Hello my friends, and welcome to another Quizzy Monday! After another week that has been dominated by me planning for this project of mine which I really need to tell you about on here at some point given how often I've mentioned it and how much work I'm going to be putting into it over the coming... however long it takes, and it will likely take a while. Anyway, on with tonight's festivities, beginning with UC, the start of my least favourite round of it, and a match that just about sums up why that is the case...
St John's College Cambridge were defeated by University College Oxford in the first round, but survived to the repechage, where they comfortably defeated L.S.E. 220-100 only two weeks ago. They were the same four as those three previous games:
Callum Thomas, from Queensland, Australia, studying Zoology
Jonathan Watts, from London, studying Maths
Captain: Liam Plimmer, from Dorset, studying English
Aurelia Walker, from London, studying Maths
Pembroke College Cambridge defeated St Andrews 180-90 in their first match back in August, but their performance was a lot stronger than that relatively modest score and scoreline suggests. They were also unchanged from beforehand:
Hebe Robertson, from Oxfordshire, studying Classics
Arvin Boraghi, from Orpington in London, studying Medicine
Captain: Timothy Ho, from Singapore, studying Maths
Rory Moloney, from Gosfield in Essex, studying Natural Sciences
The match started with neither team getting the first starter and St John's losing five. Pembroke duly took the next two starters though and four resulting bonuses. St John's then took two starters in a row including the first picture starter; after the first picture bonuses, they led 40-30. Pembroke then took three starters in a row to race away into a strong lead, though St John's did take a starter to keep themselves in the game. Neither team got the music starter despite the chairman showing he's not afraid to dance as well as sing! St John's took the music bonuses, after which 95-70.
It was all Pembroke in the third phase though, as they ran away on the buzzer and suddenly had a three figure lead. St John's finally got going again with the second picture round, which they quickly took all three bonuses of, but they now trailed 175-90. Another starter put Pembroke within sight of victory, but St John's kept themselves in the game with the next starter and, with a fair amount of time still to go, you wouldn't put it past them. In the end, Pembroke saw the game out comfortably, but both they and St John's kept buzzing in and racking up both starters and bonuses at an alarming speed. At the gong, Pembroke won 275-170.
An utterly brilliant match that it seems an utter travesty that we should be losing either team after. Very well done Pembroke, a storming performance that definitely raises them up amongst the series favourites; very best of luck in the QFs! Hard lines to St John's, who, as I say, definitely don't deserve to be out for good after a performance like that; thanks very much for playing!
The stats: Arvin Boraghi was, again, the best buzzer of the night with EIGHT(!) starters, while Callum Thomas was best for St John's with five. On the bonuses, St John's managed a fantastic 21 out of 27 (with four penalties) and Pembroke 26 out of 43 (with one penalty), and all eight players contributed at least one correct starter to the game.
Next week's match: don't know yet, but given how the two repechage winners usually show up quite early in the second round, I wouldn't be surprised to see Bristol again in the next couple of weeks...
Only Connect’s first play-off match
saw the returns of the Frenemies, who defeated the Marvins but lost to the
Sinistrals, and the Merseyside Eyes, who did the exact same things but the
other way round!
I claim one point on the mistakes
picture question in the first round; the Eyes led 7-3 at the end of that round.
My Dad and I jointly claim two points on the Eurovision music question in the
second round; the Frenemies now led 8-7 after that.
On to the Walls, and the Frenemies
took their time, but ultimately worked everything out for a full ten. The Eyes
worked out two groups, but were unable to work the other two out in their three
goes; they did know three connections, so five points, which means they trailed
18-12 going into Missing Vowels. The Frenemies maintained their advantage and
saw the game out in that, winning 24-20. Well done them, and best of luck in
the QFs, and thanks to the Eyes for playing, a very fun team indeed!
Next week’s match: Ad Astra vs the
Makeweights
Mastermind was won by Gavin Dugan,
who won a close and high scoring heat with 22 points ahead of Cameron Johnston
with 21, Simon Pitfield with 20 and Emma Swift with 18.
Yesterday’s third Brain of Britain
semi-final was somewhat similar to last week’s, with the contender in second
place going into the final round sneaking ahead to win the game. Ben Spicer
claimed five-in-a-row and a bonus point on his Spotlight round plus a pickup
and so emerged the winner with 16 points, two ahead of Simon Langley Evans with
14. Ellie Mackin and Harry Heath also competed, finishing with 6 and 5
respectively.
And that's it for another week! Thanks as ever for reading; hopefully next week I'll be a bit more focussed as tonight's shows, UC in particular, didn't deserve a recap curtailed by my being so distracted. All will become clear in due course though, don't worry. Anyway, back as usual same time same place next Monday, so, see yous then...