University Challenge 2022-23: Round 1: Match 13: Newnham vs Courtauld

Good evening my friends, and welcome back, at last, to Quizzy Mondays! Though it's been more like Busy Monday for me today, as I've packed a lot in: the first episode of the US version of Ghosts (as shown on BBC3 last night), the Brain of Britain final (more on that later), a certain football tournament that I'm trying to watch sparingly (yep, I missed the Wales game so I could watch the quizzes tonight), and now, of course, the quizzes themselves. So, let's get down to business; the task for tonight's two teams: win, or lose with more than 130 points.

Newnham College Cambridge, one of only two all-woman colleges left in the university (Oxford now has none), has appeared six times before in the BBC era, but has never gotten beyond the second round; its last team, way back in the 2010-11 series, were soundly beaten at that stage by Bristol. This year's foursome were:

Bethan Holloway-Strong, from Surrey and Australia, studying English

Hannah Bowen, from Gateshead, studying German, Russian and Polish

Captain: Roma Ellis, from Nottingham, studying Philosophy

Chén Zhou, from Suzhou in China, studying the History of Science 

The Courtauld Institute of Art has appeared in three previous series, all of them within the past ten years; the first two were first round exits, but the third saw them get all the way to the QFs before falling in the eliminators; captain Harry Prance has gone on to appear in the current series of OC. This year's quartet were:

Oliver White, from Guildford, studying the Art of Renaissance Italy

Alice Dodds, from Birmingham, studying the History of Art

Captain: Ryan McMeekin, from Hertfordshire, studying Circum-Atlantic Visual Culture of the late colonial period

Lizzie Mackarel, from Liverpool, studying 20th-century Russian Art

 

So, off we set again, and Courtauld got off to the stronger start as Ms Mackarel identified Boudicca for the first starter, which was followed by bonuses on the Voyager 1 spacecraft; two were taken, before Mr McMeekin took the second starter, but no bonuses followed that time. Newnham got their first points on the board via Ms Ellis, which gave them a classic UC set on pairs of words differing by a C at the start, which they also took two from. The first picture round, on flags which contain maps of islands, went to Courtauld; two correct bonuses took their lead to 50-20.

Now, as Dave C. might say on LAM, if you hear the name 'James Lind' mentioned, then 'scurvy' will probably be right more often than not; Ms Ellis waited until it became a bit more obvious before doing so, and the Cambridge side took a single bonus on constants. Another starter and two bonuses gave Newnham the lead, but Ms Dodds duly fired Courtauld well ahead again with an impressive three starters in a row; neatly, two bonuses were taken from all three sets. Newnham finally got going again through Ms Holloway-Strong, with just a single bonus being taken. The (belated) music round, on songs from the soundtrack to Moulin Rouge, went to Courtauld; another two bonuses took their lead to 130-70.

 

Ms Ellis pulled more points back for Newnham with yet another starter about new events at last year's Olympics; a full bonus set showed they weren't out of the game yet, but a penalty then handed Courtauld possession back, followed by, yep, you guessed it, two correct bonuses. That record was finally broken on their next set though, as the theatre in 1921 didn't add to their score. Back came Newnham, with two starters in a row taking them into three figures, and three bonuses out of six put them one starter away from the repechage. The second picture round, on TV series starring trans actors who appeared in Sam Fender's Disclosure, went to Courtauld; two correct bonuses meant they now led 175-120.

 

But Newnham weren't finished, as Ms Ellis shot in to identify 'Mauritius' for the next starter, which took them over the score needed for the play-offs, with two bonuses on fictional newspapers confirming this for sure. A second starter in a row, taken by Ms Chen, pulled them within 25, but no bonuses meant they were running out of time to catch up. A third in a row put them within 15 points; one bonus meant they could force a tie-breaker with the final starter, but no answer came when Ms Chen buzzed in on it, so minus five. At the gong, Courtauld won 175-160.

A great contest between two very pleasant and watchable teams, both of whom fully deserve to return! Well done Courtauld and best of luck in the second round; hard lines to Newnham, but you deserve your play-off place, best of luck in them!

The stats: Ms Dodds was the best buzzer of the night with six, while Ms Ellis was best for Newnham with five. On the bonuses, Newnham managed 14 out of 30 (with two penalties) and Courtauld 16 out of 30 (with one penalty), so a very close match indeed; well played again both teams!

Only Connect began its qualifier matches with the returns of the Jillies and the Morporkians. The latter led 3-0 after a tricky-even-by-OC-standards first round before the former rebounded in the second to take the lead 6-4 (I claim three points on the Taskmaster question). A better wall increased the Jillies’ advantage to 13-8 going into Missing Vowels, and they maintained the lead there to win 17-11.

 

Mastermind was won easily by Alison Rose with 22 points, with Sangeetha Navaratnam-Blair of last year’s OC second with 16; Alan McClarty and Harry Hodson completed the line-up with 14 and 11.

 

Brain of Britain concluded with its first ever all-female final, and what a great final it was! Marianne Fairthorne immediately scored 5IAR and a bonus point, as did Emma Laslett, meaning they led after the first round with 7 and 6, with Isabelle Heward and Sarah Trevarthen both a bit behind on 3 and 2. Both close the gap on Emma after the second round, 4 and 5 respectively to her 7, but Marianne had pulled ahead on 11.

After the third, Sarah pulled into joint second with Emma on 9 each, with Isabelle on 5 and Marianne on 13. What followed was the most dramatic final round, with Marianne adding three to her score to seemingly wrap the title up. But Sarah picked up two bonuses to pull to five behind… and duly pulled off a 5IAR which meant she came from nowhere and won the title by a single point! She ended up with 17, with Marianne just behind on 16, and Emma and Isabelle finished with 13 and 9 respectively. Well done all four of them, a brilliant final, and well done Sarah on a hard earned but well deserved victory!