Monday 3 September 2012

University Challenge: Round 1: Match 6: Magdalen vs Sidney Sussex


Well, true to say, it’s not been a truly spectacular start to this series of University Challenge, with a series of steady but not spectacular games. Would this change tonight, with the first Oxbridge match of series, between two colleges with great reputations in the contest?

Magdalen College Oxford, lest we forget, won the contest in 2010-11, and on three prior occasions (1996-97, 1997-98 and 2003-04). No doubt hoping to make it five were:
Will Wright, from Kew in London, studying History.
Rob Mangan, from Nottingham, studying Chemistry.
Captain: Henry Watson, from London, studying PPE.
Richard Purkiss, from Richmond in London, studying Medieval History.

Sidney Sussex College Cambridge won the series twice in the seventies, in 1971 and 1978. The latter team, captained by the now-Tory MP for Aylesbury David Lidington, returned for the Reunited series ten years ago, and won impressively, notably thrashing the then current champions Somerville College Oxford by 390-90! The college last entered back in 2000-01, where they lost to Manchester in Round 1. Playing tonight were:
Lois Overvoorde, from Cambridgeshire, studying Chemistry.
Tom Seddon, from Horwich in Lancashire, studying Maths.
Captain: Nye Redman-White, from Hampshire, studying Mechanical Engineering.
Calum Robertson, from St Andrews, studying Archaeology.

The teams started off evenly, with Sidney Sussex’s better showing on the bonuses giving them the advantage. The teams remained even throughout the second phase up to the music round as well.

There was plenty of humour in the show tonight, which started when Magdalen got a set of bonuses on Tom Morton’s ‘Dr Johnson’s Dictionary of Modern Life’, which provided much hilarity, especially when one of them turned out to be a definition of University Challenge!

More hilarity ensued at the music round, on brass band renditions of hymns. When Mr Redman-White guessed ‘Once in Royal David’s City’, he received a classic disgruntled ‘NO!’ from Paxo, which was rather harsh I thought, as it did sound a bit like it. When Magdalen got the bonuses, Paxo stated that he wasn’t terribly optimistic, and shouted ‘YES! WELL DONE!’ when the Oxonians got one of them! For another, Mr Watson gave an obviously wrong answer a team-mate had come up with, and, when the audience laughed, signalled his hands towards him!

I got the second picture starter, identifying a classic Jaguar, but neither team knew it. When Magdalen got all three classic car bonuses wrong, Paxo responded with a classic line: ‘One of the rare occasions where Jeremy Clarkson would’ve done well on this program!’ (As an aside, I recall seeing an old edition of the Weakest Link where the question was something like ‘which TV presenter left the BBC show Top Gear in 1999, and returned when it was relaunched in 2002?’, and the player said ‘Jeremy… Paxman?’, then, under his breath, ‘no, that’s not right!’)

Back to the contest, and the teams were fairly even. But then Will Wright from Magdalen switched into top gear (no pun intended), and started buzzing strongly and confidently and running up the score. Sidney Sussex did get another starter, and a full set of bonuses, but Magdalen were now in their stride, and were running away with it. At the gong, Magdalen were ahead 205-125.

Paxo told Sidney Sussex that he didn’t think their score would be enough for the repechage, which is a shame, as they were a strong team, who may well have come out on top against another team. Nye Redman-White got five starters (his colleagues all got one each), and the side answered 12 bonuses out of 21 with three penalties. Will Wright’s late sprint saw him finish with seven starters; his side managed 16 bonuses out of 39, with just the one penalty. All eight players got at least one starter, which is always nice to see.

Next week: Manchester (reigning champions) vs Lincoln College Oxford. They’ve met before.

Tonight’s Only Connect was another close one; well, not quite as close as last week’s, but still very exciting and closely fought. Well played by both teams involved in it.

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