Alright everybody, here we go with some Bank Holiday/regular working day UC action. Normally, this would be around the time OC and Mastermind would be coming back as well, but they of course haven't been filmed yet, though not long now probably. Brain of Britain is still going, with Dag Griffiths, a former finalist and also winner of Fifteen-to-One, winning today's show by a large margin. On with UC...
Darwin College Cambridge has only appeared once on UC before, but what a performance it was, as under the captaincy of Jason Golfinos, they reached the semi-finals two series ago before losing to St Edmund Hall. This year's team were:
Toby Barber, from Cambridge studying Plant Sciences
Noah Kessler, from Houston, Texas, studying Genetics
Captain: Kerry Milowicki, from Cleveland, Ohio, studying Film and Screen Studies
Dominic James, from Kidlington in Oxfordshire, studying Early Modern History
St Andrews University, in contrast, is appearing for the 16th time in the BBC series; it's last appearance was three series ago, where they were unlucky to draw and lose to eventual winners St John's in the first round. This year's quartet were:
Tom Sherlock, from Hertfordshire, studying International Relations and Modern History
Max Holtzman, from Maine, studying Maths and Theoretical Physics
Captain: Ahzha Martin Khemsar, from Glasgow, studying Economics
John Er, from New York, studying Philosophy
So off we set again, and it was St Andrews who got off to the better start, with Mr Sherlock doing the honours and all three bonuses being taken. Mr Sherlock took the next two starters as well, and all but one of the resulting bonuses went with it, before Mr Khemsar added the fourth. The Scots side also took the first picture round, on German state capitals, after which they already led 100-0.
Darwin finally broke their duck on the next starter, Mr James doing the honours, and they proved their worth by taking all three of their first bonus set. Asked for a county, a mention of Oakham was a pretty easy giveaway for 'Rutland', which Mr Sherlock took; the bonuses also had a pretty easy gimme, asking, indirectly, for the name of Jodie Comer's character in Killing Eve. St Andrews had that and the other bonuses too. Darwin took the next two starters, but missed all of the first bonuses before getting two from the second set. The music round, on US musicals bought to the UK by Sonia Friedman, went to St Andrews; another full set gave them a lead of 150-55.
And the lead was only going one way, as Mr Sherlock took the next starter, and two bonuses went with it. The Scots side began to runaway on the buzzer now, and Mr Er made sure all four of them had contributed a starter to the game. Darwin eventually broke back into the game with the second picture round, on artworks collected by suffragist Louisine Havemeyer; they took a full house, but were still trailing 220-80.
Now it was just a question of how high both teams could go. St Andrews showed no sign of letting up as Mr Sherlock took the next starter, and Mr Holtzman the next. The Scots side got a laugh out of Paxo by jokingly suggesting Anthony Trollope wrote 'The Wind in the Willows'! A late penalty allowed Darwin to take the final starter, but there was no time for bonuses. At the gong, St Andrews won 255-90.
A good match, not a close one, but another watchable one. Well done to St Andrews on an impressive first performance, and best of luck to them in the second round! Hard lines to Darwin, who did well when they did get in, and I suspect would've done better against a different team, thanks to them for playing.
The stats: Mr Sherlock was comfortably the best buzzer of the night with SEVEN starters, while Mr James was best for Darwin with three. On the bonuses, Darwin managed 8 out of 12, and St Andrews 24 out of 42 (with that one penalty).
Next week's match: York vs King's College London
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