University Challenge Round One - Trinity Hall, Cambridge v. London School of Economics

The Teams

Trinity Hall, Cambridge

Taymour Taj

Jake Bransgrove

Jeffrey Opreij (Capt)

Shannon Gilbert

LSE

Ryan Sharpe

Cormac Beirne

Andy Huff (Capt)

Catherine Tan

Right, let’s crack on.

Let’s go. The moment the first starter began with ‘whch figure, from an early film by Derek Jarman-“ I said St. Sebastian. And no, I haven’t seen the film. My latin was never that good. Shannon Gilbert came in early too. This earned a set for Trinity Hall on novels with single letter titles which yielded them a full house. Andy Huff knew that the Non Aligned Movement met for the first time in Belgrade. The Mayor Paris also yielded a full house and it looked as if we might be set for a high quality contest. Trinity dropped five on the next starter. Had they waited, it became flipping obvious in the last phrase and was snapped up by Andy Huff. Japanese History brought them a couple. Ryan Sharpe took the picture starter, identifying a French definition of coup d’etat. More definitions of loan words in the language from which they were borrowed brought another couple of correct answers. Shannon Gilbert was in very quickly for a Keats sonnet, and this earned Trinity Hall a set of bonuses on insects, of which they too took a couple. Neither team could take the ext starter, with a description of the Arnolfini wedding. So at just coming up to 10 minutes LSA led 60 – 45.

Taj Taymour was in extremely swiftly to take the next starter on Haitian cuisine. Economic anthropology sounded obscure, but while they might well have had the Affluent Society Trinity Hall failed to score on the set. Jake Bransgrove recognised a quote referring to Hitchcock’s Rear Window. The plays of Tom Stoppard brought 1 bonus and the lead. Gawd alone knows what the next starter was about but Taj Taymour answered proteins and that was good enough for me. It was good enough for Amol too. Concepts in physics usually represented by an uppercase H brought two points to Trinity Hall and a lap of honour for me for knowing the Henry. The music starter gave us a Stravinsky opera. We soon gave it back as none of us had a Scooby. This seemed to grind Trinity Hall’s purple patch to a halt. They lost five for the next starter. Had they waited the clue about the Portuguese revolution might well have given them carnation. Andy Huff gratefully accepted it. More pieces of music inspired by the works of Hans Christian Anderson did nowt for LSE. Ryan Sharpe impressed with his knowledge of Italian regions to take the next starter. We both took a full house on ancient Roman writers. The ever popular Frantz Fanon provided Jake Bransgrove with another starter. Sculptor Elisabeth Ney – known as ‘ney ney ney Mr. Wilkes’ to her mates if memory serves me correctly – promised but little, yet the set about her proved surprisingly gentle and yielded two to TH. Cormac Beirne won the buzzer race for the next starter to identify Abraham and Isaac. Dravidian languages brought LSA two bonuses. As we closed in on 20 minutes, LSE held a narrow lead of 115 to 95. It looked as if either team might at least get a repechage score.

Right, many years ago I heard the phrase golgi apparatus on UC and asked what it was. I’ll be honest, I wasn’t really much wiser after I was told. But the word organelle stuck, and flippin ‘eck, I was so bowled over to get the next starter right that for the first time ever I took a second lap of honour. Andy Huff shared in the glory over that one. Halogens gave LSE a full house. Nobody had Joshua Reynolds as the painter of the picture in the second picture starter. Not to worry. Ryan Sharpe knew that Edward VII’s son in law was invited in 1905 to become King of Norway. Nepotism! Painting bonuses on paintings of actors brought a single bonus, but LSE looked close to breaking the elastic binding them together with Trinity Hall. Mind you the tension was slackened a little when they lost five on the next starter. Taymour Taj took full advantage and correctly named Kepler. A rather lovely UC special set on capital cities and textiles yielded a full house. The game certainly wasn’t over yet. Catherine Tan knew that Puccini’s last opera was Turandot. Nigeria and its neighbours gave a full house to LSE. Nobody knew that the last Islamic kingdom in Iberia was that of Granada. A rush of blood to the head saw Andy Huff drop five by coming in far too early on the next starter allowing the excellent Taymour Taj in with Seder. Scientific terms derived from latin brought two bonuses, edging TH towards a repechage score. Nobody took the next starter but LSE lost five. Reliable Ryan Sharpe won the next starter recognising references to Borneo – in the wilds of which one is invited to hit me with your rhythm stick. US TV series premiering in 1999 brought a couple of bonuses. To have a chance TH really needed to get the next starter. They didn’t get it. Andy Huff put the nail in their coffin with , oh, something mathematical. UK geographical extreme bonuses took them through the 200 barrier. They went firther ahead when Cormac Beirne gave the name of Whistler for another starter. That was that. LSE won by 215 to 135.

Trinity Hall returned a BCR of 62% while the LSE managed 74%. That tells its own story but up to 20 minutes it was a close, quality contest.

Amol Watch

That’s a painful miss, opined Amol when LSE zigged with Gainsborough when then shoulda zagged with Reynolds. Yeah, know what you mean.

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

The only region of Italy with neither a coastline nor a border with another country is Umbria

Baby Elephant Walk Moment

The projective transformations which leave an N-dimensional hypersphere invariant form a group named after which German mathematician? He also gives his name to a function in number theory that is defined as the sum of the primitive Nth roots of unity, as well as (buzz) as well as the simplest non-orientable surface, a so-called strip with only one side. (bloody hell! Not having understood most of the words of the questions I knew it at this point!) Still dum de dumdum dum dum dum dum dumdum.

Sheffield	170
SOAS	170
New College Oxford	150
Lancaster	145
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Trinity Hall, Cambridge	135
Grenn-Templeton, Oxford	130
Cardiff	115
Linacre, Oxford	115
Newcastle	105
Bath	70