Evening all. An interesting match tonight, for me anyway; those who've been following this blog since its inception may recall that one of the very first episodes of UC I covered on this blog was the exact same fixture! In fact, had tonight's episode been shown last week instead, it would've been exactly six years to the day! Shame! Anyway, enough pedantry, on with the show...
Strathclyde University was founded by John Anderson of Glasgow Uni in 1796 as the Anderson Institute, becoming a university in 1964. Alumni include TV pioneer John Logie Baird, explorer David Livingstone, and musician Lauren Mayberry, whose music you may recall appeared on the show last series! As did the uni itself, who lost to Emmanuel in the second round. This year's foursome were:
Billy Hogg, from Paisley, studying Politics
Thomas Callan, from Stirling, studying Mechanical Engineering
Captain: Jack Pollock, from Gourock in Inverclyde, studying Aeromechanical Engineering
Catherine Ember, from Berkshire, studying Optical Medical Imaging
Durham University is the third oldest in England, founded in 1837; like Oxbridge, it operates collegiately, but for different reasons, thus it enters singularly. Alumni include various BBC luminaries, including George Alagiah, Gabby Logan and Jeremy Vine, as well as cricketers Nasser Hussain and Andrew Strauss and Mo Salah lookalike (his words not mine!) Nish Kumar. It has regularly sent teams to UC in the BBC era, winning in 1999-2000. This year's quartet were:
Sian Round, from the Wirral, studying English
Cameron Yule, from London, studying English
Captain: Matthew Toynbee, from Derbyshire, studying Maths
Ben Murray, from Cheshire, studying Chemistry
Off we set again then, and Mr Murray opened the night's scoring for Durham; two bonuses on the work of Daniel (totally not related to Jermain) Defoe gave them two correct answers, and an unlucky near miss on the other. A repeat performance from the Durham right winger was followed by a full house on cricketers, which Mr Yule answered all by himself! He then added a starter to the tally as well, and another two bonuses went with it. After a slip-up set them back, Strathclyde now opened their score thanks to Mr Pollock, and they too took two bonuses. The first picture round, on diagrams of Men's World Cup winning teams' routes to victory, went to Strathclyde, who picked up where Mr Logan and his knowledge of Euro 16 left off last series, with a full house, taking the scores to 65-40.
Already a high scoring show, and it carried on, as Ms Round handed Durham back possession, and two bonuses on modern feminism followed. Mr Toynbee then offered 'arsenic', making sure all four Durham players already had at least one starter answered, and another two bonuses took them, already, into three figures. Mr Murray then added another with 'either and dither', before taking his turn to answer an entire bonus set, on deaths in the Lord of the Rings, all by himself! He then took another starter to boot, and the side answered the same two bonuses correctly as I did. Already, they were looking imperious, and despite Strathclyde's equally good bonus rate, they were up against it.
The music round, on satire in opera, went to Durham, who added another two bonuses, taking their lead to 170-40. And it was only getting larger as Mr Toynbee, quick as a flash, offered 'quartz and quasar', and all three bonuses were taken as well. Mr Yule was next with 'Lady Chatterly's Lover', but finally Durham showed some weakness as they only took one bonus. Strathclyde finally buzzed back in, but only managed to drop back five; Durham couldn't pick up, and neither side took the next starter either. Back to normal service for Durham, as Mr Yule did the honours, and yet another full house, on biographies of Baroness M. Thatcher, took their lead to 200 points.
The second picture round, on works exhibited at the opening of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, went to Durham, who took yet another full house, and now led 260-35. And they were showing no signs of letting up, as Mr Murray took '1930s', and another two bonuses went with it. Finally, Strathclyde got some more points on the board, Mr Hogg doing the honours, and two bonuses on scientific terms ensured they wouldn't be joining the Sub 50 club.
But Durham weren't finished yet, Mr Toynbee offering 'bat' for the next starter, and an umpteenth full bonus set, on fish named after other animals, went with it, taking them past 300. And after another Durham starter, another full house, and they were officially the highest scoring UC team since I started this blog, eclipsing our friend Richard Evans' Southampton side five years ago. And they weren't finished yet, another starter and pair of bonuses putting them one starter away from the first 300+ victory in ages. Mr Yule's offer of 'stamps' gave it to them, but there was no time for bonuses; at the gong, Durham won 360-55.
A truly spectacular one sided match that has broken all sorts of records for this decade; see my Twitter feed for details. Unlucky Strathclyde, just simply outplayed, but the fact that they are on the show at all shows they must be a decent team, and their performance when they did get in backs this up; thanks to them for playing and taking it so well. Very very very very well done to Durham though, and very best of luck in the next round! I for one am looking forward to it.
The stats: Messrs Yule and Murray were joint best buzzers of the night with six each, while Messrs Hogg, Callan and Pollock all answered one each for Strathclyde. On the bonuses, Strathclyde converted a very good 7 out of 9 (with two forgivable penalties), while Durham managed a mind blowing 38 out of 48! I'll just let that speak for itself!
Next week's match: York vs St Edmund Hall Oxford
I felt very sorry for Strathclyde, they were clearly a respectable team, perhaps a bit STEM heavy (I've worked with quite a number of academics from there down the years, as it happens) but might have done well against another set of quizzers. I think it was your good self Jack who pointed out on twitter they wouldn't have got past the audition if they weren't decent.
ReplyDeleteThat said, I must heartily congratulate Durham, that was what good University Challenge looks like to me, team players who spread the load and contribute, and make some superb educated guesses. There was no let up, no foot off the accelerator; probably needed with likes of Golfinos out and about! The conversion rate impresses me even further as they clearly felt no need to prevaricate like some teams do to slow the game, and they clearly pull it off.
I was caught out by 'insulin' and was kicking myself. Will be nice to see Teddy Hall next week.
Well. It hasn’t been a bad run at the top for Southampton – it’s taken almost 5 years for our highest winning score and margin to be surpassed! Very well done, Durham. The numbers speak for themselves, but that’s definitely one of the most impressive performances I’ve ever seen on UC. Our stint has been broken by an extremely deserving quartet (and they broke our 335 on a starter question about “the mole” as defined in chemistry, of all things!).
ReplyDeleteI’d even go so far as to say that Durham’s feat is doubly impressive given that, in the last 5 years or so, the pace of each individual episode has become noticeably slower – Paxo’s speed-reading, among other things, is long gone! I don’t intend that as a criticism of the cast or crew of the show, by any means, but this has definitely made it harder to achieve massive 300+ scores than used to be the case. Whatever happens in the next round and beyond, Durham will always have this storming performance to their name.
I remember dreaming up the phrase “to be Tannenberged” (see 1914’s Battle of Tannenberg for full etymology) shortly before my series was filmed, and tonight’s exchanges have made for a Tannenberging and a half. Will there be more this series? It’s been a great first few weeks (3 losing scores of 150+ already!), and I look forward to more! I’ll hopefully start commenting more regularly on your blog again as well.
One final pointless observation: that final starter, about the Inverted Jenny and other stamps, was essentially identical to one that came up in the written (pre-audition) test that we had to complete in Southampton all those years ago. A fitting coincidence!
One-sided but still entertaining for all that. Feel a bit sorry for Strathclyde, whose bad luck it was to run into what surely must be one of the early favourites now.
ReplyDeleteI don't actually know anyone on the Durham team at all but they look to have a strong all-round team, so I'll be interested to see them in future matches!
There was an interesting thread last week on twitter initiated by Dani Cugini on the subject of Oxbridge college teams (their relative dominance of the show) that touched on intercollegiate teams and UK level student quizzing. I think there was some suggestion last night on twitter that Durham aren't really part of that which I suppose chimes with your commment there Jim! Interesting times anyway.
ReplyDeleteThere's some articles doing the rounds today on the Guardian and others featuring some comment from Rosie McKeown and Hannah Woods for those readers who may be unaware.
Yes, I saw those articles. Fuss over nothing -- not, I hasten to add, by the producers, who are quite reasonably wanting to include a more diverse set of questions (and anyway, isn't that was general knowledge is about?), but by all those people who seem to worry about "PC gone mad", as if they need their daily dose of angry!
DeletePerhaps for some on the Durham team, appearing on University Challenge will be a gateway to other quiz competitions? That's basically how it worked for me anyway: I remember, in my naivety, being surprised that students took part on quizzes other than in UC when I was finally made aware of it!
Excellent performance by Durham. Only 2 (or 3? - would need to rewatch) starters dropped in the match by the two teams. Durham’s 17 starters and 79% bonus conversion rate (impressive given that 2/3 is the level expected of good teams) led to a very high team score of 360 and a 305 point margin of victory. Aggregate of 415 also very impressive, but not quite so notable e.g. last year (2017-18) Merton vs Oxford Brookes had an aggregate of 430, which in turn was the highest since the 2014-15 season. Durham has very good team balance. Didn’t need to be particularly aggressive on the buzzer but esp. Murray was quick at times. I also noted that Durham haven’t (so far) sent teams to e.g. British Student Quiz Championships so I’ll be very interested to see how they fare against strong opposition.
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