Matthew Spry knew the river required for the answer to the next starter was the Derwent. You won’t be surprised that Imperial took a full house on the History of Mathematics. You should be surprised that I did as well. Me? I was flabbergasted. And knackered since it necessitated a lap of honour. Jaime Salamanca Camacho knew Cepheids for the astronomy starter that followed. Second symphonies – which made me think ‘they took the credit for your second symphony – rewritten by machine etc etc. – saw Imperial manage to get one correct answer by giving ‘Shostakovitch’ until it was correct. Jaime Salamanca Camacho recognised that the punishment being described from Dante’s Inferno was for the sin of simony. Religion and social science brought. . . well it brought another three correct answers. At this point I wouldn’t have blamed Wadham for collectively buzzing together for the next starter and giving ‘I’ll get me coat.” as a response. As it was, the score was 265 – 0 at 20 minutes.

A wee bit of Kandinsky was the second picture starter, identified by Matthew Spry. More circles pictures brought another full house. Surely Imperial would soon be through the 300 barrier. Finally Arthur Bellamy put Wadham’s account into the black, recognising clues leading to the word giant. The Large Hadron Collider in CERN brought 1 bonus. Jaime Salamanca Camacho knew that a teacher who moves from place to place is peripatetic. Well, a moving target is more difficult to hit. 20^th century Prime Ministers brought the seemingly inevitable full house. The word dream in the titles of proto sci fi works brought Matthew Spry another starter. London theatres brought – shock horror – just two bonuses. Nobody took the next starter on Narvik. Look, gawd alone knows what the next starter was about, but Mattia Elkouby said the answer was five and that’ll do for me. American female poet of the early 60’s? If it ain’t Plath, I don’t know the answer. She did nowt for Imperial, as they missed all three bouses. Aarav Billore knew about descendants of Alexander the Great’s army for the next starter. Bonuses on the HIV virus saw a harsh ruling deny Wadham a full house. Well, it was purely academic as it was. There was no time for the next starter to be answered, and the final score was 345 – 25.

Wadham left with a BCR of 33.3, while Imperial managed a staggering 79. It seemed to me that they had one of those nights when all of your guesses come off, and every fifty-fifty coin toss lands heads up for you. BUT. Imperial were magnificent. They could have performed substantially less well and still won. They have good buzzing throughout the team, and their coverage is very wide. No, they’re not guaranteed to win the series by any means. But that performance should have put the fear of God into the rest.

Amol Watch

I was delighted to see Amol talking about Imperial’s bonus conversion rate when introducing the teams. We’ve been banging on about BCRs for years here in LAM Towers. He used to mention it quite regularly but it’s been a while. I felt he was a bit down on Wadham in his intro, especially considering the shellhacking they were going to get in the match.

At 15 minutes and 36 seconds, Amol said “Plenty of time Wadham.” Bear in mind that the score was 175 – nil at this point. I get it, but I don’t know, in this case probably the less said the better.

I think his momentary speechlessness at the end said everything you could say about Imperial’s imperious performance. Even if he did call them ‘absolutely ludicrous’

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

West Germany in 1974 and Japan in 2002 are the only countries to host/co host a FIFA world cup without any matches being played in their capital cities.

Baby Elephant Walk Moment

What term is applied to the monitoring mechanisms designed to assess for DNA damage and correct alignment of spindle fibres during different stages of the eukaryotic cell cycle, and which allow the cell to decide whether it should proceed with or terminate cell division? The term is also used to refer to a place along a road or border at which travellers are stopped for inspection, including . . . Hey , you had me (asleep) at eukaryotic. Dum de dumdum dum dum dum dum dumdum.

University Challenge 2025 - round two Darwin, Cambridge v. Edinburgh

The Teams

Darwin, Cambridge

Rebecca McClelland

Sophie Willis

Harrison Whitaker (Capt.)

Rowan Stewart

Edinburgh

David Aiton

Jess Mellor

Greg Myles (Capt)

Caitlin Self

Ah, here we are again, Dearly Beloved. OC has finished its Christmas specials and we’re back to the competition proper. I Can’t Believe It’s Not University Challenge finished last week, meaning we’re back to the real mccoy. I noticed that Mastermind Lite hasn’t finished yet, but hopefully we’ll be back to normal soon.

One of the small pleasures of UC is watching for that moment when one word or two unlocks a question. In the case of the first starter it was Baron Hausmann, which gave Harrison Whitaker the answer of Paris. Paintings of enslaved people brought 2 bonuses from what was not the easiest set. A very excited Harrison Whitaker won the buzzer race to answer Argonauts for the second starter. He bonuses on extinct creatures taught me something. I had always thought that the Dimetrodon lived in the Triassic, but it was even earlier, the Permian. We both took the other two bonuses. Nobody knew about prosecutions for blasphemy for the next starter. The next starter about contributions to a reference work could only be answered by the OED or the Britannica. Harrison Whitaker zigged with Britannica allowing Jess Mellor to zag with OED and get Edinburgh moving. Bonuses on cinema in Taiwan brought 2 bonuses. So to the picture starter. Yes, to be honest I was disappointed that it was a scientific diagram of something that Sophie Willis informed us was called the Krebs process – presumably named after the character played by Steve Kanaly in Dallas. (ask your grandparents). Three more pictures of the cycle asking about various bits of it brought just the one correct answer. More science followed with a bewilderingly long chemistry starter. Greg Myles knew the iodine clock reaction. A set on nixtamalization – me neither – brought me a lap of honour for knowing niacin is vitamin B3 – while Edinburgh took just the last bonus. This took us to the 10 minute mark with Darwin leading 55 – 30. It was becoming an interesting contest, but neither team was pulling up any trees with the bonuses.

With the next starter you just had to wait until the name Bamako made it clear the country in question was Mali. Harrison Whitaker made no mistake, timing his buzzer run to perfection. The French department of Yvelines brought two bonuses, but being realistic Darwin probably could have known the treaty of St. Germain for a full house. Still, another Harrison Whitaker starter followed in short order on film director Ari Aster. Place names that are etymologically related brought another single bonus. So to the music starter, and David Aiton recognised an arrangement of Pictures at an Exhibition by Mussorgsky. More classical music brought 1 bonus when a good save saw them swap Satie for Saint Saens at the last moment. David Aiton took his second consecutive starter recognising various uses of the word arc. Women In Science saw a harsh but fair ruling, disallowing Dorothy Hodgkins for Dorothy Hodgkin. This meant that they took just the one on the set. Caitlin Self took Edinburgh’s third consecutive starter, knowing that Attila (the Hun, not the Stockbroker) was nicknamed the Scourge (of God). Extinct Germanic languages brought two bonuses. Now, the next question began “Which figure of Anglo Saxon legend . . . “ Come on, it’s got to be worth an interruption for Grendel after that, hasn’t it? Both teams sat on their buzzers for a moment or two until his mother was mentioned, which allowed Harrison Whitaker to shake off the doldrums and get his team buzzing again. A lovely set on Shakespeare’s characters as they would appear in an alphabetical list brought two bonuses. David Aiton knew that con sordino means played with a mute. The tree of Life brought jus one bonus, still at just after the 20 minute mark the score stood at 110 – 95 in Darwin’s favour, and it was anybody’s game.

So to the second picture starter, and what one of my less enlightened friends once called ‘one of them pre-Raphaelite bints.’ It looked more like Lizzie Siddal than Jane Morris, I thought, and so did Harrison Whitaker. We were right. More paintings by other artists for which Ms. Siddal modelled brought just the one bonus. Harrison Whitaker was the first to get clues to words beginning with pep for the next starter. US astronomer Debra Fisher brought me my second lap of honour opportunity for the Doppler Effect. Then another for diffraction, while Darwin managed just the one bonus. The next starter suggested Sri Lanka, and David Aiton buzzed in with just that answer. Bonuses on the archaeological excavation of Aphrodisias ( a made up name, surely ) in Turkey brought two bonuses, but Edinburgh were still a full house behind – and we hadn’t seen many of them in this contest. Various Ao – names ad words fell to that man Whitaker again. Ninette de Valois yielded just one bonus, but more importantly ran the clock down. Then a candidate for the baby elephant moment yielded me another lap of honour opportunity for knowing precession for the next starter. Greg Myles had it too. Two bonuses on Mohism brought nowt, and then the gong ended the competition. Darwin won by 155- 125.

Neither team impressed with the bonuses. Darwin’s BCR was 48 while Edinburgh’s was 42. I’m tempted to say that the difference between the teams was Harrison Whitaker’s buzzer speed. Whatever the relative strength of the opposition, 19 starters in two games is serious form. However, that BCR is a concern.

Amol Watch

Amol started off paying tribute to Harrison Whitaker’s 11 starters in the first round. Fair enough, it was a hell of a performance, but you gotta admit that was putting a lot of pressure on the Darwin skipper for this match. Maybe this was why he was so hyped up for the competition that with the second starter he committed the breach of show etiquette which saw him buzz and shout out the answer before his name was announced. Amol, possibly realising that he himself might have been partly responsible allowed it but reminded him to wait for Roger.

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

In 1697 Thomas Aikenhead became the last person in Britain to be executed for blasphemy.

Baby Elephant Walk Moment

I need the name of a chemical here. Widely used in chemistry courses to demonstrate rates of reaction and chemical kinetics, the clock reaction, developed by Hans Heinrich Landolt, involves measuring the time taken for a colourless solution of reagents to turn blue as what element reacts with a starch indicator.

I slept well last night after playing that question again on the iplayer. In fact I nodded off about halfway through it.

The LAMMY Awards 2024

Well, Dearly Beloved, 2024 has certainly been a historic and epoch making year in my life in general, but how does it rate as a quizzing year? Or put it another way, who will be taking home the coveted LAMMY Awards?

Well, let us begin with the LAMMY for . . .

Award for the Best New TV Quiz Show of 2024

In 2023 we had 6 new shows to choose from. In 2022 we had 7. In 2024 we had . . . well, we only had 2. These were:-

Jeopardy!

The Answer Run

It is arguable whether Jeopardy! can even be counted as a new show. This venerable warhorse which has stood proudly at the top of the American quiz show pyramid for forty years has been tried on UK TV four times before.

The main USP of the latest revival was Steven Fry as QM. I would pay to watch him reading our selections from the London Yellow Pages. The gameplay is reassuringly simple and old fashioned. But, the show did feel rather padded and there wasn’t a great deal of variation in the gameplay.

The Answer Run, which hit our screens in August also benefitted from a top notch host. Some QMs manage to make the shows they front worse. More of them do manage to avoid making their shows worse without necessarily bringing that much to the party. A small number manage to take what they’re given and make it better by their presence. Such a presenter is Jason Manford. The show has a fairly simple game mechanic behind it – basically swiping a succession of answers into one of two categories to which they belong. It does have a certain amount of play-at-home-a-bility, which is an essential for a LAMMY Winner.

Which means, as I’m sure you’ve guessed, that the winner of the Best New Show for 2024 is

The Answer Run

The Award for Outstanding Performance in a Broadcast Quiz

Nominees

Ruth Hart – Mastermind

Brain of Britain – Tim Hall

Brain of Brains – Karl Whelan

Only Connect – The Thrifters – Will Chadwick, Sam Haywood, Jack Karimi

University Challenge – Imperial University , London - Justin Lee, Adam Jones, Suraiya Haddad, Sourajit Debnath

Every single one of our nominees would be a worthy winner of the big prize. But I think, on reflection, I probably enjoyed the Grand Final of UC slightly more than the other grand finals, and so the award goes to

Imperial University , London - Justin Lee, Adam Jones, Suraiya Haddad, Sourajit Debnath

The Award for Achievement in Question Mastership

There have been three question masters at the club this year whose quizzes have reached the level of consistent excellence to earn nominations. It probably won’t come as a surprise that they are the same three nominees as last year’s. namely

Dan Ayres

Jessica Ayres

Adam Cook.

I have thought long and hard about this, bearing in mind that they are all members of my team, Adam is my friend, Dan my son in law and friend, and Jess my daughter and friend. But in all honesty, I think if you took the average quiz my nominees produced this year, and compared them with the average quizzes that anyone else produced, an unbiased observer would agree that the nominees' quizzes were a cut above the rest. It’s not the time or place to go through the other question masters' shortcomings, but my guys put a level of love and care into producing their quizzes which refresh the parts that other question masters just can’t be bothered to reach.

Without further ado, the winner is

Jessica Ayres

In all honesty I couldn’t not give it to Jess. On top of the excellence of her usual quizzes throughout the year there was the wonderful quiz she produced for my 60th birthday party, which was just a perfect evening. Well deserved.

Congratulations to all nominees and winners - here's wishing everyone a great quizzing year in 2025

University Challenge 2025 Round Two Exeter v. Bristol

The Teams

Exeter

Ryker Moorcroft

Lucy Carr

Martin Newman (Capt.)

Elliott Mouelhi

Bristol

Ted Warner

Bridie Rogers

Kevin Flanagan (Capt.)

Olivia Watts.

Another Monday, another second round match. First round form suggested that high scoring Bristol (325 in round one) might be too hot for Exeter to handle in this West country derby.

I went early for Fauvism for the first starter. Bristol skipper Kevin Flaagan was first to chance his arm with the same answer. This earned a set of bonuses on medical terms beginning with peri-. Both Bristol and I took a full house. Unlike me Bristol stayed on their chairs and did not set off on a lap of honour. With the next starter it soon became obvious we were looking for a harlequin duck. Kevin Flanagan took his double with this one. Depictions of insects brought two bonuses, but the Soul of a Flea eluded Bristol. I did think the description smacked of Blake who was, if truth be told, a bit of a fruitcake. A flag was described for the next question and sadly Lucy Carr got her Slovs mixed up and lost five with Slovenia. This allowed Ted Warner in with Slovakia. Another full house on plant structures followed. The picture starter showed an outline of China with a couple of administrative areas highlighted. Exeter had a go but it was Ted Warner who supplied the correct answer of Bei, as in -jing. More of the same brought another full house. The next starter asked for a shipping area and Exeter buzzed first, but sadly incorrectly. This allowed Bristol’s Captain Fantastic in again with Viking. Video games featuring well known TV and film actors only brought one bonus but it really didn’t matter. Exeter had been shut out completely so far and Bristol led by 110 to minus 10 at the 10 minute mark.

Diels Alder? Means nowt to me but Olivia Watts was in very quickly with it for the next starter. Dishes named after the vessel in which they are cooked brought two more bonuses for Bristol, and an unexpected full house for me. Ted Warner continued the Bristol onslaught with Spinoza’s ever popular “Ethics.” (His sequels, Suthics and Middlethics were less popular). Place names beginning with Dur – piled on the agony for Exeter as Bristol took another full house. Ted Warner wasn’t showing ay mercy to Exeter as he took the next starter, recognising a description of the language Burmese. Leaders who were known as The Apostle of . . . brought two bouse and put Bristol one full set away from their double century. Nobody recognised the dulcet tones of Jonelle Monae for the music starter. Incidentally this was the first starter of the competition that Bristol failed to answer correctly. Had I not already taken my lap of honour I would have done so for recognising the description of a quasar. Kevin Flanagan knew it too. More songs inspired by movies brought the full house Bristol needed for their double century. Kevin Flanagan took the next starter with Problem Plays. A couple of literature bonuses followed. Finally, 17 minutes into the competition, Exeter managed to get a word in edgeways as captain Martin Newman supplied the term mezzo-soprano. They took one bonus on – ites. No, I can’t tell you what the hell a transcendental number is, but my guess that pi was the one the next question wanted was right on the money. Ryker Moorcroft took it and earned bonuses on Spanish Pianist Alicia ‘Qui?’ de Larrocha brought them another bonus. So, right on the 20 minute mark, they trailed Bristol 20 – 220.

Ted Warner got Bristol moving again by knowing Valladolid for the next starter. Thebes in Greek Mythology brought just the one bonus. For the second picture starter nobody recognised Aitama Bonmati. Neither did they recognise clues to the word white. Kevin Flanagan knew that Paul Lynch won the 2023 Booker. Other notable players from the 2023 Fifa Women’s World Cup brought two bonuses. Ted Warner knew the term cordillera. This brought Bristol another two bonuses on astronomy. Nobody knew that Queen Anne ruled for another 7 years after the Act of Union. The long migration of the artic tern (which is considerably longer than that of the funny tern) was too easy for Ted Warner. WHR Rivers (surely WHO Rivers?) brought just one bonus, but what of it? We were way past the stage in which the outcome of the match had been in any doubt. Lucy Carr knew the name Balthazar for the next starter, and Exeter took one bonus on 17^th century British politics. That was it. Bristol won by 290 – 35.

For the record Exeter managed a BCR of 33.3, but that was off such a small number of bonuses I shouldn’t read too much into it. Bristol on the other hand managed a BCR of 71.4 and it’s difficult not to read a lot into that.

Amol Watch

“Good job you’ve got medics on your team.” Observed Amol after the peri bonuses.”Good job you’ve got a biologist on your team.” He quipped five minutes later after the plant bonuses. Alright, already, Amol. We’ve got it. Vary your material, mate. On the one hand Amol was correct when he said “Plenty of time to get starter,” to Exeter on 6:35, but on the other hand, how discouraging must it have been to have been, essentially, told that you’re not doing very well so early in the match?

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

A musca depicta is a trompe l’oeil depiction of a fly on a painting

Baby Elephant Walk Moment

I have to be fair. I didn’t know anything about many of the questions, but none of them were soporific enough to be nominated for this show.

Mastermind 2025 - First round Heat 17

Heat 17 now folks, so not too long to go before we’ll have seen all of his year’s contenders. But what of last night’s?

I may have retired from education, but I still root for teachers giving it a lash in the black chair, so I feared for first contender Phil Nowek last night. My support over the years has proven to be the kiss of death for many a likely contender’s chances. Phil was answering on George R R Martin’s “A Song of Ice and Fire” . Answering really well for over a minute, too. However a few wrong’uns in the later part of the round limited him to 7 points where a double figure round had looked possible at one point.

Next came Chris Murphy. Chris was answering on Whales, which I believe was the subject my friend and former skipper Gary Grant took in his own winning performance in the final in about 2012. Back then Gary set a Hall of Fame score of 19, I think. Well, in the current era nobody is give the chance of getting close to that score. Sadly for Chris, the questions seemed to find him out a little bit, exposing what seemed to be a few gaps in his knowledge of the subject. He ended with four points.

Marianne Harman came third to the chair. She was answering on Reinhard Messner. What did I know about Reihard Messner? That he was the first person to climb to the summit of Everest without using oxygen. (All of you who think, ‘silly sod’ may be heartened to know that I thought the same the first time that I heard it.) So I was gratified to find that I knew the Eiger Sanction and guessed K2 to bag a couple of unexpected points on this round. Marianne did better than that, but I think a stumble on one question just robbed her of the chance to go joint top with Phil.

Finally Emma Carter Brown. Emma was answering on what should have been the closest thing to a banker subject for me in this show, Emily Bronte. I have an often dented theory that the world is largely divided between Jane Eyre people and Wuthering Heights people. I’m a Wuthering Heights man. I wasn’t unhappy to take three on this round which took me to 7 overall. Emma joined Phil at the top with 7 and no passes.

Chris returned to the chair first for the General Knolwedge. It looked a bit of a struggle at times, but Chris battled his way to a respectable score of 8 to set the bar at 12.

Marianne, with all due respect to Chris, was the first of the three potential winners of the heat to return to the chair. She did well, too achieving a double figure score. 10 gave her 16 – not a guaranteed winning score certainly but enough to give the two leaders something to think about.

Well, it didn’t seem to take much thought on Phil’s part. He produced a very fine 14. Sometimes you can look at a contender as a question is being asked and think – he/she doesn’t know this. It happened to me a number of times during Phil’s round, but each time I thought so he gave the right answer. Fair play. Phil’s total of 21 looked very much like a winning score to me. Unless Emma knew differently.

Well, Emma needed 15 for an outright win, and 14 and no passes for a tie break. She had a decent go at it as well, but by about a minute into the round she was behind on the clock and didn’t look like she was going to make it. She too though scored double figures, her ten bringing her second place on 17.

I’ll be honest, I don’t really like what has happened with the specialist subjects this year. In general they’re a couple of points down across the board, and I don’t think it’s down to the contenders. I don’t think it adds to the show, in fact for me, it detracts. Just my opinion and feel free to disagree.

Well done Phil. Your GK in particular gives you chances. I hope that you can find time – not easy for a teacher – to learn your second specialist as well as possible so that you have a real chance in your semi. Best of luck.

The Details

Phil Nowek	A Song of Ice and Fire	7	0	14	0	21	0
Chris Murphy	Whales	4	2	8	3	12	5
Marianne Harman	Reinhold Messner	6	0	10	0	16	0
Emma Carter Brown	Emily Bronte	7	0	10	0	17	0

University Challenge 2025 Round Two - Durham v. The Open

The Teams

Durham

Joe Ancell

Emilia Brookfield-Pertusini

Jake Roberts (capt.)

Luke Nash

Open University

Nicky Maving

Tom Barber

Karie Westermann (capt.)

Hector Payne

The first starter asked for the name of an Africa capital city. Both teams sat back a little but Luke Nash was in with the correct name of Harare before the end of the question. They took two bonuses on glass. Joe Ancell knew that the word Matrix is derived from the latin for womb or source. Bonuses on pirates – arrrhhhh, yo ho ho and a bottle of rum, me hearties etc. etc. brought just the one correct answer. Nicky Maving managed to drag the Open into the competition, knowing the term picaresque for the next starter. Questions on electronics meant nowt to any of us but at least took us up to the first picture starter. My old mate KD Johnson will have shouted ‘peregrine falcon!’ the moment he saw the bird silhouette we were shown. He often complains that the bird questions on the show are easy and that people don’t get them when they should.  I didn’t. Luke Nash had it. Three more silhouettes brought two correct answers – we both recognised the buzzard and the red kite, but not the sparrowhawk. A fine early buzz from Karie Westerman recognised the words of artist’ Jenny Saville. Three questions on Love’s Labours Lost brought no points. I always thought a costard was an apple, there you go. Luke Nash recognised the Palmetto as being a symbol of South Carolina. Durham took what I thought were the two harder bonuses on classical music, but surprisingly missed Delius’ On Hearing the First Cuckoo of Spring. Nonetheless, at just past the ten minute mark Durham were leading by 75 – 20.

Neither team knew the answer to the next question. That was central – gawd knows what the question was about, but it wasn’t – what is the red line on the tube map, more’s the pity. AAARRRGGGGHHHH! The next starter mentioned Milos Forman who lost me thousands of pounds on Millionaire. (Alright, strictly speaking it was me who lost the money, but the question was about him.) I know he’s Czech now. So did Hector Payne. Large lakes in smaller countries provided one correct answer but at least Open were closing the gap. Karie Westerman knew about samphire for the next starter. Morphogenesis, who I believe may have been a renegade Time Lord during the JNT era of Doctor Who, bought just the one bonus. The music starter followed and Hector Payne very quickly recognised the work of Richard Wagner. Other pieces of music using the Dresden Amen – no, me neither – brought the Open a timely full house and tied the scores. Nicky Maving recognised a reference to Riot grrrl to take the next starter. Player managers in football brought another full house. This was turning into a very good spell for the Open. This continued as Nicky Maving took a second consecutive starter with Leap Second. Like a Leap Year, it is a tradition for ladies to ask gentlemen to marry them on a leap second, but they have to do it quickly. Cocteau provided Eaupen with two beaunuses. Godel, Escher, Bach escaped all of us for the next starter. Nicky Maving struck again with Keystone species for the next. Rulers brought a full house. At just past the ten minute mark Open had inflicted a ten minute shut out on Durham and led by 75 to 145.

For the picture starter nobody recognised the work of Paula Rego. Joe Ansell knew about a diplomatic mission to the Qing Empire. More pictures depicting dancers by the sea brought two correct answers in quick time. This seemed to energise Durham and skipper Jake Roberts took the next starter with electronegativity. Avant garde cinema brought one bonus, but the Durham charge was on. Luke Nash buzzed early for the Ardennes and he buzzed correctly to earn bonuses on Adam Bede, but sadly they just failed to take points on them. They were only a full set behind Open though. Karie Westermann recognised several meanings of the phrase Hail Mary, and the gap stretched again. Towns on the English coast with names ending in – mouth brought just the one bonus, but importantly it ran the clock down. Nobody knew Lagrange for the next starter. Jake Roberts went all in for the next starter, but came too early, leaving Nicky Maving to give the correct answer of quick. Particle physics just washed over me for the bonuses and brought nowt to the Open. But again, it brought the gong ever closer. There was just time for Karie Westermann to give us the Crime Writers Association and then that same gong announced the end. Open had won by 180 to 115.

Both teams had similar BCRs – Durham had 48 while Open finished with 47, but when you look at the contest as a whole Open were better on the buzzer which is why they won, even if the gap between the teams did flatter them a little at the end. Just my opinion, feel free to disagree.

Amol Watch

I think Amol was as surprised as I was when Durham missed the cuckoo and suggested woodpecker. “Said with such confidence. But no.” I wonder if it was with a sense of irony that Amol stated ‘Six minutes to go Durham, plenty of time.’ Either one or the other, Amol, but not both.

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

The word Matrix is derived from the latin for womb or source. How have I never heard that before? Just ignorant, I suppose.

Baby Elephant Walk Moment

The German biologist Christine Nusslein-Volhard discovered the first morphogenic protein, named bicoid, as part of her work on which popular model organism? Thomas Hunt Morgan had earlier used it to demonstrate sex-linked inheritance. Huh? Dum de dumdum dum dum dum dum dumdum.

Mastermind 2025 First Round Heat 16

Hello, good morning and welcome. What, me? Fine, thanks for asking.

Now, looking at last night’s menu of specialists, I should have done a lot better than I did, since on paper I knew something about three of them. Nowt about the other one, mind you, but we’ll come to that. In the end though I just about scraped an aggregate of 6, which all goes to show that you never can tell. First up was Jeremy Hicks answering on the Manx Missile, Sir Mark Cavendish. Now, I was in London to watch the Prologue of Sir Mark’s first Tour de France, and I watch it every year, but even so I couldn’t do much with these questions. I thought it was a tough round, and that puts Jeremy’s 8 into perspective. We’ve already seen this series how 8 can be a competitive score in the first round.

Back in the day I really used to like The Darkness, the subject of Lucie Knight’s round. Lucie again really knew her subject. This was a wide ranging set – and not all of them, I noted, were specifically to do with the music despite the title of the round. Anything in double figures nowadays and you know that you’ve done really well. Lucie came close with 9 and no passes. It all depended on how our last two contenders would do, but it looked as if she would be in contention by half time.

I thought I recognised Dom Tait, our third contender. Indeed I did. For Dom Tait is an Only Connect champion, a member of the Scribes. ‘Allo, thought I, expect fireworks. Dom was answering on The Day Today. Not just the Day Today, either, but also its radio predecessor, On the Hour. Again, it was a show that I enjoyed very much, but that didn’t seem to help me in accruing many points. Still, at least I had the pleasure of watching Dom put on a text book performance of how to answer Mastermind questions. It wasn’t quite a full house, but by golly it was close. 11 points and no passes.

Having to follow Dom’s round renders Jeff Davies’ round on Sylvia ‘Who’ Towsend Warner all the more praiseworthy, since you wouldn’t have blamed him for being daunted by what had come before. Jeff treated us to a perfect round of 11 correct answers from 11 questions. He wasn’t answering at express pace which explains why he ended up with the same score as Dom, who really was. But at least it guaranteed that he would be last to go in the GK and would know the exact size of the task ahead of him.

Spare a moment of sympathy for Jeremy Hicks. He returned to the chair first for the GK round and delivered a very good GK round indeed, a round which might have been good enough to win another heat of the show. Well, at least he set the bar at 21 and I’m sure it’s not much consolation, but Jeremy, I appreciated your round and I’m sure many others will have as well.

Lucie Kight came back next. She had one of those rounds where it seems like every time you narrow down your answer to a couple of possibilities in your head you end up picking the wrong choice. Not that she did badly. As it was she scored a respectable 8, but on this particular show it was not going to be enough. She ended with a total of 17.

So to Dom, and if I was to tell you that I wasn’t expecting something a bit special, then you know that I’d be lying. It wasn’t just the fact that he answered so many of his questions correctly – 16 in total. No, it was the way he did it. Concentrating intently until the last syllable of the question issued from Clive’s mouth then leaping straight in with the answer. For the second time this series I found myself applauding the telly. Relatively few people have the level of GK you need in order to be able to deliver a round like this, but it’s so gratifying when you see someone who can.

Jeff, then, had to follow that. He gave it a go, I give him full credit for that. He started well, but a couple of wrong uns robbed him of momentum and to be honest it was a bit of a grim old slog from that point. What I liked was that when Clive announced that he had scored 8 for 19 points there just seemed to be the tiniest nod and a look of satisfaction, as if for him this had not so much been about winning, as about doing as well as he could. I can run that up the flagpole and salute it.

Well done Dom, a really first class performance. No predictions from me – they rarely come true anyway. But I wish you the very best of luck in the semi final.

The Details

Jeremy Hicks	Sir Mark Cavendish	8	0	13	0	21	0
Lucie Knight	The Music of The Darkness	9	0	8	2	17	2
Dom Tait	The Day Today	11	0	16	0	27	0
Jeff Davies	Sylvia Townsend Warner	11	0	8	0	19	0