University Challenge 2023: Round 2 - St. Andrews v. Royal Holloway

The Teams

St. Andrews

Alec Csukai

Sam Hickford

Joseph Cryan (Capt.)

Sofya Anisimova

Royal Holloway

Joel Abramovitch

Joanna Brown

George Harvey (Capt.)

Micka Clayton

It’s really not fair. I’ve been ill every day of 2023 so far. I’ve got a heavy cold, or maybe a touch of flu. I’ve stopped aching and shivering today, but it’s gone to my chest a bit. Being ill during the holidays is every teacher’s worst nightmare – as we say in the profession it’s a waste of a bloody good illness. And all of that preamble is by way of being my explanation for why I really didn’t do very well with last night’s questions. Speaking of which . . .

Various clues led Joanna Brown to the correct answer of Art for the first starter. Film adaptations of Jane Austen’s Emma brought a full house. Joanna Brown made it a double, being the first to see that several clues were all pointing irresistibly towards the word hull. A set on railway junctions really weren’t easy. I guessed Crewe for the first but was out with the washing with the next two, while Holloway only managed Peterborough. I’m not very familiar with Hannah Arendt’s work -she’s probably not familiar with mine, so fair’s fair - but Sonya Anisimova was, and took the next starter to open St. Andrews’ account. Scientists who give their names to research institutions in Germany brought 2 correct answers and 10 points. It also reminded me that here, in this show, we had a brace of teams who didn’t half like to chew the fat over their questions. The indications were that we were going to have a low scoring match, and that had nothing to do with both teams’ ability. I enjoyed George Harvey’s response to the Fraunhofer Institute – ‘never heard of him.’ I’ve used that one a few times myself – even if it did earn him a JP wigging. I excused myself from lap of honour duties for the show due to illness, but frankly I thought that I earned one for recognising a diagram of a Newtonian Reflecting telescope for the next starter. Anagrams of optical let Sam Hickford in with capitol. He seemed very pleased with this, and quite rightly since he was the reserve brought in to replace Mr. Gibbons from the first round who was unable to play this time. This earned the picture bonuses – more telescopes – and earned just five more points. This meant that as we hit the ten minute mark Royal Holloway led by 35 to 40.

A lovely UC starter revealed that the tolerance bands on a particular type of resistor – you lost yet? I was – are the same colours as the tricolour flag of Bulgaria. Alec Csukai took that one, giving St. Andrews the lead for the first time. They managed just the one on Lady Charlotte ‘Be My” Guest. Sam Hickford took a second starter knowing all about the word haggard. European countries whose names in English have a different first letter from their names in Spanish, as identified from the names of three of each country’s cities brought one bonus, after they misheard Assen as Essen. Joanna Brown, who’d been beaten to the buzzer for several minutes now, won the buzzer race to take her third starter, identifying the word smash from various clues. Mathematics bonuses promised but little, yet we both had the one about the number of lines and edges in a Mobius Strip. For the music starter Joanna Brown took her fourth starter by identifying a piece of jazz by Herbie Hancock. I’ll be honest, the jazz bonuses that followed only served to make me think of the Fast Show’s Jazz Club – nice – and fair play to Holloway, they took one bonus on three jazz musicians I’ve never heard of (and to be fair, there are a great many of these.)Now, following my own aphorism that when in doubt on a UC maths question you should answer 1, that’s exactly what I did with the next starter. So did Alec Csukai, and we were both right to do so. Glacial landforms didn’t do a lot for St. Andrews who managed just the one. I have to be honest, the way that the starters and bonuses in this were falling largely on subjects in which I have no interest, no knowledge, or neither of the above, made me consider paraphrasing Vyvyan in the Young Ones shouting “Give us some easy ones Bambi, you big bottom burp!” Mind you, I was very pleased with myself for working out CPR for the next starter just from the first one – a work by Immanuel Kant – the work in question being Critique of Pure Reason. Canadian Pacific Railway gave it to Joseph Cryan as well. Imperial Empires in Science Fiction yielded just the one bonus. This meant that by just past the 20 minute mark St. Andrews led by 95 to 70.

Joanna Brown took her fifth starter knowing that the word collage comes from the French for glue. Holloway failed to take any of the bonuses available for them on opera. For the second picture starter Joanna Brown took her sixth starter by recognising a photograph of Susan Sontag. 2 picture bonuses took them into triple figures and the lead. George Harvey took his first starter recognising a description of Edouard Manet’s painting of the execution of Maximilian by firing squad. Which brought us – gulp – more flippin’ Science bonuses. Holloway managed 1, which was 1 more than I did. The next starter rewarded those with the patience to wait for the word Bockhampton. Joanna Brown sounded most sceptical as she answered with Thomas Hardy, but it brought her a seventh correct starter. 1 bonus followed on banknotes. Didn’t matter – Holloway were home and dry by now. Oh happy day – another Science starter. Nobody knew null-geodesic. Joanna Brown took her 8^th starter with the word medulla. Natural world bonuses gave us three definitions to words ending in – ock. Behave yourself, that wasn’t one of them. One bonus was taken and then the contest was gonged halfway through the next starter. Royal Holloway ran out comfortable winners in the end by 145 – 90.

You could look at the bonus conversion rates of both teams – 38 percent for St. Andrews and 40.7 for Royal Holloway and say that these weren’t particularly good. However, before you criticise, look how hard the question sets were. I thought that they were, anyway. But it does point out that one team – well, let’s be honest, one player – was quite a bit better on the buzzer. I’m presuming that Royal Holloway will have assigned bodyguards to Joanna Brown to prevent anything stopping her from playing in the quarter finals.

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

The word Haggard originally meant a type of hawk.