University Challenge - Review of the First Round

University Challenge Review of Round One

Ten teams are now out, and four teams will fight out the repechage for the last two slots in the second round. A timely opportunity then to review the first round, and look at the form guide for round two. Lets begin with a list of the winners. The numbers after each team’s name show, firstly the amount of points they scored in their match, and secondly , the total number of points scored by both teams in their match : -

St. John’s Oxford 270 / 360
Newnham Cambridge 260 / 380
St. Andrews 255 / 405
Manchester 235 / 295
Jesus Oxford 215 / 380
Loughborough 205 / 380
Regents Park Oxford 205 / 370
Warwick 200 / 370
St. George’s London 200 / 255
Girton Cambridge 180 / 325
Imperial College 175 / 310
Edinburgh 170 / 325
Kings London 155 / 295
St. Hugh’s Oxford 145 / 280

Repechage Places

University College London 175 / 380
Christ’s Cambridge 170 / 370
Clare Cambridge 165 / 380
Emmanuel Cambridge 165 / 370

So looking at this we can see that Oxford University are sitting pretty with four colleges safely through to the second round proper. Cambridge only have two through, but with three teams in the repechage, then they are guaranteed one more place in round two, and may even take both slots. London University have two sides through, and Imperial also used to be a college of the University of London. Also University College could well win a place through from the repechage.

The finest matches of the first round were probably the highest scoring match, when St. Andrews beat Somerville Oxford, with the teams managing a mighty 405 points between them, and the nailbiting match between St. Hugh’s Oxford and Magdalene Cambridge, which went to sudden death. At the other end of the scale the most one-sided match was probably St. John’s versus Durham, where St. John’s won by the impressive margin of 180 points.

If you look at the scores you’d be forced to say that the top teams don’t seem to have hit the same heights as team’s last year. But let’s face it, last year’s series was an exceptional one, and a number of last year’s teams were actually good enough to have been worthy winners. Still it makes for an exciting series, and its difficult to pick out and out favourites. Ten of the teams are separated by less than 100 points. So while its tempting to look at the table and say St. John’s, Newnham and St. Andrews look impressive, while Manchester have a huge pedigree in the show and can never be counted out, actually its nothing like as simple as this. Most of the teams can say that they beat teams who were not really as strong as they were. That’s not necessarily going to be the case in the next round. Who can handle the pressure better should have a large bearing on the outcomes. Which is one of the reasons why I, for one, can’t wait.

As for Jeremy Paxman, my personal pick of the Paxman moments from round one has to be this : -
“Swaziland ? ! In the EU ?! Are you mad ? !”