Good evening friends, and welcome to the qualifier matches of this year's UC! In a week when I've started the long task of researching the history of Fifteen to One, watching a whole load of old episodes on YouTube and logging the results; will get an online database set up later this week I hope. But, of course, the big quizzing news this week is that John Humphrys is stepping down from Mastermind at the end of the current series, and much speculation has since begun as to who'll replace him. More on that in due course, but, for now, on with Quizzy Mondays...
Magdalene College Cambridge defeated Univ. of Oxford in the first round, then Corpus Christi of Oxford in the second, and Birkbeck in an excellent preliminary match, seemingly improving with every game. Hoping to carry this on were the unchanged four of:
James Byrne, from Welwyn Garden City, studying Maths
Adam Davies, from Wichita, Kansas, graduated in History
Captain: Daniel Lawson, from the Wirral, studying Medicine
Kerry Payne, from Little Weighton in East Yorkshire, studying Theology for Ministry
Warwick also defeated two Oxford teams, Wolfson and Merton, in the first two rounds, both by comfortabl margins, and then last week, they defeated Imperial in their preliminary match. Also hoping to continue in the same vein were the also unchanged four of:
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 Davies was first off the mark identifying a list of things that make their wearer invisible; two bonuses on philosophy were taken. Mr Braid quickly took Warwick off the mark as well, and they went one better, a full set on the Avengers films. Magdalene then lost five, and Mr Burrell took the points, and the next starter as well, and the Coventry side took three of the resulting six bonuses. The first picture round, on lists of French prefixes and infinitives that can follow them, went to Magdalene; a single correct answer took the scores to 60-25.
Mr Braid re-established Warwick's buzzer advantage with 'Lulu' for the next starter, and they set their stall further out with a full set of bonuses. Another starter and sole bonus took Warwick into three figures, before another starter and full house put them within one starter of a 100 point lead already. Highlight of the show for me came next when I got 'Jump' before Mr Burrell did, giving Warwick that three figure lead. Magdalene got back into the match with the music round, on classical pieces that employ every key in the scale; one correct bonus cut the deficit to 145-45.
Mr Lawson then took a second starter in a row and the Cambridge side took a much needed full set of bonuses. Neither side got the next starter, Ms Payne took the next, and Magdalene took two bonuses from a tricky set on pairs of words whose final letters put together give a Greek letter. A third starter in a row to the Cambridge side took them into three figures, and another two bonuses put them well back in the game. Mr Rout arrested that momentum as he took the second picture starter; the bonuses, on Dresses of the Year and their designers, gave Warwick just one correct answer from what looked like an educated guess, taking their lead to 160-115.
The Warwick captain then took a second starter in a row, giving them a good old fashioned UC bonus set of different genre questions linked by the word 'Emperor', of which they took a full house. And when Mr Braid took 'Richard II' for the next starter, that was game over; just one bonus followed, but it didn't matter really now. Magdalene managed a late flourish, Mr Byrne taking two starters in a row and the side missing just one of the six bonuses. At the gong, Warwick won 200-160.
Another very good high quality contest between two strong teams, well played both. Congrats to Warwick, worthy semi-finalists and surely one of the favourites to win the series; best of luck in the semis! Well done Magdalene as well, who still gave a solid account of themselves and will surely be semi-finalists too if they keep playing like this; best of luck in the play-offs!
The stats: Mr Braid was the best buzzer of the night with four, while Mr Davies was best for Magdalene with three. On the bonuses Magdalene managed a solid 17 out of 24 (with the night's one penalty) and Warwick an also good 20 out of 30, and, for the second week in a row, all eight players contributed at least one correct starter.
Next week's match: the first eliminator match. I have been told by one of the participants who's playing, but I promised I wouldn't say yet. I think I can say, though, that the practice of pairing the teams based of their preliminary opponents will be broken for the first time...
Only Connect began its quarter
finals with the obligatory avoidable rematch, with the Whodunnits and the
Corkscrews playing each other again. The Whodunnits led 6-3 after the first
round thanks to a three-pointer reminiscent of a couple of starters I remember
from UC back in the day, but the Corkscrews pulled back in the second round to
lead 7-6 going into the Walls. Two perfect walls made it 17-16, and the
Whodunnits got the better of it to 26-20.
Mastermind was won comfortably by
Maxim Hughes, who led after the specialist rounds, and increased that gap on General
Knowledge, ending on 22 points, eight clear of the joint second placed
contenders.
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