Mastermind - Round One: Heat 16

Unlike UC, this week’s Mastermind was not delayed for Autumnwatch, I was pleased to note. Nothing against that, but surely they could have found another half hour slot for it instead of depriving us of the challenge. Oh well, enough moaning for now.

In tonight’s show we kicked off with Mark Buckley who offered us David Niven. I don’t know if anyone else was struck by this thought, but it seemed to me that Mark got anything which could have been taken from Niven’s memoirs “The Moon’s A Balloon” and “Bring On The Empty Horses”, and struggled on anything requiring detailed knowledge of specific films. Why do I think this? Because of the 8 Mark answered, I had 7, specifically through my knowledge of those two books. That's the thing. If you leave gaps in your knowledge there's every good chance that the SS questions will expose them. My gut feeling was that this would leave Mark out of contention at the halfway stage.

Lucinda Critchley offered us the second of the specialists that I quite fancied – the Soviet Space Programme. Okay,  I know a lot more about the NASA space programme of the Soviet period, but nonetheless, my knowledge was good enough to net me another 6 points. Lucinda, though, did much better than that, giving us a double figure round. The only slight drawback was that she incurred 2 passes on a subject which she obviously knew very well. Would they come back to haunt her?

I don’t really know what happened for the first minute or so of Michael Harrington’s round on Italian Renaissance Paintings. For the first minute or so he really struggled – at one stage I led him 4 – 1. Yet whatever the problem had been he suddenly seemed to snap out of it, and started answering some of what seemed to me much harder questions than ones he’d missed early doors. Could it have been nerves? Of course, and it would be an explanation for such a polarised round – although I suspect that only Michael himself could say if that was the case. The fact was that he ended up beating me 7 – 4 on the round.

Robert Hemming’s round on the Human Body was a real throwback to the kinds of specialist rounds that people would undertake in the 1970s – it's a much broader subject than we often get now. The round was a bit of a mixture of some pretty obvious stuff that any good pub quizzer should know, some guessable stuff, and some stuff which you were only going to get if you’d prepared and revised your subject in depth. I dare say that Robert knew his stuff alright – in fact he would probably have had double figures had he not misunderstood an admittedly rather confusingly phrased question about nephrons. Still, at only one point behind the leader Lucinda he had everything to play for.

I’ll be honest, I didn’t manage to come from three points behind at half time in my first ever Mastermind show, and I don’t envy anyone else faced with that task. Again, Michael Harrington didn’t get off to the best of starts, but again he warmed to his work, and what with the extra 30 seconds in a GK round he put on a good 12 points. Was 19 going to win the show? I doubted it very much, but it was going to mean that whoever won would have to work for it. It did become clear fairly early doors in Mark’s round that it wasn’t going to be him. Sometimes, as I have said in the past, you watch a GK round and form the impression that even though you don’t know the contender, he or she is a quizzer, judging by which questions they answer correctly. Then other times you get the distinct feeling that a contender is not a quizzer from the old chestnuts which they miss, and sadly for Mark this was the impression that I formed during his round.

So to Robert’s GK round. I don’t know if this is a true reflection of how he felt in the chair, but Robert never looked comfortable in either of his rounds. However, and this is absolutely essential, even though he did not build up the momentum of a juggernaut, he kept going steadily, answering what he knew, and not being put off by what he didn’t. I’ve often made the point in the past that this is crucial to building a GK score. Oh, don’t get me wrong – it’s absolutely lovely when you instantly know the right answer to the vast majority of questions you are asked, but for most of us mere mortals this doesn’t happen very often, so marching doggedly on through the round can be surprisingly effective. Robert’s 13 set Lucinda a doable but challenging target.

Which, at first, she seemed to be well capable of reaching. Now, I know that it’s all in the eye of the beholder, but I have to say that of all the 4 GK rounds tonight I found Lucinda’s the hardest. She’d clearly decided on tactics of answering quickly – which either meant a quick answer, a quick guess or a quick pass, and she stuck to her guns very well I thought. If she was nervous, it didn’t show. However it did mean that she was relatively more likely to pass. Again, that’s a valid tactic, and if you are going to pass, then passing quickly which Lucinda did is far better than passing slowly. However if you do go down the pass route, you do make the job a little harder inasmuch as you have to win outright. Sadly for Lucinda her 12 meant that she only matched Robert’s total, and with Robert having only 3 passes, that wasn’t enough for her.

Well played both, and Robert, best of luck in the semis. Enjoyed the show tonight.

The Details

Mark Buckley	The Life and Career of David Niven	8	1	9	3	17	3
Lucinda Critchley	The Soviet Space Programme	10	2	12	3	22	5
Michael Harrington	Italian Renaissance Paintings	7	1	12	4	19	4
Robert Hemming	The Human Body	9	2	13	1	22	3

I know it shouldn't. . .

 - matter to me, and it just proves that I'm shallow, arrogant and smug, if not actually stupid as such, but it made me happy when I received November's Mensa magazine this morning and found it contained a report on this year's Brain of Mensa competition.

University Challenge : Repechage Round: Jesus - Cambridge v. Queens' - Cambridge

Repechage One: Jesus - Cambridge v. Queens’ - Cambridge.

Yet again Jesus perversely fail to select any team member with the surname Jones – that would make my day. Instead their highest scoring runners-up team were represented by Sam Fairbrother, Rosa Price, Daniel Petrides and their captain Theo Morris Clarke. Opponents Queens’ were represented by Sam Booth, Lorenzo Venturini, Daniel Adamson and their skipper, Frank Syvret.  On with the show.

Daniel Adamson sounded a little unsure when he suggested that the novel of 1719 concerning a mariner from York was “Robinson Crusoe”. He shouldn’t have been. This earned a set of bonuses on republics and gave 2 correct answers. Sam Booth put on a late, late show to answer St. Kilda which is the only UK UNESCO World Heritage Site so named for both cultural significance and natural beauty. SO Queens’ were off the mark , and Premier League Football Clubs gave us a UC special set – giving us scientific clues to the club’s nickname – hence pica pica (magpies) gives us Newcastle Utd. A full house was taken. This week’s lap of honour came early as I knew that the pores on the underside of a leaf are stomata. Strictly speaking I shouldn’t be so pleased at getting a biology one right since that’s the least weak area of Science for me, but hey, sometimes you gotta take it where you can get it. Frank Syvret took that one, and the works of George R.R. Martin brought his team another 10 points. Dan Petrides knew that the largest sports arena in Ancient Rome was in fact the Circus Maximus. The bonuses were on chemical elements of the periodic table. I invite you to consider the scenes of joy in LAM Towers when I took a full house of Science bonuses, as did Jesus. The picture starters invited the teams to identify the God Osiris, and Dan Petrides was first in. Three more Gods followed. I loved captain Theo Morris Clarke’s query of his team’s answer to the first “Thoth? . . . really?” and then the way he delivered the answer in a tone which said – look, don’t blame me for this one, Jez – and then his look of disbelief when it was right. A full set was taken. Frank Syvret knew that Adagio for Strings was played at Kennedy’s and Einstein’s funerals. Aethelflaed was a figure from English history who should be much better known – as with most other Anglo Saxons apart from her father Alfred the Great. Only one bonus was taken. Still that was enough to give Queens’ a good lead of 80 – 40 at the ten minute mark. Nothing was yet decided, but as a statement of intent this was a pretty good one.

Nobody knew the astronomy starter next, but Theo Morris Clarke knew that UBI is universal basic income. The three highest pubs in England were a very tricky set and provided none of us with any joy. Now, ou had to really wait for the next question to become clear. We had a set of teerms defining words beginning with the same 2 letters, and only when the last – a unit of measurement equal to 12 dozen did the answer – gr – become clear. That one went to the Jesus skipper. SI prefixes brought 10 more points. Curiously deci = 10 to the minus 1 which they didn’t get was the only one that I did get. Nobody knew periods of the history of Peru for the next. Theo Morris Clarke knew something about the angle of the thingy with the magnetic pole – look, I didn’t understand it, but the answer was 90 degrees. Bonuses on education brought a full house, and the lead. For the music starter, the moment Paul Robeson starts singing Old Man River he is instantly identifiable, and Sam Fairbrother certainly found him so. He was in like a whippet. Three more songs inspired by the Mississippi River brought Jesus another full house. They were gathering momentum and things were starting to look ominous for Queens’. This momentum only increased after a splendid early buzz from Rosa Price to identify the source of the opera Peter Grimes. The playwright Arthur Miller looked likely to be fruitful, and yielded 10 points. They issed out on the old chestnut that The Misfits was the final film of both Clark Gable and his ex wife Marilyn Monroe. Never mind that dropped point, the Jesus juggernaut steamed on as Sam Fairbrother buzzed early and correctly on the Rotten Borough of Old Sarum. Once represented by Pitt the Elder, IIRC. Art Galleries brought another 10 points. Lorenzo Venturini stopped the rot, knowing that the rocks at the cap of Mt. Everest date from the Ordovician period. Bonuses on Emmanuel Kant provided another 10 points, which Queen’s sorely needed. The second ten minutes up to the 20 minute mark had seen Jesus leap ahead, and the score now stood at 160 – 95.

Frank Syvret took his team through the 00 points barrier, knowing that nacre is mother of pearl. Novels employing the device of the unreliable narrator meant that Queens’ were only two full sets behind. They were unlucky to say Bret Ellison rather than Brett Easton Ellis. The second picture starter was by Breughel. Bit of a strange one having a painting by Brueghel only a couple of sets after a set of bonuses all about where some of his works are on exhibition. Still, it gave Queens’ their third consecutive starter, and Frank Syvret his second, and narrowed the gap further. More pictures involving games or sports cut the deficit to 35 points. The inspirational Queens’ skipper took his hattrick with Aziz Ansari. English towns ending with -bury – provided a full house, and the gap now stood at just 10. Now the momentum was clearly with Queens’. A rush of blood to the head saw Daniel Adamson come in far too early for the next question, which required the answer of 1770, and lose 5 points. Theo Morris Clarke had a good stab at it with 1771. Nobody knew about roles played by the actress Anna Maxwell Martin. Sam Booth was in extremely quickly to answer that the number 222 in ternary is 26 in decimal. That’s the sort of thing I could work out, but only with paper, pencil, ten minutes and a strong cup of coffee. Biology, so good to me earlier, now left me high and dry, and was equally unproductive to Queens’. Only 5 points stood between the teams now. Sam Fairbrother broke the spell that Queens’ had seemingly cast upon his team, knowing John Henry Newman as the author of the Idea of a University. Bonuses on heraldic symbols only allowed them to stretch the gap to 20 – less than one full set, and with hardly any time left on the clock. Nobody knew about Hooper’s Hypothesis. However I sensed that Sam Fairbrother’s identification of the last lines of A Midsummer Night’s Dream might well be decisive. Bonuses on people with similar surnames – eg Tom Wolfe and Virginia Woolf brought the 10 points they needed for a modicum of security. The gong sounded before JP could complete the next starter. The 195 – 155 scoreline belies how close the contest was, although this is not to suggest that Jesus were not deserved winners, for they were. In fact both teams played extremely well – a great contest.

Jeremy Paxman Watch

Time was when JP would have been critical of Sam Booth’s late buzz on the St. Kilda question – what kept you? – something of that ilk. Not now. “Oh Well DONE!” he enthused. In fact he’s really become Mr. Nice now. His comments to Queens’ at the end were true – but rather sweet all the same.

Interesting Fact That I Didn’t Already Know Of The Week

On the planet Mercury, 2 years last about 3 days. 

Mastermind 2017: Round One: Heat 15

Well, yes, before you ask, I really did enjoy having a really competitive set of specialist rounds in tonight’s show. I couldn’t fault any of the contenders’ preparations for their rounds. I’ll say more about that afterwards.

So let us really begin with Loretta Waters. Loretta was offering us the films of Ewan McGregor. I surprised myself by managing half a dozen of these, since I wouldn’t necessarily say that I’m a Ewan McGregor fan. Oh, don’t get me wrong, a good actor, but not one to make me stir from the Clark sofa when one of his films is on at the Odeon, if you know what I mean. I venture to say that Loretta Waters is a lot more enthusiastic about him since she managed a double figure score of exactly 10. Barring a truly amazing round from one of the three contenders yet to come, she was going to be in contention at half time.

As was John Cockerill. John was offering British Race Courses. Now, sometimes you can tell when a contender is well prepared, has confidence, is is going to tear their round up. I felt that within three or four questions during John’s round. If you play in a range of quizzes it can be quite useful to know a little bit about racecourses, and I knew enough to know that John’s questions were certainly not all sitting ducks, and this made the round of 12 even more impressive. If he could put on anything like as good a performance in GK, I fancied we’d be seeing a high score from him.

If Sree Kanthamneni was at all daunted by the round which he had to follow he didn’t show it. World Heritage Sites provided him with 11 points of his own, and once again this was a subject that I know enough about to vouch for the fact that you’d really have to know your stuff to get into double figures on it. So far we’d had three double figures rounds, and three rounds with no passes. Were we about to make it a full house?

Well, almost. We certainly had another double figures round from Ruth Russell-Jones, who answered questions on the Shardlake novels of CJ Sansom. I have to admit that I have never read any of these, although I did find that a general knowledge of Tudor History was enough to bring three or four points as it was. However her 11 points was also accompanied by a single pass, but not to worry about that.

So to the General Knowledge. Sadly Loretta Waters’ challenge evaporated during her GK round. She never really managed to get any momentum going, but never lost her cool, and finished the round in one piece with 6 points for a total of 16. Sree Kanthamneni managed double figures to take the target to 21. I have to say that sometimes you watch, and when a contender gets an answer wrong, they are often very wide of the mark stabs in the dark. What Sree didn’t know, by and large he made very intelligent guesses on, and I felt he was a little unlucky not to post a few more.

Ruth Russell-Jones set about her task, and it was by no means clear whether she would fall short of, or exceed the total. In the end she did neither, equalling Sree’s GK score of 10 and 1 pass for a score 21. However Sree had just the one pass overall, while Ruth had too, so if it went to countback, Sree would still have come out on top.

However, there was the little matter of John Cockerill’s round first. I won’t lie, I do enjoy it when a contender sits down in the chair in a businesslike manner, and sets about showing exactly how it’s done in a GK round. Yes, John passed on a couple, but he did it quickly, and never lost momentum in his round. Quick, concise answers and what looked like some good sensible guesswork allowed him to pile up a score of 16, thus giving him a commanding win by 7 points. That was a good performance, Sir – best of luck in the semi finals.

The Details

Loretta Waters	Films of Ewan McGregor	10	0	6	4	16	4
John Cockerill	British Race Courses	12	0	16	3	28	3
Sree Kanthamneni	World Heritage Sites	11	0	10	1	21	1
Ruth Russell-Jones	The Shardlake Novels of C.J. Sansom	11	1	10	1	21	2

University Challenge - Round One: Heat 14: Glasgow v. East London

Glasgow v. East London

Glasgow were represented by Robin Thomson, Alexander Shishov, Ethan SImpson  and their captain, Angus Lauder. East London, in their first appearance ever I believe, were represented by Christopher Ducklin, Kelly Travers, and their own skipper, Rachel Evans Jerushah Jardine.

I will tell you a story. The headteacher for most of my time at Elthorne High School in Ealing in the late 70s and early 80s was Mr. Nicholas Wheeler-Robinson. He only ever taught me for the Russian History section of my A Level. After the most consistently interesting session he gave us – the very first on the background to imperial Russian History he gave us a test. One question he gave us was – name a Russian novelist of the 19th century – and you must spell the name correctly. He told me later that every single person in the class had written some variety on the theme of “ Dostoi Doestoy Doys Tolstoy”. Well, a similar choice confronted both teams for the first starter , and it was Robin Thompson who correctly offered Dostoevsky. This earned a set of bonuses on Milan, and they managed to answer 2 correctly. Both teams rather slept on their buzzers for the next question, until the Glasgow skipper provided the answer of The Guinness Book of World Records. This enabled them to take a full house on Tchaikovsky. Jerushah Jardine knew that the zika virus is named after a forest in Uganda. Chemical compounds only brought another 5 points, but at least they were up and running. Now, I’m very sorry, but the two teams should all have buzzed after the words ‘hard stare’ for the next starter, instead another few seconds of question went by before Christopher Ducklin buzzed in with the answer. Religions in Iran were by no means gimmes, but East London snapped up the lot. The frst picture story showed a map of part of Britain with the location of a city on it. Modern day name and Roman names were required. “Bath – Aquae Sulis!” I shouted, earning myself a mutter ‘smartass’ from Mrs. Londinius, who was making a rare appearance on the Clark sofa during this show. Kelly Travers didn’t hesitate and gave the same answer. Three more of the same, which were a real quizzer’s set, provided 2 bonuses. They knew Chester but not Deva. On the cusp of th 10 minute mark this was enough to ensure that East London led by 60 to 45.

“Don’t touch my circles”. Archimedes! I shouted. Shut up! Mrs. L. replied. Robin Thomson buzzed in and gave the same answer – and was duly told to shut up as well. (By Mrs. L, and not JP, I hasten to add.) Films whose titles include the name of a chemical element were a great UC set, and Glasgow managed the one they needed to draw level. Robin Thomson made a mistake buzzing in too early, telling us the title given to the ruler of an area of the Holy Roman Empire, rather than to the area he ruled, giving us Elector rather than Electorate. Given a free throw Rachel Evans slam dunked that one. Autobiographies provided another full house for East London. Nobody knew Philip Glass for the next starter. Funnily enough nobody knew the Solar Impulse airplane. Making it a hattrick nobody knew that King Stephen’s consort was Matilda of Boulogne. A really good early interruption saw Robin Thomson identify a set of words starting with SCY – Scythia and Scylla being the two we were given clues to. Vitamins proved useless to them – to be fair they weren’t easy at all, apart from Thiamin, B1 – which is one of a pair of good league quiz A and B questions. (The other is B2 – Riboflavin). The music starter gave us the dulcet tones of Sir Ozzy of Osbourne, and I was a little surprised that nobody recognised his voice. So the music bonuses rolled over, and were claimed by Angus Lauder, who knew that starfish are echinoderms. The three bonuses were excerpts from singles which were debut solo releases by singers with successful groups. I think we all recognised Peter Gabriel. I was a BIG Pink Floyd fan back in the day, and recognised Syd Barrett for the second, and remembered Geri Halliwell’s ‘Look at me’ – no trace of irony about that title, surely? I was pleased to identify the term angst for the next starter, and Alexander Shishov knew it as well to take his team back into the lead. This they consolidated with a full house on a set on American History. Really and truly I was a bit surprised that neither team knew that the brightest star in Ursa Minor is Polaris, but there we are. The impressive Robin Thomson knew that the French politician who went on to stage a coup to bring the second republic to an end was Louis Napoleon. Properties owned by the Landmark Trust didn’t add to their 115, but since East London languished back on 80, Glasgow were in the lead by the 20 minute mark.

For the second picture we were shown a photograph of a painting that screamed Caravaggio. Rachel Evans came in for that one. That was Boy Bitten By A Lizard, and more pictures of people bitten by animals took them up to 95. Kelly Travers knew that the rooibos or redbush provides a caffeine free tea. They could do nothing with a series of tricky but gettable bonuses on pharmacology. Christopher Ducklin came in for East London’s third consecutive starter knowing that it was Mahatma Gandhi who published an autobiography in Gujerati in the 20s. Bonuses on fog saw them take a ten point lead. However let’s reflect on this for a moment. If we just take the bonuses for the 3 consecutive starters, East London had managed 10 points out of a possible 45 – would they come to regret this profligacy? Ethan Simpson stopped the rot for Glasgow, knowing the answer to the next question was D. UNESCO world heritage sites in Catalonia took Glasgow to 135, and a 10 point lead. East London were not done yet, as Rachel Evans recognised Christian Dior’s comments about Coco Chanel. 2 bonuses on the Bronte sisters gave them back a ten point lead. What a good contest this was. Kelly Travers did what you have to do at this stage of the game and went for the next starter when she thought she knew the answer. Sadly this resulted in a 5 point loss. However Glasgow could not dredge up the term asset stripping to capitalise on this. Kelly Travers did exactly the same as she had done with the previous starter, but this time she knew that William Henry Harrison served the shortest term of any US President. (Reputedly he caught a  chill at his own inauguration which carried him off in the end.) That was enough. We had time for a bonus on the solar system, but it made no difference. East London ran out narrow winners by 150 – 135. Well done to both teams on providing us with an excellent contest.

Jeremy Paxman Watch

Is JP a Paddington Bear fan, by any chance. I ask the question due to the great man’s obvious delight at Christopher Ducklin’s right answer. He screamed “YES!” and practically leapt out of his chair. His follow up comment showed just how much he has mellowed recently – “No knowledge is ever wasted here.” It’s not that long ago that he would have followed up that answer with – we now know what you do with your evenings – or something of that ilk.

Interesting Fact That I Didn’t Already Know Of The Week

The zika virus takes its name from a forest in Uganda.

Only Connect - Casting Call

Yes, it's that time of year again. The good people of Only Connect are now looking for teams for the next series of Only Connect. I received this email this week: -

We are excited to announce that we are now casting again for a new series of 'Only Connect' which will be filmed in March and April 2017.

We are looking for new contestants to make up teams of three players who share a common passion, ability or profession, to pool their combined wits and knowledge to tackle our fiendish conundrums and vexing puzzles.

We would be so grateful if you could distribute the attached flyer, for the attention of your quizzers and associates, or family and friends to spread the word about our casting call.

Please feel free to share our flyer through Facebook, Twitter etc.
For further information about the quiz and to play our online game, please see our BBC website http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00lskhg

Mastermind: First Round: heat 14

I’ve had a better week, ladies and gents, I know that you’ve been worrying about that. So I will try to be more objective tonight than in previous weeks, although I will make an observation when we get to the GK rounds about something that struck me this time out.

If you twisted my metaphorical arm behind my back, then I would have to admit that for me pop music pretty much ended in about 1986- or that’s when I stopped taking a great deal of notice of it, anyway. So Nirvana were a little after my time. This meant I was glad to take the money and run with the two points that I managed on Mohan Mudigonda’s round on them. Mohan set a good pace and a high standard for the others to follow, putting on 11 points before the end of the round.

It looked like we were in for another good round for the first few questions of Peter Young’s round on the Empress Elizabeth of Austria. He rattled them off without much hesitation, and I know just enough about the Empress Elizabeth to know that these were not gimmes. However  - and this is pure speculation on my part – I think he was thrown by his first wrong answer, and this robbed his round of all momentum. It’s a cruel thing, if that is what happened, and there’s precious little you can do about it. Nothing prepares you for the experience of being in the chair – other than actually being in the chair, if you see what I mean. My experience was that coping with the experience got easier each time that I did it.

My eldest daughter never missed “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”, and I’d guess that the same was true for Cathy Gibbons. You had to feel sorry for Cathy, since, as John made a point of saying, she was actually rather close on a number of her incorrect answers. The fact of the matter was, though, that she ended the round with 5 points.

A fellow teacher, Simon Rule, offered us Wainwright’s Pictorial Guides to the Lakeland Fells. Now, I have nothing against the Lake District – how could I, since the only time I’ve experienced any of its delights first hand was from a railway carriage. So I have absolutely no idea whether Simon’s questions were hard, easy, fair or whatever. But I do know that this was another double figure round, and in fact I’d go so far as to say he was unlucky, since he was probably only a fraction of a second off John starting to ask another question once the buzzer went. Nonetheless at only 1 point behind at the halfway stage at least he was in a very handy position.

Right, the GK rounds. If you’ve been with me for any length of time in this particular series you’ll possibly have noticed my theory that the GK rounds have been noticeably easier this time around. Well, something happened tonight. I felt that the level of the GK rounds served up tonight were far more like the previous few series – and I’m not just saying this because some of the contenders’ GK scores were lower than the average we’ve come to expect this time around. Now, as a viewer I’d far rather watch rounds of at least this level, rather than the getting on for sleb-Mastermind level of the GK rounds we’ve seen so far this series. It would have been a bit hard lines on the contenders in this show if they’d been in with a realistic shot at a repechage score, though.

As for those GK rounds, well, Cathy managed to smile after taking her score up to 11. Peter Young managed a double figure score of 11 to set the bar at 17. In any of the other shows of this season so far that wouldn’t have necessarily seemed that daunting a target. However, as I said, there was a funny feeling about this set of GK rounds.

Simon Rule needed 8 to take the outright lead, and in normal circumstances this year you wouldn’t have bet against him getting them. Yet tonight was a funny old show, especially in the GK, and what followed was something of a grim old struggle. You sensed that Simon knew a couple which he just couldn’t get to leap off the tip of his tongue. This meant that he managed just the 7 which put him level with Peter, although he was ahead on pass countback.

Needing just 7 himself in order to win, Mohan could have approached the chair again with confidence, and he certainly showed no nerves as he breasted the tape with time and questions to spare in the round. Indeed he went on to set the best GK total of the show with 12, for a comfortable win on a total of 23. Well played sir, and best of luck in the semis.

The Details

Mohan Mudigonda	Nirvana	11	1	12	3	23	4
Peter Young	The Empress Elizabeth of Austria	6	3	11	4	17	7
Cathy Gibbons	Buffy the Vampire Slayer	5	0	6	1	11	1
Simon Rule	Wainwright’s Pictorial Guides to the Lakeland Fells	10	1	7	3	17	4

Mastermind: The General Knowledge debate

I've just received a lovely email from Keith Nickless - already through to the semi finals of the current series - expressing some views about the issue of whether the Mastermind General Knowledge rounds are easier in this series than they were previously. I've taken the liberty of sharing part of it with you: -

"I have noticed some comments about "dumbing down" of the questions in several places this year. When I was at the studio one contestant made an interesting observation, that it takes as much brain power to understand the machinations of a Coronation Street or Eastenders as it does The Odyssey but because soap operas are understood by the masses and not the elite they are seen as dumb.

That person went on to say that a persons general knowledge is based on the media they read or watch, if you listen to Radio 1 you will know who Mark Ronson is but may not understand the Booker prize. If you listen to a Radio 4 it could be the other way round.

I thought you may appreciate these comments and may like to pass them on to your readers."

This is the reply that I made about the points that Keith raises: -

"'Dumbing down' is not a phrase which I like, and I don't think that it is one that I have consciously used. It is true, and I have been quite open about this, that I do feel that the general knowledge rounds have been made easier in this season. This is not a criticism, implied or otherwise, about the individual contenders. You can only answer the questions that you are asked. But it is based upon my many years of watching the show, and several years of writing about it.

Forgive me if I have misunderstood your comments, but it seems to me that you are linking this to the highbrow/lowbrow debate - which if I might observe is a related but slightly different issue. I have no issue with highbrow/lowbrow/middlebrow questions being asked. In fact, Mastermind has always used a pretty wide range. It is not the subjects of the questions being asked with which I take issue, but the level. What I do think, and what I have said is that I believe that the questions have been in the general knowledge round more gentle than in previous years. Not because there are more 'lowbrow' questions, I hasten to add, but because a large number of questions being asked are what I feel that a person with a quite decent rather than good general knowledge should know, or should be able to guess.

Case in point - personally I think that the question - in which European capital city would you find Charles de Gaulle and Orly airports? - is too easy for a Mastermind General Knowledge round.

Another example - a recent question asked where in the body the masseter is. That's a fair and reasonably testing question. However the question went on to add that the word masseter comes from a Greek word meaning to chew. So what else could it possibly be than the jaw?

As you know, everything that I write is purely my own opinion. I always invite people to feel free to disagree with me, and to dismiss my opinion as rubbish - which it probably is. But I'm afraid that it is the way that I feel about it."

So basically - would anyone else like to express an opinion? Over to you.

University Challenge: Round One: Heat 13

St. Andrews v. Worcester College, Oxford

Well, it seems that the exchange rate this year  is that if you don’t have any Welsh teams then you can have two Scottish teams. St. Andrews, who this time around opted not to wear their traditional red gowns, were represented by Matt Eccleston, James Green, Andrew Vokes, and their captain, Toby Parker. Worcester College were represented by Sam Barnett, Rosemary Walmsley, Dennis Wang, and their own captain, Nick Williams.

When I was 16 I was given a beautiful ly bound 2 volume edition of The Outline of History, so I knew it was H.G. Wells’ work rather earlier than Sam Barnett, who buzzed in for Worcester. Bonuses on forms of amusement sw them take only 1 of an eminently gettable set. The St. Andrews skipper buzzed in and offered paraffin as the answer to a definition, with a wonderfully despairing look on his face, but he was right, and so was I. Being a correctly answered Science question the traditional lap of honour around the living room followed before the bonuses. These were on naturalists, and we both had the first and last. Nick Williams knew or guessed that the Enid Blyton character in question for the next starter was Noddy. This brought Worcester a set on the works of Roald Dahl with extracts from the opening paragraph. And they took a full house. This brought us to the picture starter, where James Green correctly identified the diocese of Ely on a map. Three more of the same followed, and St. Andrews managed 2 of these. It was nice to overhear one of these young whippersnappers referencing the ‘baby eating Bishop of Bath and Wells’ from Blackadder 2 – especially considering that this venerable classic is 3 decades old now. A good shout from James Green saw him identify Victor Hugo as the writer of the verse drama “Cromwell”. Bonuses on optics provided neither of us with anything, so at the 10 minute mark St. A’s led by 50 – 35, and up to this point neither team had lost 5 for an incorrect interruption.

Something about analogue and digital signals passed well over my head, but Rosemary Walmsley had it right. Governors General of India brought 1 bonus, and tied the scores. As soon as it became clear that the next starter was galloping towards the Alamo, Dennis Wang buzzed in correctly with San Antonio. Romantic poets offered a lot, and provided two bonuses, and the lead for Worcester. Toby Parker provided the first incorrect interruption of the contest when he buzzed in too early on a question about a mathematician called Abel. Dennis Wang was Abel to provide the right answer. Historiography sounded rather unpromising but Worcester managed 1 bonus. And so to the music starter. Both teams slept on their buzzer a little as we heard part of the overture to Carmen, and it was James Green who buzzed in with the answer. 3 more classical works inspired by Spanish folk melodies and dance forms provided them with a useful brace of bonuses. Dennis Wang, buzzing very well at this stage of the competition, identified a definition of the word metonym. I groaned as the set of astrophysics bonuses were announced, but actually managed the 2^nd and 3^rd, as did Worcester. James Green knew that Eragon is the first in the Inheritance cycle. Emma Goldman – wasn’t she the Six Million Dollar Man’s boss? – provided a couple to keep St. Andrews in touch with Worcester, who had been in danger of disappearing over the event horizon. A timely buzz by Andrew Vokes saw him correctly answer Skara Brae, and St. A’s were also in triple figures before the 20 minute mark. I think Joe Orton only wrote 3 plays, and so his bonuses promised much. St. A’s managed 2, but couldn’t quite get the title of Entertaining Mr. Sloane. Nevertheless, this meant that Worcester’s hard earned lead had been whittled down to 5 points, as the score stood at 110-105 in their favour.

For the second picture starter nobody identified a still from Citizenfour. So the picture bonuses rolled over. Both teams slept on their buzzers a little for the next one – Second World War. . . and . .  Mannerheim should have been enough. After a moment Matt Eccleston gave the correct answer of Finland. The picture bonuses, stills from three BAFTA winning documentaries saw them take a 15 point lead. Dennis Wang struck back, naming Tanzania and Burundi as two of the countries with shoreline on Lake Tanganyika. Iraqi cities saw them take their score to 130 with 5 minutes to go. What a good contest between two evenly matched teams this was turning out to be Sam Barnett knew that serialism is associated with the composer Schoenberg. Geology provided a few more points. It was all very tight, as James Green identified Pistol from Shakespeare’s Henry V. Bonuses on Milton and Cromwell brought the teams level. Could it all come down to the next starter? Possibly. It was something about stable isotopes of the first two elements of the periodic table. Rsemary Walmsley had first bash, but it fell to Andrew Vokes to give the correct answer of 4. Fair enough. Winners of the Academy Award for the best foreign language film meant they had a 15 point lead. You sensed that there was time for just the one more starter. If St. A’s got it, then game over. Neither team seemed willing to commit to the buzzer to identify pinus sylvestris, but eventually Matt Eccleston chanced his arm with scots pine, and he sealed the game for his team by doing so. There was time for them to get a bonus on King John, and the gong ended the contest. In the end St. Andrews won by 175 – 145, but there was literally nothing to choose between the teams until the last 2 starters. Well played both, and hard lines Worcester.

Jeremy Paxman Watch

JP was being interviewed on the Steve Wright Radio 2 show earlier this week, and he did admit that he’d become a lot more mellow in his responses to some of the answers on UC in recent years. We’ve noticed, son, we’ve noticed.

In fact all that was really worthy of note was his response to St. Andrews’ first buzz as he put my thoughts into words as he told Toby Parker, “For giving the correct answer you do look a bit miserable about it.”

Interesting Fact That I Didn’t Already Know Of The Week

St. Anthony (San Antonio) is often invoked as a finder of lost property.

Mastermind Round One: Heat 13

I must be getting older. Well there’s no must be about it, I am getting older, and it would be remarkable if I wasn’t. But I’m getting less tolerant, and I don’t think that’s ever a good thing. At the end of the day does it matter if someone gets a low score in their specialist subject on Mastermind. No, not really. Yet for the third week running I found myself coming to the conclusion that at least one of the contenders hadn’t prepared well enough, and feeling a bit frustrated about it. Now, I’ve no doubt that every contender who enters really does want to do well. But if we take Gary Maggs’ first round, on Queen, I would say that I liked their music, but I wasn’t a massive, massive fan. Yet I managed 8 on these questions with no preparation, while Gary only scored 6. Yeah, I know, I’m in the comfort of the Clark sofa and it’s different in the studio in the chair. You don’t have to tell me since 've done specialist rounds on no fewer than five occasions in the chair. But that's just it. I know what a commitment it should be in order to prepare for a specialist round.

Of course, poor old Gary’s round was thrown into stark relief by the fact that it was followed by LAM reader Rod Allday’s perfect round on Dame Laura Knight. There was no angle he hadn’t covered, and no question he couldn’t answer . . . and that’s how you must at least try to do it. 13 points meant that Gary would need to get 7 on GK just to equal Rod’s SS score.

Emma Harris’ blank looks at some of the questions she was asked about Anita Roddick led me to believe that there were areas of her subject’s life and work that she just hadn’t covered in her preparation as well. I really, really do not mean to be critical, but I just don’t enjoy heats so much where half the contenders rule themselves out before the general knowledge round through the gaps in their preparation.

Thankfully LAM reader, Mastermind recidivist and University Challenge alumnus Tony Richardson gave us a fine round on Don Revie to bring the specialist rounds to a more successful conclusion. Not quite a perfect round, but Tony’s quick-fire answering enabled him to accrue 12 points by the end of the round. Bearing in mind his track record I confidently turned to nobody in particular after his round and predicted ‘There’s the winner.’

Well, we were left with what was only ever going to be a two horse race, but that would come after Gary and Emma had returned to the chair. It isn’t true that you can’t prepare for General Knowledge, but it is true that preparation is no real guarantee of success in it – well, unless we’re talking about years of preparation, perhaps. So I can’t blame Gary so much for his modest 7 in General Knowledge. His round was what it was. Emma’s was rather better, although she still fell short of double figures, and we’ve already noted that this season the rounds are of a gentle enough hue that the majority should be able to acrrue a double figure score in 2 and a half minutes. Still, there we are – I hope that they both enjoyed their Mastermind experience anyway.

On his last time out in Mastermind a couple of years ago Tony fell just a couple of points short of a win in the first round. I’ve always said that if you have a good level of GK to start with, then coping with the chair gets easier each time that you do it. Tony’s task was clear. He was only one point behind Rod at half time. He was certainly going to beat Emma’s score, so his job was to set the bar at a level which would force Rod to traverse the corridor of doubt. Which is exactly what he did. Tony maintained a great tempo throughout the round – in fact unless I’m much mistaken he had time to attempt over 20 questions – and he managed to answer 15 of these correctly which is not bad going by anyone’s reckoning. The door to the corrido was gaping wide for Rod.

Which is not to say that he made a bad job of his round, for he didn’t. He answered those he knew, and guessed some he didn’t. However he was going more slowly than Tony had gone, and getting more of them wrong. With a minute to go he was behind the clock, and with half a minute to go he wasn’t going to make it. In the end he finished with a worthy 24. Not enough for a repechage slot, I’m afraid.

Well played Tony, and good luck in the semis. If you go all the way I am more than ready to hand over the title of the last schoolteacher to win Mastermind.

The Details

Gary Maggs	Queen	6	1	7	4	13	5
Rod Allday	Dame Laura Knight	13	0	11	0	24	0
Emma Harris	Anita Roddick	7	4	9	5	16	9
Tony Richardson	Don Revie	12	0	15	0	27	0