Evening all. Good to be back to regular service now after the break for Christmas UC. Just two matches left until the ever confusing quarter-final stage now. Whoever won tonight would take the penultimate place in the group stage.
Nottingham narrowly defeated Swansea 135-110 in a low scoring first round match which they won on the buzzer. They certainly went into tonight's match as underdogs, but not total write-offs; we know from experience how unreliable first round form can be. They were the same four as before:
Michael Alexander, from South London, studying Medicine
Ben Scrafield, from Sheffield, studying Chemistry
Captain: Alice Lilly, from Harrogate, studying American Studies
Mark Dennis, from Hucknall in Nottinghamshire, studying Maths
St Catharine's College Cambridge narrowly won out over our old friends Southampton 165-135 in their first match, during which their captain seemed to be single handedly keeping his team in the match by taking all their starters and most of their bonuses on his own. They too were the same four as before:
Calum Watson, from Stirlingshire, studying Maths
Ellie Chan, from Brighton, studying History of Art
Captain: Calum Bungey, from London, studying Chemistry
Alex Cranston, from London, studying Biological Natural Sciences
Off we set again then, and Mr Bungey, whose virtuoso performance in that first round match is one of the best we've seen for a while, took the first starter, and all three bonuses followed. Mr Bungey slipped up on the next starter, though, allowing Nottingham off the mark, and they managed one bonus from their first set. Mr Bungey then took another starter and single handedly answered all the bonuses, getting two right. The first picture round, on novels of Nobel prize winning authors in their original language, went to Nottingham, who swept the board, and leveled the scores at 40-each.
St Catharine's broke the deadlock, with Mr Watson becoming the first player other than Mr Bungey to get a starter for the team this series, and two bonuses followed it. A second starter in a row for Mr Watson and a full set of bonuses on daffodils gave them a substantial lead, and it looked like they might be building up a head of steam. A second successive full set of bonuses, on accidental inventions, seemed to suggest this, before two consecutive dropped starters lowered the tempo somewhat. Mr Bungey restored service by identifying the computer game Minecraft, much to everyone's amusement! His side now had a 90 point lead, and Paxo felt the need to tell Nottingham there was plenty of time left.
The music starter was missed by both sides; the bonuses, on compositions written by composers for plays, went to Nottingham, but they couldn't take any bonuses, and thus trailed 130-50. A second starter in a row went to the Trentsiders, and two bonuses on computer graphics followed. A third starter in a row went Nottingham's way, and you wondered if Paxo's 'encouragement' had set them on a roll to an unlikely comeback. One bonus followed.
The second picture round, on footballers who only played their entire career at one club, went to Nottingham, who took just the one bonus again, but had now cut the deficit to 130-100. Mr Bungey took a much needed starter to give St Catharine's more room to breath, and two bonuses on botany followed. Mr Cranston gave another starter to the Cambridge side, and an excellent set of bonuses on pairs to years with the digits slightly rearranged (such as 1629 and 1926) was cleanly swept up by them, giving them a potentially match winning lead.
Nottingham gave it a good go, though, taking another starter and quickly rushing through their bonuses on literature, taking two. But when Mr Cranston took the next starter, that was most probably game over. Two bonuses on London architecture followed. There was still time for Mr Bungey to take one final starter, and the one bonus they had time to answer. At the gong, St Catharine's won 210-120.
Decent enough match, though with the result most of us would probably have expected. Unlucky Nottingham, who gave a good fight and certainly shouldn't be ashamed of themselves, so well done them. Very well done St Catharine's though on a better performance on both buzzer and bonuses than before, and they could well be dark horses for the QFs; best of luck to them for them!
Mr Bungey was, again, the best buzzer of the night, with six starters this time, while Mr Dennis was Nottingham's best with three. On the bonuses, Nottingham converted 10 out of 21, while St Catharine's managed a superb 23 out of 29 (with one early penalty); excellent stuff that, and we should certainly take them seriously in the group stage.
Next week's match: St John's vs Queen's
Only Connect reached it's semi-final stage tonight, as well as its 200th show, with VCM celebrated by consuming cake during the first round! I'll cover it later in the week once I've caught up with last week's show.
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