Good evening again my friends, and welcome back to another Quizzy Monday! Coming up, the 'second round' of Only Connect begins and both Mastermind and the semi-finals of Brain of Britain continue, the latter with a very good contest indeed. But first, the beginning of my least favourite round of University Challenge, the second round. You all know why, I won't repeat myself again here, but, suffice to say, fixtures like tonight's, and the two Wikipedia claims are coming up this week and next, are three big reasons why.
U.C.L. came here through the repechage, narrowly losing to Open in their first match, but recovering well with a convincing 215-105 win over St Andrews only two weeks ago. They were represented for a third time by:
Calum Jack, from Sutton in Surrey, studying Science Communication
Josh Mandel, from North London, studying US History and Politics
Captain: Olivia Holtermann Entwistle, from London, studying Human Geography
Sanjay Prabhakar, from London, studying Science Education
L.S.E. are also joining us for the second time in less than a month, having comfortably beaten Leicester 235-100 in the penultimate first round match four weeks ago. Playing for them for a second time were:
Albert Ying Zhi Nyang, from Singapore, studying Maths and Economics
Grant Dalton, from Richmond in Yorkshire, studying Economic Policy for International
Development
Captain: Sebastian Bramley, from Esher in Surrey, studying History
Christina Jiang, from Liverpool, studying Philosophy and Economics
U.C.L. began better, taking the first three starters and two thirds of the resulting bonuses, while their opponents were restricted to just a penalty. They also took the first picture round, and a full house on that meant they already led 85-(-5). Another starter and full bonus set meant both their score and their lead had already reached three figures, but a penalty finally allowed their opponents onto the board properly; they took two bonuses. L.S.E. took a second starter soon after, and a full bonus set suggested they could get back into the game if they could get a run together. U.C.L. took the music round though, after which they led 140-40.
And from then on in, it was virtually one-way traffic, as U.C.L. just pulled further and further away in the second half of the game, dominating on the buzzer and doing very good on the bonuses. It must be said, unlike their first two matches, where Mr Mandel had taken the majority of their starters, all four were contributing pretty well in this game. L.S.E. did get another starter, and two bonuses, but, after the second picture round, they trailed 195-55 and the game was all but over. But U.C.L. weren't stopping here, and just pulled away even further in the final stretch, and, with just seconds to go, their lead had reached 200. At the gong, U.C.L. won 255-55.
A pretty one-sided contest, but another pretty enjoyable one. Very well done U.C.L., a very impressive performance and against a team we know to be very good too, really marks them down as a team to watch in the QFs; best of luck to them there! But very hard lines to L.S.E., for whom AR summed it up perfectly in saying that the final score didn't do them justice at all, as we know they're a much better team than this; thanks to them for playing.
The stats: Mr Mandel was, again, the best buzzer of the night, with six starters, while Mr Nyang was best for L.S.E. with two. On the bonuses, U.C.L. managed a very good indeed 25 out of 40 and L.S.E. an also very good 7 out of 9, and both sides incurred two penalties each.
Next week's match: Durham vs Open
Only Connect began its play-off round
with one of those annoying avoidable rematches, as the Harmonics and the Cat
Cows met for a second time. Look, I get why they do these, it’s to do with
recording schedules, but I really would rather they tried not to let these
happen until they really do become totally unavoidable.
I claim a point on the first
question of the show, people who married Robinsons; I also mentioned phone
boxes on the first clue of the second question, but I probably wouldn’t have
risked it then. I am also claiming the same point as the Harmonics on the
punctuation question, and two on the male animals picture question. The Cows
led 5-1 at the end of that round. My Dad and I jointly claim two points for the
Astana question in the second round, and he claims two points on the two
minutes question. The Cows had increased their lead to 8-1 after that.
The Cows went first on the wall,
and scored a well worked out full house for a full ten. The Harmonics didn’t
take as long, but the same result, a full ten, so as you were, the Cows led
18-11 going into Missing Vowels. And the Cows increased their advantage in that
to win 23-13. Well done them and best of luck in the QFs, and thanks to the
Harmonics for playing.
Next week’s match: the Hopsters vs
the Al Frescans
Mastermind was opened by Charles
Boden, who was answering on the solo work of Robbie Williams; he clearly knew
his stuff and I was a bit surprised that he ‘only’ scored 6 as it felt like he’d
gotten a lot more right. Mike Kerr followed him into the chair, answering on CS
Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia books; he went one better than Charles did, 7 his
score there.
Next up was Matilda Makemson, who
you may remember from the last series of Only Connect, who was answering on the
fauna of Madagascar; sadly, the questions didn’t fall for her and two passes
didn’t help her cause much either; 4 her score and, unless she had a really
good GK, she was probably out of the running already. Finally, Roopam Carroll
was answering on the Matrix film series; she gave us the best total of the
round and only missed out on double figures due to a very slightly wrong
answer, 9 her score.
Matilda returned first for GK
then, and gave it a good go, 10 points a respectable score for a final total of
14, but it almost certainly wouldn't be a winning score, especially as she incurred a third
pass. And so it would prove as Charles returned for his round; while he failed
to match Matilda’s round, scoring 8, it was nonetheless enough to equal her
score and put himself ahead on passes.
Mike was next up and started very
strongly to pull up within behind one point of his opponents, but then hit a
run of wrong answers; he soon got going again though and overtook them both,
finishing with 10 for a good final score of 17, leaving Roopam needing 9 to win.
It was a close one, especially when she passed, leaving her really needing 9,
but in the end, she just about scored 10 as well, giving her a final total of
19 and winning the game! Well done her, and thanks to the others for playing.
Brain of Britain’s second
semi-final did compromise the line-up we were expecting this time, and a very
strong one it was too, comprising of Jack Bennett, Alan Gibbs, token HSNW Helen
Lippell and Hannah Reilly. Jack got off to a flying start with an immediate
5IAR+ABP, but Alan responded well and was only one behind after that round; at
the pause for Beat the Brains, it looked like a two horse race between them,
but the two ladies pulled back in the third round, at which point Jack led Alan
by 4 points.
Jack failed to score in the next
round though, allowing Alan to pull level on 12 each, and, with Hannah and
Helen now three and six behind respectively, it looked like it was once again
between the two chaps. Helen, to be fair, did have a pretty good final round,
answering round on her own questions and picking up at least one bonus, but it
wasn’t enough to catch the gentlemen; she finished with 11, Hannah with 9, Jack
with 13, while Alan had the better final round of the two to win with 15! Well
done him, and the others for that matter, a great contest all round; best of
luck to Alan in the final!
And that's this week done. Another excellent week as well it must be said. Only a couple more full rounds to go until we break for Christmas I believe; I do plan to cover Christmas UC seperately like I've always done before, but we'll see nearer the time once the schedule becomes clearer. For now, see yous again next week, same time same place.
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