University Challenge 2022 - Quarter Final - St. John's v. Trinity

The Teams

St. John’s. Cambridge

Thomas Clark

Louis George

Jonathan Chan (Capt.)

Kyanna Ouyang

Trinity, Cambridge

Hattie Innes

Navonil Neogi

Ludwig Brekke (Capt.)

Luke Kim

Shall we cast an eye over the form book, dearly beloved? St. John’s are arguably the more battle hardened team, having lost twice, but won through from the first round repechage, before losing their first QF to Emmanuel. Trinity had made sweet progress, before suffering the wrath of the mighty Edinburgh team in their own first QF. You pays yer money . . .

I did think that both teams sat on their buzzers a little for the first starter. When you hear the name Carrara, that ought to be the signal for you to buzz in with ‘marble’. When the question finished, Jonathan Chan was first to chance his arm, supplying the correct answer. Foodstuffs that form the titles of books yielded just one bonus. Neither team knew that the Spanish word for the mouth of a river is Ria. Nobody knew the term abscissa for the next starter either. However, Jonathan Chan did know that Cape Farewell is the tip of Greenland. Scientific terms beginning with hap – gave St. John’s a full house, and meant that last week’s lap of honour free zone was a one off, since haploid set me off around the sofa. A good fast buzz by Navonil Neogi saw him identify the first lines of Camus’ The Plague. County tops bonuses stubbornly yielded just the one correct answer. Thomas Clark knew that the drosophilia order of insects take their name from words meaning dew loving. Bonuses on 1982 in literature brought 2 correct answers. So, as we approached the 10 minute mark, St. John’s had comfortably had the best of the opening exchanges, and led by 60 – 15.

The first picture starter saw Luke Kim identify Lake Baikal from a map. Good shout, that. Three more lakes, each being the deepest of its respective continent brought a full house, making a significant inroad into the St. John’s lead. Various Browns took another ten point chunk out of it was Ludwig Brekke won that buzzer race. Shipwrecks listed as protected wrecks by Historic England brought two correct answers, which gobbled up the rest of the lead. All square. Jonathan Chan recognised a reference to the ever popular Interrobang. Science stuff beginning with c brought just the one bonus. A science starter about the number of Newtons needed to do something or over passed by all of us. Luke Kim recognised several things which all occurred in the 1510s. 2 bonuses gave Trinity the lead for the first time. This lead increased when Ludwig Brekke very quickly recognised Sia for the music starter. Bonuses followed on 2 songs each, looking for the artist performing the first of each, who also wrote for the artist performing the second. None of them did any good for any of us. The next starter gave us some pretty good clues to Wuthering Heights, but neither team could get it. Neither team could get that the Daniel K. Inouye telescope in Hawaii is used to study the Sun. Louis George stopped the rot, buzzing in early to identify the subject of The Black Jacobins as the Haitian Revolution. Two bonuses were just enough to give St. John’s back the lead, and just approaching the 20 minute mark the score was 95 to 90.

Louis George also knew a string of Italian words beginning with fo. Fo’ sure. Diseases and their vectors brought a timely full house. Luke Kim took a flier on the next starter which alluded to a group of elements on the Periodic table, zigging with noble gases, which allowed Jonathan Chan to zag with halogens. We had literature in 1983 earlier, and now we had bonuses of international events of 1981. Two bonuses were taken, and suddenly the St. John’s lead was looking ominous. Nobody recognised the work of Ohara Koson. Jonathan Chan seemed convinced that his answer to the next starter, histology, was wrong. Well he was wrong about that. This earned bonuses on works in the kocho – e genre depicting birds and flowers. St. John’s only managed one, but the lead was growing, and the time remaining was shrinking. Various works linked to the words ‘How to’ gave Ludwig Brekke the chance to strike back for Trinity. They could have done with a full house, but a difficult set on collaborative fiction only yielded one correct answer while eating up precious time. Nobody knew the next starter about the Vendee. Nobody knew the next starter about the way CS Lewis used the word drab either. Luke Kimm knew that the River Shannon rises in County Cavan. One bonus on Hng Kong was not enough, even though Luke Kim won the buzzer race to identify electrons for the next starter. There was no time for Science bonuses. The contest ended, with St. John’s winning with 155 – 125.

Bad luck Trinity – never an easy team to beat, but they can be pleased with the fight they put up. Well done St. John’s – one more win and the semi finals await.

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

Sorry – nothing stood out for me this week, although there were plenty of things I didn’t already know.