Mastermind Round One Heat 9 - Monday 15th September

It works like this. I’ve been away on a sketching trip to Liverpool, which has put me behind with the reviews. Sorry about that. So I’m going to start with last week’s Mastermind and work through to catch up asap, ok?

So, the first subject was the history of Coventry. Up until the time I started researching my family history I had no idea of a family connection to Coventry. It turned out that my mother’s father’s mother, born Emily Rainbow, was born in Coventry, where she followed her father into the silk weaving industry. The two of them moved to London where she met my great grandfather. At one point the Rainbows, descendant from Huguenots, had been very successful in the silk weaving industry, and Emily’s uncle Edwin was even the Mayor of Coventry at one point. So it was nice to see one question answered by Eric Davies was actually about the ribbon industry. It has to be said tha Eric did brilliantly too. Everything was answered correctly until the very last question, so much so that it was a surprise when the final question caught him out.

I had a couple on Eric’s round but there was nothing for me in Gurpal Cheema’s round on “People Just Do Nothing”, which title could have been applied to a number of English classes that I taught over the years. Apparently it was a TV show that I never watched. Gurpal kept on answering and accumulated a good total of 11, which put him just behind Brian looking forward to the GK round.

The next round on the Emperor Nero, offered to us by Annette Fenner, was my banker subject for the evening and I was pleased to take 6 of these from a standing start. Annette did better. I know enough about the subject to know that this was a pretty testing and wide ranging round, and I felt that 9 was a good score. However it did leave Annette 3 points off the lead. It’s not an insurmountable deficit but It’s not easily bridged either.

Finally we had Nigel Haynes who was answering on the life of C.B. Fry. None of the questions concerned my favourite C.B. Fry story – apparently he was once (and only once) invited to be a pundit for a radio sporting occasion. The hapless commentator supposedly asked ‘What do you think, Charles?’ to which Fry replied ‘You do not call me Charles. To you I am Commander Fry.’ I don’t believe he was invited back after that. I took a couple of these about the great all-rounder, but nowhere near as many as Nigel. He completed our third double figure round to lie in 3^rd with 10.

So Annette was first to return to the chair. She did pretty well, too. If we remember that double figures in GK makes a pretty good round, then you can see that Annette was close to this with 9, matching her specialist score. No, 18 was very unlikely to be enough to win, but it didn’t matter so much. She had achieved respectability.

So, as I said, double figures is a mark of a good performance in the GK and that is exactly what Nigel Haynes served up in the next GK round. His score of 11 took him to a total of 21. In all honesty I wasn’t sure that this was going to be enough to win, but you never know, and nothing is certain until the white line of death has completed its circuit around your score.

Sadly, the white line of death had encircled Gurpal Cheema’s score when he had taken his total to 18. Now, don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing to be ashamed about with 7 in a GK round in the current era, but I’m sure it will have been less than Gurpal was aiming for. Ah, them’ the breaks. Sometimes the questions fall for you and sometimes they just don’t.

So it remained for Brian, whose round would determine the winner, one way of another. He looked a picture of concentration as he steadily built towards the 10 points he needed to be sure of an outright win. Well, with just a couple of stumbles along the way he managed that alright and added a couple more points, which gave him a total of 24.

Well done, sir. It wasn’t maybe the most flamboyant GK round we’ve seen this series, but it was pretty good. Using last season for comparison, 24 is the kind of score that should put Brian into the top half of qualifiers for the semi finals, and means he could well be one to watch. Brian, I wish you the best of luck.

The Details

Eric Davies	The History of Coventry	12	0	12	0	24	0
Gurpal Cheema	People Just Do Nothing	11	0	7	0	18	0
Annette Fenner	The Roman Emperor Nero	9	0	9	1	18	1
Nigel Haynes	The Life of C.B. Fry	10	0	11	0	21	0

University Challenge First Round - Green Templeton, Oxford v. Darwin, Cambridge

The Teams

Green Templeton College, Oxford

Will Owens

Annie Roberts

Yusuf Sahin (Capt.)

Fiona Asokacitta

Darwin College, Cambridge

Lewis Strachan

Ruth Ni Mhuircheartaigh

Louis Cameron (Capt.)

Jonathan White

Green Templeton were making their first appearance as a matter of note. We began with a starter in which Brian Aldiss described what seemed to have been from Frankenstein. Indeed it was, as Lewis Strachan thought, earning a set of bonuses on Breakfast at Tiffany’s for Darwin. We both took just the two bonuses. Clues to film portrayals of Sigmund Freud fell to Lewis Cameron. No bonuses on the Portuguese War of Restoration followed, although I think that they were unlucky not to get Ceuta. Lewis Cameron knew Clown for the next starter. Sex chromosomes (no sex chromosomes please, we’re British) amazingly not only produced this week’s first baby elephant walk moment but the last question in the set brought me a lap of honour when I knew that temperature changes in the eggs can determine the sex of turtle offspring. (Look, an NHS clerical officer just KNOWS these things, ok?) For the picture starter nobody recognized movements in a work by Ottorino Respighi. Vitamin B1 thiamin brought Annie Roberts and Green Templeton (henceforth I will call them GT) their first points. This earned the picture bonuses on movements in other tone poems and brought a further five points. Thus it was that just after the 10 minute mark that Darwin led 40 – 15.

Lewis Cameron was the first to recognize the person being described in the next starter as Genghis Khan. Art of the New York Subway provided an interesting set of which Darwin took just the one. With the next starter about an artist friend of Edgar Degas you had to wait until the pronoun ‘she’ was used, at which point I thought it was a 50/50 between Berthe Morrisot and Mary Cassatt. Lewis Cameron went for Cassatt and took the points. Game theory bonuses brought just the one correct answer. Will Owen knew the word Ambient as used in various album titles. Poaceae (the plant family not the Pokemon character) yielded only one bonus to GT, but at least it took us up to the music starter. Ruth Ni Mhuircheartaigh thought that the voice might be Leonard Cohen’s and was right. More songs that inspired the names of notable bands or artists provided just one correct answer. Captain Yusuf Sahin took one for his team with the next starter, recognizing descriptions of languages that all begin with the letters sin -. The Beach Boys . . . well the Beach Boys, like so many sets before them gave up just one correct answer. With the next starter you had to wait . . . and . . . wwwaaaaiiiitttt, until Menai Strait Bridge was mentioned, then sling buzzer. Will Owens gave the correct answer of Thomas Telford. Notable alumni of France’s Ecole des Ponts et Chaussees – nope, me neither – brought a rare full house. Which really changed the state of the competition. Darwin had been comfortably outbuzzing GT, yet at the 20 minute mark they only had a 15 point lead to show for their efforts, with the score at 85-70.

This was further reduced when Yusuf Sahin took the next starter with the Polish Galicia. We were back to famine rations of bonuses again though as only one bonus on Little Red Riding Hood brought the scores level. Lewis Cameron recognized the work of Heidegger (aka the boozy beggar) for the next starter and with two bonuses for art installations they began the long run for home. So to the second picture starter and the kind of illustration that could only be for Milton or Dante. Lewis Cameron buzzed too early and lost five. Will Owens went with Milton. It was Dante. Annie Roberts knew Progesterone (another Pokemon?) for the next starter and earned the bonuses showing three more depictions of Dante’s meeting with Francesca da Rimini. This brought them the two correct answers that they needed to level the scores again. A terrific early buzz to identify the character Clarissa Dalloway from Annie Roberts brought GT the lead. They sadly squandered a very gettable set on Greek Mythology. Emec and Etic (surely they are pokemon too) gave both teams the slip. A smut that grows on corn – and let me tell you that we are not averse to smutty corn or corny smut here at LAM Towers – lost Darwin five and fell to Yusuf Sahin. Natural world bonuses took GT to 130 meaning that Darwin needed two unanswered visits to the table. They took the next starter with residue. With two bonuses taken the next starter could tie the scores. Jonathan White took it. Was there enough time for any bonuses? Only just. Darwin took the only one there was time for and won the contest 135-130.

For the record both teams managed relatively modest BCRs. Green Templeton posted 42% while Darwin’s was 44%. Sadly their score of 130 means that GT do not make it onto the repechage table.

Amol Watch

I’m gratified to see Amol keeping to the principle of – if it’s not quite right than it’s quite wrong, even though Darwin may well feel aggrieved about Ceuta.

It appears that Amol is as fond of Leonard Cohen as he is of Bertrand Russell. Cohen is NOT unmistakeable, Amol, or GT wouldn’t have mistaken him.

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

Roy Lichtenstein designed a large mural at Times Square 42^nd Street Subway Station.

Baby Elephant Walk Moment

X-inactivation is only one method of dealing with the asymmetry of sex chromosomes. Some species instead halve the expression of genes from both female X chromosomes, while others double that of the single X chromosomes in males. What two word term refers to these methods collectively? Dum de dumdum dum dum dum dum dumdum.

Repechage Table

Sheffield	170
SOAS	170
New College Oxford	150
Lancaster	145
---------------------------------------
Grenn-Templeton, Oxford	130
Cardiff	115
Linacre, Oxford	115
Newcastle	105
Bath	70

 

Mastermind 2026 First Round Heat 8

Look, what can I tell you? It was Mrs. Londinius’ birthday yesterday so Quizzy Mondays were outers yesterday and I didn’t get to watch Mastermind until this morning. Still, sitting here chuntering on about it isn’t going to make up for lost time, is it?

So, as we were promised last week, Ruaidhri O’Donnell offered us Bob Mortimer. I really like Bob, and funnily enough I like him more in his (presumably) unscripted appearances. I love Mortimer and Whitehouse Gone Fishing even though I have never been fishing in my life, for example, and his appearances on Would I lie to You are legendary. So I wasn’t unhappy to get three of these. Ironically, these were two of the ones that Ruaidhri didn’t get – not that there were very many of these. He managed a good 8, although will maybe be kicking himself for not getting Norway on the Gone Fishing Christmas special.

Marine biologist Lucy Fleming was answering on Dolphins and porpoises. It’s a very long time since I was on the show, but when I did go on I was clearly told that I could not do any subject connected with my job as English teacher. Ostensibly the reason is a good one – it stops anyone embarrassing themselves by having a bad specialist round on something which could bring their professional expertise into question. Well, maybe the rules have been relaxed a bit. Not that Lucy was in any danger of embarrassment. She produced a perfect 12 from 12. Game on.

Beth Leonard was answering on Eva Cassidy. Her cover of Fields of Gold is one of my favourite song performances of all time, but sadly I can’t claim to know much more about the late, great singer or her work. Beth produced a very fine round and scored 11 and no passes which put her just one point behind Lucy with one contender still to go.

That contender was Roger Early. Roger was answering on the England Cricket team under Mike Atherton. I surprised myself by getting 4 of these. Heaven alone knows how, as it’s never really been my favourite sport, but never look a gift horse in the eye, I say. This gave me a good aggregate of 11. Roger, like the two contenders before him managed a double figure round, scoring 10 and no passes.

So it looked like it could be anyone’s game as we reached the turn around and began to head for home. Ruaidhri was first back. At 4 points off the lead he was the underdog, but you have to believe every time that you sit in the chair you’re going to produce a great round. Ruaidhri certainly gave it a lash.He reached double figures and scored 10 to give himself a total of 18. No, it didn’t look as if it would be enough but he’d certainly given a good account of himself and could leave with his head held high.

So to Roger. It’s worth studying Roger’s round as it was a great example of a contender possibly being too keyed up at the start of the round who manages to calm down, settle, and build a potentially willing score. Roger took the first then missed the next three on the bounce and seemed to be getting agitated. Then he pulled himself together, took the next and continued to build a competitive score. Roger put on 12 to give himself a total of 22.

Beth Leonard had one point over Roger at the turn around. But she would need a round of at least 11 to have a chance of the win, and double figure rounds are not easy to come by. Beth’s round was perfectly respectable, as she added 9 to her total. However at the end of the day it left her high and dry on 20.

Which just left Lucy Fleming. Her bravura performance in her perfect specialist had earned her a two point lead over Roger at the halfway point. However that lead can soon evaporate over the course of a GK round. It looked touch and go throughout the round and in the end it all came down to the last question. If Lucy could answer which country has an automatic rifle on its flag then she would win on pass countback. Oh, but she went for Angola. That’s the answer to the matched pair question – which country’s national flag features a machete? The correct answer is Mozambique. Oh, on such small margins can contests be decided.

Bad luck to Lucy but congratulations Roger! Best of luck in the semi finals.

The Details

Ruaidhri O’Donnell	Bob Mortimer	8	0	10	2	18	2
Lucy Fleming	Dolphins and Porpoises	12	0	9	0	21	0
Beth Leonard	Eva Cassidy	11	0	9	3	20	3
Roger Easy	The England Cricket team under Michael Atherton	10	0	12	2	22	2

Mastermind 2026 Round One Heat 8 Specialist subjects

Did the continuity announcer last week say that Bob Mortimer was going to be one of this week’s subject or did I imagine it? It doesn’t really matter, but the great Bob is one of tomorrow’s specialists. The others are

Dolphins and porpoises

Eva Cassidy

The England cricket team under Michael Atherton.

All of the have the potential to bring me 1, possibly two points. Equally each of the four has the possibility of bringing me nowt, although I will be disappointed if I don’t get any points on Bob.

University CHallenge 2026 First Round - Lancaster v. Lincoln

The Teams

Lancaster

Josie Hyland

Talhah Hussain

Lex Wilkins (Capt)

Eoin Neale

Lincoln

Grace Bloomfield

Laura Bruce

Samuel Orman-Chan (Capt)

John Clayworth

Off we go – old hands Lancaster played Newbies Lincoln. For the first starter – condiment - and – brassica - pointed towards Mustard, and Josie Hyland came in early to take first blood for Lancaster. Bonuses on Hirokazu ‘Hip’ Tanaka (there are worse parts of your anatomy you can be nicknamed after) brought a full house to make a perfect start to Lancaster’s evening. A knight playing chess with Death can only be one of two things – Ingmar Bergman or an episode of the Young Ones. Well, if you’re an old codger like me anyway. Talhah Hussain is not an old codger like me and went for Alfred Hitchcock. Lincoln didn’t fancy the sound of the question and didn’t chance their collective arm. Samuel Orman-Chan broke his team’s duck knowing giant flightless crickets called Weta in New Zealand. The mind boggles. Two bonuses on the Forth and Clyde Canal followed. John Clayworth was the first to pick up references to Saddam Hussein for the next starter. The story of Orpheus brought just the one bonus. So to the picture starter and a historic map showing some of the historic counties of Wales. Nether team identified Carmarthenshire – in fact they gave the names of non historic counties. Respect to skipper Lex Wilkins who came in extremely quickly to recognise a description of the national flag of Kyrgyzstan. The picture bonuses showing more maps of historic counties of Wales brought just 1 bonus. The Lancaster skipper doubled up on the next starter on works with Venus and Mars in the titles. Bonuses on artists and operas brought just the one correct answer, nonetheless it meant that Lancaster led by 55 to Lincoln’s 35.

As soon as Amol read the stage direction ‘massiveness, solidity and purpose’ more than thirty years of teaching the play for GCSE made me yell “Anne in Spectacles!” – or as some people call it ‘An Inspector Calls’. Samuel Orman-Chan won the buzzer race. Advances in statistics during World War II didn’t sound too promising but I took two of them, incidentally the two that Lincoln didn’t. I’m not entirely sure why but the name Parmentier in the next question pointed me in the direction of potato. John Clayworth had that one. British wild birds saw more profligacy with the bonuses, and again they only took one of a quite gettable set. Nobody recognised a description of the board game Othello. Strictly speaking the original 1883 game was Reversi – while Othello is a 1971 variant. We didn’t get the whole question so maybe this would have been explained. John Clayworth was the first to recognise the description of a spinnaker. Characters in Pixar films proved far more to Lincoln’s liking and they took a rare full house. For the music starter I didn’t actually know the piece of music we heard, but I guessed Kraftwerk as it sounded like them. After rather more of it than I cared for, John Clayworth guessed the same. More pieces of music commissioned for the opening of major exhibitions provided the subject of the bonuses. Lincoln failed to add to their total. Samuel Orman-Chan worked out that the language sought in the next starter was Finnish. The history of proprietary medicine sounds like an esoteric Mastermind specialist subject. It was just a set of bonuses though and again Lincoln missed out on all bar one. Clues to flying ace Roland Garros allowed Talhah Hussain to drag Lancaster back into the match. Critically endangered crafts of the UK and Ireland did not include the time honoured Elthorne High School craft of manufacturing the pee - filled water bomb, but sporran and curragh manufacture brought two bonuses. This meant that for all of their dominance on the buzzer during the last ten minutes, as we approached 20 Lincoln only led by 110 – 70.

John Clayworth knew the identities of Holbein’s Ambassadors. Writers who have served as Children’s Laureates yielded just the one bonus. For the second picture starter we saw what was obviously the work of Piet Mondrian, which launched a buzzer race won by Eoin Neale. More artists whose work proved the inspiration for album covers brought two bonuses and cut the gap to 35. Now, I didn’t get the next question at all, but the answer was fuzzy. So was my head for that matter. Neither team had it but Lancaster lost five which they could not afford to lose. Talhah Hussein recognised that the Japanese terms in the next starter probably referred to Sumo. Major oil ports brought Lancaster a full house and the gap was reduced to 15. However this lengthened to 20 with an incorrect buzz for the next starter. There were clues enough that the answer was Cheviot, but Lincoln didn’t get it. Eoin Neale knew that the Martian scientists were actually from a little closer to home – Hungary to be precise. Two bonuses on self portraits brought the scores dead level. It was reliable John Clayworth who buzzed first to identify types of Gothic architecture. Lincoln managed two bonuses on Books of the Dead. (as opposed to exercise books of the dead, which I marked many of in my time). Samuel Orman-Chan took the next starter on the Peltier effect and recipients of the National Geographic Society Hubbard Medal brought two bonuses but saw them missing out on the first men on the Moon. Come on! Talhah Hussain took the next starter on the key of A minor. Lancaster looked a little too far behind to win, but a place on the repechage table was already theirs and the more points they scored the more chance they might stay there. A full house on Teddy Roosevelt narrowed the gap to 10 but skipper Lex Wilkins took a flyer and lost five on the next starter. This let his counterpart in with the correct answer of Shropshire. That was it. The gong ended the contest and Lincoln had won by 170 to 145.

For the record, Lancaster achieved a BCR of 67% while Lincoln’s was 47%.

Amol Watch

When Lincoln suggested that Handel might have written music for the opening of the 1920s British Empire Exhibition Amol said what I guess many of us were thinking – ‘just a few centuries out there.’

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

The first medical patent issued in England was for Epsom Salts.

Baby Elephant Walk Moment

No, nothing to report this week. Well done to all concerned.

Repechage Table

 

Sheffield	170
SOAS	170
New College Oxford	150
Lancaster	145
---------------------------------------
Cardiff	115
Linacre, Oxford	115
Newcastle	105
Bath	70

 

Mastermind 2026 - First Round Heat 7

For me the big question as I sat down to watch last night’s show was this – was this going to be another show where I ended up praising the contenders’ effort – which I am quite happy to do – or would there be some real quality on display? Well, see what you think.

Ian Walmsley was offering us Post War Great Britain Rugby League Tours. I always feel that with this sort of sport subject there’s a chance that you’re going to get a couple of pieces of low hanging fruit, and questions on Billy Boston and Martin Offiah were examples of this, kicking me off with two points. Neil knew his stuff and was just stopped short of the psychologically important double figure total, ending his round with 9.

Next up was Diane Howe, answering of Henry VIII’s last queen, Katherine Parr. Now, you can work really hard and prepare your subject really well and still fall just short of a perfect total. When someone does achieve a perfect total it very often looks as if they know their subject so well that they could go on for another two minutes without dropping a point. Such a round was Diane’s. She brilliantly reeled off 12 points, immediately putting herself in the driving seat for the rest of the show. I had 2 of these.

Jonnie Walker, the youngest of last night’s line up, gave us the Pierce Brosnan Years of James Bond. Never my favourite Bond, his films were all watchable enough, but remembering the kind of details that were likely to be asked was going to be a tall order and I was grateful to get 2 of these again. Jonnie knew his stuff, but just missed out on a couple. He nonetheless earned himself a double figure round of 10.

Bringing the round to a close was Maurizio Giacometto. He was answering on possibly the most ‘out there’ of the subjects last night – LL Zamenhof and the early history of Esperanto. My prediction that there might be a question about him being an ophthalmologist did not come to pass. However I had wikied him on Sunday and remembered that he’d been born in Bialystok and that the previous attempt at a universal language was Volapuk. That brought me two for a specialist round aggregate of 8, pretty decent though I say it myself. Maurizio himself scored 9, bringing to an end a high quality set of specialists.

Ian, then, had the dubious honour of setting the target for the rest in the GK round. He did it pretty well, too, scoring 11 to take his total to 20. In the previous 4 shows we have only seen 1 winning score higher than this. Just an observation.

20 is a high enough score to put any contender in the corridor of doubt. Yet Maurizio frankly didn’t seem the least bit perturbed. He seemed confident that his GK would be up to the task and he was right to be so. He produced an excellent 14, one of the best rounds we’ve seen in the series so far. It took him to 23 and it meant that both of the two remaining contenders had their own mountains to climb.

Jonnie Walker gave it a lash and what’s more it was a pretty good lash. Like both of the contenders thus far he achieved a double figure GK round. In his case it was a score of 10 which brought him level with Ian, but behind Maurizio. Nevertheless it was a good round, and suggests that if he decides to pass this way again sometime in the future he should not be found wanting.

Only Diane was left, then. I reflected that we had not had anything other than good rounds so far in this episode and it would be cruel indeed if we got a bad one now. Thankfully we didn’t. Instead what we got was another high quality display of general knowledge quizzing. Diane never lost her composure and kept calmly racking up the points until she got the 12 she needed to overhaul Maurizio and added another 2 for good measure, finishing with 14 for 26. When we come to look back on the heats I dare say that this will put her in the top 5. Best of luck in the semi finals.

This was a terrific heat. This is the sort of thing I always hope we’ll see. The three runners up leave with the bittersweet feeling that on the one hand they each produced a fine performance, but on the other hand they each produced a performance that could have won some of the other heats we’ve already seen. That’s knock out tournament play, folks. That’s Mastermind.

The Details

Ian Walmsley	Post War Great Britain Rugby League Tours	9	0	11	0	20	0
Diane Howe	Katherine Parr	12	0	14	1	26	1
Jonnie Walker	James Bond:The Pierce Brosnan Years	10	0	10	0	20	0
Maurizio Giacometto	LL Zamenhof and the early history of Esperanto.	9	0	14	0	23	0