University Challenge 2021-22: Elimination Quarter-Final 2: St John's vs Trinity

Good evening friends, and welcome back to Quizzy Mondays! As we near the end of this season, with just five UCs left after tonight, and just six Masterminds as well; the final of that should come the week after UC. OC long finished of course, but, just last night, I finished putting all the regular series results on the Wiki I set up a couple of weeks ago; just the specials left to do now! Tonight, though, it's UC business as usual...

St John's College Cambridge were beaten by fellow QFers Imperial in the first round, but survived to the play-offs, where they narrowly beat U.C.L., then more comfortably beat Queen Mary of London in the second round, but were beaten by Emmanuel in their preliminary QF. They were unchanged from those four games: 

Thomas Clark, from the USA and Japan, graduated in Linguistics  

Louie George, from Lyme Regis, studying Sociology 

Captain: Jonathan Chan, from Cambridge, studying Veterinary Medicine  

Kyanna Ouyang, from New Jersey, studying Natural Sciences

 

Trinity College Cambridge had a much easier road through the early rounds, beating Durham and St Hilda's of Oxford very easily indeed, but they can unstuck against Edinburgh in their preliminary, being quite convincingly beaten. They were also the same foursome as their previous outings: 

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 then, and Mr Chan won the buzzer race to name 'marble' as the obvious answer for 'building material used since ancient times'; his team took one of their first set of bonuses, but missed the old chestnut about biscuit meaning 'twice cooked'. Two starters were then dropped, before the St John's captain took a second correct, and words beginning 'hap' proved much more to their liking, a full set. Trinity got going thanks to Mr Neogi, and they also took just one of their first bonus set, on county tops. Back to St John's with Mr Clark taking the points this time, which was followed by two correct bonuses. The first picture round, on the deepest lakes on their continents, went to Trinity; a timely full set cut their deficit to 60-40.

Mr Brekke then gave Trinity a second starter in a row by identifying a list of people with the surname 'Brown' (or a variant spelling of), and two bonuses on shipwrecks put them on level pegging. Only for Mr Chan to identify the proposed punctuation mark the interrobang for the next starter; just one bonus followed, before Mr Kim took Trinity back to within five points, and two bonuses on Mount Etna gave them the lead. This increased when Mr Brekke quickly identified Sia for the music starter; the bonuses, on pairs of songs, where the singer of the first wrote the second before finding fame themselves, didn't add to their score, but they now led 90-75.

Two more starters were dropped, before Mr George reawoke St John's; bonuses on the US congress provided them with two correct bonuses, which gave them back the lead, before Mr George took a second starter in a row, and bonuses on diseases gave them a full set. Mr Kim did the right thing and took an early buzz on the next starter, but was wrong at lost five; Mr Chan picked up the starter, and two bonuses were taken with it. The second picture starter was dropped; the bonuses, on kacho-e paintings by Ohara Koson depicting a bird and a flower, went to St John's; one correct bonus took their lead to 155-85.

Trinity would have to flat out go for it if they were to catch up; Mr Brekke duly took the next starter, and one bonus on collaborative fiction took them into three figures. Two dropped starters ran down the clock and made their job a bit harder, but Mr Kim then finally took the next; they took the first bonus, but interrupted the second too soon in their haste. They didn't get the third either, and that was game over. Mr Kim did take the final starter, but there was no time for any bonuses; at the gong, St John's won 155-125.

Another good close contest between two good well matched teams, well played both! Well done St John's and best of luck in the play-offs! Hard lines to Trinity, but they have a good series of performances to their credit, well done to them and thanks for playing!

The stats: Mr Chan was the best buzzer of the night with five starters, meaning he goes back above Mr Hutchinson of Reading in the best buzzer of the series race with 31, while Mr Kim was best for Trinity with four, meaning he ends their run their best buzzer with 16. On the bonuses, St John's managed 15 out of 24 and Trinity 10 out of 21 (with the night's one penalty).

Next week's match: the first play-off, involving two of King's, Reading, Emmanuel and St John's; I would guess the two Cambridge teams, who've already played each other, will be kept apart, so I would say King's vs Emmanuel and Reading vs St John's, but we shall see.

Mastermind began its semi-finals tonight, and a very high scoring contest it was indeed; Ian ‘Corpus Christi’ Wang just won the game in the end, with 26 points to Lucy Westall’s 25, with Kit Lane and Ranvir Singh Kalare just behind on 23.

 

Counterpoint on Radio 4 also began its semi-finals this afternoon; Quizzy Mondays regular Frankie Fanko comfortably won to take the first place in the final in three weeks' time.

University Challenge 2021-22: Qualification Quarter-Final 2: Emmanuel vs Edinburgh

Good evening friends, and welcome back to University Challenge! So, it looks like showing the first eliminator match before the first qualifier was a one-off change of order, as we're back on track now with the second qualifier. Whoever won tonight would join last week's winners Imperial in the semi-finals; the runners-up would join Reading, King's and next week's winners in the play-offs.

Emmanuel College Cambridge were narrowly beaten by St Andrews in the first round, recovered through the play-offs with wins over RNCM and St Catharine's of Cambridge, before winning a good preliminary game against St John's. They were unchanged from all those previous games: 

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 Arabic and Hindi

 

Edinburgh, in contrast, got here undefeated, with a very easy first round win over Peterhouse of Cambridge, a much closer second round one over Bristol, and another comfortable one over Trinity in their preliminary. They were also the same foursome as those prior 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

 

So off we set once again then, and Mr Sundar gave Edinburgh the perfect start by identifting the bow and arrow as the favoured weapon of various listed figures; bonuses on early 20th century novels gave them two correct answers to start with, only for a penalty to lose them five of those points. Emmanuel duly picked it up for their first points, and took a single bonus on poisonous plants. No-one got the next starter, Mr Thomas took the next for Edinburgh, and their bonus consistancy continued with another two. They went one better on their next set, taking a full set. The first round, on definitions of English words loaned into French, went to Emmanuel, who took two correct to cut their gap to 60-35.

Mr Karunaratne buzzed in quickly on the next starter, only for his answer to subsequently emerge as part of the question; another five lost, and Emmanuel duly took the points and a full bonus set to take the lead. Another Edinburgh penalty handed the Cambridge side another free shot, but Paxo was very harsh to disallow Ms Malcolm's answer of 'Mary, Queen of Scots' when he sought 'Mary Stuart', the title of the play of the question; I mean, she got the right person! Mr Thatte did take the next starter though, and two correct bonuses on island groups went their way. Mr Jones finally got Edinburgh some points again with the next starter, giving them bonuses on the novel Hyperion, which they took one of. Neither side identified Bellini's Norma for the music starter; the music bonuses, on classical pieces linked to the Moon, went to Emmanuel. None were taken, but they nonetheless led 90-65.

And when Mr Thatte took the next starter, the Cambridge side reached three figures first, and followed it up with two bonuses on Serpentine Pavilions. Mr Wrathall took the next starter; just one bonus followed, but they had now opened up a solid lead. Back came Edinburgh on the next starter though; just one bonus on English counties followed, but the Scots side also took the second picture round, on paintings of astronomers at work, of which they took two, which cut the gap to 125-100.

And when Mr Thomas took the next starter, two resulting bonuses on matrices put them just five points behind. A second in a row to Mr Thomas gave the Scots side the lead and a bonus set on blue and white flags, which fell very nicely for them, a timely full set. But a slip-up on the next starter handed Emmanuel back possession, and they took two bonuses gave them back the lead. Mr Jones looked like he was guessing on the next starter, but he was correct, and gave his side back the lead! And that was the gong! Edinburgh won 150-145! (Caught me out a bit as I thought we had a bit more time left; indeed, this episode was a bit shorter than usual.)

Another excellent contest between two well matched teams; well played both, and kudos to them for clapping each other at the start and end of the game. Well done Edinburgh, who held their nerve to win out in testing circumstances, worthy semi-finalists; best of luck to them there! Hard lines to Emmanuel, but still another fine performance, stands them in good stead for the play-offs; again, best of luck to them there!

The stats: Mr Thatte was the best buzzer of the night with five starters, meaning he is now their leading scorer with 17 to Mr Wrathall's 16, while Mr Jones' four was Edinbugh's best, also taking his to 17, with Mr Thomas also just behind on 16. On the bonuses, Emmanuel managed 13 out of 24 and Edinburgh 16 out of 24 (with four penalties).

Next week's match: St John's vs Trinity

Mastermind reached its final heat, which featured just three contestants, as one had to withdraw and presumably couldn’t be replaced due to the restrictions under which the show was filmed. Graeme Jackson narrowly won the game, with 21 points to David Preece’s 20; Jill Leatherbarrow completed the line-up with 16 points. The leftover time caused by just three players way taken up by a compilation of some of the semi-finalists’ winners interviews and a plug for the contestant appeal; reminds me of when Fifteen-to-One ran short and WillGS had to kill time with long lectures about the questions!

University Challenge 2021-22: Qualification Quarter-Final 1: Reading vs Imperial

Good evening friends, and welcome back to this most unpredictable series of UC! After what's, of course, been a very sad week for the show following the death of Bamber Gascoigne last Tuesday. In happier news, I've set up the Only Connect Wiki I hinted I might do last week, and am currently in the process of writing up the results of every series on it; link to it pinned on my Twitter if you're interested in helping. Anyway, on with a much anticipated match, as we continue this differently ordered to usual QF phase with the first qualifying match...

Reading were comfortable winners of their first and second round matches as they saw off Strathclyde and Dundee; their preliminary match against Birmingham was much closer, but they still just about made it through 170-135. Playing their reserve tonight, as Mr Skopic had returned to America, their new line-up comprised of: 

Sylvian Jesudoss, from Thanjuvar, India, studying Marketing

Margaret Ounsley, from Reading, studying Poor Law History

Captain: Michael Hutchinson, from Andover, graduated with a PGCE

Kira Bishop, from Slough, studying Maths and Psychology

 

Imperial College London have lived up to their name so far with three comfortable wins with 200+ scores, beating fellow QFers St John's in the first round, Exeter in the second, and last week's winners King's 235-50 in their preliminary. They were unchanged from those three previous games:

Max Zeng, from Singapore, studying Biochemistry

Fatima Sheriff, from Hitchin in Hertforshire, studying Science Communication

Captain: Michael Mays, from Montrose, studying Computational Fluid Dynamics

Gilbert Jackson, from Bury St Edmunds, studying Chemistry

 

Off we set once more then, and Ms Ounsley opened the scoring with 'gross'; the Biscuitmen set their stall firmly out with a full bonus set, before Mr Hutchinson took a second starter in a row and two bonuses on the novel Vanity Fair were taken. Mr Jackson then got Imperial off the mark, but they got nothing from their first bonus set on dodecahedrons. They did take the first picture round though, on the Italian navy's coat of arm, and took two correct bonuses, which reduced the gap to 45-30.

It quickly went up again though as Ms Ounsley took the next starter, but just the one bonus on opera was taken by them this time. Neither side took a starter about Roman numerals on a keyboard that I'm sure has been on the how before; Mr Hutchinson very quickly took the next and they pushed home with a full bonus set on Diane Fossey. Back came Imperial with Mr Mays taking the points for them; no bonuses followed, but Ms Sheriff quickly took the next starter, and bonuses on Indian coloured cities saw their resident geographer Mr Zeng provide two correct answers. He took the next starter as well, and a full bonus set on popes gave them the lead. The Londoners also took the music round, on pieces parodied in Carnival of the Animals; another full house meant they now led 110-80.

The Londoners now had their tails firmly up, and Mr Zeng quickly knew 'European country' and 'partitioned' would likely be Poland more often than not; two correct bonuses were taken. Mr Mays lost five on the next starter, but Reading couldn't take the points; the Imperial captain then made up for his error, and two bonuses followed in short order. Mr Zeng quickly took the next, and bonuses on elements proved all too easy for them. Reading finally got going again with the second picture round, on stills from Ahmir Thompson's documentary Summer of Soul; two correct answers took them into three figures, but they still trailed 170-100.

And when Ms Sheriff took the next starter, that looked like game over, even when just one bonus was taken; Mr Jackson made double sure when he took the next, and bonuses on Welsh geography provided them with another two correct answers to make it past 200 again. And further past it they went as Mr Zeng took the next starter, and another two correct bonuses, on apples in art, just added to their score and lead. Ms Ounsley did take the final starter for Reading, and they ensured they'd also had a good night with two bonuses on their own on McLarens. At the gong, Imperial won 225-120.

A seriously good game between two fine times, one of whom ultimately won it comfortably, but both were on great form, well played both! Very well done to Imperial, another very strong showing that marks them down as lukewarm favourites for the title I'd say; very best of luck in the semis! Hard lines to Reading, but still a very good showing and they'll probably reach the semis as well if they keep up that form; very best of luck to them there!

The stats: Mr Zeng was the best buzzer of the night with five, taking his series total to 24, while Ms Ounsley and Mr Hutchinson got three each for Reading, the latter taking his to 30. On the bonuses, Reading managed a good 13 out of 18 and Imperial 22 out of 36, and both sides incurred one penalty.

Next week's match: either Emmanuel vs Edinburgh or St John's vs Trinity

Mastermind was won very easily by Helen Garner, who led after the specialist rounds and had easily the best GK round as well to triumph with 27 points, seven clear of Judith Edward and Lizzie Mackarel in joint second with 20 each, with Mark Spencer Turner completing the line-up on 14.