Durham
v. Gonville and Caius
In their first round match Durham dismissed
Brasenose. The team consisted of Daniel Morgan – Thomas, Freddie Lloyd, Nikul Boyd-Shah and captain
Fred Harvey, and York were
their victims in round two. Gonville and Caius – highest scorers in round one –
consisted of Ted
Loveday, Michael Taylor, Anthony Martinelli, and Jeremy Warner. Having
dismissed St. Anne’s they took the prized scalp of Manchester in round two. Let’s
get on with it.
The first starter was asking for a scientist,
and it promised little until the words ‘one-side band or strip’ gave me Mobius
and a rare Science starter. Nikul Boyd-Shah won the buzzer race for that one,
and earned a set of bonus on the Vikings. They took the first two, but didn’t
know Vinland. For the next starter Ted Loveday knew that the bassoon represents
the Grandfather in Prokofiev’s “Peter and the Wolf”. My heart sank as JP
announced that the set of bonus would be on modularity. Not that Caius minded –
they took a full set. Anthony Martinelli won the buzzer race for the next
starter, which it rapidly became clear was asking for stick insects. Words with
two often contradictory meanings (cleave being the most famous example
probably) gave Caius another full house. A very good early buzz from Freddie
Lloyd identified the historian Tony Judt, and brought up a bonus set on The
Aeneid.They could only manage the one correct answer, so remained 20 points
adrift of Caius.A fantastic answer from Ted Loveday identified Menander as the
creator of the aphorism – Who the Gods love die young. Two bonus on whales kept
the score ticking over nicely. The picture starter showed a parliamentary constituency
in Northern Ireland. Michael Taylor identified West Belfast – a good shout,
that. Three constituencies in Yorkshire were all gettable, but they only
managed Sheffield Hallam - Nick Clegg. Never mind. At the ten minute mark Caius
looked to be comfortably in control, leading by 80 – 30.
Ted Loveday anticipated the next starter well,
offering Occam’s Razor before it became obvious where the question was driving
towards. Pairs of words where you changed he letter of one answer to get the
name of a country – eg – Conga – Tongs - Tonga . Bit tricky to get your head
around, that. Some numbers thing which nobody knew followed. A great starter
which offered amongst others, the composer of Otello – Verdi – and the author
of The Quiet American – Graham Greene – was asking for green as the connection –
and the Caius skipper was the first to see that. Dreams in Shakespeare gave
another ten points, and the Caius juggernaut rolled onwards. Time for the music
round, and very quickly Ted Loveday recognised a soupçon of Charpentier. Three
more pieces also known by the name Te Deum followed – and they managed one of
them. The lead stood at 110 points and it was looking ominous for Durham. Anthony
Martinelli took the next starter, on the Roger Ebert test. Two bonus on
astronomy followed. There was a great buzzer race to answer which novel ends
with the line “So we beat on.” It was between Messrs Taylor and Martinelli of
Caius. One bonus on opera was taken. Ted Loveday knew as well as I do that when
you hear the words ‘sham village’ you slap that buzzer and answer Potemkin. A
couple of bonuses on Mexico were taken. At last Freddie Lloyd won a buzzer race
for Durham, knowing that Paris was redesigned by Baron Haussman. Sadly they
couldn’t take any of a set of bonuses on aerodynamics. At the twenty minute
mark Caius had a winning lead of 190 – 40.
For the second picture starter Anthony
Martinelli identified an engraving of Sir Isaac Newton. A full set of three
other engravings of scientists followed in short order. For once the mighty
Caius showed a little vulnerability as Michael Taylor buzzed far too early on
the next starter. Nikul Boyd-Shah knew that Quentin Crisp said that autobiography
is an extended obituary in serial form with the last instalment missing. Fair
play, he had a bit of style. I met him once in Chelsea, but that’s another
(rather boring) story. US Presidential Election slogans added 10 points to
their score. The Durham rearguard action continued as Daniel Morgan-Thomas
recognised a group of cabinet minusters who all served under Clement Atlee.
Bonuses on terms beginning with the prefix tetra yielded them nowt. Now, I did
actually know that a mass of yellow tissue of some sort is the corpus Luteum –
as did Anthony Martinelli. After a lot of toing and froing and argying and dare
I say it, more than a touch of bargying, Caius managed a full set on the Kings
of England. Jeremy Warner got into the act for Caius, identifying two Spanish
regions that border Portugal. A full set on Geological Periods followed.
Neither team could work out that the first letter of the alphabet not to appear
in the names of any of the 12 months of the year is K. The next starter went
begging as well, and I didn’t get it any more than the teams did. As soon as he
heard the words La Grande Illusion Freddie Lloyd buzzed in with Renoir, and
thus earned a set on Berlin, which brought them ten points. Anthony Martinelli
knew the term bradycardia for the next starter – really good shout, that. There
was just time for the one bonus, which took Gonville and Caius to 275, against
Durham’s 95.
It’s still quite early to be placing the mantle
of favourites upon the colletive shoulders of any team, but I have to say that
I like the look of this Gonville and Caius outfit. They cover a great deal of
ground between them, and there’s good buzzing throughout the team. They may
well take some beating.
Jeremy
Paxman Watch
JP started early this week. While introducing
Durham he noted that Brasenose put in a dismal performance against them,
scoring 35. Well, Jez, nobody deliberately has a low score, old son, and you
really don’t need to rub it in to a team who left the series some time ago.
After that unnecessary comment, though, his
next comment of note was a response to the question about the substance in a
whale’s head, once thought to contribute to the reproductive process. The
answer was spermaceti. When Caius offered ‘sperm’, he replied – “No – that does
contribute to the reproductive process!” Alright, it’s not exactly Oscar Wilde,
but it made me chuckle.
On the 3rd Kings’ bonus, after much
argument Caius asked if they could have a repeat of the date. “No, come on, get
on with it!” barked our hero. Do you know, there’s evenings when I have longed
to reply to similar queries in the rugby club with those same words.
Interesting
Fact That I Didn’t Already Know Of The Week
A test to find out whether a synthesized voice
can time and deliver a joke well enough to make people laugh is named after
film critic Roger Ebert.
6 comments:
Well, I think most of us expected Caius to win that one, but probably not by as big a margin as that. Excellent buzzing throughout meant that Durham barely got a chance to get in; lets hope they can pull together again next time.
After that, I imagine most of us will be anticipating a St Peter's - Caius final; seeing them face off at any time could be fascinating, as it would pit (pretty much) a one-man team vs a team-wide ability.
On the bonuses, Durham managed 8/18 and Caius 28/41, and both sides incurred a penalty each.
So, on Monday, it must be Trinity vs Magdalen; it will be an interesting match to see A) how Magdalen fare against a more buzzer friendly team, and B) whether Trinity can maintain their second round form or revert back to the first round.
Don't you think it was unfair to have a picture starter involving a map of Northern Ireland when one of teams included someone from Ballymena?
Hi Guys
Jack, while I think both Caius and St Peter's are terrific outfits, it's a little early for me to be speculating on the make up of the final. They'll both take some beating, though.
Stephen,I know where you're coming from with this one, but it's just one of those things. How often do we see an American team member answer a question about the USA, or a Canadian about Canada, or an Australian about Australia? Not all the time, maybe, but often enough that it's not an isolated occurrence. After all, you wouldn't ban a question using a map of England because some of the team members are from England. I think that even if you didn't know where Belfast is it's a fair guess for a percentage answer, and that narrows it down quite a bit.
Stephen, it's just the luck of the draw I think. I had a question about the governing body of the sport I compete nationally in in one of our matches. For me, Caius are the most impressive team I've seen yet - I fully expect them to make the final.
I think the preponderance of medicine-related questions in this episode might have inflated Caius's score a little, given that their captain is a medic.
This is not to say that those questions were unfair to Durham--as others have said, sometimes you get questions that play to someone's strengths and that's just how it is--but I've noticed that Caius are not particularly well-versed in literature (for UC contestants!), so I'm wondering how they'd fare in a match that covers the literary canon and intellectual history more extensively. (I think Magdalen, for example, are very good at those questions.)
tractata,
That's a little unfair. They scored (I think) 2 out of 3 on Shakespeare quotes, Loveday got Menander, all four seemed to slam down on The Great Gatsby, and Martinelli got a very impressive early buzz on Graham Greene. In the previous match, Taylor got Zola and Sheridan. Maybe they don't know as much as Magdalen, but they seem to have that area well covered so far.
Speaking of fortunate questions, I wonder if anyone else has noticed that Caius Warner has twice got a question on Spanish regions and twice on Leonard Euler? I can understand if a common theme pops up during a series, but for it to come up twice for the same team is quite lucky indeed.
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