University Challenge 2024: Quarter finals stage - Sheffield v. Imperial

The Teams

Sheffield

Safiya Rujak

Joe McGough

Cameron Colclough (Capt.)

Matthew Nail

Imperial

Justin Lee

Adam Jones

Suraiya Haddad (Capt.)

Sourajit Debnath

Do you remember life between 1988 and 1993? Wasn’t winter awful without University Challenge? Quizzy Mondays are like a wonderful present to the viewer from the Beeb. We had a great Mastermind heat to start, then a superb Only Connect third place play off where both teams impressed the hell out of me, and now UC. Our cup overflowed.

Down to business, then. Amol helpfully informed us before kick off that Imperial boasted an average score of 270 to 210, which made them look like favourites. Still, the tale of the tape doesn’t always tell the whole story.

The key to the first starter about the artist Castiglione was the mention of his painting on silk after he left Italy. Both Justin Lee and I guessed China, and Imperial were on their way. Garci Rodriguez de Montalvo who was not the Middleweight champion of the world in 1993, surprisingly, but an author, provided an early full house for Imperial, and gave them the opportunity to invent the adjective griffiny. I invite all readers to use that one in conversation. Cameron Colclough knew that the Williams Formula 1 world champion whose son also became world champion in 2016 was Keke Rosberg, and now Sheffield were off the mark too. One bonus on a tricky set about phonetics followed. Cue the first Science starter. Look, I have a very different idea of what a scintillator might be from Sourajit Debnath, he was right and I wasn’t. Some unfathomable maths things provided Imperial with another full house and me with a lap of honour. The last bonus asked for the name of a Dutch mathematician, and Huygens was the only one I could dredge up. Good enough. No cigar for Imperial failing to recognise Carlos Menem as a former Argentinian president which allowed Matthew Nail to take his first starter. A set on the Jewish Festival of Hannukah gave me a full house but only 1 to Sheffield. So to the picture round showing the route of an ocean current. Mattthew Nail recognised the Agulhas current – very good shout, that. The bouses showed 3 more currents and the only one any of us knew was the Gulf Stream. I’ve never heard of Hedonic Calculus, but Mathew Nail had and I’m not arguing with him. That and one bonus on notable banquets meant that by the ten minute mark, Sheffield had become the first team to lead Imperial in this series – 60 – 50.

That’s enough of that – thought Sourajit Debnath as he buzzed in to give the correct answer of manifold to the next starter. Ballads brought another full house to Imperial. At the moment their BCR was incredible. “Ah, bitter chill it was!” quoted Amol. “The Eve of St. Agnes!” I cried, which is actually one of my less favourite Keats poems. Adam Jones, so swift on the buzzer in previous matches had left it this long before getting his first starter. “Your bonuses are three questions on a group of biomolecules called secretory proteins.” Said Amol. “Bloody ‘ell.” Said I. “Yum yum!” said Imperial as they hoovered up another full set. After 4 sets of bonuses their BCR was still a maximum 100. Superb. Nobody on either side recognised two meanings and pronunciations of slough. William Adams led me to shout Japan! at the telly. The excellent Sourajit Debnath took this one. The bonuses were on Sibelius. First bonus – correct. Second bonus – correct. Third bonus – well even I knew Karelia for the third. That’s five sets, and still a 100 BCR. So to the music starter and Joe McGough quickly identified Blondie. Other bands who released visual albums brought two bonuses. So to a chemistry starter. “Twas brillig and the slithy toves- “ began Amol. Well, no he didn’t, but what he did say made about as much sense to me. The answer was bidentate. Of course it was. Safiya Rujak had that. Stoicism brought nowt. Skipper Suraiya Haddad took the next starter recognising the lovers from Coppelia. 2 bonuses on Art followed, but finally the streak ended when they failed to get Chris Ofili. Matthew Nail knew Phaethon for the next starter. Nobel laureates born in 1923 failed to add to Sheffield’s total. So, by the 20 minute mark, Shefield were holding their own on the buzzer, but Imperial’s bonus form meant that they now led by 145 – 100.

Sourajit Debnath stretched the lead, recognising asteroids for the next starter. The Portuguese epic poem the Lusiads still saw Imperial take two of the bonuses. The difference one word makes. Adam jones recognised the film for the second picture starter, but called it The Skin We Live In allowing Safiya Rujak in with The Skin I Live In. Three more Pedro Almodovar films brought two correct answers. Mattthew Nail recognised clues to the name Clifford for the next starter. Only one bonus was taken on abbeys, but by their sheer persistence Sheffield were still in the match, only 30 behind now. Justin Lee recognised titles of novels featuring the Three Musketeers to push away from Sheffield again. The number 11 expressed in different bases only brought 1 bonus, keeping hopes alive for Sheffield. If you’re asked a poet laureate question, if you don’t know then Tennyson is always a good percentage answer. Imperial ignored this, Sheffield didn’t and won the points. A lovely UC special set on historical events of three consecutive years provided the bonuses. It was twice no cigar for Sheffield, but they did get the last. This put the gap back to 30. Still possible but with only 2 minutes to go it looked unlikely. Reliable Sourajit Debnath steadied Imperial nerves recognising definitions of the word firewall for the next starter. 1 bonus on people born in Somerset followed, but more importantly the clock was run down enough to make a Sheffield win extremely unlikely now. Especially when neither team recognised a quote from Stravinsky. There was time for Joe McGough to identify Pince William as bearing the title Duke of Cornwall, same as one of the daughters’ husbands in King Lear. The men’s FA Cup yielded no points before the gong ended the match, with Imperial winning with 195 to Sheffield’s 160.

Well, I’ve often said that buzzing wins matches. Not this one it didn’t. There wasn’t a lot in it but Sheffield answered more starters correctly than Imperial. But comparing their BCRs – Sheffield managed 32 while Imperial’s was 78 percent. That’s serious, especially when you consider the breadth of bonus subjects they answered. They’re not in the semis yet, but halfway there. As for Sheffield, they’re not out, and with a little more rub of the green over the bonuses they can still do damage in this year’s competition.

Amol Watch

How times change! In response to the answer Sheffield gave to the third music bonus Amol answered, “Of course it’s Daft Punk!” in the same way that Jeremy Paxman used to say “Of course it’s Wordsworth!”

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

I should have known this, but I’ve never realised it before. Serfdom in Russia was abolished before slavery in the USA was.

Baby Elephant Walk Moment

First, ignoring arbitrary constants, what function is both the derivative and the integral with respect to X of the hyperbolic sine of X?

Yeah, it’s a short one this week, but what a short one! Deadly at fifty paces, soporific at fifty miles. Dum de dumdum dum dum dum dum dumdum.