University Challenge 2024 Round 1 - University of East Anglia v. Strathclyde

The Teams

University of East Anglia

Melissa Shiress

Bryony Yates

Owen Tobin (Capt)

Matthew Jennings

Strathclyde

Nina Reid

Gregor MacDowall

Steven Gault (Capt)

Prys Hughes

For the first starter I didn’t know that the river Congo is named after a historical kingdom along its length, (apparently they drink Um Bongo there.). Melissa Shiress zigged with Niger, which allowed Gregor MacDowall to zag with Congo. Guggenheim Art Galleries brought 1 bonus – with a little rub of the green UAE might have had two. Bryony Yates won the buzzer race to answer that a former player for the Boston Red Sox was a character in the TV sitcom Cheers. The bonuses that followed were on video games. When it comes to video games, then if the answer isn’t Mario or Sonic, then I ain’t getting it. 2 bonuses for UAE levelled the score. Let’s be honest with each other here, for the next starter, about Major League Baseball and statistical analysis I didn’t understand the question, but Steven Gault knew that the answer was Moneyball. My heart sank when the bonus category of names of amino acids was announced. It turned out that none of them were Mario or Sonic either. So to the picture starter. We saw a badly drawn cartoon of a man blowing a kiss, which turned out to be a diagram of the functional unit of a kidney, a nephron. UAE skipper Owen Tobin opened his account with that one. Labelled parts of said diagram brought UAE just the one correct answer. For the next starter Amol accepted the phrase in res media for in media res. I think that’s just about fair enough. The second is the usual rendering, but if you change those two words round it doesn’t change the meaning. A bonus on ancient navigation meant that as we approached ten minutes, Strathclyde led by 45 – 35.

‘I need the name of a molecule here.’ announced Amol at the start of the next starter. ‘Mario or Sonic!’ I yelled to no one in particular. Bryony Yates put me straight with lactose. I haven’t had such a bad start to a UC match since I was at uni myself, but at least Paul Revere gave me a full house. Grant Wood’s American Gothic is better known, but his Midnight Ride of Paul Revere is a really stunning piece of work and well worth checking out. Melissa Shiress knew that the next starter referred to Dada to earn bonuses on commanders of the International Space Station. UAE were slightly fortunate to get 1 bonus, considering that Amol accepted Chris Hutfield for Chris Hadfield. Not sure about the validity of accepting that. After all, this is University Challenge, not Tipping Point. Owen Tobin came in far too early for the next starter on “Don’t Fear the Reaper”, losing five and allowing Steven Gault to provide the correct answer with ‘Blue’. A lovely set on shipping forecast areas brought me a much-needed full house and a single bonus to Strathcylde. So to the music starter. The unmistakable strains of Trevor Horn singing about an abandoned studio led both me and Owen Tobin to the conclusion that this was The Buggles. 3 tracks that the great Mr. Horn produced brought a full house to put UAE one more correct answer away from triple figures. I remember David Attenborough doing a series on children’s TV when I was a kid all about mythological creatures and what might have inspired them which is how I knew that the skulls of mammoths with their huge nasal cavities may have been the inspiration for the cyclops. Bryony Yates had that starter. UK general elections brought UAE 2 bonuses. Now, let me ask you. How do you react when you hear these words at the start of a question? ‘The trigonomic identity sine squared theta plus cos squared theta – ‘? I know that one of the great glories of UC is that it can and does ask questions like this. Sadly, though, when I hear a question start like that Henry Mancini’s ;Baby Elephant Walk’ starts playing on a loop in my head. Dum de dumdum, dumdum dum dum dumdum. I fought manfully to get my attention back to the question, which is just as well since it was easy, when it started mentioning the relationship between lengths of sides of a triangle. ‘Pythagoras!’ I screamed, setting off on the lap of honour even before Bryony Yates – having a fine night on the buzzer - confirmed I was right. Fonts and typefaces brought UAE two bonuses. With 17.06 minutes on the clock they led by a significant 80 points. Obi Wan Rajan then issued encouragement to Strathclyde. ‘Plenty of time to get going. See if you can answer this one.’ This particular phrase seems to be Amol’s version of ‘These aren’t the droids you’re looking for.’ And just as effective, for Gregor MacDowall buzzed in with the answer of Samarkand as the capital of the Timurid Empire. Novels set partly or wholly in hospitals  brought a correct answer on Alexander Solzhenitsyn’s Cancer Ward. Gregor MacDowall took a second consecutive starter with roti. Animals in Japanese poetry brought a couple of bonuses. This meant that by the 20 minute mark, since Amol’s magic words Strathclyde had cut the deficit by almost half, although UAE still led, by 130 – 85.

The deficit continued to shrink as Gregor MacDowall completed a hat trick of starters knowing that a question about the 1832 reform act had to be heading in the direction of rotten boroughs. (Londoners, supply your own puns, but please don’t include Ealing. Or Lewisham, for that matter.). Jazz and Bob Thiele took them into triple figures. At this point I think the Jedi mind trick wore off, as Melissa Shiress was quickly in to identify a still from Fritz Lang’s Metropolis for the second picture starter. More stills from films previously thought lost, or incomplete, brought us both a full house. Not willing to concede, though, Steven Gault was first in to identify “Things Fall Apart” as the line from Yeats’ The Second Coming’ used as a title by Chinua Achebe. They really needed a full house, and they got one in the shape of honorary captains of the German National Football Team. (Whose philosophers were beaten in the final of the World Cup by Ancient Greece with a single goal scored by Socrates. Franz Beckenbauer, name checked In one of the bonuses, was on the bench.) However it was the UAE skipper who took the next starter, knowing that the Little Curie was a mobile x ray machine developed by Madame C for use in WW1. Autumn celebrations around the world brought another full house. UAE’s Matthew Jennings took his first starter completing a quotation from Simone de Beauvoir. Portuguese royal history did nowt for UAE. Matthew Jennings took a second consecutive starter with the Franks (Butcher, Skinner and Spencer?) ‘Your bonuses,’ announced Amol, ‘are on interpretations of quantum mechanics.’ Cue the Baby Elephant Walk again. Once my internal orchestra stopped playing, UAE had got a full house. UAE were not going to be caught, but could Strathclyde force their way onto the repechage board? Little time remained. ‘Cephalopod – Dystopian – Netflix’ launched a buzzer race, but sadly for Strathclyde it was the UAE captain who got to answer ‘Squid’ as in game. The Marilyns – which incidentally were an interesting fact of the week that I didn’t already know some time back –saw UAE provide decent, but incorrect answers to the set. Bryony Yates took her fifth starter recognising the first political use of the phrase ‘Black Lives Matter’. The contest was gonged just before Amol could announce the subject of the bonuses. The final score was UAE – 235 – Strathclyde- 125.

I don’t think that Strathclyde actually did badly. They had a conversion rate of just over fifty percent. However UAE were just better. They were better on the buzzer and they had a better bonus conversion rate with 54 percent. Not necessarily worthy of Amol calling it a ‘phenomenal performance’, but good nonetheless. Strathclyde don’t make it onto the repechage board – the banker only pays scores above 145 at this point.

How is Amol Doing?

Maybe this is just me but I’m starting to think that some of the times Amol is being matey to the teams he says things that may come across as a tiny bit patronising. With the kidney picture he saluted UEA’s one correct answer with “– you got there in the end.” Then with the Paul Revere set when UAE could only answer the last question right on the Beastie Boys he replied ‘I’m glad you got that one at least.’ UAE copped it again when he explained ‘Cult isn’t actually an adjective’. They knew that Amol, trust me, they knew. I find his remarks at the end sometimes just a little hit and miss as well. I am sure he genuinely wanted to console Strathclyde at the end but saying that maybe if the German football questions had come earlier, or if there had been double the amount of engineering questions things might have been different just felt rather more of an application of salt to the wound rather than healing balm.

I considered changing the title of this section to – Is Amol a Jedi? – following last week. I still rather think he is. Last week his words of encouragement were enough to make Kings put on a spurt of answers and it did exactly the same to Strathclyde last night. Having said that, when he tried to refresh the trick after it had worn off, saying ‘Still got time for this, Strathclyde.’ in the last few minutes, it spurred Gregor MacDowall into buzzing, but sadly with a wrong answer. I guess this is one of those tricks to which you become immune after exposure.

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

Michael Foale is the only British Astronaut to serve on both Mir and the ISS.