University Challenge - First Round - Cranfield University v. Royal Holloway

The Teams

Cranfield

Jack Chivers

Raman Suri

John Joseph Stephenson (Capt.)

Charlotte Keenan

Royal Holloway

Joel Abramovitch

Joanna Brown

George Harvey (Capt.)

Micka Harvey

Good evening, Dearly Beloved. Well, Jeremy P. made a point of stating how long it’s been since either of these teams last appeared. Let’s crack on, shall we?

A gentle starter saw Joanna Brown buzz, then pause for a bit before answering that Renee Zelwegger has played both Beatrix Potter and Judy garland on screen. Bonuses on political families saw a little Royal Holloway profligacy throw away a correct answer by giving the country rather than the figure. Good answer on Richard Cromwell, though. Janna Brown took a double, recognising several works of literature linked by the word Green in their titles. The Copley Medal promised me but little for the bonuses, however the Arthur Evans one was a steal, the hormone one was a bit of a gimme and the pulsars one wasn’t that hard, although it foxed Royal Holloway. Having taken a full house wth at least some Science content I awarded myself a lap of honour around the Clark sofa. Raman Suri opened Cranfield’s account, with the term Pop Art.I took a full house on X bonuses, while Cranfield took a pair. I most certainly did not take a full house on the pictures. Charlotte Keenan buzzed in to recognise part of Michigan which has been proposed as a breakaway fifty first state. Three more areas which have been proposed as new states in the past brought Cranfield a five point lead. George Harvey won the buzzer race to identify Marie Curie as the Nobel laureate whose notebooks have to be kept in a lead lined box. No brownie points to Royal Holloway for suggesting sharks when marine reptiles were called for in the bonuses, but they still managed 1 bonus. This was enough to ensure that Royal Holloway led by 50 – 40 at the 10 minute mark.  

Charlotte Keenan won the next starter, identifying the Stockton and Darlington Railway. Bonuses on culinary processes  brought just the one correct answer. Neither team managed the next starter which gave the names of leaders of four contiguous countries and asked for two of these countries. Raman Suri knew that William Whewell (Or Whilliam Whewthe’ell, as I like to think of him) proposed the terms anion and cation.) Good for him. Bonuses on Nauru again only yielded the one. Cranfield were doing quite well on the starters at this point, but weren’t able to capitalise on this with the bonuses. As for the next starter, well, if it’s about an artist, and it mentions a pipe, you’re going to be right more often than you’re wrong if you slam the buzzer and answer Magritte. That’s what George Harvey did, and he was right to do so. Bonuses on time brought a full house and put Royal Holloway back in front. I thought that John Joseph Stephenson was right when he suggested that the music starter was the work of the Ronettes, so when he was wrong I changed my answer to the Shangri Las. Royal Holloway didn’t get it, and I didn’t add it to my unofficial total when it did prove to be the Shangri Las. Joel Abramovitch earned the music bonuses by identifying a description of the two toed sloth. When JP explained that the music bonuses were more tracks about railway journeys I predicted Midnight Train to Georgia, Last Train to Clarksville and Chattanooga Choo Choo, and was flabbergasted to get that 100 per cent right. Not quite lap of honour worthy, but not far off. Royal Holloway had two but missed the Monkees’ hit. Nobody knew that John Bardeen’s name appeared on a shuttle in a Star Trek reboot film. Fair play to John Joseph Stephenson for knowing that San’a is the highest capital city on the Arabian Peninsula.  The works of Shirley Jackson on film provided nowt to any of us, which meant that, as we approached the 20 minute mark, Royal Holloway led by 95-75. Good contest.

I didn’t understand the next question, but George Harvey said it was a baryon and who am I to argue? They took just one bonus of a set on Australasia and Indonesia. John Joseph Stephenson recognised orchestral compositions for guitar and got told off by JP for saying classical guitar rather than just guitar. The scriptwriter Dennis Kelly provided a set of bonuses which saw them fail to trouble the scorer – they probably should have had Matilda the Musical at least. The second picture starter saw Joanna Brown identify Scandi-Drama Borgen, and three more BAFTA nominated foreign language TV series brought a full house. When you get three Russian male first names given, the thought is always that this might be the Brothers Karamazov, as indeed it proved to be for the next starter. Joana Brown took her fourth starter with this one, again hesitating as she leaned into the mic to give her answer. 2 bonuses on chemistry pushed Cranfield a little deeper into the doodoo, and frankly it looked very unlikely that they could rally to at least garner a repechage score. John Joseph Stephenson did bring them 10 much needed points, knowing of the Frankfurt school. Early wind instruments though only produced the one bonus. Nobody knew the film director Steven Soderbergh for the next starter. Charlotte Keenan recognised various species of frog to keep Cranfield’s faint hopes alive. Official symbols of US States brought just the one correct answer before the gong ended the contest. Royal Holloway had won by 155 – 110.

That looks like a comfortable win doesn’t it? Yet both teams answered the same number of starters correctly. Sadly Cranfield managed a very disappointing 8 bonuses, to Royal Holloway’s 15, and that, in a nutshell, is the whole story. Or put it another way – sometimes it’s just not your night. Hard lines, but congratulations to Royal Holloway.

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

The term Pop Art was coined in the fifties rather than the 60s.