University Challenge 2023: First round heat Oriel, Oxford v. Christ's, Cambridge

 The Teams

Oriel College, Oxford

Benjamin Thomas

Jerric Chong

Tanmayee Deshprabhu (Capt.)

Katy Marchant

Christ’s College, Cambridge

Isaac Jackson

Holly Wright

Chris Talbot (Capt.)

Abhimanyu Gowda

 Hello, good evening and welcome. Well, we’ve negotiated the first part of this disrupted fortnight of quizzy Not-Mondays, and we’re still in one piece. I have to say that I always enjoy Only Connect, but I particularly enjoyed last night’s. Enough of that though, for this is a review of UC. I will admit to usually enjoying and Oxford  v. Cambridge match, so I anticipated good things from this match up.

I will confess that I very nearly took a lap of honour for getting the answer to the first starter – mole – from SI unit for the amount of substance . . . But my son in law Dan was around so I was on my best behaviour. Jerric Chong also took it at that point. British entries to the Eurovision Tree Contest brought 1 bonus to Oriel. A list of the principal characters in Swan Lake provided a relatively easy starter, and Jerric Chong took his second consecutive starter with that piece of low hanging fruit. Cities that are higher than the summit of Ben Nevis (ie slightly higher than Ben Down and Ben Dover) provided an interesting set and another single bonus. Captain Chris Talbot, who would play a definite captain’s innings in this contest, opened Christ’s account, knowing that Wole Soyinka was the first Nigerian author to win the Nobel Prize for Literature. Cricket’s The Hundred competition yielded one bonus. After three sets we’d yet to see either team score more than one on the bonuses. This would change as Chris Talbot recognised the diagram of a neuron and then went on to identify two out of three parts of it to take the lead for Christ’s. Christ Talbot took his hattrick of starters Identifying Gaussian distribution as normal distribution. I’m glad we cleared that up. They picked up two more bonuses on the Cold War, missing out on Ernie Bevin. Nonetheless they led by 55 – 30 as we approached the 10 minute mark.

Asked for a Greek philosopher I juggled a couple of names before deciding Epicurus was worth a shout. Bloody was too, it was the correct answer. Benjamin Thomas had that – although it sounded suspiciously like Epicurius to me. Sometimes close enough really is close enough, I suppose. Oriel knew that BF Skinner taught pigeons to play table tennis, which I’m sure beats working for a living, but is the sort of thing that gets academics a bad name. They missed Erikson, but took Maslow. Now, a couple of years ago Fake or Fortune investigated a painting possibly by Tom Roberts. So as soon as JP mentioned his name I shouted “Australia!” Which did actually turn out to be the correct answer, which is just as well since I would have looked a right nana to Dan had it not been. It’s unusual to get a bonus set on popular music which doesn’t belong to the music set, but this time we had a set of bonuses on the work of Lil Nas X – yes, alright, Lil Nas Who in LAM Towers. I did not trouble the scorer. Not so Oriel, who took a pair. I impressed Dan by knowing that the pioneer of antisepsis was Semmelweiss (well, that was close enough to what I actually called him). Neither team knew that. Now, when asked which River enters the sea at South Shields, Chris of Christ’s zigged with Wear. He should’ve zagged with Tyne, as Benjamin Thomas did. This earned bonuses on Pelicans. They missed a couple of sitters. Nonetheless they were just a starter and bonus away from triple figures as we prepared for the music starter. A brilliantly quick buzz from Katy Marchant identified the Moody Blues from just a couple of notes of Nights in White Satin. Other songs using classical orchestration by Peter Knight (in white satin?)provided no more points. Katy Marchant took a second consecutive starter knowing that the whirlpool and rocky shoal in the Straits of Messina were probably the inspiration for the Greek mythological Scylla and Charybdis. A set concerned with the word agora yielded little, but the starters were keeping Oriel marching onwards. Telomere – word means nowt to me – gave Benjain Thomas the next starter. Trees and shrubs again provided the one bonus. Finally Holly Wright managed to get a buzz in for Christ’s, with the Mamluks. The ‘one bonus and no more, ye rascal’ disease seemed catching as that’s all Christ’s managed on a gettable set. So Oriel were in a very commanding position on the 20 minute mark, with 130 to 65.

Chris Talot took a 10 point bite out of the lead, knowing that Dame Sarah Storey won her 17^th Gold medal in the Tokyo games. Bonuses on chemical gobbledygook brought 2 correct answers and took another 10 point bite out of the lead. Nobody apart from me recognised a still from It Happened One Night for the second picture starter.None of us at all knew about the number on a painting. Asked which MP represented umpteen named constituencies in a 64 year career Holly Wright could only think of Winson Churchill – which was good because that was the right answer. Not so good was the fact that this earned the picture bonuses, which they didn’t know any of. Now, if it’s a dance originating in Argentina, shove the buzzer through the desk and say tango. Chris Talbot did. Scientists born in 1822 brought my first real opportunity for a lap of honour, and alright, Gregor Mendel was a very low hanging piece of fruit, but I’m not ashamed to say that I took it. 130 played 120 and still there was time for 2 or 3 sets. Nobody knew a museum with a shuttle on an aircraft carrier was in New York. Now, I’m very sorry but Peter Bloody Rabbit was NOT written in 1982, as stated in the next question. 1902 it was. Surprised the editor didn’t pick that one out. Whatever the case, Isaac Jackson had it. All square. Firths or inlets on the Scottish coastline brought a couple of bonuses and the lead. Dan and I are both fans of Bake Off and he beat me o the answer Gluten for the next starter. Abhimanyu Gowda won the buzzer race, and the match, for the gong went before the set was complete. Christ’s, having completely shut Oriel out for the last 9 minutes or so, won by 150 – 130.

I thank both teams for another exciting contest, although I wasn’t really impressed by the bonus conversion rate of both teams, less than fifty percent. Oriel have a chance of a repechage slot I think, but both teams will need to do better than this with the bonuses to have a chance of going very much further. Christ’s were slightly better, and deserved to win for their fine comeback, but there really wasn’t a massive amount to choose between the two.  

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

There really is a European Tree of the Year Competition. I feel that my faith in humanity is just a tiny bit restored.

Also

Santa Fe is the oldest US State Capital.