University Challenge 2022: Round 2: Birmingham v. St. Andrews

The Teams

Birmingham

Mark McParlan

John Robinson

Michael Joel Bartelle (capt)

Jaimy Sajit

St. Andrews

Alastair Fennell

Harry Alderson

Jack Wigg (capt)

Aine McMenamin

This was the last heat before the UC at Christmas romps take over for the festive season, so let’s make the most of it. The form guide tells us that Birmingham thrashed Sussex by 245-10. Which isn’t really helpful as a guide to form, since we just don’t know whether Sussex were just not any good on the buzzer, or whether Birmingham were out of this world. One the other side of the coin, St. Andrews squeaked past Emmanuel 140 – 135, which at least showed they have a certain amount of grit if put under pressure.

With the first starter, the moment the Royal Engineers were mentioned among a list of seemingly unconnected organisations I knew we were dealing with the first FA Cup. Mark McParlan was the first to buzz in to open Birmingham’s account. They added to it with one bonus on Medieval Britain. The next starter had a long preamble until it became obvious we were looking for USVP Kamala Harris. Michael Joel Bartelle won that particular buzzer race. Areas of Australian states and territories brought two correct answers. Harry Alderson made an early attempt to stop the Birmingham charge by buzzing in too early on the next starter about a composer, leaving the skipper to take his second consecutive starter with Mussorgsky. Bonuses on botanical terms brought us both just the one correct answer with rhizome. For the picture starter we saw the flags of San Marino and the Vatican. I answered Italy/Italian, confident that the question either wanted the country they both bordered, or the language they shared. It was the language required, and Harry Alderson was first to buzz in correctly. With the bonuses that followed I could identify the flags, but not always the shared non European language. I thought that St. Andrews did well to take two. Now, I’m sorry, but if a starter has the words ‘now familiar equation’ in it, I’m going for E=MC squared every day of the week. So did John Robinson, and we were both right. French composers with names beginning with M yielded neither of us any points. So, as we approached the 10 minute mark, Birmingham had established a comfortable lead with 65 – 15.

The next starter was a UC special giving definitions of teasel, weasel and Rudolf Diesel, and asked for any two of the set. Aine McMenamin provided the 2^nd and 3^rd. November 9^th in German History added just the one bonus to their total. Still, at least they were hitting the buzzer with more accuracy now. Alastair Fennell was first to recognise two poems written by different Emilys – Bronte and Dickinson (who was the great, great grandmother of Iron Maiden frontman Bruce Dickinson. Did you know that? Not surprised, since I just made it up.) Bonuses on Physics brought me nowt, and although St. Andrews only managed 1, it still brought the gap down to 20 points. It widened immediately, though, when John Robinson correctly identified Svalbard as the archipelago of which Spitsbergen is a part. Bonuses on 2020 Nobel laureate Louise Gluck brought us both our first full house of the evening, and seemed to extinguish the flame of St. Andrews' resistance. Harry Alderson buzzed in very early for the music starter and offered Beethoven. This is not actually a bad tactic, especially if your team does not have a music specialist – it’s as often going to be Beethoven as it’s going to be any other specific composer. But it wasn’t this time. To be fair, it didn’t take Michael Joel Bartelle much longer to identify Bach correctly. 3 other recordings made in Columbia’s 30^th Street Studio brought a single bonus, but Birmingham were through the 100 points barrier, and extending the lead. John Robinson was the first to buzz with the names of Puma and Adidas, two sportswear companies founded in Germany in the 1900s. Symbols in physical science provided perhaps my finest hour of this show. You had to take the letter used to symbolise an SI unit, and then give the chemical element whose symbol it was. For capacitance I had fluorine, for Inductance I had hydrogen and for power, Tungsten. Honestly – a full house! If I could have managed a triple lap of honour around the sofa, I would have done, but 1 had to suffice. Alright, Birmingham also managed a full house. Fair play to St. Andrews, they were still plugging away and Harry Alderson buzzed in to identify Nauru as the world’s smallest republic. Bonuses on words beginning with – theo – provided a further  points to their total. Neither team managed the mathematical/geometry thing which provided the next starter. As soon as the name Milton Obote was mentioned in the next starter a buzzer race ensued, won by John Robinson who correctly identified the country in question as Uganda. Double Oscar winning film directors brought them another full house, which meant that they led by 10 – 60 at the 20 minute mark.

Michael Joel Bartelle knew that the building known as the Turning Torso is in Malmo to stretch this lead to 100 points. They avoided a duck on bonuses on ducks, taking one for dabbling ducks. They’re the ones which don’t exactly throw themselves into being ducks. The Birmingham skipper was far too fast for everyone else when we saw the 2^nd picture starter. Yes, it seemed obviously the work of Van Gogh, but while the rest of us were realising this, he had already buzzed in and said it. The bonuses were nothing like as easily recognised and I thought Birmingham did well to get one of them. When it’s not your night it’s not your night, and I felt for Alastair Fennell. Given a series of names of what were obviously either pacemakers or defibrillators he zigged with pacemakers, allowing Jaimy Sajit to zag with defibrillators. It didn’t bring them any joy with the set of bonuses on minerals, mind you, but they were far enough ahead it was all surely academic by this stage. Neither team recognised the term bucolic for the next starter. I’ll be honest, I did think that an opera containing the character Phillip II of Spain was a bit of a giveaway, but no buzzer race ensued. Harry Alderson speculated first, before Michael Joel Bartelle offered the correct answer of Don Carlos with a hands open gesture, seeming to be surprised that it was right. That took Birmingham past 200. Fictional political movements brought two correct answers and a very facetious answer that JP himself might have written a 1928 work by Aldous Huxley. In terms of European capitals, John Robinson was the first to work out that if D is C and P is both W and L, then H is B. Hungary and Budapest, don’t you know. Birmingham missed out on the first bonus on the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich before the contest was buzzed, leaving them winners by 225 to 50.

Hard lines to St. Andrews, a better team who put on a better performance than their bare scoreline suggests. No doubt about the winners though. Birmingham go through to the quarters with a second consecutive 200 plus performance. Well done!

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

Svalbard means Cold Coast.