Evening all, from Ayrshire. Didn't have to wait until Friday to cover tonight's show due to a change of plan which I won't go into. Tonight's match was a London derby, which he we haven't seen many of in recent years, so it would be interesting one way or another.
The London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine was founded in 1899, and is currently situated in Bloomsbury on a site it shares with a mosquito colony. It has sent a team to UC once before, among whom was LAM and JOW reader and future Only Connect champion Michael Wallace, who lost in the first round, but survived to the repechage, only to fall there too. This year's quartet were:
Andy Taylor, from Oxford, studying Tropical Medicine and International Health
Rebecca Glover, from Ottawa in Canada, studying the Control of Infectious Disease
Captain: Sarah Legrand, from London, studying Epidemiology
Anjaneya Bapat, from the Wirral, studying Tropical Medicine and International Health
The London School of Economics was founded in 1894, and joined the University of London in its current form in 1900. Alumni include JFK, Mick Jagger and Ed Milliband MP. It has sent teams sporadically throughout the BBC series, coming second in 1995-96; it last sent a team in 2008-09, who reached the QFs before losing to Manchester. This year's team were:
Peter Sims, from Edmonton in Canada, studying Economic History
Jeffrey Mo, from Calgary in Canada, studying Econometrics and Mathematical Economics
Captain: Jimmy Chen, from Colchester, studying Government and History
Pedro Franco de Campos Pinto, from Brazil, studying Economics
So, off we set, and Ms Legrand got L.S.H.T.M. (not 'London School', as Mr Tilling called them last time they were on) off the mark, getting the first two starters very quickly, and half the bonuses went with them. No bonuses came from their third set, but they made up for that by taking the first picture round, on opera titles written using emoticons (yes, really). They only got one of these bonuses, but it didn't matter, as their lead stood at 75-0.
L.S.E. promptly jumped off the start blocks, but only managed one bonus from their first set. They fared better with their second set, this time taking two. Sarah Legrand bought L.S.H.T.M. back into the game, but took nothing on a complex bonus set on quotes from '30s films and the actors who spoke them. At this stage, only one starter had been dropped, but quite a lot of bonuses had been dropped, thus holding down the scores.
The music starter saw Peter Sims identify the B52s' 'Rock Lobster' (of Family Guy fame) and earn L.S.E. the music bonuses, on pop songs sung in a spoken voice; they didn't take any of these, but had recovered well, closing the gap to 75-45. They took the next starter, and the resultant bonuses closed the gap to just ten points. Sarah Legrand gave L.S.H.T.M. more breathing space by taking the next starter, but they could only manage one bonus on genetics. L.S.E. were hunting them down, closing the gap to five points, and then taking the lead.
Neither side took the second picture starter; the bonuses, on paintings of beach scenes, went to L.S.E., and they now led by 115-90. But L.S.H.T.M. weren't going to let them get away, and took a starter and a full set of bonuses to level the game. Sarah Legrand then took another starter to take them back into the lead, and then took a second in a row; half the bonuses from these two starters followed, and you thought this may have been enough to see them home.
L.S.E. weren't done yet though, and pushed back hard taking the final two starters, but the bonuses just didn't fall their way, and they didn't quite make it. At the gong, L.S.H.T.M. won 150-140.
A low scoring game, but a close one nonetheless. Bad luck to L.S.E., but 140 may be enough for the repechage; like Sussex, it will be borderline, and it would be fair if it bought them back. Well done to L.S.H.T.M on a fair performance, but I feel they may need to play a bit better next time; best of luck to them for that next time!
Sarah Legrand finished the night's best buzzer with an impressive seven starters, while Messrs Sims, Mo and Chen split responsibility for L.S.E. with three each. On the bonuses, L.S.H.T.M. managed 12 out of 27, and L.S.E. 10 out of 25; low rates, but there were no penalties, which is good.
Next week's match: Liverpool vs Sheffield
Also next week, Only Connect begins on BBC2! And it's running for 27 weeks apparently. Suppose we need more of it now it's on BBC2.
I had to watch twice the question about concatenation of the silent letters in "honor," "biscuit," and "pneumonic." I heard the third word as "mnemonic" the first time and wonder if Mr. Chen of LSE did as well. Hard on them if that was the reason they lost.
ReplyDeleteIt WAS "mnemonic" - in which the initial M is silent, hence the answer HUM.
DeleteAh, you are correct. I got mixed up about what the correct answer was on my rewatch, possibly because I was having an awfully hard time figuring out what letter is silent in "biscuit" the first time through. What I was thinking didn't really make any sense at all, given that the silent letter in pneumonic is P, not N. It was...a long day at work? I'll use that excuse.
DeleteQuite a slow match, as ours was, with 20 only starters asked. LSHTM had the outstanding player on the night, but will have to up their bonus conversion rate as you point out.
ReplyDeleteJack - did LSE not only get asked 25 bonuses, they only got one at the buzzer from that set. Bet they wished they had some injury time! Also, it showed what a difficult job captaining is - a couple of times the LSE captain was given the right answer, but went with something different.
Yes they did; realised that afterwards. All sorted now; thanks for pointing it out though.
DeleteI didn't even notice that Tilling called them LSHTM rather than London School. Quite impressed - when he appeared on set for our first show he did a few practice runs as LSHTM before deciding he couldn't get his tongue around it quickly enough. Guess he's upped his game since then!
ReplyDelete