Good evening again my friends, and welcome back to another Quizzy Monday! I've had a week to get used to the new laptop now, so should hopefully be OK tonight. I've also spent much of the last week, as have others if Dave C's recent post on LAM is anything to go by, considering Mastermind and whether the format needs adjusting to account for high scoring heat runners-up. I did have an idea a while back that only the 24 (or however many) highest scoring contenders go through to the semis, win or lose, with tie-breaks being decided by passes and then where they finished in their heat. After all, if you take away the competitive element, then Mastermind is really just four people answering questions individually, not facing off against each other in any way, so this could work. I doubt it would go down very well with purists though. Anyway, that's another story, and possibly another blog; go and read Dave C's if you haven't already. On with tonight's procedings, starting with the penultimate UC QF...
Warwick comfortably negotiated the earlier round with wins over UEA and Oriel of Oxford, and then beat Queen's in their first QF, but then lost to Christ's in their second. They were the same foursome as all those previous games:
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
U.C.L. have taken the most scenic route possible, losing their first match to fellow quarter-finalists Open, then beating St Andrews and L.S.E., losing again to Darwin in their first QF, and then avenging their earlier loss by beating Open in their second just last week. They were also the same quartet as those prior occasions:
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
Warwick got off to a flying start, taking the first two starters and all six bonuses that came with them. U.C.L. responded with two starters of their own, including the first picture round, but they only took half the resulting bonuses, and so trailed 50-35. A penalty allowed Warwick to pull further ahead, but two starters in a row allowed the Londoners to pull level. The Coventry side duly retook the lead though with two starters of their own, including the music round, after which they led 100-70.
Another starter, a full set of bonuses, and Warwick were threatening to pull away. U.C.L. pulled back a starter and pair of bonuses, but Warwick now had the momentum and two further starters did indeed pull them away. They also took the second picture round, after which they led 175-90. Another starter, another full set to take them to 200, and that was game over. U.C.L. deservedly reached three figures with another couple of starters and a good few bonuses, but had been very much outplayed this time. At the gong, Warwick won 220-125.
Another top quality contest despite its one-sidedness, two excellent teams. Very well done Warwick, worthy winners and worthy semi-finalists, very best of luck to them there! Hard lines to U.C.L., but they've had a fine run that they can go away very pleased with; thanks very much for playing!
The stats: Mr Hart was, again, the best buzzer of the night, with EIGHT(!) starters, while Mr Jack was best for U.C.L. with three, though Mr Mandel was their best for the series with 30 over six matches. On the bonuses, Warwick managed 21 out of 33 (with one penalty) and U.C.L. 13 out of 21 (with two penalties).
Next week's match: Queen's vs Bristol in the last QF.
Mastermind’s third semi-final was
opened by Cathryn Gahan, who was answering questions on the films of Mel
Brooks; a very good round with no mistakes (that I noticed), she scored 12
points. She was followed into the chair by Arnav Umranikar, who was answering
on Homer’s Odyssey; he didn’t fare as well, pausing before answering a lot of
the time, but did still get most of his questions right, scoring 9. Next up was
Roopam Carroll, who was answering on LL Cool J; she also struggled a bit at
times, but did finish with 7 points, and a pass. Finally, John Harden was answering
on the Rumpole stories of John Mortimer; he fared better and ended up matching
Cathryn’s score, another 12.
It looked like potentially another
two horse race, but, as we saw last week, anything can happen in GK. Roopam
returned first, but, again, never really gathered any momentum; nonetheless,
she doubled her score, another 7 for a total of 14. Arnav, IIRC, had a really
good GK round in his heat; sadly, he didn’t fare well this time, not really
getting any momentum going until the end, also scoring 7 for a respectable
total of 16.
Cathryn was next, and she started
well, but then hit the skids, before she recovered well late on; she scored 10
for a good total of 22. John thus needed to beat Cathryn’s GK score to win; it
was a close one, but he scored steadily and just about made it over the line, equalling
his SS score of 12 for a total of 24. Well done him, and best of luck in the
final! And thanks to the others for taking part.
And that's it for another week! Only four more to go before both quizzes finish up for the season, though, as I said before, I suspect the Mayday Bank Holiday will be reserved for snooker, so we'll have a (rather agonising!) one week break before the finals of both quizzes. But we'll see when the time comes. In the meantime, thanks as ever for reading; see yous again same time same place next week...
