Quizzy Mondays 2024-25 Week 11: University Challenge R1M11, Only Connect Elimination Match 3, Mastermind Heat 9

Good evening again my friends, and welcome back to another Quizzy Monday! Coming up, a very high quality Only Connect between two teams who it's a real shame ended up in the same bracket of the draw, plus a very strong line-up on Brain of Britain and the next heat of Mastermind. But we start, as ever, with UC, which we're at the business end of the first round of now; both tonight's teams knew 180 or more would bring them back win or lose.

Two institutions who were last with us two series ago tonight. St Andrews, firstly, who were defeated in the second round on that particular occasion; their best showing of the Paxo era was in 2003-04, where they reached the SFs, but their team won the show way back in 1982 and reached the final at least one other time in the ITV era. They were represented this year by:

Diane Buffet-Mogel, from Princeton, New Jersey, studying Classics and Philosophy

George Capell, from Broughton Hackett in Worcestershire, studying Economics

Captain: Freddie Skerrett, from Chislehurst in Kent, studying History

Tom Rosas, from Richmond-upon-Thames (originally Recife in Brazil), studying Physics 

 

Cardiff were also beaten in the second round of that series, unlucky to face the very good Newnham team there. Their joint best runs of the Paxo era came in 1997-98 and 2013-14, reaching the quarter-finals both times. Their team this year consisted of:

Kyle Gilbert, from Worcester, studying History

Rosalie Tarsala, from Arcadia, California, studying Data Science

Captain: Conor Boyling, from Dartford, studying History and Economics

Henrik Holm, from Manchester, studying Physics

St Andrews got off to the better start, taking the first two starters and two bonuses each; but Cardiff responded in kind and, after the first picture round, had cut the gap to 40-35. The Welsh side then took the lead, and a further two starters pulled them away into three figures. St Andrews pulled back though with two starters of their own, including the music round; they got none of the bonuses from that though, AR being so jokingly appalled by their answers! (Second time a St Andrews team has failed to identify Otis Redding for a music bonus!) They had, nonetheless, reduced their arrears to 100-70.

A further two starters to St Andrews, and they had suddenly retaken the lead. Cardif reawoke to take the second picture round though; after that, the teams were tied on 135-each! Cardiff blinked first to retake the lead with a starter and single bonus, only for St Andrews to respond in kind and level the scores again! Cardiff crucially took the next starter, followed by two bonuses; St Andrews did the right thing and buzzed early on the next starter, but lost five. Cardiff didn't pick up, but when Mr Boyling took the next starter, you fancied that was game over. At the gong, Cardiff won 200-145.

A good close game between two very good teams, either could've won until the final minutes. Well done Cardiff, and best of luck in the second round! Hard lines to St Andrews, but hopefully their score will be good enough for the play-offs; they currently sit third on the repechage board with three games to go. Thanks for playing for now though!

The stats: Messrs Skerrett, Gilbert, Boyling and Holm were all joint best buzzers of the night with three each for their respective teams. On the bonuses, St Andrews managed 14 out of 24 (with the night's one penalty) and Cardiff 18 out of 31, and, for the first time in eight weeks, all eight players contributed at least one correct starter to the game.

Next week's match: Leeds vs Edinburgh

Only Connect reached its third elimination match and a very promising looking contest between the Pipe-Dreamers, who were beaten by Too Many Cookes in their first match, and the Tea Totallers, who lost that utterly bonkers high scoring first round match against the Bloomsbury Group.

 

My Dad and I claim the first question of the show, though not sure how many points for; I definitely got the anagrams question at the same three-point time the Pipe-Dreamers did. The Totallers led 5-4 at the end of the first round. I also claim the Dave question on the second round (which is out of date now following the recent rebrand!), my Dad got the grace and favour houses, and I think we worked out the ‘dividing by 60’ question before they did. The Totallers now led 11-10 after another high-quality round.

 

On to the Walls, and the Totallers used nearly all of their time to work out theirs, but it was worth it as they secured a well worked out full house. It was the same for the Pipe-Dreamers, but they missed a connection, so seven points. The Totallers thus led 21-17 going into Missing Vowels, but they only increased their lead in that; 31-20 the final scores. Well done them, and best of luck in the next round! Unlucky Pipe-Dreamers, a good team who would certainly have gone further in a different bracket of the draw; an excellent team, thanks for playing!

 

Mastermind was opened by Anthony Smith, who was answering on the emperor Claudius; he continued the series’ current trend of specialist scores being in high single figures, finishing with 8. Kal Dixit was next up, answering on the Watergate scandal; sadly, the questions weren’t to her liking, 3 points her score. Caroline Grogan then answered on the Phantom of the Opera and its sequel; 9 points was a good score, but two passes left her vulnerable. Finally, John Robinson (UC and OC alumnus and winner of £500,000 on WWTBAM) answered on futurism art, and put down a perfect round; 12 questions, all answered correctly!

 

You’d have to say Kal looked pretty much out of it already as she returned first for GK, but she still scored a very respectable 10, giving her a final score of 13. Anthony was next up, and matched Kal’s score, another 10 gave him a score of 18; a good score, but it looked beatable. Caroline would go one better, scoring 11 to give her a good final score of 20, but another three passes, giving her five overall, left John needing a minimum of 8 to win provided he didn’t pass.

 

And he managed and bettered that with time to spare; matching his first round, he doubled his score to 24, putting him through to the semi-finals! Well done him, and thanks to the others for playing.

 

Brain of Britain was another heavyweight contest, but was won very easily by Alan Gibbs (OC winner, Fifteen-to-One finalist, another WWTBAM big winner et al), who scored 5I1R+ABP plus two pickups on the first round and never looked back; 17 points his final winning score. Diane Hallagan (another WWTBAM big winner plus OC and Mastermind among many others) finished second with a good sprint in the final round, though her score of 12 is only enough to, as William G Stewart would say, put her on the sidelines of the highest scoring non-winners board, ie joint fourth with Andrew Fanko. Sanjoy Sen (yet another OC alumnus among others) and Helen Rigby completed the line-up, finishing with 6 and 5 respectively.

 

And that's it for a very high quality week of quizzing indeed! Thanks once again for reading; we'll be back next week, same time same place, only a bit later because the clocks go back on Sunday! So, see you then...