INTERNATIONAL RADIO QUIZ

New Zealand Listener, Volume 17, Issue 439, 21 November 1947, Page 29

INTERNATIONAL RADIO QUIZ

Australia Knew Most of the Answers

N an international quiz championship for the Englishspeaking world, held in Austrafia to support the Fourth Australian Security Loan, and concluded just last week, Australia won four out of five contests, being defeated by one point only in‘the match against South Africa. The scores were: Australia v. New Zealand, 19 points to 12; v. Canada, 13 to 12; v. Great Britain, 13 to 8; v. South Aftica, 17 to 18 (lost); v. U.S.A., 15 to 7. «- For the match against New Zealand . the Dominion’s team was: Martin Cock, urnalist; Mrs. J. Matthews, housewife; P. McCaskill, school teacher; and J. W. Winchester, civil servant, all of Wellington. The quiz-master was Walter Pym, who conducted his seafch for general knowledge from Melbourne. Questions put to the New Zealand team were-What is the name of the breeding-place of a colony of seals? And the answer (a rookery) was given correctly. But the contestant who was asked to name the island in the Bahamas in which Nassau is situated was unable to think of New Providence Island. And when it came to giving the name of the Gilbert and Sullivan operetta with no fewer than eight ghosts in the cast, Ruddigore escaped the memory. But the last questionone of the hardest of all to the average person-found New Zealand wideawake. It was, When St. John the Divine wrote his Revelation, he inscribed it to seven churches in Asia; mame one. ‘They were, of course, Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamos, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia and Laodicea. The Australian Side The Australian team was: George Morris, signwriter; Frank Wilkinson, engineer; Herbert Buchanan, public servant; and George Sim, bank-teller, all Melbourne men. Only one of ‘the four, Wilkinson, was University-edu-cated, and he, a former schoolmaster, gained his B.A. at Otago University. Morris had been a regular entrant in

radio quiz sessions before the Australian championship of 1946 and his experience in quizzes over all the Melbourne broadcasting stations covers seven years. ~ Sim was persiiaded to enter for the championship by his wife, who had grown tired of hearing him listening to radio quiz sessions at home and beating the contestants to their answers. After their first success the four men met oncé a week for systematic study, taking turns in asking each other questions, concentrating on one. subject after another, eliminating weaknesses and pooling their information. Weeding-out Test Before the 1946 Australian championship, held to advertise Australia’s Second Security Loan, the four had never met. They were among 800 or so competitors who sat for a preliminary weeding-out test in Melbourne. Next they won a series of heats and

became Victoria’s team. The other five Australian States chose their teams by a similar process of elimination. Victoria won the championship by a single point, the decisive question, Who said "When a man is tired of London he is tired of life?" going to Wilkinson, who said "Dr. Johnson" without hesitation. He remarked afterwards that he remembered the quotation from his University days. The champions then had to face three successive challenges from teams from the five other. States. They won the first easily. Lucky Question Luck was with them, too, in the second challenge. They started the final round a point behind New South Wales. Wilkinson and Buchanan both missed. Then Morris was asked the name of the tapered stock used by painters and signwriters as a hand-rest. He equalled the scores with "mahlistick" as the answer. Victoria won their third challenge con-

test by answering 14 out of a possible 16 questions correctly. A second national quiz championship was held this year, but the Victorians did not compete. Instead, they issued a challenge to the victorious South Australian team, and beat them by 21 points to 10. With the exception of one, the members of the New Zealand team were chosen for their successes in 2ZB quiz sessions over a few fears, but they were out of practice, for none had appeared in a quiz for a year or so. Studio arbitrators included members of the diplomatic corps of the country opposing Australia. And to prevent the Australian team gaining any advantage from proximity to the quiz-master and judge, the questions were asked from a Sydney studio, while the Australian team sat in Melbourne. , Recordings of the five contests will be broadcast from the ZB stations at a date yet to be fixed.