Greetings friends, and welcome back to the now slimmed down Quizzy Mondays! Just Mastermind and UC now, and soon it'll be just Mastermind as UC doesn't exactly have long left now either now we're nearing the business end of the quarter-finals. Tonight's match looked an enticing one on paper, between two of the standout performing teams of the first two rounds; winners would go to the qualifying round, runners-up to the eliminator round...
Edinburgh ran up the highest score of the first round as they beat Peterhouse of Cambridge 270-80, but their second match against the excellent Bristol team was a lot closer, as they won it on the final starter 185-175. They were unchanged from those two previous games:
Ben Russell Jones, from near Caerphilly (originally Bridgend), studying Philosophy and Politics
Lewis Thomas, from London (originally Strathkinnes in Fife), graduated in History
Captain: Rishi Sundar, from Manchester, studying Computational Physics
Al Karunaratne, from Hull, studying Physics
Trinity College Cambridge won both their matches thus far easily, firstly defeating Durham 190-90 in the first round, before a very imperious second round performance saw them blow away St Hilda's of Oxford 235-45. They were also the same foursome as before:
Hattie Innes, from Surrey, studying Linguistics
Navonil Neogi, from Surrey, studying Maths
Captain: Ludwig Brekke, from Oslo, graduated in Law
Luke Kim, from Seoul, graduated in Physics
So off we set once again, and Edinburgh shot off the mark with Mr Sundar identifying 'confessions' as the word that preceded various terms listed; just one bonus on trees was taken, but Mr Karunaratne took the second starter and the Scots side took all three bonuses on bands with three letter acronym names. A third Edinburgh player, Mr Thomas, took the next starter, which was followed by another full bonus set, before the fourth, Mr Jones (who seemed to have dropped his middle name from his buzzer call), took the fourth (an odd feat that has happened only once before AFAIK); one bonus followed this time. The Scots side also took the first picture round, on locations of island peaks; two bonuses meant they already led 100-0.
And that lead just kept increasing as Mr Jones took the next starter, with one bonus from a complicated set on astronomy being taken. Mr Kim then finally got Trinity off the mark (Paxo: "You're awake! Good!"), and the Cambridge side quickly banged out a full set of bonuses on the Elder Scrolls game series. Back came Edinburgh quickly as Mr Thomas knew that 'area near Weymouth' and 'shipping forecast area' could only be 'Portland'; just one bonus followed, but you suspected it probably wouldn't matter, especially as Mr Thomas took the next correct starter too; words beginning 'sph' saw Edinburgh take two correct this time. The music round, on performers who adopt robotic personas, went to Trinity, who took once correct bonus, which reduced their arrears to 150-40.
Mr Neogi then gave the Cambridge side a second correct starter in a row, which was followed by a second successive sole bonus, on language families. Mr Thomas, having a fine day on the buzzer, took another for Edinburgh, which was followed by two bonuses on novels published in 1973. Mr Thomas came in a bit too early on the next starter though, allowing Mr Brekke to take it for Trinity; bonuses on mainly green flags gave them a full set which just about kept them within reasonable sight. A penalty of their own didn't help though, though Edinburgh didn't pick up. The Scots side then dropped five on two successive starters, but Trinity couldn't take advantage of either mistake. We then, unusually, went straight from a dropped starter into the second picture round, on artworks predominantly using white paint; Edinburgh took that, and one correct bonus took their lead to 170-75.
And when Mr Karunaratne took the next starter, and two bonuses on musicians was taken, any lingering hopes Trinity might've had of catching up were extinguished for good. Mr Jones ensured this by taking the next starter, which was followed by two bonuses on ibexes (no mention of Jeremy Clarkson's famous WWTBAM gaffe thankfully!). Mr Karunaratne looked like he was guessing on the next starter, but was correct and the bonuses provided a full set. Another penalty did allow Trinity to take the final starter; the bonuses saw them take the first two and they'd have probably got the third had the gong not gone. Edinburgh won 230-95.
Another strong contest despite being one sided for the most part. Very well done to Edinburgh, another fine performance, maybe even their best yet considering their proven strong opponents, and very best of luck in the qualifiers! Hard lines to Trinity, who were outplayed but still gave a fine account of themselves despite that; best of luck in the elimination round!
The stats: Mr Thomas was, just, the best buzzer of the night with five starters to Mr Jones' four (meaning both their running totals are now 13), while Messrs Brekke and Neogi got two each for Trinity. On the bonuses, Edinburgh managed 24 out of 39 (with four penalties) and Trinity 10 out of 14 (with one penalty).
Next week's match: the first qualifying match! Don't know between who yet, but it'll be two of Reading, Imperial, Emmanuel and Edinburgh (Weaver's Week has predicted the first two)
Mastermind was won by Martin McCann, whose 22 points and no
passes saw him just edge out second place Sally Moore with 22 points and one
pass; Susan Llewellyn and Matthew Cochran also took part in the high scoring
contest, finishing with 20 and 19 respectively.
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