University Challenge Round 1 Imperial University v. Churchill College, Cambridge

The Teams

Imperial

Rahim Dina

Eugenia Tong

Oscar O’Flanagan (Capt)

Justin Keung

Churchill College, Cambridge

Ella McGovern

Matt Hasler

Sam Webber (Capt)

Shiv Sheshan

For the first starter last night, it suddenly became clear that the figure Karl Marx described as a splendid fellow was Spartacus. Which makes sense, after all, I am Spartacus. Oscar O’Flanagan had that one. Games that won a BAFTA – no, me neither – saw Imperial take a couple of passes and a near miss. An incorrect Imperial interruption gave Churchill the full question and allowed Shiv Sheshan to answer Equatorial Guinea. 3 questions on Shelley brought 1 correct answer. You had to wait and wait with the next starter that required the name of an artist, then when Third of May was mentioned Justin Keung leapt to his buzzer and gave the correct answer of Goya. Transition metal complexes. Imagine my delight when Amol announced the next bonus subject. At least Imperial had two of them – which is two more than I did. A relatively gentle picture starter showed the flag of Fiji. Shiv Sheshan’s twitchy buzzer finger gave away 5, and Eugenia Tong came in with the correct answer. More flags with representations of fruit on them brought a pair of bonuses to Imperial. Amol announced a Maths starter. It was all too easy for Justin Keung who knew lambda calculus almost before Amol had asked for it. From Greek letters to Greek Mythology for the bonuses – figures whose names began with Pro. Imperial managed just one, much to the obvious irritation of their skipper. Steady the buffs, mate. This brought us to the 10 minute mark, with Imperial leading 60 – 15.

Oscar O’Flanagan recognised the character Julia from Orwell’s 1984. When I first read it 1984 was still several years in the future. Zang Tumb Tumb (surely a character in Star Wars Part 1) surprisingly brought me two bonuses while Imperial took 1. Imperial lost five of their hard won points with the next starter while Shiv Sheshan gave the correct answer of Paraguay. Unusual items in the collection of the Royal Armouries Museum in Leeds only yielded 1 bonus. Shiv Sheshan recognised a reference to Thucydides for the next starter. Notable academicians buried in Gottingen brought a single bonus which took us up to the music starter. Nobody recognised a little bit of Holst. Smithson – surname of two numpties who did a lot to promote horrible brutalist architecture in the UK, brought Rahim Dina his first starter. This earned the music bonuses on classical compositions based on jigs. There you go. Nul points. Nobody knew about archaeophytes for the next starter. Rahim Dina took a double by recognising a description of the film 81/2 and this brought bonuses on Errollyn Wallen, alright, Errollyn ‘Who?’ Wallen.I had a surprising full house, while Imperial managed 2. Imperial came in too early for the next starter but lost fve, but nobody in the Churchill team had good enough French to get the pronoun mon. Shiv Sheshan knew the aboriginal concept of Dreamtime for the next starter. The Seven Wonders of the Peak was a new one on me, but two bonuses on the subject fell to Churchill. It was Imperial who led by 95 – 65 though.

So far, then, a pretty unremarkable contest between two decent teams. At this point Matt Hasler found the range with his buzzer to answer that the latin phrase given meant The Once and Future King.The Masque of The Red Death provided two bouses and narrowed the Imperial lead to 10 points. Matt Hasler very quickly recognised a still from A Matter of Life and Death for the second picture starter. Other films chosen for Royal Film Performances saw Churchill take just one of a pretty gettable set. Justin Keung took the next starter knowing that L means Lossless. Who knew? (Not me). Index fossils saw a welcome namecheck for trilobites. (I’ve always liked trilobites). We both took a full set on these. The Bourbons – the dynasty rather than the biscuits – brought another starter for the impressive Shiv Sheshan. Two bonuses on the year 1325 were taken, and only a mishearing by the skipper prevented a full house. All square. He made amends by recognising a description of Swahili for the next starter. A full house on transcription systems gave Churchill a 25 point lead, and put them in striking distance of at least a repechage score. Shiv Sheshan’s starter answer on the border between India and Pakistan pushed them even closer. The endocrine system brought me a lap of honour for guessing hormones was the answer to the first bonus. The couple that Churchill took guaranteed they would be back during the series. Could Imperial match them? Oscar O’Flanagan knew that La Scala means the stairway. A full house on Korean cuisine pushed them to the brink. The skipper also knew the term Recombination in relation to the history of the Universe. The one they knew on tidal islands put them into the repechage at least. Matt Hasler sealed the deal for Churchill, though, knowing that German words for tide and ghost combine to form the word zeitgeist. GONNNGGGGG! Churchill had won with 175 – 160.

Well, who would have thought that the contest would develop the way that it did after that start? For the record Imperial had a BCR of 50% while Churchill had a slightly better 54%. I’m glad that both teams have gone through, it would be a shame for one to have had to leave after that.

Amol Watch

Amol, sir, I loved your work in the last third of the contest, as your speed of delivery was equal to the speed of the contest.

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

An administrative area of Paraguay is named after rather nondescript US president Rutherford B. Hayes.

Baby Elephant Walk Moment

The chemical messengers used by the endocrine system were given what name from the Greek ‘to arouse’ by physiologist Ernest Starling, who discovered the example of secretin with William Bayliss? Dum de dumdum dum dum dum dum dumdum.

Repechage Table

   

Sheffield	170
SOAS	170
Imperial	160
---------------------------------
New College Oxford	150
-------------------------------
Lancaster	145
Trinity Hall, Cambridge	135
Grenn-Templeton, Oxford	130
Durham	120
Cardiff	115
Linacre, Oxford	115
Newcastle	105
Bath	70
Harper Adams	45

Mastermind 2026 Round 1 heat 12

Well, off we go then. Peter Glanvill kicked off proceedings with a good round answering on the Jurassic Coast. It’s beautiful, but not as exciting as Jurassic Park. I had 4 of these. To be honest I did think that the first couple could have been straight general knowledge questions, but hey, if it boosts my aggregate then I shouldn’t complain. The contender had obviously prepared well, and very little caused him much difficulty. A double figure score was a just reward, I thought.

Nest into the chair was librarian Phyllis Ramage. Phyllis was answering on the plays of Moliere. I’ll admit that four and a half decades ago when I was studying French literature as part of my A Level in French, her greatest dramatist was not on the syllabus. So I didn’t have any of these. I don’t know why, but the round did not work out for Phyllis. Maybe something was wrong about her preparation, but who knows? She scored 4, and it looked as if it was going to be a long evening for her.

Civil Servant Matthew McStea followed. Matthew was answering on Her Majesty the Queen – sorry, I’ll read that again, he was answering questions on the band Queen. I heard a good story when I was in Liverpool a couple of weeks ago. On the Magical Mystery Tour the guide told us that at a charity gala of some kind, the late queen mentioned to Sir Paul McCartney that she had some Beatles albums in the palace. To which Sir Macca replied, - that’s a coincidence. I’ve got some Queen albums -. Matthew might have done a little better than 7. Just from knowing some of the albums involved I had 4.

So to Marcus Welsh who was answering on Mickey Mouse Cartoons 1928-35. Will there, I wonder, be any carping among the twitterati that he only had to cover 7 years’ worth of cartoons? I hope not because I imagine there were a large amount produced. I got 2 points to give me a double figure aggregate of 10. Marcus almost managed double figures on his round alone, but finished just short with 9.

I always feel for the contender who has to go first in the GK round having had a disappointing specialist. It must take a lot of determination to compose yourself and go back out there and give it your best. So well done to Phyllis for posting a respectable 8.

Matthew McStea did considerably better than 8. He looked a good bet for a double figure score throughout the round and got over that particular line with enough left over to take his score for the round up to 11. That gave him a competitive 18. Who knows – if he comes back this way in the future with a really competitive SS score, then we might well see him do very well.

Sadly Marcus Welsh could not do very well on his GK round. He scored 4 to take his total to 13. I’m not really sure what went wrong with the round. It didn’t seem to be a case of nerves getting the better of him. Sometimes when you get one wrong it can just set something off in your brain – get another ne wrong straight afterwards and a kind of brain fog can come over you. When you get right down to it, sometimes it just ain’t your night.

I wouldn’t say it was a simple matter then for Peter Glanvill to seal the deal. He still needed 9 for an outright win, and as we’ve seen, anything can happen in a GK round. But there was no fuss or drama in Peter’s round. He calmly and steadily kept answering what he knew and guessing what he didn’t and this was enough to bring him his own double figure round for an overall 20 and the win.

I’ll be honest, this one was a bit of a bread and butter edition of the show- much honest endeavour, but one’s socks remained firmly on one’s feet. Nonetheless, well done Peter – best of luck for the semi final.

The Details

Peter Glanvill	The Jurassic Coast	10	0	10	1	20	1
Phyllis Ramage	The Major Plays of Moliere	4	0	8	1	12	1
Matthew McStea	Queen	7	0	11	0	18	0
Marcus Welsh	Mickey Mouse Cartoons 1928 - 1935	9	1	4	3	13	4

University Challenge Round 1 Harper Adams University v. Strathclyde

The Teams

Harper Adams University

Alastair Ward

Rachel Henderson

John Owen (Capt)

Will Jones

Strathclyde

Matthew Johnston

Kate Lochrie

Jack Stirling (capt)

Tom McHugh

I’ll be honest, I was not previously aware of the existence of Harper Adams University – presumably named after the big guy with the enormous grizzly bear and the enormous beard whose life and times were on ITV on Saturday teatime in the early 80s. They were the first university in Shropshire. Well done! Strathclyde, unlike Harper Adams, has been this way before but have yet t reach their first semifinal. For the first starter the single word title of two gangster films always looked like it was going to be Scarface and this gave Strathclyde captain Jack Stirling his first starter. It would not be lonely for long. Records broken at the 2024 Uefa Men’s football championships brought the first full house of the contest. I’m really a bit surprised that my early lap of hour answer of white noise was not also given by either of the teams. I don’t know how I knew but when Amol asked for the city which Andrew Marvell represented in parliament I thought ‘Hull’. Maybe it was because he mentioned the river Humber in “To His Coy Mistress”, lascivious little devil that he was. The Philip Larkin reference confirmed it and Jack Stirling took his second starter. Cultural figures depicted in works by Salvador ‘Hello’ Dali brought two more bonuses.After both teams sat on their buzzers for a moment Tom McHugh identified the name Mercator with cartography. American molecular biologist Nancy Hopkins provided 3 soporific bonuses of which Strathclyde took none, but I guessed MIT. Harper Adams were in the horrible position already of having seen Strathclyde take so many consecutive starters that they were in danger of just accepting that they were going to be beaten to the buzzer. It called for an early buzz – even an incorrect one – for the next starter to break up the rhythm of the game as much as anything. They didn’t get it. For the picture starter we were shown a federal map of Germany and Jack Stirling identified the highlighted state of Saxony. The bonuses on towns or cities that have ducks named after them  I thought would surely include Aylesbury, and I couldn’t help wondering if the Austrian town of Rubber would also be included. It wasn’t, mainly because I just made it up. Strathclyde did not add to their score, but they had still completed a first period shutout as they led 70-0 at 10 minutes.

The next starter was interesting as an example of a question in which all bar one word could have been removed from it, and someone would still have probably been able to answer it. That word was Solidarity (Solidarnosc in Polish IIRC) and it enabled John Owen to get Harper Adams rolling. They were given a very gettable set on the History of the People’s Republic of China, and they took two. Laphet Tokhe, as well as being the star of one of South east Asia’s least popular sitcoms, is also a Burmese dish that uses tea leaves. Sounds delicious. Rachel Henderson took that one to continue the Harper Adams mini revival. (incidentally, if Victoria Beckham had kept her maiden name, then Harper Adams could have been named after her daughter. Or vice versa.) Film director Kevin Macdonald brought just the one bonus. Jack Stirling took his 4th starter knowing that the Three Mile Island nuclear accident took place in the state of Pennsylvania, or as it nearly became, the ‘Ell of a State of Pennsylvania. ( I do apologise). A gentle bonus set on female protagonists in the Old Testament brought a full house. Nobody recognised Gladys Knight and he Pips for the music starter. Did you know that they were first to have a hit with Heard it through the Grapevine? Oh, you did. Ok. Surprisingly nobody had epigenetics for the next starter. (Don’t be daft, of course I didn’t.)Jack Stirling took starter number five with portraits by Frida ‘Monty’ Kahlo. The music bonuses on three songs played in the first ever series of Soul Train saw Amol hang his head when they gave the answer of Eartha Kitt for Curtis Mayfield on Move On Up. They took none of the bonuses on 54 year old soul. Jack Stirling took a 6^th starter knowing the great triumvirate of golf and it seemed as if Harper Adams were falling back into the mindset that prevented even the Hail Mary early buzz that the situation was calling for. Mataphor and analogy in 20^th century science wins the prize for the most unusual bonus theme in this show and it brought Strathclyde one bonus. Would you believe I had a full house? I have always loved ‘Alice in Wonderland’ which all of the answers referred to. John Owen recognised a description of Iain Banks’ first novel, Gustav Mahler brought 1 bonus. At just after the 20 minute mark Strathclyde led by 120 to 45.

Various clues brought Jack Stirling his 7^th bonus with the adjective Large. I wonder if they would have got to Eddie if we’d had the full question? A set on poetry brought nowt. So to the picture starter which turned out to be starter number 8 got Jack Stirling. He recognised the work of Botticelli.One bonus on other depictions of the Annunciation extended the Strathclyde lead to 100. The northernmost municipality of Germany gave Kate Lochrie her first starter. Cryptic crossword setter bonuses proved to be insoluble. The next starter was basically a long winded way of asking – what is the capital of Spain? – and Tom McHugh won the buzzer race for that one. Italian American physicist, Fermi (who was much more successful than his compatriot, Softi – actually I really am sorry for that one) did at least provide a couple of bonuses. Jack Stirling completed his set of 9 starters with the next on Nitrogen and Hydrogen. The Lake District brought two bonuses to leave Strathclyde teetering on the brink of a double century. Tom McHugh’s answer of Francis Fukuyama saw them cross it. Which was about it. The gong sounded just after the reading of the first bonus. Strathclyde won by 205 – 45.

In all honest this was not a great match at all. That’s the way t goes sometimes. For the record Harper Adams recorded a BCR of33.3% while Strathclyde didn’t do all that much better with 45.1%, but they won so many bonuses even this small advantage was always going to tell.

Amol Watch

“His Dad’s younger than me!” exclaimed a horrified Amal about the youngest scorer at the Euros. You should worry mate. I’m probably old enough to have taught his Grandad.

Amol issued his first encouragement to Harper Adams at 9:26. Did it work? Well, what do you think?

Amol revealed that as well as Bertrand Russell, his hero is Bob Marley. I’d love to have been a fly on the wall for the conversation those two might have had.

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

I have heard of crossword compiler Torquemada, but I didn’t know he was the first to compile a crossword made entirely of cryptic clues. Nice one!

Baby Elephant Walk Moment

With the Latin binomial Danio rerio, what model organism has Hopkins used to study the roles of various genes in development and cancer progression? The organism is so named for the striped patter on its scales.

Repechage Table

Sheffield	170
SOAS	170
New College Oxford	150
Lancaster	145
---------------------------------------
Trinity Hall, Cambridge	135
Grenn-Templeton, Oxford	130
Durham	120
Cardiff	115
Linacre, Oxford	115
Newcastle	105
Bath	70

 

University Challenge 2026 Round 1 Durham v. Merton, Oxford

The Teams

Durham

Caspar Chatham

Tom Haines-Matos

Amelia Rees (Capt)

James Gowers

Merton, Oxford

Ciaran Duncan

Evelyn Ong

Elliot Cosnett (Capt)

Verity Fleetwood-Law

I will review this week’s show, probably tomorrow, but first let me tie up the loose ends with this review of last week’s match. I had the first starter from the songwriter brothers, and James Gowers took one more clue, the civil war general before he too came in with the name Sherman. Films set during World War Two provided two bonuses. Evelyn Ong recognised the Kalevala for the next starter and Merton were up and running as well. Tennis courts named after notable players made an interesting bonus set and took three bonuses for a full house and the lead. The next starter saw the rare event of me getting a maths starter right. Only on the last clue did I know it was median though. Evelyn Ong took a double with that one. Eugene ‘qui est ca?’ Boudin provided two bonuses. For the picture starter we were shown an outline of Cumbria with the locations of museums dedicated to a particular writer. Well, it could only be Wordsworth. Or Beatrix Potter. Or Alfred Wainwright. Or Napper Wainwright. It was Wordsworth as Elliot Cosnett well knew. More maps showing locations of other writers’ museums and centres passed them by. To be fair they weren’t any of them quite as easy as the starter. The next starter referenced the anti heroine of my favourite comic novel “Vanity Fair” and Tom Haines-Matos showed his mettle by giving the answer of Becky Sharp. Fish that are native to South America brought just the one bonus. So after a lively start Merton’s finer quality work with the bonuses saw them leading by 55 – 35.

For the next starter St. Augustine’s Abbey was the first big clue to Canterbury Cathedral, but both teams sat on their buzzers a bit until Verity Fleetwood-Law gave the correct answer. Thinkers associated with the Frankfurt school saw Merton give three names that, like Vienna, meant nothing to me but earned them a full house. Disco Elysium sounds like a place I once visited by mistake in 1984, but it was the answer to the next starter, snapped up quickly by Elliot Cosnett. That ever popular subject, turbans in history, brought two bonuses, but they threw away the middle one by passing after mentioning the right answer. Various Cliffs including Jimmy and Clarice were snapped up by Caspar Chatham for the next starter. Literature bonuses on perfect plots yielded nothing, I’m afraid. Neither team could answer an interminable question on selenium. Ciaran Duncan knew an Aeolian harp when he heard one being described and this meant every member of the Merton team had answered a starter. Inorganic chemistry – well actually it provided me with one correct answer and a lap of honour. Merton took a full house. For the music starter nobody recognised the music of the Happy Mondays. It took a while before Ciaran Duncan identified the adjective blithe for the next starter but it earned Merton the music bonuses. More music pieces whose titles are used for biopics about their performers provided a rare failure for Merton as they didn’t get any of them. Ciaran Duncan recognised a lovely little bit of anaphora when he heard it to take the next starter. A full house on the Long Parliament followed. James Gowers took the next starter knowing that Clive Sullivan was one of the all time  greats of Rugby League. A full house on Mediterranean cuisine helped but at the 20 minute mark Merton were still galloping away from Durham with 160 – 65.

Evelyn Ong recognised a quote from Kasimir Malevich for the next starter. Broadway shows in 2024 (presumably the one in New York and not the ones in Ealing or Fulham) proved no obstacle to Merton and they took another full house. Tom Haines-Matos recognised Marie Antoinette’s portrait for the second picture starter. More portraits by the same artist sadly yielded no further points. I knew the next starter on synovial fluid which neither team did. James Gowers guessed that the Jordan river flows through Salt Lake City to win bonuses on sand. Durham failed to answer any of them. Caspar Chatham knew the phrase Out, out precedes brief candle in a play by Shakespeare. Roman Gods brought two auick bonuses which took Durham into triple figures. They were having a good patch at this time Durham. Tom Haines-Matos took the next starter on the epithet The Conqueror. National flags are often a happy hunting ground on UC and they brought Durham 2 bonuses. If it’s a rock that makes column structures then just buzz and say basalt. Elliot Cosnett did and won the next starter. Bonuses fell so quickly to Merton I didn’t even notice what they were about before Merton had taken a full house. Elliot Cosnett came in very quickly for the next starter on the production of silk in the Byzantine Empire. Cornelius Vermuyden (you know! The Dutch Water engineer? ) only yielded the one bonus, but so what? The match was long since over as a contest. The white lion order of Czechia again saw a good interruption from the Merton skipper. The one bonus there was time for took the score to 235 – 120 at the buzzer.

For the record Durham managed a BCR of 42% to Merton’s 71%, and that basically tells you what you need to know about how the match went.

Amol Watch

Nothing in particular that I noticed, sorry.

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

Jordan River runs through Salt Lake City

Baby Elephant Walk Moment

In bio chemistry what chemical element can replace sulphur in cysteine to form a distinct proteinogenic amino acid? It was discovered in 1817 by Jon Jakob Berzelius and given its name due to its similarity to the then recently discovered element tellurium itself named (incorrect buzz) after the Earth.. – Yes, that would be dum de dumdum dum dum dum dum dumdumium

Mastermind 2026 First Round Heat 11

We will catch up on UC, I promise. For now, though, let’s concentrate on last night’s Mastermind.

I had the first of Omair Azam’s round on Frederic Chopin, as, I’m sure did everyone else. Let’s be fair, the name of Chopin is as omnipresent in Warsaw as Mozart’s in Vienna and the Beatles’ in Liverpool. I could have had another. I went in the church where Chopin’s heart is in Warsaw, but couldn’t remember what it was called. Omair did very well, I thought. Despite what anyone may think a double figure round is not easily achieved in Mastermind. Even if you prepare extremely thoroughly something can trip you up. So Omair put himself in the position in which he would be in contention come half time.

Danielle Connolly was answering n a specialist subject that may well receive some criticism from some quarters – The Simpsons (Seasons 1-10). Me? I think that 10 seasons is a huge chunk to have to prepare in detail which makes it a perfectly valid subject. Let’s be honest, I should think that The Simpsons has brought at least as much pleasure to people as Chopin (and considerably more than Samuel Beckett, but we’ll come to that.) Danielle equalled Omair’s total, and then exceeded it. I had 5 myself in my round of the night, and my grandson Ollie who is 12 had one that I didn’t with the aurora borealis. The lad will go far.

I mentioned the plays of Samuel Beckett because this was the subject offered by our third contender, Andrew McKenzie. I never studied Beckett at university and I’ve never watched or read any of his plays, not even waiting for Godot. So I had just the one point from this round. Andrew clearly knows a lot about the subject but somehow the questions were not falling for him. He ended up with a score of 6, which frankly left him a huge task in the GK round. Ah, that’s the way it goes sometimes.

Katherine Rich offered us the Life of Gloria Steinem. I will put my hands up and say that I don’t know much about the subject. My hope was that the first question, which is often the easiest, would require the answer The Playboy Club, but it was not to be and I failed to add to my aggregate of 6. Katherine did well to reach a total of 9 but it looked already as if the banker would only be paying out for double figure rounds in this particular heat.

First back, then was Andrew McKenzie. Five points in arrears at the turn around a win did not look to be a very realistic target. However he had the same realistic target to aim for the all contenders have, taking yourself to a respectable total and justifying the time and effort you have put into preparing for the show. I’d say that he did just that with 1 good round of 10 which took him to 16. Well done, sir.

Katherine didn’t manage a double figure round, not quite, but she too earned a respectable total. She added 9 to her first round total to take herself into the lead with 17. No, it wouldn’t be a winning score, but that’s not easily achieved.

So far both of our contenders in the GK round had finished their round at the top of the leaderboard. Such a fate also awaited Omair Azam. He surpassed Katherine’s round with just a bit of daylight adding two more to give him 9 for the round and a total of 19. Was this going to win? Well, it might. It all depended on how well Danielle could take to her GK round.

To use the vernacular Danielle took to her GK round like a duck to water. In fact the first half of her round was so good I predicted that she would win at a canter and set a monster score. Well, she eased up just a little as we came towards the end of the round but she had already left the others in her wake. Danielle finished with a total of 13 for the round and 24 overall. This was a really good round, as impressive for the quality of her answers as well as the volume of them. Very well done! I look forward to seeing how you do in the semis and wish you the very best of luck.

The Details

Omair Azam	Frederic Chopin	10	2	9	4	19	6
Danielle Connolly	The Simpsons (Seasons 1-10)	11	0	13	0	24	0
Andrew McKenzie	The Plays of Samuel Beckett	6	0	10	1	16	1
Katherine Rich	The Life of Gloria Steinem	8	2	9	0	17	2

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
---------------------------------------
Trinity Hall, Cambridge	135
Grenn-Templeton, Oxford	130
Cardiff	115
Linacre, Oxford	115
Newcastle	105
Bath	70