Good evening once again my friends, and welcome to the penultimate Quizzy Monday of the season! Yes, I know, it's University Challenge final day and that's usually it for this blog's coverage, but, with the Mastermind final next week, we're going into an unprecedented 38th week on here! At least we had OC back tonight though, giving us one final full house of quizzes for the series! Anyway, Mastermind's final semi on the way later, but first, the big one...
Christ's College Cambridge reached this final by beating Exeter of Oxford, St Edmund Hall of Oxford, Imperial, their opponents tonight and Bristol. Hoping for a first ever UC title, and a first for Oxbridge in seven years, were:
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 made it here via victories over UEA, Oriel of Oxford, Queen's of Belfast, U.C.L. and Darwin of Cambridge, but did also lost to their opponents tonight. Playing for a third UC title were:
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
Mr Bethlehem took the first starter of the night, and Christ's took all three of the first set of bonuses, only for their opponents to respond likewise. Warwick then took a further two starters, including the first picture round, after which they led 60-25. Another two starters plus bonuses and Warwick had already reached three figures. Mr Despard finally reawoke Christ's, but they only took one bonus, and Warwick pushed on to take another starter and two bonuses. The Cambridge side did take the music round, but no bonuses followed, meaning they trailed 125-50.
A second starter in a row went to the Cambridge side, plus two bonuses, only for Warwick to bite back and re-extend their lead. Christ's then took two starters in a row, and half the resulting bonuses took them into three figures. Warwick took the second picture round though, after which they led 155-105. Christ's took the next starter, but, very narrowly, missed all three bonuses; Warwick took the next, just the one bonus, but nonetheless had a sixty point lead with barely any time left. Christ's had to go for it, and go for it they did, but their low bonus rate meant it was slow progress. A penalty to Warwick helped, but a harsh but fair disallowance from the chairman didn't. With thirty points in it, Mr Despard took a flyer on a starter, let out a just-about reasonable length pause, then answered correctly; two bonuses, and the gap was suddenly just ten points! Just one final starter surely, and Ms Firman took it to pull Christ's level! One bonus gave them the lead, the second was disallowed for another minor mistake... and that was the gong! Christ's won the game, and the series, 175-170!
Kudos to the chairman for giving both teams a standing ovation, and to both teams for clapping each other. We then headed to the ADC Theatre, where AR and the two teams were joined by Sir Ian McKellen, who said a few words before handing the trophy over to Mr Despard.
A great final to worthily end a great series; very well done both teams, both of whom would've been worthy champions. Hard lines to Warwick to lose it like that, but they can be rightly proud of their series of performances; congrats to them and thanks very much indeed to them for being part of the series! But very very well done indeed to Christ's, who are, of course, most worthy champions; thanks to them for playing as well, well done indeed!
The stats: Mr Bethlehem was the best buzzer of the night with six, giving him a final series total of 35 over six matches, while Mr Watson was best for Warwick with four, though Mr Hart was their best of the series, indeed THE best of the whole series, with a grand total of 42 over seven matches. On the bonuses, Christ's managed 13 out of 32 and Warwick 18 out of 27 (with two penalties).
And that's it; the series is finished! Many thanks to all involved for another excellent nine months of quizzing! And special mention to the chairman, who has really settled into the role this series and, honestly, I can't imagine the show without him now! Well done to him indeed! We all eagerly await the next series!
Mastermind’s final semi-final was
opened by Neil Pritchard, who was answering on Spike Milligan’s war memoirs; a
respectable round, he scored 7 points, but, coupled with a pass, you fancied he
had his work cut out to win. He was followed into the chair by Rakesh Sharma,
who was answering on MS Subbulakshmi; he did very well indeed, not making any
errors that I noticed and scoring an excellent 10 points. Next up was Olivia
Woolley, who was answering on the Glorious Revolution; another very good round,
marred by a brief blip of a pass and a wrong answer in succession, another good
score of 10. Finally, Ivan Milatovic was answering on the career of Novak
Djokovic; another strong round resulted in a third score of 10, meaning GK was
going to be very crucial indeed!
Neil returned first needing, as I suspected,
a big performance to stand a chance; he started OK, then ran out of momentum,
before recovering late on to score 11 for a respectable total of 18, a good
total, but, coupled with two passes, probably not a winning one. Rakesh was
next, and also started strongly, before faltering somewhat, and remained
stop-start for the rest of the round; he eventually score of 10 for a total of
20, another good total, but I suspected not enough for the win.
Next was Olivia, who, again,
started well before falling off the pace and then recovering late on, but not quite
enough to catch Rakesh; a score of 8 for another solid total of 18 left Ivan
needing 11 to win. He also started pretty good, then hit the skids a bit, but
recovered quicker than his fellow contenders and so did just about enough,
scoring 12 for a total of 22 and taking the final place in next week’s final!
Well done him, and very best of (retrospective) luck to him and the other five
finalists next week!
We also had the triumphant return
of Only Connect this evening, albeit it was just a repeat, of the ‘Sound’
special from New Year’s Day where all but two of the questions in the first two
rounds were audio questions. Still, a good one to show, as I suspect a lot of
people will have missed it first time around and, of all the specials from last
Christmas, this novel one definitely deserved a repeat when more would be able
to see it.
And that's it for this momentus week! But, of course, we're not done yet! We still have the Mastermind final next Monday of course, at the earlier time of 7pm; don't forget the early start. I'll be back next Monday with my write-up of that, and then we're done for the season! As ever, thanks very much for reading, and I'll see yous then...
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