The Teams
London School of Economics
David Worley
Diya Khatri
Henry Jameson (Capt)
Daniel Yang
King’s College Cambridge
Niall Kim
Ben Lafond
Claire McLellan-Cassivi
Adhyan Shukla
September already, peeps! I give my heartfelt commiseration
to all of my siblings of the chalkface who are returning to the classroom this
week. That’s one of many things I don’t miss about my former profession.
The LSE skipper, Henry Jameson was the first to recognise
clues to Taiwan for the first starter. Questions on the Romanian revolution
provided 1 bonus. I visited Bucharest in February of 2024, and if you do the
same I would heartily recommend a coach trip up to Transylvania to visit the
Peles Palace and Bram Castle. Ben Lafond opened the Cambridge side’s account
knowing a book about Esperanto. Fictional characters with the surname Archer
brought King’s one bonus too. Claire McLellan-Cassivi knew the video game
series Persona to take the next. Chapter headings of the former Mr.
Romanadvoratrelundar (if you know, you know), Richard Dawkins’ The Selfish Gene
brought King’s a full set. The picture starter saw Ben Lafond identify the
symbol for IUPAC (wasn’t he shot in Las Vegas in 1996?). 3 ore logos of
authorities I’ve never heard of brought the team nowt. With the next starter we
were asked for an adjective preceding several words. It all sounded rather like
gibberish until we were given convertor. Henry Jameson won the buzzer race to
give catalytic, and got a little angry with himself for giving the answer
before Roger Tilling had finished giving his name. Three questions on Altaic
languages yielded nothing. On the 10 minute mark King’s led by 50 – 2, after
what had been as tough a 10 minutes on the show as I can remember for some
time. Slim pickings for Dave last night.
LSE lost five of those points on the next starter allowing
Niall Kim to recognise several depictions of oranges in Art. Music in the films
of Wong Kar-Wai brought a single bonus to King’s. Daniel Yang recognised a
reference to Switzerland in the next starter. Plant pollination by mammals
allowed the LSE to take two bonuses. Now, in a music starter which is by a
British Composer you won’t be far off with Vaughan Williams and it was Niall
Kim who gave this percentage answer. To me it sounded more like Elgar and Henry
Jameson certainly felt so and was right. More pieces being conducted by former
PM Edward Heath (remember him? Didn’t think so.) refused to yield any further
points on the set. The next starter earned my lap of honour for the night,
when, like Henry Jameson, I correctly identified the star system Alpha
Centauri. The UN’s Responsibility to
Protect schema brought LSE a rare full house and the lead. A lead which widened
when the irrepressible Henry Jameson took another starter, identifying the work
of Messiaen, ( he’s not the Messiaen, he’s a very naughty boy.) The architect,
the late Terry Farrell, Ben Lafond stopped the rot for King’s with Fragments of
Sappho. A set of noble gases, each of which questions nobly resisted the
temptation to drone on for clause after clause after clause for once yielded
two bonuses. Ben Lafond then took a double, recognising terms from voodoo. North
African cities brought two bonuses and meant, as we swiftly approached the 20
minute mark King’s led by 110 to 90.
Thence to the second picture starter and Niall Kim
identified the word of Mark Rothko, (who was played by Ron Moody in the early
80s kids TV show Into the Labyrinth). 3 more paintings depicting clouds brought
1 bonus. Claire McLellan-Cassivi recognised clues to the term truss (‘Blink and
you’ll miss ‘er prime minister was not one, though). Bonuses on melancholia (I
prefer coca-cholia) brought 2 bonuses. Niall Kim interrupted the economics
starter that followed just before it could stray into baby elephant walk
territory with interest rates. Three questions on UC hardy perennial Paul Dirac
yielded a full set, and suddenly King’s seemed a long way ahead. Daniel Yang
knew that the Sykes – Picot agreement set out to carves up the Ottoman Empire. German
Economist Klara Tisch didn’t exactly promise a barrel of laughs, but at least
it gave LSE two bonuses. Niall Kim correctly guessed that the next question referred
to crustaceans. So I guess that makes the answer from King’s a King’s
Crustacean, as opposed to a Charing Crustacean. As well as that appalling pun
this also earned them a set of bonuses on Olives – none of them being Olive Oyl
or Olive Fromonthebuses. They took just the one bonus, but had they listened to
the question they might have had a full house. Daniel Yang knew that the city
after which the criteria for eligibility to join the EU is named is Copenhagen.
One bonus on years known as the year of three (kings – kaisers – popes) was
taken. David Worley knew that the word poodle comes from the German word for to
splash. 2 bonuses followed for them on the Geography of Spain. The LSE revival
continued as skipper Henry Jameson identified the mathematical term hyper. Terms
in biology with female given names sounded a rum old set but proved to be
straightforward and LSE took two. Amazingly a full house would now give them
the lead. But their answer was wrong, and they lost five. The gong sounded an
end to the contest with King’s holding on to win 185 – 160.
Both teams had the same number of bonus chances, with LSE
having a BCR of 46.6% and King’s 56.6%. That was enough to seal the deal for
the Cambridge side. Wouldn’t be totally flabbergasted if LSE make the
repechage, though.
Amol Watch
One of Amol’s defaults at the start of the show is to tell
both teams they look scared. He said it again this week even though both teams
were grinning in anticipation!
Interesting Fact That I Didn’t Already Know Of
The Week
Taiwan translates as Terraced Bay.
Baby Elephant Walk Moment
Well done setters! Nothing of a ridiculous length this
week!
