University Challenge 2023 First Round: Balliol, Oxford v. Southampton

The Teams

Balliol, Oxford

Ben Falconer

Ella Higgs-Sharrock

Cal Hewitt (Capt)

Leoni Loughlin

Southampton

Ethan Lyon

Magda Steele

Dom Belcher (Capt)

Elliot Miles

Getting there, dearly beloved, we’re definitely getting there. So last night pitted Balliol College, Oxford against the University of Southampton. A trio of Stanleys kicked us off, and Ethan Lyon saw it from the director of Eyes Wide Shut, one Stanley Q. Brick apparently. Scientists and poets are a rather unusual mix, and this set of bonuses did nowt for Southampton. I guessed that the two word name given to stars of luminosity class D might be White Dwarf, and when Cal Hewitt of Balliol gave the same answer my hopes were up. When it was confirmed as correct I set off on my lap of honour around the sofa. A UC special on pairs of words that differed only by the addition of an x – code and codex for example – provided a useful full house. Lovely to see the hapax getting a nod. The hapax legomenon is the only linguistic term I’ve ever toasted when I was drunk, but that is an old story for another day. Nobody guessed Cape Horn was the geographical feature referred to in the next starter. I’ve never walked barefoot through a toroidal field – never even heard of one, but then nobody in either team had it for the next starter. Thankfully Ethan Lyon stopped the rot, knowing the term nihilist for the next starter. Novels with titles containing the word American provided just the one bonus. So to the picture round. We were shown a map of Italy with a region marked out in red. Alongside, in Italian, were the ingredients of a common type of pasta sauce. Ethan Lyon took his third starter, correctly identifying it as carbonara, or, as we called it when I tried to make it, Spaghetti Whatthehella. More sauce ingredient lists brought 2 correct answers, although Norma from Sicily successfully eluded all of us. (Supply your own jokes here, please). This meant that as we approached 10 minutes Southampton led by 45 – 25.

I was particularly quick to identify S in the SHU scale as standing for Scoville – look, nobody else is going to blow my trumpet for me. Bonuses on Supergiant games promised but little, yet although I didn’t know the games I did get Bastion, Transistor and Hades for a full house. So did Southampton although I fancy they were familiar with the games too. Leoni Loughlin knew that Gout has been described as rich man’s arthritis to keep Balliol running. Military paintings by Lady “I ‘ate you” Butler (ask your parents) brought a couple of bonuses. Dom Belcher knew that the Shakespeare play with the title character being a silly bugger wealthy Greek who gives his money away is “Timon of Athens”. Pumbaa of Athens was much less successful. – Your bonuses are on particle physics – announced JP. – Sod that for a game of soldiers- announced I, and mentally switched off. When I switched back on Southampton had added five points to their score. Dom Belcher answered correctly that the Limpopo is known in part as the crocodile river. Cinematic Easter eggs were very much grist to the Southampton mill, and they took a full house. For the music starter we heard the welcome sounds of Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Going On?” Three protest songs from the same era provided just the one correct answer. With the gap between the teams now standing at 80 points Balliol really needed to start slinging some buzzer. To be honest a hit and hope wouldn’t have been out of order. Yet the next starter went to Ethan Lyon who identified several texts in Japanese. One bonus on Scottish football teams widened the gap to a potentially decisive ninety five points. Ben Falconer struck for Balliol on the next starter, identifying Calais as the last English cathedral see on continental Europe. Geographical bonus yielded a timely full house. A trio of Browns were identified by Dom Belcher, and the Southampton juggernaut was steaming away again. Bonuses on equations equated to 2 correct answers, and this meant that the score at just past the 20 minute mark at 160 – 70 to Southampton.

Magda Steele identified various species of willow for the next starter. Factory and office equipment starting with the same letter seemed a particularly easy set and were dispatched over the boundary rope with the contempt they deserved. This brought us to the picture set, and Ethan Lyon identified the work of Edouard ‘Show me the’ Manet. Other paintings discussed by Marcel Foucault proved somewhat trickier, although the last one screamed Franz Hals to me. But even though they only got one of the bonuses, the fact was that Southampton were running down the clock, and Balliol were still some way short of even a repechage score. Leoni Loughlin knew the work of Susan Sontag for the next starter. Bonuses on creatures mentioned by Shakespeare pushed Balliol to 90 points, and just for a moment it looked as if a repechage score was not totally out of the question. Especially so when Ella Higgs-Sharrock knew that the Chartists was the answer to the next starter. The language bonuses didn’t help overly much since they only had one right. Dom Belcher won the buzzer race to identify Madama Butterfly as the opera with Lieutenant Pinkerton. London in popular music brought two more bonuses. Nobody knew what TED stands for, and I’ve forgotten. Cal Hewitt knew you can put ock on the end of several given words to make new ones. Only one bonus followed, but it put Balliol tantalisingly close to a repechage score. If they could only take the next starter. Nobody knew a suffragan bishop, and the gong ended the competition. The final score was 210 to 115 and a comfortable win for Southampton.

Both teams had a conversion rate higher than 50 percent, considerably so in Balliol’s case. But they only managed 6 starters between them – as many, incidentally as Ethan Lyons answered for Southampton. Well played Southampton, I shall watch your next performance with interest.

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

The Toy Story films make some conscious nods to “The Shining”