Evening all. You join me in hyper mood again this evening, after the FA Cup fifth round draw threw up the fantastic tie of non-league Sutton United vs Arsenal! Really hope TPTB put that LIVE on the Friday night; lets face it, it's what everyone except the EastEnders fanatics want! (They, of course, want a special sports channel to stop it interfering with their favourite soap!) I myself had a great day out at the football on Saturday; went south to watch Kilmarnock play Ross County, and witnessed the fastest goal in Scottish top flight history! But enough football, on with another important match...
Warwick have looked decently impressive so far, with comfortable victories over Liverpool in the first round, 235-90, and our friends East London in the second, 195-55. The same four as those outings were back again tonight:
Sophie Hobbs, from Birmingham, studying French and History
Sophie Rudd, from Lincolnshire, studying Computer Science and its Applications
Captain: Giles Hutchings, from Farnham in Surrey, studying Maths
Thomas Van, from Geneva, studying History
Emmanuel College Cambridge, on the other hand, have twice had to come from behind to win two good contests, against Nottingham in Round 1, 175-135, and SOAS in Round 2, 195-130. They too were the same foursome as before:
Tom Hill, from London, studying History
Leah Ward, from Oxfordshire, studying Maths
Captain: Bobby Seagull, from East Ham in London, studying Education specialising in Maths
Bruno Barton-Singer, from Wandsworth in London, studying Physics
Off we set again then, and Miss Rudd, impressive in the earlier rounds, opened the scoring for Warwick; bonuses on UNESCO World Heritage buildings provided the Coventry team with a further ten points. Mr Van added to his side's opening sprint by taking the next two starters, one of which saw him beat numerous others to the buzzer, as everyone went for the buzzer to say 'Brahms' when they heard the words 'Hungarian Dances'. Warwick took half the resultant bonuses, making up for dropping a full set by taking one as well. (Credit to Miss Hobbs too, for showing up with her arm in a sling, a true sign of commitment) The first picture round, on the names of EU member states written in languages not used in them, went to Warwick, who missed all three again, which left their lead at 65-0.
Mr Barton-Singer had had quite enough of that, and lifted Emmanuel off the mark; the Cambridge side made the most of it, as they quickly gobbled up all three bonuses. That seemed to spark something, as Miss Ward took the next starter; no bonuses came this time, but a third starter in a row plus two bonuses put them just ten behind. A fourth starter in a row, all three bonuses on the work of Aeschylus, and suddenly they had a 15 point lead.
The music round, on pizzicato interludes, went to Warwick, who missed all the bonuses again, but had reduced their arrears to 80-75. They retook the lead when Miss Rudd pounced on an Emmanuel slip-up, but a nice bonus set on pairs of place names where the final letters of the first and the first of the second are the same, again, brought them no further points. Miss Rudd was then unlucky to lose five on the next starter, offering three letters when just two were needed; Mr Hill did the honours, and Emmanuel took one of the resultant bonuses. This gave them the lead back, and Mr Seagull then made up for his earlier errors by taking the next starter; no bonuses could come this time.
The second picture round, on prolific American TV show runners, went to Emmanuel, who took just the one bonuses, which nonetheless increased their lead to 115-80. Mr Seagull added to the lead when he took the next starter, and an appropriately topical bonus set on FA Cup final venues saw them take two starters, and put them on the edge of victory. Mr Hill took the next starter, and a full bonus set on seven letter science terms pushed them over that edge.
Mr Barton-Singer confirmed that his side couldn't be caught by taking the next starter, and the resultant bonuses gave them a 100 point lead. Another starter and pair of bonuses put them just over the 200 barrier. Miss Rudd finally stopped them in their tracks by taking the final starter of the night, but the gong prevented any bonuses from being asked. Emmanuel won, 200-90.
Like last week, a match that started off close, and then became rather one sided in the second half. Unlucky Warwick, who were simply outbuzzed in the second half, but who are certainly not out of it yet, so best of luck next time in the elimination phase. Very well done to Emmanuel though; another good steady performance against good opponents, and best of luck in the qualification phase!
Miss Rudd and Mr Barton-Singer were joint best buzzers of the night, taking four each for their respective teams, and taking their overall totals to 18 and 14 respectively. On the bonuses, Warwick converted just 5 out of 18, while Emmanuel managed a decent 19 out of 33, and both sides incurred one penalty.
Next week's match: by process of elimination, it must be Birmingham vs Edinburgh
I'll get on to Friday's Only Connect tomorrow evening, but I do wish they would stop trailing it over the UC credits; it builds false hope that it's still on next!
Credit to Emmanuel Cambridge this time for not wasting any time on the bonuses, even towards the end when they were in the lead. Third time they have come up from behind too and will be ones to watch.
ReplyDeleteAs nasty as the second round is in terms of fixtures, I think we can be grateful of the QF layout as neither Bristol nor Warwick deserve to be out at this stage either, despite their low scores, but we'll have to wait and see.
Definitely a marked contrast in terms of closeness of matches to last year's first 4 QFs! Then again on paper these fixtures seemed fairly equitable, it's just that we've had two surprising matches in a row.
Have a feeling Birmingham vs Edinburgh next week will give us a close match we've all been waiting for! B'ham has an outstanding captain while E'burgh has decent teamwork. The latter may have the edge but Bham like Cambridge had a terrible start to their first round match but won comprehensively.