University Challenge 2022-23: Round 2: Match 8: Durham vs Bangor

Good evening again friends, and welcome back to Quizzy Mondays! Which, now that I have a holiday booked for the week after UC is currently on track to finish, I'm really hoping doesn't take any weeks off between now and then! For now, though, its business as usual, as we arrive at the final match of the second round and, rather neatly, the two institutions competing tonight competed in the last second round match of the first UC series I covered on this blog ten years ago! Winners would take the last place in an already high quality quarter-final line-up.

Durham won the very first match of the series way back in August, as they narrowly triumphed 195-185 over a Bristol team good enough to return in the play-offs and reach the QFs. Hoping to join them were the unchanged foursome of: 

Harry Scully, from Welwyn Garden City, studying Physics and Chemistry

Chloe Margaux, from Haringey in London, studying Sociology

Captain: Alex Radcliffe, from Edinburgh, studying Maths

Bea Bennett, from Icomb in Gloucestershire, studying English

 

Bangor beat Nottingham by the same margin in a lower scoring match, the last of the show's brief exile on Tuesdays back in Nottingham, 135-125 the final scores there. So, like ten years ago, they were the underdogs, and we all know what happened in that match. Hoping to repeat history were the also unchanged quartet of: 

Gus Bastiani, from Dorset, studying History and Archaeology 

Ethan Silcocks, from Overton in Cumbria, studying Molecular Medicine

Captain: Laura Lloyd-Williams, from North Wales, studying Medical Sciences

Roy Pounder, from Reading, studying Medieval and Early Modern History

 

So, off we set once again then, and a race for the buzzer ensured immediately as the words 'shape of warning signs on British roads' came out of Paxo's mouth; Ms Lloyd-Williams won it, and Bangor took one bonus on fictional clubs, namely Richard Osman's Thursday Murder Club. An equally quick buzz from Ms Bennett set Durham off the mark quickly too, and they started with a full set on Hilbert's problems. Mr Silcocks quickly gave Bangor back the lead though, and, again, they took a single bonus on plantain. The first picture round, on locations of model villages, went to Durham; two bonuses gave them the lead back, 45-30.

A second starter in a row from Mr Scully, who was only just getting started for the night, gave the Wearsiders a bonus set on Mary Queen of Scots (providing this week's UC and OC crossover), of which they took another two. And Durham were now building up a head of steam on the buzzer, as Ms Bennett took the next starter, Mr Scully the next, and Mr Radcliffe the one after that; but, in contrast to their initially strong bonus form, they only took one of the nine that came with these starters. The music starter was missed by both sides, with Bangor losing five on the replacement starter; Durham took the points, and got the music bonuses, on classical pieces involving two sets of timpani, but, again, they drew a blank on the bonuses. Nonetheless, they now led 110-25.

And the lead was just getting bigger as Mr Radcliffe took the next starter, but bonuses on Werner Herzog saw them drop a fourth full set in a row. Finally, after Ms Bennett took the next starter, bonuses on John Major's premiership, gave them a single correct answer (I had a full set). Mr Pounder finally gave Bangor some more points on the board, but a bonus set on chloroform didn't give them any further points. The second picture round, on paintings prominantly featuring yellow houses, went to Durham; two bonuses took their lead to 155-35.

Another starter from Mr Scully, who had quietly built up an impressive tally, pretty much ended the game as a contest, meaning it was now just a question of how high both teams could get; Durham took a single bonus from this set. Ms Bennett looked like she was guessing 'crosses' for the next starter, but was correct; just one bonus on 'Fort' place names followed again, but it didn't matter now. Chess notation proved more to their liking, a full bonus set on that taking them past 200. Ms Lloyd-Williams did the right thing and took a punt on the next starter, but was wrong, allowing Mr Scully to tap into an empty net and Durham to take two bonuses on astronomy. That man Mr Scully took the last starter of the game, but there was only time for Durham to get the first bonus wrong. At the gong, Durham won 240-35.

A one-sided contest, but still an enjoyable half-hour's quizzing. Very well done to Durham, another superb performance despite the slight dip in their bonus form in the middle third, and very best of luck to them in the QFs! Hard lines to Bangor, who were simply outplayed all round, but we know from their first match they're capable of better things; thanks to them for playing!

The stats: Mr Scully was easily the best buzzer of the night with EIGHT(!) starters, while Ms Lloyd-Williams and Messrs Silcocks and Pounder all got one each for Bangor. On the bonuses, Durham managed 18 out of 43 and Bangor 2 out of 9 (with the night's one penalty).

Next week's match: the first quarter-final! Will let you know who's playing in it as soon as I find out; hopefully we'll know in time for my preview on Thursday. If I remember to do it.

Only Connect reached its first semi-final, between the Strigiformes and the Morporkians. The former led 4-2 after the first round, but the latter levelled it up at 8-each after the second. A better wall allowed the Strigiformes to take back the lead 13-10 going into Missing Vowels, and, after a very tight round, they just about edged it to win 16-15! They go through to the final, the Morporkians to the third place play-off.

 

Mastermind was a very close contest indeed, with Stephen Finn (WWTBAM alumnus) triumphing with 18 points, 1 ahead of Rema Wilkins in second place and 2 ahead of Ronan McKenna in third (the three were even tighter, just one between them at the end of the first round); Shaun Cairns completed the line-up with 11.

 

Counterpoint was a very high scoring contest indeed; Charles Dusting won the game to take the seventh of nine semi-final places.

University Challenge 2022-23: Round 2: Match 7: Christ's vs Southampton

Good evening again friends, and welcome back! Tonight, the penultimate second round match, between two teams making their first Monday night appearance on the show, both their first round matches having come during the show's brief move to Tuesdays last Autumn. Both had very different victories in the first round, so seeing how they fared against proven opponents would be most interesting.

Christ's College Cambridge trailed Oriel of Oxford for most of their first match, before an impressive late sprint saw them edge ahead of their opponents to win 150-130. They were unchanged from that first appearance: 

Isaac Jackson, from Oxford, studying English

Holly Wright, from Swansea, studying Intellectual History

Captain: Chris Talbot, from Blackburn, studying Metallurgy

Abhimanyu Gowda, from Warwick, studying Natural Sciences

 

Southampton met another Oxford team, Balliol, in the first round, and after a close first period, ran away with it and ultimately won easily 210-115, one of the highest scores of the round. They were also the same quartet as before: 

Ethan Lyon, from Northampton, studying Film

Magda Steele, from Poland, studying Ecology

Captain: Dom Belcher, from Worcestershire, studying Machine Learning 

Elliot Miles, from the Wirral, studying Marine Biology 

 

So, off we set once again then, and Southampton pounced on an immediate error from their opponents, and rubbed it in by taking a full set of bonuses on winners of the Berlin Film Festival's Teddy award. Christ's responded well by taking the next starter to get back into three figures, but they could only follow it up with one bonus. Mr Belcher gave Southampton a second starter, but, in a reversal of fortune, bonuses on Cumbria gave them no further points. The first picture round, on islands that contain their country's highest mountain, went to Christ's; another sole bonus took their deficit to 35-25.

 

Mr Belcher immediately enlarged it again by taking the next starter though; the Saints took two bonuses, before Ms Steele gave them a second starter in a row, which was followed by a single bonus. Mr Belcher zigged with cricket balls and lost five on the next starter; if he'd waited, 'yellow' would've probably allowed him to zag with 'tennis balls, as Mr Gowda subsequently did. The Cambridge side duly took two bonuses on pairs of letters. Southampton quickly got their points back with another starter and single bonus though. The music starter was then dropped; the bonuses, on classical pieces that are their composer's only (completed) work of its genre, went to Christ's, who took just one again, which increased their lead to 95-45.

 

A quick buzz from Mr Talbot brought his side back into the game, and a bonus set on Indian cricket grounds gave them two correct answers. Southampton matched it as Mr Belcher took another starter, but they only managed just one bonus again, though Paxo was perhaps a bit generous to accept 'liberalism' when he wanted 'libertarianism'. And when Ms Wright took the next correct starter, and the Cambridge side took a full bonus set on chemical elements, they were just twenty behind and it was either team's game. Southampton's impressive captain kept his nerve to take the next starter though, but, again, the bonuses didn't fall for them. The Saints did take the second picture round though, on parents and children who both seperately won Nobel Prizes; no bonuses followed again, but they had at least increased their lead a bit more, 130-90.

 

But when Mr Belcher took yet another starter, and they finally got a bonus set to their liking, a full set on Chinese dynasties, that was game over. Another starter to the impressive Saints captain made doubly sure of it, and they capped it with two bonuses on marine biology. Neither side got the final starter of the game, and that was the gong; Southampton won 175-90.

 

A pretty decent contest, reasonably close until the very final minutes. Well done to Southampton, another decent performance despite a slow bonus rate (though, like Jesus two weeks ago, we know they're capable of better), and best of luck in the quarter-finals! Hard lines to Christ's, but they did pretty well for themselves as well, thanks very much for playing!

The stats: Mr Belcher was easily the best buzzer of the night with NINE(!) starters (the most for a single player so far this series I think), while Ms Wright and Mr Talbot were joint best for Christ's with two each. On the bonuses, Christ's managed 9 out of 15 and Southampton 14 out of 33, and both sides incurred one penalty each.

Next week's match: Durham vs Bangor in the last second round match (ten years since that last happened...)

Only Connect concluded its quarter-finals with the Cunning Planners vs the Crustaceans. The teams were tied on 4-each after the first round, before the latter opened a narrow lead of 7-6 after the second.  Two perfect walls meant it was as you were, 17-16 going into Missing Vowels, and the Crustaceans just about kept their noses in front to win 22-20.

 

Mastermind was won by James Beeby, who survived a mid-GK round wobble to edge the game with 21 points, two clear of second place Hannah Loxton. Matt Carther and Wendy Knipe completed the closely fought contest with 17 and 18 respectively.

 

Counterpoint’s semi-final line-up is now two thirds complete after today’s show; Sally Wilson became the sixth player to join it, winning an all-female line-up to do so.

Wiki Updates, Fifteen to One and Only Connect

OK, so, tomorrow, the 10th of February, is the birthday of both the Wikis I set up: the Fifteen to One Wiki from two years ago, and the Only Connect Wiki I set up last year.

 

Now, I set these up for very different reasons. Only Connect I set up so that all the results would finally be available for people to look up in one place if they wanted to, rather than having to scan through various different websites/blogs to get a specific result.

 

I'm still updating it to this day, all by myself mostly, I post the score of every game every week. There was another user who briefly surfaced last year, who put in quite a lot of work, including creating a navigation box to go at the bottom of each page, which was very useful, and creating seperate pages for each game and team of the current series.

 

At least, at first; after about five or six episodes, they stopped showing up and haven't been back since. I suspect this person wasn't from Britain and was relying on YouTube uploads of the episodes for their contribution and, when they dried up around that time, they had to stop. This has unfortunately made the page for the current series look a bit odd, so, unless someone else is willing to finish what has been started, I'm going to have to remove all the extra pages already up to bring it back in line with the other pages.

 

As for Fifteen to One, I set that up because, well, back at the start of 2021, I became rather obsessed with that show following the appearance of numerous episodes in quick succession and, because we had just gone back into lockdown and there was little else to do, I needed something to keep myself occupied with, so collating all those results was that something.

 

I did write a short blog on here before I set the Wiki up (don't click any of the links on it, almost all the videos they link too are no more) where I set out what I was hoping to achieve by creating it. The main point was so that, not only was there somewhere to collate all the information about the show, but also to correct any inaccuracies in information about it in other places.

For example, it was well established that, in Series 25 of the show (the one with the late Bill McKaig's perfect score), it was established that Dennis Collinson's score of 201, scored in the first show of the series, was knocked off the finals board on the last show of the series; yet, every cop of said finals board available showed him still on it. Thankfully, this mystery was resolved when someone uploaded said final last year, so, if you want to correct board, go to the Wiki.

There are others that remain unresolved, however. For example, the available finals boards for Series 4 (the series with the orange set) claim that Robin Price (who won after future three-time winner Anthony Martin took one question too many in the final and knocked himself out) was one of two winners of the four way play-off needed for the last two places in the final. However, Weaver's Week's history of the show, published the week of the final show of the original run, disputes this, claiming he lost.

As we currently have no way of verifying this claim, we have to go along with the current board we have. Anyone who knows of this, or of any other mistakes on any other available finals boards, do please let us know somewhere.

Another important thing is the number of episodes in various series. For example, Series 19, the first series of 1997, is listed on Wikipedia as having 55 episodes and having wrapped on the 28th of March that year. But various episodes uploaded to YouTube dispute this, with the uploader of one from late in that series able to precisely date it to nearly two weeks later than this.

As I mentioned in the earlier blog as well, various available eps bring further dispute into the series lengths on Wikipedia. Here are a few examples mentioned in various shows that I've observed:

• Show 3 of Series 26 (1999) is Episode 1,600 (Wikipedia isn't that far out here admittedly)
• Show 1 of Series 29 (2000) is Episode 1,778
• Show 3 of Series 30 is Episode 1,850

Of course, because Channel 4 doesn't have a comprehensive listings archive like the BBC does, the only way of getting precise running lengths for every series would probably be to look at every Radio Times from when the show was on to work it out for sure.

So, again, if anyone has any definitive information about series running lengths and start and end dates that confirms for sure that the ones on Wikipedia are wrong, do please let us know.

Which brings us back to the Wiki, where, over the past month, an anonymous editor has been filling in various blanks on it, giving episodes numbers where they had previous been unaccounted for and adding in a few new episodes as well. While this has been very welcome, and thanks to them for that, they have also been going a bit far in some respects and I, regretably, have had to get a bit firm with them and revert some of their (good faith I'm sure) contributions. (I'm sure at least three of the numbers they've assigned to various episodes are incorrect)

Of course, as a comment on my previous blog pointed out, finding out the outcomes of every single daily episode of the original series is perhaps a bit too ambitious, and I knew this at the time I first set it up. And, unless 4OD or another steaming service makes the entire run available to watch, I doubt we ever will (petition for it on Change.org anyone?). But that wasn't really the point of why I set it up.

The point was, as I said, I wanted somewhere where any incorrect information could be easily corrected. And, in that respect, I'm very happy with the, admittedly limited, progress we've made on the Wiki over the past two years.

So, if you would like to contribute any information to either of the two Wikis, do please get involved. Your contribution will be appreciated!

Back on Monday with my usual write-up; see you then...

University Challenge 2022-23: Round 2: Match 6: U.C.L. vs Newcastle

Good evening friends, and welcome back, once again, to Quizzy Mondays! Tonight's UC was the kind of match I really hate: a second round match between two very good teams, one of which is going to go out here. I know I know, I've moaned many times before about this 'quirk' of the format, but matches such as tonight's really do annoy me very much so. Anyway, whoever won tonight would take the sixth place in the QFs, while the runners-up could count themselves unlucky to be going out now.

U.C.L. won one of the best matches of the first round back in October, as they drew 170-each with Sheffield, and just won it on a tie-breaker (ironically, Sheffield would lose in the play-offs to Newnham, whose second round match also ended in a tie-breaker!). They were the same four as before, including the famous mother-and-son duo: 

Rachel Collier, from West London, studying the History of Ancient Greek

Michael Fleetwood-Walker, from the West Midlands, studying Urban Studies

Captain: James Salmon, from Bristol, studying Planetary Science

Louis Collier, from London, studying Physics with Maths

 

Newcastle, in contrast, were pretty comfortable winners in their first match back in September, as they defeated Open 195-115. They were also unchanged from before: 

John Ingham, from Guildford, studying Control Theory for Brain Modelling and Analysis

Tom Speller, from Putney, studying Medicine

Captain: Sam Keay, from Bedford, studying Linguistics with Japanese

Elizabeth Lamb, from Morpeth, studying Film Theory and Practice 

So, off we set once again then, and Ms Collier opened the scoring for the night with a very quick buzz of 'ram'; two bonuses were taken, before Mr Salmon took the second starter, and they went one better with their second bonus set, a full set on Mount Meru. Mr Collier then followed his mother's example as he was next to take a starter, and the London side promptly took a second full bonus set, on physicist George Gamow. The first picture round, on now-defuct English counties, also went to U.C.L., who took two bonuses this time (I had a full set), which meant they already led 90-0.

Newcastle finally got some points on the board with the next starter, Mr Keay doing the honours; two bonuses on art were taken, before the Newcastle captain took a second starter in a row, which was followed this time by just one bonus on alliterative terms. Mr Ingham gave the Tynesiders a third in a row however, and a full bonus on zoology meant they were right back in the game now. The music round, on hits from musicals (something that never gets chosen as a bonus subject on Popmaster!), went to U.C.L. though; one bonus opened their lead back up to 105-60.

No-one identified John Stuart Mill for the next starter (I did, but I nearly same Burke instead TBF), before Mr Salmon pushed the London side further ahead with the next starter; again, though, just one bonus was taken. Back came Newcastle through Mr Keay, giving them bonuses on the 2008 financial crisis, including a very appropriate for them question about Northern Rock, which they took a full house of. Only for U.C.L. to immediately buzz straight back in; just one bonus meant they didn't extend their lead too much, but a second starter in a row to Mr Salmon and two bonuses very much did. Back came Mr Keay to identify 1974 as one of two 20th century years with two UK general elections, but they got nothing from a bonus set on rivers. They also took the second picture round, on chairs, but got nothing from them again (I got Eames thanks to Frasier!), which left them trailing 155-105.

Mr Ingham quickly took a third in a row for the Tynesiders however, and bonuses on Irish history took them right back into the game, two correct. Another starter to Newcastle, two bonuses on London prisons, and they were just ten behind! Another starter to Mr Keay, and they were level! But they couldn't take the one bonus they needed to take the lead. But Mr Ingham took the next starter to put them in front! Just one bonus followed though. And this proved their undoing, as Mr Collier took the next starter, and a full bonus set on Borneo put the Londoners ahead again! And that was the gong! U.C.L. won a great game 180-170!

A superb contest, between two very good and well-matched teams, what a shame one of them has to go out for good now. Well done to U.C.L., and best of luck in the QFs! Hard lines to Newcastle, who would probably have gone through with a kinder draw, but still, a fine performance, thanks very much for playing!

The stats: Mr Keay was the best buzzer of the night with six starters, while Mr Salmon was best for U.C.L. with four. On the bonuses, U.C.L. managed 18 out of 27 and Newcastle 14 out of 30, so it was the bonuses that won it for U.C.L.. But a great game still, well done again both teams!

Next week's match: two of Bangor, Christ's Cambridge, Durham and Southampton; will let you know which two as soon as I find out myself.

Only Connect’s third quarter-final was contested by the Scrummagers and the Harlequins. The former led 7-1 after the first round, and 12-5 after the second. A better wall saw that lead increase to 22-11 going into Missing Vowels, and they comfortably saw out the game to win 28-15.

 

Mastermind was won by Anna Milford Goldstein, whose slightly better GK round saw her just win with 20 points, just ahead of Zahir Kazi and Voirrey Blount on 19 each. Molly Quinn-Leitch completed the line-up with 10.

 

Counterpoint was won by quiz regular Diane Hallagan (WWTBAM, Only Connect, Brain of Britain and many others), who won very comfortably with 27 points. Special mention too to John Dyer, whose excellent performance in the final round saw him pull back from well behind in third to a solid second.