Good evening friends, and welcome to the second edition of new socially distanced University Challenge! The first episode of which caused much disappointment to some on Twitter, who felt TPTB missed an opportunity; with screens now between the players, they should've also added gunge tanks that Paxo could activate if they gave a bad answer! Thankfully not running that risk were tonight's two teams, whose matches came at opposite end of the first round; winners would get the final place in the second round.
Linacre College Oxford were well beaten in the first match, losing to the Open University 210-140, showing good promise nonetheless. They were unchanged from before:
Alex Blandford, from Cambridge, studying the Anthropology of Civic Technology
Josh Dorrington, from Windsor, studying Atmospheric Physics
Captain: James King, from Fordingbridge in Hampshire, studying Climate Science
Claudine Tinsman, from Switzerland, studying Cyber Security
Edinburgh lost a great first round match to Manchester just three weeks ago, also well beaten 200-155, but also showing plenty of promise. They too were the same team as before:
Zak Jeffcoat, from Edinburgh, studying Architectural History
Matthew Fricker, from Shipley in Yorkshire, graduated with a degree Maths and Physics, now studying for a PGDE
Captain: Niamh Clarke, from Hollywood, County Wicklow, studying Physics with Meteorology
Nicholas Winter, from London (via Angus), studying Maths
Off we set once again, and it was Mr Winter who opened the scoring for the night with 'The Favourite'; the bonuses, also on film, gave Edinburgh a full set. But a penalty gave Linacre a way into the match, which Mr Blandford took, and they took two bonuses on medicine. But Edinburgh quickly recovered with the next two starters and they missed just one of the six bonuses. The first picture round, on definitions of Italian words, went to Linacre, which cut the gap to 65-35.
This seemed to start a bit of momentum for the Oxonians, who took the next two bonuses, though just one bonus out of six. A third in a row then gave them the lead though, and two bonuses on winter fruits were taken this time. But back came Edinburgh, with a starter and two bonuses of their own giving them the lead back. They also took the music round, on acts who the late Vaughan Oliver designed album covers for; another two bonuses took the lead to 105-80.
A third starter in a row, taken by Mr Winter, increased the advantage, but they missed all three bonuses on humourous works by Robert Rankin, including at least one answer that, judging by Paxo's reaction, might have had him reaching for the gunge button! Back came Linacre with Mr Blandford doing the honours, and they moved into three figures with two bonuses on tennis, including my Dad's go to answer for tennis questions on Pointless, Evonne Goolagong/Cawley! The second picture round, on copies by Van Gogh of works by other artists, went to Edinburgh, but all three bonuses went begging (two on coinflip decision), though they still led 125-100.
But Mr Fricker then made sure all four Edinburgh players had a starter to their name, and two bonuses on Indonesian wildlife put them within sight of victory. But Linacre weren't done yet, Mr Dorrington taking the next starter, and the bonuses on maths falling into his lap too, a full set. But when Mr Fricker took the next starter, that was game over. No time for further answers; at the gong, Edinburgh won 155-125.
A good contest between two good, well-matched teams, well played both! Well done to Edinburgh and best of luck in the second round! Hard lines to Linacre, but you gave a good account of yourselves in both your matches, thanks very much for playing!
The stats: Messrs King and Winter were joint best buzzers of the night, with three each for their respective teams. On the bonuses, Linacre managed 11 out of 21, and Edinburgh 14 out of 24 (with the night's one penalty).
Next week's match: the first second round match! Don't know for sure who's playing yet, but will retweet anything I find. You may also notice from my thread that a special Children in Need episode has been filmed, thus suggesting they've also, hopefully, been able to film the final rounds of this series. Again, will let you know anything I hear.
Only Connect pitted two married couple
plus one teams against each other, with the Dungeon Masters, Charlie Deeks, Sam
Hayfield and captain Anna Hayfield, playing the Severns, Kiran O’Brien, Michael
Houghton and captain Paul O’Brien. The former led 5-3 after the first round,
which they then increased to 9-4 after the second. Tough difficult walls which
neither team got a full house on gave the Dungeon Masters a 14-8 lead, and an
evenly split Missing Vowels saw them win 18-13.
Mastermind, meanwhile, was won by
Jacqueline Jones with 19 points, with the other three contenders a few points behind and just two
points apart.
No comments:
Post a Comment