Antiques Roadshow

You might recall that back in June I took my bowl to Tredegar House, and filmed a little insert for the Antiques Roadshow with Andy McConnell, the glass expert. I received a letter from the Beeb this morning telling me that two programmes using footage filmed in Tredegar House are going to be broadcast, and my little film (blink and you'll miss it) is going to be shown on the first, on Sunday 23rd November.

University Challenge - Repechage Round Match 2

Manchester v. Sussex

Manchester teams have a lot to live up to, since their record in the Paxman era is second to none. This year’s team of Edmund Chapman, Matthew Stallard, Charlie Rowlands and captain John Ratcliffe faced a stern test in their first round match when they lost out 160 – 190 in a quality match against Selwyn. Well, we have seen before that it is possible for a team to go all the way once they’ve negotiated the repechage round. Standing in their way were Tom Whitehurst, David Spence, Matthew Dean and Joss Macdonald from the University of Sussex. I won’t lie, I was delighted that Sussex made it through to the repechage since they were denied a fair answer to a starter by an extremely contentious ruling in the first round. Sussex scored 150 against St. Peter’s, who scored 205. On paper, then, very little in it.

Matthew Stallard took the first starter. JP began with a quote about a website. I threw Wikipedia onto the table, as did Matthew Stallard a moment or two later. Bonuses on Cicero yielded one bonus. John Ratcliffe buzzed early when he recognised the definition of a tablet, and the bonuses which followed on penal colonies provided a further ten points. The next starter was a good old film chestnut. “Known for her forthright and outspoken views on life, which actress won her first Oscar for Morning Glory –“ and at this point I gave the answer Katharine Hepburn – but nobody buzzed until the question ended with “. . . On Golden Pond?” All too young, I guess, but neither Jane Fonda nor Vivien Leigh brought the points. Asked for a seven letter word which could mean a device to regulate the flow and depth of water, or a balloon used as a defence against air attacks, John Ratcliffe buzzed in early, and then found the answer would not pass beyond the tip of his tongue. This allowed Joss Macdonald to open the account for Sussex with barrage. Two correct answers on the probability bonuses were given. I got one of them myself, and that wasn’t probable at all. Matthew Stallard buzzed in first for the picture starter. It wasn’t really a classic picture starter, since all he had to do was to say which national football teams were nicknamed Canarinhos – Nationalelf – Azzuri. I liked the bonuses. In these they were given three footballing terms, each rendered in Portuguese, German and Italian. This gave them, but not me, their first full house of the contest. Joss Macdonald took his and his team’s second starter, with a JP Donleavy quote about sex. Nobel prize winning writers – alright, Aung San Suu Kyi didn’t win for literature, but it was still about something she wrote – brought one bonus. This left the score at 55 – 30 to Manchester as we passed the ten minute mark.

Matthew Dean recognised the names of four species of tapir to reduce the deficit further earning bonuses on Trent Bridge. Now, asked for the name of the Middlesex batsman who scored the highest individual innings, Sussex knew it was Dennis Compton (sorry, but due to Fawlty Towers, whenever I hear the name of the great Dennis Compton, the words ‘cloth-eared bint’ inevitably follow in my head), but said Middlesex first, and thus failed to get the points, due to the first answer rule. Once again, no leeway whatsoever allowed to Sussex. The one bonus they managed reduced the gap to ten points. Nobody knew that Peel sent Lord Ashburton to the USA to resolve border and maritime search issues. Both teams waited as the next starter gradually unfurled, but as soon as the words Sinhala language were said it was Tom Whitehurst who won the buzzer race, to answer Sri Lanka, and put Sussex level with Manchester. They couldn’t manage any of the bonuses on authors born in 1914. When Tom Whitehurst identified the dulcet tones of David Hasselhof for the music starter he looked most embarrassed. Three more top selling hits (in Germany) in 1989, the year the Berlin Wall came down, followed. Now, as you know, pop music ended for me in 1986, so the only one I got was Enya. Sussex managed one more, and now had a lead of 20. Given a description of one of the events of the opening chapter of a nineteenth century novel, Matthew Stallard chanced his arm with a pure guess of Jane Eyre, and fortune in this case favoured the brave. A full house of bonuses on bio chemistry put Manchester back in the lead. John Ratcliffe knew that the ferro magnetic element in question used in staining glass is cobalt for the next starter. The team took two bonuses on Labout MP Ellen Wilkinson – who incidentally had a girls’ school in the London Borough of Ealing named after her – but didn’t know that the 1944 Education Act she implemented was named after R.A. Butler. The next starter gave a quote by Tchaikovsky about an opera set in Seville. Nobody fancied it until Edmund Chapman chanced his arm with Carmen. Correctly so, Seville being the big giveaway. I had a full house on Geological history, but the team missed out on Wegener, taking the other two. Didn’t matter, At the twenty minute mark they were pulling away again, and led by 120 – 75.

A lead which increased when they recognized a painting by Georges Seurat. Three more artworks that featured in the John Hughes film Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, and two correct answers made their lead look formidable. Not that Sussex were finished. Tom Whitehurst recognized a definition of the word quartile. A nice UC set about winners of the Carbuncle Cup for Britain’s ugliest building followed, of which they managed two. A very quick buzz from Charlie Rowlands snatched away that small spark of hope for Sussex, as he identified varieties of coriander – a good shout that. One bonus was taken on JS Bach. For the next starter, after being given the full question about a work of literature, nobody seemed to fancy it, so once again Matthew Stallard, mindful of his success with Jane Eyre, took another speculative punt with The Compleat Angler, and once again the ball sailed sweetly between the posts. We both scored a full house on entemology. None of us knew that the shortest border between two ceremonial English counties lies between Lincolnshire and Northants. Edmund Chapman knew that several events all occurred in the 1490s. The bonuses on Kings called Edward were gettable, but Manchester dropped one. It didn’t matter, the match was well and truly won by this stage. Charlie Rowlands knew that Khaled Hosseini write of One Thousand splendid suns. I didn’t think we’d have time for bonuses on national Parks, and indeed we didn’t. The gong brought the contest to a close, with Manchester clear winners by 210 to 95.

JP did his usual – well, you didn’t really get into your stride at all there, did you, to Sussex. That’s unfair. They were well in the contest until the last 12 minutes or so. Then Manchester were just too strong, and too quick on the buzzer. So the Manchester express is well and truly back on the rails. Well played both – good game.

Jeremy Paxman Watch

With the sex question Sussex seemed so relieved to get it right that JP observed smilingly,

“How sweetly baffled you look.”

He put into words what we were all thinking when he said to Tom Whitehurst who answered the David Hasselhof ‘music’ starter – “God, you have confess to embarrassing news on this show.”

When John Ratcliffe offered Degas as the artist of the second artwork in the picture set he rather sniffily replied,

“No, Toulouse-Lautrec. Inimitable, I’d say.”

When Matthew Stallard gave the Compleat Angler answer, he hailed it with “You’re a damn good guesser.”

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

Nationalelf is a nickname of the German national football team. I used to get my glasses on them. 

Brain of Mensa Grand Final 2014

I haven’t really had the time to post since last Saturday, but now that I have a little it would be remiss of me not to pay tribute to LAM reader Stephen Cooke, who won the Brain of Mensa final in the Mensa Games finals weekends last Sunday.

The final, for which the estimable Brian Daugherty both compiled the questions, and acted as question master, was contested between Stephen Cooke, previous multiple champion Les Hurst, Ian Dalziel and me. Both Stephen and I were playing for the first time in the competition.

I was under no illusions that I was going into the final as anything other than an underdog, having seen just how good Les was when he beat me in the semi final. As it happened, Les was a couple of rounds getting into his formidable stride in the final, while Stephen led from the first round to the last. I have to take my hat off to both Stephen and Les. They were playing and supplying answers at a level which I couldn’t match, but could only admire. In the end Les was runner up , and I came third. If you know me then you’ll know that I would have loved to have won, but could have no complaints about the outcome, and to be honest, I’d really just wanted to get to the final in this, my first year. So congratulations, Stephen, and well played as well to Les, and also to Ian. Hopefully see you next year.

Mastermind - Round One - Heat 12

Well, tonight’s show brought us to the halfway stage of the first round, and yes, there was another recidivist in this week’s heat. I’ll come to him all in good time. Meanwhile, let’s begin with the first of tonight’s three Mastermind virgins. Patricia Gardener was answering questions on the Crown Jewels. Now, that is one of those unusual, slightly out of left field subjects where you sometimes see that there is a bit of a gap between the setter’s idea of the parameters of the subject, and the contender’s. Patricia was extremely strong on the constituent parts and jewels of the individual pieces, but not so good on the odd historical facts connected with the pieces. That having been said she still managed to get into double figures, and that has been something of the mark of quality again in SS in this series.

Our second virgin was John Boyle. Now, there was something about the way he answered his name rank and serial number at the start of the round which made me fear for him. He looked nervous, and as if he had the weight of the world on his shoulders. I think I was right, for he really struggled with the first minute of his round. He answered the first two questions, but then the old quiz chestnut about the original name of the Supremes – the Primettes – pulled him up in his tracks, and seemed to play on his mind as the round progressed. Stuff that I’m sure he knew, like the first hit for the Jackson Five, went begging, and by the end of the round he had only accrued 6 points on what I, a lover of Motown music from the 60s particularly, can vouch for as a very fair set of questions. It’s just one of those things, and shows what nerves can do to you.

The draw on the show meant that the recidivist was kept until last in the first round. This meant that Nigel Tomlinson preceded him. Nigel was answering on the Battle of Gettysburg, probably the most important and decisive battle of the American Civil War. I knew enough to pick up a couple of points from Little Round Top and Jeb Stuart, but Nigel did considerably better. In fact it looked a better round than the score suggested. Nigel took that little bit more time to answer than some other contenders, and as a result he topped out at 11.

This week’s lone recidivist, then, was my Facebook friend, Kevin Quinn. Kevin’s most high profile TV outing was probably in 2011’s Quiz Trippers. However a year before that Kevin also appeared in Jesse’s 2010 Mastermind series, where he won his heat and put in a decent performance in the semi where he was beaten by my mate Les Morrell. Tonight, then, Kevin was answering on The Life and Music of Dusty Springfield. Kevin managed double figures – which as we have already seen is a good score in SS in this series, but did miss a couple of gettables, such as the fact that many of Dusty Springfield’s hits being written by Bacharach and David. Still, he was only a point behind at the halfway stage and there was everything to play for.

Back to the chair for his GK round came John Boyle. It did look as if his first round experience was playing on his mind. He answered slowly, and by the end of the round he had managed to raise his score to 14. I’m glad that he at least was in the lead by a couple of points at this stage, even though he must have known in his heart of hearts that he wasn’t going to still be in the lead for much longer. Patricia Gardener was next, and she did a little better than John had. Again, though, it was deceptive. It seemed that Patricia was answering more quickly, and scoring at a faster rate than John had done, but in the end she just added 9 to her score, while John had managed to add 8. OK, so it’s not a massive total, but this has been such an unpredictable series you wouldn’t necessarily have bet that much against it being enough.

Kevin returned to the chair for his own GK round. Ideally he wanted to set a score into the teens, and really place Nigel who was still to come into the corridor of uncertainty. Well, that was the idea, but you can only do that when you find the majority of the questions suit you, and if that doesn’t happen, then you’re going to struggle to impose yourself. This wasn’t the best GK round we’ve seen Kevin deliver, but that’s the way it goes. He needed a minimum score of 9 correct answers and 3 passes to take the lead, which was exactly what he produced. This left Nigel needing a minimum of 8 correct answers and 3 passes. After the first minute of the round you wouldn’t have found many takers willing to bet against him doing it. Again, he wasn’t answering particularly quickly, but the majority of his answers were correct, and that was the key. In the end he managed our only double figure general knowledge round of the competition, and ended with some daylight between himself and runner up Kevin.

Well done Nigel – good luck in the semis.

The Details

Patricia Gardener	The Crown Jewels	10 - 2	9 - 3	19 - 5
John Boyle	Tamla Motown	6 - 2	8 - 4	14 -6
Nigel Tomlinson	The Battle of Gettysburg	11 - 0	11 - 1	22 - 1
Kevin Quinn	The Life and Music of Dusty Springfield	10 - 1	9 - 3	19 - 4

Answers to News Questions

News Questions

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

Eileen Clark

Dilma Rousseff

Alan Eustace

Fiona Woolf

Johann Lamont

ArKay

Jamsheed Javeed

Dean Farley

Darko Milanic

There’s Something I’ve Been Dying To Tell You

Rom skatepark, Hornchurch

Titina Nzolameso

Zhang Jike

Fran Halsall

Jim Murphy

Antares

Young Fathers

Dead

Kit Symons

Tim Cook

Matt Radnall

SpaceShip Two

Alan Billings

In Other News

Name the former member of Cream who passed away last week

Sothebys are being sued over alleged misattribution of a painting they sold by whom?

Andy Murray won his third title in five weeks in which tournament?

What was the score between Man Utd and Chelsea?

Who secured a record equaling 12^th Motogp win this season?

Tesco have put what up for sale to help reduce the profit overstatement

Which coach of Real Madrid reserve team, Castilla, has been banned for three months for not having appropriate coaching qualifications?

Who lost his appeal against having to pay costs for a high profile court case he lost?

Which team had their UEFA punishment slashed, much to the fury of Man City?

What was the score between Liverpool and Swansea in the Capital One cup?

Who wore a feminist T Shirt during PMs question time?

Endemol have signed a deal to produce a version of Big Brother in which country?

The Serious Fraud Office has launched an investigation into which financial scandal?

Minister Nicky Morgan announced that she has changed her mind and now supports what?

Which organization has been urged to join the fight against Ebola?

Name the new species of frog discovered in new York, in the shadow of the Statue of Liberty

What was the score between Man City and Newcastle in the Capital One Cup?

The male and female governing bodies of which sport announced that they are going to merge?

Where is the SP Fireworks factory where a large fire broke out this week?

Last week there were calls for information about what to be placed on bottles of alcohol?

What was Jeremy Clarkson’s controversial tweet last week?

Sweden recognized which state last week?

Which Welsh player terminated his contract with Racing Metro?

Who lost the first round of his high court appeal?

Answers

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

Woman who pleaded guilty to international kidnapping after taking her three children to England 19 years ago

Won presidential re election in Brazil

Broke world record for highest parachute jump

Appointed head of Child Abuse Inquiry, then resigned

Resigned as Leader of Scottish Labour Party

New American alcohol-free whisky

Chemistry teacher who admitted planning to travel to Syria for Jihad

Jogger who appeared to shove David Cameron out of the way

Sacked by Leeds

Autobiography of Lynda Bellingham, topping bestseller lists

Given grade II listed status

Westminster Council wants to move them to Milton Keynes, and she is fighting this in the High Court

Winner of men’s Table Tennis world cup, who lost all of his prize money after kicking holes in an advertising hoarding.

Won two golds at World Sup swimming in Tokyo

Shadow International Development Secretary who announced himself as candidate for leader of Scottish labour Party

14 storey high US supply rocket exploded on take off

Winners of the Mercury Music Prize

Album which they won it with

Appointed full time manager of Fulham

CEO of Apple who came out last week

Last british serviceman to leave camp Bastion

Virgin Galactic spacecraft that crashed in the Mojave desert, killing its pilots

Labour party candidate elected new Police and Crime Commissioner for South Yorkshire, beating UKIP.

In Other News

Jack Bruce

Caravaggio

Valencia Open

1 – 1

Marc Marquez

Zinedine Zidane

Chris Huhne

CSKA Moscow

2 – 1 Liverpool

Harriet Harman

China

Tesco overreporting of profts

Same sex Marriage

NATO

Leopard frog

2 – 0 Newcastle

Squash

Stafford

Calories

He tweeted that he was driving with a beer in the cup holder

Palestine

Dan Lydiate

Rolf Harris

LAM Podcast 17

In this week's podcast: -

Connections questions
Talking points on the joy of competition
Mastermind
Only Connect
University Challenge
The Court of Public Opinion
Do You Remember?
Answers to Sci Fi questions

In the News

News Questions

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

Eileen Clark

Dilma Rousseff

Alan Eustace

Fiona Woolf

Johann Lamont

ArKay

Jamsheed Javeed

Dean Farley

Darko Milanic

There’s Something I’ve Been Dying To Tell You

Rom skatepark, Hornchurch

Titina Nzolameso

Zhang Jike

Fran Halsall

Jim Murphy

Antares

Young Fathers

Dead

Kit Symons

Tim Cook

Matt Radnall

SpaceShip Two

Alan Billings

In Other News

Name the former member of Cream who passed away last week

Sothebys are being sued over alleged misattribution of a painting they sold by whom?

Andy Murray won his third title in five weeks in which tournament?

What was the score between Man Utd and Chelsea?

Who secured a record equaling 12^th Motogp win this season?

Tesco have put what up for sale to help reduce the profit overstatement

Which coach of Real Madrid reserve team, Castilla, has been banned for three months for not having appropriate coaching qualifications?

Who lost his appeal against having to pay costs for a high profile court case he lost?

Which team had their UEFA punishment slashed, much to the fury of Man City?

What was the score between Liverpool and Swansea in the Capital One cup?

Who wore a feminist T Shirt during PMs question time?

Endemol have signed a deal to produce a version of Big Brother in which country?

The Serious Fraud Office has launched an investigation into which financial scandal?

Minister Nicky Morgan announced that she has changed her mind and now supports what?

Which organization has been urged to join the fight against Ebola?

Name the new species of frog discovered in new York, in the shadow of the Statue of Liberty

What was the score between Man City and Newcastle in the Capital One Cup?

The male and female governing bodies of which sport announced that they are going to merge?

Where is the SP Fireworks factory where a large fire broke out this week?

Last week there were calls for information about what to be placed on bottles of alcohol?

What was Jeremy Clarkson’s controversial tweet last week?

Sweden recognized which state last week?

Which Welsh player terminated his contract with Racing Metro?

Who lost the first round of his high court appeal?