University Challenge 2023-24: Repechage Play-Off 2: Oxford Brookes vs Open

Good evening again friends, and welcome back to Quizzy Mondays! Tonight, the first round officially ended with the second repechage play-off; last week's first was a rather one-sided affair, and, if paper decided the outcome, tonight's would be too. Still, both teams impressed in the first round and deserved another go; the winners would take the final place in what is, as I've said before, a very high quality line-up of a second round that is going to be utterly brutal even by UC's standards.

Oxford Brookes played Birkbeck in a storming contest, the first in nearly ten years where both teams broke 200, and were the unfortunate losers of that great game, 220-205. They were unchanged from that fine contest:

David Caldecott, from Henley-on-Thames, studying Biology

Lara Gardner, from Ledbury in Herefordshire, studying Human Biosciences

Captain: John Manton, from Gortnahoe, County Tipperary, studying Fine Art

James Broadbent, from Wallingford in Oxfordshire, studying International Relations and Politics

The Open University, in contrast, were soundly beaten by Hertford in their first round, trailing from the off, but recovering well in the latter half of the game, ultimately trailing 230-155 at the gong. They were also the same foursome as before:

Ellie Romans, from Henley-on-Thames, studying Nursing

Mike Holt, from Wilmslow in Cheshire, studying towards the Open degree

Captain: Ann Gavaghan, from London, studying Art and Architectural History

James Davidson, from Fraserburgh, studying English Literature

So, off we set once again then, and it was Mr Davidson who quickly took the first starter of the game, and Open shot out of the blocks with a full bonus set, a classic UC one on pairs of US states where the final letters of the first and the first of the second are the same. Ms Gavaghan took the next two, with all but one bonus being answered correctly too, and Open also took the first picture round, on crosses associated with regions/peoples of Europe, after which they already led 90-0. And when Ms Romans took the next starter, not only were Open already at 100, but already all four of them had contributed at least one correct starter. Oxford Brookes finally got going via Mr Broadbent, with one bonus following, but two further starters pushed Open ahead again, though their early bonus rate did dry up again with now just one bonus coming from both sets. The music round, on pop songs that feature the Minimoog synthesiser, went to Oxford Brookes, who quickly took all three bonuses, which cut the gap to 135-40.

A second starter in a row went to the Oxonians, accompanied by a single bonus, but another quick buzz from Mr Davidson reawoke Open; just one bonus went to them as well, but a second starter in a row gave them a full bonus set on cocktails ("Parties round your house must be fun!" quoth AR!). And when Mr Manton lost five on the next starter, Mr Davidson swooped, and a second full house in a row accompanied it, Oxford Brookes' order looked tall, though they did recover well with a starter and pair of bonuses of their own. After the second picture round, on paintings of women with fans, Open led 220-70. Oxford Brookes recovered well in the final minutes with a decent run of starters, but Open were too far ahead to be caught, especially given the bonuses weren't exactly falling in the Oxonians' favour. At the gong, Open won 255-155.

A superb quality contest between two high quality teams, what a shame one of them has to go out now; bravo to AR for encouraging them to applaud themselves/each other at the end, well deserved. Well done to Open, a superb performance that proves them a worthy addition to the second round line-up; best of luck there! Hard lines to Oxford Brookes, most unlucky to be going out after two such good performances, but they can do so with their heads high; thanks for playing!

The stats: Messrs Broadbent and Davidson were joint best buzzers of the night with six starters each for their respective teams. On the bonuses, Oxford Brookes managed 14 out of 27 and Open 26 out of 38, with both sides incurring one penalty each.

Next week's match: Warwick vs Trinity (the first of many brutal contests I fear we're in for in this most high quality of second rounds!)

Only Connect concluded its qualifier round with the returns of the Mercians and the Video Nasties. The latter led 7-2 after the first round, and 10-7 after the second. Two perfect walls meant it was as you were, 20-17 going into Missing Vowels, and, after an epically close round, the Mercians just snuck it on the final question to win 26-25.

 

Mastermind was won comfortably by Lisa Cowan, whose 21 points comfortably saw her beat second placed Rebecca Russell-Peach with 16 and joint third placed John Castell and Siddharth Iyer with 15 each.

 

Brain of Britain reached its final heat, which was won by Sue Brooks, who largely won thanks to a five point haul in the second round, and finished with 12 points, two ahead of Elizabeth Mowbray in second with 10. David Hopkins and Graham McNeilly completed the line-up with 6 and 5 respectively.

 

So, the BoB semi-finals start next week, with the twelve heat winners joined by the four highest scoring non-winners (though all in contention are runners-up); Dave Cowan is definitely through with 13, while four others, Sue Brearley, Matt Barr, John Robinson and Jim Cook, are tied for the remaining three places with 12 each, meaning one must sadly miss out. We know, from next week’s line-up published on the website, that Mr Robinson is one of the lucky three; how they’ll decide which of the others is the one that misses out, I do not know. Hopefully Russell D. will explain at some point.