University Challenge 2022-23: Second Round Review and Look Foward to the Quarter-Finals

OK, so, at last, we've arrived at the quarter-finals of this year's contest, and its a pretty solid line-up we have for it as well. None of the teams who made are teams I'd have been that surprised about if you'd told me they'd be quarter-finalists at the start of the round and if you'd showed me the fixtures. It's a good bunch of teams all round.

Our quarter-final line-up are, in order of qualification, and alongside their overall and average scores:

• Royal Holloway London (295 over two matches, 147.5)
• Robert Gordon (390 over two matches, 195)
• Newnham College Cambridge (475 over three matches, 158.33)
• Bristol (575 over three matches, 191.67)
• Jesus College Cambridge (385 over two matches, 192.5)
• U.C.L. (350 over two matches, 175)
• Southampton (385 over two matches, 192.5)
• Durham (435 over two matches, 217.5)

So, that's the raw stats, but, as ever, there's a lot more to them than that. So, what lot more is there to them?

Well, you'd have to say that Durham look like the pretty obvious favourites, with the largest two game aggregate, and the fact they defeated the very strong Bristol team who went on to also reach this stage in their first match. So, they'd have to start the round as the most likely team to progress.

Then you have Jesus and Southampton, both of whom have the same number of points so far and, in fact, pretty similar pairs of performances so far: a strong first round performance and win over a decent looking opposition, before a less impressive but still pretty decent and comfortable second round win, with their bonus rates noticeably lower than before. If both can regain their first round form, both would be heavily fancied to progress.

And it's the same for Robert Gordon, who haven't been seriously troubled in either match so far and have won both decently and comfortably, but their bonus rate was rather low both times. If, however, they can improve it and maintain their good buzzer form, they'll definitely be one to watch.

As for the two repechage survivors, Bristol looked very good in defeat to Durham, and have looked strong in both their subsequent victories, so definitely must have an eye kept on them too. Newnham also looked strong in defeat and good in both their subsequent wins, though maybe not so much as Bristol, especially in the second round when they needed a tie-breaker to win. As Dave C. said in his review the other day, though, they are pretty good on the buzzer, which could prove handy in another close contest.

And finally, we have the two London teams. U.C.L. may have only won their two matches so far on a tie-breaker and by ten points respectively, but have looked very strong on both occasions, and have actually been a lot more consistant on both the buzzer and the bonuses than quite a few other teams in the line-up. As for Royal Holloway, they probably look like the odd ones out in this line-up, both their wins so far being low scoring contests and, in the second round respectively, rather reliant on Ms Brown's (very good it must be said) showings on the buzzer, so would probably start as outsiders.

Them aside, though, this is, as I said before, a pretty well matched line-up, and no outcome would be totally surprising, but you'd probably say Royal Holloway would be the least likely semi-finalists, while Durham and U.C.L. would probably be the two most likely.

A quick visit to the BBC website reveals that the first quarter-final this coming Monday will be Southampton vs Durham, which looks like a very good contest on paper. I would therefore guess Jesus vs U.C.L. for the week after, and the other four would then play in the remaining two matches.

As for my annual diversity (of the institutions) check, well, the big standout story is that, for the second series in a row, Oxford has no teams in the QF line-up, which has never happened before. It's happened with Cambridge at least once before in the BBC era, but not with Oxford before. Cambridge has two teams in the line-up, and London two as well.

So, in short, as ever when it comes to UC, nothing is certain, except that, hopefully, the teams will give their all and give us a good round of matches, and hopefully that will be the case again this year. It is, as I said, a very well matched line-up.

Best of luck as usual then to all eight teams competing; here's hoping for a good round all round!

Back on Monday with my usual write-up; see you then then...