Mastermind 2024 First Round Heat 19

Another Monday, and another heat of Mastermind. Not long now until we’re through the heats. Still, let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves, shall we?

Our first contender was Trevor Abrahams, who was answering on another Trevor, of the Sir Trevor McDonald variety. Now, if you read my doom-laden forecast at the weekend, then you’ll know that I really wasn’t expecting much here. So you can imagine my surprise to find that I knew quite a bit more about Sir Trevor than I thought. In fact I got I’ve of these through a combination of a wee bit of knowledge and a lot of decent guesswork, and five is more than I thought I’d get for all of the specialist rounds put together.

You can almost say the same about Rob Price’s round on Leeds Utd. I did say in the preview that I knew a wee bit about the Don Revie era, and indeed this was enough to bring me 4 points. Two rounds down and the aggregate already stood at 9. Rob was caught by one or two questions that robbed him of a little momentum at crucial points in the round. Having said that though he still took enough to overhaul Trevor’s lead and score 8.

This was followed by Sharon Reading’s round. Sharon is the very best type of teacher . . . (drumroll please) . a former one! I currently have 115 teaching days left until retirement. You can work out what exactly the fact that I know the precise number means. I knew little about Myrna Loy, although what I did know picked me up 2 more points, but somehow judging by what was asked about her she seems to have been something of an all round good egg. Sharon took 7, which at this stage of the game was certainly competitive.

Finally Carol Kermode. She gave her occupation as farmer’s wife, which led to my daughter spluttering that she didn’t think that’s an occupation. She bet that Carol does as much farming work as her husband and should have said her occupation is a farmer. Me? I said nowt, I just wanted to get on with the questions. And let’s be fair, Carol got on very well with the questions herself. The History of Cattle is one of those subjects where you’re pretty sure that nobody would have taken it before. Carole took a good nine to give her the lead as the half time oranges and the cups of Bovril were being wheeled out.

Two points separated all 4 contenders so it was a pretty safe bet that whoever whacked in the best GK round was going to be there or thereabouts. It certainly looked as if Trevor Abrahams was giving himself a pretty good shout, with a good round of 11. That could do it – I thought to myself, and I said as much to Pip. It looked an even better shout as Rob Price returned and could only add 7 to his own total to end up with 15. Perfectly respectable, but some way behind the leader.

Sharon then returned, and she needed to equal Trevor’s 11 to go into the lead. She didn’t equal Trevor’s 11. She actually outdid it by scoring a good 12. This was achieved through keeping her head and finding answers to every question. It meant that she didn’t go exceptionally quickly but amassed a challenging total without passing any.

So only Carole could now overhaul Sharon. She needed 10 and no passes to force another tiebreak, and 11 to win outright. She gave it a try, no doubt about that. For most of the round it really was too close to call. Then, with only a couple of questions to go, Carole passed. She ended up with 10, but since Sharon had not incurred any passes in her own round, she lost by the narrowest of margins.

Well done Sharon! Best of luck in the semi finals.

 

Trevor Abrahams	Sir Trevor McDonald	7	2	11	1	18	1
Rob Price	Leeds United Football Club	8	1	7	2	15	3
Sharon Reading	Myrna Loy	7	0	12	0	19	0
Carol Kermode	The History of Cattle	9	0	10	1	19	1

 

So much for 2023

It was the New Year quiz on Thursday evening, and I think it was a triumph. Mind you, I was question master, so I’m probably not the man to give you an objective opinion.

I found the compilation of the quiz a more difficult job than last year. In every year there are certain events which generate more questions than any other and in 2023 it was the Coronation of King Charles and Queen Camilla. I could have easily done a whole round of questions on this event but I didn’t feel that would be in anyone’s best interests. It’s a rather delicate balancing act, compiling the New Year quiz. On the one hand you want the teams to have a decent chance of getting a decent score on all of the rounds. On the other hand though you don’t want to ask all of the same questions that come up in all of the newspaper quizzes of the year. You want people to enjoy it, think – oh, I didn’t know that I knew that – and maybe hear a thing or two which they didn’t know but are interested to hear about.

Oh, yes. You want to use a little bit of filth as well.

You have to judge it right, just how explicitly filthy you want to be because it’s easy to overdo it and upset people. I found one question that really fit the bill though and the fact that it’s a question local to South Wales made it all the better. –

What did the Barnardo’s charity shop in Gorseinon make a public request for people to stop donating to the shop? Answer – sex toys.

Now, I’ll be honest, when I first saw the story back in October 2023 I immediately mentally earmarked it for the New Year quiz. It went down a treat too.

Mastermind Heat 19 Specialists Preview

Heat 19 of Mastermind 2024, this coming Monday, will feature these specialist subjects:-

Sir Trevor McDonald

Leeds Utd. FC

Myrna Loy

The History of Cattle

I like to take the position of a bit of a Jeremiah when I discuss the forthcoming specialist subjects for a particular show, so hopefully I’ll be proved wrong when I say that this group of specialisms holds out every chance of bringing my first ever zero aggregate. Seriously –

Trevor McDonald. I’ve liked Sir Trevor ever since he surprised Lennie Henry on Tiswas while Sir Len was doing his thinly veiled impression Trevor McDoughnut. But other than he’s originally from Trinidad, he wrote a biography of Viv Richards and he was Nana’s last words in The Royle Family, l I don’t know that much. Every possibility of nul points.

Leeds Utd. FC. I always hope that s sport round might bring me one or two sneaky points.I know a little bit about the Don Revie era, so you never know, 1 or 2 possibly.

Myrna Loy. Yes, I know she was a film actress in the ‘golden age’ of Hollywood. She made a number of films with Dick Powell. Urm. . . that’s it. Nul points.

The History of Cattle. Where do you start? It’s a subject which is so potentially wide ranging that maybe I’ll get some points for it from general knowledge, and maybe I’ll end with 0.

Overall, I’d be happy with four. Scratch that, I’ll be happy enough if I get one!

Revivals, resurrections or resuscitations?

There must be something in the air. I’ve just written about the latest revival of Jeopardy!, only to notice that this month we can also expect the revival of two venerable old stagers from years gone by, although both are game shows rather than quizzes.

Let me give you a starter for ten. Which three word phrase links Alfred the Great, Geoffrey Chaucer, Elizabeth I, Michael Miles, Nicky Campbell, Bradley Walsh, Carol Smilie, John Leslie and Graham Norton among others? Answer – Wheel of Fortune. The phrase was notably coined by late Roman writer Boethius, in his book “The Consolation of Philosophy”, where, if my memory serves me correctly, he envisaged Fortune as a beautiful but fickle lady, who held a wheel, which determined the fortune (small f) of men. When you’re at the top of the wheel there’s only one way to go. Like Malory’s “Morte d’Arthur”, Bunyan’s “Pilgrim’s Progress”. Wilde’s “Ballad of Reading Jail” and Jeffrey Archer’s “Prison Diary”, “The Consolation of Philosophy” was written while its writer was in chokey. He upset Theoderic the Great, who couldn’t have been a fan of the book since he had Boethius tortured then executed.

“The Consolation of Philosophy” became extremely popular in the Middle Ages. Alfred the Great translated at least part of it into Old English – Chaucer into Middle English and Elizabeth Ist into early Modern English.

Slightly later, the first ever quiz show on ITV was Michael Miles’ Take Your Pick. This ended when the ITV company that produced it lost their franchise in 1968. Miles moved to Southern TV where he hosted the first “Wheel of Fortune” game show for three years until he died. I vaguely remember watching it when I was tiny, and basically I recall contestants being invited to spin the eponymous when to see whether they’d won for the sake of argument a twin tub washing machine or a dishmop.

The Wheel of Fortune Game show that I suspect that many UK readers remember was a rather different kettle of fish. Like the several UK versions of Jeopardy!, Scottish Television’s “Wheel of Fortune” was a UK version of a successful US game show, based losely on the game of Hangman. The US show will celebrate its half century next year, and the STV show didn’t do badly, lasting for 12 years. I particularly remember Nicky Campbell’s long tenure, but I was surprised to see that Bradley Walsh cut his hosting teeth on the show for a season. This had no other relation to the earlier ITV show other than the name, and the use of a big wheel, hence the name. Having seen the previews of the show that airs this Saturday, it looks like a revival of the STV show.

Why revive game shows? Silly question. You revive game shows because you think that if they have worked for an audience before, they might well work for an audience again. Okay, so Jeopardy! has never caught on in the UK, but its success in the USA makes it an acceptable gamble. “Wheel of Fortune” ran for more than a decade, but it’s been over 20 years since it ran and you never know, maybe it might have similar success again and find a whole new audience.

A better question would be why have it presented by Graham Norton? I’m not suggesting that he would be anything other than successful – he’s a great and very popular entertainment broadcaster, which is something that his longevity pays testament towards. But I did think that he was solidly established as one of the jewels in the BBC firmament. Getting him to present a game show is something of a coup for ITV, and I can imagine that they must have paid him a pretty penny.

………………

It’s a long time ago that I reported that the BBC was reviving ITV’s 1990s ratings powerhouse Gladiators. I didn’t know that there had been a short lived Sky TV revival in the noughties. As with Wheel of Fortune, a big name host will be fronting the show – none other than Bradley Walsh, along with his son Barney.

Can it work again? Well, the original show debuted on ITV at the same time as the hype, razzmatazz and cartoon violence of the pseudo sport WWF (later WWE) American wrestling gained popularity in Britain. It’s fair to say that we hadn’t seen anything quite like “Gladiators” in the UK before – the closest thing was possibly “It’s a knockout”, which was further from Gladiators than Saturday afternoon 'grunt 'n groan' wrestling bouts on World of Sport were from the WWF. Since Gladiators ended on terrestrial TV at the end of the 20^th century though we’ve seen quite a few other shows which also put physically gifted (and some not so physically gifted) members of the public through physical challenges, ranging from “Total Wipeout”, through “Survivor”, “Desert Forges”, “Ninja Warrior UK” and “SAS Who Dares Wins” to name a few. Not only will Gladiators The Next Generation be judged against the original British version, it will also be judged against what has come since.

'New' Show - Jeopardy!

Question. A TV quiz show that has been a hit in the USA for forty years consecutively but has never been a great success in the UK despite being tried several times?

Answer. What is Jeopardy! ?

You know, if I was meaner of spirit than I already am, I might well have decided not to write about the latest revival of Jeopardy! since I did not get invited for an audition to appear on it despite going to the time and trouble of filling in an application form. Well, there’s lots of shows that I could say that about, so what the hell?

Can you call a show that was first created 60 years ago a ‘new’ show? Ah, but that was in the USA. Okay – then can you call a show which has been tried in the UK no fewer than four times previously a ‘new’ show? Well, for the purposes of LAM, I’m going to.

I said that Jeopardy! debuted in 1964 in the US, which it did, and ran for just over 10 years. I don’t wish to go into mind numbing detail about syndication in the US and what it means, but the current version of the show began its run in syndication in 1984. It’s probably fair to say that as quiz shows go it’s something of an American national institution. In his introduction to the latest UK revival host Stephen Fry as good as said as much himself, speaking of his own enjoyment of the show on many visits to the USA. Which is probably as good a reason as any why there have been so many attempts to establish the show in the UK.

You know, I watched the first episode on New Year’s Day and I had mixed feelings about it. If you know anything about the show then you know that the format is pretty simple. It’s a general knowledge quiz made up of several rounds. Three contestants buzz in to ‘answer’ questions from specified categories. The questions can be worth between £25 and £150 depending on the degree of difficulty. In each round there are 1 or more ‘daily doubles’ which enable the contestant to nominate a certain amount of the cash they have already won. If they get the question right, they double the stake. If they get it wrong then they lose it. At the end, the contestants have to stake as much or as little of the money they have earned on one question. Whoever has most money left at the end, is the winner and can come back on the next show.

Of course, the big gimmick of Jeopardy! is that contenders get given the answers and have to provide the questions. I’ll be honest, I’ve always thought that this is a bit naff as gimmicks go. Let’s be honest, there’s not a great deal of difference between asking

“Who was the writer of “Jane Eyre”? – answer Charlotte Bronte –

And

“The writer of “Jane Eyre” – answer “Who is Charlotte Bronte?”

I’ll be honest, it brings out the smartarse in me, and makes me want to answer

“The writer of “Jane Eyre” – which writer used the pseudonym Currer Bell? – which of course is not what is required – the great Stephen spells it out quite clearly that the answers must start with ‘who is’ or ‘what is’.

Okay I’m being a smartarse here. The question and answer format is what really makes Jeopardy! what it is and if you don’t like it then don’t watch. One of the funny things that I felt while I was watching it was that the gameplay itself felt rather old-fashioned. Basically you listen to a general knowledge question, beat the others to the buzzer, give the right answer and there’s cash in the bank. This is what quizzes were like when I was growing up. There’s a lot to be said for this as well. You know that I always think that the more questions that are asked in a show, the better, and you do get a lot of questions for your money in this revival.

While we’re on the positives, what this version of Jeopardy! has that no previous British version had is Stephen Fry. Stephen Fry is an inspired choice as host, especially when you consider that we might well have ended up with Richard Madeley. Previous hosts of British versions include Derek Hobson (personality not included) – Steve Jones (wipe the smile off your face, sonny, and lose the silly mid-Atlantic accent) and Paul Ross (Jonathan too expensive?). Actually I didn’t think that Paul Ross did a bad job of it either. But someone further removed from a primetime US quiz show host than Stephen Fry would be hard to find. I could listen to Stephen Fry read out selections of the most boring parts of the Yellow Pages – and I paid good money to see him reading from his book “Mythos” in Cardiff a couple of years ago. He brings class to everything he’s involved in.

Will this one run and run? I don’t honestly know. The fact that it was put on at quarter to six in the evening suggests that ITV do not see this as a prime time show – and to be honest the amount of cash that can be won on each show is nice but not earth shattering. Yet it runs at an hour long, with precious little variation between rounds. It feels padded. While I’d consider making it a regular watch for the presence of Stephen Fry if for nothing else if it was no longer than forty-five minutes, an hour is asking too much of me. And I like quizzes. Aiming to capture a reasonable proportion of viewers used to “Pointless”, “The Chase”, “Eggheads” and “Richard Osman’s House of Games” may well prove to be too much of a tall order, the great Stephen notwithstanding.

University Challenge 2024 Second Round - Sheffield v. Aberdeen

The Teams

Sheffield

Saffiyah Rujak

Joe McGough

Cameron Colclough (capt.)

Mathew Nail

Aberdeen

Archie Broomfield

Zachary Eisler

Emily Osborne (capt.)

Callum McClements

Ah, UC is back! Yippee! The problem I find with the Diet University Challenge Christmas series is that I get so frustrated with a) the gaps in GK of the very clever people in the teams, and b) the inability some of them have in listening to the questions carefully. This is very unfair of me, I know. Can’t help it. I’d be thrown out of the Grumpy Old Gits association otherwise.

Joe McGough came in too early for the first starter and put Sheffield in deficit for his pains. Aberdeen did not know that the detective in The Murders of the Rue Morgue’ was Auguste Dupin. However Zachary Eisler opened their account on the nest starter by recognising a reference to US abolitionist John Brown. None of them knew Henri Dunant, founder of the Red Cross, nor the battle which he witnessed which led to his founding of the Red Cross, However, they did know that the first Nobel Peace Prize went to him in 1901. Zachary Eisler took his second consecutive starter, knowing that the tree associated with death common in the UK is yew. Supply your own puns on the theme, please. The Glasgow School of Art saw three tough bonuses pass us all by. I’ll be honest, I thought it was a very difficult show last night – I was conscious of being unable to even guess at a large number of bonuses and this set was a portent of that. Callum McClements buzzed after “Which city hosted the first modern Summer Olympics-“ then held his head in his hands as he realised that Amol had continued ‘since overturning the rule – “ He provided the answer “Athens” knowing it was not the right answer, and losing five. I think it was gettable from this point since the rule overturned was surely about professional athletes being allowed to compete. Given the whole question which provided a lot more helpful information Joe McGough correctly answered Seoul. A UC special set on words in Shakespeare that feature within the names of Premier League Football clubs proved too tricky for either of us to get more than the last one right. Now, it’s not often that the first picture starter brings me a lap of honour but it happened last night. We saw a diagram of a chemical process. “Distillation!” I shouted, before Zachary Eisler supplied the same answer to take his third starter. More diagrams brought me nowt and Aberdeen just the one. Mind you, it could have been two. The team supplied Chromatography, but captain Emily Osborne misheard and this earned her a bit of an admonition from Amol. More of that later. It was ironic really. Back in July skipper Emily Osborne was criticised a lot on Twitter for nominating her teammates to answer a large number of the questions. You’re damned if you do, so it seems, and you’re damned if you don’t. Zachary Eisler continued to show why any sensible captain would have done just what his skipper did in their first-round heat by taking a fourth starter, recognising a description of the Barnett formula. Me? I thought the Barnett formula was the recipe for Head and Shoulders (other anti-dandruff shampoos are available). Proteins yielded a set of bonuses that set my internal orchestra off playing at full blast. When the din ceased Aberdeen had got one of them right and were leading by 50 – 10 at just past the ten minute point.

Zachary Eisler’s previously sure hand on the buzzer let him down as he came in too early for the next starter. Given the full question Saffiyah Rujak supplied the correct answer with krater/crater. Japanese Straits in History provided another of those sets of bonuses where only one of them was easily guessable, so we both managed just the one of them. Archie Bloomfield came in too early for the next starter which allowed Saffiyah Rujak to take her second consecutive starter with the graphic novel Ghost World. I wasn’t thrilled when a set of bonuses on economic DSGE models was announced to follow, and none of us could get any of them. However I did enjoy the answer to the last one being a French economist called Leon “I am the” Walras. Gawd knows why but for the next starter when it mentioned a web browser amongst other things I said Mosaic. It was one of very few instances of inspiration striking me during this show. Saffiyah Rujak completed an excellent hattrick of starters with his one. Film maker Mike Flanagan (who had formed a great striking partnership with Clive Allen at QPR in a past life) provided a rare full house which gave Sheffield the lead. So to the music starter. Being one of the hardest shows I can remember for some time, we had classical music, and not Mozart or Beethoven neither. Nobody recognised Brahms (no, I will not mention Are You Being Served? ) Fair play to Archie Broomfield who knew the Buddhist term samsara for the next starter. Although I would argue that the bonuses of classical pieces written as gifts for individuals weren’t much of a prize. None of us knew any of them. As it happens I several times passed by Fairey Engineering as I was going into Heathrow as a kid, so I comfortably beat Callum McClements to the next starter. Maths bonuses followed. I know you’ll be shocked at this, but I did get the last one right. So did Aberdeen. What, more Science? Yes, the next starter required the answer of the Planck Constant, given by Cameron Colclough. The Elizabethan navigator Martin Frobisher brought a little welcome relief – although the setters sneaked a question about Geology in there. Both Sheffield and I missed that one. So at the 20 minute mark, following as tough a ten minutes as I can remember on the show, Sheffield led by 80 – 65. For a second round match those scores tell their own story.

Archie Broomfield wiped out two thirds of the deficit knowing the term phenomenology. The origins of dance music genres gave both Aberdeen and me nothing – it was that kind of show. I was impressed with the speed with which Matthew Nail recognised a painting of Danae from Greek Mythology. (You want a reference to golden showers? You can provide it yourself. Dirty boys.) We all recognised a Klimt depiction of the same scene, but that was it for the bonuses. Miklagard – at last something I recognised. Zachary Eisler found his buzzer finger again to supply the correct answer that this was what the Vikings called Byzantium/Constantinople/Istanbul (delete where applicable). What did we get as bonuses? Early contributions to the study of climatology! Despite my dismay it was actually one of my better bonus rounds of the night where I knew both Halley and Franklin. So did Aberdeen. It was now all square between the teams. Hopelandic or Volenska was enough to bring in Matthew Nail with the name of popular Icelandic musical performers Sigur Ros. Hurrah! We had a literature set of bonuses, on juvenilia. At last I had a full house for my pains. Sheffield had the first two but missed out on Virginia ‘Big bad’ Woolf and Vanessa ‘Saved by the‘ Bell. Zachary Eisler worked out that the birds referred to in the next starter must be penguins. I could feel their dismay when they were given bonuses on treatments for syphilis. It showed in the way that they didn’t have a scooby on the first two, and passed on the gettable one on penicillin to have a go at another starter. On bloody Maths again! Matthew Nail knew about completing the square – no, me neither – to earn bonuses on film adaptations of Hamlet. Thankfully the contest was gonged before the set was completed. Sheffield had won by 130 – 105.

Sheffield won because they did better with the bonuses – their BCR of 47 was something of a triumph on this particular show. Aberdeen’s was slightly over 22, and I really don’t think mine was any better either.

Old, white bearded quizzers, such as myself, are given to saying that all questions are easy if you know the answer and by implication difficult if you don’t. I wouldn’t be surprised that if you have a background in he Sciences you would have done well on this episode. I only have a background in the Arts, and I found it a struggle. That’s the way the questions crumble, but my impression was that the balance could have been better.

Amol Watch

Yes, I’ve changed the heading of this section because we already know that Amol is doing us fine, thank you very much. What would Amol have done, I wonder, if any of the team members had responded to his matey ‘Any questions about the rules?’ at the start of the show? ‘No, thought not’ he answered his own question. I loved the look on his face when Emily Osborne facetiously suggested that the Swiss founder of the Red Cross was Toblerone.

It was to Emily Osborne that Amol offered the words of advice “Feel free to nominate one of your teammates if it makes things easier.” Which does illustrate one of the differences between Amol and his predecessor. Can you imagine how a vintage JP from c. 2010 would have phrased that admonition?

Interesting Fact That I Didn’t Already Know

Kraters – ancient Greek vessels for diluting wine, were often used as grave markers.

Baby Elephant Walk Moment

From the worlds of Science and Economics there were two absolute beauties in last night’s show -

Proteins that contain a mitochondrial targeting sequence can enter the mitochondria through the T-O-M or Tom40 pore in the outer mitochondrial membrane. Here 40 refers to the molecular mass of this protein and is measured in what units?

Then -

Dynamic stochastic general equilibrium models updated the neo-classical RBC theory, which explained macroeconomic fluctuations with technical shocks and productivity changes, allowing the economy to respond to changes rationally. For what do the letters RBC stand?

Dum de dumdum dum dum dum dum dumdum.

Mastermind 2024 First Round Heat 18

Happy New Year to you. I was very happy last night when Quizzy Monday returned last night – it kind of crept up on me, which is why there was no preview from me last Sunday. Excuses, excuses.

The dubious honour of being the first contender of 2024 then fell to Tom Adlam, who was answering on British Garden Birds. You know, about a quarter of a century ago a setter for one of the teams in the much missed Neath Quiz League set some questions once on the latin names of some common British birds. So, after that I set out to learn about 2 dozen of the most well-known. I did think that this might have stood me in good stead for Tom’s round. Nope. I was lucky to get one. Judging by the way he answered his questions there was no luck involved in Tom’s round whatsoever. . . He knew his stuff inside out. In fact, to me it was a better round than 11, and he was unlucky not to get into a dozen. A great round.

Had I made a preview of last night’s show then I would have said that Hayley Rowley’s subject, The Big Bang Theory, was my banker. Indeed, I managed four. I’d say I was in the position of a huge fan of the show, who goes on Mastermind having just maybe watched some of the shows again but not having done any serious revision. I’ve no doubt Hayley had prepared hard in order to get her respectable 7. But the thing is that there was just so much of it to learn. 279 episodes to be precise (I looked it up). Being four behind at half time is not insurmountable, but it really is quite an ask.

I remember Ian Hislop on the very first series of Who the ‘Ell Are You? (which I believe was the working title for the Beeb’s premier celebrity genealogy show). His mum, I think, was on Jersey during the occupation. Third contender Oliver Wilderspoon was offering us the German Occupation of the Channel Islands as his specialist subject. For me this was another of those rounds that should come with a Government health warning printed on the side. In big letters. Basically, anything and everything concerned with the Channel Islands between 1940 and 1945 was fair game, and it seemed to me that they rather threw the kitchen sink at Oliver. After a bit of a stuttering start he rallied well, and finished with his own respectable 7.

Finally then Akin Yilmaz. Akin was answering on the films of Orson Welles, a subject that brought me 2 points to take my aggregate to 7. One of my favourite stories I once heard Welles tell was when he explained that he once met William Randolph Hearst just before the premiere of Citizen Kane, and gave him a ticket. Unsurprisingly Hearst did not attend. Which led Welles to say that this was proof that Kane was not Hearst, because Charles Foster Kane would have come to the premiere. It really was not Akin’s night and he scored 2.

Sadly, it continued not to be Akin’s night in his GK round. To me he looked rather shell shocked in the chair. It’s not surprising since he’d had precious little time to gather himself after his specialist. He finished with a total of 6 points, to prove the old adage that sometimes when it’s not your night, then it’s really not your night.

So to Hayley. She was in the position of needing a big enough score to force the leader to have to traverse the corridor of doubt. I liked the way that she set out her stall to provide answers to every question. If you have the presence of mind to do it then you can end up with a couple of your wild guesses romping home into the winner’s enclosure. I don’t think that this happened with Hayley. She scored a battling seven, and while this was not going to be enough for a win, at least it gave her the satisfaction that she had done the best she could with the set of questions that she’d been given.

In the current era of the show when it comes to first round General Knowledge any double figure score is a good one. So I was delighted for Oliver Wilderspoon that this was exactly what he achieved. You know, you can always improve on your Specialist score, by changing our revision strategy, and picking a subject more conducive to a paid fire round of questions. There are no quick fixes for GK though. So I often feel that someone like Oliver is a decent shout for a return at some time in the future. As it was he set the target at 17.

This meant that a score of 6 and up to three passes was going to be enough for Tom. Well, we have seen a few contenders implode when faced with a similar prospect over the years, but I never thought that this was likely to happen with Tom, bearing in mind the way he handled his specialist round. Indeed, Tom would provide the best GK round of the night, adding 11 and 4 passes to his total, to reach the semi final with a score of 22. Well played there, sir. Happy New Year, and best of luck in the semi finals.

Tom Adlam	British Garden Birds	11	0	11	4	22	6
Hayley Rowley	The Big Bang Theory	7	0	7	0	14	0
Oliver Wilderspoon	The German Occupation of the Channel Islands	7	2	10	2	17	4
Akin Yilmaz	The Films of Orson Welles	2	1	4	4	6	5