Quizzy Mondays 2025-26 Week 3: University Challenge R1M3, Only Connect R1M2, Mastermind Heat 3

Good evening again my friends, and welcome back to another Quizzy Monday! The third of the season, and the second full line-up, though hope you enjoyed it while you could, as apparently Mastermind is off next week. Suppose we'd better get used to this as, if last season is anything to go by, it'll be happening a fair few times to come yet. Anyway, lets save that for when it happens; lets get on with tonight's action, beginning with UC as usual...

 

Two Southern institutions tonight. Bath were semi-regulars in this blog's early days, appearing in five series in seven from 08-09 to 14-15, but only won one game in that time; it's last appearance was a week before IndyRef1 when they lost to, appropriately, Glasgow. Playing for them this year were:

Lewis Blakeborough, from Kent, studying Physics

Sajjan Johal, from Nottingham, studying Maths and Physics

Captain: Joni Wildman, from Nottingham, studying the use of fungi to make insulation materials

Luca Romagnoli, from Croydon, studying Biochemistry  

 

Southampton have made somewhat more regular appearances during the BBC era of the show, of which its best was in the final Paxo-era series three years ago, when they reached the semi-finals; its last team went out in the play-offs two series ago. This year, they were represented by:

Cormac Stephenson, from Stratford in London, studying Maths

Zain Mahmood, from Skipton in Yorkshire, studying Maths with Computer Science

Captain: Florence Williams, from Essex, studying Medicine

Ben Hermanns-Kermode, from Horsham, studying Chemistry  

 

Bath took the first starter of the night, and took one bonus; Southampton took the second, and took all three bonuses. The Saints went on to take the next two starters as well, including the first picture round, and took two bonuses from each, giving them a lead of 65-15. Bath then took two starters in a row, and two bonuses from both bonus sets took them within 10 points. But Southampton reawoke and duly pulled away again, and, after the music round, the starter to which Mr Stephenson got in just a couple of seconds(!), they had upped their lead to 120-55.

 

And onwards and upwards Southampton pushed until their lead reached three figures. Bath did finally get some more points on the board thanks to Mr Romagnoli knowing who won the last Copa America, but they only took one bonus. The second picture round went to Southampton; just one bonus followed for them too, but they now led 190-65. Game over as a contest; just a question of how high both teams could get. Bath did take another starter, but none of the bonuses, and they then lost five of those points to a forgivable penalty. Southampton won the race for a suddenly-obvious answer of 'Liberia' to take themselves past 200, and took the remaining points, but didn't quite manage a 200+ win. At the gong, Southampton won 255-70.

 

A rather one-sided contest, but a watchable one with two pleasant teams; kudos to them for shaking hands at the end, which I'm very pleased to see is a regular occurance now. Well done Southampton, a pretty impressive first showing with all four players contributing well; best of luck to them in the second round! Hard lines to Bath, but they kept going for it and came across very well; thanks very much for playing!

 

The stats: Mr Hermanns-Kermode was the best buzzer of the night with five starters, while Mr Romagnoli was best for Bath with four. On the bonuses, Bath managed 6 out of 15 (with two penalties) and Southampton 25 out of 38.

 

Next week's match: Newcastle vs Edinburgh

 

Only Connect’s second heat was contested by Oh No They Didn’t, Lizzy Riley, George Dickenson and captain Diya Shah, and the Pear Trees, Alex Johnston, Chris Watson and captain Nick Ridgman.

 

My Dad and I collectively got the question about places with another country in their name for two points in the first round, and we’d have probably gotten the red music question and the Fools and Horses question with more time; ONTD led 6-2 at the end of that round. I claim two points on the seven pigs question in the second round, my Dad claims the same three as the Trees on the scouts question and another three on the number of balls question. And I think everyone got the same two points as ONTD on the eye colours question; they led 10-8 after that.

 

ONTD went first on the Walls, solved all four sets in pretty short order, and knew all the connections for the first full ten of the series. The Trees took a bit longer, but did also get all four sets; only three connections though, so seven points, meaning they trailed 20-15 going into Missing Vowels. They recovered well there, helping when VCM somewhat generously allowed their answer of ‘ODD PIGEON’ in lieu of ‘DEAD PIGEON’! Thankfully it didn’t affect the outcome; ONTD won 24-21. Well played both teams, best of luck in your next games.

 

Mastermind’s third heat was narrowly won by Elis Matthews, whose 20 points saw him just edge the win ahead of Kumaran Sivathillainathan with 19 and Eulalie Burrows with 18. Ellen Salkeld completed the line-up with 13.

 

And that's our third week done! Thanks as ever for reading; as I said before, I understand there's no Mastermind next week, so it's just the classic 2010s Monday night combo of UC and OC. I'll be back same time same place next week to cover them as usual, so, see yous then... 

Mistakes and 'Bad Questions' in Quiz Shows

OK, so, you may have heard a minor fuss has been kicked up this past week after a mistake was spotted in Monday's Only Connect. In the very first question of the series no less.

 

For those who didn't see it, the Whitley Baes saw a picture of Ronnie O'Sullivan for the first clue, then a picture of Marvel's Rocket Raccoon for the second, and instantly spotted the connection for three points. However, one of the pictures they didn't need wasn't Stephenson's Rocket, as it was supposed to be, but a different, earlier construction by Stephenson.

 

Of course, it didn't make any difference to the final outcome; the various scenarios in which it may have done have already been discussed by Dave C over on LAM a few days ago, so I recommend you read that.

 

It does bring up the spectre of occassions when a mistake, or, as the WWTBAM Wiki would call it, a 'Bad Question', HAS influenced the outcome of a quiz show though.

 

Of course, if a Bad Question did occur on WWTBAM, such as the famous tennis question or the Million Pound Question that Lawrence Llewellyn-Bowen got wrong, the mistake was usually acknowledged on screen and, if impacted negatively, the contesant allowed another go. Ditto the original Fifteen-to-One, where contestants who received a Bad Question, or, more commonly, had a borderline answer harshly disallowed, were allowed another go.

 

I can only think of two instances of a Bad Question on University Challenge. One of these happened in the first round of the 2010-11 series, where the Sheffield team of blog readers Tristram Cole and Hugh Bennett were asked a question which began "Which son of Edward IV, who also became king...", and to which the answer was 'Richard III', who was, of course, Edward IV's brother, not his son.

 

As I say, it didn't affect the outcome as Sheffield won by 200+ points, but it's worth mentioning, not least because the exact same Bad Question subsequently appeared in a UC quiz book!

 

(Incidentally, now I mention that Sheffield team, I do believe they are unique in being the only UC team all four of whom have since been on Only Connect as well; Hugh, Andy Bolton and Tom Thirkell made up the Steel City Singers from Series 5, while Tris was part of the Bookworms in Series 11. Do correct me if I'm wrong about that though.)

 

The other instance happened in the first round of the 1998-99 season, and was much more consequential. A team from Balliol College Oxford were asked a question that went something like "What is the only country to border both Latvia and Lithuania?", which is a Bad Question because there are two countries that border both those nations: Belarus, which was the answer on the card, and Russia, which is what they said, due to the Kaliningrad exclave.

 

Balliol went on to lose that match to Durham (among whom were future Mastermind champ Jesse Honey and future Fifteen-to-One winner Jack Welsby) by just five points, that question proving the difference. They subsequently got an on-screen apology from the chairman when they came back in the play-offs, but, while they won that match, they were beaten in the second round, while Durham ended up reaching the semi-finals.

 

Of course, the most memorable (for me anyway) mistake on UC, wasn't a Bad Question, but a wrongful allowance. In the first round of the 2001-02 series, during a bonus set on Scottish football, a team from Newcastle answered 'Dundee' when the answer was 'Dundee United', and got the points! (For those who don't know, Dundee and Dundee United are two completely different teams altogether!) Newcastle went on to, initially, beat their opponents Downing College Cambridge by just five points, the mistake, again, making all the difference!

 

This time, however, the mistake was noticed in time for something to be done about it; Paxman announced after the gong that the five points had been awarded in error, so they were deducted, putting the teams on level pegging, and a tie-breaker was filmed, which Newcastle won, so nothing changed ultimately.

 

The point is, mistakes can, and do, happen, even on the best of quiz shows which have the best of question setters. I think Dave C summed it up best on his post when he pointed out that, at the end of the day, it's just a quiz; we can discuss the matter at length, but there are more important things to worry about than whether someone was or wasn't hard done by on a quiz show.

 

Back on Monday with my usual write-ups, so, see yous then... 

Quizzy Mondays 2025-26 Week 2: University Challenge R1M2, Only Connect R1M1, Mastermind Heat 2

Good evening my friends, and welcome to the first complete Quizzy Monday of the season! Yes, Only Connect is back at last! The first round always my favourite round of the show as we meet two new teams every week and I can be pleased when I recognise someone who's been on another show before! Plus, no-one goes home. More on that later, plus my reverted-to Mastermind summaries, but, firstly, as usual, we begin with UC...

 

Two London institutions who were with us last year tonight. U.C.L., appearing in an 18th BBC series, and a fifth in a row, came through the repechage to reach the quarter-finals last year before losing to Bristol; their joint best performance though was coming second in 04-05, 12-13 and 23-24. This year's foursome were:

Zak Lakota-Baldwin, from London, studying Science and Technology Studies

Alice Lee, from Kendal, studying Russian and Post-Soviet Politics

Captain: Michael Doherty, from Derry, studying Optical Communications

Manny Campion-Dye, from Bath, studying Philosophy  

 

The School of Oriental and African Studies, SOAS hereafter, also lost their first round match last series and survived to the repechage, only to lose there to Durham on a tie-breaker; the best of its other five appearances on this show was in 13-14, where they reached the semis. This year's quartet consisted of:

Hatau Mozayen, from Manchester (originally Ethiopia), studying History and Politics

V Davis-Aladren, from London, studying PPE

Captain: Andrew Graham, from Cheddington in Buckinghamshire, studying Medical Anthropology and Mental Health

Matthew O'Regan, from Dublin, studying Global Liberal Arts  

 

Like last week, the first starter saw a team lose five; U.C.L. took the points, but SOAS quickly recovered and, after the first picture round, U.C.L. led 45-40. Two starters later, the teams were tied on 65-each, before U.C.L. took the next two to pull away into three figures. SOAS bounced back with the music round, which they took a full house on in short order, which cut the gap to 110-90.

 

U.C.L. pulled away again with a starter of their own on the next starter, only for SOAS to immediately bounce back; they only took one of the resulting bonuses, but, nonetheless, I think that was only the first or second time all night a team had got less than two right, a magnificent feat. U.C.L. pulled away again, but a penalty and a pickup from SOAS reigned them back in; they did take the second picture round, and a full set of bonuses, which increased their lead to 170-130. A starter and single bonus but U.C.L. within sight of victory, but SOAS kept themselves in the game with two starters and two pairs of bonuses, which pulled them back within fifteen points. Then, a point of contention as Ms Lee buzzed for U.C.L., but she and Mr Campion-Dye both said the right answer at the same time; AR let them have it and a full set of bonuses all but sealed the victory. A couple of penalties for 'just an' interruptions didn't matter; at the gong, U.C.L. won 210-170.

 

A second high scoring high quality contest, and a second 210-170 scoreline in a row(!); well done both teams there! Well done U.C.L., an impressive performance, best of luck in the second round! Hard lines to SOAS, but I fancy you've done more than enough for the play-offs; best of luck in them!

 

The stats: Mr Graham was the best buzzer of the night with six starters, while Mr Campion-Dye was best for U.C.L. with four. On the bonuses, U.C.L. managed a very good 23 out of 30 (with three penalties) and SOAS an also brilliant 19 out of 24 (with one penalty).

 

Next week's match: Bath vs Southampton

 

Only Connect began its 21st series with the Whitley Baes, Ruth Erdal, Jess Volpe and captain Steve Erdal, husband of Ruth, and the Caraxians, Dan Leigh, Ellen Stevens and captain Josh Katz.

 

I claim the same point as the Baes on the November 11th question in the first round, and another point on the Empire State Building question that neither team got anything on; the Baes led 4-1 at the end of that round. I also claim the same two points as the Baes on the ‘emoji magpies’ question in the second round, and I also worked out the answer to the stars on flags question; the Baes now led 9-3 after that.

 

The Caraxians went first on the Walls, but had a bit of a mare and didn’t find any groups; they did get all the connections though, so scored four points. The Baes also had no luck finding any groups, but did get three connections; three points, which meant they led 12-7 going into Missing Vowels. The Caraxians recovered well there, but the Baes maintained their advantage, and ultimately won 18-14. Well done both teams, a good start to the series, and best of luck in your next games!

 

Mastermind’s second heat was won by David Ford, whose 27 points saw him just edge out UC and OC alumnus Dennis Wang, who can feel unlucky to finish second with 25 points, though it surely gives him a chance of coming back in the semis if someone has to withdraw. Naomi Killen and Natalie Abbott also competed, both finishing with 17 points.

 

And that's our first full week of the season done! And if the quality continues this way, the next few weeks are going to be most exhilarating indeed! Thanks as ever for reading; we'll be back same time same place next week with the third week of the series, so, see yous then...

Quizzy Mondays 2025-26 Week 1: University Challenge R1M1, Mastermind H1

Good evening my friends, and welcome to another season of Quizzy Mondays! Yep, here we go again guys; after another shorter than usual break, we are off again for the next nine or so months. As I said before, I won't be reviewing Mastermind as thoroughly this time, but I will do so today because there's only it and University Challenge to do; Only Connect will be back next Monday thankfully. Anyway, let's get on with this thing, and beginning with the new series of UC...

 

First up, we had Sheffield, who were making their 17th appearance of the BBC era, of which their best was when they were runners-up in 2007-08; their last was two series ago, when they reached the semi-finals. They were represented by:

Rhys Lewis, from Haverfordwest, studying Maths

Abdelrahman Elsisi, from Alexandria, Egypt, studying Engineering

Captain: Jacob Price, from Hethersett in Norfolk, studying Astrophysics

Isobel Dobbie, from Haringey in London, studying English Literature  

 

Facing them were Warwick, who were, of course, the runners-up of the last series, and who are appearing in a 22nd series of the BBC era, of which they have won two, in 2006-07 and 2020-21. Representing them were:

Josh Howarth, from St Albans, studying History

Antoni Kluzowski, from Chingford in London, studying English Literature and History

Captain: Chris Levesley, from Derby, studying Maths

Lucy Dennett, from South West London, studying Politics and International Studies 

 

We began the new series with... a penalty. Oops. Sheffield pounced, and their captain Mr Price took that starter and the next two as well, with all but two bonuses going with it. Warwick got off the mark proper with the first picture round, which allowed them to cut the gap to 70-20. Sheffield continued to dominate the buzzer in the first half of the show though, their captain especially impressive. Though Warwick did get another starter, they remained well adrift after the music round, after which Sheffield led 140-40.

 

AR now told Warwick there was plenty of time left, and indeed the Coventry side did manage to get a bit of a run together; after the second picture round, they had recovered to 150-95. Another starter and suddenly they weren't that far adrift. Sheffield did take another starter to increase their lead again, but the momentum was now firmly with Warwick. Another couple of starters and they were now just one just one clean sweep behind! They didn't quite get that, but did get a starter and two bonuses to pull within five. And then the comeback was completed as the next starter gave them the lead! And when they took the last one of the game and all three bonuses, that was game over. At the gong, Warwick won 210-170.

 

A fantastic start to the new series, two superb teams, very well played both. Well done Warwick, a superb recovery; best of luck in the next round! Hard lines to Sheffield, but their score will surely bring them back as well; best of luck to them in the play-offs!

 

The stats: Mr Price was the best buzzer of the next with six starters, while Ms Dennett was best for Warwick with four. On the bonuses, Sheffield managed 18 out of 27 (with two penalties) and Warwick 21 out of 33 (with one penalty), and, pleasingly for the first match of the series, all eight players got at least one starter right.

 

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

 

Mastermind’s first heat of the series was opened by Lorna Frankel, formerly of UC and OC, who was answering on the WI; a near perfect round with just one mistake, she finished with a very good 12 points. She was followed into the chair by Randall Alleyne, who was answering on Carl Lewis; a good start before he stumbled a bit, then recovered well and finished with 8 points (and one pass).

 

Next up was Brian Williams, who was answering on the military career of Ulysses S Grant; after a couple of early errors, he rallied well and finished with a good 10 points. Finally, Kate Dapre was answering on the films of the Muppets; a fun round that she and Clive both seemed to be enjoying, she went down the middle of Randall and Brian, scoring 9.

 

Randall returned for GK first then, needing a flawless round to stand a realistic chance; he didn’t manage that, but did score a respectable 11 for a perfectly good total of 19. Kate didn’t manage to equal that, her round never really getting into gear, but she did manage 8 for a respectable total of 17.

 

Brian’s round also failed to really get going, and a pass late in the round pretty much ended his changes; he nonetheless also scored 8 for an also perfectly good total of 18. Lorna thus needed to beat 19 to win; you suspected she’d do it, and indeed she did, comfortably too, scoring another 12 for a total of 24, taking the first place in the semis! Well done her, and thanks to her and the other contenders for an enjoyable start to the series.

And that's our first week of the new season done! Thanks very much as ever for reading; we're back to a full line-up next week as OC makes its triumphant return. I'll be back same time same place next week to cover that, plus UC and a more concise summary of Mastermind; so, see yous then...