University Challenge 2020-21: Grand Final Preview

Well, folks, here we are again: previewing yet another University Challenge final. It has been the most unusual of series, through no fault of its own, what with the long recording break and the play-offs onwards being recorded socially distant. But we do now, at last, have our two finalist teams; they are:

Warwick: Richard Pollard, George Braid, Andrew Rout and Owen Burrell.

and

Magdalene College Cambridge: James Byrne, Adam Davies, Daniel Lawson and Kerry Payne.

So, for the third season in a row, the final is an Oxbridge team vs a non-Oxbridge team. Both institutions are playing their second final: Warwick won their first back in 2006-07, while Magdalene's first back in 1978 saw them beaten by the Sidney Sussex Cambridge team, captained by future Tory MP David Lidington, who went on to win the Reunited series in 2002 (they really should do another of those next year!).

So, how did they get to it? Warwick did so unbeaten, beating Wolfson of Oxford in a very one sided first round match in spite of a slightly slow start, before a similarly easy second round win over Merton of Oxford. They came straight through the QFs by beating Imperial and Magdalene, who they face again now, both those matches seeing them race into a strong lead before their opponents recovered late on. Their semi against Imperial was much closer, with the two teams level for the most part until a well timed sprint saw them just put enough buffer between their opponents to see the game out.

Magdalene also reached the quarter-finals with wins over two Oxford teams: the first round win over Univ. of Oxford went a bit under the radar somewhat, but their second over Corpus Christi, captained by the excellent Mr Webb, was when people started to take notice of them. This was confirmed when they defeated Birkbeck in a very good first quarter-final; they then lost to Warwick, of course, but rebounded with a steady victory over Strathclyde before thumping Balliol in the semis to reach the final.

So, now comes to the stats, and there really isn't much in it...

Magdalene have, of course, played one match more, but their average score over six games of 201.67 (rounded to two digits) is barely above Warwick's 201 over five matches. Their points conceded also isn't that much more, 126.67 (again, rounded to two digits) to Warwick's 122.

In terms of bonuses, Warwick have thus far coverted 96 correct out of 162, while Magdalene's stands at 128 out of 180. This confirms what we suspected two weeks ago when we previewed the semis: that Magdalene's bonus rate has always been around two thirds or just over. Warwick's is just over half, and I'm actually a tiny bit surprised by that, especially given how many times they've correctly taken an educated guess.

On the buzzers, Magdalene have answered 62 starters correct to Warwick's 45. That's not surprising given they've played a game extra, but if you average them out, it ends up with Warwick at 9 per match and Magdalene at 10.33 (rounded to two digits) per match.

So, what of the previous match between the two teams? Well, that ended 200-160 to Warwick, but it wasn't really as close as that; Warwick raced into a lead of 145-30 before the music round, before Magdalene recovered slightly with a good rally, but Warwick just about did enough in the final third to see the game out.

 

So, after I didn't do a Twitter poll last year, I have set one up this year, and, at the time of writing, after 90 votes, Warwick lead with 58.9% to Magdalene's 41.1%. That seems to back up my thinking:

Warwick will, just about, start the match as favourites, but there's no way the match should be totally written off as a forgone conclusion; Magdalene are more than capable of winning out on the day.

 

These are two great teams who've played brilliantly throughout the series; either would be a worthy winner. All I can hope is that we get a good final that stands up to these expectations. Best of luck to both teams, may the best team win!

That's all for now then, back on Monday with my usual review of the final. Until then, sayonara!

University Challenge 2020-21: Semi-Final 2: Magdalene vs Balliol

Good evening friends, and welcome to the penultimate match of this year's UC! Winner of tonight's match would play Warwick in next week's final. Only Connect had its final tonight of course; I won't be doing a full review this year, just a slightly longer than usual summary below. Mastermind, of course, will carry on a few more weeks after next week; what I'll do is wait until the final has aired and then complete the Quizzy Mondays season by summarising all the remaining matches at once. For now, though, it's business as usual...

Magdalene College Cambridge defeated two Oxford teams, Univ. and Corpus Christi, in the first two rounds, and then defeated Birkbeck and Strathclyde in the QFs, though they also lost to Warwick. They were unchanged from those previous games: 

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

 

Balliol College Oxford, in a nice bit of symmetry, beat two Cambridge teams, Clare and St John's, in the first two rounds, but they came through the QFs undefeated with wins over King's and Durham. They were unchanged from their past three matches: 

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, now doing a graduate degree in Philosophy

Lily Crowther, from Royal Leamington Spa, studying History

 

So off we set for the penultimate time this series, and it was Magdalene who got going first courtesy of Mr Davies; bonuses on contemporaries of Dante gave them one correct bonus and they were unfortunate to not get another. A penalty then allowed Ms Scholefield to push Balliol off the mark, and they also took a single bonus from their first set. Mr O'Connor gave the Oxonians a second starter in a row, but no bonuses were taken this time. Mr Lawson recouped Magdalene's lost points, they took two bonuses on Indian provinces to give them back the lead. The first picture starter was missed by both sides; the bonuses, on Soviet cities and their former names, went to Magdalene, though not after both sides lost more points across three replacement starters. After all that, the Cambridge side led 45-15.

Mr Davies increased that advantage as he took the next starter, and the Cambridge side duly swept up a full bonus set on mathematical functions. Mr Lawson gave them a third in a row, but, in a reversal of fortune, they then got nothing from a set on characters in The Taming of the Shrew. The music round, on acts who designed their own album covers, went to Magdalene; again, no bonuses were taken, but their lead had now been taken to 90-15.

And another starter from Mr Davies took them into three figures, before two bonuses and another starter from Mr Byrne gave them a 100+ lead; just one bonus came this time. And when Mr Lawson was first to identify Plutonium and Cerium as the two elements named after dwarf planets, their lead was now surely insurmoutable; a full bonus set on flags of Middle East countries all but confirmed this. Another starter and two bonuses to the Cambridge team brought us to the second picture round, on authors who've written more than one winner of the O Henry award; Balliol finally got back into the game with this, and a full set took the scores to 170-40.

But Magdalene weren't letting up, Mr Lawson very quickly snapping up the next starter and a full bonus set on Eu institutions was gulped down just as quickly. Ms Scholefield did the right thing and took an early punt at the next starter, but only managed to lose five; Mr Lawson took full advantage and a second full house in a row took them past 200. Another Balliol penalty, another Magdalene pickup, and yet another full house gave the Cambridge side a 200+ lead. Balliol did take one more starter courtesy of Ms Scholefield, and two bonuses ensured they wouldn't be joining the Sub-50 club. Three starters in a row were dropped, Magdalene finally took the fourth and a final flourish gave them yet another full set. And that was the gong, Magdalene won 270-50.

A very one sided, but still highly enjoyable contest. Very well done Magdalene, a storming performance that stands them in good stead going into next week's final, very very best of luck to them there! And well done to Balliol too, a good team who didn't deserve to lose like that and who were worthy semi-finalists, thanks very much to them for playing.

The stats: Messrs Davies and Lawson were joint best buzzer of the night with six each, the latter has now overtaken Mr Byrne as their best buzzer with 21 starters to his 20, while Ms Scholefield and Mr O'Connor got two each for Balliol, the latter ending the series their best buzzer with 24. On the bonuses, Magdalene managed 28 out of 42 (with two penalties) and Balliol 6 out of 12 (with four penalties).

Next week's match: the final! Warwick vs Magdalene. A more thorough preview on Wednesday. I hope.

Only Connect’s sixteenth final saw the Dungeon Masters, Charlie Deeks, Sam Hayfield and captain Anna Hayfield, play the Puzzle Hunters, Paul Taylor, Ali Lloyd and captain Katie Steckles. The teams were tied on 6-each after a very high quality first round, before a rather trickier second round saw them tied at 10-each going into the Walls. Once again, the teams couldn’t not be separated, 7 each leaving it tied at 17-each going into Missing Vowels. The Puzzle Hunters just had the better of that, and won the game and the series 23-18. Congratulations to them, worthy winners! And the Dungeon Masters as well, who would’ve been worthy winners too. And thanks to all involved in another most enjoyable series! All that’s left to do is watch it all back again, starting tomorrow…

 

Mastermind, meanwhile, reached its final first round match, which was won by Tim Hall, whose 22 points were six clear of second place contender Connor Warden on 16. Next week, the semi-finals begin with a double bill, one at 7:30, the other at 8pm.

University Challenge 2020-21: Semi-Final 1: Imperial vs Warwick

Good evening friends, and welcome to the University Challenge semi-finals! Of course, today's game has been somewhat overshadowed in quizzing circles by the new earlier today that Clive Myrie will be the new host of Mastermind; a good choice in my opinion, and we look forward to seeing him in action on the show next series. On with tonight, and if next week's match reminds me of the Wolfson-Balliol final of 16-17, this one reminds me of two previous games, the Trinity-Manchester semi of 13-14 and the Peterhouse-York semi of 15-16, a rematch between arguably the two most popular teams of the series, with many calling the winner of this as the winner of the final as well. Winner would play next week's winner in the final...

Imperial lost the first time these two met in the preliminaries, and to Strathclyde in the first round, but have also beaten Exeter, St Andrews, King's and Durham. They were unchanged from before: 

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 got here undefeated of course, with victories over Wolfson of Oxford, Merton of Oxford, fellow semi-finalists Magdalene and, of course, their opponents tonight thus far. They were also the same four 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 the ever imperious Mr Kohn (pun intended) opened the scoring for the night by identifying Louise Gluck as the winner of last year's Nobel literature prize, and the Londoners firmly put their feet down with a full set of bonuses. But a penalty then lost them five on the next starter, asking after a Shakespeare play; Mr Rout got to hear the killer words 'set in Vienna', and duly supplied 'Measure for Measure'. Just one bonus came from their first set. Another penalty cost Imperial another five and gave Warwick the lead, and they took two bonuses from more Shakespeare questions. The first picture round, on descriptions of art movements written in their native French, went to Imperial; two bonuses tied the scores at 35-each.

A second starter for Mr Kohn gave Imperial the lead back, and more bonuses on France came with it, of which they took one. But another penalty lost them those five, and Warwick once again picked up the drop; just one bonus on stinging plants followed. Back came Imperial with Ms Marrow offering (what looked like) an educated guess of 'semi colon', with one bonus on Dogme films being taken and giving them the lead back. But back came Warwick with Mr Rout leveling the scores again; two bonuses followed and the third was unluckily missed. The music round, on jazz collaborations with Ron Carter (I reckon our old friend Adam 'Welshguy' Pearce would've liked these!), went to Imperial; bonuses followed, leaving the scores tied at 70-each.

Warwick retook the lead with Mr Burrell doing the honours, but eponymous lines on maps didn't give them any correct answers. Mr Rout doubled their lead when he took the next starter, giving them a bonus set on Bulgarian football, which was actually more about Bulgarian geography, of which they took two correct answers. And when Mr Burrell took the next starter, it was suddenly looking rather like the first match between these two, where Warwick ran away with it in the third quarter; two bonuses were taken. The second picture round, on inaugural names on New York's LGBTQ Wall of Honour, went to Imperial; two correct reduced the deficit to 120-90.

And when Mr Kohn took the next starter, and two bonuses on Athens were taken, it was down to just ten, and it was either team's game. Neither side knew 'backing' to be the opposite of 'veering' in the shipping forecast, but Mr Pollard took a crucial next starter with 'Yuri Gagarin', and Warwick picked a good time to pull out a full set of bonuses, a full set on poetry. Mr Kohn kept his side in the game when he took the next starter, but just one bonus was taken, which left Warwick with one foot in the semis. And when Mr Braid took the next, and two bonuses were taken, during which a clearly tense Mr Rout forgot his teammate's surname when trying to nominate him(!), that was game over. A penalty didn't really matter, nor did Imperial taking the points; the gong went during the bonuses. Warwick won 160-135.

A great contest between two great teams, both of whom would've been worthy semi-finalists, well played both of them. Well done Warwick, and best of luck in the final! And well done Imperial as well, a very impressive, and entertaining, series of performances!

The stats: Mr Kohn, once again, was the best buzzer of the night with seven, giving him a final series total of 45, while Messrs Braid and Rout got three each for Warwick, taking their totals to 20 and 19 respectively. On the bonuses, Imperial managed 12 out of 25 (with three penalties) and Warwick 15 out of 27 (with one penalty).

Next week's match: the second semi-final, Balliol vs Magdalene

Only Connect had its third place play-off, between the Whodunnits and the Apres Skiers. The latter led 3-2 after the first round, but the former pulled into a 7-5 lead after the second, both of which saw some very tricky questions, too hard for a competitive game but perfect for what is essentially a friendly. Two tough walls left the teams tied at 11-each going into the final round, after which the Whodunnits won 18-10.

 

Mastermind was won by Laura Myles with 17 points, who finished three clear of second place contender Ray Dexter on 14. I believe next week’s is the last first round match before we move on to the semi-finals.

University Challenge 2020-21: Semi-Finals Preview

Well, here we are once again people, at the semi-final stage of University Challenge. Last year's semi-final line-up was arguably the strongest we'd had since I started this blog, and this year's is also pretty solid. Our four semi-finalist line-ups are:

• Warwick (Richard Pollard, George Braid, Andrew Rout and Owen Burrell) Ran up the joint second highest score of the first round as they defeated Wolfson of Oxford 255-105, before beating fellow Wolfson conquerors Merton of Oxford 190-90 in the second. Came straight through the quarter-finals after beating fellow semi-finalists Imperial and Magdalene 200-120 and 200-160 respectively. Strong on both the buzzers, with all four players contributing well, and the bonuses, especially when it comes to educated guesswork, throughout the series.
• Balliol College Oxford (Ben Tomasi, Solenne Scholefield, Michael O'Connor and Lily Crowther) Beat Clare of Cambridge 150-135 in a low scoring first match, before winning probably the best match of the second round against St John's of Cambridge 200-155. Also came straight through the quarter-finals after beating King's of London 145-95 and then Durham 175-75. Usually pretty balanced on the buzzer, apart from in the second round when Mr O'Connor very much ran the show, and about midway on the bonuses.
• Imperial College London (Justin Wong, Katie Marrow, Michael Kohn and Imran Rahman) Lost to Strathclyde in the first round, but survived to the play-offs to just beat Exeter 160-155 before a more comfortable 180-90 second round win over St Andrews. Then lost again to Warwick in the preliminaries, but recovered by beating King's 265-95 and Durham 200-100. Strong on the buzzer throughout, Mr Kohn especially strong but the others contributing well as well, and pretty good on the bonuses too, usually between half and two thirds.
• Magdalene College Cambridge (James Byrne, Adam Davies, Daniel Lawson and Kerry Payne) Beat Univ. of Oxford 170-130 in the first round and then Corpus Christi of Oxford 185-115 in the second. Started the quarter-finals with a 240-140 win over Birkbeck, then lost to Warwick, before beating Strathclyde 185-125 to reach the semis. Another pretty well balanced team on the buzzer, with all four contributing well, and their bonus rate is very strong indeed, around or over two thirds every time.

Four good teams, all of whom are worthy semi-finalists, and all of whom would've been worthy winners. So, how do I see this going?

Well, I speculated on Monday night that the draw would keep Warwick and Balliol apart, and, as Warwick played Imperial before their played Magdalene, that they'd play the London side in the semis leaving the two Oxbridge teams together. As Mr Kohn liked my tweet saying this, and someone has added this to Wikipedia, I am going to assume this is correct.

So, first up, a rematch between Warwick and Imperial. Now, the first match between the two was a very close one at first, before Warwick ran away in the third quarter and Imperial recovered slightly towards the end. I don't think we can write this off as a foregone conclusion though; Warwick may be unbeaten so far, but Imperial are on a bit of a roll with their easy wins in their last two games, both of which have seen them finish very strongly.

Then we have Balliol vs Magdalene. This is also a pretty interesting one, as Balliol have the unbeaten record, but Magdalene arguably have the better looking stats in their favour on both the buzzer and the bonuses, including in the match they lost. It reminds me a bit of the Wolfson vs Balliol final from the Monkman and Seagull series of 16-17; Balliol had the better looking stats, but Wolfson had the advantage of having beaten them previously. If you're going on stats and ignoring the fact Magdalene have a loss to their name, they'd look easy favourites, but you can't overlook Balliol having the unbeaten record, and their ability to grind out results against strong opponents.

So, in short, I'm saying both these matches are way too close to call and both could feasibly go either way. These are four good teams and, as I said, all would be worthy finalists and winners. If you forced me to predict the final, I'd go for Warwick vs Magdalene, but I wouldn't be surprised if either match went the other way.

 

(Incidentally, I've made these 'forced' predictions for the last two series; two series ago, I was completely wrong, but last year I was spot on. Make of that what you will.)

So all that remains for me to do is wish all four teams best of (retrospective) luck and hope that the semis and final are all fine matches! Best of luck to all!

Back on Monday with my usual write-up, plus a probably decision on whether I'm going to fully review the Only Connect final (probably won't do the third place play-off this year); until then, sayonara!

University Challenge 2020-21: Play-Off Quarter-Final 2: Magdalene vs Strathclyde

Good evening folks, and welcome back! Nearly there now with UC this series, only three shows left after tonight's; I'll hopefully do my usual semi-final preview on Wednesday evening. And I will keep doing weekly Mastermind updates on here once UC is finished. I haven't decided yet if I'll do full reviews of the Only Connect third place play-off and final like I did last year, we'll wait and see. On with tonight...

Magdalene College Cambridge defeated Univ. and Corpus Christi of Oxford in the first two rounds, then Birkbeck in their preliminary match, but were defeated by Warwick in their qualifier. They were unchanged from those previous rounds: 

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

 

Strathclyde defeated Imperial, who of course returned in the play-offs and have reached the semis, in the first round and Manchester in the second, then lost their preliminary to Durham, before they also beat Birkbeck in their eliminator. They were also unchanged from before: 

Cameron Welsh, from Glasgow, graduated in Applied Statistics

David Curran, from Glasgow, studying Civil Engineering

Captain: James Whittle, from Glasgow, studying Power Systems Engineering

Tom Starr-Marshall, from Colindale in London, studying Speech and Language Therapy

 

So off we sent once more, and Mr Lawson was first off the mark for the night with 'JMW Turner', and the Cambridge side firmly set their intent out with a full set of bonuses on years with three successive numbers in their name (eg 1789). The Magdalene captain then took a second starter in a row; just two bonuses were taken this time, and five were then lost to a pen, but Strathclyde couldn't pick it up. Mr Byrne recouped the lost points, and a full set on US history was duly taken. The first picture round, on ports on the Silk Road, went to Magdalene; a third full house out of four gave them a lead of 90-0.

A fifth starter out of six took Magdalene into three figures, but their bonus form was cut dead in its tracks, none on astronomy. Strathclyde finally got off the mark with Mr Welsh doing the honours, and he also provided the answers for the two correct bonuses that were taken. He followed this up with a second starter in a row, but just the one bonus followed this time. Two starters were dropped, one of them Magdalene dropping back into double figures with a penalty, before Mr Whittle got things moving again; just one bonus was taken again. The music round, on classical pieces featuring offstage brass, went to Strathclyde; another sole bonus took the scores to 95-65.

Mr Davies finally reawoke Magdalene and pushed them back over 100; two bonuses from a classic UC set on pairs of words differing in the addition of an H after the first letter were taken. Mr Welsh was back in for Strathclyde though with two successive starters, and even though only two bonuses were taken out of six, they were back within touching distance. A third in a row took the Scots side into three figures, and one bonus meant they were just five behind! The second picture round, on paintings featuring fish, went to Magdalene, who took two much needed bonuses to increase their lead to 135-110.

But five points were then lost to a pedantic penalty, and Strathclyde picked up to keep the match firmly in the balance; one bonus was taken on authors with four letter surnames, putting them just ten adrift. But Mr Byrne took the next starter and a full house of bonuses gave the Cambridge side room to breath. And when Mr Byrne took the next starter as well, that was game over. Two bonuses were taken, and Mr Lawson just managed to squeeze in one more before the gong; Magdalene won 185-125.

A good contest between two good teams, both of whom, again, would've been worthy semi-finalists. Very well done to Magdalene and best of luck in the semi-finals! And well done too to Strathclyde, who can go away with their heads held high; well played throughout the series!

The stats: Mr Welsh was the best buzzer of the night with six starters, ending the series his team's best buzzer with 22 over five games, while Messrs Byrne and Lawson were best for Magdalene with four each, the former currently leading the way for them with 18. On the bonuses, Magdalene managed 20 out of 27 (with three penalties) and Strathclyde 9 out of 24, so it was mainly on the bonuses that the match was won.

Next week's match: the first semi-final! Given that the teams that came straight through are usually kept apart, I would guess a Warwick-Imperial rematch next week, followed by Balliol vs Magdalene, but we shall see.

Only Connect saw its second semi-final with the Dungeon Masters vs the Apres Skiers. The former led 4-1 after the first round, and 6-3 after the second (I claim a personal best of 7 points in that round, two on the Millennium and Eurovision questions and three on the Blackadder question!). A slightly better wall saw the Skiers cut the gap to 11-9 going into the final round, but the Dungeon Masters pulled away again in Missing Vowels to win 16-10.

 

Mastermind, meanwhile, was won very comfortably by UC alumnus Jonathan ‘Magdalen’ Gibson, whose 26 points was 11 clear of the two contenders in joint second on 15.