University Challenge First Round Heat 10, St. John's, Cambridge v. Imperial

The Teams

St. John’s Cambridge

Thomas Clark

Louis George

Jonathan Chan (capt)

Kyanna Ouyang

Imperial

Max Zeng

Fatima Sheriff

Michael Mays (capt)

Gilbert Jackson

 The shame of it. The BBC takes Mastermind off for a fortnight of Test Cricket – and then the second of the two tests is cancelled. Doesn’t mean that they do the decent thing and bring Mastermind back a week early, mind you. Thank heavens for Only Connect, then and University Challenge. Last night pitted St. John’s, Cambridge against Imperial, once of the University of London but since 2006 and independent institution in its own right. 

Fatima Sheriff drew first blood, recognising the word Park from a series of clues. I was far too slow on this one, and so my run of correct answers didn’t so much come to a grinding halt this week as never even make a grinding start. They picked up two bonuses on Samuel Coleridge Taylor, but missed out on the performing rights society. Good early buzzing from Louis George opened St. John’s’ account when he buzzed early to identify events that happened in 2013. French physicist Emilie du Chatelet promised me but little, yet the first bonus earned me this week’s lap of honour around the Clark sofa for knowing Isaac Newton’s Principia Mathematica. We both took two bonuses to leave the teams tied. I made the same mistake as Gilbert Jackson with the next starter. When asked about notable buildings in the Derby Gothic style – no, me neither – when I heard the name Ribblehead I too went for viaducts. St. John’s couldn’t capitalise. We were close but no cigar. First in for the next starter to identify the breed of collie was the Imperial skipper Michael Mays. Bonuses on the Musee Marmotan – I guess visitors either love it or hate it – largely passed them by. The picture starter was a UC special, showing two countries, the flags of the neighbouring countries, and asking which one country lay geographically between the two. I had Poland, but the bonuses, more of the same, showed Max Zeng is a master at this sort of question. On the three bonuses – more of the same – if we’d both been greyhounds he’d have caught the electric hare before I was even out of the trap. Highly impressive. It meant that as we approached the ten minute mark Imperial led by 55 – 20.

That man Zeng again took the next starter knowing that two battles mentioned took place near the city of Prague. Bonuses on Ancient India saw all other Imperial heads turn to Max Zeng, and he didn’t let them down, swatting all three bonuses to the boundary. Something was needed from St. John’s and it came in the shape of a very speedy buzz from skipper Jonathan Chan, who won the buzzer race to say that it was Turner who was strapped to the mast in a thunderstorm. (That was his story). Birds on the red list of conservation concern of the RSPB saw them take just the one bonus, but at least the scoreboard was moving again for them. Fatima Shariff recognised John Polidori’s work I think which led her to say that the next starter required the answer of Vampire. Three questions followed on words that look as if they are oxymorons based on their etymology saw Imperial take another rfull house, thank you very much. Yet again the reply came from St. John’s in the form of very sharp buzzing by the captain, who worked out that the culinary herb made from two personal pronouns is thyme. Great question, great buzzing. Two bonuses took them to 55, but the gap to Imperial was looking ominous still. Nobody recognised the work of Liszt for the next starter, however the moment JP mentioned the Sorceror’s Apprentice during the next starter I would imagine that voices throughout the land were suddenly shouting “Fantasia!” at the screen. I was. Jonathan Chan won that particular buzzer race to earn the music bonuses. Symphonic poems influenced by Liszt were on the liszt for the bonuses. Which did no good for me, but saw Jonathan Chan consolidate the excellent evening he was having by taking all three. However the next starter was on Geography, a subject which Max Zeng was proving ubeatable on and he quickly identified Uzbekistan as the answer to the nest starter. A tricky set on literature saw them take just the one bonus. Taking their atomic numbers, what element is calcium minus fluorine? Working out 20 – 9 and then working out that number 11 is sodium, all before Max Zeng buzzed in with the same answer, well, I’m very sorry, but if that isn’t enough to earn me my second lap of honour, then I don’t know what is. I took it, anyway. All of which meant I was too knackered to properly listen to the bonuses on mathematical notation, but whatever they were, Imperial had a full house. I thought that both teams sat on their buzzers a bit for the next starter but as soon as it became obvious we were talking about the Battle of Waterloo, Michael Mays won that buzzer race. We got crabs for the bonuses. Ooh, Matron. We both took a full house with that set. All of which meant that as we were on the cusp of the 20 minute mark, Imperial had a match winning lead of 170 – 80.

Which didn’t mean that the remainder of the contest was without interest. St. John’s might not win, but they had every chance of claiming a repechage slot if they could keep slinging buzzer. Jonathan Chan, as he had done all evening, showed the way by buzzing early to identify the second picture starter as the work of Gauguin. Three other works depicting washerwomen brought us both two correct answers. Now, if I said ‘Italian Lake’ and ‘Law enforcement agency’ how quickly would you come up with Garda? Max Zeng beat me to it. Three Bergs provided a brace of bonuses, and put Imperial within a starter of 200. Nobody knew the prefix yotta. Jonathan Chan knew that Jacques Chirac has been both Prime Minister and President of the Fifth Republic. Scientific terms beginning with ax brought just one bonus – sadly none of them referred to the Claws of Axos from Doctor Who – which I referenced in this very blog last week. It was inevitably Jonathan Chan who won the buzzer race to tell us that the US state with an 11 letter name made up of only 5 different letters was Mississippi. He shook his head ironically when JP announced the bonuses were on card games in works of literature – and yes, St. John’s hadn’t been extremely lucky with the bonuses they were given. No marks to them for not knowing Peter Carey’s Oscar and Lucinda, though. One bonus brought them to 130, and their chances of a repechage slot were looking better all the time. Now, be honest. Did you shout out “Dambusters” when the next starter began with ‘Operation Chastise-‘? I did, and threw away an answer, since what was wanted was the name of the secret weapon involved. Louis George came in a raction of a second too early and lost 5 valuable points. Gilbert Jackson mopped that one up with the correct answer of the bouncing bomb. Two bonuses took them to 210. Jonathan Chan pushed his team to probable qualification for the repechage round by answering the next starter that called for quarts and quartz. Bonuses on River saw them drop a couple of answers – no prizes at all for saying that the Dee runs through the Clark ancestral hometown of Dundee. Right, I have a story about the Peter Pomegranate. We were asked pretty much the same question once in a CIU Wales and West of England quiz. My dear mate John said the Mary Rose, and was pretty certain, only to be overruled by my brilliant but wayward friend George Sheldrick. Needless to say, we lost by that one point. I always said that if you cut John open – please don’t – but if you did you would find the words Peter Pomegranate engraved on his heart. Any road up, my man Chan had that one. A UC special set on monarchies and the periodic table took their score to 155. The last buzz of the evening saw St. John’s lose 5, but they should still be fine. Imperial won with 210. 

I can’t help wonder if St. John’s kept their skipper under 24 hour surveillance to make sure nothing could happen to prevent him playing in he repechage. He really was all of his team’s buzzing, a fine individual performance. As for Imperial, this was a strong performance, especially considering the way that St. John’s refused to make it an easy win for them. Best of luck to both teams.

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

A factor of 10 to the power of 24 is denoted by the prefix – yotta. That’s a helluva yotta noughts. Aye thenk yow and goodnight.