University Challenge 2024: Repechage 1: Trinity, Cambridge v. Southampton

The Teams

Trinity, Cambridge

Sarah Henderson

Agnijo Banerjee

Ryan Joonsuk Kang (capt.)

Jeremi Jaksina

Southampton

Elise Harrington

Rhys Counsell

Roshana Wickramesinghe (capt.)

Chris Meredith

What, the first repechage already? Yes indeed. Trinity you may recall narrowly lost out in a firecracker of a high scoring first round heat against Manchester – so narrowly in fact that it could only be settled by a tie break. Southampton, on the other hand, were beaten by Christ Church, Cambridge. Both teams had the same BCR in their respective first round matches, so it looked as if this match might be settled on the buzzer.

The Trinity skipper took the first starter with a very quick buzz to identify types of stainless steel. I amazed myself by getting two of the bonuses on fashion designers right, the same two that Trinity managed. Jeremi Jaksina followed his captain’s example by buzzing early on the next starter to identify two generations in literary history as relating to Spain. This brought a set of tennis bonuses, and again we both got the two easy ones. Now, as soon as the next starter mentioned Murray Gold I was straight in with Doctor Who, a split second before Sarah Henderson did the same. Multilateral military operations in Africa did not promise a great deal, but Trinity managed a good full house. 3 sets and a few minutes in and Trinity’s lead was already threatening. It was Sarah Henderson again who won the buzzer race to figure out that the next starter was alluding to metronomes. More on that story later. Bonuses on electrical components saw me award myself a lap of honour for knowing capacitor. Trinity on the other hand took a full set. – Uh oh- thought I – encouragement from Amol must be coming early in this match. I was right too. It came immediately before the next starter. This was the first picture starter and we were asked to identify a major river on a map of east Asia. If it’s China I usually guess the Yangtze. I don’t know if Chris Meredith was guessing, but he answered the same and put Southampton’s first points on the board. The arrow pointed at the site of the Three Gorges hydroelectric power plant. Locations of others of the world’s largest hydroelectric power plants brought a full house. For the next starter Agnijo Banerjee recognised several definitions of vertex, thus ensuring that everyone in Trinity had at least 1 starter to their name, and putting his team into three figures. Three bonuses on Blake’s (that’s William, not Sexton) The Marriage of Heaven and Hell and works influenced by it gave us both a full house. Thus on the cusp of the 10 minute mark, Trinity led by 115 to 25.

Restoration . . . German city . . . 1945? It’s gotta be Dresden, hasn’t it? Agnijo Banerjee thought so and took his second consecutive starter. Two bonuses on Ray Liotta films pleased captain Ryan Kang, who was getting very excited with every correct answer. It was he who correctly answered the next starter, identifying mantis from a description. That’s the insect rather than the Guardian of the Galaxy. Bonuses on Bertrand Russell (I used to think he was the same guy who ran a circus in the first decades of the 20^th century) brought just the one bonus. Nobody knew the term demerit good from economics. Rhys Counsell took Southampton’s second starter for knowing that the late, great Jimmy Greaves holds the record for the most goals scored in the top flight of English football. Words sharing their endings with Middle Eastern capital cities provided a UC special set, and the two correct answers took us up to the music starter. Nobody recognised a wee bit of Bach. Agnijo Banerjee took his third starter by recognising various meanings of block. This earned the music bonuses on musicians who, like JS Bach, had spent part of their working lives in Weimar. Trinity managed the last one. We were past the halfway point, and Southampton frankly needed a comeback of Lazarus proportions. Their skipper knew that if you mix the authors of Brick Lane and White Teeth you get the author of the Accidental. Thermodynamic cycles – no I didn’t know what this meant although I’m pretty sure that you can’t buy them in Halfords. Southampton knew the last of these. This seemed to give Southampton heart, because Rhys Counsell buzzed correctly for the next starter, knowing about the flame test. I’ve done some flamin’ tests in my time too. The bonuses on picaresque novels gave a name check to my favourite Vanity Fair. We both took two of these. The next starter allowed Trinity back in as Agnijo Banerjee recognised a definition of Simple Harmonic Motion. A UC special set or pairs of words where a final y is added to one to make the other brought two bonuses and this meant that Trinity led by 190 – 75 at the 20 minute mark.

Jeremi Jaksina recognised a photo of Rosalind Franklin for the second picture starter. Three more photos of female scientists who contributed significantly to work for which their male collaborators won the Nobel prize brought a full house for Trinity. Agnijo Banerjee knew tha the roman tablets recovered near Hadrian’s Wall were from Vindolanda. Keep taking the tablets. The Church in Scotland brought a single bonus, but this was irrelevant to the result of the contest. Agnijo Banerjee took yet another starter, recognising clues to the word Unionist. Again, they took just the one bonus. Roshana Wickramesinghe recognised a work of TS Eliot in the next starter and this earned bonuses on rediscovered mammals. Sadly they didn’t manage any of them. Elise Harrington took the next starter on turmeric which meant that all four members of both teams had answered starters correctly. A full house of bonuses on books in the genre of magical realism took Southampton through the 100 barrier. Chris Meredith knew three countries whose currencies start with the letters B,C and D respectively. If Southampton had only buzzed like this earlier in the competition – well, no use crying over spilt buzzers. The first bonus I knew because the answer had been given in Mastermind an hour earlier about Whistler’s portrait of Thomas Carlyle. Then the gong struck, and Trinity had run out winners by 245 – 120.

Yes, it was a bit of a one sided contest. Trinity always had ar too much firepower on the buzzer, and if you can’t get the starters then you can’t win. For the record, Southampton’s BCR was 53, while Trinity managed 69. They seem to be set for a good run.

How is Amol Doing?

At 7 minutes and 15 seconds Amol issued his first jedi encouragement to Southampton. The Force was not strong in him during this contest. Amol was most indignant when Trinity mixed up their Wittgenstein (yes, the beery swine) with their Bertrand Russell. He revealed that Russell is his hero, although not why. At 12 minutes and 28 seconds, Amol issued more encouragement to Southampton.

Fair play to Amol for taking Ryan Kang to task for exghorting his team to try to make it to 250. Although one rather thinks that Jeremy Paxman might have applauded this attitude!

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

The metronome was invented by Johann Malzael. I once taught a kid who thought that metrognomes were bearded short persons who lived on the Underground. True story (sort of).

Baby Elephant Walk Moment

The four phases of which idealised cycle consist of an isothermal expansion, isentropic expansion, isothermic compression and isentropic compression ? Altogether now – dum de dumdum dum dum dumdum dum dum.