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.
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