The Teams
Imperial, London
Justin Lee
Adam Jones
Suraiya Haddad (capt.)
Sourajit Debnath
University College, London
James Hall
Ali Izzatdust
Tayana Sawh (Capt.)
Jacob Finlay
Here we are, ladies and gentlemen. After last week’s
Mastermind Grand Final we have the University Challenge Grand Final, which
really brings to an end the quizzy Mondays that have kept us going throughout
the long autumn and winter months. Much to my delight as a Londoner by birth,
and an alumnus of London University (Goldsmiths College), the final pitted the best two teams of the
series against each other and both are from London. Imperial, independent from
London University for some time now, I think, could look back on series wins in 1996,
2001, 2020 and 2022. No team had ever yet won five series. UCL had also been
this way before, having lost the 2005 and 2012 series grand finals, but had not
yet won a series. Now, to use a footballing analogy, conventional wisdom has it
that two London teams in an FA Cup Final usually produces an underwhelming match
– and my own attendance at the 1982 replay of Spurs v. QPR would certainly bear
this out. But I had a feeling that we could expect better from these two.
So, who would be fastest on the buzzer? Well, Ali Izzatdust
won the first buzzer race to identify methods of naming days of the week. The
medieval Egyptian ruler Baybars gave us both a full house. Justin Lee came in
too early on the next starter. It became obvious that the necessary answer
would be an Italian city. James Hall played the percentages with Rome but ‘Ocean’s
Nursling’ had suggested Venice to me, and that’s what it was. James Hall buzzed
in too early for the next starter, and given the whole question Sourajit
Debnath came in with the correct answer of urea, to get the Imperial juggernaut
moving. A great set on artworks created through defacing existing artworks was
despatched to the boundary by Adam Jones to level the scores at one penalty and
one full house each. James Hall identified the artist Lubaina Himid for the next
starter. Biological terms starting with chi brought me a lap of honour for
getting chimera. Look, I’ll take them where I can get them. I could have waited
for the third of the set because I knew chitin too. UCL took the same two
bonuses. I’ll be honest, when I saw the picture starter quoting Chaucer and
showing various sites of places visited by one of the pilgrims I nearly shouted
Wife of Bath, but checked the text first. Just as well for it was clearly the
Knight. Justin Lee took his first starter of the evening – it wouldn’t be an
only child for long. More pilgrims followed – they had the more difficult ones
but the character most famous for the number of pilgrimages she made, the
aforementioned Wife of Bath, they missed. Justin Lee buzzed early to explain
that St. Bartholomew and Jude were martyred in Armenia. To have one saint
martyred in Armenia is misfortune, to have two martyred sounds a bit careless. One
bonus on ocean habitats followed. Sourajit Debnath knew that Elia Kazan was the
director who co-founded the Actors Studio. Video games that have won the BAFTA
for best debut game were very much to Mr. Debnath’s liking and he took a full
house in short order. We approached the 10-minute mark with Imperial just
beginning to apply the afterburners, leading, as they did, by 80-40.
Sourajit Debnath doesn’t answer as many starters as Justn
Lee, but most of the starters he answers are ones which seem to leave all 7
other players scratching their heads. For example the next starer, to which the
answer was spline. (I’ll exspline later). Biogeographic regions of Australia
sounded harder than they proved to be and Imperial took the two that they needed
to put their score into triple figures. Ominous times for UCL, who could really
have done with getting the next starter. Ali Izzatdust tried, but lost five for
his pains allowing Justin Lee to identify the city of Maastricht. 18th
century wars of succession mean that the answers were going to be the Polish,
Spanish and Austrian, so it was a matter of getting them in the right order.
Not a problem for Imperial – another full house. Jacob Finlay jumped early on
the next starter, but lost five, allowing Adam Jones in with Thailand. The
International Phonetic Alphabet opened up the puzzling world of plosives, and
fricatives, velars and labials, yielded a single bonus, This led us to the
music starter, and for once in this series, something I recognised – Faure’s
Pavane. Justin Lee took that one. Other composers associated with the Paris
Conservatoire brought Imperial one bonus. None of us knew Pierre Bourdieu (wasn’t
he the author of perennial favourite ‘Ce n’est pas mon cochon, c’est ma
Belle-mere’?). Tayana Sawh tried to break the stranglehold but gave an
incorrect answer to the next starter, allowing Adam Jones in with Cryolite (either
a 1980s Doctor Who monster, or a member of the R and B group who had a UK hit
with the song ‘Have You Seen Her?’, take your pick.) The book “Mythologies” by
Roland Barthes brought the points to stretch the Imperial lead to 150.UCL were
looking to be in a right old Imperial leather and their plight was not helped
when Justin Lee buzzed in incredibly quickly to identify Berengaria.
Mythological paintings by Angelica Kauffmann brought the full house that
Imperial needed to take their score to 200. Poor old UCL. They’re a great team,
and Heaven knows they had tried hard to beat Imperial to the buzzer. There was
nothing more that they could have done. The next starter on Bambara was a good
demonstration of this. Ali Izzatdust buzzed incredibly quickly, but he was
still beaten by Justin Lee, who knew that the language in question hailed from
Mali. Sackings of Rome brought Imperial lashings of points, another full house.
The lead had stretched to 200 points. I nearly awarded myself another lap of
honour for knowing Fermi was the answer to the next starer, but I was just
relieved that Ali Izzadust won the race. Two bonuses on philosophers meant that
as we approached the 20 minute mark Imperial led by 225 – 40.
For the next starter Adam Jones identified a painting by
Winslow Homer. 3 more paintings of fishermen, although these were by French
artists, brought just five more points. Jacob Finlay recognised a description
of the Andaman Sea for the next starter. Subatomic particles raised their ugly
miniscule heads for the bonuses – I got two!! – bringing a full house to UCL.
Ali Izzatdust came in extremely early to identify Ponta Delgada in the Azores.
2 bonuses on the American Civil War and their score was beginning to look more
healthy. Not a score that looked high enough to challenge, mind you. Especially
when Justin Lee took the next starter on the language of the Cherokee. Bonuses
on international economics yielded nowt, but who cared? It wasn’t going to
affect the result. Nobody knew about vitamin B1 thiamin curing beri beri.
Justin Lee, who would end the evening with 8 starters and the series with a
magnificent 36, recognised a description of a rondo. Architecture of the 30s
brought us both just the one correct answer with the inevitable Frank Lloyd Wright.
Gordon Comstock allowed Adam Jones to give the title ‘Keep the Aspidistra
Flying ‘ for the next starter and the novel The Princess of Cleves brought two
correct answers to give Imperial just the chance of reaching the rarely
achieved 300 point mark. Ali Izzatdust denied them on the next starter on the
oryx. Composers brought two correct answers. Jacob Finlay denied them on a starter
on the work the Strange Death of Liberal England. But that, as they say, was
that. The gong struck, leaving Imperial the champions having won the match 285 –
120.
Many, many congratulations to Imperial. They become the first
institution to win five series. I think that bearing in mind the quality of the
UCL team, this must have been their finest performance of the whole series. For
the record Imperial’s BCR was 62, while UCL’s was 78.
Full marks to Suraiya Haddad for praising first her team,
then UCL when being presented with the trophy. Then we had the cutaway to a filmed
presentation of the trophy by Sir Tom Stoppard. He’s apparently a huge fan of
the show (although not enough of a fan to clear his schedule enough to allow
him to attend the final on the day, so it would seem.) This happened of the
roof of Imperial, which gave the whole thing a sort of Let it Be vibe.
Well, there we are, that was University Challenge 2024.
Congratulations and thanks to all of the players, teams, and to the team who put
the show together for us. Here’s looking forward to University Challenge 2025
Amol Watch
Amol, did you have to pick on Justin Lee for wearing his
hoodie? It’s a measure of just how good this Imperial team were that Amol felt
the need to offer encouragement to UCL on the fifteen-minute mark. Another
example of Amol addressing contestants by their given names came when he
admonished Suraiya Haddad with ‘ You should have listened to Sourajit.” Well,
this is part of Amol’s relaxed style and I have to say that if you take the
series as a whole, he really has taken to it like a mallard to water. It’s nice
to see a question master who isn’t shy about showing just how much he has
enjoyed each contest in the series. Very well done, Sir and keep it up.
Interesting Fact That I Didn’t Already Know Of
The Week
Cryolite was obtained from a single mine in Greenland.
Baby Elephant Walk Moment
Meanings of which short term include, in a mechanical context,
a ridge on a surface of a part usually used to prevent an otherwise circular
part from turning and in mathematics, a function commonly used for
interpolation and described by multiple polynomial equations, each one used
only within a particular interval to produce a simpler description of a more
complex curve or surface?
What do you mean you’ve never heard of a spline?!!!!!!! Dum
de dumdum dum dum dum dum dumdum.
