I sit here in the comfort of the oft mentioned Clark sofa, reflecting on what was quite a week, quiz wise. Last Sunday John and I scraped home by a point in the Dyffryn Arms . Then on Monday night we had the finale of the Bridgend Quiz League season. The regular league season finished the week before, but this was the Cup Final and the AGM. In the final we played the Crown A from Maesteg. The lads beat us in our home match in the regular season last year, and very nearly beat us in the away match in the regular season this year, when we only scraped home by a point by answering the last two questions correctly. So they were certainly not opponents to ever be taken lightly. It was a very tight contest, up until the roll up round. The format of the cup means that about two thirds of the way through the contest you get the roll up round where each side gets a set of 5 questions. You can stick after answering any one of them. Get all five right, and you get 2 for each answer and a two point bonus. Get any wrong, and you get nothing. Because we were in the lead, the lads knew they had to go for more answers than we had – and unfortunately they went an answer too far. That meant that we were able to go on and win the contest.
With regards to the AGM, you may have read the post that I wrote a couple of weeks ago about demoralizing other teams. I did raise the issue at the AGM . The teams there assured us that no, they don’t feel demoralized, and if anything the presence of one team who have won the double three years in a row, and have outscored other teams on the majority of weeks in the season acts as a spur, rather than a deterrent. That’s actually terrific – I’d like to think that’s how I’d feel if the shoe was on the other foot. But I still felt it was an issue that I should raise because there had been that comment in the local paper. I think one of the chaps there misunderstood the point I was trying to make, since he made a point of saying that we’re not unbeatable – no arguments from me about that one – and seemed rather annoyed that I’d brought the issue up. Well, I didn’t want to upset anyone, but if you don’t put these things on the table, and you don’t talk about them, then you just don’t know if you have a problem or not. I rest my case, me lud. Whatever the case, I have to say that I think it was a great 40th Anniversary season for the league – many congratulations and thanks to the committee and everyone involved for that.
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How do you gauge whether your quiz is going down well or not? It can be difficult to tell. It was my turn again in the club on Thursday. I filled in with 3 quizzes during my stint as de facto organizer while Brian was ill, but he’s back at the helm now, which means that the number of quizzes I have to do won’t be so many now. That’s fine by me. I enjoy being question master and compiling the quizzes, but I’m just happy to fit in as and when needed. Time was that I wanted to do it every week, but as Sam Goldwyn is supposed to have said, we’ve all passed a lot of water since then. Still, as I say, it was my quiz on Thursday. It’s always difficult to gauge how well people have enjoyed it, because people will always tell you they did. They’re polite like that. I do tend to keep an eye on the scores , because people never complain that a quiz is too easy. so if the scores are a little higher than normal, well, that’s not a bad sign at all. If they’re a little lower – well, it doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s lead balloon time, but it’s worth taking note of. I believe that it went down OK. Using the scores as an indicator , the first few rounds were maybe a point or two harder than usual, and the last four rounds a point or two easier, so I think it evened out.
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While we’re on the subject of the quiz on Thursday night, if you do a pub quiz with, how should I put it, a more . . . mature clientele, sooner or later you’re going to experience this. You finish your quiz, announce the final scores, congratulate the winners and start to tidy away the papers, and then you see one of the punters approaching the table with a gleam in his eye. This will invariably be a fringe player of a fringe team. You just know that he – for it is invariably a he - is going to take issue with one of your questions. It doesn’t matter how reputable your sources are, or how carefully you checked your answer, he KNOWS his little piece of knowledge and he is going to trot it out in front of you come hell or high water. He doesn’t give a monkey’s that you just don’t CARE. He never even stops to think that you have dedicated several hours of your life to putting the quiz together and then asking the questions all so that he and everyone else can enjoy an evening’s entertainment for which they are not asked to pay even one copper coin of the realm. Nothing is going to stop him putting you in your place. One such pillock approached me at the end of the quiz, a huge grin on his chops like he thought he was doing me a huge favour, and he said,”I’ve got a piece of information for you.”
Grrrr!
I’m afraid I was what Basil Fawlty described as “a trifle brusque”. –“Look, “ I said,” they all come out of books. I don’t make them up off the top of my head. If you think the answer’s wrong, I’m sorry, but that’s the answer in the book.” Inevitably he replied that no, he didn’t mind(he did mind) he didn’t blame me (he did) and that he wasn’t complaining (he was), but he wanted me to know the information about that specific question. It’s not uncommon that you get to this point, where your complete lack of interest in what he wants to tell you becomes obvious, that some of them start offering to bring you in evidence to prove their point - passages from books, newspaper clippings, notes from their mum, you name it. Now, the response you want to give when they start doing this in a quiz where the result honestly makes no difference because there are no prizes or points at stake is, “ Look, how sad are you? In case you haven’t noticed. . . I don’t care! You lost by 12 points! It wouldn’t have made any bleedin’ difference! Let it go and leave me alone.” The response you actually give, because you are a moral coward who is scared of upsetting people – well I am, anyway, - is , “Oh, you don’t need to do that. But you have to understand I have to go on the sources that I have etc. etc. “ Which is normally enough to send them away , happy in the knowledge that they have scored some kind of moral victory.
Well, I didn’t exactly do that on Thursday. To be honest I got a little annoyed with the air that the bloke was putting on and just walked away from him as he was getting to the – I’ll bring you a note from my mum to prove it- stage. I know it’s rude, but to be honest, had I stayed I would have said something a lot ruder. Maybe I should just put a notice on the QM’s table saying –"Please don’t try to tell me I have got something wrong after the quiz, because a ‘sod off’ often offends." -
Happy Easter!
Sunday, 31 March 2013
Saturday, 30 March 2013
Mastermind Grand Final Preview
Well, weren’t those semifinals full of surprises? I’ll be honest, if you’d twisted my arm and asked me to write a list of 6 predicted finalists based on prior knowledge and/or first round performance it wouldn’t have borne a huge amount of similarity to this one. Just goes to show how much I know. Let’s have a look at the table, then, shall we?
The Details
There’s two things I want to say about this table. Firstly, aren’t those semifinal performances close? No less than 5 scores of 21. The other was only 2 points less. The last figure represents the semifinal GK score. Now, secondly, we have to remember that these were 2 minute rather than 2 and a half minute rounds, but even so, with the exception of John Savage, nobody managed to get into the teens. John, you’ll remember, came from fifth at half time to win his semi on the back of that GK round. Does that give him an advantage going into the final? Maybe so. However in both first round and semi he didn’t post a massive score in the specialist round. If he’s trailing at halfway he may find it too much of a gap to make up at this stage. Andrew scored a magnificent 19 on GK in the first round heat. I did say in my preview that I have a sneaking suspicion that harder GK rounds are prepared for the semis, and maybe the final sees them revert to the same level as the first round. In which case Andrew seems like a decent shout to run well. I haven’t mentioned Didier Bruyère yet. Didier is a very highly ranked quizzer – but he has the handicap of playing in what is not his own first language. Which makes it all the more remarkable what he has achieved so far. Does this mean that he can’t win the final though? Absolutely not. Sian West, Paul Whitaker, and Aidan McQuade all scored as well as John and Andrew in their semis. Sian West could well become our first lady champion since Nancy in 2009, although I will say that her round of 14 on GK in the first round heat worries me a little. The same caveat applies even more for Paul and Aidan, who scored respectively 12 and 9 in their first round GK.
Alright then, for what it’s worth, this is what I think. I see Andrew, John and Didier being on the podium, although I wouldn’t like to say which step each will be standing upon. However this series has been so full of surprises that anyone could do it. I congratulate each contender on reaching the final and wish good luck to all of them.
The Details
| Name | 1st total | 1st passes | Semi total | Semi pass | Semi GK |
| John Savage | 25 | 0 | 21 | 0 | 13 |
| Paul Whittaker | 27 | 2 | 21 | 2 | 10 |
| Didier Bruyère | 27 | 1 | 19 | 0 | 10 | Andrew Frazer | 35 | 0 | 21 | 0 | 10 |
| Sian West | 26 | 0 | 21 | 2 | 11 |
| Aidan McQuade | 24 | 6 | 21 | 1 | 10 |
There’s two things I want to say about this table. Firstly, aren’t those semifinal performances close? No less than 5 scores of 21. The other was only 2 points less. The last figure represents the semifinal GK score. Now, secondly, we have to remember that these were 2 minute rather than 2 and a half minute rounds, but even so, with the exception of John Savage, nobody managed to get into the teens. John, you’ll remember, came from fifth at half time to win his semi on the back of that GK round. Does that give him an advantage going into the final? Maybe so. However in both first round and semi he didn’t post a massive score in the specialist round. If he’s trailing at halfway he may find it too much of a gap to make up at this stage. Andrew scored a magnificent 19 on GK in the first round heat. I did say in my preview that I have a sneaking suspicion that harder GK rounds are prepared for the semis, and maybe the final sees them revert to the same level as the first round. In which case Andrew seems like a decent shout to run well. I haven’t mentioned Didier Bruyère yet. Didier is a very highly ranked quizzer – but he has the handicap of playing in what is not his own first language. Which makes it all the more remarkable what he has achieved so far. Does this mean that he can’t win the final though? Absolutely not. Sian West, Paul Whitaker, and Aidan McQuade all scored as well as John and Andrew in their semis. Sian West could well become our first lady champion since Nancy in 2009, although I will say that her round of 14 on GK in the first round heat worries me a little. The same caveat applies even more for Paul and Aidan, who scored respectively 12 and 9 in their first round GK.
Alright then, for what it’s worth, this is what I think. I see Andrew, John and Didier being on the podium, although I wouldn’t like to say which step each will be standing upon. However this series has been so full of surprises that anyone could do it. I congratulate each contender on reaching the final and wish good luck to all of them.
News Questions
In the news
Who or what are the following and why have they been in the news?
1. Pervez Musharraf
2. Boris Berezhovsky
3. Eddie Mair
4. The Meaningful Easter Egg Co.
5. Car Share
6. Criterium International
7. Mallissa Venice Noel
8. Amanda Knox
9. Arnold Palmer International
10. Kim Barnett
11. Clive Mantle
12. Norman Baker
13. Sir Jonathan May
14. Jade Anderson
15. Martha Jane Fox
16. Nigel Adkins
17. James Holmes
In Other News
1. Last week which city was revealed as the best value European city for a short break?
2. The leader of which central African country was ousted last week?
3. Last week a blue plaque was unveiled to commemorate which London institution?
4. Which brand of chocolate bar was recalled due to pieces of plastic being found in some?
5. Which famous church was presented with new bells last week?
6. Who defied team orders to gain a better place on the podium in the Malaysian GP, and who obeyed team orders, and didn’t get a place on the podium in the same race?
7. Scotland defeated Sweden in the final of which world championship last week?
8. Who won the FA Trophy Final
9. In a Gadget Show poll, what came out as the top innovation disaster of all time?
10. Which railway opened a line to East Grinstead, connecting with the National Rail Network last week?
11. Which US university was last week stripped of several national quiz titles?
12. What was the venue for the friendly between Brazil and Russia last week?
13. What was the final score in the Hong Kong World Sevens Final?
14. Which two British cities are on the shortlist for the European Green Capital of 2015?
15. What was the result of the final test between England and New Zealand?
16. What was the score in the Brazil v. Russia friendly?
17. What was abolished by Home Secretary Theresa May last week for being not fit for purpose?
18. Who announced that he is quitting as an MP to take up a new post in the USA?
19. Which comedian announced that he would like to run as London Mayor in 2020?
20. What was the score between England and Montenegro?
21. – and between Wales and Croatia?
22. Which rugby team lost their appeal against lost points following fielding an ineligible player?
23. What was the score in the Republic of Ireland v. Austria clash?
24. What was the score between Scotland and Serbia?
25. Who used the c word to describe the Environment Secretary following his support for a badger cull and foxhunting?
26. PETA called for an end to which sport last week?
27. Parts of which structure were removed to make way for a building project last week?
28. Which company pulled out of their sponsorship of the iTV drama “Broadchurch”?
29. Which band announced they will be playing Glastonbury this year?
30. A new type of vaccine against what was announced last week?
31. Whose deportation was once again refused by the courts last week?
32. Who announced that her athletics career is probably now over due to a long standing foot injury?
33. Which cycle race will be run for the first time in 20 years this summer?
34. Where was an X Factor audition held where only one auditionee turned up at first?
35. The search for whom was called off last week?
36. It was announced that a drink nicknamed tramp juice is to be made revived. What is its real name?
37. Which actor died aged 65?
38. How long did it take astronauts to reach the International Space Station this week?
39. Parents in Swansea are being offered £100 to stop using what?
40. The heart unit in which hospital was controversially closed last week?
Who or what are the following and why have they been in the news?
1. Pervez Musharraf
2. Boris Berezhovsky
3. Eddie Mair
4. The Meaningful Easter Egg Co.
5. Car Share
6. Criterium International
7. Mallissa Venice Noel
8. Amanda Knox
9. Arnold Palmer International
10. Kim Barnett
11. Clive Mantle
12. Norman Baker
13. Sir Jonathan May
14. Jade Anderson
15. Martha Jane Fox
16. Nigel Adkins
17. James Holmes
In Other News
1. Last week which city was revealed as the best value European city for a short break?
2. The leader of which central African country was ousted last week?
3. Last week a blue plaque was unveiled to commemorate which London institution?
4. Which brand of chocolate bar was recalled due to pieces of plastic being found in some?
5. Which famous church was presented with new bells last week?
6. Who defied team orders to gain a better place on the podium in the Malaysian GP, and who obeyed team orders, and didn’t get a place on the podium in the same race?
7. Scotland defeated Sweden in the final of which world championship last week?
8. Who won the FA Trophy Final
9. In a Gadget Show poll, what came out as the top innovation disaster of all time?
10. Which railway opened a line to East Grinstead, connecting with the National Rail Network last week?
11. Which US university was last week stripped of several national quiz titles?
12. What was the venue for the friendly between Brazil and Russia last week?
13. What was the final score in the Hong Kong World Sevens Final?
14. Which two British cities are on the shortlist for the European Green Capital of 2015?
15. What was the result of the final test between England and New Zealand?
16. What was the score in the Brazil v. Russia friendly?
17. What was abolished by Home Secretary Theresa May last week for being not fit for purpose?
18. Who announced that he is quitting as an MP to take up a new post in the USA?
19. Which comedian announced that he would like to run as London Mayor in 2020?
20. What was the score between England and Montenegro?
21. – and between Wales and Croatia?
22. Which rugby team lost their appeal against lost points following fielding an ineligible player?
23. What was the score in the Republic of Ireland v. Austria clash?
24. What was the score between Scotland and Serbia?
25. Who used the c word to describe the Environment Secretary following his support for a badger cull and foxhunting?
26. PETA called for an end to which sport last week?
27. Parts of which structure were removed to make way for a building project last week?
28. Which company pulled out of their sponsorship of the iTV drama “Broadchurch”?
29. Which band announced they will be playing Glastonbury this year?
30. A new type of vaccine against what was announced last week?
31. Whose deportation was once again refused by the courts last week?
32. Who announced that her athletics career is probably now over due to a long standing foot injury?
33. Which cycle race will be run for the first time in 20 years this summer?
34. Where was an X Factor audition held where only one auditionee turned up at first?
35. The search for whom was called off last week?
36. It was announced that a drink nicknamed tramp juice is to be made revived. What is its real name?
37. Which actor died aged 65?
38. How long did it take astronauts to reach the International Space Station this week?
39. Parents in Swansea are being offered £100 to stop using what?
40. The heart unit in which hospital was controversially closed last week?
Answers to News Questions
In the News
Who or what are the following, and why have they been in the news?
1. The Next Day
2. Simon Brodkin
3. Tommy Smith
4. Junior Bradshaw and Kevin Liverpool
5. Wallace Hartley
6. Lindsey Vonn
7. Sir Nicholas Houghton
8. Daisy Morris
9. Malala Yousafzai
10. Michael Appleton
11. Steve Walsh
12. Calypso Nash
13. Laurence Graff
14. Sybil Christopher
15. Ye Wocheng
16. Lillian Mort
17. Trinity Leeds
18. Pietro Mennea
19. Ketchup Clouds
20. Sir Michael Wilshaw
21. Chinua Achebe
In Other News
1. What was the score in the 6 Nations decider – Wales v. England ( sob ) ?
2. How many hours a day does the average Brit spend watching TV according to figures released last week?
3. Who scored his 200th goal for Chelsea last week?
4. Which team won the Grand Slam in the women’s 6 Nations
5. Who won the Australian Grand Prix?
6. What was the score between Spurs and Fulham (sob) ?
7. What was the score between Everton and Man City?
8. Where was a plaque to Beatles John Lennon and George Harrison unveiled last week?
9. Which strain of flu was announced as becoming resistant to Tamiflu last week?
10. David Cameron announced that there will be a Royal Charter on what?
11. Which 92 year old TV actor passed away last week?
12. Who caused criticism for withdrawing from the England Football squad last week?
13. Who represented Britain at the Papal Inauguration last week?
14. Which long running show was announced as being axed by Channel Four last week?
15. Which measure was defeated in the Parliament of Cyprius last week?
16. Which former England star was banned for 20 months for drink driving?
17. Which toy company is building its first factory in China?
18. Christine Lagarde’s home in Paris was raided last week. why?
19. Which TV personality was re – arrested last week as part of a police investigation into sex abuse allegations?
20. Which author died aged 69 last week?
21. It was claimed last week that what has finally left the Solar system?
22. Tom Watson took which measure for the next Ryder Cup?
23. Who said she was taking a break from tennis, then swiftly changed her mind?
24. Who received a 3 week ban after being cited during the 6 nations matches last week?
25. Which member of the Royal Family suffered a stroke last week?
26. Who admitted a longstanding relationship with one of his accusers last week?
27. What date will the Scottish Independence vote take place?
28. Who rejected an offer to become manager of Reading FC last week?
29. Which team finally agreed a deal to move into the London 2012 Stadium?
30. What was announced as the most popular biscuit in the House of Commons last week?
31. The biggest zipline in the Northern Hemisphere was opened where last week?
32. Who is the new chairman of the FA?
33. What was the score in the England v. San Marino match?
34. What was the score between Wales and Scotland?
35. Who was awarded Player of the 6 Nations?
Answers
Who or What are the following and why have they been in the news?
1. New album by David Bowie- his first number 1 album for 20 years
2. Comedian best known for Lee Nelson. Invaded pitch as his character Jason Bent before Man City v. Everton
3. Former amateur jockey who won the National on jay Trump – passed away last week
4. In court for their plot to kill Joss Stone
5. Bandleader who went down with the Titanic. Doubts have been cast over the authenticity of a violin in auction claimed to be his.
6. US Skier dating Tiger Woods
7. New head of the UK Armed Forces
8. Girl who has had a dinosaur named after her
9. Shot by the Taliban for asking for education for girls – last week had her first day at a British school
10. Sacked as manager of Blackburn Rovers after very short time in the job
11. IRB referee in Wales v. England 6 Nations match. England have complained to IRB about his refereeing of the scrums.
12. Oxford University librarian sacked for letting pupils make a Harlem Shake video in St. Hilda’s college library. Students have protested over the sacking.
13. He bought the original of Tretchikoff’s “Chinese Girl” for almost £1 million
14. Richard Burton’s first wife, passed away last week.
15. 12 year old Chinese golfer, youngest to qualify for European court.
16. 74 year old banned from watching Pyle RFC for 3 matches for ‘bad behaviour’
17. New shopping centre opened in Leeds
18. Olympic 1980 men’s 200m champion , passed away
19. Winner of Waterstones’ Children’s Book Prize
20. Head of OFSTED – NUT has called for him to resign
21. The Father of African Literature – passed away last week.
In Other News
1. 30 - 3
2. 4.2 hours
3. Frank Lampard
4. Ireland
5. Kimi Raikonnen – driving a Lotus
6. 0 - 1
7. 2 - 0
8. The site of the former Apple Boutique, Baker Street
9. Swiss Flu
10. Press freedom/ restriction
11. Frank Thornton
12. Rio Ferdinand
13. The Duke of Gloucester
14. Time Team
15. Tax on Bank Deposits
16. Peter Shilton
17. Lego
18. An investigation into alleged embezzlement
19. Jim Davidson
20. James Herbert
21. The Voyager satellite
22. Cut the captain’s picks from 4 to 3
23. Heather Watson
24. Brian O’Driscoll
25. The Duke of Kent
26. Keith O’Brien
27. September 18th, 2014
28. Gus Poyet
29. West Ham Utd.
30. Jaffa Cakes ( strictly speaking a cake and not a biscuit !)
31. Snowdonia
32. Greg Dyke
33. 8 - 0
34. 2 - 1
35. Leigh Halfpenny of Wales
Who or what are the following, and why have they been in the news?
1. The Next Day
2. Simon Brodkin
3. Tommy Smith
4. Junior Bradshaw and Kevin Liverpool
5. Wallace Hartley
6. Lindsey Vonn
7. Sir Nicholas Houghton
8. Daisy Morris
9. Malala Yousafzai
10. Michael Appleton
11. Steve Walsh
12. Calypso Nash
13. Laurence Graff
14. Sybil Christopher
15. Ye Wocheng
16. Lillian Mort
17. Trinity Leeds
18. Pietro Mennea
19. Ketchup Clouds
20. Sir Michael Wilshaw
21. Chinua Achebe
In Other News
1. What was the score in the 6 Nations decider – Wales v. England ( sob ) ?
2. How many hours a day does the average Brit spend watching TV according to figures released last week?
3. Who scored his 200th goal for Chelsea last week?
4. Which team won the Grand Slam in the women’s 6 Nations
5. Who won the Australian Grand Prix?
6. What was the score between Spurs and Fulham (sob) ?
7. What was the score between Everton and Man City?
8. Where was a plaque to Beatles John Lennon and George Harrison unveiled last week?
9. Which strain of flu was announced as becoming resistant to Tamiflu last week?
10. David Cameron announced that there will be a Royal Charter on what?
11. Which 92 year old TV actor passed away last week?
12. Who caused criticism for withdrawing from the England Football squad last week?
13. Who represented Britain at the Papal Inauguration last week?
14. Which long running show was announced as being axed by Channel Four last week?
15. Which measure was defeated in the Parliament of Cyprius last week?
16. Which former England star was banned for 20 months for drink driving?
17. Which toy company is building its first factory in China?
18. Christine Lagarde’s home in Paris was raided last week. why?
19. Which TV personality was re – arrested last week as part of a police investigation into sex abuse allegations?
20. Which author died aged 69 last week?
21. It was claimed last week that what has finally left the Solar system?
22. Tom Watson took which measure for the next Ryder Cup?
23. Who said she was taking a break from tennis, then swiftly changed her mind?
24. Who received a 3 week ban after being cited during the 6 nations matches last week?
25. Which member of the Royal Family suffered a stroke last week?
26. Who admitted a longstanding relationship with one of his accusers last week?
27. What date will the Scottish Independence vote take place?
28. Who rejected an offer to become manager of Reading FC last week?
29. Which team finally agreed a deal to move into the London 2012 Stadium?
30. What was announced as the most popular biscuit in the House of Commons last week?
31. The biggest zipline in the Northern Hemisphere was opened where last week?
32. Who is the new chairman of the FA?
33. What was the score in the England v. San Marino match?
34. What was the score between Wales and Scotland?
35. Who was awarded Player of the 6 Nations?
Answers
Who or What are the following and why have they been in the news?
1. New album by David Bowie- his first number 1 album for 20 years
2. Comedian best known for Lee Nelson. Invaded pitch as his character Jason Bent before Man City v. Everton
3. Former amateur jockey who won the National on jay Trump – passed away last week
4. In court for their plot to kill Joss Stone
5. Bandleader who went down with the Titanic. Doubts have been cast over the authenticity of a violin in auction claimed to be his.
6. US Skier dating Tiger Woods
7. New head of the UK Armed Forces
8. Girl who has had a dinosaur named after her
9. Shot by the Taliban for asking for education for girls – last week had her first day at a British school
10. Sacked as manager of Blackburn Rovers after very short time in the job
11. IRB referee in Wales v. England 6 Nations match. England have complained to IRB about his refereeing of the scrums.
12. Oxford University librarian sacked for letting pupils make a Harlem Shake video in St. Hilda’s college library. Students have protested over the sacking.
13. He bought the original of Tretchikoff’s “Chinese Girl” for almost £1 million
14. Richard Burton’s first wife, passed away last week.
15. 12 year old Chinese golfer, youngest to qualify for European court.
16. 74 year old banned from watching Pyle RFC for 3 matches for ‘bad behaviour’
17. New shopping centre opened in Leeds
18. Olympic 1980 men’s 200m champion , passed away
19. Winner of Waterstones’ Children’s Book Prize
20. Head of OFSTED – NUT has called for him to resign
21. The Father of African Literature – passed away last week.
In Other News
1. 30 - 3
2. 4.2 hours
3. Frank Lampard
4. Ireland
5. Kimi Raikonnen – driving a Lotus
6. 0 - 1
7. 2 - 0
8. The site of the former Apple Boutique, Baker Street
9. Swiss Flu
10. Press freedom/ restriction
11. Frank Thornton
12. Rio Ferdinand
13. The Duke of Gloucester
14. Time Team
15. Tax on Bank Deposits
16. Peter Shilton
17. Lego
18. An investigation into alleged embezzlement
19. Jim Davidson
20. James Herbert
21. The Voyager satellite
22. Cut the captain’s picks from 4 to 3
23. Heather Watson
24. Brian O’Driscoll
25. The Duke of Kent
26. Keith O’Brien
27. September 18th, 2014
28. Gus Poyet
29. West Ham Utd.
30. Jaffa Cakes ( strictly speaking a cake and not a biscuit !)
31. Snowdonia
32. Greg Dyke
33. 8 - 0
34. 2 - 1
35. Leigh Halfpenny of Wales
University Challenge - Quarter Final Elimination Match
Pembroke College Cambridge v. King's College Cambridge
Right, despite JP’s opening comments the implications of this match were simple. Win and you go through to a final qualification match for a place in the semis. Lose and you leave with nothing. In this all Cambridge match Pembroke, represented by Robert Scanes, Emily Maw, Jemima Hodkinson and their captain Tom Foxall were well beaten by St. George’s. In their own first quarter final match King’s, represented by Curtis Gallant, Amber Ace, our own James Gratrex and captain Fran Middleton had allowed New College Oxford to sprint off to a big lead, before just failing to reel them in. On paper, a difficult match to call.
Tom Foxall buzzed too early on the first question, Losing Pembroke five. The question gave a series of terms all linked by the word classical, as our own James Gratrex knew. This earned King’s bonuses on the year 1565. They answered 2 correctly, the same two that I answered, as it happened. Curtis Gallant buzzed early on Prime Ministers of Australia, and earned a set on culinary herbs for his pains. Only one was answered, but King’s were for once making a blitz start. Nobody knew about Kevlar for the next starter, nor did they know that it was mary Queen of Scots who was the British monarch executed in 1587. Maw buzzed in too early on the next starter on Geometry, losing 5, which allowed James G. in with the correct answer of hyperbola. Recent works on Economics did nothing for me, and I’m afraid they did nothing for King’s either. Didn’t matter. They were in the lead, and it was a lead that was growing. For the picture starter we saw a former flag of Iraq. Former flags – great idea for a set, but the set was going to have to wait, because nobody got it. Me neither, sad to say. Tom Foxall got his team off the mark by recognising titles of novels by Italo Calvino. The only work by Calvino I’ve ever read is a very beautiful short story called “A sign in space”. I digress. This brought Pembroke back to zero, and earned them the former flag bonuses. I thought they id brilliantly to get the first of these, Macedonia. Fran Middleton knew that it was JMW Turner who said “If I could find anything blacker than black I’d use it” . Yes, and if my Auntie had . . . This earned bonuses on the parody - The History of England – written by Jane Austen when she was 15 years old, from which the team had to guess the names of the monarchs to which she was referring.I picked out Edward IV and Richard III, while King’s managed just the latter. This was enough to give them a healthy looking lead of 60 points to 5 at the ten minute mark.
James knew that the christian name George was shared by two presidents inaugurated two centuries, plus or minus one year apart. Washington and Bush Snr. The good old Shipping Forecast came next, with sets of areas, and the one they surrounded being needed. The team didn’t fancy this but at least managed one with Cromarty.Curtis Gallant knew that Darwin had also made observations of mockingbirds as well as Galapagos finches. A very good early buzz that – and if you want to demoralize your opposition who are already watching you recede into the distance, then that’s the way to do it. Bonuses on ancient peoples increased the lead by another ten. Nobody knew that Chekov once said that Medicine was his wife, and Literature was his mistress. I wonder if Captain Kirk knew? Sorry – cheap joke. Neither team knew it, but sadly Pembroke buzzed in too early and lost 5. I really don’t blame them. There was time left to bridge the gap, but when you’re being beaten to the buzzer then you have to throw caution to the winds and go for it. Amber Ace recognized a quotation from King Lear. I’ll be honest, the distribution bonuses did nowt for me, nor for King’s for that matter. Oh dear, the dreaded “Pembroke there’s still plenty of time to get going “ came next. I know that he only means to be kind, but you know you’re really up against it when JP feels that he has to say something like this to you.On with the music starter. James recognized Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring very quickly. The bonuses were on other émigré composers.On the third we were treated to what I’m sure was a little excerpt of Nina Simone – one of my all time favourite singers. It didn’t help King’s though, as they didn’t get any of the bonuses. Never mind – they had a lead of over 100 points. Amber Ace knew that the kaleidoscope takes its name from greek words meaning beautiful form. A good UC set of bonuses on pairs of words whereby one letter from the first was doubled to get the second – moping and mopping being one. 2 were taken. A physicsy sort of thing came next, and Robert Scanes had it. Once again Pembroke were on the march. Their set of bonuses were on ballet and they managed one for pas de chat. Tom Foxall knew that if Mount Arthur and Mount Owen aren’t in Australia, as offered by King’s, then they must be in New Zealand. He was right, and this earned Pembroke some bonuses on the subject of neuro pharmocology. Pembroke took the whole set, and the gap was now less than 100 points. This raised the distinct possibility of a comeback, and a grandstand finish. Jemima Hodkinson took the next starter on the heraldic office of pursuivant, which made this seem even more likely. A full set of bonuses on odes further narrowed the gap, to 70 points at the twenty minute mark, thus showing just how important it is to take your bonuses when you get the chance.
The second picture starter showed part of a picture from a title page of a book. It absolutely screamed out William Blake – but which collection of poems. Jemima Hodkinson chanced her arm with Songs of Innocence and Experience, and she was right. Three more illuminations from this collection were offered as bonuses, with the team being asked which poems they illustrated. I was pleased with myself for getting “London” and “The Sick Rose”, while Pembroke missed these, but got “The Poison Tree” which I missed. The gap was down to 55. Robert Scanes was in too early for the next starter, asking what fruit botryoidal rocks resemble. I had it knowing that grapes suffer sometimes from a disease with a similar name. Robert Scanes recognized a political organization dedicated to ending Moroccan control of Western Sahara. Italian composers didn’t offer a great deal. I knew opera buffa and The Barber of Seville, but Pembroke failed to score. Pembroke were throwing everything including the kitchen sink at each starter now, but lost five for an early buzz on the next starter. King’s didn’t fancy their chances, so didn’t have a punt at shoo-fly pie. Tom Foxall knew that the French Third Republic began in 1871 and ended in 1940. Gothic literature saw them make the easy mistake of confusing Radcliffe’s “The Mysteries of Udolpho” with Walpole’s “The Castle of Otranto”. They took one bonus. The gap was down to 40. They were clawing it back, but not quickly enough, and desperately needed a full set to give them a turbo boost and a chance of winning. Robert Scanes did the first part by getting the next starter, correctly answering that the VC was inaugurated during the 1850s. Physical Principles didn’t help them that much, though, since they only managed one. Which incidentally took the gap down to 25. A fulls et would bring the two sides absolutely level. It seemed like an awfully long time since King’s had taken a starter. Squeaky bum time, to quote Sir Alex Ferguson. Fran Middleton did the necessary for her team, knowing that the atomic number of magnesium is 12. A nice set of bonuses on prominent people with Paris metro stations named after them gave King’s another 5 points. Robert Scanes knew that the Royal Observatory moved to Herstmonceux Castle. Books by US Presidents didn’t offer a great deal, though, with Pembroke only taking one . Robert Scanes, who had had a brilliant 10 minutes, answered the next starter correctly with electro negativity. Amber Ace held her head in her hands. Bonuses on place names which all ended with the same three letters were heartbreakingly unforgiving, and so the gap remained at 15. The gong was on standby. Asked which name has been used most often by the Pope, Curtis Gallant was first to try his arm with Paul. No dice. Tom Foxall tried Leo. Nope – it was John. The gong sounded, and Curtis Gallant raised his arms – in triumph or relief ? Probably both. Very bad luck Pembroke, but congratulations on a terrific fightback. Hold your heads high after that one. But well done Jim and King’s ! Good luck in your final quarter final match.
Jeremy Paxman Watch
He was in a funny old mood in this show, was JP. He sniffed in mock indignation “You don’t know the Greek for bedbug – I’m astonished !”
When offered the name “Richard Blanchflower” for one economics bonus asking for an American economist he was rather dismissive “Noooooo – he’s British anyway.” Stop showing off Jez.
When James offered “Cromarty” for two successive shipping forecast bonuses he was right on the second go, leading JP to mutter “You’ve no idea where it is, have you?!”
On the Chekov starter Fran Middleton offered Ibsen for the Russian author, then realized what she’d done and started to correct herself, but JP cut in with “No no, you’re QUITE wrong!” he was chuckling, but let’s be honest, this one certainly wasn’t in the same class as Inspector Clouseau earlier in the series.
I thought he was rather nasty in saying to Amber Ace, when she offered pear for the botyroidal starter “No, I’m amazed! You’re a classicist, aren’t you?!” Yes she is, but you, sir are no gentleman!
Finally, after coming so close to tying the match at the end, poor old Pembroke had salt rubbed in their wounds with JPs words “You know, if you’d have got off to a better start you might have won that.” I refer you to my previous comment about my auntie.
Interesting Fact That I Didn’t Already Know Of The Week
The herb coriander takes its name from the Greek for bedbug, since its scent was believed to resemble that of crushed bedbugs. which begs the question – what were the ancient Greeks doing crushing bedbugs in the first place?
Right, despite JP’s opening comments the implications of this match were simple. Win and you go through to a final qualification match for a place in the semis. Lose and you leave with nothing. In this all Cambridge match Pembroke, represented by Robert Scanes, Emily Maw, Jemima Hodkinson and their captain Tom Foxall were well beaten by St. George’s. In their own first quarter final match King’s, represented by Curtis Gallant, Amber Ace, our own James Gratrex and captain Fran Middleton had allowed New College Oxford to sprint off to a big lead, before just failing to reel them in. On paper, a difficult match to call.
Tom Foxall buzzed too early on the first question, Losing Pembroke five. The question gave a series of terms all linked by the word classical, as our own James Gratrex knew. This earned King’s bonuses on the year 1565. They answered 2 correctly, the same two that I answered, as it happened. Curtis Gallant buzzed early on Prime Ministers of Australia, and earned a set on culinary herbs for his pains. Only one was answered, but King’s were for once making a blitz start. Nobody knew about Kevlar for the next starter, nor did they know that it was mary Queen of Scots who was the British monarch executed in 1587. Maw buzzed in too early on the next starter on Geometry, losing 5, which allowed James G. in with the correct answer of hyperbola. Recent works on Economics did nothing for me, and I’m afraid they did nothing for King’s either. Didn’t matter. They were in the lead, and it was a lead that was growing. For the picture starter we saw a former flag of Iraq. Former flags – great idea for a set, but the set was going to have to wait, because nobody got it. Me neither, sad to say. Tom Foxall got his team off the mark by recognising titles of novels by Italo Calvino. The only work by Calvino I’ve ever read is a very beautiful short story called “A sign in space”. I digress. This brought Pembroke back to zero, and earned them the former flag bonuses. I thought they id brilliantly to get the first of these, Macedonia. Fran Middleton knew that it was JMW Turner who said “If I could find anything blacker than black I’d use it” . Yes, and if my Auntie had . . . This earned bonuses on the parody - The History of England – written by Jane Austen when she was 15 years old, from which the team had to guess the names of the monarchs to which she was referring.I picked out Edward IV and Richard III, while King’s managed just the latter. This was enough to give them a healthy looking lead of 60 points to 5 at the ten minute mark.
James knew that the christian name George was shared by two presidents inaugurated two centuries, plus or minus one year apart. Washington and Bush Snr. The good old Shipping Forecast came next, with sets of areas, and the one they surrounded being needed. The team didn’t fancy this but at least managed one with Cromarty.Curtis Gallant knew that Darwin had also made observations of mockingbirds as well as Galapagos finches. A very good early buzz that – and if you want to demoralize your opposition who are already watching you recede into the distance, then that’s the way to do it. Bonuses on ancient peoples increased the lead by another ten. Nobody knew that Chekov once said that Medicine was his wife, and Literature was his mistress. I wonder if Captain Kirk knew? Sorry – cheap joke. Neither team knew it, but sadly Pembroke buzzed in too early and lost 5. I really don’t blame them. There was time left to bridge the gap, but when you’re being beaten to the buzzer then you have to throw caution to the winds and go for it. Amber Ace recognized a quotation from King Lear. I’ll be honest, the distribution bonuses did nowt for me, nor for King’s for that matter. Oh dear, the dreaded “Pembroke there’s still plenty of time to get going “ came next. I know that he only means to be kind, but you know you’re really up against it when JP feels that he has to say something like this to you.On with the music starter. James recognized Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring very quickly. The bonuses were on other émigré composers.On the third we were treated to what I’m sure was a little excerpt of Nina Simone – one of my all time favourite singers. It didn’t help King’s though, as they didn’t get any of the bonuses. Never mind – they had a lead of over 100 points. Amber Ace knew that the kaleidoscope takes its name from greek words meaning beautiful form. A good UC set of bonuses on pairs of words whereby one letter from the first was doubled to get the second – moping and mopping being one. 2 were taken. A physicsy sort of thing came next, and Robert Scanes had it. Once again Pembroke were on the march. Their set of bonuses were on ballet and they managed one for pas de chat. Tom Foxall knew that if Mount Arthur and Mount Owen aren’t in Australia, as offered by King’s, then they must be in New Zealand. He was right, and this earned Pembroke some bonuses on the subject of neuro pharmocology. Pembroke took the whole set, and the gap was now less than 100 points. This raised the distinct possibility of a comeback, and a grandstand finish. Jemima Hodkinson took the next starter on the heraldic office of pursuivant, which made this seem even more likely. A full set of bonuses on odes further narrowed the gap, to 70 points at the twenty minute mark, thus showing just how important it is to take your bonuses when you get the chance.
The second picture starter showed part of a picture from a title page of a book. It absolutely screamed out William Blake – but which collection of poems. Jemima Hodkinson chanced her arm with Songs of Innocence and Experience, and she was right. Three more illuminations from this collection were offered as bonuses, with the team being asked which poems they illustrated. I was pleased with myself for getting “London” and “The Sick Rose”, while Pembroke missed these, but got “The Poison Tree” which I missed. The gap was down to 55. Robert Scanes was in too early for the next starter, asking what fruit botryoidal rocks resemble. I had it knowing that grapes suffer sometimes from a disease with a similar name. Robert Scanes recognized a political organization dedicated to ending Moroccan control of Western Sahara. Italian composers didn’t offer a great deal. I knew opera buffa and The Barber of Seville, but Pembroke failed to score. Pembroke were throwing everything including the kitchen sink at each starter now, but lost five for an early buzz on the next starter. King’s didn’t fancy their chances, so didn’t have a punt at shoo-fly pie. Tom Foxall knew that the French Third Republic began in 1871 and ended in 1940. Gothic literature saw them make the easy mistake of confusing Radcliffe’s “The Mysteries of Udolpho” with Walpole’s “The Castle of Otranto”. They took one bonus. The gap was down to 40. They were clawing it back, but not quickly enough, and desperately needed a full set to give them a turbo boost and a chance of winning. Robert Scanes did the first part by getting the next starter, correctly answering that the VC was inaugurated during the 1850s. Physical Principles didn’t help them that much, though, since they only managed one. Which incidentally took the gap down to 25. A fulls et would bring the two sides absolutely level. It seemed like an awfully long time since King’s had taken a starter. Squeaky bum time, to quote Sir Alex Ferguson. Fran Middleton did the necessary for her team, knowing that the atomic number of magnesium is 12. A nice set of bonuses on prominent people with Paris metro stations named after them gave King’s another 5 points. Robert Scanes knew that the Royal Observatory moved to Herstmonceux Castle. Books by US Presidents didn’t offer a great deal, though, with Pembroke only taking one . Robert Scanes, who had had a brilliant 10 minutes, answered the next starter correctly with electro negativity. Amber Ace held her head in her hands. Bonuses on place names which all ended with the same three letters were heartbreakingly unforgiving, and so the gap remained at 15. The gong was on standby. Asked which name has been used most often by the Pope, Curtis Gallant was first to try his arm with Paul. No dice. Tom Foxall tried Leo. Nope – it was John. The gong sounded, and Curtis Gallant raised his arms – in triumph or relief ? Probably both. Very bad luck Pembroke, but congratulations on a terrific fightback. Hold your heads high after that one. But well done Jim and King’s ! Good luck in your final quarter final match.
Jeremy Paxman Watch
He was in a funny old mood in this show, was JP. He sniffed in mock indignation “You don’t know the Greek for bedbug – I’m astonished !”
When offered the name “Richard Blanchflower” for one economics bonus asking for an American economist he was rather dismissive “Noooooo – he’s British anyway.” Stop showing off Jez.
When James offered “Cromarty” for two successive shipping forecast bonuses he was right on the second go, leading JP to mutter “You’ve no idea where it is, have you?!”
On the Chekov starter Fran Middleton offered Ibsen for the Russian author, then realized what she’d done and started to correct herself, but JP cut in with “No no, you’re QUITE wrong!” he was chuckling, but let’s be honest, this one certainly wasn’t in the same class as Inspector Clouseau earlier in the series.
I thought he was rather nasty in saying to Amber Ace, when she offered pear for the botyroidal starter “No, I’m amazed! You’re a classicist, aren’t you?!” Yes she is, but you, sir are no gentleman!
Finally, after coming so close to tying the match at the end, poor old Pembroke had salt rubbed in their wounds with JPs words “You know, if you’d have got off to a better start you might have won that.” I refer you to my previous comment about my auntie.
Interesting Fact That I Didn’t Already Know Of The Week
The herb coriander takes its name from the Greek for bedbug, since its scent was believed to resemble that of crushed bedbugs. which begs the question – what were the ancient Greeks doing crushing bedbugs in the first place?
Friday, 29 March 2013
Mastermind - Semi Final 6
Well, by a process of elimination we knew that tonight’s contenders for the last place in the Grand Final were going to be
Nell Whiteway - =16th on my table
Gregory Spiller - =4th on my table
John Savage - =26th
Marcus Hake - = 15th
Colin Daffern - =4th
Well, we’ve seen already in this set of semi finals that relative performance in the first round really doesn’t amount to a whole hill of beans as you might say. So whoever was going to win was anybody’s guess.
Nell Whiteway won heat 20 with a great round on Arthur Ransome’s “Swallows and Amazons” and a solid rather than spectacular round on General Knowledge. Tonight she was answering questions on a subject which was much more to my liking – Yes, Minister – a sitcom which was as practically perfect in every way as a piece of television is ever likely to get. As such I was disappointed to only get 4 answers . This suggests to me that maybe this was a tough set of questions, in which case it makes Nell’s 9 points look even better. A good round, but she looked unlikely to have the kind of serious lead she’d had at the halfway stage in her first round match.
It’s a hell of a long time since we watched Gregory Spiller win heat one, way back in August. He answered on Fawlty Towers (see my previous comment about Yes, Minister) back then. The Rebus novels of Ian Rankin provided his specialist subject tonight. I’m afraid that I’ve never read any, but I knew that the novels are set in Edinburgh, so that brought me my one point. Gregory managed a very good 10 points on this round – seriously, in a 90 second round you have to go like the clappers to get into double figures. Good round.
John Savage scored 11 on his first round specialist subject of Celtic FC. That hadn’t given him the halftime lead, but he romped home with a good GK round. Once again, he didn’t match the highest specialist round. Tonight he was answering on Nazi Germany 1933 – 1945. 8 put him two behind Gregory and 1 behind Nell. That was by no means a disaster, but it meant that his GK round needed to be a good one to give him a shout.
Like John , Marcus Hake had answered on a sporting specialist subject in his first round heat. Back then he answered on the Ashes since 1981. In a complete change of pace tonight he offered the Novels of Haruki Murakami. Again, I have to admit that I have never read any, and this time none of the questions offered any help to the non reader, and so I left the lists with my tail between my legs, and no points. As had Nell, Marcus fell just one short of double figures. Like the previous three contenders, Marcus attempted every question as well. 4 rounds down, and we had yet to see our first pass. Good quizzing, that.
Colin Daffern, the last semi finalist of this series, has been this way before, having been a semi finalist in Geoff’s 2006 series. You may remember he fought out that splendid duel with Roger Canwell in heat 17, scoring a fantastic 19 on GK in the process. This followed on the heels of a round of 13 on The Life and Career of Michael Foot. He did proportionately better on tonight’s specialist round. Setting off at a cracking pace, Colin rattled splendidly through his round on the Glastonbury Festival, picking up 11 points and once again , no passes as he did so.
So John returned to the chair for his GK round. He desperately needed to hit the teens in order to give the other contenders pause for thought, and push them towards the corridor of uncertainty. Which was exactly what he managed to do. I’ve conjectured before that the hardest GK rounds you tend to get are in the semis. I know that in Magnus’ day, the great Boswell Taylor used to arrange it so that the GK rounds would be harder in the semis, then a little easier again in the final to speed things up and heighten the excitement. I don’t know if this is still the case, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it is. 21 looked vulnerable, and yet not easy. Game on.
Nell Whiteway fell behind on the clock fairly quickly, and really never looked like getting back on terms She retained admirable composure in the face of adversity, but by the end of the round she had only managed to raise her score to 15. Regardless of which she still has the knowledge that she was good enough to make it to the semi final, and that is an achievement in itself. Marcus Hake was able to give it more of a lash, but you could see the clock inexorably catching him up, then passing him. The buzzer came before the finish line, but at least he did make it into double figures for the round. His 10 put him on 19, close, but still a little short.
Gregory Spiller had a two point lead over John at the halfway stage. However John had very cleverly not passed. so in order to go into the outright lead, Gregory needed a round of 12 points. Even 11 and no passes would only bring him a tie break. Well, although he seemed just a little behind John on the clock, Gregory kept his calm, and kept answering. However there were passes along the way. He had scored 11, and John had begun asking the last question as the buzzer went. Oh, Gregory gave it a good go, but in the end he just didn’t know that the Lipari Islands are also called the Aeolian Islands, and so, albeit on pass countback, John’s lead was still intact, with only one contender left.
Colin needed 11 points to render pass countback irrelevant, and his tactic was fairly clear. Go like the clappers, and pass if the answer didn’t come quickly. It’s certainly a legitimate tactic. Based on the first 30 seconds of the round it looked as if he was going to make it with a little time to spare. At the minute mark he still looked ok. At the 90 second mark there were doubts. In particular a hesitation where he nearly gave the correct answer ‘sap’ before passing looked particularly costly. At the buzzer Colin obviously didn’t know if he’d quite done it – well, you don’t – John Humphrys made it pretty clear by reminding him sadly that he had so nearly given the correct answer to the sap question. Oh, John. Believe me, when you’re in Colin’s position, you really don’t want someone telling you this. However kindly it is meant I’m sure that it comes across as having your nose rubbed in it a little. For Colin had score 10, and his four passes meant that John had won.
Hard lines to all 4 runners up, especially Colin and Gregory who came so close, but many congratulations to John. From 5th at the halfway stage to first at the end of the show. Many congratulations on reaching the Grand Final, and the best of retrospective luck to you.
The Details
Nell Whiteway - =16th on my table
Gregory Spiller - =4th on my table
John Savage - =26th
Marcus Hake - = 15th
Colin Daffern - =4th
Well, we’ve seen already in this set of semi finals that relative performance in the first round really doesn’t amount to a whole hill of beans as you might say. So whoever was going to win was anybody’s guess.
Nell Whiteway won heat 20 with a great round on Arthur Ransome’s “Swallows and Amazons” and a solid rather than spectacular round on General Knowledge. Tonight she was answering questions on a subject which was much more to my liking – Yes, Minister – a sitcom which was as practically perfect in every way as a piece of television is ever likely to get. As such I was disappointed to only get 4 answers . This suggests to me that maybe this was a tough set of questions, in which case it makes Nell’s 9 points look even better. A good round, but she looked unlikely to have the kind of serious lead she’d had at the halfway stage in her first round match.
It’s a hell of a long time since we watched Gregory Spiller win heat one, way back in August. He answered on Fawlty Towers (see my previous comment about Yes, Minister) back then. The Rebus novels of Ian Rankin provided his specialist subject tonight. I’m afraid that I’ve never read any, but I knew that the novels are set in Edinburgh, so that brought me my one point. Gregory managed a very good 10 points on this round – seriously, in a 90 second round you have to go like the clappers to get into double figures. Good round.
John Savage scored 11 on his first round specialist subject of Celtic FC. That hadn’t given him the halftime lead, but he romped home with a good GK round. Once again, he didn’t match the highest specialist round. Tonight he was answering on Nazi Germany 1933 – 1945. 8 put him two behind Gregory and 1 behind Nell. That was by no means a disaster, but it meant that his GK round needed to be a good one to give him a shout.
Like John , Marcus Hake had answered on a sporting specialist subject in his first round heat. Back then he answered on the Ashes since 1981. In a complete change of pace tonight he offered the Novels of Haruki Murakami. Again, I have to admit that I have never read any, and this time none of the questions offered any help to the non reader, and so I left the lists with my tail between my legs, and no points. As had Nell, Marcus fell just one short of double figures. Like the previous three contenders, Marcus attempted every question as well. 4 rounds down, and we had yet to see our first pass. Good quizzing, that.
Colin Daffern, the last semi finalist of this series, has been this way before, having been a semi finalist in Geoff’s 2006 series. You may remember he fought out that splendid duel with Roger Canwell in heat 17, scoring a fantastic 19 on GK in the process. This followed on the heels of a round of 13 on The Life and Career of Michael Foot. He did proportionately better on tonight’s specialist round. Setting off at a cracking pace, Colin rattled splendidly through his round on the Glastonbury Festival, picking up 11 points and once again , no passes as he did so.
So John returned to the chair for his GK round. He desperately needed to hit the teens in order to give the other contenders pause for thought, and push them towards the corridor of uncertainty. Which was exactly what he managed to do. I’ve conjectured before that the hardest GK rounds you tend to get are in the semis. I know that in Magnus’ day, the great Boswell Taylor used to arrange it so that the GK rounds would be harder in the semis, then a little easier again in the final to speed things up and heighten the excitement. I don’t know if this is still the case, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it is. 21 looked vulnerable, and yet not easy. Game on.
Nell Whiteway fell behind on the clock fairly quickly, and really never looked like getting back on terms She retained admirable composure in the face of adversity, but by the end of the round she had only managed to raise her score to 15. Regardless of which she still has the knowledge that she was good enough to make it to the semi final, and that is an achievement in itself. Marcus Hake was able to give it more of a lash, but you could see the clock inexorably catching him up, then passing him. The buzzer came before the finish line, but at least he did make it into double figures for the round. His 10 put him on 19, close, but still a little short.
Gregory Spiller had a two point lead over John at the halfway stage. However John had very cleverly not passed. so in order to go into the outright lead, Gregory needed a round of 12 points. Even 11 and no passes would only bring him a tie break. Well, although he seemed just a little behind John on the clock, Gregory kept his calm, and kept answering. However there were passes along the way. He had scored 11, and John had begun asking the last question as the buzzer went. Oh, Gregory gave it a good go, but in the end he just didn’t know that the Lipari Islands are also called the Aeolian Islands, and so, albeit on pass countback, John’s lead was still intact, with only one contender left.
Colin needed 11 points to render pass countback irrelevant, and his tactic was fairly clear. Go like the clappers, and pass if the answer didn’t come quickly. It’s certainly a legitimate tactic. Based on the first 30 seconds of the round it looked as if he was going to make it with a little time to spare. At the minute mark he still looked ok. At the 90 second mark there were doubts. In particular a hesitation where he nearly gave the correct answer ‘sap’ before passing looked particularly costly. At the buzzer Colin obviously didn’t know if he’d quite done it – well, you don’t – John Humphrys made it pretty clear by reminding him sadly that he had so nearly given the correct answer to the sap question. Oh, John. Believe me, when you’re in Colin’s position, you really don’t want someone telling you this. However kindly it is meant I’m sure that it comes across as having your nose rubbed in it a little. For Colin had score 10, and his four passes meant that John had won.
Hard lines to all 4 runners up, especially Colin and Gregory who came so close, but many congratulations to John. From 5th at the halfway stage to first at the end of the show. Many congratulations on reaching the Grand Final, and the best of retrospective luck to you.
The Details
| Nell Whiteway | Yes Minister | 9 – 0 | 6 - 3 | 15 – 3 |
| Gregory Spiller | The Rebus Novels of Ian Rankin | 10 – 0 | 11 - 3 | 21 – 3 |
| John Savage | Nazi Germany 1933 - 1945 | 8 – 0 | 13 - 0 | 21 – 0 |
| Marcus Hake | The Novels of Haruki Murakami | 9 – 0 | 10 – 1 | 19 - 1 |
| Colin Daffern | The Glastonbury Festival | 11 – 0 | 10 - 4 | 21 – 4 |
Beat the Pack - New Show
How did this one manage to sneak up on me? That’s not difficult to answer, I suppose. It’s on while I’m at work. In fact I wouldn’t have known anything about it, but I came home from doing the radio show earlier in the day, was flicking through the channels, and noticed our own Andy Tucker. – What’s this? – I wondered, and so I watched. In fact I watched yesterday’s show on the iplayer as well, just to make sure that my first impressions weren’t wrong.
”Beat the Pack” is a daytime, mid prize range show – it isn’t setting out to find the finest quiz brain in the land, so let’s try and judge it fairly, at least. 8 contestants start each show. One is picked randomly to play. There are 6 question categories, and all the player has to do is answer one question correctly from each. When the question is asked, they can play or pass. If they play the first and get it right, then that’s £2000 in the bank. If they get it wrong, then they’re outta there. I think. Another player moves from the pack to take control of the game. They don’t have to play though. They can pass, which means the next question is worth just half the previous amount. If they pass, if all the players in the pack have the question right, then they’re outta there. I think. I’ll be honest, the rules weren’t so much complicated as just rather soporific. If a player from the pack gets a passed question right, then they go back to the safe zone for the next category. If they get two questions in a row wrong, then they’re outta there. I think. Once the 6 categories have been asked, then we get through to the end game. We play for however much the player in control has won . However many of the pack are left, the player in control has to choose one to play against in the final. As for any others – well, they’re outta there. I think. The player in control has 75 seconds to answer questions. Keep answering correctly, and the money is theirs. Anything they get wrong is turned over to the last member of the pack. If the last member of the pack gets a chance to answer three or more of these, and gets three correct, then that player wins the money. If not, then the player in control wins. That’s all there is to it.
Well, as I said, even despite the presence of such a great quizzer as Andy Tucker, it isn’t trying to provide a serious test for serious quizzers. On the positive side I give the producers kudos for selecting such a fine quizzer to take part. I found some of the questions rather interesting as well. For a daytime show the potential prize pot of £12,000 is fairly serious dosh. For the record Andy won £10,000, which I would guess is far more than anybody else has or does in this series.
The show does suffer, in my opinion, from some flaws.
1) – Like many shows, the Faffing About Quotient is too high for my liking. With 8 contestants you will always have the potential for some serious time wasting, talking to them. It doesn’t have to be this way. Just look at the way that Fifteen-to-One used to handle 15 contestants every show. I timed the show on the iplayer, and it took over 4 minutes before the first question was asked. To put that into perspective, that’s 10% of the show’s run time. I’ve seen comments in various places that judicious use of the fast playback can reduce this show to about 10 minutes without losing any of the questions – I haven’t tried it myself, but it seems plausible. Certainly this is a show which would easily fit into a 30 minute format, and would doubtless be all the better for it.
2) You don’t get a lot of questions for your money. Or rather you don’t get enough questions until the 75 second endgame. The 6 category rounds have a mix of questions, so it seems, of differing levels of difficulty, but not all of them are totally without interest. However when you get to the 75 second endgame the level of difficulty of the question is lowered significantly. In terms of the mechanics of the show I can understand this. You want people to have to pass, or get some wrong during the category rounds in order to build up the tension. However you don’t want them getting too many wrong too quickly in the endgame. But it does mean that if you’re a regular quizzer you won’t be getting any wrong in the endgame rounds when you’re playing along at home, which can be a bit of a turn off.
I’ll be brutally honest, this didn’t really grab me. Well, that’s not necessarily a big deal because it’s not aimed at people like me, I’m quite sure. However it is possible to make a popular daytime quiz show which manages to have broad appeal , to both the general public and the serious quizzer alike – Pointless being a good example. This doesn’t manage that, still, if it’s popular enough with the daytime audience then the Beeb won’t worry about that. Time will tell. Congratulations on your win, though Andy. Very well done.
”Beat the Pack” is a daytime, mid prize range show – it isn’t setting out to find the finest quiz brain in the land, so let’s try and judge it fairly, at least. 8 contestants start each show. One is picked randomly to play. There are 6 question categories, and all the player has to do is answer one question correctly from each. When the question is asked, they can play or pass. If they play the first and get it right, then that’s £2000 in the bank. If they get it wrong, then they’re outta there. I think. Another player moves from the pack to take control of the game. They don’t have to play though. They can pass, which means the next question is worth just half the previous amount. If they pass, if all the players in the pack have the question right, then they’re outta there. I think. I’ll be honest, the rules weren’t so much complicated as just rather soporific. If a player from the pack gets a passed question right, then they go back to the safe zone for the next category. If they get two questions in a row wrong, then they’re outta there. I think. Once the 6 categories have been asked, then we get through to the end game. We play for however much the player in control has won . However many of the pack are left, the player in control has to choose one to play against in the final. As for any others – well, they’re outta there. I think. The player in control has 75 seconds to answer questions. Keep answering correctly, and the money is theirs. Anything they get wrong is turned over to the last member of the pack. If the last member of the pack gets a chance to answer three or more of these, and gets three correct, then that player wins the money. If not, then the player in control wins. That’s all there is to it.
Well, as I said, even despite the presence of such a great quizzer as Andy Tucker, it isn’t trying to provide a serious test for serious quizzers. On the positive side I give the producers kudos for selecting such a fine quizzer to take part. I found some of the questions rather interesting as well. For a daytime show the potential prize pot of £12,000 is fairly serious dosh. For the record Andy won £10,000, which I would guess is far more than anybody else has or does in this series.
The show does suffer, in my opinion, from some flaws.
1) – Like many shows, the Faffing About Quotient is too high for my liking. With 8 contestants you will always have the potential for some serious time wasting, talking to them. It doesn’t have to be this way. Just look at the way that Fifteen-to-One used to handle 15 contestants every show. I timed the show on the iplayer, and it took over 4 minutes before the first question was asked. To put that into perspective, that’s 10% of the show’s run time. I’ve seen comments in various places that judicious use of the fast playback can reduce this show to about 10 minutes without losing any of the questions – I haven’t tried it myself, but it seems plausible. Certainly this is a show which would easily fit into a 30 minute format, and would doubtless be all the better for it.
2) You don’t get a lot of questions for your money. Or rather you don’t get enough questions until the 75 second endgame. The 6 category rounds have a mix of questions, so it seems, of differing levels of difficulty, but not all of them are totally without interest. However when you get to the 75 second endgame the level of difficulty of the question is lowered significantly. In terms of the mechanics of the show I can understand this. You want people to have to pass, or get some wrong during the category rounds in order to build up the tension. However you don’t want them getting too many wrong too quickly in the endgame. But it does mean that if you’re a regular quizzer you won’t be getting any wrong in the endgame rounds when you’re playing along at home, which can be a bit of a turn off.
I’ll be brutally honest, this didn’t really grab me. Well, that’s not necessarily a big deal because it’s not aimed at people like me, I’m quite sure. However it is possible to make a popular daytime quiz show which manages to have broad appeal , to both the general public and the serious quizzer alike – Pointless being a good example. This doesn’t manage that, still, if it’s popular enough with the daytime audience then the Beeb won’t worry about that. Time will tell. Congratulations on your win, though Andy. Very well done.
Very Good Friday Indeed
One of the things I can be really anal about is being late for things. I’m one of those people who would rather arrive somewhere two hours early than 10 minutes late, and so I left with an hour and a half to play with for what should have been a 45 minute journey at most. I say should have, since I took a couple of wrong turnings. I maintain this was due to less than crystal instructions from AA Routeplanner, but whatever the case I arrived with about 10 minutes to spare. So that was the first obstacle out of the way.
The premise behind the show, as originally explained to me, was this. There was an article in the papers a few weeks ago stating that pubs across the length and breadth of Britain are giving up their Sky Sports in droves to take up pub quizzes to entice the punters across the threshold on weekday evenings. Like anything else, I’m sure that you can find examples to support this view, and other examples to cast doubt upon it. Still, I was asked if I’d be prepared to contribute to the show and you don’t know me very well if you think I’d ever do anything other than agree.
Well, by the time the details of the show were being settled it had been agreed that people would also be invited to phone in and try to beat me with their questions. Yes, I know. If you take part in something like that you’re risking people think that you’re setting yourself up as some kind of quiz guru – which I most definitely am not. Also, you risk looking stupid if you can’t answer the questions, and, when you get right down to it I am very beatable. But what the hell. The whole thing was just a bit of fun, and if it all went pear shaped and I got them all wrong, well, I’ve got broad shoulders.
So as for the show, well . . . it was great fun! Honestly. Mai was absolutely lovely. With regards to the questions, well, thereby hangs a tale. Lots of people tweeted in questions – but didn’t leave the answers! So they couldn’t be used. Any questions which could be asked needed to have their answers verified. Now, if you’ve ever put your own quiz together you’ll know that actually verifying your answers can be a) tricky sometimes , and b) time consuming. The thought of having to do that while making a live radio show – well, the mind boggles. No wonder I caught Mai giggling a couple of times, and saying that Chris was looking frazzled. I’m not surprised!
How did it all go, then? Well, as I said, it was meant to be a bit of fun, and that’s exactly what it was, tremendous fun, in fact. Mai kept score as we went along, with a point going to the listeners for anything I couldn’t answer correctly , and a point going to me for anything I could answer correctly. Thank heaven for some nice people ringing in and asking me gettable stuff ( for me) like “What was the world’s first gold record?”, the answer being Glen Miller’s The Chattanooga Choo Choo. With the help of some extremely sympathetic scoring from Mai – well, downright biased in my favour if you want my opinion – I was still in with a shout of coming out on top going into the last half hour. In the end I scored 2 points less than the listeners – and do you know what did for me in the end? My own daughter !
Perhaps I should explain that. My youngest daughter Jessica rang. I knew it was her as soon as Mai said that the next caller was Jess from Port Talbot. I also had a horrible feeling I knew what she was going to ask me. Several times in the last couple of weeks she’s asked me this – “Apart from Jean Paul Gaultier, which other designer has designed a special can for Diet Coke?” Every time she asks me I get it wrong, and never remember. I didn’t remember today. To Mark Jacobs, the designer in question, I can only say that I am deeply sorry, sir, and it’s nothing personal. Had I been able to answer it, then I’d have had one point more, and the listeners one point less, and we’d have been all square. On such small margins . . .
The time – three hours in all – absolutely flew. I enjoyed the whole thing immensely, and am hugely grateful to BBC Wales for inviting me onto the show. If ever you fancy doing it again guys, I am definitely up for it.
If you'd like to listen to the show, then here's the iplayer link
The Jason Mohammad Show - with Mai Davies - 29/3/13
Tuesday, 26 March 2013
Good Friday Radio Show
If you have nothing better to do on Good Friday at about 10am – well, let’s face it, you probably do having something better to do on a Bank Holiday- but if by any chance you don’t, you might just be interested in a radio show that I'm going to be taking part in. It's a BBC Radio Wales show which is doing a feature all about quizzing, and pub quizzes. It’s on Jason Mohammad’s show, although the man himself is off at the moment, and the show is being presented by Mai Davies. It should be a bit of fun. If you live in the Radio Wales area you can listen on your radio, obviously, but even if you don’t I think that you may be able to catch it online through the wonders of the interweb.
Saturday, 23 March 2013
Back where he belongs
I’ve mentioned my friend Brian before. Brian has been the organiser of the Thursday night quiz in Aberavon Rugby club since nineteen hundred and frozen to death . Almost immediately after the New Year quiz, his speciality and the highlight of the quiz year in the club Brian fell ill, and only returned to the club the week that I was in France with the school a fortnight ago. This last Thursday Brian was QM for the first time since he was ill.
Here’s a funny thing. The older I get, the less tolerant I get at work, and in my job that’s not a good thing. I try very, very hard not to let it show, but it is an effort. I have to work at it because it doesn’t come so naturally any more. Yet conversely, the older I get the more tolerant I become of other question masters. I enjoy every quiz at the club now, regardless, so it seems, of who is the QM. To be fair we’ve been very lucky that people have been prepared to help me out while Brian was ill, and I don’t think that there was one duff quiz among them. Still, while I tend to enjoy every quiz in the club there’s nothing like a quiz with a question master who knows just how to put a really good quiz together. Brian gave us such a quiz on Thursday night. On paper it doesn’t look like rocket science – put together some gimmes, some easy ones, some which only the better teams can get, some which only the odd one or two people will get, some which nobody maybe might get, something to make you go ‘ooh, really?’ - in fact , something for everyone. Actually that doesn’t even look all that easy on paper, come to think of it. Well, that’s exactly what Brian gave us on Thursday night. Yes, alright, since you ask, the fact that my team scored highest of all the teams in the actual questions helped my appreciation, no doubt. Still, the fact that we lost the quiz overall because we’re not very good at identifying people in photographs did nothing to put a dampener on the evening, and Brian earned the biggest round of applause at the end that I can remember anyone getting in the club. Quite right too. So glad you’re back, Brian.
In fact, the only downside is that it’s my turn on Thursday, and somehow I have to follow that.
Here’s a funny thing. The older I get, the less tolerant I get at work, and in my job that’s not a good thing. I try very, very hard not to let it show, but it is an effort. I have to work at it because it doesn’t come so naturally any more. Yet conversely, the older I get the more tolerant I become of other question masters. I enjoy every quiz at the club now, regardless, so it seems, of who is the QM. To be fair we’ve been very lucky that people have been prepared to help me out while Brian was ill, and I don’t think that there was one duff quiz among them. Still, while I tend to enjoy every quiz in the club there’s nothing like a quiz with a question master who knows just how to put a really good quiz together. Brian gave us such a quiz on Thursday night. On paper it doesn’t look like rocket science – put together some gimmes, some easy ones, some which only the better teams can get, some which only the odd one or two people will get, some which nobody maybe might get, something to make you go ‘ooh, really?’ - in fact , something for everyone. Actually that doesn’t even look all that easy on paper, come to think of it. Well, that’s exactly what Brian gave us on Thursday night. Yes, alright, since you ask, the fact that my team scored highest of all the teams in the actual questions helped my appreciation, no doubt. Still, the fact that we lost the quiz overall because we’re not very good at identifying people in photographs did nothing to put a dampener on the evening, and Brian earned the biggest round of applause at the end that I can remember anyone getting in the club. Quite right too. So glad you’re back, Brian.
In fact, the only downside is that it’s my turn on Thursday, and somehow I have to follow that.
In the News
In the News
Who or what are the following, and why have they been in the news?
1. The Next Day
2. Simon Brodkin
3. Tommy Smith
4. Junior Bradshaw and Kevin Liverpool
5. Wallace Hartley
6. Lindsey Vonn
7. Sir Nicholas Houghton
8. Daisy Morris
9. Malala Yousafzai
10. Michael Appleton
11. Steve Walsh
12. Calypso Nash
13. Laurence Graff
14. Sybil Christopher
15. Ye Wocheng
16. Lillian Mort
17. Trinity Leeds
18. Pietro Mennea
19. Ketchup Clouds
20. Sir Michael Wilshaw
21. Chinua Achebe
In Other News
1. What was the score in the 6 Nations decider – Wales v. England ( sob ) ?
2. How many hours a day does the average Brit spend watching TV according to figures released last week?
3. Who scored his 200th goal for Chelsea last week?
4. Which team won the Grand Slam in the women’s 6 Nations
5. Who won the Australian Grand Prix?
6. What was the score between Spurs and Fulham (sob) ?
7. What was the score between Everton and Man City?
8. Where was a plaque to Beatles John Lennon and George Harrison unveiled last week?
9. Which strain of flu was announced as becoming resistant to Tamiflu last week?
10. David Cameron announced that there will be a Royal Charter on what?
11. Which 92 year old TV actor passed away last week?
12. Who caused criticism for withdrawing from the England Football squad last week?
13. Who represented Britain at the Papal Inauguration last week?
14. Which long running show was announced as being axed by Channel Four last week?
15. Which measure was defeated in the Parliament of Cyprius last week?
16. Which former England star was banned for 20 months for drink driving?
17. Which toy company is building its first factory in China?
18. Christine Lagarde’s home in Paris was raided last week. why?
19. Which TV personality was re – arrested last week as part of a police investigation into sex abuse allegations?
20. Which author died aged 69 last week?
21. It was claimed last week that what has finally left the Solar system?
22. Tom Watson took which measure for the next Ryder Cup?
23. Who said she was taking a break from tennis, then swiftly changed her mind?
24. Who received a 3 week ban after being cited during the 6 nations matches last week?
25. Which member of the Royal Family suffered a stroke last week?
26. Who admitted a longstanding relationship with one of his accusers last week?
27. What date will the Scottish Independence vote take place?
28. Who rejected an offer to become manager of Reading FC last week?
29. Which team finally agreed a deal to move into the London 2012 Stadium?
30. What was announced as the most popular biscuit in the House of Commons last week?
31. The biggest zipline in the Northern Hemisphere was opened where last week?
32. Who is the new chairman of the FA?
33. What was the score in the England v. San Marino match?
34. What was the score between Wales and Scotland?
35. Who was awarded Player of the 6 Nations?
Who or what are the following, and why have they been in the news?
1. The Next Day
2. Simon Brodkin
3. Tommy Smith
4. Junior Bradshaw and Kevin Liverpool
5. Wallace Hartley
6. Lindsey Vonn
7. Sir Nicholas Houghton
8. Daisy Morris
9. Malala Yousafzai
10. Michael Appleton
11. Steve Walsh
12. Calypso Nash
13. Laurence Graff
14. Sybil Christopher
15. Ye Wocheng
16. Lillian Mort
17. Trinity Leeds
18. Pietro Mennea
19. Ketchup Clouds
20. Sir Michael Wilshaw
21. Chinua Achebe
In Other News
1. What was the score in the 6 Nations decider – Wales v. England ( sob ) ?
2. How many hours a day does the average Brit spend watching TV according to figures released last week?
3. Who scored his 200th goal for Chelsea last week?
4. Which team won the Grand Slam in the women’s 6 Nations
5. Who won the Australian Grand Prix?
6. What was the score between Spurs and Fulham (sob) ?
7. What was the score between Everton and Man City?
8. Where was a plaque to Beatles John Lennon and George Harrison unveiled last week?
9. Which strain of flu was announced as becoming resistant to Tamiflu last week?
10. David Cameron announced that there will be a Royal Charter on what?
11. Which 92 year old TV actor passed away last week?
12. Who caused criticism for withdrawing from the England Football squad last week?
13. Who represented Britain at the Papal Inauguration last week?
14. Which long running show was announced as being axed by Channel Four last week?
15. Which measure was defeated in the Parliament of Cyprius last week?
16. Which former England star was banned for 20 months for drink driving?
17. Which toy company is building its first factory in China?
18. Christine Lagarde’s home in Paris was raided last week. why?
19. Which TV personality was re – arrested last week as part of a police investigation into sex abuse allegations?
20. Which author died aged 69 last week?
21. It was claimed last week that what has finally left the Solar system?
22. Tom Watson took which measure for the next Ryder Cup?
23. Who said she was taking a break from tennis, then swiftly changed her mind?
24. Who received a 3 week ban after being cited during the 6 nations matches last week?
25. Which member of the Royal Family suffered a stroke last week?
26. Who admitted a longstanding relationship with one of his accusers last week?
27. What date will the Scottish Independence vote take place?
28. Who rejected an offer to become manager of Reading FC last week?
29. Which team finally agreed a deal to move into the London 2012 Stadium?
30. What was announced as the most popular biscuit in the House of Commons last week?
31. The biggest zipline in the Northern Hemisphere was opened where last week?
32. Who is the new chairman of the FA?
33. What was the score in the England v. San Marino match?
34. What was the score between Wales and Scotland?
35. Who was awarded Player of the 6 Nations?
Answers to News Questions
In the News
Who or what are the following , and why have they been in the news?
1. When you really love someone
2. Brian McDermott
3. Hurricane Fly
4. Paul Marshallsea
5. Jorge Mario Bergoglio ( as if you didn’t know!)
6. Paul Arthurs
7. Danny Nightingale
8. Peter Banks
9. John Catt
10. Amalia Damonte
11. J.T.Mcnamara
12. Alasdair Smith
13. Panstarrs
14. Xi Jinping
15. Dr. Davinder Bains
16. Eric Joyce
17. Richard Wallace
18. Kevin McGeever
19. Bobs worth
In Other News
1. Where have Charles and Camilla been visiting this week
2. Which writer revealed that he was interfered with as a child?
3. What sentences were given to Chris Huhne and Vicky Pryce?
4. Which sports commentator passed away ?
5. How many Falkland Islanders voted against staying part of Britain?
6. What was the top visitor attraction in the UK in 2012?
7. Who was awarded Laureus sportswoman of the year ?
8. Who received the Laureus lifetime achievement in Sport award?
9. Which jockey rode the champion hurdle winner in Cheltenham?
10. Who has become the oldest woman ever to grace the cover of Vogue?
11. Who was initially prevented from entering the Royal Enclosure at Cheltenham?
12. How many cardinals voted in the conclave to elect a new pope?
13. Who regained his British boxing license?
14. By which score did Barcelona defeat AC Milan?
15. Who announced her first UK tour since 1978?
16. What is the papal name of the new pope?
17. The new pope was formerly the bishop of which diocese?
18. Which new literary prize to rival the Booker was launched last week?
19. What was the score in the Millwall v. Blackburn FA Cup replay?
20. What was the score between Arsenal and Bayern Munich?
21. Which premier league footballer has been charged with dr4iving while disqualified?
22. Which former DJ was arrested again last week?
23. Which competition was won by the England women’s Football team?
24. On the annual Forbes List, who is the world’s most influential celebrity?
25. What was the score between Spurs and Inter Milan?
26. What was the score between Newcastle and Anzhi Makhachala?
27. – and between Chelsea and Steau Bucharest?
28. Which former nightclub and TV stand up comic passed away aged 88?
29. Which jockey rode the winner of the Cheltenham Gold Cup?
30. – and who trained the horse?
Answers
Who or what are the following?
1. New single by Agnetha Faltskogg, formerly of Abba
2. Sacked manager of Reading FC
3. Horse that won the Champion Hurdle
4. ‘Shark Wrestler’ sacked because he was on holiday for ill health when he did it
5. The newly elected pope
6. Former Oasis guitarist about to release album
7. SAS sniper whose sentence was quashed
8. Guitarist with Yes who passed away
9. Protestor who won legal battle to have his name removed from police extremist database
10. She said that the new pope became a priest after she turned down his offer of marriage
11. Jockey injured in fall during Cheltenham Festival
12. Sacked advisor to David Cameron
13. Comet visible in the Northern Hemisphere
14. Newly elected president of China
15. NHS Doctor convicted of 39 sexual offences
16. MP in second bar brawl this week
17. Former Mirror Editor questioned by police over phone hacking
18. Tycoon who vanished for 8 months and has been arrested for wasting police time
19. Horse that won the Cheltenham Gold Cup
In Other News
1. Jordan and the Middle East
2. Alan Bennett
3. Both have been sentenced to 8 months in jail
4. Tony Gubba
5. 3
6. The British Museum, with 5.5 million visitors
7. Jessica Ennis
8. Lord Coe
9. Ruby Walsh
10. Tina Turner - 73
11. Zara Phillips
12. 115
13. Derek Chisora
14. 4 - 0
15. Olivia Newton John
16. Pope Francis
17. Buenos Aires
18. The Folio Prize
19. 1 - 0
20. 2 – 0 – but Arsenal went out on the away goals rule
21. Carlos Tevez
22. Dave Lee Travis
23. The Cyprus Cup
24. Oprah Winfrey
25. 1 – 4 – Spurs went through on the away goals rule - phew
26. 1 - 0
27. 3 - 1
28. Norman Collier
29. Barry Geraghty
30. Nicky Henderson
Who or what are the following , and why have they been in the news?
1. When you really love someone
2. Brian McDermott
3. Hurricane Fly
4. Paul Marshallsea
5. Jorge Mario Bergoglio ( as if you didn’t know!)
6. Paul Arthurs
7. Danny Nightingale
8. Peter Banks
9. John Catt
10. Amalia Damonte
11. J.T.Mcnamara
12. Alasdair Smith
13. Panstarrs
14. Xi Jinping
15. Dr. Davinder Bains
16. Eric Joyce
17. Richard Wallace
18. Kevin McGeever
19. Bobs worth
In Other News
1. Where have Charles and Camilla been visiting this week
2. Which writer revealed that he was interfered with as a child?
3. What sentences were given to Chris Huhne and Vicky Pryce?
4. Which sports commentator passed away ?
5. How many Falkland Islanders voted against staying part of Britain?
6. What was the top visitor attraction in the UK in 2012?
7. Who was awarded Laureus sportswoman of the year ?
8. Who received the Laureus lifetime achievement in Sport award?
9. Which jockey rode the champion hurdle winner in Cheltenham?
10. Who has become the oldest woman ever to grace the cover of Vogue?
11. Who was initially prevented from entering the Royal Enclosure at Cheltenham?
12. How many cardinals voted in the conclave to elect a new pope?
13. Who regained his British boxing license?
14. By which score did Barcelona defeat AC Milan?
15. Who announced her first UK tour since 1978?
16. What is the papal name of the new pope?
17. The new pope was formerly the bishop of which diocese?
18. Which new literary prize to rival the Booker was launched last week?
19. What was the score in the Millwall v. Blackburn FA Cup replay?
20. What was the score between Arsenal and Bayern Munich?
21. Which premier league footballer has been charged with dr4iving while disqualified?
22. Which former DJ was arrested again last week?
23. Which competition was won by the England women’s Football team?
24. On the annual Forbes List, who is the world’s most influential celebrity?
25. What was the score between Spurs and Inter Milan?
26. What was the score between Newcastle and Anzhi Makhachala?
27. – and between Chelsea and Steau Bucharest?
28. Which former nightclub and TV stand up comic passed away aged 88?
29. Which jockey rode the winner of the Cheltenham Gold Cup?
30. – and who trained the horse?
Answers
Who or what are the following?
1. New single by Agnetha Faltskogg, formerly of Abba
2. Sacked manager of Reading FC
3. Horse that won the Champion Hurdle
4. ‘Shark Wrestler’ sacked because he was on holiday for ill health when he did it
5. The newly elected pope
6. Former Oasis guitarist about to release album
7. SAS sniper whose sentence was quashed
8. Guitarist with Yes who passed away
9. Protestor who won legal battle to have his name removed from police extremist database
10. She said that the new pope became a priest after she turned down his offer of marriage
11. Jockey injured in fall during Cheltenham Festival
12. Sacked advisor to David Cameron
13. Comet visible in the Northern Hemisphere
14. Newly elected president of China
15. NHS Doctor convicted of 39 sexual offences
16. MP in second bar brawl this week
17. Former Mirror Editor questioned by police over phone hacking
18. Tycoon who vanished for 8 months and has been arrested for wasting police time
19. Horse that won the Cheltenham Gold Cup
In Other News
1. Jordan and the Middle East
2. Alan Bennett
3. Both have been sentenced to 8 months in jail
4. Tony Gubba
5. 3
6. The British Museum, with 5.5 million visitors
7. Jessica Ennis
8. Lord Coe
9. Ruby Walsh
10. Tina Turner - 73
11. Zara Phillips
12. 115
13. Derek Chisora
14. 4 - 0
15. Olivia Newton John
16. Pope Francis
17. Buenos Aires
18. The Folio Prize
19. 1 - 0
20. 2 – 0 – but Arsenal went out on the away goals rule
21. Carlos Tevez
22. Dave Lee Travis
23. The Cyprus Cup
24. Oprah Winfrey
25. 1 – 4 – Spurs went through on the away goals rule - phew
26. 1 - 0
27. 3 - 1
28. Norman Collier
29. Barry Geraghty
30. Nicky Henderson
Brain of Britain - The Grand Final 2013
Ah, the Grand Final! First a salute to the four finalists,
Jenny Dunn
Darren Martin
Barry Simmons
David Stainer
Jenny kicked off by scoring on her first two, but missed out on Diogenes the Cynic. Barry had the bonus there. Not a gimme, but you can’t afford to miss those in the final. Darren answered 2, but didn’t know that Philip Pullman had recently retold some of the Grimm Fairy Tales. Nobody had a bonus from that one. On to Barry. He ripped off three in quick succession, but just couldn’t remember that it was Michael Buerk’s report on the Ethiopian famine that led to Band Aid and Live Aid. That got David off the mark, and led on to his set. David took one, but didn’t know the Apollo asteroids. Me neither. Barry did, and you have to say that he had made a very clear statement of intent in the first round, leading by 3 points with 5.
Jenny maybe should have known ULCC – Ultra Large Crude Carrier, which gave Darren a bonus. Darren zigged with Portsmouth for the capital of Monserrat, Barry zagged with Plymouth, and Barry had the point. In his own set he took three, and not three easy ones at that, but rather surprisingly nobody knew that Yeats had written about the wild swans at Coole. David was felled by his first question, asking what Tom from Tom and Jerry was called in his first cartoon. I have actually seen it – but I didn’t remember until Russell gave us the answer Jasper. Barry now had a lead of 9 points to Darren’s 3. I wouldn’t have necessarily said that the game was already over by this point, but I would say that at this stage a 6 pointer was starting to look necessary for the other competitors.
I did exactly what Jenny did with her first question. she was played a piece of music, and told it was from an opera based on a work by Walter Scott, then asked for the name of the composer. –Ah – thought I – must be Lucia Di Lammermoor – Donizetti. Wrong. David gave the correct answer of Arthur Sullivan. Gap cut to 6. Darren took his first, but was given a really nasty one on the peculiar people of Plumstead. Everyone I met in Plumstead was very nice. Barry was asked in which decade JJ Thompson discovered the electron. I couldn’t have even said which century. Nobody knew it was the 1890s. David then was gifted an opportunity to make further inroads into Barry’s lead. He took his first, but when asked which of his co stars from the Carry On films Kenneth Williams insisted on accompanying on her honeymoon he went for Joan Sims, giving Darren the bonus on Barbara Windsor. Barry’s lead over Darren was down to 9.
For the Beat the Brains interval, the questions were set by Ray Ward, the 2012 champ. Of which country, he asked, is Graham Bell island a part? The brains leaned towards Australia, incorrectly. The answer was Russia, amazingly. The second asked what distinction is owned by Coffee Club Island. It’s the most northerly land on earth.
Back to the show. Jenny, asked for Judi Dench’s middle name, and told it is taken from the play “Twelfth Night” mentally tossed a coin, and came up tails with Viola. Unfortunately it was heads with Olivia, which Barry knew for a bonus. Darren’s first gave us the chance to listen to the marvellously evocative theme from the old French made Robinson Crusoe TV series. Altogether now - La la-la la la-laaahhh -. He had it of course. Darren was unlucky not to be given a point for ‘nuclear fusion’ in the next question, when the answer required, as supplied by David , was ‘cold fusion’. Correct adjudication – but we’ve seen answers more wrong than that given points earlier in the series. Barry took two, but didn’t know that Sir Stanley Matthews began his career with Stoke City. David had that. For his own set he took one, but couldn’t answer on the personal physician to Queen Anne. David was now 2nd with 7 to Barry’s 11.
Jenny missed her first, on a scientist called Robert Robinson – also the name of the late and much missed former chairman of this very quiz. Not that I don’t think Russell does a great job – he does, and I still think he has the best voice on the radio, bar none. Darren didn’t know that Monte Cassino was a principal monastery of the Benedictine order. David had that, and the gap for a moment was starting to look of possibly manageable proportions. Barry doesn’t panic, though. He gave two great answers, but didn’t know that Anne of Cleeves is the only one of Henry VIII’s wives to be buried in Westminster Abbey. Who answered that ? David. This was getting very interesting. David took two, but didn’t know that an erg is an accumulation of sand in a desert, and also a unit of energy. Barry struck like a coiled cobra on that one. David now had 11, and Barry 14.
Jenny didn’t know about the invasive Harlequin ladybird, and I was a little surprised that nobody else fancied a stab at this one. Darren didn’t recognise the last lines of King Lear. Point to David, gap down to 2 points. Barry answered one, but didn’t get Adam’s Bridge. David did. Gap remained at 2 points. 2 answers from David now, and all would be square. Sadly for him, David is too young to have been around when Aladdin Sane first came out, and so Darren swooped in for a bonus. Suddenly, announced Russell, that was it! That had actually been the last round. The final scores then were
Jenny Dunn – 2
Darren Martin – 7
David Stainer – 13
Barry Simmons – 15
Hard lines David, and Darren and Jenny. But many, many congratulations to Barry! We all knew what a great quizzer he is anyway, but this was a terrific performance. He took the lead from the outset, and although David made a magnificent fightback, Barry always had his nose in front. This was a great show. Many congratulations to all involved. But hail to Barry Simmons, Brain of Britain 2013!
Jenny Dunn
Darren Martin
Barry Simmons
David Stainer
Jenny kicked off by scoring on her first two, but missed out on Diogenes the Cynic. Barry had the bonus there. Not a gimme, but you can’t afford to miss those in the final. Darren answered 2, but didn’t know that Philip Pullman had recently retold some of the Grimm Fairy Tales. Nobody had a bonus from that one. On to Barry. He ripped off three in quick succession, but just couldn’t remember that it was Michael Buerk’s report on the Ethiopian famine that led to Band Aid and Live Aid. That got David off the mark, and led on to his set. David took one, but didn’t know the Apollo asteroids. Me neither. Barry did, and you have to say that he had made a very clear statement of intent in the first round, leading by 3 points with 5.
Jenny maybe should have known ULCC – Ultra Large Crude Carrier, which gave Darren a bonus. Darren zigged with Portsmouth for the capital of Monserrat, Barry zagged with Plymouth, and Barry had the point. In his own set he took three, and not three easy ones at that, but rather surprisingly nobody knew that Yeats had written about the wild swans at Coole. David was felled by his first question, asking what Tom from Tom and Jerry was called in his first cartoon. I have actually seen it – but I didn’t remember until Russell gave us the answer Jasper. Barry now had a lead of 9 points to Darren’s 3. I wouldn’t have necessarily said that the game was already over by this point, but I would say that at this stage a 6 pointer was starting to look necessary for the other competitors.
I did exactly what Jenny did with her first question. she was played a piece of music, and told it was from an opera based on a work by Walter Scott, then asked for the name of the composer. –Ah – thought I – must be Lucia Di Lammermoor – Donizetti. Wrong. David gave the correct answer of Arthur Sullivan. Gap cut to 6. Darren took his first, but was given a really nasty one on the peculiar people of Plumstead. Everyone I met in Plumstead was very nice. Barry was asked in which decade JJ Thompson discovered the electron. I couldn’t have even said which century. Nobody knew it was the 1890s. David then was gifted an opportunity to make further inroads into Barry’s lead. He took his first, but when asked which of his co stars from the Carry On films Kenneth Williams insisted on accompanying on her honeymoon he went for Joan Sims, giving Darren the bonus on Barbara Windsor. Barry’s lead over Darren was down to 9.
For the Beat the Brains interval, the questions were set by Ray Ward, the 2012 champ. Of which country, he asked, is Graham Bell island a part? The brains leaned towards Australia, incorrectly. The answer was Russia, amazingly. The second asked what distinction is owned by Coffee Club Island. It’s the most northerly land on earth.
Back to the show. Jenny, asked for Judi Dench’s middle name, and told it is taken from the play “Twelfth Night” mentally tossed a coin, and came up tails with Viola. Unfortunately it was heads with Olivia, which Barry knew for a bonus. Darren’s first gave us the chance to listen to the marvellously evocative theme from the old French made Robinson Crusoe TV series. Altogether now - La la-la la la-laaahhh -. He had it of course. Darren was unlucky not to be given a point for ‘nuclear fusion’ in the next question, when the answer required, as supplied by David , was ‘cold fusion’. Correct adjudication – but we’ve seen answers more wrong than that given points earlier in the series. Barry took two, but didn’t know that Sir Stanley Matthews began his career with Stoke City. David had that. For his own set he took one, but couldn’t answer on the personal physician to Queen Anne. David was now 2nd with 7 to Barry’s 11.
Jenny missed her first, on a scientist called Robert Robinson – also the name of the late and much missed former chairman of this very quiz. Not that I don’t think Russell does a great job – he does, and I still think he has the best voice on the radio, bar none. Darren didn’t know that Monte Cassino was a principal monastery of the Benedictine order. David had that, and the gap for a moment was starting to look of possibly manageable proportions. Barry doesn’t panic, though. He gave two great answers, but didn’t know that Anne of Cleeves is the only one of Henry VIII’s wives to be buried in Westminster Abbey. Who answered that ? David. This was getting very interesting. David took two, but didn’t know that an erg is an accumulation of sand in a desert, and also a unit of energy. Barry struck like a coiled cobra on that one. David now had 11, and Barry 14.
Jenny didn’t know about the invasive Harlequin ladybird, and I was a little surprised that nobody else fancied a stab at this one. Darren didn’t recognise the last lines of King Lear. Point to David, gap down to 2 points. Barry answered one, but didn’t get Adam’s Bridge. David did. Gap remained at 2 points. 2 answers from David now, and all would be square. Sadly for him, David is too young to have been around when Aladdin Sane first came out, and so Darren swooped in for a bonus. Suddenly, announced Russell, that was it! That had actually been the last round. The final scores then were
Jenny Dunn – 2
Darren Martin – 7
David Stainer – 13
Barry Simmons – 15
Hard lines David, and Darren and Jenny. But many, many congratulations to Barry! We all knew what a great quizzer he is anyway, but this was a terrific performance. He took the lead from the outset, and although David made a magnificent fightback, Barry always had his nose in front. This was a great show. Many congratulations to all involved. But hail to Barry Simmons, Brain of Britain 2013!
University Challenge - Quarter Final Qualification Match
Monday’s show was a qualification match. Both teams had won their first quarter final match, so a win in this show would bring automatic qualification for the semis, and a loss would not mean elimination from the competition. All to play for. In their first quarter final match St. George’s London, represented by Shashank Sivaji, Alexander Suebsaeng, Sam Mindel, and captain Rebecca Smoker, comfortably saw off Pembroke, Cambridge. New College, Oxford won a close match against King’s Cambridge in their first quarter final . The team were Remi Beecroft, India Lenon, Tom Cappleman, and skippering the side was Andy Hood. Let’s get on with it, then.
Alexander Suebsaeng was first to strike for St. George’s, correctly identifying the War of Queen Anne. This gave them the chance of a set of bonuses on 19th century politics. They took one, but were slightly unlucky to identify slavery itself as having been banned by the Ministry of All Talents – the correct answer being the slave trade. Tom Cappleman got New College off the mark, buzzing in early to say that H,G,Wells’ “The Time Machine” is set some 800,000 years in the future. Prison literature was an interesting category for a set of bonuses, but they only managed one. All square. Andy Hood buzzed in too early for the decade of the publication of Foxe’s Book of Martyrs ( His glacier mints have had a more lasting popularity ) Alexander Suebsaeng was closer with the 1580s, but the fact that it was the same decade as the birth of Shakespeare gave it to me as the 1560s. Alexander Suebsaeng knew that sheep can be hefted, and won his team a set of bonuses on an Islamic mathematician. I guessed algorithm for the first answer, and algebra for the last but that was me done. St. George’s managed two of their own. The picture starter showed us a UK £5 coin, but nobody knew that it commemorated the Queen’s Golden Wedding anniversary. Neither did I – well, she didn’t remember my silver wedding either, so fair’s fair. Our old friend the triptych gave Sam Mindel the next starter, and this gave St. George’s the picture bonuses, more commemorative £5 coins. The team managed one. Andy Hood buzzed in very early to identify the house Chequers. Orthography didn’t promise a great deal . They managed one of them, but were split between Ph and TH for the last. They zigged with PH, when they should have Zagged with TH. “Oohhh!” said Andy Hood. Well done sir! I like it when people get involved in the quiz they’re playing.This brought us to the ten minute mark, and St. George’s were in the driving seat, with 45 to 25.
The next starter was one of those – what links – questions, where you have to wait, because you know the easy one is coming. Tom Cappleman waited for – waterfall in Venezuela – then leapt in with Angel. That’s good tactics. Bonuses on botany were not promising, to be honest, but I was pleased that quercus suber came up. The team though didn’t know it was cork. The next starter was another of those – wait for it – questions. We wanted a 500 year old building that had gone through a lot of uses, the latest being a youth hostel to encourage people to stay in it rather than escape – BUZZ! Shashank Shivaji of St. George’s won the buzzer race to answer “Colditz.” Ship’s cats was another interesting series of bonuses, which gave me a full house. St. George’s didn’t have any of them. Tom Cappleman took another starter on marine sponges. A good UC set followed on words which begin with personal pronouns – eg. – the wife of Priam = HE – Hecuba. Lovely set, and New College managed all of them. This was enough to put them just five points behind now. The music starter played us an extract from The Nutcracker – Rebecca Smoker won the buzzer race on that one. Bonuses on ballet scores inspired by fairy tales proved very fruitful as they took a full set. Am I the only person who automatically starts singing “I know you, I waltzed with you once upon a dream” every time I hear that particular excerpt from Sleeping Beauty ? I digress. Alexander Suebsaeng answered on John Snow, the father of epidemiology, who traced an outbreak of cholera to the public water pump in Broad Street. “Bonuses on Mathematics” announced JP, and “I’ll get me coat” announced my brain. St. George’s didn’t add to their score either. Andy Hood knew that the polish pianist Andre Tchaikowsky left his skull to the RSC. Takes all sorts, I suppose. A great set on novels whose titles feature duplicated words followed. I’m sorry to say that the only one I had was “The Sea, The Sea”. New College didn’t get them. Andy Hood knew that new president of the European Central Bank, a very quick buzz. Bonuses on Astronomy caused amusement when India Lenon explained ‘I don’t know the latin for air pump!’ Well, quite. No points on the bonuses, but the starter itself was enough to put them just 15 points behind St. George’s. Andy Hood, playing a real captain’s innings at this stage of the contest supplied the correct answer of confirmation bias for the next starter. No, me neither. The bonuses were on people called Roberts. I was delighted to dredge up vorticism and Antigua for a full set. New College didn’t manage the one bonus they needed to draw level, but were handily placed at the 20 minute mark, 5 points behind St. George’s who led with 95.
The 2nd picture starter showed us the author J.G.Ballard, looking just a little reminiscent of Tony Robinson. Some maths thing followed – and Tom Cappleman had it to earn the photograph bonuses. of writers who declined honours, as did J.G.Ballard. They managed one, and were in the lead. Tom Cappleman knew that one of the three ancient greek divisions of the climate zones of the earth was frigid. Bonuses on the Wars of the Roses brought another ten points, and New College had all the forward momentum now. Shashank Shivaji pulled back the deficit somewhat, knowing that the shortest time between UK general elections in the 20th century occurred in the year 1974. Bonuses on angles sounded hard, but Sam Mindel, when begged by his team, managed the last one. The gap was now back down to 15. Trigonometry provided the next starter. Sam Mindel had a go, but Tom Cappleman had the correct answer. The Lady of the Camelias didn’t provide much joy in the bonuses, but New College managed one. Asked a question about a natural feature on the US – Canadian border, you’re going to be right a lot more often than you’re going to be wrong if you answer “Niagara Falls.” Remi Beecroft won the race for that one. Place names gave nothing away to New College, but they had the lead, they had the momentum, and the clock was running down. I liked the next starter. As well as Bangkok, there are three other world capitals which begin with the letters BAN. Tom Cappleman sat back on his buzzer for half a second to be sure, then buzzed in with Banjul and Bangui. Good answer. he could also have had Bandar Seri Begawan. Modern Irish theatre brought the contest to an end. The final score was 160 to 110, a win for New College. For almost all of the contest it had been extremely close, and this was an absorbing show, albeit that I would imagine that the bonus conversion rates weren’t the highest we’ve seen in the series. Well done New College, through to the semis. Good luck to St. George’s in their final elimination match.
Jeremy Paxman Watch
Well, there was nothing really worth writing about. The nature of the contest was such that JP was absorbed with the task of just keeping the questions flowing. The only thing I noticed was when Andy Hood expelled his Ooohhh of frustration over the digraph, our man smirked and interjected “That’ll teach you!”
Interesting Fact That I Didn’t Already Know Of The Week
’Hefted’ is an adjective applies to sheep who will instinctively return to their own territory, and thus do not need to be fenced in.
Alexander Suebsaeng was first to strike for St. George’s, correctly identifying the War of Queen Anne. This gave them the chance of a set of bonuses on 19th century politics. They took one, but were slightly unlucky to identify slavery itself as having been banned by the Ministry of All Talents – the correct answer being the slave trade. Tom Cappleman got New College off the mark, buzzing in early to say that H,G,Wells’ “The Time Machine” is set some 800,000 years in the future. Prison literature was an interesting category for a set of bonuses, but they only managed one. All square. Andy Hood buzzed in too early for the decade of the publication of Foxe’s Book of Martyrs ( His glacier mints have had a more lasting popularity ) Alexander Suebsaeng was closer with the 1580s, but the fact that it was the same decade as the birth of Shakespeare gave it to me as the 1560s. Alexander Suebsaeng knew that sheep can be hefted, and won his team a set of bonuses on an Islamic mathematician. I guessed algorithm for the first answer, and algebra for the last but that was me done. St. George’s managed two of their own. The picture starter showed us a UK £5 coin, but nobody knew that it commemorated the Queen’s Golden Wedding anniversary. Neither did I – well, she didn’t remember my silver wedding either, so fair’s fair. Our old friend the triptych gave Sam Mindel the next starter, and this gave St. George’s the picture bonuses, more commemorative £5 coins. The team managed one. Andy Hood buzzed in very early to identify the house Chequers. Orthography didn’t promise a great deal . They managed one of them, but were split between Ph and TH for the last. They zigged with PH, when they should have Zagged with TH. “Oohhh!” said Andy Hood. Well done sir! I like it when people get involved in the quiz they’re playing.This brought us to the ten minute mark, and St. George’s were in the driving seat, with 45 to 25.
The next starter was one of those – what links – questions, where you have to wait, because you know the easy one is coming. Tom Cappleman waited for – waterfall in Venezuela – then leapt in with Angel. That’s good tactics. Bonuses on botany were not promising, to be honest, but I was pleased that quercus suber came up. The team though didn’t know it was cork. The next starter was another of those – wait for it – questions. We wanted a 500 year old building that had gone through a lot of uses, the latest being a youth hostel to encourage people to stay in it rather than escape – BUZZ! Shashank Shivaji of St. George’s won the buzzer race to answer “Colditz.” Ship’s cats was another interesting series of bonuses, which gave me a full house. St. George’s didn’t have any of them. Tom Cappleman took another starter on marine sponges. A good UC set followed on words which begin with personal pronouns – eg. – the wife of Priam = HE – Hecuba. Lovely set, and New College managed all of them. This was enough to put them just five points behind now. The music starter played us an extract from The Nutcracker – Rebecca Smoker won the buzzer race on that one. Bonuses on ballet scores inspired by fairy tales proved very fruitful as they took a full set. Am I the only person who automatically starts singing “I know you, I waltzed with you once upon a dream” every time I hear that particular excerpt from Sleeping Beauty ? I digress. Alexander Suebsaeng answered on John Snow, the father of epidemiology, who traced an outbreak of cholera to the public water pump in Broad Street. “Bonuses on Mathematics” announced JP, and “I’ll get me coat” announced my brain. St. George’s didn’t add to their score either. Andy Hood knew that the polish pianist Andre Tchaikowsky left his skull to the RSC. Takes all sorts, I suppose. A great set on novels whose titles feature duplicated words followed. I’m sorry to say that the only one I had was “The Sea, The Sea”. New College didn’t get them. Andy Hood knew that new president of the European Central Bank, a very quick buzz. Bonuses on Astronomy caused amusement when India Lenon explained ‘I don’t know the latin for air pump!’ Well, quite. No points on the bonuses, but the starter itself was enough to put them just 15 points behind St. George’s. Andy Hood, playing a real captain’s innings at this stage of the contest supplied the correct answer of confirmation bias for the next starter. No, me neither. The bonuses were on people called Roberts. I was delighted to dredge up vorticism and Antigua for a full set. New College didn’t manage the one bonus they needed to draw level, but were handily placed at the 20 minute mark, 5 points behind St. George’s who led with 95.
The 2nd picture starter showed us the author J.G.Ballard, looking just a little reminiscent of Tony Robinson. Some maths thing followed – and Tom Cappleman had it to earn the photograph bonuses. of writers who declined honours, as did J.G.Ballard. They managed one, and were in the lead. Tom Cappleman knew that one of the three ancient greek divisions of the climate zones of the earth was frigid. Bonuses on the Wars of the Roses brought another ten points, and New College had all the forward momentum now. Shashank Shivaji pulled back the deficit somewhat, knowing that the shortest time between UK general elections in the 20th century occurred in the year 1974. Bonuses on angles sounded hard, but Sam Mindel, when begged by his team, managed the last one. The gap was now back down to 15. Trigonometry provided the next starter. Sam Mindel had a go, but Tom Cappleman had the correct answer. The Lady of the Camelias didn’t provide much joy in the bonuses, but New College managed one. Asked a question about a natural feature on the US – Canadian border, you’re going to be right a lot more often than you’re going to be wrong if you answer “Niagara Falls.” Remi Beecroft won the race for that one. Place names gave nothing away to New College, but they had the lead, they had the momentum, and the clock was running down. I liked the next starter. As well as Bangkok, there are three other world capitals which begin with the letters BAN. Tom Cappleman sat back on his buzzer for half a second to be sure, then buzzed in with Banjul and Bangui. Good answer. he could also have had Bandar Seri Begawan. Modern Irish theatre brought the contest to an end. The final score was 160 to 110, a win for New College. For almost all of the contest it had been extremely close, and this was an absorbing show, albeit that I would imagine that the bonus conversion rates weren’t the highest we’ve seen in the series. Well done New College, through to the semis. Good luck to St. George’s in their final elimination match.
Jeremy Paxman Watch
Well, there was nothing really worth writing about. The nature of the contest was such that JP was absorbed with the task of just keeping the questions flowing. The only thing I noticed was when Andy Hood expelled his Ooohhh of frustration over the digraph, our man smirked and interjected “That’ll teach you!”
Interesting Fact That I Didn’t Already Know Of The Week
’Hefted’ is an adjective applies to sheep who will instinctively return to their own territory, and thus do not need to be fenced in.
Friday, 22 March 2013
Mastermind - Semi Final 5
Let’s have a quick run down of tonight’s runners and riders before we get cracking. Highest rated on my unofficial first round table was Sean Howley, in joint 7th. He scored an impressive 29 in his first round, part of which was a superb 19 on GK. Helen Marshall was next, in joint 13th, but only one point less than Sean. Another point back in joint 16th we had Paul Whittaker. Further down the table were Alcuin Edwards, joint 26th on 25, and Jon Chadwick in 29th on 23. To be honest, Jon and Alcuin looked like outsiders, but in this set of semis anything can happen.
Dark horse Paul Whittaker kicked us off with Birds of Britain. This was a mixed bag of questions. There were a couple of gimmes which I was able to answer, but plenty of difficult ones as well. Paul answered impressively quickly, so much so that even without a perfect round he still put on an impressive 11 points. That’s the kind of performance which will always give you a chance of winning the show.
I can’t say that I am familiar with the work of Takeshi Kitano at all, which is a shame since this was the specialist subject on offer from Jon Chadwick. I do know that a Japanese gangster can be called a yakuza, which brought me my only point in this round, for which I was truly thankful. Jon had done his homework certainly, because you can’t get 8 in a 90 second round unless you know your stuff. Still, he was three points behind, and that looked like a bit of a mountain to climb.
Sean Howley, the ante post favourite, was answering questions on Newcastle United FC. In his first round Sean had scored 10 on his specialist round. Not a bad score for a 2 minute round, but we’d already seen Paul score 11, and he risked leaving himself with a lot to do unless he could proportionately improve in this specialist round. Well, he managed 7, which meant he wasn’t out of it. He’s maybe kicking himself he didn’t get the Paul Gascoigne question, but then that is what the chair can do to you. Frankly, if you only have one of those moments in a round, then you’re doing better than most.
Alcuin Edwards won heat 15 back in November, and I remember noticing that he didn’t answer particularly quickly, although he didn’t make that many mistakes either. In shorter rounds, the chances were that this was going to put him at a little more of a disadvantage. I knew about as much about the Jagiellon dynasty as I did about the work of Takeshi Kitano, so I can’t comment on the level of difficulty of the questions that Alcuin faced. In the end he managed to answer 6 of them, and you couldn’t help thinking that if he had only answered a little more quickly he would have had a couple of points more. I hate seeing people out of the game by half time, but I’m afraid that this was the way it seemed to be for Alcuin.
Helen Marshall had managed a score of 12 in her specialist subject in the first round heat. A similar performance would see her behind Paul in this show. However we got quite a better performance. Helen was answering on the Adam Dalgliesh books of P.D.James. Helen showed a superb recall of details of these books. Of the ones she knew, which was most of them, she didn’t waste a micro second’s pause, and as a result crammed the questions in. She didn’t have them all right, but still posted a highly commendable 11 points of her own. However she also passed once . Would that count against her, I wondered.
In a 2 minute GK round if you can get into the teens then you’re doing pretty well. Alcuin Edwards didn’t quite manage that. As I said earlier, his pace was very measured, and especially in a Mastermind semi that’s a luxury you just can’t afford. Still, his ten was made up of a significant proportion of correct answers, and he can reflect with satisfaction upon having made the semi finals in the first place. Sean Howley had shown himself to be a good quizzer with his 19 on GK in the heat. His round tonight started in a similar style, and you really started to think that he was going to set a total that the others were going to find it difficult to beat. The round slowed down a little in the second minute though. The 12 he posted was a good score, and looked likely to be the best GK round of the night, but it still meant that Paul and Helen only needed 9 to post a higher score. You sensed that this was going to be 2 or 3 short of what would be needed to beat them.
Jon returned to the chair first, though. He’d set a respectable 13 in the heat, but tonight, well tonight you could see that he had one of those rounds where there are a lot of questions where you’re 50/50 about the answers, and you take the wrong option every time. It can happen to anyone, and it’s just hard lines that it happened at the worst possible time. Jon finished on 13. So the dark horse returned to the chair, knowing that 9 would take the lead. Paul never looked 100% at ease during the round, but he kept on picking off what he knew, and often that’s the best way to handle a Mastermind GK round – if you get one wrong don’t dwell on it, because there will be another one along in a minute. 10 points set the bar at 21. That and the two passes that Jon had picked up during the round. Helen set to her task in a purposeful manner, answering as crisply and cleanly as she had during her specialist round. I had her slightly ahead of the clock at the minute mark. The wheels rather came off, though, as the passes began, and the wrong answers. By the buzzer Helen was in sight of the finish line, but not close enough, having added 8 to her total to finish with 19. So very well played Paul, good luck in the final.
The Details
Dark horse Paul Whittaker kicked us off with Birds of Britain. This was a mixed bag of questions. There were a couple of gimmes which I was able to answer, but plenty of difficult ones as well. Paul answered impressively quickly, so much so that even without a perfect round he still put on an impressive 11 points. That’s the kind of performance which will always give you a chance of winning the show.
I can’t say that I am familiar with the work of Takeshi Kitano at all, which is a shame since this was the specialist subject on offer from Jon Chadwick. I do know that a Japanese gangster can be called a yakuza, which brought me my only point in this round, for which I was truly thankful. Jon had done his homework certainly, because you can’t get 8 in a 90 second round unless you know your stuff. Still, he was three points behind, and that looked like a bit of a mountain to climb.
Sean Howley, the ante post favourite, was answering questions on Newcastle United FC. In his first round Sean had scored 10 on his specialist round. Not a bad score for a 2 minute round, but we’d already seen Paul score 11, and he risked leaving himself with a lot to do unless he could proportionately improve in this specialist round. Well, he managed 7, which meant he wasn’t out of it. He’s maybe kicking himself he didn’t get the Paul Gascoigne question, but then that is what the chair can do to you. Frankly, if you only have one of those moments in a round, then you’re doing better than most.
Alcuin Edwards won heat 15 back in November, and I remember noticing that he didn’t answer particularly quickly, although he didn’t make that many mistakes either. In shorter rounds, the chances were that this was going to put him at a little more of a disadvantage. I knew about as much about the Jagiellon dynasty as I did about the work of Takeshi Kitano, so I can’t comment on the level of difficulty of the questions that Alcuin faced. In the end he managed to answer 6 of them, and you couldn’t help thinking that if he had only answered a little more quickly he would have had a couple of points more. I hate seeing people out of the game by half time, but I’m afraid that this was the way it seemed to be for Alcuin.
Helen Marshall had managed a score of 12 in her specialist subject in the first round heat. A similar performance would see her behind Paul in this show. However we got quite a better performance. Helen was answering on the Adam Dalgliesh books of P.D.James. Helen showed a superb recall of details of these books. Of the ones she knew, which was most of them, she didn’t waste a micro second’s pause, and as a result crammed the questions in. She didn’t have them all right, but still posted a highly commendable 11 points of her own. However she also passed once . Would that count against her, I wondered.
In a 2 minute GK round if you can get into the teens then you’re doing pretty well. Alcuin Edwards didn’t quite manage that. As I said earlier, his pace was very measured, and especially in a Mastermind semi that’s a luxury you just can’t afford. Still, his ten was made up of a significant proportion of correct answers, and he can reflect with satisfaction upon having made the semi finals in the first place. Sean Howley had shown himself to be a good quizzer with his 19 on GK in the heat. His round tonight started in a similar style, and you really started to think that he was going to set a total that the others were going to find it difficult to beat. The round slowed down a little in the second minute though. The 12 he posted was a good score, and looked likely to be the best GK round of the night, but it still meant that Paul and Helen only needed 9 to post a higher score. You sensed that this was going to be 2 or 3 short of what would be needed to beat them.
Jon returned to the chair first, though. He’d set a respectable 13 in the heat, but tonight, well tonight you could see that he had one of those rounds where there are a lot of questions where you’re 50/50 about the answers, and you take the wrong option every time. It can happen to anyone, and it’s just hard lines that it happened at the worst possible time. Jon finished on 13. So the dark horse returned to the chair, knowing that 9 would take the lead. Paul never looked 100% at ease during the round, but he kept on picking off what he knew, and often that’s the best way to handle a Mastermind GK round – if you get one wrong don’t dwell on it, because there will be another one along in a minute. 10 points set the bar at 21. That and the two passes that Jon had picked up during the round. Helen set to her task in a purposeful manner, answering as crisply and cleanly as she had during her specialist round. I had her slightly ahead of the clock at the minute mark. The wheels rather came off, though, as the passes began, and the wrong answers. By the buzzer Helen was in sight of the finish line, but not close enough, having added 8 to her total to finish with 19. So very well played Paul, good luck in the final.
The Details
| Paul Whittaker | Birds of Britain | 11 – 0 | 10 - 2 | 21 – 2 |
| Jon Chadwick | Films of Takeshi Kitano | 8- 1 | 5 - 4 | 13 – 5 |
| Sean Howley | Newcastle United FC since 1945 | 7 - 1 | 12 - 1 | 19 - 2 |
| Alcuin Edwards | The Jagiellon Dynasty | 6 - 1 | 10 - 2 | 16 – 3 |
| Helen Marshall | The Adam Dalgleish Novels of P.D.James | 11 - 1 | 8 - 4 | 19 – 5 |
Sunday, 17 March 2013
Demoralizing other teams
I’ve mentioned on a number of occasions that I play for the Llangewydd Arms in the Bridgend Quiz League. I don’t often write about the league in anything more than general terms. This is partly because I don’t want to upset anyone. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed playing in the league this year, and for the past two seasons, and I don’t want to spoil things by writing anything which might possibly be seen as critical of anyone else in any other team, or anyone involved in the league in any way. I’ve thought long and hard before writing this, and I’ve slept on it for two nights, but it’s still nagging away at me, and so here goes. Please accept that I’m not writing this to criticise any individual, or the league itself.
Most Thursdays a League round up report is published in the Bridgend Gem newspaper. I try to read it every week. I won’t lie, I like to see the scores in the other matches and compare them with the score in our matches, and yes, I am egotistical/arrogant/smug ( delete where applicable, or leave them all there if you wish ) enough to be curious about what is being said about our performances, good, bad or indifferent as they may be. This Thursday just gone the report opened with a mention of our match on Monday 4th March, when we scored our biggest win of the season. There’s no need for me to mention who we were playing against, because what concerned me really isn’t about that particular match as such. The report said that our opponents
“ were the unfortunate recipients of a mauling. The score was incidental, 63 to 32. Defeats like this can be very demoralizing.”
Now, it may well be that no criticism of our team was intended, which is fair enough, and maybe I’m being hyper-sensitive, but I can’t help feeling that we’re being got at here. Still, leaving aside the question about whether a potentially critical comment like this should actually be included in a match report in a local newspaper to which we have little right of reply, it does highlight an issue. Both John and I have always said that we love quizzes, we want to play in quizzes, and not destroy them. So if people are saying that players and teams are really being put off by some of our performances ( and I stress some, not all of them – we lost on Monday, for example ) then I can’t just ignore it and dismiss it as being a result of whatever.
When I joined the league in September 2010, I believed that the previous few seasons had been dominated by the Nomads. Again, I may be wrong, but I believe that they won the double of League and Cup several years in a row – apologies if I have this wrong. Now, I don’t know whether their average scores were as high as ours have been this season, but nonetheless, if they did win the double for several years in succession it does reflect a period of domination. So when I was asked to join the LA team, I went in happily, thinking – a) that we’d have a big challenge ahead of us, trying to get close to their level ( which was true ) and – b) that if we did manage to win it would hopefully not put too many people’s backs up because we’d have, if nothing else, at least a certain novelty value.
I would hate any team to be thinking that there’s no point in the League any more, especially if it’s our fault. I do accept that a large defeat like the one quoted in the above article can be demoralizing. So I ask myself – could we perhaps ‘soft pedal’ in such a match? And I’m afraid, the answer I find within myself is, no, I’m afraid I can’t. I’m not answering for my team mates, of course. But for me, I can’t deliberately lose, and I can’t deliberately answer a question wrong. If we lose ( and I do lose on a regular basis in many places ) it’s because another team have played better. I get questions wrong all the time, but not for want of trying. I don’t know, for me it would just seem as if I was patronizing another team if I didn’t try to play my best against them, which to me would be far more of an insult than beating them by a large margin.
There’s no easy answers, of course, and I’m not going to do anything stupid like say here and now – well, that’s it, I’ll just bow out now, despite the fact that this is just one comment, and I love the Monday evenings. The AGM is a week tomorrow, straight after this year’s cup final, and we’ll see what’s said then and there. But if it is the case that we are demoralizing other teams, and if it is the case, then, that this is a threat to the league, then maybe it’s time for someone to fall on his sword . . .
Most Thursdays a League round up report is published in the Bridgend Gem newspaper. I try to read it every week. I won’t lie, I like to see the scores in the other matches and compare them with the score in our matches, and yes, I am egotistical/arrogant/smug ( delete where applicable, or leave them all there if you wish ) enough to be curious about what is being said about our performances, good, bad or indifferent as they may be. This Thursday just gone the report opened with a mention of our match on Monday 4th March, when we scored our biggest win of the season. There’s no need for me to mention who we were playing against, because what concerned me really isn’t about that particular match as such. The report said that our opponents
“ were the unfortunate recipients of a mauling. The score was incidental, 63 to 32. Defeats like this can be very demoralizing.”
Now, it may well be that no criticism of our team was intended, which is fair enough, and maybe I’m being hyper-sensitive, but I can’t help feeling that we’re being got at here. Still, leaving aside the question about whether a potentially critical comment like this should actually be included in a match report in a local newspaper to which we have little right of reply, it does highlight an issue. Both John and I have always said that we love quizzes, we want to play in quizzes, and not destroy them. So if people are saying that players and teams are really being put off by some of our performances ( and I stress some, not all of them – we lost on Monday, for example ) then I can’t just ignore it and dismiss it as being a result of whatever.
When I joined the league in September 2010, I believed that the previous few seasons had been dominated by the Nomads. Again, I may be wrong, but I believe that they won the double of League and Cup several years in a row – apologies if I have this wrong. Now, I don’t know whether their average scores were as high as ours have been this season, but nonetheless, if they did win the double for several years in succession it does reflect a period of domination. So when I was asked to join the LA team, I went in happily, thinking – a) that we’d have a big challenge ahead of us, trying to get close to their level ( which was true ) and – b) that if we did manage to win it would hopefully not put too many people’s backs up because we’d have, if nothing else, at least a certain novelty value.
I would hate any team to be thinking that there’s no point in the League any more, especially if it’s our fault. I do accept that a large defeat like the one quoted in the above article can be demoralizing. So I ask myself – could we perhaps ‘soft pedal’ in such a match? And I’m afraid, the answer I find within myself is, no, I’m afraid I can’t. I’m not answering for my team mates, of course. But for me, I can’t deliberately lose, and I can’t deliberately answer a question wrong. If we lose ( and I do lose on a regular basis in many places ) it’s because another team have played better. I get questions wrong all the time, but not for want of trying. I don’t know, for me it would just seem as if I was patronizing another team if I didn’t try to play my best against them, which to me would be far more of an insult than beating them by a large margin.
There’s no easy answers, of course, and I’m not going to do anything stupid like say here and now – well, that’s it, I’ll just bow out now, despite the fact that this is just one comment, and I love the Monday evenings. The AGM is a week tomorrow, straight after this year’s cup final, and we’ll see what’s said then and there. But if it is the case that we are demoralizing other teams, and if it is the case, then, that this is a threat to the league, then maybe it’s time for someone to fall on his sword . . .
Saturday, 16 March 2013
In the News
In the News
Who or what are the following , and why have they been in the news?
1. When you really love someone
2. Brian McDermott
3. Hurricane Fly
4. Paul Marshallsea
5. Jorge Mario Bergoglio ( as if you didn’t know!)
6. Paul Arthurs
7. Danny Nightingale
8. Peter Banks
9. John Catt
10. Amalia Damonte
11. J.T.Mcnamara
12. Alasdair Smith
13. Panstarrs
14. Xi Jinping
15. Dr. Davinder Bains
16. Eric Joyce
17. Richard Wallace
18. Kevin McGeever
19. Bobs worth
In Other News
1. Where have Charles and Camilla been visiting this week
2. Which writer revealed that he was interfered with as a child?
3. What sentences were given to Chris Huhne and Vicky Pryce?
4. Which sports commentator passed away ?
5. How many Falkland Islanders voted against staying part of Britain?
6. What was the top visitor attraction in the UK in 2012?
7. Who was awarded Laureus sportswoman of the year ?
8. Who received the Laureus lifetime achievement in Sport award?
9. Which jockey rode the champion hurdle winner in Cheltenham?
10. Who has become the oldest woman ever to grace the cover of Vogue?
11. Who was initially prevented from entering the Royal Enclosure at Cheltenham?
12. How many cardinals voted in the conclave to elect a new pope?
13. Who regained his British boxing license?
14. By which score did Barcelona defeat AC Milan?
15. Who announced her first UK tour since 1978?
16. What is the papal name of the new pope?
17. The new pope was formerly the bishop of which diocese?
18. Which new literary prize to rival the Booker was launched last week?
19. What was the score in the Millwall v. Blackburn FA Cup replay?
20. What was the score between Arsenal and Bayern Munich?
21. Which premier league footballer has been charged with dr4iving while disqualified?
22. Which former DJ was arrested again last week?
23. Which competition was won by the England women’s Football team?
24. On the annual Forbes List, who is the world’s most influential celebrity?
25. What was the score between Spurs and Inter Milan?
26. What was the score between Newcastle and Anzhi Makhachala?
27. – and between Chelsea and Steau Bucharest?
28. Which former nightclub and TV stand up comic passed away aged 88?
29. Which jockey rode the winner of the Cheltenham Gold Cup?
30. – and who trained the horse?
Who or what are the following , and why have they been in the news?
1. When you really love someone
2. Brian McDermott
3. Hurricane Fly
4. Paul Marshallsea
5. Jorge Mario Bergoglio ( as if you didn’t know!)
6. Paul Arthurs
7. Danny Nightingale
8. Peter Banks
9. John Catt
10. Amalia Damonte
11. J.T.Mcnamara
12. Alasdair Smith
13. Panstarrs
14. Xi Jinping
15. Dr. Davinder Bains
16. Eric Joyce
17. Richard Wallace
18. Kevin McGeever
19. Bobs worth
In Other News
1. Where have Charles and Camilla been visiting this week
2. Which writer revealed that he was interfered with as a child?
3. What sentences were given to Chris Huhne and Vicky Pryce?
4. Which sports commentator passed away ?
5. How many Falkland Islanders voted against staying part of Britain?
6. What was the top visitor attraction in the UK in 2012?
7. Who was awarded Laureus sportswoman of the year ?
8. Who received the Laureus lifetime achievement in Sport award?
9. Which jockey rode the champion hurdle winner in Cheltenham?
10. Who has become the oldest woman ever to grace the cover of Vogue?
11. Who was initially prevented from entering the Royal Enclosure at Cheltenham?
12. How many cardinals voted in the conclave to elect a new pope?
13. Who regained his British boxing license?
14. By which score did Barcelona defeat AC Milan?
15. Who announced her first UK tour since 1978?
16. What is the papal name of the new pope?
17. The new pope was formerly the bishop of which diocese?
18. Which new literary prize to rival the Booker was launched last week?
19. What was the score in the Millwall v. Blackburn FA Cup replay?
20. What was the score between Arsenal and Bayern Munich?
21. Which premier league footballer has been charged with dr4iving while disqualified?
22. Which former DJ was arrested again last week?
23. Which competition was won by the England women’s Football team?
24. On the annual Forbes List, who is the world’s most influential celebrity?
25. What was the score between Spurs and Inter Milan?
26. What was the score between Newcastle and Anzhi Makhachala?
27. – and between Chelsea and Steau Bucharest?
28. Which former nightclub and TV stand up comic passed away aged 88?
29. Which jockey rode the winner of the Cheltenham Gold Cup?
30. – and who trained the horse?
Brain of Britain - Grand Final Preview
Let’s have a look at the relative performances of our finalists. Here’s my unofficial table: -
Amongst some quiz cognoscenti it always looked as if this year’s series was going to boil down to a Barry v. David showdown. I always thought that this was a little simplistic. For one thing, it ignored the fact that both players – well, all 4 of them – have had to play very well in both rounds to get to the grand final in the first place. It also ignores the quirky nature of BoB, and the uneven level of the questions. The mechanics of the show are such that there might only be 7 or 8 questions you can’t answer in the whole quiz. Yet if those happen to be the first questions you get each round, then you’re going to struggle. So nothing is by any means a foregone conclusion.
Having said all of that though I do think that a win for Darren or Jenny would be a bit of a surprise. I foresee the big two slugging it out, with speed on the buzzer for bonuses maybe deciding the outcome. When Barry played in the final of Geoff’s series I thought that he was very unlucky with the way that the questions fell for him. So who knows, maybe the questions will fall better this year. On the other hand David has looked extremely impressive in both of his appearences, and scored highest in both first round and the semifinals. They’re both friends, so I just can’t bring myself to bring down the curse of the sofa upon their heads by tipping either for the win. One prediction I will make though is that it should be a great show – and we can only hope that controversial adjudications don’t play any part in it.
| Name | Round One | Round Two |
| Darren Martin | 14 | 14 |
| Barry Simmons | 17 | 18 |
| David Stainer | 26 | 21 |
| Jenny Dunn | 17 | 13 |
Amongst some quiz cognoscenti it always looked as if this year’s series was going to boil down to a Barry v. David showdown. I always thought that this was a little simplistic. For one thing, it ignored the fact that both players – well, all 4 of them – have had to play very well in both rounds to get to the grand final in the first place. It also ignores the quirky nature of BoB, and the uneven level of the questions. The mechanics of the show are such that there might only be 7 or 8 questions you can’t answer in the whole quiz. Yet if those happen to be the first questions you get each round, then you’re going to struggle. So nothing is by any means a foregone conclusion.
Having said all of that though I do think that a win for Darren or Jenny would be a bit of a surprise. I foresee the big two slugging it out, with speed on the buzzer for bonuses maybe deciding the outcome. When Barry played in the final of Geoff’s series I thought that he was very unlucky with the way that the questions fell for him. So who knows, maybe the questions will fall better this year. On the other hand David has looked extremely impressive in both of his appearences, and scored highest in both first round and the semifinals. They’re both friends, so I just can’t bring myself to bring down the curse of the sofa upon their heads by tipping either for the win. One prediction I will make though is that it should be a great show – and we can only hope that controversial adjudications don’t play any part in it.
University Challenge - Quarter Final Match 6
Elimination Match - Imperial v. Bangor
It’s serious now. In this match both Imperial and Bangor knew that which ever team lost would be out of the competition. The Imperial team of Pietro Aronica, Dominic Cottrell, Henry Guille and captain Martin Evans had looked very good in their first and second round matches, but they outbuzzed by Manchester in their first quarter final. In their first quarter final match the Bangor team of Adam Pearce, Mark Stevens, Simon Tomlinson, and captain Nina Grant led by 70 points at one stage over the powerhouse UCL outfit, only to see them come back to win by 75 points in a virtual second half shutout.
First blood fell to Mark Stevens of Bangor, who knew that the unrest in Tiananmen Square occurred in 1989. This brought up bonuses on Geography, and Bangor took 2 of them. Simon Tomlinson knew that the word – stone – links both the oldest national park in the USA, and the Peak District. Bonuses on literature provided as full set, and Bangor had made a very good start. Martin Evans knew that there are 26 traditional counties of Ireland. So Imperial earned their first set of bonuses, and these were on mathematics. They were all about sets, and pretty difficult I’d say since Imperial only managed one. Martin Evans took his second starter with the scientist Maxwell. This time their bonuses were on South American history. Imperial managed 1, but could have had 2. More about that later. The picture starter showed a map highlighting the biggest exporting countries of a commodity. Martin Evans knew the commodity was bananas. More of the same – only with different fruits – followed. Name that Fruit – I knew it would make its way onto our screens one way. Imperial managed one bonus. The next starter gave a list of different literary genres, and our own Adam Pearce knew that these were used by hardy to classify his own works. Prevented him getting himself into another fine mess, I suppose. Pairs of word bonuses – eg llan and llano – gave Bangor a full set. They now led by 70 to 45. You might remember in their first quarter final they absolutely stormed through the first 10 minutes, but were hauled in and overtaken. So cool heads, and a consistent level of performance were required. Even so, they were in the driving seat at this stage.
Neither team was familiar with a website about places of worship in Norfolk and Suffolk. The next starter gave a mathematical problem about weighing a banker in gold. Nobody had it anyway. Synthetic languages gave the highly impressive Martin Evans a way back into the contest. The bonuses on acting studios were all gettable, but only 2 of them were taken. Still, it was all square now. Henry Guille buzzed too early on wrought iron for the next starter, but Bangor didn’t capitalize. Mark Stevens won the buzzer race to identify the first speaker of the House of Commons. Nordic cuisine gave them one bonus. This led us to the music starter, on a form of Jazz. Adam buzzed early with 12 bar blues, but sadly not correctly. Henry Guille took it with the answer ‘swing’. For the bonuses another three types of jazz were given, and all Imperial had to do was to identify the form. They had the same one that I had, jazz funk. Neither team knew the acronym CIVETS. Dominic Cottrell gave his team the lead by recognizing the motto of the Royal Society. Names of important minerals were rather unforgiving, and I thought they did well to get one of them. Adam Pearce knew that a series of definitions all led to words beginning with FEM. Sculptures on memorials enabled Bangor to take 2 bonuses, and the lead. This was turning out to be a very good contest, and at just under the twenty minute mark it was becoming fairly clear that whichever team kept their nerve, and showed daring on the buzzer could take this , and put one foot into the semis.
A thing about vectors and axes followed, and nobody did any better with it than I did. Adam knew that Vangelis was in Aphrodite’s Child. A single bonus on astronomy increased their lead slightly, but not enough to enable anyone to relax yet. A picture of Catherine de Medici defeated both teams. I knew that a phoneme is the smallest unit of sound, and so did Simon Tomlinson. The picture bonuses on more French consorts followed, and Bangor did rather well, taking 2. The gap was looking useful, when the moment of truth came. Asked who made a particular quote, Henry Guille recognized it at once, and said “Niccolo de Medici . . . NO !” as he realized what he’d done. Of course he KNEW it was Niccolo Machiavelli, but it just came out wrongly. It can happen when you’re under pressure, but to add insult to injury it probably gave Nina Grant the correct answer. Bonuses on literature compounded the problem for Imperial as Bangor took a full set. A great starter followed, which showed us that Warsaw is alphabetically the last capital in the EU. Nobody had it. Dominic Cottrell recognized a list of antibiotics. The gap was not so wide that Imperial couldn’t bridge it, but they needed a full set of bonuses really at this stage. The set was a UC special asking for shorter words which can be formed from any of the letters of the word empire. Surprisingly they didn’t get – pire – meaning worse in French. Nobody knew that Victor Hugo and others were all born in Besançon. Nobody knew that Browning wrote “God’s in his heaven – all’s right with the world. Simon Tomlinson knew that Chemnitz was formerly called KarlMarxstadt. Things linked by the name Lot gave them two bonuses, and they were looking like winners. Simon Tomlinson made things safe for Bangor when he won the race to complete the quote from the sublime to the ridiculous. Bonuses on prefixes added further gilding. Adam Pearce won the buzzer race for the next starter, knowing that the extinct aurochs is the ancestor of domestic cattle. The team didn’t get a lot of change out of the set of bonuses on architecture, but the contest was already won. Dominic Cottrell knew that the Globe theatre flew different coloured flags denoting what sort of play was to be performed. Science bonuses only gave Imperial enough time to add one bonus. Bangor ran out winners by 210 to 120.
Well played to both teams. It was an absorbing contest, and either team could have won up to the last three minutes or so, when Bangor’s tremendous finishing spurt pushed them over the line. Best of luck in your qualification/elimination match.
Jeremy Paxman Watch
He began quite early in this show. When the first set of bonuses asked for the English translation of a French term, and Nina Grant answered it he narrowed his eyes and said “Yes, you’re studying French aren’t you?” making it sound for all the world as if he was accusing her of some vaguely unsavoury practice.
On the last South American History bonus, when Imperial answered Bolivia he replied in his best “This hurts me more than it hurts you “ voice “I’m sorry, I’m going to have to accept your FIRST answer, I asked for the CAPITAL- “ and proceeded to give them a little bit of a wigging.
A nice dig at bankers occurred when the two teams estimated the hypothetical banker’s weight in gold as £30,000, and £300,000. JP supplied the correct answer of £3 million, adding “He wouldn’t get out of bed for 30,000 or 300,000! “
I did think he was going to give us a choice retort when Nina Grant offered Yeats – pronouncing it Yeets. JP hates it when you don’t pronounce anything to do with English Literature correctly. “It’s pronounced Yates” he snapped back.
Interesting Fact That I Didn’t Already Know Of The Week
CIVETS is an acronym used in financial terms for the emerging markets including Colombia Indonesia, Vietnam , Egypt Turkey and South Africa
It’s serious now. In this match both Imperial and Bangor knew that which ever team lost would be out of the competition. The Imperial team of Pietro Aronica, Dominic Cottrell, Henry Guille and captain Martin Evans had looked very good in their first and second round matches, but they outbuzzed by Manchester in their first quarter final. In their first quarter final match the Bangor team of Adam Pearce, Mark Stevens, Simon Tomlinson, and captain Nina Grant led by 70 points at one stage over the powerhouse UCL outfit, only to see them come back to win by 75 points in a virtual second half shutout.
First blood fell to Mark Stevens of Bangor, who knew that the unrest in Tiananmen Square occurred in 1989. This brought up bonuses on Geography, and Bangor took 2 of them. Simon Tomlinson knew that the word – stone – links both the oldest national park in the USA, and the Peak District. Bonuses on literature provided as full set, and Bangor had made a very good start. Martin Evans knew that there are 26 traditional counties of Ireland. So Imperial earned their first set of bonuses, and these were on mathematics. They were all about sets, and pretty difficult I’d say since Imperial only managed one. Martin Evans took his second starter with the scientist Maxwell. This time their bonuses were on South American history. Imperial managed 1, but could have had 2. More about that later. The picture starter showed a map highlighting the biggest exporting countries of a commodity. Martin Evans knew the commodity was bananas. More of the same – only with different fruits – followed. Name that Fruit – I knew it would make its way onto our screens one way. Imperial managed one bonus. The next starter gave a list of different literary genres, and our own Adam Pearce knew that these were used by hardy to classify his own works. Prevented him getting himself into another fine mess, I suppose. Pairs of word bonuses – eg llan and llano – gave Bangor a full set. They now led by 70 to 45. You might remember in their first quarter final they absolutely stormed through the first 10 minutes, but were hauled in and overtaken. So cool heads, and a consistent level of performance were required. Even so, they were in the driving seat at this stage.
Neither team was familiar with a website about places of worship in Norfolk and Suffolk. The next starter gave a mathematical problem about weighing a banker in gold. Nobody had it anyway. Synthetic languages gave the highly impressive Martin Evans a way back into the contest. The bonuses on acting studios were all gettable, but only 2 of them were taken. Still, it was all square now. Henry Guille buzzed too early on wrought iron for the next starter, but Bangor didn’t capitalize. Mark Stevens won the buzzer race to identify the first speaker of the House of Commons. Nordic cuisine gave them one bonus. This led us to the music starter, on a form of Jazz. Adam buzzed early with 12 bar blues, but sadly not correctly. Henry Guille took it with the answer ‘swing’. For the bonuses another three types of jazz were given, and all Imperial had to do was to identify the form. They had the same one that I had, jazz funk. Neither team knew the acronym CIVETS. Dominic Cottrell gave his team the lead by recognizing the motto of the Royal Society. Names of important minerals were rather unforgiving, and I thought they did well to get one of them. Adam Pearce knew that a series of definitions all led to words beginning with FEM. Sculptures on memorials enabled Bangor to take 2 bonuses, and the lead. This was turning out to be a very good contest, and at just under the twenty minute mark it was becoming fairly clear that whichever team kept their nerve, and showed daring on the buzzer could take this , and put one foot into the semis.
A thing about vectors and axes followed, and nobody did any better with it than I did. Adam knew that Vangelis was in Aphrodite’s Child. A single bonus on astronomy increased their lead slightly, but not enough to enable anyone to relax yet. A picture of Catherine de Medici defeated both teams. I knew that a phoneme is the smallest unit of sound, and so did Simon Tomlinson. The picture bonuses on more French consorts followed, and Bangor did rather well, taking 2. The gap was looking useful, when the moment of truth came. Asked who made a particular quote, Henry Guille recognized it at once, and said “Niccolo de Medici . . . NO !” as he realized what he’d done. Of course he KNEW it was Niccolo Machiavelli, but it just came out wrongly. It can happen when you’re under pressure, but to add insult to injury it probably gave Nina Grant the correct answer. Bonuses on literature compounded the problem for Imperial as Bangor took a full set. A great starter followed, which showed us that Warsaw is alphabetically the last capital in the EU. Nobody had it. Dominic Cottrell recognized a list of antibiotics. The gap was not so wide that Imperial couldn’t bridge it, but they needed a full set of bonuses really at this stage. The set was a UC special asking for shorter words which can be formed from any of the letters of the word empire. Surprisingly they didn’t get – pire – meaning worse in French. Nobody knew that Victor Hugo and others were all born in Besançon. Nobody knew that Browning wrote “God’s in his heaven – all’s right with the world. Simon Tomlinson knew that Chemnitz was formerly called KarlMarxstadt. Things linked by the name Lot gave them two bonuses, and they were looking like winners. Simon Tomlinson made things safe for Bangor when he won the race to complete the quote from the sublime to the ridiculous. Bonuses on prefixes added further gilding. Adam Pearce won the buzzer race for the next starter, knowing that the extinct aurochs is the ancestor of domestic cattle. The team didn’t get a lot of change out of the set of bonuses on architecture, but the contest was already won. Dominic Cottrell knew that the Globe theatre flew different coloured flags denoting what sort of play was to be performed. Science bonuses only gave Imperial enough time to add one bonus. Bangor ran out winners by 210 to 120.
Well played to both teams. It was an absorbing contest, and either team could have won up to the last three minutes or so, when Bangor’s tremendous finishing spurt pushed them over the line. Best of luck in your qualification/elimination match.
Jeremy Paxman Watch
He began quite early in this show. When the first set of bonuses asked for the English translation of a French term, and Nina Grant answered it he narrowed his eyes and said “Yes, you’re studying French aren’t you?” making it sound for all the world as if he was accusing her of some vaguely unsavoury practice.
On the last South American History bonus, when Imperial answered Bolivia he replied in his best “This hurts me more than it hurts you “ voice “I’m sorry, I’m going to have to accept your FIRST answer, I asked for the CAPITAL- “ and proceeded to give them a little bit of a wigging.
A nice dig at bankers occurred when the two teams estimated the hypothetical banker’s weight in gold as £30,000, and £300,000. JP supplied the correct answer of £3 million, adding “He wouldn’t get out of bed for 30,000 or 300,000! “
I did think he was going to give us a choice retort when Nina Grant offered Yeats – pronouncing it Yeets. JP hates it when you don’t pronounce anything to do with English Literature correctly. “It’s pronounced Yates” he snapped back.
Interesting Fact That I Didn’t Already Know Of The Week
CIVETS is an acronym used in financial terms for the emerging markets including Colombia Indonesia, Vietnam , Egypt Turkey and South Africa
Friday, 15 March 2013
Mastermind - Semi Final 4
There was stiff competition for Mastermind tonight in the shape of Comic Relief. Still, being a fan of Mastermind is not a fairweather thing, and so I left the rest of the family watching the telethon downstairs, and I retired with the laptop to watch on the iplayer.
I enjoyed Christine Plume’s round on David Niven. I loved Niven’s books, and this alone was enough to bring me half a dozen points. I’ll be honest, I thought Christine was right when she said that Niven’s first words on screen were ‘ Alright, I’ll go. “ but I bow to the superior knowledge of the setters. Christine outscored me by one, taking 7. A fair return for a 90 second round but not, I am afraid, one which would give her a realistic shout of getting a place in the final.
It seems like a very long time since we saw Shahab Mossavat’s specialist round on Terry Venables. It is a long time ago. Tonight he offered a real contrast , so much so that John felt compelled to make a comment to this effect as Shahab announced his specialist subject of King Edward III. I struggled to make much headway with this set, managing a less than impressive 4. Shahab, though, posted a highly competitive 9 and no passes.
Now, when Mark Skinner announced that his specialist round tonight was going to be on the Pixies, I did a little bit of a double take until I realized that he was talking about a band with whose work I am unfortunately unfamiliar. I thus posted a big fat zero myself. Mark, who incidentally had managed a score of 13 in the heats on his specialist round of Tintin pulled a very good round of 12 out of the bag. That’s equivalent to 16 or 17 in a 2 minute round – very good quizzing indeed. One pass hardly looked all that damaging either, at this stage.
Many people would never dream of trying mastermind in their own language. This makes Didier Bruyère’s win in the first round all the more remarkable considering that English isn’t his first language. Back in the mists of time he won his heat on the Curies. Tonight his specialist subject was The Life of Giuseppe Garibaldi. Ah, I feel a song coming on –
“Revolutionary biscuits of Italy
Rise up out of your box
You have nothing to lose but your wafers
Yum yum yum yum yum”
If that means nothing to you, then do yourself a favour. Rent a DVD of the Young Ones and watch the University Challenge episode, it’s just one of the delights of that particular show. Still, back to the round. Didier’s GK is excellent, so he could afford to be a little behind, but ideally would want to get as close to Mark’s score as possible. 9 and no passes left him with a bit of work to do, but not out of it by any means.
The Flashman Novels have been featured as specialist rounds on several occasions, in fact the great Chris Hughes once took them on, and the latest to do so was Chris Cann . He looked somewhat askance when his second answer was ruled wrong, but recovered rather well. As had Didier he scored 9 and no passes. It was shaping up to be another tight show.
Christine had the dubious honour of kicking off the GK round. As it was she did rather well, too, really only with the last 15 seconds of the round letting her down when she looked set for the early teens. The 11 that she did score was enough to push her score to 18, which looked a few short of being enough to put the others into difficulty, but then surprises can happen sometimes. Shahab’s round was certainly a bit of a surprise. He picked up 4 points fairly quickly, but then they started to dry up. He had obviously made up his mind to answer everything and not to pass – a sensible tactic that if you can do it, but the trouble was that other right answers just wouldn’t come. He leveled out at 14 points overall, and that’s where he stayed until the end of the round.
As I said before, Didier Bruyère is a fine quizzer, and has an excellent general knowledge, and so I expected him to go into the lead. It has to be said, though, that he found this round rather more tricky than his GK round from the heats. He’s an old hand, though, and kept his head even when the fifty fifty guesses weren’t coming good for him. So much so that he managed to add 10 points and no passes to his score to take the lead with 19. It looked, though, a rather precarious lead, and I have to say that I didn’t think his prospects of making the final were all that great at this stage.
I didn’t think that Chris Cann was the more likely of the two remaining contenders to overhaul his score, though. He kept the answers coming, but not enough correct ones to bring him more than 16 points. As a side note, it didn’t make any difference to the outcome of the show, but I am almost certain that Chris answered “Moss Hart” when asked for Richard Rodgers lyricist collaborator. Well, I’m sorry but Moss Hart was a critic and playwright, and NOT the same person as Lorenz Hart, who was the lyricist. Chris was given the point. I’m just a little surprised that this was not reshot and edited out.
Only Mark Skinner remained, then. He answered his first 3 correctly, and only needed another 5 to take the place in the final as of right. The points, although they didn’t dry up completely, proved hard to get from this point onwards. By the buzzer he wouldn’t have known how close he had come until John announced that he’d scored another 7 points to take his total to 19. You could tell by his face that he knew the passes he had accrued were going to tell against him and he was right. He’d only accrued 3, but Didier hadn’t any, making him the winner, and bringing him the place in the final. Hard lines, but well played, and especially well played Didier. Bonne chance !
The Details
I enjoyed Christine Plume’s round on David Niven. I loved Niven’s books, and this alone was enough to bring me half a dozen points. I’ll be honest, I thought Christine was right when she said that Niven’s first words on screen were ‘ Alright, I’ll go. “ but I bow to the superior knowledge of the setters. Christine outscored me by one, taking 7. A fair return for a 90 second round but not, I am afraid, one which would give her a realistic shout of getting a place in the final.
It seems like a very long time since we saw Shahab Mossavat’s specialist round on Terry Venables. It is a long time ago. Tonight he offered a real contrast , so much so that John felt compelled to make a comment to this effect as Shahab announced his specialist subject of King Edward III. I struggled to make much headway with this set, managing a less than impressive 4. Shahab, though, posted a highly competitive 9 and no passes.
Now, when Mark Skinner announced that his specialist round tonight was going to be on the Pixies, I did a little bit of a double take until I realized that he was talking about a band with whose work I am unfortunately unfamiliar. I thus posted a big fat zero myself. Mark, who incidentally had managed a score of 13 in the heats on his specialist round of Tintin pulled a very good round of 12 out of the bag. That’s equivalent to 16 or 17 in a 2 minute round – very good quizzing indeed. One pass hardly looked all that damaging either, at this stage.
Many people would never dream of trying mastermind in their own language. This makes Didier Bruyère’s win in the first round all the more remarkable considering that English isn’t his first language. Back in the mists of time he won his heat on the Curies. Tonight his specialist subject was The Life of Giuseppe Garibaldi. Ah, I feel a song coming on –
“Revolutionary biscuits of Italy
Rise up out of your box
You have nothing to lose but your wafers
Yum yum yum yum yum”
If that means nothing to you, then do yourself a favour. Rent a DVD of the Young Ones and watch the University Challenge episode, it’s just one of the delights of that particular show. Still, back to the round. Didier’s GK is excellent, so he could afford to be a little behind, but ideally would want to get as close to Mark’s score as possible. 9 and no passes left him with a bit of work to do, but not out of it by any means.
The Flashman Novels have been featured as specialist rounds on several occasions, in fact the great Chris Hughes once took them on, and the latest to do so was Chris Cann . He looked somewhat askance when his second answer was ruled wrong, but recovered rather well. As had Didier he scored 9 and no passes. It was shaping up to be another tight show.
Christine had the dubious honour of kicking off the GK round. As it was she did rather well, too, really only with the last 15 seconds of the round letting her down when she looked set for the early teens. The 11 that she did score was enough to push her score to 18, which looked a few short of being enough to put the others into difficulty, but then surprises can happen sometimes. Shahab’s round was certainly a bit of a surprise. He picked up 4 points fairly quickly, but then they started to dry up. He had obviously made up his mind to answer everything and not to pass – a sensible tactic that if you can do it, but the trouble was that other right answers just wouldn’t come. He leveled out at 14 points overall, and that’s where he stayed until the end of the round.
As I said before, Didier Bruyère is a fine quizzer, and has an excellent general knowledge, and so I expected him to go into the lead. It has to be said, though, that he found this round rather more tricky than his GK round from the heats. He’s an old hand, though, and kept his head even when the fifty fifty guesses weren’t coming good for him. So much so that he managed to add 10 points and no passes to his score to take the lead with 19. It looked, though, a rather precarious lead, and I have to say that I didn’t think his prospects of making the final were all that great at this stage.
I didn’t think that Chris Cann was the more likely of the two remaining contenders to overhaul his score, though. He kept the answers coming, but not enough correct ones to bring him more than 16 points. As a side note, it didn’t make any difference to the outcome of the show, but I am almost certain that Chris answered “Moss Hart” when asked for Richard Rodgers lyricist collaborator. Well, I’m sorry but Moss Hart was a critic and playwright, and NOT the same person as Lorenz Hart, who was the lyricist. Chris was given the point. I’m just a little surprised that this was not reshot and edited out.
Only Mark Skinner remained, then. He answered his first 3 correctly, and only needed another 5 to take the place in the final as of right. The points, although they didn’t dry up completely, proved hard to get from this point onwards. By the buzzer he wouldn’t have known how close he had come until John announced that he’d scored another 7 points to take his total to 19. You could tell by his face that he knew the passes he had accrued were going to tell against him and he was right. He’d only accrued 3, but Didier hadn’t any, making him the winner, and bringing him the place in the final. Hard lines, but well played, and especially well played Didier. Bonne chance !
The Details
| Christine Plume | The Life and Films of David Niven | 7 – 1 | 11 - 2 | 18 – 3 |
| Shahab Mossavat | Edward III | 9 – 0 | 5 – 0 | 14 – 0 |
| Mark Skinner | The Pixies | 12 - 1 | 7 - 2 | 19 – 3 |
| Didier Bruyère | The Life of Giuseppe Garibaldi | 9 – 0 | 10 - 0 | 19 – 0 |
| Chris Cann | The Flashman Novels of George Macdonald Fraser | 9 - 0 | 7 - 1 | 16 – 1 |
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