University Challenge 2024 Quarter Final Stage - Manchester v. Birkbeck, London

The Teams

Manchester

Bluma De Los Reyes – White

Ilya Kullmann

Hiru Senehedheera (Capt.)

Dan Grady

Birkbeck, London

Danny McMillan

Olivia Mariner

Samir Chadha (Capt.)

Margherita Huntley

Quarter finals already? Well, yes. The complexities of this stage of the competition mean that the winners don’t automatically go through to the semis and the losers don’t automatically through the exit door. More often than not though the team that win the first quarter match do get to the semis. So which of last night’s teams would that be? Well, being an alumnus of London University I usually plump for a London college over other teams, and Birkbeck had the bonus of a captain from my home borough, the London Borough of Ealing. But then the toxic qualities of support from the Clark sofa have long been evident to readers of this blog.

Dan Grady struck the first blow for Manchester knowing that ‘composer’ ‘tone poem’ and ‘1982’ make Philip Glass a good shout. This earned bonuses on potatoes in Art. And why not? Both of us immediately thought of Van Gogh, but I did know Millet’s “The Angelus”.The last one was of course the Potato Eaters and brought 1 bonus to Manchester. Various meanings of the word normal led to Samir Chadha opening his team’s account. The seven sister states of northeast India did for me but Birkbeck took one to even the scores. Dan Grady came in early to say that the name linking the king following Malcom Canmore in Scotland and the prince who had the best dynastic clam to the throne of England after Hastings was Edgar. Manchester followed this up with a good full house on the Asante people. Margherita Huntley knew that Gillian Wearing created the statue of Millicent Fawcett, the first statue of a woman in Parliament Square in London. Something inscrutable involving infra red radiation gave Birkdale 1 bonus. This was followed by the picture starter showing a periodic table with names and symbols removed. Three stars indicated certain elements, and the teams were asked to identify the link between the names. Seeing that the first was beryllium I gave the answer rocks. Which was worth even more of a lap of honour since neither team quite got it. Ilya Kullman took the next starter knowing that the HQ of CONMEBOL is in Paraguay. CONMEBOLs wobble but they don’t fall down, as the old advert used to say. This earned the picture bonus on more linked names of elements, and Manchester took two. This meant that at a little past the ten minute mark they led 55 – 30.

The Balmer Series, named one would think after the regular expert on the Antiques Road Trip, meant nowt to me but Hiru Senehedheera had it before the end of the question (which had lasted something approaching a fortnight by this time).Languages of Taiwan promised very little which was more than it delivered. No points all round. Boustrophedon is a lovely word which so rarely occurs in polite conversation. It means a system or writing where you go left right, right left on different lines. And why not? Danny McMillan knew Tsingtao/Qingdao for the next starter. I liked the set of bonuses this earned – character names that appear in more than one Shakespeare play. I’d guess that Birkbeck don’t have a literature specialist since this was quite  a gettable set but they didn’t get any of them. Yet Samir Chadha did very well I thought to spot references to the Wasteland by that well known anagram of toilets, TS Eliot. Irving ‘Who?’ Goffman the subject of the next bonus set yielded nothing to any of us. So to the music starter. Kraftwerk! Autobahn! I shouted , scaring the cat in the process. Eventually Dan Grady buzzed in with the same answer. More groups who were helped by Conny “Thick as One Short” Plank None of us recognised either of the two krautrock groups played, but the last one was the song which never got to number 1 because of “Shaddap You Face”, Vienna by Ultravox. Much of this section of the match had been a to and fro affair and this continued as Danny McMillan buzzed in early with Eudaemonia. Bit of ointment usually clears that up I find. Bossa nova yielded two bonuses for Birkbeck. Another Science starter yielded the correct answer of stop codon to Bluma De Los Reyes White. The wildlife of Trinidad and Tobago yielded Manchester a couple of bonuses which meant they led by 100 – 70 just after 20 minutes.

Squeaky bum time. The gap was only 30, but points had thus far proven hard to come by. The next starter for ten fell to Danny McMillan who recognised the clues given to various words all beginning with pie. Mmm, pie. No, it did not fill me with joy when a set on power series in Mathematics was announced to follow. They only allowed Birkbeck to claw back five more points of the lead. For the second picture starter Manchester skipper Hiru Senehedheera made a great shout identifying the work of was artist Paul Nash. 3 more war artists’ work provided no more inspiration. Hiru Senehedheera took his second in a row with Ahimsa , a central tenet of several religions. Various Treaties of London gave Manchester nothing. It was that kind of match. Dan Grady took Manchester’s third consecutive starter, guessing that a character in “The Day of the Locust” shared his name with Homer Simpson. Anamorphosis bonuses only provided one correct answer, but slowly and certainly Manchester were stretching the elastic between themselves and Birkbeck. Samir Chadha reeled Manchester back a little knowing – oh look, it was about metals and the answer was reactivity. Star formation produced a single bonus. Hiru Senehedheera knew the geological term subduction, and this pretty much sealed the deal for Manchester. Onstage representations of Phaedra yielded – yes, you guessed, one bonus. Dan Grady knew Sierra Leone for the answer to the next question. The contest was buzzed before the first bonus was completed.

Manchester won by 160 to 95 in what I felt was a hard old match. Those bonus sets were pretty unforgiving. Look at the BCRs – Manchester 31% and Birkbeck 24%. I don’t blame the teams for this either. Hard quiz.

Amol Watch

I felt Amol was a wee bit fussy on the TsingTao/ Qingdao question by forcing Danny McMillan to spell it out. I do think it’s funny to hear Amol saying things like “Two and a half minutes to go, Birkbeck, plenty of time.” I don’t know if there’s a special word for a sentence of two halves in which if the first half is true then the second is obviously false, but if there is such a word, then this was one of them.

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

Homer Simpson is the name of a character in Nathanael West’s “The Day of the Locust”

Baby Elephant Walk Moment

1) In order for a vibrational mode to be IR active and therefore give a peak in infrared spectroscopy which moment within the module must fluctuate in this mode?

2) The region between 1500 to 500 centimetres to the power minus one on an IR spectrum is given what name? The region often contains a large number of infra red bands.

3) A broad trough in an IR spectrum between 2500 and 3300 centimetres to the power of minus one signifies which functional group?

Yeah, I know that by themselves each of this set is not quite as mind numbingly obscure to the general public (me) as some, but taken one after another they deliver a knockout punch. Dum de dumdum dum dum dum dum dumdum.