Evening all. Weaver's Week may be stopping posting full UC reviews (for now), but I'll keep going with my prompt write-ups for the foreseeable future. The second play-off tonight, with the winners taking the final place in the second round. Only ten points between tonight's teams' losing scores, but they were achieved under very different circumstances.
Manchester lost the first match of the series to Selwyn College Cambridge 190-160, despite leading much of the way through. Manchester teams have, in recent years, tended to start poorly/averagely and then kick into gear second time out; the more fancied of tonight's teams, therefore, were the same four as before:
Edmund Chapman, from Norwich, studying Literature and Translation
Matthew Stallard, from Wolverhampton, studying American Studies
Captain: John Ratcliffe, from Manchester, studying Chemical Engineering
Charlie Rowlands, from Albrighton in Shropshire, studying Genetics and Chinese
Sussex lost their first match to St Peter's College Oxford 205-150, and were on the end of some minor controversies en route, including the now infamous 'chemical elements' debacle. Hoping for better things tonight were the also unchanged foursome of:
Tom Whitehurst, from Rhyl in North Wales, studying Cognitive Neuroscience
David Spence, from Leicester, studying Scientific Computation
Captain: Joss MacDonald, from Romsey in Hampshire, studying History and Politics
Matthew Dean, from Birmingham, studying Philosophy
Off we set again then, and Manchester began quicker, Matthew Stallard taking the first starter, John Ratcliffe the second, and three bonuses followed. Neither side took the third starter, and the fourth starter saw Manchester slip-up, and allow Sussex to get off the starting block. The first picture round, on football terms in foreign languages, went to the Mancunians, and they had opened up a lead of 55-20.
The next starter saw Joss MacDonald rather nervously offer 'sex' when asked to complete a quote with a three letter word, and get a cheeky remark from Paxo for his troubles! The side took none of the bonuses, but Matthew Dean promptly took the next starter to bring them one full bonus set away from leveling the game; they took one, unluckily missing another. A third starter saw Sussex level the score; they had got more starters, but Manchester had tallied more bonuses.
The music round saw Tom Whitehurst identify David Hasselhoff (cue another cheeky Paxo-ism!); the bonuses, on top selling hits in West Germany in 1989, saw Sussex open a lead of 75-55. Now, though, up soared Manchester, with Messrs Stallard and Chapman both luckily guessing starters, John Ratcliffe taking another, and a good haul of bonuses coming in. The sides were pretty much level on starters now, but Manchester's much better bonus rate was starting to show.
The second picture starter saw all four Mancunians go for their buzzers to identify a Seurat painting; Charlie Rowlands got their first. The bonuses, on works by Frenchman featured in the film Ferris Bueller's Day Off, allowed the Mancunians to raise their lead to 140-75. Sussex broke back into the game with the next starter, taking two bonuses to just about keep the gap closeable. When Mr Rowlands took the next starter, though, you began to wonder if that would be enough to see Manchester safely home.
This seemed to be confirmed when Matthew Stallard pulled off a second lucky guess of the night on the next starter, and the side took all three bonuses. Sussex had a chance to sneak back in with the next starter, but couldn't take it. The remaining starters went to Manchester, and the gong cut them off just before they could answer the first bonus from the final set. Manchester won the game 210-95.
A pretty average match overall. Paxo was maybe a bit harsh to say Sussex never really hit their stride; they were very much in it for the first half, but faded somewhat in the second. Well done to them anyway on two respectable performances. Well done to Manchester though, who, as most of us expected, take the final place in the second round; best of luck to them there.
Matthew Stallard was the best buzzer of the night, getting four starters, while Tom Whitehurst was best for Sussex with three. On the bonuses, Manchester converted a very good 21 out of 31 (with one penalties), while Sussex could only manage 7 out of 18.
Next week: the second round begins! No official word on the draw, but it has been tweeted that Leicester play Trinity.
Only Connect continued as well tonight, with, rather appropriately, Manchester UC coach Stephen Pearson and his colleagues playing their survival match; no spoilers, as per usual.
This match reminded me of our repechage fixture from last year, in that the two teams started out pretty evenly, but one of them always looked slightly stronger, although the "slightly stronger" team in both cases lost the lead at one stage, only to power away in the second half. Sussex certainly had Manchester on the run for quite a while, as Loughborough had with us, and I wondered just before halfway if Sussex were actually going to win. But then the starters and bonuses started falling for Manchester, and there was no going back. Well done to them.
ReplyDeleteNice to see a reference to the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, and a mention for Mr Hasselhoff (I'm in the lifesaving club at Southampton, so Hasselhoff is a bit of an antihero for all of us)!
I didn't get a chance to share my thoughts on Sussex's "chemical elements" moment when it was first aired, but I've since rewatched that question; my first impression, as a chemist, was that "which scientific progression" implied the Periodic Table rather than "chemical elements" (which I would consider to be a classification of chemical species, rather than a sequence in itself), but I now agree that the question was ambiguous, and shouldn't have made it into the show. Paxo certainly shouldn't have allowed St Peter's to have the equally dubious answer "V" later on in that game.