Evening all. We start tonight with a top tip: if you're planning to make a chocolate cake in the near future, don't use a milk chocolate Easter egg for the icing; I tried that for my birthday last week, and it did not go well! Suffice to say, I will not being trying out for Bake-Off 2.0, not that I would given how unpromising it looks! Now that we've had some whimsy to lighten the mood, we can get down to the serious and tense business of the first UC semi-final, between two of the teams of the series in terms of personalities and performances. Winners would take the first place in the final.
Emmanuel College Cambridge are the only team to get this far by winning all their matches in normal time, beating Nottingham in Round 1, SOAS in Round 2, Warwick in the preliminaries, and Corpus Christi in the qualifiers. Hoping to become the second Emmanuel team to reach the final of the revival were:
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
Wolfson College Cambridge also beat SOAS en route, in the first round on a tie-breaker, before beating Jesus of Cambridge in the second round and fellow semi-finalists Balliol in the preliminaries; they then lost their qualifier to Edinburgh, but recovered by beating Warwick in the play-offs. Also hoping to be flying the flag for Cambridge in the final were:
Justin Yang, from Vancouver, studying Public Health and Primary Care
Ben Chaudhri, from Cockermouth in Cumbria, studying Natural Sciences
Captain: Eric Monkman, from Oakville, Canada, studying Economics
Paul Cosgrove, from Cookstown in Northern Ireland, studying Nuclear Engineering
Off we set again then, and we began with a flashback to my secondary school English class, where we were told any stories resolved by a lottery win or inheritance would not be allowed! Mr Barton-Singer identified that as a 'deus ex machina', and Emmanuel took two bonuses on the work of Erwin Panofsky. Mr Monkman quickly moved Wolfson off in pursuit, and they took one bonus on property. Mr Chaudhri then gave Wolfson the lead, and they maintained it with two bonuses on words beginning 'Ap'. Back came Emmanuel with Mr Hill doing the honours, and bonuses on the Davis Cup proved very to their liking, taking a full set and the lead.Back bit Wolfson, and they too took a full set. The first picture round, on places with shared name elements, went to Wolfson, who took no further bonuses, and managed to annoy Paxo in the process by misunderstanding what was required of them(!), but had still opened a lead of 70-45.
Mr Yang then added his due, as Wolfson increased their lead, with a full bonus set putting them one starter away from three figures. A prompt buzz from Miss Ward stopped them in their tracks though, and Emmanuel took one bonus from a set on silent comedy, of which I got two. Mr Barton-Singer then added another strong buzz, but nothing followed from the bonuses this time, though Emmanuel had now put themselves one starter and full bonus house away.
The music round, on works by Britten based on poems, went to Emmanuel, who took two bonuses, which reduced the gap to just 95-90. Mr Monkman put a stop to that, as he took the next starter; a bonus set on Nobel prize winners of the early 20th century provided them with two correct answers, the third narrowly missed. Another starter and bonus added to Wolfson's score and lead, before Mr Monkman again came in for the next starter; no bonuses followed this time, but they had reestablished a steady lead.
Neither side took the second picture starter; the bonuses, on paintings mentioned in Proust's 'Remembrance of Things Passed' (of HIGNFY fame), went to Emmanuel who took two bonuses, reducing the lead to 140-110 going into the crucial final stage. Mr Monkman then moved Wolfson further ahead, only for them to, again, get nothing from the bonuses. Mr Monkman then fell victim to a non-interruption, but Emmanuel could not take advantage.
An agonising run of two more dropped starters added to the tension at this late stage, before Mr Hill upped it even more by taking the next starter; needing the bonuses to fall for them, Emmanuel got two on moons of the Solar System. But that man Monkman took the next starter, and when his side swept up all the bonuses, that was game over. Emmanuel finished the match with a bang though, taking the final starter, but the gong cut them off during the bonuses. Wolfson won, 170-140.
An excellent match, well played in great spirits by both sides, and kudos to Paxo for saying as much in his summation. Unlucky Emmanuel, but a fine series of good performances you can be very pleased with, so thanks very much indeed for playing this series. Very well done Wolfson though, and very best of luck in the final!
Mr Monkman was, once again, the best buzzer of the night, adding seven starters to his series tally, now standing at 42, while Mr Hill was best for Emmanuel with four, though Mr Barton-Singer finishes the side's best buzzer of the series with 21. On the bonuses, Emmanuel converted a decent 12 out of 22, while Wolfson managed an also decent 15 out of 30 (with the night's one penalty). Both decent rates those; well played both sides on a fine match!
Next week's match: Edinburgh vs Balliol, for the right to fight Wolfson.
Only Connect saw its first semi-final on Friday; I hope to do it tomorrow, but it will be done this week, I can, hopefully, assure you.
Good match, closer than the score suggests, although Monkman lead in Twitter polls beforehand, I honestly thought Emmanuel would pip it with the enthusiasm on twitter! Nonetheless Mr Seagull has I'm sure been an inspiration to many at Cambridge and even further afield to get involved in quizzing etc.
ReplyDeleteWhat's interesting is that the final will now be a rematch either way, as Wolfson of course have seen both sides, beating Balliol Oxford but losing to Edinburgh, which makes it even harder to predict.
The last time this happened (i.e. a rematch of a QF match) was 2013, when UCL beat Manchester in the QF but in the final Manchester turned the tables (and after UCL's first SF victory against Oxford, they had already played the remaining two semi finalists). Rematches also happened the past two years but the QF winner also won the final (Gonville&C and Peterhouse Cambridge).
50% on the bonuses strikes me as pretty concerning, since there didn't seem to be much of an uptick in difficulty from the earlier rounds. Looking forward to next week!
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