Sunday, 14 December 2025

University CHallenge 2026 - Round 2 - Southampton v. Imperial

The Teams

Southampton

Cormac Stephenson

Zain Mahmood

Florence Williams (capt)

Ben Hermanns-Kermode

Imperial

Rahim Dina

Eugenia Tong

Oscar O’Flanagan (capt)

Justin Keung

Oscar O’Flanagan signaled his intent with a viciously fast buzz for the first starter which hinged on knowing Tristan De Cunha’s capital as the Edinburgh of the Seven Seas. Audra McDonald – she of the 6 Tonys – brought Imperial a full house.You had to wait and wait with the next one, but when it mentioned a shade of blue patented by the person in question Florence Williams won the buzzer race to answer with Yves Klein. Terms related to video game graphics unsurprisingly provided me with nowt but Southampton took a full house. Oscar O’Flanagan correctly worked out that Fezzan would be in the modern day Libya. Parks and Gardens brought just the one bonus. Fair play to Rahim Dina. He was in extremely early with the acronym Crispr for the next starter. Three questions on sulphide minerals did not exactly have me quivering with anticipation. Actually I earned a lap of honour for knowing pentlandite as a major ore of nickel – like Imperial I had the other two as well. Cormac Stephenson was very excited with the picture starter when he identified the work we saw a page of as being by Satie. Three of Satie’s unusual performance directions brought just one bonus. Nobody knew the two Kingston Upons for the next starter. This meant that as we approached 10 minutes Imperial led by 65 – 35.

Long before Amol could finish the question Florence Williams had correctly answered cystic fibrosis for the next starter. Plays attributed to Aeschylus brought just the one although they were a little unlucky not to quite get 7 Against Thebes – somehow this brought to mind Five go mad in Dorset, but that’s my problem. Oscar O’Flanagan was in very early again for the next starter with Dunes. The cinematographer Mukdeeprom delivered Imperial a full house. Oscar O’Flanagan’s energetic buzzing brought the next starter with various references to Tours, but archaeological bonuses were not productive for Imperial at all. Cormac Stephenson identified the work of Philip Glass, whom I believe is known as ‘heart of’ to his mates. Pieces specially written for a new medium yielded just the one bonus.Rahim Dina identified Tibet as the country where the epic of Gesar Khan (You know him, Gesar the Geezer) originated. Love in Philosophy yielded just one correct answer. Didn’t matter. Imperial took the next starter with the Metre Convention – (whose 1969 song “Oi, you minger, that ain’t my finger “ failed to make the US hot 100. ) Eponymous limits in astrophysics brought a full house and Imperial were approaching the event horizon beyond which victory became a certainty. Ben Hermanns-Kermode narrowed the gap by knowing that yellow and red are the two colours of the flag of the Walloon region of Belgium. Typhus in literature brought a full house. Nobody knew the Giant magnetoresistance effect (who did reach the US Top 11 in 1969 with ‘You’re my Dairy Queen and I’m your Jelly, Baby’) Ben Herrmans-Kermode was first to work out that potassium nitrate in the next question pointed towards Gunpowder. Two bonuses meant that Imperial still led but with the scores at 110 to 140 on 20 it was still either team’s game.

Cormac Stephenson took the second picture starter recognizing a Manet painting of his parents (that’s Manet’s parents, not Cormac’s) More artists’ paintings of their own parents brought just one correct answer. But the momentum seemed to be with Southampton. Even more so when Florence Williams took the next starter with Julian of Norwich. Culinary terms introduced to English by William Dampier brought two bonuses needed to give Southampton the smallest lead. Imperial weren’t finished though as Justin Keung knew that XI are the two letters in romanised pinyin that represent the word – west – in place names. South East England place names mentioned in Ian Dury songs brought just one bonus. Still Justin Keung took the next starter knowing the prison diary of Wole Soyinka. People whose surnames began with Del brought 1 bonus. Imperial weren’t quite out of the woods yet. They looked safer when Eugenia Tong gave the surname Lewis for the next starter. Two bonuses on computer commands meant that they were almost there. Florence Williams recognized winners of Economics prizes. Surely there just wasn’t enough time left for Southampton.One bonus on Shakespeare would not be enough as they were still 30 points behind. Florence Williams took the starter on Holland in Lincolnshire. Two bonuses on the Thirty Years war and the gap was just 10. But the time was gone. Imperial won by 190 to 180.

Southampton’s BCR was 56.6% while Imperial’s was 60% and that small margin sealed the deal for them.

Amol Watch

Amol, mate, we know that philosophy is your bag. You don’t have to remind us everytime you get a set of questions to ask about it. Nor rub it in when the teams give an implausible answer either.

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

The first piece of Music commissioned for the radio by the BBC was composed by Gustav Holst.

Baby Elephant Walk Moment

The computer science set was short but soporific but that’s down to my ignorance and nothing was really worth a dumdum in this show.

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