Evening all. Here we are at the penultimate first round match; with Glasgow and Southampton already in the play-offs, tonight's losers would need to score 130 to go joint third with St Peter's, while 135 or more would definitely bring them back.
Queen Mary is a college of the University of London, which it joined in 1915 having been founded in 1887. Alumni include Labour peer Robert Winston, novelist JG Ballard, music man Pete Doherty and the voice of University Challenge Roger Tilling. It last sent a team to the show three years ago, when they lost to Jesus College Oxford in the first round. This year's foursome were:
Kate Lynes, from Nottingham, studying Sphincter Preservation
Stephanie Howard-Smith, from Bishop's Stortford in Hertfordshire, studying English working on the lap dog in the 18th century
Captain: Verity Williams, from Eastbourne, studying Medicine
Yolanda Lovelady, studying Medical Genetics
Nuffield College Oxford, appearing on the BBC series for the first time, was founded in 1937, and is a postgrads only college, specialising in social sciences. Alumni include Bank of England governor Mark Carney. The first BBC Nuffield UC team were:
Spencer Smith, from Holland, Michigan, studying Economics
Alexander Sayer Gard-Murray, from Los Angeles, studying Politics
Captain: Mathias Ormestad Frendem, from Oslo, studying International Relations
Daniel Kaliski, from Cape Town, studying Economics
Off we set again then, and the all female Queen Mary kicked off first courtesy of Miss Lynes, taking the first starter, and two bonuses on first lines of novels. A second starter went to the London side, and all three bonuses followed this time. Nuffield kicked off with their first starter, but they only took one bonus on types of rain. The first picture round, on the names of novels written in the International Phonetic Alphabet, went to Nuffield, who took all three bonuses, but still trailed 45-40.
The Oxonians took the lead with the next starter, and took two bonuses from the resultant set. Queen Mary fought back with the next starter, and took all three bonuses on events of the Noughties. They thus retook the lead, and increased it by taking the next starter, and two bonuses. The teams were about even on the buzzer at the moment, but the London side's better bonus rate was proving decisive.
The music starter saw the sides mistake Nina Simone for Rufus Wainwright and Stevie Wonder! The bonuses, on songs associated with recording technology milestones, went to Nuffield after a replacement starter; they took one bonus, reducing the deficit to 90-75. It increased when they lost five on the next starter, and Queen Mary took the points. But Nuffield weren't going to take it lying down, and took the next starter, though just one bonus followed again.
The second picture round, on paintings by French artists depicting the outskirts of Paris, went to Nuffield, who took a much needed full bonus set, and thus leveled the scores 110-each, setting up a sprint finish. It was then Queen Mary's turn to lose five, and hand their opponents the points. A third starter in a row went to the Oxford side, and one bonus on volcanoes fell their way.
Queen Mary weren't finished yet though; they took the next starter, but unluckily ran into a bonus set on computer languages, which they missed all of. Paxo was a bit lenient on the next starter, giving Mr Kaliski the points for giving the right surname but wrong forename. He's denied similar mistakes before. Nonetheless, the Oxonians took two bonuses from the set, and that was game over. Queen Mary took one final starter, and took the one bonus they needed to get onto the play-off board, but couldn't get one more to guarantee a return. At the gong, Nuffield won 165-130.
A pretty good match that could have gone either way until the final minutes. Unlucky Queen Mary, but a very decent effort, and I suspect, should it come down to it, they will get priority over St Peter's in the event of a tie on the play-off board; either way, hopefully we'll see them again. Well done to Nuffield though on a decent first showing, and we'll see them again in the next round!
Mr Gard-Murray was the best buzzer of the night, with five starters to his name, while Miss Lynes, Miss Howard-Smith and Miss Williams were joint best for Queen Mary with two each. On the bonuses, Queen Mary converted a decent 13 out of 21, while Nuffield managed 16 out of 27, and both sides incurred one penalty.
Next week's match: St John's College Oxford vs Bristol
Only Connect has now reached the qualification stage of the first round; I'll go into it in more detail either tomorrow or Wednesday.
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