University Challenge 2024: Repechage 2: Oxford Brookes v. The Open University

The Teams

Oxford Brookes

David Caldecot

Lara Gardner

John Manton (Capt)

James Broadbent

Open University

Ellie Romans

Mike Holt

Anna Gavaghan (Capt.)

James Davidson

Hello, good morning and welcome. On paper this looked like an easy one to predict. Oxford Brookes had suffered the unenviable experience of scoring over 200 in their first round heat and still losing. The Open, on the other hand had just managed to snatch the last repechage place with 155. Bu then again, UC matches aren’t played on paper.

The first clue that maybe the Open hadn’t read he script came when Mastermind grand finalist James Davidson supplied the phrase mise-en scene for the first starter. Pairs of contiguous US states with the last letters of the first being the initial letters of the second were something I couldn’t make much headway with but Anna Gavaghan played a real captain’s innings to bring her team a full house. She continue this with correctly identifying Simone Biles as the gymnast who withdrew from he Tokyo Olympics for the next starter. Christmas came early for me in the Science bonuses that followed, and the Charles Babbage one was so easy I almost didn’t take a lap of honour for knowing it. But I did take it. The mackintosh one wasn’t hard either, though he Open made a bit of a meal of it. We both took the two. Literary Fannies – ooh, Matron – provided the Open skipper with a second consecutive starter. Metafictional films brought another full house. With 6 and a half minutes only on the clock I feared that OB were due to get a burst of Jedi enhanced encouragement any second. So to the picture starter, where neither team could identify the Cross of Lorraine. The next starter was one of those where you have to wait and wait and then suddenly it becomes blindingly obvious and there’s a mad race for the buzzer. This one was won by Mike Holt to identify the word scab. Ugh. His earned Open the cross bonuses of which they took two. So at least we were past the 7 minute mark when Amol offered Oxford Brookes some encouragement. Ellie Romans poured more agony on for OB by taking the next starter on the so called Shetland Bus clandestine operation between Shetland and Norway in world war II. This put Open into triple figures. Two bonuses on Arundhati Roy followed. Finally James Broadbent opened OB’s account knowing the origin of the term Jingoism. They took one bonus on Roman History. This meant that at 10 minutes Open led by 110 to 15.

As soon as James Davidson heard the words eucalyptus and marsupial he buzzed in with the correct answer of koala for the next starter. A single bonus on the philosopher Spinoza was taken. Nobody knew that 1704 saw the first translation of the 1001 Nights. Did you know Belcalis Almanzar is Cardi B? Anna Gavaghan did, which impressed Amol. The Open struck out on bonuses on paintings completed in 1822. For the music starter James Broadbent won the buzzer race to identify the disco stylings of Donna Summer. More tracks featuring the use of a minimoog brought OB a much needed full house. James Broadbent continued th OB mini revival by recognising a reference to the Japanese island of Hokkaido. Decades of firsts for telecommunications brought just the one bonus. James Davidson knew the film The Innocents to halt the progress of OB for the next starter. The Open took one onus on novels set in fictional universities. Mike Holt knew the scientific term doping for the next starter. Non alcoholic ingredients in cocktails brought a full house. James Davidson knew that Boris Pasternak was forced to decline the Nobel Prize for literature after OB had lost five. It was costly for OB bearing in mind that the Open took a full house of literature bonuses. Both teams rather dwelt on their buzzers – surely Arts festival that takes place in August is always going to be the Edinburgh Fringe. When the buzzer race got started it was won by the OB skipper John Manton. Bonuses on digestive enzymes –ugh, I prefer digestive biscuits – brought a couple of bonuses. James Davidson recognised the work of Modigliani for the second picture starter. 2 bonuses on other paintings of women with fans meant that the Open led by 220 – 70 at twenty minutes.

Well, there was at least still pride to play for for OB. James Broadbent recognised references to Barbados for the next starter. Two bonuses on alter egos of female record artists dragged them closer to triple figures. James Davidson knew that the UN Secretary General memorialised with sculptures by Henry‘Holes’ Moore and Barbara Hepworth was Dag Hammerskjold. His team took a full house of bonuses on plays with unseen characters in short order. If it’s Wallace Carrothers, good people, then he answer is nylon. Lara Gardner took that one. OB were now into triple figures and one bonus on US winners of the Nobel Peace prize added five more points. Nobody knew author James Baldwin for the next starter. Fair play to James Broadbent for knowing that the fennec fox is the national animal of Algeria. Regional capitals of Italy brought two more bonuses. James Broadbent took the next starter, the clues giving him the answer that Cannes was the first city to host Eurovision twice. Units of measurement brought another two bonuses. Neither team knew the ancient city of Elea, and Open lost five. Didn’t make any material difference. John Manon knew the next starter about proteins. Aliases in Shakespeare plays brought nowt, I’m afraid. Anna Gavaghan recognised references to the word rosebud for the next. They had time for one bonus and no more. The gong ended the match with The Open wining by 255 to 155.

Hard lines to Oxford Brookes. It’s really hard to come back when a team gets off to a flying start like Open did. OB’s BCR was 52 while the Open’s was a very healthy 68. On this form they’ll have a good chance of reaching the quarters I dare say.

How is Amol Doing?

Well, to be honest, I am beginning to doubt my confident assertion that Amol has Jedi powers. He twice tried to exhort OB, but they never quite caught fire.

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

Metafictional films are films that draw attention to their own fictional status

Baby Elephant Walk Moment

The pancreas also produces the enzymes trypsin and chymotrypsin par of which large family of enzymes used to break down proteins? It’s not so much that this question is long or unintelligible, it’s just that there’s never going to be any chance of me getting a question like this right. Dum de dumdum dum dum dum dum dumdum.

Mastermind 2024 : First Round Heat 10

Welcome to this week’s Mastermind review. We’ll begin with John Castell. It’s only fair considering that he went first. John was answering on Reptiles and Amphibians of the British Isles, and there’s no doubt tha he knew his stuff. However there were enough things which just refused to take the plunge off the tip of his tongue to prevent him posting a really challenging score. I managed 3 on my second best subject of the evening, 2 of which were the first two questions of the round.

Lisa Cowan did better with her round. She was answering on the Salem Witch Trials, and for over half of the round it seemed as if she was on course for a dozen or more. She just missed out on a couple on the run in but sall of her good work meant that she hit double figures and laid down a challenge to those yet to come with 10. I managed one lucky guess to take the aggregate to four.

Siddarth Iyer gave it a pretty good lash on his specialist subject with Indian Premier League Cricket. I have no idea how I knew that there were 8 teams in the original IPL, but it came from somewhere to give me my one point on this round. Siddarth fell just short of double figures with 9, but unless our final contender produced a round right out of the top drawer he was going to be well in contention at the turn around.

Well, I wouldn’t say Rebecca Russell-Peach’s round on Edward VIII was quite out of the topmost drawer, but it certainly was from well above the bargain basement. Like Siddarth before her Rebecca scored 9 which meat that she too was very much in contention as the half time oranges were being passed around. Me? Well, I said in my preview that this was likely to be my banker subject and so it proved. I scored 6 to take my overall aggregate on the specialists to 11. Crack open the champagne, mother.

John was first back to the chair. Three points off the lead and two points of second and third he had absolutely nothing to lose. His round never really quite caught fire, but what he did well was to keep his head and keep plugging away and scoring on the questions he knew. By the end of the round he had added a perfectly respectable 8 to take his total to 15.

To be honest it was always highly unlikely that this was going to be enough for a win. Nonetheless, by the end of Siddarth’s GK round the target was still 15, as Siddarth scored 6. He became the leader on the road through not having incurred any passes to John’s 4. But surely he wasn’t going to stay in that position?

Well, no, he didn’t survive in the lead after Rebecca’s round. However she didn’t find it an easy task to accrue the 7 points that she needed to go into the outright lead. Her 7 took her to 16. This meant that Lisa only needed her own 7 point round to take the win and the place in her semi-final. Was this going to be one of those shows in which all 4 contenders post relatively modest GK scores, though?

No.

I don’t know that you can ever really relax in the chair during a Mastermind round but Lisa never really looked under stress. She wasn’t going as fast as we’ve seen some contenders go I the last year or two, and she wasn’t amassing a monster total. However she was answering calmly and she was answering well. She reached the target with quite a bit of fuel left in the tank and powered on to 11 to win by five points.

My thanks to all four contenders, and well done Lisa, best of luck in the semis.

The Details

John Castell	Reptiles and Amphibians of the British Isles	7	3	8	1	15	4
Lisa Cowan	The Salem Witch Trials	10	0	11	0	21	0
Siddarth Iyer	Indian Premier League Cricket	9	0	6	0	15	0
Rebecca Russell-Peach	Edward VIII	9	0	7	0	16

 

Play the Man, not the Ball

There is a regular setter in the club whom I like very much indeed, but have a bit of a problem with his quizzes. The issues are three-fold.

The first is to my mind he ‘cheats’ on his connections. What I mean by that is that he will only use part of a word to make the connection sometimes. Using Helena for Helen, for example. Sorry, but my attitude is that if you can’t do connections properly, then don’t use them. It’s annoying because when he uses connections he sometimes comes out with absolute beauties.

My second issue is that he uses Family Fortunes type questions in some of his rounds. I’m sorry, but I don’t like guessing games. Test my knowledge, please, not my ability to put myself in the heads of 100 random yoyos who took part in a survey.

But the third issue is the one I end to come back to with him. Slapdashery. I admit it. I am anal and I am pedantic. I put time and effort into working out my questions and phrasing them as well as I can to make sure that there is minimal opportunity for confusion about what I’m actually answering. I know I can’t expect everyone else to do this, but it still irks me when they clearly don’t. On Thursday night he asked

“Who was the first winner of Big Brother?” “Craig Phillips!” I said straightaway and wrote it down. Now, when it came time to give the answers, he announced, “And the first winner of Big Brother was Jack Dee.” I remonstrated that this was Celebrity Big Brother, and it came after, not before the original series. He apologised, but the damage was done. I mean, it didn’t affect the outcome of the quiz, but it annoyed me.

And it annoyed me because for donkey’s years I’ve lived by the adage ‘Play the man, not the ball.’ Or to put it another way, bear in mind who is asking he questions, and how likely it is that they will have a particular answer rather than the correct one. Yet I didn’t do it this time. The even more galling thing is that this question was part of a connection set. Jack Dee fitted the connection like a glove while Craig Phillips didn’t.

Tomorrow's Mastermind Specialists

 After last week's unexpected double figure aggregate I wasn't expecting much when I checked out the BBC Mastermind page to see what tomorrow's subjects will be. In no particular order we have:-

Reptiles and Amphibians of the British Isles

The Salem Witch Trials

Indian Premier League Cricket 

Edward VIII

I know that I'm always a bit pessimistic about my chances, but it seems to me that I have good reason to be with these specialists. Here's my predictions:-

I don't know that much about reptiles and amphibians (although I've taught quite a few in my time) but I can usually guess my way to a point or two on the natural world. 

I don't know a lot about the Salem Witch Trials. Other than having read "The Crucible". I think I'd be lucky to get a point. 

I cannot get into cricket, and I know extremely little about the IPL. Maybe a lucky guess, but more likely nowt. 

Edward VIII. This is my banker subject. I usually do well enough on kings and queens. I could possibly get as many as four, on the other hand I still might end up with nowt. So overall I'm going to say 3 - 6 for the total aggregate.

University Challenge 2024: Repechage 1: Trinity, Cambridge v. Southampton

The Teams

Trinity, Cambridge

Sarah Henderson

Agnijo Banerjee

Ryan Joonsuk Kang (capt.)

Jeremi Jaksina

Southampton

Elise Harrington

Rhys Counsell

Roshana Wickramesinghe (capt.)

Chris Meredith

What, the first repechage already? Yes indeed. Trinity you may recall narrowly lost out in a firecracker of a high scoring first round heat against Manchester – so narrowly in fact that it could only be settled by a tie break. Southampton, on the other hand, were beaten by Christ Church, Cambridge. Both teams had the same BCR in their respective first round matches, so it looked as if this match might be settled on the buzzer.

The Trinity skipper took the first starter with a very quick buzz to identify types of stainless steel. I amazed myself by getting two of the bonuses on fashion designers right, the same two that Trinity managed. Jeremi Jaksina followed his captain’s example by buzzing early on the next starter to identify two generations in literary history as relating to Spain. This brought a set of tennis bonuses, and again we both got the two easy ones. Now, as soon as the next starter mentioned Murray Gold I was straight in with Doctor Who, a split second before Sarah Henderson did the same. Multilateral military operations in Africa did not promise a great deal, but Trinity managed a good full house. 3 sets and a few minutes in and Trinity’s lead was already threatening. It was Sarah Henderson again who won the buzzer race to figure out that the next starter was alluding to metronomes. More on that story later. Bonuses on electrical components saw me award myself a lap of honour for knowing capacitor. Trinity on the other hand took a full set. – Uh oh- thought I – encouragement from Amol must be coming early in this match. I was right too. It came immediately before the next starter. This was the first picture starter and we were asked to identify a major river on a map of east Asia. If it’s China I usually guess the Yangtze. I don’t know if Chris Meredith was guessing, but he answered the same and put Southampton’s first points on the board. The arrow pointed at the site of the Three Gorges hydroelectric power plant. Locations of others of the world’s largest hydroelectric power plants brought a full house. For the next starter Agnijo Banerjee recognised several definitions of vertex, thus ensuring that everyone in Trinity had at least 1 starter to their name, and putting his team into three figures. Three bonuses on Blake’s (that’s William, not Sexton) The Marriage of Heaven and Hell and works influenced by it gave us both a full house. Thus on the cusp of the 10 minute mark, Trinity led by 115 to 25.

Restoration . . . German city . . . 1945? It’s gotta be Dresden, hasn’t it? Agnijo Banerjee thought so and took his second consecutive starter. Two bonuses on Ray Liotta films pleased captain Ryan Kang, who was getting very excited with every correct answer. It was he who correctly answered the next starter, identifying mantis from a description. That’s the insect rather than the Guardian of the Galaxy. Bonuses on Bertrand Russell (I used to think he was the same guy who ran a circus in the first decades of the 20^th century) brought just the one bonus. Nobody knew the term demerit good from economics. Rhys Counsell took Southampton’s second starter for knowing that the late, great Jimmy Greaves holds the record for the most goals scored in the top flight of English football. Words sharing their endings with Middle Eastern capital cities provided a UC special set, and the two correct answers took us up to the music starter. Nobody recognised a wee bit of Bach. Agnijo Banerjee took his third starter by recognising various meanings of block. This earned the music bonuses on musicians who, like JS Bach, had spent part of their working lives in Weimar. Trinity managed the last one. We were past the halfway point, and Southampton frankly needed a comeback of Lazarus proportions. Their skipper knew that if you mix the authors of Brick Lane and White Teeth you get the author of the Accidental. Thermodynamic cycles – no I didn’t know what this meant although I’m pretty sure that you can’t buy them in Halfords. Southampton knew the last of these. This seemed to give Southampton heart, because Rhys Counsell buzzed correctly for the next starter, knowing about the flame test. I’ve done some flamin’ tests in my time too. The bonuses on picaresque novels gave a name check to my favourite Vanity Fair. We both took two of these. The next starter allowed Trinity back in as Agnijo Banerjee recognised a definition of Simple Harmonic Motion. A UC special set or pairs of words where a final y is added to one to make the other brought two bonuses and this meant that Trinity led by 190 – 75 at the 20 minute mark.

Jeremi Jaksina recognised a photo of Rosalind Franklin for the second picture starter. Three more photos of female scientists who contributed significantly to work for which their male collaborators won the Nobel prize brought a full house for Trinity. Agnijo Banerjee knew tha the roman tablets recovered near Hadrian’s Wall were from Vindolanda. Keep taking the tablets. The Church in Scotland brought a single bonus, but this was irrelevant to the result of the contest. Agnijo Banerjee took yet another starter, recognising clues to the word Unionist. Again, they took just the one bonus. Roshana Wickramesinghe recognised a work of TS Eliot in the next starter and this earned bonuses on rediscovered mammals. Sadly they didn’t manage any of them. Elise Harrington took the next starter on turmeric which meant that all four members of both teams had answered starters correctly. A full house of bonuses on books in the genre of magical realism took Southampton through the 100 barrier. Chris Meredith knew three countries whose currencies start with the letters B,C and D respectively. If Southampton had only buzzed like this earlier in the competition – well, no use crying over spilt buzzers. The first bonus I knew because the answer had been given in Mastermind an hour earlier about Whistler’s portrait of Thomas Carlyle. Then the gong struck, and Trinity had run out winners by 245 – 120.

Yes, it was a bit of a one sided contest. Trinity always had ar too much firepower on the buzzer, and if you can’t get the starters then you can’t win. For the record, Southampton’s BCR was 53, while Trinity managed 69. They seem to be set for a good run.

How is Amol Doing?

At 7 minutes and 15 seconds Amol issued his first jedi encouragement to Southampton. The Force was not strong in him during this contest. Amol was most indignant when Trinity mixed up their Wittgenstein (yes, the beery swine) with their Bertrand Russell. He revealed that Russell is his hero, although not why. At 12 minutes and 28 seconds, Amol issued more encouragement to Southampton.

Fair play to Amol for taking Ryan Kang to task for exghorting his team to try to make it to 250. Although one rather thinks that Jeremy Paxman might have applauded this attitude!

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

The metronome was invented by Johann Malzael. I once taught a kid who thought that metrognomes were bearded short persons who lived on the Underground. True story (sort of).

Baby Elephant Walk Moment

The four phases of which idealised cycle consist of an isothermal expansion, isentropic expansion, isothermic compression and isentropic compression ? Altogether now – dum de dumdum dum dum dumdum dum dum.

Mastermind 2024: First Round: Heat 9

You know, there are some editions of the show where there just seems to be something in the sir, something pervasive which seems to get a hold of most of the contenders. I had this feeling again watching last night’s show.

First up was Christopher Davis. Christopher was answering on German Military Aircraft of World War II. I did state in my preview of this week’s specialists that this was my ‘banker’ subject for the evening, having been an avid Airfix modeller when I was a nipper. To be fair I didn’t do too badly. 4 off the bat with no preparation. It seemed to me that Christopher misheard or got the wrong end of the stick with a couple of the questions – see what I mean about something in the air, and this is why he ended up with a respectable 7 rather than something more competitive.

Next came Lilian Downs. Lilian was answering on the TV series Arrested Development. I have never watched it, so it is impossible for me to comment on the level of difficulty of these questions. Lilian started brightly but in one of the early questions I think she had it wrong when she thought she knew the answer, and this seemed to stop her in her tracks. She finished with 3 on the round, and my heart went out to her.

Marion Vasquez offered us the life of the painter, Whistler. The two questions on the John Ruskin flinging a pot of paint etc. trial brought me two point, and one other brought me an unexpected three. Marion did very well. She passed Christopher’s total, and powered on to double figures, ending the round with a competitive ten.

So it fell to Tom Moody to complete the specialist round. He was answering on Peter Jackson’s “The Lord of the Rings” film trilogy. Actually, I say that, but you could get away with a relatively sketchy memory of the films, and a pretty good knowledge of the three books. The evidence for this assertion is that I managed 7 of these. However this pales into insignificance compared with Tom’s stupendous full house of 13.

Essentially then at the halfway stage we had two contenders down among the wines and spirits with two in contention for the main prize. Lilian returned to the chair, and maybe through a bit of shock at the first round, maybe because of a perfect storm of a set of questions that really didn’t suit, but she scored 6 for a total of 9.

Christopher Davis did better, but not to the tune of the double figure score he needed to make the two front runners have to negotiate the corridor of doubt. I do applaud the tactic he used in his round of answering fairly quickly and not passing anything. It takes presence of mind but I do think that if you can do it then it gives you a decent chance of producing your best.

Marion followed Christopher. As I said earlier, there must have been something in the air in this heat because she too produced a respectable but unspectacular round in which she scored 7. Her 1 pass meant that Tom needed to score 4 and no passes in order to win.

He managed it. But again, for the third GK round in a row we saw a fair total which didn’t come close to a double figure round. Something in the air. Tom scored 7 too which was good enough to secure him the win. Well done, sir, and good luck in the semi finals.

The Details

Christopher Davis	German Military Aircraft of World War II	7	0	8	0	15	0
Lilian Downs	Arrested Development	3	2	6	1	9	3
Marion Vasquez	The Life and Times of James Abbot McNeill Whistler	10	1	7	0	17	1
Tom Moody	Peter Jackson’s “Lord of the Rings” Trilogy	13	0	7	2	20	2

 

Monday's Mastermind Specialists

The Mastermind specialists on Monday’s show are a mixed bag. No, nothing unusual in that. According to the Mastermind website Monay’s specialists will be: - German Military Aircraft of World War 2, Arrested Development, James McNeill Whistler and Peter jackson’s The Lord of the Rings Trilogy.

As for my forecast, well, last week I exceeded my rather pessimistic forecast. I’m still going to be cautious though. So, what would you think is most likely to be my best? I think it will be the first, the aircraft. Back in the day when I was a nipper I was heavily into making Airfix models, and the vast majority were from WW2. I reckon that might bring me 3 or so if I’m lucky. I’ve never seen Arrested Development so expect nowt there. Whistler I know a wee bit about, so might get a couple. I love all 3 Lords of the Rings films, and again, might well get a couple. So I’m going to predict five to ten.

Another quiz at the club - yawn, yawn.

Maybe it’s just me. Maybe it’s because we’re seven weeks into the new school year and I’m just knackered. Maybe it’s neither of these things. But, I don’t know, I just haven’t been enjoying the quiz down the club very much for the last couple of weeks.

Now, you know me. I can pick holes with the best of them. I’ve been known to take issue with a quiz or a question master for all of the following:-

·       Lazy slapdashery. Things like asking a question about Thomas the Tank Engine when it’s really about Ivor the Engine. Or about London Bridge when it’s really about Tower Bridge. The kind of questions where you can figure out what the question master has done, but it puts you in a quandary. You know what the QM should have said, so you know he correct answer as well. But do all of the other teams? You can’t count on it that they do. In that case, is it the ethical thing to do to go and point out the mistake to the QM so he can tell the other teams? I think so and I usually do it, but it make me look like a smug, arrogant know all. Not enjoyable.

·       Having a just plain wrong answer. For example, in a relatively recent quiz, the QM asked – how many Olympic Gold medals does Usain Bolt hold? The problem is that she had he answer to the question – how many Olympic medals was Usain Bolt presented with? She had taken it from an old quiz book, which didn’t acknowledge being stripped of a relay gold medal.

·       Boring questions. I know, I know. This is all in the eye of the beholder and the ear of the behearer. But there’s a certain type of question master who likes to write the kind of quiz which they themselves would be interested in and enjoy, but hardly anyone else would. For example we have an occasional setter we have nicknamed Science guy, because the vast majority of his questions are about just that. Then there is the kind of quiz where the majority of questions are of the ‘whytheell’ variety (as in ‘why the ‘ell would anybody ask a question like that?)The kind of question where there is no reason to expect that anyone would know the answer, there is no way of working it out if you don’t know it, and there is no satisfaction in it when the answer is revealed. At the other end of the scale, although I’ve often said that people never complain that a quiz is too easy, I do find very easy quizzes to be a bit of a bore as well.

·       We are all, at times, going to ask questions that are easier for some teams than others. It goes with the territory. But most of the question masters from other teams persist in asking a large proportion of questions about films, music, TV from the fifties and sixties. I’m fifty nine years old and I’m still one of the young whippersnappers at the quiz, so I know why they do it, but you know, it doesn’t really help when the QMs apologise to my team for doing it.

I probably shouldn’t even be saying all of this because nobody gets paid a penny for compiling a quiz for the club. We’re lucky to have any quiz every week. I wouldn’t want to compile a quiz for the club every week. Twenty plus years ago it would have been a different story – I would have loved to do it every week. Not now. I wouldn’t want to do it every month now. In fact I never volunteer for it, I wait to be asked, and if I don’t get asked that’s fine by me.

Anyway, I’m going to keep at it and see if I can recover a bit of enthusiasm for it.

University Challenge 2024 First Round - York v. Northeastern University

The Teams

York

Emma Giles

Emma-Mae Smith

Ollie Smith (Capt)

David Bachelor

Northeastern University

Colin Garwood

Benjamin Schmale

Chloe Rogers (Capt.)

Seamus Conlon

Here it is dearly beloved, the last of the first round heats. York took on newcomers Northeastern University, newest and smallest institution in this year’s series.

A great early buzz from Emma-Mae Smith took first blood for York, as she knew that the Ellesmere Manuscript was Chaucer’s. Love Chaucer. The bonuses that followed on George Eliot were gettable, but they only managed the one. Colin Garwood, who seems to be a gent of a similar vintage to my own, knew the Crafty Cockney was Eric Brisow. Bonuses on West African languages brought both Northeastern and me just the one correct answer. Several clues led both Emma Giles and me to the name Shirley for the next starter. Bessie Smith, the Empress of the Blues only brought another single bonus. This took us up to the picture starter. David Bachelor confirmed that the little dot on the map of the USA both teams were shown was in fact Pittsburgh. Locations of funicular railways (Pittsburgh still has a couple apparently) provided two bonuses for York this time. I love a funicular, but none of the ones I’ve ever ridden were shown. ‘Basalt sea cave on Staffa’ and ‘Mendelssohn’ should only bring one name to mind. Not Wicklow, unfortunately for Chloe Rogers, but Fingal as David Bachelor knew. York picked a pair of bonuses on British football clubs but missed out on the minute’s silence paid by a Finchley club to Margaret Thatcher. No comment. As we approached the 10 minute mark, York had carved out a noticeable lead, as the score stood at 70 – 15.

There was a chemistry starter that followed. Once the strains of the Baby Elephant Walk from my internal orchestra had faded Ollie Smith had answered amino acids correctly. The Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences – named after the Queen song, I believe – was the subject of the bonuses. This is the sort of set which I find induces narcolepsy, so it was ironic that I awarded myself a lap of honour for recognising a description of that very condition. With the next starter Northeastern began to elbow their way back into the competition. Colin Garwood knew that an Elton John mostly instrumental single and a Walter Scott novel share the name Guy. Bakery products brought a brace of bonuses. Did you know that the name Kings Cross comes from a statue of King George IV? A very unpopular one at that. Alright, I did but then Georgie Porgie (did you know that he was the origin of the rhyme? He was) was one of my specialist subjects. Colin Garwood took that one. Bonuses on the Madeira archipelago brought nowt to any of us. So to the music round, and Seamus Conlon buzzed in almost immediately, recognising the distinctive sound of Diana Ross. Oher disco recordings on the Motown label – sacrilege! – brought two bonuses. The gap was narrowing. It was Colin Garwood again who took the next starter, recognising a description of Australian Rules football’s origins as a game to keep cricketers fit in the winter. If you like oval ball games generally and you’ve never watched Aussie Rules, you should. It’s a fantastic game. Bonuses on asteroids provided nothing for either of us. Again, the next starter fell to Northeastern, with Seamus Conlon providing the word required – influencer. That was enough to give Northeastern an unexpected lead, and they added a bonus with two correct answers to a set of bonuses on Irish places beginning with Kil-.Regions of Argentina with neighbouring regions of Chile suggested Patagonia to me. David Bachelor thought so too. This was enough to earn a set of bonuses on hotels in New York. 1 correct answer was enough to put York just five points behind. Emma-Mae Smith recognised a description of alienation to put York back in the lead. Had Amol’s jedi boost finally worn off Northeastern? Well, York couldn’t find any more points on the set of bonuses on Restoration Comedy. I studied English Literature for 3 years at University, which qualifies me to offer my considered opinion, that Restoration Comedy is by and large absolute shite. This meant that York led by 105 – 100 at 20 minutes.

Northeastern struck back immediately. Seamus Conlon recognised the symbol of Bauhaus for the second picture starter. Altogether now – Bauhaus (boom, boom, boom)– in the middle of our street - Members of the teaching faculty brought us both a couple of bonuses. I sympathise with Chloe Rogers over the next starter – Les Sylphides is the only ballet by Delibes that I know too. But it fell to Emma-Mae Smith to give the correct answer of Sylvia. Doctor Hook wrote a song about her mother. Salt deserts and salt flats brought two more bonuses and gave York back the lead. The Wapping rail tunnel to Edge Hill positively invited the two wrong answers of London and Birmingham, but it was part of the original Liverpool and Manchester Railway at the Liverpool end. The next starter seemed to be pointing towards Impressionism, and Emma-Mae Smith bit the bullet and gave that answer. This earned York bonuses on extinct birds in Audubon’s Birds of America. ‘Passenger Pigeon!’ I shouted, and indeed it was the answer to the first bonus. I’m not surprised we both missed the Labrador duck (or do I mean the Mallard Retriever?) though I was surprised that York didn’t know the Great Auk either. David Bachelor knew various German defensive lines in Italy during world war 2. Then York only managed one bonus on the Commonwealth Games, but that didn’t seem to matter as they now had the whip hand with the starters again. Now, I’m very sorry, but I was pleased with myself for knowing – Law – Electricity – Resistance – has to be Ohm’s. Ollie Smith took that one. 2 bonuses on cocktails pretty much extinguished Northeastern’s dwindling prospects. David Bachelor knew that the fourth largest city in Sweden is Uppsala. Authors who wrote novels when they were very young didn’t offer a lot, but I thought Jane Ausen should have been guessable. Ollie Smith recognised a reference to fungi for the next starter. We were gonged before York could answer the first of a set on Richard Matheson. York had won by 190 – 120.

Not so much a game of 2 halves, more of a game of three thirds. It was amazing how Northeastern sprang into action after Amol’s encouragement, and how they dramatically ran out of steam in the last few minutes. They managed a BCR of 47, better than York’s profligate BCR of 39. York had some sprightly buzzing in the team, but they’ll need to improve on that BCR in the next round.

How is Amol Doing?

There was an early flexing of Amol’s metaphorical Jedi muscles in this contest. We were not yet 12 minutes into the show when he unleashed his encouragement. Plenty of time, Northeastern. Indeed there was. It was immediately effective, suggesting that Amol’s recent slump is well and truly over.

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

‘The yips’ is also called ‘dartitis’. You couldn’t make it up.

Baby Elephant Walk Moment

In chemistry, hydrogen, a carboxylic acid group, an amine group and a variable R group attach to a central carbon in the alpha type of what class of organic molecules? Dum de dum dum dumdum dumdum dumdum.

Mastermind 2024: First Round: Heat 8

Well, well. What a difference a week can make. Oh, don’t worry, I’ll  explain that shortly.

Let’s start with Rob Jones then. It only seems fair given that he was first to go. Rob was offering a man Clive described as  one of the best selling recording artists of all time. I make no bones about it, I like Billy Joel. Which is probably why I managed to get the first three questions right because they were all about songs I know pretty well. I got one more by the end of the round. Which all pales into insignificance alongside Rob’s excellent 12. Game on.

Martin Hoskins was answering questions on my four times great grandfather’s mate, the artist JMW Turner. Much as I love Turner, who is my favourite British artist, I wasn’t expecting to get many points on this and was delighted to get two, even if one of them was the gimme about The Fighting Temeraire. Martin had a bit of a stumbling star which meat he was playing catch up for the rest of the round. He rallied well to score 8, but at four points behind it was looking like a tall order.

Amy Roberts was answering on the BBC sitcom, known amongst some members of my family as Large Lady Falling Over A Lot. You may know it as Miranda. You may know it but I don’t, never having watched it. A pure guess at Waitrose won me an unexpected point to just about keep the pot boiling. Amy scored double figures, 10 points that put her two in front of Martin and 2 behind Rob.

Finally teacher Steve Barnes came to the chair. Talk about feeling conflicted! Yes, being a teacher of course he had the right to expect my support. On the other hand he was the captain of the Southampton team that thrashed Goldsmiths, my alma mater, in 2018 University Challenge. I forgive him for that. Not the least because his subject, Antoine Lavoisier, earned me three unexpected points to take me to a double figure aggregate of 10. What a difference a week makes. Steve took 11 on these on a subject he’d obviously prepared really well.

So it was Martin who returned first to the chair. And in his own quiet, unshowy way, he really started to rack up the points. By the end of the round he’d put on an extremely good fourteen points. Suddenly all bets were off. Even Rob would need to score double figures to beat him. In such a way was the door to the corridor of doubt opened for the three contenders still to come.

Amy couldn’t quite find her way through it. She amassed 8 points, which I’d say is a decent score for a member of the general public who doesn’t have a huge background in quizzing. Well, that was the impression I formed judging by the questions she answered and those she didn’t.

Steve Barnes has a quiz background, judging by his appearances on University Challenge. I think he must have misheard his first question about lugs and lugholes, since he seemed completely flummoxed for a couple of seconds. Nonetheless he managed to put it behind him and he powered on to 11 points. This meant that he too had 22, but no passes, putting him in pole position, and meaning that Rob needed 11 to win outright.

Well, to cut a long story short, Rob scored 12. What was impressive about this was that although it wasn’t as impressive a GK round as Martin’s, he never let a wrong answer rob him of all of his momentum. I found myself that you have to ignore your wrong answers and trust that you will get there if you just keep answering. That’s what Rob did.

Well done sir. A good all round performance. Best of luck in the semi finals.

The Details

Rob Jones	Billy Jones	12	0	12	0	24	0
Martin Hoskins	JMW Turner	8	1	14	1	22	2
Amy Roberts	The BBC sitcom Miranda	10	2	8	3	18	5
Steve Barnes	Antoine Lavoisier	11	0	11	0	22	0