University Challenge 2023-24: Round 1: Match 9: Balliol vs Imperial

Good evening again friends, and welcome back to another Quizzy Monday! All the Monday quizzes are motoring along nicely; Only Connect has been brilliant as ever, Mastermind has been very strong in all its games so far, Brain of Britain has proven itself a worthy fourth member of the quartumvirate, and UC has, in my opinion anyway, settled into its new era great too! Tonight, we have the Ian Bayley derby, as two teams with a strong history on the BBC era of the show fought it out...

Balliol College Oxford appeared in nine series of the Paxo era, reaching the QFs twice, the SFs twice also and, of course, winning the 'Monkman and Seagull series of 2016-17; its last appearance, though, was a first round exit last series. This year's foursome were:

Elise Cox, from the USA, studying Political Theory

Oliver Ellingham, from Bournemouth, studying Classics

Captain: John Maier, from London, studying Philosophy

Nikita Trojanskis, from Riga, studying Biology

Imperial College London is, of course, one of three teams to have won four series of UC, in 1995-96, 2000-01, 19-20 and 21-22; it also narrowly lost the 2001-02 final and reached the semis in 09-10 and 20-21. This year's quartet were:

Justin Lee, from Hong Kong and Canada, studying Chemistry

Adam Jones, from Hong Kong, studying Computer Science

Captain: Suraiya Haddad, from Manchester, studying Medicine

Sourajit Debnath, from Calcutta, studying Applied Computational Science and Engineering

So, off we set once again then, and a penalty to Balliol immediately put them on the back foot; Imperial didn't pick up, but did quickly move off the mark with the next starter, and took two bonuses on poetry. They took the next two starters as well, with Balliol losing another five in the process, and one of the resulting bonuses saw the first instance for a while of a captain mishearing a confer and thus giving a wrong answer (hasn't been a problem for the last few series what with the extra mics). Balliol did take the first picture round, on texts of political philosophers in their original language, and took two bonuses to cut the gap to 55-10. But Imperial quickly reasserted their dominance with another starter and full bonus set. Balliol did take two starters and all but one of the resulting bonuses, the one miss being misidentifying Brian Clough's famous 44 day reign at Leeds as being at West Ham! But Imperial took two starters and full bonus sets in a row, including the music round, on classical pieces composed around the year of Rachmaninoff's birth, after which they led 130-55.

And the lead was just getting bigger as Mr Lee took another starter, which was followed by yet another full set of bonuses. The run was halted by a penalty, which Balliol took advantage of with two bonuses following. But another strong run saw Imperial, three starters in a row including the second picture round, on paintings of the artist's family, after which they led 235-75. Game over, but could Balliol put in a late run for the play-offs? They gave it a great go, a run of starters taking them into three figures and rattling through the bonuses, getting them mostly right, and, had Mr Maier not forgivably lost another five, they'd probably have made it. Another starter kept their chances alive, but a full dropped bonus set on South African languages ended their chances. At the gong, Imperial won 285-145.

A superb contest despite its one-sidedness, two great teams. Very well done Imperial, a fantastic first showing that, if they keep it up, will surely see them right into the SFs at least; best of luck in the second round! Hard lines to Balliol, who deserve immense credit for that great late run; they'd have easily beaten another team playing like that; thanks very much for playing!

The stats: Mr Lee was the best buzzer of the night with seven, while Mr Ellingham was best for Balliol with five. On the bonuses, Balliol managed 14 out of 21 (with three penalties) and Imperial a very impressive 30 out of 42 (with one penalty).

Next week's match: Sheffield vs Loughborough

Only Connect began its elimination round with the first two returnees of the series, with the Roadies playing the Cribbagers. The former led 4-2 after the first round, but the latter turned it around to lead 11-9 after the second. A better wall gave the Roadies the lead back 19-18 going into Missing Vowels, and they just about maintained that lead there to win 24-23!

 

Mastermind was won very narrowly by Peter Wilson, whose 17 points saw him just edge out second place Thomas Nelson with 26 (honestly, how can TPTB keep seeing people go out in R1 with such high scores and not think something needs to change?); Madeleine Roper and Bernie Morgan also competed, finishing with 19 and 13 respectively (the latter recovering decently after scoring just 2 on her SS).

 

Brain of Britain was won by Gill Hollis, who won a closely fought contest with 12 points ahead of Brian Craythorne with 10, Jean Burtonward with 8 and UC alumnus Rob Greenhill, who drew an unlucky blank on the first two rounds before recovering well, with 7. (His performance reminds me of a comment on BoB’s format made on the site formerly known as Twitter last year, which I may decide to go into in more detail another time)