University Challenge 2020-21: Round 1: Match 11: Royal Academy vs St John's

Good evening everybody, and welcome back to Quizzy Mondays! Yep, Only Connect finally returned today, and we'll get to that later. We also had the first Brain of Britain semi-final earlier, with Michael Smith beating Brian Chesney, Roy Smith and blog reader Jon Stitcher to claim the first place in the final. On with University Challenge now though...

 

The Royal Academy of Music has only appeared once before, in the 1999-2000 series, where they were defeated in the first round by Salford; a selection of highlights from that match can be seen here. This year's team were:

John Vernon, from Blackpool, studying the Trumpet

Aron Goldin, from London, studying Piano Accompaniment

Captain: Eden Lavelle, from Swindon, studying Choral Conducting

Angus Bain, from London, studying Violin Performance

 

St John's College Cambridge has appeared on five prior occasions during the BBC era; its team were semi-finalists in the Gail Trimble series of 08-09, and of course won it two series ago in 17-18. This year's quartet were:

Rebecca Marrow, from the Peak District, studying Natural Sciences

Milena Malcharek, from Krakow, studying Natural Sciences

Captain: Tom Musgrove, from Shotesham in Norfolk, studying History

Sam Willis, from London, studying History

 

Off we set again then, and it was Mr Willis who opened the scoring with 'Christopher Marlowe'; the bonuses, on people with the initials GT, saw the Cambridge side leave Paxo astonished by not knowing Greta Thunberg(!), but they did get George Takei. Royal Academy got off the mark thanks to Mr Goldin, and they got all of their bonuses on long distance footpaths. But then Mr Lavelle buzzed wrongly and lost five, allowing St John's a free shot; Mr Musgrove took it, and they too got a full set of bonuses. With a foothold in the game, the Cambridge side began to eke out a lead and, after the first picture round, on Unesco cities of gastronomy, they led 70-20.

A pedantic penalty from Royal Academy gave St John's another pickup, and they pulled further ahead. Mr Vernon pulled one back for the Londoners, but they drew a blank on bonuses on meteor showers. St John's broke into three figures when Mr Musgrove took the next starter, two bonuses on physics were taken. The music starter saw Ms Marrow beat the opposition to the buzzer to identify the spoken word intro to the Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra; the bonuses on classical pieces that include dialogue, gave the Cambridge side a lead of 125-25.

And the lead was just getting bigger, as Mr Musgrove knew the anniversary of VE Day to be the reason why this year's Mayday Bank Holiday was on a Friday instead of Monday; bonuses on Beatrix Potter gave them two correct answers. Royal Academy finally managed to buzz back in, but only managed to lose another five. St John's didn't pick up, but another starter and full set put them surely out of sight. A penalty only delayed their march, as they quickly recouped the points. Royal Academy did take the second picture round, on sitcoms where actors play fictional versions of themselves, but they still trailed 185-40.

The Londoners took a second starter in a row, lifting them out of the Sub-50 Club, but they drew a blank on bonuses on Verdi operas; in times gone by, Paxo would've ripped them to shreds for that, but, mercifully, he did not even comment on it here. Another starter and pair of bonuses took St John's past 200, and there was time for them to take the final starter and one of the bonuses they were able to answer. At the gong, St John's won 220-50.

Another one sided match, but two pleasant teams kept it watchable. Well done to St John's, and best of luck to them in the next round! Hard lines to Royal Academy, who just never got going, but, like Wolfson last week, must be a reasonably good team to have got onto the show, so thanks very much to them for coming.

The stats: Mr Musgrove was comfortably the best buzzer of the night with six starters, while Mr Goldin's two were best for Royal Academy. On the bonuses, Royal Academy managed 5 out of 15 (with three penalties) and St John's 21 out of 35 (with one penalty).

Next week's match: Warwick vs Wolfson Oxford

 

Only Connect made its long-awaited return, and responded to the current situation by having the team members seated slightly further apart and separated by glass screens, and thus able to confer while keeping distant, measures I’m assuming UC will be taking too when it comes back. The connecting wall maintained this, with the captain having the monitor in front of them and doing all the pressing, and the teammates using the large projection for their contributions, while, in true UC style, the players all had their own buzzer for Missing Vowels. (Don’t know why they didn’t do that from the start)

 

The first match of the series saw the Pilgrims, Rick Tooley, Pam Tooley and captain Pat Everitt, play the Corkscrews, Laura Lawson, Alexander Olive and captain Alex Thomas. A close match, with the Pilgrims narrowly leading at the end of both of the first two rounds, before a better wall performance gave the Corkscrews a 17-14 lead going into Missing Vowels. They maintained this lead during that for a 22-19 win. Good contest between two well matched teams, and both deserve a return.