Bangor got off to a slow start, winning a low scoring match over St Andrews, but proved their worth when they shockingly beat Durham in the second round. They then lost to U.C.L., but recovered with a good win over Imperial. The side was the same as the other times before:
Adam Pearce, from Barry in the Vale of
Glamorgan, studying Translation Studies
Mark Stevens, from Widnes in Cheshire,
studying Environmental ScienceCaptain: Nina Grant, from Enfield in London, studying French and Linguistics
Simon Tomlinson, from Manchester, studying Neuropsychology
King's College Cambridge, lest we forget, came through the repechage, losing to St George's, but then beating Homerton. Subsequent showings were a narrow win over Warwick, a loss to New College, and a very narrow win over Pembroke last time around. The team remained:
Curtis Gallant, from North London, studying Classics
Amber Ace, from Perthshire, studying Classics
Captain: Fran Middleton, from Chorleywood in Hertfordshire, studying Classics
James Gratrex, from Leeds, studying Physics
Among the teams were three blog readers: Adam 'Welshguy' Pearce, Nina 'pocketmouse' Grant, and James 'jim360' Gratrex. So, no partiality from me tonight.
The match began slowly, with the first two starters being dropped, before the hitherto impressive Simon Tomlinson got the match going, with two consecutive starters. With the aid of Ms Grant, he helped Bangor to the sort of strong start we've seen them do twice before, against Durham and U.C.L.. By the first picture round, on the Beatus map, Bangor led by 90-0.
At the moment, King's already looked to be in trouble, and a miscue only worsened their problems, and allowed Bangor to pull ahead. (Incidentally, I'm not a fan of the camera flipping back to a team who've miscued after the other team take the points; it's just not an idea I approve of.)
But our man James finally got King's off the mark, and they took one bonus on, what appeared to be, a complete guess! Even the guesses count! The music round, on biblical oratorios, saw the starter dropped, followed by a further three. James eventually got a starter, allowing King's back into the game, but they still trailed by 130-30.
The third phase saw both teams make progress, but neither really managing much of a momentum run. Bangor had an unlucky miss on one bonus, saying Dupon instead of Dupin. The second picture round arrived, on female scientists, saw King's get back into the match courtesy of Curtis Gallant. Bangor's lead now stood at 160-60.
King's would need to get a move on if they wanted to catch up. James G. tried an early buzz on the next starter, but was wrong; Adam P. shot in straight away, but he was wrong too, prompting Paxo to quip that he should've let him finish! Adam soon made up for that with another starter, and Bangor were now home and dry.
A set of physics bonuses reduced the Welsh side to laughter, as they unsuccessfully tried to get something out them! (Adam remarked earlier on that Bangor has no maths or science departments) King's did manage on more starter, and a couple of bonuses followed just in time before the gong. Bangor had won, by 195-70.
Bad luck James and co, but, as Paxo said, you've done very well throughout the series, especially given the shaky start, and have given us plenty of laughs along the way. And thank you James for your insight as well, which has been fun to read.
But well done Adam, Nina and co on a well deserved victory. I don't think many could've seen you doing this well after your first performace. Well done indeed, and best of luck in the semis!
The stats: Simon Tomlinson continued his impressive series performance, getting seven starters, as the side made 15 bonuses out of 39, with two penalties. Our man James and Curtis Gallant got two each for King's, and the side managed 7 bonuses out of 14, with three penalties.
Next week: the semi-final finally begin, with U.C.L. vs New College. Now, that should be a good match!
A review of today's Third Degree will hopefully be up by the end of the week.
This was a great match, from our perspective of course! Commiserations to King's; I've really enjoyed watching your progress even though I knew we would eventually have to meet...
ReplyDeleteFor the record, Bangor has many of science departments. In fact, I'd say that 2/3 - 3/4 of Bangor students are scientists, in Biology, Chemistry, Marine Bioligy, Biomedicine, Psychology (if that counts as a science) etc. - what we don't have is Maths or *Phsyics*.
Ah, OK Adam. Thanks for clarifying that. And best of luck in the semis!
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ReplyDeleteOuch.
I've had a year to think of excuses, but there's no need for them really. Bangor, and particularly Tomlinson, were on fire that night and anyway for the first half at least I knew maybe one starter... and that was the Coliseum. Oh well.
There was moments of frustration throughout this, from all sorts. Being beaten didn't help, not knowing much didn't help either. That ball "travelling upwards at 10m/s" question was gettable, and indeed the right formula came to me almost immediately, but for the weirdest of reasons I couldn't do anything with it! Basically I remembered a version where "s" was being used to represent speed but I was used to s meaning distance, so I was trying desperately to figure out what was going wrong, which is not easy without pen and paper. The final nail in the coffin of a rotten match was listening to the hilarious answers for that question on Harmonic Motion. Bread-and-butter, 15 points, and the other team had it and didn't have a clue. Sigh... the way the questions fall can be so annoyingly cruel.
St. George's came to see that match after their own loss, and we both went out to heal our wounds afterwards. Not much alcohol for me, but I did get to enjoy a lovely dinner and sample some very pleasant champers.
On the plus side, I finally am able to watch a match this series where I don't know the outcome. Never did get to see the semis or final so am in the dark. Lots to look forward to, though a bit surprised by the draw. I was expecting the winners of 2/2 QF matches to avoid each other, but perhaps because Bangor and Manchester had both lost to UCL earlier the organisers wanted to avoid them playing UCL again so quickly. Still, at least I can enjoy a UCL v. New College match. Since New College seem to rely heavily on Cappleman I'd expect UCL to win unless Cappers has a stunner of a match, since they seem to have more strength in depth.
All credit go to Bangor though, who in all honesty thrashed us and deservedly so. Better team by far on the night. I wish them all the best in the semis, particularly as they are facing Manchester. Would be nice to see another team win it for a chance than a London/ Oxbridge college or Manchester. Good luck Bangor!
Bad luck James, but you've been a great team to watch this series, and played in four of the standout matches of the series so far IMO. And thank you once again for your input and insight; it's been fun to read.
DeleteTwo, perhaps - the ones against Warwick and Pembroke were crackers, and for most of the first round perhaps our clash against St.G's was pretty close all the way through.
DeleteOne of my standouts has to be Bangor's fine win over Durham. I've known that we going to lose to Bangor for a while, but seeing them get that one in a high-scoring and exciting, close match made me feel less bad about it when it came.
Other favourites include Simon Dennis v. the other team in UCL's first round. I hope that the next three matches will be able to trump these all.
Watching it again, this felt like a pretty lucky match. We watched this in the pub with lots of people who'd watched our other matches, yet this time more than ever before people seemed to be amazed at the random crap we happened to know. Not sure if you remember James but even Paxman seemed impressed by our 4/4 performance on the Mappa questions, though his reaction wasn't broadcast (he asked whether we'd seen it before, I said that I had, though actually it wasn't this particular mappa mundi). But yeah, a lot of the questions we (or rather, the others - this wasn't exactly a great performance for me!) just knew - the opposite of our disappointing first match. I guess sometimes the questions just fall your way or not.
ReplyDeleteYes, that mappa mundi question. As soon as the Nile was identified I got what the map was and could have got the bonuses. I was thinking Seine or Thames maybe. Anyway a very useful 25 points for you - but even if we'd got that one or one or two others you'd still have won, so not really luck. I hope things fall your way in the next match too!
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