University
Challenge – Heat 7 – Liverpool v. Sheffield
A good, old fashioned heat this, between two
teams from universities in different cities.The Liverpool team consisted of Ben
Mawdsley, Jim Davis, Hugh Hiscock,and
their captain was Dachman Crewe. Now, the University of Sheffield holds the
distinction of being one of the institutions which I actually applied to way
back in the early 80s. That never quite came off, but no hard feelings, and I
certainly don’t blame the team of Andrew Trueman, Nathaniel Aspray, Claire Greenwood and their captain was
Nathaniel Aspray’s best man, Jonathan Cunliffe.
The first starter asked about a daily finance
and economics newspaper. I bet both teams were just itching to hear if it was
British or American, since questions about these papers inevitably have either
the FT or the Wall St. Journal as the answer. When the name Charles Dow was
mentioned Hugh Hiscock was the first to chance his arm with the latter. This
earned his team bonuses on museum ships. 2 were taken, and I must say that I
didn’t get the first myself. The next starter was very long winded, and I didn’t
understand the first part at all. However the last part of the question
revealed that the answer is the term for what comes between an era and an
epoch. That I did know was period. Neither team managed that one. For the next
starter JP got through the whole question, giving a list of people or
characters from literature and asking for the given name by which they were all
linked. It was a long time – relatively speaking – before Nathaniel Aspray
buzzed in with the correct answer of Beatrice – Dante’s muse being one of them.
Historical figures born in Somerset saw them take the one I didn’t know, Thomas
Young, and miss out on the two that I did – Henry Irving and Ernie Bevin.
Right, JP had made the point that Sheffield had a team who were all from the
same faculty – all studying medicine. Now, when you come from a specialist
institution, like the LSHTM, that’s inevitable. However if you do pack your
team with one discipline you risk having a shortfall in certain areas. Hence
Claire Greenwood winning the buzzer race when asked who wrote Under the
Greenwood Tree, but not knowing it was Thomas Hardy, an answer which Hugh
Hiscock supplied. Church architecture brought them one correct answer for the
bonuses. The picture starter followed showing us the final rounds of the
Wimbledon Men’s Singles competition, and the teams were asked to identify the
year. Something about it said 2008 to me – after Jonathan Cunliffe had a punt
with 2009 then Hugh Hiscock obviously thought the same as me, and he gave the
correct answer. More diagrams for different years followed. Allowing Liverpool
to be one year out either way made the bonuses all quite gettable, well, if you’re
as old as me, that is. Liverpool managed one of them. Right then – if I give you
a molecule of methane, a molecule of benzene and a molecule of methanol, how
many carbon atoms have you got? If your answer is the same as mine, namely how
the hell should I know? then you might
be interested to know that it’s nine. Andrew Trueman knew that one. The bonuses
on Test Centuries at Headingley were actually quite gettable if you have a
basic knowledge of test cricket, but if you’re not interested in the sport then they’re not. So bearing
that in mind Sheffield could probably be quite happy to take five points from
the set. This meant that at just after the 10 minute mark they had restricted
Liverpool to a 20 point lead, 50 to 30. First impressions were that while
Liverpool seemed to have something of an edge on the buzzer, both teams were
being rather profligate with their bonuses.
Jim Davis was in quickly when asked for a US
president of the 19th century who was also a former military
commander. Ulysses S. Grant wasn’t the only candidate, but he was certainly the
most obvious, a fact which Jim Davis took full advantage of. Western Europe
proved a good set for Liverpool, who took all three and won a hard-earned ‘well
done’ from JP – and those aren’t given away with cornflakes packets either.
With the bit obviously between their teeth, Hugh Hiscock buzzed in as soon as
he recognized a definition of the word dialectic. Liverpool were given 3
descriptions and binomials of British reptiles, and they identified the common
name of two of them. They kept on pounding their opponents by another good
early buzz from Jim Davis, who knew that the arachnids that transmit lyme
disease are ticks. I didn’t expect a great deal from holograms, which was just
as well because I left the set empty handed. Liverpool themselves fared a bit
better, taking one. This brought us to the music starter. Once again a rampant
Liverpool team buzzed early to identify Beethoven’s 9th,
specifically the Ode to Joy. Another one for the highly effective Hugh Hiscock,
that one. Three more pieces of music that have featured on the soundtracks of
the Die Hard series. For the first it transpired that the first film – which I
have never seen, nor any of its progeny – had stolen the old theme to the
Antiques Roadshow, which was written for it by JS Bach – a remarkable feat
considering he died 228 years before it was first broadcast. Liverpool missed
out on Bach, Brahms and Sibelius. A medicinal question – about treatment which
is called topical, at last allowed Sheffield to push their way back into the
game. Bonuses on colours used in HTML pages offered a chance to narrow the
looming gap a little further. These weren’t easy, though, and only the one was
taken. When asked for a 4 letter SPanish suffix, applied in derogatory terms in
English to Blair and fashion, Hugh Hiscock was the first to untangle the
question and buzz in with – ista. Right, now the first of a set of philosophy
bonuses began by mentioning an object whose parts have been replaced so much
that nothing of the original object remains. Immediately the words Trigger’s
Broom sprang to my lips. This wasn’t the answer to the first, which was the Ship
of Theseus – which you could guess from the words – the Ship of which legendary
King of Athens – but it was the answer to the third. Two correct answers were
enough to push Liverpool to a commanding 95 point lead, with 140 to Sheffield’s
45, and to be honest it looked to be all over bar the shouting.
A picture starter showing us Joachim Phoenix in
the role of Johnny Cash – a fine performance which earned him an Oscar – Nathaniel
Aspray was first in with this one. More actors playing musicians followed, and
although they recognized a portrayal of Edith Piaf they didn’t know the
actress, so no bonuses there. Claire Greenwood knew that a question asking
about a river with a delta opening into the South China Sea will probably be
about the Mekong. Gyres didn’t promise a
lot for bonuses, but Sheffield managed one of them, and the fact was that at
least they were starting to make headway with the starters. Neither team
exactly impressed by not buzzing in immediately when the next starter began “What
are the first five words of the 23rd psalm” but once JP supplied
some further information it was Nathaniel Aspray who won the race to supply “The
Lord is My Shepherd.” The languages of Afghanistan didn’t promise a great deal, but they did
well to take five points with Pushtu. A list of writers sharing the same given
name ended with ‘Death of a Salesman’ for the next starter. For the first time
Hugh Hiscock showed a little vulnerability by buzzing in with Martin. This
allowed Claire Greenwood to supply Arthur. Remarkably, Sheffield so far had
shut Liverpool out completely from 4 starters in a row. Sadly they still didn’t
get a particularly friendly set of bonuses, with astronomical distance scales. They
managed one, but this still left them 40 points adrift. Right, I;ve no idea
why, but when asked which fundamental force of nature is not include within the
standard model of particle physics I answered ‘Gravity’. So did Andrew Trueman
for Sheffield, and we were both correct. Cue lap of honour round the living
room for me, while JP asked Sheffield a set of bonuses on Time Magazine’s
person of the Year. Two correct answers halved the gap. But hardly any time
remained, and Jim Davis turned their challenge into mission impossible by
answering that SETI stand for Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence.
Bonuses on Albert Finney supplied no more points, but they ate into the time,
and Sheffield now needed more than a full set. Nobody knew that the Elephant in
French and the Runner in German are the Bishop in English on a chess board.
Jonathan Cunliffe knew that if the first part of a binomial denotes the
species, then the second part denotes the genus. Bonuses on Human memory only
had time for one question, and no answer before the gong ended the contest.
The final score was 155 to 130, Commiserations
to Sheffield, who produced a splendid fightback in the last few minutes. Congratulations
to Liverpool, who were, I think, just the better team on the balance of the
competition as a whole. I don’t know the bonus conversion rates, but I wouldn’t
have thought that they were among the highest we’ll see all series, but
nonetheless an engaging and well fought contest. Well done to both.
Jeremy
Paxman Watch
When asked for the name of the first actor to gain
a knighthood, Sheffield plucked a name from thin air – Christopher Hooper. “Christopher
HOOPER?. . . interesting.” replied JP, although I have no doubt he only did it
for effect, it being quite obvious that the team were scoobyless on this one.
Unable to give the Russian name required for
one of the hologram bonuses, Dachman Crewe cheekily offered Vladimir Putin. –
Hallo – I thought – wigging from JP coming up here. No such thing, he merely
restricted himself to “He’s a very talented man, isn’t he?” Huh? Has someone
been putting tranquilisers into JP’s normal pre-show meal raw meat?
On the ‘topical treatment’ question, far from encouraging
Sheffield now that they had managed their first starter for several minutes he
offered them solace with the words, “Wouldn’t want to be treated by you if you
didn’t know THAT”. Ah, the mogadons were wearing off!
To be fair to JP I think he did notice that
Sheffield were staging an impressive comeback in the last few minutes, because
of his imprecation to the team when they dithered over a set of bonuses, “You’d
better hurry up as we’re in the dying minutes of the competition”
Interesting
Fact That I Didn’t Already Know Of The Week
An object which has had all of its original
parts replaced – like Trigger’s Broom – is a philosophical paradox known as The
Ship of Theseus – and , deliciously – The Sock of Locke.
4 comments:
Speaking of Antiques Roadshow, will you be letting us know when the episode with the glass bowl is on iPlayer?
A rather slow moving match most of the way through, until Sheffield started recovering late on, but didn't quite catch up. The bonus rates were indeed rather low: Liverpool managed 13/27, and Sheffield just 8/25, which partly accounts for the low scores. Those extra five bonuses for Liverpool won them the game. I doubt Sheffield will have done enough for the repechage, but we shall see.
Next week, Bath play Glasgow; then the week after, the OU makes its much anticipated return to the show, playing Leicester.
As soon as they tell me when it is, I certainly will
It will be one of the lowest scores to get through in a long time if Sheffield do make it, Jack
This match had the lowest number of starters asked, so far at 19, 1 fewer than our first round match.
Nearly halfway through the first round matches, the four repechage places are:
Manchester 160
Sussex 150
LSE 140
Sheffield 130
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