Sunday, April 17, 2011

Ian Bayley is BBC Mastermind

One of the stalwarts of the Grand Prix quiz circuit, joined by three friends in the final (Diane Hallagan, Julia Hobbs and Paul Steeples) was officially crowned with the BBC Mastermind title in the final broadcast of the 2011 series. We wish him well and bow down at his completion of a Brain of Britain and Mastermind double!


Recorded as long ago as October 2010, Ian Bayley's triumph was somewhat overdue - especially when you also have regard to the fact he first made the final of the competition in 2008, on that occasion only losing narrowly to Nancy Dickman. Ian's triumph will be so warmly welcomed in the UK quiz community (and wider) in light of the fact he is so well liked and respected. A UK Order of Merit Grand Master and England international, a former holder of the Brain of Britain title and dubbed 'the Machine' for his uncanny speed in buzzer quizzes, there's scarcely anyone more worthy of the title 'Mastermind'.

Congratulations and commisserations also to the gallant five who joined Ian in the final. All proved themselves worthy of their place. Special warm regards to Diane Hllagan, Julia Hobbs, and to Paul Steeples, whose blistering 18 in the General Knowledge round meant that for most of the second half of the quiz, his was the score to beat.

And finally, a thank-you to the BBC production staff, everyone involved in the preparation of questions, and of course all the 'Contenders', for once again serving us up with another fabulous season of quizzes. Here's to the next series, which begins shooting soon!

Sunday, April 03, 2011

UK's 'Euro-style' results from Norway Open

These second set of UK results show the position when all 40 questions per genre count for full marks (i.e. as oposed to the standard UK version wherein a genre is 30 standard value questions plus 10 tiebreaks worth 0.1 mark each).