Trinity,
Cambridge v. St. Andrews
Well, we’ve already met the Trinity team of
Matthew Willetts, Claire Hall, Aled Walker and their captain, Hugh Bennett in
the two documentaries about the selection of teams for the series. Whether this
meant that they would be a team to watch out for or not the next half hour
would show. The teams from St. Andrews always have the choice of whether they
wear their distinctive red cloaks or not. The team of Lewis Fairfax, Will Kew,
James Adams, and their captain Jamie Perriam had opted for the clock, although
according to JP they were wearing them with different degrees of casualness depending
on how long they’d been at the university. Fair enough.
The first starter gave a Walter Bagehot quote
about a future PM, and while Lewis Fairfax zigged with Disraeli, this allowed
Matthew Willetts to zag with Gladstone. 20th century Prime Ministers
weren’t easy, and they took just the one. Never mind – first blood drawn. Jamie
Perriam knew that Russian Museum ship in St. Petersburg is the Aurora, and
opened St. Andrews’ account. Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty in Wales
didn’t fill me with anticipation. I knew that the Gower Peninsula (simply Gower
to most of us nearby) was the first, but that was it. Actually I say that, but
I guessed the Wye Valley as well. St. Andrews didn’t manage any of the bonuses.
Neither team knew about deciduous teeth. Aled Walker knew the word conurbation
to take Trinity’s second starter. Biological terms all beginning with – syn –
followed, and Trinity managed just the one with Synaesthesia. Right, did you know that in sporting terms, a
Grand Slam city in the USA has a professional ice hockey, gridiron, baseball
and basketball team? Me neither, but it makes sense. The first picture starter
showed us a city, all we had to do was to identify it and name one of its
teams. It was clearly Washington, so I offered the Redskins. Hugh Bennett
buzzed in, but couldn’t dredge up a city. Lewis Fairfax offered the Washington
Capitals, which was good enough. Three more cities followed. I recognized
Philadelphia but didn’t know the ice hockey team, I didn’t get Denver and the
Nuggets, which St. Andrews did, but I did have Minneapolis and the Minnesota
Vikings. Asked for the only group of mountains in the Eastern USA that is not
Appalachian, I plumped for the old quiz favourite, the Adirondacks. Matthew
Willets offered Catskills, a sensible suggestion, but it was the Adirondacks.
Lewis Fairfax took a good starter next, knowing that Thor, the cliff with the
greatest vertical drop, is on Baffin Island. Plays about the Iraq war offered
me but little, but we both managed Black Watch, and none of the others. So
after the opening ten minutes neither team had managed quite to impose their
will upon the other, the score standing at 35 – 30 to St. Andrews.
Now, I guessed that Nixon appointed Kissinger
in 1973, which neither team got. Pate and Paté brought Lewis Fairfax the next
starter, while cricket broadcasters didn’t add anything to their score. To be
fair, I only had the Henry Blofeld one myself. Now, the Starkadders are a good
old UC chestnut, and Claire Hall was the first to identify them as characters
from Cold Comfort Farm. Places with reduplicative names, like Bora Bora, gave
them two bonuses. The music starter played a piece of popular music inspired by
a work of fiction, and they were asked for the author. I didn’t know it, but
the repetition of warm leatherette, and the mention of steering wheel suggested
J G Ballard’s Crash. Which turned out to be right, although neither team
managed it. Nobody in either team knew that Jules Grevy gave his name to the
largest species of zebra. One of those astronomy number questions followed – to
the nearest whole number the radius of the sun is how many times that of the
Earth? It’s 109 apparently. There’s not really many excuses for not knowing
that the first battle of the English Civil War was Edgehill – it’s just one of
those things that comes up time and time again. Now if you’re given precise
times like 17:04, and asked what item is broadcast on Radio 4 at those precise
times, then you slam the buzzer through the desk and answer Shipping Forecast,
even if you’ve never heard it yourself, because it’s bound to be the answer.
Will Kew did just that, to earn the music bonuses, more artists influenced by
Ballard’s work. I recognized Gary Numan and the Human League for the first two,
and didn’t recognize the third, but guessed Empire of the Sun. St. Andrews took
two of a highly gettable set. Nobody knew the main gases of coal gas. Lewis
Fairfax won the buzzer race to identify Syngman Rhee as the first premier of
South Korea. Two bonuses on the Brothers Grimm took them to a 35 point lead. Cristobal
Colon and Simon Bolivar are the highest peaks of Colombia, as Hugh Bennett
knew, buzzing in after Jamie Perriam had offered Venezuela. The chemistry of
water was provided another bonus. Nonetheless St. Andrews still led by 85 to 65
at the 20 minute mark.
So, in the best sporting tradition, the outcome
was going to be decided by who wanted it more, and who could dredge up the most
correct answers under pressure. Matthew Willets identified a painting by
Gauguin, and three more paintings on the same theme failed to provide any more
points. I didn’t understand the next question in the slightest, but it was Jan
Burgers. Aled Walker knew that if it’s a question about an ode by Keats on UC,
the majority of times it will be about the Grecian Urn. Jane Austen normally
proves to be a happy hunting ground for UC teams, and the full set taken by
Trinity was enough to give them a 15 point lead. The increasingly influential
Matthew Willetts buzzed in to identify the Moluccas as the Spice Islands.
Popular Science (all those who say that this is an oxymoron please go and stand
at the back of the class) provided a couple of correct answers. Nobody knew
that George I was born on the day before Charles II arrived in London in 1660
to mark the restoration of the Monarchy. How on earth did I know what
adipocytes store? Because I remember the Doctor Who story in which little
monsters came into being out of human fat, and they were called the Adipose.
Will Kew obviously watched the same show since he answered correctly. UK
airports gave them two bonuses, enough to break the three figure barrier. It
still looked too close to call this one, but one thing looked certain – the losing
team in this one looked unlikely to get on the repechage board, and would be
going home at the end of the show. A little surprisingly neither team knew that
Lethe is the river of Forgetfulness. Matthew Willetts knew about the Tulip period
of the Ottoman Empire, and earned Trinity some bonuses on the year 1919. One
was taken, and the gap was still bridgeable. Neither team knew that the Eocene
takes its name from the greek word for dawn. At this point Jamie Perriam threw
caution to the wind and buzzed in early on a question asking for the word rime.
The gambit didn’t come off, but with so little time remaining it was still the
right tactic I think. This allowed Claire Hall in with the correct answer.
Complex numbers saw me answer 0 to the first, as is my wont. That was wrong –
and Trinity had it with 5. That meant that on the gong they finished with 150
to St. Andrews’ 100. Not a great match, although an interesting contest. As for
Trinity, well, on this showing you’d say that they’ll need a little bit of the
rub of the green to get through the next round.
Jeremy
Paxman watch
“It is Gladstone, of course” our hero informed
Matthew Willetts, on the first starter, which was a slap in the face to Lewis
Fairfax who had offered Disraeli.
He was in a fairly spiky mood at the start.
When St. Andrews buzzed in early and failed to get deciduous teeth, Claire Hall
buzzed in almost immediately, and gave a wrong answer as well. “No, you should
have listened to the whole thing!” JP chided, “You could have done, you know.”
Henry ‘well, hello my dear old thing’ Blofeld
was the next to receive both barrels “He’s always rambling on about something
like that.”
Not knowing J G Ballard’s Crash, Aled Walker
jokingly offered Philip Larkin. “PHILIP LARKIN!” cried our hero in mock
apoplexy as his eyebrows shot towards the ceiling. ”I – DON’T – THINK – SO! It
was by J. G. Ballard – “ dramatic pause “ – it was nice, wasn’t it!”
When the teams didn’t buzz in immediately for
the sun radius question he dismissed both answers contemptuously when they
came, with the words , “I thought you were all working it out.”
At the end, being in his best rubbing salt into
the wounds mood, when the 50 point gap between the teams somewhat flattered
Trinity, he observed, “You never really got going there St. Andrews. Did you?” A
little unfair, Jez – they were in the contest right up until the last four
minutes.
Interesting
Fact That I Didn’t Already Know Of The Week
The word conurbation was first coined by Sir
Patrick Geddes
5 comments:
Rather slow match throughout really. Both sides managed reasonable efforts without being spectacular. Agree that Trinity will maybe need to play better next time to reach the QFs; but then, the past few years have seen teams perform similarly modestly in the first round, and then pick up the pace in the second round. We shall see.
On the bonuses, Trinity converted 12/25, and St Andrews 7/21 (with two penalties).
On Monday then, it's a rematch from two series ago, with UCL vs Exeter, then the week after, Brasenose College Oxford play Durham.
As far as I know, the term Grand Slam city is something that someone made up that a question writer thought was more common than it actually is.
It was a bit weird for me to see another Hugh Bennett on the show.
Hi dxdtdemon,
Not surprised. I liked the question though, since you got Geography AND Sport all thrown into one.
Hi Hugh,
Such is life!
I'm almost totally certain that Matthew Willetts is the son of Conservative MP and former Universities/Science Minister David Willetts - can't believe this wasn't picked up on by Paxman!
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