University Challenge 2025 - Quarter Final - Imperial v. Christ's

The Teams

Imperial

Charlotte Stokes

Mattia Elkouby

Matthew Spry (Cap.)

Jaime Salamanca Camacho

Christ’s College, Cambridge

Anniko Firman

Brenda Bethlehem

Oscar Despard (Cap.)

Linus Luu

Well, be honest, you’d have put your money on Imperial for this one, wouldn’t you? It wasn’t just the cricket scores they’d racked up in both matches so far, but the BCR of over 70 too. Yeah, Christ’s looked a decent enough side, and they’d have a buzzer’s chance, but even so . . .

Well, if Christ’s were underdogs, nobody seemed to have told them. Both teams held their nerve with the first starter but when it became obvious that the Italian term for a long short story was novella Brendan Bethlehem won the buzzer race to give the answer. Ancient Greek theatres saw Christ’s take a full house in short time. Again both teams sat on their buzzers for the next starter which again played into Christ’s hands as Anniko Firman knew that the object being described in the question had to be an obelisk. As Amol might one day say, oodles of time left, still, if you were looking for omens. . . Extinct eastern Iranian languages promised but little, yet Brenan Bethlehem brought two of them to his team. However he came in too early for the next starter, just before it became obvious that the answer was leprosy. Matthew Spry tapped that one into the open goal. Old rocks and minerals brought two bonuses, and I was tempted to take a lap of honour for knowing that Zr is zirconium, but what the hell, I let it ride. So to the picture round. None of us could identify the Sinoatrial Node, who was one of the lesser known Doctor Who villains during the Peter Davison era if memory serves me right.  Matthew Spry earned the picture bonuses for knowing that Degas slashed one of Manet’s canvases once. Electrocardiograms saw me earn a bonus for saying tachycardia to each one until it was the right answer. Imperial got one bonus for the same answer. Mattia Elkouby knew about grape must for the next starter. Cinema brought Imperial just the one bonus but they had at least clawed their way into the lead. At the 10 minute mark the score stood 50 – 40 in their favour.

There were several clues to Wuthering Heights in the next starter and Oscar Despard was the first to buzz in. This earned them bonuses on old areas of Europe and they managed two of them. Amol had hardly had time to say a few words before Matthew Spry showed an equally swift buzzer finger to answer mass spectrometry. Bonuses on terms from French for ways of cooking potatoes – none of which was Le Mache - brought two bonuses. For the next starter Christ’s lost five while Jaime Salamanca Camacho recognised one definition of ellipsis. Gawd alone knows what the bonuses were all about but Imperial took a full house. Were they now starting to pull away from Christ’s? Well, no, because Brendan Bethlehem took the next starter, the music starter, with a wee bit of Schubert. More of Schubert’s lieder brought them two correct answer and kept the gap to a manageable 20 points. Following the lieder was the Mackenzie River, which fell to Matthew Spry. Fictional characters and the higher education establishments they attended brought two bonuses, but they zagged with Mr. Burns having attended Harvard when he really attended Yale. Still, the momentum remained with Imperial as Matthew Spry took the next starter with Parallel Lives and Parallel Lines. Bonuses on Indonesia brought just the one correct answer. Linus Luu made a timely early buzz with the concept of curvature for the next starter. Christ’s only took one bonus on works with very similar titles, but at least it meant that the score now stood at 130 – 90 at the 20 minute mark. Ominous, but still bridgeable.

Brendan Bethlehem recognised some vibraphone virtuosi to take the next starter. Energy storage in ecosystems brought two bonuses and the gap was down to 20. The second picture starter saw Jaime Salamanca Camacho identify a self portrait by Albrecht Durer. More youthful self portraits brought one bonus. Still, Christ’s were going to need at least two visits to the table now. It looked as if Jaime Salamanca Camacho’s buzz with Apollonius for the next starter might prove to be decisive. Bonuses on music saw them take just the one, missing out on an old quiz chestnut on Rule Britannia. All done and dusted? Well, cometh the hour, cometh the man. Oscar Despard buzzed early and accurately to give the answer of the well-known Decepticon, Synchrotron. Philosophy brought one bonus. But there was still hope for Christ’s as long as they could keep slinging buzzer. Brendan Bethlehem did so, taking the next starter with Sukkot. Historical figures in the plays of Shakespeare brought a correct answer, and the gap was down to 20. The Persian Sassanids saw Bendan Bethlehem strike again. Gap down to 10. Two bonuses on web design meant that the scores were level. All of the momentum was with Christ’s. Gastrulation sounds like a particularly nasty method of murder, but whatever it really means Oscar Despard knew it and took the lead back for Christ’s with it. Translators and languages brought two bonuses. Was there time for a last starter?

No. This meant that Christ’s had won a terrific contest with 180 – 160.

For the record, Imperial achieved a BCR of 52 while Christ’s achieved 60. The result, though was in doubt right up until the last starter. Nobody will fancy facing Christ’s after this, but then Imperial aren’t finished yet either. Could we see these two sides meeting again in the final? Well, there’s a long way to go yet.

Amol Watch

“Four minutes to go. Plenty of time, Christ’s, for you.” When Amol said this there was a gap of fifty points between the teams. Amol, when you’re making predictions like this I wish you’d give us the name of this year’s Grand National winner.

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

One of those rare occasions when nothing especially struck me.

Baby Elephant Walk Moment.

The eigenvalues of a matrix are usually represented by the lowercase form of which Greek letter? Elsewhere it is used to represent Lagrange multipliers and the radioactive decay constant.

Dum de dumdum dum dum dum dum dumdum.

Mastermind 2025 First Round Heat 19

Hey there, how’re you doing? Me? Mustn’t grumble. I made a list a couple of days ago consisting of things I really like which make life better. I left out family and friends because that they would head the list goes without saying. I was surprised by just how much was on the list, though, and yes, Mastermind was there too.

Royal Navy officer Krish Hook kicked off proceedings in last night’s show. He was answering on The Masters snooker tournament, a subject that I expected to bring me nowt. I actually got two which left me surprisingly satisfied with my round. Krish looked calm and confident – well, he’s a navy man after all – and didn’t seem to have much trouble knocking off 9. In fact in all respects other than the score, this was pretty much a double figure round.

Barrister Laura Knightly came second. I’m afraid that her round on Emmeline Pankhurst only serve to confirm to me that I know even less about Emmeline Pankhurst than I might have thought that I did. I’m sorry to say that I didn’t get any of them. Laura on the other hand knew her stuff pretty well and it was a bit of a surprise that she only managed 7 of them. I say ‘only’ – in the current era 7 is a perfectly respectable specialist performance. However it would leave her with at least a little bit of catching up to do in the GK.

Right. The next two specialist rounds were the kind that should be ‘fill yer boots, Dave’ subjects. Laura Playle offered us “Doctor Who:The David Tennant Years,” Doctor Who also made it onto my list of happiness-inducing things. I did okay, with five correct answers. Incidentally this was the same number that Laura achieved, although we didn’t do it on all of the same questions. It was a respectable performance, but Laura suffers basically because I know the subject well enough to know that there were a fair few she missed that were distinctly gettable. Hey, it happens.

My other fill yer boots subject was Henry VII, offered up by our final contender Anthony Thomas. Well, my boots stayed resolutely unfilled as I managed just the three. I didn’t think that this was an easy round at all. Yes, you’re right, of course it’s all in the eye of the beholder and the ear of the behearer. Anthony too scored a respectable five, but since, like Flora, he was four points behind when the half time oranges were being doled out you had to fancy that the contest had become a two horse race.

There seemed to be something in the air in the show last night. There were several times when I felt that a round had actually seemed to be a bit better than the score that it earned. Such a round was Flora Playle’s GK round. You’d have forgiven her for being daunted by lagging behind the leader to the tune of four and yet she showed no signs of this. She gave the round a good old lash, added 9 to her score and was maybe just a little unlucky not to get double figures. Anthony Thomas came close to tying the scores but his round never felt to me to be quite as good as Flora’s and he fell a point short.

Laura Knightly provided us with a round of two distinct halves. She seemed a little unsettled when the first question asked her the letter which a number of given words ended in. It seemed a case of her thinking – really? I can’t believe you’re asking something quite so simple.- To be fair, that was my reaction to the question too. There were a couple of long pauses too. Then, about halfway through, something clicked and Laura began to motor a bit. She rallied to finish with 8, which gave her 15 and the lead.

So Krish needed a modest 6 to tie and 7 to win outright. No, it’s not a huge target but then you still have to go back to sit in the chair and actually answer the questions. Funny things happen from time to time. Fair play to Krish, he wasn’t going to let them happen last night. Now, as I’ve said earlier, it was a funny old show and there seemed to be something in the air since none of our 8 rounds produced double figures. Krish did the next best thing though, scoring 9 to end with 18.

Well done, sir. Best of luck to you in the semi finals.

The Details

Krish Hook	The Masters Snooker Tournament	9	0	9	0	18	0
Laura Knightly	Emmeline Pankhurst	7	0	8	0	15	0
Flora Playle	Doctor Who: The David Tennant Years	5	0	9	0	14	0
Anthony Thomas	Henry VII	5	1	8	0	13	1

University Challenge 2025 Round Two - Warwick v. Oriel

 The Teams

Warwick

Ananya Govindarajan

Thomas Hart

Oscar Siddle (Capt.)

Benjamin Watson

Oriel,Oxford

Samin Taseen

Theo Sharkey

Danaan Kilburn (Capt.)

Tom Armstrong

Here we are dearly beloved at the last of the second-round matches. You see that’s what happens when a proper quiz show keeps the celebrity (well, academic celebrities in UC’s case) Christmas specials confined to Christmas rather than dragging them on throughout January – I’m looking at you, Mastermind.

Thomas Hart took his first starter of the night with various applications of the adjective alien. A lovely UC special set on golfing terms found in Shakespeare - “Is this a niblick I see before me? Nay, sirrah, for ‘tis Birnham 3 wood.” Neither of these was mentioned, but the set brought a single bonus from a gettable trio. For the next starter Thomas Hart identified a Ingmar Bergman quote about his film ‘Persona’. Slavonic epic paintings brought us both just the one bonus. Pioneering figures in palliative care gave Benjamin Watson his first starter. Now, I thought that kinematics were old films, but sadly no. Still, it did at least give us the answer ‘jerk’ with a question that wasn’t actually – how would you describe Piers Morgan? So that’s something. The picture starter showed us a description of a croissant in French. Tom Armstrong took that one to get his team into the black. More baked goods of French origin described in French brought just a single bonus for éclair. Works illustrated by Leonora Carrington fell to Oscar Siddle for the next starter. Composer Gerald Barry brought Warwick a full house. This meant that they led by 80 – 10 at the ten minute point.

Theo Sharkey came in too soon for the next starter on a city in Northern Ireland and thus missed the clinching information that it shared its name with towns and cities in Maine and Wales. Thomas Hart snapped up that piece of low hanging fruit. Video games set primarily underwater brought a brace of bonuses. Gawd alone knows what the chemistry starter that followed was on about but Samin Taseen knew the answer was kinase. Honestly, it’s a different language. Names of cities in the multilingual Austro-Hungarian Empire brought only the 1 bonus. Thomas Hart knew the Kimberley Diamond Mine for the next starter. Bonuses on the Torch Complex – me neither – brought a single correct answer. For the music starter Tom Amstrong recognised All Shook Up. Other original songs that Elvis would later make cover versions of brought Oriel 2 bonuses. I personally did not know that Elvis covered Tutti Frutti. Ate a lot of it, yes, but recorded it? Nobody knew the next starter about the word tower. Now, I’m very sorry, but knowing that astatine is directly below iodine in the periodic table was above and beyond the call of duty for me and thoroughly deserving of my lap of honour. Samin Taseen took that one as well. 19^th century French monarchism brought two bonuses for Oriel. With the next starter it became increasingly clear that it was referring to Poundbury and Benjamin Watson won the buzzer race to give the answer. Trickster animals in folklore brought a pleasing full house. Thomas Hart knew works either beginning or ending with Yes. I’ll be honest I missed much of the bonuses that followed, but Warwick had the lot of them. This meant that on twenty minutes they were sitting pretty, leading 170 – 60.

Phillippa Foot fell to Benjamin Watson for the next starter. Indian physicists proved very much to Warwick’s collective liking and they took a full house. Inexplicably I knew Bose for the last, but I have no idea how I knew it. I think that Thomas Hart mistook the Clifton suspension bridge for Telford’s Menai Bridge for the next picture starter. Theo Sharkey tapped that one into the open goal. More of IKB’s engineering works brought just one bonus. Still, at least Oriel had some momentum as Theo Sharkey identified the Hadean Aeon. 20^th century archaeological historian Sir John Summerson saw them take one, although failing a mispronunciation it would have been two. Theo Sharkey took another starter knowing the language Occitan. St, Teresa of Aston Vila did not provide any bonus points. Neither did St. Teresa of Avila for that matter. Oscar Siddle won the buzzer race to answer that the Trucial States were now known as the United Arab Emirates. Good old quiz chestnut, that one. The bonuses on the old adjective darkling meant I was able to predict Dover Beach and Ode to a Nightingale would feature. Warwick did not add to their score. They didn’t need to. They already had 200.Theo Sharkey was on the right lines with his early buzz for the next starter, which did refer to Bodyline, but he lost five because the answer required was Douglas Jardine, which Warwick could not dredge up. Thomas Hart recognised meanings of the word curl and this brought up bonuses on scientists who gave their name to pathogens. 2 bonuses added a little more gilding to the Warwick score. Tom Armstrong identified the trail of tears for the next starter. There was just the time for one correct bonus, then the gong ended the competition. Warwick had won by 215 – 110.

Warwick achieved a BCR of 70, to Oriel’s 41, so it wasn’t just down to superior buzzing. But from early doors Oriel were playing catchup, and Warwick were deserved winners.

Amol Watch

Amol’s ‘plenty of time Oriel’ was timed at 11:36 this time. There was no mention of BCRs this time, but I was pleased to see Amol insisting on the first answer rule. Harsh but definitely fair.

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

I loved the idea of alien priories, mostly for the mental pictures the phrase gave birth to.

Baby Elephant Walk Moment

In biochemistry, serine, receptor tyrosine and cyclin-dependent can all be followed by what word to give – yeah, it’s short. But my God, it’s soporific. Dum de dumdum dum dum dum dum dumdum.

Mastermind 2025 First Round Heat 18

Well, shall we call a spade a spade? Yes, we shall. Frankly it’s been too long since we saw the previous heat of his year’s series of Mastermind. There’s a place for Sleb Mastermind in the schedules, I guess, but this latest lot was strung out for far too long in my opinion.

So, back to real Mastermind then. First up was Fergus Navaratnam-Blair. He was answering on Harold Pinter. I was delighted that the question about his stage name David Baron came up. There is a rumour that Harold Pinter, as David Baron, donned a yeti costume for the mid 60s Doctor Who serial The Web of Fear. Sadly this appears to be grounded in myth. What wasn’t a myth was how well Fergus knew his subject. By way of a reminder a double figure round in Mastermind these days is a good score, and Fergus managed 10.

Look, all I really know about Rufus Wainwright is that his dad, Loudon Wainwright III had a regular slot singing strange songs on a Jasper Carrott TV series many years ago. How strange? Well, one of them involved waxing up a dead girlfriend and using her as a surfboard, if memory serves me right. Rosie Fletcher, thankfully, knew a lot more about the son than I knew about the father. She passed on one, but powered onwards and ended with 8, handily placed just a couple of points behind Fergus.

Solicitor Ivan Milatovic looked very much as if he meant business on his round on painter Diego Velasquez. This impression proved to be entirely accurate as he reeled off 12 perfect points. As I do often say when witnessing a perfect round, I think he could have sat there answering on Velasquez all night, or at least for the 30 minutes of the show. I have to thank Ivan, for it was his subject that brought me the only two points I would get in the whole of the specialist round. A pitiful performance that I can only put down to ring rust. That and not knowing any of the other answers.

We finished the specialists with Mickie Wynne-Davies and a very old-school Mastermind specialist, the Savoy Operas of Gilbert and Sullivan. Mickie just seemed to get on the wrong side of a number of these questions and by the time the white line had gone she had scored five. That’s nothing to be ashamed of, but 7 points adrift and out of the race.

This would prove to be something of a shame. For Mickie went on to serve up the best general knowledge round of the show. With barely a hesitation she added 12 points to her total, taking her to a very respectable 17, and leaving the audience (well, me ) to ponder on what might have been.

Rosie followed, and she had more of a struggle with her set of questions. In the end she came close to Mickie’s overall total, but she finished with 16. Judging by the smile on her face she was here to do as well as she could, but also to enjoy the experience and that’s probably the best way of approaching Mastermind. Well done.

In the current era of Mastermind it’s not uncommon to see contenders underperform a bit in one or other of the rounds. However it is a rarity to see a contender really undone by a set of questions. Sadly it happened to Fergus. He was determined not to pass which is in itself a laudable ambition, but question after question refused to yield easily. It was one of ‘those’ rounds, where every time there’s a fifty-fifty you zig when you should’ve zagged. Fergus scored 3. Very bad luck, sir, try not to let it get you down. It happens.

This left Ivan needing 7 correct answers to win the show. To be honest he answered so well at the start of his round that he was through the line in next to no time. The round seemed to stall after that – not that the 10 points that he scored is ever a bad total in this day and age. In the end he finished with 22, comfortably ahead of the pack. Well done, sir. This was an admirable first round performance, especially in terms of the specialist subject. Best of luck in the semi finals.

 

Fergus Navaratnam-Blair	The Life of Harold Pinter	10	0	3	0	13	0
Rosie Flecher	The Music of Rufus Wainwright	8	1	8	0	16	1
Ivan Milatovic	Diego Velasquez	12	0	10	0	22	0
Mickie Wynne-Davies	The Savoy Operas of Gilbert and Sullivan	5	0	12	0	17	0

Settling a tie

I’ve allowed this one to percolate for a while, rather than posting a knee-jerk reaction last week after it happened. What am I talking about? Well, it’s the film quiz in the Gwyn Hall. If you’re a regular reader you might remember the ongoing saga from this time last year of the prizes for winning the League. Well, not last Wednesday but the Wednesday before that we had the first monthly quiz of 2025. The outcome of the League for last year was announced, and it turned out what we were tied at the top with another team. Both teams were told to nominate 1 player. The two players were asked 1 question – with a numerical answer. Closest answer would win the league. No, we didn’t win.

Okay, that’s life. After last year’s prize fiasco I can’t say I was at all bothered about whether we won the league or not. We deliberately gave the last quiz of the year a miss, and we would have been given a point just for turning up, so you could argue (and indeed the organisers did) that we only had ourselves to blame. But it’s just – and Dan pointed this out on the night – I couldn’t help feeling that it was odd to have just the one player from both teams answering. It was even odder considering that the quiz itself on the night had to be also settled by a tie break, and this was open to the whole team.

Oh well, it could have been worse. I’m put in mind of The Office, where Brent and Finchy’s team lose on a tie break, yet decide that they’ve won because Finchy can throw Tim’s shoe over a building. I’m sure I also saw or heard of a tied quiz being settled by both teams building paper airplanes with the winners being the team whose plane flew furthest.

It takes all sorts.

Adios Celebrity Mastermind (don't feel you have to hurry back)

I see that proper Mastermind is back on BBC2 this coming Monday. It’s really not before time at all. There’s a place for the celebrity show, sure, but 14 shows in one go is more than enough, frankly. I mean, our Christmas decorations came down before the end of the first week of January.

More and more over recent years has it struck me that it’s not necessarily the best fit for a celebrity show, is Mastermind. I’ve discussed in the past the huge imbalance between risk and reward in the regular show – and for many people I would imagine that this is all part of the show’s attraction. But there’s a different imbalance between risk and reward in the celebrity show. The reward? Well, a celebrity trophy, maybe bragging rights and maybe, just maybe, people will think you’re a little smarter. In all honesty I can’t see that it’s going to do much for your career, not in the way that a win on Strictly or I’m a Celebrity might. The risk? Well, if you don’t do well, people will often (wrongly) draw the conclusion that you’re thick. I guess this is the reason why on every season of Celebrity Mastermind I have only seem to have heard of less than half of the celebrities.

Maybe it doesn’t help that there are a lot of celebrity quiz shows now. Later tonight (Saturday) BBC1 slams us with Celebrity Pointless and the Weakest Link. BBC Two gave us UC at Christmas a while ago. No celebrity quizzes on ITV tonight, but it’s only a week or so since Stephen Fry made headlines with a stellar performance on Celebrity Millionaire. You name a popular quiz show, and there’s probably been a celebrity version of it.

As a rule, I don’t watch a lot of celebrity quiz shows. I’m told that I’ve mellowed over the last 12 months – I taught my last lesson on Fifth March 2024, prior to retiring from teaching in August. I took up a temporary position as a waiting list coordinator for the Community Dental Service in September, with a view to looking for a permanent position from the inside, and it worked. I start the new position in a couple of weeks. Finishing teaching has been a huge relief. I’d like to think that ending what had become a nightmare has made me into a more relaxed, less judgemental and frankly nicer person. But for all that I can still be quite unforgiving when I see a less than stellar quiz performance from a celebrity.  

University Challenge 202 - Round Two - Cardiff v. Queen's Belfast

The Teams

Cardiff

Kyle Gilbert

Rosalie Tarsala

Conor Boyling (Capt)

Henrik Holm

Queen’s Belfast

Sarah Carlisle

Jason McKillen

Daniel Rankin (Capt)

Sam Thompson

When the first starter, asking for a natural philosopher, mentioned pressure I threw Pascal into the ring. It was a while before Daniel Rankin opened the Queen’s’ account with the same answer. I decided it was too early for a lap of honour around the Clark sofa. I’m always in the market for a set of flag bonuses and Queen’s took what I thought were the two more difficult ones yet missed the easier one on the flag of Papua New Guinea. Sarah Carlisle took the next starter with the word maw. Films which earned Oscar nominations for composer Ennio Morricone brought Queen’s a full house in quick time. Neither team knew about the Bouncing Czech, Robert Maxwell’s attempt to merge Oxford and Reading (football clubs). For the next starter, Daniel Rankin recognised examples of the work of David Lynch. Baryons – didn’t Captain Scarlet fight against them? – brought two bonuses to Queen’s, and this time I took the lap of honour opportunity when I answered Sakharov. Now, you may very well be familiar with the inverse square law of gamma radiation, but it is rarely a topic of discussion around the Clark dinner table, so the picture starter with a diagram of an experiment involved with it passed me by. Passed both teams by as well. Still, the french poet Rimbaud, played memorably on film by Sylvester Stallaune, brought Daniel Rankin another starter and Queen’s took 1 of the physics experiment diagrams. I got one by the expedient of answering Boyle’s Law to each one. Jason McKillen recognised forget-me-nots in several languages and earned nice set of bonuses on money in the novels of Charles Dickens. They’re not devotees of his work and scored nowt. They still led by 90 – 0 on ten minutes.

Daniel Rankin just kept stacking up the starters, knowing Zora Neale Hurston for the next. Cajun cooking brought up one bonus and I’ll be honest, I just kept answering with gumbo too. Kyle Gilbert did what Cardiff had to do and buzzed early for the next starter. Sadly he was just a little too early and put his team into deficit. Given the full question that man Rankin knew that Edinburgh is the capital and only town of Tristan da Cunha. Named symphonies added another two correct answers to he pot. Ironically this was followed by the music starter and it was Daniel Rankin who recognised the work of Puccini. From tiny frozen hands to other operatic references to hands which brought just the one bonus. For the next starter various meanings of the word domain at last allowed Cardiff to wipe out their deficit and put some points on the board. Work on the structure of DNA prior to its discovery saw Conor Boyling give Hooke as an answer for the first time. It would not be the last. The Cardiff skipper recognised an early epic written in Tamil for the next starter. Steve McQueen’s Grenfell brought just the one bonus. Nobody knew of the CLC force from China during World War 1. Jason McKillen worked out that the AI in an acronym for a group of drugs must stand for anti-inflammatory. Figures from the 20^th century whose names began with Z brought a nippy full house. This meant that the score stood at 155 – 25 at the 20 minute mark.

The second picture starter absolutely cried out John Singer-Sargent to me, but that’s my problem and I have to live with it. Conor Boyling cheekily tried Hooke again, and that gave Amol a laugh. I’m a bit surprised nobody knew the late Rob Burrow for the next starter. Conor Boyling took his third starter knowing that BL started a number of words in German including lightning – blitzen. Three 20^th century paintings of birthday celebrations brought zippo. Fair play, the only one I could guess was Chagall. Kyle Gilbert continued the Cardiff late, late show knowing that a group of countries were admitted to the UN in the mid 70s. Stuff about computer audio files again brought just a single bonus. I suppose that in chemistry we might have guessed that the opposing qualities H and S are hard and soft. We didn’t though. We didn’t know gneiss – gneiss to see you, to see you gneiss – for the next either. I’m surprised nobody knew months from the Judaic calendar for the next. Finally Henrik Holm stopped the rot, knowing various definitions for the word gauge. Three questions on perennial UC favourite Thomas Hobbes brought two bonuses this time. Do you remember Felix Baumgartner? Jason McKillen did. Snooker terms saw them only pot one bonus – see what I did there? Daniel Rankin knew the Sanskrit word Pradesh, and this earned, well, nothing really since the gong sounded before the first bonus on video games had been asked. Queen’s had run out comfortable winners by 180 - 70

For the record, Queen’s this time managed a BCR of 53.3 while Cardiff had 33.3. The other huge difference between the teams was the buzzing of Daniel Rankin. Queen’s may struggle if he has an off night.

Amol Watch

I do like it when Amol mentions a team’s BCR from a previous match as he did here, with Queen’s highly impressive BCR of 80 from their first round match.

Maybe it was just me but Amol’s plenty of time left encouragement to Cardiff right on the ten minute mark, while accurate, seemed to lack conviction, as if he thought that the game looked pretty cut and dried, which, to be fair, it did at this point. I’ll be honest, I’m not sure that his comment when Cardiff finally did put some points on the board wasn’t said sarcastically, but for now we’ll give him the benefit of the doubt.

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

I knew that double Nobel winner Linus Pauling got the structure of DNA wrong, but I didn’t know hat he proposed a triple helix. Rookie mistake.

AND

As well as writing ‘Leviathan’ Hobbes also wrote ‘Behemoth’ – the other great biblical monster.

Baby Elephant Walk Moment

Far play, nothing seemed ridiculously convoluted or impenetrable in this show.

University Challenge - Round Two - Christ's Cambridge v. St. Edmund Hall, Oxford

The Teams

Christ’s, Cambridge

Anniko Firman

Brendan Bethlehem

Oscar Despard (Capt.)

Linus Luu

St. Edmund Hall, Oxford

Jeffrey Liu

Robert Elkington

Sophia Bursey (Capt.)

Daisy Prendergast

Going into Monday’s match, Christ’s had already beaten one Oxford college. I fancied them to make it two from two.

It took a fairly long preamble to the first starter before Linus Luu buzzed in with US author Louisa May Alcott. Cecco del Caravaggio brought just the one bonus. Jeffrey Liu opened the Oxford side’s account recognising a reference to the concept of knowledge – episteme. Chemical reactions – announced Amol – do me a favour - announced Dave. One bonus evened the score. Now, come on. We’d just had three chemistry questions, and the next began with “Which protein. . . “I nearly told the TV ‘I’ll get me coat’, but instead my eyes just began to glaze over as Oscar Despard correctly answered with myoglobin. Thankfully three bonuses on wine from the Napa Valley – as opposed to my whine from the Afan Valley – at least gave me a guesser’s chance. We both took two of them. Brendan Bethlehem knew the term vowel harmony for the next starter. Cities in Belgium, and their names brought a full house and served to take us up to the first picture starter. Look, I don’t know anything about the Dunning Kruger Effect and its probably too late for me to learn, but Linus Luu recognised a graph pertaining to it. Three visual stimuli used in ‘well known psychology experiments’ – surely a contradiction in terms – brought me nowt and Christ’s 2. Bodhisattva – said Robert Elkington in response to the next starter. Gesundheit thought I, but it earned Teddy Hall some much needed bonus attempts on video game franchises. Had the setters for Monday’s show deliberately raided the huge file named ‘Subjects which Dave knows sod all about’? It felt like it. Even the team only managed 1. This meant that Christ’s led 75 – 30 at almost 11 minutes.

I guessed that the ‘world (French) capital of gastronomy’ was Lyon. Brendan Bethlehem gave the same answer. This brought the Cambridge side a set of bonuses on – gulp – scientific terms. (The agony continued. Alright, I admit I took a lap of honour for knowing amygdala). Christ’s took a full house and I took a nap. To come round only to hear this starter – “In either upper or lower case which single letter of the latin alphabet denotes – in chemistry – “ and my brain switched off again. Oscar Despard offered a P please, Bob. The Morant Bay Rebellion brought a point for John Stuart Mill (of his own free will, on half a pint of shandy was particularly ill. I know the feeling.) Sophia Bursey buzzed her team back into the game, working out that a particular plot had been aimed against Henry V. Tense, aspect and mood in verbs brought a timely full house. This brought us to the music starter but nobody recognised the work of Johannes ‘Shirley’ Brahms. Robert Elkington knew that the largest islands of the Bismarck Archipelago are New Britain and New Ireland. More classical works brought two music bonuses. Robert Elkington took a second consecutive starter, knowing that Callicrates and others were architects to Alexander the Great. The Novels of Graham Greene saw them take just 1 of a gettable set. I had breakfast with him once. Great writer – awful breakfast conversationalist. Nobody knew about Iranian New Wave Cinema for the next starter. Brendan Bethlehem knew about programme music for the next. This brought up bonuses on chess and cognitive science of which Christ’s took one. At 20 mins they led by 120 – 90.

Anniko Firman buzzed early with Iphigenia for the next starter. Did you know that this was also Mrs. Doubtfire’s first name? Works inspired by the case of the Papin Sisters yielded nothing. For the second picture starter Teddy Hall identified the death cap mushroom but not any of the other poisonous fungi that followed. Linus Luu knew bubble sort in computer science. Composer’s attempts to destroy their own works proved to be an interesting set but only brought Christ’s one correct answer. For the next starter Oscar Despard correctly answered that the Japanese term suiboko represents the medium of ink. British anthropologist Marilyn Strathern brought Christ’s a full house and looked like it would seal the deal for them. Brendan Bethlehem recognised a description of Smyrna for the next starter.ISRO space missions brought two more correct answers. Look, I don’t know what the term adiabatic is all about, but it was what Oscar Despard gave for a correct answer to the next starter. The War of the Spanish Succession brought two correct answers before the gong brought matters to an end. Christ’s won by 215 to 100.

When you get right down to it the stats tell us that Christ’s were clearly the better team, both on the buzzer and also on bonuses, with a BCR of 57 to Teddy Hall’s 44.

Amol Watch

Amol reacted as if he thought that the Morant Bay Rebellion taking place in Jamaica was obvious. Montego Bay, maybe. I liked his ‘you can have a little bit more of the music but let’s not be silly’ on the music starter. Not even Jeremy Paxman ever came out with that one. I was pleased to see Amol succumb to the comic potential of shiitake mushrooms, too.

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

Bangalore- or Bengaluru – is the ‘silicon valley of India’

Baby Elephant Walk Moment

Secondly, abnormal fibrous, insoluble protein deposits in organs and tissues, they are associated with the development of diseases including Alzheimer’s and type 2 diabetes.-

Now okay, by itself that question is far from deadly. But it wasn’t on its own. I wilted under the sheer quantity of these science questions in this show.

Dum de dumdum dum dum dum dum dumdum

University Challenge 2025 - Round Two - Wadham, Oxford v. Imperial University

The Teams

Wadham,Oxford

Aarav Billore

Athur Bellamy

Johnny Worden (Capt.)

Anjali Cheung

Imperial University

Charlotte Stokes

Mattia Elkouby

Matthew Spry (Capt.)

Jaime Salamanca Camacho

The tale of the tape suggested that Wadham were going to find this match hard going and even Amol seemed to think so judging from his introduction of both teams. A list of films with the same word in their titles saw a rare misfire from Imperial, allowing Arthur Bellamy in with ‘my’ to give Wadham an early lead. Bonuses on psychotherapy yielded nowt. Wadham lost half of their points through an incorrect early buzz for the next starter allowing Imperial the full question, to which they supplied the correct answer of Burundi. One of my all-time favourite artists, Aubrey Beardsley – who was also the joint winner of the first London Marathon- brought a first full house of the night. It wouldn’t be the last. Jaime Salamanca Camacho took his first starter of the contest with Leonard Euler. Terms beginning with polyp brought another full house. For the picture starter we saw an elegantly written out speech from Macbeth, and first to identify it was Mattia Elkouby. Three more of the same saw Imperial take just the one bonus. Jaime Salamanca Camacho took a second starter recognising a description of the work of Courbet – that’s Gustave rather than Harry H. The jazz musician Terence ‘Who’ Blanchard brought another full house. At the words Bartolomeo Cristofori Jaime Salamanca Camacho buzzed in with the answer that he invented the piano. (You ‘ave it son, I’ll play it.) Imperial gobbled up types of sushi for another full house which meant that on 11 minutes they led by 110 – five.

The agony continued for Wadham. When you’re under the cosh like this you have to try to break the other team’s rhythm. Buzzing in early was the right tactic, but sadly they lost their remaining five points for an incorrect answer. Which allowed a free shot on goal to Imperial which they duly converted. Osmium brought another full house. Charlotte Stokes took a ridiculously long-winded starter on the term checkpoint ensuring that all four members of her team had taken at least one starter. Union territories of India saw the inexorable onslaught continue with another Imperial full house. For the music starter nobody recognised the work of prog rock dinosaurs King Crimson. Charlotte Stokes knew that Thomas ‘Kiss Me’ Hardy invented the term cliffhanger. This earned the music bonuses, three tracks on which Robert Fripp played, They took just the one. Mattia Elkouby won the buzzer race to identify Dr. Strangelove for the next starter. Manga bonuses did nothing to slow Imperial’s progress – the resulting full house brought Imperial to 200 unanswered points. Matthew Spry knew the river required for the answer to the next starter was the Derwent. You won’t be surprised that Imperial took a full house on the History of Mathematics. You should be surprised that I did as well. Me? I was flabbergasted. And knackered since it necessitated a lap of honour. Jaime Salamanca Camacho knew Cepheids for the astronomy starter that followed. Second symphonies – which made me think ‘they took the credit for your second symphony – rewritten by machine etc etc. – saw Imperial manage to get one correct answer by giving ‘Shostakovitch’ until it was correct. Jaime Salamanca Camacho recognised that the punishment being described from Dante’s Inferno was for the sin of simony. Religion and social science brought. . . well it brought another three correct answers. At this point I wouldn’t have blamed Wadham for collectively buzzing together for the next starter and giving ‘I’ll get me coat.” as a response. As it was, the score was 265 – 0 at 20 minutes.

A wee bit of Kandinsky was the second picture starter, identified by Matthew Spry. More circles pictures brought another full house. Surely Imperial would soon be through the 300 barrier. Finally Arthur Bellamy put Wadham’s account into the black, recognising clues leading to the word giant. The Large Hadron Collider in CERN brought 1 bonus. Jaime Salamanca Camacho knew that a teacher who moves from place to place is peripatetic. Well, a moving target is more difficult to hit. 20^th century Prime Ministers brought the seemingly inevitable full house. The word dream in the titles of proto sci fi works brought Matthew Spry another starter. London theatres brought – shock horror – just two bonuses. Nobody took the next starter on Narvik. Look, gawd alone knows what the next starter was about, but Mattia Elkouby said the answer was five and that’ll do for me. American female poet of the early 60’s? If it ain’t Plath, I don’t know the answer. She did nowt for Imperial, as they missed all three bouses. Aarav Billore knew about descendants of Alexander the Great’s army for the next starter. Bonuses on the HIV virus saw a harsh ruling deny Wadham a full house. Well, it was purely academic as it was. There was no time for the next starter to be answered, and the final score was 345 – 25.

Wadham left with a BCR of 33.3, while Imperial managed a staggering 79. It seemed to me that they had one of those nights when all of your guesses come off, and every fifty-fifty coin toss lands heads up for you. BUT. Imperial were magnificent. They could have performed substantially less well and still won. They have good buzzing throughout the team, and their coverage is very wide. No, they’re not guaranteed to win the series by any means. But that performance should have put the fear of God into the rest.

Amol Watch

I was delighted to see Amol talking about Imperial’s bonus conversion rate when introducing the teams. We’ve been banging on about BCRs for years here in LAM Towers. He used to mention it quite regularly but it’s been a while. I felt he was a bit down on Wadham in his intro, especially considering the shellhacking they were going to get in the match.

At 15 minutes and 36 seconds, Amol said “Plenty of time Wadham.” Bear in mind that the score was 175 – nil at this point. I get it, but I don’t know, in this case probably the less said the better.

I think his momentary speechlessness at the end said everything you could say about Imperial’s imperious performance. Even if he did call them ‘absolutely ludicrous’

Interesting Fact That I Didn’t Already Know of the Week

West Germany in 1974 and Japan in 2002 are the only countries to host/co host a FIFA world cup without any matches being played in their capital cities.

Baby Elephant Walk Moment

What term is applied to the monitoring mechanisms designed to assess for DNA damage and correct alignment of spindle fibres during different stages of the eukaryotic cell cycle, and which allow the cell to decide whether it should proceed with or terminate cell division? The term is also used to refer to a place along a road or border at which travellers are stopped for inspection, including . . . Hey , you had me (asleep) at eukaryotic. Dum de dumdum dum dum dum dum dumdum.

University Challenge 2025 - round two Darwin, Cambridge v. Edinburgh

The Teams

Darwin, Cambridge

Rebecca McClelland

Sophie Willis

Harrison Whitaker (Capt.)

Rowan Stewart

Edinburgh

David Aiton

Jess Mellor

Greg Myles (Capt)

Caitlin Self

Ah, here we are again, Dearly Beloved. OC has finished its Christmas specials and we’re back to the competition proper. I Can’t Believe It’s Not University Challenge finished last week, meaning we’re back to the real mccoy. I noticed that Mastermind Lite hasn’t finished yet, but hopefully we’ll be back to normal soon.

One of the small pleasures of UC is watching for that moment when one word or two unlocks a question. In the case of the first starter it was Baron Hausmann, which gave Harrison Whitaker the answer of Paris. Paintings of enslaved people brought 2 bonuses from what was not the easiest set. A very excited Harrison Whitaker won the buzzer race to answer Argonauts for the second starter. He bonuses on extinct creatures taught me something. I had always thought that the Dimetrodon lived in the Triassic, but it was even earlier, the Permian. We both took the other two bonuses. Nobody knew about prosecutions for blasphemy for the next starter. The next starter about contributions to a reference work could only be answered by the OED or the Britannica. Harrison Whitaker zigged with Britannica allowing Jess Mellor to zag with OED and get Edinburgh moving. Bonuses on cinema in Taiwan brought 2 bonuses. So to the picture starter. Yes, to be honest I was disappointed that it was a scientific diagram of something that Sophie Willis informed us was called the Krebs process – presumably named after the character played by Steve Kanaly in Dallas. (ask your grandparents). Three more pictures of the cycle asking about various bits of it brought just the one correct answer. More science followed with a bewilderingly long chemistry starter. Greg Myles knew the iodine clock reaction. A set on nixtamalization – me neither – brought me a lap of honour for knowing niacin is vitamin B3 – while Edinburgh took just the last bonus. This took us to the 10 minute mark with Darwin leading 55 – 30. It was becoming an interesting contest, but neither team was pulling up any trees with the bonuses.

With the next starter you just had to wait until the name Bamako made it clear the country in question was Mali. Harrison Whitaker made no mistake, timing his buzzer run to perfection. The French department of Yvelines brought two bonuses, but being realistic Darwin probably could have known the treaty of St. Germain for a full house. Still, another Harrison Whitaker starter followed in short order on film director Ari Aster. Place names that are etymologically related brought another single bonus. So to the music starter, and David Aiton recognised an arrangement of Pictures at an Exhibition by Mussorgsky. More classical music brought 1 bonus when a good save saw them swap Satie for Saint Saens at the last moment. David Aiton took his second consecutive starter recognising various uses of the word arc. Women In Science saw a harsh but fair ruling, disallowing Dorothy Hodgkins for Dorothy Hodgkin. This meant that they took just the one on the set. Caitlin Self took Edinburgh’s third consecutive starter, knowing that Attila (the Hun, not the Stockbroker) was nicknamed the Scourge (of God). Extinct Germanic languages brought two bonuses. Now, the next question began “Which figure of Anglo Saxon legend . . . “ Come on, it’s got to be worth an interruption for Grendel after that, hasn’t it? Both teams sat on their buzzers for a moment or two until his mother was mentioned, which allowed Harrison Whitaker to shake off the doldrums and get his team buzzing again. A lovely set on Shakespeare’s characters as they would appear in an alphabetical list brought two bonuses. David Aiton knew that con sordino means played with a mute. The tree of Life brought jus one bonus, still at just after the 20 minute mark the score stood at 110 – 95 in Darwin’s favour, and it was anybody’s game.

So to the second picture starter, and what one of my less enlightened friends once called ‘one of them pre-Raphaelite bints.’ It looked more like Lizzie Siddal than Jane Morris, I thought, and so did Harrison Whitaker. We were right. More paintings by other artists for which Ms. Siddal modelled brought just the one bonus. Harrison Whitaker was the first to get clues to words beginning with pep for the next starter. US astronomer Debra Fisher brought me my second lap of honour opportunity for the Doppler Effect. Then another for diffraction, while Darwin managed just the one bonus. The next starter suggested Sri Lanka, and David Aiton buzzed in with just that answer. Bonuses on the archaeological excavation of Aphrodisias ( a made up name, surely ) in Turkey brought two bonuses, but Edinburgh were still a full house behind – and we hadn’t seen many of them in this contest. Various Ao – names ad words fell to that man Whitaker again. Ninette de Valois yielded just one bonus, but more importantly ran the clock down. Then a candidate for the baby elephant moment yielded me another lap of honour opportunity for knowing precession for the next starter. Greg Myles had it too. Two bonuses on Mohism brought nowt, and then the gong ended the competition. Darwin won by 155- 125.

Neither team impressed with the bonuses. Darwin’s BCR was 48 while Edinburgh’s was 42. I’m tempted to say that the difference between the teams was Harrison Whitaker’s buzzer speed. Whatever the relative strength of the opposition, 19 starters in two games is serious form. However, that BCR is a concern.

Amol Watch

Amol started off paying tribute to Harrison Whitaker’s 11 starters in the first round. Fair enough, it was a hell of a performance, but you gotta admit that was putting a lot of pressure on the Darwin skipper for this match. Maybe this was why he was so hyped up for the competition that with the second starter he committed the breach of show etiquette which saw him buzz and shout out the answer before his name was announced. Amol, possibly realising that he himself might have been partly responsible allowed it but reminded him to wait for Roger.

Interesting Fact That I Didn’t Already Know of the Week

In 1697 Thomas Aikenhead became the last person in Britain to be executed for blasphemy.

Baby Elephant Walk Moment

I need the name of a chemical here. Widely used in chemistry courses to demonstrate rates of reaction and chemical kinetics, the clock reaction, developed by Hans Heinrich Landolt, involves measuring the time taken for a colourless solution of reagents to turn blue as what element reacts with a starch indicator.

I slept well last night after playing that question again on the iplayer. In fact I nodded off about halfway through it.