OK, so, penultimate week of this 10th anniversary series, and STILL we have no start date for the new series. I honestly thought, when I started this series back in May, that it'd run into the new series, hence why I stopped watching and recapping episodes on Monday, in preperation. But now we're going to be concluding this next week, and then be getting at least one week off from the show before the new series starts. At least it's not much longer to wait now, and we know OC is back on the 29th as well, so things will finally be back to business as usual before long. Anyway, on with this...
Match 32, Elimination Quarter-Final 2: Pembroke vs King's (25th March 2013)
Firstly, the second elimination
match pitted the two Cambridge quarter-finalists against each other. King’s got
off to the much better start, with Pembroke’s contribution being reduced to two
penalties; they were unlucky, however, to offer ‘Mary I’ instead of ‘Mary Queen
of Scots’ (if he’d said ‘Mary I of Scotland’, he’d have gotten it). Despite
Pembroke recouping the lost points with the first picture round, King’s pulled
further away and, despite a rather meh bonus rate, were comfortably 135-0 ahead
at one stage. This match also exhibited Paxo at his best, laughing along with King’s
when they either correctly guessed an answer or offered one they knew was wrong
(“No, you’re quite wrong!” “Yeah, I am, sorry!”), and at his worst, snarking at
an unfortunate incorrect answer and berating the three classicists of King’s
for getting questions about that wrong. We don’t see either of those sorts of
behaviour from him nowadays thanks to his illness sadly.
After that, however, Pembroke
started to get some points back on the board, plus a decent haul of bonuses, and,
all of a sudden, were starting to catch up. Despite a couple more penalties
dragging them back, they firmly had the momentum and managed to close the gap down
to just 25. King’s finally got another starter, and a single bonus on the Paris
Metro, which gave them a bit more breathing space; but Pembroke bounced back
again, and so nearly caught them. But not quite; just one bonus from those last
two bonus sets was what denied them a famous win. That and five penalties. King’s
won a fine game 150-135.
Match 33, Play-Off Quarter-Final 1: Manchester vs St George's (1st April 2013)
So, usually the play-offs pit a
qualification match runner-up against an elimination match winner; not this
series, which, rather oddly, put both of those against each other. A one-off
oddity, but I don’t think it’d have mattered if they’d done it the usual way
TBH; Manchester would’ve still beaten King’s and ditto Bangor with St George’s.
Anyway, on with the match, and, while St George’s took the first starter, Manchester
took the next few (with Mary Queen of Scots getting a mention for the second
show running) and ran into a 95-5 lead before St George’s next got a look in.
The London side did bounce back
well with two successive perfect 25s, but, while they were never totally out of
sight, they never quite came close to catching up with Manchester. The music round
saw Manchester, for the second show in a row, employ the trick of saying the
same answer for all three bonuses (Rimsky-Korsakov) and getting it right the
third time! The two sides were pretty even for the rest of the game, but
Manchester’s lead from earlier on ensured they held on for the win and a late
sprint made their victory look a bit more wholesome. The final score was a 220-135
victory.
Match 34, Play-Off Quarter-Final 2: Bangor vs King's (8th April 2013)
The last quarter-final was a much
anticipated one in the blogosphere, being between the two ‘blog reader’ teams
of the series. Bangor got off to be the much stronger start, dominating the
buzzer race and quickly rising into a lead of 120-(-5) lead, though, apart from
the first picture round, their bonus rate was rather meh, generally one per
set. Jim finally got King’s off the mark, but Bangor were already well ahead by
now and, despite a rally to respectability in the second half of the game, they
never looked like catching up.
The music round was much anticipated
on here, with Adam having expressed jealousy at Jim having gotten numerous
music rounds he was good at, while his team hadn’t got any to his liking yet.
Ultimately, neither got the music starter this time, though King’s did
eventually get the bonuses. Bangor maintained their strong lead for the rest of
the game, though their bonus rate continued to be rather sticky. One late bonus
set on physics they got nothing from, while Jim said on here that he knew all
of them and was close to shouting out the answer to the last one in frustration!
Bangor won the game 195-70 to progress to take the final place in the
semi-finals, while Jim and his team’s entertaining run was at an end.
So, the final round of matches coming up next week, and we'll pretty much know by then when the series is coming back as, if it's not the 22nd, it'll almost certainly be the 29th alongside OC. So, see you then then...
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