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!