Good evening friends, and welcome to the final first round match of this year's UC! The task for the two teams tonight was pretty simple: win, or lose with a score of 135 or more to get into the play-offs. Pleasingly, both tonight's teams were from 'new' universities, and one of them was making its UC debut on the show, as you may recall from the 'at 60' programme back at the start of the series. And, for the first time in years, one of my local unis showed up as well!
Robert Gordon University has appeared once on the show before, way back in Paxo's very first series in 94-95 (nice bit of symmetry there!), where they were soundly beaten 225-75 by Bristol in the first round. Hoping to better that were this year's team of:
Samuel Fregene, from Nigeria, studying Analytical Science
Donald Anderson, from Aberdeen, studying Accounting and Finance
Captain: Emily Cullen, from Clonroche, County Wexford, studying Pharmacy
Faye Cooke, from Stockport, studying Professional Legal Practice
Roehampton University is making its first ever appearance on the show and, you may recall from the afore-mentioned 'at 60' progreamme, the team were coached by Alex Bubb, part of the Christ Church Oxford team who won the show in 2007-08. Said team were:
Katherine Birditt, from Zimbabwe, studying Biomedical Science
Jay Patel, from Leicester, studying Anthropology
Captain: Odhran O'Donoghue, from County Cork, studying Queer Theory in Young Adult Fiction
Victoria Holt, from Manchester, studying Feminism and the Social Sciences
So off we set for the final time this round, and Ms Cullen quickly took the first starter for Robert Gordon, who followed it up with a single bonus on astronomical symbols. A second quickly went to them via Mr Anderson, with another sole bonus being taken, before Ms Holt gave Roehampton their first ever UC starter; they took two bonuses from their first ever set. The first picture round, on Chinese high speed railway lines, went to Robert Gordon; two bonuses took their lead to 50-20.
The points kept coming for them as Ms Cullen took the next starter, and Mr Anderson the one after, but, again, just one bonus from each set went with them. Ms Holt did the right thing and had an early guess on the next starter, but was wrong and lost five, allowing Ms Cooke to take the points; no bonuses went with it this time tough. The music round, on pop remixes that charted higher than the original, also went to Robert Gordon; just one bonus was taken again, though they were unlucky to offer the remixer instead of the original for one of the others, but they nonetheless led 105-15.
And the lead was just getting bigger as Ms Cooke took a third starter in a row, which was followed by another sole bonus on the Congress of Vienna. Robert Gordon were struggling a bit with the bonuses, but their excellent buzzer work meant it didn't really matter. Another starter went their way, as did another sole bonus, on British birds, and Paxo felt the need to reassure Roehampton there was plenty of time left. But Mr Anderson identified Sir Andrew Motion for the next starter, and this time they managed two bonuses on opera. The second picture round, on biopics directed by Derek Jarman, finally gave Roehampton some points on the board; two correct bonuses took the scores to 155-30.
The game was long over bar the shouting, as confirmed when Mr Anderson took the next starter, and Robert Gordon finally got a full bonus set, on presidents and prime ministers; now it was just a question of how high both could score. Ms Birditt took another starter for Roehampton, and two bonuses on EGOTs ensured they wouldn't be joining the Sub-50 Club. Roehampton did manage a nice final flourish, taking a couple more starters and a good haul of bonuses to give them a respectable score. But Robert Gordon kept pushing as well, with Mr Anderson's answer of 'saxophone' pushing them past 200. At the gong, Robert Gordon won 210-90.
A one sided, but still pretty enjoyable contest. Well done Robert Gordon, a brilliant first showing; if they can match that buzzer showing against a better team and improve on the bonuses, they'll definitely be a team to watch! Very best of luck in the second round! Hard lines to Roehampton, who did pretty decently when they got their chances and would've certainly done better against another team; thanks very much for playing!
The stats: Mr Anderson was best buzzer of the night with seven starters, while Mr O'Donoghue and Ms Holt got two each for Roehampton. On the bonuses, Robert Gordon managed 16 out of 39 and Roehampton 9 out of 15 (with the night's one penalty).
Next week's match: the first play-off, between two of Bristol, Sheffield, Newnham and Oriel. Smart money says Bristol vs Oriel next week and Sheffield vs Newnham the week after, but we shall, as usual, see...
Only Connect continued its
qualification with Mothers Ruined and the Cryptics returning for a second time.
The latter led 4-2 after the first round, but the former took the lead 11-6
after the second. A better wall saw that lead increase to 18-9 going into
Missing Vowels, and Mothers Ruined saw it out there to win 22-11.
Mastermind was a high scoring affair,
won by Lee Ansett, whose 28 points saw him just edge out James Devine-Stoneman,
former UC winning captain, with 26. Katie Bamber and Jane Mackey also competed,
finishing with 24 and 21.
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