Greetings friends, and here we go again! Last week, the new series opened with a low scoring, but still close and enthralling contest, and, with any luck, we'd continue that form on tonight. Tonight, we'd be meetings two more teams, one from a very regular UC institution, the other from one that hasn't sent a student team since the days when DoND was less than six months old!
U.C.L. is the regular sender, having appeared 13 times on the BBC series, its best performances being two final defeats in 04-05 and 12-13; its last team, three series ago, were narrowly beaten by eventual winners Edinburgh in the second round in a massive Sliding Doors match. This year's team were:
Hugo Fleming, from Weybridge in Surrey, studying Neuroscience
Max Traeger, from East Molesey in Surrey, studying History and Politics of the Americas
Captain: Koshiro Kiso, from Japan, studying Cell Biology
Humaira Maka, from London, studying Medicine
St Hilda's College Oxford was last seen on the student series was in 05-06, when they were soundly trounced by eventual winners Manchester in the second round; a victory in the 2016 Christmas series surely went some way to atoning for that, also giving us the first all-female team to win a UC series. Tonight's team were the first mixed gender team from the college; they were:
Luca Chilvers, from Colchester, studying Philosophy and Linguistics
Akshay Pal, from Bolton, studying Engineering
Captain: Catriona Dionisio, from London, studying Classics
Chris Bennett, from Cobham in Surrey, studying Theology and Science
So off we set, and Ms Dionisio got her side off the mark first, identifying 'Miller' as the surname linking the authors of the works listed; bonuses on fictional islands gave them one correct answer, and also saw Paxo mispronounce the Island of Sodor as 'SODor' for not the first time on the show! (Maybe that's what the Rev Awdry intended and they changed it for the TV series!) U.C.L. quickly got going too with two starters from Messrs Kiso and Fleming, and a solid haul of five bonuses out of six gave them an early lead. The first picture round, on the names of Shakespeare plays in the language of the country they're set in, went to St Hilda's, who took a full set of their own to pull back to 45-40.
U.C.L. duly increased the lead again, but only took one bonus on astronomy this time. St Hilda's bit back too with Mr Bennett offering, what looked like, an educated guess of 'Murder on the Orient Express'; bonuses on teams that have won all four tiers of the EFL, also gave the Oxonians just one correct answer (I got Preston and Portsmouth, but missed Wolves). A penalty then pulled the sides level, and Mr Bennett then gave St Hilda's the lead, and two bonuses on volcanic eruptions were taken. U.C.L. recovered with the music round, on piano concertos performed by their composer at their premiere; one bonus put the gap back at five points, 75-70.
It increased again when Mr Pal made sure all four Oxonians had a starter to their name; two correct bonuses from a complicated maths set followed, as did another penalty from U.C.L.. St Hilda's moved into three figures first when Ms Dionisio took the next starter, and bonuses on John Keats gave them two correct. Two starters were dropped before Mr Chilvers took the next; no bonuses on Scottish footpaths were taken, but they did now have a potentially match winning lead. But then U.C.L. took the second picture round, on recent TV series developed from films, and took all thee bonuses, which cut the gap down to 125-90.
The Londoners duly took the next starter and two bonuses to cut the gap to 15. And when St Hilda's lost five on the next and they took it, they had pulled level, but couldn't get the one bonus to take the lead. Now a straight shootout, it was Mr Bennett who blinked first, and St Hilda's took two bonuses on anatomy, leaving U.C.L. needing a quick clean sweep. Mr Kiso took the starter they needed, and the first bonus came, but the gong went before they could answer the second. St Hilda's won 140-135.
A good close contest between two well-matched teams, well played both. Well done St Hilda's and best of luck in the second round! And hopefully U.C.L.'s score will bring them back too, but it'll be on the borderline I think; well done to them anyway on a good effort!
The stats: Messrs Fleming, Kiso and Bennett were the best buzzers of the night with three each. On the bonuses, U.C.L. managed 13 out of 23 (with two penalties) and St Hilda's... 13 out of 24 as well! So it was fewer penalties that won it. Also, all eight players contributed at least one starter, good to see so early in the series.
Next week's match: London Business School vs Hertford College Oxford
Only Connect’s second heat pitted
the Gamemakers, Andrew Condon, Edward Pearce and captain Nicholas Nagata, and
the Animal Lovers, Claire Heywood, Isabella Morris (UC alumnus, St John’s
Oxford 19-20) and captain Emily Wolfenden (another UC alumnus, Warwick 18-19).
The Lovers led 4-3 after the first round, which they increased to 11-6 after
the second, which included another of those incidents where a credible
alternate sequence to that TPTB had in mind was offered up. Five each on the
Walls took the scores to 16-11, and the Lovers maintained pace in Missing
Vowels to win 23-15.
Brain of Britain began its competition
proper with its first heat this afternoon. Chris Kilbride won the show with 12
points, with another UC alumnus, Lillian Crawford (Trinity Cambridge 19-20)
finishing second with 10, which might yet be enough for a highest scoring
runners-up place. David Gregson and Clare Barrow, a finalist in the last series
of Mastermind, also competed, ending with 8 and 7 respectively.
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