University Challenge First Round - St. Andrews v Cardiff

The Teams

St. Andrews

Diane Buffet-Mogel

George Capell

Freddie Skerrett (Capt)

Tom Rosas

Cardiff

Kyle Gilbert

Rosalie Tarsala

Conor Boyling (Capt)

Henrik Holm

So, here we go, dearly beloved. Not long now until the first round is concluded. Scotland played Wales – sort of the land of MY fathers versus Land of My Fathers (Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau).

The good old Count of Monte Cristo set off a buzzer race won by Diane Buffet-Mogel for St. Andrews to take the first starter. Species native to particular islands or archipelagos. They took two and could have had a full house, with the Tasman Devil being ruled incorrect as it is the Tasmanian Devil. Them’s the breaks. The only British Overseas Territory which does not incorporate the Union Jack into its own flag is Gibraltar – and Tom Rosas buzzed in for that one. Helen’s bust of Canova of Troy – sorry, I’ll read that again – Canova’s Bust of Helen of Troy brought two more bonuses. Once Amol gave the answer of the physicist Mach to the next question it made sense, but none of us had it. The next starter suddenly became obvious and Rosalie Tarsala won the race to give the answer of Masala. Bonuses on alterative methods of musical notation did not, surprisingly include the dumdedum method I use in these reviews, but still brought two bouses, and Cardiff were up and running. So to the picture starter. We were shown a map of a shipping route and asked for the American city at the northern end of the route. Mob – isle said Kyle Gilbert. Mob EEL Amol corrected him, but gave him the points. Quite right too. More places linked by roro ferries brought just one correct answer. For the next starter Asuka sounded Japanese to me. It did to Kyle Gilbert too and we were both right. British monarchs and languages meant that Cardiff led by 55 to 40 at the 10 minute mark.

With the next starter you had to wait, but as soon as it mentioned it was a composer who wrote a famous work about a swiss folk hero it was obvious the answer was Rossini, yet both teams rather sat on their buzzers until Henrik Holm buzzed in with the right answer. A full house on catastrophes was well taken.Various uses of the Greek letter gamma saw captain Conor Boyling take another consecutive starter for Cardiff. Vahanas – that is the animal carriers of various avatars of Hindu deities brought two bonuses and took the Cardiff score to 100. Epistemology of the Closet allowed Diane Buffet-Mogel to elbow St. Andrews’ way back into the competition and earned a set on oe act plays. They took two. For the music starter that followed we heard the sound of Green Onions, by Booker T and the MGs. Rosalie Tarsala had Booker T but knew she was wrong with Washington. St. Andrews couldn’t take advantage and at least Miss Tarsala got an ‘I’m sorry, Rosalie “ from Amol. Both teams sat on their buzzers a little for the next starter. When you hear ‘game’ and ‘bamboo’ you slam the buzzer down and answer Mahjong. Freddie Skerrett took that one. This earned the music bonuses. Three more fantastic tracks from Stax records – I mean, I’m a Motown man myself, but these were all great. These largely passed St. Andrews by. No one knew the DICE method of something or other. The Astronomy starter that followed meandered its weary way along until it became obvious that the answer was great wall. Conor Boyling won that buzzer race, to win the dubious honour of a set of bonuses on URLs.Two correct answers were enough to take Cardiff to 120 and to stretch the lead to fifty points. Did you know that Alfonso V of Aragon was Alfonso the Magnanimous? Freddie Skerrett did. Or worked it out from the clue – bloomin’ good shout whichever way. US film maker John Waters brought them a full house which halved the gap as we approached the 20 minute mark. Cardiff still led by 120 – 95.

George Capell picked up a reference to the Turner prize for the next starter. European countries whose names start with different letters in English and German – Germany being an example – did few favours to St. Andrews since they only managed the 1. However the gap was down to one starter. A starter which was taken by George Capel with the answer Mercosur. Contemporary economics sadly means as much to me as contemporary dance but the set was grist to the George Capel mill and he took a full house on the bonus set. Blake’s picture of Milton showed both teams a clean pair of heels for the next starter. Henrik Holm took the next starter with the word base which earned Cardiff the picture bonuses. 1 bonus identifying a poet from a picture levelled the scores with just five minutes left. As soon as Nunavut was mentioned for the next starter Rosalie Tarsala won the buzzer race to say the indigenous people involved were Inuit. Numbered physical laws earned me a lap of honour for Kepler’s first law of planetary motion. Back came St. Andrews, knowing various places associated with silver mining. Monochrome paintings brought one bonus – one more than I had, to be honest. A good old UC chestnut asked if arranged alphabetically, who comes first in the Old Testament? Kyle Gilbert took the starter with Aaron. Words ending with – ara brought two correct answers and a narrow lead, with little time left. Nobody knew the 1970s wrestler, giant hogweed, for the next answer. Conor Boyling knew the number of seats needed in a US election to win a majority, and this with hindsight was the decisive moment of the match. Bonuses on Nigel Lawson brought just one bonus. Didn’t matter. St. Andrews were going to need at least two visits to the table and there was only time for one left. Which was taken by Henrik Holm anyway, with Vivaldi’s four seasons – salt, mustard, vinegar and pepper. There was just time for Cardiff to take one bonus on nebulae. At the gong they had won by 200 to 145.

A good match that I enjoyed. Both teams had BCRs of 58, but the best buzzing came from Cardiff which won them the match. I hope that St. Andrews’ score will be enough to ear a repechage slot – I’d say that the coin is on the air on that one.

Amol Watch

Again, I’m on Amol’s side when he ruled out the Tasman Devil for the Tasmania Devil – with the proviso that if you are going to insist that only a right answer is right, then you have to do it with everything. I’m pretty much on his side as well when he castigated St. Andrews for not recognising the Stax records too.

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

Masala is a term also used in Indian cinema to indicate a film that mixes several genres.

Baby Elephant Walk Moment

In electronics what four letter term denotes the central terminal in a bipolar junction transistor coming between the collector and emitter? In chemistry Bronsted and Lowry used this word to refer to a . . . and at this point Henrik Holm buzzed in with the answer. Dum de dumdum dum dum dum dum dumdum.