Good evening again my friends, and welcome to Heat 7 of Quizzy Mondays! We're well underway now; the first round of UC is now half done, as I suddenly realised with AR's opening credits, and we have just two more OC teams to meet for the first time after tonight, meaning my personal favourite round of the contest is nearly done. So, on with tonight's action, beginning, of course, with UC...
Tonight we welcomed back two institutions who were last with us three series ago, and who both lost to the same team! Reading were, of course, the runners-up of that series, easily their best performance of the BBC era at least, and whose captain Michael Hutchinson we re-met on OC just last week alongside Fatima Sheriff of the Imperial team that beat them. They were represented this year by:
Kissani Selvaramesh, from London, studying Biomedical Sciencea
Josh Finkelstein, from Toronto, studying Agricultural Economics
Captain: Rhiannon Snook, from Rugby, studying Philosophy
Stuart Rock, from West Dorset, studying History
Exeter were beaten by Imperial more comprehensively in the second round of that series, their twelfth of the BBC era, of which their joint best are QF appearances in 1995-96, 2007-08 and a series later, where they famously lost to Gail Trimble's Corpus Christi team with just 15 points (an undeserved total for what was a very decent team). This year's team consisted of:
Ryker Moorcroft, from Ramsgate, studying Natural Sciences
Lucy Carr, from Hitchin, studying Art History and Classics
Captain: Martin Newman, from Leighton Buzzard, studying Modern History
Elliott Mouelhi, from Wells, studying Ancient History and Archaeology
Mr Mouelhi began the show in excellent form by getting the first four correct starters of the game; a fine run, but not a record, I know of at least one occasion where this has been bettered. The run included the first picture round, after which Exeter already led 95-0. Reading recovered well in the second phase, getting a few starters and a respectable run of bonuses. After the music round, which the Biscuitmen took a full house on, they'd cut the gap to 105-75.
Exeter took a couple more starters to up their lead again, but Reading took a starter and full set to stay in touch. Exeter responded with one of their own with the second picture round though, extending their lead to 165-95. Reading kept themselves in the game with a starter and sole bonus, but that was as far as they could get, as Exeter duly turned on the afterburners and impressively ran away in the final quarter. Reading did the right thing in keeping on buzzing in, but only managed to incur penalties, allowing their opponents to keep increasing their lead. At the gong, Exeter won 240-100.
Another fine contest that wasn't as one-sided as that final score suggests. Well done Exeter, a very good first performance and, with a kind draw, they could certainly have a good run in this series; for now, best of luck in the second round! Hard lines to Reading, but they gave a respectable account of themselves and came across well; thanks very much for playing!
The stats: Messrs Moorcroft and Mouelhi were joint best buzzers of the night with five starters each, while Mr Finkelstein was best for Reading with four. On the bonuses, Reading managed a good 11 out of 18 (with three forgivable penalties) and Exeter a very good indeed 24 out of 33.
Next week's match: Darwin Cambrdge vs Birkbeck London
Only Connect’s penultimate first
round match was contested by the Third Agers, Elizabeth Manning, Pam Stanier
and captain Aidan Lawrence, and the Introverts, Naomi Koppel, Varun Chaubey and
captain Bradley Cates, a former Countdown semi-finalist.
I claim two points on the ‘berry’
question in the first round, at the end of which the Introverts led 4-1. My Dad
and I got the space nationalities question between us in the second round, and
I got the abbreviations and West End questions at the same time as the teams;
the Introverts had upped their lead to 8-3 after that.
The Agers bounced back with a well
worked out full house on their Wall, scoring a full ten. The Introverts worked
theirs out similarly well, another full house, so, as you were, they led 18-13
going into Missing Vowels. The Introverts maintained their advantage there to
win 22-18. Another well played contest, well done both teams, best of luck next
time!
Next week’s week: Uisge Beathas vs
Crunchers
Mastermind was opened by Mike
Noyes, who, answering on Lord Nelson, scored 8 points with a good round soured
only by a pass right at the end. Meg Koo, answering on the Battlestar Galactica
TV series, would go one better with 9, with, again, the last question of the
round giving the only mistake of the round.
Next up was Stanley Thomas,
captain of the Gunners on the last series of OC, who was answering on musician
Michael Kiwanuka, but couldn’t quite reach his opponents’ scores, finishing
with 7. Emma Gallen would conclude the round with the films of Sofia Coppola, and
would match Stanley’s score of 7.
Stanley returned for GK first, and,
while his round wasn’t to his liking, just over doubled his score to 15, a
respectable score but probably not going to be enough. Emma was next, but her
round was also not for her, and she just fell short of Stanley’s score, ending
with 14.
Mike fared a lot better, passing
both scores handily to finish with a very good 21 points. Meg thus needed 12 to
win, provided she didn’t pass; after a good start, she fell off the pace
though, and finished with a still decent 19. So, Mike wins the show and takes
the fourth place in the QFs; well done him and thanks the others for playing!
Brain of Britain was a lower
scoring affair than of late, but was still very close, with the four contenders
all finishing within a point of each other. Paula Dempsey ended up with the
highest score, 9 to the 8 of Simon Mason, the 7 of Jim Murdock and the 6 of
Annabel Lloyd, and so progresses to the semi-finals.
And that's another week done. Next week, we'll meet the last two teams of this year's OC and, hopefully, the action of all four quizzes will continue to be satisfactorily enjoyable. So, see you again same time same place next week...
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