University Challenge 2027 - First Round Magdalen, Oxford v. Warwick

The Teams

Magdalen College, Oxford

Anapan Bandi

Ellie Spicer

Bernardo Lustrini (capt.)

Ioan O’Reilly

Warwick

Jolie Yeh

Patrick Hartley

Odysseas Gabrielatos (capt.)

Tobin Payne

For the first starter I had the given name Jane from the young woman from Baltimore in novels by Edgar Rice Burroughs. Tobin Payne had it from Jane Eyre. Starter one. Two bonuses on the Congress of Vienna followed. Magdalen lost five on the next starter allowing Jolie Yeh in with the word vernacular. Bonuses on the Chott el Djerid – as opposed to my answer, the Wadi El Yerwant – brought just one bonus, and they probably ought to have had Jules Verne as well. Ellie Spicer put Magdalen’s score into the black, recognising the moon Io for the next starter. Chemistry bonuses yielded two correct answers to Magdalen and one quick lap of honour around the Clark sofa for me. Yeah, I know very little about the subject but I know enough to yell ‘diabetes!’ when the words disease and ketones feature in the question. For the picture round we saw a chakra wheel, similar to that on the national flag of India, but nobody could link it to Ashoka the Great. Jolie Yeh recognised a description of the legendary Mulan for the next starter. Three more flags and symbols bearing prominent chakras brought a brilliant full house to Warwick. If Magdalen didn’t already know that they were in for a long evening, this might well have convinced them. Tobin Payne took a second starter knowing that the 2024 women’s Olympic climbing champion was Polish. 21^st Century fiction inspired by the Arabian Nights brought just one bonus. At the ten minute mark Warwick led 75 – 15 and they looked pretty good value for their lead, too.

The onslaught continued as Patrick Hartley correctly guessed that Mary Cassatt had completed a mural for the Columbian Exposition in Chicago. Recent biographical films about musicians brought them two bonuses and pushed them to the brink of triple figures.  Tobin Payne took his third starter, knowing that the Codex Regius containing the original manuscript of the Poetic Edda had to be housed in Reykjavik. Vreiðr vas þa Ving- þorr etc. etc. Frederico Busoni brought one bonus. The next starter was one of those UC specials where you wait and wait then there’s a mad dash for the buzzer when it becomes obvious. As soon as NH3 was mentioned Ellie Spicer was in with Ammonia. Two bonuses on optical illusions were taken. So to the music starter and both Tobin Payne and I recognised Chuck Berry. This was Tobin’s 4^th starter. Other pieces used for walk-on music by professional darters only brought one bonus, but as regards the match even at this stage it seemed very unlikely that Magdalen were going to be able to muscle their way back into it. They tried, though, you have to give them that, coming in too early on the next starter- which was exactly the right tactic even if it didn’t quite work this time. Warwick skipper Odysseas Gabrielatos came in with tremelo which meant that every member of the team had answered at least one starter each. They took just one on a pretty gettable set on the Judgement of Paris. Patrick Hartley took his second starter knowing that Henri de Navarre – King Henry IV was the first Bourbon to be King of France. They’d all been custard creams up to that point. You know, even I’m ashamed of that one, sorry. Currencies with geographical names brought two more bonuses. Patrick Hartley took a third bonus with Rhode Island. Didn’t once mention Family Guy in the questions either. One bonus on shades of blue named after people – Bert Prussian and Sid Cobalt were not name checked, unfortunately – brought one correct answer. This meant that the scores were 175 – 30. And the Warwick juggernaut rolled on.

A mind-numbing physics starter gave Tobin Payne starter five. Kapuscinski, a member of the famous ‘Who?’ family, brought 2 bonuses. Edward Muybridge’s famous horse photos pushed Warwick through the 200 barrier. Bonuses on horse paintings brought just one bonus – I’m a bit surprised that they didn’t know Stubbs. Ioan O’Reilly bought some hard-earned points for Magdalen, knowing that the first correspondence course taught shorthand. The wittig reaction – ‘twas wittig and the slithy toves ? – brought a full house and earned Ellie Spicer the gratitude of her skipper. I thought Ioan O’Reilly’s buzz for the next starter was a good one based on what we’d heard, but it was a gamble and lost 5. Given the full question Tobin Payne didn’t manage to add to his starter tally, even though the clue to Sweden was in the full question. Again, Bernardo Lustrini was definitely on the right lines with his early buzz for the next starter, but he gave chess openings while the question called specifically for the Sicilian Defence. To be fair to Tobin Payne, he did sound apologetic when he answered this to pick up his 7^th and last starter. A full house on terms from Japanese cookery raised the possibility of a 300+ score. With the next starter you had to wait and wait, then it became obvious that placenta was the answer and Jolie Yeh won the buzzer race to take her third starter. Seascape paintings brought a full house and Warwick hit 260, less than 2 full houses away from 300. Sadly Magdalen lost five with an early buzz for the next starter. Given the words philosopher and hemlock Odysseas Gabrielatos knew it had to be Socrates, captain of the 1982 Brazilian world cup football team. The South African National Assembly Elections of 2024 brought one bonus, but it meant that Warwick were just one full house away from 300. Odysseas Gabrielatos took his own third starter, knowing that the Diomede islands belong partly to the USA and partly to Russia. Three concepts in physics gave them the full house and the rarely achieved triple hundred. That was it. Warwick won by 300 to 40.

Okay, let’s get down to brass tacks. Magdalen are undoubtedly better than a 40 point team. Buzzing without caution was a gamble, but it was a worthwhile gamble. Yes, had they been a little more cautious they might even have approached triple figures, but they had to try to disrupt the Warwick rhythm. I give them credit for that. As it was they achieved a BCR of 77.7%. But they were very much outbuzzed by Warwick. Despite having so many bonuses to answer, Warwick still managed a BCR of 58.3%. How good are they? Well, we’ll start to find out the answer in round two. But a team to watch, I reckon.

Amol Watch

For once I thought Amol’s rather hyperbolic commiserations to the losing team were pretty much what was called for. Nice work, sir.

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

Mulan means Magnolia

Baby Elephant Walk Moment

It was very tempting to select ‘pyruvate oxidative decarboxylation’ but the sheer endless waffle of the following has to take the prize:-

In Physics what letter of the alphabet names a theory that, according to one proponent, has the potential to unify the various forms of string theory with the theory of supergravity? What the letter in question represents is unclear, one suggestion being a mathematical term for a rectangular array of numbers or data.

Unless of course you prefer dum de dumdum dum dum dum dum dumdum.