University Challenge 2023: Repechage 1

The Teams

Sheffield

Rachel Haw

Andrew Fisher

Lewis Jones (capt.)

Danny Lardner

Newnham, Cambridge

Bethan Holloway-Strong

Hannah Bowen

Roma Ellis (Capt)

Chen Zhou

Hello, and welcome. Although they were both beaten in their first round matches, both of last night’s teams scored very well in their first round matches. Sheffield were beaten 170 -180 by UCL while Newnham lost by 160 – 170. Next to nothing in it.

So this first of two repechages kicked off by asking us about the so called Infinity Bridge in Stockton on Tees. Funnily enough I think they’ve got one in Dubai as well. Newnham skipper Roma Ellis opened her team’s account with that one. Bonuses on social history sounded lacking in promise, but I was happy for a full house on them while Newnham managed just the one. The Newnham skipper was equally familiar with Arthur C. Clarke’s Odyssey 2 for the next starter. Bonuses on rainbows were a mixed bag, but not for Newnham since they didn’t get any of them. Now, should you ever be asked about a river which rises in the Himalayan foothills, the Ganges is always a good percentage answer. It certainly gave Roma Ellis her hattrick of consecutive starters. Bonuses on words containing the letters – erm – within their first syllables saw Newnham take 2 bonuses, which to be fair was one more than I managed. The picture starter showed us the seal of a US state. I’d never seen it before, but I know that the word Eureka links with California. It goes back to the old 70s TV series CHIPS about the California Highway Patrol. The opening sequence has a shot of their badge and I never understood why this particular ancient Greek exclamation should be on it. Apologies for that unnecessary digression. I can’t say whether Lewis Jones has ever watched CHIPS, but he knew the answer anyway. This gave Sheffield three more of the same and Sheffield were equal to the clues on each one and took a full house. Now, I’ll be honest, when asked for a quantum property for the next starter  I was tempted to suggest Old Kent Road, but instead took a punt with spin. Andrew Fisher chanced his arm with colour and looked most put out when it was wrong. Roma Ellis too had a go with spin, but it was strangeness instead. Andrew Fisher had another early buzz for the next starter, but his knowledge of Finnish composers wasn’t up to the mark. Nor was mine or Newnham’s for that matter. It was Kaija ‘Who?’ Saariaho. Shirley Jakson and Dodie Smith both wrote novels with the word Castle in the title, which gave Danny Lardner a good early buzz for the next starter. Historical paintings in London’s National Gallery brought a pair of bonuses to Sheffield. The bonuses were keeping Sheffield in the hunt at the moment, but even so they trailed 25 – 45 at the 10 minute mark.

Andrew Fisher’s difficult night with the buzzer continued. Had he been on Ken Bruce’s Pop Masters he’d have earned himself a One Year Out T Shirt giving 2012 instead of 2011 for the next starter. Roma Ellis accepted that unconsidered trifle. Bonuses on the mythical land of Shambala brought a timely full house. Danny Lardner knew the sequel to Things Fall Apart. Sheffield went on to score their own full house on Graham Greene I met him once. Miserable old sod.(That's Graham Greene, not Danny Lardner, whom I'm sure is delightful.) This kept them within striking distance. Generally Newnham were still outbuzzing Sheffield and this continued with the next starter which saw Hannah Bowen win the race to identify Sufis.  Only one bonus on Indonesia followed. With the music starter Lewis Jones was first in to identify the work of the Supremes. For the bonuses three other tracks featuring the work of James Jamerson brought two correct answers, but I’m sorry they didn’t manage Bernadette by the Four Tops. Loved the Four Tops. Hannah Bowen looked extremely dubious when she offered Dijon as the particular species of mustard called for by the next starter, but she was correct. Bonuses on knaves went begging, and still Sheffield were in shouting distance despite being second best on the buzzer. Hannah Bowen struck again for the next starter with the film “My Beautiful Laundrette”. A US pharmacologist looked like barren ground for the bonuses but they managed 1. I took 2, and knowing uric acid in gout I thought I’d better take my lap of honour while the going was good. Roma Ellis knew various characters linked by the name of Balthasar. A lovely UC set on rhyming pairs of words from the timeless ‘Barbie Girl’ by Aqua saw Bethan Holloway-Strong show an admirable knowledge of the words, yet still Newnham only managed one bonus. Which didn’t seem to matter so much now since they were overwhelming Sheffield with the sheer weight of their buzzing. Newnham led by 125 – 70 at 20.

So to the picture starter and Hannah Bowen very quickly identified the work of Fragonard, soon appearing on a chocolate box near you. 3 similar rococo paintings provided both of us with nowt. The next starter asked for the most famous person who ever worked in the Drayton Court Hotel in Ealing, Ho Chi Minh. This saw Andrew Fisher firing one on target. Informal font types brought a quick full house, but this still left Sheffield 40 points behind. Poor Andrew Fisher. He was doing exactly what I think you should do, that is buzz when you think you might know the answer, but it just wasn’t coming off for him. Asked for an epic poem he gambled with Beowulf allowing Bethan Holloway-Strong to give the correct answer of the Odyssey for the next starter. Bonuses on the Hoffman who wrote the Tales of Hoffman only brought a single correct answer. Didn’t matter. It looked pretty obvious that on this occasion Sheffield just didn’t have the buzzing to trouble Newnham. This time it was Danny Lardner who came in too early allowing Chen Zhou to tell us that China’s 3^rd longest river is the Amur. Animals that appear in the Ramayana  were the subject of the bonus set. Yes, that’s right. They took one bonus. Danny Lardner won the buzzer race to identify Simone de Beauvoir’s seminal work The Second Sex. This time it was Sheffield that only took one bonus, and I’m very sorry, but I so impressed myself with erythrocytes that I did another lap around the sofa. I do not pretend to understand the Maths starter that followed, but Roma Ellis buzzed early, apologised for doing so, thne threw in the correct answer as if it was a pure guess. Eleanor of Castile provided the subject of the bonuses that followed, but none were taken. Lewis Jones knew that the only arthropod in the zodiac is scorpio the scorpion. That was it. At the gong Newnham had won comfortably by 175 – 110.

All of which goes to show it’s bonuses for show, but starters for dough. Which is just as well for Newnham since their stats of 11 correct answers from 36 bonuses is one of the lowest I've seen from a winning team and will be of some concern to them. They'll need to improve if they’re going to have a real run at this series. But. . . they still won. Sheffield played well with their own bonuses, but were a long way off on the buzzer. Hard lines, but thanks to both teams for an interesting contest.

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

The Islamic term sufi comes from the Arabic for coarse wool.