Good evening friends, and welcome back to my University Challenge write-ups! Special mention before we start to Weaver's Week, which, as pointed out in yesterday's edition, celebrated its 20th anniversary at the turn of the year! It may not do them anymore, but without the reviews of UC it used to do, this blog probably wouldn't exist; at least, not in the form it does. Speaking of which...
Balliol College Oxford started out slowly with a low scoring 150-135 win over Clare of Cambridge in the first round, before taking it up a notch in an excellent second round match against St John's of Cambridge, winning 200-155. They were the same team as that second match:
Ben Tomasi, from Perth in Australia, graduated in Law
Solenne Scholefield, from Bath, studying Classics
Captain:
Michael O'Connor, from Blackheath in London, graduated in Philosophy
and Politics, about to start a graduate degree in Philosophy
Lily Crowther, from Royal Leamington Spa, studying History
King's College London got to the group stage by winning two lowish scoring matches, firstly a 170-100 first round win over York, before their second match against Glasgow saw them triumph 175-95. They were the same team as both their previous games:
Simon Xu, from Wallington in London, studying Cardiovascular Science
Louie Triggs, from England and New England, studying Politics, Philosophy and Law
Captain: Sam Jackson, from the Eastern Extremity of Somerset, studying War Studies and History
Grace Weaver, from Bournemouth, studying Medicine
So off we set once more in this strangest of series, and Mr O'Connor, his side's MVP in the second round, opened the scoring for the night with 'I'; the Oxonians opened with a full set of bonuses, only to then lose five to a penalty. King's took the opportunity to open their scoring for the night, and took one bonus on Irish sports venues. Another starter and sole bonus gave King's the lead, taking us to the first picture round, on borders between countries; Balliol took this, which gave them back the lead, 35-30.
A second starter in a row to the Oxonians tripled this lead, giving them a bonus set on lesser known works of Charles Darwin, which they took two of. Back came King's with Mr Triggs doing the honours for a third time, and they drew level again with a full bonus set on Shakespeare's Henry VIII. This took us to the music starter, where neither side recognised the Everly Brothers, much to Paxo's (and most of Twitter's) disgust! The bonuses eventually went to Balliol, and the outrage continued as they missed all three bonuses, on songs written by Felice and Boudleaux Bryant. After this, they led 65-50.
Mr O'Connor then identified Schumpeter for the next starter, prompting the host to remark "At least you know the important stuff!"! They didn't take any of a confusing bonus set on writers with 'similar names', but this sparked a run on the buzzer that saw them take the next three starters and a solid haul of bonuses, which saw them pull out into a strong lead. And when they made it six in a row with the second picture round, on details from artworks nominated as the 'best museum bum' online during the first lockdown(!), that was game over. Two bonuses gave them a lead of 145-50.
King's finally got going again thanks to Mr Jackson, and took two bonuses on the work of writer and translator Julia Lovell. In fact, the Londoners managed a good run of their own in the final minutes, taking the final two starters, though just one of the resulting six bonuses, and just fell short of reaching three figures. At the gong, Balliol won 145-95.
A good entertaining contest played well by two pleasant and entertaining teams, well played both. Well done to Balliol, and best of luck in the qualifying matches, and best of luck to King's as well in the eliminators.
The stats: Mr O'Connor was the best buzzer of the night with five starters, while Mr Triggs was best for King's with four. On the bonuses, Balliol managed 12 out of 27 and King's 8 out of 15, and both sides incurred one penalty.
Next week's match: don't know yet, but, as usual, will retweet anything I find. It'll be two of Imperial, Strathclyde, Warwick and Durham.
Only Connect moved on to its
second play-off match, with the Bridges vs the Puzzle Hunters. The teams were
level at 4-all after the first round, before the Puzzle Hunters eked into a 7-6
lead after the second. (I claimed five points for getting the Family Fortunes
question after just one clue, though I was helped a bit by VCM’s tweet earlier saying
Max Bygraves would be mentioned in the show!) Two perfect walls put the scores
at 17-16 going into Missing Vowels, where the Puzzle Hunters just hung on to win
24-22.
Mastermind, meanwhile, was won by
Dan Afshar; after a close first round where he and three others were level on
10 points, he ran away with it on general knowledge and finished on 22 points,
four clear of the second placed contender.
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