The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes was a 1971-1973 British television series about London by Gaslight detectives from both the Victorian and Edwardian Ages.
The program featured mystery stories and charismatic detectives written and created by contemporaries of Arthur Conan Doyle. For more click HERE.
Episode: FIVE HUNDRED CARATS (February 5th, 1973)
Detective: Inspector Leo Lipinzki of Kimberley, South Africa, a figure created by American author George Griffith. The first Inspector Lipinzki story was published in 1893.
Synopsis: We are now in the second and final season of The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes. In addition to his many “ancient” science fiction stories – reviewed previously here at Balladeer’s Blog – George Griffith also wrote the eight Inspector Lipinzki stories, which were later collected in the book Knaves of Diamonds in 1899.
For the first time in this series we have a story set outside Great Britain, which I found to be a welcome change of pace. Leo Lipinzki (Barry Keegan) works as a Detective Inspector for the Cape Police, but technically the already wealthy and powerful De Beers Diamond Corporation is who he really answers to.
Virtually all the murders, thefts and other crimes that Lipinzki investigates stem from IDB – Illicit Diamond Buying – amid the busy diamond mines and other establishments of South Africa. (And if you read the Inspector Lipinzki stories you’ll see that the acronym “IDB” is used ad nauseum.)
The episode Five Hundred Carats opens up with a murder that we eventually learn ties into the brilliant, seemingly impossible theft of the Great De Beers Diamond. Though in the original story George Griffith presented it as if the Inspector himself was relating the case to him, The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes substitutes the fictional “Mr. Cornelius” (Alan Tilvern), an American diamond buyer, for Griffith. Continue reading
“THAT WAS NUMBER FIIIIIVE!” – In NCAA Division Three, the ENDICOTT COLLEGE GULLS welcomed the number 5 team in the nation – the HARDIN-SIMMONS UNIVERSITY COWBOYS. For once Endicott didn’t choke in the spotlight, leading the Cowboys 3-0, 17-3 and 37-3 in the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Quarters respectively. In the 4th, a garbage time TD from HSU made the final score 37-10.
NUMBER SEVEN TAKES A FALL – Up in the NAIA, the number 15 MONTANA TECH OREDIGGERS faced the visiting 7th ranked COLLEGE OF IDAHO COYOTES. The Orediggers parlayed a 17-7 opening Quarter lead into a 34-21 Halftime advantage. The 3rd Quarter ended with the Coyotes making it a 37-35 game before Montana Tech added a 4th Quarter TD to win out 44-35. 
USCAA GAME OF THE WEEK – This USCAA (United States Collegiate Athletic Association) affair pitted the WILLIAMSON COLLEGE OF THE TRADES MECHANICS against the CAPP ACADEMY CRUSADERS. In a driving rain, the Mechanics led the Crusaders 7-0 in the 1st and 10-0 at the Half. A scoreless 3rd Quarter was followed by a CAPP rally attempt in the 4th as Williamson won the game 25-14. 
GIANT-SIZE SUPERVILLAIN TEAM-UP Vol 1 #1 (March 1975) 
AN AUTOMATIC ENIGMA (1878) – By Julian Hawthorne, son of Nathaniel Hawthorne. In the past Balladeer’s Blog has reviewed some of 
NAIA (National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics) – 1. MORNINGSIDE COLLEGE MUSTANGS ### 2. NORTHWESTERN (IA) COLLEGE RED RAIDERS ### 3. GRAND VIEW UNIVERSITY VIKINGS (should be Zebras) ### 4. SOUTHWESTERN COLLEGE MOUNDBUILDERS ### 5. DORDT UNIVERSITY DEFENDERS ### 
NCAA DIVISION TWO – 1. PITTSBURG (KS) STATE GORILLAS ### 2. FERRIS STATE BULLDOGS ### 3. DELTA STATE STATESMEN ### 4. COLORADO SCHOOL OF MINES OREDIGGERS ### 5. GRAND VALLEY STATE LAKERS ### 
SURF NAZIS MUST DIE (1987) – The ideal companion piece to the original Point Break! Rest assured, the Surf Nazis are depicted as the scummy villains they are and that they do get their just desserts in this 83-minute bundle from So Bad It’s Good movie Heaven. Though distributed by the venerable Troma Team, Surf Nazis Must Die was actually produced by the Institute. The film was directed by Peter George and written by George with Jon Ayre. 
Surf Nazis Must Die is refreshingly played mostly straight – but still howlingly bad – and the 
THIRTEEN AGAINST FATE (1966) – Based on thirteen stand-alone crime stories by Georges Simenon, the creator of Jules Maigret, this BBC series was long thought lost except for three episodes which had gone unwiped by the penny-wise and pound-foolish broadcasters. In September of 2010, the entire series was discovered in America’s Library of Congress, finally making all thirteen episodes available. 
TRAPPED (June 26th) – Louis Bert, a carpenter turned petty criminal, lives in Nice with Constance, a wealthy woman he is conning. On the side he romances Lulu, a prostitute whom he passes off as his sister to the wealthy Constance. 
DELTA STATE TAKES DOWN DIVISION ONE – The NCAA Division Two’s DELTA STATE STATESMEN welcomed NCAA Division ONE’s MISSISSIPPI VALLEY STATE DELTA DEVILS yesterday. The 1st Half was pretty tight with the Delta Devils clinging to a mere 7-6 edge at the break. The Statesmen came out of the locker room on fire and seized a 22-7 lead in the 3rd Quarter before blowing out Mississippi Valley State 35-7 in the 4th. 
MARATHON GAME OF THE WEEK – To paraphrase Winston Churchill, “Never have so many football players played for so long for so few points.” The NEWBERRY COLLEGE WOLVES and their guests the EMORY & HENRY UNIVERSITY WASPS needed SIX OVERTIMES to finish their game. With that many OT’s you’d expect a score of at least forty-something points apiece instead of the 25-23 Wolves victory that we got. 
KNOCKING OFF NUMBER TEN – Down in NCAA Division Three, the 22nd ranked SUSQUEHANNA UNIVERSITY RIVER HAWKS visited the number 10 CORTLAND STATE RED DRAGONS. The Red Dragons led 14-7 in the 1st Quarter and 21-14 at Halftime. A 35-21 Cortland State advantage to end the 3rd Quarter was followed by a furious River Hawks rally in the 4th as they came back to win it 38-35. 
KAMANDI Vol 1 #1 (November 1972) 
After some time, the young man gets caught in the middle of a large-scale battle between an army of tiger-men and an army of leopard-men, all wearing the clothing and wielding the weapons of the humans who used to rule the world. 
THE 14 AMAZONS (1972) – This often-overlooked Hong Kong martial arts film was directed and written by Cheng Kang and produced by the iconic Shaw Brothers studios. The 14 Amazons is a female-centric take on China’s historical Yang Family, many of whom were accomplished generals over the centuries. 
This 1972 film starts out with the death of one of the Yang men and proceeds from there. By this point there are so few male Yangs still alive that the wives, sisters, and other female relatives of the late hero band together and set out for revenge. 
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