University Challenge 2023-24: Play-Off Quarter-Final 2: Birkbeck vs Trinity

Good evening again my friends, and welcome back to Quizzy Mondays once again! Just four more weeks of this season to go, with Mastermind wrapping up in a fortnight's time, and UC the week after. Tonight, two teams who've proven very popular this series, for varying reasons, met for the last place in the semis; whoever won would complete a very strong line-up indeed, and one fitting for, what has been, an excellent first series of the new era IMO.

 

Birkbeck reached the QFs via narrow wins over Oxford Brookes in R1 and York in R2, lost their first QF to Manchester, but bounced back by beating Sheffield 200-160 in their second. They were the same foursome as before:

Danny McMillan, from Belfast, studying Modern Irish History

Olivia Mariner, from London, studying Maths

Captain: Samir Chadha, from Ealing, studying Creative and Critical Writing

Margherita Huntley, from South London, studying Law and Political Economy

 

Trinity College Cambridge also lost to Manchester, on a tie-break in the first round, recovered with wins over Southampton in the play-offs, Warwick in R2 and Open in their first QF, but were narrowly beaten by U.C.L. in a great second QF. They were also the same quartet as before:

Sarah Henderson, from North London, studying Japanese

Agnijo Banerjee, from Dundee, studying Maths

Captain: Ryan Joonsuk Kang, form Seoul, studying Organic Chemistry

Jeremi Jaksina, from Bialystok, Poland, studying Genetics

 

So, off we set once again then, and it was Mr McMillan, Birkbeck's MVP so far, who opened the scoring for the night with Matisse; just one bonus on Jason and the Argonauts was taken, and none came from their second set, following their second starter. Trinity, in contrast, took two from their first set following their first starter, and then took the lead with their second. The first picture round, on opening lines of medieval works, went to Birkbeck; a full bonus set gave them the lead back 50-35. Two further starters went to Mr McMillan, but the Londoners took just one bonus from both sets. Trinity, once again in contrast, took a full set from their next starter. The Cambridge side also took the music round, on composers considered influential of a certain form of composition, and took a full house on those bonuses too, which levelled the scores at 80-each.

Birkbeck retook the lead through Mr Chadha, and, again, took just the one bonus; Trinity did likewise, and the teams were level again. The next starter was dropped, but the one after was a key moment as Birkbeck buzzed too early and lost five, Trinity picked it up and took all three bonuses again. The Londoners did take the second picture round, on subjects of works by Diana Souhami; another sole bonus took the scores to 120-105. Up went the lead again as Mr Kang ensured all four Trinity players have contributed a correct starter to the game; just one bonus followed from, what looked like, an educated guess, but when Birkbeck lost another five on the next starter, and the Cambridge captain took it again, his side had one foot in the semi-finals. Mr Kang completed his hat-trick, and that was game over, despite a second full bonus set in a row going begging. At the gong, Trinity won 165-100.

A good contest that was either team's game until the final minutes, well played both teams and kudos to both for going to shake hands over the credits, wish that'd happen more often. Very well done Trinity, and very best of luck in the semis! Hard lines to Birkbeck, but they've had a fine series and can go home happy with their performances; thanks for playing!

The stats: Mr McMillan was, again, the best buzzer of the night with six starters, giving him a final series total of 28 over five games, while Ms Henderson and Messrs Banerjee and Kang all got three each for Trinity. On the bonuses, Birkbeck managed 8 out of 21 (with two penalties) and Trinity 14 out of 27 (with one penalty).

Next week's match: the first semi-final! A fuller preview coming later in the week if I remember along with a big announcement about this blog's future...

Mastermind’s penultimate semi-final was won by Helen Lippell, who trailed by one point after the specialist round, but fared best on GK to win with 24 points, two ahead of Paul Judge with 22, four ahead of Peter Wilson with 20 and six ahead of Ben Jones with 18.

 

We also had another Only Connect Champion of Champions show, this time from the 2019 Christmas specials, between the winners of the two longest, and strangest, series of the show, the Verbivores of Series 12 and the Escapologists of Series 13. I also suspect this might have been the final episode recorded before the arrival of you-know-what and, thus, the last with the players sitting so close together!

 

Round Britain Quiz continued as well this afternoon, but I struggled into it due to, A, the off-putting new theme tune still being there, and B, the questions not being on the show’s BBC page like they usually are for some reason. Hopefully they’ll be there for next week’s show.