Good evening my friends, and welcome to another Quizzy Monday! And, as I hinted at last week, this will be the last one I cover on the day for a few weeks as, next Monday, Death in Paradise is on BBC1 immediately after UC finishes and (almost) everything gets cleared from my schedule for that, so next week's write-up will be on Tuesday evening instead. Hopefully this will be a one-off but if, as I suspect, the two finals end up on the same day and Mastermind starts at 8 as usual, then that'll probably be a Tuesday blog as well. Anyway, on with tonight's quizzes, and two pretty big milestones for both series, beginning with UC and the first elimination QF...
Manchester were narrow winners over New College of Oxford and L.S.E. in the first two rounds, largely thanks to their captain's excellent buzzer performances, but were soundly beaten 195-80 in their first QF. They were the same unchanged foursome as those previous games:
Ray Power, from Bangkok, studying Film Studies and English Literature
Kirsty Dickson, from Morley Green in Cheshire, studying Medicine
Captain: Kai Madgwick, from Fowey in Cornwall, studying AI and Astrophysics
Rob Faulkner, from Norwich, studying Physics with Astrophysics
U.C.L. won a high scoring first round match against SOAS and then comfortably defeated Lincoln in the second round, but in their first QF, they were pipped at the post by Merton, who nipped ahead of them on the final starter to defeat them 160-150. They were also the same quartet as those previous occasions:
Zak Lakota-Baldwin, from London, studying Science and Technology Studies
Alice Lee, from Kendal, studying Russian and Post-Soviet Politics
Captain: Michael Doherty, from Derry, studying Optical Communications
Manny Campion-Dye, from Bath, studying Philosophy
Manchester's captain Mr Madgwick continued their impressive buzzer showing by taking the first starter and two bonuses followed; U.C.L. only took one of their first set, but a penalty and a pickup gave them the lead. After the first picture round, the Londoners led 40-15. U.C.L. were dominating the buzzers at this stage, but weren't really pressing home their advantage with the bonuses. Manchester took a couple of starters in a row, including the music starter, where Mr Faulkner visibly beat his captain to the buzzer ("Well done for keeping your composure as your captain nearly jumped out the studio!"); after the music bonuses, which they took all of (their captain very excited to know the first two!), they'd cut the gap to 75-55.
U.C.L. took a couple of starters to reach three figures, but the bonuses continued not to fall for them, just one of the resulting six. Manchester, in contrast, were faring a bit better with theirs and, after the second picture round, they'd closed the gap to 100-90. Another starter to their captain and a single bonus gave Manchester the lead for the first time since the early stages. But U.C.L. immediately retook it with the next starter and finally got a bonus set they liked, taking two and unluckily missing the third. But back came Manchester as a starter and single bonus levelled the scores, before yet another starter to their captain gave them the lead back and two bonuses put them within sight of victory. And when their skipper took the final starter of the game, that was game over. At the gong, Manchester won 150-120.
A good close contest, ultimately Manchester's better bonus performance won them the game. Well done them, and best of luck in the play-offs! Hard lines to U.C.L., but they've had an excellent run and can be pleased with their performances; thanks very much to them for playing!
The stats: Mr Madgwick was, once again, the best buzzer of the night, with eight starters, taking their series total thus far to 31, while Mr Doherty was best for U.C.L. with four, though Mr Campion-Dye was their best for the series with a total of 13 over four games. On the bonuses, Manchester managed 13 out of 26 and U.C.L. 9 out of 24, and both sides incurred one penalty each.
Next week's match: Sheffield vs Imperial in the second qualifer, followed, we can assume, by Darwin vs Warwick in the second eliminator
Mastermind’s final heat was by
Milena Malcharek (UC alumnus of a few years ago, as she mentioned in her outro), who led by one point after
the first round, and by two after GK to win with 22 points, two ahead of Jacob
Roberts (who I think has also been on UC in the past) and Keith Hickling, who
both scored 20. Sarah Skelton completed the line-up with 17. First semi-final
next week, and I may go back to the longer summaries I did last year, not sure yet,
we’ll see when the time comes.
And that's it for another week! Thanks as ever for reading; don't forget, next week's blog will be on Tuesday evening thanks to the ever considerate BBC schedulers. I mean, don't get me wrong, the FA Cup should definitely be on free-to-air TV, but next year, could you possibly let ITV have the Friday evening game so that Death in Paradise can be in its usual slot every week? Anyway, as I say, I'll be back next Tuesday with my write-up of next Monday's action, so, see yous then...
