University Challenge 2021-22: Repechage Play-Off 2: Emmanuel vs RNCM

Good evening friends, and welcome back! Last week's UC was the best in a long time and we were all no doubt hoping that this newfound momentum would carry on into this week after the rather low scoring first round. Whoever won tonight would take the final place in the second round, which starts next week, as does the Fantasy UC tournament on Twitter; best of luck to all those taking part in that this year! On we go with the game...

Emmanuel College Cambridge lost to St Andrews by just five points in their first match, leading for most of it, but being overtaken on the final round of questions of the game to lose 140-135. They were unchanged from that previous game: 

Nicole Pullinger, from Hong Kong, studying English

Nicholas Thatte, from Oxford (originally Greece), studying Physics

Captain: Kara Malcolm, from Guildford (originally Capetown), studying Engineering

James Wrathall, from Mistley in Essex, studying Asian and Middle Eastern Studies

 

The Royal Northern College of Music also scored 135 in their first match and were also narrowly beaten, by Dundee; trailing at first, they rallied back impressively, but were just pipped 145-135. They were also the same foursome as before: 

Keelan Carew, from Medway in Kent, studying Classical Piano

Dominic Wills, from Cambridgeshire, studying Composition

Captain: Leela Chrisp, from London, studying Vocal Studies and Opera

Alex Robarts, from Great Hormead in Hertfordshire, studying Vocal Studies and Opera

 

Off we set once again then, and it was Mr Carew who opened the scoring for the night identifying 'rogue' as the word linking the various given clues (sadly, 'precedes Spear in the name of a Tom Clancy video game' was not one of them!); bonuses on Roman emperors gave RNCM two correct bonuses. Emmanuel were quickly out of the blocks too thanks to Mr Wrathall, giving them a bonus set on place names ending in 'ham', which they took one of. A second in a row gave the Cambridge side the lead, as did two bonuses, before RNCM took the first picture round, on works of authors translated in different languages; a full set of bonuses took them into a 45-35.

An unfortunate penalty though allowed Emmanuel to quickly overtake them, and they took one bonus on kinetic art. Mr Thatte then took two starters in a row, but, in both cases, just one bonus was taken. The Cambridge side were winning on the buzzers, but profligacy on the bonuses meant they couldn't pull away, as demonstrated when they only took one from a fourth successive set (one of which, Paxo claimed Mr Carew was trying to restrain himself from shouting it out to them!). The music round, on piano pieces played by Dame Nitsuko Uchida, went to RNCM (natch), and they, in contrast, took a full set (natch) (Paxo: "Is that ridiculously easy?!" Mr Carew: "For me!"), which cut the gap to 95-65.

Emmanuel recovered with a starter to take them into three figures, and the bonuses finally fell for them, a full set on Indian festivals. A second starter and full bonus set to the Cambridge side and suddenly things looked a lot more comfortable for them. RNCM pulled one back though as Mr Robarts remembered that old chestnut about the tug of war being an event in early Olympic Games, and they took two bonuses to just about keep themselves in it. The second picture round, on winners of the  Women's Prize for Fiction, went to Emmanuel, who took one bonus to take their lead to 160-80.

As we saw last week, that's not insurmountable, as Ms Chrisp proved with a quick buzz of 'Les Miserables' on the next starter; bonuses on physics weren't to RNCM's liking, none taken, but a second starter in a row gave them bonuses on Franz Liszt, which they very much preferred, a full set. That was as close as they could get though, as Mr Thatte took the next starter and two bonuses pretty much confirmed the Cambridge side's victory. Two penalties in a row cut ten off their lead, but it didn't really matter now, and they recouped those points with the final starter; at the gong, Emmanuel won 180-115.

A good match I thought, played well by two pleasant and watchable teams, well played both! Well done to Emmanuel and best of luck in the second round! Hard lines to RNCM, but they gave a good account of themselves over their two games, thanks very much to them for playing!

The stats: Mr Thatte and Ms Malcolm were joint best buzzers of the night with four each, while Mr Carew and Ms Chrisp both took two each for RNCM. On the bonuses, Emmanuel managed 16 out of 30 and RNCM 13 out of 18, with both sides incurring two penalties.

Next week's match: the first second round match! Don't know who's playing, but hopefully we will midweek when the BBC updates their images on the website, and I'll tweet/retweet anything definite.

Only Connect completed its qualifying round with the Ramblers vs the Data Wizards. The Wizards led 4-1 after the first round, and that’s how the scores remained after an exceptionally tough second round where, for the first time in OC history, neither team scored any points at all! (I got the Beatles question) Two perfect walls soon made up for that, the Wizards led 14-11 going into Missing Vowels, which they fared better on to win 22-15.

 

Mastermind was won narrowly by Eleanor Ayres, a noted winner on WWTBAM not that long ago, whose 21 points saw her just pip second placed Mark Eaden, who led after the specialists, but didn’t fare as well on GK. Nigel Booth and Gill Woon also competed and finished with 17 and 18 respectively.

 

Brain of Britain’s third semi-final was the highest scoring one so far; Karl Whelan won with 15 points to take the penultimate place in the final; Alan Burns and John Payne finished joint second with 11 each and Toby Cox completed the line-up with six points.

University Challenge 2021-22: Repechage Play-Off 1: U.C.L. vs St John's

Good evening friends, and here we go with the play-offs! After a low scoring first round, which, to be fair, did pick up as it went on, we have ended up with an actually pretty good second round line-up so far, and four good teams in the play-offs as well. Whoever won tonight's match would go take the penultimate place in the second round.

U.C.L. narrowly lost the second match of the series back in July, just being pipped by St Hilda's 140-135. They were unchanged from that match: 

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 John's College Cambridge had the highest losing score of the first round, as they lost what was also the highest scoring first round match to Imperial 210-155. They were also unchanged from before: 

Thomas Clark, from the USA and Japan, studying Linguistics 

Louie George, from Lyme Regis, studying Human Social and Political Sciences

Captain: Jonathan Chan, from Cambridge, studying Veterinary Medicine

Kyanna Ouyang, from New Jersey, studying Natural Sciences

 

So off we set once again, and St John's got off the mark first with Mr Chan, comfortably their MVP in the first match, taking the first starter, and they started off strongly with a full set of bonuses. His opposite number Mr Kiso, also his side's (joint) best player in the first round, duly took the Londoners off the mark too, and they took two bonuses from their first set. A penalty then handed St John's a tap in though, and they took just one bonus this time on platinum elements. The Cambridge side also took the first picture round, on a map of the Pacific with countrys' territorial waters highlighted; another sole correct answer took their lead to 55-15.

An educated guess from Mr Kiso took U.C.L. back into the game, and they also took just the one resulting bonus. Back came St John's from Mr Chan though, and they went one better with two bonuses on the 'Mighty Five' Russian composers, who used to get lots of questions on UC, but not so many over the past few years. Another started to the Cambridge captain, and one bonus on terms coined by authors, was followed by U.C.L. replying likewise with one of each of their own. Mr George eventually identified Jennifer Lopez for the music starter; the bonuses, on winners of the Icon award at Billboard's Women in Music awards, gave St John's two correct answers to increase their lead to 110-45.

A very quick buzz from Mr Chan increased the lead even further, as did two bonuses on South American geography. An unfortunate penalty from U.C.L. handed the Cambridge side another tap in which took their lead to 100 points, and they added to it with one bonus on plants with alliterative names. Another starter to that man Chan increased plus one bonus looked to have won it for them, before Mr Kiso buzzed his team back into the game, but they couldn't take any of their bonuses on football (I got the first two and might've got the third if they hadn't got it wrong so quick). The second picture round, on death scenes by David, went to St John's; just one correct bonus followed, but they still led 175-50 and looked very much home and dry.

Mr Traeger pulled one back for U.C.L. though, and they took a full bonus on words in Italian and English. A very quick buzz from Mr Kiso brought them a second starter in a row, and a second successive full bonus set took them into triple figures. Another to the U.C.L. captain only brought them one correct bonus, but they firmly had their tails up and Mr Traeger gave them yet another starter and two bonuses on prime ministers meant they were back within touching distance again! The next starter was dropped, the next went to Mr Kiso, and they were now very much back in the game, though time was still against them. Two bonuses came though, and they could still just do it! Mr Traeger took the next starter, they took the first bonus to pull within five... but that was the gong! St John's snuck home 175-170!

A great contest that, two good teams who played brilliantly and neither deserved to lose quite honestly. Hard lines to U.C.L., who are unlucky to go out after such a great fightback, but they can still go away with their heads held high, very well played! Well done to St John's though, deserved winners, and best of luck in the second round!

The stats: Mr Chan was, just, the best buzzer of the night with seven starters to Mr Kiso's six. On the bonuses, U.C.L. managed 16 out of 29 (with two ultimately fatal penalties) and St John's 15 out of 30.

Next week's match: Emmanuel vs RNCM

Only Connect continued its qualifying round with the Muppets vs the Steelers. The latter led 3-2 after a low-ish scoring first round, but the former scored the only points of a very difficult second to take a 6-3 lead. A better wall saw the Steelers pull back to 10-9 going into Missing Vowels, but the Muppets just about kept their lead and won 15-13.

 

Mastermind was narrowly won by Marianne McKillop with 20 points, one ahead of second place Dean Ward on 19; Gillian Burgoyne and Daniel Howard also competed and finished on 15 and 17 respectively.

 

Brain of Britain’s second semi-final was won by Alan Hodgson with 13 points, four ahead of Heather Auton in second, with Innis Carson on 8 and Edward Brunt on 5; his win was largely thanks to a late spurt that saw him get 5 in a row and a bonus point in the fourth round.

University Challenge 2021-22: First Round Review

OK, so I wasn't sure if I was going to do a first round review for UC this series, as I'm not sure if there's anything I can say that I haven't already said. But I've done one for every series for the past ten(!) years (and probably a few before that, even if I never published them online!), so why not? So, our fourteen first round winners, and their scores and winning margins, are:

• King's College London (115, 15)
• St Hilda's College Oxford (140, 5)
• Hertford College Oxford (180, 80)
• St Andrews (140, 5)
• Queen Mary London (115, 25)
• Reading (175, 65)
• Trinity College Cambridge (190, 100)
• Exeter (130, 50)
• Edinburgh (270, 190)
• Imperial College London (210, 65)
• St Catharine's College Cambridge (130, 10)
• Dundee (145, 10)
• Bristol (165, 55)
• Birmingham (245, 235)

So, who are the runners and riders for the second round?

Well, Edinburgh's score was easily the biggest score of the round, as was their collective team performance, with all four contributing well to the win, so they would almost certainly be favoured to progress. As would Birmingham, who were similarly impressive on Monday, though others may be wishing to see them against proven opponents before tipping them thusly.

You would also say Imperial must be strong favourites to reach the group stage, given their high score and the fact they achieved it against such a good team in St John's.

Just below them, you have Trinity and Hertford, whose first round matches and performances were very similar, steady and comfortable but not spectacular wins against teams who finished around the 100 point mark, and Reading and Bristol, both of whom looked pretty solid against respectable opposition efforts, and one of whom boast a candidate for best individual performer of the round in Reading captain Mr Hutchinson.

The remaining teams were all winners of narrow, low scoring contests. All seven are good teams in their own right, and three of them, Dundee, St Hilda's and St Andrews, defeated teams good enough to return in the play-offs.

I've said before in previous first round reviews that it'll probably come down to who faces who, and, in this even and tight series where nearly half the surviving teams are about on a par with each other, that really will be the case I would reckon.

And then we have those play-offs, which will feature:

• St John's College Cambridge (155, 55)
• Emmanuel College Cambridge (135, 5)
• U.C.L. (135, 5)
• Royal Northern College of Music (135, 10)

And the draw, as indirectly revealed by the BBC website, pits U.C.L. against St John's and Emmanuel vs RNCM.

On paper, St John's would probably be fancied to win the former, while the latter would be far too close to call. These are four good teams, all of whom deserved a second chance, and hopefully will give us two good contests.

So, to summarise, it was a rather low scoring first round, but we emerge from it with a decent pack of teams who are capable of excellent performances. Hopefully, now that the teams are more familiar with the show, things will pick up in the second round; best of retrospective luck to all the teams involved!

Back on Monday with my usual write-up of the show and summaries of the other quartets of Quizzy Mondays; until then, sayonara!

University Challenge 2021-22: Round 1: Match 14: Birmingham vs Sussex

Good evening again friends, and welcome back for the final first round match of this year's UC! It was a first round that started off low scoring, but has definitely improved as its gone on. Paxo summed up the situation nicely at the start of the show when he said the two teams competing had two objectives: win, or, failing that, lose with 140 or more to ensure a play-off place. And if they did, we'd have a rather awkward tie for the last two places on the board... (Incidentally, with no Oxbridge teams tonight, that leaves the total for this series at nine, which I think may be a record low for a 28 team BBC series)

Birmingham University is appearing for the 11th time in the BBC era; of those ten previous, it's joint best were two appearances in QFs, including the 1994-95 team that Iain Weaver of Weaver's Week unsuccessfully auditioned for. It's last appearance was two series ago, when they lost in the second round. This year's foursome were:

Mark McParlan, from Crosby near Liverpool, studying History and English

John Robinson, from Birmingham (originally Sevenoaks), studying Literature and Culture

Captain: Michael Joel Bartelle, from San Antonio, Texas, studying Shakespeare Studies

Jaimy Sajit, from Derby, studying Medicine

 

The University of Sussex won the show twice in the ITV era, shortly after its foundation in fact, but, in its seven prior BBC appearances, has never cleared the second round; its last appearance before tonight, in 2015-16, saw it lose in the first round and just miss out on a repechage place. This year's quartet were:

Marianne Glascott, from Lingfield in Surrey, studying Climate Change Development and Policy

Spike Asri, from Oxfordshire, studying Geography and International Development

Tom Khan-White, from Cym-twrch Uchaf in South Wales, studying Medicine

Jack Harcourt, from Fulham, studying Social Anthropology

 

So off we set for the final time this first round, and the first starter of the night went to Mr Robinson, who I thought I recognised, and eventually realised to be the same John Robinson who won £500,000 on WWTBAM a couple of years back; it was his captain for whom the first bonuses fell nicely though, a full set on Shakespeare quotes. Birmingham dominated the opening exchanges, Messrs Bartelle and Robinson taking the next two starters and three bonuses out of six. They also took the first picture round, on descriptions of animals with Spanish derived names in Spanish, and took a full set, which meant they already led 85-0.

And when Mr McParlon took the next starter, and Birmingham took one bonus on the work of cartoonist Sarah Andersen, they already had a 100 point lead. Another starter and sole bonus went Birmingham's way, before Mr Khan-White did the right thing and took an early punt on the next starter, but all he managed to do was drop his side into negative figures. Birmingham didn't pick up, but Mr Robinson did take the next starter and they followed it up with another sole bonus. Sussex finally got some proper points on the board with the music round, on musicals set during the Second World War; one correct bonus of their own took the scores to 130-10.

Birmingham quickly resumed their dominance though, Mr Robinson taking a starter that gave them a bonus set on the late Irrfan Khan, which they took two of this time. Another early punt from Mr Khan-White sadly cost his team another five; Birmingham didn't pick up, only for Mr Bartelle to take the next starter and all three bonuses to follow. Sussex did take the second picture round, on recent additions to the BFI's list of films to see by the age of 15, but couldn't take any bonuses, which left them trailing 175-15.

The match was long over as a contest, it was just a question of how high both teams could score. Mr Asri took a guess on the next starter, but was wrong; Mr Bartelle took one and was right, though no bonuses followed. Ms Sajit made sure all four Birmingham players had contributed a starter, and one bonus took them past 200. Mr Asri took another valiant early guess on the next starter, but lost another five and handed Mr Robinson a tap-in and Birmingham all three bonuses. Another starter to Birmingham, two bonuses, and that was the gong; Birmingham won 245-10.

A very one-sided contest indeed, but still a watchable and enjoyable game. Very well done to Birmingham, who look a very solid team indeed and could well be one to watch; best of luck to them next time! Hard lines to Sussex, for whom the questions just didn't fall, and who must be a good team to have made it onto the show; alas, their score is the lowest of the BBC era for a student team. They came across well when they did get in though, and took it well, so good on them and thanks for playing!

The stats: Mr Robinson was, just, the best buzzer of the night with six starters to Mr Bartelle's five, while Mr Harcourt took both of Sussex's two starters. On the bonuses, Birmingham managed 23 out of 39 and Sussex just 1 out of 6 (with three penalties).

Next week's match: the first play-off! I would guess St John's will be playing; will retweet anything I find confirming the teams.

Only Connect pitted the Golfers and the Jukeboxers in the second qualifier match. The teams were tied on 4-each after the first round, before the Golfers eked out a 10-8 lead after the second. A better wall saw that lead increase to 17-13, and a better Missing Vowels performance saw them home 24-16.

 

Mastermind was won very narrowly by OC winning captain Richard Aubrey with 25 points, just one ahead of second placed Sam Anderson. Hayley Goddard and Tara Jackson-Rigchung also competed, finishing on 18 and 15 respectively.

 

Brain of Britain began its semi-finals with a very close contest indeed, with three contestants tied going into the final round. Phil Small ended up victorious with 11 points, one ahead of Chris Kilbride on 10, with Rachael Neiman-Wiseman third on 8 and Mark Manson completing the line-up with 3. As a big Laurel and Hardy fan, I got both the Beat the Brains questions, though I must say, how any non-L&H obsessive could’ve gotten the second, I do not know!