The Teams
Christ Church, Oxford
Eliza Dean
Melika Gorgianeh
Arthur Wotton (capt)
Elliot Lowe
Emmanuel, Cambridge
Jerry Chen
Alex Sutton
Jaya Alagar (capt)
Alexander Harrison
How are we, then? Oxbridge derbies are always of interest
and Monday night’s was no exception. We kicked off with this week’s baby elephant
walk inducing moment with the very first starter. You can find it further down
this review. What the hell it meant I couldn’t begin to tell you, but Amol
would probably still be reading it out now if Jaya Alagar had not put us out of
our misery by buzzing in with the correct answer of RNA. The bonuses on artists
with works in the Musee d’Orsay were much more to my taste, giving me a full
house and Emmanuel 2. Eliza Dean kick started Christ Church’s campaign, knowing
the number 7 for the next starter. I misheard the bonuses as being about Mary,
Mungo and Midge, rather than Mary Midgely. Maybe that was why I only got the
last one right. CC took 2. Alex Sutton took the next starter, knowing the
psychological term attention.18th century treaties sounded
promising. However they proved to be a weakness for Emma, as they scored zilch
on them. Arthur Wotton knew that the Kivu region is part of the Dem Rep of
Cong. This brought CC chemical elements named after people. Yum yum – thought I
– lap of honour coming up. Well, apparently there is not an element named after
lesser known music hall performer Albert Astatine. Fermium saw me off on my lap
though, and it also provided CC with their answer. So to the picture starter.
The outline of what was clearly Lady ‘that naked woman on the nag’ Godiva could
only be the emblem of the city of Coventry, so I felt both teams dwelt a little
on the buzzer before Arthur Wotton supplied the right answer. More flags
featuring horses made up the bonuses. I knew that Lower Saxony has a horse
which rather resembles Kent’s so had both of those but didn’t get Tuscany. CC
took a full house there. Jerry Chen recognised characters from The Handmaiden
for the next starter. Books that have won the Newbery Medal brought the two
bonuses that meant that Emma were only five points behind – 55 played 50.
Alexander Harrison had been singled out by Amol at the start
of the show for scoring 9 starters in the first round heat. I don’t know if it
was the pressure this put on him, but he’d had a quiet evening to this point.
Now he took his first starter with FDR’s Four Freedoms speech. Emma failed to
build on the lead this gave them by failing to identify any of the East Asian
cities that made up the bonus set. The next starter was one of those where you
wait and wait and suddenly it becomes obvious. The mention of the 1986 Paul
Simon album obviously meant Graceland and Alexander Harrison won the buzzer
race. Academic works written between the late 30s and early 80s brought just a
single bonus. One couldn’t help worrying that now that they seemed to have the
upper hand on the buzzer, Emma needed to be capitalising with the bonuses more
than they had done. A timely interruption from Arthur Wotton identified the
mass extinction event more than 200 million years ago was at the end of the
Permian period. Exoplanets provide the two bonuses which put both teams on the
same score. For the music starer Eliza Dean recognised the work of Caardi B, a
popular musician of the day, so I believe. 3 more pieces of music with videos
directed by Tanu Muino brought a further 10 points. Making up for lost time
Alexander Harrison took his third starter, recognising clues to the colour
green when he heard them. Byron’s Don Juan brought just the one bonus for Emma.
Nobody knew Zealand for the next starter. Eliza Dean recognised various poetic
descriptions of the sky. CC failed to take any of the bonuses on polka. Surprisingly
nobody knew that Britain’s first qualified female doctor was Elizabeth Garret
Anderson. Once again it was CC’s captain who got them moving again, coming in
early to say that the Francis who married Mary Queen of Scots and the Alexander
who sold Alaska to the USA were both seconds. Huh, those sequels, eh? Queen Amanirenas
(who?) gave CC a lead of 120 – 90 at the 20 minute mark.
Alexander Harrison took a bite out of the deficit by
recognising a masterful Goya painting. The bonuses were on other paintings of
giants and we both took the first and the third. Captain Jaya Alagar came in
too soon for the next starter, which allowed Eliza Dean to get CC moving again
with bat. Bonuses on bird calls did hem no favours, and Emma could tie by taking
a full house. A UC special saw captain Arthur Wotton quickly worked out that a
series of capital cities start with Ba, the symbol for Barium. Paradoxes in
Science were no more forthcoming than the previous set of bonuses. Alexander
Harrison knew that clutching at and poll suggest straw. A full set on films meant
that Emma were now just one starter behind. Alexander Harrison chanced his arm
with geometry, but it was Eliza Dean who took the correct answer with trigonometry.
And that was Emma’s chance gone. There was time for a couple of bonuses but the
contest was gonged with the score at 130 – 155 to Christ Church.
Maybe not the highest scoring match but an exciting one for
all that with virtually nothing between the teams. CC’s BCR was 43 while Emma’s
was a slightly better 46.
How is Amol Doing?
Channelling Jeremy Paxman at times, I felt. His “Yes, it’s
usually pronounced PlotEINus” was straight out of the Paxman book of put downs.
Then there was the correction, telling Emma that Witttgenstein ‘he’s Austrian,
actually’
Interesting Fact That I Didn’t Already Know Of
The Week
The Polka actually originated in Bohemia
Baby Elephant Walk Moment
In 1989 the US scientists Thomas Cech and Sidney Altman won
the Nobel Prize in chemistry for discovering that which biological
macromolecule can also catalyze cellular reactions, thus showing that catalysis
is not exclusively a function of proteins. It has been hypothesised that there
was a stage during evolution when this macromolecule both catalysed reactions and
stored genetic - (thank God Jaya Alagar buzzed in at this point).
I mean, come on. I was even hearing the Baby Elephant Walk
when I was typing this one!
2 comments:
Amol was v "unPaxman" like when the Maastricht treaty was offered as the answer when the correct answer was the Utrecht treaty
Starter watch:
Jerry Chen - 1
Alex Sutton - 1
Jaya Alagar - 1 (1)
Alexander Harrison - 5
Eliza Dean - 5 (2)
Melika Gorgianeh
Arthur Wotton - 5
Elliot Lowe
Joint winners: Alexander Harrison and Arthur Wotton
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