University Challenge 2021-22: Round 1: Match 7: Durham vs Trinity

Good evening friends, and welcome back to University Challenge! On a busy Monday, with the eagerly awaited return of Mastermind today completing the Quizzy Mondays triumverate. Or quadumvirate if you add Brain of Britain, as I do. So far, this series of UC has been enjoyable, steady but not terribly spectacular, with no scores over 200 yet; would that change in tonight's rematch of a first round match from two series ago, both of which's teams would reach that series' semis.

Durham University, the second of my mother's alma matas to feature in as many weeks, is the most frequent sender of teams to UC in the BBC era, tonight's being its 22nd; its best performance, of course, was winning in 99-2000, plus five SF appearances and a QF run last series. This year's team were:

Jack Griffiths, from Durham, studying Theoretical Physics

Charlie Hetherington, from Royton, studying Physics

Captain: Emily Mitchell, from Suffolk, studying English Literature

Isaiah Silvers, from Washington DC, studying History

 

Trinity College Cambridge is the most frequent supplier of Cambridge UC teams in the BBC series thus far, tonight being its 12th appearance; two of the previous 11 were wins, in the first BBC series of 94-95 and 13-14, and there have also been an SF run and two QF appearances. This year's quartet were:

Hattie Innes, from Surrey, studying Linguistics

Navonil Neogi, from Surrey, studying Maths

Captain: Ludwig Brekke, from Oslo, studying Law

Luke Kim, from Seoul, studying Physics

 

So off we set once again, and it was Mr Neogi who opened the scoring by identifying V as the letter linking the clues being listed; the Cambridge side firmly put their stall down with a full set of bonuses. Mr Kim quickly gave them a second, which was followed by two bonuses, before Durham opened their scoring thanks to Mr Silvers, and they also took all three of their first bonuses. The first picture round, on trans-African highways currently being built, went to Trinity, who took two more correct answers to increase their lead to 65-25.

Mr Kim increased it when he took the next starter, but this time only one bonus on artists' models was taken (I got Effie Gray). Mr Brekke gave his side a third starter in a row, and two of the resulting bonuses took them into three figures. Durham fought back into the game, with Mr Hetherington taking the points, but they got nothing from a bonus set on archaeological sites. Back came Trinity thanks to Mr Kim, but they also got nothing from their bonuses. They did take the music round though, on Italian operas sung in German, and two correct increased their lead to 130-35.

Paxo uttered the fateful words "still plenty of time to catch up Durham", but it was Trinity who took the next two starters, though they couldn't add to their score with any bonuses. Mr Hetherington did the right thing and had a guess at the next starter, but only managed to lose five for a 'just an' interruption. Ms Innes duly made sure all four Trinity players had a starter to their name, but, again, they got nothing from a bonus set on football clubs from the East of Scotland league (I knew Dunbar and Hawick). The second picture round, on illustrations of plants from Elizabeth Blackwell's 'A Curious Herbal', went to Trinity; one correct bonus took their lead to 175-30.

All over as a contest, but could Durham reach respectability at least? Mr Griffiths pulled the next starter back for them, but they got nothing from the bonuses. Mr Hetherington did take the next two starters though, and the Wearsiders took full marks from both sets to, indeed, give them a respectable total. Mr Neogi took the final starter for Trinity, and one bonus came from the final set. At the gong, Trinity won 190-90.

Another good contest despite being a bit one-sided. Well done to Trinity though, an excellent team on the buzzer who could be one to watch in the coming rounds, best of luck to them there. Hard lines to Durham, who did OK when they did get in and I'm sure could've beaten other teams in this series, but they still gave a good account of themselves, thanks for playing!

The stats: Mr Kim was the best buzzer of the night with five, while Mr Hetherington was best for Durham with three. On the bonuses, Durham managed 9 out of 15 (with the night's one penalty) and Trinity 14 out of 36.

Next week's match: Exeter vs Manchester

Only Connect introduced two teams of UC alumni: the Ramblers, Niall Jones, Lorna Frankel and captain Steve Barnes, all of whom have represented Southampton (Mr Jones and Ms Frankel in 17-18, Mr Barnes in 19-20), and the Woolgatherers, Gill Taylor, Beverley Randle and captain Chris Macklin, who were all part of the Open University team last series. The Ramblers led 3-1 after a low scoring first round, before the Woolgatherers recovered to tie the scores at 6-each after the second. Two seven point walls meant as you were, 13-all going into Missing Vowels, where the Ramblers fared better to win 19-13.

 

Mastermind returned with Clive Myrie as the new host, and he gave an excellent first impression; the show is definitely safe in his hands. Ranvir Singh Kalare won the show with 20 points; Tom Jewsbury came second with 18 and Megan Sutcliffe and Eleanor Launchberry finished joint third with 17 each.

 

Brain of Britain was won by Derek Heyes with 10 points, after a hard fought contest where the lead changed hands a couple of times; Sarah Hunt came second with 8, Malcolm Barraclough and Neil Wright, again, came joint third with 6 each.