OK, back to normal service this week, with three matches, the last two first round matches and the first of the quarter-finals. Still no word on the new series though; August 1st now seems to be the favoured date for it to start, which would be first August start since the 2006-07 series if so.
Match 23, Round 2 Match 7: U.C.L. vs Jesus (21st January 2013)
The penultimate second round match
was another ‘higher scorer vs lower scorer’, as highest scoring winners U.C.L.
made their much-anticipated return. It was Jesus who got off to the better
start though, with their better bonus rate ensuring they led their opponents
after three starters each. They did eventually manage to sneak in front, only
for their opponents to then retake the lead and pull away with a full set of
bonuses.
The game then became very nip and
tuck for a while as the two teams kept taking and retaking the lead, before
U.C.L. finally managed to get a run together and pull away a bit. Jesus did
pull close again a couple of times afterwards, but the London side managed to
stay in front for the rest of the game. Indeed, it wasn’t until Mr Parton took
the final starter of the game that they were home and dry. U.C.L. won the game 215-180,
but Jesus gave a much better performance than we expected and it's a shame they
were up against one of the teams of the series.
Match 24, Round 2 Match 8: Bangor vs Durham (28th January 2013)
The final match of the round saw
the Bangor team of our old friend Mr Pearce very much start as underdogs
against the fancied Durham team. Mr Tomlinson took the first three starters of
the game however, all but one of the bonuses followed, and they already led 70-0.
Durham soon got some points on the board however, with some good bonus
performances of their own. In fact, both teams were pretty good on the bonuses
throughout. The exception was the music round, in which Durham failed to
identify both Elton John and Kate Bush; it that round happened nowadays, we’d
almost certainly get a typical sneering article about it in the dead tree press.
Another starter, taken by Mr Tomlinson, was about the Monroe doctrine, which
also got a mention in yesterday’s Pointless!
Bangor just about managed to
maintain their lead into the final quarter of the contest, though Durham
recovered to just 10 behind after the second picture round. A starter and two
bonuses upped it, only for Durham to take two starters in a row, which levelled
the scores and a timely full bonus set gave them the lead for the first time.
But Mr Tomlinson took the next starter for Bangor, one bonus put them level,
and then our man Adam got the decisive starter that won the game! Bangor deservedly
won 175-165, while Durham, like so many over the years, could consider
themselves unlucky to fall before the quarter-finals. (Honestly, watching this
match and being reminded how neither team deserved to go out here makes me hope the delayed
start to the new series is as much because they’ve finally abandoned the extra
six games as the BBC’s busy sports coverage)
Match 25, Preliminary Quarter-Final 1: Manchester vs Imperial
The first quarter-final looked a
close one on paper between two pretty closely matched teams. After two early
penalties allowed Imperial to take an initial lead, Manchester quickly bounced
back in front, and soon had the upper hand. After the music round, they led
100-50, but, despite some penalties of their own, Imperial recovered well
enough and had closed the gap back to 20 points going into the second picture
round.
That starter was dropped, before
the resulting replacement starter saw Mr Aronica’s infamous suggestion of ‘Inspector
Clouseau’ was a romantic figure created by Charlotte Bronte, which made Paxo corpse
completely! (“That’s one of the funniest misapprehensions we’ve ever had on
this show!”) Manchester’s lead had risen again, but Imperial managed to just
about keep themselves within touching distance, until Mr Guille unfortunately
buzzed and then forgot his answer, which visibly upset him; Manchester took the
points and that was game over. Manchester won 185-115, but it wasn’t that easy
for them until right at the end.
The rest of the preliminaries coming up next week, along, hopefully, with news, at last, of a start date for the new series. See you then then...
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