University Challenge Quarter Final Play Off - Newnham, Cambridge v. Southampton

The Teams

Newnham, Cambridge

Bethan Holloway-Strong

Hannah Bowen

Roma Ellis (Capt.)

Chen Zhiyu

Southampton

Ethan Lyon

Magda Steele

Dom Belcher (Capt.)

Elliot Miles

Well, how are you? It’s been a long time, waiting for the bloody snooker to finish. We find ourselves in the salubrious environs of the last chance saloon, and our drinking partners none other than Southampton and the ever-entertaining Newnham. Newnham had their best performance last time out, and if they could reproduce that form, then this could be a tough ask for Southampton.

First blood was taken by Newnham when Hannah Bowen supplied the term Sturm und Drang. Post War Europe, in particular that well known oxymoron the German Democratic Republic, brought 2 out of 3 bonuses. Various geographical locations in the UK linked by the word black brought Newnham’s star buzzer, skipper Roma Ellis into the game. Time travelling literature brought another two bonuses. So far, so good for Newnham. It’s a bit of a simplification to say that if a starter asks for a French philosopher, then it’s a straight choice between Descartes, Voltaire and Derrida, but there’s a grain of truth in it. Dom Belcher came in with Derrida for he next starter and he was right to do so. Southampton then faced bonuses on diseases and took a full house on them. Timely. Had Newnham taken a third consecutive starter without reply, it might well have changed the complexion of the whole contest. Chen Zhiyu made the mistake that many have made before of giving the country – Hungary in this case – when the capital had been asked for. This lost five points and allowed Dom Belcher a free shot, and he duly obliged with Budapest. Moral philosophical theory bonuses yielded nowt to any of us. The picture starter showed us script in a computer programming language. Look, if it ain’t BASIC I don’t know it. Dom Belcher identified it as C++. As an answer I would have given it at least an A-. They took two bonuses with other languages and my tactic of answering BASIC to each of them paid off with the third. Thus as we approached ten minutes Southampton had pulled into the lead with 55 – 35.

Don’t ask me about the question which led Magda Steele to answer with gene drive, but it was right, and continued the Southampton surge. Solar physics was beyond me and beyond Southampton too. No bonuses. Roma Ellis struck back for Newnham recognising a quote from Mary Wollstonecraft referring to imagination. There was me thinking it was by Belouis Some (a little 80s humour there for us oldies). Hindi and Urdu words used in English brought a couple of bonuses to keep the competition relatively tight. ‘Silent Prayer’ as the original title of a piece of music really suggested 4 33 to me, and to Roma Ellis as well. The Newnham skipper seemed to be warming up. Were Newnham about to become another team Roma Ellised out of the competition? Well, first there was a set of bonuses on birds of sub-Saharan Africa, which didn’t provide any more points. With the music starter, Ethan Lyon came in extremely swiftly to identify the work of Philip Glass. Other operas providing leading roles for countertenors provided just ne bonus. I got the same by the simple tactic of answering Benjamin Britten to each of them. I did know that Pan Paniscus is the bonobo, and that the only vowel in the word is o. So did Dom Belcher for the next starter. They didn’t manage any bonuses on the works of Linda Colley. So neither team seemed able to capitalise at the moment on good work on the buzzer. Hannah Bowen came in too early for the next starter on a French mathematician and lost five. Southampton could not provide the name Lissajous. 1873 – Russian – pianist – composer. Well, you would shout Rachmaninoff, wouldn’t you, because if it wasn’t right, it flipping well should be. It was right and Ethan Lyons had it. Some maths thing provided the bonuses of which Dom Belcher took the last. This meant that the score at the 20 minute mark stood at Southampton 100, Newnham 60. Still less than 2 full sets between both teams.

Again, Ethan Lyons buzzed in very quickly to identify Sisyphus as the figure from Greek mythology written about by Albert Camus. 20^th century American poets brough one bonus, but did mean that Newnham were going to need several unanswered trips to the table to overhaul Southampton. For the second picture starter nobody could identify the work of Giotto. Chen Zhiyu recognised references to the number five in Chinese history. This earned the picture bonuses and Newnham identified two other pictures making heavy use of gold leaf. Hannah Bowen knew the term Nakba to narrow the gap to 30. Sadly, artists yielded no bonuses, so the gap remained at 30. Dom Belcher struck back in timely fashion, identifying Winchester as one of three places beginning with W in the name of a treaty of 1153. Astronomy provided a gettable set of bonuses, but Southampton could only manage one. Nevertheless the clock was running down which was very much in their favour. Roma Ellis knew the term Single Transferable Vote for the next starter. Novels shortlisted for the Booker Prize since 2010 provided one correct answer, and the gap was back to 30. Hannah Bowen identified Mons as the first major battle involving British troops in world war one. The gap was now 20. One bonus brought it down to fifteen. Was there time for one more set? No. Southampton took the win with 135 – 120.

Hard lines Newnham, but a good, close match which is as it should be. Congratulations Southampton. A match won by a slightly better performance on the buzzer. Best of luck in the semis.

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

Edward Micthell-Page is reckoned to have been the first person to write a story involving a time travel device in the 1880s.