University Challenge 2023 Quarter Final Elimination Match - Southampton v. Robert Gordon

The Teams

Southampton

Ethan Lyon

Magda Steele

Dom Belcher (Capt)

Elliot Miles

Robert Gordon

Samuel Fregene

Donald Anderson

Emily Cullen (Capt)

Faye Cooke

The first elimination match of these quarter final stages paired Southampton with Robert Gordon. Southampton were narrowly beaten by Durham in their previous quarter final match, while Robert Gordon were comfortably beaten by Royal Holloway, who qualified for the semi finals just last week. Even before the start of the show my gut feeling was that Southampton would win. Bearing in mind my success rate as a tipster, though . . .

We began with a set of clues towards a series of books linked by the word Little in the title. Emily Cullen had little trouble with that one. If you knew your Greek mythology then the set of bonuses on constellations were very gettable, but unfortunately Bob G. didn’t and failed to add to their score. The forest of Arden and the Ardennes gave Dom Belcher the next starter, while bonuses on a UC special set with pairings of otherwise unliked words that you might see at the top of pages of a dictionary brought two bonuses and the lead. I’ll be honest, it was pure guess that the next starter required Madame Lavoisier – well, I say pure guess, although I knew that the time was right and that anything French and chemistry related from then was probably her hubby. Still took a lap of honour around the sofa for it. Dom Belcher seemed as much stabbing in the dark as I was, but he was right too. Literary theories brought two more bonuses. For the picture starter Elliot Miles identified Max ‘thick as two short’ Planck and the location of the Society named after him. Other German cities with multiple Max Planck Institutes brought a single bonus. This meant that at the 10 minute mark Southampton led by 55 – 10.

Donald Anderson came in too early for the next starter but Southampton couldn’t capitalise by making the link between ennui and boredom. Basically ennui is a better class of boredom. Ethan Lyon made the link between the asteroid Io and the ionosphere for the next starter. Now, that ever popular old chestnut of exogenous growth models in economics did not result in a full house. In fact it did nothing for anyone except running the clock down. I didn’t understand the maths bit of the next starter but I did know that Mr. Happy visits Mr. Miserable. So did Dom Belcher. People born in New York in the twenties gave me nothing, but Southampton did take the first. No disrespect intended, but Southampton certainly were taking their time going into the ins and outs of these bonuses in this match. Emily Cullen came in early for the next starter answering Brazil for the former colony that declared independence from the European country of which it was a colony in 1821. To be fair I would have probably done the same. Given the full question Southampton got the right island but the wrong country. Now, the score was 80 – 0 to Southampton. We were almost exactly halfway through the contest, and Bob G. were having to start from scratch. So Donald Anderson buzzed in early to identify Doric as the word linking Scots and Greek dialects. Famous German telegrams from History saw them take 1, but in all honesty they really could have done better with a very gettable set. Never mind, they were on the way at least. Skipper Emly Culen took the next starter as well, hearing hardly a note of the music starter before identifying the work of Smashing Pumpkins. 3 more songs with videos inspired by particular movies might have worked better had we actually been shown the videos. Nonetheless we boh scored two correct answers with them.Emily Cullen took her double knowing that Marseille are as it stands still the only French club to win the Champions League. Recent Booker nominated novels largely set in countries in Africa brought a couple of bonuses. This meant that the gap was down to a full set of starter and bonuses. However Donald Anderson came in too early for the next starter, and his answer of Czechia probably helped Ethan Lyon identify Slovakia as Eurpoe’s largest producer of cars per capita. Ellipses produced 1 bonus. Interestingly, I did what I always do and answered 1 for a question asking for a value and was right. So it was just past the 20-minute mark and Southampton led 95 – 50.

So to the picture round. Now, a couple of weeks ago when someone answered Kenyatta to a question JP asked which Kenyatta? Last night he accepted just Kenyatta from Elliot Miles. 3 more photos of first presidents of African countries yielded just one bonus, but again ran the clock down. Elliot Miles knew Tunicates are chordata – gesundheit. Death masks brought two bonuses and you sensed that the Bob G revival was over. Dom Belcher knew that the fifteenth letter of the Greek alphabet is omicron and this gave Southampton a set of bonuses on the four stroke era of motorcycle racing. Fair enough. Very much to Elliot Miles’ liking, so it seemed as he took a full set. The gap was now 100 points. Emly Cullen knew that John Banville wrote “The Sea”. Two bonuses on the inspirations for Shakespeare plays followed. Nobody knew the next starter on Tibetan. Dom Belcher made the connection between the Portuguese word for farmhand and the province of Labrador. Lithium brought two bonuses. There remained just enough time for a last number starter which Dom Belcher got. Then the gong and a Southampton win by 180 – 65.

Neither team was either brilliant or disastrous on bonuses, both either just over or just under fifty percent. But clearly Southampton dominated the buzzer, and that was the difference at the end of the day. Hard lines, Robert Gordon, but you made the quarters and nobody can take that away from you.

Interesting Fact that I didn’t Already Know of the Week

The Portuguese word for farmhand closely resembles Labrador.