The Teams
Cardiff
Kyle Gilbert
Rosalie Tarsala
Conor Boyling (Capt)
Henrik Holm
Queen’s Belfast
Sarah Carlisle
Jason McKillen
Daniel Rankin (Capt)
Sam Thompson
When the first starter, asking for a natural philosopher,
mentioned pressure I threw Pascal into the ring. It was a while before Daniel
Rankin opened the Queen’s’ account with the same answer. I decided it was too
early for a lap of honour around the Clark sofa. I’m always in the market for a
set of flag bonuses and Queen’s took what I thought were the two more difficult
ones yet missed the easier one on the flag of Papua New Guinea. Sarah Carlisle
took the next starter with the word maw. Films which earned Oscar nominations
for composer Ennio Morricone brought Queen’s a full house in quick time.
Neither team knew about the Bouncing Czech, Robert Maxwell’s attempt to merge
Oxford and Reading (football clubs). For the next starter, Daniel Rankin
recognised examples of the work of David Lynch. Baryons – didn’t Captain
Scarlet fight against them? – brought two bonuses to Queen’s, and this time I
took the lap of honour opportunity when I answered Sakharov. Now, you may very
well be familiar with the inverse square law of gamma radiation, but it is
rarely a topic of discussion around the Clark dinner table, so the picture
starter with a diagram of an experiment involved with it passed me by. Passed
both teams by as well. Still, the french poet Rimbaud, played memorably on film
by Sylvester Stallaune, brought Daniel Rankin another starter and Queen’s took
1 of the physics experiment diagrams. I got one by the expedient of answering
Boyle’s Law to each one. Jason McKillen recognised forget-me-nots in several
languages and earned nice set of bonuses on money in the novels of Charles
Dickens. They’re not devotees of his work and scored nowt. They still led by 90
– 0 on ten minutes.
Daniel Rankin just kept stacking up the starters, knowing
Zora Neale Hurston for the next. Cajun cooking brought up one bonus and I’ll be
honest, I just kept answering with gumbo too. Kyle Gilbert did what Cardiff had
to do and buzzed early for the next starter. Sadly he was just a little too
early and put his team into deficit. Given the full question that man Rankin
knew that Edinburgh is the capital and only town of Tristan da Cunha. Named
symphonies added another two correct answers to he pot. Ironically this was
followed by the music starter and it was Daniel Rankin who recognised the work
of Puccini. From tiny frozen hands to other operatic references to hands which
brought just the one bonus. For the next starter various meanings of the word
domain at last allowed Cardiff to wipe out their deficit and put some points on
the board. Work on the structure of DNA prior to its discovery saw Conor
Boyling give Hooke as an answer for the first time. It would not be the last.
The Cardiff skipper recognised an early epic written in Tamil for the next
starter. Steve McQueen’s Grenfell brought just the one bonus. Nobody knew of
the CLC force from China during World War 1. Jason McKillen worked out that the
AI in an acronym for a group of drugs must stand for anti-inflammatory. Figures
from the 20th century whose names began with Z brought a nippy full
house. This meant that the score stood at 155 – 25 at the 20 minute mark.
The second picture starter absolutely cried out John
Singer-Sargent to me, but that’s my problem and I have to live with it. Conor
Boyling cheekily tried Hooke again, and that gave Amol a laugh. I’m a bit
surprised nobody knew the late Rob Burrow for the next starter. Conor Boyling
took his third starter knowing that BL started a number of words in German
including lightning – blitzen. Three 20th century paintings of
birthday celebrations brought zippo. Fair play, the only one I could guess was
Chagall. Kyle Gilbert continued the Cardiff late, late show knowing that a
group of countries were admitted to the UN in the mid 70s. Stuff about computer
audio files again brought just a single bonus. I suppose that in chemistry we
might have guessed that the opposing qualities H and S are hard and soft. We
didn’t though. We didn’t know gneiss – gneiss to see you, to see you gneiss –
for the next either. I’m surprised nobody knew months from the Judaic calendar for
the next. Finally Henrik Holm stopped the rot, knowing various definitions for
the word gauge. Three questions on perennial UC favourite Thomas Hobbes brought
two bonuses this time. Do you remember Felix Baumgartner? Jason McKillen did.
Snooker terms saw them only pot one bonus – see what I did there? Daniel Rankin
knew the Sanskrit word Pradesh, and this earned, well, nothing really since the
gong sounded before the first bonus on video games had been asked. Queen’s had
run out comfortable winners by 180 - 70
For the record, Queen’s this time managed a BCR of 53.3
while Cardiff had 33.3. The other huge difference between the teams was the
buzzing of Daniel Rankin. Queen’s may struggle if he has an off night.
Amol Watch
I do like it when Amol mentions a team’s BCR from a
previous match as he did here, with Queen’s highly impressive BCR of 80 from their
first round match.
Maybe it was just me but Amol’s plenty of time left
encouragement to Cardiff right on the ten minute mark, while accurate, seemed
to lack conviction, as if he thought that the game looked pretty cut and dried,
which, to be fair, it did at this point. I’ll be honest, I’m not sure that his
comment when Cardiff finally did put some points on the board wasn’t said
sarcastically, but for now we’ll give him the benefit of the doubt.
Interesting Fact That I Didn’t Already Know Of
The Week
I knew that double Nobel winner Linus Pauling got the
structure of DNA wrong, but I didn’t know hat he proposed a triple helix.
Rookie mistake.
AND
As well as writing ‘Leviathan’ Hobbes also wrote ‘Behemoth’
– the other great biblical monster.
Baby Elephant Walk Moment
Far play, nothing seemed ridiculously convoluted or
impenetrable in this show.
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