University Challenge 2022 First Round Heat 9 - Edinburgh v. Peterhouse, Cambridge

 Last night’s 9^th first round heat of UC pitted teams from Edinburgh and Peterhouse, Cambridge

The Teams

Edinburgh

Ben Russell Jones

Lewis Thomas

Rishi Sundar (capt)

Al Karunaratne

Peterhouse, Cambridge

Beatrix Huissoon

Anamay Shetty

Eli Hong (capt)

Lucy Hart

For the first starter the words ‘San Luis Rey’ saw me shock my nearest and dearest by shouting out ’Bridge!’, which it turned out was the answer. Rishi Sundar had a bit of a rush of blood to the head and buzzed in too early which allowed Peterhouse a little thinking time, and then Lucy Hart supplied the right answer. The first set of bonuses were on international trade and brought ten further points on a relatively gentle set. Al Karunaratne opened the scoring for Edinburgh when he recognised that the next starter question was leading towards the answer of samovar. To be fair he did seem mightily pleased by it too. A full house of bonuses on letters of the Greek Alphabet were dispatched to the boundary in short time. Eli Hong won the buzzer race for the next starter, knowing that the family of mammals including weasels and stoats are mustelids. Sadly the bonuses did not ask one of my favourite questions – what is the difference between weasels and stoats? Well weasels are weasily recognised, but stoats are stotally different. Aye thenk yow. Prominent people who share a given name did see my opening burst of 7 on the bounce peter out rather dismally. I’ll leave you to guess which of the two Hannahs I didn’t know. Peterhouse had that, but Edgars and Amys went begging. It was worth sticking with the next question  and holding your nerve, as it did eventually mention Monte Cervino, and as many people know, that’s the Matterhorn. Lewis Thomas certainly knew it for Edinburgh. Sweden and Switzerland in the 20^th century brought them another full house, and rather impressed JP in the process. So to the picture starter, and a county highlighted on a map of England. Ben Russell Jones was close-but-no-cigared with Bedfordshire, while Beatrix Huisson scored a bullseye with Buckinghamshire. For the bonuses, other places associated with lace making were highlighted. Peterhouse managed one. This meant that at just past the 10 minute mark, they led with 50 to 45. They’d outscored Edinburgh 3 – 2 on starters, but profligacy with bonuses meant that this was looking like a tight contest.

Lewis Thomas grabbed the lead for Edinburgh by recognising that Le Roi Soleil, or Louis XIV, was the answer to the next starter. Technical terms beginning with the same three letters saw them take a third consecutive full house of bonuses. Lewis Thomas showed some really nifty buzzing recognising the start of the subtitle of Brideshead Revisited before I did. I did think that parallel worlds in fiction might give me a shout – but it was (for me) the wrong kind of fiction, although to be fair I did know Stranger Things. Lewis Thomas took his hattrick knowing that lagopus mutus is the ptarmigan. Here's a quiz history fact. After World War II Penguin launched an imprint specifically for quiz and puzzle books called Ptarmigan, in the same way that Puffins were for children, and Pelicans non-fiction. I don’t think that the imprint lasted very long – I’ve only ever found 9 books that were published under it. Which has nothing whatsoever to do with the bonuses on philosophers which furnished Edinburgh with a further 2 correct answers. In the space of 4 minutes Edinburgh had opened a 65 point lead, and things were looking ominous for Peterhouse. For the music starter Ben Russell Jones recognised the unmistakeable voice of Billie Holiday. She was singing the state song of Georgia. More state songs didn’t do either of us many favours – like me, Edinburgh could only recognise Louis Armstrong. Ben Russell Jones recognised a description of Cardigan Bay to take his second starter on the bounce. Diseases with names that are commonly plural forms saw Edinburgh take two of the three, and to be fair, I didn’t know yaws either. What’s yaws?, as you might say. And yet the agony continued for Peterhouse, as skipper Rishi Sundar correctly gave the name of Arrhenius as the scientist who won the 1903 Nobel Prize for something or other. English towns ending in -ham with notable parish churches brought just the one bonus, but it was all starting to look increasingly academic at this point. Al Karunaratne recognised the name of a space centre that is in the United Arab Emirates. This meant that every member of Edinburgh had now scored at least one starter since Peterhouse had managed their last one. ‘Orange’ in History saw Edinburgh take another full house, to put them just one starter away from a double hundred on 190. This middle ten minutes of the contest had been that relative rarity, a complete shutout as Peterhouse remained on 50.

I read “The Underground Railroad” a couple of years ago, so recognised it in the next starter. So did Ben Russell Jones. A relatively gentle set on Geography gave a full house. For the second picture starter we were shown an abstract painting by Tracy Emin. “No,” intoned JP, “It’s by Tracy Emin and it’s Ruined”. Was there a hint of irony there, Jez? None of us got that one. At last Peterhouse won a buzzer race as Lucy Hart buzzed into give the answer ‘Axion’ to the next starter. Wasn’t he defeated by the Third Doctor, played by Jon Pertwee? The picture bonuses, showing work by other artists who had works exhibited alongside Tracy Emin’s, saw them take a quick full house. To be fair they needed a few more of those to give them a hope of a repechage slot, but at least it was possible. For the next starter, both teams displayed enviable nerve in waiting and waiting, but almost inevitably as soon as the name Batavia made the question clear it was Lewis Thomas who buzzed in with Jakarta. Now, it had been a long time coming, but knowing that the shape of the area where two circles intersect is called a lune brought me my first opportunity for a lap of honour around the sofa, and I’m not the kind of chap to turn my nose up at that. Edinburgh only took the one bonus, but by now it was all academic anyway. I didn’t really get the next question, but Rishi Sundar said the answer was Hilbert and that was good enough for Jeremy P so it was good enough for me. Former names of capital or former capital cities brought another 2, and at this stage a potential 300 points did not look totally impossible. Lewis Thomas, who’d had a splendid match, worked out that the word libertine was the one derived from a term for a freed slave in Ancient Rome. Things mentioned in Charlotte Bronte’s “Jane Eyre” brought two bonuses. Trying for the full set to take Edinburgh to 300, Rishi Sundar came in too early for the next starter, losing 5. They could afford it. I’ll be honest, I didn’t understand the question, but Lucy Hart came in with a superbly precise answer with decimal points and minus numbers. Words that appear in the title of the Japanese video game franchise Tales Of sadly did not offer Peterhouse the chance to increase their score, as we were gonged with the score on 270 – 80 to Edinburgh.

I don’t really know what went wrong with Peterhouse. Only they could say whether it was a case of genuinely not having a Scooby about all of those starters, or whether Edinburgh really were that much faster on the buzzer. It’s hard lines, because I got the feeling they were better than the score suggested.

As for Edinburgh, though, well they looked pretty much as good as the score suggested. They have buzzing throughout the team, and cover quite a wide range of ground. Time will tell whether they can outbuzz other teams the way that they outbuzzed Peterhouse, but you have to say that based on this showing, they do look a bit tasty.

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

John Ruskin swooned the first time he saw Grantham Parish Church. Silly sod.