University Challenge 2023-24: Round 1: Match 8: Open vs Hertford

Good evening again friends, and welcome back to JOW for more Quizzy Mondays! On what's been a rather hot day here, I really needed something to take my mind off the heat, and thankfully a fine day of quizzing has done just that, with excellent performances on all four shows today! Starting with UC, and the first match of the second half of the first round...

The Open University appeared in the first five series of the Paxo era, but, after winning in 98-99 (the first UC series I ever watched!), disappeared until 2014-15, and has appeared a further five times since, but hasn't been beyond the second round any of those times. This year's foursome were:

Ellie Romans, from Oxfordshire, studying Nursing

Mike Holt, from Wilmslow in Cheshire, studying towards the Open degree

Captain: Ann Gavaghan, from London, studying Art and Architectural History

James Davidson, from Fraserburgh, studying English Literature

Hertford College Oxford took until 2010-11 to appear in the Paxo era, going out in the first round there; it since reappeared in 2018-19 (with future WWTBAM Thirteen Clubber Chris Page on that team) and 21-22, going out in the second round both times. This year's foursome were:

Ollie Sourbut, from Bath, studying Autonomous Intelligent Machines and Systems

Omer Keskin, from South London, studying Computer Science

Captain: Daniel Whittle, from Manchester (originally Saskatchewan), studying Classical Reception

Rupavardhini Balakrishnan Raju, from India, studying Law

So, off we set once again then, and Hertford shot out of the blocks with Mr Keskin taking the first two starters and all six bonuses from the two sets following. A third duly followed, as did the first picture round, on places that share their names with novels, after which, with Open having been restricted to a penalty thus far, Hertford led 80-(-5). Mr Davidson, a finalist in the last series of Mastermind, duly pushed Open back into positives with a starter, and a full bonus set of their own went with it, but three more starters to the Oxonians, another to Mr Keskin and two to Mr Sourbut, quickly gave them a three figure lead. Open did take the music round, on female singers from the Punk era of the 70s and 80s, went to Open though, and a second full bonus set took the scores to 135-45.

A second starter in a row to Ms Gavaghan (who you may remember from the last series of OC) added further to Open's score, but just the one bonus went with it this time. Back came Hertford as Mr Keskin took yet another starter, which gave them a bonus set on North Macedonia, including their famous football win over Italy last year! Two were taken, but back came Open again through Mr Davidson, resulting in yet another full set. But Hertford took two starters in a row, including the second picture round, on sacred mountains, after which, they led 200-85. Probably too big a gap for Open to close, but could they at least reach the repechage? Three starters in a row and a good haul of bonuses took them into strong contention for one, but probably in need of just a bit more. Hertford, though, took two starters in a row, which confirmed their win and gave them the joint-second highest score of the series so far. Open did take the final starter, to get them fully onto the repechage board, but they didn't take the one bonus there was time for. At the gong, Hertford won 230-155.

A very strong match indeed, two very good teams, what a shame this was a first round match. Very well done to Hertford, a very strong performance, Mr Keskin in particular, they could be one to watch in the second round; best of luck there! Hard lines to Open, who'd definitely have beaten another team, and whose score is going to be VERY borderline for the play-offs (they're currently joint third with Southampton), but thanks for playing for now!

The stats: Mr Keskin was the best buzzer of the night with seven starters, while Ms Gavaghan was best for Open with four. On the bonuses, Open managed a very good 16 out of 22 (with one penalty) and Hertford an also very good 25 out of 36 (with three penalties).

Next week's match: Balliol Oxford vs Imperial

Only Connect completed its first round with the final two new teams of the series, the Video Nasties, Jack Lewis, Nina Fetherston (who I remember being on UC back in the first series I did on this blog and then appearing on Mastermind the very next week!) and captain Lewis Jones (who was on UC last series), and the Solomons Family, Mark, Naomi and captain Harry Solomons. The former led 5-3 after the first round, but the latter turned it around to lead 12-10 after the second. A better wall gave the Nasties the lead back 20-17 going into Missing Vowels, and they improved on that lead in that to win 30-21.

 

Mastermind was a close affair that ended in a tie-breaker, with Pete Rosser and Sadie de Sousa both ending with 23 points, with Katie Chambers just behind on 22 and Eoin O’Connell completing the line-up with 15. Sadie won the resulting tie-breaker 3-2 to take the victory. Great contest that only emphasises what a travesty it is that there are no high scoring non-winner places in the SFs anymore. Perhaps, if we moan about it enough, TPTB will take note and do something about it like they did (or appeared to do) with OC.

 

Brain of Britain was won very easily by Eleanor Ayres (formerly of Mastermind and revived WWTBAM), who scored a perfect six on the first round and never looked back, eventually winning with 19 points, seven ahead of second place Matt Barr, whose impressive rally in the final round took him to 12 and a not bad shot at a HSNW place. Richard Burr and Ruth Downing completed the line-up with 3 and 8 respectively. (Highlight of the show for me was a question about the ‘original’ height of Everest being 29,002 feet, which I knew thanks to QI!)