University Challenge 2020-21: Grand Final: Warwick vs Magdalene

Good evening friends, and welcome to the 50th University Challenge final! At the end of a series we weren't sure if we'd be getting back in June, and then if it would be finished once it started, but here we are. Special credit to all who made the extra effort to remount production and get these final stages recorded in the circumstances. Whoever won tonight would be worthy champions.

Warwick got here undefeated by beating Wolfson of Oxford, Merton of Oxford, Imperial twice and their opponents tonight as well. Hoping to win their second title were: 

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

 

Magdalene College Cambridge reached this final by beating Univ. of Oxford, Corpus Christi of Oxford, Birkbeck of London, Strathclyde and Balliol of Oxford, with the only blip being the afore mentioned defeat to their opponents tonight. Aiming for their first title were: 

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

 

So off we set for the last time this series, and Magdalene got off to an unfortunate start as Mr Lawson dropped five; Mr Burrell took the points for Warwick, and they took a single bonus on mistaken identity cases, including the famous Guy Goma incident! Mr Braid took the second starter for the Coventry team, and this time they took a full set of bonuses. A third followed, as did another two bonuses, before Magdalene got their first proper points with the first picture round, on a gridded map of Africa, where they were asked to give the sqaure where a certain location was; a full bonus set took the scores to 60-20.

A starter was dropped before Mr Burrell pushed Warwick further ahead by taking the next starter, and all three bonuses went with it again. Mr Braid took the next, but the bonuses on vampire films saw Mr Rout declare this to be "another example of us not knowing popular culture"(!), though they did get one right at least. Back came Magdalene with Mr Davies, and a full set of bonuses on men called Marmaduke suggested they weren't out of it if they could get a run of starters. They did take the music round, on classical works based on epic poems, and one correct bonus cut the gap to 100-60.

Mr Davies took a third starter in a row, and two bonuses on scientific terms cut the gap down to 20. Mr Braid then reawoke Wawick with 'pinion', and they took just one bonus on politicians associated with the defense of slavery. A nice starter asked which European country's flag bears the colours of the two left most rings on the Olympic logo; Mr Byrne knew it to be Ukraine, and a full bonus set on Chinese provinces cut the gap to 10. But Mr Byrne then lost five after zigging with Henry IV, allowing Mr Rout to zag with Henry V, and Warwick took a full set of bonuses to boot. And when the Coventry side took the second picture round, on paintings from Titian's poesie series, and they took two correct bonuses , the title was now their's to lose; they led 160-100.

And when Mr Davies accidentally offered 'Bannerman-Campbell' instead of 'Campbell-Bannerman', losing five and handing Mr Rout a tap-in, that was game over. Two bonuses on Belize were taken, and Mr Braid made doubly sure by taking the next starter; just one bonus mattered now, but it didn't matter now. Magdalene did pull back to respectability with a late rally, Mr Lawson taking two starters and Mr Byrne one, and half of the six bonuses there was time for being taken. At the gong, Warwick won the game, and the series, 195-140.

I didn't think we'd get a trophy presentation, but we did indeed, with poet laureate and Xmas UC alumnus Simon Armitage emerging and saying a few words, before Mr Rout stepped forward alone and collected the trophy.

A good final to end a good series. Well played both teams, and many congratulations to Warwick, a fine team throughout the series and very worthy champions indeed! And well done to Magdalene too, who've also been great throughout the series and would've been worthy winners too; well done indeed!

The stats: Mr Braid was the best buzzer of the night with five starters, ending the series his side's best buzzer with 25, while Messrs Byrne and Davies were best for Magdalene with three each, with Messrs Byrne and Lawson their joint best for the series with 23 each. On the bonuses, Warwick managed 19 out of 30, and Magdalene 15 out of 21 (with three penalties).

And that's it! Thanks to all the teams who took part, and to Paxo and Roger Tilling for their ever excellent work! And well done again to all who helped remount the show after the enforced delay. I'll say some proper final words in my review of the series later in the week.

Mastermind began the semi-finals with a double bill. The first was won by Claire Barrow, who was level on 10 each with Aidan Linge after the specialist rounds, and just beat him on General Knowledge to win 21 to 19. Tom Lee came third with 18, and Jacqueline Jones finished with 12.

 

The second was won by Hazel Humphreys, who, similarly, was joint first with Peter Timms on 9 each after the first round, and ended up winning with 21 points to his 18. Tom Gibson and Laura Myles also competed, and ended with 14 and 15 points respectively. I’ll cover the remaining semis and the final in one big post after the final airs, whenever that is.