University Challenge 2024: First Round - Sheffield v. Loughborough

The Teams

Sheffield

Safia Rujack

Joseph McGough

Cameron Colclough (Capt.)

Matthew Nail

Loughborough

James Jones

Rachael Alvey

Tudor Simmons Capt)

Milan Campion

How you doing? Me? Well, I shan’t be going to Aberdare tonight, that’s for sure, no disrespect intended. But let’s get to the job in hand. The first starter asked about a word linking several things. It was obvious the second was the Giants Causeway and the third the James Dean film Giant. Well, neither team quite got it. The second starter was clearly about Around the World in Eighty Days and fell to Safia Rujak, who was to have a good night on the buzzer. Bonuses on Caribbean countries and airports brought a couple of correct answers. Captain Tudor Simmons came in too early for the Cavalier Parliament on the next starter, allowing Joseph McGough to steal. Questions on Arabic brought a bonus. Matthew Nail knew that Pac Man was released in 1980. I thought he just escaped. A nice UC set on works of art and the US president in office when they were made brought just the one bonus. Nonetheless Sheffield had established buzzer dominance and were forging ahead. The picture starter highlighted an SSSI which was clearly the Wash. This brought first points for Loughborough, and a further two bonuses. Cameron Colclough worked out that vanilla was the species of cultivated orchid referred to in the next starter. Apples in biology brought a single bonus on a gettable set. The Woodland Trust brought a correct answer to Milan Campion and a full house on football related terms that entered the OED in 2022 meant that they trailed by 65 – 40 at the ten-minute mark.

Safia Rujak new that if you put a a spoon made of gallium in a hot cup of tea it would seem to disappear. Rock and pop musicians from the Nordic countries brought a full house to Sheffield. My Goldsmiths College contemporary Damien Hirst was the answer to the next starter, provided by Joseph McGough. Classical languages of India brought another couple of bonuses. Cameron Colclough worked out that Surrey was the answer to the cricket questions that followed. A set of bonuses on film and TV adaptations brought another full house. In the space of just a few minutes the lead had almost grown to a hundred. The music starter brought an early buzz from Safia Rujak with Girl in Red. More examples of bedroom pop brought another full house. This was proving to be a real power play from Sheffield, who were swiftly heading for the event horizon. Itt was somehow inevitable that Matthew Nail would push them further by buzzing in early to identify that the people mentioned in the next starter had all been subjects of movies by Steve McQueen. Shorter words that can be formed using the letters of anticlimax were a nice UC special set. I awarded myself a lap of honour for axial – especially considering that Sheffield missed it. Joseph McGough knew that the capital of Burkina Faso begins with OU – Ouagadougou (all together now – Too shy, shy – hush, hush, eye to eye. Ask your grandparents.) Bonuses on curries saw Sheffield miss out on the old quiz chestnut dopiaza, and also the even older quiz chestnut on Balti. An unfeasibly long Science question flummoxed all of us for the next starter. Safia Rujak knew the musician Sophie for the next starter. Eve, the 2019 album by US musician Rapsody saw a welcome name check for my favourite Egyptian Pharaoh Hatshepsut, who so rarely comes up in conversation nowadays, more’s the pity. I had a full house, while Sheffield managed the other two. Matthew Nail knew that St. Francis and two others are associated with Assisi. World heritage sites in France brought two more correct answers. This meant that Sheffield led by almost 200 points at the 20 minute mark – 230 – 35. It would need more than the Force to being Loughborough back now.

Still the onslaught continued. Safia Rujak recognised a still from ‘A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night’. They didn’t mention the less successful sequel ‘The Bleedin’ Tube was on strike and the bus was Cancelled.’3 more ‘post-horror’ films brought a full house, and the distinct possibility that Sheffield might reach the rarely achieved score of 300. Matthew Nail took another starter next to push them closer knowing Caroline of Anspach was consort to George II. Riz Ahmed brought a couple of bonuses. Sheffield were just a ful house away from 300. It was this point that Amol’s Jedi encouragement a few minutes earlier began to take effect. Milan Campion weighed in with the term ‘machine learning’. I liked the idea of aptronyms and Loughborough took two of them. Halfway through the next question captain Tudor Simmons weighed in with null hypothesis. Glass production only brought a single bonus. Milan Campion won the buzzer race to identify Brazil s the only country through which both the Equator and Tropic of Capricorn pass. Algebra questions were meat and drink to James Jones and Loughborough took a full house. And Loughborough charged onwards, with Milan Campion identifying the Zulu people for the next starter. Musical works and the decades of their composition kept the score moving along. Surely they couldn’t sneak a repechage slot at this late stage? Well, no, not when the Sheffield skipper decided enough was enough and took the next starter recognising stages in the production of paper. Literature and writing in 1522 gave just time for one correct answer before the gong struck.

Sheffield won by 290 – 115. In his comments to the team Amol kindly pointed out that Loughborough were going for the buzzer but being beaten in the race many times. Loughborough did achieve 72 percent conversion rate on their bonuses, however there weren’t a huge number of them to judge from. Sheffield’s 67 percent conversion was impressive considering just how many bonuses they answered. One to watch? Most definitely.

How is Amol Doing?

It wasn’t until just after the 15 minute mark that Jedi Amol dropped the ‘plenty of time in it’ bomb. For once there was. It didn’t seem to work, though. In fact it was not more than 4 minutes later that he redoubled his efforts with ‘see if you can get going with this.’ It did kick in a few minutes later, but too late for Loughborough. The jedi council will be looking into this, I’m sure.

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

Pac Man was released in the same year that Small Pox was announced as eradicated.

Baby Elephant Walk Moment

Try this one for size – “Which law of electromagnetism is mathematically expressed solely by the minus sign in Faraday’s Law of Induction? Stated qualitatively, it states that an induced current will flow in such a way that it opposes the flow that induced it.” Altogether now – dum de dumdum dumdum dumdum dum dum.