Thursday Night at the Club - Curmudgeon Alert!

How easy is it to distinguish between a question that’s too easy and a question that’s too hard/boring for a pub quiz? I ask because I’ve been feeling distinctly ungenerous towards the setter of Thursday’s quiz in the club. I like the setter a lot, as it happens (but as a person, not as a question master). Sorry, that’s mean. But then, if I write down some of the mean things which occur to me to say about a quiz, then I reckon I’m slightly less likely to actually say them. Slightly.

Now, it’s fair to say that Thursday night’s QM would probably not be my favourite QM even if her quizzes were better. She has an unfortunate tendency to shout into the microphone which is not pleasant on the ear at all. Don’t take my word for it. Dan made a point of mentioning this almost as soon as I’d got in the car yesterday. And don’t get me wrong, using a microphone does take a bit of getting used to. Your brain is telling you that you need to speak very loudly to be heard by everyone, yet it's one of the worst things you can do with a microphone. (Worse things probably necessitate surgery, but let’s not go on about that.)

But then, her quizzes aren’t better. Last year she gave us a quiz where a large number of the question concerned events in 2016. On Thursday for me there was an issue in the level of the questions. Some of them were of the ‘Lisbon is the capital of which country?’ variety. Nobody ever complains that a whole quiz is too easy, but I’m sorry, some questions are so easy they are not worth asking. While others were of the ‘How many miles is it from London to Stonehenge?’ variety. Questions which require you to guess and give you no satisfaction. There were a lot of these what I would call random number questions. Now there’s an adage which my olders and betters used to say when I was starting quizzing more than 3 and a half decades ago, namely that weak quizzers make weak quizzes, because they don’t know what makes a good question. Certainly the QM on Thursday is in a team that usually come last by some distance. So is it just that? Probably has something to do with it.

It’s not necessarily quite that simple, though. Dan made the point that when he, Jess or Adam acts as QM they find it difficult getting the level of TV, film, Music questions right because everyone else in the quiz is so much older, and not tuned in to more modern questions. My answer is though – yes, but you’re aware of this. You care about this. You make every effort to put the best questions that you can in your quiz. Thursday’s setter? Much as I like her, nah, I don’t believe that she does.

Dan also made a fair point that the wording of the questions was not always precise enough. For example – “What is Shakira?” Yeah, you probably immediately gave the correct answer – singer – but it annoys me because you could put down a number of different things, all correct and yet not be given the point.

Okay, in for a penny, in for a pound. In about round 7 we had five of the ten questions which had all been asked in the previous week’s quiz. The QM had not been present last week. What must have happened is that both of the last two QMs must have used the same website for these questions, and both must have just copied them down as they come in the order that they come. Now, I can’t blame Thursday’s QM for the coincidence since she missed the previous week. However, just shoving own any old questions from a website does not a good quiz make.

Well, there you go. Principles can be a dangerous thing. I’ve always said that a) anybody who volunteers to compile a quiz and be QM should be allowed, and b) if someone is public spirited enough to compile a quiz for the club you should never boycott them (apart from the one who publicly attacked me over the mic that once) and try to attend and support them, however much you may dislike their quiz. But in all honesty, I hope we won’t have to sit through another quiz like that for a while.

University Challenge 2025 Round 1 - Gonville and Caius, Cambridge v. Bristol

The Teams

Gonville and Caius

Isaac Tompkinson

Rachel Bentham

Declan Noble (Capt.)

Faris Qureshi

Bristol

Ted Warner

Bridie Rogers

Kevin Flanagan (Capt.)

Olivia Watts

Ted Warner, who would go on to have a very productive evening, took his and the show’s first starter knowing the scientist Lisa Meitner. A nice set on cities in New York State (Yay, New York!) brought us both a full house. I was delighted that the next starter was a quote from the ending of Vanity Fair, a serious candidate for my favourite novel. Captain Declan Noble got Caius (if it’s good enough for Roger Tilling just calling them Caius then it’s good enough for me) up and running with this one. They took two on Geology, but might well have been expected to get the Cretaceous. In the next starter about a Prime Minister the clue that gave it to me was the study of Persian and Arabic. As the clues began to pile on Ted Warner buzzed first to supply Anthony Eden (for some reason when I hear the name I always think of the words – Your boys took a hell of a beating.) Words beginning with sorr – brought two correct answers. Farris Qureshi and I recognised a description of a theremin at about the same time for the next starter. The Critics’ Circle Trewin Award brought them a full house and at this stage the teams seemed fairly evenly matched. With the picture starter and a highlighted diagram of the human brain I nearly took a lap of honour for knowing the cerebellum, but decided to let it ride. Kevin Flanagan took that one. Three highlighted lobes brought Bristol a full house. I answered temporal to each of them and thus got one right. My nerve broke and I took a lap of honour for the next starter, guessing that Mr. Einthoven invented an early ECG. Bridie Rogers took that one. Muscles and muscle fibres provided two bonuses. In the space of a couple of minutes Bristol had doubled their score and led by 90 – 45 at ten minutes.

Olivia Watts knew that “The Race to be Myself” is by South Africa Athlete Caster Semenya. This meant that all four of Bristol’s team had answered at least one starter. Bristol took two bonuses on my favourite revolutionary biscuit of Italy, the Bourbon (the Peake Freans Trotsky assortment isn’t what it was.) Ted Warner has the happy knack of being able to hold his nerve until a question becomes clear and then pounce and he won the buzzer race for the next starter when it became clear the answer would be lateran. Types of pancakes again brought two bonuses. Right, if it’s about a vintage Japanese film and it sounds familiar, I answer The Seven Samurai. If it sounds unfamiliar I answer Rashomon. This sounded unfamiliar for the next starter. Kevin Flanagan buzzed with Rashomon and we were both right. On ancient flood myths, Bristol did not sound certain on any of them. Yet took a full house. This stretched their lead to over 100. This led Amol to offer timely encouragement to Caius. His jedi powers, though, seem to have waned since his first series. Neither team identified the work of Beethoven. Aufbau means nothing to me but Olivia Watts took it to earn the dubious reward of the music bonuses, all excerpts from the single opera each of the composers featured had composed. For the first time they only took a single bonus. Ted Warner recognised the names of the new Sultan of Malaysia. Bristol took two of the bonuses on chemistry that followed. It was that man Warner, again playing the percentages, who recognised that the three rivers the next starter described all began with the letter T. Copyright law brought only one bonus and allowed Amol in to make a dig at Irishman Kevin Flanagan for not knowing that Trinity College Dublin receives copies of every book published in the UK. Alright Amol mate, don’t milk it. Bridie Rogers, like me, guessed that Death and Disaster, as its contents were described, could well be the work of Andy Warhol. 2 bonuses on Maria ‘Who?’ Tallchief meant that Bristol had completed a ten-minute shutout. They now led by 225 – 45, and were in the second round. All that really remained was to see whether Caius could add much to their score and whether Bristol could get into the 300s.

Well it looked likely when Kevin Flanagan buzzed in really quickly for the second picture starter to identify Gericault as the painter of The Raft of the Medusa. Other paintings that had scandalised the Salon on first being exhibited brought us both a full house in quick time. Nobody could take a UC special starter looking for Pierre. Now, you hear ‘hill’ and ‘Afrikaans’ in the same sentence you slam the buzzer through the desk and answer kop. Declan Noble had a go, but this meant that Bristol got the whole question allowing Kevin Flanagan in with the right answer. Mario Vargas Llosa meant not a lot to me but it brought a full house to Bristol, now only just over a full house away from 300. Something on geometry at last allowed Caius in as Rachel Betham buzzed in with parabola. The three body problem – the opposite to the problem with Cerberus, I guess – brought two bonuses, which is two more than I got. We saw a bit of a mix up with the next starter where skipper Declan Noble buzzed and answered, but he wasn’t called to do so as Isaac Tompkinson did the same. Amol erred on the side of leniency – fair enough when you’re so far behind, but what if it was a tight game, Amol? Buildings designed by Zaha Hadid yielded nothing. Sadly Caius came in too early and lost five. The next start asked for the North Germanic language said to be the closest relative of English. FRIESIAN! I shouted, causing our kitten to run out of the living room in terror. Olivia Watts gave the same answer. Three correct answers on Southeast Asia put them on the brink of a triple century. Types of vole pushed them through the barrier as answered by the estimable Ted Warner. Four-stringed instruments brought nowt, and I think this is the only time in the whole match that Bristol failed to take any of a bonus set. But it was all too easy for Bristol. The next starter saw Kevin Flanagan in early with the Ford Maddoxes (Ford and Brown) and deafness in films added a couple more. The final starter saw Declan Noble add ten to his team’s score. Shades of green took them to 80, compared with Bristol’s 325.

We won’t know just how good Bristol are until they play again. They looked fantastic in this match. Their score was superb. However I think their spurt coming up to 10 minutes really took the wind out of Caius- sails. And they weren’t at all bad, either. Their conversion rate was 57. Mind you, Bristol’s was 71. When you’re faced with such an onslaught you have to gamble on the buzzer, and G and C didn’t do this enough in the crucial middle fifteen minutes of this match. Well done Bristol. A team to watch? You bet.

Amol Watch

One positive and one negative from this show. On the positive, the first time that Amol told Gonville and Caius there was plenty of time left, there actually was. On the negative, coming back and having another go at Kevin Flanagan at the end for not knowing the Trinity College question wasn’t very nice. Jeremy Paxman would have commented once, yes, but I doubt he’d have had that second suck of the pineapple there.

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

The Critics’ Circle Trewin Award is for the best Shakespearian Performance.

Baby Elephant Walk Moment

Containing an indole or a pyrrole attached to a benzene ring, what essential amino acid, synthesized in plants, is sometimes given the one-letter code W?

Maybe its me, but the science questions didn’t seem quite so convoluted in this show as they have been. Still, altogether now – dum de dumdum dum dum dum dum dumdum.

Mastermind 2025 Round One Heat Three

Well, dearly beloved, we’ve now had our first three Quizzy Mondays of this season, and I have to say that I’m enjoying them immensely. I prophesied that I could well end up with an aggregate of zero from the specialists on last night’s show. So how did I do?

Well the first of these was the Novels of Zadie Smith, offered to us by Chris Devine. Never having read any of them the chances of a cricket score for me were non-existent. However, there’s always a chance you might scrape one on an unfamiliar specialist through General Knowledge and so while I haven’t read Fraud, I do know that the famous Victorian case Clive asked about was the case of Arthur Orton, the Tichborne claimant. Chris’ round was interesting. At the end I thought – how the hell did he only get 8 points? He only had 3 wrong. Well it’s true, but on the three he had wrong he hesitated waiting for the answers to come and I would say between the three of them this cost him as much as two more questions. A round which displayed a depth of knowledge that deserved a higher score I would have said.

No, I didn’t score on Cathryn Gahan’s round on the musical of Sweeney Todd. It is actually the first production staged by my last school, but I was not involved in it so any chance of points there went begging. One thing I’ve really enjoyed about this series so far is the knowledge pretty much all of the contenders are showing in their specialist rounds. If you have done your best to try to cover all the angles you might be asked about during your preparation, then you’ve certainly earned my respect. Alright, it’s just one musical but the depth of knowledge required to answer this set was considerable and with 12 points Cathryn smashed it.

Every season we see some rather ‘out there’ subjects. Charlotte Love’s on the History of Shetland Hand Knitting was such a subject. Mind you, I had the gimme on Fair Isle. Like Cathryn, Charlotte has the depth of knowledge necessary to cope with questions being fired at her from all angles of the subject. In fact, she looked good to equal Cathryn’s score, but the last question did for her. Only she could answer whether this was the buzzer breaking her concentration. I had it happen to me in the first round of the 2007 SOBM. I asked John H. to repeat, and in the couple of seconds he took to say sorry, but the buzzer had gone so he couldn’t repeat, the answer came to me.

Ronny Cheung was answering on the sitcom Spaced. Yes, you guessed correctly, I have never watched Spaced. So no, I did not add to my score and finished with a measly specialist aggregate of 2. All I can say in my defence is that it could easily have been a golden duck. Ronny, like the two previous contenders, really knew his subject. Let’s be honest, to get into double figures on specialist in the current era of Mastermind you’ve gotta be good. Ronny wasn’t perfect and so didn’t quite equal Cathryn or Charlotte, but two points behind going into the GK is certainly a bridgeable gap.

Four points? Well, it’s not impossible but it’s certainly a much taller order, but it was the task facing Chris Devine. Chris proved that he has a good General Knowledge but the same hesitations as he showed in the first round cost him again in this one. It meant he didn’t quite make it into double figures for the round, scoring 9 for a total of 17.

The next three contenders each had legitimate aspirations towards the win. First was Ronny, to points off the lead. He produced another 10 point round. This is pretty decent quizzing. He missed a couple where you would possibly think – hmm, a regular quizzer would have that – but if he’s not a quizzer, or only a social quizzer, then this was a pretty good display. 20? Well, it might have been enough, but you had the feeling that he maybe needed a couple more to have a realistic shout of staying at the top.

Now, to Charlotte’s round and a wee bit of controversy. It’s not Charlotte’s fault, but Clive Myrie’s. Asked about the Beatles’ 1967 studio album Charlotte answered “ Sergeant Pepper’s lonely-“ and started to tail off. Immediately Clive leaped in and accepted. Now, forgive me if I’m speaking out of turn, but I think this was a bit dodgy. Right, let’s suppose Charlotte had just answered ‘Sergeant Pepper’. I don’t think anyone would argue. But Charlotte was trying to give the full answer, and Clive kindly cut her off, preventing her wasting more time. Is he right to do so? Is it fair to the other contenders when this might have made the difference between starting another question on the buzzer or not? It’s a tricky one. Charlotte finished with 10, same as Ronny, but her extra point on specialist put her in the lead.

You know, these contenders tonight were all pretty well matched in terms of knowledge. Chris didn’t suffer from lack of knowledge in my opinion but his technique let him down. So that one point head start Cathryn held after the first round could prove to be decisive. Indeed it did. Cathryn too scored 10 points and this meant that she finished with 22. I’m not saying that I’m glad that Charlotte didn’t quite win. As you know, we are totally impartial here at LAM apart from when we’re not. But I’m glad that we had a clearcut win and Clive’s intervention did not affect the outcome of the show. Well done Cathryn, best of luck in the semis.

The Details

Chris Devine	The Novels of Zadie Smith	8	0	9	0	17	0
Cathryn Gahan	Stephen Sondheim’s ‘Sweeney Todd’	12	0	10	0	22	0
Charlotte Love	The History of Shetland Hand Knitting	11	0	10	0	21	0
Ronny Cheung	Spaced	10	0	10	0	20	0

Mastermind 2025 Monday's Specialist Subjects

Okay folks, Here are the specialist subjects for Monday’s Mastermind. The novels of Zadie Smith, Stephen Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd, The History of  Shetland handknitting and the TV sitcom Spaced. For me there seems as good a chance as ay of me getting zero. Ah, I can usually sneak one or two on at least one specialist, but none of these are even close to being in my wheelhouse.

New Show - the Answer Run with Jason Manford

Look, I had a lovely time in Dublin and New York, really lovely. So maybe a sense of wellbeing and benevolence is just a hangover from my trip. But what the hell, it if means I’m not mean towards The Answer Run for the sake of being mean then so much the better.

“The Answer Run” is a new TV quiz in the four pm slot. It’s a very simple game, which is not necessarily  a bad thing. Three teams begin round one. Host Jason Manford asks a general knowledge question and the first team to buzz in correctly gets to play and has the choice of three categories to answer from. Now, within the category they are given a list of things, and two options. So for example vintage children’s TV might give the options Bill and Ben. A list of things comes up on the screen one after another, and the teams have to swipe them to either Bill or Ben. So for example, President Clinton would go to Bill, while Big London Bell would go to Ben. If the setters are reading this, don’t worry guys, you can have that for free. Each item has a monetary value determined by how difficult it is. Put it in the right place and the money is added to the score – put it in the wrong place and money is taken away.

All three teams play rounds one and two. The game play in round two is very similar, however the items each have two monetary values, one being twice the other. So, if you’re certain you swipe it on the higher value and earn more money. If you’re not certain then you swipe the lower value and it means that if you’re wrong you lose less. At the end of the round the couple with least money in their pot are eliminated.

Round three is different. The items still have the two values. One team starts swiping, but as soon as they get one wrong, control passes to the other team. Tactics are vital since the large amounts of money – some of the items are potentially worth £1000 – mean that a healthy lead after round 2 can quickly  be wiped out. As before, the couple with the lower total at the end of the round are eliminated.

So to the final. No amounts if money are attached to the items this time. The final couple plays to take home the money they have put in their prize pot during the first three rounds. Its all about bars. Correct answers put one gold bar onto their stack. The couple must build a stack of 8 gold bars. Ah, but if they place one item in the wrong side – if they swipe a Bill into a Ben – he their stack is wiped out ad he clock continues to wind down. If they complete a stack of 8 then the clock stops and the money is theirs. If the clock stops and they have a stack of 4-7 bars then they take home half of the total. If they don’t have a stack of at least 4 then they leave with nowt.

BBC are giving this quiz every chance of success by making it the lead in to the powerhouse of Pointless. Earlier in the afternoon BBC2 is showing repeats of Bridge of Lies, an afternoon quiz I really like, and if I’m honest I’m not sure the Answer Run has quite the legs of this show. On the positive side, the game play has plenty of play along at home potential. That’s its big strength. On the negative side, there’s too much banter between host and couples for my liking. You know me. I’m a misanthrope and I just don’t care about the contestants’ lives. I’m not interested. The only thing that does interest me is how well they answer the questions and play the game. I mean, I understand why they do this in the show. The host is Jason Manford, and why have a comedian of his stature as host if you’re not going to give him an opportunity to use his skills? Personally, I preferred him presenting Unbeatable a couple of years ago.

Well, there it is. If you take each item on the different lists as a separate question then you do get through a lot on The Answer Run. The tweak which would improve the show for me would be to cut down the banter, but for the reasons I’ve just outlined above they’re not going to do that. I’ve watched every edition of the show so far and I’d guess that’s a kind of recommendation of sorts.

University Challenge 2025 Round One Match 2 - Open University v. University College, London

The Teams

Open University

Nicky Maving

Tom Barber

Karie Westermann (Capt.)

Hector Payne

UCL

Callum Jack

Josh Mandel

Olivia Holtermann Entwhistle (Capt.)

Sanjay Prabhakar

You know, dearly beloved, it’s always a source of surprise to me that the Open University doesn’t win UC more often that it has. Oh yes, it has twice won in 1984 and 1999. And following that 1999 win by what was perceived – rightly or wrongly – as a team put together specifically with the purpose of winning the series, the Open didn’t get to come back for a long time. But somehow I think that what with the subject knowledge plus the life knowledge of the OU participants, they’d be right up there. Well, it goes to show the strength of other teams too. This series the Open kicked off with a match against UCL, last year’s beaten finalists. Akin to drawing Man City or Liverpool in the third round of the FA Cup, I should think.

Maybe I should have known “Why I Write” by George Orwell, but I didn’t. Josh Mandel did to take the first starter for UCL. Culinary plants and animals with Japanese names gave us both two answers. None of us knew the loquat. Nicky Maving opened the Open’s account knowing or guessing the flag being described belonged to Interpol. They took only one of a pretty gentle set on the Mount of Olives in the Bible. *LAP OF HONOUR ALERT* Yeah, I took it early this week. The next starter looked like unfathomable chemistry until the words ‘treatment of thyroid-“ “IODINE!” I yelled and set off around the Clark sofa. Tom Barber took that one. Twins in literature yielded only one point for both of us for Arundhati Roy’s “The God of Small Things”. So to the picture round on which a major city in Austria was highlighted. Obviously not Vienna or Salzburg I narrowed it down to Linz or Graz, and zigged with Linz. Hector Payne zagged with Graz and took the points. Other cities whose mayor once won the Mayor of the Year award (well, something like that) brought an excellent full house. Josh Mandel, whom I would imagine is closer in vintage to myself than the other team members of both sides buzzed early to identify the 1975 film Picnic at Hanging Rock for the next starter. 2 correct answers on moorland plants meant that this competitive opening saw Open leading by 55 – 40 as we approached the ten minute mark.

You had to wait and wait for the next Geography starter to become clearer, then at the mention of the confluence of the Ottawa and St. Lawrence rivers, and the French names of the islands involved, there were only 2 realistic answers for the major city involved. Josh Mandel zigged with Quebec city allowing Hector Payne to zag in with Montreal. Bonuses on fashion and feminism brought a full house for Open. I knew the Stella McCartney one. So did everyone else. The next starter was another slow boiler, but as soon as the name Suharto was mentioned a buzzer race began, won by Josh Mandel to give the answer of Indonesia. UCL managed one of a quite gettable set on Roman law. (which I always felt was ‘do as I say or you’ll get my gladius up yer jacksi’). I know nothing about the programming language Python but Tom Barber had it very quickly. Towns and cities whose names have similar meanings – Neuchatel and Newcastle for example – brought Open just the one bonus. Sadly Dublin and Blackpool was not included (I was in Dublin just a week ago.) Look, if it’s won a Bram Stoker award then go for Stephen King, even if you’ve never heard of it. That’s what Callum Jack and I both did correctly for the next starter. I earned another lap of honour for knowing two of the three scientists born in 1773 for the bonus set. UCL had a full house. So to the music round where both Nicky Maving and I were quick to recognise the dulcet stylings of Run-DMC. That’s just the way it is, I guess. More hip hop amazingly brought me two correct answers, although Open managed a full house. The answer to the next starter, cultural relativism doesn’t mean a lot to me, although I do have some very cultural relatives. Sanjay Prabhakar took that one. 2 bonuses on writing systems created by one person kept them from falling too far behind on the scoreboard and took them into a triple figure score. The next UC special starter saw Nicky Maving in very early after just one clue to a set of words with two consecutive letters in them. Knowing a wapiti is an elk he knew it was L and K. Good buzzer work that. The architectural style known as Brick Gothic brought just the one point. However it was enough to see that the Open still led, by 135 to 100 as we approached the 20 minute mark. They had their collective nose in front, but with the madcap dash of the last few minutes yet to come it could be anyone’s game.

Asked a chemistry starter requiring a Greek letter I nearly gave up at the start, but the mention of drugs made me think beta blockers and lo and behold – lap of honour opportunity number 3. UCL skipper Olivia Holtermann Entwhistle had that one. Marriage Acts in the UK saw UCL come close with each bonus without actually landing any of them. Back came the Open whose skipper knew various teachers at the Bauhaus. The astronomer Pierre Gassendi – or Pierre Who as I like to think of him – brought two bonuses and extended the lead to forty five. The second picture starter saw Hector Payne first in to identify a photo of Ferenc Puskas. More photos of footballers with FIFA Awards named after them saw us both take a full house. With a lead of 70 the Open looked good for the win. The estimable Josh Mandel had other ideas. He recognised the work of the late and extremely talented Sinead O’Connor for the next starter. UCL could have done with more than just the one bonus they achieved on the Polar Music Prize. An excellent early buzz from Olivia Holtermann Entwhistle gave the correct answer of the term cyborg for the next starter. Letters in the novels of Jane Austen yielded nothing. They were inching towards the Open, but not quickly enough. Gruoch was the wife, Lulach the stepson, and Josh Mandel was in with Macbeth. Words that mean brazenness offered the potential to fill UCL’s collective boots and they did with a full house. In a potentially controversial moment Josh Mandel buzzed early for the next starter, hesitated, Amol started telling him off and then he said the correct answer – butterfly and Amol allowed it. Marginal call. 1 correct bonus on a geometry set I couldn’t even begin to understand left the gap at five points. There was hardly any time left so effectively we had a one question shoot out. Asked about a national flag designed in the 90s it was Hector Payne who came in and gave the correct answer of South Africa. That was it, there was no time for any of the bonuses on rivers that cross deserts. The Open won by 190 to 175.

A great game. Amol suggested that the Open rather went to sleep a bit at the end. Unfair that, bearing in mind the strength of UCL, but he’s right in as much as UCL have a decent chance of a repechage slot now. It came down to the bonuses. UCL had a BCR of fifty percent, while the Open despite winning fewer starters had a BCR of 66 percent. On such margins are matches won and lost. Also it’s better to have a team where everyone can buzz in for starters, and the Open had buzzing throughout the team while UCL leaned heavily on the well-tuned buzzer finger of Josh Mandel.

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

Fred Brownell designed the national flag of South Africa.

Baby Elephant Walk Moment

Also known as the tetracuspid what name is give to the curve whose parametric equations are given by X = a cos cubed t, y = a sine cubed t? Yeah, it’s short but deadly. Dum de dumdum dum dum dum dum dumdum.

Mastermind 2025 Heat 2

Already week 2, dearly beloved. Last week we saw a fine contest between four well prepared contenders. Would this continue?

Well, Robin Dunford was certainly well prepared for his round on orchids of the British Isles. In my preview of this week’s show I explained it was highly possible that I wouldn’t score any points on any of the four specialist rounds. I certainly didn’t score any on Robin’s. The annoying thing is that I might have had the first – I have heard of the ghost orchid and the derivation of its name but just couldn’t dredge it up before Robin answered. Robin matched last week’s top specialist scores with 11 to lay down the gauntlet and make the others aware of the challenge in front of them.

A challenge which Ramona McKnight, second into the chair, was equal to. I’m aware of the TV show Schitt’s Creek but I’ve never actually watched it at all. Whereas I might have fluked that single orchid question, the chances of any points on this round were even lower, and I did not trouble the scorer. TV and film rounds are often a lot trickier than the viewer gives them credit for, especially when it’s a long running show. This one ran for no fewer than 80 episodes. Ramona didn’t quite match Robin’s round, but still earned double figures for ten. Game on.

Student Joseph Gregg did not seem in the least daunted by the task ahead of him. He seemed to be enjoying himself tremendously and that’s something I can run up the flagpole and salute. Only one contender is going to win the whole series, so you might just as well try your best to enjoy the experience, I say. I had not scored on either of the first two rounds. Thankfully Joseph came to the rescue with his specialist subject of Tom Lehrer. Thankfully I knew enough about the songs to gain a couple of points and I fluked another two to give me a respectable four. Joseph’s score was better than respectable as he scored 9.

Bringing the first round to a close was Maura Kenny. Maura was answering on Operation Mincemeat. This was the secret Allied operation to feed the Nazis misinformation about D Day plans – I believe this was the basis for the film “The Man Who Never Was”. I fluked another point to take my aggregate to five. That’s four down on last week’s nine, but if you’d have offered it to me before the start of the show I’d have bitten your hand off. Maura managed an excellent 11 to give her the joint lead and also ensure that she’d be last to go in the second round.

First back into the chair was Joseph, and he attacked his round with gusto. Like many young quizzers, at this stage of his quiz career there are gaps in his general knowledge and some of these came through. There was nothing wrong with his technique, snapping out the answers when he could and then passing quickly when he couldn’t. 16 is nothing to be ashamed of and if he decides to come back this way in a few years time he’ll be all the stronger.

Ramona seemed just a wee bit hesitant in a couple of places during her round. Nonetheless she kept patiently to her task and racked up a good performance and a good score in the process. Unlike Joseph before her she did not incur any passes and managed to put in a double figure round of 10, taking her to 20. We’ve seen lower scores win heats before in Clive’s tenure. Would Ramona’s be enough to do it?

Well, no. Robin began one point to the good and the opening to his round was excellent. He was not the quickest we’ve seen, but the first half a dozen or so answers were all correct. Had he been able to continue in this vein he’d have posted a cricket score. He lost a little momentum as the round progressed, but crucially even when he had a run whereby he only scored one right answer in five questions he kept going, picking off what he could, passing the target and extending it as far as he could. In the end he posted a good 12 to set the target at 23.

Unbeatable? No, certainly not, but Maura Kenny was going to need a very good round of 12 and 2 passes or better. And, sadly, it became clear before a minute had passed that she was behind on the clock and not going to get there. I applaud Maura for not passing. It requires presence of mind and application to the task to find plausible answers which might be right, and she did this. On another night she’d have scored more than the 6 that she managed, finishing with 17.

To the victor the spoils, then and the victor was Robin. Well done sir. I usually find the piece to camera at the end of the show quite informative and I was interested to hear Robin explain how he’d prepared for GK by having his partner read him hundreds of questions on a long drive. I salute anyone who does not believe the old saw that you cannot prepare for general knowledge. You can. I do think though that if possible you shouldn’t wait to start GK prep until you make your application to the show. If you spend at least a year beforehand then you can really make a difference. What Robin didn’t tell us was whether any of the questions he was asked by his partner came up on the show. Whatever the case, best of luck in the semi finals to you.

The Details

Robin Dunford	Orchids of the British Isles	11	0	12	3	23	3
Ramona McKnight	Schitt’s Creek	10	0	10	0	20	0
Joseph Gregg	Tom Lehrer	9	0	7	2	16	2
Maura Kenny	Operation Mincemeat	11	0	6	0	17	0

Mastermind - tomorrow's specialist subjects

Heads up about tomorrow’s Mastermind, dearly beloved. The programme website says that the specialist subjects will be Orchids of the British Isles, Schitt’s Creek, Tom Lehrer and Operation Mincemeat. Well, frankly they don’t offer me any great hope. If it wasn’t for the fact that I rarely fail to score on all four specialists I’d say that I could end up with zero. I could end up with zero, and I’d certainly be surprised if I managed more than 2 or 3 in aggregate.

University Challenge 2025 Round 1 Queen's University, Belfast v. Liverpool

The Teams

Queen’s University, Belfast

Sarah Carlisle

Jason McKillen

Daniel Rankin (Capt.)

Sam Thompson

Liverpool

Joyce Sajit

Isabel Day

Neil Williams (Capt.)

Harry Ashcroft

Ah, University Challenge! Yes, this may be the time of year when gathering swallows that twitter in the skies above remind us that the end of summer looms ahead of us like a giant looming thing, but the return of University Challenge is one of life’s consolations.

Several clues to the word sample brought Sam Thompson the first starter for Queen’s. Musicians who were awarded posthumous Pulitzer Prizes made an interesting set. Apparently the recipients deliver their acceptance speeches through the services of a medium. Sorry, that was in very bad taste. Queen’s took a full house. For the second starter Queen’s captain Daniel Rankin knew that the largest city of North Rhine Westphalia is Cologne. A relatively straightforward set on Korea in the second half of the 20^th century brought another complete set. The next starter had me screaming “ENCYCLOPAEDIA BRITANNICA!” at the telly as both teams sat on their buzzers. (Which brings to mind my favourite ever small ad once seen in the back of the Ealing Gazette – For Sale – complete set of Encyclopaedia Britannica. No longer needed as wife knows everything) Finally Sarah Carlisle of Queen’s came in after Edinburgh in 1771 sealed the deal. The Academie Francaise and its continual blasting of the trumpet against the monstrous horde of Anglicisms trying to creep into French provided an interesting set. Queen’s took the first bonus, taking their total of correct answers at the start of the show to the first 7, but were baulked by cosy, the 8^th. They took rookie to make 70 points unanswered. Isabel Day buzzed early and correctly to identify cartilage as the answer to the fourth starter, opening Liverpool’s account. An interminable set of questions on symmetric molecules provided them with a full house of their own. I like picture starters on flags, and this was a relatively gentle one with the flag of Greenland. Sam Thompson took that one. More two tone flags followed, but in black and white. This meant that Amol had to clarify that with the second it could be two countries but he wanted the east African one rather than the Asian one. It didn’t phase Queen’s, who’d now taken three full houses out of the first five sets of the show. For the next starter it was the list of actors who sang the songs that told me that the first live action film to receive three nominations for the Oscar for Best Original Song was Dreamgirls. Maybe it told Neil Williams too for it was the Liverpool skipper who buzzed in with the answer. Directors who have won the Palme d’Or twice brought two correct answers and meant that the score stood at 95-45 in favour of Queen’s at ten minutes.

Nobody knew The House of the Dead for the next starter, and Liverpool lost five of their hardearned for the first incorrect interruption of the night. Amazingly what sounded like a difficult science question was rendered gettable by the words ‘happy hormone’. “Serotonin!” I shouted and set off on my lap of honour around the Clark sofa before Jason McKillen could give the same correct answer. Types of sandwich associated with the USA was a good UC special set of bonuses. The Joey special wasn’t one of them, nor was the NY Cheese Steak which I became acquainted with last week, so I scored nowt. Two correct answers and Queen’s were already in triple figures. Joyce Sajit identified Barcelona as the home of The Block of Discord and earned Liverpool bonuses on Some Living American Women Artists, a parody of The Last Supper. Liverpool picked up two, while I picked up one by the expedient of answering Georgia O’Keefe to all of them.  So to the music starter. Daniel Rankin buzzed in super quickly to answer that Eminem’s The Real Slim Shady was released in 2000. More songs that were NME Track of the Year and years of their releases were asked and amazingly they were never even one year out, taking all three. The onslaught continued. Sam Thompson knew that the term Rangaku in Japanese refers to knowledge gained through contact with the Dutch. (Someone in the room who should hang her head in shame suggested that rangaku might consist of the cultivation of tulips and the process for making edam cheese.) Use of plants of the rubiaceae family provided two correct answers but I’m surprised that they didn’t know quinine – which just goes to show that every single one of us has gaps in our knowledge. Nothing daunted, Neil Williams buzzed in early to identify “The Tempest” as The Shakin’ Shakespeare play beginning with the word boatswain. Church and State only provided one bonus, which was the first time that either team failed to get at least two bonuses from a set. Amazingly I got a maths starter right – mind you it was only on the last part of several definitions which obviously pointed to the word degree. Joyce Sajit took that one. Three questions on author and translator Claire Pollard brought a full house and pushed Liverpool ono three figures themselves. A rush of blood to the head saw Harry Ashcroft buzz in far too early on the next starter, allowing Sam Thompson in to identify pepper as the commodity in question. Bonuses on urban design brought, well, yes, another full house for Queen’s, who now led by 185 to 95 at the 20 minute mark.

That old warhorse logical positivism galloped onto the battlefield for the next starter and just as quickly galloped off again when nobody recognised it. Clues to various Grays saw Joyce Sajit get really annoyed with herself when she buzzed early and incorrectly, and it was Sam Thompson who snapped up the answer. Scientists whose names contain a month brought me another potential lap of honour answer – if it’s Kekule it must be benzene, right? Then I got another one guessing Chaos Theory. And a full house for corona viruses! And Queen’s only got 2 of them. The picture starter was a self portrait of one of my favourite artists – Aubrey Beardsley (Oscar Wilde dubbed him Awfully Weirdly. Well, be fair, they were mates.) Isabel Day took that one. Beardsley portraits brought me a second consecutive full house, but Liverpool only the one. Joyce Sajit buzzed far too early for the next starer, and her eyes darted from side to side as if she didn’t quite believe she had buzzed. And, flippin’ heck, it was a chemistry starter and I knew the answer, being as it was about the periodic table. I knew that of the four elements named after Ytterby, the only one that isn’t a lanthanide is Yttrium. The excellent Sam Thompson, having a very productive evening, snapped up another unconsidered trifle. Bonuses on the Laffer Curve promised me nowt, but I got one for guessing Gerald Ford and another for trickle down economics. Queen’s had all three. Daniel Rankin made Queen’s first incorrect interruption of the evening on Zydeco, allowing Neil Williams in with Louisiana. Historical taxes saw Liverpool take just the one, missing out on old chestnuts scutage and Peter the Great’s beard tax. My heart went out to Neil Williams for his interruption to suggest that it was Port Talbot that received city status in 2022. Sadly no, Neil – to the best of my knowledge that is not a status that my adopted home town aspires to yet. No football fans in Queen’s it seemed, since they might have known that the Racecourse Ground is in Wrexham. Skipper Williams admirably made up for this by buzzing early to identify Germany as the first country to win both Men’s and Women’s FIFA world cups. Three books with the word Winter in their titles brought nowt to Liverpool, and the only answer I knew was Kate Mosse. Sam Thompson knew that two chemical symbols give you an emu. One bonus on Edmund Halley was taken and that was it. The contest was gonged with Queen’s winning by 240 – 125.

I can’t help feeling a little sorry for Liverpool. They’re a good team – they scored a BCR of over 51 percent. They were just unfortunate to meet a potentially very good team indeed. For Queen’s scored an exceptional BCR of 81 percent. Every one of them answered at least 1 starter correctly so there’s buzzing throughout the team. I don’t think it will come as any surprise if I say that they are very much a team to watch.

Amol Watch

‘Good job you’ve got a chemist on your team.” pronounced Amol after the symmetric molecule questions. True, but not exactly original, Amol. I doubt you’d say ‘Good job you’ve got a complete nerd on your team’ after a set on manga for the sake of argument. Fair play, he was understandably amused when Queen’s facetiously suggested that an America sandwich might possibly have been named after Les Miserables.

At the twenty minute mark Amol told Liverpool “Plenty of time left”. This is a habit Amol has that I picked up on last series. A) There wasn’t actually plenty of time left. B) Liverpool were buzzing quite well anyway – they weren’t doing badly, just Queen’s were doing exceptionally.

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

The first live action film to receive three Oscar nominations for best original song was Dreamgirls. None of the songs won.

Baby Elephant Walk Moment

(Quick reminder. When I hear an unfathomable – and let’s be honest, it’s usually Science – question the Baby Elephant Walk sometimes plays on my mind’s internal soundrack. This is where I nominate the question each week most likely to induce this.)

What two word term describes the shape of a symmetric molecule where a central atom is covalently bonded to three peripheral atoms? An example of this type of atom is boron trifluoride and the bond angle is 120 degrees since all three peripheral atoms are in the same plane. Dum de dumdum dum dum dum dum dumdum.

Mastermind 2025 Heat 1

Now, come on, be fair, I did tell you that I was going to be in New York City when our first Quizzy Monday of the season hit the screens on Monday 12^th, didn’t I. But I’m back now and yes, I had a fantastic time, thanks.

Did all four of our contenders on Monday night’s Mastermind also have a fantastic time? I hope so but you’d have to ask them. I think that Claire Reynolds did. Claire had the honour of being the first contender of this new series, and she was answering on Dad’s Army. In terms of my aggregate specialist total I felt that this was my banker subject. However I didn’t feel that it was going to be a case of fill yer boots, son, and I was right. I took the first four in a row, but from then onwards the questions required the in-depth knowledge of specific details from individual episodes that I just didn’t possess. Claire, on the other hand was well prepared. She scored ten and no passes and was worth every single one of those points. She seemed to be enjoying herself tremendously and that’s something I can run up the flagpole and salute.

To be fair Aaron Casanova also seemed to enjoy his round on Liverpool FC under Jurgen Klopp. Now, sporting subjects with what appears to be a narrow focus will always be controversial. Jurgen Klopp’s reign only began in 2015. I look on it like this – a narrow focus is fine as long as the questions require the same breadth of knowledge as other rounds. I don’t have anything like the in-depth knowledge of this subject to be a good judge, but to my layman’s eye it certainly did look as if Aaron was being asked testing questions. In which case his score of 11 looked pretty good, and it certainly put him into the lead.

Right then, don’t pretend you didn’t know this was coming. I begin every series asking myself whether this will be the one where it is finally won by another schoolteacher. The first teacher of the series is Nancy Braithwaite, although I don’t believe that she is a schoolteacher, but rather in the field of Higher Education in Oxford University. Nancy was answering on the life and works of Jane Austen. I enjoyed this round and felt that there was a good balance between the life and the work. If you’d only known the life, then you wouldn’t have had a great round, and vice versa with the works. Nancy, who I have to say looked very nervous throughout the round, joined Aaron in the lead with 11 and no passes.

Finally we had Danny Lardner who was answering on Shania Twain. I have to be honest, I don’t tend to pay much attention to the Glastonbury Festival at the best of times, but last year I happened to catch Cat Stevens/ Yusuf who I enjoyed, and this year Shania Twain’s set did impress me much. Not that I knew enough about her or her music to add much to my total. The five from Dad’s Army was supplemented by braces on Jurgen Klopp and Jane Austen – and what a midfield pairing that would have made in fantasy football. This meant I finished with 9 – decent season opener but better to come, I hoped. Well, Danny himself did well, scoring 10 and no passes to sit on the shoulder of the leaders as the bell rang for the final lap.

I have to say, that first round was what I like to see – four contenders who had all prepared properly for their subjects and who all kept the presence of mind not to pass. Quality.

Claire came first and she continued from where she’d left off in her specialist round. You can only go so far with an average general knowledge and Claire’s was some way better than this. I’d go so far to say that I wouldn’t be surprised if Claire has some kind of quiz experience. Even just playing in your local pub quiz once a week every week can make a difference. Claire scored an excellent 13. Game on.

By about halfway through his round Danny Lardner began to show just a little frustration. Whether this was with himself or the questions I couldn’t begin to tell you. I certainly felt some sympathy. There was a little run of three or four questions in the middle of his round that I found more difficult than any such run in Claire’s round and they proved to be a momentum killer for Danny. It’s all in the eye of the beholder – they’re all easy if you know the answers and they’re all hard if you don’t. Still, by the time he was asked his last question, about cuneiform, he knew he wasn’t going to do it. He finished with 19.

Aaron never seemed to be flustered or frustrated during his round, even though things did not go as well as I am sure that he would have hoped. We mentioned momentum in Danny’s round and sadly Aaron never really managed to work up a full head of steam. One thing to note was that he picked up the only pass of the whole contest, on his way to a total of 17.

Which left only Nancy. If she’d looked nervous during her specialist round, to me she looked positively petrified as she walked back to the chair. Yet she clearly had no need to be. What we’ve learned is that in recent years in the first round any GK score in the teens is a really good performance. Nancy needed 13 to win outright and she actually went on to score fourteen. What’s more, this didn’t look like a lucky performance at all. There was a wide range of general knowledge shown. By the end of the heats I reckon she’ll be pretty high on my unofficial table.

Well done to all four contenders. A thoroughly enjoyable season opener. As for Nancy, well there were a couple of things of particular interest in her closing piece to camera. She explained that she loved quizzes, but not whether this was just watching quizzes or extended into playing them. She also said that she’d applied when a work colleague told her they had just done so. Did they also get onto the show, I wonder? It would be interesting to know.

The Details

Claire Reynolds	Dad’s Army	10	0	13	0	23	0
Aaron Casanova	Liverpool FC Under Jurgen Klopp	11	0	6	1	17	1
Nancy Braithwaite	The Life and Works of Jane Austen	11	0	14	0	25	0
Danny Lardner	Shania Twain	10	0	9	0	19	0