University Challenge Quarter Fial Match - UCL v. Darwin, Cambridge

The Teams

UCL

Calum Jack

Josh Mandel

Olivia Holtermann Entwhistle (Capt.)

Sanjay Prabhakar

Darwin, Cambridge

Rebecca McClelland

Sophie Willis

Harrison Whitaker (Capt.)

Rowan Stewart

UCL have had an interesting series so far. Beaten in round one by the Open University, they won both repechage and round two matches by outbuzzing their opponents and a good BCR of over 60. Darwin never quite reached those BCR heights in their first two matches. However their buzzing – I think of Harrison Whitaker’s Hall of Fame performance of 11 starters correctly answered in their first round match – meant that I would have been foolish to make them underdogs.

Harrison Whitaker began as he meant to go on with a strong early buzz for the first starter. He didn’t mean it to be wrong, though, which his answer was. UCL couldn’t dredge up the term camp though and failed to capitalise. Sophie Willis took the first points of the match when she looked straight at Amol and said “Koch.” Bit harsh, that, I thought before I realised it was a name. Three questions on early calculating devices brought two correct answers from Darwin and a full house from me. Naw, I let the opportunity for a lap of honour around the old Clark sofa ride for a bit. Okay – poet – playwright – translator – Nobel were enough to put me onto Seamus Heaney even before Death of A Naturalist was mentioned. Josh Mandel chanced his arm with Derek Walcott putting his team into the red. This allowed Harrison Whitaker to open his account, earning his team bonuses on married couples who are both noted artists. They took another two correct answers. Josh Mandel knew the Eames design team. I had one of my finest moments in one of their soft pad chairs, but I digress. Emperor Puyi brought just the one bonus. Oh, the picture starter that followed was a sneaky little sod. We saw a latin quote from the Bible, and schoolboy latin told me it said “In the beginning was the Word” etc. Which book? Genesis – said I. Genesis said Sanjay Prabhakar. No, said Amol. It was actually St. John’s Gospel. Nobody had it. Josh Mandel earned the latin biblical verse bonuses for knowing that Roraima is in Brazil, where the nuts come from. We both took a full house on that. This meant that the scores were level as we were just a little shy of the 10 minute mark.

Harrison Whitaker buzzed early for Nash equilibrium in game theory. Well, I mean he would, wouldn’t he? Recent winners of the Golden Lion in the Venice film festival were meat and drink to the Darwin skipper, a PhD film student and he took a full house. He also knew that the Emperor Clavdivs ( look, if you get it, you get it, if you don’t, meh , you ain’t missing much) wrote about the Etruscans. Bit of a gamble, mind you since he also wrote about the Carthaginians. Still, fortune does favour the brave.I’m sorry, but the words Swedish Pharmaceutical Chemist immediately brought to mind a vision of a florid man in a lab coat with a huge russet moustache juggling test tubes while warbling ‘Hurdy, gurdy gurd. . . “ The Muppet Show has a lot to answer for. The chemist in question brought two correct answers to Darwin, but an unexpected full house to me and this time I took the lap of honour. Rowan Stewart knew all about asking American salespeople to say fourth floor. (I guess you had to be there.) Top 10 restaurants of 2023 did not include Margam Fish Bar, surprisingly, but brought another wo correct answers to Darwin. The starter which followed on Kubrick’s The Shining was all too easy for the speedy Mr. Whitaker who knew that Kubrick’s casting of twin sisters was inspired by a Diane Arbus photo. Turkic languages saw Darwin take a quick full house. The music starter welcomed us all to jazz club – niiicccce. None of us entered. Nobody recognised the work of Miles Davis. 20^th Century popular America astronomer screamed Carl Sagan to me, and to Sophie Willis too. This earned Darwin a forced reentry to Jazz club, and they took one bonus. Finally, after a 6 minute shut out Sanjay Prabhakar managed to elbow his way past Darwin to correctly answer that Belshazzar’s Feast features in the Book of Daniel. A very tricky Shakespeare set yielded one bonus. Harrison Whitaker knew an essay by Ngugi Wa Thiong’o for the next starter. Fauna of Madagascar contributed just the one bonus. Sophie Willis, who was proving to be a good support for her skipper on the buzzer in this contest took another starter about pairs of cranial nerves and ribs. I prefer mine with barbecue sauce and tend to leave the cranial nerves on the side of the plate. Philip Glass’ opera Akhenaten brought 2 bonuses. Sidgwick’s book on Ethics – the Only Way is Ethics I think it was called -  continued the Harrison Whitaker buzzer onslaught. The French philosopher Althusser brought a full house. So just after the 20 minute mark Darwin led with 200, while UCL were all but out of it with 50.

The picture starter fell into Harrison Whitaker’s lap with a photo of Orson Wells and Rita Hayworth. More pairs of film directors and actresses to whom they were married really surprised me in as much as they didn’t recognise Ingrid Bergman for the first, while they rejected Roger Vadim because he was married to Jane Fonda. Well, some you win. Darwin certainly looked very like winners now. Josh Mandel knew that Macaulay wrote the Lays of Ancient Rome – presumably after the first two Home Alone films when work got a bit slack. The EUs Access Cities Award brought a couple of much needed bonuses. SATB? Don’t ask me but Josh Mandel knew it. Genetic mutations – ello, thought I , internal orchestra on standby, -brought, I think, 1 correct answer. Sanjay Prabhakar knew the term blast or blasto which brought up bonuses on duty and expediency. These gave UCL what I think was their first full house of the night. Harrison Whitaker took the next knowing Orlam by PJ Harvey – who surely was also the writer of An Inspector Calls, or as it was once called in a memorable review, Anne In Spectacles. SEATO brought nowt, but it was all immaterial by this stage. Josh Mandel knew of Goose Green in the Falkland Islands for the next starter. Classical poetic verse forms yielded nowt before the gong. Darwin, frankly looked good value for their win by 225 to UCL’s 120.

I think that this was Darwin’s best performance by some distance. They comprehensively outbuzzed UCL and ended with a BCR of 61, their highest yet. As for UCL, well, they achieved a BCR of 55. They’ve come back before, so we’re not writing them off just yet.

Amol Watch

Nothing to see here. Go on with your lives, citizens

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

The geographical term septentrional simply means North

Baby Elephant Walk Moment

What term describes mutations where a number of nucleotides that ae not a multiple of three are either added or deleted from a protein-coding gene? The resulting mutation leads to the synthesis of a completely different protein product. Dum de dumdum dum dum dum dum dumdum.