University Challenge 2020-21: Round 2: Match 4: Edinburgh vs Durham

Good evening friends, and welcome back to University Challenge! The second round continues tonight with a battle of my parents' alma maters, with the winners going on to the QFs and the runners-up earning the right to call themselves unlucky to go out here. It was good to hear Paxo acknowledge how brutal this is in his intro, good to know TPTB are aware of how unfair this can be at times.

Edinburgh came through the repechage, losing a good first round match to Manchester before beating Linacre of Oxford 155-125 in the play-offs. Manchester already out of course, so hoping to be the first time to outperform their first round conquerors in nine series were the unchanged team of: 

Zak Jeffcoat, from Edinburgh, studying Architectural History

Matthew Fricker, from Shipley in Yorkshire, graduated with a degree Maths and Physics, now studying for a PGDE

Captain: Niamh Clarke, from Hollywood, County Wicklow, studying Physics with Meteorology

Nicholas Winter, from London (via Angus), studying Maths

 

Durham first appeared way back in the second show of the series, back when we didn't really know what was going to become of the later stages, when they recovered from a slow-ish start to beat Leicester 180-125. They were also the same foursome as that time around: 

Harry Regan, from Sevenoaks, studying Liberal Arts

Tom Banbury, from Shipston-on-Stour in Warwickshire, studying History

Captain: Holly Parkinson, from Brighton, studying Physics

Thomas Wilkening, from Ramsgate, studying Biology

 

So off we set, with Mr Winter opening the scoring for the night with a quick buzz of 'water', and Edinburgh set out their intentions with a full bonus set on Korean Choson dynasty. Two further starters went to the Scots side, and a good haul of five bonuses out of six too; Durham, in contrast, were restricted just to a penalty. Now, as Dave C. of LAM would say, if you hear the name 'Leon Festinger', you should immediately buzz and say 'cognitive dissonance', because nine times out of ten you'll be right; Mr Winter did so, but Edinburgh took just one bonus on Anime. Durham opened their account with the first picture round, on lists of male characters in Jane Austen novels, which took the score to 85-20.

And, just like their first match, now the Wearsiders had a foot in the game, they really went for it, taking a second starter in a row and two bonuses on fictional medicine. Another starter and full bonus set pushed Durham within twenty, and a fourth in a row and two bonuses drew them on level pegging. The music round, on Italian operas sung in English, went to Durham, who took two bonuses, and had suddenly pulled out a 105-85 lead.

Back came Edinburgh with Mr Fricker answering 'Trinidad'; one bonus was taken, before Mr Winter gave the Scots side the lead again, but they failed to add to it with bonuses on monkeys. Durham, in contrast, took the next starter and the lead back, with Mr Regen making sure all four Durhamites had a starter to their names, and took a full set of bonuses, though one of them was a touch lenient as they gave a wrong answer before the right. The second picture round, on stills from films with art direction by Cedric Gibbons, went to Edinburgh; two bonuses levelled the scores at 130-each, setting up a straight race for the finish.

Edinburgh blinked first with Ms Clarke identifying 'Utah' as an anagram of the French word for 'high'; this gave them a bonus set on physics, which they took one of, with Paxo also letting them off with a slight infringement on the grounds he did so with Durham earlier too (good to see). Back came Durham with Mr Banbury, giving them bonuses on unsuccessful US presidential candidates; two correct answers gave them the lead again. Next starter would win it: Mr Wilkening took it, and the gong went during the bonuses. Durham won a good match 165-145.

A good contest, two very good team, unfortunate that one of them would be going out here. Well done Durham, another solid victory, and best of luck in the QFs! Hard lines to Edinburgh, a good team unlucky to go out here, but a good performance to go out on, thanks for playing!

The stats: Messrs Banbury and Winter were joint best buzzers of the night, with four starters each for their respective teams. On the bonuses, Edinburgh managed 13 out of 24 and Durham a very good 18 out of 23 (with the night's one penalty); that's where the game was won then.

Next week's match: again, don't know, will retweet anything I find.

Only Connect continued with the second elimination match, between the Ticket Collectors and the Walruses. The Collectors led 7-1 after a rather one-sided first round and 9-5 after a rather difficult second. A better wall allowed the Walruses to pull back to 14-12, before a virtuoso performance from Mitch Benn in the Missing Vowels gave them a come-from-behind win of 21-14.

 

No Mastermind tonight, pulled at short notice due to the One Show having to switch channels.