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WATCH OUT, THE QUIZMASTER'S ABOUT
Jeremy Beadle lives up to his traditional image. The first time I see him, he's talking on a mobile phone, apparently angry with the recipient of the call and insistent that people need to turn up at once because there are seven large bets outstanding. He then hands the phone back to its true owner, who goes "That was Jeremy Beadle, man!" to the confused victim at the other end - another Beadle prank perfectly perpetrated.
He has been on the road for well over four hours, so asks to be shown to somewhere which will serve coffee; however, he sees the basement bookstall from floor C on the way to the Rock Café and all thoughts of a drink go out of his head. His thirst for knowledge evidently exceeds his thirst for coffee. Jeremy is here to compete in the open British Quiz Championship on a level basis with all the other competitors; he's here in the context of contestant, not celebrity. His personal library is known to be extensive and he has a real chance on a level playing-field of a medal. If you've ever seen how efficiently he dealt with contestants trying to Win Beadle's Money on TV, his quiz pedigree is clear.
It requires considerable quiz success to even reach the final stages of the British Quiz Championship which we hold here. The first half of the final has two question-papers, one with 50 questions on ten tight subjects, the other 100 questions overall. We take the top four finishers from that for the grand final - four players, fifteen questions each, missed questions available to other players but evenly redistributed between them. Jeremy's score is respectable, but doesn't make the final four; he ends up reading the questions himself.
Jeremy Beadle (left) with British Quiz Champion John Wilson
Jeremy prides himself on his distinctive hosting style; when a contestant is struggling with a difficult question, he is keen to make light of the situation. On the other hand, when a contestant has plucked a tricky answer from nowhere, he is keen to find out what more the contestant knows, to make the difficult subject come alive and help the topic be more memorable for all next time.
Most of all, Jeremy really appreciates a good question - one which, when you hear the answer, really fascinates you with the knowledge involved. A good quiz should be built up like a pizza: a sound base of general knowledge, which Jeremy defines as the things you should've learnt at school but didn't, with toppings of trivia, which Jeremy defines as the things you've had fun finding out later.
The final has a tense conclusion. 57 questions in, John Wilson leads with 12 points, but Kevin Ashman is on 9 points and can force a tie by answering his final three questions correctly. "Who lived at Grim's Dyke?" defeats the whole panel and John takes gold.
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THANKS FOR THE MEMORY WORLD RECORD
Dr. Gunther Karsten set a world record at the Olympiad Memory Skills Championship today, when he remembered 110001101100 binary digits perfectly - that's 3,180 binary digits for people who count using fingers as well as thumbs and so think in decimal.
The six-time German national champion and current world #3 improved his own world record set of 2,970 binary digits earlier in the year. We had heard that the two-time defending Olympiad Memory champion, Dr. Swe Chooi Yip, was planning to make an assault on this world record, but in fact the closest challenge came from last year's silver medallist, Ben Pridmore, who earned a very impressive score of 2,850 bits. Dr. Yip's performance, at 2,415 bits, was very competitive also; it could well be that this record may be challenged again soon.
This would turn out to be Ben Pridmore's day, though, as he produced excellent scores at both Random Words and One Hour Cards. In the Random Words event, Ben memorised 168 words in fifteen minutes, ahead of both Dr. Yip's 125 and Dr. Karsten's 75.
The One Hour Cards competition caused some last-minute headaches for MSO staff as competitors requested more packs of cards than we anticipated they might. We are very grateful to Carta Mundi for supplying us with superior quality playing cards; we drew heavily upon their resources today.
Dr. Yip had the best score in the One Hour Cards event, being credited for 14 complete packs; Ben Pridmore was just a pack behind on thirteen, Dr. Karsten completing just six.
Ben Pridmore is leading his eight opponents at the end of the first day with a score of 2,052 championship points; Swe Chooi Yip has 1,770 and Gunther Karsten 1,552, so still an open contest Today's three events are One Hour Number, Names and Faces and Speed Cards. Television is set to pay very close attention to at least the last of these; you can see the amazing spectacle live and in the flesh at the MSO.
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