University Challenge - Round One - Keble,Oxford v. University of East Anglia

Yes, I had a lovely time in my short flying visit to Amsterdam, thanks for asking. Enough of such things, and let's get down to business. 

What, end of round one already? Well, don’t worry, dearly beloved. There’s still tons of matches to go before the destination of the title is decided. In Monday’s match, Keble College were represented by Ellen Pasternack, Michael Green, Thomas Player and skipper Rose Atkinson, while UAE were, collectively, Edward Bellamy, Matt Reid, Maddy Forde-Roberts, and captain Matt Walker.

None of us knew that the name Chile appears in the binomial of a dinosaur. Not surprised, although I was surprised that Matt Reid took a flier and lost 5 on it. Nobody managed to guess the next starter either, which gave us various clues to the letters DR, or Dr, or dr. Finally, after both teams having sat on their buzzers for the whole question, Maddy Forde Roberts took first blood for UAE, recognising a description of The Color Purple. Shakespeare and German writers offered the chance to increase the score, and UAE managed two, and with a little rub of the green might have had a full house – the answer they wanted was on the table, as it were. Ellen Pasternack opened the Oxford team’s account with an early buzz to identify various varieties of rhubarb. Anatomical objects named after people sounded difficult, and indeed both of us managed just the one correct answer with fallopian tubes. The next starter was one which repaid patience. Dendrobatidae? Meant nothing to me. They secrete poison used to coat arrow tips – no problem and both Ellen Pasternack and I chimed in with the correct answer of frogs. Two bonuses gave Keble the lead. For the picture starter we were shown the great seal of an American state. JP said that all helpful words had been removed – well, I’m sorry but it was firstly the word Eureka which gave me California. Michael Green took that one. More seals and heraldic symbols with bears on them brought just the one correct answer. I was intrigued to see both teams showing buzzer caution for the next starter. I did think that when asked for the middle letter of a word referring to an earthy  shade between yellow and red the answer would be h – we had another couple of clues before Maddy Forde Roberts buzzed in with the same answer. The Association of South East Asian Nations brought UEA’s score to 35, while Keble led with 45 at just after the 10 minute mark.

Ellen Pasternack took a flyer with the next starter and was right to do so, as she recognised that the first clue of a set was referring to the word Hunger. 1 bonus on town halls in the north west of England saw them eke the lead out to 25 points. Maddy Forde-Roberts guessed that Fakir was the term which translated as poor man, and thus earned a set of bonuses on The Dead Kennedys. Two correct answers reduced the gap to 5 points. Rose Wilkinson buzzed early for the next starter, convinced she had the answer, only for JP to had a further word which convinced her that the answer she was going to say was wrong. Given the whole question, I’d thought it would be the artist Miro, and as soon as JP said he was born in Barcelona I knew it was. UAE could not capitalise. None of us knew that Cream of Tartar contains potassium. For the next starter, asked which geographical feature is contained in the name of certain given French regions, Rose Atkinson answered mountains. “Specifically?” countered JP She zigged with Alps, allowing Matt Walker to zag with Pyrenees. I shan’t lie. When JP announced bonuses on the periodic table I put my trainers back on in preparation for a lap of honour. Well that I did, for I scooped a full house. UAE threw away two bonuses. The first, by rejecting the correct answer of tellurium for another element. The second, though, by not remembering the terms of the question which had said that the answers all begin with the same first two letters. Thus they offered ytterbium instead of terbium. Nonetheless, that one bonus was enough to take their lead to 15 points. So to the music starter. We heard Good Morning Starshine, and Thomas Player was the one to take a speculative punt on Hair. He was right to do so, and it earned more songs from rock musicals, from which two correct answers gave Keble back the lead. Ellen Pasternack was able to supply the term systole for the next starter. Winners of the Best original song Oscar provided 10 more points to stretch the lead to 25. Would UEA bounce straight back, as they had done before? Yes, they would, and once again it was Maddy Forde-Roberts draggin her team back into the match. She knew that Elizabeth Woodville was the mother of the two princes in the Tower. Bonuses on biology reduced the gap to 5 points. A gap which was reduced when Rose Atkinson had a rush of blood to the head and buzzed too early for the next starter. Again, though, UEA could not capitalise with the name of the lumen. Thus, on the cusp of the 20 minute mark, all was square.

Now, Maddy Forde-Roberts knew that the only book of the Old Testament named after a queen is Esther, and she buzzed early to secure the points. Siblings in Russian Literature provided one bonus, but again potentially another was thrown away by forgetting the terms of the question, which saw Matt Reid supply Turgenev rather than the title of the novel involved. For the second picture starter we saw a still of Peter Cushing from what seemed to be a Hammer film. It was always going to be either Van Helsing or Baron Frankenstein. Thomas Player zigged with Van Helsing, and was right to do so. This earned bonuses on more fictional professors. Two bonuses on the same two that I knew followed. Both teams were now in triple figures. I didn’t know that the clarinet is used to represent the call of the cuckoo in Beethoven’s Pastorale, but I guessed, and I guess that Ellen Pasternack did the same. Sea bird colonies brought two bonuses and a 20 point lead. This time, Michael Green took Keble’s second consecutive starter, knowing that Germany is the country bordering certain named Swiss cantons. Missing words from quotations, each of which begun with z, supplied a couple of bonuses, and stretched the lead to 40. Nobody on either team knew that Arthur Ashe beat Jimmy Connors in the 1975 Wimbledon Men’s singles final. Ellen Pasternack recognised that The Autograph Man, I Capture the Castle, and Not Waving But Drowning were all written by female writers with the surname Smith. It wasn’t quite the end of the match, but it was the end of the contest. The starter alone put UAE two full sets in arrears, and there were the bonuses to come. One bonus on the name Phaedrus was enough to put the lead at 55. This was stretched further as Michael Green knew that the massive Buddhist monument of Borobodur is on the island of Java. Only one bonus of a gettable set on US State capitals was taken, but this was immaterial, even though Rose Atkinson forfeited 5 more points of Keble’s total by buzzing too early for the next starter. It allowed Edward Bellamy to answer that Yves St. Laurent had based a dress design on the work of Mondrian. They were unable to add any more points through a set of bonuses on insects. Ellen Pasternack knew that the two consecutive digits in the year in which Charles Edward Stewart won victory at Prestonpans, would be 45. The gong sounded immediately, and Keble had won by 180 to 115. It looks like a decisive scoreline, but UAE were in there right up until the last five minutes. JP seemed to rather acknowledge this in his closing comments. Without wishing to be unkind, there just wasn’t enough buzzing throughout the UAE team to withstand Keble for the whole match. Of their 7 starters, no fewer than five were taken by Maddy Forde-Roberts. This was compared with the excellent Ellen Pasternack’s contribution of 7 starters. Does this give Keble a good chance in the second round? Hard to say, and time will tell.

Jeremy Paxman Watch

There was a lovely moment immediately after JP had finished with the first starter, where he flung the card away as if to say, ‘I bloody told you there was no point in asking that one!’ When Rose Atkinson gave her Goya answer, and hung her head in seeming shame, he joshed, “Don’t cry!”. Then when she recovered, laughing at her own misfortune, he went back for another go, “There’s no cause to laugh” he expostulated in mock exasperation. Oh Jez, you old tease, you.

I have no idea why JP corrected Edward Bellamy’s pronunciation of Mondrian. He repeated it almost exactly the same way and then said, rather huffily “Yes, I’ll accept that.” Would that possibly be because it was correct and you didn’t have any other option, there Jez?

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

Nouns that are only used as plurals are correctly known as pluralia tantum

Brain of Mensa 2018

I often tell people that I'm semi retired from quizzes now. However there is still one competition that I love playing in, and that's Brain of Mensa. It’s not entirely true that I only joined Mensa so that I could play in Brain of Mensa. However it is true that it was a big factor in my decision to take the tests in 2013 to see if I could get in. 

I played in the 2014 competition, and got to the final, where I was comprehensively beaten by the mighty Les Hurst, and that year’s champion, Egghead Steve Cook. To be honest, I’m not entirely sure I made a conscious decision not to enter in 2015, but just never got round to it. Still, I did miss playing in the competition that year, so I made up my mind that I would enter again in 2016. I also took a long hard look at myself, and thought about my attitude. Did I want to win? Too royal I did. Did I think it was going to be easy? No, 2014 had proven that. So I gave myself 10 years to try to win. 

Come 2016 I won my heat, and came second to Les in my semi. At least this time though I wasn’t beaten out of sight, and with a dollop of luck on my side could have pushed him even closer. Well, that dollop of luck came my way in large amounts in the 2016 final in London. I don’t think it was by a huge amount, but I won. Which caused me to rethink my attitude. Now that I’d won, I didn’t need to put any pressure on myself, I could just play for the fun and enjoy it. And I did enjoy 2017’s competition. I was out with the washing, and frankly lucky to get second. Les put in probably the most complete performance I’ve ever seen in a final in 2017, and thoroughly deserved his 4^th win.  

So to yesterday’s 2018 final. I thoroughly enjoyed a great quiz, expertly put together by Brian Daugherty, which was played in the right spirit. At the end of the 6 rounds, both Les and I were tied with the same score. We both agreed that we were perfectly happy to leave it as it was, and share the win. It seemed that Brian would have gone along with this as well, but Bobby from Mensa, very apologetically, explained that they have to have just the one champion (although he didn’t really explain why). Neither Les nor I really wanted to play the round of 6 questions to decide things, but we didn’t really have any choice. So, to cut to the chase, the records will say that I won, because I answered one more question out of 6 right. Don’t get me wrong, I am absolutely delighted to become a double BOM winner, and to get my name on the trophy again. However, the fact is, whatever the record books say, we all know that Les and I were joint winners.

Brain of Mensa Medals - L to R - back  - Bronze - 3rd place 2014,  Silver - 2nd place 2017, Front - Gold - 1st place 2018, Gold - 1st place 2018

University Challenge - East London v. Manchester

East London v. Manchester

Welcome back UC. You were only gone for a fortnight, but I still missed you. There was a big, gaping, UC shaped hole in that Monday evening. Still, you’re back as the second half of the OC/UC double whammy, and all’s right with the world.

Let’s begin with East London. They were represented by Chloe Knecht, Stephen Harvie, Scott Danielsen and captain Chris O’Mahony. Opposition, from the mighty Manchester University, came in the shape of Alex Antao, Georgia Lynott, Joe Hanson and skipper James Ross.

Georgia Lynott took first blood, showing a nippy buzzer finger to come in early to identify the word gig. Dramatic theory (the theory of relativity was a pretty dramatic theory, I would have thought) provided Manchester with 2 correct answers. Georgia Lynott again buzzed early for the next starter knowing that political leader – and – Sir Peter Lely – was only going to have the answer Oliver Cromwell. Macro provided another 10 points. Next followed a UC special starter – one of those take the number of – divide it by the number of – add the number of questions. Nobody had it. Scott Danielsen from east London knew that if the question mentions Valparaiso and Mendoza, it’s got to be about Argentina and Chile. Bonuses on finches brought 2 bonuses of their own. Alex Antao took a flyer with the next starter. I understand why he suggested that sarcophagus has the meaning preserver of flesh – but actually its meaning is the opposite – eater of flesh. Given the rest of the question it became clearer that the word we were looking for, as supplied by Scott Danielsen, was creosote. Pairs of words, in which one has added at – at the start – eg tract and attract – formed a lovely little UC special set, and provided, well nowt, I’m afraid, and they really should have done better with them. None of us recognised the outline of Panama for the first picture starter. This rather handily brought us to the brink of the 10 minute mark, with both teams off the mark. Manchester led by 35 to 30. Chances of both teams going through, though, looked slim.

Alex Antao came in early to give us Snell’s Law for the next starter. This won the picture bonuses, more Geographical locations sharing their names with types of hat. A couple of bonuses were taken. James Ross knew that Shah Jahan ordered the building of the Taj Mahal, but that wasn’t what the question was going to ask about, and he lost five. Given the full question which took a bit of a swerve, Scott Danielsen knew that the second largest city of Pakistan is Lahore. Astronomy provided no bonuses for East London, but I took one with perihelion, and set off on my lap of honour. Thus I missed out on another Astronomy question which allowed Joe Hanson to have his own correct interruption with the Large Magellanic Cloud. The author Rosemary Hill brought just the one bonus. Now, when you hear ‘French painter’ and ‘Aix en Provence’ you really need to slam the buzzer through the desk and answer Cezanne because he does recur on a semi regular basis. Before the end of the question Alex Antao gave away five by chancing his arm with Monet. East London couldn’t capitalise. Both teams sat on their buzzer through the next starter, allowing Stephen Harvie to come in with Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire. Now, you should know that if you get a set of bonuses on 18^th century furniture designers the chances are that the answers will be Hepplewhite, Sheraton and Chippendale. Can you get them in the right order, though? East London didn’t, taking just the one bonus. So to the music starter. Sounded like Rachmaninov to me, but not to either team, apparently, but Rachmaninov it was. Once again, both teams dwelt on their buzzers for the next starter, allowing Stephen Harvie I to identify Goldsmith’s village. This brought the dubious honour of the music bonuses, which were recordings of Rachmaninov playing works by other composers. They had the first full house of the night. This gave them the  lead for the first time in the competition. James Ross brought his team right back in with a fantastic early buzz which identified various First Secretaries of State. Quotations beginning with the prefix self- were enough to level the scores at 80 apiece as we were about to hit the 20 minute mark. Good contest.

Stephen Harvie restored the East London lead, knowing that Mrs. Gaskell published a biography of Charlotte Bronte. Biology bonuses followed. I considered a lap of honour for peristalsis, but inertia overruled me. Two bonuses took East London into three figures. Scott Danielsen added to the score knowing geographical regions linked by the name Salvador. The Pacific Theatre in World War II saw them only take one of a very gettable set of bonuses. So to the picture starter with a promotional still from the early 80s dramatization of Brideshead Revisited. James Ross again played a captain’s innings, taking the starter to narrow his team’s deficit. Stills from more of the UK’s top TV progs of the 20^th century as selected by the BFI provided Manchester with the points they needed for their own triple figure score. Alex Antao was the first in to recognise the definition of a hyperbola. Bonuses linked by the word fury brought the two bonuses they needed to retake the lead. Stephen Harvie knew various literary Roberts for the next starter. World politics in 1999 brought two bonuses, and a 15 point lead. It was all desperately close – squeaky bum time, in fact. Something chemical came next and Alex Antao was in very quickly with the correct answer of magnesium. Recent element names were a gift, which gave me a rare Science full house. Manchester also lapped these up. They were in the driving seat, especially when Alex Antao came in very early to correctly identify the Tagus as the longest river of the Iberian peninsula. Joe Hanson was already raising his fists in triumph. Would this celebration be premature? It looked unlikely since there was hardly any time left. Indeed we were gonged after one incorrectly answered bonus. Manchester had won by 155 to 135.

One fancies they might have won more convincingly if it hadn’t been for some wild early buzzing, but the other side of that particular coin is that they did win it on faster buzzing, and what seemed to me a slightly better rate on the bonuses. Good contest.

Jeremy Paxman Watch

We saw a little touch of exasperation from our hero when East London failed to really get to grips with one of the At- bonuses. They had atrium, but couldn’t get ria from it. “All you had to do was put A-T in front of it he sniffed.” WRONG! That would have given you atatria actually. The point was you had to take the AT away. – See Jez, I can be pedantic too!

His eyebrows shot towards the ceiling when Manchester suggested Gaudi was a leading figure of the Gothic revival in England. “It’s a terrible answer!” he confirmed when Joe Hanson offered this honest appraisal of his own work.

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

Creosote has the literal meaning ‘preserver of meat’

Mastermind Heat 4

Well, here we are, dearly beloved, another heat of Mastermind on a Friday evening. What could be much better than that? The big question for me was – were we going to see the kind of fireworks that we saw in last week’s high scoring heat? Experience suggested that we probably weren’t, and indeed we didn’t, but there was still much to enjoy.

The first specialist subject on offer in this heat was the History of Zimbabwe, offered to us by Paul Muddle. I didn’t expect to answer many of these correctly, yet it proved to give me my best specialist score of the night with 5. Paul did quite a bit better than this. His 12 points was the kind of score that you need to make sure that you are at the very least still in contention when the GK round comes along.

Next through the portal of portent was Ben Fasham. He gave us a good historical figures subject in the shape of Henry the Navigator.  Now, Henry the Navigator is one of those figures of whom many of us have heard, but about whom many of us know relatively little. That was my experience anyway as I struggled to 3 points. Ben, though, coped more than admirably, and in fact was on for a perfect round until the very last question, where he failed to dredge up the name of the right pope. Ah, them pesky popes.

John comes up with some odd things some times. Third contender Neil Chapman had passed through the portal, sat down and announced his subject of Sunderland AFC, when John took it into his head to start dissing his team. “. . . who won the FA Cup a VERY long time ago. “ Neil wasn’t having any of that, knowing full well that Sunderland have actually won it twice. Still, once that was over, the round began, and while it wasn’t nearly perfect like Ben’s, it was just as effective, as Neil too amassed a score of 12, and I added 4 more to my total.

Now, be honest, when you heard that the last round, offered by Sue Duffy, was about Elizabeth Taylor, did you think she meant the film star? I did. I’ve never to my knowledge heard of Elizabeth Taylor the novelist. Under those circumstances I suppose I was lucky to get one. Sue was asked one of those – ‘even if you haven’t heard it you can work it out from the question’ types- if you were banned from entering the USA because you belonged to a political party, the communist party is always going to be a good guess. Enough about me, Sue had a perfect round, and ended in the lead with 14.

Once again, my congratulations and thanks to all the contenders. I know how much time and effort it costs to learn a Mastermind subject that well, and I do love it when all 4 contenders do this well in specialist.

Now, though, we moved to the GK. We had the interesting situation that the contenders would all be returning to the chair in the same order as in the specialist round. This meant that Paul was first to return. After about a minute it became pretty clear that we weren’t going to see another round of 17 or 18. However, scores of that magnitude are pretty exceptional. What we did see was a good round of 13, achieved through what looked like a massive amount of concentration on the job in hand.

It was a score which was too high for Ben Fasham to match. For much of the round it looked possible that he might get there, but he’d slipped off the pace before the blue line of doom started to appear around his score. 11 points for 23 certainly gave him respectability, though, and double figure scores in both rounds.

The most interesting GK round of the night was Neil Chapman’s. I say this, pretty sure that it won’t be of much comfort to Neil himself should he read this, but it started so well. Of the first 7 or so questions, Neil had the first 6 right, with just the one pass. His tactic seemed clear, to answer what he knew as quickly as possible, and pass quickly if he didn’t have a clue. And don’t knock that, it’s a perfectly valid tactic. However, after about a minute he picked up a couple of passes in a row, and something changed. It seemed as if his memory had suddenly started refusing to give answers which he knew that he knew. In the end, he scored 9 to take his total to 21. Perfectly respectable, but a shame for Neil since the start of the round had promised so much more.

So to Sue Duffy. The bare facts of the matter were that her GK round had given her a two point cushion. She needed 11 and 3 passes to force a tie break. Anything less would not be enough, and anything better would give her the outright win. She was always up with the clock , and in terms of progression through the round, this was pretty similar to Paul’s. She hit the target just before the blue line of death appeared, which enabled her to match Neil’s GK score of 13, giving her 27. Well done! Best of luck in the semis.

The Details

Paul Muddle	The History of Zimbabwe 1890 - 1990	12	0	13	3	25	3
Ben Fasham	Prince Henry the Navigator	12	0	11	1	23	1
Neil Chapman	Sunderland AFC 1945- date	12	2	9	5	21	7
Sue Duffy	The Life and Works of Elizabeth Taylor	14	0	13	2	27	2

Mastermind 2019 - Heat 3

I have to thank everyone involved in this particular edition of the show. It had been a hard week at work, and I thoroughly enjoyed this heat. It was exactly what I needed at the end of a hard week.

So, then, the first contender through the portal of portent was Kenny Alexander. Kenny was offering us the Alien film franchise. Now, I’ve seen the first 4 Alien films, and Prometheus, but that’s about the length of it, and I couldn’t remember much more than the first of them. So I was surprised and delighted to achieve my best specialist score of the series so far with 6. Basically these came from a couple of guesses, and from knowledge of the first film. Kenny showed no difficulty whatsoever dealing with the demands of this round, and indeed managed 13. As we know, a score in the teens on specialist is the sign of a round of quality.

When I saw that Tim Fowler was answering on Peter Gabriel I fancied that I might well have another decent specialist round. This proved to be the case, and in fact I raised the bar for my best specialist round of the series to 8. This meant that I was already on 14 for the show, with 2 rounds still to come. Tim’s round looked to me to be of a similar level to Kenny’s, and he was maybe a little unlucky that he didn’t quite get that extra question to take him up to the teens. Nonetheless, 12 is a highly competitive specialist score, and he would have every chance in the GK.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, I do enjoy a Mastermind where all of the contenders have really got to grips with preparing for their specialist subjects, and this show was shaping up to be one of these. The next contender, Helen O’Connell, had certainly done so. Now, when I heard that she was answering on the History of Prague, again I was mentally rubbing my hands together in anticipation, since I had a wonderful stay in Prague 18 months ago or so. Indeed, the 5 points I picked up took me to 19, just shy of the 20 point mark, with one round still to come. As had Tim just before her, she came up just one point shy of Kenny’s leading mark, with an impressive 12 and 2 passes.

So, would our final contender maintain the excellent form being shown by this clutch of contenders? Well, when I saw that it was 2015 semi finalist Brian Davis, I felt pretty sure that he would. His subject? The Life of Henry VII. Well, I didn’t quite jump out of my chair in excitement, but I knew that I’d have a decent chance of getting another decent score here. In fact it was my joint highest round of the night, with another 8 points taking my aggregate to 27, the highest I’ve managed for a long time. As for Brian, well, he too fell just that one point short of Kenny, but as a seasoned Masterminder he was certainly going to be in the shakeup in the GK round.

So, obviously it helped that each subject was something I knew a little bit about, but that was a really enjoyable specialist round. I don’t want to see people having a ‘mare. I like to see people doing excellently, like this.

So to the GK. First back was Tim, and what followed was a round from the top drawer. In the last series or two, I’d say that in a 2 ½ minute GK round, 12 or 13 is a decent score, 14 to 16 is a good score, and 17+ is a great score. I’d say that to get 17 you have to show the breadth of knowledge of a good quizzer – AND – you have to have the composure to keep it going throughout the whole round. Trust me, it ain’t easy. So when Tim pushed his score to 29, I have to admit that I felt a small pang of regret that the game was over so early into the second round. Little did I know. . .

So, Helen returned to the chair. John reminded her of the massive score that she needed to take the lead, and her reaction suggested that she believed that there was little chance of this happening. Two and a half minutes later, and she had produced a round that was even better than Tim’s. Not by much, but the one point difference between 17 and 18 was enough to give her the magical 30 points, and the lead. What a good round this was. Now, it’s not every show that we get even one round of the quality of Tim’s and Helen’s. Shows where we get two are much rarer. What were the chances, then, that Brian would make it three?

Well, at first it seemed perhaps not. I felt Brian made rather a hesitant start. However he soon clicked into top gear, and with about a minute left on the clock it seemed as if it was anybody’s game. However, as the blue line of doom started circumnavigating the score it seemed as if Brian was just going to fall a wee bit short. It was desperately close, but Brian finished with his own 17 pointer for 29. After such a great round, learning that he’d fallen short, you might have expected Brian to show disappointment, but instead he laughed, smiled, and I felt, showed joy in what he’d managed to do rather than disappointment in what he’d not managed. An example to us all, sir.

After the pyrotechnics we’d seen from the others, John told Kenny that he was ruling nothing out in his round. However expecting all four contenders to deliver such fantastic rounds in what was, after all, a first round heat, is probably too much to ask. Kenny gave it a good old lash, but he was too far behind the clock by the one minute mark. In the end he added 8 to take his total to 21. As John remarked, this is a perfectly respectable score, but it was put into shadow by the three rounds we’d seen before.

What a great show! I tell you what, though, I’m glad we have repechage slots now. There was one show in my series in which I think 3 contenders all scored 29. Only winners went through to the semis back then, and so two contenders had these fantastic scores, yet were out of the competition. Brutal. I shouldn’t be surprised to see both Tim and Brian in the semis after this.

So well done Helen, a fantastic performance which promises much for the semis. Best of luck. But well done to everyone. Note to prospective producers of the next series – now THAT’s how you do Mastermind!

The Details

Kenny Alexander	The Alien films	13	1	8	5	21	6
Tim Fowler	Peter Gabriel	12	1	17	0	29	1
Helen O’Connell	The History of Prague	12	2	18	2	30	2
Brian Davis	The Life of Henry VII	12	0	17	0	29	0

University Challenge 2019 - Round One - UCL v. King's, London

UCL v. King’s London

Our second London University derby of the season pitted UCL against King’s. UCL were, George Mitkov, Sophia Walker, Feiyu Fang and captain Robert Johnstone. King’s in their turn were represented by Liam Tsang, Rhianne Jones, Katie Heath and their own skipper Anthony Chater.

The first starter was one of those where you have to wait and wait until it suddenly becomes obvious then slam the buzzer through the desk. Looking for a word linking several works, the most obvious was the last. If it’s by Jung Chang, then it’s wild swans, and so the answer must be wild. Sophia Walker knew that, and took the points, earning a set of bonuses on a set of quotations whose final words rhymed with each other. They took two , but I’m a little surprised that nobody knew the James Joyce quote. Now, if the question asks for an American memorial, you’re immediately thinking of Mount Rushmore, especially so when the question also uses the words carved – and – granite -. So George Mitkov was doing the right thing when he buzzed in early with the correct answer. Members of bands mentioned in the title of “All the Madmen: To the Dark Side of English Rock” brought UCL a single bonus. Now, me, I thought Allopatric was the correct greeting for the late famous TV stargazer Mr. Moore, but apparently it’s a term in biology as well, which Liam Tsang took on the buzzer. Philosophers according to their descriptions in the 1907 Nuttall Encyclopaedia brought King’s a full set. Anthony Chater made it 5 from 5 for King’s, knowing that Inigo Jones designed the Queen’s House in Greenwich. Very nice it is too. Lanthanide elements was the subject of the bonuses. I duly strapped on my trainers since a lap of honour opportunity seemed to be in the offing. I didn’t get Cerium, but Neodymium was good enough and off I trotted, bagging Praseodymium as I was making the circuit. The picture starter was a map showing the locations of three major industrial museums in the UK. When asked for the activity around which all three are themed, well, the South Wales one looked like Blaenavon to me, which meant that Big Pit colliery museum. I was right, and so was Rhianne Jones. Three more maps of themed industrial heritage museums brought a third consecutive full set to King’s, whose bonus conversion rate at this point was 100%. At the 10 minute mark they led by 75 – 35.

Now, for the next starter I was sure it was cricket from the George Orwell quote, but the moment it mentioned E.W. Hornung I knew it was. He created Raffles, and Raffles played cricket for England when he wasn’t robbing the rich and stupid. Neither team was quick to take a punt until Sophia Walker buzzed in to get UCL’s show back on the road. British History brought no points. I was very surprised that they didn’t get New Model Army, but there we are, they’re all easy if you know them. Sophia Walker, who was having a great evening on the buzzer so far, had a good guess that it was TS Eliot being referenced in the next question. Amino acids promised me nothing, which is exactly what they brought me. They brought one bonus to UCL. Liam Tsang struck like a coiled cobra to take the next starter, knowing the inscription on the gravestone of Boltzmann. I prefer Spike Milligan’s – he has “I told you I was ill” in Gaelic. Sisters in 20^th century US fiction finally saw King’s drop bonuses, and they failed to add to their score. I only knew the last one because of the film of Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?. So to the music starter and it fell to George Mitkov to identify the work of Maurice Ravel. Three more French composers brought one correct answer. Now, you had to stick with the next one, but when it ended with the 1513 death of one of the two countries’ kings in battle while invading the other it was obvious this must have been Flodden, so the two countries were England and Scotland. We’d already seen that UCL are no great shakes on History, but neither it appeared were King’s, as both teams were somewhat wide of the mark. Asked for an ancient Lebanese seaport, I don’t blame George Mitkov for zigging early with Tyre, but the question alluded to it being the origin for the Greek word for book, and that meant it could only be Byblos. So to the next starter, and it was Sophia Walker who identified the town of Aix En Provence from a series of clues. China in the 1920s brought up two bonuses, and this gave UCL back the lead. The indefatigable Sophia Walker stretched this lead by buzzing early to identify Zadie Smith’s novel “Swing Time”. This took UCL to 100, and Robert Southey gave them ten more points. So, just after the 20 minute mark, superior buzzing had seen UCL forge a lead of 110 to King’s 85.

The second picture starter saw George Mitkov identify the work of Frank Gehry. Other examples of Blobism or Blob Architecture brought UCL a full house. Their bonus conversion rate seemed to be improving as the contest continued, and it really meant that King’s were going to have to start slinging some buzzer seriously if they were going to come back into contention. Skipper Robert Johnstone took the next one on the volley for UCL, though, knowing the septum as defined in the question. A set of relative gimmes on pregnancy gave them another full house, and things were looking bleak for King’s now. Skipper Anthony Chater went for his buzzer on the next starter, but was beaten to the draw by George Mitkov, who knew that the two Prime Ministers mentioned in the question both succeeded the Pitts. Another two bonuses on ferns followed, and UCL now had a lead of 95.A really nice UC special gave us a series of actors, all of whose first names began with A and their surnames began with B – but only some of their prominent roles. First to work it out correctly was Liam Tsang. History bonuses didn’t promise much bearing in mind previous form, but they managed one. This took them to 100 points, which shortly became 110 when Liam Tsang had another lightning buzz to identify the SI unit asked for as the second. Geological periods named after Geographical areas brought just one bonus. Sadly their bonus for, so impressive earlier in the contest, seemed to have deserted them when they needed it most. For the next starter I zigged with infra red while Liam Tsang correctly zagged with ultraviolet for his treble. Professional cycling brought 2 bonuses. They’ve put on 50 points in short time, but there just wasn’t enough time for King’s to get much closer. Mind you, Anthony Chater still buzzed early for the next starter on baseball, and added another ten points. That was it though, as the contest was gonged halfway through a second bonus on Edward Albee.

UCL won with 185 – 145. This was a game won on the buzzer, with Sophia Walker particularly impressive for UCL. Well done, and best of luck in round two. As for King’s, it just begs the question why they only found their buzzer fingers in the last few minutes – it’s not as if UCL were that fast on all of their bonuses – just on some of them. As the old maxim goes, it’s bonuses for show, but buzzers for dough.  Good game though, and well played to both teams.

Jeremy Paxman Watch

UCL are on - I announced to no one in particular. - I bet JP calls them the Godless Institution of Gower Street. - He ALWAYS says this. Well, he didn’t when he introduced UCL. This was just to lull me into a false sense of security, though, for he brought it into his introduction of King’s.

Halfway through the third starter he stopped and asked Sophia Walker “Are you alright?” – I think she may have been choking for a moment. Time was when he’d have followed her announcement that she was fine with the words ‘Well sit up straight and pay attention then!’ He’s definitely mellowed.

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

David Bowie covered ‘See Emily Play’ on one of his albums.

Monosodium glutamate was first derived in 1908 from seaweed.

Mastermind 2019 - Round One Heat Two

Another Friday evening, and another heat of new-look Mastermind. I have to be honest, I don’t think it makes any difference to the show itself, but I think I rather like the way the contenders enter now. The first of these then was Tara Martel. Her subject was Alan Turing. I felt that she had a little bit of a shaky start, but we quite often see rounds speed up as the blue line of doom starts to appear, and she took her total to a very healthy 11. Incidentally, if I did an ‘interesting fact that I didn’t already know’ for Mastermind each week, then this week’s would definitely be that Turing had to agree to chemical castration. Absolutely shocking.  

Second through the portal of portent (yes, I have spent all week thinking that one up) was Mark Hopes. Now, speaking of portents, the last time someone took a bridge as a specialist subject was, I believe, me, in the final of the 2008 Season of Blessed Memory. So I was willing him on, and it seemed to work. Boy, did Mark know his stuff. In fact it was a perfect round right up to the very last question, a fact which John bemoaned as he announced Mark’s score of 13.  

Coming next was Susan Murray, the first teacher to feature in this year’s series. Now, I am still the last schoolteacher to win a series. I’ve always said, and I mean it as well, that I will be very happy when someone else takes the mantle from me. Still, I did realise that this season I join my friend David Edwards as being the joint longest reigning holder of the unofficial title of last schoolteacher to win. David won in 1990, and I’m fairly sure that the next schoolteacher to win was Michael Penrice in Discovery Mastermind in 2001. I only say fairly sure because it’s been a little harder to find out the professions of a couple of the Radio 4 Mastermind champs. Still, even if a teacher wins this year, that will still make it 11 years for me as well. Apologies for that pointless digression. Susan was answering on the films of the brilliant Frank Capra. Films can be a really tricky subject, and the whole oeuvre of one individual can offer question setters plenty of opportunity to catch you out. No doubt at all that Susan knew her stuff, but by the end of the round she hadn’t quite managed double figure and a deficit of 4 points looked quite a large one to have to overcome.  

Finally solicitor Andrew Brewer offered us the third ‘traditional’ subject of the evening in the shape of the Emperor Vespasian. This gave me my best SS round of the evening , but I still only scored 4. So far on both shows I haven’t managed an aggregate of double figures on specialist yet. I know enough about Vespasian to know that this was a really testing set of questions, and so Andrew’s score of 11 was a pretty good one. So well done to all of the contenders. I love it when everyone has obviously done their preparation properly. I can’t help it – I’m a teacher, so what else would you expect? 

“They don’t know what the other contenders have scored.” John announced again as we began the GK round. Yes, fine John, but it really doesn’t make any difference. Trust me, it doesn’t. First back was Susan Murray, and I fancy she may have left the show wondering what might have happened had she picked a different specialist subject. I say this, because she treated us to a fine GK round of 15 to take her total to 24. Another couple of points on Specialist, and she may well have put herself into contention for a repechage slot. As it was, though, it looked likely that at least one of the other contenders would improve upon this score. It wouldn’t be Tara Martel, though. She battled her way through the round, but never quite established the kind of momentum that you need if you’re going to steer your way through the round into a score in the teens. She did manage to get into double figures, and finished with a very respectable 22.  

Now, if Susan had provided us with a very good round of 15 – and she had – then Andrew, in his turn, provided an excellent one. He rattled his way through the first minute or so that well that I did at one point think he might go through the whole round hardly dropping any points and amassing a cricket score. Well, he didn’t quite do that in the end, but it must be said that his score of 17 is a formidable one, and a significant achievement. This meant that half time leader Mark Hopes would need at least 15 and no more than 3 passes just to take it to a tie break. To be fair to Mark it never looked as if he was likely to come close to the required total. He missed some fairly innocuous questions, and as behind the clock even before it reached the one minute mark. Them’s the breaks. I was glad for him that he did make double figures before the end of the round, finishing with a creditable 23. This meant that all 4 of our contenders reached double figures, and all 4 of our contenders ended with a score in the 20s. So even though Andrew was a clear winner – and very well done, sir, for that – all 4 of our contenders had acquitted themselves well, and could walk back through the portal of portent ( see, I did it again) with their heads held high. I like that.  

The Details 

Tara Martel	Alan Turing	11	0	11	2	22	2
Mark Hopes	The Golden Gate Bridge	13	0	10	4	23	4
Susan Murray	The Films of Frank Capra	9	0	15	0	24	0
Andrew Brewer	The Emperor Vespasian	11	2	17	1	28	3