In The News

In the news

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

Reprieve

Amedy Coulibady

Wilfred Bony

Scott Mitchell

Centcom

Brian Clemens

Alex Rukin

Jo Swinson

7:29 Brighton to Victoria

Jeremy Jackson

Sir Jack Hayward

Judge Joanna Greenberg

Beagle 2

Adrian

MTN Qhubeka of South Africa

Trevor Ward Davies

Bhavik Patel

Ethel Lang

Eddie Tipton

Raif Badawi

In Other News

Transport officials have suggested a new road sign warning about which creatures?

Which Swedish film star died aged 83?

Which british TV and film actor passed away aged 87?

Where was a statue of Margaret Thatcher unveiled?

What was the score between Soton and Man Utd?

Roger Federer reached which milestone last week?

What did Cardiff City do for the first time in 2 years?

Who was the second sleb kicked out of Big Brother?

Why did Crayola apologise last week?

Who was the Ballon D’Or world footballer of the year?

Whose was voted FIFA goal of the year?

Who was the only premier league player to make the world XI of the year?

Who received a lifetime award at the Golden Globes?

Which storm brought weather chaos to the UK?

Who won the Golden Globe, playing Stephen Hawking in “The Theory of Everything”?

Which alcoholic drink is to either have its alcohol content reduced or to be served in smaller cans?

Martin Luther King’s children are embroiled in a court battle over what?

Which football team rejected a takeover bid from the owners of the Phoenix Suns basketball team?

What has been banned in the vicinity of the Taj Mahal

Who launched his Reality Party then had to scrap it because he’d missed the deadline for registering it?

What has David Cameron said that he will give up until the election?

Inflation was announced as the lowest for how long?

Which former world leader had his last remaining conviction overturned last week?

London Irish parted company with their director of rugby last week – who is he?

Ronnie O’Sullivan overhauled Stephen Hendry’s world record of career century breaks. What was Hendry’s figure?

Who was reported as considering a bid for the US presidency ?

Who overtook Elvis as the solo artist with the highest number of career album sales last week – although still behind the Beatles overall?

Who announced his intention to stand against Nigel Farage in the South Thanet seat in the General election?

Who announced they will run their last race in the London marathon 2015?

What was the score in the FA Cup between Spurs and Burnley?

How many presents has Prince George been given on overseas tours?

Who was rescued by staff on Richard Branson’s Necker Island?

Which best selling crime author suffered a stroke?

Which two films have received most Oscar 2014 nominations?

Which team are to refund money to the fans who travelled to see them beaten 4 – 0 by Bradford in the FA Cup?

The US officially ended its ban on the importation of which items?

The Toru de France organisers announced that the 2016 race will again visit which country?

What did Rory McIlory do for the first ever time in a tournament last week?

Answers to News Questions

In the News    

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

Kendall House in Gravesend

Maithripala Sirisena

Gordon Taylor

Dammartin – en – Goele

Danielle Watson

Andrew Macdonald

Pauline Cafferkey

Virginia Roberts

Hoegh Osaka

Only One

Cemfjord

Emma Healey

Gary Anderson

Dzhokar Tsarnaev

Reham Khan

Elliot Spencer

Prince Ali Bin Al Hussein of Jordan

Je Suis Charlie

CSCL Globe

Cherif and Said Kouachi

Stephen Freud

Lovejoy

Ray McFall

Mahinda Rajapaska

Virat Kohli

In Other News

Which veteran film and TV actor passed away aged 81?

Which European national airline has been wound up due to an EU ruling that it has received illegal state aid?

What was the result of the Abu Hamza court case in New York?

What did a judge in California rule can once again be eaten in California?

What was the score between QPR and Sheffield Utd in the FA Cup?

Who is the ‘new’ global face of Max Factor?

Which club eventually decided not to sign Ched Evans?

Which club ended Real Madrid’s run of 22 straight victories?

Which TV and radio presenter was named GQ’s worst dressed man?

Reports were posted, and then taken down, that who would be appearing at Glastonbury in 2015?

Who said that the quality of this year’s contestants on The Voice was ‘s*it’?

Sir Bradley Wiggins announced he will be leaving Team Sky at the end of which month?

Who is the new temporary manager of Norwich City?

Which oil company agreed to pay £55 million compensation to Nigeria for oil spills?

Which political party’s website disappeared for some time last week?

How did Scottish labour party leader Jim Murphy upset Londoners last week?

Who is to play Henry VIII in the new series of Horrible Histories?

Which of his policies did Francois Hollande drop last week?

The new super license for formula 1 drivers will make the minimum age for drivers what?

Which welsh rugby player confirmed a move to Bath?

How much longer will 2015 be than 2014?

What were the 4 top grossing films in the UK in 2014?

Who is Englands cricket world cup captain?

Who raffled off gifts including a fiat panda last week?

Steven Gerrard announced he will be moving to which club?

Italian wine producers are up in arms about which British practice?

Who or what are set to join the International Criminal Court in April?

What disaster struck McDonalds outlets in Venezuela?

David Cameron gave which reason for refusing to appear in TV debates?

The 80^th anniversary of whose birth occurred last week?

Which German group are to be the subject of an international conference in Aston University?

Answers

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

Former Church of England children’s home – claims of historical abuse to be investigated.

Won Sri Lankan presidential election

Head of PFA apologised for comparing the Ched Evans situation to Hillsborough.

Parisian suburb where supermarket siege took place. 

24 year old convicted of fraud for saying on social media she had cancer and asking for donations to pay for her wedding.

New chairman of Scope

British nurse with Ebola

Woman at the heart of the Prince Andrew allegations

Ship that ran aground in the Solent

Song – collaboration between Kanye West and Paul McCartney

Sunken cargo vessel in the Pentland Firth

Won Costa Book Award for First Novel for her book Elizabeth is Missing

Won PDC world darts championship

In court for the Boston bombing

Former BBC Weather girl to marry Imran Khan

Fiance of Stephen Fry – engagement announced last week, also found guilty of speeding

Announced he will stand against Sepp Blatter for FIFA presidency

Slogan used in support of the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, whose staff were massacred in the Paris terrorist atrocity

The world’s largest container ship which visited the UK

Terrorist who carried out the Charlie Hedbo atrocity

Brother of Clement and Lucien passed away

A comet which reached its closest point to earth

Former proprietor of the Cavern Club passed away

Long standing President of Sri Lanka defeated in election

Indian batsman – first to make three centuries in first three innings as a test captain

In Other News

Lance Percival

Cyprus Airways.

He was sentenced to Life imprisonment

Foie Gras

3 – 0 Sheffield Utd.

Marilyn Monroe

Oldham FC

Valencia

Evan Davies

The Dalai Lama

Sir Tom Jones

April

Mike Phelan

Only Connect - Match 17

Chessmen v. Felinophiles

OK, the mathematics of this contest were simple. Win and you’re through to the next round, lose and you’re out. Henry Pertinez, Nick Mills and captain Stephen Pearson, the Chessmen, are one of this year’s returning teams. Highly fancied to do well among the cognoscenti, they were rather surprisingly beaten in their first match by the Linguists. They came back to knock out the Wandering Minstrels in their sudden death elimination match. Their opponents, Simon Turmaine, Helen Lippell and Simon Koppel of the Felinophiles did the opposite. They comfortably won their first match, but then lost to against the History Boys, another of our returning teams, in their qualification match. Enough chit chat then, let’s see what happened.

Round One – What’s the Connection?

Right – the Ches put the Fels int0o bat first. They picked Lion. Given 1923 Railway Companies I had an inkling. Not long after the end of the first world war, the many railway companies of Great Briatin were reorganised into 4 companies – the Great Western, the Southern Railway – The London Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS) and the London North Eastern Railway (LNER). Collectively they were known as the Big Four. That was my at home 5 pointer guess. 1919 Allied Leaders I hadn’t heard of as the big 4, but it could certainly fit them, I thought. Simon looked like he was thinking along the same lines as me at this point. They took another clue to be certain – Dominating Audit Firms. That was it, and we were all right. I considered a lap of honour around the living room, but decided it was probably too early. Captain Stephen of the Ches showed an admirable contempt for my superstition, and offered us Horned Viper pronounced just so. They received pictures. I didn’t recognise the first. The second was Victoria herself, then the third Sofia Coppola. Children who followed in their parents’ famous footsteps, perhaps? Capital cities perhaps? Paris Hilton suggested the capital cities which is what the Ches went for. The first was Washington Irving. The Fels opted next for Twisted Flax and the Music set. The second which was the first I recognised was a version of Colonel Bogey. Military ranks? Parts of a train? No – the next was Albatross by Fleetwood Mac. Had to be terms used in golf. Captain Simon K suddenly clicked with it, and the points were taken. Two Reeds gave the Ches Oliver Perks (Monstrous Monstrous Regiment) Monstrous Regiment suggested something to do with John Knox’ first blast of the trumpet against the monstrous regiment of women rulers, but Oliver Perks I didn’t know. Dernhelm ( Lord of the Rings) I did know. That was the name taken by Eowyn of Rohan when she posed as a man to join the army fighting against the hordes of Mordor in the defence of Gondor. So was this something to do with women posing as men? Henry and Nick both knew this, and coming in after two clues they took the points. Eye of Horus gave the Fels no realistic chance of a five pointer with Romeo – too mahy possibilities. Next was Wayne ( Wayne, Wayne, wherefore art thou Wayne?) then came Kim. Nope, sorry , I had no handle on this one. Bow wow completed the set, but I just didn’t see it. None of us had it. They are all rappers whose names are preceded by L’il. Ah, I see. Left with water the Ches had Bokmål. I didn’t know that this is the primary language of Norway, but the Ches did. Would that work out as something like Book Speak? This was followed by Hochdeutsch, which I presume is High German. An Caighdeán Oifigiúl I guessed must be the correct standard dialect of Irish, and the Queen’s English finished it off. So the standard accepted form of a language. The Ches took a well earned point, and led by 5 - 4

Round Two – What Comes Fourth?

The Fels began with Water. We saw a turquoise capital C. Nope. Then a pinky purply M. Now – Cyan – Magenta perhaps? Which meant next would be yellow Y and then black K. Well worked out answer by the Fels. The Ches took the Viper again, and earned a music sequence. They did well with it too. The second one we both recognised as John Lee Hooker’s Boom Boom (better than Basil Brush’s) and so they went for the Venga Boys Boom Boom Boom Boom. Good shout!. Lion gave the Fels the flag of Mexico, which was not enough to go on for a guess yet, then the flag of Indonesia (or possibly Monaco, although Indonesia looked more likely). Finally Nigeria. The Fels didn’t have a Scooby, and the Ches did. They knew that the flag of Turkey would complete the MINT countries – you can work it out, I’m sure. The Ches next set gave them 29^th: ö – I worked on the same rationale as Nick, and with nothing to lose went with 26^th – Z. The Ches did have potential points to lose and took a second with 28^th: Ä. They took the third clue – 27^th = Å, then went for 26^th: Z. Two five pointers for me in one show – I did do the lap of honour at this point. The Ches though had been sensible to make sure of the point, and to not give away a potential bonus. Two Reeds gave the Fels  R.S. and O.S £300. DIdn’t see it. The Fels saw this looked like Regent Street and Oxford Street, and I was ready to run that one up the flagpole and salute it. Having nothing to lose I went for M - £400. The second being B.S. £320 meant my Mayfair answer was looking good. Mind you, that wasn’t counting Liverpool Street Station in the mix. The Fels went for my answer and were right to do so. I can’t claim another five pointer, because I didn’t see what the first clue meant until the Fels pointed it out. Finally the Ches were left with Twisted flax. First we saw a symbol of what looked like an envelope, with a horizontal arrow pointing to the words – the rich. Then we had the same with the poor. Got it! I shouted. WH Auden – the nightmail – letters for the rich, letters for the poor, the somethingy something and the boy next door. Almost immediately the Ches had the same idea. We were both wrong! It was the girl next door! Bonus for the Fels. The somethingy something was the shop at the corner. This was interesting since it meant we had a tide game – 11 apiece.

Round Three – The Connecting Walls

The Ches got to go first and they picked the Water wall. They got rather hung up an looking for a set of areas of New York, which just refused to resolve. Finally, with less than a minute left they isolated Midtown – Hell’s Kitchen – NoHo and Chelsea. That was all though. When the wall was resolved they could see that Tax – Animal – Morrison and Bus were all shelters. Anderson – Ono – Bowery and Beuys I didn’t get, but they knew were all performance artists. Harlem – Large – Handy and Butchers was a horrible line. They are all anagrams of composers. I didn’t see it, neither did the Ches. 4 points scored and the gate was left wide open for the Fels.

Lion gave them a clear set of guns but they didn’t go for the straight away. I could see the surnames of the Rutles – O’Hara – Nasty – McQuigly and Wom (Barrington Wombat). They went back to the guns, but they wouldn’t resolve. There looked to be some sporting nicknames there as well. Time was getting on, and those lines just wouldn’t resolve at all. In the end they couldn’t untangle them. When the wall was resolved, they didn't know the Rutles. The sporting nicknames were tennis players – muscles being Ken Rosewall – along with Boom Boom – A Rod and Pistol. The firearms were rifle, revolver, carbine and blunderbuss – Over – Musket – Profit and Peppet they knew could all go before – eer. So rather surprisingly the Ches took a lead of 2, with the Fels scoring 2. All to play for.

Round Four – Missing Vowels

With the first set, things said by magicians, the lead of the Ches was wiped out, as the scores progressed to 16 apiece. Crime shows and their locations saw the Fels take a 3 point lead. The Ches buzzed in too early on one, and lost the point they had just earned, while the Ches took three of their own points. Works of Salvador Dali was going to be the last set. The Ches needed at least three of them – and they got them! So it was a captains only tie break. There was an agonizing wait before Stephen of the CHes finally buzzed in with Hasta La Vista Baby – the correct answer. What a close match! Bad luck, Fels, but well done to the Chessmen – feel free to breathe again!

University Challenge - Round Two - Match 8

Oxford Brookes v. UCL

Simon Joyce, Paula Ayres, Stephen Mayes, and skipper David Ballard of Oxford Brookes scored a narrow victory over Jesus College in their exciting first round match. Bethany Drew, Andrew Brueton,  Haraldr Gunnarsson. and the captain Thomas Halliday of University College London had rather more of a comfortable ride in their last match against Exeter. Difficult to pick a winner before the start of the show, but it was a high stakes match, with the winners going on to take the last place in the quarter final stage.

Asked for the three letter combination linking the start of the name of the nobody whose diary was written by the Grossmiths, the Hill in the title of a Kipling story, and a well known literary bear, Bethany Drew buzzed in early with an incorrect guess, leaving the field clear for Oxford – Brookes to have a go but fail to see they are all Poo - . David Ballard knew The Night Café was one of Van Gogh’s for his team’s first points. South Africa provided them with nowt. Early days yet. Haraldr Gunnarson buzzed in very early to correctly answer that the only one of the Chartist’s 6 demands never even partly accepted was annual elections. Bertrand Russell was the subject of their bonuses, of which they managed 1. There was a long and involved question for the next starter, but the answer was beryllium, as Stephen Mayes well knew. The brightness of celestial objects left me feeling anything but bright, but Oxford Brookes took two of them. Now, the only reason I got the picture starter was because I’ve had a question or two about it on Superbuzzer. We were shown the title of a film in ite original language. In this case it was – El laberinto del fauno. Well, say what you see – Pan’s Labyrinth then. David Ballard had that, and more of the same followed, one of which was taken. Simon Joyce worked out that Patroclus said “Good Riddance” at one stage of Troilus and Cressida. The internet provided Oxford Brookes with 5 more points. So, having had by far the better of the opening exchanges they led at the 10 minute mark by 60 – 10.

Something about configurations of LEDs followed – and Haraldr Gunnarson knew it was 16. Narrative paintings in the Manchester Art gallery provided the first full set of the contest. Skipper Thomas Halliday buzzed in too early on the largest Austronesian language said to be the largest language without an official status. Simon Joyce was close, but giving Javan rather than Javanese was not given the points. Bethany Drew knew Calvinism in an early buzz for the next starter. Bonuses on Physics brought 5 more points. On to the music starter by an Austrian composer, but nobody knew it.Now, Bethany Drew knew that if you’re asked for a Lancashire artist born 1887 you buzz as fast as you can and you answer ‘Lowry’. This brought up the music bonuses on recordings of composers conducting their own work. They actually managed two bonuses, but missed out on Aaron Copeland. Whether that was after or before he was the drummer with The Police, JP didn’t say. Simon Joyce won the buzzer race for the term ‘greenstick fracture’. French Presidents provided one correct bonus. David Ballard knew several cities which were all linked by the letter V. Simple heraldic designs, sometimes called ordinaries, sounded somewhat harder than they  proved to be, and Oxford Brookes duly obliged with a full set. You had to feel for Haraldr Gunnarsson. As soon as he heard the name “Steven Levitt” he buzzed right in with the title of his famous book, Freakonomics, only to lose 5 as the question swerved by asking for the title of the sequel. Oxford Brookes could not capitalise on this. Andrew Brueton took a flyer on the next starter on a pope’s regnal name, and it didn’t come off. Given the whole question Oxford Brookes knew it was the pope who commissioned the Sistine Chapel, but they went for Sistus rather than Sixtus. All of which meant that at the 20 minute mark Oxford Brookes had pulled away again to lead by 100 – 55. One had the feeling that UCL felt that they were chasing the game and playing catch up, hence the hopeful buzzing which was costing them points.

Haraldr Gunnarsson knew that the largest dolphin is the orca. A full set of bonuses on cities with 4 letter names provided another 15 points. The second picture showed us a still from The King and I , which Paula Ayres well knew. Stills from three other films which won Oscars for costume design brought them their own full set, and the gap was as wide as ever. I had a Science starter! With the next question I shouted “Latent heat of fusion!” That must have been the Science lesson when I was actually paying attention – there was only ever one of them. Poor old Thomas Halliday lost five for just saying Latent Heat, which let Stephen Mayes in for the points. Ophthalmology, and colour blindness provided them with 2 correct answers. A great starter followed – During the 1990s two Booker Prize winning novels were adapted into films that won the Oscar for Best Picture. Neither team could dredge up either Schindler’s List or The English Patient. Simon Joyce knew that Guangdong is the most populous province of China. Titles linked by the number 7 provided them with nowt, and maybe they might have done a bit better with them, but nonetheless they had a lead of 80, and to all intents and purposes looked certain to win. Bethany Drew knew a list of books all by Thomas Pynchon. Two word names that include the name of a US state brought UCL 5 more points. Which were lost by another fast buzz on the next question. You can’t blame them. If you have to go down, then go down buzzing, I say. Anyway, nobody else knew Active Galactic Nucleus. Nobody knew that the Madonna of the Carnation is by Da Vinci either. Simon Joyce won the buzzer race to say one of the sports governed by FINA – he went for swimming, as you would.  Bonuses on rocks and stones brought a full house. UCL were still going for the early buzzes, unsuccessfully on the next starter, all words which can be combined with the word angle for concepts in Physics. Fair enough. Bethany Drew buzzed early for the next starter, knowing that the famous WH Davies couple ends with the word stand and stare. Fictional Books and the works in which they appear was a bit tricky. I too went for the first Hitchhikers’ Guide to the Galaxy book rather than the second. That was it – we were gonged before the next.

The final score was 180 – 90 to Oxford Brookes. They were pretty good value for their win too. Best of luck in the quarters. 

Jeremy Paxman Watch

JP got quite funny with David Ballard for attempting the Dutch pronunciation of the painter we call Van Goff. He got him to repeat it, then said “Yes . . . you’re just pronouncing it correctly. “ He didn’t actually say – don’t do it again! – but I’d like to think he was thinking it.

There was more than a little exasperation when Oxford Brookes offered Haydn as the Austrian Composer. “Haydn?!” our hero queried, his eyebrows shooting towards the ceiling, “It was Mahler!” Well, excuse me. I mean, it’s not like they answered Ronnie Hazlehurst is it? 

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

Men Who Hate Women was the original language title for the film of “The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo”

Sleb Mastermind - Show 9

OK, I must apologise to all concerned, but I shan’t dwell too much on this show. That’s no reflection on anyone taking part, simply the fact that there’s so much still to catch up with from the last week in quizzing.

First up in this year’s penultimate sleb show was Gemma Cairney. She had my support since she was playing on behalf of Oxfam, which is a charity for which my daughter works and my wife volunteers. Gemma is a BBC Radio 1 presenter, currently on the early early shift so I believe. Answering on the Spice Girls she managed 7. She was followed by Olympic boxing medallist Anthony Agogo. Anthony was answering on a subject which I quite fancied my chances on – British Middleweight boxers of the 1990s. That was quite some era. You had Herol Graham, in many people’s (and mine) opinion the finest British Middleweight of his time not to win a world championship – Nigel Benn, Joe Calzaghe started then, Chris Eubanks, Michael Watson – and they’re just the names at the top of the list. Anthony scored 6 on a round which wasn’t that easy – I had 7. I knew I wasn’t going to get 7 on Tina Malone’s round on Barbra Streisand, and indeed I didn’t. Tina Malone is an actress best known from the TV show Shameless. Maintaining the standard which had already been set, she managed 7 correct answers. These are all decent scores off 90 seconds, but they did leave a little bit of room for the final contender, Dominic Laurie, if he could manage a stellar round. Dominic Laurie is a presenter on BBC Breakfast, and he was answering on a subject which I myself once considered as a Mastermind subject, the History of the London Underground. I managed 8 of these, but Dominic did indeed produce a stellar round, and scored 11, to lead by 4.

In the GK round Anthony was the first to return to the chair, and to be fair to him he took 4 correct answers on the bounce right at the start of the round. He didn’t find the going quite as good for the rest of the round, but he did double that 4 to 8 to finish with 14. It wouldn’t be a winning total, but it was at least respectable. Gemma then returned, and she was denied a higher score by a few tip of the tongue moments. She added 6 more to her total to finish with 13, one behind Anthony. Tina Malone maintained her sense of humour throughout her round, despite only adding 4 to her total. I liked the way that when John told her the answer to one of her passes, after saying – you’ll know this – she replied with – no I didn’t! Right enough, kid. Finally then Dominic returned for his GK round, knowing that a score of 4 would be enough. Well, barring very unforeseen circumstances it was obvious that he was going to do it, and indeed he did, scoring 9 to take the highest score in both rounds and overall.

The Details

Gemma Cairney	Oxfam	The Spice Girls	7 - 1	6 - 3	13 - 3
Anthony Agogo	Right to Play	British Middleweight Boxers of the 1990s	6 - 1	8 – 1	14 - 2
Tina Malone	Blackburne House	Barbra Streisand	7 - 3	4 - 5	11 - 8
Dominic Laurie	Reverse Rett	The History of the London Underground	10 - 1	9 - 3	20 – 4

Mastermind - Round One - Heat 21

Well, none of the contenders in last night’s show had appeared on Mastermind before, so there was nothing to go on there. However, looking for some guide to form, I’m pretty sure that Liz Gore got to the semi final of last year’s Brain of Britain. No mug there, then.

First up, though, was Sam Nemzer. Sam was answering on the TV series “Breaking Bad”. I’ll be honest, I’ve never watched any of it, which does actually put me at a disadvantage since for at least a while last year it was certainly flavour of the month in some of the quizzes I’ve played in. Come to think of it there’s several recurring questions about it on Superbuzzer as well. Never mind all that. Sam showed that he’d done his preparation, and he also managed to avoid passes by answering every single question – never a bad idea, that. Still, a couple of errors meant that he levelled out at 9, which I fancied might put him too far behind at half time.

Gerard Watson was taking a far more traditional MM subject in the shape of the Spanish Civil War. I managed to pick up three or four of the more easy questions in this round, but that was about as far as I got. Gerard had prepared well too, and kept the scoreboard ticking over throughout the whole of the round, breaking through the double figure barrier, and eventually finishing with 11 points. Good round.

When I saw that Adam Richardson was answering on The Clash my first thought was to ask myself – should I stay or should I go. Not it wasn’t. Sorry, terrible joke. As I think I may have mentioned before, the whole punk scene was one of those parties I arrived at after everyone else had left, nonetheless I managed 4 of these. Which was nowhere near the 13 that Adam managed. Alright, it wasn’t quite a perfect round, but it was still pretty good, and ensured that he would at worst be close to the lead at the turn around.

On to Liz Gore, then. Liz was answering on the Lord Peter Wimsey novels of Dorothy L Sayers. I haven’t ever read any of these, although I have answered a few questions on Lord Peter Wimsey – you know, the ones which crop up in quizzes. In fact, come to think of it, the only thing Dorothy L Sayers wrote that I’ve actually read is the Penguin translation of Dante’s Divine Comedy – and very good it is too. Back to Liz’ round. From early doors it became clear that even when Liz paused before answering, when she did answer it was going to be correct. In fact, for most of the round it looked like a perfect one was on the cards – only a wrong Christian name for a character on one question prevented her from this. Still, it was good enough to ensure that she led with 14.

Sam was first to return, and although he was some way off the lead he made a spirited attempt at his GK round. Judging by what we’ve seen in this series so far anything in double figures on GK represents a good performance, and Sam added 11 to take his score to 20. My feeling when I was on the show was always – well, I want to win, but if I can’t win, then I want to be second, and if I can’t be second then I want to be third. In all honesty it looked unlikely that this would be enough to win the show, but it was certainly enough to put some of the remaining contenders into the famed corridor of doubt. When you’re doing a GK round, if you know your first two or three questions then you can build up a momentum which can help you achieve the best score you’re capable of. If you don’t get this momentum going, though, a GK round can be a bit of a struggle, and in all honesty that’s what Gerard Watson’s round appeared to be. He fell into a pass spiral, and in the end finished with an overall score of 17.

So it looked like the win would be going to either Adam or Liz. Adam, like Gerard, just couldn’t get going in his round and he too finished with 17. So Liz needed a relatively modest 7 to progress to the semis. It’s not a huge score, but we have seen people struggle under the weight of nerves in the past, so nothing was guaranteed. She looked good for it before the first minute was up, though, and she maintained a steady pace throughout the round, answering what she knew, guessing what she didn’t, and not panicking when she had a wrong answer. In the end she too added 11 to her score, and was a very comfortable winner with 25. Well played – good luck in the semis.

The Details

Sam Nemzer	Breaking Bad	9 – 0	11-1	20 - 1
Gerard Watson	Spanish Civil War	11 - 1	6 - 7	17 - 8
Adam Richardson	The Clash	13 – 0	4 - 5	17 - 5
Liz Gore	The Lord Peter Wimsey Novels of Dorothy L Sayers	14 - 0	11 - 1	25 - 1

In The News

Kendall House in Gravesend

Maithripala Sirisena

Gordon Taylor

Dammartin – en – Goele

Danielle Watson

Andrew Macdonald

Pauline Cafferkey

Virginia Roberts

Hoegh Osaka

Only One

Cemfjord

Emma Healey

Gary Anderson

Dzhokar Tsarnaev

Reham Khan

Elliot Spencer

Prince Ali Bin Al Hussein of Jordan

Je Suis Charlie

CSCL Globe

Cherif and Said Kouachi

Stephen Freud

Lovejoy

Ray McFall

Mahinda Rajapaska

Virat Kohli

In Other News

Which veteran film and TV actor passed away aged 81?

Which European national airline has been wound up due to an EU ruling that it has received illegal state aid?

What was the result of the Abu Hamza court case in New York?

What did a judge in California rule can once again be eaten in California?

What was the score between QPR and Sheffield Utd in the FA Cup?

Who is the ‘new’ global face of Max Factor?

Which club eventually decided not to sign Ched Evans?

Which club ended Real Madrid’s run of 22 straight victories?

Which TV and radio presenter was named GQ’s worst dressed man?

Reports were posted, and then taken down, that who would be appearing at Glastonbury in 2015?

Who said that the quality of this year’s contestants on The Voice was ‘s*it’?

Sir Bradley Wiggins announced he will be leaving Team Sky at the end of which month?

Who is the new temporary manager of Norwich City?

Which oil company agreed to pay £55 million compensation to Nigeria for oil spills?

Which political party’s website disappeared for some time last week?

How did Scottish labour party leader Jim Murphy upset Londoners last week?

Who is to play Henry VIII in the new series of Horrible Histories?

Which of his policies did Francois Hollande drop last week?

The new super license for formula 1 drivers will make the minimum age for drivers what?

Which welsh rugby player confirmed a move to Bath?

How much longer will 2015 be than 2014?

What were the 4 top grossing films in the UK in 2014?

Who is Englands cricket world cup captain?

Who raffled off gifts including a fiat panda last week?

Steven Gerrard announced he will be moving to which club?

Italian wine producers are up in arms about which British practice?

Who or what are set to join the International Criminal Court in April?

What disaster struck McDonalds outlets in Venezuela?

David Cameron gave which reason for refusing to appear in TV debates?

The 80^th anniversary of whose birth occurred last week?

Which German group are to be the subject of an international conference in Aston University?