The Teams
Christ’s, Cambridge
Anniko Firman
Brendan Bethlehem
Oscar Despard (Capt.)
Linus Luu
Bristol
Ted Warner
Bridie Rogers
Kevin Flanagan (Capt.)
Olivia Watts
This contest always looked as if it was going to be all
about the buzzer. Christ’s had a candidate for the top buzzer finger of the
whole series in Brendan Bethlehem. Skipper Oscar Despard is no slouch on the
buzzer either, and both Anniko Firman and Linus Luu make important contributions
with the buzzer as well. On balance, I had them slightly ahead of the very
productive Ted Warner - Kevin Flaagan axis of Bristol, although Bristol have
usually been able to count on Bridie Rogers and Olivia Watts for timely buzzes
too.
Unusually Brendan Bethlehem buzzed in early for the first
starter. That’s not unusual, but the fact that he had it wrong was. This
allowed Bridie Rogers in with the name Mary, from a clue about Mary Seacole. I’ll
be honest, I’ve never read The Anatomy of Melancholy – and doing so is not on
my to do list – so I only managed the Keats bonus. Bristol didn’t trouble the
scorer. Nothing daunted by his earlier misfire Brendan Bethlehem went early for
the next starter, with the Bronze Age Collapse. This earned bonuses on Sichuan
dishes which brought two correct answers and the lead. The splendidly complicated
term ergative-absolutist alignment from linguistics brought Brendan Bethlehem a
second consecutive starter. I took a full house on early Welsh historians while
Christ’s missed out on Nennius. The first picture starter showed a diagram of
the function of a bodily cell. Brendan Bethlehem earned his hattrick
recognising it must be a cone cell. Parts of the eye brought two bonuses. Now, it’s
been noticed on social media that here was a bit of a private contest going on
between the two captains, with both Oscar Despard and Kevin Flanagan being men
of Dublin – a wonderful city it was my great pleasure to visit last summer.
Well, first blow in this duel was struck by Kevin Flanagan, who knew the term
quantum entanglement for the next starter. Argentinian laureates in the
sciences promised me nowt and delivered it, while Bristol took two. This gave
us a scoreline of 55 – 30 just approaching 10 minutes.
Oscar Despard struck back in the Dublin Duel, recognising
works of literature with the word Ghost in the title. The Hindu Kumbh Mela
festival brought us both just the one bonus. Oscar Despard knew Bill Phillips
of the eponymous curve for the next starter which earned the extremely dubious honour
of bonuses of sociological approaches to love. Sometimes I think they just make
these categories up to see if anyone calls them on it. None of the questions
mentioned the work of Jennifer Rush, Frankie Goes to Hollywood or Huey Lewis
and the News (ask your parents) so I was out with the washing. Christ’s managed
one. Oscar Despard clinched his own hattrick by recognising references to
cymbals. Geographical Regions of South America saw Christ’s use the old quizzer’s
trick of giving the one answer they knew to each question until it was right.
So to the music round and it was classical this time. Unusually I recognised
it, a little bit of Wagner (who also starred in Hart to Hart in the 80s) while
neither team had it. I’ll be honest, when I hear ‘part of the brain’ I often
say hippocampus, and Oscar Despard took his fourth starter with the same. Christ’s
managed one of the music bonuses that followed. Brendan Bethlehem took the next
starter on Colorado. A couple of bonuses on – well, I think it might have been
maths but to be honest Amol could have read them out in Finnish and they
would have made no less sense to me –
brought a couple of correct answers. An Italian name followed by ‘film director’
meant that the film in question for the next starter had to be 81/2 and Oscar Despard
won the buzzer race for that one. Archigram? Don’t ask me, but it was the
subject for the bonuses, bringing both of us just the one with the Centre
Georges Pompidou (Pompidou being the Argentinian goalkeeper in the 1986 FIA
World Cup, I believe.) It completed a ten minute shutout for Christ’s who now
led by 155 - 30.
Brendan Bethlehem knew the Italian musical term con legno,
named after the popular Italian cartoon character Fogorno Conlegno. US
presidential elections where the candidate who wo the popular vote lost out in
the electoral college (if you know about the US electoral system then you already
know what that means and if you don’t, well, that’s what Google is for. Remember
kids, every day’s a school day.) brought us both a full house. I knew the
building in the second picture starter was associated with the Vienna Secessionists,
but neither team did. I love it that Mimas is nicknamed the Death Star. Kevin
Flanagan had that one. People associated with the Vienna Secession inevitably included
Gustav Klimt, although not Egon Schiele, which limited me to just the one
correct answer on the picture bonuses. The same went for Bristol. The Lieber
Code did nowt for any of us. That man Bethlehem knew that the first sin
depicted in Dante’s Inferno is Pride. Geographical names ending in Va brough
two correct answers to Christ’s and they
were unlucky not to quite get the first. I answered carotene to the next
starter, while the teams tried alpha carotene and beta carotene. I was right by
Amol’s ruling and so claimed my lap of honour around the sofa. Brendan
Bethlehem knew monasteries in the Meteora earning bouses on the films of Park
Chan Wook. Two correct answers fell to the Christ’s juggernaut. Finally Ted
Warner took a starter with the Bystander effect. He’s been so excellent on the
buzzer this series it would have been a real shame if he had not managed at
least one in the semi-final. There was only time for one starter on non-Newtonian
fluids. Christ’s were in the final, having won by 220 to 50.
Well, let’s be honest. With their dominance on the buzzer
Christ’s probably didn’t need a great Bonus Conversion Rate. As it was, theirs
was pretty good at 58. Poor old Bristol had relatively few bonus chances and this
means that their BCR of 30 looks a worse than it really was. It’s not fair to
hang the gold medal around Christ’s’ collective neck at this point, but it
looks as if it will take a hell of a performance to deprive them of it.
Amol Watch
Well done again, sir. A fine show that you handled with a
lightness of touch that helped make it such a enjoyable experience. Again, I
agree with the rather strict ruling on the carotene starter. Sorry, but it’s either
the right answer to the question that is actually asked, or it’s not.
Interesting Fact That I Didn’t Already Know Of
The Week
Saturn’s moon Mimas is nicknamed the Death Star because of
a large crater on it.
Baby Elephant Walk Moment
Which German mathematician, born in 1826, gives his name to
a definite integral that may be defined as the limit of the sum of the areas of
regular partitions of the area under a curve between two integrals, as the width
of these two partitions approaches zero?
Umm. . . would the answer be dum de dumdum dum dum dum dum
dumdum?
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