The Teams
Merton, Oxford
Ciaran Duncan
Eveline Ong
Elliot Cosnett (Capt.)
Verity Fleetwood-Law
Darwin, Cambridge
Lewis Strachan
Ruth Ni Mhuircheartaigh
Louis Cameron (Capt.)
Jonathan White
Here we are, dearly beloved, two teams fighting it out for
one last place in the semi-finals. In the quarters so far both teams boasted a
record of won one, lost one. Now it was all or nothing.
Eveline Ong came in early to identify Los Tres Grandes as
Mexican artists particularly associated with murals. I wonder if they did Hilda
Ogden’s Muriel? (Ask your grandparents). Treaties between the USA and Native
American Nations – hmm- brought two bonuses. Louis Cameron struck back for
Darwin, knowing that TS Eliot described Milton as having done damage to the
English language from which it has not yet recovered. And that from a man who
gave us The Waste Land and whose name is an anagram of toilets. Linguistic
Morphology – not, as I thought, an embarrassing skin disease – provided no
points for any of us. Ruth Ni Mhuircheartaigh recognised a reference to the
concept of justice for the next starter while Merton lost five for an incorrect
interruption. This time bonuses on bacteriophages brought 2 correct answers to
Darwin and complete incomprehension to me. I did understand many words in the
three questions, but all of these were short words like -the – and – ‘on’. For
the first picture starter we were shown chapter headings from a well known work
and I was pleased with myself to figure out the missing word from each was
dreams. Elliot Cosnett had it as well. More of the same from other works
brought one bonus, but could have been two had the skipper not got in with
totalitarianism before Ciaran Duncan supplied totalitarian. Eveline Ong
supplied the name of Geiger for the next starter. Langston Hughes delivered a
welcome full house which meant that Merton led 55 – 30 on the 10 minute mark.
All to play for.
Louis Cameron came in early to take the next starter with
percolation. Dishes whose names have similar meanings brought Darwin their own
full house and the scores were level again. The next starter was one of those
where you had to wait and wait until the answer became obvious and it was
Jonathan White who won the race to give the answer of lino. Scientists (ugh) who
give their names to multiple reactions brought just the one bonus. The next
starter was so obviously pointing towards Pembrokeshire as supplied by Lewis
Strachan – although don’t try telling people there that it is like ‘little
England’. You should go there, it’s stunning. Place names in the UK containing
or derived from the names of trees did not, I was sorry to see, include Knotty
Ash. It didn’t matter to Darwin as they scored a full house despite plucking birch
seemingly out of thin air. For the music starter we heard the sound of a lady
in some agony, which turned out to be a piece of music by Haydn. Nobody recognised
it. I took my lap of honour for knowing that the lanthanide element starting with
G is Gadolinium. Nobody else did. JM Keynes’ liquidity trap fell to Elliot Cosnett
and earned the frankly dubious reward of the music round bonuses. More works
based on the legend of Ariadne brought one correct answer. I guessed Rupert
Davies was the first to portray George Smiley on screen – Ciaran Duncan had
that too. Kerry Packer’s Pyjama Party, or World Series Cricket, brought Merton
two bonuses. Verity Fleetwood-Law knew the Balkan trilogy of novels to level
the scores. Different notations for the derivative of a function – no, me
neither – brought one correct answer to Merton, which meant that they led 100 –
95 going into the crucial last part of the match.
More bloody Maths for the next starter. Hoo – ray. Didn’t
understand the question at all, but Ruth Ni Mhuircheartaigh gave the correct
answer of smooth. The film La Jetee brought a brace of bonuses to put Darwin
back in front. The Lotus sutra – which came between the Elan, Esprit and Elite –
fell to the Merton skipper. When diarchies were announced I guessed that
Andorra would be one, the Bishop of Urgell being a good old quiz chestnut. They
took just the one bonus to level the scores. I was pleased to recognise the
work of renaissance artist and ninja turtle Donatello for the second picture
starter. Louis Cameron took that one. Other artistic depictions of St. George yielded
one bonus. Lewis Strachan acted on impulse to answer impulse to the next
starter and he was right to do so. Precision in computer science – gimme a
break – brought a couple of bonuses and
suddenly Darwin were pulling away from the Oxford team. Nobody got Geoffrey of
Anjou (Plantagenet) as Henry II’s son in law for the next starter. Nobody knew
pinnate leaves either – leaf shapes are another of those old quiz chestnuts. Louis
Cameron recognised titles of stories by DH Lawrence to stretch the Darwin lead
further. Mythological names used for features of the Moon brought 1 bonus but
it also ran down the clock which was all to Darwin’s advantage. Still Merton
weren’t done. Elliot Cosnett came in early to identify Julian the Apostate as a
roman emperor with a thing about beards. French architect Viollet le Duc brought
bonuses but with hardly any time left even a full house would not have brought
the scores level. As it was Merton lost five while Jonathan White supplied the
correct answer of Buenos Aires for the next starter. That was effectively it as
the gong sounded before any further points were scored. Darwin had won by 175 –
130.
That this was a close match can be seen in the fact that Merton
managed a BCR of 54.1% to Darwin’s 53.7%. There was just slightly better
buzzing from Darwin and that was enough. Well done!
Amol Watch
I always appreciate Amol’s application of the first answer
counts rule. It really is the only fair way, even if it seems a little harsh.
Interesting Fact That I Didn’t Already Know of
the Week
Derry actually means oak grove. It makes sense since derwen
is Welsh for oak, I think.
Baby Elephant Walk Moment
What cycle is initiated by viruses such as the T4
bacteriophage, which replicate within bacterial cells, eventually causing the
bacteria to burst open? In molecular biology it is contrasted with the
lysogenic cycle. Do I really need to add dum de dumdum dum dum dum dum dumdum?
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