Alright everybody, welcome to the fourth week of this year's University Challenge. Now that Brain of Britain has been able to successfully remount and film the rest of this year's contest, which resumes next Monday, it's almost certain that UC should be able to do so as well at some point. But we'll cross that bridge when its safe to; for now, on with tonight's show, a rematch of another first round match from three series ago.
Imperial College London, formerly part of the University of London but not anymore, are, of course, the defending champions, having won their third title last series, the first two being in 1995-96 and 2000-01, and they were also runners-up in 2001-02. This year's team were:
Justin Wong, from Hong Kong, studying Maths
Katie Marrow, from the Peak District, studying Physics
Captain: Michael Kohn, from North London, studying Maths
Imran Rahman, from Petaling Jaya in Malaysia, studying Theoretical Physics
Strathclyde University has never made it beyond the second round of UC, doing so twice, firstly in 2003-04, captained by future Mastermind winner Aidan McQuade, and again in 2017-18, where they also beat Imperial in the first round before losing to Emmanuel of Cambridge. This year's foursome were:
Cameron Welsh, from Glasgow, studying Statistics
David Curran, from Glasgow, studying Civil Engineering
Captain: James Whittle, from Glasgow, studying Power Systems
Tom Starr-Marshall, from London, studying Speech and Language Therapy
So off we set once more, and Strathclyde's token Englishman Mr Starr-Marshall was first off the marks with 'red'; the Scots side got nothing from the first set of bonuses. Imperial responded in kind, and did manage one of their bonuses, only to surrender those five points to a slip-up. Strathclyde didn't pick it up, but did take the next starter and also just one bonus. The first picture round, on deltas and the rivers they empty, was more to the Scots side's liking, a full set, giving them an early lead of 50-10.
Imperial bounced back with a second starter on the board and a full bonus set of their own on art. The Scots side responded though with a third successive full bonus set on winners of the Hugo TV award. Strathclyde started to get a run on the buzzer going, taking another starter and two bonuses. A penalty for Imperial handed them a third in a row, and took them into three figures. The music round, on Atlanta rap and hip hop music, went to Strathclyde, but they got nothing from the bonuses (much to Paxo's relief!), leaving their lead at 115-30.
The Scots side were dominating the buzzer race, but they weren't exactly following through on the bonuses, just one bonus from their next two sets, which nonetheless took their lead past 100. Imperial finally broke back into the match, and showed they still had some hope with a full set. The next starter asked for two of the three Olympic host cities in the southern hemisphere; Mr Wong buzzed first and one answer came, but his second wasn't quick enough, so over to Strathclyde, who took two bonuses. The Londoners did take the second picture round, on portaits of artists' assistants, one of which I'm amazed they let be shown on BBC2 this early(!); a full house took the score to 165-75.
And onwards Imperial pushed, a second full set in a row on films beginning 'The Big' taking them into three figures. A third starter in a row went to them, but just the one bonus on Canadian provinces seemed to suggest there was a bit much for them to do in the time left. This was confirmed as Strathclyde took the next starter and a full set of bonuses on bones. Which left Imperial with the job of getting a good score for the repechage; two final starters and four out of six bonuses gave them a good chance. At the gong, Strathclyde won 190-155.
Another fine contest, two good teams both of whom fully deserve another match. Well done to Strathclyde, who are definitely through, and I would guess Imperial's score will be good enough for the play-offs, so hopefully they return too.
The stats: Mr Welsh was, just, the best buzzer of the night, with five starters to Mr Kohn's four. On the bonuses, Imperial managed a solid 17 out of 24 (with two penalties) and Strathclyde 16 out of 33.
Next week's match: Reading vs Birkbeck
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