Evening all. Another second round fixture tonight, and, as I predicted last week, one of the repechage teams reappeared. Against a team from early in the first round. This furthers my theory that TPTB have a system for the second round draw based on filming schedules.
Glasgow lost the first match of the series to Peterhouse Cambridge 185-155, but survived to the repechage, where they beat St Peter's College Oxford 180-120 in a match memorable for some howlers from their opponents! They were the same four as before:
Andrew Davidson, from Stranraer, studying Medicine
Vitali Brejevs, from Riga, studying Maths
Captain: Evelyn McMenamin, from North London, studying Geography
Ollie Allen, from Catford in London, studying Maths
Newcastle defeated Kent 160-115 in their first match back in late July, winning the match based on a far more impressive bonus conversion rate than their opponents. I reckoned on that performance they could be one to watch. They too were the same as before:
Alexander Kirkman, from Guildford, studying Biomedical Sciences
Nick Smith, from Chorley in Lancashire, studying Medicine
Captain: Tony Richardson, from County Durham, studying International Politics
Kate Bennett, from Chichester, studying Film Theory and Practice
Off we set again then, and Mr Richardson got Newcastle off the mark first, and the sides took two bonuses on the Sherlock Holmes novels of Dr Doyle. Miss McMenamin had a bit of a howler on the second starter, buzzing early, giving a wrong answer, then realising she was wrong and saying the right answer aloud! The question had to be scrapped. Mr Brejevs made up for it by taking the next starter and two bonuses followed. A second starter for Mr Richardson followed, and a full set of bonuses on 80s movies followed. The first picture round, on plots of probability distribution (me neither), went to Newcastle after the starter was dropped; no bonuses followed, but they still led 55-15.
Newcastle maintained their better buzzer showing by taking the next starter, but just one bonus from a tricky set followed. Another mistake from Miss McMenamin allowed Miss Bennett to take more points for the Tynesiders; just one bonus followed, but it mattered not as long as they kept acing the buzzer race. Miss McMenamin made up for her earlier errors by identifying the Aberdeenshire town of Braemar for the next starter, but just one bonus from a gettable set on Mary Queen of Scots followed.
The music starter was dropped; the bonuses, on weddings in operas, went to Newcastle; the old trick of saying the same answer (Puccini) for every bonus gave them one correct answer, and increased their lead to 100-30. Five points went from that lead when Mr Richardson unluckily slipped up, but Glasgow couldn't pick the points up. Mr Brejevs took the next starter though, though just one bonus followed. A second starter in a row went to Mr Brejevs, and two bonuses followed, cutting the gap to 30 points. Mr Richardson gave Newcastle more space to breathe with the next starter, though just the one bonus followed again.
The second picture round, on figures whose work inspired the US Founding Fathers, went to Newcastle, who took two bonuses and thus upped their lead to 130-65. Not quite out of reach yet, and Mr Brejevs kept his side in the game by taking the next starter and two bonuses on chemical elements. Mr Kirkman pulled Newcastle further ahead, and two bonuses on the Swiss resort of Davos put them in the driving seat, meaning Glasgow would have to run the show from now on to stand any chance.
Mr Brejevs took the next starter, and a full bonus set on Homer's Odyssey kept them within touching distance. Two starters in a row were then dropped (one of which I knew thanks to last year's Apprentice) before Miss Bennett took a crucial starter for Newcastle; a full set on Norwegian cities followed, gave them a 65 point lead, and that was game over. Glasgow did manage one more starter, and went out with a flourish with a full bonus set of their own. The final two starters were dropped, and that was the gong. Newcastle won 175-135.
One of the better matches of the series so far. Unlucky Glasgow, who were a very capable team, and have nothing at all to be ashamed of, so well done them. Very well done to Newcastle though; another decent performance, and best of luck to them in the QFs!
Messrs Brejevs and Richardson were joint best buzzer of the match, with six starters each for their respective teams. On the bonuses, Glasgow converted a pretty good 14 out of 21, while Newcastle managed a respectable 16 out of 30, and both sides incurred one penalty each.
Next week's match: don't know, but St John's vs Southampton is my best guess
Only Connect soldiered on with its play-off phase; just two more matches before the knockout stage now. I'll get onto that later in the week, as well as carrying on with my DoND retrospective.
I can all but confirm your "filming schedules" theory. In our series, Round 1 was filmed over a four-day period, and in the final filming block of Day Four, they shot the first two matches from Round 2. This must be why the teams featuring in these first two matches every year are victors from late Round 1 games - they're definitely around in Salford on Day Three at least, and it's easy for the producers to ask them to stick around for another day if they get through to R2. The very strong York team in our year thus drew the short straw by winning their R1 match immediately before eventual runners-up Somerville, Oxford won theirs!
ReplyDelete(If you watch our repechage match against Loughborough, and then the Somerville-York and Downing-Queen's matches that followed it, you may notice some stylistic differences in the cinematography and staging. That's because we filmed the repechage in MediaCity more than a month after those first two R2 games were recorded in Granada Studios! The rest of R2 in our year was recorded in MediaCity, and Downing-Queen's was the last programme ever to be produced at Granada. So those teams were either very lucky or incredibly unfortunate with their filming schedules, depending on how you look at it, and everyone who's been in their position in subsequent years has just been incredibly unfortunate!)
I presume they also like to bring back the repechage survivors in matches 3-4 of R2 by a similar line of logic - we're definitely available to return to the studios ASAP on the day after the repechage.
As for next week's match (which coincides with Doctor Who's 52nd anniversary) - you're correct to guess that we'll be playing, but our opponents will not be St John's, although I can see where that prediction came from! I will say no more for now.
That's good to know. I know it's done for convenience purposes but it can lead to good teams getting a tough draw too early, as in the example you gave us.
DeleteGood to hear from you again; hope all is well.