Well, first of all, I have to mention today's Deal or No Deal, where Paddy Roberts became the first male to win the £250,000 Jackpot! Many congratulations to him once again! I highly recommend you look the game up. And what better way to calm down from all that excitement than UC?
Loughborough University is a technological university founded in 1966, though it had existed in a different form since 1909. It last sent a team to UC four years ago, where they narrowly beat U.C.L. in the first round, before narrowly losing to eventual runners-up St John's College Oxford in Round 2. Playing for them tonight were:
Ali Thornton, from Penicuik, studying Banking, Finance and Management
Cathy Morten, from Southampton, studying Aeronautical Engineering
Captain: Grant Craig, from Falkirk, studying Analytical Chemistry
Katie Spalding, from Ipswich, studying Maths
Clare College is the second oldest college in Cambridge after Peterhouse, founded in 1326. The last team from the college appeared two years ago, where they reached the quarter-finals before losing possibly the best UC match of the revival to Manchester by 270-250! This year's foursome were:
Tom Watson, from Navenby in Lincolnshire, studying Chinese studies
Carys Redman-White, from Hampshire, studying Veterinary Medicine
Captain: Tom Wright, from Sevenoaks, studying Theology
Mark Chonofsky, from Boston, studying Physics
I wonder if Miss Redman-White is related to Nye Redman-White, captain of last year's team from Sidney Sussex College, who was also from Hampshire?
Clare had the better of the early exchanges, generally getting more starters, though they did incur a penalty as well. Despite this, they seemed to be converting bonuses well, and, after the first picture round, on crests of recently promoted Premier League teams, they lead 85-15.
Loughborough then fought back, with Mr Thornton getting a run of starters, including one on Bradley Wiggins' victory speech after winning the Tour de France, which amused Paxo greatly! An accidental buzz during the bonuses went mysteriously unremarked upon by Paxo. By the music round, on pop songs featuring a string section, Loughborough had closed the gap, and it was now 85-all!
Clare sprung back into action, getting two starters in a row, and provided much hilarity by answering a complex science bonus they didn't know with 'Jeff'! "If only it were" remarked an amused Paxo! The host's expression then turned to disbelief when Loughborough provided, what he thought was, a silly answer to the second picture starter!
After the bonuses, Clare led by 145-100. Still very much up for grabs. And, with five minutes to go, Loughborough captain Grant Craig began a run on the buzzer, getting three starters in a row, and closing the gap to just five points. Mark Chonofsky took a crucial starter for Clare, giving them more room for manoeuvre, and when Loughborough lost five on the next starter, the match was won. Clare took the win, by 195-155.
Another good match well played by both sides, and Loughborough's score may well be enough for the repechage. The two captains were their respective sides' best buzzers: Grant Craig got five starters for Loughborough, and Tom Wright managed six for Clare. On the bonuses, Loughborough managed 14 out of 27, while the Cambridge side got 20 out of 28. Both sides incurred one penalty.
Next week's match: S.O.A.S. vs Southampton (good luck Cromarty(IV)!)
Another highly enjoyable match this week. I shall just have to be careful that I don’t address a reduced mass as “Jeff” next time I have to calculate one!
ReplyDeleteThat starter question about Kepler’s Law is a beautiful example of one that would have had me tossing around two possible answers for ages and then offering up the wrong one. For some reason, I can never remember which way round the powers go in the expression – is it T2 α r3 or T3 α r2 (α meaning “directly proportional to”, T = orbital time period, r = radius of orbit)? I knew that the answer required wasn’t the power of three, but I couldn’t remember whether it was 3/2 or 2/3. Thanks to Mr Chonofsky, I will hopefully remember the correct form of this Law from now on!
By the way, Mr Watson’s first name is Tom. And, just because the question has been raised: the two Redman-Whites are, indeed, brother and sister. Miss Redman-White is not the last UC sibling who will be appearing on this series.
So next week’s match will feature my team! I’ve been waiting at least 9 years for this moment, so I hope you all enjoy it.
Ah, thanks for pointing that out. I go by the subtitles if I can't quite make it out. Corrected now!
DeleteAnd best of luck on Monday again!
Just to say I've just found this site, and will definitely be coming back to follow your posts on this series!
ReplyDeleteThanks for keeping the updates coming in, one question for you (as someone who has only recently contracted the UC bug): I'm often surprised by repetition of questions/topics, does a certain amount of this take place over time, or is it mainly within series, as presumably teams aren't there to see their competitors compete, so no advantage?
Hope that makes sense vaguely as a question - a last comment regarding Christ Church (my college) being hard done by, as they faced arguably the toughest team this series and managed to rack up 150, this losing score being just bested by 5 points by the other losing two teams of the last two episodes!
Yes Matthew, if you watch the show over a long period of time like I have, you start to notice questions being repeated. Usually at least a year apart, but I have noticed two separate instances of a starter and a bonus set being asked twice in the same series.
DeleteThere have also been many music questions I've got purely because I've heard the piece on a previous edition of the show!
Agree about Christ Church as well; against any of the teams from the weeks prior, and some since, they could've won comfortably.
Thanks for posting!
In my experience, you get more repetition between series than within. Within, you might get several questions on a similar topic, but I've not noticed a case where the actual question and answer were the same. However, I have noticed some sets of bonuses and the occasional starter repeated more or less wholesale between different series.
DeleteSorry about Christ Church - they were formidable opponents, and they definitely deserve to make the second round. You never know, all the losers from now on might be weaker! We've had a run of pretty strong teams facing each other, that's bound to stop eventually.
OK, that's good to know, my purchase of the University Challenge quiz book for training purposes hasn't been in vain (and in any case, it's good fun to play with friends).
DeleteI'm definitely weakest on music/opera and art, but may improve from consistent viewing! There're also some easier questions thrown in, like Debussy has been this series - even I got it.
Opaltiger, no need to apologise, I know we'll be seeing a lot more of you guys this series ("Zinc!" was bloody hilarious). Interesting that sister colleges were paired together, perhaps the result was like a twin wand core thing from Harry Potter...ahem, I digress.
I have a question about how you decided on the balance of the team - I was on the Christ Church team of 2013, erroneously as captain to start with due to an error in scoring our tryout answers, then as reserve (I suspended status in January 2013, so wasn't part of the filming in the end - but return with UC hopes in Oct). The way the try out was organised was just a bunch (30ish) of starter questions were read out, and then you wrote down your answers. The top 4 would then make the team.
As we found out, the problem with this strategy was that the people who ended up getting the top scores didn't necessarily have different specialist areas of knowledge. At one point, we faced the prospect of having 3 PPEists on the team, we still ended up with two, and they, unfortunately, didn't manage to impact the game too much (although strong opposition and quick buzzing played a part).
So, in danger of asking for treasured secrets, what was the methodology you had for picking the team, both in terms of people with quizzing ability, and for getting the final balance of disciplines right for a strong squad with broad knowledge?
Also, did you do much preparation in terms of actually playing with buzzers etc.?
Sorry for the massive list of questions, will be following you guys with interest in the next few rounds!
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