Evening all. Here we are with, what appears to be, the final regular UC before Christmas. The usual Christmas University Challenge series begins a week on Sunday, unless I'm mistaken, and a few hints as to the various celebs participating have begun to surface on Twitter over the past few weeks. On with tonight's show, and two teams with similar first round scores, but very different experiences.
St George's of London defeated the Institute of Cancer Research 190-70 in their first round match, but were never really challenged by their (pleasant) opponents, and only converted around half their bonuses. They'd probably need to do somewhat better on both fronts tonight. They were the same four as before:
Alex Costley-White, from London, studying Medicine
Charles Nicholas, from Lewes in East Sussex, studying Medicine
Captain: Tom Burns, from Amersham in Buckinghamshire, studying Medicine
Lucy Studd, from London, studying Medicine
Peterhouse Cambridge won the first match of the series, beating Glasgow 185-155. And we all know what happened to their opponents afterwards. Similar bonus rate to their opponents tonight, but achieved against better Round 1 opposition, making them lukewarm favourites for tonight. They too were the same four as before:
Thomas Langley, from Newcastle, studying Chemistry
Oscar Powell, from York, studying Geological Sciences
Captain: Hannah Woods, from Manchester, studying History
Julian Sutcliffe, from Reading, studying History
Off we set again then, and Peterhouse got off the mark first, with Mr Sutcliffe doing the honours, and two bonuses on the work of Mr Joseph Paxton. A second starter went to the Cambridge side, and two bonuses accompanied it again. St George's kicked off the mark courtesy of Mr Burns (resists temptation to make Simpsons joke!), and they too took two bonuses. That sequence was broken in the next bonus set, when Peterhouse only managed one on acting technique. The first picture round, on civil engineering works of Mr Thomas Telford, went to Peterhouse; one bonus followed, giving them a lead of 70-20.
The Cambridge side's momentum continued, as they took another starter, though, again, just one bonus followed. But as long as they could keep beating their opponents to the buzzer, that didn't matter. Two bonuses accompanied their next starter, before a slip-up pegged them back five, though St George's failed to capitalise. Miss Woods restored her side's momentum with the next starter, and one bonus followed. And at this point, Paxo gave St George's the kiss of death by telling them there was still plenty of time left!
The music starter saw an unlucky miss for St George's, allowing Miss Woods to take her second consecutive starter; the bonuses, on non-anglophone songs that have made the UK Top 10, only gave Peterhouse five more points, but they still comfortably led 130-20. And they weren't finished yet: Mr Sutcliffe took the next starter, and Mr Powell gave us the comedy moment of the night by stating he hated biochemistry! (Paxo pulled him up on this after the gong!) St George's just couldn't gain any traction, with Peterhouse taking yet another starter and two bonuses.
The second picture round, on alleged communist sympathisers from the HJollywood Red Scare, saw St George's finally break back into the match; they took one of the bonuses, reducing the deficit to 160-35. Mr Costley-White gave the Londoners a second starter in a row, and two bonuses on 2001: A Space Odyssey. A third starter in a row went to St George's, and two bonuses on medieval Europe showed they weren't going to give in, though they had perhaps left it a bit too late.
The London side then took a fourth starter in a row, but just one bonus followed this time. And any hopes of a miraculous comeback were put to bed when Mr Langley took the next starter for Peterhouse, and two bonuses on politics followed. St George's took another starter, but no bonuses followed, and they then rather harshly lost five to one of those borderline interruptions. (Luckily, it came too late to have any impact on the match) Peterhouse took the final starter of the match, the first bonus, and that was it. At the gong, Peterhouse won 195-90.
An enjoyable match, even if it was somewhat one sided. Unlucky St George's, who were simply outplayed until the final phase, but nothing to be ashamed of there, so well done and thanks for playing. Well done Peterhouse though; a decent showing, though I feel they'll need to be more consistant with the bonuses next time. Best of luck to them for that next time!
Mr Sutcliffe was the best buzzer of the night, with four to his name, while Mr Costley-White was best of St George's with three. On the bonuses, St George's converted 7 out of 18, while Peterhouse managed 16 out of 34, and both sides incurred one penalty.
So, that's it for this year. No show next week due to an hour long Nigella special. We'll resume in the New Year, and have the Christmas series to keep us going in the mean time. That will start a week on Sunday, and I'll post sporadic updates on it over the break.
Only Connect is on next Monday; it was on tonight as well with the first knockout match, which I'll go over later in the week, as well as finishing my Deal retrospective.
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