Good evening friends, and welcome to another Quizzy Monday! In which, I can assure you, any present pachyderms shall remain incognito, if you know what I mean. Coming up, OC begins its next phase, and the eleventh heats of Mastermind and Brain of Britain. But first, UC as ever, with tonight's teams knowing they needed to win or lose with 165 or more to come back.
Glasgow is appearing in its thirteenth BBC series; on only one of those previous outings did they make it beyond the second round, in 2018-19, where they reached the QFs before coming unstuck, and they thus remain the only 'ancient' Scottish uni not to have reached the semis (in the BBC era at least). Playing for them this year were:
Sam McDermott, from East Kilbride, studying History and Economics
Grace Sedgwick, from West Linn, Oregon, studying Philosophy, Theology and Religious Studies
Captain: Harry Braid, from Croftamie in Stirlingshire, studying Law
Taylor Reece, from Newcastle, studying Aeronautical Engineering
Goldsmiths is appearing for a fourth time in the BBC era; two of those previous series saw them exit in the first round, while the other, in 18-19, saw them reach the second round before narrowly losing a very bizarre match to, coincidentally, that same Glasgow team as discussed earlier. Their quartet consisted of:
Mila Appleby, from Leeds, studying English Literature and Creative Writing
Frances Robinson, from Sydenham in London, studying Creative Writing
Captain: Jessica Peng, from Reading, studying Creative Writing
Catalia Pliskova, from Hammersmith, studying Computing
Goldsmiths took the first starter of the night, and one of the resulting bonuses, unluckily missing the other. Glasgow took the second, all three bonuses, and never really looked back. The Scots side took the next two starters as well, including the first picture round, after which they led 55-15. And that lead just kept getting bigger and bigger in the second phase, as the starters fell for them, while Goldsmiths did the right thing in keeping on going for it but only managed to lose points. After the music round, Glasgow led 150-5.
Goldsmiths finally got some more points on the board, only to immediately lose a further five points, allowing Glasgow to resume their dominance. After the second picture round, they led 215-15. It was now just a question of how high both teams could get; another starter to the Scots side plus two bonuses meant they now had the second highest score of the series so far. Goldsmiths finally got back into the game, and actually managed a very good late run that saw them deservedly rack up a respectable score and only just fall short of three figures. At the gong, Glasgow won 235-90.
Another enjoyable contest despite being one way traffic for most of it, two more pleasant teams. Well done Glasgow, a very good first showing; best of luck to them in the second round! Hard lines to Goldsmiths, who are definitely a better team than most of the match suggested; thanks to them for playing!
The stats: Harry Braid was the best buzzer of the night with six starters, while Jessica Peng was best for Goldsmiths with three. On the bonuses, Glasgow managed 21 out of 39 and Goldsmiths 9 out of 18 (with three penalties), and, for the first time in a few weeks, all eight players contributed at least one correct starter.
Next week's match: SOAS vs Edinburgh in the final first round match
Only Connect began its (first) qualification
round with the returns of the Two Hearts, who narrowly defeated Ad Astra in their
first match, and the Makeweights, who defeated the Culture Club a week earlier
in the opening match of the series.
My Dad claims two points on the ‘pass
to the left’ question in the first round; the Hearts led 7-3 after that. I
claim the same two points as the Hearts with the same guess as them on the
Commonwealth question in the second round, plus two on the assassinated
presidents picture question and at least two on the estates question (thank you Drederick
Tatum!); the Hearts led 10-3 after that round.
On to the Walls, and the Hearts
got one group pretty quickly, but couldn’t work any of the others out; they did
get two connections, so three points. The Makeweights thus had a chance to
catch up, but they failed to get any groups of another pretty tough wall; they
did get two connections, so two points, which meant they trailed 13-5 going
into Missing Vowels. They did recover well there, but the Hearts maintained
their advantage and won 18-12. Well done them, and best of luck in the QFs, and
best of luck Makeweights in the play-offs!
Next week’s match: the Frenemies
vs the Sinistrals
Mastermind was won by Rob Hayman,
whose 23 points saw him win out fairly comfortably ahead of Sarah Knapper and
Jag Bhogal with 18 each; Polly Allen completed the line-up with 11. (Interesting
to see a question about Celtic winning last season’s Prem, suggests this series
was filmed a lot later in the year than I’d have thought)
Yesterday’s Brain of Britain was
won by Ben Spicer (a Mastermind finalist), who led from the off and ultimately
came home comfortably with a winning score of 23, nine ahead of second placed
Beth Webster (the former Egghead) and Alison Rawlinson with 14 each, both
falling agonisingly short of a possible high scoring non-winner place. Lorenzo
Barber completed the line-up with 3.
Final heat next week and, unless
at least one of the non-winners scores more than 15, Chris Ducklin will hold on
to the final high scoring non-winner place.
And that's it for another week! Thanks as ever for reading; as I've mentioned before, my blogs may get a bit samey and repetitive (not that they've ever been anything but that!) for the foreseeable while I focus on my afore-mentioned project for another site, watch this space in case anyone expresses interest. Anyway, back as usual same time same place next week, so, see yous then...
