University Challenge 2022-23: Round 2: Match 1: St Andrews vs Royal Holloway

Good evening friends, and welcome back to Quizzy Mondays! Back to normal service tonight after two weeks off for the Christmas specials, and we're straight into the second, and toughest, round of UC, where defeat means instant elimination. (Still not happy with this inconsistancy at all, but, until someone thinks of something better, it'll have to do) We began the round with two of the lower scoring first round winners, all eight of them wearing blue and yellow ribbons, presumably in support of Ukraine, suggesting this was probably filmed last March.

St Andrews won a close contest against Gonville and Caius of Cambridge back in early October, ultimately just sneaking home 140-120. Playing their reserve this time, as Mr Gibbons was unavailable due to illness, their new line-up consisited of: 

Alec Csukai, from Wokingham, studying Astronomy and Astrophysics

Sam Hickford, from Rochdale, studying English

Captain: Joseph Cryan, from the Lune Valley in Lancashire, studying History

Sofya Anisimova, from Moscow, studying History

 

Royal Holloway London played two weeks earlier, and were slightly more comfortable winners over Cranfield, leading for the most part and winning 155-110. They were unchanged from that contest: 

Joel Abramovich, from Highgate in London, studying Biology

Joanna Brown, from North London, studying Creative Writing

Captain: George Harvey, from Dunmow in Essex, studying Physics

Micka Clayton, from Richmond (originally South Africa), studying Music and Neuropsychology

 

So, off we set for the first time this year then, and Ms Brown took the first (of many) starter(s) of the night for Royal Holloway; bonuses on adaptations of Jane Austen's Emma, one of which I'm pretty sure was on Drama yesterday, provided them with a full bonus set to start with. A second starter went to Ms Brown, but this time the Londoners took just one bonus on stations. Ms Anisimova opened the scoring for St Andrews, and the Scots side took two of their first bonus set on German institutes. The first picture starter was missed by both sides; the bonuses, on eponymous telescopes, went to St Andrews, who took a single bonus, which cut the gap to 40-35.

And they then took the lead as Mr Csukai took the next starter; just one bonus followed, but Mr Hickford took a third starter in a row to them, which gave them a very complicated bonus set on Spanish words, which they did well to take one of. Back came Royal Holloway as Ms Brown took the next starter, and a single bonus of their own put them back within ten points. The music round, on jazz albums which Rudy van Gelder worked on, also went to the London side, who retook the lead with another sole bonus, 70-65.

Only for St Andrews to immediately retake the lead as Mr Csukai wisely went with the old trick of saying '1' (or '0') to a tricky sounding maths question! The teams' struggles with the bonuses continued as just one was taken, before Mr Cryan ensured all four St Andrews players had a starter to their names; bonuses on sci-fi novels resulted in, yep, another single bonus. Back came Royal Holloway, Ms Brown again, but this time none of the bonuses, on opera, were taken. The second picture round, on images anylsed by Susan Sontag in her work 'On Photography', also went to the London side; two bonuses gave them the lead, 100-95.

And that lead increased further as Mr Harvey took the next starter; just the one bonus followed again, but Ms Brown was once again on the money with the next, though, again, they only followed it up with a single bonus. St Andrews could still catch up, but Mr Csuaki's valiant buzz on the next starter was wrong and lost them five; Royal Holloway didn't follow up, but when Ms Brown took the next starter, that was game over. Bonuses on living things whose names end 'ock' resulted in, yep, just one bonus correct again, but it mattered not now. At the gong, Royal Holloway won 145-90.

A rather slow match, with both teams struggling a bit with the bonuses throughout, but still a pleasant enough contest overall. Well done Royal Holloway, Ms Brown in particular, and very best of luck in the QFs! Hard lines to St Andrews, but a respectable performance, thanks for playing!

The stats: Ms Brown was, easily, the best buzzer of the night with EIGHT(!) starters, while Messrs Csukai and Hickman got two each for St Andrews. On the bonuses, St Andrews managed 7 out of 18 (with the night's one penalty) and Royal Holloway 11 out of 27, so both sides struggled on the bonuses, meaning it was the buzzer wot won it.

Next week's match: don't know yet, will let you all know on Twitter as soon as we do.

Only Connect returned with its second play-off match, and a second avoidable rematch in a row, with the Statisticals and the Morporkians meeting again. The teams were tied on 4-each after the first round, before the Morkporkians took a 6-5 lead after a very tough second round (during which their opponents, jokingly, answered ‘fish’ to all three of their questions!). A better wall saw that lead increase to 16-10 going into Missing Vowels, and they maintained it there to win 20-13.

 

Mastermind was won very narrowly by Ann Mayner, whose 19 points saw her just beat the 18 of second placed Robin Geddes. Chidi Ngwaba and Rebecca Lodge Birkebaek also took part, finishing with 11 and 14 respectively.