The Teams
Gonville and Caius
Isaac Tompkinson
Rachel Bentham
Declan Noble (Capt.)
Faris Qureshi
Bristol
Ted Warner
Bridie Rogers
Kevin Flanagan (Capt.)
Olivia Watts
Ted Warner, who would go on to have a very productive
evening, took his and the show’s first starter knowing the scientist Lisa
Meitner. A nice set on cities in New York State (Yay, New York!) brought us
both a full house. I was delighted that the next starter was a quote from the
ending of Vanity Fair, a serious candidate for my favourite novel. Captain
Declan Noble got Caius (if it’s good enough for Roger Tilling just calling them
Caius then it’s good enough for me) up and running with this one. They took two
on Geology, but might well have been expected to get the Cretaceous. In the
next starter about a Prime Minister the clue that gave it to me was the study
of Persian and Arabic. As the clues began to pile on Ted Warner buzzed first to
supply Anthony Eden (for some reason when I hear the name I always think of the
words – Your boys took a hell of a beating.) Words beginning with sorr –
brought two correct answers. Farris Qureshi and I recognised a description of a
theremin at about the same time for the next starter. The Critics’ Circle
Trewin Award brought them a full house and at this stage the teams seemed
fairly evenly matched. With the picture starter and a highlighted diagram of
the human brain I nearly took a lap of honour for knowing the cerebellum, but
decided to let it ride. Kevin Flanagan took that one. Three highlighted lobes
brought Bristol a full house. I answered temporal to each of them and thus got
one right. My nerve broke and I took a lap of honour for the next starter, guessing
that Mr. Einthoven invented an early ECG. Bridie Rogers took that one. Muscles
and muscle fibres provided two bonuses. In the space of a couple of minutes
Bristol had doubled their score and led by 90 – 45 at ten minutes.
Olivia Watts knew that “The Race to be Myself” is by South
Africa Athlete Caster Semenya. This meant that all four of Bristol’s team had
answered at least one starter. Bristol took two bonuses on my favourite
revolutionary biscuit of Italy, the Bourbon (the Peake Freans Trotsky
assortment isn’t what it was.) Ted Warner has the happy knack of being able to
hold his nerve until a question becomes clear and then pounce and he won the buzzer
race for the next starter when it became clear the answer would be lateran. Types
of pancakes again brought two bonuses. Right, if it’s about a vintage Japanese
film and it sounds familiar, I answer The Seven Samurai. If it sounds
unfamiliar I answer Rashomon. This sounded unfamiliar for the next starter.
Kevin Flanagan buzzed with Rashomon and we were both right. On ancient flood
myths, Bristol did not sound certain on any of them. Yet took a full house.
This stretched their lead to over 100. This led Amol to offer timely
encouragement to Caius. His jedi powers, though, seem to have waned since his
first series. Neither team identified the work of Beethoven. Aufbau means nothing
to me but Olivia Watts took it to earn the dubious reward of the music bonuses,
all excerpts from the single opera each of the composers featured had composed.
For the first time they only took a single bonus. Ted Warner recognised the
names of the new Sultan of Malaysia. Bristol took two of the bonuses on
chemistry that followed. It was that man Warner, again playing the percentages,
who recognised that the three rivers the next starter described all began with
the letter T. Copyright law brought only one bonus and allowed Amol in to make
a dig at Irishman Kevin Flanagan for not knowing that Trinity College Dublin
receives copies of every book published in the UK. Alright Amol mate, don’t
milk it. Bridie Rogers, like me, guessed that Death and Disaster, as its
contents were described, could well be the work of Andy Warhol. 2 bonuses on
Maria ‘Who?’ Tallchief meant that Bristol had completed a ten-minute shutout.
They now led by 225 – 45, and were in the second round. All that really
remained was to see whether Caius could add much to their score and whether
Bristol could get into the 300s.
Well it looked likely when Kevin Flanagan buzzed in really
quickly for the second picture starter to identify Gericault as the painter of
The Raft of the Medusa. Other paintings that had scandalised the Salon on first
being exhibited brought us both a full house in quick time. Nobody could take a
UC special starter looking for Pierre. Now, you hear ‘hill’ and ‘Afrikaans’ in
the same sentence you slam the buzzer through the desk and answer kop. Declan
Noble had a go, but this meant that Bristol got the whole question allowing
Kevin Flanagan in with the right answer. Mario Vargas Llosa meant not a lot to
me but it brought a full house to Bristol, now only just over a full house away
from 300. Something on geometry at last allowed Caius in as Rachel Betham
buzzed in with parabola. The three body problem – the opposite to the problem
with Cerberus, I guess – brought two bonuses, which is two more than I got. We
saw a bit of a mix up with the next starter where skipper Declan Noble buzzed
and answered, but he wasn’t called to do so as Isaac Tompkinson did the same.
Amol erred on the side of leniency – fair enough when you’re so far behind, but
what if it was a tight game, Amol? Buildings designed by Zaha Hadid yielded
nothing. Sadly Caius came in too early and lost five. The next start asked for
the North Germanic language said to be the closest relative of English. FRIESIAN!
I shouted, causing our kitten to run out of the living room in terror. Olivia
Watts gave the same answer. Three correct answers on Southeast Asia put them on
the brink of a triple century. Types of vole pushed them through the barrier as
answered by the estimable Ted Warner. Four-stringed instruments brought nowt,
and I think this is the only time in the whole match that Bristol failed to
take any of a bonus set. But it was all too easy for Bristol. The next starter
saw Kevin Flanagan in early with the Ford Maddoxes (Ford and Brown) and
deafness in films added a couple more. The final starter saw Declan Noble add
ten to his team’s score. Shades of green took them to 80, compared with Bristol’s
325.
We won’t know just how good Bristol are until they play
again. They looked fantastic in this match. Their score was superb. However I
think their spurt coming up to 10 minutes really took the wind out of Caius-
sails. And they weren’t at all bad, either. Their conversion rate was 57. Mind
you, Bristol’s was 71. When you’re faced with such an onslaught you have to
gamble on the buzzer, and G and C didn’t do this enough in the crucial middle
fifteen minutes of this match. Well done Bristol. A team to watch? You bet.
Amol Watch
One positive and one negative from this show. On the
positive, the first time that Amol told Gonville and Caius there was plenty of
time left, there actually was. On the negative, coming back and having another
go at Kevin Flanagan at the end for not knowing the Trinity College question
wasn’t very nice. Jeremy Paxman would have commented once, yes, but I doubt he’d
have had that second suck of the pineapple there.
Interesting Fact That I Didn’t Already Know Of
The Week
The Critics’ Circle Trewin Award is for the best Shakespearian
Performance.
Baby Elephant Walk Moment
Containing an indole or a pyrrole attached to a benzene ring,
what essential amino acid, synthesized in plants, is sometimes given the one-letter
code W?
Maybe its me, but the science questions didn’t seem quite
so convoluted in this show as they have been. Still, altogether now – dum de
dumdum dum dum dum dum dumdum.
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