The Science Editors v. The Press Gang
The Press Gang, Emily Phillips, Richard Colfer, and Robin Seavill, looked good value for money losing to the Bakers by 24 – 22 in their first round match. In this second show they were fighting for survival against the Science Editors, Andrew Cosgrove, Shreeya Nanda, and captain Kester Jarvis, who lost 28 – 10 to the Oenophiles. Well, that’s a quite heavy defeat, but on the other hand they were playing against a team widely reckoned to be the strongest in this year’s competition. Captain kester announced a change of tactics for the show – picking the right heiroglyphs. Worth a try.
Round One – What’s the Connection?
The Eds won the toss and chose Lion, for the music set. They needed all 4 tunes, but couldn’t get it any more than I could. The Gang went with Dickens characters, but were led up the garden path. The titles were pause – play – rewind and st0op. Now that’s a good set – and I didn’t have a Scooby. The first set for the Gang were the dreaded cookery category. Frozen Mashed potato – Omelette Pans – Vegetable Bouillon Powder and Cranberries foxed them as much as they foxed me and the Eds. The connection is that they have all been boosted by the Delia Effect – yep, if our Delia uses you in a recipe, you’ve cracked it. Two Reeds gave the Eds pictures of Sausages – One Man Mowing ( I had it here ) – a monkey jumping on the bed, and one green bottle. They knew that these were counting songs, even though Victoria made them work for their point. Twisted Flax gave the Gang 1992 – Merry Christmas, 1897 Are You ready ? – and here my guess would have been right – 1944 – What Hath God Wrought and 2oor – just setting up my twittr. This was easy enough to work out, but not to explain, but eventually the Gang had first communications on different media. 1 point. The Eds took water, and I’m sorry but I am sure that I would have had a 5 pointer in the studio. Given P _ _ _ THER – I said – they are all creatures with the words for other creatures missing from the names. I am sure that the Eds had it early too, but they took CRO _ _ _ DILE and WILDE _ _ _ ST to be sure. The Gang finished with the viper, and Winona Ryder – Dame Nellie Melba – Flo Rida – and here I had it – and - Florence Nightingale which confirmed that these people were all named after the place where they were born. So the score then was 3 – 2 to the Eds.
Round Two – What Comes Fourth?
The Eds began with 4th: Chris Chattaway. This time I wasn’t that sure I would have gone for it in the studio – oh, who am I kidding, I would have done. I reckoned these were people who broke the 4 minute mile, and so 1: (Sir) Roger Bannister would be the answer. The Eds took 3rd: Laslo Tabori and 2nd: John Landy before they answered, but it went for a bonus to the Gang. Lion gave pictures to the Gang, and we saw Monica Lweinsky – Erica Roe – and Rita Hayworth. Robin called for a 4th – don’t blame him. They ran out of time. The Eds didn’t know it either. It’s actually a good set – a little bit of Monica – etc. – they were successive girl’s names in Mambo number 5 – and the next would be Tina. Twisted Flax was gettable. Australian Table -= 20 – Table = 15 – Dessert = 10 begged the answer Tea = 5, which is what the Eds supplied, knowing these are spoon sizes. Eye of Horus brought the Gang Millie Bush – Buddy Clinton. Now, I knew these were presidential pets, and I knew that Barack Obama has a Portuguese water dog. But I don’t know it’s name! Well, I didn’t. Neither did the teams. It’s Bo Obama. Two Reeds gave the eds 4th A Feast for Crows – 3rd – A Storm of Swords. Now I didn’t have it, but then I’ve never read the A Game Of Thrones books, but someone on the Eds has, since they had it on two. Only the viper remained for the Gang. They had Galactic Centre – Sun – Earth. I’ll be honest the answer is more clever than it looks. Neither team had the moon – each one orbits the previous. Clever set. At the end of the round the Gang had 3, but the eds had stretched the gap, with 8.
Round Three – The Connecting Walls
After a moment or two the Gang resolved a line of types of cricket – T20 – French – Test – Kwik, They followed this with a set of screen horses – Silver – Topper – Trigger – Champion. They wasted little time in sorting out the next two lines. With Havoc – Les Miserables – Bride Wars and One Day – they knew they had a set of Anne Hathaway films. This left First class – A-1 – Copacetic and Boffo, which are all terms for something excellent. 10 points, and well they needed them too.
Working on the water wall it took the Eds a while to find Wallace and Gromit characters – Feathers McGraw – Wendolene – Gromit and Shaun. They quickly worked out a set of words which can be preceded by dead – bolt – reckoning – shot and heat. The three strikes and you’re out rule froze them out after three more attempts. When the lines were resolved they saw that Burrell – Wallace – Peggy Guggenheim and Frick were all galleries. This left Powell – Lewis – Greene and Bailey. Lenient Victoria allowed sprinters, but strictly speaking they were all 100m world record holders. Asafa Powell never won the Olympics. 6 points then meant that they still led, but by 1 point, 14 to 13.
Round Four – The Missing Vowels
Either team could win. The first set – cleaning products went 3 – 1 to the Eds. The gap was 3 points. Sight impediments fell 2 – 1 to the Eds, but they lost a point on hypermetropia. The gap remained at 3. US Sitcoms and their settings saw the jittery Eds lose 2 points and pick up one, while the Gang picked up 2. Which the mathematically gifted among us will work out to jmean that we had that rara avis, a tie. You know the rules for this. One more phrase, no clues as to the category. Only captains can answer. Get it right on the buzz and you win the show. Get it wrong on the buzz and you lose the show. Simple. Captain Kester was first to buzz in with slow and steady wins the race, and that’s exactly what he did for the Eds. Well played. Bad luck Press Gang – another good team who have nothing to be ashamed about.
Wednesday, 30 October 2013
University Challenge - 2nd Repechage match
Southampton v. Loughborough
Bac in the balmy days of August Southampton played against a very useful team from the London School of Oriental and African Studies, and were beaten by 230 to 155. The team were David Bishop, Richard Evans, Matt Loxham, ( our own Cromarty(IV) ? and skippering the team was Bob De Caux. In the previous match Lougborough were edged out by Clare points by a mere 5 points. They were Ally Thornton, Kathy Morten, Kate Spalding, and Captain Grant Craig. Nothing to choose between the teams in their first round performances, but in my preview I pointed out that Southampton had the better bonus conversion rate, and were therefore the more likely winners to me.
David Bishop kicked off the scoring for Southampton, knowing that the given name of the king who won the Battle of Tours in 732 was Charles. Acts regarding the lengths of Parliaments and the decades in which they were passed were very tricky, but they managed one. Bob De Caux knew that three terms were linked by the prefix exo. Bonuses on birds and their latin names saw the boys take another correct answer, narrowly missing out on turdus merula – no, that’s not what you’re thinking, it’s a blackbird. Nobody knew two Nobel winners from China. For the next starter neither team got queen dowager.Bob de Caux knew the Trojan satellites of Jupiter, and this earned Southampton another set of bonuses on diseases passed on by insects. 2 bonuses came their way this time, and meant that they had scored 45 unanswered points. Neither team knew the term soft power – me neither. Then after that harsh call he accepted an early buzz from Ally Thornton who offered red and grey for red and grey squirrels. It was accepted, and this gave Loughborough bonuses on websites. 2 were taken, and the gap was narrowed. I was surprised that nobody worked out that the picture starter highlighted four states belonging to the home states of the 2012 republican and democrat candidates for president and vice president. All of which meant that the score was 45 – 20 to Southampton, even though their buzzer prowess could have resulted in a larger lead by this time.
Bob De Caux knew that Edmund de Waal wrote The Hare With Amber Eyes, which earned the bonus set of US state maps – asking for the year in which the candidates whose home states they were ran for election. Tricky. I had one – 1980 – but Southampton didn’t manage any. Kate Spalding recognised a question about Estonia’s parliament – good shout that. Bonuses on rugby brought a full set, and narrowed the gap to 5. My goodness you had to be quick on the buzzer for the next, which began “Alexander the Great’s was called Bucephalus” That buzzer race was won by Southampton’s inspirational skipper. Early film makers brought another 5 points – I was pleased with dredging up Mitchell and Kenyon for a full set. Kathy Morten knew about one of the earliest depictions of the crucifixion. A chemistry set followed, and Loughborough scored the same as me. Zilch. The music starter gave us a snatch of You’ve Got To Pick A Pocket or Two. Kathy Morton knew it, and knew that Fagin sang it. More Fagins singing the same song followed, and all we had to do was identify them. I knew Ron Moody, and Rowan Atkinson, but not Russ Abbott. Loughborough had the great Rowan. For the next starter we had a UC special. If you insert the word one into the name of one Asian country, you get another. Name them. As he had been doing consistently all evening, Bob De Caux won the race. Islands, and who colonised them, followed, and they took one of them. Now – moment of the show for me – given a sequence of numbers I predicted they were perfect numbers, and the next would be six. Richard Evans said the same, and he was right to do so. Bonuses on bread brought 5 points. This meant that at the 20 minute mark Southampton had a 25 point lead of 95 – 70. A close match so far, but Southampton were scoring more starters, yet Loughborough were tending to do a bit more with the ones they got.
Matt knew that you can make the word runt – and others – using letters from the name of the planet Saturn. People born on the same days was a nice set, and Southampton managed two. For the second picture starter we had a rather nice detail from the Bedford Book of Hours. I had postcards of this on my room in hall at uni. Nobody recognised September, so the bonuses rolled over, until David Bishop identified a group of football clubs who all have a lion on their club badges. The picture bonuses followed, and Southampton managed 2. Nobody recognised alternative working titles for Tender is the Night. Decapod was a buzzer race, and it was won by David Bishop. Battles and dynasties provided Southampton with their first full set of the contest. That gap was now out to 90 points, and Southampton had one foot, and half of the other, in the second round. For the next starter Richard Evans knew that you get ten if you add the number of French republics to the number of permanent members of the UN security council. Uric acid may not be a pleasant subject, but it brought another 5 points. Neither team knew about lace for the next starter. Grant Craig recognised the chemical formula of potassium cyanide for the next starter. Bonuses on placenames which are also names of 2012 British gold medallists – a nice set – brought 5 more points. Nobody knew that Frankincense comes from an aromatic gum made from tree resin. Richard Evans knew that Bismarck said that the secret of politics is to make a good treaty with Russia.There was no time for bonuses, and this completed a win for Southampton by 185 to 80.Very well done Southampton, and bad luck Loughborough. As for my prediction, well, I don’t know that they won it through their bonus conversion rate, but their buzzing was very good indeed. Good luck in round two.
Jeremy Paxman Watch
A little bit of a mean call on the dowager starter. Kate Spalding offered Dowager queen rather than vice versa. Like I said, a bit mean that – I’ve seen ones like this given before.
When Loughborough offered Omid Djalili for the second Fagin he contendeted himself with the observation – that would be an interesting piece of casting. Quite.
Kathy Morten played with fire on the music starter by buzzing, and then not answering immediately. Funnily enough JP not only let it pass, but sounded impressed when she had the right answer. Smitten kitten, do you think?
He was in quite a funny mood JP in this show. He took issue with Bob de Caux’s pronunciation of Tenochtitlan, then said it in almost exactly the same way himself, then muttered ‘well, I don’t know.’
After this he became positively frustrated with Lougborough when they offered Bradley Wiggins as the man who shared his name with Australia’s longest river. “Nooo, “ he sighed “ It’s Andy Murray.” mentally adding , oh for Heaven’s sake! as he did so.
Interesting Fact That I Didn’t Already Know Of The Week
Sir Winston Churchill and Lucy M Montgomery were born on the same day. How would “Anne of Green Gables” have turned out like if Churchill had written it, I wonder. Probably as well as L.M. Montgomery’s “We shall fight them on the beaches “ speech.
Bac in the balmy days of August Southampton played against a very useful team from the London School of Oriental and African Studies, and were beaten by 230 to 155. The team were David Bishop, Richard Evans, Matt Loxham, ( our own Cromarty(IV) ? and skippering the team was Bob De Caux. In the previous match Lougborough were edged out by Clare points by a mere 5 points. They were Ally Thornton, Kathy Morten, Kate Spalding, and Captain Grant Craig. Nothing to choose between the teams in their first round performances, but in my preview I pointed out that Southampton had the better bonus conversion rate, and were therefore the more likely winners to me.
David Bishop kicked off the scoring for Southampton, knowing that the given name of the king who won the Battle of Tours in 732 was Charles. Acts regarding the lengths of Parliaments and the decades in which they were passed were very tricky, but they managed one. Bob De Caux knew that three terms were linked by the prefix exo. Bonuses on birds and their latin names saw the boys take another correct answer, narrowly missing out on turdus merula – no, that’s not what you’re thinking, it’s a blackbird. Nobody knew two Nobel winners from China. For the next starter neither team got queen dowager.Bob de Caux knew the Trojan satellites of Jupiter, and this earned Southampton another set of bonuses on diseases passed on by insects. 2 bonuses came their way this time, and meant that they had scored 45 unanswered points. Neither team knew the term soft power – me neither. Then after that harsh call he accepted an early buzz from Ally Thornton who offered red and grey for red and grey squirrels. It was accepted, and this gave Loughborough bonuses on websites. 2 were taken, and the gap was narrowed. I was surprised that nobody worked out that the picture starter highlighted four states belonging to the home states of the 2012 republican and democrat candidates for president and vice president. All of which meant that the score was 45 – 20 to Southampton, even though their buzzer prowess could have resulted in a larger lead by this time.
Bob De Caux knew that Edmund de Waal wrote The Hare With Amber Eyes, which earned the bonus set of US state maps – asking for the year in which the candidates whose home states they were ran for election. Tricky. I had one – 1980 – but Southampton didn’t manage any. Kate Spalding recognised a question about Estonia’s parliament – good shout that. Bonuses on rugby brought a full set, and narrowed the gap to 5. My goodness you had to be quick on the buzzer for the next, which began “Alexander the Great’s was called Bucephalus” That buzzer race was won by Southampton’s inspirational skipper. Early film makers brought another 5 points – I was pleased with dredging up Mitchell and Kenyon for a full set. Kathy Morten knew about one of the earliest depictions of the crucifixion. A chemistry set followed, and Loughborough scored the same as me. Zilch. The music starter gave us a snatch of You’ve Got To Pick A Pocket or Two. Kathy Morton knew it, and knew that Fagin sang it. More Fagins singing the same song followed, and all we had to do was identify them. I knew Ron Moody, and Rowan Atkinson, but not Russ Abbott. Loughborough had the great Rowan. For the next starter we had a UC special. If you insert the word one into the name of one Asian country, you get another. Name them. As he had been doing consistently all evening, Bob De Caux won the race. Islands, and who colonised them, followed, and they took one of them. Now – moment of the show for me – given a sequence of numbers I predicted they were perfect numbers, and the next would be six. Richard Evans said the same, and he was right to do so. Bonuses on bread brought 5 points. This meant that at the 20 minute mark Southampton had a 25 point lead of 95 – 70. A close match so far, but Southampton were scoring more starters, yet Loughborough were tending to do a bit more with the ones they got.
Matt knew that you can make the word runt – and others – using letters from the name of the planet Saturn. People born on the same days was a nice set, and Southampton managed two. For the second picture starter we had a rather nice detail from the Bedford Book of Hours. I had postcards of this on my room in hall at uni. Nobody recognised September, so the bonuses rolled over, until David Bishop identified a group of football clubs who all have a lion on their club badges. The picture bonuses followed, and Southampton managed 2. Nobody recognised alternative working titles for Tender is the Night. Decapod was a buzzer race, and it was won by David Bishop. Battles and dynasties provided Southampton with their first full set of the contest. That gap was now out to 90 points, and Southampton had one foot, and half of the other, in the second round. For the next starter Richard Evans knew that you get ten if you add the number of French republics to the number of permanent members of the UN security council. Uric acid may not be a pleasant subject, but it brought another 5 points. Neither team knew about lace for the next starter. Grant Craig recognised the chemical formula of potassium cyanide for the next starter. Bonuses on placenames which are also names of 2012 British gold medallists – a nice set – brought 5 more points. Nobody knew that Frankincense comes from an aromatic gum made from tree resin. Richard Evans knew that Bismarck said that the secret of politics is to make a good treaty with Russia.There was no time for bonuses, and this completed a win for Southampton by 185 to 80.Very well done Southampton, and bad luck Loughborough. As for my prediction, well, I don’t know that they won it through their bonus conversion rate, but their buzzing was very good indeed. Good luck in round two.
Jeremy Paxman Watch
A little bit of a mean call on the dowager starter. Kate Spalding offered Dowager queen rather than vice versa. Like I said, a bit mean that – I’ve seen ones like this given before.
When Loughborough offered Omid Djalili for the second Fagin he contendeted himself with the observation – that would be an interesting piece of casting. Quite.
Kathy Morten played with fire on the music starter by buzzing, and then not answering immediately. Funnily enough JP not only let it pass, but sounded impressed when she had the right answer. Smitten kitten, do you think?
He was in quite a funny mood JP in this show. He took issue with Bob de Caux’s pronunciation of Tenochtitlan, then said it in almost exactly the same way himself, then muttered ‘well, I don’t know.’
After this he became positively frustrated with Lougborough when they offered Bradley Wiggins as the man who shared his name with Australia’s longest river. “Nooo, “ he sighed “ It’s Andy Murray.” mentally adding , oh for Heaven’s sake! as he did so.
Interesting Fact That I Didn’t Already Know Of The Week
Sir Winston Churchill and Lucy M Montgomery were born on the same day. How would “Anne of Green Gables” have turned out like if Churchill had written it, I wonder. Probably as well as L.M. Montgomery’s “We shall fight them on the beaches “ speech.
Sunday, 27 October 2013
Dropping the Pilot
It seems to be my day for responding to interesting things on other sites. If you’re not already a reader of Weaver’s Week on the UK Gameshows site, then why not? It’s essential reading. I was getting my weekly fix a short while ago, and I was surpised, if not amazed to read that the BBC have commissioned their lottery show “Break the Safe” for another series.
You might not remember it, since it didn’t make that much of a splash back in August when it aired. The most noteworthy thing about it was probably the negative publicity it garnered in the national press. If you want to read the whole post I wrote at the time it’s here -
Mail On Sunday Article – Break the Safe
Basically the series was recorded and, horror!, nobody won. The endgame was too hard. So the producers decided to change the rules and make it easier, and they invited the winners back to film their end games again under new rules. Now, one couple , who would have won had their original endgame been played under new rules, didn’t win when they filmed it again. They went to the papers, resulting in a lot of negative publicity.
As I say, I’m surprised it is being recommissioned. Even for the National Lottery Quiz genre it’s not a great show, and I thought that the negative publicity would guarantee that it would be allowed to die the death, and maybe even see it being put out of its misery before the end of its run. Just goes to show how much I know. The most remarkable thing is the fact that nobody seemed to have sussed out at the pilot stage that the game was just too difficult to win. It does make one wonder just why they went through a pilot stage if not to identify and iron out potential problems with the format.
I’ve never played on a pilot show, although I came fairly close a couple of weeks ago. A friend recommended me to a production company who were making a pilot for a new show in Cardiff a couple of weeks ago. We talked on the phone and exchanged emails, and the Mastermind thing notwithstanding I thought I might have a chance of getting involved, living fairly locally and all that. Sad to say it wasn’t to be, and I didn’t get on, which is a shame, because I’d have loved to be a part of a show in that stage of development. Still, I shall be keeping an eagle eye open to see whether anything like it eventually makes it onto our screens, and if it does, then I’ll maybe return to this theme then.
You might not remember it, since it didn’t make that much of a splash back in August when it aired. The most noteworthy thing about it was probably the negative publicity it garnered in the national press. If you want to read the whole post I wrote at the time it’s here -
Mail On Sunday Article – Break the Safe
Basically the series was recorded and, horror!, nobody won. The endgame was too hard. So the producers decided to change the rules and make it easier, and they invited the winners back to film their end games again under new rules. Now, one couple , who would have won had their original endgame been played under new rules, didn’t win when they filmed it again. They went to the papers, resulting in a lot of negative publicity.
As I say, I’m surprised it is being recommissioned. Even for the National Lottery Quiz genre it’s not a great show, and I thought that the negative publicity would guarantee that it would be allowed to die the death, and maybe even see it being put out of its misery before the end of its run. Just goes to show how much I know. The most remarkable thing is the fact that nobody seemed to have sussed out at the pilot stage that the game was just too difficult to win. It does make one wonder just why they went through a pilot stage if not to identify and iron out potential problems with the format.
I’ve never played on a pilot show, although I came fairly close a couple of weeks ago. A friend recommended me to a production company who were making a pilot for a new show in Cardiff a couple of weeks ago. We talked on the phone and exchanged emails, and the Mastermind thing notwithstanding I thought I might have a chance of getting involved, living fairly locally and all that. Sad to say it wasn’t to be, and I didn’t get on, which is a shame, because I’d have loved to be a part of a show in that stage of development. Still, I shall be keeping an eagle eye open to see whether anything like it eventually makes it onto our screens, and if it does, then I’ll maybe return to this theme then.
Adieu, Millionaire
I’ve just been over to Dan’s “The Quiz Addict” blog, and saw that Dan has posted about the end of “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?”. I did catch the story in the papers during the week, but will admit that it had temporarily slipped my mind. Still, it might be nice to put on record my thoughts about the show.
I’ve been a viewer, a contestant and a phone friend (unused) in my time. As a viewer, well, as a viewer while I could appreciate just how popular the show was, and just how good an example of the big budget big prize prime time quiz show it was, this genre was never my favourite. If I get my criticisms out of the way first, I prefer shows with a lot more questions, and where it doesn’t take such a long time to get to really interesting questions. I’m not interested in learning about the lives and personalities of contestants. But then, to use a phrase I’ve used on a number of occasions, the show was never really aimed at people like me. What I will say is that as an example of the genre it’s a work of beautiful simplicity – and that I do mean as a compliment. There was little new about the idea of answering questions for increasing amounts of cash – indeed it’s a gimmick that goes back to the first week of ITV in 1955 with Hughie Greene’s “Double Your Money”. The use of the three original lifelines, now that was something a little different, and the really clever thing about it was the way that it dovetailed so neatly into the gameplay of the show – on less skillfully constructed shows everything can be dominated by the gimmick. As for Chris Tarrant, host throughout the show’s long run, well, could you imagine anyone else presenting it? The host of any show has to take a share of the blame for its failure, and conversely also deserves a slice of the credit for its success. And Chris, God bless ‘im, has had his share of turkeys in his time. Remember “It’s not what you know “? No, not many people do. But his particular style of gently humourous bonhomie proved perfect for Millionaire.
What you shouldn’t underestimate is this show’s importance in the history of the TV quiz show in the UK. As many people know it wasn’t actually the first show to offer, or to give away a £1 million prize in the UK, but it was the first to offer such a prize as a matter of course. ITV’s decision to show the first couple of series on consecutive evenings across a week made it into event TV, and an instant smash hit success. 5 people won the £1 million first prize, and the first, Judith Keppel, probably owes her place among the Eggheads, and as a consequence national celebrity to her success on the show. Over 100 countries bought or licensed the show, a record for a British format. Back home, the show, for a while, revitalized the moribund prime time big money quiz show, and a number of shows rode in on the back of its wave of success. Some of them were decent, watchable shows – The Vault and The Syndicate spring to mind – and some of them weren’t – I’ll say just one word here – Shafted. None of them had the appeal or staying power of WWTBAM. If you’re looking for a lasting legacy, I guess that it would be the serious amounts of prize money that can be won on teatime shows. With rolling jackpots even BBC shows, for example the smash hit Pointless and Eggheads, can end up giving jackpots of £20,000 and over. Ditto the Chase on ITV. Compare this with even as recent a show as, let’s say “The Weakest Link”, where a winner might be lucky to take away much more than £3000.
As for my own personal experiences, well, as a phone friend there really isn’t a lot to it if you don’t get called, and I didn’t. I went off Tarrant when he put my photo up and said that I was a Christopher Biggins look alike. Basically you’re told to sit by your phone, ring around friends and family and tell them not to ring you for the duration of the recording of the show, and if anyone else rings, get them off the line pronto. Sadly I knew the answer to the question Richard needed help with, but he asked another friend who didn’t. At least he had the sense to quit there and then while he was ahead.
Which is more than I can say for myself. The basic fact is that I gambled on a question that I should have known for £32,000 and I got what I deserved. or rather, I got a lot more than I deserved, since I walked away with £1000, which is a darned sight more than I walked away with on all the other shows I played in. My son Mike and I were treated royally throughout the day, and I have to say that in those terms only one other show came close to looking after you quite that well. Looking at it rationally, I went there with nothing, and came away with £1000 when I could have left with nothing, then it was a fabulous, fabulous experience. Except that you can’t quite forget that if you’d been a little more sensible you’d have come away with a very significant sum of money. But if I were to tell you that I lose any sleep over it, then I’d be lying. My mistake, my fault, get over it. I did.
So, farewell then, Millionaire. In essence, it doesn’t matter what I, or anyone else say about the show. It is a highly significant, if not seminal quiz show. In fact it will be remembered as an extremely important and successful TV show full stop. And that’s not a bad epitaph for any show.
I’ve been a viewer, a contestant and a phone friend (unused) in my time. As a viewer, well, as a viewer while I could appreciate just how popular the show was, and just how good an example of the big budget big prize prime time quiz show it was, this genre was never my favourite. If I get my criticisms out of the way first, I prefer shows with a lot more questions, and where it doesn’t take such a long time to get to really interesting questions. I’m not interested in learning about the lives and personalities of contestants. But then, to use a phrase I’ve used on a number of occasions, the show was never really aimed at people like me. What I will say is that as an example of the genre it’s a work of beautiful simplicity – and that I do mean as a compliment. There was little new about the idea of answering questions for increasing amounts of cash – indeed it’s a gimmick that goes back to the first week of ITV in 1955 with Hughie Greene’s “Double Your Money”. The use of the three original lifelines, now that was something a little different, and the really clever thing about it was the way that it dovetailed so neatly into the gameplay of the show – on less skillfully constructed shows everything can be dominated by the gimmick. As for Chris Tarrant, host throughout the show’s long run, well, could you imagine anyone else presenting it? The host of any show has to take a share of the blame for its failure, and conversely also deserves a slice of the credit for its success. And Chris, God bless ‘im, has had his share of turkeys in his time. Remember “It’s not what you know “? No, not many people do. But his particular style of gently humourous bonhomie proved perfect for Millionaire.
What you shouldn’t underestimate is this show’s importance in the history of the TV quiz show in the UK. As many people know it wasn’t actually the first show to offer, or to give away a £1 million prize in the UK, but it was the first to offer such a prize as a matter of course. ITV’s decision to show the first couple of series on consecutive evenings across a week made it into event TV, and an instant smash hit success. 5 people won the £1 million first prize, and the first, Judith Keppel, probably owes her place among the Eggheads, and as a consequence national celebrity to her success on the show. Over 100 countries bought or licensed the show, a record for a British format. Back home, the show, for a while, revitalized the moribund prime time big money quiz show, and a number of shows rode in on the back of its wave of success. Some of them were decent, watchable shows – The Vault and The Syndicate spring to mind – and some of them weren’t – I’ll say just one word here – Shafted. None of them had the appeal or staying power of WWTBAM. If you’re looking for a lasting legacy, I guess that it would be the serious amounts of prize money that can be won on teatime shows. With rolling jackpots even BBC shows, for example the smash hit Pointless and Eggheads, can end up giving jackpots of £20,000 and over. Ditto the Chase on ITV. Compare this with even as recent a show as, let’s say “The Weakest Link”, where a winner might be lucky to take away much more than £3000.
As for my own personal experiences, well, as a phone friend there really isn’t a lot to it if you don’t get called, and I didn’t. I went off Tarrant when he put my photo up and said that I was a Christopher Biggins look alike. Basically you’re told to sit by your phone, ring around friends and family and tell them not to ring you for the duration of the recording of the show, and if anyone else rings, get them off the line pronto. Sadly I knew the answer to the question Richard needed help with, but he asked another friend who didn’t. At least he had the sense to quit there and then while he was ahead.
Which is more than I can say for myself. The basic fact is that I gambled on a question that I should have known for £32,000 and I got what I deserved. or rather, I got a lot more than I deserved, since I walked away with £1000, which is a darned sight more than I walked away with on all the other shows I played in. My son Mike and I were treated royally throughout the day, and I have to say that in those terms only one other show came close to looking after you quite that well. Looking at it rationally, I went there with nothing, and came away with £1000 when I could have left with nothing, then it was a fabulous, fabulous experience. Except that you can’t quite forget that if you’d been a little more sensible you’d have come away with a very significant sum of money. But if I were to tell you that I lose any sleep over it, then I’d be lying. My mistake, my fault, get over it. I did.
So, farewell then, Millionaire. In essence, it doesn’t matter what I, or anyone else say about the show. It is a highly significant, if not seminal quiz show. In fact it will be remembered as an extremely important and successful TV show full stop. And that’s not a bad epitaph for any show.
Saturday, 26 October 2013
To Correct , or not to Correct?
Last week I followed an amusing Facebook debate about whether you should correct an innocent member of the public if he (or she) comes out with a piece of information, obviously wrong, that they’re very proud of.
On Sunday evening I was playing in a quiz – now there’s a surprise – and I found myself in a similar dilemma, but this time it was the question master who was wrong. The question in question was -
” Which are the only two countries to have hosted the football World Cup twice?”
Now, I’m quite sure that you, as did I, are thinking to yourself – hang on a minute! There’s more than 2.- and you would be right to do so. For the record, they are: -
Mexico – 1970 and 1986
Italy – 1934 and 1990
France – 1938 and 1998
Germany – 1974 and 2006
Now, OK, you could argue that 1974 was strictly speaking West Germany, but even so the fact is that you can’t argue with France.
No, here was the dilemma. John and I worked out that the answers he must have were Mexico and Italy since the chances were that he was working from a quiz book written before 1998. That’s what we wrote down. For the rest of the round I wrestled with my impulse to explain to the question master so that he would have the chance to accept France or Germany also, and thus not leave himself open to the accusation of not knowing what he was talking about. To cut a long story short, I lost. In the lull between questions I wrote out a list of the hosts of every world cup since 1930, and showed it to him in the interval. His response was an interesting one. Had he said ,
”Sorry – you may be right, but my book only said two, and so that’s the answer I have to stick to.” then I wouldn’t have said another word – well, not until afterwards, on the way home in the car, anyway. But what he actually said was,
“Yes, I thought that when I copied the question down, I was sure that France had held it twice as well.”
Which begged the question – well, why didn’t you go and check it then? No, I didn’t ask him that – I felt I’d pushed my luck far enough by correcting him in the first place. To be fair to him,
”You can have any two out of Italy , Mexico, France and Germany”. I give him a lot of credit for doing that, and not taking umbrage at being put right in that way. If I’m honest I can’t put hand on heart and swear that I would have allowed the other two answers had the situation been reversed. Mind you, had it been my quiz I would have checked the answers beforehand anyway, whether I thought they were right or not.
It was a good quiz, but we had one wrong, and I’m almost ashamed to tell you what it was. Still, we’re all friends here, so I guess I can let you into the secret. This is the question.
“A mother is preparing a meal for herself, her husband and their son (I know, but it was from an old book, I think) . She has five potatoes to share between the three of them. Without using fractions, how can she ensure that each of them gets an equal share?”
I can’t remember exactly what convoluted nonsense it was that we wrote down, but it wasn’t the correct answer. Mash them. Oh, the shame of it.
On Sunday evening I was playing in a quiz – now there’s a surprise – and I found myself in a similar dilemma, but this time it was the question master who was wrong. The question in question was -
” Which are the only two countries to have hosted the football World Cup twice?”
Now, I’m quite sure that you, as did I, are thinking to yourself – hang on a minute! There’s more than 2.- and you would be right to do so. For the record, they are: -
Mexico – 1970 and 1986
Italy – 1934 and 1990
France – 1938 and 1998
Germany – 1974 and 2006
Now, OK, you could argue that 1974 was strictly speaking West Germany, but even so the fact is that you can’t argue with France.
No, here was the dilemma. John and I worked out that the answers he must have were Mexico and Italy since the chances were that he was working from a quiz book written before 1998. That’s what we wrote down. For the rest of the round I wrestled with my impulse to explain to the question master so that he would have the chance to accept France or Germany also, and thus not leave himself open to the accusation of not knowing what he was talking about. To cut a long story short, I lost. In the lull between questions I wrote out a list of the hosts of every world cup since 1930, and showed it to him in the interval. His response was an interesting one. Had he said ,
”Sorry – you may be right, but my book only said two, and so that’s the answer I have to stick to.” then I wouldn’t have said another word – well, not until afterwards, on the way home in the car, anyway. But what he actually said was,
“Yes, I thought that when I copied the question down, I was sure that France had held it twice as well.”
Which begged the question – well, why didn’t you go and check it then? No, I didn’t ask him that – I felt I’d pushed my luck far enough by correcting him in the first place. To be fair to him,
”You can have any two out of Italy , Mexico, France and Germany”. I give him a lot of credit for doing that, and not taking umbrage at being put right in that way. If I’m honest I can’t put hand on heart and swear that I would have allowed the other two answers had the situation been reversed. Mind you, had it been my quiz I would have checked the answers beforehand anyway, whether I thought they were right or not.
It was a good quiz, but we had one wrong, and I’m almost ashamed to tell you what it was. Still, we’re all friends here, so I guess I can let you into the secret. This is the question.
“A mother is preparing a meal for herself, her husband and their son (I know, but it was from an old book, I think) . She has five potatoes to share between the three of them. Without using fractions, how can she ensure that each of them gets an equal share?”
I can’t remember exactly what convoluted nonsense it was that we wrote down, but it wasn’t the correct answer. Mash them. Oh, the shame of it.
Only Connect Elimination Match
The Globetrotters v. The Pilots
Already in the second tranch of first round matches? Well, yes. Monday’s returning teams were the Globetrotters and the Pilots. The Globetrotters, Michael Reeve, Suda Perera and their captain Chris Clough, looked a distinctly useful outfit when losing a close match 21 – 26 to the Board Gamers. The Pilots, Simon Morgan, Neil Morgan and skipper Paul Judge, lost a similarly close one to the Lasletts. So whatever happened, someone was going home after the show. I had just a sneaking feeling for the Trotters, but I wouldn’t have been risking the Clark 50p on the outcome.
Round one – What’s the Connection?
The Trotters, put in to bat by the Pilots opted for the eye of Horus. Colonial Goose didn’t help a great deal. Canada Goose, I wondered. Scotch Woodcock changed the game, being a dish. Biloxi Bacon made me hazard a guess that these are all dishes which did not originate in the places suggested by the names. Rocky Mountain oysters was the last clue and that gave the Trotters the correct answer, namely that these were all other than their name suggest – Rocky Mountain oysters not being oysters etc. The pilots chose water, and found Nimrod. Too many possibilities with that one, I thought. The next was the giveaway. Bites yer legs was the nickname of Norman Hunter, and Nimrod of course was a mighty hunter before the Lord. The pilots thought so too and came in after the two for a correct answer. Lion gave the Trotters Towel: May 25th. Hmm – thought I – something in that which I’m not seeing. WiFi: August 2nd 2011 – ditto – Pi - : March 14th did it. March 14th is 3/14 if you write it the US way round, and that’s the first three digits of pi.Star Wars : May the 4th confirmed my thoughts – but like the Trotters I had difficulty framing the answer in words. The definition given on screen was unofficial geek celebration days. Well, I'm all for celebrating unofficial geeks, but why leave out the official ones, who are surely as worthy of recognition as their unofficial brethren. Two Reeds introduced the music set for the Pilots. The pilots looking to be of a similar vintage to myself they didn’t seem to recognize the first two any more than I did. The third, Glad All Over by my namesake and his group hinted the answer, and Moves Like Jagger by Maroon 5 and Christina Aguilera confirmed it was 5s. Going back to the Dave Clark 5, the fact that they were at their height in 1964, the year I was born, is a pure coincidence. According to my mother she got my christian name from the rather more down to earth source of a character in Mrs. Dale’s Diary. Enough of such drivel. The Pilots took a point, and then the Trotters chose Twisted Flax for sour tasting – no – tray planted – no – divine wind – now, that I know is kamikaze. But what were the others? Didn’t matter. All that was required was English translations of Japanese terms used in English. Two points to the Trotters. I won my bet with myself that the last would be empty orchestra. The first is sushi and the second bonsai. Ah, that makes sense. Horned viper remained to give the Pilots pictures of someone on American Idol – Wallace and Gromit made of clay – Roland Garros played on clay and a set of clay pigeon shooting paraphernalia. The American Idol chappie was Clay Aiken apparently. The Trotters knew him. No bonus points for that, but what looked a close match on paper had started out as a close one in the studio, for the Pilots led by a single point with 5.
Round Two – What Comes Fourth?
Lion gave the Trotters Cater – no idea- Trey , at which I shouted Ace. Trey is a term for a three in some card and dice games. The Trotters took the next clue with Deuce, which confirmed it and gave it to the Trotters. The Pilots had water, and Halt Who goes there? Now, I took a bit of a flier and went for a five pointer with Queen Elizabeth’s Keys. The second was The Keys, which looked good. Whose keys for the third looked even better. Basically it’s the ceremony of the keys every evening at the Tower of London. The Pilots were close enough with The Queen’s keys. Eye of Horus kicked off the next Trotters set with the smallest hardest crossword. I felt I should know it but I didn’t. The Celebrity Squares board came next. Now, I know that this was divided up into 9 Squares. The Trotters were thinking along the same lines. A slice of battenburg being the third clue supplied the answer - we had gone down from a 4 x4 to a 3x 3 to a 2x2 square – basically the answer then would be anything with one square. Twisted Flax showed the pilots – Report Stage – Third Reading – and here I guessed Royal Assent, as stages by which an Act of Parliament becomes law. The Pilots were thinking along tye same lines, but went for it being passed into law, thus giving the Trotters the first bonus chance of the show. They had Royal Assent, for a timely bonus point. Two Reeds showed the Trotters a picture of a lady in black and white holding a very large pair of bloomers – a pair of dirty knees – two little ducks followed, and so legs for 11 was obviously the last. 44 – droopy drawers etc. I really don’t know what captain Chris was doing when he gave the answer ‘it’s bingo slang for 33 – when I think Suda had already said that it was legs 11. Thus the Pilots took back their bonus, and to finish off they opened the horned viper, and saw Turkana – nope – Malawi – hmm, lakes? – Tanganyika, yes lakes, and so I guessed that these might be the largest lakes in Africa in ascending order, which would leave Victoria. I’m afraid that this was just a gap in knowledge for the Pilots when they couldn’t answer, and it gave the bonus back to the Trotters. This made a difference. Going into the walls the Trotters led with 10 – 8.
Round Three – The Connecting Walls
The Pilots kicked off with the water wall and immediately saw a set of grange Hill characters. It didn’t take a long time to separate Mrs. McClusky – Roly ( wasn’t it Row – land?) Gripper and Zammo. They were very quickly in with members of the Velvet Underground as well- Tucker – Morrison – Cale and Reed. With bags of time left the pilots worked out what the two lines were – place names suffixed with field, and types of grassy things ( stop me if I get too technical) then they got them on their first go. Now that was an impressive piece of walling. The fields were Chester – Hat – Man and Wake. The grassy things were Sedge – Cattail – Bulrush and Arrowhead.
This left the Trotters needing a full house to keep their lead. They certainly started well. They spotted German writers almost at once and separated Grimm – Schiller – Hesse and Mann. Broomstick – Quaffle – Beater’s Bat and Broomstick are all needed for Quidditch. Thus the Trotters too had oodles of time left to isolate the last two lines. They too worked out the last two lines – words prefixed with – photo , and words for telling on someone. In a mirror image of the Pilot’s tactics they made absolutely certain, then got them on their first go. The photos were graph – synthesis – journalism – and taxis, which left Grass – shop – snitch and sneak. Lovely walls, and great play from both teams. The Trotters presertved their narrow lead with 20 to 18.
Round Four – Missing Vowels
Both teams had lost their first rounds through being beaten to the buzzer in the vowels. The first set – actors who have played Dracula – fell 2 apiece. The second – ports of the world – fell 3 – 1 to the Trotters. They now had a 4 point advantage – which could still be wiped out with one set. UK Christmas Number 1s wiped out three points of that advantage, falling 3 – 0 to the pilots. Places of Entertainment were going to be crucial. The first two fell to the Trotters. As did the third. The fourth went to the pilots, and there just wasn’t time for plant diseases. This gave the Trotters a win by 28 to 25. Very bad luck to the Pilots. They played two good games and were never easily beaten in either. Well done Trotters, good luck in your next game.
Already in the second tranch of first round matches? Well, yes. Monday’s returning teams were the Globetrotters and the Pilots. The Globetrotters, Michael Reeve, Suda Perera and their captain Chris Clough, looked a distinctly useful outfit when losing a close match 21 – 26 to the Board Gamers. The Pilots, Simon Morgan, Neil Morgan and skipper Paul Judge, lost a similarly close one to the Lasletts. So whatever happened, someone was going home after the show. I had just a sneaking feeling for the Trotters, but I wouldn’t have been risking the Clark 50p on the outcome.
Round one – What’s the Connection?
The Trotters, put in to bat by the Pilots opted for the eye of Horus. Colonial Goose didn’t help a great deal. Canada Goose, I wondered. Scotch Woodcock changed the game, being a dish. Biloxi Bacon made me hazard a guess that these are all dishes which did not originate in the places suggested by the names. Rocky Mountain oysters was the last clue and that gave the Trotters the correct answer, namely that these were all other than their name suggest – Rocky Mountain oysters not being oysters etc. The pilots chose water, and found Nimrod. Too many possibilities with that one, I thought. The next was the giveaway. Bites yer legs was the nickname of Norman Hunter, and Nimrod of course was a mighty hunter before the Lord. The pilots thought so too and came in after the two for a correct answer. Lion gave the Trotters Towel: May 25th. Hmm – thought I – something in that which I’m not seeing. WiFi: August 2nd 2011 – ditto – Pi - : March 14th did it. March 14th is 3/14 if you write it the US way round, and that’s the first three digits of pi.Star Wars : May the 4th confirmed my thoughts – but like the Trotters I had difficulty framing the answer in words. The definition given on screen was unofficial geek celebration days. Well, I'm all for celebrating unofficial geeks, but why leave out the official ones, who are surely as worthy of recognition as their unofficial brethren. Two Reeds introduced the music set for the Pilots. The pilots looking to be of a similar vintage to myself they didn’t seem to recognize the first two any more than I did. The third, Glad All Over by my namesake and his group hinted the answer, and Moves Like Jagger by Maroon 5 and Christina Aguilera confirmed it was 5s. Going back to the Dave Clark 5, the fact that they were at their height in 1964, the year I was born, is a pure coincidence. According to my mother she got my christian name from the rather more down to earth source of a character in Mrs. Dale’s Diary. Enough of such drivel. The Pilots took a point, and then the Trotters chose Twisted Flax for sour tasting – no – tray planted – no – divine wind – now, that I know is kamikaze. But what were the others? Didn’t matter. All that was required was English translations of Japanese terms used in English. Two points to the Trotters. I won my bet with myself that the last would be empty orchestra. The first is sushi and the second bonsai. Ah, that makes sense. Horned viper remained to give the Pilots pictures of someone on American Idol – Wallace and Gromit made of clay – Roland Garros played on clay and a set of clay pigeon shooting paraphernalia. The American Idol chappie was Clay Aiken apparently. The Trotters knew him. No bonus points for that, but what looked a close match on paper had started out as a close one in the studio, for the Pilots led by a single point with 5.
Round Two – What Comes Fourth?
Lion gave the Trotters Cater – no idea- Trey , at which I shouted Ace. Trey is a term for a three in some card and dice games. The Trotters took the next clue with Deuce, which confirmed it and gave it to the Trotters. The Pilots had water, and Halt Who goes there? Now, I took a bit of a flier and went for a five pointer with Queen Elizabeth’s Keys. The second was The Keys, which looked good. Whose keys for the third looked even better. Basically it’s the ceremony of the keys every evening at the Tower of London. The Pilots were close enough with The Queen’s keys. Eye of Horus kicked off the next Trotters set with the smallest hardest crossword. I felt I should know it but I didn’t. The Celebrity Squares board came next. Now, I know that this was divided up into 9 Squares. The Trotters were thinking along the same lines. A slice of battenburg being the third clue supplied the answer - we had gone down from a 4 x4 to a 3x 3 to a 2x2 square – basically the answer then would be anything with one square. Twisted Flax showed the pilots – Report Stage – Third Reading – and here I guessed Royal Assent, as stages by which an Act of Parliament becomes law. The Pilots were thinking along tye same lines, but went for it being passed into law, thus giving the Trotters the first bonus chance of the show. They had Royal Assent, for a timely bonus point. Two Reeds showed the Trotters a picture of a lady in black and white holding a very large pair of bloomers – a pair of dirty knees – two little ducks followed, and so legs for 11 was obviously the last. 44 – droopy drawers etc. I really don’t know what captain Chris was doing when he gave the answer ‘it’s bingo slang for 33 – when I think Suda had already said that it was legs 11. Thus the Pilots took back their bonus, and to finish off they opened the horned viper, and saw Turkana – nope – Malawi – hmm, lakes? – Tanganyika, yes lakes, and so I guessed that these might be the largest lakes in Africa in ascending order, which would leave Victoria. I’m afraid that this was just a gap in knowledge for the Pilots when they couldn’t answer, and it gave the bonus back to the Trotters. This made a difference. Going into the walls the Trotters led with 10 – 8.
Round Three – The Connecting Walls
The Pilots kicked off with the water wall and immediately saw a set of grange Hill characters. It didn’t take a long time to separate Mrs. McClusky – Roly ( wasn’t it Row – land?) Gripper and Zammo. They were very quickly in with members of the Velvet Underground as well- Tucker – Morrison – Cale and Reed. With bags of time left the pilots worked out what the two lines were – place names suffixed with field, and types of grassy things ( stop me if I get too technical) then they got them on their first go. Now that was an impressive piece of walling. The fields were Chester – Hat – Man and Wake. The grassy things were Sedge – Cattail – Bulrush and Arrowhead.
This left the Trotters needing a full house to keep their lead. They certainly started well. They spotted German writers almost at once and separated Grimm – Schiller – Hesse and Mann. Broomstick – Quaffle – Beater’s Bat and Broomstick are all needed for Quidditch. Thus the Trotters too had oodles of time left to isolate the last two lines. They too worked out the last two lines – words prefixed with – photo , and words for telling on someone. In a mirror image of the Pilot’s tactics they made absolutely certain, then got them on their first go. The photos were graph – synthesis – journalism – and taxis, which left Grass – shop – snitch and sneak. Lovely walls, and great play from both teams. The Trotters presertved their narrow lead with 20 to 18.
Round Four – Missing Vowels
Both teams had lost their first rounds through being beaten to the buzzer in the vowels. The first set – actors who have played Dracula – fell 2 apiece. The second – ports of the world – fell 3 – 1 to the Trotters. They now had a 4 point advantage – which could still be wiped out with one set. UK Christmas Number 1s wiped out three points of that advantage, falling 3 – 0 to the pilots. Places of Entertainment were going to be crucial. The first two fell to the Trotters. As did the third. The fourth went to the pilots, and there just wasn’t time for plant diseases. This gave the Trotters a win by 28 to 25. Very bad luck to the Pilots. They played two good games and were never easily beaten in either. Well done Trotters, good luck in your next game.
University Challenge - Repechage One
Durham v. Christ Church, Oxford
What an interesting match up. The highest scoring of our first round runner up teams, against the lowest scoring of our repechage teams. However , as I pointed out in my preview, this is something of a false picture. Christ Church achieved their score in the face of the blitzkrieg unleashed upon them by Trinity, Cambridge, to my mind the most impressive of the teams in the first round. George Greenwood, Andreas Capstack, Philip Ostrowski and captain, LAM regular Ewan Macauley, could have rolled over and given up in the face of that onslaught. They didn’t, and would be a handful for Durham. As for Durham themselves, the team of Alex Richards, Daniel Hulme, Oliver Burnham and their captain Matt Mackenzie came up agonisingly short against Queen’s Cambridge, but proved that they need fear nobody. An interesting match on paper.
An interesting match on the small screen for that matter as well. Alex Richards took first blood with an early buzz. He knew that if you hear “2013” and “skeletal remains” the answer will either be “Richard III” or “Bruce Forsyth” (sorry Brucie. Well, sorryish), and correctly supplied the answer of Dick the Bad. 2 bonuses on pi followed. Another of those rather topical starters followed. There was a bit of a preamble, but as soon as we heard ‘controversial process’ and ‘drilling’ Ewan Macauley buzzed in with fracking. The team managed one bonus on “The Tempest”, incidentally missing out on the quiz chestnut that my favourite 1950s sci fi film “Forbidden Planet” was based on that very play. A great answer from Matt Mackenzie saw him identified a brilliant quote about T.S.Eliot’s “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” as belonging to C.S.Lewis. An interesting set of hypotheses saw Durham take another two. Philip Ostrowski knew that the Nordlinger-Ries, with a circumference of 25 km would most likely be an impact crater. This brought them a welcome set on cell biology which were dispatched towards the boundary rope in fairly short order. This brought up the picture starter and Oliver Burnham recognised the logo of UNESCO, even though any helpful wording had been removed. Good shout, that. 2 correct answers on logos of other US organisations were taken. The next starter asked for the 6th book of the Old Testament, and Ewan Macauley was the first to try his arm with Joshua. Weather extremes brought two correct answers. All of which meant that both teams had scored 60 by the ten minute mark. At this point I was patting myself on the back for predicting a close match between the two.
Ewan knew that the aepyornis, or elephant bird, was native to Madagascar. Classical music bonuses on Variations proved elusive, and only the one was answered correctly. For the next question, although I’ve never heard of them when I heard the word ‘osteocytes’ I shouted ‘bones’, pretty much at the same time as Ewan buzzed in with the same answer. He probably knew it, though. Two well earned bonuses on ‘being’ were taken. I did know that Thomas Mann wrote Felix Krull, which neither of the teams did. Andreas Capstack knew that the falls over which Sherlock Holmes fell began with Reich, and it had become perfectly clear that Christ Church was taking the upper hand in the contest. Only one bonus was taken on quotations from de Toqueville, but that wasn’t so important as the fact that Christ Church were forging a sizeable lead. They had scored 70 points since Durham’s last visit to the table. For the music starter Philip Ostrowski apologised to the world for recognising the dulcet tones of Canadienne songstress Celine Dion. Three more of the same brought a full set. George Greenwood knew that the reivers operated on the Scottish borders, and another correct answer on the Duke of Monmouth’s rebellion meant that they had now scored 90 unanswered points. A physicsy sort of thing followed, and JP thought short and hard before he rejected Daniel Hulme’s answer, and accepting Ewan’s. When things don’t go for you, they really don’t. A UC special set on pairs of words which are pronounced the same but spelled differently followed. These are usually gettable, and Christ Church made no error in taking a full set. IN the next one, which asked about the animal, the fauve de Borgogne, of which the BRC is the showing organisation in the UK, I think a hint of frustration came in Matt Mackenzie’s answer of ‘badgers’. If it was an attempt to inject a little gallows humour into the proceedings, it worked – well, it made me laugh. I think that the next point was a little controversial. It asked for the three letters linking a French Mediterranean resort, a large Belgian port, and the fifth largest continent. Now, Matt Mackenzie’s actual words when he buzzed in were “Ant – I was going to say Antwerp, that’s wrong isn’t it. “To which JP replied “You’re right. . . it is”. Now, hang on a minute. Even if he was trying to say Antwerp, he clearly said Ant first. Now, there is an argument for saying that was his first answer – in which case it was right. Maybe it wouldn’t have made any difference to the outcome of the contest – I’m sure it wouldn’t, but at the very least Durham would be forgiven for thinking that they had fallen foul of a harsh call there. As it was Christ Church took a full set on molecular Physics. This completed a ten minute shut out, and to add insult to injury Durham had lost 5 points in the interim, and now trailed by 55 points to 200. Game over, I’m afraid.
Now that the middle spell of the contest was over, it seemed as if the spell was broken. Alex Richards buzzed in extremely quickly to answer that Pope Urban II launched the first Crusade. No bonus on transport were taken. For the second picture starter we were asked to identify the breed of Barack Obama’s dog. Ewan was close with Portuguese Water Terrier, but this let in Matt Mackenzie with Portuguese water dog. More presidents and their dogs provided another correct answer. Daniel Hulme knew that the £2 Charles Dickens coin has the words “Something will turn up” around its edge. Two bonuses on members of the Order of Merit took Durham to three figures, and they deserved that. Philip Ostrowski ensured that this last section of the show would not be a shut out by answering that the Sartorius is situated in the leg. Various chemical compounds named after places brought two correct answers. Matt Mackenzie won the buzzer race to identify a set of works with the words ‘the woman’ in the title. Two more bonuses meant that they had more than doubled their score in 5 minutes. Matt Mackenzie knew that a lake – can’t remember the name – is in Kazakhstan. Orwell’s 1984 provided another two bonuses. Philip Ostrowski reminded Durham that Christ Church were still there by identifying two titles of works by Dave Eggers. European Cities of Culture provided just the one bonus. A maths starter was worked out extremely quickly by Ewan, and that, as they say, was that. Christ Church won by 245 to 140, and that devastating middle period shutout had done all the damage. It confirmed what I suggested all along – this is a very good Christ Church outfit, who could do damage again in the second round. As for Durham , well, hard lines. A good team in their own right, but beaten by the better team on the night.
Jeremy Paxman Watch
An early one tonight. On just the second bonus , which asked for the first five digits of the binary expansion of pi ( huh?) Durham took their time working it out before giving no answer, to which he replied, “Very entertaining conferring at least”.
Philip Ostrowski came close to a JP wigging by firstly saying ‘crater’, then ‘asteroid crater’ in answer to the Nordlinger-Ries question. Our hero replied “An impact crater is what it’s properly called. “ In his head I’m sure he was also saying – now write it out a hundred times and NEVER get it wrong again! – For his punchline he added “At least you didn’t say “hole in the ground!” – and again, in his head he probably added – though I wouldn’t have put that past you.
Blimey, but JP was in chatty mood. When Oliver Burnham made it clear from the tone of his voice that he wasn’t sure of the answer, he said “Yes, you were astonished it was so easy. “ Au contraire, monsieur P.
In fact, the man was positively avuncular when he accepted Atomic Energy Agency for International Atomic Agency in the logo bonuses, saying “I’ll give you that . . . on the basis that we were kind to Christ Church a moment ago.”
Uncle Jez had been banished, mind you, by the time that Oliver Burnham offered “Kissinger” for the name of the German writer of “Felix Krull”. “Kissinger?!” he virtually screeched, eyebrows shooting towards the ceiling. “That really wasn’t worth saying!”
Not yet finished, JP introduced the first Canadian bonus by saying it was “Somewhat inexplicable” that Celine Dion had so many Canadian Juno award nominations. Miaow. When they identified Shania Twain he accused them of having no shame, and when they took the full set his only comment was “Oh my godfathers, yes!”
Extending his repertoire to physical comedy, JP grossly exaggerated holding his head in his hands while Christ Church debated whether the battle that put an end of Monmouth’s Rebellion was in the North of England.
Interesting Fact That I Didn’t Already Know Of The Week
The BRC is the showing organisation for British keepers and breeders of rabbits.
What an interesting match up. The highest scoring of our first round runner up teams, against the lowest scoring of our repechage teams. However , as I pointed out in my preview, this is something of a false picture. Christ Church achieved their score in the face of the blitzkrieg unleashed upon them by Trinity, Cambridge, to my mind the most impressive of the teams in the first round. George Greenwood, Andreas Capstack, Philip Ostrowski and captain, LAM regular Ewan Macauley, could have rolled over and given up in the face of that onslaught. They didn’t, and would be a handful for Durham. As for Durham themselves, the team of Alex Richards, Daniel Hulme, Oliver Burnham and their captain Matt Mackenzie came up agonisingly short against Queen’s Cambridge, but proved that they need fear nobody. An interesting match on paper.
An interesting match on the small screen for that matter as well. Alex Richards took first blood with an early buzz. He knew that if you hear “2013” and “skeletal remains” the answer will either be “Richard III” or “Bruce Forsyth” (sorry Brucie. Well, sorryish), and correctly supplied the answer of Dick the Bad. 2 bonuses on pi followed. Another of those rather topical starters followed. There was a bit of a preamble, but as soon as we heard ‘controversial process’ and ‘drilling’ Ewan Macauley buzzed in with fracking. The team managed one bonus on “The Tempest”, incidentally missing out on the quiz chestnut that my favourite 1950s sci fi film “Forbidden Planet” was based on that very play. A great answer from Matt Mackenzie saw him identified a brilliant quote about T.S.Eliot’s “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” as belonging to C.S.Lewis. An interesting set of hypotheses saw Durham take another two. Philip Ostrowski knew that the Nordlinger-Ries, with a circumference of 25 km would most likely be an impact crater. This brought them a welcome set on cell biology which were dispatched towards the boundary rope in fairly short order. This brought up the picture starter and Oliver Burnham recognised the logo of UNESCO, even though any helpful wording had been removed. Good shout, that. 2 correct answers on logos of other US organisations were taken. The next starter asked for the 6th book of the Old Testament, and Ewan Macauley was the first to try his arm with Joshua. Weather extremes brought two correct answers. All of which meant that both teams had scored 60 by the ten minute mark. At this point I was patting myself on the back for predicting a close match between the two.
Ewan knew that the aepyornis, or elephant bird, was native to Madagascar. Classical music bonuses on Variations proved elusive, and only the one was answered correctly. For the next question, although I’ve never heard of them when I heard the word ‘osteocytes’ I shouted ‘bones’, pretty much at the same time as Ewan buzzed in with the same answer. He probably knew it, though. Two well earned bonuses on ‘being’ were taken. I did know that Thomas Mann wrote Felix Krull, which neither of the teams did. Andreas Capstack knew that the falls over which Sherlock Holmes fell began with Reich, and it had become perfectly clear that Christ Church was taking the upper hand in the contest. Only one bonus was taken on quotations from de Toqueville, but that wasn’t so important as the fact that Christ Church were forging a sizeable lead. They had scored 70 points since Durham’s last visit to the table. For the music starter Philip Ostrowski apologised to the world for recognising the dulcet tones of Canadienne songstress Celine Dion. Three more of the same brought a full set. George Greenwood knew that the reivers operated on the Scottish borders, and another correct answer on the Duke of Monmouth’s rebellion meant that they had now scored 90 unanswered points. A physicsy sort of thing followed, and JP thought short and hard before he rejected Daniel Hulme’s answer, and accepting Ewan’s. When things don’t go for you, they really don’t. A UC special set on pairs of words which are pronounced the same but spelled differently followed. These are usually gettable, and Christ Church made no error in taking a full set. IN the next one, which asked about the animal, the fauve de Borgogne, of which the BRC is the showing organisation in the UK, I think a hint of frustration came in Matt Mackenzie’s answer of ‘badgers’. If it was an attempt to inject a little gallows humour into the proceedings, it worked – well, it made me laugh. I think that the next point was a little controversial. It asked for the three letters linking a French Mediterranean resort, a large Belgian port, and the fifth largest continent. Now, Matt Mackenzie’s actual words when he buzzed in were “Ant – I was going to say Antwerp, that’s wrong isn’t it. “To which JP replied “You’re right. . . it is”. Now, hang on a minute. Even if he was trying to say Antwerp, he clearly said Ant first. Now, there is an argument for saying that was his first answer – in which case it was right. Maybe it wouldn’t have made any difference to the outcome of the contest – I’m sure it wouldn’t, but at the very least Durham would be forgiven for thinking that they had fallen foul of a harsh call there. As it was Christ Church took a full set on molecular Physics. This completed a ten minute shut out, and to add insult to injury Durham had lost 5 points in the interim, and now trailed by 55 points to 200. Game over, I’m afraid.
Now that the middle spell of the contest was over, it seemed as if the spell was broken. Alex Richards buzzed in extremely quickly to answer that Pope Urban II launched the first Crusade. No bonus on transport were taken. For the second picture starter we were asked to identify the breed of Barack Obama’s dog. Ewan was close with Portuguese Water Terrier, but this let in Matt Mackenzie with Portuguese water dog. More presidents and their dogs provided another correct answer. Daniel Hulme knew that the £2 Charles Dickens coin has the words “Something will turn up” around its edge. Two bonuses on members of the Order of Merit took Durham to three figures, and they deserved that. Philip Ostrowski ensured that this last section of the show would not be a shut out by answering that the Sartorius is situated in the leg. Various chemical compounds named after places brought two correct answers. Matt Mackenzie won the buzzer race to identify a set of works with the words ‘the woman’ in the title. Two more bonuses meant that they had more than doubled their score in 5 minutes. Matt Mackenzie knew that a lake – can’t remember the name – is in Kazakhstan. Orwell’s 1984 provided another two bonuses. Philip Ostrowski reminded Durham that Christ Church were still there by identifying two titles of works by Dave Eggers. European Cities of Culture provided just the one bonus. A maths starter was worked out extremely quickly by Ewan, and that, as they say, was that. Christ Church won by 245 to 140, and that devastating middle period shutout had done all the damage. It confirmed what I suggested all along – this is a very good Christ Church outfit, who could do damage again in the second round. As for Durham , well, hard lines. A good team in their own right, but beaten by the better team on the night.
Jeremy Paxman Watch
An early one tonight. On just the second bonus , which asked for the first five digits of the binary expansion of pi ( huh?) Durham took their time working it out before giving no answer, to which he replied, “Very entertaining conferring at least”.
Philip Ostrowski came close to a JP wigging by firstly saying ‘crater’, then ‘asteroid crater’ in answer to the Nordlinger-Ries question. Our hero replied “An impact crater is what it’s properly called. “ In his head I’m sure he was also saying – now write it out a hundred times and NEVER get it wrong again! – For his punchline he added “At least you didn’t say “hole in the ground!” – and again, in his head he probably added – though I wouldn’t have put that past you.
Blimey, but JP was in chatty mood. When Oliver Burnham made it clear from the tone of his voice that he wasn’t sure of the answer, he said “Yes, you were astonished it was so easy. “ Au contraire, monsieur P.
In fact, the man was positively avuncular when he accepted Atomic Energy Agency for International Atomic Agency in the logo bonuses, saying “I’ll give you that . . . on the basis that we were kind to Christ Church a moment ago.”
Uncle Jez had been banished, mind you, by the time that Oliver Burnham offered “Kissinger” for the name of the German writer of “Felix Krull”. “Kissinger?!” he virtually screeched, eyebrows shooting towards the ceiling. “That really wasn’t worth saying!”
Not yet finished, JP introduced the first Canadian bonus by saying it was “Somewhat inexplicable” that Celine Dion had so many Canadian Juno award nominations. Miaow. When they identified Shania Twain he accused them of having no shame, and when they took the full set his only comment was “Oh my godfathers, yes!”
Extending his repertoire to physical comedy, JP grossly exaggerated holding his head in his hands while Christ Church debated whether the battle that put an end of Monmouth’s Rebellion was in the North of England.
Interesting Fact That I Didn’t Already Know Of The Week
The BRC is the showing organisation for British keepers and breeders of rabbits.
Friday, 25 October 2013
Mastermind - Round One - Heat Eleven
Another week, and another eclectic mix of specialist subjects. Actually, maybe not quite so eclectic this week - we had a popular culture subject – R.E.M. – a much loved author – C.S.Lewis – a sports subject – Queen of the South – and a worthy historical figure – Elizabeth Fry.
The R.E.M. round, served up to Simon Marhsall, took me on a little trip down Memory Lane. In my first, unsuccessful, tilt at Mastermind in 2006 I was third to go in my heat. Kath Drury , on the Roger Brook novels of Dennis Wheatley went first, and whacked in a massive 17. Then Neil Phillips whacked in his own 17 answering on R.E.M. Now, both Neil and Kath are friends of mine, but back then I felt like I was staring down the barrel of a gun as I approached the chair for the very first time. Well, that was then, and this is now, and the fact of the matter is that the length of questions today mean a specialist round of 17 ain’t gonna happen. Simon’s round of 11 was a perfectly good one, definitely more shiney happy people than the end of the world as we know it. This meant that he would be in with a shout come the general round, albeit that there was room for one of the others to gain a lead of a couple of points.
Tim Allison gave us the C.S.Lewis round. Now, I know that the idea with these question sets is to give a nice gentle slow ball as the first question in order to ease the contender’s nerves, but was it just me who thought asking for the name of the lion in the Narnia books was a little too easy? After all, Tim was a contender who knew the Narnia books inside out, the only dropped questions being about the Space trilogy. Three points is not an unassailable lead, but, and I speak as someone who never had a lead at half time in the regular series, it’s a very nice and useful one to have.
My heart went out to Amanda Roy. I would imagine that you don’t do a round on a team like Queen of the South unless you’re a devoted fan, all of which is another reason why you want to do well, and another source of pressure. Sad to say, I think it was this pressure that got to Amanda. She started well enough, accruing 4 points, but the rest of the round saw her fall into a pass spiral, from which she did not manage to extricate herself. You could see from her face she knew a number of the passes, but nerves did for her. As she received her total, she said “Oh dear.” Don’t let it get you down, Amanda. In the words of the late, great Magnus Magnusson, it’s only a bloody game.
Last night’s last contender was Ian Welham, a retired teacher. Now, I always want a teacher to do well, although I will admit that I take a certain amount of pride from the fact that, at the time of writing, I am the last schoolteacher to win a series. Elizabeth Fry was a good, traditional Mastermind subject, a subject which Ian Welham knew well, since he accrued a total of 11 points. As a pointer towards the GK round, I did think that if Ian had answered a little more quickly he might have squeezed in one or two more questions, but nonetheless he was in there with a shout.
I invite you to put yourself in Amanda Roy’s position. You have just done your specialist round, on a subject that is dear to your heart, and for some reason you cannot really explain your memory has frozen, and you have produced a round which is a long way beneath what you wanted, and what you were capable of. Now you have to come back and do it all over again, and this time they can ask you about anything. Bearing that in mind, her score of 9 and 6 passes represents respectability at least.
With the best will in the world, though, Amanda was not in contention, and would not have been even if she’d put in the best GK round of the night. Simon Marshall was in contention, though. His job was to keep his head, keep answering the questions, and try to set a score which would be enough to put the last two contenders into the corridor of uncertainty. To be honest, I thought he’d need a score of 15 to give him a realistic chance of winning, but he finished with 12. That’s perfectly respectable, but meant that Tim would only need 10 to win outright. First, though, Ian returned to the chair to make his bid for the win – and although the contenders themselves wouldn’t have known this at the time, the win was what he had to go for, since a repechage slot really wasn’t on for any of last night’s contenders. Ian looked a little surprised when the buzzer went at the end of his round, and he hadn’t really gone quite quickly enough to give him a shout. He did achieve double figure respectability though, with 11 for a total of 22.
Tim’s round was interesting. The first time that he didn’t instantly know the answer he took a very long pause, before answering correctly. This might have been a panic induced brain freeze, I mused, but it transpired that it wasn’t, and rather, it was a deliberate tactic. A very good tactic as it turned out. Tim had plenty of time to achieve the 10 points he needed, and for him correct answers were more important than blitzing the round. A cool head enabled him to pick off 13 points by the end of the round, giving him a final score of 27, and a comfortable win. Well played, and good luck in the semi final.
The Details
Repechage Table ( if 3rd or 4th place players are eligible as they were last year)
Steven Broomfield 30 – 1
Beth Webster 28 – 2
Ron Wood 28 – 3
=Carol O’Byrne 27 – 2
=Peter Russell 27 – 2
Andrew Teale – 27 – 5
The R.E.M. round, served up to Simon Marhsall, took me on a little trip down Memory Lane. In my first, unsuccessful, tilt at Mastermind in 2006 I was third to go in my heat. Kath Drury , on the Roger Brook novels of Dennis Wheatley went first, and whacked in a massive 17. Then Neil Phillips whacked in his own 17 answering on R.E.M. Now, both Neil and Kath are friends of mine, but back then I felt like I was staring down the barrel of a gun as I approached the chair for the very first time. Well, that was then, and this is now, and the fact of the matter is that the length of questions today mean a specialist round of 17 ain’t gonna happen. Simon’s round of 11 was a perfectly good one, definitely more shiney happy people than the end of the world as we know it. This meant that he would be in with a shout come the general round, albeit that there was room for one of the others to gain a lead of a couple of points.
Tim Allison gave us the C.S.Lewis round. Now, I know that the idea with these question sets is to give a nice gentle slow ball as the first question in order to ease the contender’s nerves, but was it just me who thought asking for the name of the lion in the Narnia books was a little too easy? After all, Tim was a contender who knew the Narnia books inside out, the only dropped questions being about the Space trilogy. Three points is not an unassailable lead, but, and I speak as someone who never had a lead at half time in the regular series, it’s a very nice and useful one to have.
My heart went out to Amanda Roy. I would imagine that you don’t do a round on a team like Queen of the South unless you’re a devoted fan, all of which is another reason why you want to do well, and another source of pressure. Sad to say, I think it was this pressure that got to Amanda. She started well enough, accruing 4 points, but the rest of the round saw her fall into a pass spiral, from which she did not manage to extricate herself. You could see from her face she knew a number of the passes, but nerves did for her. As she received her total, she said “Oh dear.” Don’t let it get you down, Amanda. In the words of the late, great Magnus Magnusson, it’s only a bloody game.
Last night’s last contender was Ian Welham, a retired teacher. Now, I always want a teacher to do well, although I will admit that I take a certain amount of pride from the fact that, at the time of writing, I am the last schoolteacher to win a series. Elizabeth Fry was a good, traditional Mastermind subject, a subject which Ian Welham knew well, since he accrued a total of 11 points. As a pointer towards the GK round, I did think that if Ian had answered a little more quickly he might have squeezed in one or two more questions, but nonetheless he was in there with a shout.
I invite you to put yourself in Amanda Roy’s position. You have just done your specialist round, on a subject that is dear to your heart, and for some reason you cannot really explain your memory has frozen, and you have produced a round which is a long way beneath what you wanted, and what you were capable of. Now you have to come back and do it all over again, and this time they can ask you about anything. Bearing that in mind, her score of 9 and 6 passes represents respectability at least.
With the best will in the world, though, Amanda was not in contention, and would not have been even if she’d put in the best GK round of the night. Simon Marshall was in contention, though. His job was to keep his head, keep answering the questions, and try to set a score which would be enough to put the last two contenders into the corridor of uncertainty. To be honest, I thought he’d need a score of 15 to give him a realistic chance of winning, but he finished with 12. That’s perfectly respectable, but meant that Tim would only need 10 to win outright. First, though, Ian returned to the chair to make his bid for the win – and although the contenders themselves wouldn’t have known this at the time, the win was what he had to go for, since a repechage slot really wasn’t on for any of last night’s contenders. Ian looked a little surprised when the buzzer went at the end of his round, and he hadn’t really gone quite quickly enough to give him a shout. He did achieve double figure respectability though, with 11 for a total of 22.
Tim’s round was interesting. The first time that he didn’t instantly know the answer he took a very long pause, before answering correctly. This might have been a panic induced brain freeze, I mused, but it transpired that it wasn’t, and rather, it was a deliberate tactic. A very good tactic as it turned out. Tim had plenty of time to achieve the 10 points he needed, and for him correct answers were more important than blitzing the round. A cool head enabled him to pick off 13 points by the end of the round, giving him a final score of 27, and a comfortable win. Well played, and good luck in the semi final.
The Details
| Simon Marshall | R.E.M. | 11 - 1 | 12 - 4 | 23 - 5 |
| Tim Allison | The Fiction of C.S.Lewis | 14 - 1 | 13 - 3 | 27 - 4 |
| Amanda Roy | History of Queen of the South | 4 - 6 | 9 - 6 | 13 - 12 |
| Ian Welham | Life of Elizabeth Fry | 11 - 1 | 11- 4 | 22 - 5 |
Repechage Table ( if 3rd or 4th place players are eligible as they were last year)
Steven Broomfield 30 – 1
Beth Webster 28 – 2
Ron Wood 28 – 3
=Carol O’Byrne 27 – 2
=Peter Russell 27 – 2
Andrew Teale – 27 – 5
In the News
In The News
Who or what are the following and why have they been in the news?
1. Jovanka Broz
2. Felix Dexter
3. Leonardo Dibrani
4. Alex Lowes
5. Tom Sykes
6. Maria
7. Sean Hardeley
8. Samuel Eto’o
9. Dean Acadmey, Forest of Dean
10. Frances Quinn
11. Noel Harrison
12. Gareth Hock
13. Richard Hughes
14. Hex Factor
15. Franz Peter Tebarz-Van Elst
16. St. Jude Storm
17. Sir Anthony Caro
18. Dmitri Galitzine
19. Mark de Rond and Anton Wright
20. Sasha and Atanas Rusev
In other news
1. Which building in Swansea has topped the list of the Victorian Society’s most endangered buildings list?
2. Which veteran film actor was made a fellow of the BFI last week?
3. Which island was struck by a miniature tornado last week?
4. what was the score in the rugby league match between England and Italy?
5. Which british rider became world champion in the Omnium at the world cycling championships?
6. Who was the third celebrity to leave Strictly?
7. Which Hurricane devastated the Atlantic coast of Mexico?
8. Whose reign as manager of Middlesbrough came to an end?
9. Which chef tweeted the winner of the Great British bake Off early – and got it wrong?
10. Who was asked to leave the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque last week?
11. Which teams are in England’s rugby league world cup group?
12. – and Scotland’s?
13. – and Wales’ ?
14. Which welsh international rugby player allegedly turned up to a training session in Bayonne the worse for wear for alcohol?
15. Who announced he is quitting his long running quiz show?
16. Who called for a one off energy windfall tax?
17. Which Asian country announced it will be enforcing sharia law from 2014?
18. Who paid Lord McAlpine a reported £15,000 over a tweet?
19. What was the score between Arsenal and Borussia Dortmund?
20. – and Celtic and Ajax?
21. – and Chelsea and Schalke?
22. What was the venue for the christening of Prince George of Cambridge?
23. The Vatican announced that it is forming its own team to play which sport? 24. Who said that Sir Alex Ferguson does not know the meaning of the word loyalty?
25. For what did Sir John Major publically apologise last week?
26. What was the score between Man Utd and Real Sociedad?
27. Russia have dropped charges of piracy against the crew of the Arctic Sunrise in favour of which charge?
28. Ian Holloway quit as manager of which club?
29. In which city will the 2014 Tour De France start?
30. What was the score between Man City and CSKA Moscow ?
31. Who is the new manager of Sheffield United?
32. Who is the only member of the Royal Family to become one of Prince George’s godparents?
33. The horrific Facebook decapitation video originated in which country?
34. Name all 11 players on the Wisden all time Test World XI
35. Which former Education Minister criticized Michael Gove?
36. What was the score between Swansea and Kuban Krasnodar?
37. – and Spurs and Sheriff Tiraspol
38. and Wigan and Rubin Kazan?
Who or what are the following and why have they been in the news?
1. Jovanka Broz
2. Felix Dexter
3. Leonardo Dibrani
4. Alex Lowes
5. Tom Sykes
6. Maria
7. Sean Hardeley
8. Samuel Eto’o
9. Dean Acadmey, Forest of Dean
10. Frances Quinn
11. Noel Harrison
12. Gareth Hock
13. Richard Hughes
14. Hex Factor
15. Franz Peter Tebarz-Van Elst
16. St. Jude Storm
17. Sir Anthony Caro
18. Dmitri Galitzine
19. Mark de Rond and Anton Wright
20. Sasha and Atanas Rusev
In other news
1. Which building in Swansea has topped the list of the Victorian Society’s most endangered buildings list?
2. Which veteran film actor was made a fellow of the BFI last week?
3. Which island was struck by a miniature tornado last week?
4. what was the score in the rugby league match between England and Italy?
5. Which british rider became world champion in the Omnium at the world cycling championships?
6. Who was the third celebrity to leave Strictly?
7. Which Hurricane devastated the Atlantic coast of Mexico?
8. Whose reign as manager of Middlesbrough came to an end?
9. Which chef tweeted the winner of the Great British bake Off early – and got it wrong?
10. Who was asked to leave the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque last week?
11. Which teams are in England’s rugby league world cup group?
12. – and Scotland’s?
13. – and Wales’ ?
14. Which welsh international rugby player allegedly turned up to a training session in Bayonne the worse for wear for alcohol?
15. Who announced he is quitting his long running quiz show?
16. Who called for a one off energy windfall tax?
17. Which Asian country announced it will be enforcing sharia law from 2014?
18. Who paid Lord McAlpine a reported £15,000 over a tweet?
19. What was the score between Arsenal and Borussia Dortmund?
20. – and Celtic and Ajax?
21. – and Chelsea and Schalke?
22. What was the venue for the christening of Prince George of Cambridge?
23. The Vatican announced that it is forming its own team to play which sport? 24. Who said that Sir Alex Ferguson does not know the meaning of the word loyalty?
25. For what did Sir John Major publically apologise last week?
26. What was the score between Man Utd and Real Sociedad?
27. Russia have dropped charges of piracy against the crew of the Arctic Sunrise in favour of which charge?
28. Ian Holloway quit as manager of which club?
29. In which city will the 2014 Tour De France start?
30. What was the score between Man City and CSKA Moscow ?
31. Who is the new manager of Sheffield United?
32. Who is the only member of the Royal Family to become one of Prince George’s godparents?
33. The horrific Facebook decapitation video originated in which country?
34. Name all 11 players on the Wisden all time Test World XI
35. Which former Education Minister criticized Michael Gove?
36. What was the score between Swansea and Kuban Krasnodar?
37. – and Spurs and Sheriff Tiraspol
38. and Wigan and Rubin Kazan?
Answers to News Questions
In The News
Who or what are the following and why have they been in the news?
1. Czechia
2. OPCW
3. Charlie Hunnam
4. Maria de Villota
5. Victor Hepworth
6. David Belmar
7. Arnold Gjergjaj
8. Lauren Patterson
9. Andrew Walliker
10. Jozef Metelka
11. Eleanor Catton
12. The Luminaries
13. V53
14. Rufus Norris
15. Carson Yeung
16. Branka Delic
17. Jo Swinson
18. Eleanor Laing
19. Hans Riegel
20. Bryan Sykes
21. Harry Wilson
22. Gloria de Piero
In other news
1. What was the score between England and Montenegro?
2. Who scored the goals for England?
3. Where did Sir Richard Branson say that he had moved purely for the good of his health?
4. Where were six red cross workers abducted?
5. 91 people were tragically killed in a stampede at an Indian Temple – where?
6. Who won the Japanese GP?
7. Cardiff Blues were somewhat surprisingly beaten by which team in the Heineken Cup?
8. Which comedienne appealed on Twitter for the return of her laptop?
9. Who was the second person voted out of Strictly?
10. Why were restrictions placed on this year’s Hajj?
11. Rory McIlroy has split with whom?
12. Who sold some of his canvases for $60 a pop in New York?
13. What did Amazon reveal as their fastest ever selling product?
14. Which High Street retailer were accused of allegedly avoiding up to £1 billion in taxes?
15. Which classic children’s TV programme is to be revived after 45 years?
16. Which Epsom Derby winner retired?
17. Which former world athletics champion has had his lottery funding stopped?
18. Who scored England’s goals against Poland?
19. In a BBC History poll, who was voted Britain’s best dressed man ever?
20. What happened to Tian Tian the Edinburgh Zoo panda?
21. Where did Boris Johnson visit?
22. What has happened to the French version of the Lord’s Prayer?
23. What was the score between Scotland and Croatia?
24. – and Wales and Belgium?
25. Who is the manager of the Russian football team who also qualified for the world cup in Brazil?
26. Where will the Hillsborough Disaster Inquiry take place?
27. Which country is the world’s 2nd biggest Twitter market?
28. What was the outcome of the Supreme Court vote on prisoners’ right to vote?
29. Which boxing manager/promoter has walked away from the sport?
30. Who is the new Managing Director of English Cricket?
31. Many schools were closed due to industrial action by which teaching unions?
32. Whose autobiography, titled “Autobiography” was published this week?
33. England have risen to which position in the FIFA world rankings?
34. Who advised customers to switch from British Gas following their 9% price hike?
35. Who became the BBC’s new economics editor?
36. Roy Hodgson found himself in hot water over an allegedly racist comment to which England player at half time in the Poland match?
Answers
Who or what are the following and why have they been in the news?
1. President of the Czech Republic announced he’d like to change its name to this
2. Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, won this year’s Nobel Peace Prize – beating Malala Yusufzai
3. British actor dropped out of the film of “50 Shades of etc”
4. Spanish F1 test driver died
5. OAP killed by 10 year old boy
6. Knifeman arrested trying to enter Buckingham Palace
7. Derek Chisora’s first opponent as European heavyweight champion
8. Teacher missing presumed dead in Qatar
9. Teacher whose name was used by Helen Fielding in the latest Bridget Jones novel
10. 1st person in Europe to be given a bionic foot
11. Winner of the Mann Booker prize
12. Title of her book that won the prize
13. Designation of the marksman who shot Mark Duggan
14. Next director of the National Theatre
15. Owner of Birmingham City – on trial in Hong Kong for alleged money laundering
16. She married Jon Bon Jovi
17. Pregnant MP forced to stand throughout PM’s Question Time
18. MP elected to position of Deputy Speaker of the House of Commons
19. Founder of Haribo ( Hans Riegel of Bonn)
20. Scientist who claims DNA tests on recent ‘yeti’ fur prove it to be a relative of two extinct bears
21. His Grandad won £125,000 by betting he would play for football before he was 20 when he was 18 months old
22. Shadow Cabinet Minister who had topless photos taken when she was 15
In Other news
1. 4 – 1 to England
2. Rooney – Sturridge – Townsend – Boskovic ( og)
3. Necker Island
4. Syria
5. Ratangarh
6. Sebastian Vettel
7. Exeter
8. Miranda Hart
9. Vanessa Feltz
10. To stop the spread of the Mers virus
11. Caroline Wozniacki
12. Banksy
13. “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows”
14. Boots
15. The Clangers
16. Camelot
17. Phillips Idowu
18. Rooney and Gerrard
19. David Bowie
20. Sadly she suffered a late term miscarriage
21. China
22. They have changed the wording of the lead us not into temptation section to make it less of an accusation that God would ever lead anyone into temptation
23. 2 – 0 to Scotland
24. 1 - 1
25. Fabio Capello
26. Birchwood Park, Warrington
27. UK
28. It denied them the right to vote
29. Frank Moloney
30. Paul Downton
31. NASUWT and NUT
32. Morrissey
33. 10th
34. David Cameron
35. Robert Peston
36. Andros Townsend
Who or what are the following and why have they been in the news?
1. Czechia
2. OPCW
3. Charlie Hunnam
4. Maria de Villota
5. Victor Hepworth
6. David Belmar
7. Arnold Gjergjaj
8. Lauren Patterson
9. Andrew Walliker
10. Jozef Metelka
11. Eleanor Catton
12. The Luminaries
13. V53
14. Rufus Norris
15. Carson Yeung
16. Branka Delic
17. Jo Swinson
18. Eleanor Laing
19. Hans Riegel
20. Bryan Sykes
21. Harry Wilson
22. Gloria de Piero
In other news
1. What was the score between England and Montenegro?
2. Who scored the goals for England?
3. Where did Sir Richard Branson say that he had moved purely for the good of his health?
4. Where were six red cross workers abducted?
5. 91 people were tragically killed in a stampede at an Indian Temple – where?
6. Who won the Japanese GP?
7. Cardiff Blues were somewhat surprisingly beaten by which team in the Heineken Cup?
8. Which comedienne appealed on Twitter for the return of her laptop?
9. Who was the second person voted out of Strictly?
10. Why were restrictions placed on this year’s Hajj?
11. Rory McIlroy has split with whom?
12. Who sold some of his canvases for $60 a pop in New York?
13. What did Amazon reveal as their fastest ever selling product?
14. Which High Street retailer were accused of allegedly avoiding up to £1 billion in taxes?
15. Which classic children’s TV programme is to be revived after 45 years?
16. Which Epsom Derby winner retired?
17. Which former world athletics champion has had his lottery funding stopped?
18. Who scored England’s goals against Poland?
19. In a BBC History poll, who was voted Britain’s best dressed man ever?
20. What happened to Tian Tian the Edinburgh Zoo panda?
21. Where did Boris Johnson visit?
22. What has happened to the French version of the Lord’s Prayer?
23. What was the score between Scotland and Croatia?
24. – and Wales and Belgium?
25. Who is the manager of the Russian football team who also qualified for the world cup in Brazil?
26. Where will the Hillsborough Disaster Inquiry take place?
27. Which country is the world’s 2nd biggest Twitter market?
28. What was the outcome of the Supreme Court vote on prisoners’ right to vote?
29. Which boxing manager/promoter has walked away from the sport?
30. Who is the new Managing Director of English Cricket?
31. Many schools were closed due to industrial action by which teaching unions?
32. Whose autobiography, titled “Autobiography” was published this week?
33. England have risen to which position in the FIFA world rankings?
34. Who advised customers to switch from British Gas following their 9% price hike?
35. Who became the BBC’s new economics editor?
36. Roy Hodgson found himself in hot water over an allegedly racist comment to which England player at half time in the Poland match?
Answers
Who or what are the following and why have they been in the news?
1. President of the Czech Republic announced he’d like to change its name to this
2. Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, won this year’s Nobel Peace Prize – beating Malala Yusufzai
3. British actor dropped out of the film of “50 Shades of etc”
4. Spanish F1 test driver died
5. OAP killed by 10 year old boy
6. Knifeman arrested trying to enter Buckingham Palace
7. Derek Chisora’s first opponent as European heavyweight champion
8. Teacher missing presumed dead in Qatar
9. Teacher whose name was used by Helen Fielding in the latest Bridget Jones novel
10. 1st person in Europe to be given a bionic foot
11. Winner of the Mann Booker prize
12. Title of her book that won the prize
13. Designation of the marksman who shot Mark Duggan
14. Next director of the National Theatre
15. Owner of Birmingham City – on trial in Hong Kong for alleged money laundering
16. She married Jon Bon Jovi
17. Pregnant MP forced to stand throughout PM’s Question Time
18. MP elected to position of Deputy Speaker of the House of Commons
19. Founder of Haribo ( Hans Riegel of Bonn)
20. Scientist who claims DNA tests on recent ‘yeti’ fur prove it to be a relative of two extinct bears
21. His Grandad won £125,000 by betting he would play for football before he was 20 when he was 18 months old
22. Shadow Cabinet Minister who had topless photos taken when she was 15
In Other news
1. 4 – 1 to England
2. Rooney – Sturridge – Townsend – Boskovic ( og)
3. Necker Island
4. Syria
5. Ratangarh
6. Sebastian Vettel
7. Exeter
8. Miranda Hart
9. Vanessa Feltz
10. To stop the spread of the Mers virus
11. Caroline Wozniacki
12. Banksy
13. “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows”
14. Boots
15. The Clangers
16. Camelot
17. Phillips Idowu
18. Rooney and Gerrard
19. David Bowie
20. Sadly she suffered a late term miscarriage
21. China
22. They have changed the wording of the lead us not into temptation section to make it less of an accusation that God would ever lead anyone into temptation
23. 2 – 0 to Scotland
24. 1 - 1
25. Fabio Capello
26. Birchwood Park, Warrington
27. UK
28. It denied them the right to vote
29. Frank Moloney
30. Paul Downton
31. NASUWT and NUT
32. Morrissey
33. 10th
34. David Cameron
35. Robert Peston
36. Andros Townsend
Saturday, 19 October 2013
University Challenge - Round Two and Repechage Preview
Well, that was a good first round, wasn’t it? I’m going to get on to the teams who are automatically through to the second round in a moment, but first, let’s look at the teams in the repechage.
Now, the line up for the two heats is
Durham v. Christ Church
Southampton v. Loughborough
On paper the first match looks straightforward, doesn’t it? Think again. Look at the two teams’ bonus conversion rates. Durham’s is a very good 59%. But Christ Church scored an exceptional 76.1 %. Yes, Christ Church scored 20 points less than Durham did, but then Christ Church were playing against the mighty Trinity team. This doesn’t mean that Christ Church are favourites for the match, but it means you must not dismiss their chances. Personally, I can’t call it. In fact, although Loughborough and Southampton’s scores were the same, I think it may be easier to predict the outcome. There’s a significant difference between their respective conversion rates, which suggests that although it could be close, Southampton look to me to just have the edge.
Ok, now let’s look at those teams already through to the second round.
Trinity are probably the easiest to start with. Their score is an exceptional one, achieved with a massive bonus conversion rate of 71.4%. They will fear no one. Are they guaranteed a place in the quarters? No, no team is, but they will be favourites whichever team they happen to be drawn against. Liverpool, having amassed a huge score themselves look formidable, but that bonus conversion rate is a worry, and suggest that if they meet a faster buzzer team than Keele, then they could struggle. York too played one of the less successful teams on the buzzer, but their conversion rate of just over 69% is a very high one, and for me this makes them a better bet than Liverpool.
Ranking the teams according to their match scores, there are only 40 points separating teams 3 to 8. All of them have a bonus conversion rate of 55% or over, except Peterhouse, with 54.7. So there’s not a great deal to choose. Arbitrarily picking on a couple of teams, it’s interesting to see double champions Manchester in the bottom half of the table, with one of the lower scores, and lower conversion rates. Yet I doubt that anyone will particularly want to draw Manchester in round 2, bearing in mind their fantastic track record in recent years. The University of London School of Oriental and African Studies scored a very good bonus conversion rate of 69.9, and they are, I dare say, a team to watch.
There’s lies, damned lies and statistics, apparently, so bear this in mind, but these same statistics seem to suggest that Queen’s Belfast, Cardiff and Reading could all struggle.
Well, I always make a disclaimer that first round form is notoriously unreliable as a guide to second round form, but it’s all we have. That’s my take on it – best of luck to all the teams.
Durham v. Christ Church
Southampton v. Loughborough
On paper the first match looks straightforward, doesn’t it? Think again. Look at the two teams’ bonus conversion rates. Durham’s is a very good 59%. But Christ Church scored an exceptional 76.1 %. Yes, Christ Church scored 20 points less than Durham did, but then Christ Church were playing against the mighty Trinity team. This doesn’t mean that Christ Church are favourites for the match, but it means you must not dismiss their chances. Personally, I can’t call it. In fact, although Loughborough and Southampton’s scores were the same, I think it may be easier to predict the outcome. There’s a significant difference between their respective conversion rates, which suggests that although it could be close, Southampton look to me to just have the edge.
Ok, now let’s look at those teams already through to the second round.
Ranking the teams according to their match scores, there are only 40 points separating teams 3 to 8. All of them have a bonus conversion rate of 55% or over, except Peterhouse, with 54.7. So there’s not a great deal to choose. Arbitrarily picking on a couple of teams, it’s interesting to see double champions Manchester in the bottom half of the table, with one of the lower scores, and lower conversion rates. Yet I doubt that anyone will particularly want to draw Manchester in round 2, bearing in mind their fantastic track record in recent years. The University of London School of Oriental and African Studies scored a very good bonus conversion rate of 69.9, and they are, I dare say, a team to watch.
There’s lies, damned lies and statistics, apparently, so bear this in mind, but these same statistics seem to suggest that Queen’s Belfast, Cardiff and Reading could all struggle.
Well, I always make a disclaimer that first round form is notoriously unreliable as a guide to second round form, but it’s all we have. That’s my take on it – best of luck to all the teams.
Friday, 18 October 2013
Mastermind - Round One - Heat Ten
Well, talk about the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune. After last week’s group of death we had quite a change of pace this week. I should imagine that both last week’s runner up and 3rd place contenders will have cast maybe a rueful smile seeing the scores of all the contenders this week. But then that’s the meaning of the phrase ‘the luck of the draw’.
Unusually three of tonight’s subjects were pretty much to my liking. The first of these – Asterix – was offered to us by Richard Holness. I’ve always had a fondness for Asterix the Gaul. I think that the translator(s?) of Asterix is/are amongst the great unsung heroes of the comic book world. I’ve read a couple of them in the original French, and the way that the English translators preserve the humour, while using some very English wordplay, is terrific. So I wasn’t unhappy to get 4 on this set. It seemed hellish wide-ranging too, and asked for what sounded to be some pretty obscure details. Under those circumstances, and the ubiquitous needlessly long questions, Richard’s 8 seemed a pretty good performance to me, but the chances always were that this was going to leave him with a bit of a mountain to climb in the second round.
Pete Collin’s subject was the second one where I fancied my chances of getting anything up to maybe half a dozen. Robert E. Lee was the military mastermind who kept the Confederate Army in the American Civil War , even thought it was the Union who seemingly held all the aces. Pete obviously knew his stuff – a lot more than I did, too, since I had 4 and he had 11, which was the best specialist round of the night. If he could answer as crisply in his GK round, then he was going to be in with a decent shout.
My least successful specialist round tonight, as I knew it would be, was that on the life and work of Puccini, which was undertaken by Daniel Adler. I scraped 1, more by luck than judgement. Daniel, like Pete, certainly gave the impression of knowing his stuff. However a couple of answers caught him out, and prevented him from getting into double figures. No doubt, a good round, but as we’ve seen an exceptional round on specialist can get you 14 or even 15 at the moment. If our last contender managed anything close to that, then the game might be over by half time.
Our last contender was Betty McAlister, and Betty , well, Betty was offering us King George IV. Which, as it happens, was my specialist subject in the semi-final of the 2007 SOBM. Some of the questions which Betty was asked were asked in my round as well – Mrs. Fiztherbert and George Brummel for example. Betty started well enough, but she really did seem beset by nerves after having a pass. She rallied enough to take her score to 9, so at least she was still in the game. As for me, I managed 10, which gave me a non wikied total of 19, which is my highest unwikied for a while.
If one of the contenders could take the GK round by the scruff of the neck, then he or she could blow the rest out of the water, and indeed, each of them needed to go for the win, since a repechage slot looked unlikely with the relatively modest first round scores. First to give it a lash was Richard Holness. He made a pretty good job of it too. I’ll be honest, I do often think that all the GK rounds in a particular show are much of a muchness, but I found Richard’s round harder than I found the other contenders’. This is just a personal thing, and by all means feel free to disagree. His 13 gave him 21, and in normal circumstances you wouldn’t expect this to be enough to win a place in the semis. However tonight you had the sneaky feeling that maybe this could give him a chance. Daniel Adler was next to return to the chair. His round was almost as good as Richard’s, and bear in mind that he did have a one point cushion from the specialist round. His 12 put him level, and suddenly the number of passes that both contenders had accrued began to look very significant indeed.
Betty McAlister returned to the chair, and I’m afraid that the nerves seemed to come back again. She never established any rhythm, and when the buzzer finally sounded she had taken her score up to 16. All of which left just the one contender, Pete Collin. To put his task into simple terms, with 11 points from the specialist round, he needed another 11 points from two and a half minutes of general knowledge to make all arguments about passes redundant. That looks like a relatively easy total to reach – when you’re relaxed, on song, and answering in your own chair at home it is. It’s a different kettle of fish when you’re in that chair. Once you know you need a double figure total it can start to play on your mind a bit, and if you start missing questions, or passing, then it can play on your mind a lot. I still thought that Pete could do it up until midway through his round, but the passes were building up, and the clock was unforgiving. In the end Pete managed 8 for 19, a couple of points short.
So it all came down to passes. Neither Richard nor Daniel had been at all profligate with their passes, and indeed there was only one pass in it. Richard had passed twice. However Daniel had only passed once. That’s how slim the margin between victory and other thing can be. Congratulations Daniel – good luck in your semi.
The Details
Repechage Table ( if 3rd or 4th place players are eligible as they were last year)
Steven Broomfield 30 – 1
Beth Webster 28 – 2
Ron Wood 28 – 3
=Carol O’Byrne 27 – 2
=Peter Russell 27 – 2
Andrew Teale – 27 – 5
Unusually three of tonight’s subjects were pretty much to my liking. The first of these – Asterix – was offered to us by Richard Holness. I’ve always had a fondness for Asterix the Gaul. I think that the translator(s?) of Asterix is/are amongst the great unsung heroes of the comic book world. I’ve read a couple of them in the original French, and the way that the English translators preserve the humour, while using some very English wordplay, is terrific. So I wasn’t unhappy to get 4 on this set. It seemed hellish wide-ranging too, and asked for what sounded to be some pretty obscure details. Under those circumstances, and the ubiquitous needlessly long questions, Richard’s 8 seemed a pretty good performance to me, but the chances always were that this was going to leave him with a bit of a mountain to climb in the second round.
Pete Collin’s subject was the second one where I fancied my chances of getting anything up to maybe half a dozen. Robert E. Lee was the military mastermind who kept the Confederate Army in the American Civil War , even thought it was the Union who seemingly held all the aces. Pete obviously knew his stuff – a lot more than I did, too, since I had 4 and he had 11, which was the best specialist round of the night. If he could answer as crisply in his GK round, then he was going to be in with a decent shout.
My least successful specialist round tonight, as I knew it would be, was that on the life and work of Puccini, which was undertaken by Daniel Adler. I scraped 1, more by luck than judgement. Daniel, like Pete, certainly gave the impression of knowing his stuff. However a couple of answers caught him out, and prevented him from getting into double figures. No doubt, a good round, but as we’ve seen an exceptional round on specialist can get you 14 or even 15 at the moment. If our last contender managed anything close to that, then the game might be over by half time.
Our last contender was Betty McAlister, and Betty , well, Betty was offering us King George IV. Which, as it happens, was my specialist subject in the semi-final of the 2007 SOBM. Some of the questions which Betty was asked were asked in my round as well – Mrs. Fiztherbert and George Brummel for example. Betty started well enough, but she really did seem beset by nerves after having a pass. She rallied enough to take her score to 9, so at least she was still in the game. As for me, I managed 10, which gave me a non wikied total of 19, which is my highest unwikied for a while.
If one of the contenders could take the GK round by the scruff of the neck, then he or she could blow the rest out of the water, and indeed, each of them needed to go for the win, since a repechage slot looked unlikely with the relatively modest first round scores. First to give it a lash was Richard Holness. He made a pretty good job of it too. I’ll be honest, I do often think that all the GK rounds in a particular show are much of a muchness, but I found Richard’s round harder than I found the other contenders’. This is just a personal thing, and by all means feel free to disagree. His 13 gave him 21, and in normal circumstances you wouldn’t expect this to be enough to win a place in the semis. However tonight you had the sneaky feeling that maybe this could give him a chance. Daniel Adler was next to return to the chair. His round was almost as good as Richard’s, and bear in mind that he did have a one point cushion from the specialist round. His 12 put him level, and suddenly the number of passes that both contenders had accrued began to look very significant indeed.
Betty McAlister returned to the chair, and I’m afraid that the nerves seemed to come back again. She never established any rhythm, and when the buzzer finally sounded she had taken her score up to 16. All of which left just the one contender, Pete Collin. To put his task into simple terms, with 11 points from the specialist round, he needed another 11 points from two and a half minutes of general knowledge to make all arguments about passes redundant. That looks like a relatively easy total to reach – when you’re relaxed, on song, and answering in your own chair at home it is. It’s a different kettle of fish when you’re in that chair. Once you know you need a double figure total it can start to play on your mind a bit, and if you start missing questions, or passing, then it can play on your mind a lot. I still thought that Pete could do it up until midway through his round, but the passes were building up, and the clock was unforgiving. In the end Pete managed 8 for 19, a couple of points short.
So it all came down to passes. Neither Richard nor Daniel had been at all profligate with their passes, and indeed there was only one pass in it. Richard had passed twice. However Daniel had only passed once. That’s how slim the margin between victory and other thing can be. Congratulations Daniel – good luck in your semi.
The Details
| Richard Holness | Asterix | 8 -0 | 13 - 2 | 21 - 2 |
| Pete Collin | Robert E. Lee | 11 - 1 | 8 - 7 | 19 - 8 |
| Daniel Adler | The Life and Works of Puccini | 9 -0 | 12 - 1 | 21 - 1 |
| Betty McAlister | King George IV | 9 - 3 | 7 - 7 | 16 - 10 |
Repechage Table ( if 3rd or 4th place players are eligible as they were last year)
Steven Broomfield 30 – 1
Beth Webster 28 – 2
Ron Wood 28 – 3
=Carol O’Byrne 27 – 2
=Peter Russell 27 – 2
Andrew Teale – 27 – 5
Only Connect - Round One - Match four
The Press Gang v. The Bakers
The Press Gang were Emily Phillips, Richard Colfer, and Robin Seavill. Now, they might not be known as widely as quizzers as some teams, but they are all puzzle compilers for the press association, and that certainly gave them a chance. Actually, I say that, but Robin Seavill was a semi-finalist in Ian’s 2011 Mastermind series. So there’s quiz pedigree there as well. The Gang’s opponents were The Bakers, Tim Spain, Matt Rowbotham and Peter Steggle, who are all bakers in their spare time, I believe. Enough of such things.
Round One – What’s the Connection?
Water kicked off the show for the Gang, and their first clue was Lumiere. Brothers? Cinema Pioneers? Beauty and the Beast? Possibility overload meant that I didn’t hazard a guess straightaway. Dora the Explorer’s backpack did not help me. The Sorting Hat made me wonder whether these were all talking inanimate objects – 1 and 3 certainly were. The Gang agreed with me, and rightly so for 2. The first clue for the Bakers behind Lion was Jose Rizal – otherwise known as Jose who? in my house. Bernardo O’Higgins I did know, the liberator of Chile. Prince William I of Orange didn’t help, but Kemal Ataturk did. Mustafa Kemal was given the title Ataturk which means Father of Turkey – which suggested we could be looking at Father Of - . I don’t know if I’d have been given that – they were all founding fathers of their countries as the Bakers knew – so I hope I might have been. With twisted flax the Gang started with A pure tone – nope – Biorhythms – nope – Simple Harmonic Motion – like the Gang I was thinking in waves here – then Alternating Current. Sine waves was required, and after a little jiggery pokery the Gang had it. Two reed brought pictures to the Bakers. We began with a rhinoceros, what looked like a green card, then the red sea. A white rhino then? The Bakers offered colours, but were asked for more from Victoria. Unable to do so the set was completed with an airliner’s black box, which gave the Gang the answer that they are all not the colour after which they seem to be named. Eye of Horus gave the Gang opening St. Peter’s Jubilee door – Entering a Freemason’s Lodge – and the clincher – if you want Tony Orlando . How many people at home, I wonder, broke into a mangled rendition of “Knock Three times on the ceiling if you want me?” at this point? Just me? Embarrassing. Anyway, skipper Robin, who is probably of a similar vintage to myself knew it at this point as well. No music yet, so it had to lurk in the shadow of the Horned viper. Maybe the Bakers are too young to have had it from the third clue of Windmills of Your Mind, but they had it from Max Bygraves’ ditty about the mouse who lived in a windmill in old Amsterdam. 1 point took their score to 2, against the Gang’s 6.
Round Two – What Comes Fourth?
Lion gave the Gang the very cryptic 5 cuts: 16 pieces to start. 4 cuts 11 pieces came next. So would we be looking for the maximum number of piece one could make with 2 cuts? Which would have to be 2 cuts 4 pieces. I had it off two, the Gang had it off three. Behind water the Bakers found pictures, of a button, a bowling ball - and here I guessed a polo, as did the Bakers, to get what looked like a relatively soft set. The Eye of Horus set the Gang running with West Yorkshire – Greater Manchester –I thought that maybe we were looking at population here, and plumped for Greater London. The fact that West Midlands came next made me happy, because that seemed to confirm it. Once again, I had it off two, and the Gang off three. Now, alright, I had a 5 pointer for the next, but my profession helped a lot. 4: inadequate – led me to shout 1: Outstanding. Those two and 3: Requires improvement – 2: good are grades in Oftsed inspections. ( 1 in my last Estyn – which is the Welsh equivalent of Oftsed – in my last observed lesson thanks for asking ) . The Bakers had it off two. Back to the Gang, and they found 2 (1990) – Vengeance (1995). It looked like films to me, in fact it looked like Die Hard. Robin couldn’t quite get it. The last clue was 4.0 (2007) The answer was A good Day to Die Hard, but neither team quite got it. Almost, but not quite. Never seen any of them, so didn’t get it. Twisted Flax gave the Bakers 4th: Olivia Newton John – 3rd Prima Donna and I’m sure that along with me Eurovisionphiles were shouting Sandie Shaw/Lulu/Brotherhood of Man/Bucks Fizz/Katrina and the Waves. When offered Janis Joplin by the Bakers Victoria replied that it was spectacularly wrong. Well, quite. The Gang had it. Interestingly the compilers gave Bucks Fizz as the answer – maybe they wanted to see some more. Well, anyway, the Bakers had made good headway during the round, but the Gang still led by 11 – 8.
Round Three – The Connecting Walls
With the bit between their teeth, then the Bakers got to grips with the water wall. They identified sets quickly, but the first one they isolated was Brown – Cornell – Columbis – Yale – Ivy league universities. They spent some time trying to isolate different types of rice, then the Disney Princesses – Snow White – Jasmine – Pocahontas and Merida fell into place. They seemed to be struggling, but before the time ran out the last two lines were resolved. Romeo and Juliet – Chout - Trapeze and Cinderella are Prokofiev ballets, which they didn’t have. Guessed it from Romeo and Juliet and Cinderella, but I haven’t heard of the others. Basmati – Bomba – Popcorn and Arborio – now these were the types of rice. So an honourable 7 points would keep the pressure on the Gang.
The lion wall confronted the Gang, and they set off in search of a set of films which all have the word story in their titles. Love – Bedtime – L.A. and West Side duly obliged. They eventually also separated a set of salad dressings – blue cheese – ranch – wafu and Caesar. Sadly they didn’t get the point for saying salads. They saw a set of classes of dogs used in Crufts but in the end used up their three lives and froze the wall. When it was resolved the last two lines were Utility – Pastoral – Toy and Hound – the dogs, which left Romantic – Italian – Heroes – Tragic – all of which are 4th symphonies. 5 points then, which made the scores 15 to the Bakers and 16 to the Gang. It all came down to whoever could do the vowels.
Round Four – Missing Vowels
Styles of cooking came first, and these fell 3 – 1 to the Bakers. Who now led. A great set of things removed in the game Operation came next. These too fell 3 – 1 to the Bakers, who now led by 3 points and were looking fair set for the win. Major Railway Stations fell 2 – 1 to the Gang. Gap down to two. Fictional rodents went 2 – 1 to the Bakers. How much time left ? TV Series in the 1950s gave a point to the Gang for Happy days. That was it. In the end, a win for the Bakers by 24 – 22. A fine match, and once again I’m glad that both of these sides will be back.
The Press Gang were Emily Phillips, Richard Colfer, and Robin Seavill. Now, they might not be known as widely as quizzers as some teams, but they are all puzzle compilers for the press association, and that certainly gave them a chance. Actually, I say that, but Robin Seavill was a semi-finalist in Ian’s 2011 Mastermind series. So there’s quiz pedigree there as well. The Gang’s opponents were The Bakers, Tim Spain, Matt Rowbotham and Peter Steggle, who are all bakers in their spare time, I believe. Enough of such things.
Round One – What’s the Connection?
Water kicked off the show for the Gang, and their first clue was Lumiere. Brothers? Cinema Pioneers? Beauty and the Beast? Possibility overload meant that I didn’t hazard a guess straightaway. Dora the Explorer’s backpack did not help me. The Sorting Hat made me wonder whether these were all talking inanimate objects – 1 and 3 certainly were. The Gang agreed with me, and rightly so for 2. The first clue for the Bakers behind Lion was Jose Rizal – otherwise known as Jose who? in my house. Bernardo O’Higgins I did know, the liberator of Chile. Prince William I of Orange didn’t help, but Kemal Ataturk did. Mustafa Kemal was given the title Ataturk which means Father of Turkey – which suggested we could be looking at Father Of - . I don’t know if I’d have been given that – they were all founding fathers of their countries as the Bakers knew – so I hope I might have been. With twisted flax the Gang started with A pure tone – nope – Biorhythms – nope – Simple Harmonic Motion – like the Gang I was thinking in waves here – then Alternating Current. Sine waves was required, and after a little jiggery pokery the Gang had it. Two reed brought pictures to the Bakers. We began with a rhinoceros, what looked like a green card, then the red sea. A white rhino then? The Bakers offered colours, but were asked for more from Victoria. Unable to do so the set was completed with an airliner’s black box, which gave the Gang the answer that they are all not the colour after which they seem to be named. Eye of Horus gave the Gang opening St. Peter’s Jubilee door – Entering a Freemason’s Lodge – and the clincher – if you want Tony Orlando . How many people at home, I wonder, broke into a mangled rendition of “Knock Three times on the ceiling if you want me?” at this point? Just me? Embarrassing. Anyway, skipper Robin, who is probably of a similar vintage to myself knew it at this point as well. No music yet, so it had to lurk in the shadow of the Horned viper. Maybe the Bakers are too young to have had it from the third clue of Windmills of Your Mind, but they had it from Max Bygraves’ ditty about the mouse who lived in a windmill in old Amsterdam. 1 point took their score to 2, against the Gang’s 6.
Round Two – What Comes Fourth?
Lion gave the Gang the very cryptic 5 cuts: 16 pieces to start. 4 cuts 11 pieces came next. So would we be looking for the maximum number of piece one could make with 2 cuts? Which would have to be 2 cuts 4 pieces. I had it off two, the Gang had it off three. Behind water the Bakers found pictures, of a button, a bowling ball - and here I guessed a polo, as did the Bakers, to get what looked like a relatively soft set. The Eye of Horus set the Gang running with West Yorkshire – Greater Manchester –I thought that maybe we were looking at population here, and plumped for Greater London. The fact that West Midlands came next made me happy, because that seemed to confirm it. Once again, I had it off two, and the Gang off three. Now, alright, I had a 5 pointer for the next, but my profession helped a lot. 4: inadequate – led me to shout 1: Outstanding. Those two and 3: Requires improvement – 2: good are grades in Oftsed inspections. ( 1 in my last Estyn – which is the Welsh equivalent of Oftsed – in my last observed lesson thanks for asking ) . The Bakers had it off two. Back to the Gang, and they found 2 (1990) – Vengeance (1995). It looked like films to me, in fact it looked like Die Hard. Robin couldn’t quite get it. The last clue was 4.0 (2007) The answer was A good Day to Die Hard, but neither team quite got it. Almost, but not quite. Never seen any of them, so didn’t get it. Twisted Flax gave the Bakers 4th: Olivia Newton John – 3rd Prima Donna and I’m sure that along with me Eurovisionphiles were shouting Sandie Shaw/Lulu/Brotherhood of Man/Bucks Fizz/Katrina and the Waves. When offered Janis Joplin by the Bakers Victoria replied that it was spectacularly wrong. Well, quite. The Gang had it. Interestingly the compilers gave Bucks Fizz as the answer – maybe they wanted to see some more. Well, anyway, the Bakers had made good headway during the round, but the Gang still led by 11 – 8.
Round Three – The Connecting Walls
With the bit between their teeth, then the Bakers got to grips with the water wall. They identified sets quickly, but the first one they isolated was Brown – Cornell – Columbis – Yale – Ivy league universities. They spent some time trying to isolate different types of rice, then the Disney Princesses – Snow White – Jasmine – Pocahontas and Merida fell into place. They seemed to be struggling, but before the time ran out the last two lines were resolved. Romeo and Juliet – Chout - Trapeze and Cinderella are Prokofiev ballets, which they didn’t have. Guessed it from Romeo and Juliet and Cinderella, but I haven’t heard of the others. Basmati – Bomba – Popcorn and Arborio – now these were the types of rice. So an honourable 7 points would keep the pressure on the Gang.
The lion wall confronted the Gang, and they set off in search of a set of films which all have the word story in their titles. Love – Bedtime – L.A. and West Side duly obliged. They eventually also separated a set of salad dressings – blue cheese – ranch – wafu and Caesar. Sadly they didn’t get the point for saying salads. They saw a set of classes of dogs used in Crufts but in the end used up their three lives and froze the wall. When it was resolved the last two lines were Utility – Pastoral – Toy and Hound – the dogs, which left Romantic – Italian – Heroes – Tragic – all of which are 4th symphonies. 5 points then, which made the scores 15 to the Bakers and 16 to the Gang. It all came down to whoever could do the vowels.
Round Four – Missing Vowels
Styles of cooking came first, and these fell 3 – 1 to the Bakers. Who now led. A great set of things removed in the game Operation came next. These too fell 3 – 1 to the Bakers, who now led by 3 points and were looking fair set for the win. Major Railway Stations fell 2 – 1 to the Gang. Gap down to two. Fictional rodents went 2 – 1 to the Bakers. How much time left ? TV Series in the 1950s gave a point to the Gang for Happy days. That was it. In the end, a win for the Bakers by 24 – 22. A fine match, and once again I’m glad that both of these sides will be back.
University Challenge - Round One - Match Fourteen
Bangor v. Aberystwyth
Well, an all Welsh affair brought this year’s first round to a conclusion. Not Swansea, sadly, but you can’t have everything. Aberystwyth were represented by Simon Thomas, Matthew Campbell, Daniel Guy and their captain, Ned Bishop-Harper. I’m sure that many of us remember Bangor’s heroics from the last series, and so I had half a feeling that they might go well again this year. They were Owain Jones ( from Swansea, do guaranteed support from the Clark sofa) Daisy Le Helloco, Anna Johnson, and their skipper, Catriona Coutts. On with the show.
The first starter concerned different people who had made portraits of the Queen – whether or not any of them were the one in the pocket of the fireman with an hourglass we will never know. Daisy Le Helloco was in for that one. Nice to see South Sudan rearing its head again in the United Nations bonuses, which Bangor took, missing out on the others. Daisy Le Helloco was in for her second starter in a row, knowing the term nuclear family ( Homer Simpson – “It’s nucular” ) This brought up a nice set on Kit Marlowe, and Bangor were perfectly happy to take the full set. Anna Johnson knew ( and I guessed ) that the brain burns a fifth of all the glucose in the human body, thus earning the first Paxman well done of the evening. This brought Bangor’s third consecutive bonus set, on chemical bonds. Now, you’ll know that my track record on Science questions is frankly appalling, so you can imagine my joy when I threw out the term ‘covalent bonds’ in answer to the first bonus, and I was right! Alright, I was nowhere near with the other two, but at least Bangor also had the second. The next question offered a presidential quote about irresponsible bankers. Now, I really enjoyed Matthew Campbell’s offer of Herbie, rather than Herbert Hoover. I defy anyone to show anyone looking much less like a Herbie than Herbert Hoover. Sadly this was not correct. Neither team knew that it was really FDR. As soon as you hear the title “A Vindication Of The Rights of Women” your finger has to fly for the buzzer, and this time the race was won by Ned Bishop-Harper, who wiped out his team’s deficit and put them into the black. Bonuses on trees provided another 10 points. The picture starter focused on jerseys for the different competitions in the Tour de France. Inevitably we began with the polka dot jersey. D’you know, I think I once red that in France it’s called the red peas jersey, but I may be mistaken on that. Catriona Coutts supplied Bangor with the correct answer of King of the Mountains. Now, if you follow the Tour de France, then you’d have had all three bonuses. I’s dare say that Bangor’s team don’t, because they only managed the maillot jaune of the leader on the GC. Not to worry though, the lead was a comfortable one for Bangor at the 10 minute mark, 75 to Aber’s 15.
Owain Jones took his first starter of the contest, knowing that several churches, including that of Santa Maria Assunta in Pisa have leaning towers. A UC special set on pairs of names – the surname of the first person being the given name of the second. These sets are usually gettable with a little thought and consideration, and Bangor duly took a full house. Aber were issued with the dreaded words of encouragement from JP, yet for once it seemed to work, as Daniel Guy buzzed in with a great answer of Nicomachean Ethics for the next starter. Nope, me neither. Words of indian origin provided two more correct answers for the team. Daniel Guy took the next starter, knowing that Santorio Santorio ( there was a name shortage going on in 1561 apparently) studied metabolism. 2 bonuses on Saturn certainly put a healthier complexion on Bangor’s score giving them 55 to Bangor’s 100. A piece of music from a genre that shares its name with a type of dance was the subject of the music starter. Matthew Campbell chanced his arm with polka, unsuccessfully. Catirona Coutts supplied the correct answer with Tango. You know when you’ve been . . . Mambo brought them points, samba and jive, not so much. Daisy Le Helloco buzzed in with the correct answer that The French Lieutenant’s Woman is connected with Dorset. Bonuses on Art brought them nothing, though. A list of Queen Victoria’s sons in law brought back memories of a Mastermind specialist subject I didn’t get to use, with her daughters. Neither team could get the right relationship. Simon Thomas identified a piece of writing by John Locke ( one of England’s vaunted International Philosophy team’s midfield trio of Bentham , Locke and Hobbes ) in support of the Glorious Revolution. A good UC special set followed on words that can be made using any of the letters in the word marzipan. These, too, are often gettable, and Aber made no mistake taking a full set. The gap was now down to 45 points, and an idle thought that just maybe we were going to see a team who had suffered the indignity of being given Paxman encouragement come right back and maybe even win. This looked even more plausible when Daniel Guy made a very good early buzz, recognizing the scientific name of potato blight. After rejecting the correct answer of macaque for the first bonus on primates they took the next two. This meant that at the 20 minute mark the score stood at 125 to 100 in Bangor’s favour, and it was looking like anybody’s game.
A portrait of Victoria Woolf (the great Clive James, who once worked for Penguin books, said that jacket photos of her and others of the Bloomsbury Group reminded him of a horse breeder’s catalogue. Cruel but accurate. ) gave Daisy Le Helloco the second picture starter. Bangor didn’t get any of the three pictures of female writers that followed. A question of Thomases followed, for the Chancellor executed in 1540. One offered Wolsey, the other More, but it was actually Cromwell. Owain Jones knew the work of Albrecht Durer for the next starter, and the Bangor wagon was rolling again towards the second round. English place names suffixed with Wick followed, of which Bangor took two. Simon Thomas struck back for Bangor with Calcium Carbide. No bonuses on Henry VIII were taken, and Aber were still lagging, with not a lot of time remaining. Owain Jones knew that Ontario is the second largest of the provinces of Canada. Bonuses on regular polyhedra followed. I have to say that I thought the first was a bit simple. It was dressed up with guff about faces of a dice, but basically it just wanted to know how many faces a dodecahedron has. Actually I had a full house on these, while Bangor managed two. Nobody guessed that George Gallup founded the American Institute of Public Opinion – well, something like that. Nobody knew that the unit of energy sharing its name with a desert formation is an erg. Good questions. Catriona Coutts knew that the perennial favourite, the Vicar of Wakefield, was written by Oliver Goldsmith. 3 well earned bonuses on Spanish cities put them, by my reckoning, over the event horizon and into the second round. Catriona Coutts identified a Tolstoy quotation about Nietzsche to earn bonuses on members of parliament and the counties containing their constituencies. Two pushed the score even higher. Nobody knew that the smallest country in South America is Suriname. Catriona Coutts, very much warmed up now, won the buzzer race to identify William IV as the last Hanoverian King. There was only time for one bonus on oxides , which neither Bangor nor I could manage, and the gong put an end to the contest. You have to say that Bangor were pretty good value for their win, although the final score of 230 to 110 doesn’t really show the strength of the Aberystwyth fight back up to the 20 minute mark.Well played Bangor – good luck in the next round.
It just fell to JP to announce the four teams that have made it through to the repechage – they are : -
Durham – 170
Loughborough – 155
Southampton – 155
Christ Church, Oxford
Plenty to look forward to.
Jeremy Paxman Watch
It was only about 11 minutes into the show when JP issued his dreaded “Still plenty of time to get going “ to Aber. Thus was the kiss of death applied to their chances.
I think our hero must have realized that he’d doled out famine rations to his fans in this show, and so he added to his congratulations to Bangor “Nicely democratically arrived at too.” Huh ?
Interesting Fact That I Didn’t Already Know Of The Week
Switzerland is the only European country ( with the exception of states from the former Yugoslavia) to join the United Nations since 2000
Well, an all Welsh affair brought this year’s first round to a conclusion. Not Swansea, sadly, but you can’t have everything. Aberystwyth were represented by Simon Thomas, Matthew Campbell, Daniel Guy and their captain, Ned Bishop-Harper. I’m sure that many of us remember Bangor’s heroics from the last series, and so I had half a feeling that they might go well again this year. They were Owain Jones ( from Swansea, do guaranteed support from the Clark sofa) Daisy Le Helloco, Anna Johnson, and their skipper, Catriona Coutts. On with the show.
The first starter concerned different people who had made portraits of the Queen – whether or not any of them were the one in the pocket of the fireman with an hourglass we will never know. Daisy Le Helloco was in for that one. Nice to see South Sudan rearing its head again in the United Nations bonuses, which Bangor took, missing out on the others. Daisy Le Helloco was in for her second starter in a row, knowing the term nuclear family ( Homer Simpson – “It’s nucular” ) This brought up a nice set on Kit Marlowe, and Bangor were perfectly happy to take the full set. Anna Johnson knew ( and I guessed ) that the brain burns a fifth of all the glucose in the human body, thus earning the first Paxman well done of the evening. This brought Bangor’s third consecutive bonus set, on chemical bonds. Now, you’ll know that my track record on Science questions is frankly appalling, so you can imagine my joy when I threw out the term ‘covalent bonds’ in answer to the first bonus, and I was right! Alright, I was nowhere near with the other two, but at least Bangor also had the second. The next question offered a presidential quote about irresponsible bankers. Now, I really enjoyed Matthew Campbell’s offer of Herbie, rather than Herbert Hoover. I defy anyone to show anyone looking much less like a Herbie than Herbert Hoover. Sadly this was not correct. Neither team knew that it was really FDR. As soon as you hear the title “A Vindication Of The Rights of Women” your finger has to fly for the buzzer, and this time the race was won by Ned Bishop-Harper, who wiped out his team’s deficit and put them into the black. Bonuses on trees provided another 10 points. The picture starter focused on jerseys for the different competitions in the Tour de France. Inevitably we began with the polka dot jersey. D’you know, I think I once red that in France it’s called the red peas jersey, but I may be mistaken on that. Catriona Coutts supplied Bangor with the correct answer of King of the Mountains. Now, if you follow the Tour de France, then you’d have had all three bonuses. I’s dare say that Bangor’s team don’t, because they only managed the maillot jaune of the leader on the GC. Not to worry though, the lead was a comfortable one for Bangor at the 10 minute mark, 75 to Aber’s 15.
Owain Jones took his first starter of the contest, knowing that several churches, including that of Santa Maria Assunta in Pisa have leaning towers. A UC special set on pairs of names – the surname of the first person being the given name of the second. These sets are usually gettable with a little thought and consideration, and Bangor duly took a full house. Aber were issued with the dreaded words of encouragement from JP, yet for once it seemed to work, as Daniel Guy buzzed in with a great answer of Nicomachean Ethics for the next starter. Nope, me neither. Words of indian origin provided two more correct answers for the team. Daniel Guy took the next starter, knowing that Santorio Santorio ( there was a name shortage going on in 1561 apparently) studied metabolism. 2 bonuses on Saturn certainly put a healthier complexion on Bangor’s score giving them 55 to Bangor’s 100. A piece of music from a genre that shares its name with a type of dance was the subject of the music starter. Matthew Campbell chanced his arm with polka, unsuccessfully. Catirona Coutts supplied the correct answer with Tango. You know when you’ve been . . . Mambo brought them points, samba and jive, not so much. Daisy Le Helloco buzzed in with the correct answer that The French Lieutenant’s Woman is connected with Dorset. Bonuses on Art brought them nothing, though. A list of Queen Victoria’s sons in law brought back memories of a Mastermind specialist subject I didn’t get to use, with her daughters. Neither team could get the right relationship. Simon Thomas identified a piece of writing by John Locke ( one of England’s vaunted International Philosophy team’s midfield trio of Bentham , Locke and Hobbes ) in support of the Glorious Revolution. A good UC special set followed on words that can be made using any of the letters in the word marzipan. These, too, are often gettable, and Aber made no mistake taking a full set. The gap was now down to 45 points, and an idle thought that just maybe we were going to see a team who had suffered the indignity of being given Paxman encouragement come right back and maybe even win. This looked even more plausible when Daniel Guy made a very good early buzz, recognizing the scientific name of potato blight. After rejecting the correct answer of macaque for the first bonus on primates they took the next two. This meant that at the 20 minute mark the score stood at 125 to 100 in Bangor’s favour, and it was looking like anybody’s game.
A portrait of Victoria Woolf (the great Clive James, who once worked for Penguin books, said that jacket photos of her and others of the Bloomsbury Group reminded him of a horse breeder’s catalogue. Cruel but accurate. ) gave Daisy Le Helloco the second picture starter. Bangor didn’t get any of the three pictures of female writers that followed. A question of Thomases followed, for the Chancellor executed in 1540. One offered Wolsey, the other More, but it was actually Cromwell. Owain Jones knew the work of Albrecht Durer for the next starter, and the Bangor wagon was rolling again towards the second round. English place names suffixed with Wick followed, of which Bangor took two. Simon Thomas struck back for Bangor with Calcium Carbide. No bonuses on Henry VIII were taken, and Aber were still lagging, with not a lot of time remaining. Owain Jones knew that Ontario is the second largest of the provinces of Canada. Bonuses on regular polyhedra followed. I have to say that I thought the first was a bit simple. It was dressed up with guff about faces of a dice, but basically it just wanted to know how many faces a dodecahedron has. Actually I had a full house on these, while Bangor managed two. Nobody guessed that George Gallup founded the American Institute of Public Opinion – well, something like that. Nobody knew that the unit of energy sharing its name with a desert formation is an erg. Good questions. Catriona Coutts knew that the perennial favourite, the Vicar of Wakefield, was written by Oliver Goldsmith. 3 well earned bonuses on Spanish cities put them, by my reckoning, over the event horizon and into the second round. Catriona Coutts identified a Tolstoy quotation about Nietzsche to earn bonuses on members of parliament and the counties containing their constituencies. Two pushed the score even higher. Nobody knew that the smallest country in South America is Suriname. Catriona Coutts, very much warmed up now, won the buzzer race to identify William IV as the last Hanoverian King. There was only time for one bonus on oxides , which neither Bangor nor I could manage, and the gong put an end to the contest. You have to say that Bangor were pretty good value for their win, although the final score of 230 to 110 doesn’t really show the strength of the Aberystwyth fight back up to the 20 minute mark.Well played Bangor – good luck in the next round.
It just fell to JP to announce the four teams that have made it through to the repechage – they are : -
Durham – 170
Loughborough – 155
Southampton – 155
Christ Church, Oxford
Plenty to look forward to.
Jeremy Paxman Watch
It was only about 11 minutes into the show when JP issued his dreaded “Still plenty of time to get going “ to Aber. Thus was the kiss of death applied to their chances.
I think our hero must have realized that he’d doled out famine rations to his fans in this show, and so he added to his congratulations to Bangor “Nicely democratically arrived at too.” Huh ?
Interesting Fact That I Didn’t Already Know Of The Week
Switzerland is the only European country ( with the exception of states from the former Yugoslavia) to join the United Nations since 2000
In The News
In The News
Who or what are the following and why have they been in the news?
1. Czechia
2. OPCW
3. Charlie Hunnam
4. Maria de Villota
5. Victor Hepworth
6. David Belmar
7. Arnold Gjergjaj
8. Lauren Patterson
9. Andrew Walliker
10. Jozef Metelka
11. Eleanor Catton
12. The Luminaries
13. V53
14. Rufus Norris
15. Carson Yeung
16. Branka Delic
17. Jo Swinson
18. Eleanor Laing
19. Hans Riegel
20. Bryan Sykes
21. Harry Wilson
22. Gloria de Piero
In other news
1. What was the score between England and Montenegro?
2. Who scored the goals for England?
3. Where did Sir Richard Branson say that he had moved purely for the good of his health?
4. Where were six red cross workers abducted?
5. 91 people were tragically killed in a stampede at an Indian Temple – where?
6. Who won the Japanese GP?
7. Cardiff Blues were somewhat surprisingly beaten by which team in the Heineken Cup?
8. Which comedienne appealed on Twitter for the return of her laptop?
9. Who was the second person voted out of Strictly?
10. Why were restrictions placed on this year’s Hajj?
11. Rory McIlroy has split with whom?
12. Who sold some of his canvases for $60 a pop in New York?
13. What did Amazon reveal as their fastest ever selling product?
14. Which High Street retailer were accused of allegedly avoiding up to £1 billion in taxes?
15. Which classic children’s TV programme is to be revived after 45 years?
16. Which Epsom Derby winner retired?
17. Which former world athletics champion has had his lottery funding stopped?
18. Who scored England’s goals against Poland?
19. In a BBC History poll, who was voted Britain’s best dressed man ever?
20. What happened to Tian Tian the Edinburgh Zoo panda?
21. Where did Boris Johnson visit?
22. What has happened to the French version of the Lord’s Prayer?
23. What was the score between Scotland and Croatia?
24. – and Wales and Belgium?
25. Who is the manager of the Russian football team who also qualified for the world cup in Brazil?
26. Where will the Hillsborough Disaster Inquiry take place?
27. Which country is the world’s 2nd biggest Twitter market?
28. What was the outcome of the Supreme Court vote on prisoners’ right to vote?
29. Which boxing manager/promoter has walked away from the sport?
30. Who is the new Managing Director of English Cricket?
31. Many schools were closed due to industrial action by which teaching unions?
32. Whose autobiography, titled “Autobiography” was published this week?
33. England have risent o which position in the FIFA world rankings?
34. Who advised customers to switch from British Gas following their 9% price hike?
35. Who became the BBC’s new economics editor?
36. Roy Hodgson found himself in hot water over an allegedly racist comment to which England player at half time in the Poland match?
Who or what are the following and why have they been in the news?
1. Czechia
2. OPCW
3. Charlie Hunnam
4. Maria de Villota
5. Victor Hepworth
6. David Belmar
7. Arnold Gjergjaj
8. Lauren Patterson
9. Andrew Walliker
10. Jozef Metelka
11. Eleanor Catton
12. The Luminaries
13. V53
14. Rufus Norris
15. Carson Yeung
16. Branka Delic
17. Jo Swinson
18. Eleanor Laing
19. Hans Riegel
20. Bryan Sykes
21. Harry Wilson
22. Gloria de Piero
In other news
1. What was the score between England and Montenegro?
2. Who scored the goals for England?
3. Where did Sir Richard Branson say that he had moved purely for the good of his health?
4. Where were six red cross workers abducted?
5. 91 people were tragically killed in a stampede at an Indian Temple – where?
6. Who won the Japanese GP?
7. Cardiff Blues were somewhat surprisingly beaten by which team in the Heineken Cup?
8. Which comedienne appealed on Twitter for the return of her laptop?
9. Who was the second person voted out of Strictly?
10. Why were restrictions placed on this year’s Hajj?
11. Rory McIlroy has split with whom?
12. Who sold some of his canvases for $60 a pop in New York?
13. What did Amazon reveal as their fastest ever selling product?
14. Which High Street retailer were accused of allegedly avoiding up to £1 billion in taxes?
15. Which classic children’s TV programme is to be revived after 45 years?
16. Which Epsom Derby winner retired?
17. Which former world athletics champion has had his lottery funding stopped?
18. Who scored England’s goals against Poland?
19. In a BBC History poll, who was voted Britain’s best dressed man ever?
20. What happened to Tian Tian the Edinburgh Zoo panda?
21. Where did Boris Johnson visit?
22. What has happened to the French version of the Lord’s Prayer?
23. What was the score between Scotland and Croatia?
24. – and Wales and Belgium?
25. Who is the manager of the Russian football team who also qualified for the world cup in Brazil?
26. Where will the Hillsborough Disaster Inquiry take place?
27. Which country is the world’s 2nd biggest Twitter market?
28. What was the outcome of the Supreme Court vote on prisoners’ right to vote?
29. Which boxing manager/promoter has walked away from the sport?
30. Who is the new Managing Director of English Cricket?
31. Many schools were closed due to industrial action by which teaching unions?
32. Whose autobiography, titled “Autobiography” was published this week?
33. England have risent o which position in the FIFA world rankings?
34. Who advised customers to switch from British Gas following their 9% price hike?
35. Who became the BBC’s new economics editor?
36. Roy Hodgson found himself in hot water over an allegedly racist comment to which England player at half time in the Poland match?
Answers to News Questions
In the News
Who or what are the following and why have they been in the news during the last week?
1. Chloe Smith
2. Keith Bristow
3. Treve
4. Kristian Thomas
5. Max Whitlock
6. Tai Woffinden
7. Jay Phoenix
8. Helen Grant MP
9. Tommy Robinson
10. Bensalem Khan
11. Peter Higgs
12. Joanne Froggatt
13. Tracy Connelly
14. John Wildey
15. Alice Munro
16. Ali Zeidan
In Other News
1. Who was the first sleb voted out of Strictly?
2. Where did dismantling of chemical weapons begin?
3. Who was crowned the nation’s favourite celebrity chef by Olive magazine?
4. Who won the Korean GP?
5. Which former England Ashes hero retired from first class cricket?
6. What was the final score in the Rugby League Super League grand final?
7. What was the score between Spurs and West Ham?
8. Which jockey and trainer won the Prix de L’Arc de Triomphe?
9. Who played Dame Nellie Melba in Downton Abbey?
10. Which team won The Rugby Championship?
11. What was the final score in the Seve Trophy?
12. Which former world leader was cleared of taking illegal donations?
13. What is the Government scheme to stimulate the property market called?
14. Which former world athletics champion was given a two year ban for drink driving?
15. Which classic sitcom is to return for a one off special?
16. What change is happening to the Scout oath from January?
17. Which Swansea City player has been selected for the Spanish national squad?
18. Which grand tour cycle race will visit Ireland in 2014?
19. Who is the new manager of Sunderland?
20. Who was refused an appropriate house by a housing association it was revealed last week?
21. Which world leader had a brain operation last week?
22. Name the Blackpool manager given a five match stadium ban
23. Who lost her post as a Labour Shadow Health minister last week?
24. What decision did MEPs pass regarding cigarettes last week?
25. Which soft drink was found to be the best hangover cure last week?
26. Lenny henry was given the freedom of where last week?
27. Who started the baton relay for the 2014 Commonwealth Games?
28. Which former party leader announced that he will be standing down in the 2015 general election?
29. What will not be available during the next Ashes series in Australia?
30. Andy Murray announced that due to injury he will miss which event in London?
31. Russian authorities claim to have found what aboard the Arctic Sunrise?
32. Which England footballer said that only English people should play for England?
33. A survey found what to be the favourite brand among young people?
34. What mistake was found in copies of the new Bridget Jones book , “Mad About The Boy”?
35. Where will former Liberian leader Charles Taylor serve his 50 year sentence?
36. Which island nation is having to contain a bubonic plague outbreak?
37. 9 lost episodes of which TV show went online last week?
38. Name the film starring Benedict Cumberbatch as Julian Assange
39. Who has been criticized over allegedly homophobic tweets against Lennox lewis and Waldimir Klitschko?
40. Who announced that he will retire from all forms of cricket after his 200th test appearance next month?
Answers
Who or what are the following and why have they been in the news?
1. Youngest government minister who quit as Economic Minister to the Treasury
2. Director General of the new National Crime Agency
3. Horse that won the Prix de L’Arc de Triomphe
4. Winner of bronze medal in vault in World Gymnastic championships
5. Winner of silver medal in pommel horse
6. British rider won World Speedway Championship
7. Set world record for the most bungee jumps in one hour
8. New sports minister
9. Founder of English Defence League – quit because it is too extreme
10. Charged over Lampedusa disaster
11. Joint winner of Nobel Prize for Physics
12. Actress whose Downton Abbey character was raped
13. Baby P’s mother – released from prison
14. Passenger who landed a plane safely at Humberside airport
15. Canadian novelist who won the Nobel Prize for Literature
16. Libyan Prime minister kidnapped and then released
In Other News
1. Tony Jacklin
2. Syria
3. Nigel Slater
4. Sebastian Vettel
5. Steve Harmison
6. Wigan 30 – Warrington 16
7. 3 – 0 to West Ham
8. Thierry Jarnet and Criquette Head Maarek
9. Dame Kiri Te Kanawa
10. New Zealand with 6 wins from 6
11. Continental Europe 15 – GB and Ireland 13
12. Nicolas Sarkozy
13. Help to Buy
14. Phillips Idowu
15. Open All Hours
16. God becomes optional
17. Michu
18. The Giro D’Italia
19. Gus Poyet
20. Paralympic legend David Weir
21. Christina Fernandez de Kirchner of Argentina
22. Paul Ince
23. Diane Abbott
24. They have voted to ban packs of ten
25. Sprite
26. His hometown of Dudley
27. Sir Chris Hoy
28. Sir Menzies Campbell
29. Hot Spot
30. The ATP Tour finals
31. Narcotics
32. Jack Wilshere
33. Youtube
34. Some copies were found to contain 40 pages of Sir David Jason’s autobiography
35. UK
36. Madagascar
37. Dr. Who – The Web of Fear and The Enemy of the World
38. The Fifth Estate
39. Tyson Fury
40. Sachin Tendulkar
Who or what are the following and why have they been in the news during the last week?
1. Chloe Smith
2. Keith Bristow
3. Treve
4. Kristian Thomas
5. Max Whitlock
6. Tai Woffinden
7. Jay Phoenix
8. Helen Grant MP
9. Tommy Robinson
10. Bensalem Khan
11. Peter Higgs
12. Joanne Froggatt
13. Tracy Connelly
14. John Wildey
15. Alice Munro
16. Ali Zeidan
In Other News
1. Who was the first sleb voted out of Strictly?
2. Where did dismantling of chemical weapons begin?
3. Who was crowned the nation’s favourite celebrity chef by Olive magazine?
4. Who won the Korean GP?
5. Which former England Ashes hero retired from first class cricket?
6. What was the final score in the Rugby League Super League grand final?
7. What was the score between Spurs and West Ham?
8. Which jockey and trainer won the Prix de L’Arc de Triomphe?
9. Who played Dame Nellie Melba in Downton Abbey?
10. Which team won The Rugby Championship?
11. What was the final score in the Seve Trophy?
12. Which former world leader was cleared of taking illegal donations?
13. What is the Government scheme to stimulate the property market called?
14. Which former world athletics champion was given a two year ban for drink driving?
15. Which classic sitcom is to return for a one off special?
16. What change is happening to the Scout oath from January?
17. Which Swansea City player has been selected for the Spanish national squad?
18. Which grand tour cycle race will visit Ireland in 2014?
19. Who is the new manager of Sunderland?
20. Who was refused an appropriate house by a housing association it was revealed last week?
21. Which world leader had a brain operation last week?
22. Name the Blackpool manager given a five match stadium ban
23. Who lost her post as a Labour Shadow Health minister last week?
24. What decision did MEPs pass regarding cigarettes last week?
25. Which soft drink was found to be the best hangover cure last week?
26. Lenny henry was given the freedom of where last week?
27. Who started the baton relay for the 2014 Commonwealth Games?
28. Which former party leader announced that he will be standing down in the 2015 general election?
29. What will not be available during the next Ashes series in Australia?
30. Andy Murray announced that due to injury he will miss which event in London?
31. Russian authorities claim to have found what aboard the Arctic Sunrise?
32. Which England footballer said that only English people should play for England?
33. A survey found what to be the favourite brand among young people?
34. What mistake was found in copies of the new Bridget Jones book , “Mad About The Boy”?
35. Where will former Liberian leader Charles Taylor serve his 50 year sentence?
36. Which island nation is having to contain a bubonic plague outbreak?
37. 9 lost episodes of which TV show went online last week?
38. Name the film starring Benedict Cumberbatch as Julian Assange
39. Who has been criticized over allegedly homophobic tweets against Lennox lewis and Waldimir Klitschko?
40. Who announced that he will retire from all forms of cricket after his 200th test appearance next month?
Answers
Who or what are the following and why have they been in the news?
1. Youngest government minister who quit as Economic Minister to the Treasury
2. Director General of the new National Crime Agency
3. Horse that won the Prix de L’Arc de Triomphe
4. Winner of bronze medal in vault in World Gymnastic championships
5. Winner of silver medal in pommel horse
6. British rider won World Speedway Championship
7. Set world record for the most bungee jumps in one hour
8. New sports minister
9. Founder of English Defence League – quit because it is too extreme
10. Charged over Lampedusa disaster
11. Joint winner of Nobel Prize for Physics
12. Actress whose Downton Abbey character was raped
13. Baby P’s mother – released from prison
14. Passenger who landed a plane safely at Humberside airport
15. Canadian novelist who won the Nobel Prize for Literature
16. Libyan Prime minister kidnapped and then released
In Other News
1. Tony Jacklin
2. Syria
3. Nigel Slater
4. Sebastian Vettel
5. Steve Harmison
6. Wigan 30 – Warrington 16
7. 3 – 0 to West Ham
8. Thierry Jarnet and Criquette Head Maarek
9. Dame Kiri Te Kanawa
10. New Zealand with 6 wins from 6
11. Continental Europe 15 – GB and Ireland 13
12. Nicolas Sarkozy
13. Help to Buy
14. Phillips Idowu
15. Open All Hours
16. God becomes optional
17. Michu
18. The Giro D’Italia
19. Gus Poyet
20. Paralympic legend David Weir
21. Christina Fernandez de Kirchner of Argentina
22. Paul Ince
23. Diane Abbott
24. They have voted to ban packs of ten
25. Sprite
26. His hometown of Dudley
27. Sir Chris Hoy
28. Sir Menzies Campbell
29. Hot Spot
30. The ATP Tour finals
31. Narcotics
32. Jack Wilshere
33. Youtube
34. Some copies were found to contain 40 pages of Sir David Jason’s autobiography
35. UK
36. Madagascar
37. Dr. Who – The Web of Fear and The Enemy of the World
38. The Fifth Estate
39. Tyson Fury
40. Sachin Tendulkar
Friday, 11 October 2013
Mastermind - Round One - Heat Nine
Well, what a surprise I had in this week’s show. Not only Brian Pendreigh, 2011 semi-finalist and also an Only Connect semi-finalist and LAM regular, but also David Stainer, 2013 Brain of Britain runner up, and captain of the unbeatable Crossworders, the eternal champs of Only Connect. Add to the mix the 2010 Mastermind semi-finalist Andrew Warmington, and you have a hell of a line up. Poor Bruce Lawson, the other member of our quartet of contenders in this heat!
Brian kicked off with Dad’s Army. Now considering that I really don’t have time to wiki – hmm – too busy to wiki – sounds like a good title for something to me – anyway, seeing that, I reckon that I didn’t have a bad specialist set this week. Brian was answering on Dad’s Army. Granted there was a lot about small details of specific shows, but enough that I remembered to give me a decent 6. Brian doubled that, and with the length of questions in this series there was no way that he was going to be more than 2, or at a pinch three behind at halfway, and the others were going to have to go some to put that much of a lead on him.
Bruce Lawson, who frankly had drawn the short straw by being put into this Mastermind equivalent of the Group of Death, was answering questions on the Faraday and Winter Novels of Graham Hurley. Never read ‘em, so didn’t get any points in my only failure of the night. Bruce put on a pretty decent showing, but 9 points on specialist was never going to be enough. Not tonight, not in this kind of company.
This brings us to Andrew Warmington. Now, to some extent Andrew was the dark horse, or the joker in this particular pack. I think I’ve only ever seen him on Mastermind, but he did well enough on his last appearance to earn a semi-final slot, and he had a pretty good general knowledge round in his heat then, even if he didn’t do so well in the semis. So if he could put on a good specialist round, then he could have some say in the outcome of the show. Well, he did just about as well as you could do – 14 questions, and 14 correct answers. I was quite pleased with my own performance of 7 on this round on the French Revolution. Now, alright, Brian showed in his first round GK round in 2011 that if the questions fall right for him he can produce a round that can blow the opposition out of the water, and David is just as capable of that, but if neither of them did, then Andrew could well be up there with them.
David Stainer has nothing to prove to anyone, following his exploits in BoB this year, and in Olnly Connect. Still, the black chair does hold an attraction, to which I can readily vouch, and I have to say that David went at his GK round on the European Football championships like he meant business. He shot the answers right back at John as soon as he’d finished the question, wasting no time on fripperies such as Christian names. However I would say that he had a couple of pretty obscure ones asking from details from way back, and so he missed on a perfect round. Nonetheless with 12 and no passes, and 2 and a half minutes of GK questions to come he was handily placed at the halfway mark.
I thought that there was a pretty decent chance of fireworks to come, but first of all Bruce Lawson returned to the chair for his GK round. He made a pretty good start too, but the fatigue set in around mid round, and correct answers proved to be harder to come by as the time ticked away. By the end he had raised his score to 17. Brian Pendreigh returned next to the chair. Now, you might recall that in the first round in Ian’s 2011 series, Brian set a hall of fame score of 20 in GK in two and a half minutes. As you knew he would, he gave it a pretty good lash, but this round seemed something of a struggle – hardly surprising considering the pressure to set a very big score, bearing in mind the players yet to come. As it was, a score of 13 for a total of 25 was a good one, and enough to put the opposition into the corridor of uncertainty. However I fancied it might well be a couple of points short of winning.
David came next. When you watch people in the chair it’s easy to start reading things into it which aren’t there, but I thought that David looked and sounded a little nervous. David is a quizzer ranked very highly in the world, and I hope I’m not doing him a disservice in saying that I think he probably knew a couple of the things he missed. I speak from experience when I say that you can’t know what the pressure of trying to perform in that chair is like until you’ve done it. Again, maybe I’m reading things into it that weren’t there for which I apologise, but David looked a little disappointed at the end of his round. He had nothing to be disappointed about – 14 is a good score, and it wouldn’t be beaten that night. But it wasn’t the kind of score he’ll make in the chair when he’s on song, and it wasn’t a score which looked certain to be too much for Andrew Warmington to overhaul.
Andrew himself seemed quite calm and relaxed in the chair. I’ve said it before, the more times you sit in the chair, the more relaxed you become, and so to that extent it does become easier. Andrew set to his work with a will, accumulating points steadily by answering everything he knew quickly, by guessing what he didn’t know, and not worrying about guesses which proved to be wrong. The total required was 13, and he made it with a little bit to spare, which enabled him to get another correct answer, and finish with a total of 28, the win, and a place in the semi-final. Congratulations to him on that, and the taking of quite a pair of scalps, and commiserations to David and Brian.
I found it interesting that John said that David may make the semis with his score. It raises the question – are repechage slots open to 3rd ( and 4th place finishers ) as happened in last year’s series? Or are we reverting to 2nd place only rule of the previous few series? Assuming that the rules are the same as last year, then I’m afraid we’ve already reached the banker pays 27’s and over stage. Well, time will tell.
The Details
Repechage Table ( if 3rd or 4th place players are eligible as they were last year)
Steven Broomfield 30 – 1
Beth Webster 28 – 2
Ron Wood 28 – 3
=Carol O’Byrne 27 – 2
=Peter Russell 27 – 2
Andrew Teale – 27 – 5
Brian kicked off with Dad’s Army. Now considering that I really don’t have time to wiki – hmm – too busy to wiki – sounds like a good title for something to me – anyway, seeing that, I reckon that I didn’t have a bad specialist set this week. Brian was answering on Dad’s Army. Granted there was a lot about small details of specific shows, but enough that I remembered to give me a decent 6. Brian doubled that, and with the length of questions in this series there was no way that he was going to be more than 2, or at a pinch three behind at halfway, and the others were going to have to go some to put that much of a lead on him.
Bruce Lawson, who frankly had drawn the short straw by being put into this Mastermind equivalent of the Group of Death, was answering questions on the Faraday and Winter Novels of Graham Hurley. Never read ‘em, so didn’t get any points in my only failure of the night. Bruce put on a pretty decent showing, but 9 points on specialist was never going to be enough. Not tonight, not in this kind of company.
This brings us to Andrew Warmington. Now, to some extent Andrew was the dark horse, or the joker in this particular pack. I think I’ve only ever seen him on Mastermind, but he did well enough on his last appearance to earn a semi-final slot, and he had a pretty good general knowledge round in his heat then, even if he didn’t do so well in the semis. So if he could put on a good specialist round, then he could have some say in the outcome of the show. Well, he did just about as well as you could do – 14 questions, and 14 correct answers. I was quite pleased with my own performance of 7 on this round on the French Revolution. Now, alright, Brian showed in his first round GK round in 2011 that if the questions fall right for him he can produce a round that can blow the opposition out of the water, and David is just as capable of that, but if neither of them did, then Andrew could well be up there with them.
David Stainer has nothing to prove to anyone, following his exploits in BoB this year, and in Olnly Connect. Still, the black chair does hold an attraction, to which I can readily vouch, and I have to say that David went at his GK round on the European Football championships like he meant business. He shot the answers right back at John as soon as he’d finished the question, wasting no time on fripperies such as Christian names. However I would say that he had a couple of pretty obscure ones asking from details from way back, and so he missed on a perfect round. Nonetheless with 12 and no passes, and 2 and a half minutes of GK questions to come he was handily placed at the halfway mark.
I thought that there was a pretty decent chance of fireworks to come, but first of all Bruce Lawson returned to the chair for his GK round. He made a pretty good start too, but the fatigue set in around mid round, and correct answers proved to be harder to come by as the time ticked away. By the end he had raised his score to 17. Brian Pendreigh returned next to the chair. Now, you might recall that in the first round in Ian’s 2011 series, Brian set a hall of fame score of 20 in GK in two and a half minutes. As you knew he would, he gave it a pretty good lash, but this round seemed something of a struggle – hardly surprising considering the pressure to set a very big score, bearing in mind the players yet to come. As it was, a score of 13 for a total of 25 was a good one, and enough to put the opposition into the corridor of uncertainty. However I fancied it might well be a couple of points short of winning.
David came next. When you watch people in the chair it’s easy to start reading things into it which aren’t there, but I thought that David looked and sounded a little nervous. David is a quizzer ranked very highly in the world, and I hope I’m not doing him a disservice in saying that I think he probably knew a couple of the things he missed. I speak from experience when I say that you can’t know what the pressure of trying to perform in that chair is like until you’ve done it. Again, maybe I’m reading things into it that weren’t there for which I apologise, but David looked a little disappointed at the end of his round. He had nothing to be disappointed about – 14 is a good score, and it wouldn’t be beaten that night. But it wasn’t the kind of score he’ll make in the chair when he’s on song, and it wasn’t a score which looked certain to be too much for Andrew Warmington to overhaul.
Andrew himself seemed quite calm and relaxed in the chair. I’ve said it before, the more times you sit in the chair, the more relaxed you become, and so to that extent it does become easier. Andrew set to his work with a will, accumulating points steadily by answering everything he knew quickly, by guessing what he didn’t know, and not worrying about guesses which proved to be wrong. The total required was 13, and he made it with a little bit to spare, which enabled him to get another correct answer, and finish with a total of 28, the win, and a place in the semi-final. Congratulations to him on that, and the taking of quite a pair of scalps, and commiserations to David and Brian.
I found it interesting that John said that David may make the semis with his score. It raises the question – are repechage slots open to 3rd ( and 4th place finishers ) as happened in last year’s series? Or are we reverting to 2nd place only rule of the previous few series? Assuming that the rules are the same as last year, then I’m afraid we’ve already reached the banker pays 27’s and over stage. Well, time will tell.
The Details
| Brian Pendreigh | Dad’s Army | 12 - 0 | 13 - 2 | 25 - 2 |
| Bruce Lawson | Faraday and Winter Novels by Graham Hurley | 9 -1 | 8 - 3 | 17 - 4 |
| Andrew Warmington | The French Revolution | 14-0 | 14 – 0 | 28 - 0 |
| David Stainer | The European Football Championship 1980 to date | 12 – 0 | 14 - 0 | 26 - 0 |
Repechage Table ( if 3rd or 4th place players are eligible as they were last year)
Steven Broomfield 30 – 1
Beth Webster 28 – 2
Ron Wood 28 – 3
=Carol O’Byrne 27 – 2
=Peter Russell 27 – 2
Andrew Teale – 27 – 5
Only Connect - Round One - Match Three
Oenophiles v. Science Editors
Another week, another two teams making their first appearance in this year’s series. The Oenophiles, Didier Bruyere, Scott Dawson and Jamie Dodding are very much names to conjure with. In fact such is their reputation, individually, that I felt quite sorry for their opposition, the Science Editors, Andrew Cosgrove, Shreeya Nanda, and captain Kester Jarvis. Still, this is Only Connect, where reputations count for little, and it isn’t just what you know, but how you apply what you know. On with the show.
Round One – What’s the Connection?
The ‘Philes kicked off with Lion, and found The Banana Industry – Perfect Squares from 99 squared =9801 – and here the bells started ringing with me. Were we going to get Mainland routes from anywhere to Letchworth, or Diamonds Are A Girl’s Best Friend ( as everybody knows?) I wondered? No. Instead we got The Natural History of a Goldfish, which led the Philes to suggest that these had all won prizes for the Oddest Book Title. No. The last wasn’t the Uses of Orthopaedic Bone cement in hip replacement, but The History of the World since Jesus Christ. They didn’t get it, but I had. These were all rejected Mastermind subjects, although not some of the most famous ones which I’ve quoted. The Eds kicked off with Horned Viper, and Pollock’s ‘Lavender Mist’, which didn’t give it to me, but William Riker, which did. Riker was number 1 on the Next Generation, and my hypothesis was confirmed by Apsley House,London , or Number One, London as it was known. Gin based Pimms was the last clue, which led the Eds to go fatally for number 2. So near but yet. . . The Philes made no mistake with that one. They chose water for their own next set, for which they received the music. I’ll be honest, I wouldn’t have done in the studio, but after the second clue, the Cars, I plumped for methods of transport, and after the third, Van Morrison, so did the Philes. The Eds plumped for Twisted Flax. They were given unglazed pottery – extra shot in croquet – light brown – and the clincher, which was shellfish soup. I didn’t know that bisque was an extra shot in croquet, or light brown, but the pottery and soup certainly went together for it. That relative rarity happened, with the time running out before the team buzzed in for a guess. The Philes took that bonus. Two Reeds brought the pictures, and started by showing us Sister Sledge. I guessed that the nice little old lady in the next photo would be Grandma Moses, since she was next to some paintings, which gave female relatives. Pretty much at the same time so did the Philes, although by slightly different reasoning. The Eye of Horus gave the Eds Thursday in Welsh – Dydd Iau for the uninitiated – Fireman Sam’s Engine in Fireman Sam, which is Jupiter – as is Mozart’s 41st Symphony which was the third clue – and the fifth planet, which was the last clue. The only one that the Eds were sure of was the last clue, but that was enough. Nonetheless they were left with a mountain to climb going into the second round as the Philes led by 7 - 1
Round Two – What Comes Fourth?
The Philes kicked off with an unstressed Horned Viper. We saw symbols of Buddhism, in the wheel, then Hinduism, and it was clear that the last was going to be a crucifix, or fish, or other symbol of Christianity. The Philes worked out the sequence was all about the number of worldwide followers, and they took it for three points off two. With water, for the Eds, it became clear where the sequence of sclera – choroid – retina could be found, but not where it ended. I’ll be honest, I didn’t go for vitreous humour any more than either team did. Fair set, though. Twisted Flax for the Philes brought 2000: Kafelnikov – 2004: Massu – and I worked it out by looking at the dates. These were Olympic years and tennis players, so it had to be 2012 : Murray. The Philes I guess did exactly the same, and gladly took another 3 pointer. Eye of Horus for the Eds kicked off with Maggiore. Lakes, but what would the sequence be? Neuchatel didn’t look very Italian, and Constance was definitely Swiss. Going by that I reckoned my guess of Lake Geneva would be in with a shout. Funnily enough both teams went Italian with Garda and Como, and my boy Geneva romped home. Lion held a truly great little set for the Philes. I wasn’t certain with Microwave ovens, but Custom kitchens had me singing along – we gotta move these refrigerators, we gotta move these colour TVs. The Philes took refrigerators to be certain, then took the 2 points on offer – Dire Straits’ Money For Nothing. Kudos to the setter. Two Reeds gave the Eds a set of pictures showing a cow – Matthew Perry/Chandler Bing – A lady with a prominent cleavage. Even though I used to really enjoy Friends I didn’t get it – which is a cow has 4 nipples, the character Chandler had 3 ( although one was removed in one episode) – and I’m sure you can see where I am going with this one. Neither team had it, and it was a little unfortunate for the Eds that it fell to them rather than their opponents. This meant that they still had 1, but the Philes now had 15.
Round Three – The Connecting Walls
Taking the Lion wall the Eds saw a set of parts of a theatre or stage, but didn’t isolate them when they first tried. So they switched to things with strings and found Marionette – Apron – Tennis Racquet – Harp. They’d seen the parts of the stage/theatre, but they were really struggling for other connections, and didn’t see a set of seals and ran out of time with just one line resolved. When the rest was resolved they saw that Crossover – Legs – Wings and Proscenium were the parts of a stage, and Ross – Monk – Elephant and Harbour were all seals. The last set – Sacks – Ive – Trott – Swift were all Jonathans, but they didn’t see it. So all in all that added 4 points to their total.
With the Water Wall the Philes quickly saw that there was a set of places in Hampshire, and a set of flag nicknames, although they didn’t instantly resolve either of them. The set of guns, or gun manufacturers in Weatherby – Smith and Wesson – Ruger and Winchester they isolated first. It sounded like Scott who realised that there was also a set of Mike Oldfield songs there – Portsmouth – Blue Peter – Moonlight Shadow – Sentinel. So the boys knew what they were looking for with the last two lines, and with one life gone they untangled them with a few seconds to spare. The Hampshire towns were Fleet – Alton – Ringwood and Aldershot, and the flags were Old Glory – Tiranga – Maple Leaf and Jolly Roger. 10 points for a full house meant that the game was as good as over, with the Philes leading by 25 – 5.
Round Four – Missing Vowels
Types of accommodation fell to the Eds 3 – 1, but sadly they lost one of those points for an incorrect answer. Lyrics from American Pie fell 2 – 0 to the Eds, with 2 defeating both teams. Eminent biologists fell 2 apiece, but the Eds again lost one for a slightly incorrect answer. Phrases seen on road signs allowed no time for an answer. All of which meant that the final score was a seemingly inevitable win for the Philes by 28 – 10. Very well played Oenophiles, who look good value for their win. As for the Science Editors, well, it’s difficult to say. They were heavily outgunned in the first three rounds, but who knows, maybe the topics just fell really badly for them. They showed, and in particular Andrew showed, that they are a force to be reckoned with in the vowels, if they are still in contention. Time will tell.
Another week, another two teams making their first appearance in this year’s series. The Oenophiles, Didier Bruyere, Scott Dawson and Jamie Dodding are very much names to conjure with. In fact such is their reputation, individually, that I felt quite sorry for their opposition, the Science Editors, Andrew Cosgrove, Shreeya Nanda, and captain Kester Jarvis. Still, this is Only Connect, where reputations count for little, and it isn’t just what you know, but how you apply what you know. On with the show.
Round One – What’s the Connection?
The ‘Philes kicked off with Lion, and found The Banana Industry – Perfect Squares from 99 squared =9801 – and here the bells started ringing with me. Were we going to get Mainland routes from anywhere to Letchworth, or Diamonds Are A Girl’s Best Friend ( as everybody knows?) I wondered? No. Instead we got The Natural History of a Goldfish, which led the Philes to suggest that these had all won prizes for the Oddest Book Title. No. The last wasn’t the Uses of Orthopaedic Bone cement in hip replacement, but The History of the World since Jesus Christ. They didn’t get it, but I had. These were all rejected Mastermind subjects, although not some of the most famous ones which I’ve quoted. The Eds kicked off with Horned Viper, and Pollock’s ‘Lavender Mist’, which didn’t give it to me, but William Riker, which did. Riker was number 1 on the Next Generation, and my hypothesis was confirmed by Apsley House,London , or Number One, London as it was known. Gin based Pimms was the last clue, which led the Eds to go fatally for number 2. So near but yet. . . The Philes made no mistake with that one. They chose water for their own next set, for which they received the music. I’ll be honest, I wouldn’t have done in the studio, but after the second clue, the Cars, I plumped for methods of transport, and after the third, Van Morrison, so did the Philes. The Eds plumped for Twisted Flax. They were given unglazed pottery – extra shot in croquet – light brown – and the clincher, which was shellfish soup. I didn’t know that bisque was an extra shot in croquet, or light brown, but the pottery and soup certainly went together for it. That relative rarity happened, with the time running out before the team buzzed in for a guess. The Philes took that bonus. Two Reeds brought the pictures, and started by showing us Sister Sledge. I guessed that the nice little old lady in the next photo would be Grandma Moses, since she was next to some paintings, which gave female relatives. Pretty much at the same time so did the Philes, although by slightly different reasoning. The Eye of Horus gave the Eds Thursday in Welsh – Dydd Iau for the uninitiated – Fireman Sam’s Engine in Fireman Sam, which is Jupiter – as is Mozart’s 41st Symphony which was the third clue – and the fifth planet, which was the last clue. The only one that the Eds were sure of was the last clue, but that was enough. Nonetheless they were left with a mountain to climb going into the second round as the Philes led by 7 - 1
Round Two – What Comes Fourth?
The Philes kicked off with an unstressed Horned Viper. We saw symbols of Buddhism, in the wheel, then Hinduism, and it was clear that the last was going to be a crucifix, or fish, or other symbol of Christianity. The Philes worked out the sequence was all about the number of worldwide followers, and they took it for three points off two. With water, for the Eds, it became clear where the sequence of sclera – choroid – retina could be found, but not where it ended. I’ll be honest, I didn’t go for vitreous humour any more than either team did. Fair set, though. Twisted Flax for the Philes brought 2000: Kafelnikov – 2004: Massu – and I worked it out by looking at the dates. These were Olympic years and tennis players, so it had to be 2012 : Murray. The Philes I guess did exactly the same, and gladly took another 3 pointer. Eye of Horus for the Eds kicked off with Maggiore. Lakes, but what would the sequence be? Neuchatel didn’t look very Italian, and Constance was definitely Swiss. Going by that I reckoned my guess of Lake Geneva would be in with a shout. Funnily enough both teams went Italian with Garda and Como, and my boy Geneva romped home. Lion held a truly great little set for the Philes. I wasn’t certain with Microwave ovens, but Custom kitchens had me singing along – we gotta move these refrigerators, we gotta move these colour TVs. The Philes took refrigerators to be certain, then took the 2 points on offer – Dire Straits’ Money For Nothing. Kudos to the setter. Two Reeds gave the Eds a set of pictures showing a cow – Matthew Perry/Chandler Bing – A lady with a prominent cleavage. Even though I used to really enjoy Friends I didn’t get it – which is a cow has 4 nipples, the character Chandler had 3 ( although one was removed in one episode) – and I’m sure you can see where I am going with this one. Neither team had it, and it was a little unfortunate for the Eds that it fell to them rather than their opponents. This meant that they still had 1, but the Philes now had 15.
Round Three – The Connecting Walls
Taking the Lion wall the Eds saw a set of parts of a theatre or stage, but didn’t isolate them when they first tried. So they switched to things with strings and found Marionette – Apron – Tennis Racquet – Harp. They’d seen the parts of the stage/theatre, but they were really struggling for other connections, and didn’t see a set of seals and ran out of time with just one line resolved. When the rest was resolved they saw that Crossover – Legs – Wings and Proscenium were the parts of a stage, and Ross – Monk – Elephant and Harbour were all seals. The last set – Sacks – Ive – Trott – Swift were all Jonathans, but they didn’t see it. So all in all that added 4 points to their total.
With the Water Wall the Philes quickly saw that there was a set of places in Hampshire, and a set of flag nicknames, although they didn’t instantly resolve either of them. The set of guns, or gun manufacturers in Weatherby – Smith and Wesson – Ruger and Winchester they isolated first. It sounded like Scott who realised that there was also a set of Mike Oldfield songs there – Portsmouth – Blue Peter – Moonlight Shadow – Sentinel. So the boys knew what they were looking for with the last two lines, and with one life gone they untangled them with a few seconds to spare. The Hampshire towns were Fleet – Alton – Ringwood and Aldershot, and the flags were Old Glory – Tiranga – Maple Leaf and Jolly Roger. 10 points for a full house meant that the game was as good as over, with the Philes leading by 25 – 5.
Round Four – Missing Vowels
Types of accommodation fell to the Eds 3 – 1, but sadly they lost one of those points for an incorrect answer. Lyrics from American Pie fell 2 – 0 to the Eds, with 2 defeating both teams. Eminent biologists fell 2 apiece, but the Eds again lost one for a slightly incorrect answer. Phrases seen on road signs allowed no time for an answer. All of which meant that the final score was a seemingly inevitable win for the Philes by 28 – 10. Very well played Oenophiles, who look good value for their win. As for the Science Editors, well, it’s difficult to say. They were heavily outgunned in the first three rounds, but who knows, maybe the topics just fell really badly for them. They showed, and in particular Andrew showed, that they are a force to be reckoned with in the vowels, if they are still in contention. Time will tell.
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