University Challenge Round Two - Lincoln, Oxford v. Imperial

The Teams

Lincoln, Oxford

Ella Warde

Mehmet Tatoğlu

Alexander Baker

Anna Drummond Young

Imperial

Justin Lee

Adam Jones

Suraiya Haddad

Sourajit Debnath

Quizzy Monday really lived up to its name last Monday night. First there was the return of Riddiculous. Then Jeopardy! where former Mastermind semi-finalist Kesheva Guha continued building an impressive stack of prize wedge. Then Pointless. Then Mastermind, then the second OC semi final. Finally we arrived at University Challenge. I will admit that I was worried I might be all quizzed out but thankfully there was enough left in the tank for me to do better than last week. Frankly my cat could have done better than I did last week – and he’s asleep for probably 22 out of every 24 hours.

For the first starter Mehmet Tatoğlu came in too early and lost five for mixing up his salvation theology with his liberation theology. Fair enough. Adam Jones took the points for Imperial. One bonus on county towns took their score to 15. For the next starter I guessed that one of the two west African leaders from the late fifties referenced in the question would be Kwame Nkrumah. Justin Lee thought the same and we were both on the money. Questions concerned with Browning’s “My Last Duchess” took Imperial to thirty five. Click chemistry, anyone? No, me neither, but it was the correct answer to the next starter and Adam Jones had it. Cement brought me a surprise full house, but Imperial only managed the last of these. Various Annas brought Adam Jones a second consecutive starter. South East Asia brought two more scoring answers. The picture starter showing the flag of Gran Colombia did the trick for Lincoln and three more flags of countries that no longer exist brought an excellent full house. A quotation from Hardy – no, not the one about another fine mess – brought up Adam Jones’ 3^rd starter of the first ten minutes. Graph Theory means nowt to me but bonuses on the same brought another 20 points for Imperial. The French mathematician Galois – who invented the French ciggie – lost Adam Jones five and brought the correct answer from Mehmet Tatoğlu. Roman history, specifically public offices, brought two correct answers and bit into Imperial’s lead, which stood at 85 – 40 at just after 10 minutes.

Nothing daunted by the earlier failed buzz, Adam Jones buzzed early to identify RUR as standing for Rossum’s Universal Robots from Carel Kapek’s play. The bonuses were on astronomy and my ears pricked up as I sensed the chance of a lap of honour. The first two did no favours to either of us, but the last one had black hole written all over it, so much so that I set off before the answer had even been confirmed. It was that man Jones again who took the next starter with mechanical reproduction. Innuendo overload alert. Bonuses followed on swords, and Imperial were happy to take a full house on that one. Mehmet Tatoğlu knew various works linked by the adjective invisible. Prison scenes in plays by Shakespeare brought us both two correct answers. I have neither read nor seen Measure for Measure, and what we were told in the question makes it sound like a rum old play indeed. I was tempted to award myself a lap of honour for the music starter. “Sounds like Kurt Weill” I said. So did Justin Lee. Music bonuses raised the Imperial score to 140, which prompted Amol to add a little more encouragement to Lincoln. It didn’t seem to work as Adam Jones took the next starter on Charlie Mingus. Members of Parliament for Northampton through the years brought just the one correct answer, though the first female cabinet minister, Margaret Bondfield is a really hoary old quiz stager. Pierre Fauchard was the father of . . . argh, dentistry. Rotten swine. Nobody had that one. Again, Amol made with the encouragement for Lincoln. Fred Sanger won some kind of Nobel Prize for something to do with insulin for the next starter, that fell to Justin Lee. Imperial took just the one bonus on radiation. I recognised a description of the Towers of Hanoi just before Sourajit Debnath buzzed in with the same answer. Chemistry questions saw Amol refuse to accept Avogardo for Avogadro – marginal call that one. Didn’t matter. It had been a really good 10 minute spell for Imperial and the led by 190 – 55.

Nobody knew the Irish ball sport Camogie for the next starter. For the starter after, I recognised a description of Grœnlendinga Saga – or the saga of the Greenlanders. Now, Justin Lee buzzed in and said Greenlandic Saga, before correcting it to Greenlander Saga. Now, point of order here, Amol. Only minutes earlier you said you have to accept a first answer, whereas here you let Justin Lee have two bites of the cherry. Can we have a little consistency please. Jacobean tragedy proved a tricky set – I’ve never heard of the Atheists Tragedy – or I don’t believe so anyway. Ella Warde, trying valiantly to get her team moving again, came in too early on the next starter.I didn’t understand the next starter but Ella Warde came in very early with the correct name of Kirchhoff, who at one stage in his career was the Head of Durmstrang Institute as well. Paintings of ice were not the second picture set. It might have helped if we could have seen the pictures because Lincoln failed to add to their score. Ironically the set tha followed was the picture set. Adam Jones identified an absolutely gorgeous painting of a port by Claude Lorrain – or maybe Lorraine Claude. Bonuses of paintings of more ports or harbours yielded a pretty good two bonuses. So to ornithology. Hen, Marsh and Montagues could only be Harriers, as Adam Jones knew. A full house on 20^th century History with years ending in 5 added more gilding to the Imperial score. For the next starter another hoary old chestnut made is return to UC – the only Shakespeare Play that has the name of a modern European Capital city in its title. I’ve always had a sneaky feeling ROMEo and Juliet should count too, but it is of course Timon of Athens. Contrary to popular belief he never wrote a sequel called Pumbaa of Athens, mores the pity. Two bonuses on Tanuki bought more respectability to the Lincoln score and they weren’t completely finished yet. Gibbs Free Energy – he must have discovered it after inventing his SR toothpaste – was given by skipper Alexander Baker to the next starter. Two bonuses on cloud types took Lincoln to triple figures. Ella Warde buzzed in extremely quickly to answer some maths thing for the next starter. Two bonuses took Lincoln to 120 before the gong ended the contest. Imperial showed imperious form on the buzzer, winning with 255.

A good win. Imperial scored a BCG of just over 50, while Lincoln achieved 65, albeit that this was off a much smaller number of bonuses. They couldn’t cope with the buzzing of Imperial, and of Adam Jones in particular whose 9 starters was one of the best performances we’ve seen in this series so far.

Amol Watch

I thought that Amol was maybe a little too quick to issue Lincoln with the statutory 8 count that is the “Plenty of time for you to get going.” We were just over 7 minutes into the show, and the score was 75 to minus 5. There will be tears before bedtime over the controversial calls regarding “You say Avogardo, I say Avogardo, so I’ll call the whole thing off’ especially considering Amol allowed Justin Lee to juggle with the saga.

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

Taunton is pretty much as far from Oxford as it is from Truro

Kate Bush at 63 was the oldest woman to have a UK umber 1 single.

Baby Elephant Walk Moment.

Which Swiss-born chemist formulated the law that states the following? If a reaction can take place by more than one route from the same initial and final conditions then he total enthalpy change is the same for each route? – I was with you as far as Which - . Dum de dumdum dum dum dum dum dumdum.