Good evening again friends, and welcome back to JOW for another round of Quizzy Mondays! You join us for my first blog written using my new living room table, which I'm still getting used to, so apologies if there are more typos than usual! Anyway, a series of UC that we went into with even more uncertainty than usual has, IMO anyway, proven a most enjoyable and high quality one indeed! Hoping to continue that tonight were two more teams hoping to either win or lose with 160 or more.
Bangor appeared six teams on the show under the old regime, as was the most successful Welsh institution to do so, reaching the semis twice, including the team of Adam 'Welshguy' Pearce in 2012-13; last year, its team reached the second round before getting soundly trounced by eventual champs Durham. This year's foursome were:
Nihal Bhatt, from Banbury, studying Biology with Biotechnology
Katie Barnes, from Rugby, studying Marine Biology
Captain: Jack Cunliffe, from Croesor in North Wales, studying Counselling
Luke O'Hagan, from Birkenhead, studying History
Edinburgh appeared a whopping 21 times during the Paxman era, including 13 series in a row between 99 and 2012, reaching the QFs four times, the semis four times and, of course, winning the 2018-19 series; its last team, two series ago, were one of the SF teams, who ultimately lost a close match to Reading. This year's quartet were:
Matt Stafford, from Ashton-under-Lyne, studying Maths
Frances Hadley, from London, studying Music
Captain: Arun Uttamchandani, from Glasgow, studying Law
Matt McGovern, from Knaresborough in North Yorkshire, studying Mechanical Engineering
So, off we set once again then, and it was Mr Uttamchandani who opened the scoring for the night, as he waited until 'arrested in November 1605' gave away that it was Guy Fawkes he was after; two bonuses followed, before Bangor followed them off the mark with Mr Bhatt doing the honours. No bonuses came with the Welsh side's first set, but a second starter gave them a full set on chess and the lead. The first picture round, on Naval ensigns, went to Edinurgh; a full bonus set of their own gave them the lead back 45-35. Another starter and two bonuses increased their lead, but Bangor responded in kind to keep them close. After this, though, Edinburgh pulled away on the buzzer, as three starters in a row plus bonuses took them past 100. They also took the music round, on songs featuring Hal Blaine on instrumentals, after which they suddenly led 140-55.
And the lead was just getting bigger as Mr Uttamchandani gave them yet another starter which was followed by two bonuses. Mr Cunliffe did the right thing and buzzed early on the next starter, but was wrong and lost five; in swooped Edinburgh, who poured salt into the wound with a full bonus set. Mr O'Hagan finally gave the Welsh side more points, but just one bonus went with it; in contrast, another Edinburgh starter gave them a full set that took them past 200. The second picture round, on paintings of John the Baptist, also went to the Scots side; two bonuses took the scores to 230-65. All over as a contest, but could Bangor recover to respectability? Yes they could, as two starters in a row took them past 100, and a third plus a full set put them within sight of the play-offs. A fourth followed, plus two bonuses, which left them just one more starter away from the POs. Alas, that starter didn't come, as Edinburgh took the remaining two starters which, along with all but one of the resulting bonuses, took them past 300, I believe the first student team to do that since Trinity Cambridge in the 2019-20 QFs! At the gong, Edinburgh won 320-150.
An astonishing contest, two very good teams indeed, very well played both. Very very well done to Edinburgh, possibly the best performance of the series so far, and we've had many great ones; surely one of THE favourites in the second round, very best of luck there! Very hard lines to Bangor, who firstly came up against a team that good, and then literally just fell short of a possible play-off place; a great performance though, thanks for playing!
The stats: Messrs Stafford and Uttamchandani were joint best buzzers of the night with six each, while Mr O'Hagan was best for Bangor with five. On the bonuses, Bangor managed a good 15 out of 24 (with the night's one penalty) and Edinburgh an astonishing 34 out of 44! Great stuff that! Well done both teams, an incredible game!
Next week's match: Lincoln Oxford vs King's London
Only Connect completed the
elimination round with the Solomons Family playing the Volunteers. The former
led 7-2 after the first round, and 11-4 after the second. A better wall saw the
Volunteers close the gap to 16-11 going into Missing Vowels, but the Solomonses
maintained their lead to win 23-18.
Mastermind was won by Jane Hill,
who had easily the strongest GK round of the contenders and thus finished comfortably
ahead with 25 points, six ahead of second place Krishna Jada with 19. Bob
Teasdale and Lisa Wallace also competed, finishing with 18 and 17 respectively.
Brain of Britain was another
heavyweight contest, with Ian Fennell (also on the current series of OC with
the Mercians) recovering from a bad start to win with 15 points, three ahead of
second place Jim Cook (a three time Fifteen-to-One finalist and participant in
the show’s famous Millennium Quiz), who joins Mr Robinson from last week and
two others on the HSNW board with 12, meaning, unless we get three scores above
that in the remaining heats, a very close tie-break will be called for. Ian
Mostyn and Joanna Munro (UC alumnus) completed the line-up with 9 and 10
respectively.
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