University Challenge 2022: Round Two: Kings, London v. Hertford, Oxford

The Details

King's, London

Ananth Sathyanath

Rachel Bedwin

Ashad Rashid (capt)

Oliver Beard

Hertford College Oxford

Matt Hitchens,

Bridget Donaldson

Matthew Lloyd (capt)

Lucy Oswald

Well, hello, dearly beloved. Shall we took a look at what the form book said prior to last night’s match? King's College London came from behind to score a narrow win of 115-100 over Glasgow. Hertford beat the London Business School by 180-100. Working on this evidence, you’d have placed the mantle of favourites on the collective shoulders of Hertford, prior to the match.

The first starter was taken by a very good early buzz by Ashad Rashid to identify the Antarctic Treaty. This brought the team some bonuses on Eric Blair – or George Orwell to his readers. The first two were guessable, but missed, so they took just the one on The Road To Wigan Pier. With the next question, Ashad Rashid showed the invaluable skill of waiting until the answer to a starter became obvious, and then buzzing in a split second ahead of everyone else. He knew that it was Marlowe who wrote about a Carthaginian Queen, amongst others. Bonuses on 17^th Century mathematicians didn’t do great things for either of us, although I was perfectly ready to take a lap of honour for guessing Isaac Newton for the last – which incidentally was the only one that Kings managed. Had I not already taken a lap of honour already I would definitely have taken one for guessing the Greater Magellanic cloud for the next starter. This one also gave the Kings skipper his hattrick, achieved with the first three starters of the competition, no less. National character areas, or NCA’s brought a timely full house to Kings, and allowed them to reap the benefits of their habit of discussing each bonus thoroughly before plumping for an answer. This brought us to the picture starter, which saw Ananth Sathyanath correctly identify that the three US cities marked on the map each had names that began with the word San. The bonuses were all cities linked by a common suffix. They got villes, missed lands, and then took polises. This meant that by the ten minute mark Kings had managed to completely shut out Hertford. So much for the form book, and one sensed JP’s ‘plenty of time to get going’ was sitting on the launching pad.

A rush of blood to the head saw Ananth Sathyanath come in far too early for the next starter, losing 5 points and allowing Hertford time to recognise that the clues were all pointing to the name Leigh. Matt Hitchens took that one, and thus earned bonuses on Timbuktu. Sadly they didn’t ask which welsh town is its twin town – Hay on Wye. Hertford took the first two, but missed on the old chestnut about the stage musical based on the music of Borodin – Kismet. Still, Hertford were at least on the march now, and Kings weren’t as far ahead as they might have been had they been less profligate with their bonuses. Bridget Donaldson recognised that the next starter was referring to an Australian. Two bonuses followed on Nobel Prize winners. The gap was narrowed further when Matthew Lloyd recognised a description of William Cobbett’s Rural Rides (which apparently was not a list of milkmaids with whom he was intimately acquainted. Sorry, one from the blue book slipped in there. Normal service will now be resumed.) Philosophers beginning with An brought two bonuses and cut the gap to 10 points. Nobody recognised a Shostakovitch Waltz for the music starter. Now, if you get a question asking about a person, and the word ‘incorruptible’ comes up, you have to slam the buzzer down and give the answer Robespierre. Oliver Beard didn’t slam the buzzer, but he did win the race to give that very answer, bringing a halt to the Hertford charge. This earned the dubious reward of the music bonuses, three tracks showing the influence of jazz upon classical music. Kings followed my ‘if it’s an American classical composer give Copland a shout” tactic and thus gained a correct answer. This was the only one they got, but they were in the lead, and going forward again. Don’t ask me about methanoic acid, but Rachel Bedwin knew all about it, and gave it as the correct answer to the next starter. Astrobiology bonuses did not exactly sound full of Eastern promise, and indeed Kings failed to trouble the scorer on this visit to the table. The next starter was one of those which suddenly becomes obvious, and it was that man Rashid who again timed his buzz to perfection, knowing that if it’s an exclamation, and a work by Handel, it’s Hallelujah! Another type of music altogether provided bonuses on the Mercury Prize. A couple of correct answers saw Kings stretch the lead a little ore, so that by the 20 minute mark they led by 115 to 60.

Time remained for Hertford to haul them in again, but they needed to win some more buzzer races to have a chance. Needless to say that although Matthew Llyod knew the rock hewn churches in Ethiopia, he lost the buzzer race to his opposite number, Ashad Rashid, whi was having a good night on the buzzer. A full set for Kings on words ending with ‘ulate’ didn’t help Hertford at all. Interesting, whythehellareulate? was not one of them.You had to feel for Matthew Lloyd with the next starter. Asked to identify a self portrait of Albrecht Durer he pounced on the buzzer only to find that Oliver Beard had beaten him to it. Three more self portraits in which the artists depicted themselves in he guise of religious figures brought just one bonus, but with the lead standing at 95, you had to fancy that Kings were pretty much over the event horizon. The lead was stretched further when Ashad Rashid buzzed in with deciles for the next starter. Bonuses on Greek Islands led the skipper to observe ‘we’re really bad at bonuses’ – which was being a little harsh. They weren’t particularly good with bonuses last night, achieving, I’d guess, a bonus conversion rate of roughly 50%, but it was good enough. Mind you, they didn’t get any of this set. Matt Hitchens knew that the king at the heart of the all the Thomas Becket unpleasantness was Henry II. Science bonuses connected with words beginning with Pt brought another two correct answers. I shouldn’t be surprised if Hertford’s bonus conversion rate was better than their opponents. However, they weren’t getting enough starters for this to count. Some philosophy thing about Hume’s Law or Hume’s guillotine Brought Matt Hitchens a second consecutive starter. Winners of the Nebula Award for Science Fiction didn’t help their cause much, only bringing one correct answer. I was pleased with myself for working out that haloclasty means weathering by salt for the next starter. Matthew Lloyd took that one. Words that contain all  vowels only once brought two bonuses, but that was it, and the gong announced that Kings had won by 165 to 115.

Hard lines, Hertford. They were going for the buzzer, but just kept getting beaten to it by Kings. It happens, and there’s nothing you can do about it. You went down fighting and have nothing to be ashamed about. As for Kings, very well done, and best of luck in the quarters.

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

The infinity sign was created by 17^th century English mathematician John Wallis