University Challenge Round Two - Manchester v. Edinburgh

The Teams

Manchester

Bluma De Los Reyes – White

Ilya Kullmann

Hiru Senehedheera (capt.)

Dan Grady

Edinburgh

Matt Stafford

Frances Hadley

Arun Uttamchandani (capt.)

Matt McGovern

Alright, alright, it’s Thursday and the match was played days ago. Sorry. It’s been one of those weeks. So, a very interesting match on paper – Manchester made it a late,late show in their first round match. Seemingly out with the washing at 20 minutes they roared back to take it to a tie break and win. While Edinburgh achieved a rare 30+ score in their first match. You pays yer money and takes yer pick.

First blood to Edinburgh. Matt McGovern knew that the president of the USA at the time of substantial land gains, including the annexation of the Republic of Texas was James K. Polk. Bonuses on Crete, a island I am very fond of, brought them nothing. Ilya Kullmann knew his way around the lymphatic system for the next starter. Me? No, I was just as likely to have said Hanger Lane Gyratory System. People whose given name is the same as their surname produced a couple of bonuses. With the next starter both teams sat on their buzzers, failing to name a ballroom dance until Amol had practically given the answer, the waltz. None of them strictly fans I guess. Hiru Senehedheera took that one. Bonuses on time loops took us into the unfathomable world of video gaming, which Manchester returned from clutching one correct answer. Salt Water Ballads – poet laureate in 1930 – had to be John Masefield, didn’t it? Well, yes it did, but neither team got it. So none of them Strictly Come Poetry fans either. Construction material – and – embedded metal were enough to send Hiru Senehedheera racing for his buzzer to provide he correct answer of reinforced concrete. Types of chromatography brought two bonuses. So to the first picture starter. This showed an overhead view of central America, with the areas of various ethnic groups coloured in. Asked which ethnic group was indicated on what was clearly the Yucatan Peninsula I shouted ‘Mayans!’ and soon after Matt Stafford buzzed in with the same answer. More ethnic groups and polities on the map brought a timely full house to nail back a lot of the Manchester lead. Dan Grady knew that Doug E. Fresh and Slick Rick’ song that is one of the most sampled in history is La di da di. I remember their track ‘The Show’ (was it called that? Something like it.) Geographical panhandles brought Manchester just the one bonus. Still that was enough to give them a 70 – 35 lead at the 10 minute mark.

Neither team took the next starter. Not surprised. This one gave me my first non-sciences Baby Elephant Walk Moment of the series. The answer was syllable. Did I get it right? Sylla question – I didn’t even make it as far as the question mark. Dan Grady knew the astronomical term standard candle. A full house on artist Veronica Ryan stretched the lead. The next starter referenced the abolition of a centuries old civil service. That surely was China. Hiru Senehedheera thought so too and added ten more points to his team’s lead. Two bonuses on novels set in Berlin were taken. Ah, Berlin, my Mary Poppins destination. Practically perfect in every way. I studied Sartre’s ‘Les Mouches’ for my French A Level, so I knew that the Greek God referenced I the next question was Zeus, and so did Manchester’s excellent captain Hiru Senehedheera. What a contest he was having. The Physics bonuses that followed allowed the internal orchestra to start dum de dumming in full burst. I did notice that the answer to one of them was The Ultraviolet Catastrophe, another good name for a 70s Prog Rock group.  Still after that I guessed that the physicist giving his name to numerous research institutions might be Max ‘one short’ Planck.  I set off on my lap of honour, arthritic toes notwithstanding. For the music starter Matt McGovern recognised the elegant stylings of Judas Priest, a popular beat combo of years gone by. More in the same genre provided a much-needed full house. You had to hold your nerve with the next starter about a religious festival until the mention of Quechua, which pinpointed the country in question as Peru. Ilya Kullman took that one. Bonuses on the Peace of Westphalia did nothing for any of us. Nobody knew about delay lines in computers either. I guess they’re like ley lines, just slower. I got the next starter on cricket right – a rare occurrence for me – but Antigua and aggressive batting had to mean Sir Vivian Richards. Not a huge fan of cricket but I saw the great man bat against England at the Oval in 1984. Hiru Senehedheera – who else – took that one. Cultural figures in the Le Tigre song Hot Topic brought the score to 165 – 55 in Manchester’s favour.

Neither team could quite pinpoint the west country city of Truro for the next starter. Ilya Kullman knew a question about megakaryocytes – nope, me neither – when he heard one for the next starter. Youngest debuts for the England Men’s International soccer team proved to be very much to Manchester’s collective liking and they took a full house. The picture starter showed us an illustrated plate from years gone by showing a constellation.  It was a young woman and with hindsight I’d say that the big clue was the chain around her wrist. None of us could see it was Andromeda. Dan Grady just beat music specialist Frances Hadley to answer the musical term Picardy Third for the next starter. This earned the dubious prize of the picture bonuses of which they answered none correctly. Not surprised. Gawd alone knew what was in the designer’s mind when he created the pictures.  Captain Arun Attamchandani identified the scientific name for nail biting for the next starter. Surely Edinburgh were too far behind for a realistic comeback? Well, they took a lightning-fast full house on probability. Incidentally, my tactic of answering one to any what is the value of – questions brought me a bonus too. Medical specialist Ilya Kullmann came in quickly to answer the next question about muscle loss in diseases like cancer. Did you know that cli-fi is the genre of fiction dealing with climate change. If not, remember you heard it here first. As soon as Amol explained this I thought of ‘The Drowned World’. Which turned out to be the subject of the first question. Manchester took one bonus but it was all academic now and couldn’t affect the result of the match. Matt Stafford was first to buzz when he heard the term Althing and supplied the correct answer of Iceland. I will never forget the sightseeing trip I took from Reykjavik which went out to Thingvellir, where the Althing was held for centuries – a truly magical day. Bonuses around the word symposium put Edinburgh one question away from triple figures. I did not know that foible also means the weak point of a sword blade. Neither did anyone else. I did know that the flag with the white cross on a black background is the flag of St. Pirran. Nobody else did, and Edinburgh sadly lost five due to a incorrect interruption. Arun Attamchandani knew you can have arctic erns, foxes and hares (and rolls) for the next starter. Now on triple figures Edinburgh added one bonus on Royal Assassinations. Nobody knew about dysphemisms for the next starter. That was that. The match was gonged, and Manchester had won comfortably by 215 to 105.

It's a familiar story – you win the most buzzer races, you win the match. Edinburgh’s BCR was 61 which was actually better than Manchester’s 7, but they just didn’t have enough bonus sets to answer. Bad luck. Sometimes it ain’t your night.

How is Amol Doing?

He’s enjoying himself is our Amol, and good thing too for that sort of thing is infectious. He pounced on Hiru Senehedheera trying to nominate Dan Grady and not quite getting his name out at first. His first encouragement to Edinburgh was issued just after the 12^th minute, so for once he was right that there was plenty of time left. Mind you, it can’t have done much for Edinburgh’ morale when he felt the need to repeat this after the next set. A couple of times the subtitle ‘Amol chuckles’ appeared and I don’t remember that happening with JP. Amol is doing it his way – good job too.

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

1)   The technical term for biting your nails is onychophagia.

2)   The opposite of a euphemism is a dysphemisim

Baby Elephant Walk Moment

What word is this? Shakespeare uses it to mean ‘least portion’ for example in Macbeth’s tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow speech. The US poet Charles Olsen described it as “the king and pin of versification what rules and holds together the lines.” And in linguistic terminology it describes a prosodic phonological structure that can be closed or open, heavy or light.

See, it’s not just the Sciences. Theoretically this is the sort of question I should get, but once Amol had got as far as the word ‘prosodic’ all I could think of was dum de dumdum dum dum dum dum dumdum.