Mark Labbett

Mattb · Post by **Mattb** » Tue Mar 22, 2011 7:27 pm

....doesn't know what an entemologist studies

Plus he keeps having to put up with Bradley Walsh calling him a fat bastard every 2 minutes.

Seriously though, for a top quizzer that's quite basic. Anyone else willing to step in??!

fotherz · Post by **fotherz** » Tue Mar 22, 2011 8:07 pm

I thought the same, and applied - but didn't hear back.

mr lugsy · Post by **mr lugsy** » Tue Mar 22, 2011 9:57 pm

Do you mean Entomologist?

I've seen the guy on form in many showings and to be fair he is formidable most of the time.........although once he needed to answer correctly how many legs a flea had with 1 second left on the clock to thwart a meaty payout and couldn't

Captain.Tattybojangles · Wed Mar 23, 2011 3:01 am

He had a fantastic finish though today...Just annoying little things he can't get.

How do you reckon you'd fare against The Beast? I would be a complete loss. Caught, chase over, off for me tea.

Mattb · Post by **Mattb** » Wed Mar 23, 2011 11:07 am

Entomologist, my bad.

I guess they didn't invite the very, very best players to be the chaser as they want them to get the odd one wrong. That's not to say any of the three chasers aren't any less intimidating.

Plus i'd imagine character traits were an important decision. Mark Labbett is 6'6 and mahoosive, therefore a character in himself. Anne Hegerty is serious, coiffured and slightly uppity, again a bit of a character. Shaun Wallace is probably the least charismatic, but slightly initimidating with his silence and demeanour.

I bet if you had Pat Gibson as a chaser then no-one would win a penny!

liverpool24 · Post by **liverpool24** » Thu Mar 24, 2011 12:03 pm

He's not really a top quizzer though, well he certainly isn't in the elite bracket. He entered 'are you an egghead ??' And went out first round. The other two Chasers also entered and fared much better, Ann should have won but crumbled under pressure. Kevin Ashman and Pat Gibson amongst a select few others set the benchmark.

cool · Post by **cool** » Sat Apr 02, 2011 12:08 am

I do like to stick the boot in to quizzers , save for the god himself Kevin 'cheery' Ashman (see game on games warehouse) but for once I will stick up for the big man.

Some years ago there was a touring comp of the millionaire format and a champion of champions comp down at Torquay.Labbett won it and the audience competing for the hot seat was an a-z of britains best quizzers.
There was a comp run by the BHF in Birmingham where the top prize was a rover car(s).Labbetts team won it.My mate came 2nd and won a photo with the cheeky girls! (great consolation almost tipped him over the edge).He also came unluckily second in a BBC quiz when he had done most of the running missing out on a £160,000ish prize.

He's never going to be an athlete but top quizzer he is.

liverpool24 · Post by **liverpool24** » Thu Apr 14, 2011 11:10 am

cool wrote:I do like to stick the boot in to quizzers , save for the god himself Kevin 'cheery' Ashman (see game on games warehouse) but for once I will stick up for the big man.

Some years ago there was a touring comp of the millionaire format and a champion of champions comp down at Torquay.Labbett won it and the audience competing for the hot seat was an a-z of britains best quizzers.
There was a comp run by the BHF in Birmingham where the top prize was a rover car(s).Labbetts team won it.My mate came 2nd and won a photo with the cheeky girls! (great consolation almost tipped him over the edge).He also came unluckily second in a BBC quiz when he had done most of the running missing out on a £160,000ish prize.

He's never going to be an athlete but top quizzer he is.

That is all well and good but he makes no impact at all on the only real recognised quiz championships and never has

grecian · Post by **grecian** » Thu Apr 14, 2011 12:25 pm

liverpool24 wrote: That is all well and good but he makes no impact at all on the only real recognised quiz championships and never has

Heh, Liverpool24, as a regular competitor in those championships I'm glad to hear someone's following goings-on on the circuit - do I know you, I wonder?

Mark's a good, but not top-level, all-round quizzer. He's probably top 30, but probably not top 20. He doesn't attend that many events any more, but if he did he'd be top 30 I would think. His speciality is speed of reaction and response - in terms of speed on the buzzer etc., he's one of the best around. And as Cool says he does have a knack of being in the right place at the right time - although was very unlucky on the People's Quiz. He's also very good on particular subjects, like sport and entertainment.

Anne's a stronger player than Mark. She's top 20 in the UK, I think, and has strong claims to be the strongest female quizzer in the country. I saw her recently on an episode of the Chase and her knowledge is really well suited to the show, too.

Shaun's certainly the weakest of the three - when he attended a weekend event recently he finished near the bottom. But he's got a good command of the basics, covers some areas very well, and most importantly is an extremely nice chap.

But overall you are right that Pat and Kevin are the two best nowadays - difficult to choose between them as to who is best (they are both superb in slightly different ways). The coming rival to their crown is the reigning Mastermind champion Jesse Honey, and Olav Bjortomt is a specialist at international events (he won last year's European Quiz Championships). Any of the top 30 quizzers would tell you those are the top 4 in the UK. There are perhaps three or four non-UK quizzers who are at that standard, too - Ronny Swiggers and Nico Pattyn in Belgium, Tero Kalliolevo in Finland all come to mind.

fotherz · Post by **fotherz** » Thu Apr 14, 2011 7:55 pm

I wonder how many others are equally good but not part of "the circuit". Must be some around.

liverpool24 · Post by **liverpool24** » Fri Apr 15, 2011 11:03 am

grecian wrote:
liverpool24 wrote: That is all well and good but he makes no impact at all on the only real recognised quiz championships and never has
Heh, Liverpool24, as a regular competitor in those championships I'm glad to hear someone's following goings-on on the circuit - do I know you, I wonder?

Mark's a good, but not top-level, all-round quizzer. He's probably top 30, but probably not top 20. He doesn't attend that many events any more, but if he did he'd be top 30 I would think. His speciality is speed of reaction and response - in terms of speed on the buzzer etc., he's one of the best around. And as Cool says he does have a knack of being in the right place at the right time - although was very unlucky on the People's Quiz. He's also very good on particular subjects, like sport and entertainment.

Anne's a stronger player than Mark. She's top 20 in the UK, I think, and has strong claims to be the strongest female quizzer in the country. I saw her recently on an episode of the Chase and her knowledge is really well suited to the show, too.

Shaun's certainly the weakest of the three - when he attended a weekend event recently he finished near the bottom. But he's got a good command of the basics, covers some areas very well, and most importantly is an extremely nice chap.

But overall you are right that Pat and Kevin are the two best nowadays - difficult to choose between them as to who is best (they are both superb in slightly different ways). The coming rival to their crown is the reigning Mastermind champion Jesse Honey, and Olav Bjortomt is a specialist at international events (he won last year's European Quiz Championships). Any of the top 30 quizzers would tell you those are the top 4 in the UK. There are perhaps three or four non-UK quizzers who are at that standard, too - Ronny Swiggers and Nico Pattyn in Belgium, Tero Kalliolevo in Finland all come to mind.

Great post, I'm not a quizzer but I do take a keen interest in the championships and have read a lot on the history of it. I actually really like Makr and personality goes a long way, Kevin takes some stick but I actually really like and respect his mild, humble manner, there isn't an egotistical bone in his body, C.J demooi on the other hand...... *shakes fist*.

grecian · Post by **grecian** » Fri Apr 15, 2011 11:33 am

fotherz wrote:I wonder how many others are equally good but not part of "the circuit". Must be some around.

I suspect that if the question is "how many are as good as the top four mentioned above", the answer probably genuinely is zero. These guys are phenomenally good and all have been working phenomenally hard (and most importantly in a directed manner) for years to achieve their brilliance. So the theoretical genius elsewhere would need not only to have the natural talent (which I'm sure a fair few do have) but would also need to have been learning the right things just by chance, which I think is unlikely.

It's a bit like asking "is there a player out there who's as good as Suri at SWPs but doesn't play them", or "as good as Bob on word games but doesn't play them". There are probably people with the talent to be that good, but Suri/Bob have years of practice on them.

Going back to general quizzing, I don't doubt there are players out there who are of a top 20 standard but don't play. A guy recently pitched up and scored top 3 with a monstrous score at his first Quizzing grand prix - was most impressive. And then there are the Fifteen to One greats of the past like Nick Terry, Matti Watton or Bill McKaig, all of whom would (I imagine) be great.

QuizMaster · Post by **QuizMaster** » Fri Apr 15, 2011 12:14 pm

I came up against Nick Terry on 100% some years ago in a Champion of Champions thing. He wiped the floor with me.

Drpepper · Post by **Drpepper** » Fri Apr 15, 2011 3:46 pm

QM did you ever come up against the force that was Ian Lygo?

cool · Post by **cool** » Fri Apr 15, 2011 4:42 pm

I came up against Nick Terry on 100% some years ago in a Champion of Champions thing. He wiped the floor with me.

Then the compere beckoned on two contestants......

whilst Quizmaster recovered from housemaids knee