Good evening friends, and welcome to the University Challenge semi-finals! Of course, today's game has been somewhat overshadowed in quizzing circles by the new earlier today that Clive Myrie will be the new host of Mastermind; a good choice in my opinion, and we look forward to seeing him in action on the show next series. On with tonight, and if next week's match reminds me of the Wolfson-Balliol final of 16-17, this one reminds me of two previous games, the Trinity-Manchester semi of 13-14 and the Peterhouse-York semi of 15-16, a rematch between arguably the two most popular teams of the series, with many calling the winner of this as the winner of the final as well. Winner would play next week's winner in the final...
Imperial lost the first time these two met in the preliminaries, and to Strathclyde in the first round, but have also beaten Exeter, St Andrews, King's and Durham. They were unchanged from before:
Justin Wong, from Hong Kong, studying Maths
Katie Marrow, from the Peak District, studying Physics
Captain: Michael Kohn, from North London, studying Pure Maths
Imran Rahman, from Petaling Jaya in Malaysia, studying Theoretical Physics
Warwick got here undefeated of course, with victories over Wolfson of Oxford, Merton of Oxford, fellow semi-finalists Magdalene and, of course, their opponents tonight thus far. They were also the same four as before:
Richard Pollard, from Cheshire, studying History and Politics
George Braid, from Brighton, graduated in Physics
Captain: Andrew Rout, from Bearsted in Kent, studying Maths
Owen Burrell, from Lancaster, studying English Literature
So off we set once again, and the ever imperious Mr Kohn (pun intended) opened the scoring for the night by identifying Louise Gluck as the winner of last year's Nobel literature prize, and the Londoners firmly put their feet down with a full set of bonuses. But a penalty then lost them five on the next starter, asking after a Shakespeare play; Mr Rout got to hear the killer words 'set in Vienna', and duly supplied 'Measure for Measure'. Just one bonus came from their first set. Another penalty cost Imperial another five and gave Warwick the lead, and they took two bonuses from more Shakespeare questions. The first picture round, on descriptions of art movements written in their native French, went to Imperial; two bonuses tied the scores at 35-each.
A second starter for Mr Kohn gave Imperial the lead back, and more bonuses on France came with it, of which they took one. But another penalty lost them those five, and Warwick once again picked up the drop; just one bonus on stinging plants followed. Back came Imperial with Ms Marrow offering (what looked like) an educated guess of 'semi colon', with one bonus on Dogme films being taken and giving them the lead back. But back came Warwick with Mr Rout leveling the scores again; two bonuses followed and the third was unluckily missed. The music round, on jazz collaborations with Ron Carter (I reckon our old friend Adam 'Welshguy' Pearce would've liked these!), went to Imperial; bonuses followed, leaving the scores tied at 70-each.
Warwick retook the lead with Mr Burrell doing the honours, but eponymous lines on maps didn't give them any correct answers. Mr Rout doubled their lead when he took the next starter, giving them a bonus set on Bulgarian football, which was actually more about Bulgarian geography, of which they took two correct answers. And when Mr Burrell took the next starter, it was suddenly looking rather like the first match between these two, where Warwick ran away with it in the third quarter; two bonuses were taken. The second picture round, on inaugural names on New York's LGBTQ Wall of Honour, went to Imperial; two correct reduced the deficit to 120-90.
And when Mr Kohn took the next starter, and two bonuses on Athens were taken, it was down to just ten, and it was either team's game. Neither side knew 'backing' to be the opposite of 'veering' in the shipping forecast, but Mr Pollard took a crucial next starter with 'Yuri Gagarin', and Warwick picked a good time to pull out a full set of bonuses, a full set on poetry. Mr Kohn kept his side in the game when he took the next starter, but just one bonus was taken, which left Warwick with one foot in the semis. And when Mr Braid took the next, and two bonuses were taken, during which a clearly tense Mr Rout forgot his teammate's surname when trying to nominate him(!), that was game over. A penalty didn't really matter, nor did Imperial taking the points; the gong went during the bonuses. Warwick won 160-135.
A great contest between two great teams, both of whom would've been worthy semi-finalists, well played both of them. Well done Warwick, and best of luck in the final! And well done Imperial as well, a very impressive, and entertaining, series of performances!
The stats: Mr Kohn, once again, was the best buzzer of the night with seven, giving him a final series total of 45, while Messrs Braid and Rout got three each for Warwick, taking their totals to 20 and 19 respectively. On the bonuses, Imperial managed 12 out of 25 (with three penalties) and Warwick 15 out of 27 (with one penalty).
Next week's match: the second semi-final, Balliol vs Magdalene
Only Connect had its third place
play-off, between the Whodunnits and the Apres Skiers. The latter led 3-2 after
the first round, but the former pulled into a 7-5 lead after the second, both
of which saw some very tricky questions, too hard for a competitive game but perfect
for what is essentially a friendly. Two tough walls left the teams tied at 11-each
going into the final round, after which the Whodunnits won 18-10.
Mastermind was won by Laura Myles
with 17 points, who finished three clear of second place contender Ray Dexter
on 14. I believe next week’s is the last first round match before we move on to
the semi-finals.
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