The Teams
Warwick
James Coe
Luke Beresford
Matthew Bliss (Capt)
Abby Akarapongpisakbi
Wolfson, Cambridge
Scott Wilson
Grace An
Rob Steel-Browne (Capt)
Patrick Pan
Anyone remember Jeremy Paxman? I only ask because It seems
like Amol’s settled so well into his role that it’s like he’s been going for
years. To the contest, then. Empire and Rose Chamber were enough to give me
Ottoman for the first starter. Patrick Pan miscued with Russian, allowing Luke
Beresford in with my answer. This brought Warwick bonuses on the name
Artemisia, a well-crafted set that brought a full house. Poor Patrick Pan came
in too early again for the next starter, offering Confucianism which was almost
the next word in the question. This allowed in Luke Beresford for his double
with Legalism. Notable authors in the Austro-Hungarian Empire announced Amol.
Kafka! Shouted I. Well, he was the last of the set. He was also the only one
either of us answered correctly. Abby Akarapongpisakbi knew that Bartok wrote
the piano pieces known as Mikrokosmos. Works in the Spanish Pavilion of the
1937 Paris Exposition were far less obscure than you might have expected and we
both had a full house. So to the picture starter, and a map with an area
highlighted that was obviously the Gobi Desert. Luke Beresford took his third
with that. The bonuses, other ‘cold’ deserts, were harder than this very gentle
starter, and we both only managed the one. For the next starter none of us were
quite up with the FORTRAN programming language. Finally Wolfson managed a
starter, with captain Rob Steele-Browne knowing that Karl Rove was the
presidential advisor nicknamed Bush’s Brain. Was he a particularly small man,
by any chance? Bonuses on extinct Indo-European languages yielded nowt, leaving
Wolfson still on a deficit budget. But they were out of the traps now, and
Patrick Pan atoned for earlier miscues, knowing that Campari is a main
component of a Negroni cocktail. Sounds disgusting. The letter S in biology
made my brow furrow. There is NO letter S in the word biology. But Wolfson took
two and I took a lap of honour for working out serine. Thanks Mr. Rose (my
latin teacher). This mini revival meant that Wolfson had improved their
situation although Warwick led by 80 – 15.
Patrick Pan took a second consecutive starter with a very
quick buzz to identify the word spot – or do I mean to spot the word identify?
No. Real life scientists and The Simpsons was a lovely set of bonuses of which
Wolfson took a full set. And Wolfson struck again with the next starter,
skipper Steele-Browne knowing Ngugi wa Thiongo’’s debut novel was set in Kenya.
Impressive buzz, that. Works ending with ‘of the Dead’ brought two correct
answers, and a total of 60, just 20 behind Warwick. Then, for the music starter
Patrick Pan only needed about half a note to identify the work of Brahms
(Johannes, I’m guessing, rather than Shirley). Other works written for piano
with four hands brought the two correct answers that Wolfson needed to tie the
scores. And you still don’t believe that Amol is a jedi? That purple patch,
though, was brought to an end when the Warwick skipper recognised a series of
words beginning with Ale - . Two bonuses on Bertold Brecht brought Wolfson into
triple figures. Patrick Pan hit back to name Sumerian as the oldest known text
written in cuneiform. Semi-precious stones did nothing to help the Wolfson
cause. Now, I have always told people that if you get a question starting ‘what
numerical value’ you must say 1 or zero, coz it’s often one or tother. Well,
the strains of the baby elephant walk drowned out the rest of it, but I said 1,
Luke Beresford said 1 and we were both right. Luke, to be fair, didn’t make a
fool of himself by taking a second lap of honour around the living room, but
there we are. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie isn’t a writer with whom I’m very
familiar but Warwick knew enough to take a bonus. Abby Akarapongpisakbi knew
that Ash Barty was the homegrown player who won the Australian Open then
retired. 2 bonuses on China in the 70s followed. With the picture starter Abby
Akarapongpisakbi took a double, recognising the work of David. 3 British
artworks depicting poisonings saw both of us fail on the first two, but
correctly identify the work of the man Oscar Wilde nicknamed Awfully Weirdly. I
love Aubrey Beardsley’s work. So although the second period had proven to be
more competitive than the first, Warwick very much had the whip hand by the 20
minute-mark.
Matthew Bliss knew of Marcus Garvey’s Black Star Line for
the next starter. Snakes on flags and anthems brought another full house.
Wolfson were still within shooting distance of a repechage slot, but they
really needed to get buzzing again to give themselves a realistic chance.And
captain Rob Steel-Browne did just that, knowing that Sharm – El – Sheikh was
the location of the COP27 conference. (Sharm – El – Sheikh, Sharm – El –
Sheikh, Sheikh Your Booty). Short scientific terms ending with x – took them to
115, and they looked definitely in with a shout of reaching the repechage.
Nobody knew that the great and the kori are a pair of bustards – although
perhaps they’re just misunderstood. Various clues gave James Coe the word Saint
for the next starter. The team missed out on the term tenebrism although they
did pick up a bonus for a noted practitioner in Caravaggio. Grace An brought
hope to Wolfson knowing that Victor Horta (who had a lovely daughter) was an
exponent of Art Nouveau in architecture. A full house on coffee brought them to
140, tantalisingly close. Now, when the next starter mentioned Solhofen
Limestone the word Archaeopteryx popped into my head. What can I say – I’m
funny like that. This led me to fossils and did the same to Matthew Bliss too,
since he gave the same answer. Film bonuses yielded another full house. Warwick
were in no mood to ease Wolfson’s path into the repechage and were slamming the
buzzer down on every starter now. Luke Beresford knew that Lake Vattern is in
Sweden. The use of the drug chloral hydrate in fiction (there was none of that
in Bamber’s day!) brought a couple more bonuses. Jomon pottery comes from
Japan, as Luke Beresford helpfully informed us. Two bonuses on ships followed. James
Coe knew that daggers were the weapons referenced in stated works, and there
was time to add a further five points before the contest was gonged. Warwick
won by 265 – 140.
Hard lines Wolfson. They showed in their purple patch that
at least a repechage slot was not beyond them, but it didn’t work out. They had
a conversion rate of 63%. As for Warwick the impressive thing about them was
that although Luke Beresford top scored with 6 starters, the buzzing was spread
well throughout the team. Their conversion rate was 61%. I will share some
thoughts on what the bonus conversion rates this year seem to be telling us,
but not until the first round is finished.
How is Amol Doing?
Goodness me, but Amol uncorked his jedi tricks early in
this show. No more than 7 minutes and 18 seconds of the show had elapsed before
he said “Plenty of time left Wolfson. See if you can get going with this one.”
Well, to be fair, for once there really was plenty of time remaining, and the
score did stand at 80 to Warwick and minus 10 to Wolfson. As often happens, it
took a minute or two to work. When Wolfson did get started he felt confident
enough of their revival to be a bit of a sarky devil, telling them that one of
their answers was only a few thousand years out.
Interesting Fact That I Didn’t Already Know of
the Week
Enugu was the capital of the short lived breakaway republic
of Biafra.
Baby Elephant Walk Moment
“In mathematics what numerical value is both the supremum
of the hyperbolic tangent function and the infimum of the hyperbolic cosine
function?” That. . . ain’t . . . English! Dum de dum dum dumdum dumdum dum dum.
1 comment:
Starter watch:
James Coe - 2
Luke Beresford - 6
Matthew Bliss - 3
Abby Akarapongpisakdi - 3
Scott Wilson
Grace An - 1
Rob Steel-Browne - 3 (1)
Patrick Pan - 4 (2)
Winner: Luke Beresford
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