Quizzy Mondays 2024-25 Week 16: University Challenge Repechage Play-Off 2, Only Connect Elimination Match 4, Mastermind Heat 14

Good evening again my friends, and welcome to a very eventful Quizzy Monday indeed! Coming up, Only Connect concludes its 'first round', a very close Mastermind and an unexpected line-up for the first Brain of Britain semi-final. But first, a quick cryptic clue for you: Rainbow Six 1998 Mission 6. Look that up and you'll see what I mean. I won't be there often, but I am there nonetheless if you want to look me up. Anyway, on with tonight's business, beginning with UC as ever, and the second repechage play-off.

 

Durham lost a very good close first round match against Oriel 200-165, and were represented by the same foursome as before:

Joe Ancell, from South Gloucestershire, studying History

Emelia Brookfield-Pertusini, from Balham in South London, studying English Literature

Captain: Jake Roberts, from Goostrey in Cheshire, studying Physics

Luke Nash, from Hindolveston in Norfolk, studying Biology 

 

SOAS were beaten by St Edmund Hall in their first round contest only two weeks ago, and were also represented by the same quartet as that occasion:

Janet Delves, from London (originally Oxenhope in Yorkshire), studying the History of Art and Archaeology

Ella Dorn, from Hertfordshire, studying Chinese and Linguistics

Captain: Tom Hasler, from Taunton, studying Development Economics

Cameron Lambert, from Treflach in Shropshire, studying Global Development

 

The match started very evenly, with the two sides swapping starters, but also penalties, both incurring one each. After the first picture round, Durham led 30-25. Another starter and a full bonus set pushed the Wearsiders into a stronger lead, but the Londoners bit back with two starters in a row, which allowed them to retake the lead. Durham retook it with the music round though; after that, they led 70-60.

Another starter and two bonuses pushed Durham further ahead, but a penalty pulled them back and allowed SOAS to pull level with a starter and full house, and then take the lead and reach 100 first. Durham bounced back with the second picture round though, which cut the gap to 105-100. Another penalty dropped them back however, and allowed SOAS to pull away again. A further two starters to the London side meant they now had a 55-point lead and were within sight of victory. But back came Durham, two starters and all of the bonuses bar one meant they'd pulled back to within ten! A third in a row put Durham level, they got the first bonus wrong, and that was the gong! A 150-each tie!

So, the third tie of the AR era! A tie-breaker was asked. Mr Ancell buzzed once it was done, but was wrong; SOAS didn't offer a buzz. So another was asked. Mr Lambert interrupted it... but was wrong! Minus five, and Durham had the win!

A very good close contest, and what a dramatic ending; kudos to the teams for going to shake hands at the end as well as AR doing so like he usually does. Well done Durham and best of luck in the second round! Very hard lines to SOAS, who didn't deserve to lose like that, but they gave a fair account of themselves over their two games; thanks for playing!

The stats: Mr Roberts was the best buzzer of the night with four starters, while Ms Dorn and Mr Hasler were joint best for SOAS with three each. On the bonuses, Durham managed a good 15 out of 25 (with three penalties) and SOAS 13 out of 27 (with one normal time penalty).

Next week's match: the first second round match. Don't know who's playing yet, but we'll find out soon enough.

Only Connect concluded its qualifier matches with the returns of the Introverts, who defeated the Third Agers in their first match, and the Crunchers, who were victorious against the Uisge Beathas in theirs.

 

I claim the same point as the Introverts in the first round on the ‘throwing shells’ question (OK, I actually said ‘throwing tortoises’, but I like to think that’s close enough that they’d have let me have another go!) and the same two as the Crunchers on the backwards names question. The Crunchers led 4-2 at the end of that round. I was in the process of working out an answer for the ‘Jacobite’ question in the second round when the Introverts got it right, and I’m afraid I went the same wrong way on the Traitors question as them; nonetheless, they now led 8-7 after that round.

 

The Crunchers took their turn to go first on the Walls, and took their time with it, but scored a full ten in the end. The Introverts were considerably quicker, but same result, a full ten, so as you were, 18-17 going into Missing Vowels. And they maintained their lead in a closely fought round to win 24-21! Well done them, and best of luck in the QFs, and best of luck Crunchers in the play-offs!

 

Next week’s match: the first play-off, a classic OC avoidable rematch between the Harmonics and the Cat Cows

 

Mastermind was opened by Arnav Umranikar, who was answering on the wartime premiership of Winston Churchill; he started strongly, but hit the skids about halfway through, recovering to a score of 6. Tim Kew followed him into the chair, answering on Mariah Carey; he fared rather better, 11 points an excellent score that put a benchmark down to the remaining contenders.

 

Alice Perkins was next up, answering on seals; she fared similarly to Arnav, a run of questions she didn’t know about halfway in derailing the round a bit, but she recovered to score 7. Elina Kharmats ended the round, answering on Vassily Kandinsky; she ended up equalling Arnav’s score, another 6, meaning Tim went into GK very much as the favourite.

 

Arnav returned for GK first, and offered up a very good round indeed; 12 for a total of 18 is a very good return. Elina was next, and gave it a go, but never looked like doing as well as Arnav, with two passes pretty much ending her chances; still, 8 for a total of 14 was a respectable effort. Alice went next, but she too was quickly off the pace and didn’t look like catching Arnav; still, she doubled her score, another 7 for another total of 14.

 

It did leave Tim needing ‘just’ 8 to win outright; he looked like he’d do it easily at first, but after a straight run of four correct to start with, he hit a bad run of questions, and then incurred a pass as well, meaning he really did need eight now. As the round timed out, he’d managed seven and was level with Arnav, meaning if he got the question Clive was asking right, he’d win; he got it wrong, meaning Arnav won the show on passes! Kudos to Tim for offering Arnav a handshake at the end; thanks to him and the two ladies for playing, and best of luck Arnav in the semis!

 

Brain of Britain began its semi-finals with a rather curious affair, in terms of the line-up at least. Andrew Fanko was revealed to have won the final HSNW place, and was listed as competing on the BBC website alongside Paula Dempsey, David Edwards and Heather Smith. On the show itself, however, we had Farrar Hornby in the line-up instead of David; I’m guessing he had to withdraw and so he and Farrar swapped their original SF berths (Farrar is listed as being in the fourth SF). The fact Farrar and Andrew were taking their turns out of the show’s usual alphabetical surname order confirms this for me. (I did miss a small bit of chat at the beginning when I listened earlier, so Russell D may have mentioned this then)

 

Whatever the case, Andrew made the most of his play-off win and won the game, beating Farrar by a single point, 14 to his 13; Paula and Heather scored 9 and 6 respectively. So Andrew takes the first place in the final, which is currently slated for just before Christmas on December 22nd. Looking through the line-ups for the remaining SFs, I notice that the line-up for all four, and the SFs as a whole, is entirely 50-50 split men and women, which is pleasing to see.

 

And that's another week in the bag! And a very dramatic one as well! Thanks as ever for reading, and we'll see you again same time same place next week...

Quizzy Mondays 2024-25 Week 15: University Challenge Repechage Play-Off 1, Only Connect Qualification Match 3, Mastermind Heat 13

Good evening again my friends, and welcome back to another Quizzy Monday! Coming up tonight, another hotly anticipated OC match-up, Mastermind enters the third fifth of its first round, and Brain of Britain concludes its heats. Firstly, though, UC, and apologies for those who were waiting for a first round review; I'm not doing one this year, as I'd probably just be repeating what I've said many times before now. If you want one, I recommend the latest Weaver's Week. On the plus side, I've decided to carry on with full line-up from now on, for old time's sake. Anyway, on with the show, and the first repechage play-off.

U.C.L. rejoin us as the highest scoring first round runners-up, having narrowly lost a very good match against Open 190-175 on the final starter of the game. They were unchanged from that contest:

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

St Andrews were last with us more recently, losing 200-145 to Cardiff, a match that, as the chairman rightly pointed out, was closer than that score suggests. They were also the same four as before:

Diane Buffet-Mogel, from Princeton, New Jersey, studying Classics and Philosophy

George Capell, from Broughton Hackett in Worcestershire, studying Economics

Captain: Freddie Skerrett, from Chislehurst in Kent, studying History

Tom Rosas, from Richmond-upon-Thames (originally Recife in Brazil), studying Physics

The sides were well matched at first, sharing the first starters and faring pretty similarly on the bonuses too. After the first picture round, St Andrews led 45-40. Kudos to AR, by the way, who was clearly unwell, but carried on well regardless; much like when William G Stewart hosted nearly two weeks' worth of Fifteen-to-One with a bad throat. U.C.L. pulled away a bit, but St Andrews kept themselves in the game with a starter and full house. After the music round, U.C.L. led 110-60.

U.C.L. hit their form in the third phase, however, getting a run of starters and a solid haul of bonuses and, all of a sudden, they'd pulled into a three figure lead. After the second picture round, they led 185-75. Another starter and pair of bonuses took the Londoners past 200 and the game was now well and truly over. St Andrews did manage a late rally to deservedly reach three figures, but had been well beaten this time. At the gong, U.C.L. won 215-105.

A good contest that, despite ultimately finishing in a walkover. Well done U.C.L., an impressive performance that stands them in good stead for the second round; best of luck in it! Hard lines to St Andrews, but they definitely didn't disgrace themselves, a good effort; thanks for playing!

The stats: Mr Mandel was, again, the best buzzer of the night with EIGHT(!) starters, while Ms Buffet-Mogel and Mr Skerrett were joint best for St Andrews with two each. On the bonuses, U.C.L. managed an impressive 21 out of 31 and St Andrews an also very good 13 out of 18 (with four penalties).

Next week's match: Durham vs SOAS in the second play-off

Only Connect continued its qualification matches with a hotly anticipated match-up between Too Many Cookes, who defeated the very good Pipe-Dreamers in their first match, and the Bloomsbury Group, who, of course, won that utterly bonkers contest against the Tea-Totallers.

 

My Dad and I only claim one point in the first round, on the ‘parents of Maggies’ question; the Bloomers led 3-2 at the end of that round. The second round gave us the first music sequence of the series, which the Cookes scored two on; later in the round, VCM was probably just about right to accept a borderline answer of ‘3: Britain’ for a sequence of islands with ascending numbers of nations on them. I got the model answer of ‘3: Borneo’ on that one for two points. After that, the teams were tied on 7-all.

 

The Cookes went first on the Walls, and very quickly pulled out a perfect round for a full ten. The Bloomers took a bit longer, but did so as well, so as you were, 17-17 going into Missing Vowels. It was a close round, with VCM atoning for her leniency earlier by letting the Bloomers off with a slight pause during answering, and, indeed, the teams again still couldn’t be separated; a second 21-each tie-breaker in a row! Ms Sheriff won the tie-breaker to send her team through; well done them, and best of luck to the Cookes in their next match!

 

Next week’s match: Introverts vs Crunchers

 

Mastermind was opened by Sam Petherby, answering on the Two Ronnies TV series; sadly, the questions, many of which were about specific details of specific sketches, didn’t fall for her, and she ended the round with only 3 points. Ian Grieve was next into the chair, answering on Richard Feynman; he, in contrast, got all his questions right, finishing with a very strong 11 points.

 

Dimitri Sameresinghe was next up, answering on the Toronto Blue Jays baseball team; he went nearly down the middle of the two previous scores, with a respectable round of 8. Finally, Richard Kimber, part of the Oxford Brookes team on UC a few series back, answered on the rather broad subject of badgers; despite there, sadly, being no mention of the mashed potato loving badger of the classic 90s kids show, he produced another top round, and went one better than Ian with 12, going into the lead.

 

Sam thus returned to the chair first already pretty much out of the running; she gave it a go, but, again, just couldn’t get a run of questions together. Her final total was 9. Dimitri was next, and his GK round was a slow burner, starting a bit slowly, then he got a good run going towards the end, and finished with a very decent total of 20. As we’ve seen before, that’s not insurmountable, though you suspected at least one of Ian and Richard would probably beat it.

 

Indeed, Ian did so in very short order, and went on to produce one of the best performances of the series so far; a superb 17 gave him a fantastic final total of 28, and definitely left Richard with his work cut out to beat him. He gave it a good go, but a few early wrong answers left him a bit too off the pace, and two subsequent passes pretty much ended his challenge. He still scored a decent 10 points, giving him a good final score of 22, but that left Ian the clear winner! Well done him, and thanks to the other for taking part.

 

Brain of Britain’s final heat was won by Tim Hall, captain of the Detectives from Series 13 of OC, who led throughout and ended up comfortable enough winner with 15 points, five ahead of second placed Richard Edwards (unsure if same Richard Edwards as the son of David, formerly of UC, OC and WWTBAM) with 10. Adam Vernone and Catherine McManus also competed, finishing with 6 and 5 respectively.

 

So, we now have our 12 definite semi-finalists, and we already knew that Caroline Latham, Helen Lippell and Andrew Fisher would be three of the four highest scoring non-winners. We end with a three-way tie for the fourth and final place between Andrew Fanko, Diane Hallagan and Alan Eeles; Russell D subsequently revealed at the end of the show that, as I theorised, the three would take part in an off-screen play-off to decide who went through. If you don’t want to know who won that play-off, my advice is don’t look at next week’s show’s page on the BBC website!

 

And that's it for another week! Thanks, as ever, for reading this new blog series, which, I must say, I am actually enjoying writing a bit more than my old UC focussed blogs, and which will continue again next week, same time same place; so, see you then.

Quizzy Mondays 2024-25 Week 14: University Challenge R1M14, Only Connect Qualification Match 2, Mastermind Heat 12

Good evening again my friends, and welcome back to Quizzy Mondays once again! Coming up, the second OC qualification match, the Mastermind heats reach the two fifths mark and the penultimate Brain of Britain heat. And, unlike the last two weeks, I have no major reason to mention Paul Sinha's Perfect Pub Quiz in my intro; just to say it's a good series that you should definitely check out if you have access to BBC Sounds. Anyway, on with the night's main quiz action, beginning with the final first round match of this year's UC, with both teams knowing 130 or more would bring them back win or lose...

 

The School of Oriental and African Studies, SOAS from here on in, appeared five teams in the BBC era, usually putting up a good show in each of then, most successfully reaching the semis in 2013-14; its last team, in 2018-19, were unlucky to draw and lose to the Darwin Cambridge team of the imperious Jason Golfinos in the first round. Playing for them this series were:

Janet Delves, from London (originally Oxenhope in Yorkshire), studying the History of Art and Archaeology

Ella Dorn, from Hertfordshire, studying Chinese and Linguistics

Captain: Tom Hasler, from Taunton, studying Development Economics

Cameron Lambert, from Treflach in Shropshire, studying Global Development

St Edmund Hall Oxford also made its last appearance in that 2018-19, faring somewhat better, making it all the way to the final, beating Mr Golfinos' team in the process, before narrowly losing said final to Edinburgh. It's two other Paxo era showings were second and first round exits respectively. The final team we met this series comprised of:

Jeffrey Liu, from Cambridge, Massachusetts, studying Politics

Robert Elkington, from Newton Abbot, studying Russian and Linguistics

Captain: Sophia Bursey, from Stroud, studying English

Daisy Pendergast, from Jersey, studying Biochemistry

The teams were very evenly matched at first, sharing the first starters of the game between them and getting the same number of bonuses. The first picture round went to SOAS, with AR harsh but fair to disallow Mr Hasler's answer of 'St Kittis and Nevis'; nonetheless, after the first picture round, the teams were tied on 35-each. To be fair, he was similarly harsh but fair with St Edmund Hall on their subsequent bonus set. The Oxonians pulled ahead with that starter and the next, but SOAS recovered well with the next two and took the lead. They also took the music round, after which they now led 90-75.

St Edmund Hall retook the lead by taking the next two starters, only for SOAS to take the next to pull the teams level again, leaving both teams within touching distance of the magic score. St Edmund Hall reached it first and, after the second picture round, had run into a 145-120 lead. SOAS reached it too with the next starter, so both teams were coming back, but who would go where? St Edmund Hall pulled away again with the next starter, but SOAS closed the gap back to five with the next! The Oxonians took the next though; no bonuses followed, but, when they took the next as well, that was game over. At the gong, St Edmund Hall won 195-155.

An excellent contest to end the round, two decent and watchable teams and I'm pleased both of them are coming back. Well done St Edmund Hall and best of luck in the second round, and best of luck to SOAS in the play-offs!

The stats: Mr Liu was the best buzzer of the night with five starters, while Ms Dorn and Mr Hasler were joint best for SOAS with four each. On the bonuses, SOAS managed 13 out of 27 and St Edmund Hall 17 out of 33.

Next week's match: the first play-off, between two of U.C.L., Durham, SOAS and St Andrews. I would guess U.C.L. vs St Andrews next week, followed by Durham vs SOAS the week after, but we shall see.

Only Connect continued with its second qualification match and the returns of the Four Opinions, who beat the Bean Farmers in their first match, and the Cat Cows, who came from behind in Missing Vowels to defeat the Harmonics in theirs.

 

My Dad claims three points on the Stonewall question in the first round, and we jointly claim two points on the picture question; the Opinions led 3-2 at the end of it. I claim FIVE POINTS on the Top Gear Reasonably Priced Cars question in the second round, and the same two as the Opinions on the Hawaii question; they led 8-7 at the end of that round.

 

The Cows went first on the Walls, and took almost all of the time, but did get all four groups, only three connections, so seven points. A near identical performance and the same score from the Opinions meant it was as you were, 15-14 going into Missing Vowels. The Cows literally just edged that by one point; the final score, a 21-each tie-breaker! And it was Mr Dover who took the tie-breaker to send the Opinions through to the QFs! Well done then, and best of luck to the Cows in the play-offs.

 

Next week’s match: Too Many Cookes vs the Bloomsbury Group

 

Mastermind’s next heat was opened by Olivia Woolley, who I namechecked on this blog a few months ago as the captain of the U.C.L. team who were unlucky to draw and lose to Alex Guttenplan’s Emmanuel team in the second round of that series of UC; her round on New Order was a very good one, with only one mistake all round, 11 a good final score. Alex Thomas, captain of the Corkscrews from S16 of OC, was next up, answering on the West Indies men’s cricket team from 1974 to present; he didn’t fare as well, but 7 was still not a bad total in the context of the rest of this series.

 

Alan Marlow was next up, answering on Ian Fleming’s original James Bond novels; he was unlucky early on to have a slight mispronunciation of ‘the Audubon Society’ disallowed, but recovered well, and ended up going straight down the middle of Olivia and Alex’s scores, 9 his total. Joyce Fullbrook completed the round, answering on Amy Johnson the aviator; she too split the difference between two other contenders’ scores, 8 her total.

 

Alex thus returned for GK first needing a very good round to keep himself realistically in the game; he gave it a good go, but his score of 9, giving him a respectable total of 16, was probably not going to be enough, especially with two passes as well. Joyce returned next, and started well, but hit an unlucky run of questions in the middle of her round which derailed her somewhat; she recovered a bit late on, but ended up falling just short of Alex’s score, 15 her total.

 

Alan came next, and passed both previous totals with ease; a solid round of 12 gave him an excellent total of 21, leaving Olivia needed 11 to win. She started a bit hit and miss, with a pass meaning she really did need to better Alan’s total, but then hit a good run of questions and ended up with the best score of the round; 13 gave her a total of 24 and the win! Well done her, and thanks to the rest for taking part.

 

Brain of Britain’s penultimate heat was won by Farrar Hornby, who eked into a three-point lead in the third round and maintained it all the way to the end; 13 his final winning score, with Suzanne Bosman second on 10. Joan Dell and Ryan Lewendon completed the line-up with 4 and 5 respectively.

 

So, with just one heat left, Caroline Latham with 16 and Helen Lippell and Andrew Fisher with 13 are definitely through to the SFs as the three highest scoring non-winners, while Alan Eeles, Diane Hallagan and Andrew Fisher remain joint fourth on 12; if none of next week’s non-winners beat that score, then I’m guessing there’ll either be an off-screen play-off like on original Fifteen-to-One or they too have some system for deciding who goes through that we don’t know of. Hopefully, all will become clear soon enough.

 

And that's it for this week! Next week, we start seeing teams again on UC, and I'm in two minds whether to carry on with the full team line-ups that have been a staple of this blog since its inception or to just list the team members normally; probably won't decide until I get down to writing next week's blog. So, see you then...