University Challenge 2014-15: Round 2: Match 2: Durham vs York

Evening all. You may have noticed I openly stated on LAM on Saturday my views that the sudden death second round phase needs fixing, as it often means strong teams can be sent home early just due to either an off-day and/or an on-day for their opponents, or simply due to getting unluckily drawn against another strong team. I will talk about this more another time; we have a show to get on with.

Durham defeated Brasenose College Oxford 250-35 in one of the stand out matches of the first round, though probably not for the right reasons. We would have to see how the unchanged team fared against better opponents; they were still:
Daniel Morgan-Thomas, from East London, studying History and Classics
Freddie Lloyd, from Penshurst in Kent, studying Philosophy
Captain: Fred Harvey, from Bridlington in East Yorkshire, studying Physics
Nikul Boyd-Shah, from Bournemouth, studying Law

York defeated Corpus Christi College Cambridge 170-135 the following week, in a much closer match notable for some rather unusual penalties which (may have) foreshadowed what (allegedly) happened to poor Pembroke the following week. The York team were also the same as before:
Jack Alexander, from Hertford, studying Maths
Adam Koper, from Pwllheli in North Wales, studying Politics
Captain: Alistair Middleton, from Penrith in Cumbria, studying Maths
Joe Crowther, from Churchdown in Gloucestershire, studying Maths and Philosophy

Off we set again then, with several players going for their buzzer when asked for the series of books written by Terry Deary; Daniel Morgan-Thomas got there first with Horrible Histories. Both sides were steady on buzzer and bonuses at first, both generally taking two bonuses per set. The first picture round, on crests of European football clubs whose names are taken from Greek myth, went to York, who took all three bonuses, but it was Durham who led 60-45.

The sides continued to swap starters, with Durham's slightly quicker hand early on proving the difference. Both Durham and I guessed Harold Lloyd for a Hollywood actor 'unbound by the laws of gravity', but it was actually Fred Astaire. Durham then ran into a set of bonuses requiring them to spell out the names of European capitals using chemical element symbols; one asked for the capital of Albania, which they didn't even know! Both sides were doing nicely at this stage, but Durham remained ahead.

Pachelbel's Canon was the music starter, which Fred Harvey identified; the bonuses, on pop songs that, deliberately of accidentally, use a similar melody to it, allowed Durham to A) open their lead to 110-65, and B) rile Paxo with a guess of Chumbawumba! A slip-up then allowed York to sneak back into the game, and they took all three bonuses to cut the gap to 15. Durham responded with a starter and full bonus set of their own. York cut back in, and going into the final third, the gap remained closeable.

The second picture round, on TV/film characters and their alma-maters, went to York, who very swiftly took all three bonuses, much to Paxo's amused amazement! They had now snuck into the lead 135-130. But Durham soon sorted that out, reclaiming the lead with the next starter, and then taking a second in a row to give them more breathing space. York fought back, taking a starter and two bonuses to reduce the gap to ten, and set up a potentially close final stretch.

A second starter to York wiped out the gap completely, but they couldn't get any of their bonuses to get the lead back. York then slipped up on the next starter, and Durham happily pounced and opened up their lead again. And when Mr Morgan-Thomas took the next starter, that looked like it would suffice. The side took the final starter just to make sure; at the gong, Durham won a good match 210-160.

A good match well played all round. Bad luck to York, but, as Paxo rightly said, they were a strong team, and gave two very good accounts of themselves, so good work them. Well done to Durham though, who have definitely proved they truly won that first match now (rather than Brasenose losing it), and could cause trouble in the QFs; best of luck to them then!

Alistair Middleton was the night's best buzzer with five starters, while Messrs Morgan-Thomas and Boyd-Shah got four each for Durham. On the bonuses, Durham converted a respectable 19 out of 33 and York an impressive 17 out of 24, and both sides incurred one penalty.

Again, if you want to find out who's playing next week, keep an eye on Twitter and UCCrush.

Only Connect resumed normal business tonight, with two good teams neither of whom deserved to go out winless. I'll be mentioning OC again when I look at possible alternative group phase workings later this week.