The Teams
Manchester
Ray Power
Kirsty Dickson
Kai Madgwick (Capt)
Rob Faulkner
Edinburgh
Parthav Easwar
Johnny Richards
Alicia Leonard (Capt)
Rayhana Amjad
Rayhana Amjad set the tone for the contest with a fast buzz
to identify that various theories were all connected with Truth. Beauty is
truth, truth beauty. That is all ye know on Earth. Well, that might be all
Keats knew, but to be fair he did die very young. Funnily enough Keats featured
in two of the bonuses on Coleridge that followed, of which Edinburgh managed 1.
Johnny Richards recognised allusions to Jean Cocteau for the next starter. 2
bonuses were taken on the First International. A starter on human neurones
brought my baby elephant walk moment but not a lot else as nobody had all or
nothing. Maybe they should have mentioned the Small Faces. Rayhana Amjad won
the buzzer race to identify Polari for the Polari Award. Fantasy literature and
the Fallout series of video games brought one more bonus. The Edinburgh surge
continued when Johnny Richards identified the Royal Academy in the next
starter.French philosopher Nicholas ‘Qui?’ Malebranche brought a brace of
bonuses. So to the picture starter. We’ve had something very similar to this a
few years ago, as Kai Madgwick opened his team’s account by identifying the
flag of the British East India Company. Flags of other colonial or neo colonial
companies brought a full house of bonuses. So as we approached the 10 minute
mark, despite having answered all bar one of the starters Edinburgh only led by
70 – 25.
As did I, Rayhana Amjad leapt into action when the name
Robert Jordan was mentioned in the next starter and answered The Wheel of Time.
Doubly eponymous experiments in Science saw me earn a lap of honour by the
simple expedient of answering Michelson-Morley to all three until it was right.
Edinburgh had that one as well. I’ll be honest, as soon as I heard a culinary
word taken from Malay I said ketchup, pretty much at the same time that Johnny
Richards did too. Shakespeare’s Henry VIII yielded just the one bonus. Now, I’m
sorry, but if you’re going to use the word nucleotide in a starter, I ain’t going
to be answering it. Whatever it was on about Johnny Richards had it with Methionine.
Gesundheit. Fabrics named after cities and towns brought one bonus. Amol encouraged
Manchester at this point but all it served to do was to make Kai Madgwick gamble
and lose five on Hector’s wife. (Not Kiki the Cat or Zaza the Frog. Ask your
grandparents.) Nobody knew this was Andromache.A wonderful quote about Indians
being cursed with anthropologists remained untouched on the table. Johnny
Richards knew about a world heritage site in Turin for the next starter. The
Irish Defence Forces brought just one bonus, but what the hell. Edinburgh’s
dominance on the buzzer at this stage of the contest meant this was like
shooting fish in a barrel. At last Kai Madgwick’s theatrical buzzing style bore
fruit as he buzzed very early recognising the work of Shostakovitch for the
music starter. 3 pieces of jazz brought one bonus. Nobody knew Robert K. Merton
for the next starter, but I used to enjoy his wife’s chat show on telly. Kai
Madgwick knew Simpson’s Rule for the next starter. D’oh! Otto Preminger brought
one bonus.But Kai Madgwick had found his range and took his third consecutive
starter with American Prairie style. Mary-Anthony Turnage brought one bonus.
This meant that Edinburgh led by 135 – 65 at 20 minutes.
Nobody knew about a painting by Veronese for the next
starter. Right, a small digression. Dr. Andrea Clough, one of my lecturers at
Uni, once told us, when encountering a reference to Jonah in a medieval work of
literature – you think you know the story of Jonah but you don’t. Read the
whole Book then come back to me. She was right, but that’s the reason I knew
all about the gourd for the next starter. So did Rayhana Amjad. He wasn’t born
when I was at Uni, so fair play to him for knowing it. Women depicted in
paintings by Waterhouse saw Edinburgh take a rare full house. For the second
picture starter Johnny Richards won the buzzer race to identify a famous statue
of Laocoon and his sons. Other works of art in which this famous sculpture is
depicted or referenced brought a single bonus, but when you’re 100 points in
the lead, that’s not a huge concern to you. Nobody knew about the River Lagan
for the next starter. Johnny Richards knew that there’s apricot jam in a sachertorte.
Drought tolerant plants for UK gardens brought nowt for any of us. Kai Madgwick
knew about the Amistad for the next starter – even though he seemed disbelieving
that his answer was correct. Historic figures whose hearts are buried in a separate
location from their bodies made me think of Chopin – I’ve been in the Warsaw
Church where he left his heart. He was the third answer. Manchester had him and
Livingston but missed out on Robert the Bruce. Rayhana Amjad knew George
Saunders wrote Lincoln in the Bardo. I read it after the last time it featured
in UC. Weird but good. (That’s Lincoln in the Bardo, not Rayhana Amjad.) Malory’s
Morte d’Arthur provided no points. That was that , there was not time to
complete the next starter. Edinburgh won comfortably by 195 - 80
For the record Manchester’s BCR was 53.3% while Edinburgh’s
was 41.6%. An interesting statistic which proves that on this show it was
bonuses for show, but starters for dough. Only Kai Madgwick was buzzing for
Manchester, and he was being beaten in too many buzzer races. That’s how it
goes.
Amol Watch
It was on 13 minutes and 30 seconds that Amol encouraged
Manchester. Do you remember when Amol seemed to have Jedi like powers and his
encouragement really galvanised teams? Seems like a long time ago now.
Interesting Fact That I Didn’t Already Know Of
The Week
The Residences of the Royal House of Savoy is a UNESCO
world heritage site in Turin.
Baby Elephant Walk Moment
What three word term is used to describe the principle that
an action potential will only be fired if a certain threshold level of
polarisation is achieved ? The action potential produced will be the same size
each time the potential is met, regardless of the intensity of the stimulus. Dum
de dumdum dum dum dum dum dumdum.
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