Monday 6 September 2021

University Challenge 2021-22: Round 1: Match 9: Edinburgh vs Peterhouse

Greetings friends, and welcome back to JOW! Another week, another Quizzy Mondays to keep us going in these still uncertain times. No Mastermind tonight, shunted for highlights of the cricket earlier, but we still had UC and OC, and Brain of Britain earlier as well, to keep us going for the day. The start of the OC's eliminators, and the next first round match of UC...

Edinburgh University is the second most prolific provider of BBC era UC teams behind only Durham; of the previous 20 teams, three reached the QFs, four the semis, but its finest hour was, of course, winning the show in 18-19. This year's foursome were:
Ben Russell Jones, from Bridgend in Wales, studying Philosophy and Politics
Lewis Thomas, from Strathkinnes in Fife, studying History
Captain: Rishi Sundar, from Manchester, studying Computational Physics
Al Karunaratne, from Hull, studying Physics
 
Peterhouse Cambridge has also won the show in the not too distant past, doing so in 15-16; of its other five BBC appearances, only one other, a semi-final run in 10-11, saw it get past the second round. This year's quartet were:
Beatrix Huissoon, from Solihull, from Natural Sciences
Anamay Shetty, from Lancaster, studying Medicine
Captain: Eli Hong, from Stratford-upon-Avon, studying Medicine
Lucy Hart, from London, studying Physics
 
So off we set once again, and Mr Sundar buzzed a tad too early on the next question and lost five; Peterhouse took the points with Ms Hart picking up, and the Cambridge side started with two correct bonuses. Edinburgh quickly recouped the lost points thanks to Mr Karunaratne, and took a full bonus set on the Greek bonus set. Another starter and full bonus set to the Scots side was sandwiched between two starters to Peterhouse, one of them the first picture round, on types of lace and their place of origin; after this, they narrowly led 50-45.

Edinburgh quickly took back the lead with Mr Thomas taking a second starter, and their bonus form continued with a full set on words beginning 'res'. Another starter and full set of bonuses meant the Scots side were already close to three figures; Mr Thomas duly took a third starter in a row to break the 100, but their bonus form ended as they only, I say 'only', took two on philosophy. Which took us to the music starter, where Mr Russell Jones was first to identify Billie Holliday; the bonuses, on US state songs, gave them just one correct answer, but they had now built up a lead of 130-50.

And the lead was just getting bigger as Mr Russell Jones took a second starter in a row, and they once again took a full bonus set, which took their lead into three figures. Two further starters to Messrs Sundar and Karunaratne, and Edinburgh now had the highest score of the series so far. And when Mr Russell Jones took the next, we had our first score over 200 this series; yet another full bonus set followed. The second picture round, on works that have been exhibited alongside those of Tracey Emin, gave Peterhouse their first points in a while; they deservedly took a full set of their own to cut the take the scores to 220-75.

It was already long over as a contest, just a question of how high both teams could go. Mr Thomas was first in to call Jakarta as the city formerly called Batavia; just one bonus was followed, before Mr Sundar took the next, and two bonuses on regions of India were taken. Mr Shetty did the right thing and had an early punt on the next starter, but all he got for his efforts was a "No, certainly not!" from Paxo and a penalty; Mr Thomas picked up and two bonuses on Jane Eyre were taken. Peterhouse did take the final starter to ensure they didn't lose by 200+ points, but there was no time for any bonuses; at the gong, Edinburgh won 270-80.

A very one sided contest, but still an enjoyable one. Very well done indeed to Edinburgh, a strong team on both the buzzers and the bonuses, with all four players chipping in, all the hallmarks of a great team; very best of luck to them in the next round! Hard lines to Peterhouse, who'd surely have fared better against another team, but still a reasonable effort from them, thanks for playing!

The stats: Mr Thomas was the best buzzer of the night with six, while Ms Hart was best for Peterhouse with three. On the bonuses, Edinburgh managed a mightily impressive 30 out of 39(!) (with two penalties) and Peterhouse an also decent 7 out of 12 (with one penalty).

Next week's match: St John's Cambridge vs Imperial

Only Connect began its eliminator round with the returns of the Gamemakers and the Scrubs. The former led 6-4 after the first round, but the latter turned it round in the second to lead 12-10. Two perfect walls, one of which saw a very welcome set of Robot Wars winners(!), left it as you were, 22-20 going into Missing Vowels, which the Scrubs just fared better in to maintain the lead and win 30-25.
 
Brain of Britain was a two horse race, between Phil Small, an OC runner up with the Belgophiles in Series 13, and Allie Wharf; the former ran away in the closing rounds to win with 17 points to 9. Gill Powell and Laura Trowern also took part, but got a terrible run on the opening questions, and so finished with 2 and 1 respectively.

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