Quizzy Mondays 2024-25 Week 29: University Challenge Qualification Quarter-Final 1, Mastermind Heat 23

Good evening again my friends, and welcome back to another, now shorter, Quizzy Monday! With Only Connect over, I decided to bridge the half hour gap by not watching Mastermind live at half 7, instead recording it and watching it back half an hour later, allowing me to go straight into UC afterwards! And it worked, reasonably well, so I'll definitely be carrying on with it for the rest of this season. Next season, though, I think I might go back to just giving Mastermind a fleeting mention on this blog and focus my main attentions on UC and OC. Anyway, on with tonight, beginning with the first UC qualifier QF...

 

Christ's College Cambridge defeated Exeter of Oxford and St Edmund Hall of Oxford in the first two rounds, before completing the upset of the series thus far when they narrowly edged out the highly fancied Imperial in their first QF. They were the same foursome as those previous games:

Anniko Firman, from The Hague, studying Classics

Brendan Bethlehem, from North London, studying Linguistics

Captain: Oscar Despard, from Dublin, studying Biochemistry

Linus Luu, from Orpington, studying Maths

Warwick were comfortable winners over UEA and Oriel of Oxford in their first two matches, and, in their first QF, they were similarly convincing against Queen's of Belfast. They were also the same quartet as those prior occasions:

Ananya Govindarajan, from Edgware in London, studying Engineering

Thomas Hart, from Miskin in South Wales, studying Maths

Captain: Oscar Siddle, from Islington, studying Maths

Benjamin Watson, from Amersham, studying PPE

Warwick kicked off first with the first two starters and half the resulting bonuses; Christ's responded in kind to draw level, and then pulled ahead with the first picture round, after which they 55-35. On the Cambridge side pushed with another starter and all three bonuses; Warwick, in contrast, took two starters in a row, but no bonuses from either set. Christ's pushed into three figures with another perfect full house, and also took the music round, after which, they led 115-55.

 

Onwards the Cambridge side went with two starters and pairs of bonuses putting their lead into three figures and further when Warwick lost five for a forgivable early buzz. Another starter and pair of bonuses put the Cambridge side up to 200. Warwick finally got going again with the second picture round, and took one bonus, which left them trailing 200-65. The game looked done, but Warwick put in a late run on the buzzer and the bonuses finally fell better for them. A couple of penalties to Christ's didn't look all that harmless, but Warwick kept pushing, reaching three figures and suddenly were pulling back a lot of lost ground. They'd left themselves just a bit too much to do in the end though, and Christ's made doubly sure by taking the final starter and the one bonus there was time for. At the gong, Christ's won 205-155.

 

An excellent high quality contest that, well played both teams. Very well done Christ's, worthy winners and semi-finalists, best of luck to them there. Bad luck to Warwick, who recovered very well indeed in those final minutes and will certainly go through too if they can play like that throughout their play-off; best of luck to them there!

 

The stats: Mr Bethlehem was, again, the best buzzer of the night with six, while Mr Hart was, again, best for Warwick with four. On the bonuses, Christ's managed 21 out of 34 (with two penalties) and Warwick 12 out of 30 (with one penalty), so it was the bonuses that won the game.

 

Next week's match: Imperial vs Queen's I would imagine, followed, presumably, by Darwin vs Bristol and U.C.L. vs Open for the second time.

 

Mastermind’s penultimate heat was opened by Eddie Crawford, who was answering on Henry II; an up and down round that started well, faded a bit, then recovered well at the end, gave him a score of 6. He was followed into the chair by Kate Bleazard, who was answering on Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple novels; a good round with only two mistakes, she answered well and finished with a very good for this series 9.

 

Next was Nathan Hamer, alumnus of OC back in the BBC4 days (his sister Lauren was on it more recently), who was answering on Wales’ rugby union test matches since 2000; a steady round that he scored well on and never really lost momentum until near the end, he scored 7. Finally, Gary Austin was answering on Friday Night Dinner, a sitcom I’ve never seen, though I did laugh at a few of the questions and answers here! Gary very much knew his stuff, a perfect round and a great score of 12.

 

Eddie returned first for GK and gave us a fantastic round, answering steadily and keeping a good momentum going, he scored a superb 15 for a great total of 21, putting himself well back in the game. Nathan didn’t manage to beat it; he started well and looked on pace, but then hit a run of wrong answers and fell off it, ultimately scoring a still pretty good 11 for a solid total of 18.

 

Kate was next, and she too started strongly before hitting a wrong answer run and falling off the pace, though she was good at coming up with reasonable guesses; she scored 10 for a decent total of 19. It meant Gary needed a double figure score to win; he too started well, but then hit a bad patch and incurred three passes, meaning he really did need 10 points. In the end, he managed exactly that, giving him a total of 22 and winning the game! Well done him, and thanks to the others, Eddie especially for that great GK round, for taking part.

 

And that's this week done! I must say, watching the two shows back to back worked much better than watching them with the half hour gap would've, so, as I said before, I'll definitely be carrying on with it for the rest of this season. Thanks as ever for reading; join us again same time same place next week, see you then...