University Challenge 2022-23: Round 1: Match 10: Jesus vs St Catherine's

Good evening friends, and welcome to the second of four installments of Quizzy Tuesdays! This is going to be another shorter than usual review tonight due to the later than usual start and finish of tonight's show; thankfully next week's is on at the usual time just a day later, and hopefully the week after will be the same. So, let's get on with this...

Jesus College Cambridge is appearing for the ninth time in the BBC series; of its eight previous appearances, three saw it reach the QFs, but its best appearing time was that who were runners-up in the original series way back in 1968. This year's foursome were:

Josh Kaye, from North West London, studying Maths

Juliette Tindall, from Birmingham, studying Spanish and Portuguese

Captain: Hamish MacGregor, from Cambridge, studying Cancer Genetic Epidemiology

Sumit Aggarwal, from London, studying Engineering

 

St Catherine's College Oxford, the university's newest college, has only appeared once before, 25 years ago in the 97-98 series, where they lost in the first round to Magdalene of Cambridge; it has also appeared once in the Xmas series, where they also lost in the first round, albeit only just. Hoping to finally get their first ever UC win were this year's quartet of:

Peter Olive, from West Berkshire, studying the Intellectual History of the Incest Taboo in Greek Antiquity

Tom Laskowski, from Archway in London, studying History

Captain: Ollie Spacey, from Worksop in Nottinghamshire, studying Biology

Holly Partis, from Oxford, studying English and French

 

So off we set again, and Mr Laskowski struck first for St Catherine's, and they took one of the resulting bonuses. Jesus dominated the buzzer race after that though, and after the first picture round, on buildings on the 2021 list of buildings at risk, they led 55-15. And that lead just kept getting bigger, so much so that, by the time St Catherine's finally managed to score again, Jesus already had a 100+ lead. After the music round, on instrumental interludes in opera, the Cambridge side led 150-30.

St Catherine's did manage a brief rally in the third quarter, taking three starters in a row, including the second picture round, on pests, after which they'd cut the gap to 190-85. But Jesus weren't to be denied, despite losing five to a pedantic penalty, and, while St Catherine's did take one more starter to deservedly reach three figures, they were a clear second best here I'm afraid. At the gong, Jesus won 225-105.

A one-sided, but still enjoyable contest. Very well done Jesus, a very good team who already look like one to watch; best of luck in the second round! Hard lines to St Catherine's, a decent enough team who'd have almost certainly done better with a kinder draw; thanks for playing!

The stats: Messrs Kaye, MacGregor and Aggarwal all got four starters each for Jesus, while Mr Laskowski was best for St Catherine's with three. On the bonuses, Jesus managed 20 out of 38 (with the night's one penalty) and St Catherine's 9 out of 18.

 

Next week's match, at 8:30 next Tuesday: Balliol Oxford vs Southampton

 

Only Connect’s second eliminator match saw the return of the Peacocks and the Strigiformes. The former led 7-4 after a first round where every question but one was gotten before all the clues had been revealed, but the latter pulled into a 15-9 lead after the second. A better wall allowed the Peacocks to close the gap back to 20-19 going into Missing Vowels, but the Strigiformes dominated that and pulled away again to win 28-20.

 

Last week’s Mastermind was won by George Scratcherd, alumnus of UC the series before I started this blog, with 26 points, one ahead of second placed Pippa Smith; Simon Durrant and Katie Williams completed the line-up with 20 and 18 respectively.

 

Tonight’s Mastermind was narrowly won by Darren Ross, who led by one point after the SS round, and did so again after the GK round to triumph with 19 points, one ahead of second placed Gaynor Melling and two of third placed Jenny Armitage. Mel Kinsey completed the line-up with 14.

 

Yesterday’s Brain of Britain was won by Sarah Trevarthen, who led throughout, narrowly at first before running away in the penultimate round to finish with 13 points; she takes the second place in the final, where she and Isabelle Heward will meet again just months after they both appeared in the Counterpoint final! Catherine Bates, Jamie Hall and Ned Pendleton also partook in the game, finishing with 7, 7 and 5 respectively.