University Challenge: Round 2: Match 1: Pembroke vs Bath

So, the second round kicked off tonight, with an expected result, though maybe not on an expected scale.

Pembroke College Cambridge were the definite favourites for tonight’s show, having won their first match 200-140, and done so against Lancaster, a team good enough to survive to the repechage and go through to Round 2 as well. The time were unchanged from before:

Robert Scanes, from North London, studying Natural Sciences

Emily Maw, from Oxford, studying Maths

Captain: Tom Foxall, from Birmingham, studying Classics

Jemima Hodkinson, from Portsmouth, studying Natural Sciences

Bath has a much closer first round match against Liverpool, winning by a rather low scoring 125-110. Therefore, they’d need to raise their game a bit if they were to win here. They were also unchanged:

Joe Kendall, from Bristol, studying Economics and International Development

Adam Salvesen, from Oxford, studying Biology

Captain: Matthew Wise, from Surrey, studying the Modern Applications of Mathematics

Toby Smith, from Clitheroe in Lancashire, studying Physics

To be fair to Bath, the match did start off close, with the sides swapping starters early on, and the sides being tied at 50 all shortly after the first picture round, on film taglines in foreign languages; Pembroke had an unlucky miss, answering ‘Jaws’ when the answer was ‘Jaws 2’! (Reminds me of when Fathers Ted and Dougal were playing charades; Ted does ‘Jaws’, but Dougal guesses ‘Jaws 2’)

By the music round, Pembroke had built up a head of steam, and had shut Bath out for a while. The rather complex audio round was on B sides that later became better known than their A sides; the A side was played, and the better known B side was what was required. Amazingly, Pembroke managed two of these, bringing the scores to 105-50.

Throughout the third quarter, Pembroke continued their surge on the buzzers, shutting Bath out of the contest. By the second picture round, Pembroke were ahead by 165-50, and surely were home and dry. Joe Kendall valiantly tried to buzz his side back into the match, but misbuzzed and lost his side five much needed points.

However, Mr Kendall did make up for the earlier error and finally got his side into the game again. Sure, they were too late to catch Pembroke, who were now almost 200 points ahead, but could they at least reach respectability? Just about: Toby Smith answered the final starter question of the match, but the gong went before they could attempt the bonuses. Pembroke won by a stonking great margin of 255-75, the biggest win of the series so far.

To be fair to Bath, they weren’t an overly terrible team; but, as we saw in their first match, they needed to rely mainly on buzzer strength, and against a team like Pembroke, that was always going to be a problem. That said, all four of their players got at least one starter correct, which is respectable; Toby Smith got two, and the side managed 6 bonuses out of 13 with the one penalty. Pembroke captain Tom Foxall answered a magnificent ten(!) starters, just one behind Simon Dennis’ series record of eleven; the side answered 23 bonuses out of 42.

Next week’s match: York vs New College Oxford

Only Connect was much closer tonight, with only two points separating the teams at the end of the match. Both were fine teams, and it’s a shame they only met each other in the quarters; neither deserved to go out really.