Good evening again my friends, and welcome to another Quizzy Monday! Just five more to go after tonight as our two remaining shows enter their endgames. But first, advanced warning that there may be more typos (than usual) in tonight's blog as I'm using a new laptop, with a much smaller keyboard, which it's taking me a while to get used to. Hopefully any mistakes won't spoil your reading too much. Anyway, on with tonight's shows, beginning with UC, and a rematch:
U.C.L. were narrowly beaten by their opponents tonight in the first round, recovered nicely with easy wins over St Andrews and L.S.E., but were then themselves easily beaten by Darwin in their first QF. They were the same foursome as all those previous games:
Calum Jack, from Sutton in Surrey, studying Science Communication
Josh Mandel, from North London, studying US History and Politics
Captain: Olivia Holtermann Entwistle, from London, studying Human Geography
Sanjay Prabhakar, from London, studying Science Education
Open, after beating their opponents tonight in the first round, went on to also beat Durham in the second round, but then lost a low scoring first quarter-final to Bristol. They too were the same quartet as those prior occasions:
Nicky Maving, from Jarrow, studying Natural Sciences
Tom Barber, from Bournemouth, studying Physics
Captain: Karie Westermann, from Glasgow (originally Denmark), studying Art History
Hector Payne, from Teddington in Middlesex, studying Finance
Open got off the mark first, but took just one bonus; U.C.L. took the next and, in contrast, took a full set, only for their opponents to respond likewise. Open also took the first picture round, after which they led 60-25. U.C.L. then got a good run of starters together, taking three starters in a row and all of the bonuses bar two to take the lead. Open bounced back with the music round though, cutting the gap to 90-75.
A second starter in a row gave Open back the lead, only for U.C.L. to quickly retake it with another run of three starters in a row, and had suddenly pulled away into a near-fifty point lead. Open got themselves back into the game with the second picture round, which cut the gap to 140-115. That was as close as they could get though, as the Londoners got a second wind and ran away with the game with a late run that was only briefly stalled by a penalty. Open did the right thing and kept on going for it, but only managed to lose five a couple of times. At the gong, U.C.L. won 235-105.
A good contest, close until U.C.L. ran away with it late on. Well done them, a worthy win that keeps them well in the contest; best of luck to them in the play-offs! Hard lines to Open, but they've had a fine run and can go away with their heads held high; thanks very much for playing.
The stats: Mr Prabhakar was the best buzzer of the night with six starters, while Ms Westermann was best for Open with four, making her her side's best buzzer of the series with twelve starters over four matches. On the bonuses, U.C.L. managed 24 out of 36 (with one penalty) and Open 11 out of 18 (with two penalties).
Next week's match: the first play-off; don't know who's playing yet, but my guess would be Queen's vs Bristol next week and then Warwick vs U.C.L. the week after.
Mastermind’s second semi-final was
opened by Phil Nowek, who was answering on Blackadder; a very good round only
slightly marred when he got the final question wrong, he scored 11. He was
followed into the chair by Claire Reynolds, a high scoring runner-up called in
as Mike Noyes has sadly had to withdraw; she was answering on Joseph
Chamberlain, and, after a couple of early mistakes, recovered well to score 10.
Next up was Rashmi Bhardwaj, who was answering on Gregory Peck; she didn’t fare
as well unfortunately, scoring 6. Finally, Lewis Jones was answering on the
Legend of Zelda video games; after a strong start, he too fell off the pace,
though I thought Clive M was a bit harsh to disallow one of his later answers, and
scored 4.
It looked like a two horse race
going into GK, but lets not forget how Lewis rescued himself big time with a
great GK round in his heat; he needed another here, and another we got, scoring
a great 15 for a fine total of 19. Rashmi couldn’t come close to matching it, falling
just short of doubling her score, 5 for a total of 11. Claire was next, and
started well, then faltered slightly as he approached Lewis’ total, then
recovered and passed it, ultimately equalling Lewis’ 15 for a total of 25. Phil
thus needed to equal that too to win the game; he gave it a go, but then fell
off the pace and didn’t quite catch up, ending up equalling his SS score, 11 for
a decent total of 22.
Which means Claire is through to
the final! That’s the second series in a row now, at least, that a high scoring
runner-up has come back due to a withdrawal and ended up making the final. And
still TPTB will probably insist on carrying on with this format where they have
to rely on withdrawals to make it through. Still, well done her, and best of
luck in the final! And thanks to the others for taking part.
And that's another week done! Quite a few mistakes I made with my new laptop keyboard, but I think I spotted and corrected them all. As I said before, only five more shows to go for each blog, but, as I said before, I suspect we may be getting a week's break before the finals of both due to Mayday snooker. But we shall have to wait and see. In the meantime, thanks as ever for reading, and see yous again, same time same place, next week...