University Challenge First Round - Green Templeton, Oxford v. Darwin, Cambridge

The Teams

Green Templeton College, Oxford

Will Owens

Annie Roberts

Yusuf Sahin (Capt.)

Fiona Asokacitta

Darwin College, Cambridge

Lewis Strachan

Ruth Ni Mhuircheartaigh

Louis Cameron (Capt.)

Jonathan White

Green Templeton were making their first appearance as a matter of note. We began with a starter in which Brian Aldiss described what seemed to have been from Frankenstein. Indeed it was, as Lewis Strachan thought, earning a set of bonuses on Breakfast at Tiffany’s for Darwin. We both took just the two bonuses. Clues to film portrayals of Sigmund Freud fell to Lewis Cameron. No bonuses on the Portuguese War of Restoration followed, although I think that they were unlucky not to get Ceuta. Lewis Cameron knew Clown for the next starter. Sex chromosomes (no sex chromosomes please, we’re British) amazingly not only produced this week’s first baby elephant walk moment but the last question in the set brought me a lap of honour when I knew that temperature changes in the eggs can determine the sex of turtle offspring. (Look, an NHS clerical officer just KNOWS these things, ok?) For the picture starter nobody recognized movements in a work by Ottorino Respighi. Vitamin B1 thiamin brought Annie Roberts and Green Templeton (henceforth I will call them GT) their first points. This earned the picture bonuses on movements in other tone poems and brought a further five points. Thus it was that just after the 10 minute mark that Darwin led 40 – 15.

Lewis Cameron was the first to recognize the person being described in the next starter as Genghis Khan. Art of the New York Subway provided an interesting set of which Darwin took just the one. With the next starter about an artist friend of Edgar Degas you had to wait until the pronoun ‘she’ was used, at which point I thought it was a 50/50 between Berthe Morrisot and Mary Cassatt. Lewis Cameron went for Cassatt and took the points. Game theory bonuses brought just the one correct answer. Will Owen knew the word Ambient as used in various album titles. Poaceae (the plant family not the Pokemon character) yielded only one bonus to GT, but at least it took us up to the music starter. Ruth Ni Mhuircheartaigh thought that the voice might be Leonard Cohen’s and was right. More songs that inspired the names of notable bands or artists provided just one correct answer. Captain Yusuf Sahin took one for his team with the next starter, recognizing descriptions of languages that all begin with the letters sin -. The Beach Boys . . . well the Beach Boys, like so many sets before them gave up just one correct answer. With the next starter you had to wait . . . and . . . wwwaaaaiiiitttt, until Menai Strait Bridge was mentioned, then sling buzzer. Will Owens gave the correct answer of Thomas Telford. Notable alumni of France’s Ecole des Ponts et Chaussees – nope, me neither – brought a rare full house. Which really changed the state of the competition. Darwin had been comfortably outbuzzing GT, yet at the 20 minute mark they only had a 15 point lead to show for their efforts, with the score at 85-70.

This was further reduced when Yusuf Sahin took the next starter with the Polish Galicia. We were back to famine rations of bonuses again though as only one bonus on Little Red Riding Hood brought the scores level. Lewis Cameron recognized the work of Heidegger (aka the boozy beggar) for the next starter and with two bonuses for art installations they began the long run for home. So to the second picture starter and the kind of illustration that could only be for Milton or Dante. Lewis Cameron buzzed too early and lost five. Will Owens went with Milton. It was Dante. Annie Roberts knew Progesterone (another Pokemon?) for the next starter and earned the bonuses showing three more depictions of Dante’s meeting with Francesca da Rimini. This brought them the two correct answers that they needed to level the scores again. A terrific early buzz to identify the character Clarissa Dalloway from Annie Roberts brought GT the lead. They sadly squandered a very gettable set on Greek Mythology. Emec and Etic (surely they are pokemon too) gave both teams the slip. A smut that grows on corn – and let me tell you that we are not averse to smutty corn or corny smut here at LAM Towers – lost Darwin five and fell to Yusuf Sahin. Natural world bonuses took GT to 130 meaning that Darwin needed two unanswered visits to the table. They took the next starter with residue. With two bonuses taken the next starter could tie the scores. Jonathan White took it. Was there enough time for any bonuses? Only just. Darwin took the only one there was time for and won the contest 135-130.

For the record both teams managed relatively modest BCRs. Green Templeton posted 42% while Darwin’s was 44%. Sadly their score of 130 means that GT do not make it onto the repechage table.

Amol Watch

I’m gratified to see Amol keeping to the principle of – if it’s not quite right than it’s quite wrong, even though Darwin may well feel aggrieved about Ceuta.

It appears that Amol is as fond of Leonard Cohen as he is of Bertrand Russell. Cohen is NOT unmistakeable, Amol, or GT wouldn’t have mistaken him.

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

Roy Lichtenstein designed a large mural at Times Square 42^nd Street Subway Station.

Baby Elephant Walk Moment

X-inactivation is only one method of dealing with the asymmetry of sex chromosomes. Some species instead halve the expression of genes from both female X chromosomes, while others double that of the single X chromosomes in males. What two word term refers to these methods collectively? Dum de dumdum dum dum dum dum dumdum.

Repechage Table

Sheffield	170
SOAS	170
New College Oxford	150
Lancaster	145
---------------------------------------
Grenn-Templeton, Oxford	130
Cardiff	115
Linacre, Oxford	115
Newcastle	105
Bath	70

 

Mastermind 2026 First Round Heat 8

Look, what can I tell you? It was Mrs. Londinius’ birthday yesterday so Quizzy Mondays were outers yesterday and I didn’t get to watch Mastermind until this morning. Still, sitting here chuntering on about it isn’t going to make up for lost time, is it?

So, as we were promised last week, Ruaidhri O’Donnell offered us Bob Mortimer. I really like Bob, and funnily enough I like him more in his (presumably) unscripted appearances. I love Mortimer and Whitehouse Gone Fishing even though I have never been fishing in my life, for example, and his appearances on Would I lie to You are legendary. So I wasn’t unhappy to get three of these. Ironically, these were two of the ones that Ruaidhri didn’t get – not that there were very many of these. He managed a good 8, although will maybe be kicking himself for not getting Norway on the Gone Fishing Christmas special.

Marine biologist Lucy Fleming was answering on Dolphins and porpoises. It’s a very long time since I was on the show, but when I did go on I was clearly told that I could not do any subject connected with my job as English teacher. Ostensibly the reason is a good one – it stops anyone embarrassing themselves by having a bad specialist round on something which could bring their professional expertise into question. Well, maybe the rules have been relaxed a bit. Not that Lucy was in any danger of embarrassment. She produced a perfect 12 from 12. Game on.

Beth Leonard was answering on Eva Cassidy. Her cover of Fields of Gold is one of my favourite song performances of all time, but sadly I can’t claim to know much more about the late, great singer or her work. Beth produced a very fine round and scored 11 and no passes which put her just one point behind Lucy with one contender still to go.

That contender was Roger Early. Roger was answering on the England Cricket team under Mike Atherton. I surprised myself by getting 4 of these. Heaven alone knows how, as it’s never really been my favourite sport, but never look a gift horse in the eye, I say. This gave me a good aggregate of 11. Roger, like the two contenders before him managed a double figure round, scoring 10 and no passes.

So it looked like it could be anyone’s game as we reached the turn around and began to head for home. Ruaidhri was first back. At 4 points off the lead he was the underdog, but you have to believe every time that you sit in the chair you’re going to produce a great round. Ruaidhri certainly gave it a lash.He reached double figures and scored 10 to give himself a total of 18. No, it didn’t look as if it would be enough but he’d certainly given a good account of himself and could leave with his head held high.

So to Roger. It’s worth studying Roger’s round as it was a great example of a contender possibly being too keyed up at the start of the round who manages to calm down, settle, and build a potentially willing score. Roger took the first then missed the next three on the bounce and seemed to be getting agitated. Then he pulled himself together, took the next and continued to build a competitive score. Roger put on 12 to give himself a total of 22.

Beth Leonard had one point over Roger at the turn around. But she would need a round of at least 11 to have a chance of the win, and double figure rounds are not easy to come by. Beth’s round was perfectly respectable, as she added 9 to her total. However at the end of the day it left her high and dry on 20.

Which just left Lucy Fleming. Her bravura performance in her perfect specialist had earned her a two point lead over Roger at the halfway point. However that lead can soon evaporate over the course of a GK round. It looked touch and go throughout the round and in the end it all came down to the last question. If Lucy could answer which country has an automatic rifle on its flag then she would win on pass countback. Oh, but she went for Angola. That’s the answer to the matched pair question – which country’s national flag features a machete? The correct answer is Mozambique. Oh, on such small margins can contests be decided.

Bad luck to Lucy but congratulations Roger! Best of luck in the semi finals.

The Details

Ruaidhri O’Donnell	Bob Mortimer	8	0	10	2	18	2
Lucy Fleming	Dolphins and Porpoises	12	0	9	0	21	0
Beth Leonard	Eva Cassidy	11	0	9	3	20	3
Roger Easy	The England Cricket team under Michael Atherton	10	0	12	2	22	2

Mastermind 2026 Round One Heat 8 Specialist subjects

Did the continuity announcer last week say that Bob Mortimer was going to be one of this week’s subject or did I imagine it? It doesn’t really matter, but the great Bob is one of tomorrow’s specialists. The others are

Dolphins and porpoises

Eva Cassidy

The England cricket team under Michael Atherton.

All of the have the potential to bring me 1, possibly two points. Equally each of the four has the possibility of bringing me nowt, although I will be disappointed if I don’t get any points on Bob.

University CHallenge 2026 First Round - Lancaster v. Lincoln

The Teams

Lancaster

Josie Hyland

Talhah Hussain

Lex Wilkins (Capt)

Eoin Neale

Lincoln

Grace Bloomfield

Laura Bruce

Samuel Orman-Chan (Capt)

John Clayworth

Off we go – old hands Lancaster played Newbies Lincoln. For the first starter – condiment - and – brassica - pointed towards Mustard, and Josie Hyland came in early to take first blood for Lancaster. Bonuses on Hirokazu ‘Hip’ Tanaka (there are worse parts of your anatomy you can be nicknamed after) brought a full house to make a perfect start to Lancaster’s evening. A knight playing chess with Death can only be one of two things – Ingmar Bergman or an episode of the Young Ones. Well, if you’re an old codger like me anyway. Talhah Hussain is not an old codger like me and went for Alfred Hitchcock. Lincoln didn’t fancy the sound of the question and didn’t chance their collective arm. Samuel Orman-Chan broke his team’s duck knowing giant flightless crickets called Weta in New Zealand. The mind boggles. Two bonuses on the Forth and Clyde Canal followed. John Clayworth was the first to pick up references to Saddam Hussein for the next starter. The story of Orpheus brought just the one bonus. So to the picture starter and a historic map showing some of the historic counties of Wales. Nether team identified Carmarthenshire – in fact they gave the names of non historic counties. Respect to skipper Lex Wilkins who came in extremely quickly to recognise a description of the national flag of Kyrgyzstan. The picture bonuses showing more maps of historic counties of Wales brought just 1 bonus. The Lancaster skipper doubled up on the next starter on works with Venus and Mars in the titles. Bonuses on artists and operas brought just the one correct answer, nonetheless it meant that Lancaster led by 55 to Lincoln’s 35.

As soon as Amol read the stage direction ‘massiveness, solidity and purpose’ more than thirty years of teaching the play for GCSE made me yell “Anne in Spectacles!” – or as some people call it ‘An Inspector Calls’. Samuel Orman-Chan won the buzzer race. Advances in statistics during World War II didn’t sound too promising but I took two of them, incidentally the two that Lincoln didn’t. I’m not entirely sure why but the name Parmentier in the next question pointed me in the direction of potato. John Clayworth had that one. British wild birds saw more profligacy with the bonuses, and again they only took one of a quite gettable set. Nobody recognised a description of the board game Othello. Strictly speaking the original 1883 game was Reversi – while Othello is a 1971 variant. We didn’t get the whole question so maybe this would have been explained. John Clayworth was the first to recognise the description of a spinnaker. Characters in Pixar films proved far more to Lincoln’s liking and they took a rare full house. For the music starter I didn’t actually know the piece of music we heard, but I guessed Kraftwerk as it sounded like them. After rather more of it than I cared for, John Clayworth guessed the same. More pieces of music commissioned for the opening of major exhibitions provided the subject of the bonuses. Lincoln failed to add to their total. Samuel Orman-Chan worked out that the language sought in the next starter was Finnish. The history of proprietary medicine sounds like an esoteric Mastermind specialist subject. It was just a set of bonuses though and again Lincoln missed out on all bar one. Clues to flying ace Roland Garros allowed Talhah Hussain to drag Lancaster back into the match. Critically endangered crafts of the UK and Ireland did not include the time honoured Elthorne High School craft of manufacturing the pee - filled water bomb, but sporran and curragh manufacture brought two bonuses. This meant that for all of their dominance on the buzzer during the last ten minutes, as we approached 20 Lincoln only led by 110 – 70.

John Clayworth knew the identities of Holbein’s Ambassadors. Writers who have served as Children’s Laureates yielded just the one bonus. For the second picture starter we saw what was obviously the work of Piet Mondrian, which launched a buzzer race won by Eoin Neale. More artists whose work proved the inspiration for album covers brought two bonuses and cut the gap to 35. Now, I didn’t get the next question at all, but the answer was fuzzy. So was my head for that matter. Neither team had it but Lancaster lost five which they could not afford to lose. Talhah Hussein recognised that the Japanese terms in the next starter probably referred to Sumo. Major oil ports brought Lancaster a full house and the gap was reduced to 15. However this lengthened to 20 with an incorrect buzz for the next starter. There were clues enough that the answer was Cheviot, but Lincoln didn’t get it. Eoin Neale knew that the Martian scientists were actually from a little closer to home – Hungary to be precise. Two bonuses on self portraits brought the scores dead level. It was reliable John Clayworth who buzzed first to identify types of Gothic architecture. Lincoln managed two bonuses on Books of the Dead. (as opposed to exercise books of the dead, which I marked many of in my time). Samuel Orman-Chan took the next starter on the Peltier effect and recipients of the National Geographic Society Hubbard Medal brought two bonuses but saw them missing out on the first men on the Moon. Come on! Talhah Hussain took the next starter on the key of A minor. Lancaster looked a little too far behind to win, but a place on the repechage table was already theirs and the more points they scored the more chance they might stay there. A full house on Teddy Roosevelt narrowed the gap to 10 but skipper Lex Wilkins took a flyer and lost five on the next starter. This let his counterpart in with the correct answer of Shropshire. That was it. The gong ended the contest and Lincoln had won by 170 to 145.

For the record, Lancaster achieved a BCR of 67% while Lincoln’s was 47%.

Amol Watch

When Lincoln suggested that Handel might have written music for the opening of the 1920s British Empire Exhibition Amol said what I guess many of us were thinking – ‘just a few centuries out there.’

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

The first medical patent issued in England was for Epsom Salts.

Baby Elephant Walk Moment

No, nothing to report this week. Well done to all concerned.

Repechage Table

 

Sheffield	170
SOAS	170
New College Oxford	150
Lancaster	145
---------------------------------------
Cardiff	115
Linacre, Oxford	115
Newcastle	105
Bath	70

 

Mastermind 2026 - First Round Heat 7

For me the big question as I sat down to watch last night’s show was this – was this going to be another show where I ended up praising the contenders’ effort – which I am quite happy to do – or would there be some real quality on display? Well, see what you think.

Ian Walmsley was offering us Post War Great Britain Rugby League Tours. I always feel that with this sort of sport subject there’s a chance that you’re going to get a couple of pieces of low hanging fruit, and questions on Billy Boston and Martin Offiah were examples of this, kicking me off with two points. Neil knew his stuff and was just stopped short of the psychologically important double figure total, ending his round with 9.

Next up was Diane Howe, answering of Henry VIII’s last queen, Katherine Parr. Now, you can work really hard and prepare your subject really well and still fall just short of a perfect total. When someone does achieve a perfect total it very often looks as if they know their subject so well that they could go on for another two minutes without dropping a point. Such a round was Diane’s. She brilliantly reeled off 12 points, immediately putting herself in the driving seat for the rest of the show. I had 2 of these.

Jonnie Walker, the youngest of last night’s line up, gave us the Pierce Brosnan Years of James Bond. Never my favourite Bond, his films were all watchable enough, but remembering the kind of details that were likely to be asked was going to be a tall order and I was grateful to get 2 of these again. Jonnie knew his stuff, but just missed out on a couple. He nonetheless earned himself a double figure round of 10.

Bringing the round to a close was Maurizio Giacometto. He was answering on possibly the most ‘out there’ of the subjects last night – LL Zamenhof and the early history of Esperanto. My prediction that there might be a question about him being an ophthalmologist did not come to pass. However I had wikied him on Sunday and remembered that he’d been born in Bialystok and that the previous attempt at a universal language was Volapuk. That brought me two for a specialist round aggregate of 8, pretty decent though I say it myself. Maurizio himself scored 9, bringing to an end a high quality set of specialists.

Ian, then, had the dubious honour of setting the target for the rest in the GK round. He did it pretty well, too, scoring 11 to take his total to 20. In the previous 4 shows we have only seen 1 winning score higher than this. Just an observation.

20 is a high enough score to put any contender in the corridor of doubt. Yet Maurizio frankly didn’t seem the least bit perturbed. He seemed confident that his GK would be up to the task and he was right to be so. He produced an excellent 14, one of the best rounds we’ve seen in the series so far. It took him to 23 and it meant that both of the two remaining contenders had their own mountains to climb.

Jonnie Walker gave it a lash and what’s more it was a pretty good lash. Like both of the contenders thus far he achieved a double figure GK round. In his case it was a score of 10 which brought him level with Ian, but behind Maurizio. Nevertheless it was a good round, and suggests that if he decides to pass this way again sometime in the future he should not be found wanting.

Only Diane was left, then. I reflected that we had not had anything other than good rounds so far in this episode and it would be cruel indeed if we got a bad one now. Thankfully we didn’t. Instead what we got was another high quality display of general knowledge quizzing. Diane never lost her composure and kept calmly racking up the points until she got the 12 she needed to overhaul Maurizio and added another 2 for good measure, finishing with 14 for 26. When we come to look back on the heats I dare say that this will put her in the top 5. Best of luck in the semi finals.

This was a terrific heat. This is the sort of thing I always hope we’ll see. The three runners up leave with the bittersweet feeling that on the one hand they each produced a fine performance, but on the other hand they each produced a performance that could have won some of the other heats we’ve already seen. That’s knock out tournament play, folks. That’s Mastermind.

The Details

Ian Walmsley	Post War Great Britain Rugby League Tours	9	0	11	0	20	0
Diane Howe	Katherine Parr	12	0	14	1	26	1
Jonnie Walker	James Bond:The Pierce Brosnan Years	10	0	10	0	20	0
Maurizio Giacometto	LL Zamenhof and the early history of Esperanto.	9	0	14	0	23	0

Mastermind 2026 Heat 7 Specialists preview

I’ve had my obligatory look at the BBC’s Mastermind page and tomorrow’s specialist subjects are:-

Postwar Great Britain Rugby League Tours

Katherine Parr

James Bond films in the Pierce Brosnan Era

L.L. Zamenhoff and the early history of Esperanto

I think that I can rule out the chances of me getting any points on Zamenhof unless they ask about him being an ophthalmologist. At the other end of the scale, with Pierce Brosnan only making 4 Bond films I think there’s maybe a point or two for me there. Incidentally, I was surprised to see Brosnan cast as Ron in The Thursday Murder Club. It’s a role I always felt was tailor made for someone like Ray Winston. I read an interview with Pierce Brosnan today in which he said the same thing!

Katherine Parr  - well there’s always a point or two in the Tudors and you never know with the Rugby League tours either.

Destination X Final (Spoilers)

I know what you’re dying to ask. Did the final of Destination X avoid giving me what I didn’t want to see? The answer is yes, by and large it did and to this extent it nailed the landing. Did it give me what I wanted to see though? That’s a difficult question to answer, partly because I’m not exactly sure I knew what I wanted to see.

What did we actually get, then? Well, Rob B’s observation early doors that we were going to the first city to have over a million inhabitants AND a shopping centre signposted Rome to me. Ah, but this was the final and so it was never going to be enough to just figure out which city they were in. In fact they didn’t even have to do that since it was revealed to them pretty much as soon as they got there. Prior to that, we had the obligatory challenge in Bomarzo’s Parco dei Mostri, or Monster Park. Basically the three contestants had to run around the park, and find questions relating to what they’d seen on their travels in order to win keys to boxes containing golden tickets. Pilot Josh won two, Marketing Saskia one, and Nuclear Judith, well, she didn’t get any.

So, when in Rome. . . well, when in Rome the players simply had to find Rob Bryden. Now, from the filmed instructions I could see that he was on the top of the Spanish Steps. Now, frankly from what we’ve seen all series it looked unlikely any of the contenders had figured this out but suppose one of them had? Would they have been allowed to short circuit the final? I doubt it. This final consisted on each one being given a chauffeured Vespa, and taken to three successive games. In each they had to figure which was the right answer, based on what they’d remembered from their travels. For example, they had to put all of the destinations in the order in which they visited them. Which was a lot harder for them than us because apart from Venice, they couldn’t’ be certain where they’d visited. Golden tickets could be used to buy clues.

Once they figured out the answers, then they got to construct an X on a map to mark the spot, then they got to race on their Vespas to the spot. Winner was. . . well, it was the one who didn’t have any clues. The one who had been wrong about the previous two destinations. Nuclear Judith.

Well done!

There’s a certain satisfaction that the winner was the one who worked out the final destination and got there quickest. With a reality show it’s very easy to find yourself hoping that one or the other doesn’t win, because of the way that they have been presented by the footage that is shown. I think it helps to remember that you’re seeing what the director and the editor allow you to see, and this can give you an unfair impession. So, as much as the BBC and the people who made Destination X might push The Traitors angle, this really has not been like the Traitors at all. There were only two occasions when some of the players’ fates were not necessarily in their own hands. I doubt very much that anyone is likely to take this on board, but for the next series the only tweak I would really like to see is the disposal of the moving X advantages. For me, these were a jarring note and I’m glad that neither of them came to anything.

Initial noises from the Beeb are that it will be back for another series, and I’m all for that. Whether it’s a game I’d ever like to play myself, well, the jury is still out on that one.

Destnation X Semi Final - Spoilers

Semi final stage. For me this episode threw into sharp relief the identity crisis that the series has undergone. It seems to me that all of those involved in the show think that it’s the Traitors. Not least the contestants. But it’s not. Last night’s show saw the 4 remaining passengers plotting with and against each other and agonising over the ways to behave towards their fellows. None of which made the slightest bit of difference to the outcome.

Divided into pairs the contestants faced a challenge to match pairs of symbols to gain an extra clue. “I have great problem solving skills” boasted Nuclear Judith. It may well be true, but they deserted her last night. Now, all four contestants did get to see a number of clues. First up we saw the Mona Lisa captioned with ‘she’s got company’. You got it? Mona + Co? Now, okay there was a red herring with the words ‘Ma say’ – Marseilles. But when all could see some hardhats, two of which bore the names Grace and Kelly, then that pretty much confirmed Monaco.

All four could have worked that out. Marketing Saskia and Pilot Josh won the challenge and received the clinching clue – a toy formula 1 racing car. So they knew it had to be Monaco.

This left Nuclear Judith and Taxi Daren to pool their knowledge and come up with, well, not a lot. Daren misremembered the caption on the Mona Lisa so plumped for the Louvre in Paris. We were only just over halfway through the episode’s run time, when SHOCK! Our heroes were ordered into the map room. Marketing and Pilot knew where they were going. Judtih thought about Paris, but then remembered how hot it had been during the challenge and plumped for the south of France. Taxi Daren, with nothing to go on apart from Mona, went for the Louvre.

Game over for Taxi D. then? Well, not quite. For the episode took one of the biggest swerves of the series so far. On their own each player would be asked 3 questions. For each one they would win distances, which they could either use to move their X closer to the target, or to move an opponent’s further away. They could stop after 1 or 2 if they wished. However if they answered any question wrong, then they would not have any distance to use.

Which is where my observation about the Traitors comes back in. For their was a clear opportunity for the other three players to conspire to banish front runner Pilot Josh.

Before I get to the outcome, I will reiterate that I don’t like these seemingly arbitrary offers of the ability to use what are essentially dirty tricks. I can’t help it, I think that the winner should be the one who gets closest to the destination. I don’t like the randomness of it. We saw Josh use the opportunity to move an opponent’s X 150 km away in episode 5 and I didn’t like that.

Thankfully skulduggery didn’t work then and thankfully it didn’t work last night either. For all of the hand-wringing and breast-beating about who was in an alliance with whom, about playing to win and no more Mr. Nice Guying etc. in every map room the player who placed their X furthest from the destination has been eliminated. Taxi D’s relative lack of geo-knowledge actually saved him last time out. Yesterday his inability to separate the literal from the cryptic did for led to an emotional farewell. Give our regards to Jackie P., Daz.

----

So, the fact that I’ve written so much about the show is a sign that I’ve been enjoying it. I’m just hoping that tonight’s final can nail the landing. What do I mean? Well, in no particular order:-

We know everyone REALLY, REALLY wants to win. So please don’t show them sitting in the diary room reminding us that they do.

We know that each is playing for themselves and there can be no alliances now and each will be prepared to do whatever it takes to win. Likewise I don’t want to see them in the diary room banging on about this.

I really hope that we don’t see a silly challenge in which one contestant gets an unbeatable advantage. If one of them wins through being given a dirty trick in a challenge, then I’ll be honest. I will feel cheated.

University Challenge 2026 First Round Trinity, Cambridge v. Linacre, Oxford

Trinity, Cambridge v. Linacre, Oxford

The Teams

Trinity

Piers Marchant

Alessandro D’Attenasio

Yusuf Khand (capt)

Lilly Kearney

Linacre, Oxford

Owen Finlay

Louise Vincent

Charlie Hamilton (capt)

Sean Telford

I’ll be honest, I was not previously familiar with Linacre College, but it’s nice to see Gary spending his BBC millions on giving something back, even if he did spell his name incorrectly. Yes, I know, the college was really named after Thomas Linacre, founder of the Royal College of Physicians. Good bloke but a terrible centre forward.

Various people called Riley won Piers Marchant the first starter. The V and A brought two bonuses. The next starter asked for an anti hero and gave a number of Spanish authors who had written about him. As soon as it mentioned Byron, Lilly Kearney was in with the correct answer Don Juan. Films not in the English Language that have been nominated for Best Picture Oscar brought another two correct answers. Piers Marchant recognized tracks by the Stone Roses for the next starter and Saarinen designed airports brought Trinity a full house. It was interesting to see that I have flown in and out of two of them. So to the picture starter. We were shown the logo of a national navy, and being as it bore an Ethiopian flag, then it was not that difficult to identify. The Amharic inscription helped too. The swift fingered Piers Marchant took that one. Naval ensigns of three more landlocked countries with navies brought Trinity another full house in short order. Nobody knew that the Valles Marineris is on Mars – clue was in the question there, I would have thought. With Linacre losing five again for an incorrect buzz the gap between the teams stood at 100. A gap which increased when Alessandro D’Attenasio recognized clues to the concept of Total Football. Synthetic diamond production brought another full house, which meant that bang on the 10 minute mark Trinity had 115 while Linacre were reeling on the ropes with – 10.

Owen Finlay responded to encouragement from Amol by taking the next starter on the cover of The Great Gatsby. This meant that Linacre were no longer on a minus total. Two bonuses on William Empson added ten points to take Linacre into the black. Nobody took a soporific starter on interferons – who were Captain Scarlet and Spectrum’s enemies surely. Louise Vincent recognized the location of a series of landmarks as Bordeaux. The Berggruen Prize for philosophy and culture did not, I will admit, mean a great deal to me, and yielded nowt to Linacre, at a time they could have really done with some more points. The next starter on various Logans sparked a buzzer race pretty much from the off and it was won by Piers Marchant. Scientific discoveries inspired by British hills and mountains immediately made me think cloud chamber – and when it was one of the answers I set off on my lap of honour around the Clark sofa. Trinity didn’t have that one but they did have one of the others that I didn’t. For the music starter Piers Marchant was in incredibly quickly with the Tom Tom Club. Artists who have sampled the afore mentioned Club’s Genius of Love brought two correct answers for Trinity. The next starter brought more for Trinity too as skipper Yusuf Khand knew that the answer to the next starter was Cameroon. Only one bonus followed on German cities and rivers, but it was going to take a hell of a shift in the teams’ relative fortunes to stop them. Well, Sean Telford did take the next starter for Linacre with Indium and Tin, a lesser known Music Hall comedy duo best remembered for their rather rude song, ‘If you buy my ticket you can take me up the Arsenal’. Modern composers brought two correct answers. I was rather surprised that neither team took some fairly strong clues to the beverage coffee for the next starter. Still, as we approached 20 minutes it meant that the score stood at 165 – 40 in Trinity’s favour.

Unusually Piers Marchant gave the wrong answer and lost his team 5, allowing Louise Vincent to identify Mozambique from the clues for the next starter. Smaller countries of Central America between Mexico and Costa Rica brought us both just the one bonus, but at least Linacre were getting just a little bit of momentum. For the 2^nd picture starter nobody identified the work of Miro. The Linacre revival continued when Owen Finlay recognized Kenneth Anger’s Hollywood Babylon. This earned the picture bonuses and more depictions of jesters or harlequins. Linacre took two of these. Charlie Hamilton was the first to get a series of clues leading to the word community for the next starter. This earned a set on – sorry about this – organic chemistry and two bonuses meant that suddenly Linacre were only a starter away from a triple figure score. Now, answer me this. Where the hell did I get ribozymes for the next starter? Neither team had it. I must have heard it in an old edition of UC and retained it subconsciously. OK – so you’ve got pope, Raphael and Michelangelo. Obviously Julius II. Yusuf Khand won the buzzer race and Linacre were halted in their tracks, at least temporarily. Recent stage productions where single actors played multiple parts brought Trinity multiple points with a full house. Piers Marchant was back on the buzzer and the first to recognize a series of prime ministers of Jamaica. Population genetics looked like particularly stony ground to me and none of us knew any of this set of bonuses. For the next starter Sean Telford knew that if it’s a country with Cantons its probably Switzerland. Which brought Linacre to triple figures. A full set on Dante brought a further 15 points. Nobody knew various types of motion in astronomy for the next starter. Poor Owen Finlay came in too early for the next and thus allowed Piers Marchant in for his 7^th correct starter with Nova Scotia. 2 bonuses on Australia were all there was time for. At the gong Trinity had won by 210 – 115.

For most of the night Trinity did look the better team and deservedly won. For the record, Trinity achieved a BCR of 67% while Linacre achieved 57%.

Amol Watch

It was at 10:02 that Amol encouraged Linacre with ‘take your time Linacre. Let’s see if you can get going.’ Well, sometimes you have to acknowledge the elephant in the room. At this stage Linacre desperately needed to sling buzzer and they were rapidly approaching ‘might as well be hung for a sheep as a lamb’ territory. I was mildly interested to hear Amol mention that Mark Morrison’s Return of the Mack was the anthem of his childhood. Really? I suppose it’s better than Mr. Blobby.

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

You know that painting used on the original cover of the Great Gatsby? It’s entitled Celestial Eyes. Incidentally this was the favourite novel of someone who was very dear to me, but personally I didn’t think that much of it.

Baby Elephant Walk Moment

Discovered and named by Alick Isaacs and Jean Lindemann, what group of cytokines is divided into three types based on the receptors they interact with? Their expression is highly upregulated in response to viral infection and their name derives from their ability to block viral replication.- I’m going for dum de dumdum dum dum dum dum dumdum.

Repechage Table

Sheffield	170
SOAS	170
New College Oxford	150
Cardiff	115
Linacre, Oxford	115
-----------------------------------------	------
Newcastle	105
Bath	70

I’ll be honest, I don’t know how they would decide between Cardiff and Linacre, but then I doubt that 115 will be enough anyway.