Sometimes these were downright blunt. “If I were ye, I’d make sure I knew Bernoulli’s principle” said one. Lo!  And indeed behold: a question using Bernoulli‘s equation appeared on the paper the following week and thus a handy 20% was acquired. I was already half-way to where I needed to be. 

Others were less inclined to be so giving and would offer advice which, under analysis, pretty much boiled down to “study the whole course”.

I would like to think I am in the middle of the spectrum and after the ‘more…’ I have included the list of round types for this Friday’s quiz.

Here ya go:

1. Current affairs
2. Television
3. Famous people
4. Music 1
5. Geography
6. Video
7. Sport
8. Pictures
9. Music 2
10. History

Each round will have a theme however, so they’re not as plain as they may seem at first glance. Anyways, hope to see some of you there!

PS. For those who’s geographical location precludes their attendance at the quiz, fear not. I will be posting all the questions throughout the course of next week.

1. What everyday concept did Iris Murdoch describe as “… the extremely difficult realisation that something other than oneself is real”? A> Love [in the essay: 'The Sublime and the Good', 1959]
2. An unattested language from which a group of attested languages, in this case those of the Germanic, Slavic, Romance and other families, are thought to be historically derived, for what do the letters P-I-E stand? A> Proto-Indo-European
3. If a tap leaks a millilitre of water every second, how many 10-litre buckets will it fill completely in a day? A> Eight [actually 8.64]
4. Giving its name to an early form of capacitor, which city to the south-west of Amsterdam is home to The Netherlands’ oldest university, founded in 1575? A> Leiden (the leyden jar)
5. Which of Shakespeare’s plays is the only one to be set in Vienna and concerns the city’s Duke adopting a disguise in order to observe the actions of his subjects, including his deputy Angelo? A> Measure for Measure
6. A taco terrier is a cross between a toy fox terrier and which other breed of dog, originating in a country of Latin America? A> Chihuahua [from Mexico]
7. Which French obstetrician, who died in 1957, gave his name to a method of childbirth involving exercises and breathing control designed to give pain relief without drugs? A> Fernand Lamaze [developer of the Lamaze Technique]

Some off-the-top-of-my-head examples of this phenomenon would include: Tiger Woods in Golf, Torvill and Dean in Ice Skating and either/both Stephen Roche and Seán Kelly, who turned Cycling into one of Ireland’s most popular sports in the 1980s.

The effect was seen in action again this week as the build-up to the final of this year’s University Challenge seemed to focus entirely on Gail Trimble, captain of the Corpus Christi College, Oxford.

“Is she the cleverest contestant ever?” wondered Paul Gallagher in The Guardian as, en-route to the final, she had scored 825 of the team’s 1,235 points.  The writer also informed us that one of her opponents likened her style to “intellectual blitzkrieg”.  In the quarter-final, Corpus Christi were so dominant that they only allowed the University of Exeter 15 points – a new low-score record for the current series under Jeremy Paxman.

The final, which aired this week, produced no surprises for the hype machine. Even though Corpus Christi were taking on Manchester (champions in 2006 and 345-30 winners over Lincoln College, Oxford, in the semi-final) they prevailed on a scoreline of 275-190.  It wasn’t plain sailing as they had trailed 70-0 after 10 mins and, even in victory, this was their closest result of the year.

Being the subject of all this focus has been double-edged for Ms Trimble. As part of its report on the final, The Times quotes some Red Top opinions on her manner. “A hateful know-all”, “horse-toothed snob” and other examples of erudition. The flip-side of this is that she is already being lionized in the broadsheets.

Fancy a challenge? Want to see how you’d compare to Gail? Here are a few starters-for-10 from the final:

1. What everyday concept did Iris Murdoch describe as “… the extremely difficult realisation that something other than oneself is real”?
2. An unattested language from which a group of attested languages, in this case those of the Germanic, Slavic, Romance and other families, are thought to be historically derived, for what do the letters P-I-E stand?
3. If a tap leaks a millilitre of water every second, how many 10-litre buckets will it fill completely in a day?
4. Giving its name to an early form of capacitor, which city to the south-west of Amsterdam is home to The Netherlands’ oldest university, founded in 1575?
5. Which of Shakespeare’s plays is the only one to be set in Vienna and concerns the city’s Duke adopting a disguise in order to observe the actions of his subjects, including his deputy Angelo?
6. A taco terrier is a cross between a toy fox terrier and which other breed of dog, originating in a country of Latin America?
7. Which French obstetrician, who died in 1957, gave his name to a method of childbirth involving exercises and breathing control designed to give pain relief without drugs?

Click here for answers.