The Teams
Darwin, Cambridge
Rebeca McClelland
Sophie Willis
Harrison Whittaker (Capt)
Rowan Stewart
Warwick
Ananya Govindarajan
Thomas Hart
Oscar Siddle
Benjamin Watson
Well, last night was second semi-final time peeps.
Undefeated Darwin faced Warwick, whose only loss prior to this was to last
week’s winning semi finalists, Christ’s College Cambridge. Was that a clue to
the result? Not necessarily, for Darwin had never yet faced Christ’s themselves
in this series. Yet.
I’ve mentioned before Thomas Hart’s dramatically raised
elbow during the starters, but his skipper Oscar Siddle was doing it as well
for the first starter. It didn’t help either for it was Harrison Whitaker who
recognised clues to various Rachels and won the buzzer race. The abhorrent
transatlantic slave trade provided three near misses but no points. Mr.
Whitaker beat the combined elbows again with the next starter to identify a
description of Honduras. Alcoholic drinks in Chinese sounded an interesting set
and were actually easier than you might have thought. Full house to Darwin.
Nobody took the next starter on obese serial wife killer and all-round git,
Henry VIII. Warwick took their first starter on the next question, but it was Ananya Govindarajan
whose own buzzer work proved less showy but more effective, when delivering the
answer Kirchoff. Gesundheit. Ancient Greek Grammar proved to be all Greek to
me, but Warwick did manage one. Now, when I’m asked for a French philosopher’s
name I do sometimes say Derrida if I don’t think it’s Sartre or Descartes. I
did this with the picture starter which showed a quotation against a background
of the tricouleur. So did Benjamin Watson and we were both right. More French
thinkers associated with post structuralism (who has time to spend thinking
about the structure of a post these days?) brought one bonus. You had to wait
and wait for the next starter to become obvious, then when RIBA was mentioned
Benjamin Watson won the buzzer race to give the answer architecture. Eponymous
gas laws yielded nowt so Warwick led by 40 – 35 at just after the 10 minute
mark.
Rowan Stewart came in too early for the next starter.
Pacific island nation with lots of languages seemed certainly to point to PNG,
but the mention of New Hebrides in the rest of the question allowed Oscar
Siddle to get off the mark with Vanuatu. Textile art brought Warwick a full
house. Having found his range the Warwick captain took a second consecutive
starter with perennial crowd pleaser Elizabeth of Bohemia. Medieval Welsh
poetry saw Warwick take a second consecutive full house. You and I both know
that I know nowt about chemistry. Personally, I thought that pyruvate was the
name of the monsters who were responsible for the destruction of Pompeii in
Doctor Who but it was the correct answer to the next starter for Sophie Willis,
who raised her arms skywards in joy at halting the Warwick onslaught. Books of
the Hebrew Bible, the Five Megillot, brought a timely full house. For the music
starter we heard the song ‘Ain’t Misbehavin’” but neither team associated this
with Fats Waller. Rowan Stewart knew Dim Sum for the next starter. I’m pretty
dim at sums myself. A full house of music bonuses narrowed the gap to 10 points.
It was halved when Thomas Hart came in too early for the next starter but
Darwin could not capitalize with La Sylphide. Oscar Siddle struck back knowing
the Kariba Dam is on the Zambezi. Eponymous results in Group Theory – yeah, I know
– brought two correct answers. Again Darwin struck back as the magnificent Mr.
Whitaker gave the given name Charlotte for the next starter. A full house meant
that the scores were level just on the cusp of 20 minutes. What a good contest.
Finally Thomas Hart managed a starter. By his very high
standards last night gave him famine rations, and even now when he gave the
correct answer of bitumen he thought it was wrong. German cities originally
styled as Hanseatic brought two correct answers for a twenty point lead. Back
came Harrison Whitaker with the term public sphere. Two bonuses on Anna Swir
levelled the scores again. For the picture starter nobody could recognise a
little bit of Fragonard. Now, if you’re asked in any way for a flower, give it
a shot with rose. Harrison Whitaker did to take the lead. Other artworks
featuring Cupid and Psyche brought just the one bonus. You felt at this stage
that if either team could get 30 points ahead then the game would be over. Oscar
Siddle took back 10 points of he lead with the next starter on pain receptors.
Sciencey stuff represented by the letter Q gave Warwick a five point lead.
Planck length – the answer to the next starter - suggests too many puns, but
nobody had it. Likewise thick description – no, I’m not making this up. Again
Harrison Whitaker won a buzzer race, this time to identify Gerard Manley
Hopkins as the poet who wrote the Wreck of the Deutschland. Glory be to God for
dappled things. Collaborations between Kurasawa and Toshiro Mifune brought two
bonuses and a lead of fifteen.Thomas Hart knew that bamboo is a type of grass. I
took a lap of honour for knowing the Henry is the SI unit of Inductance.
Warwick took the lead by five. Thomas Hart had found his rage now and knew that
the PM the Marquess of Salisbury had the given name Robert. That was the game.
Yeah, Warwick had time for one bonus on European Geography but it all came down
to that starter.
For the record Darwin achieved a BCR of 71 to Warwick’s 61,
so it was Warwick’s buzzing which gave them just the slight advantage needed
for the win. It was a wonderful match, and kudos to both teams.
Amol Watch
I love it when a question master is visibly gripped by the
drama unfolding and such a man last night was Amol. The way he kept reminding
us when the scores were level showed he was as invested in the outcome as we
were.
Interesting Fact That I Didn’t Already Know Of
The Week
Vanuatu has the highest linguistic density in the world
Baby Elephant Walk Moment
Named after a French scientist who made the first ascent in
a hydrogen balloon, which law states that the volume occupied by a fixed quantity
of gas is directly proportional to its absolute temperature, assuming that the
pressure remains constant. Je pense que ca serait dum dedumdum dum dum dum dum
dumdum.
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