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 start 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 Marshal 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 had 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.

Make Way for the Captain

Thursday evening also saw the last of three weeks in a row when participants at the club have been fortunate enough to play in quizzes set by members of my team. A fortnight ago was mine, last week was my daughter Jess’ and Thursday was my son in law Dan’s. Three weeks of quality quizzing. The quiz before mine was Dai’s quiz, and he’s my favourite of the question masters from other teams. He still drops a clanger from time to time but by and large he’s pretty reliable.

Which is more than I can say about this week’s scheduled question master for it’s none other than Captain Slapdash himself. The most frustrating thing about the Captain is that he is capable of composing some really interesting and well thought out questions. However he is every bit as capable of dropping huge and avoidable clangers. I’ve written about this before  - basically I mean wrong answers, wrong questions, and mistakes that would be so easy to avoid if he only checked –

Whether what he thinks he is asking is actually what he is asking

Whether the answer he thinks is right is actually right.

It’s pretty basic stuff and you can’t skimp on the checking if you want your quiz to be as correct as it can possibly be. I can’t believe that the Captain does check his stuff  like this. I don’t even think he can read it through when it’s completed. Let me give you an example I’ve given more than once – he once asked us “What is the connection between The last King of Libya and Thomas the Tank Engine?” To which the answer is – there probably isn’t one. The last king of Libya was King Idris, while Idris the Dragon featured in some episodes of Ivor the Engine, not Thomas the Tank Engine.

These last four weeks have also been the four weeks in which we have used the swap your answers marking policy. And no, the suspect team did not turn up again on Thursday. As I said, I don’t want them run out of the quiz and I don’t want to have them feel as if they’re being made an example of. But if we are going to play in the quiz, I just want to be able to feel that the scores we all report are kosher. Time will tell. They’ll either come back or they won’t, and if they do then they’ll either play or they won’t. I can’t help saying that I hope they do. I’d like to know if my suspicions are correct or completely unfounded.

The Chase Around the World - Penultimate Episode

Thursday evening’s penultimate episode of “The Chase Around the World” saw our four remaining couples making their way around Zurich, which means that next week’s final will take place in Athens, the first capital city on the mainland of Europe that I ever visited, some 44 years ago.

So far we’ve only seen two couples being sent home by the Chasers – Dilan and Emily being the first, and Matt and Emily following a week later. So there would definitely be at least three couples making it through to the final.

For much of the penultimate episode of this enjoyable series it looked as if we might be seeing the winners of the last three shows, David and Steven, facing the Chasers at the end of the show. Despite being the first couple to get underway again they made a series of unforced errors, for example taking the tram to FIFA HQ as opposed to the FIFA Museum, and from early doors it looked as if they were going to be in the bottom two.

Now, you get to see what the director wants you to see. The way it was presented to us viewers at home it looked as if David and Steven only managed to overhaul poor Nicola and Maddie in the final challenge. Whatever the case, it was the mother and daughter team who were last in and had to face Anne and Shaun. Now, sitting at home we can only judge what we can see on the screen, but based upon what we’ve seen Nicola and Maddie looked noticeably weaker on GK than the other three teams remaining. The best position they finished in any show was mid-table. Now actually, when they came to face the Chasers mum Maddie did a lot better than I thought they would. Sadly a couple of mistakes left them needing pushbacks to have a chance and the Chasers were in unforgiving mood, and gave 10 correct answers to the questions in pretty short order.

I’ve enjoyed the series and I mentioned in my last post about it that I like the fact that the production team haven’t really tried to build a lot of sneakiness into it. It’s a difficult element to add to a show – for me it was the one jarring note in last summer’s Destination X. Another good choice by the production team has been not chopping and changing the rules and introducing random new elements to the game play. It makes me feel pretty confident that the show will manage to stick the landing in next week’s finale.

Vintage Mastermind - 1977 Heat 1

I didn’t realise until I watched the show on Monday evening, but the first heat of Mastermind 1977 - shown on Monday on BBC4 -  did actually get a brief mention in Magnus Magnusson’s “I’ve Started So I’ll Finish”. I only realized this when we came to the end of the show and Magnus issued a correction to Martin Leadbetter’s score, where he was awarded an extra point. It made no difference to the out come of the show and neither would it had he been awarded another point for what he felt was another badly worded question.

The heat was won by student teacher Sue Jenkins. I was struck by a number of things about it. Remember that this was 1977, by which time the show had well and truly found its feet and was becoming something of a national institution. I was just surprised how relatively unimpressive visually it was. If you compare it with the studio bound set used in the Next Generation, it all looks smaller, even maybe just a little cosier – although it was nice to see the black ribbed flooring around the chair that I remember.

Another thing which surprised me – and I feel a heel for saying this, because I was a fan of Magnus as the question master and regret never having had the chance to meet him – was how many slight stumbles and hesitations he made asking the questions. In fact he actually said that meticulous efforts were made to ensure each contender had the same amount of time and extra time was allotted for his own little stumbles and hesitations. Talk about letting daylight in on magic.

As for the contenders, well, I think I have to strike a note of caution. I do not know what quiz culture was like in the UK in the mid 70s. I really don’t know if, for example, pub quizzes were anything like as common or popular as they are now. I do know that quiz shows were one common TV staple back then because I watched a lot of them. But I have to say that I felt the GK round scores were rather modest considering the number of questions they got through. I don’t know if it was just an anomaly in this particular heat, but the number of passes made across the 4 rounds was huge compared to a show from the 2020s.

One other thing that struck me as well was that at least 3 of the contenders in this heat were a lot less impassive than has become the norm. You could see , at times, frustration, anger and despair going on inside all of which was at times written across the three gentlemen’s faces.

I hope that BBC4 is going to continue showing the 1977 series. If nothing else, in heat 2 we get to see where Magnus supposedly tells a contender that Jesus’ first name was Reginald. (It was Jeeves’ first name, but a viewer in Northern Ireland misheard and complained about the ‘blasphemy’).