So here we are at heat 6, which I believe is actually ¼ of the way through the first round. Have we seen the eventual series winner yet? Hard to say.
Akin Ajayi kicked off with my ‘banker’ subject. Well, I say
that. When I originally took a gander over the subjects for last night I
thought it was the whole of the Tour de France rather than just the Tour de
France in the 21st century. I went off it for a few years after it
became blindingly obvious that Lance Armstrong (and some others) had cheated
their way to wins or high positions and didn’t really get switched back on
until Geraint Thomas won in 2018. Nonetheless I managed 4 of these. Akin did
better, and after a minute double figures looked possible. He didn’t quite get
there, but in the context of this year’s low scoring series, 8 did look quite
competitive.
Mary Obodo gave us my second ‘banker’ of the night with
George Harrison. Mary is a retired teacher so of course she had the dubious
reward of support from the Clark sofa. She certainly knew what she knew, and
reached a respectable 7, but there did seem to be gaps her knowledge of aspects
of George’s life and career which caught her out once or twice. I took another
4, and a double figure aggregate looked possible.
I don’t pretend to know the story behind the Aeneid as well
as I know the Greek myths on which Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey are based, but I
thought I should get at least 1 on Paula Lawford’s round. I doubled my
expectations and got 2. Paula seemed to know her stuff, as did all of last
night’s contenders, but some of the questions caught her out a bit, and left
her with 6 at the end of the round. That was still only 2 points off the lead,
but there was still one more contender to go on specialist.
This was Hugh Nicholl, and his specialist was Lyndon B.
Johnson. He’d never have been a banker for me, but US politics is always an
interesting subject and I reckoned if I kept my wits and plucked off any low
hanging fruit I might get 1 or 2. 2 is indeed the score I managed. This took me
to an aggregate of 12 for the show and meant that I had been able to answer
some questions in each of the rounds. Speaking of which, Hugh’s was the finest
specialist round of the evening, a very good 11. I don’t want to lecture or
preach, but you have to prepare thoroughly and you have to prepare smartly for
your specialist. It’s not necessarily about the amount of time you put in –
although the more time you can put in the better. It’s just as much about using
that time well and making sure that you’ve covered all aspects of the topic
that you possibly can. If you do, then you can end up like Hugh, with a very healthy
3 point lead going into GK.
I don’t get off on watching any contender’s specialist round
when it doesn’t go as well as they would have liked. But I felt especially
sorry for Paula Lawford over her specialist when she returned to the chair to
deliver a really good general knowledge round. 11 in GK this year is no mean
feat. It pushed her up to 17 and that with no passes either. We’ve seen heats
won this year with a lower score.
Mary Obodo, sadly, didn’t really get to grips with her own
GK round. 7 is nothing to be ashamed of, but it wasn’t a score or a performance
to get the pulse racing or bring her close to the target.
Akin Ajayi, on the other hand, was certainly in contention
in his round. He didn’t match Paula, no, but 10 would have been enough. Well, in
the current series there’s nothing easy about scoring 10 in general knowledge
and he fell just short, scoring 9. This put him on 17 as well, but behind on
passes.
Only Hugh Nicholl stood between Paula achieving the best
comeback since Lazarus. But I think Hugh has what seems to be a wise head on
young shoulders. I think he knew that he didn’t have to match Paula’s 11, and
so he never got flustered when he didn’t give a right answer, but just kept on
providing answers to what he did know, and guesses to what he didn’t so he
wouldn’t lose on passes. He achieved the target with a little to spare and in
the end scored 8 for a total of 19. Well
done Hugh! Best of luck in the semis.
The Details
|
Akin Ajayi |
The Tour de France in
the 21st Century |
8 |
0 |
9 |
3 |
17 |
3 |
|
Mary Obodo |
George Harrison |
7 |
2 |
7 |
1 |
14 |
3 |
|
Paula Lawford |
Virgil’s Aeneid |
6 |
0 |
11 |
0 |
17 |
0 |
|
Hugh Nicholl |
Lyndon B. Johnson |
11 |
0 |
8 |
0 |
19 |
0 |
No comments:
Post a Comment