Good evening again friends, and welcome to Week 2 of the new season of Quizzy Mondays! Tonight, the second match of the Amol Rajan era of UC, which, rather pleasingly, is a rematch of the very first one of the Paxo era! The winners would join Manchester in the second round, while the runners-up would maybe make the play-offs if they could score high enough.
Aberdeen were the winners of the previous match 29 years ago, and went on to reach the semis of that tournament before losing to eventual champions Trinity College Cambridge. Its last appearance was a first round defeat ten series ago. This year's foursome were:
Archie Broomfield, from Edinburgh, studying Politics and International Relations
Zachary Eisler, from South Queensferry, studying History
Captain: Emily Osborne, from Bristol, studying Economics
Callum McClements, from County Fermanagh, studying Medicine
Birmingham lost that first round match, but went through as high scoring runners-up, and went on to reach the QFs before losing to eventual runners-up New College Oxford. It's last appearance was two series ago, where they also went out in the QFs. This year's quartet were:
Archie Bennett, from Staffordshire, studying Biochemistry
Faiz Ahmed, from Bangalore, studying Medicine
Captain: Will Rogers, from Stratford-upon-Avon, studying the History of Warfare
Sam Hastings, from Chelmsford, studying Physics
So, off we set once again then, and it was Mr Broomfield who identified Scott Joplin for the first starter as soon as 'king of ragtime' was mentioned; Aberdeen took a full set of bonuses to get started, but Birmingham set off the mark on the next starter, and two in a row gave them the lead. The Dons retook it with the first picture round, on extracts from Grimm fairy tails, after which they led 40-35. The two sides then swapped starters for the second quarter, staying close to one another, but with Birmingham having the slight advantage. The music round, on top albums of the 2010s, went to Aberdeen, after which the teams were level on 90-each.
Both sides quickly moved into three figures, but neither could pull away from the other, until Aberdeen took the second picture round, on paintings of Vesuvius, after which they had a slight lead of 145-125. A crucial buzz from Mr McClements put them in poll position, leaving Birmingham needing to go for it. Mr Ahmed did the right thing and buzzed early on the next starter, but was wrong and lost five; Mr McClements did the honours, and Aberdeen were within sight of victory. Birmingham did take another starter, but no bonuses followed, and that was game over. Aberdeen took the final starter, and that was the gong; they won 190-125.
An excellent follow-up to last week's show, with AR continuing to settle nicely into the role (even if his quick speed will take a bit of getting used to again) and a contest that could've gone either way until right at the end. Well done to Aberdeen, a fine first showing, and best of luck in the second round! Hard lines to Birmingham, who the game just got away from late on and whose score I fear won't be enough for the play-offs, but a respectable performance, thanks for playing!
The stats: Mr Eisler was the best buzzer of the night with six starters, while Mr Bennett was Birmingham's best with three. On the bonuses, Aberdeen managed 18 out of 33, and Birmingham 11 out of 24, with both sides incurring two penalties, and, for the second week in a row, all eight players got at least one starter right each.
Next week's match: Birkbeck London vs Oxford Brookes
Only Connect’s second first round
match pitted the Roadies, Aidan Bartlett, Sophia Shaikh and captain Chris
Fletcher, against the Stitchers, Elizabeth Down, Thea Ralph and captain Rachel
Jung. The latter led 5-0 after a rather tough first round, and 10-2 after the
second. A better wall increased that lead to 17-6 going into Missing Vowels,
and they easily saw it home to win 24-8.
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