We’re forging on with Round 1, good people, and (say it quietly) a show that produced my lowest specialist round aggregate for the entire series so far. The first of these tight fisted rounds was offered by Robert Hemming. Robert was answering on the battleship Bismarck. Now, I did think that there might be a chance of a couple here. No chance. I was lucky to scrape one. Robert, as I so often say, clearly knew his stuff. You can’t score 8 on such a round if you don’t. But it was just a couple of marks short of a score that would put him up with the leaders by half time.
Someone who did get a score that put her up with the
leaders at half time was Reena Patel. Reena was answering on the late Syd
Barrett, the musical genius behind so much of what was good about the very
early Pink Floyd. Again, I thought I might get more than one. Nope, in fact I
had to really dredge my memory to scrape one point. Reena on the other hand
produced 10 and as we so often note, anything in double figures on specialist
is good going these days.
Isobel Murray almost repeated the double figure feat in
round 2, but finished just one point away on 9. She was answering on the poet
Frederico Garcia Lorca, executed by Nationalists during the Spanish Civil War.
I’ve taken a lot more interest in the Spanish Civil War since visiting the
monument to the political prisoners in the San Isidro camp in the village where
my mother in law used to live. Not enough, obviously as I only scraped one
point again.
Finally Paul Judge on the basketball player Earvin ‘Magic’
Johnson. Look, the fact is that some sports you like, and some leave you could
and I’m afraid that basketball is the latter for me. I’m not dissing the game,
but just saying I can’t get up any interest in it. Paul obviously could. He too
scored 10 and apart from the first question there appeared to be precious few
gimmes in the round. The first question, incidentally, was the only 1 I got
right to leave my aggregate on a measly 4.
We saw a week ago how it’s possible to come from a few
points behind to win with a strong GK, so all 4 contenders were certainly in
with a chance going into the GK. Robert was first to return to the chair, and
he gave it a decent lash. With the best will in the world though he really
needed more than the 9 he scored to force the other three contenders to all
have to negotiate the corridor of doubt.
Isobel, on the other hand, put in a useful turn at the quiz
face in her own GK round. She often looked as if she didn’t know the answer and
was a little surprised when it turned out to be right. And she had 11 correct
answers in all, taking her total to 20. This is a significant number. There’s a
whole world in the one point that separates 19 and 20.
Renna took her turn. What she scored was a perfectly
respectable 8 points, but this was not enough to give her the lead. Reena
looked a little downhearted when she sat back in her chair. I hope that she
wasn’t, as she had nothing to be ashamed of, even if she wasn’t going to win
this time.
Only Paul Judge remained, then. He started one point ahead
of where Isobel had started her round, so matching her score of 11 would be
enough for an outright win. I wouldn’t necessarily say that he ripped the round
apart, but he did score 12, which is not bad going by anyone’s book. In his piece
to camera at the end I liked his comments about watching as a fan and finally
deciding to give it a go. Well done sir! If we didn’t have people willing to
give it a go, we wouldn’t have a show. Best of luck.
The Details
|
Robert Hemming |
The Battleship
Bismarck |
8 |
0 |
9 |
2 |
17 |
2 |
|
Reena Patel |
Syd Barrett |
10 |
0 |
8 |
4 |
18 |
4 |
|
Isobel Mosely |
Frederico Garcia
Lorca |
9 |
1 |
11 |
1 |
20 |
2 |
|
Paul Judge |
The Life and Career
of Magic Johnson |
10 |
1 |
12 |
0 |
22 |
1 |
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