Evening all. Sorry for the slight delay this evening; something went wrong with my digibox half way through the show, so I've had to use the iPlayer instead, which will mean a shorter than usual review this week I'm afraid. I'll try to give as much detail as a I can though.
Trinity College Cambridge was founded during Henry VIII's reign following the merger of two 14th century institutions. Alumni include Sir Isaac Newton, Lord Byron and Sean Blanchflower, owner of the unofficial UC stat site and part of the team that won UC in 1995. They also won in 1974, and, of course, last year, under the watchful eye of our friend Filip Drnovsek Zorko, aka opaltiger. This year's quartet were:
Matthew Willetts, from London, studying Physics
Claire Hall, from Greenwich in London, studying Classics
Captain: Hugh Bennett, from London, studying Chemistry
Aled Walker, from Birmingham, studying Maths
St Andrews University is the oldest university in Scotland, founded in 1413. Alumni include Wills and Kate, Sir Chris Hoy, and some chap called Alex Salmond, whoever he is. It last sent a team to UC two series ago, where they lost a low scoring first round match to our old friends Bangor. Tonight's team had, pleasingly, come in their red gowns; they were:
Lewis Fairfax, from Cramlington in Northumberland, studying French and Russian
Will Kew, from Aboyne in Aberdeenshire, studying Chemistry
Captain: Jamie Perriam, from Edinburgh, studying English
James Adams, from Linlithgow, studying Physics
Off we set then; Trinity were first off the mark, but only took one bonus. St Andrews followed, but they took no bonuses, and then lost half their points due to a slip up. Trinity came back in, and again just took one bonus. The first picture round, on US cities and their major sporting teams, went to St Andrews, but they still trailed 30-20.
St Andrews then took two starters in a row, which was enough to bring them into the lead despite not getting much from the bonuses. They managed to eke slightly into the lead, but Trinity fought back, and, after getting two bonuses, took the lead back again. Neither side seemed to be doing very well on the bonuses at this stage, and starters were being dropped too, hence rather low scores.
The music round asked for the literary figure that inspired the artist to write the track played; neither side knew it was JG Ballard, and a guess of Philip Larkin from Trinity caused much laughter! Three starters were dropped before St Andrews took the bonuses, on more songs inspired by Ballard's work. They now led 65-50, but neither side really had much in the way of momentum at the moment, both sides generally getting no more than two bonuses per set.
The second picture round, on paintings by French artists from the late 19th century, went to Trinity, but no bonuses meant they still trailed 85-75. Now, though, the Cambridge side began a late sprint on the buzzer, and the bonuses finally fell for them, as they took a full set to break three figures. St Andrews got back into the game, and they too made it to three figures.
But when Matthew Willetts identified the tulip, that was probably game over. A slip up from St Andrews seemed to confirm this, and Trinity taking the starter did confirm it. At the gong, Trinity won 150-100.
A rather slow match throughout really. Bad luck to St Andrews, who did lead for a large part of the match, but well done to them anyway. Well done Trinity, but I feel they'll need to play better next time if they're going to make the QFs; we'll see how they fare.
Matthew Willetts was Trinity's best buzzer, with four starters, while Lewis Fairfax, likewise, got four for St Andrews. On the bonuses, Trinity converted 12 out of 25, and St Andrews 8 out of 21 (with two penalties). A low scoring week, and a large number of dropped starters didn't help matters.
Next week's match: U.C.L. vs Exeter
Only Connect continued on it's way tonight with a team of QI researchers or 'Elves' participating! For a good review of the match, may I recommend 'Cheaper than a Ferrari', a blog run by Stuart Hern who captained the Welsh Learners in the last series of OC.
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