Quizzy Mondays 2024-25 Week 38: Mastermind Grand Final

Good evening once again my friends, and welcome to the final Quizzy Monday of the season! Yep, we're into an unprecedented 38th week of official coverage on this blog, but I'm actually glad tonight's Mastermind final gets a blog of its own as it definitely deserved one in the end. Neither it nor last week's UC final deserved to be overshadowed by the other TBH. Anyway, for the final time this season, here we go...

 

Mastermind’s fourth Grand Final of the Clive Myrie era was opened by Nancy Braithwaite, who was answering on the stage plays of Sir Tom Stoppard; following her filmed intro, including a visit to the Old Vic and a chat with Mark Lawson, her round started well, then blipped a bit with two wrong answers in a row, but recovered to a score of 10.

 

She was followed into the chair by John Harden, who was answering on the 1953 ascent of Everest, which he chose because an alumnus of the school he works for was part of a previous, unsuccessful, expedition to the mountain, with Peter Hillary, son of Sir Edmund, chatting to him via a video chat; he matches Nancy’s score, another 10.

 

Next up was Ivan Milatovic, who was answering on the music of Led Zeppelin, with his intro taking him to the studio (now a cinema) where the band recorded some of their most noted songs, with Robert Plant providing a recorded message of good luck to him; he didn’t get any answers wrong until right at the end, and ended up edging in front with 12.

 

Dom Tait was next up, and was answering on penguins, with his intro featuring him seeing some real life ones of those for the first time, followed by a recorded message of luck from Liz Bonnin (a still of him on UC and a clip of him on OC were also shown); also making just the one error, he matched Ivan’s score of 12.

 

Our penultimate contender was Claire Reynolds, who, of course, only made it here due to someone else withdrawing from the semis, and who was answering on mathematician Emmy Noether, with her intro taking her to Birmingham University to provide more background info on her, followed by Rachel Riley offering her some recorded words of encouragement; she also made no mistakes until very late on, and she too ended up with 12 points.

 

Finally, John Robinson was answering on the Empire State Building; he didn’t get to go and see it (again) for his intro, but he did have a video chat with a lady from the Skyscraper Museum and an quick chat with a quizzing teammate of his, former Mastermind champ David Edwards (a clip of him winning £500,000 on WWTBAM was also shown), before he too posted a score of 12, setting us up for a very crucial GK round indeed!

 

Nancy returned first, and gave us a good round which, despite a few mistakes, kept ticking along very well, and she scored 13 for an excellent total of 23, though did incur a pass right at the end.

 

John H didn’t quite manage as good a round, but did come respectably close, scoring 11 for a good total of 21.

 

Ivan was the first of the four with 12 to return for GK; he started strongly to reach 20, but then hit a run of wrong answers that knocked him off the pace, but he recovered to finish neatly in between Nancy and John, 10 for a good total of 22.

 

Dom was next, and, after a very good steady run, equalled Nancy’s score, before a slight wobble took away his momentum; he did, nonetheless, take the lead, scoring 13 for a very good total of 25.

 

Claire was next up, and scored very strongly and steadily, with a nice backwards link to last week’s UC with a question about Watling Street to boot, and she duly took the lead with a fantastic score of 17 for a magnificent total of 29!

 

John R thus faced the daunting task of scoring 18 or more for the win. He needed to keep a very strong pace and, despite a few mistakes, did do so, so it was going to be very close. As the timer began to tick, he was one adrift; he got it right, and there was time for one more! If he got it right, he’d done it… and get it right he did! 18 for a total of 30 made him the new Mastermind champion!

 

Very very well done John, a superb performance and a most worthy victory indeed! And well done to the other five as well for an excellent final, Claire especially for congratulating John on his win afterwards. And many thanks to Clive M and all the contenders involved for a fine series!

 

I have now decided not to cover the show as thoroughly next series though, at least not all the way through; maybe I’ll only give the heats a fleeting mention and then give fuller coverage to the semis and final. Whatever the case, I do still very much intend to carry on with this blog format next season; it's worked pretty well I think.

 

And that's it; we're finished! Thanks very much indeed to everyone who has read and commented on the blog over the past few months; your support is as appreciated as ever. I'll be back when the quizzes return, whenever that is, hopefully earlier than last year; whether I'll have anything else to write on this blog in the meantime, who knows? So, until we next meet, sayonara...

Quizzy Mondays 2024-25 Week 37: University Challenge Grand Final, Mastermind Semi-Final 6

Good evening once again my friends, and welcome to the penultimate Quizzy Monday of the season! Yes, I know, it's University Challenge final day and that's usually it for this blog's coverage, but, with the Mastermind final next week, we're going into an unprecedented 38th week on here! At least we had OC back tonight though, giving us one final full house of quizzes for the series! Anyway, Mastermind's final semi on the way later, but first, the big one...

 

Christ's College Cambridge reached this final by beating Exeter of Oxford, St Edmund Hall of Oxford, Imperial, their opponents tonight and Bristol. Hoping for a first ever UC title, and a first for Oxbridge in seven years, were:

Anniko Firman, from The Hague, studying Classics

Brendan Bethlehem, from North London, studying Linguistics

Captain: Oscar Despard, from Dublin, studying Biochemistry

Linus Luu, from Orpington, studying Maths

 

Warwick made it here via victories over UEA, Oriel of Oxford, Queen's of Belfast, U.C.L. and Darwin of Cambridge, but did also lost to their opponents tonight. Playing for a third UC title were:

Ananya Govindarajan, from Edgware in London, studying Engineering

Thomas Hart, from Miskin in South Wales, studying Maths

Captain: Oscar Siddle, from Islington, studying Maths

Benjamin Watson, from Amersham, studying PPE

 

Mr Bethlehem took the first starter of the night, and Christ's took all three of the first set of bonuses, only for their opponents to respond likewise. Warwick then took a further two starters, including the first picture round, after which they led 60-25. Another two starters plus bonuses and Warwick had already reached three figures. Mr Despard finally reawoke Christ's, but they only took one bonus, and Warwick pushed on to take another starter and two bonuses. The Cambridge side did take the music round, but no bonuses followed, meaning they trailed 125-50.

 

A second starter in a row went to the Cambridge side, plus two bonuses, only for Warwick to bite back and re-extend their lead. Christ's then took two starters in a row, and half the resulting bonuses took them into three figures. Warwick took the second picture round though, after which they led 155-105. Christ's took the next starter, but, very narrowly, missed all three bonuses; Warwick took the next, just the one bonus, but nonetheless had a sixty point lead with barely any time left. Christ's had to go for it, and go for it they did, but their low bonus rate meant it was slow progress. A penalty to Warwick helped, but a harsh but fair disallowance from the chairman didn't. With thirty points in it, Mr Despard took a flyer on a starter, let out a just-about reasonable length pause, then answered correctly; two bonuses, and the gap was suddenly just ten points! Just one final starter surely, and Ms Firman took it to pull Christ's level! One bonus gave them the lead, the second was disallowed for another minor mistake... and that was the gong! Christ's won the game, and the series, 175-170!

 

Kudos to the chairman for giving both teams a standing ovation, and to both teams for clapping each other. We then headed to the ADC Theatre, where AR and the two teams were joined by Sir Ian McKellen, who said a few words before handing the trophy over to Mr Despard.

 

A great final to worthily end a great series; very well done both teams, both of whom would've been worthy champions. Hard lines to Warwick to lose it like that, but they can be rightly proud of their series of performances; congrats to them and thanks very much indeed to them for being part of the series! But very very well done indeed to Christ's, who are, of course, most worthy champions; thanks to them for playing as well, well done indeed!

 

The stats: Mr Bethlehem was the best buzzer of the night with six, giving him a final series total of 35 over six matches, while Mr Watson was best for Warwick with four, though Mr Hart was their best of the series, indeed THE best of the whole series, with a grand total of 42 over seven matches. On the bonuses, Christ's managed 13 out of 32 and Warwick 18 out of 27 (with two penalties).

 

And that's it; the series is finished! Many thanks to all involved for another excellent nine months of quizzing! And special mention to the chairman, who has really settled into the role this series and, honestly, I can't imagine the show without him now! Well done to him indeed! We all eagerly await the next series!

 

Mastermind’s final semi-final was opened by Neil Pritchard, who was answering on Spike Milligan’s war memoirs; a respectable round, he scored 7 points, but, coupled with a pass, you fancied he had his work cut out to win. He was followed into the chair by Rakesh Sharma, who was answering on MS Subbulakshmi; he did very well indeed, not making any errors that I noticed and scoring an excellent 10 points. Next up was Olivia Woolley, who was answering on the Glorious Revolution; another very good round, marred by a brief blip of a pass and a wrong answer in succession, another good score of 10. Finally, Ivan Milatovic was answering on the career of Novak Djokovic; another strong round resulted in a third score of 10, meaning GK was going to be very crucial indeed!

 

Neil returned first needing, as I suspected, a big performance to stand a chance; he started OK, then ran out of momentum, before recovering late on to score 11 for a respectable total of 18, a good total, but, coupled with two passes, probably not a winning one. Rakesh was next, and also started strongly, before faltering somewhat, and remained stop-start for the rest of the round; he eventually score of 10 for a total of 20, another good total, but I suspected not enough for the win.

 

Next was Olivia, who, again, started well before falling off the pace and then recovering late on, but not quite enough to catch Rakesh; a score of 8 for another solid total of 18 left Ivan needing 11 to win. He also started pretty good, then hit the skids a bit, but recovered quicker than his fellow contenders and so did just about enough, scoring 12 for a total of 22 and taking the final place in next week’s final! Well done him, and very best of (retrospective) luck to him and the other five finalists next week!

We also had the triumphant return of Only Connect this evening, albeit it was just a repeat, of the ‘Sound’ special from New Year’s Day where all but two of the questions in the first two rounds were audio questions. Still, a good one to show, as I suspect a lot of people will have missed it first time around and, of all the specials from last Christmas, this novel one definitely deserved a repeat when more would be able to see it.

 

And that's it for this momentus week! But, of course, we're not done yet! We still have the Mastermind final next Monday of course, at the earlier time of 7pm; don't forget the early start. I'll be back next Monday with my write-up of that, and then we're done for the season! As ever, thanks very much for reading, and I'll see yous then...