University Challenge 2021-22: Round 2: Match 6: King's vs Hertford

Good evening friends! Just two regular UCs left this year; tonight's match, then next week's, and then we take the usual two weeks off for Christmas UC, the teams and draw for which have been announced this past week. On with tonight's match then, and two teams we first met way back at the start of the series back in the Summer; winners would go through to the QFs...

King's College London trailed Glasgow for most of the first match of the series, before a timely late spurt saw them eke out a win of 115-100. They were the same foursome as before: 

Ananth Sathyanath, from between Southampton and Portsmouth, studying Medicine

Rachel Bedwin, from South East London, studying Developmental Biology

Captain: Ashad Rahid, from Daventry, studying Philosophy 

Oliver Beard, from South East London, studying the History of War 

 

Hertford College Oxford were more comfortable winners over the London Business School in their first match two weeks later, leading throughout and ultimately coming home 180-100 winners. They were also the same four as before: 

Matt Hitchens, from South London, studyign Philosophy

Bridget Donaldson, from Morpeth in Northumberland, studying Engineering

Captain: Matthew Lloyd, from Barnes in London, studying Physiology

Lucy Oswald, from Central London, studying Astrophysics

 

So off we set once again, and it was Mr Rashid who opened the scoring for the night with 'the Antarctic Treaty'; the London side opened the night with one bonus on George Orwell. The King's captain took a second starter in a row, followed by another single bonus, and then a third, which gave them a full set of bonuses on National Character Areas. The first picture round, on trios of US place names with shared name elements, also went to King's, this time Mr Sathyanath doing the honours; two correct answers took their lead to 75-0.

A penalty then handed Hertford a free shot at getting off the mark though, and, on hearing 'formerly represented by Andy Burnham', Mr Hitchens knew we were after 'Leigh'. Two bonuses on Timbuktu (from the makers of Timbukone...) got the Oxford side going, followed by a second starter in a row and two more bonuses on Nobel Prize winning relatives. A third starter in a row to the Oxonians, another pair of bonuses, and they'd cut the gap to just ten points. But then King's took the music round, on classical pieces influenced by jazz; one correct bonus upped their lead to 85-60.

Ms Bedwin then upped it further by taking the next starter, ensuring all four King's players had contributed a starter; no bonuses on astronomy were taken, though they were unlucky to twice swerve away from the right answer. Mr Rashid then took them into three figures with the next starter, and bonuses on the Mercury Prize proved more to the London side's liking, two correct. A second in a row to the King's captain, a full bonus set on words ending 'ulate', and King's were within sight of victory. They also took the second picture round, on self portraits in which the artist depicts themself as a religious figure; one bonus took their lead to 155-60.

And when Mr Rashid took the next starter, that was definitely game over; no bonuses followed, but you fancied it was too late for Hertford to catch them now even if they aced it from here on in. The Oxford side did manage a late rally to go out on though, Mr Hitchens taking two starters in a row, with two bonuses from the first set and one from the second. Mr Lloyd took the final starter of the game, and two bonuses were taken on words containing all five vowels only once, one of which was maybe after the gong, but it made no difference really. King's won 165-115.

A lower scoring game than the last few weeks, but still a pleasant and watchable one. Well done to King's, a fine performance on the buzzer, best of luck in the QFs! Hard lines to Hertford, who were visibly just beaten to the buzzer on quite a few occasions in the middle third especially, but still a respectable performance, thanks for playing!

The stats: Mr Rashid was the best buzzer of the night with six, while Mr Hitchens was best for Hertford with three. On the bonuses, King's managed 14 out of 30 (with the night's one penalty) and Hertford 11 out of 18.

Next week: the penultimate second round match, and the last regular game before we break for Christmas, featuring two of St Andrews, Exeter, Imperial and Birmingham (my source has told me the fixtures, but not a definite order yet)

Only Connect will also be having its now annual four festive specials, from the 27^th to the 30^th, but will be having a regular episode on the 20^th. Tonight’s second quarter-final saw the Golfers play the Scrubs. The former led 4-2 after the first round, and 6-3 after the second (I got the Scottish universities for two points). Two perfect walls (which I predicted as there wasn’t much time left after the second round!) left the scores at 16-13 going into Missing Vowels, which the Golfers comfortably aced to win 25-14.

 

Mastermind was narrowly won by UC alumnus Allister Mallon with 22 points, with Kevin Kilminster, having been last after the specialist rounds, producing a good recovery on GK, but just finishing short on 21. Jodie Manning and Laura Ellerton also partook, finishing with 17 and 18 respectively.