Mastermind - Semi final 1/6

It was only as the show started this evening that it finally occurred to me to ask the question – how are they going to squeeze an extra contender into what is still a half hour show ? Looking at it in terms of sheer logistics, it seemed to me that they needed to find another 4 minutes from somewhere to accommodate the extra rounds. Fairly obviously for the chop were the filmed inserts. However that wouldn’t provide enough. So the answer they’ve come up with is to reduce the specialist rounds to 90 seconds rather than two minutes. So this measure had the dual effect of reducing the amount of time needed to be found by 30 seconds, and of finding 2 minutes from the specialist rounds.

I do have mixed feelings about this. On the positive side at least it means that the highest scoring runners-up have been accommodated. As a rule people tend to get more excited about watching the GK rounds, than the specialists. The show did have shades of the Magnus era tonight, as it was lean and mean, with no unnecessary chat or talk whatsoever. Less positively though this was almost shades of Discovery Mastermind too. Some people may well feel that this does make the General Knowledge rounds, which are still 2 minutes long, disproportionately important. Its early days to make hard and fast pronouncements on this from just one show, and I think we need to see all six semis. Still , it s a development which is bound to cause a fair amount of comment and debate. Will they return to the 2 minute Specialist rounds for the final ? I sincerely hope so.

If you read my review/preview a couple of days ago, you’ll have seen that I noted that you can often get semi finals where several of the top contenders from the first round have to battle it out with each other for one place in the final. Such a semi was tonight, which contained round 1 top scorer, Kathryn Johnson, round 1 second highest scorer Chas Early, and round 1 4th highest scorer, Chris Sowton. Also playing were Nathan Jones and David Sutherland.

LAM reader Kathryn Johnson led off this first new style semi final. In the first round she had scored a magnificent thirty points, where her specialist subject had been Victorian and Edwardian Poisoners. She offered us a slightly more traditional subject tonight in the shape of The Lord Peter Wimsey Novels of Dorothy L. Sayers. It certainly felt like a good round, and a little elementary arithmetic tells me that its equivalent to 14 /15 in a 2 minute round. No passes as well, which is the mark of a good, experienced Mastermind hand.

Back on the 22nd January Nathan Jones won heat 15 on Karl Gustav Mannerheim. Tonight he gave us The Anglo American War of 1812. Very much a lesser known war this one, but it was during this war that The Star Spangled Banner was written. Nathan too scored 11, despite looking and sounding extremely nervous.

Chris Sowton won heat 17 in February, where he had produced a good GK round, and a very impressive specialist round on Lord’s Cricket Ground. His subject tonight was Hindu Gods and Goddesses. Of all of tonight’s other contenders he was the most likely to be able to mount a challenge to Kathryn, if he could only get a lead on specialist. Well , he did get a lead, but getting a substantial lead in only 90 seconds is very difficult. 12 points was what I suspect will turn out to be a very , very good performance in a 90 second round.

When he won heat 22 a few weeks ago, answering on The Child Ballads, David Sutherland had marked himself out as a solid performer with 24. Tonight he was answering on the Life and Work of Cecil Sharp. In case you’re as ignorant about Cecil Sharp as I was, according to wikipedia he was the father of the folklore revival in England in the early 20th century. I cannot say whether it was nerves from the added pressure of the semis, or that Mr. Sutherland’s understanding of the parameters of his subject was at variance with that of the question setters, but he really seemed to struggle, and hit quite a nasty pass spiral, to finish the round with five.

Chas Early scored a truly massive 18 on Bill Hicks when he won heat 8. Tonight he answered questions on the TV series The Wire. I liked the way that he raced through his questions, giving surnames when names were asked for, and snapping out the answers the second that the questions had died on John’s lips. He too scored 11 points, which meant that at the end of round 1, any one of 4 contenders could win.

Not David Sutherland this time, though. He needed 7 points just to take the lead, and although he did get this , and some more, he finished on 14 points. He has nothing to be ashamed of, being now and forever more a Mastermind semi finalist. He fell foul of the fact that it is one thing to have one good subject for Mastermind, and quite another thing to find 2. He won’t be the last to do so this series, I fancy.

Kathryn came next. Kathryn you may recall had the highest general knowledge score of the first round, with 15. Not satisfied with this, she went one better tonight and scored 16. That’s a superlative performance. To put it into perspective , nobody scored 16 on GK in the whole of the 2008/9 series, and nobody scored 16 in the whole of the 2007/8 SOBM. With three contenders still to go, you couldn’t escape the conclusion that the show was as good as over – with only Kathryn’s 4 passes to give any scrap of comfort to the opposition.

Nathan Jones had struggled in his GK round in the heats, and as he nervously worked his way through his GK set tonight, you couldn’t help thinking that for him, his real achievement had been in getting to the semi final. To that extent his first round match had been his final, and he’d won that. He added 8 to his score, for a total of 19.

You may recall that I picked on poor Chas Early in my preview of the semi finals as an example of a contender who had really impressed in the heats through a massive specialist score, who might not fare that well in the semis. The wry smile he gave as John Humphrys reminded him that the score to beat was 27 indicated that he realised that it was probably beyond him. He answered quickly, but never reached the level he had managed in the first round heat, and in the end his final score was 18.

This left Chris Sowton. He’d managed 12 on GK in his heat, so in all probability the 16 he needed to win outright without a countback was always probably beyond him. However a 15 and few passes wasn’t totally beyond the bounds of possibility. To be fair to him he had a good old crack at it, managing 12 to finish on 24. When you think that you can add 3 or 4 to that score if there was a full length specialist round, then that’s a fine score. However, that would give Kathryn another 30 plus. So well played all. As for Kathryn, although I’m not going to scupper anyone at this stage by burdening them with the Clark tip, you looked formidable again. Many congratulations – and best of luck for the final.

The Details

Kathryn Johnson	The Lord Peter Wimsey Novels of Dorothy L. Sayers	11 – 0	16 – 4	27 – 4
Nathan Jones	The Anglo American War of 1812	11 – 1	8 – 2	19 – 6
Chris Sowton	Hindu Gods and Goddesses	12 – 0	12 – 2	24 –2
David Sutherland	The Life and Work of Cecil Sharp	5 – 5	9 – 5	14 – 10
Chas Early	The TV Series – The Wire	11 – 2	7 – 3	18 – 5

Only Connect - Grand Final Preview

I'm not going to sit on the fence. I have a strong gut feeling about the final. I stress here and now that I do NOT already know the outcome, but as I say , I have a strong feeling that The Gamblers will be just too strong and too good for the plucky Strategists. Still, as always, there are factors to be taken into consideration. Lets start with the bare statistics of how each team have performed taking the series as a whole.

Here are the average scores of both of the teams in each of the four different rounds, and also their average total scores.Yes I know that the totals are a little higher than if you add up all the averages of each of the 4 rounds, but that average is based on the winning scores of each round. Trust me.

Team	What's the Connection –R.1	What comes 4th – r. 2	Connecting Walls – r. 3	Missing Vowels - r. 4	Match Total
Strategists	3	4	8.3	9.3	25
Gamblers	4.6	6.6	8	8	28

OK – this is not an exact science of course, but on paper it looks as if the contest is actually much closer than I think it is. Statistically the Gamblers have a clear advantage on rounds one and two, which points up the fact that I think its fair to say that they have a superior general knowledge. There is virtually nothing to choose between them on their wall performances, while the Strategists , particularly in the shape of the excellent Chris Cummins, have an advantage in the missing vowels. So the stats seem to suggest that it will be closer than I think it will.Let me pay tribute to the Strategists. They have never looked in trouble throughout the whole series, and have proven themselves to be a very good outfit. Yet it just doesn't alter my gut feeling.

Where does my gut feeling come from ? (My gut ? D'Oh !) Well, look at this way. The semis have been harder than the earlier rounds. Its not unreasonable to suggest that the final will be harder again. I think that the Gamblers’ superior general knowledge may well give them a decisive lead going into the missing vowels round. The Gamblers have shown that they will be better able to take advantage of anything the Strategists can't answer than the Hitchhikers were. I don’t think that the Strategists will be able to get much out of what the Gamblers can't answer. Even regarding the Missing Vowels round, just think for a minute whom each team have faced before. In their semi final the honours were even between the Gamblers and the Archers Admirers- the Archers having consistently been one of the very best teams we have seen on the missing vowels. Even if the Strategists were to go into the round level with the Gamblers there is no guarantee that they would match them for speed on the buzzer.

So I’m sorry Strategists, but I’m sticking with the Gamblers. Still, as you’ve seen in the Gamblers last match, my Only Connect tips are unreliable. Best of luck to both teams.

TV Watch - Only Connect

Only Connect – Semi Final 2 – Hitchhikers v. Strategists

Well, there’s only one question on everyone’s lips as we go into the second semi final – will the curse of the Clark sofa do for the Strategists as it did for the Archers in the previous semi ? Alright, maybe not everyone’s lips. However my reputation as a tipster, so well restored by correctly predicting the 4 semi finalists, 2 finalists , and winners of UC was at stake here. As I read it, the underdogs were the Hitchhikers, Chris White, Fiona Constantine, and Tom Scott, who beat the Brasenose Postgrads in the 2nd round. Their opponents, and recipients of the onerous Clark tip , were the Strategists, Chris Cummins, Sarah Higgins, and captain Michael Dnes, who comfortably beat the Neuroscientists in the 2nd round. I will quote from my preview of the semi finals on 26th March –
“As with the first semi, any huge difference between the relative performance of the teams comes down to the connecting walls”. Hmmm.

Round One – What’s the Connection ?

Hitchhikers began with epsilon, and Fiona Constantine impressed me tremendously by taking London’s Burning, and sandwiches, and confidently asserting that they came in rounds – as in being sung in a round, and a round of sandwiches. 3 points, and a great start. The last in the set would have been applause, which led to Victoria’s quip of the week. She suggested that that answer should lead to a round of applause, and the Strategists duly obliged. “Now I know how it would feel to present a Saturday night show on ITV “ was her rejoinder. The set of Charles Babbage , Mrs. Lovett, The Witch in Hansel and Gretel, and 24 blackbirds begged to be answered with the word pie. Incorrectly as it turned out. All of them went into an oven while still alive. Tricky, but as we always say, it is the semi final. Hitchhikers picked alpha, for perfectio in spiritu, ut amem et foveam, VII, and the clincher – Brooklyn. The Hitchhikers really should have seen Beckham tattoos there, and the Strategists made no mistake for a bonus. They picked gamma for the music bonus. I didn’t get the first two clues, but Ray Charles singing Georgia on my mind, and Stevie Wonder singing Superstition made it easily gettable. Neither team managed it though. Hitchhikers took delta for the pictures – Bob Seeger – Henry Seagrave’s Silver Bullet car – the Lone ranger and a werewolf. What a beautiful little connection. I didn’t know Bob Seeger’s silver bullet band, and although I thought it was Seagrave’s car I didn’t know what it was called. But the last two were enough – the Lone Ranger used them, and werewolves can be killed by them. Again, it passed by both teams.The Strategists finished with zeta, and what I thought was the easiest of the sets. I might have gambled for five when I saw Richard Bachmann, and like the Strategists I would have definitely gone on Mary Westmacott, for pseudonyms of writers working in a different genre from their main one. So after round one the Strategists had a slight lead of 4 - 3

Round Two – What comes fourth ?

A first pick of epsilon gave the Hitchhikers a set of pictures. For me this was their answer of the night. Panther and Tiger gave Tom Scott MAC operating systems, and he knew that the 4th would be snow leopard. Yeah, OK, so IT is his field, but even so it would have been very easy to have been sidetracked on this one. Altogether now, its all the luck of the draw which questions you get. The Strategists too had a great answer on their first set. S=1/2 M=1000 L=50 gave them XL= 40. They are all clothes sizes and their numerical value when roman numerals. Great – no –actually, GREAT question. The third set gave the Hitchhikers Anger – Bargaining – and they realised that it was the 5 states of grief. They discounted acceptance, and went for denial. Incorrect. Even when given acceptance, the Strategists didn’t go for acceptance, which the Hitchhikers had wrongly rejected. The crafty setters had deliberately started after denial, which messed them both up. The Strategists then were offered afro Asiatic, Niger – Congo , after which they were on the right lines, which sino – Tibetan confirmed – that they were all language families, and the 4th would be indo-european. The Hitchhikers last set were George II 1989, William IV 1993, George III 2001– in fact I told a lie earlier. This was in fact their answer of the night. They correctly identified the answer as Barack I 2009. Victoria said that it was horrifically complicated to get US presidents by their regnal number. So the strategists brought the round to a close with Chinese – Turkish – Singapore. Chris Cummins was right to think Grand Prix, but neither teams got that the latest new one was Abu Dhabi. Well done to both teams in this round. These were tricky old sets, and both teams showed ample proof that they are no mugs at all. Good play, and the Hitchhikers had deservedly overhauled the Strategists to lead by 9 - 8

Round Three – The Connecting Walls

The Strategists led, and had untangled two sets with a minute to go. They were barking completely up the wrong tree with what they were looking for, yet it was enough to untangle the last two. So 4 points already. They identified sets of second partners of double acts, but missed orchestra leaders, and words which could be followed by ball- which they felt would be followed by man instead.Versions of solitaire or patience escaped me too.
At the top of the show the Hitchhikers had correctly identified the connecting wall as their Achilles heel. So it proved again. None of the four sets were unscrambled in the time. When they were unravelled, the Hitchhikers could see a set of butterflies, which they had known were there but couldn’t find.They could also see a set of things that go in threes – degrees – R etc. They failed to see characters from Are You Being Served, being but youngsters, and also failed to see a set of deputy leaders of the Labour Party. So as I predicted the walls made it advantage Strategists, with 13 to 11.

Round Four – Missing Vowels

The Clark prediction looked fairly safe, considering the Hitchhikers inconsistent vowel performances in earlier rounds. The first set offered us world currencies. The Strategists took the first two, then Tom of the Hitchhikers offered Vietnam Dong instead of Vietnamese Dong. No dice, and hard lines, but them’s the rules. Danish Krone gave them a full set, and the Hitchhikers a mountain to climb.Physical constants fell 3 –1 to the Strategists, but unlucky Tom lost another point by a slight mistake . Heraldic terms followed and fell to the Strategists 3 – 0. Characters who committed suicide followed, and this time it was the Strategists who made the small slip, giving us Madame Bovary instead of Emma Bovary. The Hitchhikers took the bonus, and the very last one – Juliet Capulet – for good measure. The final score was 22 – 12 to the Strategists.

Commiserations to the Hitchhikers. It really was a game of two halves for you. For the first two rounds you punched well above your weight. Even after the wall you were still in it, but the missing vowels did it.

As for the Strategists – very well done ! Reaching the final of Only Connect is a huge achievement. Good show.

University Challenge - Grand Final

University Challenge Grand Final – St. John’s Oxford v. Emmanuel , Cambridge

At last the final. A fascinating match up , and as JP pointed out its been a while since we had an Oxford v. Cambridge final. The St. John’s team were the only one to get this far undefeated, and they are
Oliver Chen
Lauren Parry
George Woudhuysen
David Townsend.
As for Emmanuel, JP memorably described their first round defeat as “that pratfall in round one “. They are
Andy Hastings
Jenny Harris
Alex Guttenplan
Josh Scott
JP was wasting no time on lengthy introductions now, and it was straight on with the first starter. Faced with a list of book titles, regular LAM reader Jenny Harris buzzed in with an impressively early interruption to identify Hamlet as the linking theme. 3 out of 3 bonuses were a signal of intent, as was Alex Guttenplan’s comfortable win in the buzzer race for the next starter to identify a trading league with a base in London as The Hanseatic League. Personally I though that came somewhere between the Doctor Martens League and the Unibond Premiership, but I digress. Bonuses on documentary films followed , and one was taken. Captain George Woudhuysen of St. John’s showed a cool head and a fast buzzer finger to identify the decade that saw the accession of Henry VIII as the 1500s. A rather interminable set of bonuses on Gilbert and Sullivan’s modern major general followed . Three out of three bonuses narrowed the gap considerably. Amazingly Alex Guttenplan got the next starter wrong, although nobody on either team managed to recognise a definition of sunspots. Jenny took the next , though, recognising houses central to the plots of Jane Austen novels. Faced with bioluminescence I thought that they did well to take two of them. The picture round followed, with a road sign in Gaelic. Alex G. correctly identified Dublin. Then followed Aberdaugleddau, which the team could see was welsh. I actually knew that this was Milford Haven – or at the mouth of the two River Cleddau’s as I think it translates, but this passed them by, as did Newquay rendered in Cornish, and the one they really should have had – Edinburgh in Scots Gaelic. Its an old chestnut to ask which New Zealand city has a name which is the old name for Edinburgh – Dunedin being the answer.

Asked to identify a series of popes sharing the same name Jenny guessed incorrectly, but David Townsend correctly supplied ‘Leo’, a good shout at a time when Emmanuel’s lead was threatening to become oppressive.A good set of bonuses on Polybius followed. St. John’s weren’t getting as many starters as Emmanuel, but when they did they were converting bonuses brilliantly. Mr. Townsend took the next starter, and three bonuses again took their score to 75, and a ten point lead on the ten minute mark. What a good final so far.

Moving into the second phase of the competition, and the momentum seemed to be with St. John’s. Not for long. Alex G. recognised an example of a syllogism, and the first bonus gave them back the lead. Andy Hastings buzzed in early on the next question, being beaten by a swerve which saw his answer actually emerge as part of a question. St. John’s had to let the opportunity pass untaken. So to make amends Andy Hastings correctly identified DH Lawrence as dying of tuberculosis in 1930. 2 bonuses took Emmanuel into treble figures. For the next starter, a music starter, we were given the rather unsettling experience of listening to a recording of the very last castrato. No, sorry, I’m not explaining that one. The clue is in the question. Neither team identified the composer.Alex G.showed that he has the knack of waiting to exactly the right moment when the question becomes clear before buzzing. Offered a definition of a philosopher, as soon as JP said ‘associated with hedonism’ he buzzed, to correctly identify Epicurus. The music bonuses followed and were duly taken.

15 minutes down, and Alex G. took his 5th starter to earn a set of bonuses on Vesalius. Josh Scott then impressed with a fast identification of a number of lines adding up to the verse form sonnet. An interesting set of bonuses on people born on September 21st. No prizes to the team for confusing Leonard Cohen with Neil Young. Still at least all four members of the Emmanuel team had answered starters correctly now. They had scored 100 points unanswered, and the time when St. John’s had held the lead seemed a long time ago. Alex G. correctly identified a quote from king Lear referring to astrology .With the next starter, asking how many squares are visible in total on a 3 by 3 square grid, Lauren Parry had a stab with 6, but inevitably the correct answer was supplied by Emmanuel’s irrepressible captain, with 14. This was followed by the unusual sight of him saying ‘I don’t know’ in response to two of the bonuses. Not to worry though. Josh Scott correctly identified a portrait of Henry VIII by Hans Holbein. Twenty minutes gone, and St. John’s had been shut out of the contest completely for ten minutes.

Put yourself in St. John’s position. They were getting beaten to the buzzer consistently. What do you do in that position ? Do you give up, or do you buzz early and hope ? Full credit to George Woudhuysen for doing this with the next starter. Vile Bodies was the signal to go for Evelyn Waugh – alas the swerve on the question meant that they were all by different Waughs. His opposing skipper took the points. When things don’t run for you, they really don’t run for you. George W. buzzed infirst for the next , to identify which body of water European capitals identified by their initials were on. Neither team got the Adriatic.At least on 21 minutes David Townsend permitted himself a wry smile as he correctly identified a set of Prime Ministers of New Zealand. 2 bonuses were taken, and with 5 minutes to go the score stood at 230 to 85. Alex G took the next starter, knowing that the word vintage can apply to both cars and port. A set of bonuses on Mali saw Emmanuel take 2 out of 3. No matter, the match was settled, and there would be another starter from AG shortly. And another. Full credit to George Woudhuysen for getting the next starter after that, identifying the unnamed listener in The Rime of the Ancient Mariner as the Wedding Guest. 2 bonuses took them into treble figures, and that’s no more than they deserved. Alex Guttenplan inevitably took the next starter to identify geographical features of Alaska. I didn’t even understand the next starter, but Alex G. did to take his 13th starter for the match. An unbelievable performance which puts him on a par with Gail Trimble.As the gong went, the final score was 315 to 100.

Congratulations, Emmanuel ! And well done for showing your obvious joy at picking up the trophy from Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy. From your repechage round onwards you always looked like one of the teams to beat. Thank you for beating the curse of the Clark sofa. As an interesting point, it worked out that you actually beat all 3 of the other semi final teams during the contest.

Many commiserations to St. Johns. You have played a huge part in a memorable series, and can be proud of your achievements.

Thanks BBC, and especially thanks to all the teams who took part in the series. Roll on the next.Finally a thank you to all the members of various teams who have taken time and trouble to leave comments here at LAM. Contact with you has made this series very special for me.


Jeremy Paxman Watch

We know that JP is always on his best behaviour when the Grand Final comes round. He was in top gear tonight, racing through the sets, and what’s more, obviously enjoying it as much as the viewers at home. Full marks to our Jeremy as well for pointing out that he could see that St. John’s were racing to the buzzer all the time as well, but just getting edged out. Jeremy P says it like it is, so this wasn’t just some transparent attempt to console the gallant runners up – it was obviously true, and needed to be said. Well done, sir.

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

Leonard Cohen performed on the Pyramid stage at Glastonbury in 2008 . That was before Hallelujah was released by Alexandra Burke.

Mastermind Round One - End of Term Report

Review of Round One - Preview of Semi Finals

I’ll give you the statistical breakdown in a minute. First, though, lets spend a few moments looking back at what has been a remarkable series of matches this season so far.

The changes – I know that some people will disagree with me about this, and that’s fine. Debate and a free exchange of views is healthy. Still, for what its worth I think that the changes this series have been for the better. After all, how fair would it have been for John Cooper to have scored that massive 29 in the first round, and still not have made the final because he happened to be in the same heat as Chaz Early ? The old repechage semi final was very much a part of the Magnusson years. While I understand that the high scoring runners up are to be spread between the 6 semis, as happened this year in Brain of Britain, so its slightly different, I do honestly feel that this is a move back towards the show’s roots, and all round a good thing.

As regards the loss of the inter-round chats, to be replaced by the filmed inserts, again I think that this has been to the show’s benefit. You still get a chance for the contenders to put across their personalities, but its not holding the show up any more. The GK rounds are a pleasure to watch again now. As always – just my opinion, feel free to disagree.

OK the highlights : -
Kathryn Johnson’s magnificent 30 in heat 23.This was underlined by the highest score in the GK rounds, with 15. Likewise the superb match between Chaz Early and John Cooper , which saw them tie on a fantastic 29 each, with the outcome decided by passes. No sudden death play offs in the first round this year. Some great subjects chosen – I particularly enjoyed Kathryn’s Victorian and Edwardian Poisoners – although the prize for the most ‘out there’ subject probably goes to “Angels “, offered by Mr. Michael Burton, of whom a little more later. The most impressive specialist round performances were those of Chaz Early, who scored a stupendous 18 on Bill Hicks, and Susan Sworn, whose even more impressive 19 on Richard III was not enough to see her through to the semis.

The Lowlights : -
Poor Kajen Thuraaisingham set a new record total score of 5. The poor fellow froze on the night, and has earned respect for the dignity with which he faced what must have seemed like something of a personal disaster at the time. Before him we had Michael Burton. In case you’ve forgotten, Mr. Burton claimed that his score of 7 was all a prank, a tribute to his 7 children. Whatever. Hopefully it’s the last we’ll ever be seeing of this fantasist on Mastermind. Spare a thought for Susan Sworn as well. She might well have set some kind of record for the difference between Specialist round score, and general knowledge score, where she scored 19 on specialist, but imploded to score 5 on GK. Alas, a similar thing happened in her semi final in 2007.

Right – here are the details

Kathryn Johnson	15 – 1	15 – 2	30 – 3
Chaz Early	18 - 0	11 - 0	29 – 0
John Cooper	16 – 1	13 - 2	29 - 3
Chris Sowton	16 - 0	12- 0	28 - 0
Mike Court	14 - 1	14 - 0	28 - 1
Andrew Warmington	14 - 1	14 - 3	28 - 4
Will Salt	15 - 2	13 - 2	28 - 4
Tony Esau	14 - 1	13 - 1	27 - 2
Mark Grant	17 - 0	10 - 2	27 - 2
Jesse Honey	14 – 2	13 - 1	27 - 3
Ian Orris	16 - 1	11 - 3	27 - 4
Ian Scott Massie	14 - 0	12 - 2	26 - 2
Les Morrell	16 - 0	10 - 3	26 - 3
Barbara Thompson	14 - 2	12 - 1	26 - 3
Gavin McEwan	14- 0	12 - 4	26 - 4
Chloe Stone	14 - 5	12 - 3	26 - 8
Colin Wilson	16 - 0	9 - 0	25 - 0
David Buckle	13 - 0	12 - 1	25 - 1
Stuart Maclagan	15 - 1	10 - 0	25 - 1
Michael McPartland	14 - 0	11- 2	25 - 2
Peter Cowans	13 - 0	12 - 2	25 - 2
Keith Pottage	14 - 0	11- 2	25 - 2
William de’Ath	15 - 1	10 - 3	25 - 4
Kevin Quinn	16- 0	9 - 6	25 - 6
Brian Southgate	14 - 1	10 - 4	24 -5
Valerie Roebuck	14 - 1	10 - 4	24 - 5
David Sutherland	14 - 2	10 - 4	24 - 6
Tom Hutchings	15 - 1	8 - 4	23 - 5
Nathan Jones	14 –1	7 - 4	21 - 5
John Iball	14 - 2	7- 4	21 – 6

On paper, picking the finalists looks pretty easy. You just perm any six out of the top dozen or so. However its not quite as simple as that . While its more likely that the majority of the finalists will come from the top third of the table, you can’t judge everything on first round scores. For one thing, a huge score in specialist can be misleading. The chances of having massive scores in two specialist subjects in a row are rather slim, and so the GK rounds have to be looked at carefully. So while I’m not saying that Chaz Early, for example, won’t make the final, I believe that Mike Court and Andrew Warmington, for example , may well have a better chance, even though they scored 28 to the 29 scored by Chaz Early.

Lets add another factor to the equation. Within our top 10 we have three well known and successful quizzers – Kathryn, Mark grant and Jesse Honey. However there are another two lurking outside of the top 10 as well, Barbara Thompson and William de’Ath. Barbara Thompson has won both Brain of Britain and the Grand Final of 15 – 1. A highly impressive pedigree. William de’Ath is a highly successful competitor in the IQAGB Grand Prix circuit. If either of these formidable players really hits their stride, then they will be a handful for any other contenders in the same semi final.

One more thing. BBC don’t seem to seed their semi finals. They look at which subjects will work well together to make an interesting show for the viewers. So for example you wouldn’t put 5 entertainment subjects all in the same semi. So every year it seems to work out that there is at least one, and sometimes more than one top-heavy semi final. So its quite possible that we may have more than one of the top contenders in the same semi, and then of course only one of them will be able to make the final.

So many thanks to all the contenders who took part in the first round , the successful , and the not quite so successful – even you , Mr. Burton, for all that I do not like what you’ve done, had a certain entertainment value. Best of luck to all the semi finalists – and well done for getting this far.

Mastermind - First round - Heat 24/24

Sorry this is a little late, but the bloody blog is playing up again.

Enough of such things. Well, here we are at the end of the first round. After last week’s bravura performance from Kathryn it always looked like we were going to come down to earth a little tonight, still, there was much to enjoy in this contest.

The first of 4 newcomers to Mastermind tonight was Peter Benison. His specialist subject was actually one quite close to my heart, the films of Billy Wilder. I think that the word genius is greatly overused, but in terms of cinema, Billy Wilder comes pretty close. He made some pretty good quips in his time too – David Niven in one of his autobiographies said that it was Billy Wilder, who, when filming in Europe, sent his wife a telegram “Am unable to find that bidet you asked for – suggest handstand in shower “. Funnily enough that didn’t feature in the questions tonight. Still , Peter Benison knew many of the ones which did, and he set the bar at 12 points.

Michael McPartland posts on the IQAGB forum, so I was particularly looking out for his performance tonight. He was answering on a notably heavyweight subject tonight, the Nuremberg Trials. Quite rightly , in his filmed intro he pointed out that this was the first ever set of war crimes trials, and has set the pattern for all of those that have sadly followed. This was a good round, and Michael looked like an old Mastermind hand, making sure that every question was answered so as not to take any passes. 14 was a fine score.

Kim Howison is a teacher, which endeared her to me, and her subject was Charles II, which endeared her even further. Certainly one of the most colourful of British monarchs, Kim Howison in her filmed insert suggested that Charles II was probably quite a nice chap to meet, and I’m sure that she’s right. The man must have had charm, albeit a somewhat deceitful side, and a wicked sense of humour as well. Once again, this was a contender who had prepared well for her subject, although I would suggest she was probably not expecting quite so many questions on his life before his accession. She scored 11.

The fictional works of C.S. Lewis, explained John Greer, held a fascination for him since they were so good, despite being the work of an academic. This was quite an undertaking as a specialist subject, since it comprised not only of all of the Narnia novels, but the Perelandra series as well. Small fact – one of Lewis’ academic colleagues and friends, JRR Tolkien, really rather disliked the Narnia series, remarking that “this sort of thing just won’t do. “ Well, it did fine for John Greer. He scored a good thirteen.

So onto the GK rounds. Kim Howison went rather tentatively at her round, and always sounded surprised when she had a right answer. To be fair she had 8 of these, and scored 19 overall, which is perfectly respectable. Peter Benison didn’t quite manage to take the lead from her with his own GK round. He scored 7 , which also gave him 19, but also had 3 passes. John Greer needed 12 and no more than 1 pass, and if he got it, then he would automatically go through to the semis , regardless of whatever Michael scored. He never really got to terms with his round, and by the minute mark he clearly wasn’t going to get there. He did score 8, which gave him 21, and the lead.
So Michael only needed 21 and few passes to go through . He did that relatively easily, and with some room to spare. A good round saw him become the only one of tonight’s contenders to reach double figures in GK. Well done Michael ! A score of 25 is a good performance, and would mark him out as one of the darker horses in the semis. Congratulations are also due to William de’Ath, who claims the last semi final place as a high scoring runner up. Speaking of the semis, they begin in the next show. Watch this space for a review of the first round.

The Details

Peter Benison	The Films of Billy Wilder	12 – 2	7 – 1	19 – 3
Michael McPartland	The Nuremburg Trials	14 – 0	11 – 2	25 – 2
Kim Howison	Charles II	11 – 0	8 – 0	19 – 0
John Greer	The Fictional works of CS Lewis	13 – 2	8 – 5	21 – 7

Highest Scoring Runners Up

John Cooper	29 – 3
Ian Scott Massie	26 – 2
Les Morrell	26 - 3
Colin Wilson	25 - 0
Peter Cowans	25 - 2
William de'Ath	25 - 4

University Challenge - Grand Final Preview

Well, before we get onto the serious business of previewing the Grand Final, just a word or two about some of the nonsense that’s already begun to appear in the last few days. You may recall some of the ballyhoo last year about the remarkable captain of the Corpus Christi team, Gail Trimble. Well, not to be outdone this year, during the last few days there has been an increasing amount of interest over Emmanuel’s captain, the gifted Alex Guttenplan. So much so that I found his photo sharing the front page with a large photo of Jeremy Paxman in today’s Daily Telegraph, under the heading ,
“Challenge to TV’s know-it-all “. The article itself is fairly innocuous, with Alex Guttenplan’s far-from-earth-shattering revelation that Jeremy Paxman sometimes mispronounces questions – and I quote
“sometimes if he mispronounces particularly badly they will retake the shot at the end of the match . “
Quite true, I’m sure, but hardly the stuff of front page news – it is also the subject of an editorial in the same paper - since it happens on every recorded quiz show, and not just University Challenge. Its quite possible that the paper didn’t actually speak personally to Mr. Guttenplan, and just took a fairly innocent comment he made elsewhere.

As I say, in itself the article is fairly harmless. Not so some of the other stuff that has caught my eye in the last few days. One particularly insidious piece in an online paper that should know better, while seemingly praising his ability and knowledge , called him ‘robot boy’ throughout the piece. Nasty, that. I’ve never met Mr. Guttenplan, but I know someone who has, and she describes him as quite a private person, who has already been doorstepped and hassled this week. I can only hope that , should Emmanuel win, people will have the decency to remember that he is a 19 year old student – albeit an exceptionally knowledgable one – and leave him alone to get on with his studies after a couple of days of fuss have died down. If Emmanuel win.

This is not a foregone conclusion. Lets get the statistical stuff out of the way now. St. John’s have played in one less match than Emmanuel have, so we need to remember this. Taking the scores from all of their matches into account, St. John’s have an average of 230 points per match, and Emmanuel have an average of 265 points per match. Just consider that for a minute, because in all truth that’s not a huge difference – two sets of starters and one set of bonuses . Still, if we take just their last three matches, the 2 quarter finals and the semi final, then the picture is a little different. St. John’s average is still pretty similar – at 230. However Emmanuel’s climbs to 290. So Emmanuel are a team who seem to be improving. Not only that, but they became the only team so far this series to break the 300 point barrier, in a semi final, against a team as good as Manchester. So the stats say not a lot in it, but Emmanuel more likely to win.

What will it come down to ? 2 factors – the buzzer most importantly, and the rate at which the team convert their bonuses into points. St. John’s possess one of the stars of this series in their captain George Woudhuysen. He has been ably served by his teammates Parry and Townsend. Mr.Chen has been rather quiet since the early rounds, but it must not be forgotten that it was his steely nerve which saw him take the tie break question against Manchester in the quarter finals. Emmanuel , then have the series’ most valuable player in terms of starters correctly answered, that man Guttenplan. However he has been ably served throughout the series by Harris, Scott and Hastings too.

Here’s a few factors which might have a bearing on the outcome of the match : -

· In the semis, St. John’s started like an express train. If they can out buzz Emmanuel at the start of the match, then they will take confidence and may be able to hold onto a lead.

· In a couple of the matches Jenny Harris has buzzed in early, then given a long pause, only supplying answers after Jeremy Paxman has started to say no, and he has accepted the answers. If she does it in the final, and JP is strict, then this could have an effect at a crucial moment.

· However nerve wracking the semi finals may have been, the grand final of University Challenge is a whole other order of magnitude. You may remember last year that Gail Trimble hardly got into the match for the first 20 minutes or so. Sometimes key competitors can freeze.

· You may also remember Gail Trimble’s remarkable finishing burst. One star player of that calibre can make a difference. Alex Guttenplan approached that level in the second half of last week’s show.

· In the Paxman era no Cambridge college has won since his very first series in 1995. Since then it has been won by Oxford colleges 6 times, and also Corpus Christi won last year’s final , to be disqualified a few days after it was broadcast.

What do I think ? Well, my accurate predictions for the quarters and semis have all but buried the curse of the Clark sofa, it would seem. I think it will be a fine match, and I think – and by all means feel free to disagree – I think that Emmanuel are the more likely winners. But St. John’s, take heart, because it would not surprise me either if you won. You are both fine teams, who would be worthy champions. Good luck to you both.