A Quiz of Three Teams

Yes, dearly beloved, I know you’re dying to know how the quiz went on Thursday night. In fact that’s why I’m posting about it now and not later in the weekend. I don’t want you suffering from anxiety. Well, it went okay, I think. It was difficult to judge because there were only 3 teams last night. I was put in mind of one of my favourite “Not the Nine O’Clock News” sketches from about 1982. It’s a Rowan Atkinson single hander, where he plays a vicar whose church is hosting an edition of Songs of Praise. He begins “You join a full congregation of local people who have come to worship tonight. Indeed it makes quite a change to have so many here because it wasn’t quite the same story last week, was it? Last week the congregation numbered 7, four of whom had turned up a week early by mistake. The previous week, Harvest Sunday, there were 3 of us. Myself, the organist Mr. Posner, and a tin of spaghetti.” If you’d like to check it out, here’s the link - Not the Nine O'Clock News - Songs Of Praise - YouTube

Now, I’m not for one minute suggesting that the three teams last night resembled a tin of spaghetti in any way, shape or form. No, all that I meant was that I do understand why people can’t come every week – there’s holidays, the beginning of the long cold and flu season, and the feeling of -I don’t want to play on my own if nobody else can come, but it was a slightly strange experience doing a quiz with so few teams.

It’s a shame really that there weren’t more teams because it was quite tight all the way through the quiz, and at the end after all the shouting there were only 3 points separating all 3 teams. I’m pleased for the winners, because whatever you say it must be a little bit disheartening turning up week after week and knowing that – God, this is going to sound smug and arrogant, but I can’t think of a better way of phrasing it – knowing that you’re probably playing for second place at best. But I have to say that I’m particularly pleased for my team. As I was compiling the quiz last week I was conscious of thinking – you are at a distinct disadvantage in this quiz if you’re less than fifty years old. Well the three of them fall a couple of decades short of this age. Yet they finished joint second, only 3 points behind the winners. And they won the picture quiz as well.

Well, nobody was moaning loudly enough at the end of the quiz for me to hear them so I think I did alright. Dai Norwich ( so called because a) his name is David, and b) he’s connected with Norwich) asked me if I’d do the New Year quiz, so hopefully he won’t ask me again before then.

University Challenge: Round One: Glasgow v. Queen's University, Belfast

The Teams

Glasgow

Nabil Yousif

Alison Nunziante

Harry Brennan (capt)

Imogen Miller

Queen’s Belfast

Michael Sharry

Jack McInerney

Courtney Campbell (capt)

Luke Duffy

Well, here we are, dearly beloved, pretty much half way through the first round. Doesn’t time just fly? A famous quotation from William Morris – with the magic word being ‘beautiful’ – brought the first starter to Imogen Millar for Glasgow. Women who were their country’s first female head of government brought a couple of bonuses, while they missed out on Corazon Aquino. Imogen Miller took her second consecutive starter , seeing knitting as the connection between Gromit, Tom Daley and les Tricoteuses (who incidentally had a minor 1963 hit with the song ‘Ce n’est pas Mon Cheval, c’est Ma Femme!’). English castles only provided a single bonus. Michael Sharry, for the first but certainly not the last time in the contest buzzed in to identify the Juneteenth holiday in the USA. A full house of bonuses on pomegranates – and why not? – followed. For the picture starter we saw the bird of paradise from the flag of Papua New Guinea. Harry Brennan won the buzzer race to identify it. Far play to Glasgow, they managed two of the other birds on other flags, but missed out on Kiribati. Neither of the teams managed to dredge up the name of the Bridgewater Canal for the next starter, and Courtney Campbell lost five of her team’s points by being just a wee bit too quick on the buzzer. Now, be honest, if you’re an oldie like me, did you too shout out MASH!  The moment the name Larry Gelbart was mentioned in the next starter? It could, to be fair, also have been about the film Tootsie. But Mash it was, as Michael Sharry suggested in his second buzz of the night. Films by Dee Rees did not enable me to trouble the scorer further on this set, more importantly Queen’s didn’t add to their score either. So as we approached the 10 minute mark Glasgow looked pretty decent value for their lead of 55 – 30.

None of us knew enough about the Copley Medal for the next starter. Now, for the next starter Agaricus was the big clue that we were dealing with a mushroom, as Harry Brennan knew. Cognitive Behavioural Therapy is not, if I’m honest, something I know a great deal about. At least Glasgow managed one of the bonuses with dialectic. Michael Sharry looked disbelieving as he offered Snowdonia as the National Park home to the highest British mountains outside of Scotland, but he was right. Novels that have won the Booker since 2002 somehow managed to completely elude Queens, even though I’d say that Wolf Hall was a bit of a sitter, and The Testaments not that difficult either. A lovely UC starter special followed , when we were asked for the three letters beginning various words – caesura being the first. Harry Brennan again struck for his team. Space exploration only yielded one bonus, but it was enough to mean that Glasgow had over double Queen’s score at this point. For the music starter I was so shocked to hear something that I actually knew that I didn’t shout out ‘Calamity Jane’ for at least half a second. Michael Sharry let Glasgow have a pop before coming in with the correct answer. More songs from Western musicals saw Queen’s fall a little wide of the mark. They really were having a shocking time with their bonuses. The next starter saw Harry Brennan identify the year of Charles Dickens’ birth as 1812. Two bonuses on Belize and its wildlife took Glasgow through the 100 point barrier. With ages left on the clock, you’d have put money on Glasgow at the very least getting a repechage score. Well, good job that you didn’t. Michael Sharry put together a long eared American hair and a very large fruit and came up with jack. At last Queen’s managed to do something with their bonuses, scoring a full house on Catherine the Great. Courtney Campbell played a captain’s innings by recognising various people linked by the name Clara for the next starter. Technical terms with similar sound or spelling to an item of clothing brought more points. Suddenly, as we approached the 20 minute mark, Queen’s found themselves just 15 behind, as Glasgow led by 105- 90.

I often tell anyone who’ll listen that if the question is asking about types of a specific flower, then the answer will be orchid more often than it’s not. It was now for the next starter. Neither team had it though. A lovely lovely starter followed, asking you to combine a female monster of Greek myth and the author of Germinal to get Gorgonzola. Jack McInerney took his first starter with this one. Opera and cinema saw Queen’s return to their former bonus profligacy, and hey didn’t get any of them. Nobody knew T for tunnelling in some internet abbreviation thingy – stop me if I get too technical. Nobody recognised a still from the film “Do the Right Thing” for the second picture starter. That man Michael Sharry suggested a carpet on the V and A reckoned to be the oldest in the world is Persian. We both managed a couple of the picture bonuses, and Queen’s were ahead for the first time in the contest. Michael Sharry, who frankly was winning the buzzer contest almost singlehandedly for Queen’s, correctly guessed that Wendy Cope’s bloody poem is about bloody buses. Bonuses on the digestive process followed. Now, you might have notice that this week has thus far been a lap free zone. I awarded myself one for guessing that the pancreas is responsible for the release of protease, amylase and lipase (who were each defeated by the Fantastic Four in the 1960s). Well, you have to get your lap of honour where you can. Again, a bonus set went begging for Queen’s. I loved the next starter for making the connection between The Thousand Eyes of Doctor Mabuse, and Strictly Come Dancing Goddess Oti Mabuse. Sadly neither team had it. Jack McInerney took his second starter, knowing that the recycling symbol is actually a type of Mobius strip. Only one bonus on Chinese dynasties and inventions followed. But Queen’s didn’t care, they were battering Glasgow out of the competition on the buzzer. Reliable Michael Sharry ensured that this continued, buzzing early to identify the work of Allen Ginsburg. I was going to read some of his stuff once, but then he never read any of mine so I thought sod it. Subatomic particles also made me say sod it. They took Queen’s though to a fifty point lead. Now, if you’re asked about named features on a moon, just say craters. It won’t always be right – just most of the time. Jack McInerney did just that. Were Glasgow’s buzzers disconnected for the second half of the contest? American critics and social commentators didn’t allow Queen’s to add to their score. Which didn’t matter because we were gonged, and Queen’s had won by 165 to 105.

Well, a real game of two halves, there. Glasgow needed to sling more buzzer during the last 10 minutes, whether they knew the answer or not. Better to go down all guns blazing, I’d say. Hard lines to them. As for Queen’s – what a good fight back. Very well done. I dare say they’ll want to do much better with the bonuses in their next match. If they can, well, who knows what might happen.

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

The Copley Medal is believed to be the oldest scientific prize in the world.

Mastermind 2023 - First Round - Heat 3

Good evening, dearly beloved, and welcome to our review of the third heat of this year’s Mastermind competition. First into the chair was Emeritus Professor Joe Andrew. I must just digress, since it’s not often that I have the opportunity to say anything nice about Rupert Murdock. I was reminded by the word emeritus that Rupert Murdoch is supposed to have told the editor who swallowed the huge shaggy dog story that was the so-called Hitler Diaries that he was being made emeritus editor. When asked what it meant he is supposed to have said ‘E means you’re sacked, and meritus means you deserve it.’ Coming back to Joe Andrew he delivered perfection answering on the life of the Suffragette Emily Wilding Davison. He wasn’t rushing his answers, and maybe could have had another question by answering a little more quickly, nonetheless this was all very impressive.

Padraig O’Kane, by contrast, was answering on the much-loved TV show “The Thick of It”. I’ve no doubt that Padraig pt time and effort into his preparation – he’d never have got even 7 points had he not. However, his preparation wasn’t enough to enable him to get a score to challenge Joe. OK, you might argue and say it is possible to pull back a 6-point deficit at half time, but let’s be honest, it’s a once in a blue moon occurrence.

I may be wrong, but I think that Anna Kirby Hall is our first teacher contender of this series, so of course she received the dubious benefit of support from the Clark sofa. Taking The New Romantics as her subject, although she managed a decent 8, I can’t help wondering if she was expecting more of the questions to be about the music – I was. In fact, all of my points on the round came from this source. Again, while a five-point gap is theoretically bridgeable, it’s not something you often see happen.

Last to go in the first round then was Joe Karimi. Joe offered us 20^th century US presidents. I have to thank him for this, since it taught me that I know a hell of a lot less about US vice presidents than I previously thought that I did. Once again, we saw a contender who certainly seemed to know his subject, but rather got bogged down in parts, and left too many unclaimed points behind him.

The upshot of all of this was that the on-course bookies had probably stopped accepting bets on Joe by the time that the half time oranges were being brought out. With the nearest contender being five points behind him it was going to take something extraordinary to deny him the win.

Well, we hadn’t seen a real disaster of a GK round in either of the previous shows, and we didn’t see one this week either. Padraig returned to the chair first. No, if I’m honest it wasn’t a brilliant general knowledge round, but I can live with that. It was a perfectly decent and respectable general knowledge round and that’s really what I’m looking for from a contender.

Joe did slightly worse, but only to the tune of one point. As was the case with Padraig, the evidence is that he’s not a regular quizzer, and if he has the desire to pass this way again, this is something he could work on for a year or two.

Anna had proven herself to be the best of the rest in the Specialist round, and this was a soubriquet to which she cemented her claim with a rather good general knowledge round. Yes, judging by her expression she was riding her luck at times, but then being able to make a guess which could be right is a genuine skill in its own right. If she could put in a really barnstorming specialist round in a future appearance, then she’d certainly have a chance of getting through.

No chance tonight, though. If anything, I was even more impressed with Joe’s general knowledge round than I was with his specialist. If last year’s series is anything to go by, then Joe’s excellent fifteen will turn out to be one of the best GK scores of the whole first round. What I found even more impressive about it was that Joe continued his measured response to each question. It shows that he was getting most of them right, and could maybe, if needed, go faster. Very well-done sir – an impressive performance which marks you out clearly as one to watch in the semifinals.

The Details

Joe Andrew	Emily Wilding Davison	13	0	15	0	28	0
Padraig O’Kane	The Thick of It	7	3	10	2	17	5
Anna Kirby Hall	The New Romantics	8	0	12	0	20	0
Jack Karimi	20th Century US Vice Presidents	7	1	9	3	16	4

You Know You're Past It When . . .

How’s your weekend going? Me? Oh, not bad, not bad. In fact, that’s what I wanted to talk to you about really. You see, I’ve spent quite a bit of tie, yesterday evening and today, putting together the quiz for Thursday night. As you might recall, time was when you couldn’t stop me from wanting to be question master – I enjoyed it every bit as much as actually playing in a quiz and would have done it every week if I could. Well, times change. That was all 27 years ago, and since then there was my quizzing lost weekend which only ended a year ago. I haven’t got the urge to do it anymore.

None of which is to say that I won’t do it anymore. If I’m asked, unless I have a good reason why not to do it, then I’ll do it – just please don’t ask me too often. But it’s not something I’ll volunteer to do. And that’s not just because I haven’t got the desire to do it anymore. Some of it has to do with the fact that, in the nicest way possible, I have to say that I think I’m getting a bit past it.

Putting the quiz together I’ve tried to do the best I can, but there’s been a number of questions where I’ve thought – blimey, I was asking this sort of thing a quarter of a century ago. Time was that I had my ears to the ground, and a constant eye out for something that might make a fresh, more interesting question. I’m not finding that easy at all now. If we take the fields of entertainment and popular culture for instance, I’m just not that interested in keeping up with it all. Case in point – UC often features questions on video games nowadays, and this area is a complete blank to me. Now, I’ve always had weak areas, but I’ve had an idea of where to find information about these areas, and how to formulate questions about them. But, whisper it quietly, I find I just can’t be arsed.

Which is not quite such a problem with the quiz for the rugby club since it’s probably true that you could say the same about the majority of players in the club. Even at the ripe old age of 58 I’m still one of the younger players at the club. Still, I don’t intentionally do a bad job, and I find myself hoping that it will all go down alright this Thursday. Then hopefully that might be me done for 2022, and not taking my next stint until the New Year quiz.

University Challenge - First Round - Cranfield University v. Royal Holloway

The Teams

Cranfield

Jack Chivers

Raman Suri

John Joseph Stephenson (Capt.)

Charlotte Keenan

Royal Holloway

Joel Abramovitch

Joanna Brown

George Harvey (Capt.)

Micka Harvey

Good evening, Dearly Beloved. Well, Jeremy P. made a point of stating how long it’s been since either of these teams last appeared. Let’s crack on, shall we?

A gentle starter saw Joanna Brown buzz, then pause for a bit before answering that Renee Zelwegger has played both Beatrix Potter and Judy garland on screen. Bonuses on political families saw a little Royal Holloway profligacy throw away a correct answer by giving the country rather than the figure. Good answer on Richard Cromwell, though. Janna Brown took a double, recognising several works of literature linked by the word Green in their titles. The Copley Medal promised me but little for the bonuses, however the Arthur Evans one was a steal, the hormone one was a bit of a gimme and the pulsars one wasn’t that hard, although it foxed Royal Holloway. Having taken a full house wth at least some Science content I awarded myself a lap of honour around the Clark sofa. Raman Suri opened Cranfield’s account, with the term Pop Art.I took a full house on X bonuses, while Cranfield took a pair. I most certainly did not take a full house on the pictures. Charlotte Keenan buzzed in to recognise part of Michigan which has been proposed as a breakaway fifty first state. Three more areas which have been proposed as new states in the past brought Cranfield a five point lead. George Harvey won the buzzer race to identify Marie Curie as the Nobel laureate whose notebooks have to be kept in a lead lined box. No brownie points to Royal Holloway for suggesting sharks when marine reptiles were called for in the bonuses, but they still managed 1 bonus. This was enough to ensure that Royal Holloway led by 50 – 40 at the 10 minute mark.  

Charlotte Keenan won the next starter, identifying the Stockton and Darlington Railway. Bonuses on culinary processes  brought just the one correct answer. Neither team managed the next starter which gave the names of leaders of four contiguous countries and asked for two of these countries. Raman Suri knew that William Whewell (Or Whilliam Whewthe’ell, as I like to think of him) proposed the terms anion and cation.) Good for him. Bonuses on Nauru again only yielded the one. Cranfield were doing quite well on the starters at this point, but weren’t able to capitalise on this with the bonuses. As for the next starter, well, if it’s about an artist, and it mentions a pipe, you’re going to be right more often than you’re wrong if you slam the buzzer and answer Magritte. That’s what George Harvey did, and he was right to do so. Bonuses on time brought a full house and put Royal Holloway back in front. I thought that John Joseph Stephenson was right when he suggested that the music starter was the work of the Ronettes, so when he was wrong I changed my answer to the Shangri Las. Royal Holloway didn’t get it, and I didn’t add it to my unofficial total when it did prove to be the Shangri Las. Joel Abramovitch earned the music bonuses by identifying a description of the two toed sloth. When JP explained that the music bonuses were more tracks about railway journeys I predicted Midnight Train to Georgia, Last Train to Clarksville and Chattanooga Choo Choo, and was flabbergasted to get that 100 per cent right. Not quite lap of honour worthy, but not far off. Royal Holloway had two but missed the Monkees’ hit. Nobody knew that John Bardeen’s name appeared on a shuttle in a Star Trek reboot film. Fair play to John Joseph Stephenson for knowing that San’a is the highest capital city on the Arabian Peninsula.  The works of Shirley Jackson on film provided nowt to any of us, which meant that, as we approached the 20 minute mark, Royal Holloway led by 95-75. Good contest.

I didn’t understand the next question, but George Harvey said it was a baryon and who am I to argue? They took just one bonus of a set on Australasia and Indonesia. John Joseph Stephenson recognised orchestral compositions for guitar and got told off by JP for saying classical guitar rather than just guitar. The scriptwriter Dennis Kelly provided a set of bonuses which saw them fail to trouble the scorer – they probably should have had Matilda the Musical at least. The second picture starter saw Joanna Brown identify Scandi-Drama Borgen, and three more BAFTA nominated foreign language TV series brought a full house. When you get three Russian male first names given, the thought is always that this might be the Brothers Karamazov, as indeed it proved to be for the next starter. Joana Brown took her fourth starter with this one, again hesitating as she leaned into the mic to give her answer. 2 bonuses on chemistry pushed Cranfield a little deeper into the doodoo, and frankly it looked very unlikely that they could rally to at least garner a repechage score. John Joseph Stephenson did bring them 10 much needed points, knowing of the Frankfurt school. Early wind instruments though only produced the one bonus. Nobody knew the film director Steven Soderbergh for the next starter. Charlotte Keenan recognised various species of frog to keep Cranfield’s faint hopes alive. Official symbols of US States brought just the one correct answer before the gong ended the contest. Royal Holloway had won by 155 – 110.

That looks like a comfortable win doesn’t it? Yet both teams answered the same number of starters correctly. Sadly Cranfield managed a very disappointing 8 bonuses, to Royal Holloway’s 15, and that, in a nutshell, is the whole story. Or put it another way – sometimes it’s just not your night. Hard lines, but congratulations to Royal Holloway.

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

The term Pop Art was coined in the fifties rather than the 60s.

 

Mastermind 2023 - First Round Heat 2

Good evening. Already we’ve reached the second heat of Mastermind 2023, and thankfully, there's no controversy over tonight’s show.

First up was Ben Whitworth. Ben was answering on the History of the Orkney Islands. He would later explain that he has an interest in the subject, and being that it’s one which was particularly dear to Magnus Magnusson – the last of Magnus’ grand finals was staged in St. Magnus Cathedral in Kirkwall. It’s one that Ben had prepared very well, as he put on 12 correct answers, answering rather methodically, but very accurately. Good performance.

Anu Mitra gave us another subject after my own heart, he Films of Laurel and Hardy. I was disappointed only to manage a brace of answers myself. Anu managed to get 8 of these, but I dare say that he might just be a little disappointed, considering that it left him four points off the lead with another two contenders yet to come.

Elizabeth David, the famous cookery writer, was the subject offered to us by Eleanor Jardine, our 3^rd contender. I’ve no doubt that Eleanor knew her stuff, but a few of these questions came at her from angles she didn’t seem to be expecting – the reference to Mrs. Isabella Beeton being one of them. As a result she scored 7 – nothing to be ashamed of, I might add, but leaving her with a mountain to climb in the second half.

Finally our first recidivist of the 2023 series, Keshava Guha. Keshava reached the semi finals through the much-missed repechage slots in 2019. So he’s a contender with some series previous. Last time out his was a cricket subject in the 2019 semi finals and tonight he offered us the life of Sir Garfield Sobers. He did very well, too, although his 10 points meant that there was still daylight between himself and leader Ben Whitworth as the half time oranges came round.

Back amongst the wines and spirits, then, Eleanor returned to the chair for her own spirited general knowledge round. All of our four contenders managed double figure general knowledge rounds tonight, and that’s always pleasing to see. She started extremely well, but had a run of ones she couldn’t answer in mid round which rather took the wind out of her sails. Nonetheless she scored 10 to finish on a respectable 17.Anu did rather better, and managed an even doze on his own GK round. He’s a young chap, and if he decides to have another go at some time he’ll do better, having seen the level of detail in which you need to prepare a specialist round.

Whichbrings us to the main event – Keshava in the blue corner, and Ben in the red. It took Keshava a little while to build up a head of steam, but when he did he really began to build momentum and positively ripped through the second half of his et of questions. In fact I was a little surprised that he hadn’t scored more than fourteen for twenty four – it felt a bit of a better round than that.

All of which called for a cool head and steady nerves from Ben Whitworth in order to bring the 13 points he needed for an outright win. Again, his answering was measured, and not as quick as some we’ve seen. However, it was very accurate. With a little bit of time to spare Ben cruised past the target to eventually surpass Keshava’s GK total with his own excellent round of 15. That’s very good quizzing.

In his filmed insert shown during the titles at the end of the show, Ben showed great respect towards the show, and expressed his wish to get to the final. Well, on this showing, I won’t be risking the Clark 50p betting against you getting there, Ben. Very well done, sir.

Ben Whitworth	The History of the Orkney Islands	12	0	15	0	27	0
Anu Mitra	The Films of Laurel and Hardy	8	2	12	1	20	3
Eleanor Jardine	Elizabeth David	7	0	10	3	17	3
Keshava Guha	Sir Garfield Sobers	10	0	14	0	24	0

Donald or Donovan

People who know me personally and have played with me or against me in team quizzes might have difficulty believing this next statement, but I do have times that I wish I could have just kept my mouth shut.

My friend Adam, one of our team in the Aberavon Rugby Club, was question master on Thursday. And honestly, I’m not just saying this, he produced a great quiz. I love it when you get asked a few testing questions, where you don’t know the answer (or you don’t know that you know the answer) but there is an entry to them, in that you can use what you do know to work out what you don’t. For example – the stapedius muscle is the smallest skeletal muscle in the human body – where in the human body will you find it? I don’t recall ever hearing of it before, but I went on the fact that the stapes – otherwise the stirrup – is one of ossicles in the ear. So I answered ‘ear’ – happy days! There’s quite a skill to asking questions which give the teams two chances – either through knowing the answer anyway or being able to work it out.

That’s not got anything much to do with why I wish I’d kept my mouth shut, only that it illustrates that we are talking about a quiz that I really enjoyed. Adam produced a handout. In the handout there were twenty five James Bond villains from the films, and the names of the characters they played. At the bottom were the titles of the twenty five films in which they appeared (so four of them were different Blofelds, for example). It must have taken a lot of time and effort to put together. So, as Adam was reading them out, he came to Robert Shaw’s character – Donald ‘Red’ Grant from “From Russia With Love”. “Donovan Grant.” I blurted out, without thinking, because that’s the name I’ve always heard given. Adam, rather than telling me words to the effect of – shut yer gob, the question master is always right – merely politely replied, “Well, that’s what it says on Wikipedia.” I do try to control myself, but it doesn’t always work. For what it’s worth Adam, I am sorry.

However, I am also rather anal about these things so, anyway, I checked up. Sure enough, it lists the Robert Shaw character as Donald ‘Red’ Grant on Wikipedia, and also says exactly the same on imdb. I went to the text of the original novel, though, and Ian Fleming definitely called him Donovan. Now, it would probably put it beyond contention if I watched the film, notebook in hand. But I don’t really have time – or inclination to do that. So maybe you can answer – did they change the name to Donald for the film?