Happy New Year all. You join me here with my first post of the year: a summary of this week's Christmas University Challenge.
Monday 31st: Exeter vs Glasgow
Result: Glasgow win, 165-125.
Participants I had already heard of: The two captains, John O'Farrell for Exeter, and Neil Oliver for Glasgow, and also Susan Calman.
Glasgow were the dominant side here. Exeter miscued on their first buzz, and took a while to recover. Though they did recover late on, Glasgow were too far ahead to be caught, and won the match, scoring enough to return for the semi-finals.
Tuesday 1st: Birmingham vs East Anglia
Result: East Anglia win, 195-115.
Participants I had already heard of: Anna Soubry M.P., for Birmingham, and Charlie Higson and Razia Iqbal for East Anglia.
Very much a match of two halves: Birmingham were the dominant side early on, but East Anglia kept close enough in touch to not let them pull away. And, in the second half, they switched into gear, and began to pull away into a strong lead. They took the victory, and guaranteed themselves a place in the semis.
Monday 2nd: New College vs Liverpool (Semi Final 1)
Result: New College win, 220-125.
A deserved victory for New College, who pulled out a strong lead early on, and didn't let Liverpool back in until they were safe. Liverpool seemed to make a good fight of it, though: Stephen Bayley, the captain, made a habit of buzzing in on bonuses he knew the answer to, and not bothering to confer! Paxo thought this a great joke, so when Mr Bayley did this, and got it wrong, Paxo quipped "wouldn't have happened if you'd conferred"!
Thursday 3rd: Glasgow vs East Anglia (Semi Final 2)
Result: East Anglia win, 150-115.
In contrast to the first semi, this was actually quite a close match, between two evenly matched teams. East Anglia had the advantage midway through, but Glasgow fought back late on, and so nearly pipped them. But a missignal from Glasgow allowed East Anglia to sneak back the momentum, and take the victory.
Friday 4th: New College vs East Anglia (Final)
Result: New College win, 205-110.
No huge upset in the final, this year. New College dominated the early stages of the match, with Mr Patrick Gale almost single-handedly racking up their points. Overall, he got (roughly) nine starters correct. East Anglia didn't disgrace themselves though, and managed to pull themselves up to a respectable score, which is all you can really aim to do when you're so far behind.
But well done to New College for a deserved victory.
An enjoyable mini-series overall, even if occasionally wearying. No former UC contestants this year, which is perhaps fair, as they seemed to be doing most of the work in last year's series.
The regular series resumes on Monday, with Magdalen College Oxford playing Manchester.
New College indeed were very impressive - almost as much as their regular team!
ReplyDeleteThe series returns as said with Magdalen v. Manchester, which should prove to be an interesting match as both teams scored very highly in their first-round matches. Looking forward to it!
Magdalen and Manchester are also the two institutions who've won the series the most times - I bet Paxman will point this out.
ReplyDeleteThere's a reason to this. They both play independent quizbowl, while most UK universities don't.
ReplyDelete