The Teams
Bristol
Jake Wingfield
Francesca O’Connor
Freddie Burns (capt)
Artem Borisov
Imperial
Dennis Reppen
Lola Linnane-Barron
Charlie Lowman (capt)
Edward Isrankura Na
Ayudhya
Ding dang dong, dingy
dingy dang dong, dingy dang dingy dong. Like John Keats’ gathering swallows
twittering in the sky, the return of University Challenge is a sure harbinger
of our progress towards Autumn and then Winter. By the time we know our series
champions, Spring will be on us again. Thus has it ever been.
So to the first
starter. Now, given London in 1885 and American born artist – well, let’s be
honest, you’d go for Whistler every time, wouldn’t you? Given a little more of
the question Charlie Lowman, the Imperial skipper, took first blood for his
side. Birds in Arabic sounded interesting. I correctly predicted that Alcatraz
would come up – pelican and indeed, the Al- connection helped us both come up
with a full house. In the maths question that followed Artem Borisov was
unlucky to give us enthropy rather than entropy and lose 5. Imperial couldn’t
capitalize. The next starter, although mentioning teams in the National Hurling
League of Ireland basically asked you to work out which traditional counties
Solihull and Greater Manchester had belonged to and Jake Wingfield dispatched
this gentle lob to the boundary to take Bristol’s first points. Bristol took
their own full house on the primatologist, the late Jane Goodall. Imperial lost
5 on an incorrect interruption for the next starter allowing Bristol skipper
Freddie Burns to identify places named after Kaiser Wilhelm II, a prime
contender for the title of bearer of History’s silliest moustache. (That’s
Kaiser Wilhelm II, not Freddie Burns.) The films of Luchino Visconti brought
one bonus. When it comes to the picture starter flags are a good old UC staple
and I recognized that of Belize just before Charlie Lowman buzzed in with the
same answer. Flags I know. National coats of arms I do not, so failed to add to
my score on the bonuses which showed three national coats of arms. Imperial
took one to level the scores. Charlie Lowman took his third starter,
recognizing several works of literature whose titles each contained the word
darkness. One correct answer on the following OPEC bonuses brought the score to
35 – 50 in Imperial’s favour at just past the 10 minute mark. A lively start to
what had always promised to be a quality match up.
Look, I won’t pretend
that I have the slightest clue what tautomers are when they’re at home but
Edward Isrankura Na Ayudhya did to take the next starter. Events of 1625 proved
to be a relatively gentle set which gave us both another full house. If you’re
asked for a female figure from the Odyssey, you can zig with Circe like
Imperial did, or you can zag with Penelope, which Francesca O’Connor did to win
the points on the next starter. Bristol managed two bonuses on an interminable
set on mathematician Kurt “Playtex 24-hour” Godel. Right, with the next
starter, it asked which film, based on a Pierre Bulle novel, did Rod Serling
write a screen play for. Now there’s only the two Boulle books I know that made
famous films. I couldn’t see the Twilight Zone’s Rod Serling having scripted
Bridge on the River Kwai, so it had to be Planet of the Apes. Dennis Reppen
took that one. One of my highlights of my much enjoyed visit to Liverpool last
September was seeing Another Place up close, and so it was a pleasure to see
Anthony Gormley referenced in the bonuses. Charlie Lowman seemed disgusted with
himself to not get Gormley but he did take the following two bonuses. Nobody
recognized Jefferson Airplane for the music starter – not surprised. Both teams
waited with the next starter concerning a battle between the kingdoms of
England and Scotland, until the death of James IV was mentioned and Charlie
Lowman pounced to win the buzzer race. Other songs used in famous karaoke
scenes in films brought a further ten points and Imperial were stretching their
lead. Did you know of the Etruscan and Christmas Island shrews? Me neither.
Mind you I still guessed the next starter. Dennis Reppen took that one. Authors
who won the Booker prize with their debut novels reminded me of DBC Pierre’s
Vernon God Little, which I’d successfully wiped from my memory. Imperial took 2
.Jake Wingfield stopped the rot for Bristol with the musical term mordant. Slavic
inspiration in classical music. Bristol had 2 correct answers which was 2 more
than I did. I’ll be honest, I didn’t know the Galapagos syndrome in Economics,
but Galapagos seemed a good guess. Freddie Burns had that one. Two bonuses on
flows meant that Imperial led by 130 – 95 on 20 minutes. All still to play for.
For the second picture
starter Francesca O’Connor identified Millais as the painter of a painting. I
thought it might be DG Rossetti. More paintings illustrating poems by John
Keats brought a single bonus, but the gap was now down to 20 points, a gap that
might be bridged in a single visit to the table.Fair play to Dennis Reppen who
knew that the state of Vermont once declared itself an independent republic in
1777. Wonder how that worked out for them. Bonuses on Egypt in the Bible brought
a full house and the gap stretched again. Amazingly I did know the
piezoelectric effect even before Freddie Burns buzzed in early with the same
answer. I have no idea how I knew it. 2 bonuses on cultural references to
croquet – none of them Alice in Wonderland sadly - narrowed the gap to 25. Again
Dennis Reppen took the next starter, recognizing Koranic and Biblical
references to stars. Computing terms spelled with just the top letters of a qwerty
keyboard highly amused Charlie Lowman but Imperial only managed one of the
bonuses about them. The Imperial skipper showed imperious form in buzzing early
to identify Rizal Day as a holiday in the Phillippines. The First World War in
Africa saw Imperial fail to score, and the pedant in me has to applaud Amol for
not allowing Jan Smut instead of Jan Smuts. With the game essentially over as a
contest it was still important for Bristol to build their score towards a
repechage slot. Jake Wingfield obliged, recognizing a reference to Provencal. Corn,
the main constituent of much that I write, brought two bonuses. Poor Freddie
Burns fell foul of a question that took a swerve, giving parsec when the full
question was asking for gigaparsec. Dennis Reppen kicked that one into the open
goal. One chemistry bonus was taken. Lola Linnane-Barron took the following
starter on fireflies meaning that all 8 players had correctly answered at least
1 starter. Words from other languages ending in – ondo – Artem Borisov took the
next starter on Belgrade. A bonus on commemorative £2 coins took them to 160. Neither
team would add to their score, and Imperial won by 220 – 160.
For the record Bristol
achieved a BCR of 59% while Imperial’s was slightly better at 61%. Pretty good,
but a clear indication that Imperial’s buzzing was better. Will Bristol qualify
for the repechage? Hope so, though I’d say that the coin is in the air.
Amol Watch
It is always gratifying
to see Amol applying the – what’s written on the card is the answer and you get
nowt for a close wrong ‘un rule. I’m not convinced it was a very nice thing to
do to suggest that the whole of Imperial knew Penelope, but Dennis Reppen
having buzzed early with Circe he had to take it, Amol. Bit like rubbing salt
into the wound, that.
Interesting Fact
That I Didn’t Already Know Of The Week
London, Warwickshire
and Lancashire are represented by teams in the National Hurling League of
Ireland.
Baby Elephant Walk
Moment
Godel’s completeness
theorem builds on a set of results proved in the 1920s by which Norwegian
mathematician who, along with Leopold Lowenheim, gave his name to a theorem on
the cardinality of models often split into separate upward and downward
results. And the slithy toves did gyre and gimbel in the wabe. All mimsy were
the borogroves and the mome raths etc etc.
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