University Challenge 2026 First Round Trinity, Cambridge v. Linacre, Oxford

Trinity, Cambridge v. Linacre, Oxford

The Teams

Trinity

Piers Marchant

Alessandro D’Attenasio

Yusuf Khand (capt)

Lilly Kearney

Linacre, Oxford

Owen Finlay

Louise Vincent

Charlie Hamilton (capt)

Sean Telford

I’ll be honest, I was not previously familiar with Linacre College, but it’s nice to see Gary spending his BBC millions on giving something back, even if he did spell his name incorrectly. Yes, I know, the college was really named after Thomas Linacre, founder of the Royal College of Physicians. Good bloke but a terrible centre forward.

Various people called Riley won Piers Marchant the first starter. The V and A brought two bonuses. The next starter asked for an anti hero and gave a number of Spanish authors who had written about him. As soon as it mentioned Byron, Lilly Kearney was in with the correct answer Don Juan. Films not in the English Language that have been nominated for Best Picture Oscar brought another two correct answers. Piers Marchant recognized tracks by the Stone Roses for the next starter and Saarinen designed airports brought Trinity a full house. It was interesting to see that I have flown in and out of two of them. So to the picture starter. We were shown the logo of a national navy, and being as it bore an Ethiopian flag, then it was not that difficult to identify. The Amharic inscription helped too. The swift fingered Piers Marchant took that one. Naval ensigns of three more landlocked countries with navies brought Trinity another full house in short order. Nobody knew that the Valles Marineris is on Mars – clue was in the question there, I would have thought. With Linacre losing five again for an incorrect buzz the gap between the teams stood at 100. A gap which increased when Alessandro D’Attenasio recognized clues to the concept of Total Football. Synthetic diamond production brought another full house, which meant that bang on the 10 minute mark Trinity had 115 while Linacre were reeling on the ropes with – 10.

Owen Finlay responded to encouragement from Amol by taking the next starter on the cover of The Great Gatsby. This meant that Linacre were no longer on a minus total. Two bonuses on William Empson added ten points to take Linacre into the black. Nobody took a soporific starter on interferons – who were Captain Scarlet and Spectrum’s enemies surely. Louise Vincent recognized the location of a series of landmarks as Bordeaux. The Berggruen Prize for philosophy and culture did not, I will admit, mean a great deal to me, and yielded nowt to Linacre, at a time they could have really done with some more points. The next starter on various Logans sparked a buzzer race pretty much from the off and it was won by Piers Marchant. Scientific discoveries inspired by British hills and mountains immediately made me think cloud chamber – and when it was one of the answers I set off on my lap of honour around the Clark sofa. Trinity didn’t have that one but they did have one of the others that I didn’t. For the music starter Piers Marchant was in incredibly quickly with the Tom Tom Club. Artists who have sampled the afore mentioned Club’s Genius of Love brought two correct answers for Trinity. The next starter brought more for Trinity too as skipper Yusuf Khand knew that the answer to the next starter was Cameroon. Only one bonus followed on German cities and rivers, but it was going to take a hell of a shift in the teams’ relative fortunes to stop them. Well, Sean Telford did take the next starter for Linacre with Indium and Tin, a lesser known Music Hall comedy duo best remembered for their rather rude song, ‘If you buy my ticket you can take me up the Arsenal’. Modern composers brought two correct answers. I was rather surprised that neither team took some fairly strong clues to the beverage coffee for the next starter. Still, as we approached 20 minutes it meant that the score stood at 165 – 40 in Trinity’s favour.

Unusually Piers Marchant gave the wrong answer and lost his team 5, allowing Louise Vincent to identify Mozambique from the clues for the next starter. Smaller countries of Central America between Mexico and Costa Rica brought us both just the one bonus, but at least Linacre were getting just a little bit of momentum. For the 2^nd picture starter nobody identified the work of Miro. The Linacre revival continued when Owen Finlay recognized Kenneth Anger’s Hollywood Babylon. This earned the picture bonuses and more depictions of jesters or harlequins. Linacre took two of these. Charlie Hamilton was the first to get a series of clues leading to the word community for the next starter. This earned a set on – sorry about this – organic chemistry and two bonuses meant that suddenly Linacre were only a starter away from a triple figure score. Now, answer me this. Where the hell did I get ribozymes for the next starter? Neither team had it. I must have heard it in an old edition of UC and retained it subconsciously. OK – so you’ve got pope, Raphael and Michelangelo. Obviously Julius II. Yusuf Khand won the buzzer race and Linacre were halted in their tracks, at least temporarily. Recent stage productions where single actors played multiple parts brought Trinity multiple points with a full house. Piers Marchant was back on the buzzer and the first to recognize a series of prime ministers of Jamaica. Population genetics looked like particularly stony ground to me and none of us knew any of this set of bonuses. For the next starter Sean Telford knew that if it’s a country with Cantons its probably Switzerland. Which brought Linacre to triple figures. A full set on Dante brought a further 15 points. Nobody knew various types of motion in astronomy for the next starter. Poor Owen Finlay came in too early for the next and thus allowed Piers Marchant in for his 7^th correct starter with Nova Scotia. 2 bonuses on Australia were all there was time for. At the gong Trinity had won by 210 – 115.

For most of the night Trinity did look the better team and deservedly won. For the record, Trinity achieved a BCR of 67% while Linacre achieved 57%.

Amol Watch

It was at 10:02 that Amol encouraged Linacre with ‘take your time Linacre. Let’s see if you can get going.’ Well, sometimes you have to acknowledge the elephant in the room. At this stage Linacre desperately needed to sling buzzer and they were rapidly approaching ‘might as well be hung for a sheep as a lamb’ territory. I was mildly interested to hear Amol mention that Mark Morrison’s Return of the Mack was the anthem of his childhood. Really? I suppose it’s better than Mr. Blobby.

Interesting Fact That I Didn’t Already Know of the Week

You know that painting used on the original cover of the Great Gatsby? It’s entitled Celestial Eyes. Incidentally this was the favourite novel of someone who was very dear to me, but personally I didn’t think that much of it.

Baby Elephant Walk Moment

Discovered and named by Alick Isaacs and Jean Lindemann, what group of cytokines is divided into three types based on the receptors they interact with? Their expression is highly upregulated in response to viral infection and their name derives from their ability to block viral replication.- I’m going for dum de dumdum dum dum dum dum dumdum.

Repechage Table

Sheffield	170
SOAS	170
New College Oxford	150
Cardiff	115
Linacre, Oxford	115
-----------------------------------------	------
Newcastle	105
Bath	70

I’ll be honest, I don’t know how they would decide between Cardiff and Linacre, but then I doubt that 115 will be enough anyway.