Congratulations to Pat Gibson on winning last weekends British Quiz Championships. Pat regained the title with Kevin Ashman into second place. After the event much discussion emerged on Facebook about how better to promote major events in the quizzing such as the British Quizzing Championships etc so it would be interesting to hear the views of other readers.
Heading into tomorrows fifth heat of Mastermind 2014 here are the current standings from the series so far...
Mark Eaves - 30 (Q)
Chris Grandison - 26 (Q)
Mike Foden - 21 (Q)
Paula Keaveney - 21 (Q)
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Gareth Kingston - 28 (2nd)
Alice Mennel - 26
Susan Sworn - 25 (2nd =)
Jeremy Renals - 25 (2nd =)
Les Morrell-24
Howard Towner - 23
Cliff Morgan - 21 (2nd)
Lena Gazey - 19 (2nd)
Tim Allison - 19
Stephen Peter - 17
Sidin Sunny - 15
Graham Gowland - 15
Picture Round
It was 7 teams of at least five players against the two of us this week so very little hope of making inroads into the picture round. As mentioned, taking up almost a third of the quiz means this round is vital and although the 3 obscure misses were justifiable, the missed below really cost us...
1.
This was the exact picture used. Totally went in the wrong direction.
2.
I hate missing ones like this (the woman is who is needed!). New the film, made a mental note of the author as I imagine that will come up from time to time but totally ignorant of the stars of the movie!
3.
Knew I had seen this guy in a lot of US Shows. Remember him from Charmed especially but his name....got no where near.
Had a good week questions wise so nothing really stands out other than the following...
1. Which musician was born Phillippe Pages in Paris in 1953?
Resorted to guess work based on the date. Given a thousand guesses I still wouldn't have got a point.
2. Which movie was John Wayne in the middle of making when he won his Oscar for True Grit?
Pfffttt was my response. What a terrible question and unless there is some anecdote or reason I should have known this, then I will stick by the fact its a bad questions. Guess a John Wayne film released roughly a few months after his Oscar win.
A very big congratulations to Mike Foden, fellow Sunderland Quiz League player, who stormed to victory in the fourth heat of Mastermind on Friday. With all due respects to the other contenders, I was rooting for Mike and he didn't disappoint. Coming to the chair needing 7 to win, I knew he would be able to make his first ever Semi Final and despite a run of passes in the middle of the round, he was always in control! Good Luck in the Semi Final.
Good luck to anybody is taking part in the British Quiz Championships today. For a variety of reasons I was unable to attend either the venue in Kettering or Edinburgh which was a shame as I was hoping to improve on my 28th placing at last years event. The BQA do sell the questions after the event so I will of course try and get hold of a set to see where I would have came.....not quite the same though.
Only Connect returned this week on BBC2. No sign of dumbing down as some people feared and "cckndcck" produced an interesting answer in the missing vowels rounds. One minor niggle about the show....recently they have started setting questions that are nigh on impossible to get for 5. Perfect example this week "Suriname"....I liked the question but there were better ways of writing it. The setters have been defending this point on facebook by saying they are balanced out across the episodes but in a game where contestants pick their own 3 questions per round I fail to see how this is a valid excuse.
Still, not one to moan, Only Connect remains weekly appointment viewing.
On the subject of TV quizzing there was a cracking episode of The Chase that aired on Thursday night. The Chase started with a new run of shows this week and Thursdays episode was one of my favourites of recent series. I won't spoil it too much as it is well worth watching on the ITV player.
Reading this week has varied as I am trying to strengthen up on some weak areas.
This is a cracking Kindle title (under £2) and gives some great biographical information on key Nobel Prize winners. Certainly have taken a lot from this.
This has been on my reading desk for some time. In continued struggle I try and improve my knowledge of animals. One subject I find harder more than others to get a good grasp of! This book certainly has helped!
Heading into tonight's show here are the current standings in the Mastermind 2014/2015 series. Still no clarity on whether it is only 2nd place contestants who can stake a claim to be a highest scoring runner up.
Mark Eaves - 30 (Q)
Chris Grandison - 26 (Q)
Paula Keaveney - 21 (Q)
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Gareth Kingston - 28 (2nd)
Alice Mennel - 26
Susan Sworn - 25 (2nd =)
Jeremy Renals - 25 (2nd =)
Les Morrell-24
Howard Towner - 23
Cliff Morgan - 21 (2nd)
Tim Allison - 19
Stephen Peter - 17
Last nights results from the fifth week of the Sunderland Echo Quiz League's Knockout tournament. A massive fluctuation in scores there. Our match at home to Hastings Hill was very close all the way. Hastings Hill built up an early 5 point lead which we clawed back and managed to hang onto for the win. Two wins a row now puts us in contention to make the Semi Final....
With 3 games left for each time its nip and tuck for the four qualification places. Could very well come down to average score.
Next Weeks Fixtures -
Penshaw vs Newbottle
Hastings Hills vs The Prior
Ashbrooke vs Museum Vaults
Here are this weeks subjects if you feel like tackling any -
Champagne
The Manhattan Project
Tina Modotti
The Prisoner
A nice range of subjects this week and I know that fellow Sunderland Echo Quiz League player Mike Foden is tackling the Prisoner. Mike has taken part in Mastermind in numerous occasions and I will have my fingers crossed he makes it out of this heat on Friday!
1. Which is the largest island that lies entirely in Indonesia?
2. In Norse mythology, what were the names of the first two humans created by the Gods?
3. Who played Clayton Farlow in Dallas and appeared in Calamity Jane, Annie Get Your Gun and Showboat?
4. Set during the Black Death of 1348, "Decameron" is perhaps the most famous work of which author?
5. Which composer, who died of Tuberculosis in 1849, spent one of his most productive periods on the island of Majorca in 1838-39 with the author George Sand?
6. A key figure in the Jutland Movement of Danish Literature, which author wrote works including The Children of Wrath (1904) and the 1906 Poem "Songs of the Rye"?
7. Which drink was supposedly invented when a Dutch trader tried to boil wine to remove the water and save cargo space?
8. Ignoring the variations of the spelling of Mohammed, what is the most popular boys names for new born babies in the UK according to a 2014 report?
9. Who won the 2014 Rugby League Challenge Cup after a string of consecutive final defeats?
10. What is the largest River that lies entirely within Switzerland?
Answers
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1. Sumatra
2. Ask and Embla
3. Howard Keel
4. Boccaccio
5. Chopin
6. Jeppe Aakjaer
7. Brandy
8. Oliver (Amelia is the for the girls)
9. Leeds Rhinos
10. Aare
And a Bonus Question....
Who took an English version of this song into the UK Top Ten in the 1960s? Clue: It was her fifth top ten hit in the UK peaking at Number 5 in 1966.
This week marks the return of Only Connect (Monday Evening) in its new slot on BBC 2. With some familiar faces also returning as contestants and a mammoth 27 episodes we are being spoiled....lets just hope the series does not suffer because of the move to a more mainstream channel! No reason why it should.
Over at Jack Bennett's Quiz Musings blog he has began a great new monthly feature in which he is posting up 100 questions and asking readers to submit answers. Missed this months just but looking forward to having a go at next months. The link to Quiz Musings is HERE
After one of my best ever quiz performances in the Sunderland Quiz League last week it will probably be back to earth with a bump this coming Wednesday as we take on Hastings Hill. Check out the previous post on the league for full details of the current standings and upcoming fixtures
Graham Stewart's Bang is a great all round history of the 1980s in Britain. Entertaining, full of facts and a one of the best books of its kind on the decade.
Again, I little selection of some the of my failings in various quizzes this week. The Picture round was again a bit of a damp squib with most teams scoring 18/20 (as always there were a couple of totally obscure ones). We scored 15/20 and it will have been the three below that most people would have picked up that I missed.... Picture Round
1.
Well this was a funny one.......Without giving too much way if you are trying to get this one yourself, I always struggle telling these new "reality stars" apart. The day after the quiz I would have indeed got this however as this guy became something of a humorous news story this week!
2.
Should have got this! Sport is usually my strongest subject whatever the type of quiz.....but the picture we saw was only a face so didn't even have the badge, or a shirt colour to go off.
3.
Apparently, in the realms of daytime TV, the guy who fronts this show is all the rage. Never seen him,never heard of the show until last week and couldn't even muster a sensible guess.
Answers:
1. James Argent
2. Peter Osgood
3. Judge Rinder
Questions
1. Who played opposite Twiggy in the film The Boy Friend?
Now....even though I consider myself to be rather okay on films, I had not even heard of this movie so was in purely guessing terms. Not even close. Should I have heard of this film? Only one team of 14 got it right.
2. Which female artist is
currently at No.7 in the UK album charts with an album called A Perfect Contradiction? Shame I hadn't paid attention to that weeks charts as this was by a singer I quite like. 3. Actor Benedict Cumberbatch
is to voice which popular character in one of the two Jungle Book films entering production? Totally passed me by this news story and although guessable, my guess was wrong. 4.The port of Ullapool, in the Scottish highlands, lies
on which loch? British Geography is one of my weakest areas. Couldn't come up with a sensible guess that sounded right.
Another close heat this week. After last week's tie break there was little again to choose between the contestant. Former Finalist Les Morrell was a face I recognised straight away. Susan Sworn was a familiar face too having reached the Semi Final on a previous occasion. Indeed she bossed the specialist subject and left herself very little to do in the GK round to progress but just couldn't make it.
The GK sets were nicely balanced this week in my view. Always a subjective issue, but I found I scored evenly across them.
Final Placings
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Chris Grandison - 26
Susan Sworn - 25
Jeremy Renals - 25
Les Morrell-24
So congratulations to Chris Grandison on a fine win. Could well be a name to watch in the Semi's! Les Morrell mentions on Facebook his whole round was disturbed due to a mess up on the Yoga question by Humprheys which threw his round off. Edit: See Dsvid Clark's comment in the box below.
Prior to tomorrow nights episode here is a quick look at how this series is shaping up. Still not confirmed whether or not to qualify as a high scoring runner up you need to finish second hence the inclusion of the (2nd).
Mark Eaves - 30 (Q)
Paula Keaveney - 21 (Q)
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Gareth Kingston - 28 (2nd)
Alice Mennel - 26
Howard Towner - 23
Cliff Morgan - 21 (2nd)
Tim Allison - 19
Stephen Peter - 17
A much needed win this week. Sometimes, as a quizzer, you just have one of those nights and this week happened to be mine. A great selection of questions, more modern than usual, with Greek Mythology, 1990s political scandals and other such areas in which I am usually strong resulted in a great win for Museum Vaults. Hopefully we can build on that next week.
The other results panned in such a way that it leaves the league very open indeed. Each team plays 7 matches with the top 4 qualifying and as you can see from the below table every team has a chance of making it to the Semi Finals.
Next Week the Fixtures are -
Newbottle vs The Isis
Museum Vaults vs Hastings Hill
Penshaw vs Chaplins
