Good evening again my friends, and welcome back to JOW for another Quizzy Monday! Not long left now, with both Mastermind and UC nearly done. Sadly, I went into tonight's match already knowing who won after TPTB inadvertantly spoiled the outcome by publishing next week's fixture in advance; thankfully, it was subsequently removed and, to be fair, it's the first time its been done for a long time. Anyway, on with the show itself to see how the already known outcome unfolded...
The Open University were beaten in the first round by Hertford of Oxford, but came through the play-offs and reached the QFs by beating Oxford Brookes and UEA, before losing again, this time to Trinity, in their preliminary. They were the same foursome as those previous occasions:
Ellie Romans, from Oxfordshire, studying Nursing
Mike Holt, from Wilmslow in Cheshire, studying towards the Open degree
Captain: Ann Gavaghan, from Philadelphia, studying Art and Architectural History
James Davidson, from Fraserburgh, studying English Literature
Christ Church Oxford came straight through to the QFs after a comfortable-ish first round win over Southampton and a closer second round one over Emmanuel of Cambridge, but they were well beaten by U.C.L. in their prelim. They were also the same quartet as before:
Eliza Dean, from Edinburgh, studying Classics and French
Melika Gorgianeh, from Leeds, studying Astrophysics
Captain: Arthur Wotton, from Cardiff, studying Spanish
Elliot Lowe, from Thames Ditton in Surrey, studying Classics
So, off we set once again then, and Mr Wotton, easily his side's MVP so far, was first in to quickly identify the Ionian Islands for the first starter; they opened with two bonuses, before Open got going too with a starter, but just one bonus. Two starters were then dropped, with Christ Church losing five, before Open took the lead through Ms Gavaghan, but the bonuses offered no further points. The first picture round, on maps of oil spills, went to Christ Church; one bonus gave them the lead back, 30-25. The lead increased when Ms Gorgianeh took her first starter of the series, and the bonuses fell well for her field of study too; two were taken. Back came Open from Mr Davidson, but just one bonus meant they were still ten behind; it became five when Christ Church incurred another penalty, but they couldn't pick up, and it then became fifteen when Mr Wotton took the next starter. Another penalty to the Oxonians though, a starter and sole bonus to Open, and the teams were now tied. The music starter was dropped; the bonuses, on operas based on works of French literature by non-French composers, went to Christ Church; two bonuses meant they had their lead back, 75-55.
Mr Wotton took a second starter in a row, and it was his turn for the bonuses to fall nicely for, a full set on his native Wales took his side to three figures. A third in a row to the Oxford captain was followed by just one bonus, but Mr Wotton was now firmly in control, and went on to take a fourth with a starter where AR allowed him a one-year leeway either way (good thing Ken and/or Vernon weren't there!). Just one bonus accompanied this latest starter, but their lead had now increased quite substantially. Open did take the second picture round, on winners of the National Geographi Society's Hubbard Medal; one bonus reduced the gap to 130-70. If they could get a run going, they could still do it, but a(n unlucky) penalty made the job harder still. And when Mr Wotton took the next starter, you fancied that was game over. Just one bonus followed, but a very quick buzz from Ms Dean confirmed the game was now out of reach; the resulting bonuses saw AR briefly break character by chuckling after reading a moderately amusing bit of question! Open did take another starter through Ms Gavaghan, but just one bonus went with it and those five were lost to another penalty, which resulted in yet another dropped starter. Christ Church took the final one, but didn't take either of the bonuses there was time for. At the gong, Christ Church won 170-75.
A tough contest I thought, some very tough starters that both teams struggled with; both teams did pretty good all thing considered. Well done Christ Church, a good performance that shows they're certainly not out of the running just yet; best of luck in the play-offs! Hard lines to Open, for whom the questions just didn't fall tonight, but they bow out gracefully after a fine series of performaces; thanks for playing!
The stats: Mr Wotton was, by far and away, the best buzzer of the night with EIGHT(!) starters, while Ms Gavaghan was best for Open with three, though Mr Davidson was their best of the series overall with 22 over five matches. On the bonuses, Open managed just 5 out of 18 (with two penalties) and Christ Church 15 out of 32 (with three penalties).
Next week's match: Manchester vs Christ Church, followed, presumably, by Birkbeck vs Trinity in two weeks' time
Mastermind’s latest semi-final was
won by Oli Hanson with 23 points, three ahead of second place Tom Adlam with 20;
Julie Ashcroft and Lisa Cowan (who need not feel ashamed at all of her unlucky
GK round) completed the line-up with 16 and 13 respectively.
We also had the third Only Connect
Champion of Champions special between the winners of, arguably, the best two
series of the BBC4 era, the Scribes and the Analysts. Next week, as it stands, we’ll
be seeing the first Christmas CoC special from 2018; there are three more after
that one, so, I’m guessing, assuming the run takes a week off for the hour-long
Mastermind final, they’ve timed it so the most recent one will be shown the
same week as the UC final.
We also also had the Counterpoint
final this afternoon, where Annie Hodkinson narrowly beat out James Bingham and
Anju Sharda to take the title. Well done her, and thanks to all involved on
another enjoyable series!
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