University Challenge 2025 Round 2 UCL v LSE

The Teams

UCL

Calum Jack

Josh Mandel

Olivia Holtermann-Entwhistle (capt)

Sanjay Prabhakar

LSE

Albert Ying Zhi Nyang

Grant Dalton

Sebastian Bramley (capt)

Christina Jiang

 With the first starter Albert Ying Zhi Nyang tried a wild early buzz and lost five, but don’t knock it. Sometimes if you can take that first set it gives you a momentum that can last for the whole show. Once the question mentioned a particular US abolitionist it became clear that the given name required was Harriet as in Tubman. Olivia Holterman-Entwhistle took that one. The book Time’s Echo (the book Time’s Echo – see what I did there?) brought UCL a full house of bonuses. The Sight and Sound List of the 100 greatest films has My Neighbour Totoro as the highest ranked animated film. Did you know that? Calum Jack did. Amines actually brought me a full house, and if I was able to walk on my hands I would have done so, but I can’t so I didn’t. UCL took two. I knew aniline because I’ve read all about William Perkins because he set up his synthetic dye factory in my home borough of Ealing. Calum Jack showed remarkable powers of concentration to still be alert and even awake by the end of the most incredibly waffly starter question about Francis Crick. Three questions on flags of communities of Spain brought just the one bonus. So to the picture starter. We had to identify the city indicated. Since it was clearly inside the borders of Mongolia it was surely going to be Ulaanbaatar? You might be able to name another city in Mongolia, but me? Not so much. Sanjay Prabhakar thought the same and we were both right. Other cities that are home to over half of their respective country’s population brought a full set. Calum Jack took another starter, knowing that the city of St. David’s is in the utterly gorgeous county of Pembrokeshire. Marguerite ‘Who’ Yourcenar brought a full house. This meant that UCL led by a impressive 110 to minus 5 at 10 minutes.

Finally UCL mistimed a buzz and the full question allowed LSE skipper Sebastian Bramley in with rococo. World-systems theory did not sound very promising but two bonuses at least kept the score moving in the right direction. It had taken this long for Josh Mandel to take his first starter, which he did, dating the Battle of Bannockburn to 1314. Tom Lehrer and his “The Elements” song brought two bonuses. The Undivine Comedy brought Albert Ying Zhi Nyang a starter with a fast buzz for Polish. The photographer C.M. Battey (known as Norah to his mates) brought a good and fast full house to LSE. Nobody recognised an uncharacteristic bit of Bach for the music starter. Nor did anyone know Pumped Hydro Storage – not surprised. Josh Mandel knew that the shade of red sharing its name with a 19^th century battle was magenta. This earned the dubious reward of the music bonuses. Only one of them was answered but still UCL had a three figure lead. Anitra’s Dance, the first title mentioned in the next starter was clearly Peer Gynt. Josh Mandel took that one. Varieties of the Persian language brought two more bonuses. Sanjay Prabhakar just beat LSE to the buzzer to identify the polymath Mersenne. People who played a key role in the 1916 Easter Rising brought two bonuses. This meant that they led by 180 to 40 at just after 20 minutes. It was no longer a question of who was going to win, just by how many points they would.

Albert Ying Zhi Nyang took his second and LSE’s third starter with the Deccan Plateau. There would not be another, I’m afraid. Women who have won the gold medal of the Royal Astronomical Society brought two correct answers. For the second picture starter nobody recognised a still from One Man Two Guv’nors. Albert Ying Zhi Nyang threw caution to the win with the next starter and lost five for doing so. UCL couldn’t quite get the city of Ur. (incidentally the interiors of the buildings of the city could be described as Ur Indoors. I’m ‘ere all week, Ladies and Gents.) Sanjay Prabhakar worked out that the star taker had to be the Astrolabe. The picture bonuses showed us other nominees for Best New Play at the Oliviers. They only took one, but we were long past the point where his would make any difference. Nobody knew the Treaty of San Francisco for the next starter. The UCL skipper knew that lettuce derives its name from the Greek for milk. Theatre architect Frank Matcham brought a full house in fairly short order and the UCL juggernaut bulldozered on. It was all too easy for them as Josh Mandel supplied the words – My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings – from Shelley’s brilliant poem. Characters whose names ended with – ette brought another single bonus. Josh Mandel knew various consorts called Anne. Counties of Ireland brought the one correct answer needed for 250 points. Nobody knew Bantu knots for the next starter. Josh Mandel knew that DC is 600 in Roman numerals. The contest was gonged before UCL could add to their score, meaning hat they won by 255 to 55.

For the record LSE had an incredible BCR of 78. However this was achieved by scoring 7 out of a possible 9 bonuses, and that tells its own tale. For the record UCL had a BCR of 63. If you’re outbuzzed, you’re outbuzzed and I’m afraid that’s what happened to LSE.

Amol Watch

For once Amol was absolutely right when he issued an encouraging ‘Plenty of time to get going” to LSE on ten minutes. But their crestfallen faces suggested that the knew the score at this point in both literal and figurative meanings of the phrase.

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

Kuwait City, Djibouti City and Montivideo are each home to more than half of their respective countries’ inhabitants.

Baby Elephant Walk Moment

Along with Graeme Mitchison, who published a 1983 article in Nature entitled the Function of Dream Sleep, where he proposed that a major function of dreams was to forget memories formed during the day, a concept he called reverse learning? He’s better known for his work in Cambridge where he formulated the so-called central dogma of molecular biology and where his research led to the discovery of the structure of DNA.

Alright, so its not as unfathomable as most questions that provoke my dum dums, but come on! There’s no way that this question needs to be this long! Dum de dumdum dum dum dum dum dumdum.