University Challenge Round Two Emmanuel, Cambridge v. Christ Church, Oxford

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.18^th 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!