University Challenge 2023-24: Semi-Finals Preview, and an announcement about this blog's future

OK my friends, here we are again: the University Challenge semi-finals. The first of the new era, and a very strong line-up we have for it as well. So, let's look at all four of them:

• Imperial (Justin Lee, Adam Jones, Suraiya Haddad and Sourajit Debnath) Defeated two very good Oxford teams, Balliol and Lincoln, 285-145 and 250-120 respectively. A  narrower win over Sheffield, 195-160, in the first quarter-final was followed by a win over Manchester, 205-120, achieved largely through a sprint in the home straight. Very dominant on the buzzers and the bonuses in the first two rounds; more evenly matched in the quarter-finals, but coming through both matches against strong opponents shows their strong quality.
  
• U.C.L. (James Hall, Ali Izzatdust, Tayana Sawh and Jacob Finlay) Won a low scoring first round game over King's of Cambridge 190-145, before impressively beating the fancied Hertford of Oxford team 225-140 in the second round. A similarly comfortable win over Christ Church 200-130 in their first QF was followed by a spectacular come-from-behind win over Trinity in the second as they won 165-150. Pretty decent on the buzzers throughout, with their bonus rate a tad over 50% generally.
  
• Manchester (Bluma de los Reyes-White, Ilya Kullmann, Hiru Senehedheera and Dan Grady) Beat Trinity on a 175-each tie-break in the first round, before dispatching the fancied Edinburgh 215-105 in the second. Beat Birkbeck 160-95 in a low scoring first QF, then lost to Imperial as mentioned above, but narrowly won a close play-off against Christ Church 145-130. Reasonably good on the bonuses in all their games, but a bit prone to penalties on the buzzers.
  
• Trinity College Cambridge (Sarah Henderson, Agnijo Banerjee, Ryan Kang and Jeremi Jaksina) After losing to Manchester, survived through the play-offs by beating Southampton 245-120 and Warwick 200-185 in a great second round match. Beat Open 190-170 in a close first QF, then made up for that defeat to U.C.L. with a 165-100 win over Birkbeck last week. Pretty good on the buzzers, and on the bonuses in all their games except the Open win.

A very good line-up, with, for the second time in three series, just one Oxbridge team in the line-up after years of the semi line-ups often being dominated by them. Any of them would be worthy semi-finalists, but only two of them can be? Which two will it be?

Well, the draw pits, as we'd probably have expected, Imperial against Trinity tomorrow, followed by U.C.L. vs Manchester on Easter Monday.

For the first game, Imperial would probably start as favourites given they have probably been the most consistantly impressive team so far, but they did show a vulnerability to themselves in the QFs, albeit they did recover well to win both teams. And Trinity have always managed to keep themselves in games, and have come through to win in the face of adversity times before too. They have lost, twice, from decent positions too though, and Imperial are certainly not a team you want to be giving an opportunity like that. Either time could, reasonably, win this game, but I'd probably go for Imperial.

For the second, it's also a pretty close game. U.C.L.'s record is quietly pretty good, with that slow start maybe unfairly clouding my view of them for the rest of the series a bit; after all, many teams have had slow starts before going on to do very well in the series. That slow start against Trinity shows their vulnerability, but the spectacular recovery shows their strength. Manchester, meanwhile, have arguably only had one convincing performance, in their win over Edinburgh. Every other game they've shown a vulnerability to themselves in one form or another, though, to be fair, they were pretty good against Imperial until their opponents ran away late on. This one is, again, pretty close to call; if either team is at their best, they could win. At a push, I'd maybe go for U.C.L..

So, yeah, I've said the same thing most series, but I'll say it again: no final two would surprise me at all. All I can hope for is that this excellent series gets the ending it deserves so that I can finish my full UC coverage on a high.

Oh yeah, that announcement. You've probably been suspecting it already, but here it is: this is the final series, for now at least, I'm covering in this much detail on my blog.

I'm sorry, but I really have had enough. The blogs have been becoming increasingly hard to write without repeating myself too much over the past few years, as you can probably tell given how I usually end up using the same stock phrases most weeks. And so, after 12 years, and having overseen the transition to the new chairman, I really think there's nothing new for me to say and write about the show, so, with regret, it's time to finally retire my regular UC write-ups.

Not the blog itself; I do intend to carry it on in one form or another. Probably some kind of Quizzy Mondays digest where I do potted reviews of the show and the other constituents of the line-up. Like I was intending to do four years ago before I found myself rather enjoying my new setup and decided to run with it. Who knows, maybe after a year off, I'll find myself wanting to give it a fresh go next time around.

But, for now, yeah, I'm finishing my regular UC reviews. Thank you very much to everyone who's read and commented on them over the years; your support has been most appreciated.

 

Back tomorrow with my usual write-up; see you then I guess.