University Challenge 2024 Quarter Final Elimination - Open University v. Christ Church, Oxford

The Teams

Open University

Ellie Romans

Mike Holt

Ann Gavaghan (Capt)

James Davidson

Christ Church Oxford

Eliza Dean

Melika Gorgianeh

Oliver Wotton (Capt)

Elliot Lowe

Sorry it has taken so long to get round to this review. Long story. So, let’s cast a quick glance around this Last Chance Saloon, before taking in the two teams joining us for a wee dram – only one of them would get out of here alive. The stats seemed to favour the Open, but not by that much.

Oliver Wotton was in extremely quickly with the Ionian Islands for the first starter. You may remember that he scored a superb 9 starters in an earlier match against Southampton. Was this an omen that we were going to see another such virtuoso performance on the buzzer? The answer earned a set on French literary cycles – Baudelaire was allegedly an expert on the Penny Farthing. 2 correct answers were given. You had to stick with the poetry starter that followed. I didn’t recognise the lines quoted but as soon as Amol announced the title, Annus Mirablilis (supply your own jokes, please) I knew it was John Dryden. James Davidson opened the Open’s account with the same. The first hint that this maybe was not going to be Open’s night came when they took the first of a gettable set on musical styles, but missed out on two which really and truly were old quiz chestnuts. Nobody knew the Science populariser JBS Haldane – so he wasn’t a very popular populariser it seems. The moment the next starter asked us for the name of an opera originally entitled Leonora, Elliot Lowe buzzed straight in. To give the wrong answer. Again, I just make the point because this is a real quiz chestnut because its Fidelio, Beethoven’s only opera. Ann Gavaghan knew that Joseph Paxton designed the original Crystal Palace for the next starter. The Open were unlucky to get a difficult set of bonuses on language families and came away from the table with nowt, much like my good self. The picture starter was a map showing the site and extent of a notorious oil spillage. I was certain it had to be the Exxon Valdez. Oliver Wotton took starter number 2 with the same. Christ Church are collectively too young to have remembered the Torrey Canyon, but remembered the Deepwater Horizon. An absolute masterpiece of mathematical gobbledygook allowed Melika Gorgianeh in with the correct answer of geometric for the next starter. Two correct answers meant that Christ Church led by 50 – 25 as we passed the ten-minute mark.

James Davidson knew that Thackeray had good things to say about Brussels. Me? I won’t even eat them for Christmas dinner myself. Mythological triads proved a tricky set and we both only got the one from Greek Mythology. Now, come on. If you study English Literature the moment you hear the name Saxo Grammaticus you should think Hamlet. So the country he wrote about had to be Denmark. That one passed the teams by.

None of us knew the chloralkali process, but Christ Church lost five on it. A great early buzz from Oliver Wotton earned a third starter, when he knew that the Geographical feature contained in many named of French Departements are rivers. Three questions on Black Swan Theory – named after the Natalie Portman film, I believe - brought just the one correct answer. Oh, for the days of the First Aid in English, where innocent primary school kids had the collective terms for animals and the name of their habitats pummelled into their brains with no thought for relevance whatsoever! Neither team knew that a holt is the home of an otter. There’s a water otter in my kitchen. It’s a kettle, which makes the water ‘otter. I’m ere all week, ladies and gents. Don’t applaud, just throw money. Ouch – I said money! The next starter asked for the name of an artist. ‘Born in Crete “ was enough to give Ann Gavaghan El Greco. 1 bonus on geology brought the scores level. Game on. None of us knew the composer of the opera we heard in the music starter, who was Massenet. Or put it another way, who was Massenet? None of us knew Audre Lord or the next starter either. Both teams sat on the buzzers a bit before Oliver Wotton took his fourth starter knowing that Nassau is the national capital on New Providence. This earned the music bonuses on pieces of music inspired by pieces of French literature whose composers were unFrench. I thought Christ Church did well to get two of them. Starter number five fell to Oliver Wotton as he knew that Old Prussia was a member of the Baltic family of languages. The Christ Church skipper, from Cardiff, smiled as Amol announced a set of bonuses on Medieval Wales. Justifiably too since he took a full house. I love the first question referencing Mervyn the Freckled. As epithets go that’s one that should be used a lot more in conversation, I reckon. Starter number 7 followed in pretty short order, as Christ Church’s Captain Fantastic supplied the answer that whiskey stills are traditionally made from copper. One bonus on paintings in the Manchester Art Gallery was enough to give Christ Church a lead of 155 – 55 at 20 minutes.

Game over? Not yet, but the Open’s collective eyes seemed glassy, and their defence porous. The Wotton onslaught continued as he identified 1975 as the year Bangladesh and others joined the UN, benefitting from the Ken Bruce Statute (one year out is permissible). An Irish mathematician saw Oliver Wotton give the cheeky answer of Joseph Grimaldi. To be honest, this set meant I was fighting the sound of the Baby Elephant Walk coursing through my head that I didn’t notice how Christ Church did with them. Not so much questions as bloody good scores in Scrabble. The blessed relief of the second picture starter saw Ellie Romans identify Apollo 11 Command Module pilot Michael Collins. Other Hubbard Medal winners brought just one correct answer. They needed more. Nobody knew the Hyades for the next starter. (I think that  they were 6^th in the 1977 Eurovision with their catchy tune, “Bim, bong, bing bammy bing.” They don’t write ‘em like that any more.) Oliver Wotton took his 8^th starter to cap off an absolutely splendid personal performance knowing that the device on the national flag of Portugal is an Armillary sphere. The Japanese playwright Chikamatsu brought just the one correct answer, but it was all academic by this stage. Christ Church were going to win, and all that remained in question was how many points they were going to win by. Eliza Dean took her first starter with No Exit, which was probably an adequate description of how The Open must have felt by this point. The first chemical elements discovered through spectroscopy only yielded one bonus, but the gap between the teams was almost in triple figures now. Ann Gavaghan, still leading her team from the front, knew that one of the events mentioned in the next starter occurred in 1989. Ancient Athens brought a single bonus. The ever popular category of plate tectonics saw neither team find the term moment. The next starter was on a Shakespeare heroine and as soon as her brother Sebastian was mentioned Eliza Dean won the buzzer race to answer Viola. German cities named after people did not have enough time to yield more points before the contest was gonged. Christ Church won by 170 to 75.

The Open have had a bit of an up and down series, but the fact that their average score going into this match was 210 speaks volumes about their ability. They were just beaten by the better team on the day. I’ve referenced Oliver Wotton’s performance throughout the review because it was so decisive. He was the massive difference between the teams in this match. For what it’s worth Open had a BCR of 28, while Christ Church had a BCR of 47.

Amol Watch

Nice to see you playing in the spirit of conviviality – Amol praised both teams for applauding each other at the start before adding rather ominously – let’s see if it lasts. To be fair, it did. He astutely pointed out that Sebastian was the real giveaway in the Viola question.

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

Joseph Paxton not only designed the Crystal Palace, he was also responsible for the Cavendish Banana, ancestor of the modern variety we eat today.

Baby Elephant Walk Moment

In mathematics if the arithmetic mean of a set of numbers is calculated from the sum of their values, which adjective denotes a mean defined as the nth root of the product of n numbers? The same adjective is applied to sequences where the ratio between terms is constant and has a broad meaning of relating to properties of shape and space.

Need I say more? Dum de dumdum dum dum dum dum dumdum.