Brain of Britain 2013 - Round 1 Heat 2

Brain of Britain 2013 - Round 1 - Match 2

I missed a review of last weeks Brain of Britain as I was late hearing the show and if you want a review of that show check out Dave Clarks Life After Mastermind blog. Anyway, onto Heat 2 of what I consider to be one of the most enjoyable broadcast quizzes.

Contestants in Heat 2 of Brain of Britain were...

Jenny Dunn

David Hankin

Dhruv Sharma

Rufus Stilgoe

The opening round was littered with some great questions. "Without Fear, Without Favour" I did not know was the motto of the Financial Times but I managed to get the gimmies of the Ryder Cup Winning Captain and American-Born Member of Monty Python. The following round was a bit more tricky but Jenny Dunn marched to an impressive 5 in a row to give her the lead. A great question on the German for "Snap Crackle and Pop" which I am not going to attempt to repeat. After round two everyone was of the mark with Jenny Dunn leading on 7 but Rufus Stilgoe just behind.

Round 3 kicked off with a music question and I certainly did not recognise the old World Service them but Jenny Dunn kept her run. The fact that Jefferson is William Hagues middle name has been following me around in questions all over and here it was again! It is odd how questions tend to do this. Plenty of points scored so far and a two way battle was emerging. At half time (in other words when Beat the Brain starts) the standings were....Alan Hay who was a semi-finalist last year set two cracking questions which indeed Beat the Brains. Lord Snooty's home is Bunkerton Castle which caught everyone out.

Jenny Dunn - 10

Rufus Stilgoe - 9

David Hankin - 1

Dhruv Sharma - 1

Into the second half then and David Hankin got a piece of Olympic Commentary from the 5000m final in 2012 which required Mo Farahs birth country....already a chestnut! I had read the 50 Shades of Grey fact earlier so for the first time this series got a question the Brain's didnt. Shows my level really that it was a 50 Shades question managed this one. Jenny Dunn had by this time opened up a two point lead but the scoring had slowed down.

Round five started with Jenny Dunn extending her lead further and a fact I read only recently regarding the old name for Brighton came up. Everything was going Jennys way as a guess on Nobel prizes notched her on the way to another batch of points. Fray Bentos is based in Uruguay which I felt I should have known. Jennys biggest rival was by this time Rufus Stilgoe who scored not only a bonus from Jenny but a 5-streak to take the lead by two points. 

The penultimate round began with Jenny failing to identify that the major charity launched on Xmas day in 1985 by Noel Edmonds was Comic Relief. None of the Brains knew Campbell-Bannerman is the only UK PM to die at 10 Downing street. 

Jenny Dunn applied some pressure as the first round kicked off but could not score quite enough, and when Rufus won her bonus that was just about the contest over. I also did not know that "Strausbourg" means City of the Road.

Final scores then were - 

Rufus Stilgoe - 19

Jenny Dunn - 17

David Hankin - 3

Dhruv Sharma - 2

So congratulations to Rufus Stilgoe who moves into the next round with a higher score than last weeks winner. Hard luck to Jenny Ryan who lead almost all the way and had a score that would have won last week. To put that into prospective, including last weeks episode, that leaves the scores so far this series in ranked order as...

I am not 100% sure if all runners up are considered for the 4 runners up spots or just those in second place so for now have included a second next to those who came 2nd in their heats. 

Heat Winners

Rufus Stilgoe - 19

Anthony Fish - 14

Others

Jenny Dunn - 17 (2nd)

Carol Atkinson -10 (2nd)

Philip Issac - 7

Douglas Dickie - 5

David Hankin - 3

Dhruv Sharma - 2