Saturday 3 January 2015

Christmas University Challenge

Just a quick note about this one. I'm only just starting to recover from a horrible virus which took hold of me on the last day of term (19th December) and has worked its way through my stomach, chest, head and so on, and I'll be honest, I've been struggling to find the energey to even write the few blog posts I've managed in the interim. In case you're wondering, this has been the reason why I never wrote my traditional letter to Santa, or the LAMMY Awards, or my New Year's Quiz Resolutions. I am sorry if you missed any of them. I'll certainly think about restaging the LAMMYs over the next few days if I can manage it.

Still, as I say I am recovering now and with my head clearing I find that I'm just about able to start thinking straight about a few things. One of them has been the great shame that the UC team dropped the idea of bringing in a quizzer with UC at Christmas teams - it's been a couple of years since they did that. Mind you it's probably just as well, since the teams with a quizzer in invariably wiped the floor with the teams which didn't have one. It is a shame, though, since my old college, Goldsmiths London, took part this year, and you know me, had there been a chance of getting on any version of UC I would have jumped at it. Well, it didn't happen, and that's just the way things go. I've been so lucky in getting onto my fair share of shows over the years that it would be extremely churlish of me to bemoan my fate.

And so to this year's series. After Goldies failed to make it through to the semis I was firmly in the Trinity Hall camp. For two reasons mainly. Firstly, Emma Pooley. I was in Spain when I watched Emma Pooley, through sheer grit and determination drag Lizzie Armitstead away from the pack in the Commonwealth Games road race to ensure her team leader's gold medal, and then keep driving herself home in her last race to ensure a thoroughly deserved silver. Secondly, Dan Starkey. I'm a lover of most things Doctor Who, and his comedy turn as Strax the Sontaran in the last couple of years has provided some much needed light relief. So, having said all that you can imagine I was pretty pleased when their team romped home last night to win the series, making short work of the other finalists from Hull. Well played.

4 comments:

Andrew B. said...

They were in the Trinity Hall team; Lady Margaret Hall lost to Hull in the semis.

Jack said...

A deserved series win for Trinity Hall. They were strong in all three of their matches, and generally converted almost two thirds of their bonuses each time. Well done to Hull and the two semi finalist teams as well. It's been a fine mini series, probably the best Xmas UC out of the four we've had.

Normal service resumes on Monday; if I understand various tweets correctly, St Peter's play Selwyn.

Londinius said...

Ooppps = just goes to show how much I've been out of it!

Unknown said...

I couldn't agree more with your choice of Mark Grant, Dave. He is a great quizzer who was formidable in the Best of Brains episode.