University Challenge 2019 - Second Round - Durham v. Keble, Oxford

Durham v. Keble, Oxford

Here we are again after the light-hearted fun of the Christmas alumni series. Oh, if any of the producers are reading, if you want to put Goldsmiths – or Swansea University in it next year I would definitely be available. No? Always worth a try.

Actually, I don’t know why they have to stop the real series while this is on. Mastermind doesn’t. Last night, while we had the real, full sugar caffeinated version on BBC Two, we also had Mastermind Lite, now with added celebrities (and fewer correct answers), on BBC One. Alright, enough nonsense, and as JP would say, let’s get on with it.

Durham achieved a fantastic score of 360 when beating a Strathclyde team all ways till Tuesday on the buzzer first time out. Well it doesn’t matter who your opposition are, you’ve got to be good to do that. They were again represented by Sian Round, Cameron Yule, Ben Murray and skipper Matthew Toynbee. The unenviable task of opposing Durham fell to Keble College Oxford. (Are there any other long-in- the- tooth Monty Python fans who automatically think Keble BOLLEGE Oxford whenever they hear that name? No? Well, please yourselves) Keble set UAE home in the first round, although this was more of a contest then Durham’s had been. As before they were represented by Ellen Pasternack, Michael Green, Thomas Player and their captain Rose Atkinson.

Michael Green took first blood for Keble, knowing that Salvator Mundi (who I thought was a Spanish surrealist) was a painting by Da Vinci sold in 2017. Novels published in 1818 sounded full of eastern promise for me, and indeed provided a full house, although if truth be told they weren’t all that easy. As Keble duly found, failing to add to their total. Ellen Pasternack did though, knowing that the personal pronoun which begins an Isaac Asimov collection of short stories about robots is I. Aye. Fish brought us both a couple of bonuses. Ben Murray opened Durham’s account, recognising a couple of quotes about statistics. Bonuses on the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC followed. They took a brace of bonuses. A good buzz from Sian Round saw her correctly ascribe an observation made in a lecture to Virginia Woolf – good shout that. Periodicals founded in the 18^th century was the subject of the bonuses that followed. A full house earned Durham the coveted Paxman ‘well done’ and gave them the lead. You sensed that the Durham juggernaut was building momentum. The picture starter was one of those – I don’t know, but what else could it be? - questions. Shown symbols from the notation system for a game, I thought – well I only know about chess notation so I’ll go for that and checkmate. I don’t know if the same thought processes were what led Ben Murray to give the same answer, but we were both right. Three more examples of algebraic notation denoting specific events in chess brought Durham 10 more points. Matthew Toynbee was the first to get the old chestnut about the kind of cake eaten specifically at Easter, after being given the additional clue of the name being the same as a pretender to Henry VII. (Warbeck cake never caught on apparently). So ironically every member of the Durham team had now had a correct buzz apart from Cameron Yule, who was so good in the first round match. Plenty of time left for that, though. Building materials brought another one correct answer. This gave Durham a healthy lead of 80 – 30 at the ten minute mark.

Ben Murray knew that Galen was the ancient physician mentioned in the next starter. This was Mr. Murray’s third starter so far. The composer Anne Dudley (yes, Anne Who? in LAM Towers) actually gave me a full house, while Durham managed just one. Didn’t matter at this moment, since they were buzzing Keble to shreds at this point. Michael Green stopped the rot, knowing that 1816 was a year during the lifetime of Niels Abel. Scientific awards during 1979 promised but little but we both managed the last. More importantly, Keble were moving forward again. I felt for Michael Green when he ascribed the tale of Patient Griselda to the Canterbury Tales. A version is actually in there, but the question had specified it was part of a collection of 100 tales, which should have given someone the idea of the Decameron. Durham couldn’t capitalise.  I felt for Rose Atkinson on the next starter. She knew that one of the clues referenced Suzanne Vega, but in the heat of the moment forgot that the question asked for the given name rather than the surname, and offered Vega. This allowed Matthew Toynbee to toe poke that particular ball into the open goal. A very nice UC special set on letter combinations provided Durham with a full house, and took them into three figures. Cameron Yule now broke his duck on the music starter, very quickly recognising Joel Grey in Cabaret. Other singers sharing surnames with British PMs caused some hilarity when Durham offered James Brown and Gordon Brown – I’d have paid money to see that duo on stage together – instead of Jackie and Harold Wilson – ditto. As a result they didn’t offer answers to the next two. I didn’t really get the next question, but Ellen Pasternack did, and this earned much needed bonuses on Latin America. I took a full house on national flags, while the way that Keble went about answering, and failing to add to their score suggested that they may well have been feeling shellshocked by this stage. Fair play to Michael Green, he was first in to recognise the works of de Toqueville for the next starter. Nuclear physics offered me little chance of a lap of honour round the living room, and indeed did not deliver one. Nor for Keble either. Now, I did know that rongorongo is the largely undeciphered writing system from Easter Island. So did the impressive Ben Murray. Two bonuses on plagiarism meant that Durham led by 150 – 55 at just after the halfway mark. Yes, Keble could still win, but it would take a comeback to rival that of Lazarus.

I recognised a Rembrandt self portrait for the picture starter, as did Sian Round. Now, when JP announced bonuses on artists’ self portraits from the sub genre – self portrait with dog – I fully expected Hogarth and his pug to appear. They didn’t. Shame. One of my great, great, great, great grandfathers was a one-time pupil of Hogarth and one-time teacher of Turner. Enough of that. Landseer and Frida Kahlo did appear, and I recognised them, but not Gustav Courbet. Durham took one bonus. I didn’t know the scientific term efflorescence, but Matthew Toynbee did for the next starter. Yoga bonuses exposed all of our collective ignorance. Matthew Toynbee was the first in to supply the word impediments to the end of the first line of the famous sonnet 116. Actually it’s the end of the middle of the second line, but it was clear what was meant. Acronyms in Physics gave nowt to any of us. For the next starter Ellen Pasternack supplied the term bacteriophage, and since I’d just said it as well, I set off on my lap of honour. The art critic and novelist John Berger, with whose work I am not familiar, provided both of us with one bonus. Now, I guessed that a millionth of a micrometer might be a picometer, but I’ve got my winter cold at the moment so I didn’t take my second lap of honour. Thomas Player took that one. Ancient Egypt saw them take two bonuses. Cameron Yule knew that Closing Time is the belated sequel to Catch 22. Moths took them to 200 for the second time in a row. Michael Green – Keble’s best buzzer by some distance – knew that the Instrument of Government related to Oliver Cromwell. UK island group bonuses were gonged before they could add further points, but at least the starter had taken them to 100 points. I thought that they had some bad luck with the bonus sets they earned, although they still probably should have done better than the poor conversion rate they managed. I don’t think they would have won though. Durham’s performance on the bonuses was rather average in this contest in my opinion, but their buzzing meant there was no chance they were ever going to lose this.

Jeremy Paxman Watch

An early raising of the eyebrows and an incredulous repetition from JP as Keble offered Ivanhoe rather than Scott’s Heart of Midlothian promised some fireworks, but it turned out to be a bit of a damp squib. That was it.

Interesting Fact That I Didn’t Already Know Of The Week

When writing about plagiarism, Laurence Sterne plagiarised another author.