University Challenge 2015-16: First Round Review

Well, we've reached the end of the first round of this year's series. It's been a low key series so far, with only a handful of notable moments, of which surely the biggest is Manchester's first round defeat. The fourteen teams through to the second round are, in order of qualification, and listed with score and victory margin:

• Peterhouse Cambridge (185, 30)
• Liverpool (205, 75)
• Newcastle (160, 45)
• York (265, 175)
• Nottingham (135, 15)
• St George's College London (190, 120)
• Christ's College Cambridge (205, 145)
• Queen's University Belfast (195, 70)
• Sidney Sussex College Cambridge (195, 135)
• Imperial (285, 175)
• St Catharine's College Cambridge (165, 30)
• Warwick (195, 95)
• Nuffield College Oxford (165, 35)
• St John's College Oxford (255, 130)

So, those are the raw figures. As we know, they only tell half the story. What else can we say?

Well, Imperial had the highest score of the round, York the second highest and St John's the third highest. All three achieved their scores against decent opposition as well. They therefore will probably be fancied to progress to the group stage, provided they avoid each other.

The rest of the teams are pretty closely bunched up together, making it hard to pull them apart. I suppose Peterhouse and Liverpool, who took out repechage teams, and Queen's, whose opponents only just missed it, may stand out somewhat.

The lesser lights of the first round may well have some surprises up their collective sleeves; we've come accustomed to that recently. Newcastle, in particular, I suspect could well have some more to show us, given their impressive bonus rate in their match.

We'll also have to keep an eye on the teams who won by comfortable margins. In particular, Christ's, St George's and Sidney Sussex. It remains to be seen whether they truly won their matches, or whether their opponents lost them.

I suppose, as usual, we'll have to wait and see what we get thrown up.

We also have to look over the repechage. The four teams are:

• Glasgow (155, 30)
• Southampton (135, 30)
• Queen Mary London (130, 35)
• St Peter's College Oxford (130, 75)

So, what can these four do? Well, all have proven themselves sturdy opposition for decent winning teams. It depends who they face, and how they play against them. My best guess is Glasgow will play St Peter's, and Southampton Queen Mary. But we'll have to wait and see, again, I suppose.

The second round often produces some good tense matches due to the sudden death nature of it. So lets hope this series picks up the pace and we can look forward to the next round with some optimism.

I'll be back tomorrow with my look over last night's OC.