Are Some Things Too Important To Be A Specialist Subject ?

Stan Tottman was one of the finest teachers I ever met. He was the Head of the English Faculty at Goldsmith’s College of the University of London when I did my English degree there in the mid 1980s. It worked out that I think I was only ever in one set of seminars led by Stan, and they were about the poet, Gerard Manley-Hopkins. With other lecturers you could go in feeling rough, and just coast through the session. Not Stan. He told you beforehand exactly what you were going o be covering in the session, and if you hadn’t done the pre-reading them you would be sunk, and would get nothing from the sessions. If you tried to sit back and let everyone else do the work he would be on your case. Yet if you did prepare properly, and did share your ideas and opinions, then he would challenge you, cajole you, and basically stage manage the whole group so that he wasn’t teaching you, you were teaching each other. Only gifted teachers can do that. By the end of the seminars you would come out feeling mentally drained, and yet energised all at the same time.

However, after this, I could never bring myself to try to answer the Manley Hopkins questions in the end of year exam, or my finals , always opting for something else.

You see, I thought that I had been given so much by these sessions, the process of trying to cut it all down, to condense it enough to make a coherent essay was just too reductive. So either Stan’s seminars had been a failure, since I felt unable to write about Hopkins in the exams, or as I prefer to think, they were a glorious success.

What has this to do with the price of tea ? Don’t worry , bear with me and I’ll get there.

Last Monday I was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes. No, please, I’m not asking for sympathy. I’m OK, and as long as I have the sense to listen to my doctor and the Practice nurse, and to stick to their advice I’m sure I’ll continue to be OK. But it is going to mean some changes of lifestyle. One of the changes is that I’m trying to just get out of the house for a decent walk everyday, or as many days as I can manage it. Yesterday I went to a local nature reserve called Kenfig Pool. You see, I like butterflies. It all started about 10 years ago, when my twins were 5 or 6. Close to our old home we saw a beautiful looking butterfly with round eye patterns on its wings. They asked me what it was called, and I had no idea. So the next day we took a book out of the library and found out. So then we started looking out for all the other different types we could find. The girls stayed interested for a few years, but I’ve kept up my interest ever since.

So, as I say, yesterday I went for a walk in Kenfig Pool, and my youngest daughter came along to keep me company. We didn’t see many butterflies, to be honest, a small white, a speckled wood, and an female orange tip. When we saw this one I went off on a lecture about how the female looked very like a small white, because it lacks the distinctive orange tip to its wing that the male has that gives the species its name. Jess then asked me why I never took British butterflies as a specialist subject in Mastermind. I had to think for a minute because actually it would fulfil pretty much all of the criteria I’ve ever used to select a specialist subject. Its finite – there are about 60 species of butterfly regularly seen in the UK – I already have a halfway decent knowledge of the subject – I already own a number of books on the subject, so it wouldn’t break the bank. The only meaningful answer I could give was pretty much the same reason why I couldn’t write essays about Gerard Manley Hopkins – I would find it too reductive a process for something so special to me. Not that I’m saying that any of the other subjects I’ve learned in my time weren’t special, but not in the same way.

As an aside, by way of coincidence, a good quizzer called Jane Anne Liston, whom I met in the Brain of Britain semi-final last year, did actually take British butterflies as a specialist subject in the semi final of the 2007 SOBM of Mastermind. Very well she did too, as I recall.

Of all the reasons we might have for rejecting potential Mastermind subjects – because the subject is too wide, because its too hard, because its too boring, because its too unusual, because its too popular , for example, I wonder how many of us have ended up rejecting potential subjects because they are too important and mean too much to us ?

Mastermind - Semi Final 5/6

After one of the most hectic and difficult weeks I can remember in a very long time, what better than to kick back yesterday evening with the latest Mastermind semi final ? Answers on a postcard, please. What a semi final it was too.

William De’Ath was one of tonight’s two highest scoring runners up from the first round. However going into the show I made him one of the two favourites. You see, even though we have seen some absolutely amazing scores in the specialist rounds in the semis, the fact is that their importance has been reduced, and William is a great general knowledge quizzer. William’s subject this time round was William The Conqueror. This is actually a subject really close to my heart, for reasons which will become clear in the near future. William’s knowledge was extremely secure – almost although not quite perfect. 15 and no passes was a superb score.

I met Mark Grant at the BoB final, and a very nice chap he is too. He is also a very successful Mastermind veteran, having already reached the Grand Final in 2005 where he was runner up to Pat Gibson. Back in November he won heat 10 answering on Edouard Manet. Tonight he produced an absolutely flawless performance on the Life and Work of Gianlorenzo Bernini. He too scored 15 and no passes. Like William, Mark is also a superb general knowledge quizzer, and for me the other favourite to win a place in the final.

This was not to pour scorn on the chances of Colin Wilson. Answering on World Heavyweight Boxing Champions, Colin took second place in heat 2 , way back in September. His 25 though held a runner’s up spot for the rest of the first round. Tonight he was answering on the History of Glam Rock. Ah, I was nobbut a lad at the time, but I remember the era well. I even had the right answer to one that Colin missed – I knew that Judy Teen was Cockney Rebel’s first hit. Howver, I don’t think I would have got anywhere near the 15 that Colin scored. Another great round.

In March Brian Southgate won heat 20 answering questions on Sir Alex Ferguson. Tonight, when he announced that he was answering on The Manhattan Project my first thought was – didn’t they have a hit with Chanson d’Amour ? Or was that the Alan Parsons Transfer ? Anyway it turned out to be a round all about the development of the first atomic bomb. I do always try to manage to answer at least one questions in all of the specialist rounds, and thankfully the ‘Fat Man’ and ‘Paul Tibbets’ questions saw me home in this one. In a 90 second round, 11 points and 2 passes is a very good score, but unfortunately it left him a mountain to climb in GK.

So it was all down to Stuart Maclagan to bring the round to a conclusion. Last time out in heat 14 he answered on the Eurovision Song Contest. In a real change of pace tonight he offered us The Life of King Robert the Bruce. Mr. Maclagan knew his stuff, and he answered quickly and concisely, and that’s the key to getting a good SS score. A couple of questions foxed him, but even so, 11 and no passes was, as I have said, a very good score.

John then proceeded to tell us all about what would happen in the event of a tie. Now, by my calculations time is so tight in the semis, if you get to see John saying all this, then it guarantees that it hasn’t happened, because if there wasn’t a tie break then they wouldn’t have time to show him saying it, so they’d edit it out. Got that ? Doesn’t matter. Brian Southgate earned my disapproval for not knowing that the brilliant Eurythmics recorded Sweet Dreams are made of this. To be fair he found the round rather hard going, and never looked like he would get close to the 10 he scored on GK in the first round. He finished on a total of 16 points and 8 passes . Stuart Maclagan had also scored 10 on GK in his first round match. 4 correct answers on the bounce at the start of the round made it look like he was fully determined to do even better this time. It was nice to hear a question about Boney M’s classic in-depth analysis of Russian mystic Grigory Rasputin. A fine round saw him score 13 and no passes. So in real terms he did even better in the semi than he did in the first round, and you can’t ask any more than that.

Right, time for the fireworks. John lit the blue touchpaper, and William de’Ath began his GK round. His face was a picture on the occasions when he supplied a wrong answer – the questions on pasta, Karl Marx, and others he doubtless knew, but the right answer wouldn’t come out. Yet he still scored 13 and 1 pass to set the bar at 28. That’s hard to beat , even if you already have 15 on the board, as mark and Colin both did.

Mark scored 10 on GK in his first round heat, and that wouldn’t do tonight. It wasn’t a great start to the round, but by crikey it got better. Slightly behind on the clock after the first 30 seconds , Mark kept his head and kept plugging away, and picking off the answers, and picking up his speed at the same time. Was it my imagination, or did John ask about JM Barrie’s Admiral Crichton ? It didn’t bother Mark, he still had this and 13 other questions right to take the lead to 29.

Colin Wilson had a mountain to climb, made none the easier by the fact that he scored 9 on GK in his first round heat. It started to slip away from him from the third question. He never lost his composure, and answered at speed, but by the end of the round he had taken his score to 23 and no passes. So congratulations to Mark. He becomes the first person to reach 2 Humphrys finals – and only the 4th person to ever reach 2 finals of any era of Mastermind. Commiserations to the other contenders, especially William. It needed a stupendous performance to beat him.


The Details

Willam De’Ath	The Life of William the Conqueror	15 - 0	13 - 1	28 - 1
Mark Grant	The Life and Work of Gianlorenzo Bernini	15 - 0	14 - 0	29 - 0
Colin Wilson	The History of Glam Rock	15 - 0	8 - 0	23 - 0
Brian Southgate	The Manhattan Project	11 - 2	5 - 6	16 - 8
Stuart Maclagan	The Life of King Robert the Bruce	11- 0	13 - 0	24 – 0

Congratulations Rob !

Enjoying this series of A Question of Genius a lot, not least because there's been so many familiar faces in the last couple of days. Special congratulations to my friend Rob Hannah, though. Rob you may recall shared runner up spot in this year's Brain of Britain with Anne Hegerty and myself.I can personally attest to Rob's buzzer speed, so in many ways he is made for a show like this, and it will take some performance to beat him. He's won Tuesday's and today's show, and you would be a brave man to bet against him tomorrow as well. Good on yer, Rob !

A Question of Tweaks

Last year the BBC had two new successes in the teatime quiz slot – a runaway success in the form of Pointless, and a qualified success in the form of A Question of Genius. Pointless completed its second run a couple of weeks ago. So tonight A Question of Genius returned.

As with Pointless there have been a couple of tweaks. Most notably, in this series we start with 6 contestants, who are whittled down round by round, with one contestant being dropped in each until we are left with the final three, of whom one goes on to face the question of genius. It’s a welcome change from last year, as it simplifies the game somewhat.

The first round is an almost straightforward buzzer round with a twist. Called A Question of Speed it works thus. Our Host Kirsty Wark asks a starter question , and the first to buzz answers for a point. Then if they answer correctly, they may choose how difficult the next question is, for an increasing number of points. 5 points earns a place in round 2, and the Devil take the hindmost. For a while tonight it looked as if this might well be familiar face Melanie Beaumont, who has appeared in Are You An Egghead and Only Connect. She managed to take the last place in round two though, and seemed to be getting into her stride as she did so.

Round Two is called A Question of Judgement. The gameplay was similar to the first round, only this time the target was 6 points, and a correct starter gave each contestant the right to nominate not only the level of difficulty, but also the opponent who would also get the chance to answer it. Some of these questions, even for just 2 points weren’t all that easy I have to say. Melanie this time was the second to make it through to the next round.

Round Three is entitled A Question of Knowledge. To be honest you’d struggle to do well in any of the rounds without much General Knowledge, but there we are. So the 4 remaining contestants battled it out by answering a starter, to be given three questions of ascending difficulty as a follow up. Get them all right and you’re automatically through. More likely, it’s a matter of building up your score through a few goes to reach the target of 7. For the second round in a row Melanie was second to get through.

Round Four was the last round to sort out who would face their question of Genius. The three contestants were given ninety seconds each to answer a series of questions. After each question category was announced they could nominate the difficulty. Any wrong answers or passes would allow an opponent to buzz in for a steal. However a wrong answer from the opposition would freeze them out for the rest of the 90 seconds. Sounds complicated ? It isn’t really. In this case I think TV experience, and quiz experience told, with Melanie edging out the opposition.

This entitled her to face one question on her specialist subject to win £1000. This is really cutting to the chase, since in the final round last year the prize money was determined by how many of 5 final questions the contestant answered. There's none of that faffing around now, its straight on to the final question. Melanie had nominated the Little House on The Prairie books of Laura Ingalls Wilder as her subject. The question was : -
In the Little Town on the Prairie, Laura is knocked out of the community spelling match when she spells which word incorrectly ?
Melanie thought for a bit, obediently let Kirsty into her thought processes, turned down the chance of being given four options for a 50% reduction in the prize money - and then provided the correct answer – Xanthophyll ( and I sincerely hope that I’VE spelled it correctly ).Very well done !

I liked the show last year, and I have to say that I liked it again. It’s a bit leaner and meaner than last year,moves along at a decent pace, and the questions were wide enough ranging to satisfy most levels of quizzer. For example I was mentally patting myself on the back for identifying Elephant Island as the correct answer to a question about Ernest Shackleton. Good show.

Choices, choices

As you get older I do think that you tend to get more set in your ways, and I’m no exception to this. I find that I’ve become a creature of habit, and am fairly inflexible about my likes and dislikes. I like my steak bloody, my drinks soft, and my quizzes pure. That is, for the most part, I like a quiz of straight questions without unnecessary gimmicks. Which begs the question, how was it that I set and hosted a quiz of multiple choice questions last week ?

Its not so hard to answer. If you’ve been with me for twelve months or more its just possible that you may recall me mentioning an annual charity quiz for the May Day in Melincryddan festival. This is actually a very special quiz to me because it was in the 1994 and 1995 May Day quizzes that I became a born again quizzer.

Without going into detail I began quizzing in 1988, the same academic year that I started teaching. Then in about 1991-2 my quizzing kind of all died the death. The league in Port Talbot packed in, my mates stopped going, and I lost heart. My then boss asked me if I'd put together a team of kids , and play with them in the May Day quiz in 1994. I did, and we won. I kept up appearences every couple of months at charity events locally. Next year, 1995, we lost by a point. I thought that I could either be miserable, and just go home, or I could go up and have a word and give my congratulations to the winners. Which I did. They were a little suspicious that just me with a group of 4 pupils had won one year, and come a close second the second, but when I told them a little of my experience in quizzing they asked me to join their team in the Neath Quiz League. Through the league team I became reacquainted with my old mate Alan Coombs, who was also putting together a team for the Morriston Hospitals League in Swansea, which I was duly drafted onto. So taking part in the Mayday quiz has led to very many happy experiences through quizzing.

After winning the quiz again last year the organisers asked me if I’d be prepared to set the questions and act as QM for the evening this year. How could I have refused ? Well, by saying – no thank you – would have been one way of doing it. But there was no way that I was going to. For one thing I am notoriously susceptible to the slightest bit of flattery, and two years ago they renamed the trophy after me because of the Mastermind thing.

I am approaching the point, albeit slowly. Lyndsay, who has been QM or the last few years, has always used a multiple choice format, and although its not my cup of tea, the punters like it, and so I made up my mind early on that I was going to adhere to this, in the spirit of ‘if it ain’t broke, then don’t fix it’ . I have to say, I rather enjoyed putting it together, as I might from time to time use a couple of multiple choices in a quiz , but I’ve never written a whole quiz this way. What I found was that it does effect the way you choose your questions, since there are questions that lend themselves to multiple choice answers, and questions which don’t. I also think it makes a quiz easier and more accessible for non quizzers, which the majority of the teams were on Wednesday night. What I really enjoyed, though, were the couple of questions where you could supply a couple of silly answers as options. In the first round I offered,
“In literature , who rode a horse called Rosinante ?
a) Don Giovanni – b) Don Quixote - c) Don Estelle
Well, be fair, the majority of the people taking part were well over 40. I know its silly, but it got a laugh. Then when I asked : -
“What is the name of Keeley Hawes’ character in the TV series “Ashes to Ashes “ ?
a) Alex Drake - b) Vera Drake – “ one team shouted out “C) – Charlie Drake !” – which was my actual option C. Big laugh. Then in the last round I asked
“Who played Batman in the 1960s TV series –
a) John West b) Adam West , or C )
almost all the teams shouted out “Fred West ! “ Which of course was my last option. A little sick, but again, a huge laugh.

A successful evening ? Well, my friend Robert , who is a fine quizzer won, but only by a couple of points, and every team scored pretty well on the evening. I’ve also been asked back again next year, so that’s probably a good sign. So just maybe I need to reassess my attitude to the humble multiple choice question. I still like my steak rare, though.

Mastermind - Semi Final 4/6

This is the second time that this particular show has been available for viewing on the iplayer, and once again I would like to repeat my sincere apology to anyone whose enjoyment of this show was ruined by the fact that I mistakenly reviewed it back in April. If you missed the review then, here it is again : -


First to go was Valerie Roebuck. Valerie won heat 18 back in the middle of February, with 24, one of the more modest winning scores of the first round. Back then she answered on Tolkien, tonight it was a case of –and now for something completely different, as she answered on Sir Walter Raleigh. I’m still coming to terms with the 90 second round, so I’m not sure if 12 is just very good, or better than that. Whatever the case, this is what she managed to score to get the show off to a fine start.

Tonight’s high scoring runner up from the first round was my friend and compatriot from the 2007 SOBM, Les Morrell. Way, way back in September of last year we saw Les come runner up in Heat 3 to Ian Orris, who has yet to go in this stage of the competition. Les answered on Clement Atlee in September, while tonight he answered on the TV sitcom Ever Decreasing Circles. Its funny how some popular series stay in the memory, and some don’t. Even though it was extremely popular in its day, its somehow missed joining the ranks of classic, often repeated shows. Well, anyway, I quite often use the adjective virtuoso to describe performances on the show, but this round really deserved it. 15 points is a great total for a 2 minute round. For a 90 second round it’s a real hall of fame performance.

Michael McPartland we last saw a fortnight ago when he won the last heat of the first round. That night he answered questions on the Nuremburg trials. Continuing this commendable trend of picking completely different subjects tonight he took the Sharpe novels of Bernard Cornwell. Any fears that he might be daunted by having to follow Les Morrell’s quicksilver round were pretty quickly dispelled, and 13 put him well into contention, a highly commendable performance in its own right.

I expected Kevin Quinn, our next contender, to manage something similar in his own specialist round, going by the evidence of his first round performance. His victory in heat 21 back in the beginning of March was based on a superb specialist round on the career of Lester Piggott. Tonight his subject was british hit singles of the 1960s. My expectations turned to fear for him as he failed within the first couple of questions to identify Joe Meek as the producer of Telstar, by the Tornados. Yes, I know that you wouldn’t expect the average man in the street to know that, but the average man in the street wouldn’t take it as a specialist subject in Mastermind. I'm sorry to say it, but I thought several of the other questions he got wrong were gettable as well. I can't say why Mr. Quinn didn’t do as well as expected, whether it was nerves or something else, but I’m sure he’ll have been disappointed.

Andrew Warmington , like Les, has previous, having reached the semi finals back in 2004. When he won heat 7 , back in October, he answered on Ancient Greece, and impressed with 14 on both rounds. On paper, he was the most impressive qualifier for tonight’s semi. For his specialist subject tonight he offered us The Life and reign of Henry VIII. Like Les his answers were as brief as possible, and offered quickly. Or to put it another way, he answered like a good old hand. A couple of the questions that were more to do with the reign than the life caught him out, but once again, 13 was impressive.

Kevin Quinn returned to the chair, seeking redemption, and found it with a competent 10, to push his score up to 16. OK, so he only had a lead of 1 now, and he wasn’t going to win, but he had achieved respectability, and whatever else, he is a semi finalist, and you can never take that away from him. He was followed by Valerie Roebuck, who might well have been forgiven for thinking that her 12 on specialist would have put her higher than 4th at the halfway stage. She put on a good show in this round. Things change in the semis – it gets tougher, and 11 is not to be sniffed at. In my heart of hearts I felt sure that Les, Michael or Andrew would improve on her 23, but it wasn’t going to be a walk in the park.

Michael was the first to have a try. He started confidently enough, but the going got tougher for him in the second minute, or that’s how it appeared, anyway. He got close, but didn’t quite manage to make it into double figures, and ended with 22. Andrew had scored 14 on GK in the heats, and something of this sort would really give him a chance of that coveted place in the grand final. He never looked convincing this time out, though. It can happen. Sometimes the questions just don’t run for you. I thought that all of the sets of GK were pretty much of the same level of difficulty tonight, but they just didn’t seem to suit. He scored 8 to finish with 21.

So the question remained – were we going to see Valerie Roebuck join Kathryn Johnson in the Grand Final ? Well, the odds looked against it as Les took his place in the chair, needing 8 and 1 pass, or better, to win the show. He never looked in any real difficulty, and put on the best GK performance of the night, scoring 12 and 1 pass to go through, with a fine score of 27.

Hard lines to all of the other contenders, but well played for making it to the semis. As for Les, I am absolutely delighted ! Les was very unfortunate in the 2007 SOBM to be in the same semi final as 2 contenders who had scored 30 or more in their heats, and another who won the semi with the second highest score of the whole series. Many, many congratulations, Les ! Good luck for the final !

The Details

Valerie Roebuck	Sir Walter Raleigh	12 - 0	11 - 3	23 – 3
Les Morrell	The TV series Ever Decreasing Circles	15 – 1	12 – 1	27 – 2
Michael McPartland	The Sharpe novels of Bernard Cornwell	13 – 0	9 - 2	22 – 2
Kevin Quinn	British chart hit singles of the 1960s	6 - 2	10 - 3	16 – 3
Andrew Warmington	The Life and Reign of Henry VIII	13 - 0	8 - 4	21 – 4

What do I know ? More on Mickey : -

Regular LAM reader Brian Pendreigh sent me a lovely email today , adding more information about the whole Steamboat Willie v. Plane Crazy controversy. He writes,
"I know that Steamboat Willie is generally accepted among QMs as the first Mickey Mouse cartoon and of course all good quizzers know better and know that Plane Crazy was first (and a few may even know Gallopin' Gaucho was second).

But how do we know? And what do we mean first? Wikipedia certainly backs the idea that Plane Crazy was first, but also notes that Disney regards Steamboat Willie as Mickey's debut, which begs the question Why?

I dug out my encylcopaedic official history of the Disney studios, which contains a lot of detail on the history of Mickey, as you would expect. And yes, Plane Crazy was made first. But... Disney couldn't find a distributor for what was a prototype animated character in a silent short - at a time when everyone was buzzing about the arrival of the talkies. It did get what is described as a "preview" screening at an unnamed cinema on Sunset Blvd on May 15 1928. He did however get backing for Steamboat Willie which served as the first sound cartoon and effectively launched the series when it screened at the Colony Theater in NYC on November 18 1928.

The rule of thumb on dating films - as you will know - is that they are allocated the date of first public exhibition, not the date of production (with a few exceptions, such as Performance, where there is a major discrepancy). If you count that May preview, then it is Plane Crazy, but certainly these days a preview would not normally count. And on that basis Steamboat Willie would therefore qualify as the first Mickey Mouse cartoon. Plane Crazy and Gallopin' Goucho subsequently had sound added."

So therefore I apologise to the setter of the quiz on Tuesday night - and if you're reading this, I really did enjoy it - since it seems that at best , Plane Crazy AND Steamboat Willie are acceptable answers, and there is a case for accepting just Steamboat Willie .

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Good quiz again on Thursday night. Here was an interesting question -
Who was the only manager to win the European Cup ( when it was the European Cup, and before it became the Champion's League ) 3 times ?

Now, I say an interesting question rather than an interesting answer, since I'm not a football expert, but even I knew that Bob Paisely won it 3 times with Liverpool in 1977, 1978 and 1981. what I didn't know, though, was that he was the only manager to do it three times, and that's interesting to me, especially since you think of Real Madrid winning it on the trot all those times in the late 50s.