Hello my friends, and welcome to Week 2 of this season's Quizzy Mondays! I am pleased to report I am in a better mood this week than last week due to it being nowhere near as hot here as last week; but a brief respite as apparently going to warm up again tomorrow. Coming up, the second heat of OC brings about some clarity, but firstly UC, and an excellent follow up to last week's excellent series opener...
Durham have appeared on the BBC series of UC more times than any other institution, winning two series, 1999-2000 and 2022-23, to add to the ITV series they won; last year's team were defeated by Merton College Oxford in the first round. Playing for them this year were:
Robert Morris, from Wigan, studying Maths
Bella Thomas, from East Sussex, studying Philosophy
Captain: Dominic Challis, from Bournemouth, studying History of Economics
Andreas Ktori, from Birmingham, studying Physics
Manchester are, of course, the defending champions, winning a joint record fifth title last series to add to the ones from 2005-06, 2011-12 and 2012-13, plus the 08-09 title they were awarded after that which we do not talk about; this is their 24th BBC series they've appeared in. Representing them were:
Maciej Wojdyła, from London (originally Poland), studying Nuclear Science and Technology
Ethan Lehane, from Havant, studying Maths
Captain: Argyro Olympitis, from Manchester (originally the British Virgin Islands), studying the Immune Matrix
Caroline Ball, from York, studying Library and Archive Studies
The match began with... a penalty, incurred by Durham; Manchester duly pounced and took all three bonuses. Durham recovered to take the next starter, but the defending champs took the next two, including the first picture starter; after the first picture round, they led 55-15. Another starter and a full set of bonuses increased that lead, but Durham took a couple of their own and had suddenly cut the gap down to just twenty points. Manchester took the music round though, taking one bonus (and were unlucky not to get the other after offering the full 'Diana Ross and the Supremes' when just the band was needed), which upped their lead to 95-60.
Now it was Durham who went on a roll though, taking three starters in a row and suddenly they'd taken the lead and reached three figures first. Manchester took the second picture round though, and had just about taken the lead back afterwards, 110-105. And from here on in, it was virtually all Manchester, as the champs ran away on the buzzer and getting the vast majority of the accompanying bonuses. Durham did take the final starter of the game and the one bonus there was time for; at the gong, Manchester won 190-120.
Another good contest, a close one until Manchester's late sprint. Well done them, and best of luck in the second round! Hard lines to Durham, a capable team who won't be back in the repechage I fear, but a good effort from them, thanks for playing!
The stats: Andreas Ktori was the best buzzer of the night with five starters, while Messrs Wojdyła and Lehane were joint best for Manchester with four each. On the bonuses, Durham managed 11 out of 19 (with the night's one penalty) and Manchester 18 out of 30.
Next week's match: University College Oxford vs St John's Cambridge
Only Connect continued with the
second episode of its now-extended run of 34 episodes, plus four Christmas specials,
so 38 overall. It would appear the show IS doing the extended format with the
QFs like UC does and, given that I’m in a much better mood tonight than I was
last week, I do actually agree with this; going straight from the extended
group stage to instant KO QFs did maybe seem a bit abrupt (albeit not as bad as
the second round on UC), so… yeah, I agree with this.
Anyway, playing tonight were the
Two Hearts, Ben Baker, Olivia Grimes and captain Eden Cook-Watson, and Ad
Astra, David Howes, Paul McMillan and captain Louise McMillan, daughter of
David and wife of Paul, who I’m pretty sure was on UC many many years ago
(which reminds me, I really should finally update that list of joint alumni of
the two shows when this first round is done).
I claim two points on the ‘eaten
by tigers’ question in the first round; Ad Astra led 5-2 at the end of that. I
also claim two points on the World Wide Web question in the second round, and we came close on at least one other question in that round; the teams
were level on 8-each after that was done.
On to the Walls; Ad Astra went
first, and polished theirs off in pretty quick succession for a full ten. The
Hearts took a bit longer, but same result, another full house (a fourth out of
four this series), so as you were, an 18-each tie going into Missing Vowels.
And, thanks in part to a virtuoso performance from Eden on the category of ‘Phrases
seen in arcade games’, the Hearts just emerged on top 25-24! Another excellent
contest though; well played both teams and best of luck in your next games!
Next week’s match: Sinistrals vs
Merseyside Eyes
Mastermind’s second heat was won
by Elsie Clark, whose 20 points saw her just edge home ahead of Farrar Hornby
(a recent Brain of Britain semi-finalist) with 18; Emily Ryan and Adam Royston
completed the line-up with 14 and 16.
And that's it for this week! Thanks as ever for reading; stay tuned for my review of the final Radio 4 quiz pilot, Around the World in 80 Ways, coming up either tomorrow or Wednesday. And there might be something else I'll be talking about on here in the coming weeks, we'll wait and see. Anyway, see you tomorrow or Wednesday, and then again next week; until then, sayonara...
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