Evening all. On to the final preliminary quarter-final tonight, with two teams from London specialist institutions, one of which racked up the highest score of the first round, the other of whom had the second lowest, but proved their worth by beating the scorers of the second highest first round total in the second round. The winners would join a very high quality line-up for the SF qualifier matches.
The Courtauld Institute of Art beat yet another London specialist institution, the LSE, in a low scoring 145-90 first round match, but in their second, they beat the fancied Glasgow side 180-145. They were unchanged from those earlier matches:
Ash Silver, from North London, studying History of Art
Morgan Haigh, from Cardiff, studying History of Art
Captain: Harry Prance, from Winchcombe in Gloucestershire, studying Middle Byzantine Eucharistic Objects
Nancy Collinge, from Blackpool, studying History of Art
Imperial College easily saw off two Oxford teams in the first two rounds, firstly Brasenose by 255-70 in the first round, and then St John's in the second by 255-105, giving them the highest two game total of the quarter-finalists. They too were the same four as before:
Richard Brooks, from Stockton-on-Tees, studying Mechanical Engineering
Brandon, from Jamaica, Queens in New York City, studying Computing
Captain: Caleb Rich, from Lewisham, studying Controlled Quantum Dynamics
Connor McMeel, from Dublin, studying Computer Science
Off we set again then, and a penalty immediately dropped Courtauld into negative equity; Brandon pounced for Imperial, and they opened the scoring with two bonuses on pairs of foodstuffs whose first few letters are the same. Brandon took the second starter as well, quickly identifying Paris as the location of the treaties Paxo was listing, and, again, two bonuses were taken. It was Mr McMeel's turn to quickly get the next starter right, but this time, just one bonus on glass artwork followed. Mr Prance took a punt on the next starter, but hit wide, allowing Mr McMeel a second in a row; Kings of England gave Imperial another two bonuses. The first picture round, on borders that lie on lines of latitude/longitude, went to Imperial; another two correct answers meant they already led 95-(-5).
Courtauld finally moved in the right direction as Mr Haigh identified the artist Gericault, but bonuses on sci fi novels didn't give them any further points. Mr Brooks restored Imperial's 100 point lead as he took the next starter; a full set of bonuses followed, and, already, the match looked over as a contest. Mr Brooks took a second successive starter, but just one bonus on Nobel Prize nominees followed.
The music round, on styles of music listed by UNESCO as part of a South American country's cultural heritage, went to Imperial; two bonuses took their lead to 155-5. And it was just getting bigger, as Mr Rich made sure all four Imperial players had a starter to their name; a full set of bonuses followed. Ms Collinge did the right thing and took a flyer on the next starter, but all she got for her efforts was a sneer from Paxo! Brandon took the points, and two bonuses took their score to 200.
The second picture round, on stills from films that employed non-professional actors, went to Courtauld; a full house of bonuses took the scores to 200-30. Mr Haigh then gave them a second starter in a row, and a second bonus set on film, of which they took two (I got the one they didn't), which lifted them out of the Sub-50 club.
A speculative early buzz then dropped them back into it though; Mr Brooks picked up the points, and one bonus on British trees added to their score. Mr Haigh atoned for his error as he moved Courtauld back above 50, giving them a bonus set on people who have a separate Wikipedia page about their death; they took two correct answers. Both sides guessed a species of monkey for the next starter, but neither got the right one. Mr Brooks took the next for Imperial, and the bonuses on conic sections saw an odd moment as Paxo appeared to accept a loud conferring of a correct answer; they took a full set. The final starter saw Mr Brooks mistakenly offer three countries when just one was needed; Mr Haigh took the points, and the resulting bonuses on French dictionaries saw them try the trick of saying the same thing three times, but this time, it didn't work! And that was the gong; Imperial won 240-75.
A rather one sided contest, but still a watchable one, between two watchable teams. Unlucky Courtauld, but a valiant performance in the circumstances, and best of luck in the eliminators. Very well done Imperial though, another fine performance, and very best of luck in the qualfiers! (Very strong line-up for them!)
The stats: Brandon was, again, the best buzzer of the night with five, while Mr Haigh was best for Courtauld with four. On the bonuses, Courtauld converted 7 out of 15 (with two penalties), while Imperial managed 24 out of 36.
Next week's match: the first qualifier, between, I'm guessing, two of Trinity, Corpus Christi and Durham. I'd make it Trinity vs Corpus Christi, thus avoiding a rematch so soon.
Only Connect, speaking of which, saw a second of those in a row tonight, with the Forrests playing the Choristers again. Like before, there was just one point in it, but this time, it was the former that won, 19-18.
No comments:
Post a Comment