Monday, 15 December 2025

University Challenge 2026 Round Two - Bristol v. Warwick

The Teams

Bristol

Lewis Jenkins

Lois Connolly

Hugo Goodwill (Capt)

Nathaniel Joyce

Warwick

Josh Howarth

Antoni Kluzowski

Chris Levesley (Capt)

Lucy Dennett

First starter – ceramic – pig, has to be porcelain.Hugo Goodwill swooped in early for the first starter. Trees in poems brought two correct answers. Fair play to Lewis Jenkins who worked out that the PM who died after a brief tenure in 1827 was George Canning. Works by Sejima and Nishizawa and Associates brought one bonus. The next starter certainly seemed to be pointing towards Ants and it was Lucy Dennett who plucked that piece of low hanging fruit. Video games where you play as a non-anthropomorphic animal yielded Warwick a full house in quick time. Lewis Jenkins struck first on the picture starter, very quickly recognizing the flag of Bermuda.More flags featuring ships or boats brought a really rather impressive full house in equally quick time. Neither team were that quick to recognize characters from Jude the Obscure, but Nathaniel Joyce gave the correct answer. 2 bonuses on Don Giovanni were not a bad return. Antoni Kluzowski knew that Ken Loach directed Kathy Come Home and this earned a set of bonuses on prime numbers. Brought a brace for Warwick and a lap of honour to me for knowing Euclid’s Elements. The score on ten minutes was 80-45 in Bristol’s favour

Lewis Jenkins took the next starter, knowing that Guttland is in Luxembourg. Very gutt. Bonuses on noodles used in Japanese cuisine brought two correct answers. For the next starter both teams were in the right ball park for an indigenous people but neither got the Maori quite. Chris Levesley knew the climatology geezer Koppen for the next starter. 2 bonuses on Black Mountain College followed. For the music starter nobody recognized the work of Grieg. Josh Howarth knew Englebert DOlfuss was the assassinated chancellor of Austria. The music bonuses brought one correct answer on pieces by Russian composers inspired by the music of the East. Still, at least Warwick seemed to have shaken off their torpor and rubbed the sleep out of their eyes. Antoni Kluzowski picked up references to a cradle for the next starter. 1 bonus on the crown of thorns and the lead had shrunk to 5 points. You didn’t have to know anything about pre Columbian Americas to know Las Vegas means the Meadows, you just had to wait until the next starter actually asked it. So Warwick who jumped first lost 5 and Lewis Jenkins gave the right answer.Elements used in control rods in nuclear reactors yielded two. Ironically Lewis Jenkins came in too early for the next starter and lost five, while it soon became obvious that the answer would be Versailles, as supplied by Lucy Dennett.1 correct answer on the Australian NRL meant that Bristol led 110 – 100 at the 20 minute mark. Good match.

None of our teams recognized a still from The Graduate for the second picture starter. A lengthy question about , well, I’m not really sure led Chris Levesley to level the scores with St. Petersburg. 1 bonus on stills from other films released in 1967 gave Warwick a slender lead. Nobody knew John Wesley for the next rather soporific starter. Chris Levesley took the next starter identifying potassium. A ballet on the life of Virginia Woolf – bet that was a barrel of laughs – brought two bonuses. Bristol weren’t finished yet and Lois Connolly came in early with the term wattle and daub – change the t’s to f’s and you have my teaching style in a nutshell. A full set on novels whose titles contain numbers narrowed the gap to 5 again. Antoni Kluzowski recognized the ending of Troilus and Cressida for the next starter. Two bonuses meant that Bristol would need a full house to draw level. They didn’t get it. Chris Levesley knew that the Makassar Strait separates Sulawesi and Borneo. Monarchs and universities brought a vital bonus. Lewis Jenkins recognized two Belarussians for the next starter. A bonus meant that they could not take the lead with a full house. It didn’t matter anyway, for Chris Levesley took the next starter on the moon Titania. Chalk hill figures brought them nowt, but it was too late for Bristol now. The gong sounded and Warwick had won by 180 – 145.

Bristol achieved a BCR of 66.5% while Warwick’s was 51.5%. The sheer weight of their buzzing brought the win.

Amol Watch

I do sometimes wish Amol wouldn’t be quite so indignant when a team misses out on something he knows. Yeah, alright, it DID sound like anley-Hopkins, Amol, but he isn’t top of everyone’s pops.

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

Plenty I didn’t know, but nothing particularly blew my socks off.

Baby Elephant Walk Moment

American theologian Albert Outler developed a so-called quadrilateral named for which British Religious figure? Its four divisions of scripture,tradition, reason and experience are said to reflect the principles of this man’s thought as expressed in hissermons, which heavily influenced early Methodist preachers. Dum de dumdum dum dum dum dum dumdum. Amen.

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