Good evening my friends, and welcome back to, what will officially be from next week, Quizzy Mondays! Yep, Only Connect has managed to get some shows in the bag, and will start again next Monday! And we also still have Brain of Britain, which had its final first round match tonight, and begins its SFs next week. On with tonight's show, and an Oxbridge match between two teams who lost Oxbridge first round matches last series...
Merton College Oxford won the show in 1980, beating a Queens' Cambridge team that included some lad called Stephen Fry, whatever happened to him, but, aside from being runners-up in 2017-18, has never got beyond the second round in the BBC era. Last year's team lost to eventual runners-up Corpus Christi in the first round. This year's team were:
Tom McLean, from Rotorua in New Zealand, studying English
Connor Ó Síocháin, from Cork, studying PPE
Captain: Pax Butchart, from London, studying English
William Isotta, from London, studying Physics
Wolfson College Cambridge has appeared three times on the BBC era; one was the runners-up performance of the legend that is Eric Monkman (who, thankfully, Paxo did not give us a bad impression of this time!), but the other two, last series included, were first round exits. This year's quartet were:
Reece Carvosso, from Sydney, studying Law
Alexander Kloß, from Germany, studying International Relations and Politics
Captain: Bonni Jee, from Prestwich in Manchester, studying Environmental Policy
Mel Schwing, from New York State, studying Law
So off we set again, and it was Mr Isotta who opened the scoring with 'sleeping', but the Oxonians missed all three bonuses on 'histories of the World in' (they were unlucky to say '101 objects' instead of 100). They did take the next starter though, and slowly managed just one from their second set. Their third set brought them a full house and, after the first picture round, on lists of works with the same word missing, which they had another full house of, they led 75-0.
And the lead kept increasing, as Mr Ó Síocháin took the next starter, and a third full set in a row already took their lead to 100. Mr Isotta had the next, but this time they could only take one bonus on Winston Churchill. Not that it mattered much given that they were running away on the buzzer race, and Mr Ó Síocháin gave them a seventh in a row, and then Mr Isotta an eighth. And after the music round, on classical works connected to the works of Haruki Murakami, Merton led 160-0.
The game was already as good as over, but Merton just weren't letting up, another two starters going their way, though just one of the six bonuses going with them. Wolfson finally got some points on the board, Mr Schwing doing the honours, but the resulting bonuses on physics failed to add to their score. They did also take the second picture round, on stills from feature films based on shorts by the same director, and took two bonuses, taking the scores to 185-30.
Mr Isotta then resumed normal service for Merton, and one bonus took their score to 200, before another starter broke them past it, though no bonuses were taken. Wolfson did take the final starter of the match, but failed to add to their score with bonuses on rodents. At the gong, Merton won 210-40.
A very one-sided contest in truth, and not much more to be said. Well done to Merton and best of luck to them in the next round! Hard lines to Wolfson, who, as Paxo said, just didn't get going and I'm sure would've fared better in different circumstances, but they took it well, and thanks for playing!
The stats: Mr Isotta was best buzzer of the night with six, while Mr Schwing's two were Wolfson's best. On the bonuses, Merton managed 16 out of 39, and Wolfson 2 out of 9.
Next week's match: Royal Academy of Music vs St John's Cambridge
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