Chelsea fan wins Mastermind !!

[Miki]

Well not only is the team riding proudly on top but, to put to sleep the myth that soccer fans are as thick as the proverbial two short planks, a lifelong Chelsea fan has just won Mastermind 2004.

Oh what a beautiful morning, oh what a beautiful day tra-la la la tra la la..........................

 

 

   

[Hereford]

PLease do't anyone tell us the winners name. Some of us are watching in France on TPS satellite (BBC Prime) and we are behind the UK in programmes shown!

 

H.

 

[Simon]

Is it just me, or is Mastermind more about who can choose the most trivial specialist subject.  Answering questions on football, or from the last series "the Happy Potter movies" is frankly laughable.  It's clearly not just the UK's exams that have been dumbed down...

 

S

[Miki]

How do those questions dumb it down?

The winning scores have in fact gone down this year. So one must take it that the questions may well be harder or if you butter your bread on the other side, the contestants are not so bright, take yer pick ! 

They have always had questions from the many varied walks of life. Football for instance, being one of the great British cultures, is therefore a very positive subject to take on a British quiz programme.

It's a bit snooty to think participants should only take Shakespeare or Brunel and the like, as their subject, do remember though, it is the general knowledge part, that so often sorts the "men from the boys" (sorry Lady members, I suspect there was another way to put that but it didn't spring to mind at the time of posting)

 

 

 

[Simon]

Ok, so I accept that it is part of the UK culture (ah if only we had some...), but it is a question of depth.  I watched Mastermind because it was a serious quiz, and I don't accept that football, pop trivia, and the latest movies have a place in that.  Surely there are enough fora for those nonacademic subjects elsewhere.  What's left otherwise, University Challenge, and, well, that's about it actually.  As for snooty, not the word I would choose, but my question is why not have an intellectual quiz, or are we all too thick? 

I for one just want to watch something that I feel exercises my brain once in a while. I really feel that the lower scores are to do with the quiz no longer being the challenge it was and therefore attracting those only capable of high scores in their petty specialist area.  I remember the girl who took the Harry Potter movies (the then 2 movies mind you not even the books!), scored very badly on the general knowledge.

We should be raising our game as a nation not playing to the populist, soap and reality TV watching masses all the time.  What was it that TB said, education, education, education...

S

[Miki]

 Simon,

A learned man once told me that having a good memory and some effort given over to learning is all that is needed to make someone "clever" enough to answer questions and pass exams.

So you can relate that to any subject, whether it be an "exam" on 'arry Potter or the workings of the universe itself. It certainly can be as clever for one to answer questions on what you or others might see as trivia, as it is, on what you may see as a more serious subject.

As you rightly say, some people can be found out in the general knowledge round but don't just pick on the 'Arry Potter contestant, I have seen it many times with someone of a more, shall we say, learned nature, who answered well in an "intellectual" subject in their specialised round but floundered in the 2nd round of Q's.. 

I watch University Challenge and have done for many years, why, well for the most part, it is the challenge to answer more than say 10 (OK boasting there!!) in any one programme.

As I said before, the general knowledge round is there for the more "serious" questions as you put it and every now and again a specialist subject will arise that I am also interested in. The soccer round the other night on cup finals was pretty hard and I am not sure how well I did as I didn't score (that means not too many to the unitiated !).

but my question is why not have an intellectual quiz, or are we all too thick? 

Well I guess the BBC at least, think the answer is yes, must be why they put the b****y spelling competition on instead !

I watched Mastermind because it was a serious quiz, and I don't accept that football, pop trivia, and the latest movies have a place in that...................................

........ We should be raising our game as a nation not playing to the populist, soap and reality TV watching masses all the time

But if you have really watched it for years, you would know it has always had questions like that on the show, never been any different, I think your simply having a grumpy day !!

Agree with you about reality TV, what could be further from the truth than the title "Reality" !! really............................Soaps well, when Len left and then Angie, that upset me pretty badly

 

 

 

[Dick Smith]

So let's get back to the point, Miki (anything to get away from your obsession about spelling) - are you implying a causal or casual relationship between being a Mastermind and a Blue?

And to stray from the point - the specialist round on Mastermind has always been like that - I remember people struggling to get scores on strange subjects, especially in the finals when they have to nominate a different specialist subject from the preliminaries.

Some previous SS = The Volkswagen Beetle, The Life and Works of Gilbert & Sullivan, The Moomin saga by Tove Jansson, The History of Lancashire County Cricket Club, The Life-cycle and Habits of the Honey-bee, The Buddhist sage Nichiren

[Miki]

So let's get back to the point, Miki (anything to get away from your obsession about spelling) - are you implying a causal or casual relationship between being a Mastermind and a Blue?

Dock,

I must admit that sometimes my spelling has a day off.

Causal, Casual, well a bit more really. We had this chap 'trained up' from an early age, first step, a barrister, then to be a contender for Mastermind 2005, the plans paid off well, it was designed to coincide with our 100th year but he won Mastermind a year early, tant pis, so the next part is to (oh please, please, please, everything crossed) walk away with the Championship next year.

So OK, I admit it, it was planned, a Mastermind and a Blue to show those gooners and the prawn and smoke salmon sarnie supporters oop north, that for one club, intelligence and the Blues, go hand in hand

The Moomin saga by Tove Jansson

Don't know about you Dick but, I have to admit that was a very weak subject for me, nil point if my memory serves me well  

 

[Weedon]

I am not sure that Mastermind means anything except an ability to remember information, useless or otherwise.

If the show had been on in Frank Blunstones day Leslie Welch would have won it time and time again and been "over the moon " and all the others would have been  "sick as parrots"

Weedon 

[Miki]

...........If the show had been on in Frank Blunstones day.....................

Crikey Weedon, you have got the grey cells on overdrive now.

Do you remember Dickie Foss as well ? He started the brilliant youth teams at Chelsea (with Ted Drake) as well as previously being a good goalscorer for the 1st X1.  Then Frank took over the reigns years later, before going to manage the Bees, then on to Man Utd in a similar role to that at Chelsea years before.

Do you think Lesley Welch cheated or was he simply a brilliant memory man ?

 

 

[Weedon]

[quote]...........If the show had been on in Frank Blunstones day..................... Crikey Weedon, you have got the grey cells on overdrive now. Do you remember Dickie Foss as well ? He started the...[/quote]

I come from an age when I believed everything was above board so it has never occurred to me that Leslie Welch cheated, please don't tell me there isn't a Father Christmas either as I have already written my letter and sent it up the chimney!

My memories of Chelsea come from the 61 ish time when I was living at Putney so it was Chelsea 1 week and Fulham the next,  in those days you just meandered along to the turnstiles, paid yer couple of bob (or so) and joined the crowds on the terraces.  Names from that era I think were Bonnetti, Ron and Alan Harris, Shellito, Venables, Mortimore, Murray, Brabrook, Bridges (wasn't he a schoolboy sprint champion?) and Tambling. Then at Fulham were Macedo, Keetch, Tosh Chamberlain, Haynes................ 

I also went to Highbury Feb1958 when Man U played the week before Munich, luckily for me most of the babes were playing on that occasion Edwards, Byrne, Coleman etc and Charlton had blond hair as I recall.

And...... at White Hart Lane when the Spurs played Liverpool, the highlight for me was when Joe Baker KO,d Ron Yeates during a fracas and if you remember them Yeates was at least twice the size of Baker...........the last game I saw at Stamford Bridge was when Ian Wright played for Crystal Palace there.

Weedon