The Chase Around The World

So we reached the final of The Chase Around the World on Thursday evening. All that remained was to see who would take away the moolah and whether the show would stick the landing. Well, both will be revealed here, so if you haven’t seen the final yet and don’t want to know yet, then look away now.

For the final, then, our three remaining pairs were in Athens. Athens holds very special memories for me. As a kid we never went away anywhere as a family for various reasons, most of them to do with my late father, and I was desperate to travel. In the summer of 1982 when I turned 18 I used proceeds from my evening and weekend job and bought a return flight to Athens. For a large part of two unforgettable weeks I backpacked and island hopped down to Crete and back, spending a couple of days in Athens at the start and again at the end of the trip. Great days. Every edition of the show has been very picturesque and this was no different.

The twist in the final was that at each stage of the final, the contestants actually got to face the Chasers in person, and some of the quizzes involved even more strenuous challenges to answer the questions. And, for the final challenge, the pairs were split. The first pair to be reunited at the finish with Bradders won. And that team was Steven and David. That was probably fair. In terms of the weekly contests they had won more of them than either other couple and had probably been just about the most consistent on questions asked throughout the series.

I’ve often mentioned that I have a misanthropic disinterest in learning about contestants in quiz and game shows. Despite this though I did find myself getting to like the teams in the show, and I have no qualms that if there could only be three teams through to the final, then these were the best three. I wouldn’t have felt disappointed if dad and daughter Ashwin and Nikita, or sisters Kati and Amy had won and I think that this is because of some smart decisions made by the programme makers. At the heart of many quiz and game shows is something of the structure of a morality tale. We feel pleased seeing the most deserving contestant win through having demonstrated worthiness in overcoming challenges, and all three of our pairs had done this at different times during the series. For the previous shows of the series before the final it would have been easy to have foregrounded the Chasers a lot more, and maybe have a longer Beat the Chasers endgame, to capitalise on the Chasers’ popularity. The fact that the show didn’t do this allowed more time to be spent on the contestants’ efforts in the show with the result that this increased the chances that we, the viewers at home, would invest more in them. Smart move. Likewise, not asking the contestants to carry out any sneaky or underhand moves against each other – smart move.

Did it “The Chase Across the World” stick the landing? Yes it did. I have really enjoyed this summer show. I really hope that we’ll get another series of it, and I don’t mind if another series would also be confined to just Europe, there’s more than enough picturesque places for several series. I worry that it’s an ITV show. I have no idea what the ratings for “The Chase Around the World” have been like, but I know that for ITV, more than for BBC, the bottom line in the form of viewing figures is the bottom line. Fingers crossed.

Captain Slapdash Rides Again

About the quiz in the club last night, then. Firstly I have to commiserate with the team who came runners up last night. They played exceptionally well all evening to tie with us on the question rounds and we only won because we top scored in the hand out. Well, we have puzzle solver Dan in our team, you see. But I commiserate with them for having played so well and still not quite done it.

Now as regards the ongoing story of the team whose scores in the mark your own era were so suspect, well, they did turn up last night, four of them which is practically a full team. They did accept answer papers and handouts from Captain Slapdash and they did listen attentively when the swapover procedures were explained. Once again, at the handover after round 1 they decided they weren’t playing. Now, okay, this time they did make an excuse – one of them said something about a problem with eyes. Might have been true, I don’t know. If I was going to be mean- and I am -  I would say that they did the first round, looked at their answers and realised that there was every good chance they would not score well and decided not to play at that point. But I don’t know. And frankly, I’m reaching the point where I don’t care that much. Guys, play if you want to, don’t play if you don’t want to, but if you play, tell us what you actually scored rather than what you want us to think that you scored.

As for Captain Slapdash. Well, rounds 2- 8 seemed relatively error free, fair play. Granted, too many themes and gimmicks for my liking, but each to their own. But he made a very characteristic howler in round 1. He asked this set:-

Which is the largest castle in England?

Who commanded the British 8^th Army at El Alamein?

Which children’s song has these lines at the end of its first verse - Leave your supper, and leave your sleep, And come with your playfellows into the street.?

In Greek mythology which Goddess was known for her sporting prowess especially in Hunting?

What is the connection between your last 4 answers?

Now, to give him a little credit he did qualify that Windsor was not the answer to the castle questions, although he burbled some crap about it not qualifying because it is inhabited. So this gave us Dover.

Question 2 was going to be Bernard Law Montgomery. So at this point we had two US state Capitals.

The Song was Boys and Girls come out to play, we knew. Couldn’t see the capital yet.

Now, the mythology question as asked only admits one answer – Artemis. But even using the captain’s very slipshod standards, you can’t turn that around to make a state capital. However, if you take out goddess and substitute heroine in its place then you might also answer Atalanta. Which suddenly occurred to me. Is the Captain capable of making such an error? I asked myself. Too bloody right he is, I thought. And as for the basic wrongness of Atalanta being rendered as Atlanta, well, that’s small potatoes to Captain Slapdash. Boys and girls come out to play? Oh, you’ll have worked that out. Boise City, Idaho, obviously. Doesn’t even work on paper, let alone phonetically.

Now, in one way I was quite proud of having been able to work through the convoluted processes to get the answers that the Captain had down. But the petty, obsessive, small-minded pedant in me rails against his whole attitude of – oh, it’s close enough, it’ll do because I can’t be arsed to put the effort in to make the connection actually work- I introduced connections to the quiz over 30 years ago, and if you’re going to use this gimmick, you should bloody work at it and do it properly. Grrr!

Vintage Mastermind 1977 Heat 2

It was heat 2 of the 1977 series of Mastermind on BBC4 last night. The Jeeves – Jesus question was actually the first to be asked. As for what happened on the show, well it was a very similar story to what you’ll often see in episodes of Mastermind nowadays – one good performance in GK not being enough to overcome a deficit in the specialist round, while the best performer in specialist put on a steady enough performance in GK to get over the line. Like last week, we saw many more passes than you’d normally expect, but at least it was nice to see Magnus back on form, even though I thought he gave more help and leeway to a couple of the contenders than you’d see today.

One thing that struck me was just how formally everyone dressed at this point in the show’s history. I mean, we’re not exactly quite saying top hat and tails, but collar and tie and sober dark whistle seems to have been mandatory.

Here’s another thing, too. Now, I’m no spring chicken myself, but of the two regular heats of this series we’ve seen so far, the average age of contenders would seem to be a lot higher than it is nowadays. Was this in fact the case, or was it just that people looked older back then? Don’t laugh, I’m serious. I am 62. My father, whom I resemble, passed away at 51. His father, whom he resembled, passed away aged 56. I’ve seen photos of him taken at his silver wedding, and in those early 1960s fashions he looks ancient.

But if the average age of contenders is much younger than it was 50 years ago, I can’t help wondering why that might be. Does it reflect a conscious bias on the part of the production teams towards one part of the age spectrum or the other? Does it reflect that an appearance on Mastermind is more appealing to younger people than older people now? Has the growth and development of quiz culture in 50 years had something to do with it.? Maybe its none of these, maybe it’s a combination of reasons. Still, I’ll be interested to look at the ages of next week’s contenders.

University Challenge 2026 First Round Bath v. City St. George's

The Teams

Bath

Henry Hill

Molly Marshall

William Turner (Capt.)

Bill Fudge 

City St. George’s

Massimo Lecavalier

Alisa Butterwick

Nathan Leung (Capt.)

Nick Brown

We kicked off with a starter calling for the three letters starting a series of words beginning – cub – and both teams rather sat on their buzzers until captain William Turner of Bath took his first. Major cities lying on an isthmus brought just one bonus. The Bath skipper took his second starter on the bounce, knowing the derivation of the word filibuster. Good shout. This time they followed with a full house on the Home Office. Nick Brown recognised the name Andrew Wiles for the next starter to get Fermat’s Last Theorem and open his team’s account. The mathematical puzzle of the Knight’s Tour allowed me to take a bonus point for Euler. It is purely because of UC that every time I hear the phrase ‘swiss mathematician’ (not all that common in the NHS dental department) I blurt out Euler. City St. George’s took 2. So to the picture starter and the already impressive William Turner recognised the flag of the Axores. I think he may be a bit of a vexillologist given the way he theatrically rubbed his hands together when Amol announced three more subnational flags. Bath took one bonus, recognising the flag of Wallonia. Starter four for William Turner recognising a description of Burkina Faso. The 2012 Olympic Games opening ceremony brought a full house for Bath. At almost 10 minutes they led by 80 – 20

It was that man Turner who took his fifth starter on the next question knowing that if its an art form and linked to Stoke on Trent it has to be ceramics. Long tennis matches in Grand Slam events brought a single bonus, but already the course of the match looked pretty well set. For once it wasn’t the Bath skipper who answered the next starter, but Molly Marshall who reckoned that the language in the question might be Cornish. Good shout. Right, I’ll be honest, I visited it last September and have drawn it more than once, but I have never heard of the nickname The Mersey Funnel for Liverpool RC Metropolitan Cathedral. As soon as I heard it, though, I guessed what it had to be – for the main shape of the building does resemble an upturned funnel. Bath took a single bonus. Massimo Lecavalier won the buzzer race to identify the surname Wright and give City St. George’s a rare chance at some more points. The ensuing bonuses were a UC special set of rare beauty. They asked for the names of elements. We were given clues to words you would get if you took the chemical symbols from their names. So, for example, if you ad Rh to odium you get Rhodium, for which Rh is the symbol. My God, that’s a great set! Sadly City St. George’s didn’t get any of them, having done the hard graft with cobalt they gave Balt and Baltic. Still they were at least answering questions now. Alissa Butterwick was first to recognise Outkast for the music starter – a popular beat combo, so I’m informed. Other artists taking part in their 2025 induction ceremony into the rock and roll Hall of Fame failed to add to their score. Maya Angelou is a little bit of a hardy perennial in these parts, but City St. George’s lost five on her for the next starter allowing Bill Fudge to supply her name. Singing voices of Disney characters looked like a full house all the way and indeed it was. Nick Brown won the buzzer race to identify Hazlenuts for the next starter (Cadburys take the and they cover them in chocolate, so I’m told.)Pairs of exact contemporaries – people who were born and died in the same year as each other – brought just one correct answer. So on 20 minutes Bath led by 135 to 50.

After CSG lost 5 on the next starter, Henry Hill chanced his arm with infarction and was correct meaning that all 4 of the Bath team had answered at least 1 starter correctly. Ireland, France and Britain in the Middle Ages brought 2 bonuses. For the second picture starter nobody recognised the work of Miro. William Turner took a 6^th starter recognising references in the Aeneid to the Trojan Horse. Three paintings of people harvesting potatoes saw William Turner lighten the mood by throwing in the famous Toxteth O’Grady from the UC parody in The Young Ones when his team could not find any correct answers. William Turner recognised references to bluegrass to take starter 7. People who helped shape Science in 2025 brought a full house to take Bath close to the 200 barrier. CSG lost five more on an incorrect interruption on cricket allowing Molly Marshall in with India. 200 up. One bonus on social control followed. Nathan Leung took a starter on the furthest point from the sea in the British mainland and thus ensured that all 8 players had answered at least 1 starter correctly. One bonus on 19^th century funeral marches was taken. Sadly 5 of those points were lost to an incorrect interruption on the next starter allowing Henry Hunt to identify real life figures who featured in Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure. No time for bonuses. Bath won comfortably by 215 to 50.

For the record Bath ended with a decent BCR of just below 58%, while City St. George’s was 27% - let’s acknowledge that this was off a small number of bonuses and the fewer bonuses there were, the more skewed the BCR can be.

Amol Watch

Nothing to see here. Go on with your lives, citizens.

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

Burkina Faso literally translates as ‘Land of Upright People’

Baby Elephant Walk Moment

Well done setters! I didn’t feel any of those questions were needlessly prolonged beyond their natural lifespan last night. 

Mastermind Round One Heat 5

Welcome back Mastermind. First in the chair was Fernanda Partridge. She was answering on the band Iron Maiden. I wasn’t really expecting any points but I managed to sneak one. Fernanda looked pretty good value for her 9 points and based on what we’ve seen so far in this series it was going to leave her in contention going into the GK round.

Emily Medhurst was offering us what seems to be the most eclectic subject choice for a few year, Transport for London Moquette. You might have seen that I put together a set of questions on the subject in yesterday’s points. None of which came up, or that is, not quite as asked. But researching them had at least given me enough information to answer 6 f these, while a good guess brought me another for 7. Putting that into perspective this is my best specialist score for the series so far. Go figure. Emily did well to finish just a point behind Fernanda.

Without wishing to be the least bit perjorative about the siblinghood of the quizface, if you’d had to have picked out the quizzer from an identity parade of tonight’s contenders you would probably have picked Donald Campbell. He was a bit older apart from anything else, and the quick clipped authority with which he answered 10 questions on the films of Paul Newman certainly seemed to confirm this. I picked up 3 to take me to an aggregate of 11 which was as far as I was going to get with this particular set of specialists.

James Clayton as an English teacher had my support from the start, for all the good that this would do him. He was answering on the Tintin books of Hergé. None of the questions were about the GAF stereo Viewmaster version of Destination Moon and so I didn’t get any. Always more of an Asterix the Gaul man myself. James stuck to his task and managed 7 by the end of the round. Not out of it, no, but with a bit of a hill to climb in the GK round.

He’d barely had enough time to get his climbing boots on before hre returned to the chair, but let’s be fair, he didn’t make a bad fist of it, scoring 8 for a total of fifteen. Had he been a little quicker with his answer he might have got close to double figures.

I thought James was given a relatively tough GK round and I felt that the same happened to Emly Medhurst. With a similar result as it happened. Emily too scored 8, which gave her a one point lead due to her higher score in Specialist.

Fernanda looked to have decided upon the tactic of passing to keep the round moving and I’d say she did a pretty good job with it. Double figure scores are proving to be dearly bought in this year’s series so getting a double figure GK round when you’re only a point behind at half time will always give you a chance.

It was worth noting, though, that Fernanda had accrued 4 passes in total. Which meant that 9 and no more than 3 passes would be enough for Donald Campbell. He had 9 and no passes by the time that the last question was being asked, so in fact even had he passed this last question he would still have won. However, he got it right to make the result beyond doubt.

Well, that was more like it. Well done all, and especially Donald. Best of luck in the semis.

The Details

Fernanda Partridge	Iron Maiden	9	1	10	3	19	4
Emily Medhurst	Transport for London Moquette	8	1	8	0	16	0
Donald Campbell	The Films of Paul Newman	10	0	10	0	20	0
James Clayton	The Tintin Books of Hergé	7	0	8	0	15	0

Transport For London Moquette

 Here we are then. Far from extensive research has enabled me to put together a set of 20 on Transport for London Moquette. I can’t guarantee that all me answers are right cos I just don’t know anything like enough about the subject. When I did something similar for a round on the Paris Metro it brought me 4 points. Whether it will get me any at all on Monday, time will tell.

TFL Moquette

 

1)   In which year was the Yellow Pages moquette based on a well known telephone directory first used on refurbished C – Stock trains (1998)

2)   The word moquette derives from a French word for what? (carpet)

3)   Moquette is woven on looms using which process? (Jacquard)

4)   The first moquette used for transportation in London was made in 1923. What was it called and by which company was it manufactured? (Lozenge by Frith Furnishings Ltd.)

5)   Which 1945 design by Marion Dom alternatively called the Leaf design, was named after a station on the Northern Line? (Colindale)

6)   The Moquette for the Routemaster buses used the colour scheme chosen by designer Douglas Scott, comprising of green, yellow and which other colour? (maroon)

7)   Along with Marianne Straub and Jacqueline Groag, which group was commissioned to design moquette for the new Victoria Line, even though a different design came to be used instead? (The Orbit Group)

8)   Who designed Central Line check specifically for the Central Line in 1990? (Jonathan Southcott)

9)   Who designed the famous Barman moquette? (Wallace Sewell)

10)         The Barman moquette is also called the Icons moquette because it depicts 4 iconic buildings in silhouette – St. Paul’s, The Elizabeth Tower, Tower Bridge and which other? (The London Eye)

11)         What was the name of the London Transport Publicity Officer who commissioned Enid Marx and other textile artists to design moquette seating fabric for LT? (Christian Barman)

12)         What was the name of the first moquette designed by Enid Marx using bold contrasting colours, prior to which she had used more muted tones which tended to blend together? (Chevron)

13)         Typical TFL moquettes contain about 85% wool. Which other fibre makes up the other 15%? (Nylon)

14)         Which company was commissioned to design the moquette for the new Elizabeth Line in 2015? (Wallace Sewell)

15)         What name did Wallace Sewell give to their moquette for the Elizabeth Line? (Interim)

16)         Which fibre is used for the backing of a moquette? (Cotton)

17)         When the TFL cablecar first opened in 2012 it used a moquette based on the colours of which airline? (Emirates)

18)         According to the designer the combination of red and green within the Croydon Tramlink tram moquette were meant to symbolize what? (urban meeting rural)

19)         In 2014 a Barman variant featuring white, red and dark grey was introduced on which Underground Line (Bakerloo)

20)  Who designed D78, used on Routemaster buses in the 1970s and District Line trains in the 1980s? (Jacqueline Groag)

Mastermind First Round Heat 5 Preview

Mastermind is back on Monday (until the next time it is taken off on a scheduler’s whim). The specialist subjects are:-

Iron Maiden

Transport for London Moquette

The films of Paul Newman

Herge’s Tintin books

There really isn’t what you’d call a banker for me there – I suppose Paul Newman films offers the best chance of 1 or 2. Transport for London Moquette really intrigues me. I have always loved the London Underground but all I know about TFL moquette is what I’ve seen in features in Tim Dunne’s fine “Secrets of the London Underground” TV series. So I’m going to google it and who knows, maybe even make a set of questions. Bearing in mind the title of the subject, are they only including moquette used since the creation of Transport For London in 2000, or from previous eras – LRT, LT etc. ? Well, we’ll find that out on Monday.