Tuesday, 1 September 2026

University Challenge First Round LSE v King's Cambridge

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!

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