Brain of Britain 2015 - Match 2

I must start with an apology to Les Morrell and Andrew Fraser, for missing the first heat. It’s still on the iplayer I think, so I will try to catch up if I can. This review though is of the second show. Our contestants were : -

Ted Barr

Maya Davis,

Jonathan Frere,

Vicky Smith,

Now, maybe the name Maya Davis rings a bell with you. Maya featured in the grand final of Mastermind back in Gary’s 2012 series. Prior to that, though, I actually met Maya back in 2009, when her first round heat of Brain of Britain was recorded on the same evening as mine. Then she was unfortunate to find herself in the same heat as Ian Bayley, who went on to win the whole series, and Brain of Brains, for that matter.

Well, Ted kicked off the first round. I didn’t know that RRS as in RSS Discovery, stood for Royal Research Ship. Ted didn’t know. Jonathan Frere offered Royal Research Society, but it wasn’t quite close enough. Maya didn’t know her first question, which country owns Robinson Crusoe Island. Now, I have never actually heard of ‘Robinson Crusoe Island’ , but the man on whom Crusoe was based, Alexander Selkirk, was wrecked on the Juan Fernandez Islands, and they belong to Chile. That was the right answer, but nobody had it. Jonathan Frere didn’t know that Beatrice and Sidney Webb, among others, founded the LSE, for me the easiest starter so far. Ted had a bonus from that. This left Vicky Smith to complete the round. She answered  that the song John Brown’s Body refers to events which led to the start of the American Civil War, but nobody knew that the forest of Andred in Anglo Saxon times covered a large area of Southern England now known as the Weald. I did, simply because I studied a bit of Anglo Saxon history to provide background to the Anglo Saxon literature part of my degree.

Ted didn’t know that an exclamation mark is used to represent a number’s factorial. Vicky took a bonus on that and the lead. Maya, asked for the landmark overlooking Lake Ontario which opened in 1972, offered the CS Tower. Ah, on such small margins can matches be decided. Ted gave the correct answer of the CN Tower. I’m sorry for Maya, but at least it was nice to see that this answer wasn’t accepted on the rather arbitrary ‘close enough’ ruling which has been so infuriating in recent series. Jonathan Frere knew that Justin Welby was previously the bishop of Durham. He also knew that Argon was the first noble gas to be discovered to become the first contestant to answer two in a row. He didn’t know the original name of the pirate Barbarossa, though, and that gave Maya a bonus. For the second round running Vicky was given a rather gentle starter, asking which author created several of the characters from the Barchester chronicles, but missed out on a question about the Pentagon which gave Ted a third point, and meant that he and Vicky shared the lead.

Ted was given a burst of the World in Union, and asked about the name of the Essex village used in the title for when Holst’s original melody is used as a hymn. Phew. The answer is Thaxted anyway, but nobody had it. Maya’s next starter wasn’t easy, but it was gettable. When asked for the name given to the doctrine followed by the followers of Thomas Aquinas, she couldn’t quite dredge up Thomism. Neither could anyone else. Jonathan was given two more gentle questions, and then probably could have done better with the academic who delivered the lecture “Conditioned Reflexes”. Maya was the first in to supply the correct answer of Pavlov. This is probably just me, but again it seemed that for the third round in a row Vicky was given a gentle starter, asking about the crew of Apollo XIII. She knew that Marconi’s first transatlantic signal was the letter S, which wasn’t so easy. One of them might have known the Biblical phrase, from Dan to Beersheba, but none of them did. Nonetheless the two points were enough to give Vicky a lead of a point with 5.

Ted didn’t know that Worm’s Head is on the Gower peninsula. That’s not a huge distance from where I live. Maya took that bonus. Now, in his explanation, I think that Russell may have made a bit of a booboo. He said – “The Gower, that takes its name from an Old English word for Dragon.” Cobblers. Gower comes from the welsh Gŵyr. Worm, though comes from the Old English wyrm, which could mean dragon. I think he didn’t quite read his card carefully enough there. Maya had her music starter with Mary Hopkins singing – Those were the days. Now she was asked the old chestnut – that Paul McCartney had based the song on a folk song written in which language. If you’re a regular quizzer, chances are you’ve heard the question before, and you know it’s Russian. Maya didn’t, which gave Ted the bonus. Jonathan’s starter was tricky – asking who the second member of the Jewish faith to lead a British political party was – but it was gettable, being Michael Howard. Nobody had it. I’d argue that Vicky’s 4^th starter was meat and drink to regular quizzer, asking her which Austrian formula 1 driver died in qualifying in the same grand prix as Ayrton Senna. She missed out for the first time on a starter, and nobody else had the bonus.

This was turning out to be an odd kind of show. I wouldn’t say that hardly any of the questions were gimmes, and the easier questions were only really easier if you really are a regular quizzer. This accounted for the fact that no contestant had put together more than 2 consecutive correct answers. I expect that all 4 contestants were glad for the Beat the Brains interval. The two questions were : - a) Which English placename contains a punctuation mark other than an apostrophe or a hyphen. They made a lot shorter work of this than most of the questions they’d already been asked, and well they should for it was the old chestnut Westward Ho!.

b) Which English place name contains Roman numerals when written correctly? That was a lot harder, and I didn’t know. I’ve never heard of Ruyton XI Towns, but Maya had it, although she allowed herself to be persuaded that it was actually IX towns.

Back to the tortuous business of the quiz. Ted Barr was given no more gentle a starter than he’d had all contest, asked which French seaside town PG Wodehouse had written of in especially critical terms. Vicky came in with the correct answer of Cannes. Good shout. Maya’s starter – asking the order of insects to which crickets and locusts belong wasn’t at all easy, being orthopteran. Nobody had that. Jonathan’s music starter played us a wee snatch of the Alan Parsons Project – good stuff too. Jonathan didn’t know it, and Ted took the bonus. Vicky was asked about a Paul Robeson song about Joe Hill as her starter. Nobody had it, and neither did I. Vicky still led by a point with 6.

Back to Ted, and yet again, no nice cushy starter. I haven’t heard of the biography “Bitter Fame” and although told it was about an American poet, none of us guessed Sylvia Plath. Maya, at last, got a gimme as a starter, asked for the better known sister of Stheno and Euryale, that being Medusa. Asked which Australian state had the famous rabbit fence, and the emu fence, everybody else had a go first before Jonathan gave the correct answer of Western Australia. For his own first question he was asked the name of the Royal Navy’s helicopter display team. Nobody knew the Black Cats. Neither did I. Vicky Smith’s music starter asked which royal occasion her piece of music had been composed for. I recognized it as belonging to the wedding of Prince William and Katherine Middleton. Jonathan’s bonus on this brought him level with Vicky on 6.

The start of the last round, then saw the contestants’ scores ranging from 4 to 6. As Russell said, anyone could win, but the omens going on the previous rounds weren’t that good that anyone would score more than a couple. Ted at last got an easy starter. He didn’t know that George Villiers was the Duke of Buckingham. That looked like his chances over. Maya took the bonus on that, and was one point behind with her starter to come. She knew ourobouros. She knew the mentalis wrinkles the chin. She didn’t know that William Jones came up with the Pi symnbol. I didn’t know that, but Vicky Smith came up with the bonus. That took her to 7. Jonathan knew that the green drake is a species of mayfly. That wasn’t easy. The McCarthy Perpetual challenge cup did for him. It’s hurling and nobody had it. Vicky then could wrap it all up. Needless to say her starter wasn’t easy, asking for the astronomical term aberration. Ironic that. Nobody had it. Which mean that Ted finished with 5 but all three of the others finished with 7.

Sudden death tie break time. Asked which gland secretes ADH, Jonathan was first in with pituitary – always a decent shout. It was right, and gave him the win.

If you’re a regular reader of my BoB reviews you won’t be surprised I have some observations to make. One good thing about this show was that in my opinion the adjudications were fair. I’m sorry, but allowing near misses, as had happened in recent series on some occasions, opens a whole can of worms, and at least on that score all contestants were playing on a level playing field.

In other series there have been shows when I’ ve been struck by the unevenness of the questions asked to different contenders. I think that if you look at this show as a whole, this tended to balance itself out.

However . . . taken as a whole the level of difficulty of these questions seemed higher than I can remember in any edition of BoB in recent years. Now – if this is a conscious decision, and other shows have the same level of difficulty throughout, then fair enough. This is meant to be a premier general knowledge competition. All of the contenders on this show showed some good knowledge, but all of them missed things which you’d expect someone good enough to challenge for the title to get. However, if this is just a rogue show, then it’s a bad thing, since I would say all of the contestants on this show were put in a position where it was going to be extremely difficult for them to post a score which might give them a sniff of a semi final repechage slot. Well, that’s an issue we’ll continue to look at as the series develops.

The Details

Ted Barr – 5

Maya Davis – 7

Jonathan Frere – 7 (8 AET)

Vicky Smith - 7

Only Connect : Match 16

Nørdiphiles v. Bibliophiles

OK, then, let’s have a sneaky wee look at the form guide. The Nords, Will Day, James Keeling and captain Joanna Murray, secured a victory by 2 points over the Night Watchmen in the first round. They overturned a 5 point deficit in the last round, and so you fancied that if they were within striking distance after the walls then they would surely be in with a shout. Richard Clay, Vince Milner, and Mike Hart, the Bibliophiles, comfortably defeated the QI Elves in their own first round match. To put all of that into perspective, the Elves went on to defeat the Nightwatchmen in the elimination match. On paper, then, the Bibs looked favourites. These matches aren’t played on paper, though.

Round One – What’s the Connection?

Bibs skipper Mike pleased me by opting for horned viper, but earned a music set for his pains. Like the Bibs I struggled with the first but recognised Zambezi as the second. So rivers definitely. The Bibs had nothing at this stage but Orinoco Flow could only really mean two things – Rivers or Wombles. The Blue Danube confirmed it was rivers. 1 point taken. Eye of Horus gave the Nords Health (2008 – 2011) – Answers (2002 – 2006) – Reader (2005 – 2013). It was only at this stage that I started to have an inkling that we might be dealing with Google services. I’ll be honest, Wave (2009 – 10) didn’t really help, but I went with it since it was all I had. Neither team had it, but apparently I was right, these were all discontinued Google services. Fair enough. Lion gave the Bibs a set of pictures. The first looked like a bone. The second was Charles Atlas. Now, I knew that there is a bone called the Atlas as well, so this was the point at which I gave the answer. The third picture showed us a mountain – which fitted perfectly well but the Bibs wanted the last clue, which showed a statue of Atlas erroneously holding up the Earth. In Greek Mythology he held up the heavens. One point taken again. The Nords took twisted flax, and were shown My Ding A Ling (Corrupting Children). I think I would have had a five pointer here. On the surface it looks like banned things – but I rather fancied that the name Mary Whitehouse wouldn’t be far away from this answer. This for me was confirmed by “Till Death Us Do Part – (dirty)”. This was the sitcom for which Mary Whitehouse boasted she would have Lord Hill over the coals, if I remember correctly. Panorama on Belsen (filth) I didn’t know, but there was no reason why it couldn’t be. I wondered whether the last one would be Doctor Who, since it is believed that the start of the decline of the original series can be traced to Mary Whitehouse’s complaints about the level of horror in “The Deadly Assassin” – over which she was, being polite, completely misguided. Actually it was The Romasn in Britain (gross indecency). Which reminds me – is gross indecency 144 times worse than indecency? Answers on a postcard please. The Bibs took the bonus, and looked quite well in control at this point. Two reeds gave them Sapporo Dome – John Smith’s Stadium – Liberty Stadium – and KC Stadium. I would have had a point since I know the Liberty quite well, believe it or not I once piloted a light aircraft over it while they were still building it – and all I could think of is that it’s the home to both Swansea City and The Ospreys – football and Rugby union. That turned out to be the answer – stadia which are homes to teams in at least two different sports. Left with Water the Nords were given Pineapple (unlock Mr. Sparkle blade). Now, I’ll be honest, all Mr. Sparkle means to me is an episode of the Simpsons, and this set had nothing to do with that. Pears (Worcestershire CCC) though did suggest we were dealing with fruits in threes. Oranges (1919 Prokofiev Opera) confirmed it – the Love of 3 Oranges being the opera. Now apples (the height of a smurf) did give it to James Keeling. This was enough to narrow the gap so that the Bibs led by 3 – 1. Both teams could rue a couple of missed opportunities.

Round Two – What’s the Connection?

The Bibs this time started with twisted flax. African Antelope seemed to offer too many possibilities. Slow underhand cricket ball didn’t help me either. However disorderly crowd suggested mob. If the cricket ball was a lob, then presumably the antelope would have been a kob – never heard of one myself, but that means nothing. Which gives the answer as nob – as in one for his in cribbage. The Bibs didn’t see it, and so the Nords gratefully accepted the bonus. Two Reeds gave the Nords 594 x 841. I’ll be honest , this was one of those where its staring you in the face, but sometimes you just don’t see it, and I didn’t. Next we had 420x594. The third was 297 x 420. That was enough for the Nords. It looked like Will who worked out we were dealing with paper sizes, and they took 210 x 297 for the point. Thus in the space of the first two sets they had wiped out the Bibs’ lead, and we had a game on our hands. The Bibs decided that it was time to bring out the big guns, and went for the viper again. We began with Nottingham = 5 – huh? – Leicester = 6 – Bristol = 7. I had a feeling that this might well be something to do with telephone dialling codes, but it didn’t help because I didn’t have a Scooby which city or town would be – 8. Apparently it was Reading. Not the most satisfying of sets that, if I’m totally honest, and neither team had it. Eye of Horus for the Nords opened with Noah’s Ark. Too many possibilities there for me. Jack and Jill Bathroom, though was interesting. The thing about a Jack and Jill Bathroom is that it has 2 doors. Noah’s Ark had one. So the answer would be something like a 4 door salon car, or something of that ilk. Monty Hall problem was the third clue, and that seemed to give it to the Nords. If you’re not aware of this, basically the Monty Hall problem is a probability puzzle which involves three doors, one of which has the star prize. You pick a door. The host (Monty Hall is a famous US TV game show host) then opens one of the other two to reveal the prize is not there. Then the host offers you the chance to switch your original choice. According to the theory behind it, you should take the switch, because it is right 2/3 of the time. Don’t ask me how or why. It gave the Nords the point anyway. The Bibs picked Lion and received a picture set. I didn’t recognise the first, but might have been tempted to take a flier after the second. It showed Mia Farrow. Now, bearing in mind that the BBC is making a big fuss over the centenary of the birth of Frank Sinatra, and Mia Farrow was his third and penultimate wife, I threw Nancy Barbato into the mix. It was confirmed when Ava Gardner came next. The Bibs really weren’t on top of this one, and neither were the Nords. However the Nords still had a set left to play for with Water, and received Face. Seemed like a case of too many possibilities for my liking. Arms came next , and again I really couldn’t see it. Speech came third, though, and this gave it to both me and the Bibs after the Nords failed to give an answer – being part of the acronym FAST – to do with suspected stroke victims. T would then be Time. Nonetheless, the Nords had made significant progress during the round, and now led 6 – 4.

Round Three – The Connecting Walls

The Nords chose Lion and could see that there was a set of dog food brands in there. These they isolated as Cesar – Winalot – Pal and Bakers. Salmon types and winds they could also see, but these were quite stubbornly refusing to resolve for quite some time. They didn’t at this point see a set of Noel Coward plays. However it was the Coward plays they took out first – Blithe Spirit – Sirocco – The Vortex – and Hay Fever. With very little time and only three attempts left they just couldn’t untangle the two line. Chinook – Chum – Sockeye and Pink were the salmon, leaving Mistral – Squamish – Cape Doctor and Loo as the winds. Not heard of Loo before, I will admit. 6 points.

Water remained for the Bibs. They could see a set of ducks straightaway, and worried away well at the five possibilities to isolate teal – merganser – wigeon and eider. A set of famous locomotives followed in fairly short order – Mallard – Flying Scotsman – Rocket and Puffing Billy. I could see a set of parts of titles of Poirot books, which would leave the surnames of members of One Direction. When they did untangle the lines they knew the Poirot connection with Styles – Orient Express – Mesopotamia and the Nile, but Tomlinson – Malik – Payne and Horan meant nothing to them, which rather amused Victoria. 7 points, which put them one behind at 12 – 11.

Round Four – Missing Vowels

Going back to what I said at the top of the show, the Nords overturned a significant lead to win their first match. The Nords were leading going into this round – therefore they were favourites. The first category – third novels in trilogies – fell 2 apiece. Apple products was the next set. I’ll be honest, I was thinking more of cider than ipad, if you know what I mean. Both teams lost a point on this set, but the Nords offset it by taking two answers. Things a self service checkout might say added one point to the Nords before the round ended. This meant that it was a win for the Nords by 16 – 12. Safely through to the quarters, and well played. Hard lines to the Bibliophiles, but they still have another chance. 

University Challenge - Round 2 match 7

Selwyn, Cambridge v. St. Peter’s, Oxford

The Selwyn team of Afham Raoof, Hannah Warwicker, Charles Cooper and their skipper, Joshua Pugh Ginn managed to do something which many teams have tried, but very few teams have managed, namely defeating the University of Manchester in their first round match. Well, Manchester made it through the repechage, but were then taken out by a very useful Gonville and Caius outfit. Selwyn’s opponents, St. Peter’s, Oxford, took on Sussex in their previous match, and the team of John Armitage, Ed Roberts, Spike Smith and their skipper, Gabriel Trueblood won , due in no small part to a stellar buzzer display by their captain. This certainly looked like a good match on paper.

There was a long preamble to the first question about a website, but as soon as JP said “world’s leading film website” Gabriel Trueblood started where he had left off in the first round by winning the buzzer race to say “IMDB” They went on to take two of three bonuses on Charlotte Bronte, not knowing that she dedicated the second edition of “Jane Eyre” to W.M.Thackeray. There’s a whole story behind that, which you’ll be delighted that I’m not going to tell you here. Gabriel Trueblood knew that a drug whose action is the opposite of another drug is called an antagonist. I was pleased to know retroviruses to take a point on the next bonus set, but St. Peter’s also knew lentiviruses for another 5 points. Gabriel Trueblood finished his hat trick of starters in short order with the next question, knowing the cabinet ministers who resigned at the outbreak of World War I. A UC special set followed in which clues were given to two people, and the surname of the first would also be the first name of the second, for example – CS Lewis and Lewis Carroll. Got that? I had DBC Pierre, and Pierre Corneille, Glenda Jackson Pollock (you know what I mean) and John Milton Friedman.Rather surprisingly St. Peter’s didn’t have any of them, which meant that despite their domination of the buzzer, their lead remained at 50. Now, I’ve never heard of student’s T Distribution, but Afham Raoof had, and this timely buzz launched Selwayn’s bid. Their set of bonuses was on Physics and Chemistry – basically they had to take symbolic formulae in Physics, and say which chemical elements the same letters would stand for. It was another real UC special set, and two bonuses enabled them to reduce their deficit to 30. The picture starter showed an outline of England with the location of a motor racing circuit marked on the map. Now, even if you hadn’t seen the map, Silverstone is always going to be a decent shout for this, and it was Afham Raoof who gave the answer. The link between starter and bonuses was that Silverstone first held the European GP. So we were shown a European map, with three locations which have held Grand Prix billed as something other than the GP of the country in which they are located. Imola and the San Marino GP wasn’t hard, the Nurburgring was guessable, but Dijon really required you to know your Formula 1, and neither I nor Selwyn did. Selwyn took 1 bonus. Ed Roberts was the only one who fancied a buzz at the King who was on the throne in 1266, and gave the correct answer of Henry III.Bonuses on Streets followed. Quality Street and Lombard Street escaped them, but Main Street brought another 5 points. On the next question I thought Joshua Pugh Ginn was unlucky to be pinged for an early buzz when it seemed the question might be finished, but wasn’t. Given a quotation from a Canadian Nobel Prize winning author, even when told that the writer’s most famous novel was Humboldt’s Gift, St. Peter’s didn’t know it was Saul Bellow. We were slightly over the 10 minute barrier, and St. Peter’s led by 65 to 30.

Spike Smith produced a very good early buzz to identify Harbin as the capital of the most northerly province of China. A UC special set on pairs of words that differ only in the presence of a final letter D promised a lot and indeed delivered a full set. A question on the periodic table followed. Basically you had to work out that Kilo comes 11^th in the phonetic alphabet, and therefore Sodium comes 11^th on the table. I hadn’t worked it out by the time JP gave both teams the answer. Gabriel Trueblood took his 4^th starter, knowing that Ha Joon Chang is a name to be reckoned with in the field of Economics. Birds whose scientific name is comprised of the same word twice – eg Cygnus Cygnus, I had a full house, while St. Peter’s took two, missing out on a bit of an old chestnut in troglodytes troglodytes – the wren. Afham Raoof gave an answer to a question which I didn’t understand, and lost five points, then John Armitage had a pop, but no cigar. Apparently it was coherence. Ironic. Afham Raoof waited a little longer on the next question, but as soon as he heard “its capital is Libreville” he buzzed in with the answer of Gabon. This brought them first lines of films from the 60s. Here Joshua Pugh Ginn showed he can answer the next question before it’s asked. When given the line “They all me Mr. Tibbs” he answered Psycho. The very next line actually was from Psycho! The team managed one bonus. For the music starter Hannah Warwicker was in impressively early to correctly identify the Hebrides Overture by Mendelssohn. 3 more pieces of music inspired by a country of which the composer was not a citizen followed as bonuses. All were Russian and for each he wanted composer and inspirational country. Not easy and they did well to take one. The next starter was a good old chestnut on “Brave New World”. Asked what the letters ‘AF’ on dates meant Gabriel Trueblood knew that we were dealing with After Ford. Food crops that originated in the New World were gettable, but they only managed one of them. Now, when you hear the name “Georges Lemaitre” you slam the buzzer as quick as you can and answer “Big Bang “ That’s what Afham Raoof did. A couple of bonuses took their score to 75, 50 points behind St. Peter’s.

Well, it certainly wasn’t impossible that Selwyn could bridge that gap, but your money was probably on St. Peter’s at this point. The next starter was one which it paid to wait. Eventually it asked for the structure indicated by the word Pont in Maltese and Welsh. Joshua Pugh Ginn took that one, knowing it was bridge. Politics and dystopian fiction reduced the gap to 35. I was pleased to recognise the second picture starter as a painting by Whistler. Neither team managed to answer correctly so the picture bonuses rolled over. Spike Smith knew that Robert Herrick advised us to gather rosebuds while we may. This brought up the picture bonuses, and St. Peter’s took a full set. A good early buzz from Gabriel Trueblood identified hormones produced by the pituitary gland. John Armitage came into his onw with this set, providing them with 3 correct answers. Suddenly over the space of just a couple of minutes the gap had widened to 85, and it was going to need a comeback of Lazarus like proportions for Selwyn to pull it back now. Ed Roberts knew that John Stuart Mill (of his own free will, on half a pint of shandy was particularly ill – sorry) wrote The Subjection of Women. Bonuses on bees in literature took the gap to 105. A lovely starter asked which two US presidents since 1945 as well as George H W Bush are the incumbents who have lost elections. Gabriel Trueblood knew that carter was one, and his predecessor Ford was another. Another full set on Tudor warships followed, and St. Peter’s were well and truly over the event horizon. Nobody got something about quadratic equations for the next starter. Spike Smith guessed that Bavaria and Saxony were the two German states that share borders with the Czech Republic, and he was right. This time two bonuses were taken. Afham Raoof took his team into triple points, knowing that the party New Deal is envisaged as a left-wing version of UKIP. That was it. There was no time for bonuses, and St. Peter’s had won by 235 to 100. Well played both – good luck in the quarters.

Jeremy Paxman Watch

Very little for the discerning Paxman watcher in this. Poor Joshua Pugh Ginn just couldn’t think of the name of the actor who played Norman Bates, and finally offered a despairing Alex Nixon.

“Alex Nixon, really?” chuckled our hero, but it was clear that he was laughing with the team rather than at them.

To be fair to the man he did attempt words of consolation to Selwyn,

“I thought you were pretty good, “ but then blotted his copy books by damning them with faint praise, “. . . at times.” then rubbing it in with, “You never quite hit your stride did you?” How are you supposed to respond to that one?

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

A drug whose action is the opposite of another drug is called an antagonist

CIU quiz - looks like everything changes.

I had a phonecall from George last night, who’d had a phonecall from Trevor. You don’t need to know that, but I suppose it adds a little verisimilitude to what I’m trying to say. Apparently the people who have taken over the running of the annual CIU quiz want to make some changes this year.

Now, this all supposes that I have understood it right from what George said to me, and that George has understood it right from what Trevor said to him. So please don’t take this as gospel, this is just what I think I’ve been told, and as such should be handled with caution. But what George said was : -

* The organisers want to move the CIU quiz competition much earlier in the year. They are looking at holding the Finals in April – which makes it stand to reason that the regionals would have to be even earlier in the year.

* The organisers don’t intend to stage it in Derby again. They are looking at moving it to Blackpool.

Now as I said, this has come to me third – or possibly fourth – hand, so I don’t say that this is set in tablets of stone. However, it does lead me to make a couple of observations:-

I’m not saying that the Wales and West of England Regional heat will still be held on a Monday. I don’t know if it will and I don’t know if it won’t. However it has been on a Monday night for all the time that I’ve been playing in the competition, so it’s not unreasonable to assume that there’s at least a good chance that it will be. OK, now, my quiz calendar would tell you that Monday nights from September to April belong to the Bridgend Quiz League. Searching my soul I ask whether I’d be prepared to potentially miss a league or cup match in order to play the regional heat, and the answer is, sorry, but no, when you get right down to it, I wouldn’t.

Secondly, I have nothing against Blackpool. It’s a great place, and I have thoroughly enjoyed every time I’ve visited. However, it seems to me that a drive to Blackpool from Port Talbot would be a considerably longer proposition than a drive to Derby from Port Talbot. Derby has the huge advantage that it’s pretty central, and while there are probably teams who have to make a longer journey to Derby than we do, I shouldn’t imagine that any of them have to travel a huge amount further. Blackpool, though, is that much further away from us again. With the best will in the world, even going to Derby it can happen that things go wrong, you get held up, or you take a wrong turning, and you suddenly find yourself late – as we proved a couple of years ago. The longer the journey, the more likely that this becomes.

Well, as I say, this is just what I’ve been told, and it doesn’t mean that this is what actually will happen. If it does, though, well it’s sad, but I just can’t see myself taking part in the CIU quiz this year. Which is a real shame, since one of my last, great unfulfilled quiz ambitions is one year to be a part of a winning team in the CIU. Unlikely, I know, but it’s even more unlikely if I don’t play in the first place.  

Ach, in the words of Ursula the Sea Witch, life’s full of tough decisions, ain’t it.

Back into Quizzing

I don’t know if you’ve ever had an enforced lay off from quizzing for a couple of weeks, when you’d normally go to two or three quizzes every week, but I find it a very disorientating experience. In the normal run of things, the only thing which would make me miss quizzing for this length of time would be a visit to Spain, and even then I’d get in a crafty quiz if I could find one. I won’t go on about my illness over Christmas – I’m starting to even bore myself about it now – but I worked out the other day that due to said illness I went from the 18^th December right through to the 4^th January without attending a single quiz. That’s worse than famine rations, that’s starvation rations.

It’s just as well I went out on Sunday, though. I wasn’t feeling completely recovered, but knowing that I was definitely going back to work on the Monday I thought that I needed to give myself a little reward, and so attended the quiz in the Fox and Hounds in Blackmill. This is a little gem of a quiz. It’s home made, there’s a small and regular number of teams who attend, who are all very friendly, there’s no prize for the main quiz, and the questions are all pretty wide ranging. My best mate John was still in Hong Kong, so Jessie said she’d come, and so off we went. Now, I say that there’s no prize for the main quiz, and that’s not strictly true. The winning team wins 4 free drinks, but we never take them and always pass them on to the 2^nd placed team. There is also a prize for the jackpot question, though. The jackpot is always a number question.

Last Sunday we were asked what was the total area of Bridgend County in square miles. Now, how should I put this – John is the king of the jackpot question . . . and I’m not. I don’t even live in Bridgend, so I didn’t really have a clue. I thought that if it was about 10 miles long by 10 miles wide, then it would be 100, minus a couple of miles for luck, so I plumped for 98. When the answers were taken in the question master announced –“Well, one of you has obviously heard it before. The answer is 98.4 square miles.” Cue much explanation on my part, but nobody really believed that it was a guess. Oh well.

We won the quiz, which was a nice start to the week, but this was followed by our first Bridgend Quiz League match of 2015, against TyRisha. Every year we seem to have one of those nights after Christmas, and last Monday kind of was too. Everything in the garden was rosy until we came to the individual round. I’m not exactly sure how I did it, but I managed to ensure that although at least one member of the team knew the answer to 3 of our 4 questions, the wrong person was matched to the wrong question, and our lead was practically wiped out. In the end we scraped a draw, and I feel a little sorry for the boys from TyRisha, since, if I’m honest, they probably had the better of the match overall, and we couldn’t have complained if they’d have won. We’ve been drawn against them in the cup quarter final, and they may well fancy their chances in that. Don’t blame them if they do.

On to last night, and the end of year quiz. Ah, when I look back to years gone by – going back maybe 4 or 5 years ago, and way back into the mists of time before that, if my team didn’t win the end of year quiz in the rugby club, then I would feel like sulking for the whole rest of the year. How times change. Maybe three or four years ago we had a couple of teams make a mockery of it by using their phones, and since we stopped that, the relative strengths of the teams have changed. On a good night we’re second best, and there’s no point me crying about it. So while I never thought I’d say this, the fact is that I wasn’t unhappy that we were able to cling on for second place last night. Time was when I would try to spend a few nights preparing just for this quiz, but, I don’t know, life sometimes just seems to get in the way of your quizzing. Enjoyed it though, even though the name ‘Uber’ just wouldn’t come. 

Mastermind - Round One - Heat 20

We’re winding towards the end of the first round heats now, good people, and there are only a few spaces left in the semis up for grabs.

First to make her bid for one of them in tonight’s show was Sarah Mead. Sarah is new to Mastermind, although her specialist subject certainly isn’t. The novels of Dick Francis remain popular with his large readership, and they remain a popular Mastermind subject as well, having featured back in Magnus’ day as well. In this day and age anything in double figures represents a good round, and Sarah managed that. There were just a couple of answers that refused to go any further than the tip of her tongue, but she still managed 11, to make a good start to her first ever appearance on the show.

Also making his debut tonight was Frank Wood. He was offering us what seemed to be a subject that was a little bit out of left field, and one which would not have been out of place at any time during the show’s history, namely British Railways disasters 1830 – 1939. I expect that many of us w knew that William Huskisson MP was the first person to die in a railway accident after being hit by Stephenson’s Rocket, but I somehow doubt that many of us knew many of the other answers. Frank, like Sarah, missed on just a couple, but his 11 looked pretty good to me.

Our third contender tonight, Iwan Thomas, has already collected the first half of the coveted BoB/MM double. Back in 2011 Iwan won Brain of Britain, defeating a star studded line up including Mark Kerr, John Beynon and our own Andy Tucker. In the same year he also made it to the semi finals of Mastermind. He set a half of fame score of 37 in his first round, but didn’t make it through the semis. So you can’t blame me for making Iwan favourite to go through as the winner of this heat. He certainly made short work of his round on the Life and Music of Gram Parsons, scoring an unbeaten 14 from 14. Incidentally this was last a specialist subject in Nancy’s 2009 series.

Last to go was Gareth Williams, answering on Welsh rugby 1960 – 1980. Well, if you’re going to answer on Welsh international rugby, that’s certainly the era you’d want to talk about. I scored more on this round than on any of the other specialist rounds – I’m a little shaky on the 60s, but pretty good on the 70s. Not as good as Gareth, though. His 12 was a very good round, although possibly I thought a couple short of giving him a real run at a repechage semi slot.

I’ve often said that a two and a half minute GK round is a test of stamina as well as being a test of knowledge. Sarah Mead’s GK round was a good example of this.  She actually started really pretty well, giving a little bit of thought where it was needed, but making sure to pick off the answers she knew. However something happened to her concentration about halfway through the round, and it became a grim old struggle to add to her score. When you lose momentum in a round like this it can be absolutely fatal, and you can only sympathise. Sarah finished with 18.

Frank managed to maintain momentum through his own GK round, but it was quite a slow momentum. You never thought that he was going to grind quite to a halt, but on the same hand you couldn’t see him putting on a score which would cause huge trouble for either of the contenders yet to follow. The first of these, Gareth, began his roun with 12 and no passes. Now, putting this into perspective, that meant that a score of 13 and no more than 2 passes would put him into a repechage slot for the time being at least. Not an easy task, but a doable one. I liked the way he went about his round as well. Maybe it wasn’t the most impressive that we’ve seen all season, but he maintained his composure, and did what we always say you must do – answer what you know, guess what you don’t, and pass quickly when you can’t guess. I had little doubt that his score of 24 wouldn’t keep Iwan at bay, but in the context of this series it was a pretty good show, and would have even won some of the other heats.

Just Iwan remained, then. Back in 2011 we saw Iwan absolutely rip his GK round to pieces. Well, the GK rounds are still 2 and a half minutes long, but they seem designed to prevent anyone getting close to the 20s now, what with longer questions and that. This wasn’t the best round that Iwan ever has or ever will produce, but when you have someone of that level of ability, even a so so round is usually a lot better than most other people’s, and Iwan’s 13 saw him comfortably home with quite a bit of daylight, and fuel left in the tank. Well played sir, and the very best of luck in the semis.

The Details

Sarah Mead	The Novels of Dick Francis 1962 - 1980	11 - 3	7 - 4	18 - 7
Frank Wood	British Railway Disasters 1830 - 1939	11 –0	11 - 5	22 - 5
Iwan Thomas	The Life and Music of Gram Parsons	14 – 0	13 - 4	27 - 4
Gareth Williams	Welsh International Rugby 1960 – 1980	12 - 0	12 - 4	24 - 4

Highest scoring Runners Up

Gareth Kingston – 28 – 0 (qualified)

Diane Hallagan – 28 – 3(qualified)

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Marianne Fairthorne – 27 – 2

Alice Meynell – 26 – 0

John Beynon – 25 – 1

Julia Hobbs / Jeremy Renals/ Susan Sworn – 25 - 3

News Show - Fanatics - Sky 1

If you've read many of my reviews of new quiz shows over the last few years you might find difficulty in believing this, but the fact is that I do try very hard to give every show a fair hearing, er, viewing. I don’t actually enjoy saying the same things, pointing out the same flaws, bemoaning the same missed opportunities. So I’m afraid that I’m not going to enjoy writing this review of “Fanatics” very much.

“Fanatics” is a Sky 1 show that began on 7^th January. The stated aim of the show is to pit three ‘superfans’ of various things against each other to supposedly find out whose knowledge of their chosen subject is greater. The winner wins a prize they have chosen connected to their area of interest, and the runners up don’t.

Now, last night’s show, on paper, should have been very much of interest to me. The three contestants were a lady who is very much involved with DWAS (The Doctor Who Appreciation Society), a former professional boxer with actually a pretty good professional record, and the current holder of the world record for visiting all stations on the London Underground network in the shortest time. Now, as I said, a programme testing knowledge of Doctor Who, Boxing and the London Underground ought to be a winner as far as I’m concerned, being as I’m very partial to all 3. Yet it wasn’t. Where did it all go wrong?

Well, this is Sky 1. You really shouldn’t expect anything particularly intellectually stimulating at 8pm on Sky 1 – well, at any time really. As a quiz it was very unsatisfying. Let me explain how it worked last night. In the first round, the Doctor Who fan was shown a composite picture made up of 4 pieces of faces of actors who played either a Doctor or a companion. These really didn’t seem that difficult. The boxing fanatic was shown a composite picture made up of 4 faces of well-known boxers – 3 easy, and one a lot more difficult. As for the Underground man, well, he was shown a composite photo of the exteriors of 4 different London underground stations. Now, even someone as useless at identifying faces as I am knows that recognizing faces from small parts of them is a hell of a lot easier than recognizing parts of buildings. For example, the stations designed by Leslie Green, with their ox-blood tiles, superficially look very similar, and when you only get a small part of it I should imagine its extremely difficult to tell them apart. For me, this put the Underground guy 3 points behind, and the nature of the show meant he had little chance of pulling back the deficit.

The second round was a sound round. The Doctor Who fanatic was told she was going to be played the sound of an alien dying. All she had to do was name the species, and the planet they came from. Now, the insistence on the planet meant that even before it was played, Jess and I turned to each other and said simultaneously , “Slitheen -  Raxacoricofallapatorius” – it just seemed so obvious. It was too. The third round – well, in the third round they were blindfolded, and given an object to identify, and a subsidiary question. Shades of “They Think It’s All Over” and the ever popular feel the sportsman round. Cue yet another break. Then the jigsaw round. Each contestant was shown a board of blank jigsaw pieces, and asked to pick one to reveal. If they could identify what was beneath, they could have 3 points, if they needed 2 pieces, then they could get 2 points, and if they needed 3 pieces, then they could get one point. In this case it was the boxer who was asked for the ‘bleedin’ obvious’. He was asked to identify a popular boxing venue. Even before he revealed one piece I predicted it would be Madison Square Garden – and of course it was.

Finally, in the last round, we at last came to something worth watching. A 60 second round of quickfire questions against the clock. This part I enjoyed – but we’d had to wade through so much nonsense and filler to get there in the first place.

So, let’s start to summarise. There is very little actual ‘quiz’ in this quiz. The rounds, such as they are, are incredibly bitty and short, and frankly a lot more thought needed to be given to the questions/tasks to ensure that the contenders were all on a level playing field. To make up for the lack of quiz here, there is a huge amount of filler. Host Baz Ashwamy is not someone whose work I was previously aware of, and I have to say that I found his inane grin and false bonhomie rather irritating at best. He wasted minutes asking them about how they developed their specific interests in the first place. Then a little later we were shown a filmed insert of each of them, where they told us exactly the same thing! At the end of the day, I love (good) quizzes, I love Doctor Who, I love boxing and I love the London Underground. Yet I found this show to be extremely tedious. So how on earth must people who have no interest in any of the above have reacted to it?

Not for me.