The Teams
University College, London
Zak Lakota-Baldwin
Alice Lee
Michael Doherty (Captain)
Manny Campion-Dye
School of Oriental and African Studies (London)
Patar Moyazen
V Davis-Aladren
Andrew Graham (Captain)
Matthew O’Regan
Our first question began with ‘In Japan, what common food
item – “ and I don’t really blame V Davis-Aladren for jumping in with rice. Had
it been right it would have looked like an inspired buzz. Sadly it wasn’t,
though. This lost five and given a wee bit more of the question both Manny
Campion-Dye and I gave the correct answer of soy sauce. The use of mud in
architecture saw my opening spurt end with just two consecutive answers. UCL
didn’t get the mosque of Djenne (with the light brown hair?) either. Now, in
the next question the Treaty of Tordesillas and Portugal suggested Brazil, but
neither team had it. The American economist Henry ‘Who’ George allowed Matthew
O’Regan to open the SOAS account. The history of the Motion Picture and
Television Fund yielded them two bonuses. Manny Campion-Dyer knew about the synthesis
of urea for the next starter which brought up a set on the American War of
Independence. A timely full house brought us to the picture starter. A
beautiful UC special placed partial maps of the USA and the West of England,
with the location of two sports teams bearing the same name partially. Chicago
suggested Bears, which Bristol confirmed. Andrew Graham, the SOAS skipper had
it right and more pairs of NFL gridiron and EPL rugby teams brought SOAS their
own full house. The irrepressible Manny Campion-Dyer was in most quickly to identify
Derek Jarman for the next starter. Highly specific plant pollinators brought 2
correct answers. This meant that just after the ten minute mark UCL were
leading 65-40, but both teams were looking pretty useful.
Andrew Graham recognised a Joyce Carroll Oates (known to
her mates as ‘Scotts Porridge”) quote about boxing. St. Stephen delivered up a
full house and SOAS were level with UCL. Zak Lakota-Baldwin opened his personal
account recognising components of an Indonesian orchestra. Languages of
Pakistan provided another full house. Chatham House Rules (I prefer Cider House
Rules) brought Alice Lee her first starter. Icelandic composer Johann Johansson
brought them two bonuses and they were starting to pull away from SOAS. A little
bit of punk pioneers The Damned brought SOAS closer and 3 bonuses on more punk/post
punk singles from bands formed in ’76 yielded a good full house. Zak Lakota-Baldwin
took the clues in the question about orogeny and correctly worked out it must
be referring to mountains. Does that mean mountains are orogenous zones, then?
(The Brecon Beacons were in 1985 once but that’s a story for another time.)
Literary characters sharing a given name brought UCL a full house again. I
think that Andrew Gaham recognised a description of Sam Selvon’s The Lonely
Londoners at the same time I did to take the next starter. The physics of golf
balls proved an unusually boring set, but it did give me my one correct answer
on a science set needed for a lap of honour. Yes indeed – ask me for a Swiss mathematician
and I’ll say Bernoulli until the cows come home. SOAS had that one too. The
next was one of those starters where you wait . . .and . . .wait . . .
andthenitsuddenlybecomesobvious. Alice Lee took another starter with Mull. Only
one bonus on pine forests was taken but it meant that UCL led by 150 to 105 as
we closed in on the 20 minute mark.
I thought that Group f/64 was a private security firm,
however when the name Ansel Adams was mentioned it turned out they had something
to do with photography. Andrew Graham knew that too. Academic works whose original
non-English titles are puns – sounds like a barrel of laughs to me – brought a
full house to SOAS and reduced the gap significantly. I am a little surprised
that neither team recognised a painting depicting the Massacre of the Innocents
for the second picture starter. I’ll be honest I have not heard the term
bladder diplomacy before, but Michael Doherty took the starter and every member
of the UCL team had answered at least one starter now. This earned the picture bonuses
of three more paintings depicting aspects of the same part of the gospels
bought a UCL full house. Atlas and Iapetus were both Titans, and Michael
Doherty knew that the moons named after Titans orbit Saturn. So now each member
of the UCL team had answered at least 2 starters. The constitution of former Yugoslavia
brought only 1 bonus, but with three minutes left SOAS would need at least 3
visits to the table. Andrew Graham correctly read the clues to the word fugue
for the next starter. Two bonuses on jazz fusion reduced the gap to 35. If a
question mentions the Ziggurat of Ur (does that have an interior called Ur
Indoors?) the answer’s Iraq and Mattthew O’Regan was first in with it. Two
bonuses on terms to do with the orbit of the Earth reduced the gap to fifteen,
and I couldn’t help thinking that the next starter could well decide the match.
It proved to be a controversial moment as Alice Lee buzzed in to give the
answer of the play Nye starring Port Talbot’s finest (one of them) Michael
Sheen. At the same time Manny Campion-Dyer blurted out the same answer. “Manny!”
expostulated Alice Lee, but Amol, ever the gentleman, accepted the answer
because she had said it at the same time. Names of characters in the Super
Mario games surely ought to have given us Sir Henry Koopa but didn’t. UCL still
took the full set. Nobody knew the provinces of the Basque Country for the next
starter. The next starter also went begging. Manny Campion-Dwyer took the last
starter as he had taken the first completing a trio of Renaissance turtles
artists with Leonardo. The gong meant that the contest ended here with UCL
winning by 210 to 170.
Another fine, high quality contest. UCL ended with a BCR of
77, while SOAS achieved 79, only losing out on the buzzer. Seriously, that is
top notch. You know I felt last week that Sheffield’s 170 guaranteed them a
repechage slot. If this goes on, maybe I will be proved wrong.
Amol Watch
You know, one of the things I appreciate about Amol is that
when he does accept an answer that isn’t quite what’s on the card, he does tend
to give a good reason for it. Dravidic he deemed acceptable because it is
sometimes used as an alternative for Dravidian. Running that one up the flagpole,
Amol.
For the first time I can remember we just saw the angry
side of Amol when he thundered “YOU CAN NOT CONFER!” when it seemed as if SOAS
were talking in class to each other on the Group f/64 starter. Mind you, with
Jeremy Paxman you always kind of expected him to add – or I’ll smash yer face
in! - when he said it, so I suppose it’s all relative.
Interesting Fact that I didn’t already Know of
the Week
Excluding English and Welsh, speakers of Punjabi form the
third largest linguistic group in the UK.
Baby Elephant Walk Moment
It seemed to me that there were no questions ridiculously
prolonged past the point of consciousness in last night’s show. As we say in
Wales da iawn! Ardderchog!
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