University Challenge 2021-22: First Round Review

OK, so I wasn't sure if I was going to do a first round review for UC this series, as I'm not sure if there's anything I can say that I haven't already said. But I've done one for every series for the past ten(!) years (and probably a few before that, even if I never published them online!), so why not? So, our fourteen first round winners, and their scores and winning margins, are:

• King's College London (115, 15)
• St Hilda's College Oxford (140, 5)
• Hertford College Oxford (180, 80)
• St Andrews (140, 5)
• Queen Mary London (115, 25)
• Reading (175, 65)
• Trinity College Cambridge (190, 100)
• Exeter (130, 50)
• Edinburgh (270, 190)
• Imperial College London (210, 65)
• St Catharine's College Cambridge (130, 10)
• Dundee (145, 10)
• Bristol (165, 55)
• Birmingham (245, 235)

So, who are the runners and riders for the second round?

Well, Edinburgh's score was easily the biggest score of the round, as was their collective team performance, with all four contributing well to the win, so they would almost certainly be favoured to progress. As would Birmingham, who were similarly impressive on Monday, though others may be wishing to see them against proven opponents before tipping them thusly.

You would also say Imperial must be strong favourites to reach the group stage, given their high score and the fact they achieved it against such a good team in St John's.

Just below them, you have Trinity and Hertford, whose first round matches and performances were very similar, steady and comfortable but not spectacular wins against teams who finished around the 100 point mark, and Reading and Bristol, both of whom looked pretty solid against respectable opposition efforts, and one of whom boast a candidate for best individual performer of the round in Reading captain Mr Hutchinson.

The remaining teams were all winners of narrow, low scoring contests. All seven are good teams in their own right, and three of them, Dundee, St Hilda's and St Andrews, defeated teams good enough to return in the play-offs.

I've said before in previous first round reviews that it'll probably come down to who faces who, and, in this even and tight series where nearly half the surviving teams are about on a par with each other, that really will be the case I would reckon.

And then we have those play-offs, which will feature:

• St John's College Cambridge (155, 55)
• Emmanuel College Cambridge (135, 5)
• U.C.L. (135, 5)
• Royal Northern College of Music (135, 10)

And the draw, as indirectly revealed by the BBC website, pits U.C.L. against St John's and Emmanuel vs RNCM.

On paper, St John's would probably be fancied to win the former, while the latter would be far too close to call. These are four good teams, all of whom deserved a second chance, and hopefully will give us two good contests.

So, to summarise, it was a rather low scoring first round, but we emerge from it with a decent pack of teams who are capable of excellent performances. Hopefully, now that the teams are more familiar with the show, things will pick up in the second round; best of retrospective luck to all the teams involved!

Back on Monday with my usual write-up of the show and summaries of the other quartets of Quizzy Mondays; until then, sayonara!