Brain of Britain - Heat 6

Right then . Let’s complete the round up of last week’s shows with BoB. The contenders on Monday’s show were : -

Derek Heyes

David Johns

Yaakov Wise and

Dianne Wragg

I can’t say that I think I know any of the contenders personally, so approached this heat with a fairly clean slate and an open mind, as it were. I do know that Derek was in the same heat in Mastermind 2015 as Ian Clark and Diane Hallagan, who had two of the highest scores of the whole first round. He had 9 on his GK round then. The other contenders I have no records of in LAM.

Derek kicked off with a definition of Symphony. He didn’t have it, but David did. He took his own first question, but didn’t know that the Hudson Bay Company had to sell land to Canada at one stage. Yaakov Wise didn’t know Moomintroll for his own first, which Dianne took. I didn’t understand her first question, but it required James Clerk Maxwell, which Derek took.  In the second round Derek took a first on Kilimanjaro, but didn’t know tri furnaces. Nor did anyone else. David had a relative quiz chestnut for his next question, but it fell to Derek to tell us that the P D in P D James stood for Phyllis Dorothy. Yaakov didn’t get his about Alaska, and once again Derek obliged. Dianne had her first two, relative chestnuts both, but then had one of those out of left field questions, asking in which century the title of Yokozuna was first awarded in Sumo. All of the other three had a go before Yaakov took it with 16^th. We were cracking along at furious pace, and went straight into round 3 with Derek leading on 5. Derek got his music question to kick off round three with a more traditional Dubliners’ version of the song Whiskey in the Jar. He knew that Thin Lizzy took their rock version into the charts. He took another but didn’t know that Copernicus’ book was published in 1540. David was asked which 1933 Amendment to the Constitution of the USA became the only one to date to repeal another. Obviously the one which repealed Prohibition – but did he know it was the 21st and not the 19^th or 20^th? He did! He also knew what Q stands for in James Bond, but not that Monica was the great granddaughter of Charles Dickens. Derek had that. Yaakov took one, but didn’t know the line “Come live with me and be my love.” Dianne knew that but not her first, which wanted the term the Cambridge Mafia. Derek now led with 8. Back to Derek, then, and he didn’t know that the Narwhal has the most northerly range of any whale. Unsurprisingly no bonus there. David was given a music question with a piece of music from ‘Frozen’. Would he answer or let it go? Sorry. David knew it of course, but didn’t know that Carel Fabritius pained the Goldfinch made famous in Donna Tartt’s book. Yaakov should have known that pixel comes from picture element. Derek took that windfall. Dianne didn’t know that Nicodemus is a town in Kansas. Not surprised. Derek now led by 4 points with 9.

And so to the Beat the Brains interval. The first question asked them for what precise reason Thomas Farriner owes his place in History. Derek contemptuously dispatched that one to the boundary – it is a bit of an old chestnut. The second one asked what named items Pepys buried in his garden. I only knew the cheese, but might have guessed the wine as well. The brains had it. A little too easy for the Brains on this occasion.

Onto round five then. Derek had a tricky literature starter. Nobody apart from me knew that Patient Griselda is in Chaucer’s Clerk’s Tale. For David the action group Plane Stupid tripped him up – and I didn’t know that one. Onto Yaakov’s music question and he didn’t recognize Bucks Fizz. Derek had that. Dianne didn’t know that the Italian region sometimes called The Land of the Saints is Umbria. Only 1 point in the round, which increased Derek’s lead. Round Six began with nobody but Dianne knowing the name of the man who wrote the music for Fawlty Towers and several other shows. David didn’t get that enraged is both synonym and anagram of angered – good question. He was unlucky to give derange, which only misses by virtue of not being in the past tense. Nobody had it. That was in one of the old Righty way quiz books from the 90s. Yaakov didn’t know a problem with the elbow joint, but David had a bonus. Dianne got her music question, with a wee bit of the old Ludwig Van. Asked how many string quartets he is known to have written, nobody knew he wrote 17. Not surprised. Onto round 7, with Derek not home and dry, but on the doorstep and only slightly damp. For his first set he didn’t know that the first state enacting an Act to give inhabitants the right to take their own lives was Oregon. David had it. He didn’t know orlop – the lowest deck on a ship . Derek had it. Yaakov took one, but missed NEC – The North Equatorial current. That went to Derek. Dianne didn’t know pied and spotted flycatcher – David took a good bonus with that. So to the final round. Derek didn’t know Nils Bohr’s Nobel prize winning son was Aage Borg. Never heard of him. David Johns didn’t know that the word Poppadom comes from the Tamil for Lentil Cake. Good question. Yaakov had a quote from Jane Austen, which fell as a bonus to Derek. Neither Dianne nor anybody else knew Castle Ashby, seat of the Earls of Northampton. All of which meant that Derek posted a comfortable win with 13. Well done.

The Details

Derek Heyes – 13

David Johns – 8

Yaakov Wise – 3

Dianne Wragg - 6