Mastermind - Round One - Heat 5

Well, seemingly to make up for the fact that there was only the one recidivist on last week’s show, we were served up no less than three of them in last night’s show. The first of whom was my friend Diane Hallagan. Diane is a very well-known and successful quizzer, and if I mention that last time out on Mastermind was in Ian’s 2011 series, where she reached the Grand Final, that should start to give you an idea of the calibre of player that we are dealing with. I first met Diane in the semis of the 2006 series, in her first tilt. Back in her last MM specialist round in the final of 2011, Diane took Margot Fonteyn. Last night she was answering on the TV series House of Cards and its sequels. I watched the first, House of Cards, and the last, The Final Cut, and so I had a go, and wasn’t too disappointed to come away with 7. Diane though produced one of the finest specialist rounds of the series so far, with a magnificent 16 and one pass. Normally you’d have said – that’s it, game over, at this point.

You had to feel a little sorry for Mark Roman-Gold. For one thing he was answering on John Milton. In my opinion, nothing about John Milton is simple, and some of the questions seemed fairly labyrinthine to me. Just my opinion, and as always . . . Not only that, but he was the solitary Mastermind virgin in last night’s show, and sometimes that can work against you. I can’t prove this, but I do feel that handling the pressure of being in the chair becomes easier the more times that you do it. Mark produced a perfectly respectable round of 9 points on a difficult set, but at 7 points adrift, his realistic chance of a place in the semis was over.

You’d have to have a very good memory to remember the last time that you saw Ian Clark on Mastermind. Ian reached the semi final in 1974. However you don’t need quite such a good memory to remember Ian reaching the final of Brain of Britain in 2012, and being a member of the Francophiles, who won Only Connect last year. Now, you might do well as a fluke in one of these shows, but to do that well in all three can’t be done unless you’re a very good quizzer. Ian’s subject – the Siege of Constantinople of 1453 had the words ‘obscure round’ written all over it. Yet Ian pretty much ripped it to shreds. He didn’t go as fast as Diane, and ended up a point behind on 15, but whichever way you look at it those were both extremely good rounds.

I remember watching Derek Heyes in the first round in 2004, when I’m sure that he answered questions on Manchester United – although I stand willing to be corrected on this one. Back then Derek posted a good score, but failed to go through. Last night he offered us FA Cup Finals at Wembley 1923 – 2000. I have actually read a little bit on the subject, and I fancied my chances. Derek did what is always a good but tricky tactic, namely to answer all of his questions at top speed. However it did mean that he missed a couple of gettables. Derek scored 11, which would have put him well in contention in several other of the heats we’ve seen so far, but left him well behind the leaders in this one. I was delighted with my 10.

Well, it was poor Mark who was down among the wines and spirits having to kick off the GK round. I would venture to say that Mark is not a regular quizzer. He gave each question due consideration, and answered what he could, but never built up any kind of momentum. Mind you, it hasn’t looked easy this series, what with long questions and all. More about that later. Mark finished with 15, and to be honest looked a little glum as he stood up to take his seat. I hope that he enjoyed his time on the show nonetheless. Derek Heyes went a lot faster in his own GK round. Once again, though, I observed that phenomenon which I’ve noticed in this series. You know that the round is 2 and a half minutes long. You see how well the contender is answering, and how fast they are going. Then you see their total score at the end of the round, and it always seems a little less than you thought. Leslie’s round, while not a match winner, looked like a double figure round, yet in the end he only added 9 to his score. I say only – 9 points is a perfectly decent GK round – but you know what I mean, I’m sure.  

Needing 6 to take the outright lead, Ian returned to the chair. Actually the task ahead of Ian wasn’t just to take the lead, it was to set a high enough score to at least place Diane into the corridor of uncertainty, and if possible, to win the show outright. Ian’s GK  round was an excellent example of how to do it. On first viewing it didn’t look like Ian was actually answering that quickly. However a second viewing revealed that Ian, while not snapping the answers back at John, was starting to voice the answer almost simultaneously with the question finishing. That’s good technique. Even with ones where he didn’t answer immediately he still got it right. In the end Ian added what John would call a very hefty 15 to take his total to 30. As much as it ever can be his place in the semi was guaranteed by the score – but would it be as winner?

It didn’t look like it at first. Diane took a grip on her round from the start, and she was snapping back the answers. Now, remember that I mentioned that this show just added more fuel to the flames of my suspicion that the GK questions are unnecessarily long in many cases this series? Well, on more than one occasion during this round the question looked to have come to its conclusion, Diane snapped out the answer, only for John to bulldoze on with more needless waffle as part of the question. In one of the times where it happened, it actually cost Diane a point, since she swapped a correct answer – Cranford – for an incorrect answer – Middlemarch. Now, I think the rules are quite clear. You are not supposed to answer while a question is being asked, and if you do that answer will be ignored, and the answer you give when the question is complete is the one that will be taken. But it was unfortunate, certainly. The level of difficulty really seemed to ramp up a bit in the last 30 seconds, and Diane could see the target, but the finishing line was approaching too quickly, and she finished on 28 overall. I believe, and I hope that this should be good enough for a third semi final for Diane.

So congratulations to Ian on a masterful performance, and also to Diane, and commiserations to Derek and Mark. Good show.

The Details

Diane Hallagan	House of Cards	16 – 1	12 - 2	28 - 3
Mark Roman-Gold	The Life and Works of John Milton	9 - 2	6 - 1	15 - 3
Ian Clark	The Siege of Constantinople 1453	15 – 0	15 - 0	30 – 0
Derek Heyes	Wembley FA Cup Finals 1923 - 2000	11 – 0	9 - 2	20 – 2

LAM Podcast 9

In this week's podcast : -

Questions on schools and teachers
Talking points on slumps - Only Connect - Mastermind
The Hall of Shame
The Court of Public Opinion
Answers to Dr. Who Questions

In The News

In the News

Who or what are the following and why have they been in the news?        

Samantha Murray

Rona Fairchild

Hashim Khan

Beppe Sannino

HMS Illustrious

The Deposition

Uxbridge and South Ruislip

John Sweeney

Charles Bronson

Kevin Sinfield

Falcao

Stephen Sotloff

Warrior

How Watson Learned the Trick

James Simpson-Daniel

Jack Durand

May Myat Noe

Brett and Nayhmeh King

Peterloo

Woolwich Central

William Pooley

Nairo Quintana

Andrew Gale

Laniakea

David Lammy

Palmira Silva

Kell Brook

In Other News

It was announced that who will face a retrial

29 trapped coal miners were rescued from a mine in which country?

Where did Barack Obama go after the NATO summit to cross an item off his bucket list?

Who have threatened to disrupt this year’s Oktoberfest by going on strike?

A 17 volume dictionary of which language specifically has been finally completed after 100 years of work?

Who became the first artist to have 8 albums in the UK albums chart simultaneously?

Which of Sir Bob Geldof’s daughters revealed that she had suffered from depression from the age of 11?

What was the score in the Spurs v. Liverpool match?

Which cricket team did Zimbabwe defeat for the first time ever last week?

What was the score in the Chelsea v. Everton match last week?

Which famous author called for Amazon to pay tax?

It was decided last week that new species could be scientifically named in which language?

The Wedgewood Collection was due to be possibly sold abroad unless how much money could be raised last week?

Which prison was deemed unsafe and filthy?

Which singer was charged with drunk driving and assault?

Which high ranking police officer was censured by a tribunal for failing to apologise for the way that a black WPC was treated with racial and sexual discrimination?

Which bad news did Luke Donald receive last week?

Name Paul McGinley’s three wild card picks for the Ryder Cup

Danny Welbeck signed for which club?

What was the score in the England v. Norway friendly football match?

How old was Joan Rivers when she passed away last week?

Which children’s novel celebrated its 50^th birthday last week?

Which team defeated world champions Germany 4 – 2 in a friendly last week?

Where was a roman jewellery hoard found ?

Which company are refunding $19 million to parents for purchases that kids made on their apps?

The Church is unhappy with worshippers in Venezuela. Why?

Who knocked Andy Murray out of the US open?

Which show set a world record for the most series broadcast for a gameshow?

Which country refused the Dalai Lama a visa for a visit last week?

Coventry City have returned to which venue?

Which British and Irish  Lion rejoined Leinster last week?

Only Connect - Round One - Heat One

Politicos v. Felinophiles

Several questions presented themselves at the start of the new series. I criticized the last series at times for the inscrutable obscurity of some of the sets – just my opinion and feel free to disagree – and it was interesting to speculate whether there would be any noticeable change to the level of questions bearing in mind that the show has been elevated to BBC Two. what a powerhouse double whammy UC and OC make! Well, let’s have a look at this first heat, which pitted the Politicos against the Felinophiles. The Politicos were Ross Goodwin, Joe Kerrigan and Thomas Williams, and according to Victoria they were united by a passion for Parliament. Well, I can’t claim to be that interested in the doings of what Dickens once memorably called “The National Dustheap”, but I am certainly a Felinophile, much like Simon Turmaine, Helen Lippell and Simon Koppel. Which was enough to earn them the dubious accolade of support from the Clark sofa.  Enough, already. Let’s get on with the show.

Round One – What’s the Connection?

The Fels opened the new series with Two reeds. First we saw Cruft, and Helen knew what that meant. They took a second clue of NPOV – which I thought meant Neutral Point of View – and captain Simon was certainly smart enough to link them all to Wikipedia. He secured the points by taking the third clue – edit war – which would have been the point at which I would have had it, - to secure 2 good points. The Pols opted for Eye of Horus. We saw Ascot racecourse – Southern hemisphere tropical cyclones  - both of which prompted a couple of suggestions, then - decanter of port – which rather muddied the waters. As soon as the Pols decided that these were things which go to the left, though, that made perfect sense. I didn’t have it myself before they came up with the answer. They all go clockwise, but the left works , and they too had two well earned points. The Fels  - well, I don’t know if Simon is a reader, but he made me very happy by voicing the second vowel of Horned Viper. This brought them Nigel Lawson – Frank Cradock – which looked to be begging for the answer, fathers of TV chefs /cooks. Which worried me a bit since it looked too obvious. I was mentally willing Simon to take another one to test the hypothesis, but they chanced their collective arm with parents of chefs, and were incorrect. This gave the final two clues – Ramona Blanc and Nigella Slater to the Pols. This made it clear that chefs was definitely the right general topic, but these were chefs whose first names have been switched to that of the opposite gender. A bonus to the Pols. Lion gave the Pols – Theatre on Argyll St., London. This was obviously the London Palladium. Now, as much as the previous one seemed too obvious off two clues, this seemed too obvious off one – surely it didn’t just want elements of the Periodic Table? The Pols sensibly took another clue – golf club. But did that mean golf club – Royal and Ancient – or – golf club – Mashie Niblick? If the latter, then you might have an iron. Certainly the Pols fancied metallic elements here, not without reason. Blimey – it WAS that simple. Well, I’ve complained last series that there were lots of sets where I thought that it was impossible to get a five pointer, so I can’t really complain about this one. Water gave the Fels the music set. I didn’t get the first two any more than the Fels did, but we both connected Stranger in Paradise and Gangsta’s Paradise for a point. Twisted Flax contained the picture set. We saw a child in a rubber ring – a lake – a bird – and I’ll admit I hadn’t a clue up to this point – then a large bookshelf. I recognized the bookshelf – from none other than the set of idents that used to precede the show on BBC four. Neither of the teams managed that one. Still, a good, brisk opening, with both teams showing ability saw the Pols lead by 6 - 3

Round Two – What Comes Fourth?

The Fels took twisted flax, and the first clue was a glass of what looked like brandy, and the second like a brand. Working on that principle the fourth picture ought to show a bra – as the Fels also worked out, and indeed that’s what it was. Good. No American Municipal Bankruptcies so far. Now, full marks to Thomas of the Politicos for also pronouncing Horned the way we like to hear it done at LAM. No wonder these two teams were doing well. The viper produced – Suriname – Mexico – and I’ll be honest, I wasn’t seeing much specific here – Costa Rica. Now, all obviously in Latin America – but I doubted it was a Geography question. Looking at it, it clicked – ME ended Suriname but began Mexico – CO ended Mexico but began Costa Rica, which meant that for me Canada would do the job. So it transpired. Very tricky but not unfairly so. Lion gave us Eboracum – which is the Roman name for York. Would it be – Eboracum – Eoforwic – Jorvik – York – I wondered. Sounded a little obvious, and I wouldn’t have buzzed off one in the studio. Well, when the second turned out to indeed be the saxon Eoforwic, it turned out that maybe I should have. So should the Fels, come to think of it, for they had it on one too. Mind you, I don’t blame them for a little caution at all. So far the Fels had picked two plums in the round, while the Pols had only managed one crab apple. Water gave the Pols Minimum Speeding Penalty. That’s £100 and 3 points. A rugby conversion is worth two points, and rugby conversion was the next. Which made it clear that we were looking for something with no points. Funnily enough I suggested a broken pencil, immediately before the third was revealed to be a sharpened pencil! The Pols had already worked out the sequence, but taken the third for security, and they offered a particularly bad song in Eurovision. Two Reeds gave us 4^th: Tim Henman, then 3^rd: Roald Dahl. I won’t lie, I didn’t have it, but Simon spotted it brilliantly. Tim Henman’s initials are TH as in 4^TH – Roald Dahl rd as in 3^RD. So the answer would be someone like Sue Townsend as in 1^ST. They actually used Simon from the team – 1^st: Simon Turmaine, which was of course perfectly acceptable. Now that was a good shout. Pnly the Eye of Horus remained. The Pols were given Michael Spindler. Now, funnily enough I knew that he was a past CEO of Apple. I guessed that maybe the last would be whoever took over after the untimely death of Steve Jobs. The name meant nothing to the Pols, so they took the second – Gil Amelio, which wouldn’t have meant anything to me. As I expected, Steve Jobs came third. I dredged up a name – Steve Wozniack – but it wasn’t the right one. The Fels knew it was Tim Cook, and reaped the bonus. The second round, in which I think that the Pols had been a little unlucky with their choices, had seen a change in both teams’ fortunes, with the Fels now ahead by 13 – 8.

Round Three – The Connecting Walls

The Pols got to choose, and they went for Lion. Characters from To Kill A Mockingbird looked to be qa set early doors, as did sharks. The Pols could see both of these, but seemed to concentrate on the sharks without resolving the set. When they switched and made a concerted assault on the characters they soon resolved – Dill – Atticus – Jem – Scout. This left just a little time and they could see some parts of golfer’s names/nicknames. When the time was up and the lines were resolved the golfers were – Boo – Bubba – Tiger – Fuzzy. This left the sharks as – Great White – Nurse – Milk and Bull. The last line was Fishing – Carnival – Stock market – Ice cream. I couldn’t see the connection – but once you knew it was floats it made sense. 4 points, and you sensed that if the Fels could put in a good wall performance, then the job would be almost done for them.

At pretty much the same time as I did the Fels spotted what appeared on the surface to be a set of wrestlers. I also spotted what looked like a set of London Lanes. The complication with the wrestlers was that Big Daddy was also a character from Cat on a hot tin roof – and there was a Maggie there as well. The Fels first untangled the lanes – Park – Drury – Hanger – Chancery. I think that once they couldn’t get a set of wrestlers, being led up the garden path by Big Daddy by the look of things, they were really struggling to make other connections. Finally they untangled The Undertaker – CM Punk – Christian and Triple H – after Simon had decided to reject Big Daddy. That was it before the time went. Gooper – Maggie – Big Daddy and Brick were the Cat On A Hot Tin Roof characters. It suddenly clicked with Simon, but too late for him to dredge up the name of the play. The last set – Lines – Horse – Peg and Brush were obviously preceded by clothes. 5 points altogether meant that they increased their lead slightly – to 18 – 12, a commanding lead, but not necessarily a winning one.

Round Four – Missing Vowels

The first set was balls smaller than a tennis ball. Innuendo overload. These fell 2 – 1 to the polls – and the score was 19 – 14. Animals and their noises. The Pols took one of the first three, but a wrong answer on the fourth saw them lose a point, meaning that the score was now 22 – 14, and the match over, to all intents and purposes. Things which are all represented by the letter C gave two more points to the Felinophiles, meaning that they ended up winning by 24 – 14. A fine performance from a team who look very much to be one to watch as the series develops. The Politicos need not despair though. I think that they showed enough to be rated as a team who could well win their next match anyway, and although I don’t think they’d have won, they could certainly have scored higher with a little more rub of the green in this show.

Well, I know that there was speculation that moving the show to BBC Two might result in it being watered down a little – sort of an Only Connect Lite if you like. I’m happy to say that this didn’t seem to be the case to me, although my first impression is that the sets did on the whole seem a little more accessible than some we were served up last year – and that’s no bad thing at all.  Good show. 

Answers to News Questions

In the News

Who or what are the following, and why have they been in the news?

Carol Mills

Bardarbunga

Paul Collingwood

Sean Foley

Iain Watters and Diana Beard

William Pooley

Uxbridge and South Ruislip

Abdel Majid Abdel Bary

Steven Moffat

Angel di Maria

Helen and Maurice Kaye

Zara

Neil Young

Peter Theo Curtis

Charles Vacca

Kamla Devi

Sir Gerald Howarth

Joan Rivers

Douglas Carswell

KSC Lokeren

Ashya King

Jim Murphy

Outlaw Pete

In Other News

How old was Lord Attenborough, who passed away last week?

Nick Clegg visited which country to promote trade?

Which clergyman began a week long fast and vigil for world peace?

Where did Kate Bush kick off her 22 night residency last week?

Due to a price crash, which drug can now be prescribed on the NHS to any men who need it?

An Earthquake struck the northern coast of which state?

How was Lewis Hamilton forced out of the Belgian GP?

In which rarely run event did Mo Farah beat Steve Ovett’s 36 year old British Record?

What was the score in the Rugby League Challenge Cup final?

A mint condition issue of Action Comics 1- featuring Superman’s debut – sold for a world record on ebay. How much?

Who, rather surprisingly, spoke out about his dislike of manufactured boy bands?

What was the score in the Man City v. Liverpool match?

Which team added to Louis Van Gaal’s woes by inflicting a humiliating defeat on Man Utd. in the Capital One Cup?

Francois Hollande announced the new French Government. How many Governments does this make during his presidency so far?

What did the BSI introduce last week?

Which dish caused all the furore over The Great British Bake Off last week?

Which team knocked premier league Leicester out of the Capital One Cup?

 – and QPR?

Which 106 cap veteran announced his international retirement last week?

What was the score between Arsenal and Besiktas?

Who was named as ‘new’ manager of Crystal Palace?

Where did the second ODI between India and England take place?

Apple announced that they would release what on 9^th September?

Which 3 members of the Friends cast reunited for a ‘Friends’ sketch – and on whose show?

Which Hollywood couple tied the knot?

Which team did Spurs beat in the Europa League?

To whom did the Chief Constable of South Yorkshire Police apologise last week?

Answers

Who or what are the following and why have they been in the news?

Speaker John Bercow’s controversial choice for Clerk of the House of Commons

Icelandic volcano erupting, no ash cloud as yet.

Captain of Durham county cricket club, signed a new one year deal, putting off retirement

Coach from whom Tiger Woods has split

The two bakers in the Great British Bake Off bingate controversy

first Briton to contract Ebola virus

The constituency that Boris Johnson will contest in the next general election

Reported as being a suspect in the beheading of James Foley

TV Writer who ahd a great week – his first episode of Pete Capaldi’s Doctor Who played to excellent reviews, and he won the Emmy for outstanding writing for “Sherlock – His Last Bow”

Player for whom Man Utd. paid Real Madrid a British record of £59.7million

Couple who celebrated their 80^th wedding anniversary

Spanish retailer who dropped a child’s shirt after criticism that the striped top with a yellow star looked like clothes holocaust victims had worn in the concentration camps

Musician who filed for divorce from his wife Pegi after 36 years

Journalist freed from captivity by Islamic militant extremist group

Machine gun instructor accidentally killed by 9 year old he was teaching

Woman who was attacked by a leopard, and managed to kill it despite sustaining severe injuries

Conservative MP accused of creating racial tension by saying that ‘Enoch Powell was right’ about his rivers of blood speech.

In a coma following a throat operation

Conservative MP announced his defection to UKIP

Belgian side who knocked Hull out of the Europa League

3 year old from West Midlands who became an internet sensation after using F word while taking ice bucket challenge

Seriously ill boy taken out of Southampton General Hospital by parents

Scottish MP egged while making appearences against Yes vote

Book by Bruce Springsteen due for publication

In Other news

90

India

Johan Sentamu, Archibishop of York

Hammersmith Apollo

Viagra

California

Taken out by team mate Nico Rosberg deliberately ‘shutting the door’

2 miles

Leeds 23 – Castleford 10

$3.2 million

Simon Cowell

3 – 1 Man City

MK Dons

4

Digital Kitemark

Baked Alaska

Shrewsbury

Burton Albion

Frank Lampard

1 – 0 Arsenal

Neil Warnock

Cardiff

iphone 6

Jennifer Aniston, Courtney Cox-Arquette and Lisa Kudrow reunited on Jimmy Kimmel’s show

Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie

AEK Limassol

victims of the Rotherham child sex scandal

University Challenge - First Round Heat 7

University Challenge – Heat 7 – Liverpool v. Sheffield

A good, old fashioned heat this, between two teams from universities in different cities.The Liverpool team consisted of Ben Mawdsley, Jim Davis,  Hugh Hiscock,and their captain was Dachman Crewe. Now, the University of Sheffield holds the distinction of being one of the institutions which I actually applied to way back in the early 80s. That never quite came off, but no hard feelings, and I certainly don’t blame the team of Andrew Trueman, Nathaniel Aspray,  Claire Greenwood and their captain was Nathaniel Aspray’s best man, Jonathan Cunliffe.

The first starter asked about a daily finance and economics newspaper. I bet both teams were just itching to hear if it was British or American, since questions about these papers inevitably have either the FT or the Wall St. Journal as the answer. When the name Charles Dow was mentioned Hugh Hiscock was the first to chance his arm with the latter. This earned his team bonuses on museum ships. 2 were taken, and I must say that I didn’t get the first myself. The next starter was very long winded, and I didn’t understand the first part at all. However the last part of the question revealed that the answer is the term for what comes between an era and an epoch. That I did know was period. Neither team managed that one. For the next starter JP got through the whole question, giving a list of people or characters from literature and asking for the given name by which they were all linked. It was a long time – relatively speaking – before Nathaniel Aspray buzzed in with the correct answer of Beatrice – Dante’s muse being one of them. Historical figures born in Somerset saw them take the one I didn’t know, Thomas Young, and miss out on the two that I did – Henry Irving and Ernie Bevin. Right, JP had made the point that Sheffield had a team who were all from the same faculty – all studying medicine. Now, when you come from a specialist institution, like the LSHTM, that’s inevitable. However if you do pack your team with one discipline you risk having a shortfall in certain areas. Hence Claire Greenwood winning the buzzer race when asked who wrote Under the Greenwood Tree, but not knowing it was Thomas Hardy, an answer which Hugh Hiscock supplied. Church architecture brought them one correct answer for the bonuses. The picture starter followed showing us the final rounds of the Wimbledon Men’s Singles competition, and the teams were asked to identify the year. Something about it said 2008 to me – after Jonathan Cunliffe had a punt with 2009 then Hugh Hiscock obviously thought the same as me, and he gave the correct answer. More diagrams for different years followed. Allowing Liverpool to be one year out either way made the bonuses all quite gettable, well, if you’re as old as me, that is. Liverpool managed one of them. Right then – if I give you a molecule of methane, a molecule of benzene and a molecule of methanol, how many carbon atoms have you got? If your answer is the same as mine, namely how the hell should I know?  then you might be interested to know that it’s nine. Andrew Trueman knew that one. The bonuses on Test Centuries at Headingley were actually quite gettable if you have a basic knowledge of test cricket, but if you’re not interested  in the sport then they’re not. So bearing that in mind Sheffield could probably be quite happy to take five points from the set. This meant that at just after the 10 minute mark they had restricted Liverpool to a 20 point lead, 50 to 30. First impressions were that while Liverpool seemed to have something of an edge on the buzzer, both teams were being rather profligate with their bonuses.

Jim Davis was in quickly when asked for a US president of the 19^th century who was also a former military commander. Ulysses S. Grant wasn’t the only candidate, but he was certainly the most obvious, a fact which Jim Davis took full advantage of. Western Europe proved a good set for Liverpool, who took all three and won a hard-earned ‘well done’ from JP – and those aren’t given away with cornflakes packets either. With the bit obviously between their teeth, Hugh Hiscock buzzed in as soon as he recognized a definition of the word dialectic. Liverpool were given 3 descriptions and binomials of British reptiles, and they identified the common name of two of them. They kept on pounding their opponents by another good early buzz from Jim Davis, who knew that the arachnids that transmit lyme disease are ticks. I didn’t expect a great deal from holograms, which was just as well because I left the set empty handed. Liverpool themselves fared a bit better, taking one. This brought us to the music starter. Once again a rampant Liverpool team buzzed early to identify Beethoven’s 9^th, specifically the Ode to Joy. Another one for the highly effective Hugh Hiscock, that one. Three more pieces of music that have featured on the soundtracks of the Die Hard series. For the first it transpired that the first film – which I have never seen, nor any of its progeny – had stolen the old theme to the Antiques Roadshow, which was written for it by JS Bach – a remarkable feat considering he died 228 years before it was first broadcast. Liverpool missed out on Bach, Brahms and Sibelius. A medicinal question – about treatment which is called topical, at last allowed Sheffield to push their way back into the game. Bonuses on colours used in HTML pages offered a chance to narrow the looming gap a little further. These weren’t easy, though, and only the one was taken. When asked for a 4 letter SPanish suffix, applied in derogatory terms in English to Blair and fashion, Hugh Hiscock was the first to untangle the question and buzz in with – ista. Right, now the first of a set of philosophy bonuses began by mentioning an object whose parts have been replaced so much that nothing of the original object remains. Immediately the words Trigger’s Broom sprang to my lips. This wasn’t the answer to the first, which was the Ship of Theseus – which you could guess from the words – the Ship of which legendary King of Athens – but it was the answer to the third. Two correct answers were enough to push Liverpool to a commanding 95 point lead, with 140 to Sheffield’s 45, and to be honest it looked to be all over bar the shouting.

A picture starter showing us Joachim Phoenix in the role of Johnny Cash – a fine performance which earned him an Oscar – Nathaniel Aspray was first in with this one. More actors playing musicians followed, and although they recognized a portrayal of Edith Piaf they didn’t know the actress, so no bonuses there. Claire Greenwood knew that a question asking about a river with a delta opening into the South China Sea will probably be about the Mekong.  Gyres didn’t promise a lot for bonuses, but Sheffield managed one of them, and the fact was that at least they were starting to make headway with the starters. Neither team exactly impressed by not buzzing in immediately when the next starter began “What are the first five words of the 23^rd psalm” but once JP supplied some further information it was Nathaniel Aspray who won the race to supply “The Lord is My Shepherd.” The languages of Afghanistan  didn’t promise a great deal, but they did well to take five points with Pushtu. A list of writers sharing the same given name ended with ‘Death of a Salesman’ for the next starter. For the first time Hugh Hiscock showed a little vulnerability by buzzing in with Martin. This allowed Claire Greenwood to supply Arthur. Remarkably, Sheffield so far had shut Liverpool out completely from 4 starters in a row. Sadly they still didn’t get a particularly friendly set of bonuses, with astronomical distance scales. They managed one, but this still left them 40 points adrift. Right, I;ve no idea why, but when asked which fundamental force of nature is not include within the standard model of particle physics I answered ‘Gravity’. So did Andrew Trueman for Sheffield, and we were both correct. Cue lap of honour round the living room for me, while JP asked Sheffield a set of bonuses on Time Magazine’s person of the Year. Two correct answers halved the gap. But hardly any time remained, and Jim Davis turned their challenge into mission impossible by answering that SETI stand for Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence. Bonuses on Albert Finney supplied no more points, but they ate into the time, and Sheffield now needed more than a full set. Nobody knew that the Elephant in French and the Runner in German are the Bishop in English on a chess board. Jonathan Cunliffe knew that if the first part of a binomial denotes the species, then the second part denotes the genus. Bonuses on Human memory only had time for one question, and no answer before the gong ended the contest.

The final score was 155 to 130, Commiserations to Sheffield, who produced a splendid fightback in the last few minutes. Congratulations to Liverpool, who were, I think, just the better team on the balance of the competition as a whole. I don’t know the bonus conversion rates, but I wouldn’t have thought that they were among the highest we’ll see all series, but nonetheless an engaging and well fought contest. Well done to both.

Jeremy Paxman Watch

When asked for the name of the first actor to gain a knighthood, Sheffield plucked a name from thin air – Christopher Hooper. “Christopher HOOPER?. . . interesting.” replied JP, although I have no doubt he only did it for effect, it being quite obvious that the team were scoobyless on this one.

Unable to give the Russian name required for one of the hologram bonuses, Dachman Crewe cheekily offered Vladimir Putin. – Hallo – I thought – wigging from JP coming up here. No such thing, he merely restricted himself to “He’s a very talented man, isn’t he?” Huh? Has someone been putting tranquilisers into JP’s normal pre-show meal raw meat?

On the ‘topical treatment’ question, far from encouraging Sheffield now that they had managed their first starter for several minutes he offered them solace with the words, “Wouldn’t want to be treated by you if you didn’t know THAT”. Ah, the mogadons were wearing off!

To be fair to JP I think he did notice that Sheffield were staging an impressive comeback in the last few minutes, because of his imprecation to the team when they dithered over a set of bonuses, “You’d better hurry up as we’re in the dying minutes of the competition”

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

An object which has had all of its original parts replaced – like Trigger’s Broom – is a philosophical paradox known as The Ship of Theseus – and , deliciously – The Sock of Locke. 

Mastermind - Round One - Heat 4

Well, the answer to the first question I asked myself about tonight’s show was no, there was only one recidivist rather than two. This was none other than Mike Foden. Lovers of irony and coincidence might like to reflect that Mike was beaten in his very first appearance in 2009 by Paula Keaveney, who won heat 2 a fortnight ago. In 2010 he was knocked out in round one by eventual series runner up Peter Reilly, and in 2012 by 2014 Brain of Britain Mark Grant. So I think it’s fair to say that he was overdue a little bit of the rub of the green. Still, Mike was fourth to go, so let’s have a look at the others.

Writer Sidin Sunny kicked us off with Champagne. I tutted a little knowingly when I heard that this was a subject. Back during the 2007 SOBM Tim Vick, the runner up in my heat, opted for German wines. He was served up some very long and rather obscure questions, and even granted that German wines is probably a much wider subject than champagne, it still seemed that this would be a troublesome subject. There’s no doubt that Sidin knew his stuff, either, but it was never a round that was going to allow a contender to build up a momentum, and in all honesty I thought that the 8 he scored was the least that he deserved.

The Manhatten Project hardly proved more forgiving towards second contender Graham Gowland, either. Like Sidin before him his answers proved that he really knew his stuff as well, but the nature of the questions left him just short of double figure. Again, I thought that this was a poor return for a round in which he showed considerable knowledge of his subject.

Like a majority of viewers I would imagine, I think of Tina Modotti as Tina Who? She was a photographer, apparently. Now, biographical rounds, even obscure biographical subjects, often prove to be fruitful for a contender. Certainly it enabled Lena Gazey to get into double figures – quite an achievement when in a heat where it seemed that points were proving very hard to come by. 11 points, though, made it look as if there was plenty of room for Mike to establish a lead at the halfway stage.

Mike was offering the cult TV show, “The Prisoner”. Good choice. 17 episodes, and I would imagine that there is quite a wealth of source material out there to work from. Which Mike doubtless had done, since he negotiated his way through his questions, accruing just a single pass, and taking the lead with 13. With his prior experiences of Mastermind, and his GK track record you fancied that this was probably game over as far as this heat was concerned. As for me – well – no time to wiki this week, and so I had to settle for an aggregate of 11, 5 of which had come from the Prisoner round.

IN some ways, this heat reminded me of heat 2. There were some rather long GK questions, and although the heat was calling out for someone to take the GK by the scruff of the neck. . . but I’m getting ahead of myself. Sidin was the first to return to the chair. Much like his first round, he actually supplied some good answers to his questions, but never established any kind of momentum. A total of 15 was never going to win, but nonetheless it had been hard earned. Graham Gowland could probably vouch for that. His round didn’t get off to a great start, and when that happens you start to question your own answers and to second guess. It slows you right down, and stops any chance you might have of achieving a competitive total. Graham put a brave face on it, but after adding 6 to his total he looked rather glad that his round was over.

I’ll be honest, bearing in mind Mike was yet to come, I thought that the least that Lena would need to put him into the corridor of uncertainty would be a double figures round. Well, she didn’t quite manage that. She did, though, keep the round rolling on, albeit somewhat slowly, eventually accruing 8 and 7 passes. What must Mike have felt walking to the chair, knowing that he only needed 7 to win outright, and reach the semi finals for the first time? Certainly there was a look of steely determination on his face as he began. Maybe I’m mistaken, but I think that he maybe suffered from a little nervousness, answering Big Blue rather than Deep Blue, and in mid round he became becalmed on 16. He steadied his nerves, though, recovered, and made the target with a couple to spare. He’s had better rounds and not won before, has Mike, but this was what he needed. Many congratulations, Mike, and the very best of luck in your semi.

The Details

Sidin Sunny	Champagne	8 - 2	7 - 2	15 - 4
Graham Gowland	The Manhattan Project	9 - 1	6 - 4	15 - 5
Lena Gazey	Tina Modotti	11 - 1	8 - 7	19 - 1
Mike Foden	The Prisoner	13 - 1	8 - 3	21 – 6