University Challenge 2024: Warwick v. Wolfson, Cambridge

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.