University Challenge 2026 - Round 2 - Magdalen, Oxford v. Darwin, Cambridge

The Teams

Magdalen, Oxford

Aidan Woo

Lily Costa-Ferreira

Benjamin Sharkey (Capt)

Sasha Walker

Darwin, Cambridge

Lewis Strachan

Ruth Ni Mhuircheartaigh

Louis Cameron (Capt)

Jonathan White

Ah, the second round already. An Oxbridge match – Darwin of Cambridge v. Magdalen of Oxford. There wasn’t a huge amount to choose between either team’s first round BCRs, and really it was going to come down to whichever team was better on the day. And on that stunningly obvious note, let’s begin.

For the first starter, a writer of historical fiction born in 1771 had to bbe Walter Scott. I couldn’t get on with Scott at all, until after visiting Edinburgh a few years ago I read and enjoyed Heart of Midlothian. Both teams allowed Amol to get well into the question before Louis Cameron came in with the answer. Artists who studied at Paris’ Academie de la Grand Chaumiere brought two bonuses which is one more than I managed. Ruth Ni Mhuircheartaigh recognised several people with the surname Conway for the next starter to earn bonuses on video game characters voiced by Jennifer Hale. Sorry – if it ain’t Mario ( and they weren’t) then I don’t know ‘em. NOMINATE ME! Demanded Lewis Strachan, and his skipper was wise to do so since he delivered a full house. Sasha Walker opened the Magdalen account knowing Nuremberg was at one end of Germany’s first railway line.  Now, I’ll be honest, the first time that I really feared for Magdalen during this competition was when they only took 1 of a set of Physics bonuses and I knew the 2 that they didn’t. Yes, of course I took a lap of honour. It would have been churlish to decline. For the picture starter we were shown an upside down cross and asked with which saint it is associated. Obviously Peter, thought I, as did Darwin’s skipper. More crosses associated with specific saints I was less successful with, while Darwin managed one. For the next starter I knew that Ai Weiwei was the sunflower seeds man and he was from China. Louis Cameron took that. Aristocratic women in pre Conquest England yielded nowt. Nonetheless as we approached the 10 minute mark Darwin looked to be in control, leading by 70 – 15.

Sasha Walker took hers and Magdalene’s second starter, coming in very quickly to identify Minnesota as the state that adopted a new flag in 2024. Opera Houses brought a single bonus. Something about RNA or DNA or both prompted Lewis Strachan to answer endonuclease and Amol gave him the points even though it wasn’t strictly what was written on the card. Tar water, a popular medicine in days gone by brought two bonuses. Aidan Woo recognised titles linked by the phrase ‘a fistful of’ for the next starter. Tapestries brought two bonuses for Magdalen. For the music starter none of the youngsters of both teams recognised the stirring sounds of The British Grenadiers (the first few bars of which I always expect to seque into the Blackadder theme.) Louis Cameron knew that Nineveh was the city that the prophet Jonah was sent to tell of its impending destruction. The music bonuses featured other pieces of music used in Stanley Kubrick’s ‘Barry Lyndon’.None of them were taken. For the next starter Louis Cameron buzzed, then hesitated and was lost, losing five in the process. Magdalen couldn’t capitalise, not knowing the titles of several novels all containing the month August. For the next starter we required the name of an island. Both teams waited and waited, then when Amol mentioned John Cabot Benjamin Sharkey won the buzzer race with Newfoundland. The psychology of memory did not exactly sound full of Eastern promise, and brought just one bonus to Magdalen. Jonathan White took his first starter recognising a trio of Idas (which I believe was also the given name of Dr. No’s wife). Three bonuses on the spice mix chaat masala brought us both two bonuses. All of which meant that Darwin led 115 to 65 as we loomed over the 20 minute mark.

I’ll be honest, I don’t know what the word hallucinate has to do with computing terminology, but Aidan Woo did and this earned three bonuses that the 7 year old me would have loved and answered correctly, on sauropod dinosaurs. Magdalen took 1 bonus. For the second picture starter Louis Cameron recognised a self portrait of Goya at his easel. Other artist’s self portraits while at the day job brought a single bonus. Jonathan White recognised references to the province of Gujarat for the next starter. Musicals that have won the Drama Desk award for outstanding lyrics brought a single bonus. Lewis Strachan was in early to identify that a specific test indicates syphilis. Moving swiftly on three bonuses on ‘To the Finland Station’ – a book I was recommended to read by my headmaster, the late Nicholas Wheeler-Robinson during my History A Level. When I get round to it I’ll let you know, sir. I still managed the two correct answers that Darwin had. Nobody knew consorts all born in Denmark. Neither did anyone know what BPS stood for. Lewis Strachan knew that Thailand means Land of the Free. Pairs of people with the same first two given names brought a couple of bonuses, and took the Darwin lead into triple figures with only a couple of minutes remaining. Lewis Strachan knew the F block of the periodic table. Language families and the continents on which they are primarily spoken brought a single bonus. Jonathan White got himself a bit muddled up on the next starter, hesitating and then answering Hawaii, when the answer wanted was Honolulu, Sacha Walker took that one. Magdalen’s laughter when given sport in 1925 kind of summed up how it had not been their night. They didn’t get any of them either. Theat was that. Darwin won comfortable by 190 – 80.

For the record Magdalen managed a BCR of 33.3% while Darwin’s was 47.2%. When you get right down to it, Darwin were better on the day. That’s the way it goes.

Amol Watch

Amol does have this habit of admonishing the team captain that one of his team had a better answer than the one he gave. While accepting Louis Cameron’s St. Bridget he did point out that it is more commonly given as St. Brigid “As Ruth said.” Time and a place, mate.

He apologised to Darwin for being ‘brutal’ over the Louis Cameron hesitation. Brutal? It was just applying the rules fairly in my book.

I’m not fussed on Amol’s habit of saying that the other team knew all of the bonuses that your own team got wrong. Amol – bonuses for show, starters for dough. Don’t matter how many bonuses you can answer if you don’t get the starters.

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

Mozart’s Don Giovanni was first performed in Prague. (In “Amadeus” it looked as if it was in Vienna.)

Baby Elephant Walk Moment

An essential component of DNA repair pathways, among other functions, which broad class of enzymes is responsible for breaking the phosphodiester of bonds of DNA or RNA. . . (yeah, I know the question wasn’t finished, but it had me at phosphodiester. Dum de dumdum dum dum dum dum dumdum.)

Mastermind 2026 - First Round Heat 16

Yes, I had a lovely holiday, thanks for asking. No time for that, though, since there’s last week’s quizzes to review. Calling a spade a spade we’ve seen much honest toil in the last few weeks, but little to inspire. I sat down this morning to watch last Monday’s Mastermind, with my fingers crossed that we might see just a bit of quality this time. Well, Paul Robinson’s opening round on Roxy Music boded well. I quite liked a bit of Roxy in the 70s but I only had the gimme question at the start of the round correct. Paul had 12. That’s even more impressive when you consider that it was a full house of 12 points from 12 questions.

Elizabeth Howard, our second contender, was answering on Marc Chagall. You know, old Clive does have a habit of saying the only bit of information I possess on a subject in his introduction, and this he did giving Chagall’s country of birth. Surprisingly I did guess one of the answers correctly, but that was it for me. Judging by Elizabeth’s reactions to some of the questions I would think she had several questions where she knew that she knew the answers but just couldn’t dredge them up and force them past the tip of her tongue. She scored 6. It’s not a disaster, but it’s relatively modest and meant she was out of contention to all intents and purposes.

Atyab Rashid was answering on George Herbert. Now, that name may sound like a 20^th century Trade Union leader, but he was actually one of the Metaphysical Poets of the early decades of the 17^th century. Beats working for a living, I suppose. When it comes to the metaphysicals, if it ain’t John Donne I don’t really know it and I was lucky to get 1 on this round. Atyab started really well, but found the round to be tougher and tougher as it developed. By the end of the round he, like Elizabeth, had scored 6.

I suppose that there might be some grumbling about the subject offered by Sophie Williamson – the first Tomb Raider video games. Well, basically, get over it. It’s a perfectly valid subject which actually provided me with 2 correct answers making it my best specialist performance of the night. Sophie , like Atyab before her, started very well, but then found the mistakes creeping in as the round developed. She scored 7. It put her in second place, but frankly it required a huge stretch of the imagination to see anyone other than Paul winning.

Bear that in mind, though. For three of the contenders what remained was the relatively thankless task of a GK round where the challenge was to deliver rounds with which they could be satisfied. Yes, any of them could potentially win, but it looked highly unlikely.

Elizabeth was the first. Although memory seemed to fail her again once or twice she kept on with her task and reached a very respectable score of 9, to finish with 15. Once again taking his lead from, Elizabeth Atyab also reached the respectable total of 9 on general knowledge and thus grabbed a share of the lead as both he and Elizabeth had finished with 15 and 3 passes.

Being realistic Sophie really needed a score in the teens to give her a chance of holding onto the lead until the end of the contest, and a GK round in the teens is not easily achieved. As it was her score of 10 points represented a good return.

The plain and simple truth of the matter though is that Paul needed only 6 correct answers for an outright win, and by the simple expedient of answering what he knew, guessing what he didn’t and passing when he couldn’t guess he passed the target early doors and went on to take his total to 25, one of the best scores we’ve seen for a pretty long time. Paul, for this I thank you sincerely. I respect all contenders and what they achieve, but I do like to see someone grab a contest by the scruff of the neck and give it a darn good seeing to.

In his piece to camera during the end credit Paul thanked his family for helping him to prepare for the GK rounds. Folks – if you’re thinking of entering, for your own good pay heed. Nothing guarantees success, but preparation brings you the best chance that you’re going to get. Well done sir. I hope that you can keep it up during the semis.

The Details

Paul Robinson	Roxy Music	12	0	13	3	25	3
Elizabeth Howard	Marc Chagall	6	2	9	1	15	3
Atyab Rashid	George Herbert	6	0	9	3	15	3
Sophie Williamson	The original Tomb Raider video games	7	1	10	2	17	2