The Teams
Warwick
Ananya Govindarajan
Thomas Hart
Oscar Siddle (Capt)
Benjamin Watson
UCL
Calum Jack
Josh Mandel
Olivia Holtermann Entwistle (Capt)
Sanjay Prabhakar
Okay peeps, we’ve retained our seat in the last chance
saloon from last week, the difference being that now the prize is qualification
for the semi finals. For the losers, well it’s still on yer bike I’m afraid.
Benjamin Watson knew two video games with the word Valley
in the title to take the first starter. The Vitra Furniture company is a new
one on me, so is its Well am Rhein campus. So I was pretty pleased to get two
of the architecture bonuses about it. Warwick managed a full house. Now, the
Rebecca Riots have been a staple of the secondary school History syllabus
probably since the 19th century, so I knew the next starter. Thomas Hart took
his first starter with this one. It would not be his last. A beautiful UC
special set on years of multiple Roman Emperors provided us both with a full
house. A ridiculously long starter followed. I hardly understood a word, but
Scientist and Saturn was enough to give me Cassini and it worked for Josh
Mandel too. Maud ‘Who’ Menten brought me a lap of honour for guessing enzymes
for the first bonus. This was the only one UCL managed too although they were a
lot closer with the others than I was. For the picture starter we had a
quotation from an Ancient Greek Philosopher in Ancient Greek. Sanjay Prabhakar
identified the work of Aristotle (Aristotle, Aristotle was a bugger for the
bottle). More of the same followed and by the expedient of answering Socrates
to every bonus I took one of them. That was the only one that UCL didn’t get.
More philosophy followed with the next starter, where Thomas Hart identified references
to Edmund Husserl. No, me neither. A nice set on locations in Wales beginning
with Aber brought two bonuses. Did you know that the welsh name for Milford
Haven – Aberdaugleddau – means – at the mouth of the two (river) Cleddaus? I
think. This meant that Warwick led by 70-30 on 10 minutes.
Sanjay Prabhakar knew the play Hippolytus. Nuffin’ light
about a hippo mate - said I to no one in particular. (I have a strict quota of Dad
jokes to fulfil each day). Good old Ted Hughes followed. I am afraid I can
never hear the name Ted Hughes without thinking of a couple of English students
at Goldies the same time I was who would chant ‘The Wife Murderer!’ every time
his name was mentioned in lectures or seminars. We both took a full house on
this set. Calum Jack knew the Japanese term ronin (Keating? Kemp? The Accuser?)
for the next starter. People with the given name Louise brought the one bonus
that they needed to level the scores. Thomas Hart knew Extracellular Matrix –
which may have been a rejected title for one of the later films, to earn bonuses
on fractionation. I won’t pretend that I understood any of them but I guessed G
stood for gravity. Which gave me one more bonus than Warwick got. The music
starter saw Thomas Hart recognise the work of Mussorgsky from his well-known
opera about a pub landlady, Doris Godunov. More operas where the composers
wrote their own librettos brought two bonuses and took Warwick into triple
figures. Thomas Hart was on a roll and Amol had hardly mentioned Rubens before
he gave the correct answer of Marie de Medici. National flags containing a
common element – a phrygian cap – (an ancient form of birth control?) were a
rather lovely set and they brought Warwick a full house. Calum Jack, doing a
sterling job for his team, knew Korean culinary speciality Gochujang for the
next starter. The Italian Cinecitta film studios brought two bonuses. Benjamin
Watson worked out that the African Lake asked for in the next starter must be
Lake Chad. The 9 completed symphonies of Gustav Mahler brought two bonuses and
meant that Warwick led by 145 – 90 at the 20 minute mark. Game over? No, but it
only seemed to be going in one direction.
NMR, I thought, was a music paper from the 80s, but apparently
had something to do with nuclear magnetic resonance. That man Hart had that. Sporting
venues ending with Road served to slow the Warwick onslaught as they left the
table empty handed. Only for a moment as Oscar Siddle recognised the work of
Caillebotte in the second picture starter. Works by other contemporaries gifted
by him to the nation brought them two correct answers. Neither team knew poet Elizabeth
Bishop for the next starter. Benjamin Wason knew Paul Krugman – who went on to
play Quincy on TV, surely – and earned bonuses on ring theory in Maths.
Polymath Thomas Hart ensured a full house. Me? Don’t be ridiculous. With the
lead at more than 100 Calum Jack got UCL back into the game with the word pile.
The philosophy of Immanuel Kant (was a real pissant) brought a full house.
Nobody knew that Eugene Parker was the first living person to have a spacecraft
named after them. Thomas Hart knew that the US state with the motto about being
a pleasant peninsula was Michigan. I’d have been wrong with Florida, like Josh
Mendel was. Hussein bin Ali al-Hashimi, Sharif of Mecca, brought a single
bonus, but it was looking immaterial to the result of the match. Josh Mandel
and I worked out that the Chinese dynasty referred to in the next starter had
to be the Ming. Writers published by Virago brought UCL just the one bonus.
Thomas Hart took his last of 8 starters knowing figures from British history
featured in operas by Donizetti. The rather tenuous terms in Science sharing
their last three letters with the last letters of names of South American
Capitals allowed no time to add more points. Warwick won by 220 – 125.
For the record, Warwick, with Thomas Hart in such inspiring
form comprehensively outbuzzed UCL, while their BCR of 63 was slightly better
than UCL’s 62.
Amol Watch
Credit where it’s due. Amol put on a pretty flawless
performance in this match. Loving your work, sir.
Interesting Fact That I Didn’t Already Know Of
The Week
Kenilworth Road is the smallest ground in Premier League
History.
Baby Elephant Walk Moment
Born in the Republic of Genoa in 1625 which astronomer
gives his name to a family of quartic curves described by a point such that the
product of its distance from two fixed points positioned 2A apart is a constant
B squared, which take the shape of a single oval or dog bone when A is less
than B, a lemniscate when A is equal to B, and a pair of unlinked ovals when A
is greater than B? He also gives his name to a dark region on Saturn’s moon
Iapetus and the gaps between Saturn’s A and –
Honestly! Forget all the other gobbledygook – all you
needed in this question was Italian scientist and Saturn! Dum de dumdum dum dum
dum dum dumdum.
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