Brain of Britain - Round 1 - Heat 7

Another four competitors took on the challenge of the best quiz on the radio. They were : -

Julian Aldridge
David Buckle
Gordon Taylor
Dave Tilley

Now, if you’re a regular LAM reader, and you think that a couple of those names sound familiar, well, you’re right. David Buckle is a Masterminder, having reached the Grand Final in Jesse’s series in 2010. I believe that he was also a finalist in The People’s Quiz in 2007. As for Dave Tilley, he too is a Masterminder, having been a contender in Geoff’s 2006 series, and he is also the captain of the Listeners, the team that came fourth in series 5 of Only Connect. Quite a bit of quiz talent on offer in this show , then.

Julian Aldridge fell at the first with a relatively gentle old chestnut about the queen allegedly buried beneath platform 10 of Kings Cross Station. David B had a go, but it fell to Dave Tilley to offer the correct name of Boudicca / Boadicea. David B took his first two , but couldn’t dredge up Gresham of Gresham’s Law. Dave T. could. Gordon showed good knowledge to take 4 , but didn’t know that a Wheatstone Bridge measures resistance. David B did. Dave didn’t know about the Castel Sant Angelo. So Gordon led with 4, from David with 3 and Dave with 2. Julian didn’t know a rather simple one about the actress whose Oscar winning career spanned the decades between the 30s and 80s, which was another bonus for Dave T. At this stage Julian was looking very much like the sacrificial lamb of this particular contest. David B. answered his first four correctly – but didn’t know that the porcupine is a rodent. A bonus for Gordon, that, but he didn’t know that Marco Polo set out from Acre for part of his journey. Nobody had that. Dave T took his first, but failed on the Mercury project, giving a bonus for David, who now led with 8 points to Gordon’s 5 and Dave’s 4. In round 3 Julian started with a sound clip , of the much missed Ian Dury. That did for him. David knew his original group was Kilburn and the High Roads. He then went on to answer his first, but didn’t know about phenols. Not surprised, me neither. Gordon didn’t know that Neptune’s largest moon is Triton, but Julian did . Somewhat surprisingly Dave T didn’t know that the sister ship of both the Titanic and the Britannic was the Olympic. I say surprising what with all of the ballyhoo for the centenary last year. Sometimes it’s surprising what good quizzers just don’t know. Gordon took the bonus, but David now led by 10 to 6. No break for the Beat the Brains yet. Nobody knew that the last London Thames frost fair was 1814. I only knew it through studying London Bridge for my Mastermind series. Poor old Julian had yet to answer any of his own questions. David B had a music question to start - the theme to the Eurovision Song Contest – composed by Charpentier . I’m guessing that’s not the same man who fought Jack Dempsey for the world heavyweight championship, but I don’t know. I didn’t have a Scooby. Gordon Taylor didn’t know Abel Ganz – and again, that was a gettable point, but nobody had it. Dave Tilley didn’t know that Finbo cheese comes from Denmark – neither did I. So David still led by 10 to 6.

The first listener question was this – The Space Shuttles – all 6 were named after pioneering sailing ships. Which was named after Cook’s ship on his first voyage ? Of course it was Endeavour , and the Brains knew it. The second question was which one was named after the British ship which laid the foundations of oceanography. I guessed Challenger, so did the Brains , and they were right. Well done.

On with round 5. Julian Aldridge got a nasty one on who was the subject of Whistler’s Arrangement in Grey and Black number 2 – number 1 being his old mum. It was Thomas Carlyle. Nasty question, that. David B didn’t know the old chestnut about Wilf Rhodes, the oldest man to play test cricket. Gordon Taylor was played the national anthem of Finland. Dave T probably should have had the Lutine, I would have thought, and David B made no mistake for the bonus. Not a high scoring round, but it was David B edging forward. Julian got another stinker to start, about Robert Delauney, known in LAM towers as Robert Who ? David B. didn’t know Ernest Swinton invented the tank. Gordon took his first 2, but didn’t know that the Plimsoll line mark WNA means Winter North Atlantic. Tricky but gettable. Dave T. took his first, but didn’t know Lincolnshire and Norfolk are on the Wash. So David B took his score to 12, while Gordon was on A. Julian had the old stager CAT scan,but didn’t quite get it. Surprisingly nobody managed a relatively simple bonus on that. David B. got the wrong canal for 1914. Gordon had Panama, and the bonus. For his own question he didn’t know the state capital of Delaware , so Dave T had it. His own question was on semaphore, and nobody had the letter R. Gordon had edged a point closer , but still lagged by 3 going into the last. Julian probably should have known who “Wet, she was a star” referred to – it’s been asked in quizzes so many times. But he didn’t. Dave T. knew it was Esther Williams. David B. didn’t know that Samoa moved across the date line, which Gordon did. He was only three points behind now. But he didn’t get his first, and David B had it on geometry. Game over. Dave T. didn’t know that Lydia was the youngest Bennett in “Pride and Prejudice”. Julian knew that. So the final scores and the result were relatively clear cut: -

Julian Aldridge – 3

David Buckle – 14

Gordon Taylor – 10

Dave Tilley – 7

Well done David – good luck in the semis. Hard lines to Gordon, I think that 10 just won’t be good enough for a place in the semis.