University Challenge 2022-23: Semi-Finals Preview

OK folks, here we go again: the final four of University Challenge. As ever, we have our four semi-finalists, and, as ever, we need to assess their chances of reaching the final. Our final four this year are:

• Royal Holloway (Joel Abramovich, Joanna Brown, George Harvey and Micka Clayton) Reached the QFs via two low scoring wins over Cranfield, 155-110, and St Andrews, 145-90. Fared much better in the QFs themselves though, beating Robert Gordon 170-85, before edging a close match against Durham 125-100. Largely a two person team so far, with Mr Harvey and, especially, Ms Brown doing much of the heavy lifting on the buzzer, while their bonus rate has varied from OK to middling.
• Bristol (Sam Kehler, Jacob McLaughlin, Tess Richardson and Alejandro Ortega) Narrowly lost 195-185 to Durham in the first round, but, aside from a middling 185-150 win over Oriel of Oxford in the play-offs, have been imperious since, beating Queen's of Belfast 205-90, Newnham 205-110 in the first QF and U.C.L. 205-70 in the second. While Mr McLaughlin has been their undoubted MVP so far, the other players have all been adding their worth on the buzzer too, while their bonus rate has usually been decent throughout.
• Durham (Harry Scully, Chloe Margaux, Alex Radcliffe and Bea Bennett) After that win over Bristol in the first round as above, trounced Bangor 240-35 in the second round, then won a good narrow 165-130 win over Southampton in their first QF; after narrowly losing their second to Royal Holloway as per above, recovered with a narrow 160-145 win over U.C.L. in the play-offs. Strong on the buzzer in the first two rounds, maybe less so in the QFs, but still pretty decent; bonus rate usually around 50%.
  
• Southampton (Ethan Lyon, Magda Steele, Dom Belcher and Elliot Miles) Easily beat Balliol of Oxford 210-115 in the first round and Christ's of Cambridge 175-90 in the second. After losing their first QF to Durham as per above, beat Robert Gordon 180-65 in their second, before a 135-120 play-off win over Newnham saw them complete the line-up. Again, reasonably strong on the buzzer throughout, and their bonus rate, apart from their most recent game, at around 50%.

Pretty good line-up and, as others have pointed out, no Oxbridge teams! First time that's happened since, as Paul Gilbert commented on Monday's blog, the 2006-07 series. (And only the third time its happened in the BBC era after that and the 2002-03 series) So, who's playing who?

 

Well, as revealed by the BBC website yesterday, Royal Holloway and Durham will be playing each other again in the first semi this coming Monday, while leaves Bristol vs Southampton the following week. So, who will our finalists be?

 

Well, this Monday's game will be most interesting. Reminds me a bit of the Eric Monkman final of 2016-17: a rematch where the team that lost before will, perhaps, be slight favourites, as they have all the stats in their favour, apart from having lost the previous game. Lets not forget, Durham did incur five penalties in that previous game and, if they fare better like they did against U.C.L., they'll probably win. But another game like before, and Royal Holloway are certainly capable of capitalising like they did before. I mean, no-one expected them to get this far, let alone do it unbeaten, but do so they have. This is far too close to call for me.

As for the other, well, this looks like a fairly comfortable Bristol win on paper. Since that opening day defeat, they've, if anything, been getting stronger by the game, while Southampton appear to have been slowing down in their more recent games. As usual, we mustn't write Southampton off altogether, as they're still a capable team, but Bristol's form has just been so strong over recent times that, dare I say it, they have to be the favourites to win the whole series.

So, if I absolutely had to guess, I'd go for Durham vs Bristol in the final, which, as Weaver's Week pointed out a few weeks back, would be a rematch of the first game of the series! (Which would also be rather fitting for Paxo's final series) But no pair of finalists would totally surprise me; all four are capable, and all four would deserve it as well.

Best of (retrospective) luck to all of them! It's been a decent series; let's hope it gets a similarly decent ending! (And Paxo gets to bow out on a high as well!)

Back on Sunday with something extra, then on Monday with my usual write-up.