The Third Degree: Week 6: Leeds

So, here we go with the final Third Degree of the series. The show was coming from the University of Leeds, founded in 1904. Steve Punt remarked about the universities fondness in giving out honorary degrees.

On to the teams. Playing for the Students were:
Ralph Burden, studying Civil Engineering
Harry Bedford, studying Popular Music
Cameron Smith, studying Psychology

And on the Dons' side were:
Prof. Phil Parnell (Civil Engineering)
Dr. Simon Warner (Popular Music)
Dr. Catriona Morrison (Psychology)

And off we went. General knowledge swappy questions first. Both teams gave a good showing here, with only one question being passed over to the other team. An interesting question posed a really long web address, which turned out to be that of the first ever website on the WWW. After the strong first round for both sides, the Students led 8-6.

As usual, we then moved on to the first specialist round, on Civil Engineering. On one question, Prof Parnell complained that it was more about Architecture than Civil Engineering! He still got it right, though. Lists next. The Dons were giving 'People on the cover of the Sgt Pepper Beatle's Album', apart from the Beatles themselves; they managed five. The Students were given 'Shakespeare titles that are not character's names, or groups of names'; after an initial spurt of momentum, they then slowed down somewhat, and managed six.

This gave the Students a lead of 18-17 going into Specialist Round No. 2, on popular music. The inclusion of music excerpts meant this round went on slightly longer than most. On to Highbrow-Lowbrow, which is always good fun; of the six players, four chose to go for the question that would get them two points. Highlight of the round was a question about the possible ways that a Sim can die in the games!

The Students now led by 26-22. The final specialist round, on psychology, saw only one question answered correctly. This meant the Students has a two-point lead going into the final quickfire buzzer round. The questions were rather evenly split in this round, with both teams scoring well. But the Dons couldn't quite close the gap, and the Students won by 29-27.

Like most of the rest of the series, both sides gave a good account of themselves, and neither should be disappointed with their performance.

Well, that's it from the Third Degree for now. Next Monday sees the return of the music quiz Counterpoint. Though I haven't decided yet, I may decide to do weekly reviews of that, just so I have something to write about on here until UC comes back.