Well, to borrow Clive’s words, that was a corker, wasn’t it? Maybe not quite as good as a couple of weeks ago, but one helluva finish.
First up was
Hayley Goddard, who offered us the Giza Necropolis. I always think that there’s
a chance of me getting 1 or 2 on anything Egyptological, but in all honesty there seemed rather little for a dilettante such as myself, and I was happy to take four
on this round. Hayley’s round spoke of excellent preparation as she scored a
fine 11 points and just one pass.
Our second
subject, Martin Luther, as offered by Tara Jackson-Rigchung, was another which
offered points to me, but not many. In fact, only that perennial favourite the
95 theses, and the Council of Trent provided me with two pieces of low hanging
fruit. Again, this was the kind of round in which only good preparation was
likely to give you a hance of a double figure round, which is exactly what Tara
achieved. Good round.
It probably
says something about me that the only two questions that I managed to answer on
Sam Anderson’s round on the films of Paul Thomas Anderson were both about ‘Boogie
Nights’. Let’s be honest, I’m not a great film fan, and several of the films
mentioned I’d never even heard of. Sam Anderson was the third of our contenders
in tonight’s show to ave prepared himself admirably, as he too reached double
figures with a fighting 10.
All of which
left a former semi finalist recidivist to bring the first round to a
conclusion.This was Richard Aubrey, who passed this way in 2017, IIRC, and
already knew what it takes to win a first round heat. Now, I will lay my cards
on the table here – I had 8 on this round. But you see, his subject, “Yes
Minister/ Yes Prime Minister” is one of those sitcoms which, if you like it,
you absolutely love it, and can watch it over and over again. Now, I’m not
suggesting that Richard didn’t need to put in the preparation, because he had a
perfect 13 on it. Now that really is excellent preparation.
So to the
GK. Poor Tara looked rather like a rabbit in the headlights for most of her
round. I think it was probably a combination of , well, not the world’s
strongest general knowledge, and a combination of questions that really didn’t
suit. She finished with 15.
So Sam only
needed 6 to take the outright lead. However, in order to set the kind of total
necessary to place Richard within the corridor of doubt he would need to do
considerably better than that. And for the first minute of the round he missed
nothing, and was on target for a monster score. Well, a bit of a mid round
hiatus slowed his progress a bit, but nonetheless his 14 for a total of 24 was,
to be honest, up there with the best GK rounds we’ve seen so far this series.
The doorway into the corridor of doubt was now beckoning.
Hayley Goddard
started her round convincingly, but once she’d had a question wrong the round
became a bit of a grim old struggle. Hers wasn’t really a poor round, but in
all honesty, if you have ambitions towards winning a heat, realistically you
have to have the kind of general knowledge that gives you a realistic chance of
getting into double figures at least.
So to
Richard. I had a feeling that he might do it, but it certainly didn’t seem that
this was going to be correct when he struggled to get into a rhythm during the
first minute or so of the round. However, the experience of sitting in that
chair, and learning you can cope with it and even enjoy it gave him the
tenacity to cling on, and keep picking off the answers. He was actually through
on pass countback with one question still to go, but made sure of it with the
last, to finish with 25. Not, actually, as good a GK round as Sam’s had been,
but his overall performance, combining that GK round with his perfect
specialist round was enough to see him through. Well done, sir, and I wish you
good luck in your semi.
The Details
|
Hayley Goddard |
The Giza Necropolis |
11 |
1 |
7 |
3 |
18 |
4 |
|
Tara Jackson-Rigchung |
Martin Luther |
10 |
1 |
5 |
5 |
15 |
6 |
|
Sam Anderson |
The films of Paul Thomas Anderson |
10 |
0 |
14 |
2 |
24 |
2 |
|
Richard Aubrey |
Yes Minister/Yes Prime Minister |
13 |
0 |
12 |
0 |
25 |
0 |
I
4 comments:
I actually think Tara was a stronger quizzer than you've perhaps given her credit for. It seemed to me that her biggest problem was nerves rather than lack of knowledge. Throughout her specialist subject round, she was consistently slow and looked nervous, and yet still got the majority of questions right... if she'd been a bit more confident in herself she could perhaps have been in a stronger position after that round. Then in general knowledge, I had the impression that she could have got at least a few of the things she passed on. I think potentially someone to watch out for in the future, once she's had a bit more practice.
I really don't know why Hayley said 'pass' to her last question after the buzzer had gone. Surely at that point, it makes more sense to just say a random word so as to avoid a pass total?
Hi George - well, I wasn't deliberately trying to be mean, and if that's how it came across I apologise for that. I can always be wrong. As for Hayley, well, the chair can do funny things to you, and it can take real presence of mind to dredge something up rather than just pass, even after the bell has gone.
Sorry, I wasn't trying to imply you were being mean. I've been reading your blogs for a while, I know you're always fair! I just felt I saw a bit more in her than you did. But hey, maybe I'm wrong!
I mean... in that moment, you could just say your own name as an answer, couldn't you? That wouldn't require much dredging. But then, I've never been in the chair, maybe I'll change my mind if I ever am! (I'm thinking about applying for next year - I applied once before, a long time ago when I was a fresh-faced A-level student, but wasn't accepted.)
No offense taken at all. As for the pass thing, well, in the Champion of Champions series I lost to the Champion of champions, Pat Gibson, in the heat by pass countback. John Humphrys asked me why I hadn't just said something along the lines of Rav Wilding's 'Cheese sandwich' from the celebrity series. Well it worked like this. I was having the round of my life on specialist - I'd revised everything that had been asked, and did actually score my highest ever round. But I was asked one question I knew that I knew the answer to - and yet the answer just didn't come. It was like putting your foot on the accelerator of the car when you just need a little bit more speed to get you out of trouble, and nothing happening. Then it suddenly occurred to me that time was wasting so I panicked and passed. It really is that simple.
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