Tuesday, 16 December 2025

University Challenge 2026 Round 2 Trinity, Cambridge v. Edinburgh

The Teams

Trinity, Cambridge

Piers Marchant

Alessandro D’Attanasio

Yusuf Khand (Capt)

Lily Kearney

Edinburgh

Parthav Easwar

Johnny Richards

Alice Leonard (Capt)

Rayhana Amjad

Like Rayhana Amjad it was the mention of Superman’s polar home that gave me the answer of Solitude for the first starter.2 bonuses on plays about Oscar Wilde were taken.Swedish golfers fell to Piers Marchant and Trinity’s first bonus set on metals brought 1 correct answer and I took an early lap of honour for Niobium. So sue me. Yusuf Khand knew John Locke’s Treatises on Government for the next starter. Japanese folklore did not add to either of our totals. For the first picture starter Piers Marchant identified Montreal from a map. 3 more cities lending their name to international environmental agreements brought ten points. An interminable biological question lost Trinity five but brought nothing to Edinburgh. Various fatal ‘Vespers’ incidents fell to Johnny Richards. Incidentally, the first time I heard the phrase Sicilian Vespers I thought it was referring to a brand of motor scooters. The film director Joanna Hogg brought two bonuses. This meant that the score was 45-40 to Trinity on 10 minutes.

Piers Merchant knew New Caledonia for the next starter. Portuguese Goa yielded just 5 points. Yusuf Khand came in too early for the next starter and lost five and given the whole question Johnny Richards knew we wanted Montmartre. Artistic depictions of Alexander the Great only brought the one bonus but the scores were now tied. For the next starter Parthav Easwar jumped the gun allowing Piers Marchant in with Mombasa. Questions on nano technology provided a full house. For the music starter we heard a bit of classical harpsichord. The teams were Baching up the wrong tree with Handel and Teleman as it was JSB, the lad himself. Johnny Richards gave the answer of palaeogenomics for the next starter to earn the music bonuses. 3 more tracks played at the funeral of Mr. Sakamoto brought a full house. Good match. Johnny Richards recognised a quote about John Donne – didn’t mention his old show on radio 2 though. I’ll be honest, I am not really familiar with the work of RF Kuang but I managed two of the following set. Edinburgh took all three. Johnny Richards was on a role and he knew about the red stockings and blue stockings for the next starter. Bonuses on philosophy gave Edinburgh ten points and at the 20 minute mark they led by 120 – 75.

Rayhana Amjad recognised references to Ancient Armenia for the next starter. Songs whose titles are years brought a full house and things were looking ominous for Trinity. The second picture starter showed a still from a film with a pram rolling down steps. Piers Marchant won the buzzer race to identify Battleship Potemkin. Other works discussed in a book about Socialist Art – laugh a minute stuff, I imagine – did noy bring them any more points. Piers Marchant recognised references to the word cahiers – and got a French pronunciation lesson from Amol for his pains. Santa Croce in Florence brought a welcome full house. Nobody knew something I didn’t understand about computing. A UC special on instrument strings lost five for Edinburgh and brought Alessandro Attenasio his first starter with 5. Guage bosons brought 10 more points. That man Johnny Richards knew that Hanga Roa is the largest settlement on Easter Island. Natalie ‘Qui?’ Sarraute brought two bonuses that meant Trinity were going to need at least 2 visits to the table. Alessandro Attenasio earned one with a fast buzz for acid base in the next starter. Vegetables in Maya Angelou’s poem The Health Food Diner added no points. Alice Leonard took the next starter with Evelyn Waugh. A couple of bonuses on Iphigenia pretty much sealed the deal. Piers Marchant took the next starter on Tucuman. But that was the last question answered correctly before the gong. Edinburgh won by 180 to 150.

Trinity took a BCR of 46.4% while Edinburgh posted an excellent 74% and that, my friends, is essentially the story of the match.

Amol Watch

It seems that, along with Bertrand Russell Richard Feynman is an Amol hero too. ‘Great man.’

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

The only thing about doing these reviews in this way is that I don’t seem to be picking out the juicy little facts as I normally would.

Baby Elephant Walk Moment

Responsible for the cellular transport of various organelles, vesicles and other cargo and for the alignment and segregation of chromosomes during mitosis, which family of motor proteins are responsible for retrograde transport in the cytoskeleton? That is, they move along microtubules , , , (incorrect buzz) towards the minus-end as opposed to the plus-end directed kinesins. Dum de dumdum dum dum dum dum dumdum.

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