Greetings friends, and Happy New Year! So, we start the year's blogging with my usual write-up of the second week of Christmas University Challenge. A pretty good week's competition as well, despite some rather low scoring games. So, let's do this...
Monday 30th: Emmanuel Cambridge vs Queens' Cambridge
Emmanuel: Robert Laidlow, Emma Sidi, Stig Abell, Andrew Harding
Queens': John Zarnecki, Stephanie Merritt, Jenny Kleeman, Richard Morgan
Queens' won this game on the bonuses, converting about two thirds of their's while Emmanuel only managed one third; that and two extra starters helped them to a reasonably comfortable victory. Most notable instance of the game, though, was, during a bonus set on Dickens, a brief insert shot of AR dressed as Scrooge! Queens' won 175-95, securing themselves a place in the semis.
Tuesday 31st: St Andrews vs L.S.E.
St Andrews: Abigail Harrison Moore, Jamie MacDonald, Abigail Thorne, Tim Samuels
L.S.E.: Ian Diamond, Halima Begum, Mark Urban, Jess Fostekew
Most notable thing about this game was, with both teams having a blind contestant, the two picture rounds were replaced with two extra audio rounds. Neither side fared especially well with the bonuses here, but the Scots side was comfortably better on the buzzer. St Andrews won 130-65, sadly not enough to bring them back for the semis.
Wednesday 1st: Durham vs Worcester
A low scoring affair to start the New Year, with neither side faring as well as they did in the heat. They still managed eight starters each to be fair, but FIVE penalties damaged Worcester's chances too much. Durham won 120-85.
Thursday 2nd: Churchill vs Queens'
Similarly, both teams, in contrast to their heats, struggled badly with the bonuses here, only answering 5 and 6 correct all night. The low scoring game ended in a 95-each tie-breaker, and it was Ms Merritt who answered the tie-breaker to send Queens' to the final! Special mention to Mr MacCulloch, whose individual haul of SEVEN starters must surely be one of the best for the Christmas series.
Friday 3rd: Durham vs Queens'
The final was a great contest, despite being low scoring once again. Durham slightly had the better of the buzzers, but Queens' better bonus rate kept the game close. Point of controversy early on as AR let Ms Denyer off with answering a starter without buzzing just as Ms James did; at least he's sort of consistant with when he's allowed similar instances in the current regular series. It all came down to the final starter, Ms MacLeod was first to get it, and Durham won the game and the series 125-120!
Well done them, worthy winners, and thanks to all involved for another enjoyable mini-series. It'll be good to be back to business as usual when the regular series resumes tomorrow evening though. We resume with Darwin vs Edinburgh, followed by Wadham vs Imperial next week. OC returns to business as usual tomorrow too, but Mastermind still has a few more celebrity specials to burn through, so we won't be resuming that for another couple of weeks at least.
Back tomorrow night with my usual write-up of both quizzes; so, until then, sayonara...
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