The Teams
University College, Oxford
Adam Sakabani
Deepro Choudhury
Delia Cropper (capt)
Shaon Bhattacharya
St. John’s College, Cambridge
Callum Thomas
Jonathan Watts
Liam Plimmer (capt)
Aurelia Walker
Deepro Choudhury took first blood for Univ with a deeply
impressive early buzz. He needed only the first item to identify that all the
items on the list have names ending in -ibo. I do wonder if Haribo would have
been one? I guess we’ll never know. Words for lookalikes in different languages
brought Univ a good full house. I thank a recent Weaver’s Week post for giving
me Prisoner’s Dilemma as the answer to the next starter. Univ skipper Delia
Cropper took that one. It would not be her last starter of the evening by a
long chalk. Hyperboloid structures in architecture – announced Amol. There’s a novelty,
said I, then took two to Univ’s full house. Jonathan Watts elbowed St. John’s
into the contest winning the buzzer race to answer incisor for the next
starter. Experiments involving drops brought a full house, and the last one was
so easy, about Gallileo and the Tower of Pisa, that I didn’t even take a lap of
honour for getting it right. The picture starter involved a map of England and
Wales highlighting several AONBs (Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty). Delia
Cropper knew that their names all contain the word Hills. More AONBs with
shared name elements brought Univ one bonus. Liam Plimmer, the St. John’s
skipper recognised various uses of the name Gilead for the next starter. Short
kings was an intriguing subject for a set of bonuses but these tiny monarchs
yielded nothing for St. John’s. At least they managed a second consecutive
starter with Callum Thomas buzzing very early to identify a reference to Norwegian.
Kinship systems as described by Lewis Henry Morgan. Two bonuses meant that the
scores were nicely poised, with Univ leading 65-55 at just after 10 minutes.
Delia Cropper was the first to recognise bands or songs
linked by the word Bay which brought her the next starter. Dryden and Shakespeare
brought two correct answers. A long and tedious starter on Mersenne (ex Arsenal
midfielder Paul?) was thankfully stopped in its overly long tracks by Jonathan
Watts. Terms in extraction of metals brought one bonus. I had a rare music
starter right, recognising, as did Jonathan Watts, the Radetzky March (Diddle
dum, diddle dum, diddle dum dum dum) 3 more marches, also conducted by Leonard
Bernstein, brought two bonuses. This just edged St. John’s into the lead. Sadly
they lost five for the next starter, but this allowed Delia Cropper to add to
what was becoming an impressive total of starters for glyph as in heiro and
petro. Univ took two bonuses on the Panama Canal but missed the explorer
Balboa, who was named after a well known Sylvester Stallone character. Very
quickly Delia Cropper added another starter recognising a series of terms
belonging to Mario 64. People recognised by the Roman Catholic Church as patron
saints of all Europe – now that’s a big gig – provided a full house of bonuses.
Kublai Khan was called Emperor Shizu. I have nothing to add to that – but it gave
Shaon Bhattacharya the next starter. Birdsong in classical music provided just
one bonus, but the momentum was back with Univ. For the second picture starter Adam
Sakabani identified the work of Georges Braque (‘Bricker’ as his mates called
him). Three other paintings critiqued by Tom Wolfe in “The Painted Word”
provided just one correct answer, but what did Univ care? It ran down the clock
and they were leading 160-85 at just past twenty minutes.
Delia Cropper stuck the knife in a little further being
first to answer that Vincent Van Gogh had lived for a period in Arles. 2
bonuses on chemistry (I think) brought them to the brink of their double
century. Then an interesting thing happened. St. John’s found their buzzing
fingers. First captain Liam Plimmer took a starter on Hagarism. Japanese film
directrs and composers brought them 2 correct answers . I answered Kurosawa to
each, and got a correct answer by doing so. They beat Univ to the buzzer for
the next starter but got their Copernicus in a twist by saying Gallileo,
allowing the inevitable Delia Cropper in for the correct answer of Copernicus. Meta
-ethics promised little and only delivered one correct answer to Univ. But St.
John’s were warming to their task as Aurelia Walker buzzed early to identify
the Senegal Lions football team. Food terms from other languages delivered a
full house in quick time. Callum Thomas then buzzed early with the prehistoric
Sunda/Sundaland subcontinent. Another lightning fast full house was taken on
the mathematical birthday problem. Delia Cropper just failed to take the next
starter, giving best of instead of the best, which fell to rival skip Liam
Plimmer. Another lightning full house on cricketing positions meant that, with
hardly any time left, St. John’s were only 15 points behind! Neither team could
take the next starter but ST. John’s lost 5. Liam Plimmer buzzed first for the
next starter. He zigged with Congo, allowing Delia Cropper to zag with Niger. Tat
was it. We were gonged before Amol could complete the first bonus question on
American states. Univ had won by 200 – 170.
For the record Univ’s BCR was 63.3% while St. John’s was a
whopping 70.3%. Good match up.
Amol Watch
Again, a thumbs up for a consistent application of – if it
ain’t euite right, it’s wrong with the best question.
Interesting Fact That I Didn’t Already Know Of
The Week
Worthless rock surrounding otherwise valuable metals or
minerals is called gang.
Baby Elephant Walk Moment.
Which polymath and priest gives his name to laws relating
the fundamental frequency of a vibrating string to its length , mass per unit
length and tension, formulated in his 1636 to ’37 work , Harmonie Universelle?
He also gave his name to the set of prime numbers of the form to the N . . .
(the questions was not even over yet when we got to thi point and Jonathan
Watts buzzed in. He certainly wasn’t dum de dumdum dum dum dum dum dumdum).
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