Good evening friends, and welcome to the first UC of 2022! After two weeks of festive specials, we resume tonight with the final match of a second round that's been a definite step-up from the first thus far; whoever won would take the eighth and final place in, what's already, a pretty strong quarter-final line-up.
Exeter won a low scoring first round match against Manchester, which they led virtually throughout and eventually finished on top 130-80. They were unchanged from that match:
Ollie Kirwin, from Henley-in-Arden in Warwickshire, studying Economics and Politics
Jefferson Ting, from Kuala Lumpur, studying Law
Captain: Jacob Evans, from Brecon, studying Geography
TJ Alabi, from Newnham in London and County Laois in Ireland, studying Creative Writing
Imperial won a higher scoring match, a 210-155 victory over St John's, who survived to the play-offs and have since reached the quarter-finals. Hoping to join them were the also unchanged foursome of:
Max Zeng, from Singapore, studying Biochemistry
Fatima Sheriff, from Hitchin in Hertforshire, studying Science Communication
Captain: Michael Mays, from Montrose, studying Computational Fluid Dynamics
Gilbert Jackson, from Bury St Edmunds, studying Chemistry
Off we set for the first time this year then, and a very quick buzz saw Mr Mays (and myself) identifying 'Charlotte' as the name needed from just one clue; the London side firmly set off the mark with a full bonus set on rivers. A penalty lost them five of those points, but Exeter didn't quite provide the correct answer; Mr Alabi did take the next starter though, but their bonuses didn't fall for them, none taken. Back came Imperial with Mr Jackson atoning for his earlier mistake, but they missed all of a gettable bonus set on FA Cup finals (and infuriated quite a few people by describing Wimbledon FC as "what MK Dons were"!). They did take the first picture round though, on American 'Cities of Roses', and took a full set to increase their lead to 55-10.
Mr Zeng increased this lead with a second starter in a row, but their hit and miss bonus form continued, missing a full set on knitting. Collaborations between Robert de Niro and Martin Scorcese proved more to their liking, two taken from that particular set. Mr Ting broke Exeter back into the game with the next correct starter, and they took just the one correct bonus from their set. Neither team identified Mr E. Presley singing 'All Shook Up' for the music starter; the bonuses, on songs co-written by Otis Blackwell, went to Imperial, but they got nothing from the bonuses, leaving their lead at 95-25.
And when Exeter lost five on the next starter, and Imperial picked up the points and took all three bonuses, they had one foot in the QFs. Mr Alabi then atoned for his error though, and Exeter just about kept the game alive with a full bonus set of their own. Ms Sheriff then ensured all four Imperial players had a starter to their name; two bonuses were followed, before Mr Kirwin gave another starter to Exeter, but they got nothing from a bonus set on opera. The Grecians did take the second picture round, on recipients of the title Royal Designer for Industry, and took a full set of bonuses to take the scores to 140-80.
But Mr Zeng quickly took the next starter, and one bonus put Imperial just about over the finishing line. The next starter was, I'm pretty sure, a repeat from last Friday's Christmas final! Neither team knew Milton as the author of Areopagitica, and a penalty to Exeter pretty much ended their hopes of recovering. Mr Mays confirmed this by taking the next starter; no bonuses came with it, including an amusing joke guess of 'Spiderman' for a Tobey Maguire film(!), but you fancy it didn't matter now. Two more starters were dropped, with Exeter losing another five on one of them; the remaining correct starters went to Imperial, who only got one bonus from each of the resulting sets, but it mattered not. At the gong, Imperial won 205-70.
An entertaining game between two pleasant teams to start the year on. Well done to Imperial on another strong victory, and very best of luck to them in the quarter-finals! Hard lines to Exeter, who I'd say were better than their final score suggests, but they gave a respectable account of themselves, thanks for playing!
The stats: Mr Zeng was just the best buzzer of the night with six starters to Mr Mays' five, while Messrs Kirwin and Alabi got two each for Exeter. On the bonuses, Exeter managed 7 out of 15 (with three penalties) and Imperial 17 out of 36 (with two penalties).
Next week's match: the first quarter-final! Don't know who's playing yet, but I'll keep an eye out, and I'll hopefully remember to do a preview at some point this coming week.
Only Connect began its semi-finals
with the Golfers vs the Animal Lovers. The former led 4-2 after the first
round, before increasing to 10-2 after the second. The gap only increased to
17-3 after the walls, and Missing Vowels was a mere formality; the Golfers won
21-5.
Mastermind was won very
comfortably by serial quizzer Anthony Fish, who ran up a superb score of 30
points to win by eight points from second place Bryan Dunlop. Lisa von Fircks
and Charlie Bonham also competed, finishing with 18 and 12 respectively.
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