The Teams
Sheffield
Rhys Lewis
Abdelrahman Elsisi
Jacob Price (Capt)
Isobel Dobbie
New College, Oxford
Benji Stimpson
Paige Crawley
Jonah Poulard (Capt.)
Daan Timmers
Last of the two repechage matches, then. The form book said
Sheffield, but then the form book should always be treated with a little
scepticism.
For the first starter we had to wait and wait until it
became obvious the answer required was Lost World. New College miscued with
Lost City which allowed Abdelrahman Elsisi in with the right answer. National
flags on which stars represent islands brought a great full house – it’s one
thing when you can see the flags but when they are just described to you it's
quite another. Paige Crawley came in too early for the second starter in a row,
allowing Isobel Dobbie to identify a description of the word propaganda. Listed
buildings used as locations in Avengers films revealed that one of the
locations was Sainsburys, although it didn’t say which branch. Sheffield only
took one of this set. Benji Stimpson wiped out the New College deficit with the
answer ‘steady state’ for the next starter. A full house on the absurd was
swiftly taken. Jonah Poulard capitalised by recognising the location of Naples for
the first picture starter. Three more locations recognised by Unesco for
culinary heritage saw a welcome name check for famous Argentinian born
revolutionary Fray Bentos (see The Office) but only 1 was correctly answered. After
a Sheffield miscue, Jonah Poulard identified Charles Rennie Mackintosh being associated
with Glasgow. Responses to war by female artists yielded one correct answer.
This meant that they had come back after a shaky start and led by 45-35 on 10
minutes.
A lead which grew after Jonah Poulard buzzed in very early
to identify the word hero linking the titles of several works. New College
rather threw away a correct answer on muscles by giving the answer trapezoid
rather than trapezius which was actually required. It’s a shame because they
did have the other two. However on the next starter the New College skipper
came in too early and lost five, allowing opposite number Jacob Price in with
the answer of Schengen. I’m not familiar with the work of Paul Auster nor, I
think, are Sheffield. However they guessed one of them. Sheffield now incurred
their second penalty for an early buzz allowing Paige Crawley in to identify Greece.
Confucius proved a bit confucing to New College, who managed just the one
bonus. For the music starter Benji Stimpson was in very early to identify the
tones of Pete Seeger. Other artists who regularly appeared on some musicologist’s
1940s radio show saw some interesting guesses from New College, but they were
at least right with Woody Guthrie. Abdelrahman Elsisi was first to identify the
Nicobar pigeon as one of the closest living relatives of the dodo. Winners at
the 2024 Peabody Awards which celebrate outstanding public service – no, I’m
surprised I wasn’t nominated too, now you mention it – yielded one bonus. Rhys
Lewis took his first starter identifying the Gregorian chant Dies Irae.
Whatever lights your candle. Lev Landau’s genius scale – beats working for a
living, I spose – brought me a lap of honour for knowing Paul Dirac which could
have become two laps when I identified Heisenberg for the third. Sheffield also
took a pair. Abdelrahman Elsisi knew a group of Roman Emperors whose names all
began with G-A -L. Gallopingourmus was apparently not one of them. Sheffield
managed one of a set of gettable bonuses on the openings of Dickens novels,
which was enough to give them a narrow lead of 95 – 90 on 20 minutes.
Isobel Dobbie was in very quickly for the second picture
starter to identify the work of one of my favourite artists, Caravaggio. Other
depictions of the story of Echo and Narcissus brought a timely full house. All
8 contenders were too young to have heard of the Gleneagles agreement for the
next starter. Jonah Poulard knew that Trignav is the tallest mountain in Slovenia
and the subsequent bonuses on dumplings brought their own full house. The match
was still too close to call. Paige Crawley restored her team’s lead with Jibril
of the angel Gabriel. 2 bonuses on dentistry were taken. Isobel Dobbie
identified the artist John Singer Sargent . Two bonuses on Greek mythology
restored the lead to Sheffield. Benji Stimpson’s twitchy buzzer finger cost
five points for the next starter which was compounded as Jacob Price correctly
identified Diego Garcia. Smaller locations in England whose names include –
burgh – brought one bonus. This meant New College needed an unanswered full
house to draw level. Jonah Poulard took a flier but couldn’t make it stick with
the next starter which penalty meant that New College were going to need at
least 2 visits to the table. Abdelrahman Elsisi more or less sealed the deal
knowing the Afro-Asian language family. Bonuses on the old Bafta or most
promising newcomer. I loved Abdelrahman Elsisi suggestion that Judi Dench might
have received the Best Newcomer BAFTA for Bugsy Malone. Didn’t matter. There
was daylight between the teams and little time left. Jacob Price knew the word ‘cometh’
– as in The Iceman Cometh – an early play about the X Men, I believe. Words
only used once in Shakespeare yielded nowt. That was that. Sheffield won by 175
– 125.
For the record Sheffield earned a BCR of 45% while New
College looked better with 58%, but that was on top of 5 penalties, which helped
keep Sheffield in the game until their power charge kicked in.
Amol Watch
When New College managed to get the last of the music
bonuses right, “Thank goodness you got that one!” responded Amol. Gotta be
honest, that’s not the nicest reaction, Amol. Smacks of saying – I can’t
believe you didn’t get the others. We can do without that.
Interesting Fact That I Didn’t Already Know Of
The Week
Joe Pesci won the best newcomer BAFTA for Raging Bull. To
be honest I thought he might have been around for longer.
Baby Elephant Walk Moment
Well done setters! Nothing provoked the internal orchestra
this week. Keep it up!
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