University Challenge 2022: Quarter final: Birmingham v. King's, London

The Teams

Birmingham

Mark McParlan

John Robinson

Michael Joel Bartelle (Capt.)

Jaimy Sajit

King’s London

Ananth Sathyanath

Rachel Bedwin

Atyab Rashid  (Capt.)

Oliver Beard

Howdy pardners, and thanks for joining me for a drink in the last chance saloon. Joining us on Monday night were Birmingham, impressive in their early rounds, yet beaten by Reading in their first QF, and King’s, London, less impressive in their early matches, but still battling. They took a hell of a beating in their first QF against Imperial. So the form book fancied Birmingham. Which just goes to prove how little you can trust that volume.

Oliver Beard took first blood, recognising various definitions of the word pulse. A rather nice set on place names which contained the name of captains from Star Trek franchise followed. I predicted Picardy and Ormskirk – one out of two ain’t so bad. Mallorca, though? I didn’t get that one. Kings didn’t get a point for Picardy either, because captain Atyab Rashid answered Picard – a salutary reminder to listen to the question. John Robinson buzzed early to try to identify a word, but the tactic didn’t pay off. Given a free shot at the whole question, Atyab Rashid correctly answered gossip. Bonuses on Winston Churchill’s History of the English Speaking Peoples brought two correct answers. I’ll be honest, my knowledge of chimera is solely limited to the Greek mythological soundalike, but it was something biological and Rachel Bedwin knew it. Biology starter was followed by chemistry bonuses. Kings had none of them . . . but (drum roll) . . . I had one! Dredging up a random name from a chemistry lesson over 40 years ago, Fehling, I took the last, and began the wheezing odyssey that is my lap of honour around the Clark sofa. Birmingham clearly wanted to break Kings’ hold on the buzzer, and rightly so, but this led to Jaimy Sajit coming in too early for the next starter. Once again, given the luxury of the full question, by the time we got to the question mark the answer had become a lot clearer, and Rachel Bedwin buzzed in identify the D in an abbreviation as Diptheria. Events that took place in years that are multiples of 100 brought just the one bonus. But if you’re taking all the starters, as Kings were, you don’t necessarily need that many bonuses. For the picture starter we saw the family tree of a fictional family, and Atyab Rashid identified this as the Corleone family from The Godfather. More fictional family trees brought just the one bonus, but it meant that Kings led by 70 to minus 10 at the ten minute mark. Squeaky bum time for Birmingham.

As if suddenly freed from shackles, three members of the Birmingham team went for their shooting irons with the next starter, with Mark McParlan proving fastest then supplying the required answer of Ur. Characters in Homer’s Odyssey brought them two correct answers, wiping out the minus score and putting them into the black. Nobody knew that the creatures referenced in a quote from Shakespeare’s Henry V were bees. Oliver Beard recognised various references to the year 1802 for the next starter. Medical bonuses brought bonuses on medicine, and as if Birmingham’s buzzer success had spurred them to put on a spurt, they took their first full house. Ananth Sathyananth knew the term Moire to take the next starter. Bonuses on French art yielded nowt to them. For the music bonus John Robinson identified the work of De La Soul. Other tracks that also sampled the drum track from James Brown’s Funky Drummer brought two bonuses, and that was two more than I got. Michael Joel Bartelle played a captain’s innings by buzzing early in to answer a question about Schoenberg. Literary works showed a welcome name check for Alan Garner – maybe a little out of fashion nowadays, but a fine writer. This set yielded just one bonus. The following starter continued in literary vein, requiring the answer of Children’s laureate Malorie Blackman. We both took two bonuses on astronomy. John Robinson took the next starter, working out that William Wyon was associated with the Royal Mint. The Wyon’s designed some of the finest cins and medallions of the 19^th century – I’m the proud owner of a Benjamin Wyon coin commemorating the 1831 opening of new London Bridge. This earned bonuses on British beaches, of which Birmingham took one. Still, their efforts meant that at the 20 minute mark, they had reduced the deficit to a single full set, as Kings led by 100 – 75.

For the second picture starter we saw an illustration showing a dark bird sitting on a pallid bust of Pallas above a doorway. “The Raven” answered John Robinson. Jeremy P. might have been tempted to reply ‘nevermore’, but simply confirmed this was correct. Illustrations of three more of Poe’s works followed, and like Birmingham the only one I identified was by Aubrey Beardsley (whom Oscar Wilde liked to call Awfully Weirdly). A very good shout by King’s captain Atyab Rashid to identify the moribund Manchu language widened the gap again. Franz ‘Who?’ Boas brought the one bonus. Michael Joel Bartelle recognised bones of the pelvis for the next starter. A full house on British Prime Ministers meant that the teams were level on the scoreboard. Whose nerve would hold? Neither team knew the work of Rachel Kushner. A philosophy starter proved meat and drink to Atyab Rashid, who knew his Neoplatonism from his elbow. At exactly the perfect time, Kings threw in a full house on tessellations. With very little time left on the clock, it looked as if Birmingham were going to have to take the next starter and a full house of bonuses to force a tie break. Neither team knew it, and the contest was gonged before there was time for another.

Bad luck to Birmingham, and sorry to see you go, but well played for making a good fightback. But speaking of good fightbacks, well done King’s! One win away from the semis, now, and who’s to say they can’t do it? Not me.

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

The word gossip (noun) was not originally a pejorative term, but originally meant a godparent or sponsor, and then came to mean a female friend.