Weaver's Week 2026-09-06
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A very very brief Week this time; we've been to Strange Games again, full of wonderful people as always. We got an insight into the formalised Mafia game, went on a treasure hunt to tax all minds, saw at least three board games we want to buy, and there was this black swan event.
We hoped to have something interesting from the Edinburgh Television Festival, but there was little interesting from Edinburgh. The little we did hear was great news: Channel 4 has commissioned Your Time Starts Now, a re-skinning of The Button which we loved a few years ago.
Quizzy Mondays
No contemporary Mastermind this week, owing to other commitments.
Only Connect was won by Creepy Crawleys, who beat the Risk Takers by 20-15. The family team got off to a great start, including a question that was as easy as a walk in the park, a piece of cake, and child's play. Both teams were very close to many answers, including deaths in Wuthering Heights and definitions of Mc-products.
Kudos to the question writers, the walls contained a group of things found in the middle, and a group of things found in the corners, and they were in those positions on the wall. Risk Takers had a rotten wall, but pulled back much ground on Missing Vowels: perhaps this is a good omen for the next round.
That was the eighth and final Introductory Round match, so we've now met the winning team. The next four weeks are the Elimination Round, losers are out, winners go on in the tournament.
In a change to the billed episode, University Challenge pitted LSE against King's Cambridge. King's Cambridge won by 185-160. A strong performance by King's, who showed they had knowledge across many subjects – only one set of bonuses was completely dropped, and that was only because a couple of nearly-right answers weren't fully right. King's had a bonus rate of 57%, overall 53%. They're strong on Languages and Geography, which is useful; and on Social Sciences, which will be very helpful later in the tournament.
LSE scored 160, and are probably third in the repêchage table. The team staged a couple of strong comebacks: five of six starters in the middle of the game, and four of the last six starters, albeit with one penalty. Perhaps a bit weak on the bonuses, 47% there, and 47% on the overall accuracy. Henry Jameson the side's best buzzer, with six starters – but both penalties.
After almost six months of trails and suggestions that it's coming soon, The Box finally opens on ITV (Sat and Sun). We've a new series of flat-pack fun as Dubhlain DIY returns (BBC Alba, Mon). And it must be autumn, Fighting Talk is back (Radio 5, Sat).
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