University Challenge 2020-21: Preliminary Quarter-Final 4: Imperial vs Warwick

Good evening my friends, and welcome back to JOW! Where I'm in the early stages of planning a big and rather ambitious research project involving a certain other TV quiz show that I will require a great deal of assistance with, mainly on Twitter, but on here as well. I shall announce it later this week. I hope. On with today's UC now though, and the final preliminary match...

Imperial, the reigning champions of course, came through the repechage, losing their first match to fellow QFers Strathclyde, then narrowly beating Exeter 160-155 in the play-offs and comfortably beating St Andrews 180-90 in the second round. They were unchanged from those matches: 

Justin Wong, from Hong Kong, studying Maths

Katie Marrow, from the Peak District, studying Physics

Captain: Michael Kohn, from North London, studying Pure Maths

Imran Rahman, from Petaling Jaya in Malaysia, studying Theoretical Physics

 

Warwick took the direct route to the group phase via two very comfortable wins, both over Oxford colleges, firstly Wolfson 255-105 in the first round, and then Merton 190-90 in the second. They were also the same foursome as before: 

Richard Pollard, from Cheshire, studying History and Politics

George Braid, from Brighton, graduated in Physics

Captain: Andrew Rout, from Bearsted in Kent, studying Maths

Owen Burrell, from Lancaster, studying English Literature

 

So off we set once again, and Mr Braid opened the scoring with 'quarter'; the Coventry side firmly put their marker down with a full set of bonuses. Imperial were off the mark quickly too with Mr Rahman, and they also took a full bonus set on mathematician Paul Erdos, who, as I said before, Stephen Fry may have stolen a QI anecdote from! The two sides exchanged further blows with a starter and bonus each, though Imperial also lost five in the process. The London side did take the first picture round, on tri-points, which gave them a 50-40 lead.

Back came Warwick as Mr Rout identified President Hoover, giving his side a bonus set on flags which they took two correct answer of. Messrs Burrell and Rout took two further starters for Warwick, the latter of which saw Mr Rout visibly beat at least two Imperial players to the buzzer, but they didn't take any of the bonuses from either set. This brought us to the music starter, which Mr Kohn got after just a few notes; the bonuses, on classical pieces depicting Bacchanalia, gave the Londoners two bonuses, which cut the gap to 80-70.

Warwick duly reawoke with Mr Braid doing the honours, and their earlier bonus profligacy evaporated as they took a full set on spirals. Paxo seemed very impressed when Mr Burrell quickly identified the fennec fox for the next starter, and they backed it up with a second full set in a row. Mr Pollard then ensured all four Warwickers have contributed to the game; just one bonus followed this time, but when Mr Braid took the next starter and all three bonuses followed, they had a 100 point lead and had one foot in the qualifiers. And when Mr Rout took the second picture starter, that was game over; the bonuses, on portraits by Berenice Abbott, gave them no further points, but they now led 180-70.

Mr Wong did the right thing and had an early punt on the next starter, but only lost five; Mr Rout took the points and another full house took the Coventry side past 200. Mr Kohn finally got a quick buzz in to get his side going again, and they took one bonus on Chinese history. Another starter to the Imperial captain and two bonuses deservedly took the Londoners into three figures, before Ms Marrow ensured all eight players had a correct starter to their name for the first time this year. At the gong, Warwick won 200-120.

Another good contest between two solid teams, well played both. Well done Warwick on another strong performance, one that keeps them marked down as one of the series favourites, and to Imperial too on another good showing; best of luck to both teams in your next matches!

The stats: Messrs Braid, Rout and Kohn were joint best buzzers of the night with four each. On the bonuses, Imperial converted 12 out of 21 (with two penalties) and Warwick 19 out of 33 (with one penalty), and, as I said earlier, all eight players contributed at least one correct starter, for the first time since the Balliol-Clare match back in August!

Next week's match: the first qualifier. Don't know who's playing, but I would guess Magdalene and either Balliol or Durham.

Only Connect concluded its first round phase with the final play-off, between the Polyhymnians and the Severns. The teams were tied on 3-all after the first round, before the Severns pulled into a 10-6 lead after the second. A better wall then allowed the Polyhymnians to take a 16-14 into the final round, before a very choppy changey Missing Vowels saw the Severns pull back again and win 18-17.

 

Mastermind was won by Peter Timms, whose winning score of 20 was comfortably clear of the two contenders in joint second with 14, one of whom fell into an unlucky spiral in the general knowledge round and never recovered.