Evening all. Once again, no word on who would be playing tonight in the days running up to it; first word we got was not long before it started when Dennis 'Worcester' Wang, brother of the Corpus Christi captain, announced that his brother's team would be back. So it would appear that the producers have done what I would've and kept the teams that have already played apart in the qualifiers/eliminators draw. Winner of tonight's match would take the first place in the semis.
Trinity College Cambridge beat fellow qualification quarter-finalists Durham in the first round, then Lady Margaret Hall of Oxford in the second, and their first quarter-final saw them soundly beat Manchester 300-95. They were unchanged from those prior matches:
Nadia Hourihan, from Dublin, studying English
Lillian Crawford, from Bearsted in Kent, studying History
Captain: Joseph Webber, from Bury St Edmunds, studying Maths
Liam Hughes, from Cardiff, studying Maths
Corpus Christi College Cambridge have beaten three teams from the other place to get this far, Merton of Oxford in the first round, Magdalen of Oxford in the second, and their first quarter-final was a close win over Wolfson 180-140. They were also the same four as before:
Alexander Russell, from Bristol, studying Japanese Studies
William Stewart, from Peterborough, studying History of Art
Captain: Ian Wang, from Sale in Greater Manchester, studying English
Alex Gunasekera, from Witney, studying Chemistry
Off we set again then, and Mr Stewart was first off the blocks with 'the Byzantine Empire'; bonuses on people whose surnames relate to mills or milling resulted in two correct answers. Mr Russell gave Corpus Christi a second in a row, and a bonus set on film and video art, which they got another two from. Mr Wang was next in for them, but just one bonus, on cuttlefish, was taken this time. Trinity finally got off the mark on the next starter, though Paxo was maybe a touch lenient to let Mr Hughes off with a brief but noticeable pause before answering; two bonuses followed them off the mark. The first picture round, on lists of sci-fi authors works, went to Corpus Christi; another sole bonus took their lead to 70-20.
Mr Stewart increased it as he identified 'Dunkirk' for the next starter (as did everyone, my Dad included, who was watching a film about that on BBC2 yesterday!); a bonus set on the largest country to begin with a certain letter gave them a full set. Mr Gunasekera then made sure all four of Corpus Christi had already contributed a starter to their total; two bonuses followed. Mr Webber hauled one back for Trinity, but a tricky bonus set on transistor circuits gave them just one correct answer.
The music starter saw Mr Hughes quickly identify the Cure's 'Friday I'm In Love'; the bonuses, on songs whose narratives span a seven day week (surprisingly, Craig David was not one of them!), gave Trinity another sole bonus, which reduced their arrears to 115-50. Mr Gunasekera stopped their recovery in its tracks though as he identified the element 'Germanium'; bonuses on the Yangtze River followed, of which Corpus Christi took a full set, reasserting their authority. Mr Stewart gave them a second in a row, which led to a bonus set on pop music inspired by novels, of which two were taken this time. Mr Webber did the right thing and took a flyer on the next starter, but the full answer didn't come to him in time; five dropped, and Mr Gunasekera did the honours, with a full bonus set following to boot. And when Mr Russell identified Tintern Abbey for the next starter, that really was game over; a sole bonus took them to 200.
The second picture round, on paintings depicting groups of figures from Greek mythology, went to Corpus Christi; two correct answers took the scores to 220-45. It was now just a question of how high both teams could get; Mr Russell took the next starter for Corpus Christi, with just the one bonus, on affordable housing, following, not that it really mattered now.
Mr Hughes pulled one back for Trinity, pulling them back out of the Sub-50 club, and giving them a bonus set on Greek derived terms beginning 'syn', of which they took two. A second correct starter in a row went to Mr Hughes, but just one bonus on literature followed this time; there was also an amusing moment when Mr Webber mistakenly nominated Ms Hourihan for a bonus when she hadn't even ventured an answer ("She doesn't want to be nominated!" quoth Paxo) Mr Gunasekera took the final starter, and that was the gong; Corpus Christi won 245-80.
A surprisingly one sided contest, but another fine and watchable one nonetheless. Unlucky Trinity, outplayed this time, but definitely not to be written off yet, best of luck to them in the play-offs. Very well done Corpus Christi though, another strong win over good opponents, and very very best of luck in the semis!
The stats: Messrs Hughes, Russel and Gunasekera were the joint best buzzers of the night, with four each for their respective teams. On the bonuses, Trinity converted 7 out of 15 (with the night's one penalty), while Corpus Christi managed 23 out of 36.
Next week's match: don't know for sure yet, but I would imagine Manchester vs Wolfson, followed by Durham vs Imperial and Jesus vs Courtauld
Only Conenct's third QF saw the 007s vs the Junipers. After being closely matched through the first three rounds, the former won it on the Missing Vowels, 21-16.
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