Good evening my friends, and welcome to another Quizzy Monday! Coming up, Mastermind returns, Brain of Britain continues, and Only Connect enters its second phase. But first, after being postponed twice, the long awaited Midlands derby on UC, the rescheduling of which has caused much trouble; not least my recording of tonight's match didn't see to want to play at first until I got it going by fast forwarding it a bit! So, now it's working, let's do this thing...
Birmingham University has appeared in twelve previous BBC series, including the very first series of the revival, where it lost the very first episode to Aberdeen but survived and went on to reach the QFs; two further teams have since matched this run, while its last team were beaten in the first round, also by Aberdeen, three series ago. Playing for them this year were:
Elif Cetin, from Albrighton in Shropshire, studying Medicine
Teddy Fogel, from Twickenham, studying Economics
Captain: Waleed Ghani, from Market Drayton in Shropshire, studying Islamic Studies
Zhangir Satzhanov, from Wimbledon (originally Kazakhstan), studying Chemical Engineering
Leicester University won the very first series of UC back in 1963; its best BBC era performance is a run to the QFs in 1998-99, the very first series of UC I ever saw incidentally, while its most recent team were defeated by L.S.E. in the first round two series ago. Their quartet consisted of:
Abi Burton, from Nottingham, studying Public Health
Emmeline Hague-Wright, from Melton Mowbray, studying History
Captain: Samuel Carlier, from Dartford, studying Astrophysics
Patrick Loughrey, from Northumbria, studying Politics
Birmingham took the first starter of the game, but Leicester took the next two, with all of the first set of bonuses and none of the second. Birmingham took the first picture round, and they got full marks on that, thus taking the lead 45-35. Teddy Fogel, a semi-finalist on Mastermind last series, took his first starter to increase that lead, but two successive starters allowed Leicester to take it back. The music starter saw Heaven 17's record of not being known by UC contestants continue; the bonuses went to Leicester, who took all of them, which increased their lead to 90-50.
Back came Birmingham through Mr Fogel and two bonuses followed, but a further two starters saw Leicester break three figures first. The second picture round went to Birmingham; one bonus cut the gap to 125-85. A second starter in a row and a full set of bonuses took Birmingham into three figures. A third pulled them within five points; the bonuses showed none of them watch The Simpsons as they didn't know the Sunsphere to be in Knoxville, but they did get one of the others to pull level. The bit now firmly between their teeth, it was all Birmingham from here on in, two starters in a row to Mr Fogel pulling them well in front, and when Elif Cetin took the last starter of the game, that was game over. At the gong, Birmingham won 190-125.
A good contest, very closely fought until Birmingham suddenly ran away late on. Well done them, and best of luck in the next round! Hard lines to Leicester, who were undone by that late run, but they can be pleased with their performance, thanks for playing!
The stats: Teddy Fogel was the best buzzer of the night with six starters, while Emmeline Hague-Wright was best for Leicester with three. On the bonuses, Birmingham managed a not bad 21 out of 30 (with three penalties) and Leicester 11 out of 21.
Next week's match: U.C.L. vs the Royal College of Art (making its UC debut)
Only Connect began its (first) elimination round with the returns of the Culture Club, who were beaten by the Makeweights in the first show of the series, and Ad Astra, who were very narrowly pipped by the Two Hearts the week after.
We claim the same two points as the Club on the Y vowels question in the first round; Ad Astra led 8-2 at the end of that. I claim two points each on the number of different letters question, the Tolkien Martin question and the ‘All for One’ question in the second round; Ad Astra led 12-8 after that.
On to the Walls. The Club went first, and worked everything out with about half the time to spare, a full ten there. Ad Astra worked out two connections, but couldn’t get the remaining groups in their three goes; they did get three connections, five points, which meant they’d fallen behind 18-17 going into Missing Vowels. They fared better in that though and won the game 26-20. Well done them and best of luck next time! And thanks to the Club for taking part!
Next week’s match: the Marvins vs the Merseyside Eyes
Mastermind was won by Chris Matterface, whose 23 points saw him just win ahead of Jane Gibbons with 21; Ali Morgan and Lewis Demmon completed the line-up, scoring 19 and 12 respectively.
Yesterday’s Brain of Britain was a very close run contest; in the end, it was Simon Langley Evans who won the show with a spectacular run in the final round, which he went into joint third and four points adrift, but four of his own questions plus two pick ups meant he won with 15 points, one ahead of second placed Mary Evans with 14. Claire Turner and Thomas Rees completed the line-up with 9 and 12 respectively.
We claim the same two points as the Club on the Y vowels question in the first round; Ad Astra led 8-2 at the end of that. I claim two points each on the number of different letters question, the Tolkien Martin question and the ‘All for One’ question in the second round; Ad Astra led 12-8 after that.
On to the Walls. The Club went first, and worked everything out with about half the time to spare, a full ten there. Ad Astra worked out two connections, but couldn’t get the remaining groups in their three goes; they did get three connections, five points, which meant they’d fallen behind 18-17 going into Missing Vowels. They fared better in that though and won the game 26-20. Well done them and best of luck next time! And thanks to the Club for taking part!
Next week’s match: the Marvins vs the Merseyside Eyes
Mastermind was won by Chris Matterface, whose 23 points saw him just win ahead of Jane Gibbons with 21; Ali Morgan and Lewis Demmon completed the line-up, scoring 19 and 12 respectively.
Yesterday’s Brain of Britain was a very close run contest; in the end, it was Simon Langley Evans who won the show with a spectacular run in the final round, which he went into joint third and four points adrift, but four of his own questions plus two pick ups meant he won with 15 points, one ahead of second placed Mary Evans with 14. Claire Turner and Thomas Rees completed the line-up with 9 and 12 respectively.
And that's it for another week! Thanks as ever for reading; hopefully after the last few weeks of chopping and changing, it's gonna be smoother running from here on in. I have made a half-decision about the future direction of this blog from next season onwards though; watch this space. For now, it's business as usual; back same time same place next Monday, so, see yous then...
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