Xmas Gift Ideas for Quizzers #2

Continuing in my short series on good Xmas gift ideas for quizzers then some great additions to any quizzers bookshelf will be the 1001 series. These are fact packed editions with great information, concise workings of important events etc, plenty of illustrations and plenty to learn.

There are more in the series but below are the few I have found to be the best of the bunch.

Brain of Britain 2013 - Round 1 Match 3

Brain of Britain 2013 - Round 1 - Match 3

I have taken to listening to Brain of Britain using iplayer now on a Monday Evening as work prevents me from being able to listen to it when it goes out live. Anyway, this weeks contestants were - 

Rob Cruise
Chris Gould
Sarah Greenan
Allison Jacobs

It was a very close heat this week with topsy turvy scores throughout. Everyone at one point was in with a whisker of taking the lead. Rob Cruise looked steady throughout though and was tending to give more consistent answers which allowed him to keep his nose in front. Despite some wild guesses (perhaps the question not being heard properly) this was a very good heat and very entertaining indeed.

The final scores were -

Rob Cruise - 11
Allison Jacobs - 9
Sarah Greenan - 8
Chris Gould - 6

Heat Winners

Rufus Stilgoe - 19

Anthony Fish - 14

Rob Cruise - 11

Others

Jenny Dunn - 17 (2nd)

Carol Atkinson -10 (2nd)
Allison Jacobs - 9 (2nd)

Sarah Greenan - 8
Philip Issac - 7
Chris Gould - 6

Douglas Dickie - 5

David Hankin - 3

Dhruv Sharma - 2

Only Connect - Bronze Medal Match

The Footballers took on The Wordsmiths in the, for want of a better term, Bronze Medal Match in last nights Only Connect. Both teams were unlucky not to be in the final but it was the Wordsmiths (Chris Brewis, Dave Taylor, Brian Pendreigh) who took a narrow victory. Both teams have been very entertaining this series and it was a good contest, with the Footballers nearly scraping it back in the missing vowels round, between too very good teams.

Pub Quiz Article

I quite enjoyed reading this article HERE so thought I would share it.

It focuses mainly on the Quiz League scene in the UK in the first part and goes onto to mention the general pub quiz.

Xmas Gift Ideas for Quizzers #1

Yet again, much the same as last year I have had one or two emails from partners/friends/family of dedicated quizzers so I am going to set up a string of posts in the next few days with a few great gift ideas.

Starting off with a gift for the serious quizzer..

The Worlds Most Difficult Quiz does exactly what you would assume....melts the brain. This is by far the toughest quiz book available on Amazon from a very experienced setter and will keep any quizzer busy for hours over the festive period!

Mastermind 2012/2013 - Heat 16

Mastermind 2012/2013 - Heat 16

After an ever so tight contest last week and the Mastermind Contest getting deeper and deeper into the first round of heats it was one with the 16th of 24 heats this year and another very entertaining show.

Contenders on tonight's Mastermind were...

Brig Rooke
Sam Goodyear
Henry Morris
Andrew Frazer


Brig Rooke started us off with a go at William Golding Novels and made a very confident start to proceedings. My little bit of Wiki revision here did very little to help me but Brig clearly had a great knowledge here and set the ball rolling with a very good 10. Sam Goodyear was next on the Soviet Union under Stalin and having Sam on Facebook I know he is a keen quizzer and this was a subject I was interested in. A very wide one indeed and even though I studied it well at Uni and felt I had retained a lot I struggled with some of these questions but Sam stormed his way through to a score of 8. Some very long questions here!

Henry Morris on the KLF next and this was one example of where the Wiki Challenge worked. Before reading the Wiki page I would have maybe got one or two here but managed half a dozen. Henry Morris was answering fast, correctly and scored 13 taking him into the lead. Last in the chair was Andrew Frazer. Andrew was actually at the Rolleston quiz on Saturday (coming an impressive 21st) but I did not get the chance to meet him. He took on When the Boat Comes In and had a superb round with 16 points! Going to be hard to beat!

After the SS round the scores on tonights Mastermind were -

Andrew Frazer -16
Henry Morris - 13
Brig Rooke - 10
Sam Goodyear - 8

Sam needed a good round as he stepped out of for the first GK round of the night. After an early stumble Sam stormed into a great round with the ticker going over strong but a pass-string held things up a tad. The answers soon returned and Sam scored a very respectable 22 (indeed it would have won a couple of heats this year).

Brig Rooke also needed a cracking round to put pressure on the others. A stuttering start held the score down for a while and coupled with some tricky questions (including several answers that were just nearly right) Brig managed to reach 16.

Henry Morris has two tasks as he strode to the chair. Firstly surpass Sam Goodyear's 22 and secondly set a target for Andrew. Things did not get off to the best of starts and Henry finished on 19.

Andrew Frazer needed only 6 to win the contest which he was always going to get being a high ranking UK quizzer. After 6 questions he had the total he needed. I have heard some people say that the pressure lifts as soon as you know you have that winning total and allows you to flow to a better score. Whether this was the case for Andrew or not I have no idea but either way he powered to a fantastic score of 36 which meant not only was this the highest score of the series but also Andrew only had one question wrong all night! Superb and a serious contender for the title this year has emerged!

That put the final scores tonight as -


Andrew Frazer -35
Sam Goodyear - 22
Henry Morris - 19

Brig Rooke - 16

And putting that into the context of Mastermind as a whole this season we see....

Qualified

Andrew Frazer -35
Rachael Neiman - 33
Gregory Spiller - 32
Kathryn Palmer - 31
Christine Plume - 29
Jonathan Gordon - 29
Michael Wright - 29
Sean Howley -29
Mark Grant - 28
Sian West - 26
Shahab Mossavat - 26
Matthew Bradshaw -26
Alcuin Edwards - 25
Aidan Mccquade - 24
John Chadwick - 23
Mark Roberts - 20

Highest Scoring Runners Up

Chris Cann – 29

John Wheeler – 29
Helen Marshall - 28

Paul Whittaker - 27
Chris Quinn - 27
Peter Wharmby - 27

Other
Nathan Joss – 26 

lan Sharp - 26

Mike Foden - 26

Bart Smith - 25

Andrew Hunt - 25
Nina Fetherston - 25
Philip Walters - 25
Julie Green - 25
Mark Kirby - 24

David Gow - 24
Andrew Granath - 24

Alan Wharmby - 24

Rosalind Winter - 24

Laurie Handcock – 24

Kevin Baker - 24 
Paul Sharp - 24
Thomas Grinyer - 23
Colin Wilson - 23
Roland Mcfall – 23

Hazel Humprheys - 22
Sam Goodyear - 22
Chris Kirk - 22
Les Wallace - 22

Graeme Marley -22

 Ian Copping - 22

Alan Haddick - 21 
Charlie Tinsley - 21
Aileen Lucas - 20
James Jack -20
Kathy Richards - 19
Brian O Donnell - 19
Henry Morris - 19
Nick Mazonowicz - 19
Sarah Le Fevre - 19

Jackie Phillips - 19

Mathhew Clarke - 18
Nathan Scott – 18
Xavier Woodward - 18
Nick Gunatilleke - 17
Charlotte Mason - 17

Brig Rooke - 16

Barbara Bell - 15

Pocket Pub Quiz Magazine

I am not sure how I first came across Pocket Pub Quiz Magazine but a few weeks ago I stumbled upon the website for the this new publication from Quizzical Media Ltd and in short its blooming marvellous.

For some time I think there has been a gap in the market for this sort of product. Off the rows and rows of monthly puzzle books you will find in your local newsagents a quiz book certainly has a much needed place. I believe Pocket Pub Quiz has been sold in various Tesco and WH Smith stores and of course is available online HERE. Its well worth the cover price and certainly will keep any avid quizzer busy for some time. 

Each issue comes with a range of puzzles from standard quiz questions on a range of subjects (and also a range of difficulty). What this means for the consumer is that you get a chance to test yourself no matter what level. I certainly enjoyed all aspects of the questions and even my other half, not usually a keen quizzer, enjoyed certain elements of it.

But Pocket Pub Quiz is far from just lists of questions. A real effort has been made to keep this book diverse and fresh so included are anagrams, wordsearches, crosswords and matching games....all will test and boost quizzing knowledge. I had bags of fun with this book, learned a lot and it made a huge difference rather than the hours I usually spend ploughing through lists and lists. A nice addition to my learning regime!

One thing that becomes apparent from the offset is that there is a clear passion behind this book. This is a quiz book by quizzers for quizzers and having talked to the man behind the whole project it is evident this is a personal interest and passion. This makes the title all the more enjoyable. The questions are all original and fresh as Ash, the aforementioned brains behind the project, researches each and every questions himself and is determined to make this book stand out!

It is laid out well, being pocket size it is easy to transport and the content is easy to use. It is a great publication!

I really cannot praise this book enough. There was a gap in the market for a product such as this and I hope it succeeds and the clear level of effort and care put into producing a quality product with a wide appeal is evident throughout.

Try it HERE

Independent Article

Not sure what it is about the last week but there has been a fair few articles on the papers about quizzing. This one is from the Independent HERE

Quiz League Week 3 - Tough

Snow had hit the region hard yesterday which probably played a role in a lower than usual turnout at our Sunderland Echo Quiz League Match last night but we still had a 4v4 match, taking on Hastings Hill (lead by Chris Brewis who you may have seen, and indeed will see on Monday, on Only Connect as part of the Wordsmiths this series).

I was warned before hand that this weeks setters tend to make really tough quizzes and that turned out to be very true! I did enjoy the evening, we won 21-20 and I was able to contribute about 6-7 points mainly due to Sports questions (watching the abysmal Flintoff fight did have some use after all!) and I got to know my team mates a little more. But the nature of the questions, which were a) tough to guess and b) hard to work out an answer if you have no idea, as well as the general fact that they were very very tough indeed meant the scoring was low. I dont mind a hard quiz but if its going to be hard I think you need to give the players a chance to work out answers using knowledge they had. There were some great questions in there though and I certainly learned a lot which is one upside!

The Sunderland Echo Quiz League Match  breaks until after Xmas now. after 3 matches, and a week of setting, I am very much enjoying taking part in a league environment and would encourage anyone interested in quizzing to seek out a local league. Good quizzing and good company!

Quiz Machine Earnings of £60,000!

Not sure what I make of this article. HERE

First off, if this is genuine then all credit to the guy. Not only must he have superb knowledge but he must be a lucky individual indeed (as well all know the "stopper" questions are purely guess work). He is a former University Challenge captain apparently but I cannot help

- The Colour of Money game he mentions as his favourite, is my usual game of choice. However it is so unbelievably rigged it would be impossible to make this kind of money from it you would have thought. As soon as you win on it once they litter the final game with stoppers (such as What was Wigans average attendance in the season 2005/2006? A. 34,001 B. 34,0002 etc etc). To memorise the stoppers, considering the sheer amount of questions that must be within the game, would take a heck of a lot of initial investment.

- Interesting that he mentions about dates and numbers....must try that one!

- I don't quite know what he means by Tip 4 though.

I am not 100% sure I believe this. I know under the old system quiz machines were a source of great income for all but winning £60,000 a year by playing Colour of Money on a modern machine...I have my doubts

Mastermind Wiki Challenge Week 16

Mastermind Wiki Challenge

This weeks subjects for the Mastermind Wiki Challenge....

Novels of William Golding

Soviet Union under Stalin 1924-1939

The KLF

When the Boat Comes In

Some interesting ones here. I will be able to have a good go at the Soviet Union subject as it was one of my University modules in my History Degree. To be honest, When the Boat Comes in is not a show I had ever heard of before googling it prior to this post and the other two I don't much fancy this week but I might try and give them a go.

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

Telegraph Article on Pub Quizzing

Not sure if this appeared in print but the Telegraph have a good little article on Quizzing HERE.


Couple of points worthy of some discussion maybe -

-Marcus Berkman is quoted here, his Brain Men book being one of the best books on quizzing out there, and he states Trivial Pursuit started the quizzing boom in the 1980's. Would people who were around at the time agree with that? I am a little young to be able to comment but I am interested to know if that is the case.

-I totally agree on the issue relating to Sky Sports vs Pub Quizzes. Thinking of myself, I definitely drink more in a 2 hour quiz than if I were watching a football game. No matter who was playing. The problem I guess getting people in for the quiz in the first place.

- Funny that the "British Gas" question is mentioned. I was asked that very question in a quiz recently and totally agree with Marcus on that one. I am finding so much lazy setting, particularly in current affairs rounds, lately.

British Open Grand Prix - Rolleston

As mentioned in a previous post, I attended the British Open Grand Prix yesterday down in Rolleston. Although I have attended an event ran by the IQA in Edinburgh previously, this was my first major event with the BQA and certainly, in terms of numbers of players, the biggest event I have attended.

We were there in plenty of time and before long the individual quiz had started. I knew what to expect of course having purchased the questions previously from the BQA website so the content and difficulty were no surprise. As mentioned in a previous post I also knew where I would be roughly placing in the overall standings so had set myself a target score, which I exceed by three, so in that respect I was certainly happy with the totals. My score was of course much lower than the experience players I was sitting with but I wasn't made to feel belittled or "stupid" in anyway and everyone was full of advice and tips for me which I really appreciated.

The questions themselves were great. The Sport round is always going to be my strongest I feel, and is likely to be for some time yet. 39th in Sport was indeed my highest placing of the day and even though it appears a lot of people "drop" that subject I was not far off some of the others in my table which is encouraging. Its the other areas that let me down though, I took the strategy of neglecting one paper (Physical world) and focusing on the others. (Lowest scoring paper is dropped and the best 5 scores count). I had also been told for now to spend as little time on the tiebreakers as possible and I indeed ignored them completely. I do of course intend to study through all the questions at some point and work out how to improve.

Last word on the individual quiz, which was won by Eggheads Pat Gibson with Jesse Honey (Mastermind winner, World Quiz Champion) in second, is to say that I was happy with my score and if I can keep improving every GP then the only way is up. Roll on Coventry!

After Coventry the team quiz began. I did like the idea of randomised teams and I was placed with some very good quizzers indeed and managed to come 4th in the team aspect. Thrown into the mix was an individual element where 90 questions were given and the average of the middle three scores added to the team score to give the winner. The social side of things is as important as the quiz to many so meeting new people is always good!

In all I had a very enjoyable day indeed and would certainly encourage anyone considering attending an event ran by the BQA to do so (click HERE for the link and head to the forum). Everyone is very friendly, welcoming and as I stated earlier, full of advice and tips so even if like me you imagine you may struggle, its well worth attending.

Roll on Coventry!

Brain of Britain 2013 - Round 1 - Match 5

Brain of Britain 2013 - Round 1 - Match 5

I convinced myself that I had checked the schedule and Brain of Britain was having a total xmas break but by accident noticed that the fifth heat of this series did indeed air yesterday.

Contenders -

George Duda
Clare Green
Oliver Levy
David Stainer

I knew there were a few big hitters taking part in this years Brain of Britain and David Stainer, Only Connect Champion of Champion, highly ranked UK quizzer (and probably more accolades and appearances than I can note), is one of these.

During the first round George Duda got off to a solid start but confused Mitosis giving David Stainer his first point of the contents. Oliver Levy got himself off the ground and no one knew that the only Bond title with a female narrator is The Spy Who Loved Me (great fact certainly I learned from this). David Stainer got his first question set with questions on the Bevan Boys, Pol Pot and Order of the Thistle to move into a 3 point lead.

Round 2 kicked off with George missing his question but gaining a bonus on Italy's largest Lake (Garda). A string of wrong answers and David Stainer scored a bonus but fell foul of a question on the band Madness. But a four point lead was now opened up.

The pattern continued into the third round with a superb "sound-bite" answer from David on George Brown. Oliver Levy did not know the home ground of Cambridge University Cricket Team (another fact I learned...Fenners) and by the time David Stainer scored a 5-string bonus it was already looking as though he was on for not only a final place, but the highest score of the series so far. Clare Green faced the first music question of the heat in the next round which was rather tough. Clare seemed to get a really tough set all throughout the heat tonight and indeed was yet to score. An 11 point lead for David Stainer going into Beat the Brains.

Beat the Brains this week involved a question on which Nobel Prize Winner for Literature did not write in English. (Issac Bashevis Singer).

Into the second half then and the same pattern continued as it became obvious only one winner was emerging from this heat. There was still every chance one of the others could make a push for a runners up slot. David Stainer racked up another bonus in the final rounds and took his score to 26.

So congratulations to David Stainer on a superb win with the highest score of the series so far.

The final standings were...

David Stainer - 26

George Duda - 5
Oliver Levy - 5
Clare Green - 0

Overall standings for the series...

Heat Winners

David Stainer - 26
Rufus Stilgoe - 19
Scott Dawson - 15

Anthony Fish - 14

Rob Cruise - 11

Others

Jenny Dunn - 17 (2nd)
Darren Martin - 14 (2nd)

Carol Atkinson -10 (2nd)
Allison Jacobs - 9 (2nd)

George Duda - 5 (Tied 2nd)
Oliver Levy - 5 (Tied 2nd)

Steve O'Gorman - 9
Sarah Greenan - 8
Bel Freedman - 7

Philip Issac - 7

Chris Gould - 6

Douglas Dickie - 5

David Hankin - 3

Dhruv Sharma - 2
Clare Green - 0