Quizzy Mondays 2024-25 Week 3: University Challenge R1M3, Only Connect R1M3, Mastermind H3

Good evening again my friends, and welcome to Week 3 of Quizzy Mondays! Once again, in my new look blog, I'll be summarising the events of this evening's three main quizzes, and also Brain of Britain, which is now very much an honourary QM quiz given that it now airs on Sundays. Good timing on its retur too, as Mastermind is taking a short sabbatical for the next few weeks. Anyway, let's do this...

 

Beginning, as ever, with UC, which featured two institutions we last saw two series ago. Gonville & Caius College Cambridge narrowly went out in the first round of that series, a far cry from their previous appearance, in 2014-15, where they were champions, of course. They were represented by:

Isaac Tompkinson, from Derby, studying Medicine

Rachel Bentham, from Cambridge, studying Physics

Captain: Declan Noble, from Sydney, studying Law

Faris Qureshi, from London, studying French and German 

 

Bristol were, of course, the beaten finalists of that series, which was nonetheless easily their best performance of the BBC era, having previous never been beyong the QFs. Their team consisted of:

Ted Warner, from Wiltshire, studying Biology

Bridie Rogers, from Brighton, studying Medicine

Captain: Kevin Flanagan, from Dublin, studying AI

Olivia Watts, from York, studying Organic Chemistry 

 

It was a close game at first, with the sides swapping starters in the first phase of play; after the first picture round, Bristol led 70-45. The Avonsiders then ran away with the game, taking all the starters and generally taking the bonuses that came with them. After the music round, Bristol led 170-45.

Their impressive bonus rate slowed a touch in the next phase, but their continued buzzer dominance meant it didn't exactly matter. It picked up again in time for a full house on the second picture round, after which they led 250-45. It had long been game over, now just a question of how high both teams could go. Caius did pleasingly get a couple more starters late on, taking them to a respectable score, while an incident where two Caius players answered a starter at the same time (they got the points) saw Mr Tilling get named during the actual contest for the first time! At the gong, Bristol won 325-80.

Spectacular stuff from Bristol; they'll go far in the series if they can maintain that form. Unlucky Caius to run into a team that good, as they looked quite decent when they did get in, they'd have beaten another team; thanks to them for playing, and good luck Bristol next time!

The stats: Mr Warner was the best buzzer of the night with six starters, while Mr Noble was best for Caius with two. On the bonuses, Caius managed 8 out of 14 (with two penalties) and Bristol a mightily good 34 out of 48(!) (with one penalty), and, for the second week in a row, all eight players got at least one starter right.

Next week's match: Warwick vs East Anglia

On to Only Connect, which was contested tonight by the Four Opinions, Jacob Epstein, Aron Carr and captain Rafi Dover, and the Bean Farmers, Furo Cookey, David Todd and captain Pippa Woolley.

 

I claim two points on the music question in the first round and the Ed and planet questions in Round 2; the Opinions led 5-4 at the end of the former, and 11-7 after the latter, though VCM was maybe a touch lenient to allow one of their three point answers.

 

Two perfect walls meant it was as you were, the Opinions led 21-17 going into Missing Vowels, and they had the better of that to win 29-22. (In a ruling identical to that of Paxo on UC many years ago, VCM accepted Ayn Rand's first name being pronounced 'Ann'). Well done both teams, best of luck in your next games.

Next week's match: Harmonics vs Cat Cows

 

Mastermind was opened by Chris Devine, a member of the UEA team I talked about in my Sliding Doors blog a few weeks back; he scored 8 on the novels of Zadie Smith. Cathryn Gahan would then take the lead with an impressive 12 on the Sweeney Todd musical, and Charlotte Hope just fell short of equalling it, scoring 11 on the history of Shetland hand-knitting. Ronny Cheung completed the round with 10 on the sitcom Spaced.

 

Chris returned for GK first, and made a good go of it, starting well before fading a bit, and finishing on a respectable 17. Ronny and Charlotte would fare similarly, starting well, hitting a tough run in the middle, before rallying to score 10 each, taking their scores to 20 and 21 respectively.

 

Cathryn thus needed to at least equal that score to win, and for a long time, it looked like she wasn’t going to make it, her early questions not falling for her. But they did later on and, with the very last question, which was but a split second away from being too late for CM to start so he’ll finish, an educated guess of ‘Liechtenstein’ meant she just made it over the line, finishing with 22 points! Congrats to her, a hard earned but deserved victory!

 

No Mastermind next Monday, or the week after if the continuity man is to be believed; the show will return on September 16^th.

Brain of Britain returned yesterday afternoon, though I waited until this afternoon at 3 to listen to it as I’m used to, with its triennial Brain of Brains special. Sadly, 2022 winner Sarah Trevathan was unable to attend due to illness, so that series’ runner-up Marianne Fairthorne took her place on the panel, alongside reigning champ Dan Adler, reigning runner-up Eleanor Ayres and 2021 champ Karl Whelan.

 

Mr Whelan would take 5IAR and a bonus in the first round, and then topped it by doing it again in the second, meaning he was already 10+ ahead of the rest of the panel and the game was as good as over already. Just to make sure, he did it again on the third round, a superlative performance that must surely go down in the annals of the show’s history. He ended up winning with 23 points, 15 ahead of Dan and Eleanor with 8 and Marianne with 7.

 

On accepting his trophy, Karl stated that he’d been lucky to know all his questions on those rounds. Indeed, I’ve seen quite a few quizzers online, notably UC winner James Devine-Stoneman and OC 4th-placer Ailsa Watson, express unsatisfaction with the BoB format, specifically how reliant players are on knowing their own questions, and how a stumper just one or two questions into a round can end your turn ‘prematurely’. Probably goes some way to explaining why BoB hasn’t fully captured the public’s imagination the way the three TV QM quizzes have.

 

Anyway, that's the now stouter Quizzy Mondays round-up for tonight. It won't be this full for another few weeks until Mastermind comes back, but I'll definitely be carrying on with Brain of Britain as well, albeit probably not this thoroughly in future weeks. Thanks as ever for reading, and I hope you will again next week; see you then...

Quizzy Mondays 2024-25 Week 2: University Challenge R1M2, Only Connect R1M2, Mastermind H2

Good evening again my friends, and welcome back to my new look Quizzy Mondays blog! As I continue to attempt to settle on a new format for my write-ups that isn't too long, but not too concise either, so, again, expect a lot of fine tuning over the coming weeks. Last week worked reasonably well though, and hopefully we can carry things on this way from now on. Anyway, let's get going...

Beginning with UC, where we welcomed back two institutions who were with us last series. The Open University, firstly, who were quarter-finalists last series; this series they were represented by:

Nicky Maving, from Jarrow, studying Natural Sciences

Tom Barber, from Bournemouth, studying Physics

Captain: Karie Westermann, from Glasgow (originally Denmark), studyingArt History

Hector Payne, from Teddington in Middlesex, studying Finance

University College London were, of course, the beaten finalists last series; this year's line-up comprised:

Calum Jack, from Sutton in Surrey, studying Science Communication

Josh Mandel, from North London, studying US History and Politics

Captain: Olivia Holtermann Entwistle, from London, studying Human Geography

Sanjay Prabhakar, from London, studying Science Education

Mr Mandel, OC alumnus of many years ago (back when the show was still on BBC4), opened the scoring for the night, but Open took the next three starters afterwards, including the first picture round, after which they led 55-20. The teams were pretty evenly matched in the next phase of play, swapping starters, but Open's slightly better showing on the bonuses allowed them to maintain a steady lead. After the music round, Open led 120-80.

It was more of the same in the next period: the teams swapping starters, but Open faring just a bit better on the bonuses, so keeping their lead. After the second picture round, Open led 180-110 and were within sight of victory. U.C.L., however, suddenly made a late sprint for it on the buzzer, with three starters in a row cutting the gap down to 20 points. AR was then a bit lenient to let Mr Mandel off with a slight pause for answering, but it plus one bonus meant there was just five in it! A one starter shoot-out: Mr Payne was first in, and that was the gong! Open won 190-175!

A great contest between two very good teams, both of whom deserve to return, and U.C.L.'s score will surely be good enough for them to do so; best of luck to them and Open when they come back!

The stats: Mr Mandel was the best buzzer of the night with six starters, while Mr Payne was best for Open with four. On the bonuses, Open managed a good 18 out of 27 and U.C.L. 15 out of 30, so it really was those three extra bonuses that won it, and, for the first time this series, all eight players got at least one starter right.

Next week's match: Gonville & Caius Cambridge vs Bristol

Only Connect’s second instalment of the series was contested by the Hopsters, Lee Knowles, Gareth Cottiss and captain Ashwini Kamath, and the Sprouters, Theo Howe (UC alumnus with Fitzwilliam Cambridge in 2017-18), Oliver Sweetenham (ditto with Peterhouse Cambridge the previous series) and captain Charlie Bowen.

 

Got a few trace elements, but no actual questions right myself in the first two rounds; the teams were tied on 3-each after the first round, before the Sprouters opened a 9-5 lead after the second.

 

On to the Walls, and both teams failed to get two groups, but did get their connections, so scored six points each. So, as you were, the Sprouters led 15-11 going into Missing Vowels. They only increased their lead in a very high quality round though, and won the game easily, 24-14. Well played both teams, and best of luck in your next games! 

 

Next week's match: Four Opinions vs Bean Farmers

 

Mastermind’s second heat was opened by Robin Dunford, who scored an impressive 11 on Orchids of the British Isles. Ramona McKnight was second into the chair, and scored 10 on Schitt’s Creek, a show I’m aware of, but haven’t watched. I am very much aware of Joseph Gregg’s subject, the great Tom Lehrer, but didn’t get even close to his score of 9. Maura Kenny rounded off the round by matching Robin’s 11 on Operation Mincemeat.

 

Joseph returned for GK first, and his round sadly never really got going, but he still finished with a respectable 16. Ramona was next, and did well to recover from a shaky spell mid round to score a very decent 20. Robin then scored a solid 12 on his round, but three passes potentially left the door open if Maura could match him. Sadly, her round was another that just didn’t fall her way; 6 her score giving her a total of 17. So Robin takes the second place in the semis; congrats to him!

 

And that's it for tonight. I think that blog went a bit better than last week's, now that I'm used to this new format; hopefully things will continue to improve. As ever, thanks for reading.

Quizzy Mondays 2024-25 Week 1: University Challenge R1M1, Only Connect R1M1, Mastermind H1

Good evening my friends, and welcome to the new season of Quizzy Mondays! And the start of a new, experimental era for this blog, as I devote less words to University Challenge and more to Only Connect and Mastermind. This is definitely going to take some time to fine tune, so they'll probably be a great deal of 'Early Installment Weirdness' before I find a way that works. Some things will stay the same; I'll still do detailed line-ups for UC in the first round at least; maybe not the later rounds. Anyway, lets try this, and here are the events of tonight's Quizzy Monday, in reverse order for old time sake, beginning, as ever, with UC...

 

First match of the new series pitted Queen's University Belfast against Liverpool. Queen's are appearing for the 13th time in the BBC era; their last appearance was a second round exit to eventual runners-up Bristol two series ago. They were represented by:

Sarah Carlisle, from Ballynahinch in County Down, studying English with Creative Writing

Jason McKillen, from Belfast, studying Artifical Intelligence

Captain: Daniel Rankin, from County Down, studying PPE

Sam Thompson, from Limavady, studying Physics

 

Liverpool have appeared in 11 previous BBC series; its last appearance, somewhat to my surprise, was back in the Monkman and Seagull series of 16-17, where they lost to Warwick in the first round. They were represented by:

Joyce Sajit, from Derby, studying Chemistry

Isabel Day, from the Lake District, studying Veterinary Medicine

Captain: Neil Williams, from Formby on Merseyside, studying Philosophy

Harry Ashworth, from South Cerney in Gloucestershire, studying History and Politics

 

So, off we set for another series; Queen's took the first starter of the series, indeed the first three, and all but one of the resulting nine bonuses. Liverpool got going with the fourth starter, and took all three bonuses too, but after the first picture round, they trailed 95-25. The teams were more matched in the next phase of play; after the music round, Queen's now led 140-60.

Queen's continued to press ahead, taking starters and doing very well on the bonuses too. Liverpool managed to keep ticking over too, but remained well behind; after the second picture round, they trailed 205-105. There would be no great comeback from Liverpool in the final phase, but they certainly didn't disgrace themselves. They were easily second best to an impressive Queen's team though. At the gong, Queen's won 240-125.

A great start to the series; well done to Queen's, who look a very impressive team who could go very far this series, and hard lines to Liverpool, who sadly won't come back in the repechage I doubt and would've done better against another team. Thanks for playing.

The stats: Mr Thompson was, easily, the best buzzer of the night with SEVEN(!) starters, while Mr Williams was best for Liverpool with four. On the bonuses, Queen's managed a very impressive 27 out of 33 (with one penalty) and Liverpool 13 out of 24 (with four penalties).

Next week's match: Open vs U.C.L.

On to Only Connect, which returned for its 20th series, and we kicked off the Al Frescans, Tom McKechnie, Mel Gibbons and captain Danielle Cope, against the Midlanders, Andrew Mearman, Erica Hiorns and captain Dominic Rayner.

 

The teams were tied on 3-each after the first round, from which I claim two points on the first rules question and one on another, but I don’t remember which. Don’t think I got any right in the second round, but the teams got plenty right; at the end of it, the Al Frescans led 10-7.

 

They went first on the Walls, and very quickly solved it for a perfect 10, while I was too busy being annoyed for not noticing the Ghosts link! I did see the pop songs link on the Midlanders’ wall, but they didn’t; two dropped sets meant they scored five points, and so trailed 20-12 going into Missing Vowels. The Al Frescans had the better of that, however, and increased their lead, eventually winning 28-18. Excellent start to the new series overall though, and good luck both teams when they come back!

 

Next week's match: Hopsters vs Sprouters

 

Mastermind began its 22nd series of the modern (John Humphrys onwards) era with, what Clive M rightly said at the end, was a high scoring contest. Claire Reynolds opened the series with a subject very much to my liking, Dad’s Army; we both got questions right the other got wrong, but we both finished with 10 points. Aaron Casanova went one better on his subject, Liverpool FC under Jurgen Klopp (thought I spotted a mistake in one question, but probably just misheard it), scoring 11.

 

Nancy Braithwaite, answering on a good old school Mastermind subject, the Life and Work of Jane Austen, matched Aaron’s score, before Danny Lardner, UC alumnus with Sheffield two series ago, concluded the first round with Shania Twain, and he matched Claire’s score, giving us a very well-balanced field.

 

Claire returned first for GK, and scored a very respectable 13 to set a solid benchmark of 23. Danny went next, and started well, but hit a dry patch midway through and never recovered, finishing with a still very decent 19. Aaron’s round, sadly, never really got going for him, and he ended up with an also still OK 17, leaving Nancy needing to match Claire’s round to win.

 

She ended up beating it, scoring 14 to win with 25 points! Congratulations to her, and well done the others on a fine start to the series. Sad to see their sticking with the same ‘just the winner goes through’ format though.

 

So, that's the first week done. Hope that was OK for everyone; as I said earlier, expect a lot of fine tuning in the coming weeks until I finally get the hang of this new format. I also need to go back and update a couple of my old collection posts, my UC index and list of people who've been on both UC and OC, which both really need bringing up to date. Anyway, thanks, as ever, for reading; feedback on what I could do better would be much appreciated.

The Sliding Doors of University Challenge

Greetings friends! In case you didn't hear yesterday, we finally got the news we'd been waiting for: University Challenge is back on Monday the 12th of August!

And Only Connect as well! It had been delayed until after the Olympics, instead of the usual after Wimbledon start, so the two could start together. I strongly suspect the pair are now completely inseperable, especially after all the repeats we got last series so they'd keep airing together.

But not only that, Mastermind returns on the 12th as well, so we're having a full Quizzy Monday line-up right from the start! Perfect chance to see if my new blog format works.

But back to UC. Specifically, this article on the new series on the BBC Media Centre website, in which all the institutions that will be partaking in the new series are listed. As the list begins with the two teams competing in the series opener, Queen's Belfast and Liverpool, it makes me wonder if the rest of the teams are listed in competing order as well, thus giving us a full fixture list for the first round! (First time we've had that before the series even started since the Monkman and Seagull series of 2016-17)

If this is the case, then one particular fixture stands out to me in particular: Warwick vs UEA/East Anglia. This would be a rematch of a somewhat infamous second round match from the 2006-07 series, in which eventual champs Warwick trailed East Anglia throughout before overtaking them on the penultimate starter of the game.

While rewatching a YouTube upload of that game a short time ago, I spotted a comment from future UC winning captain James Devine-Stoneman, who revealed that Warwick only won this game because of a mistake on the host's part. With just minutes to go, Paxo asked a starter about a coastal city in the Basque Country; Warwick captain Daisy Christodoulou buzzed and incorrectly answered 'Bilbao', but, instead of throwing it over to UEA, Paxo, probably caught up in the excitement of the moment, accidentally said "No, it's San Sebastian" instead, much to the chagrin of UEA's Alex Fensome, who knew it and was about to buzz in and say it!

Paxo was willing to take his word for it, but TPTB refused and insisted the starter be dropped and another asked in its place. Warwick got that starter, all three resultant bonuses, and won by just five points as a result.

A quick search took me to an article by Mr Fensome in which he confirms the story to be true (not that I was doubting Mr Devine-Stoneman). It certainly explains why the end of that particular episode seemed a bit rushed and awkward, and puts Warwick's iconic celebrations at the gong in a slightly darker context.

Of course, if that little incident hadn't happened, Warwick would've gone out and not gone on to win the series. Instead, it would probably have been the Manchester team they defeated in the final as they were probably the next best team that series. Which would've made them the second institution to win two series in a row, and the second team to win after losing a game beforehand.

Assuming the rest of UC history goes the same, however, things could've gotten a bit tricky down the line, what with Manchester being awarded the 08-09 title retroactively, and then properly winning those two further series, which would've left a debate over whether they really are 'the most successful institution in UC history' hanging up in the air somewhat, and it wouldn't really have been resolved until Imperial won the last series.

In the long term, however, I suspect it wouldn't have made a great deal of difference to rest of UC history. Unlike a certain other Sliding Doors moment from a few series later, which was arguably a lot more seismic, yet doesn't get talked about anywhere near as much as it probably should be. (Even I've only given it a fleeting mention in a previous blog post nearly ten years ago)

It's the final first round match of the 2009-10 series. Alex Guttenplan's Emmanuel Cambridge team are in trouble; they trail Regent's Park Oxford 210-130 with barely two minutes to go, and are running out of time to secure the score of 160 or more they need to reach the repechage.

Then, this happens:

Paxo: Ten points for this: "The word 'butskellism', coined in the 1950s to refer to the perceived similarity of Labour and Conservative policies, is an amalgamation..."

Regent's Park Aber: Rab Butler and Hugh Gaitskell.

Paxo: No, that is wrong I'm afraid, you lose five points. "...is an amalgamation of the names of RA Butler and which Labour leader?"

Emmanuel Guttenplan: Hugh Gaitskell.

Paxo: Hugh Gaitskell is right. Yes, it seems harsh, but the question specifically asked for the name of the Labour leader.

Emmanuel go on to take all three resulting bonuses to take their score to 155 points, before the final starter of the game take them over the magic figure. Though they lose the game 205-165, they've done enough to make the play-offs.

The rest is history. Emmanuel would score 250+ points in all their subsequent games and become the first Cambridge champions since the Trinity team of Messrs Blanchflower, Kwarteng et al in the very first BBC series, Mr Guttenplan's spectacular individual performances, 11 and 13 starters in the semi-final and final respectively, capture the public's imagination, and the show's move from, in Weaver's Week's words, "schedule filler to cultural hit" is completely complete. The show has never looked back since.

But, let's face it, disallowing Mr Aber's answer was completely and utterly wrong. As a commenter on LAM pointed out at the time, he'd given the right answer, albeit in a fuller context than was required, so it really ought to have been accepted.

And had it been, then, not only would the rest of the series changed, but quite possibly the rest of the show's subsequent history could've too.

As far as the rest of the series is concerned, the team from UCLAN who scored 155 would've reached the play-offs and would've probably lost to the excellent UCL team (whose captain Olivia Woolley has since gone on to also be on The 3rd Degree, as a Don for my sort-of alma mater no less, and I think Brain of Britain as well, not totally sure on that one), who would have probably also beaten the winner of the all-Cambridge Christ's vs Clare contest to reach the QFs. What exactly would've happened there is anyone's guess in, what was, a very strong and closely matched field, but I suspect it would've, again, ended with RL's beaten finalists, St John's Oxford, winning the title.

As for the rest of the show's subsequent history, it's entirely possible, and pretty probable on balance, that the show would've become the phenomenon it is now without Mr Guttenplan's contribution anyway; after all, the social media boom was happening around the same time. But it certainly made a pretty hefty contribution to it. Let's not forget, the show wasn't exactly in people's good books going into that series following the controversial end to the previous one. Mr Guttenplan's performances went quite a big way towards bringing it back into favour.

 

So, to be honest, I do think the show would still be the big hit show it now is even if Emmanuel had gone out in the first round, in the same way that the Premier League would probably still be what it is now even if England had, as they nearly did, gone out of the 1990 World Cup sooner; a lot of people credit their performance in that particular tournament with the PL's current 'success'.

To be honest, I think the biggest impact on future series of losing Emmanuel's title win would probably be on subsequent Cambridge teams. As I mentioned before, Emmanuel's win was Cambridge's first in 15 years; during that time, Oxford had very much dominated the series, reaching ten finals and winning seven while Cambridge had reached two and lost two. In the years afterwards, while it took a few years to show, Cambridge teams began to claw back a lot of that ground and, indeed, won four titles in five series shortly afterwards. Without the precedent set by Emmanuel, might Oxford have continued to dominate on that front?

 

It does also make me wonder, which other first round drop-outs who barely missed out on the play-offs could've also gone on to great success if they'd made it through. One that comes to mind is the Exeter team of the 14-15 series (which included future Mastermind and OC finalist Harry Heath), who only just missed out on the repechage that series after losing five on the final starter of their game; they could well have won the resulting play-off against Open, albeit they'd have probably lost to the Magdalen team of Messrs Binnie and Quinn in R2.

 

If anyone else can think of any other big moments that could've changed the course of either UC history or just a single series, so let us know in the comments below or on X.

Anyway, spooling back to the new series of UC.

As you may recall, I announced at the end of my coverage of last series that I'm planning to try out a new format for my blogs this series. I'll still be largely focussing on UC, ie giving full team line-ups like I always have (albeit probably only for the first round), but I hope to give greater coverage and longer summaries of UC and Mastermind too (and Brain of Britain as well when it returns). The fact all three are starting at the same time should, as I said earlier, give me a good chance to try this when they all start a week on Monday.

So, I'll be back on the 12th as this blog enters a new era. Until then, sayonara...