University Challenge 2027 Repechage Round - ST. John's Cambridge v. London School of Economics

The Teams

St. John’s Cambridge

Callum Thomas

Jonathan Watts

Liam Plimmer (Capt)

Aurelia Walker

London School of Economics

David Worley

Diya Khatri

Henry Jameson (Capt)

Daniel Yang

What, repechage round already? Yes indeed. On paper these were two very evenly matched teams – St. John’s scoring 170 in round 1, while LSE scored 160. However the BCRs of the teams suggested a different story. St. John’s was 70.6% while the LSE had a BCR of 46%. All of which suggested that if St. John’s could achieve parity on the buzzer, then they looked the most likely winners.

Skipper Liam Plimmer got St. John’s going, knowing that Goethe and Schiller in the same question suggested Weimar. Wei not? Representation and democracy did not seem to be doing anyone favours until the quotation from Lincoln’s Gettysburg address brought us both one bonus. Both teams sat on their buzzer for the next starter, until the mention on Van Dyke (Anthony, not Dick) made it clear that the royal collector had to be Charles I. Henry Jameson opened the LSE account with this. Bonuses on cakes and pastries in Victorian novels - they missed a trick by not asking about Kipling here, I would have thought - were not actually about the cakes or pastries at all in the first two questions. They were just a different way of asking – in which novels do Mrs. Tulliver and Esther Summerson appear? LSE didn’t know, although they did get the third which was the only one really about cakes and pastries. A literary starter followed, with various Daisys (Renton, Miller and Buchanan) giving Liam Plimmer the answer. Birds with names linked to war was a lovely and really rather informative set, from which St. John’s took a full house. I had never linked sniper with snipe before, even though it sounds obvious once you know. For the first picture starter Henry Jameson recognised a printed recipe for a Singapore sling. More cocktails featuring the names of nationalities or countries in their official names brought just one bonus. Callun Thomas recognised references to indigo dye for the next starter. English towns and cities beginning with B and ending with Ford brought two bonuses. This meant that on ten minutes St. John’s led by 60 -30 and were having the better of the buzzer races.

Having said that it was a very good early buzz that saw Daniel Yang identifying that Japan left the League of Nations in 1933. Notable goals at the 2025 Women’s European Football Championships saw a welcome name check for Hanwell’s Chloe Kelly, the only answer either of us got. Nobody got Robert ‘Who?’ Merton for the next starter. You had to wait and wait with the next starter – LSE didn’t and so lost five – but eventually ‘a walled city on the Black Sea’ was enough to suggest Baku. Callum Thomas took that. Recent recipients of the Charlemagne Prize yielded a good full house. A lap of honour came my way for immediately guessing that the K in KIE stood for Kinetic in the next starter. Aurelia Walker had that one. James Prescott Joule (nicknamed ‘Uncut’ by his mates, I believe) refused to yield any bonus points. For the music starter Diya Khatri recognised the dulcet tones of the La’s singing There she Goes. There you go. More songs used in The Gilmore Girls didn’t bring any points, but it did bring a hell of a lot of frustration for Daniel Yang who just couldn’t dredge up the name of the Bangles. All of which was compounded by a rather snarky remark from Amol. A long winded description of tooth decay fell to Callum Thomas. Greek mythology is often a fruitful subject on UC and so it was for St. John’s, providing a full house. Liam Plimmer knew that Sonia Knips was painted by Klimt (2 coats of whitewash and then rubbed down with a copy of the Sporting Life, I believe) Fish and ways of cooking it brought just the one bonus. Liam Plimmer knew that the next starter was talking about badminton but couldn’t quite dredge up shuttlecock for the next starter which allowed Diya Khatri to take the points. Bob Dylan’s The Girl from the North Country (an ode to Elsie Tanner, by any chance?) brought a couple of bonuses, but St. John’s led by 130-60 on 20 minutes.

For the second picture starter Callum Thomas identified politician Lula da Silva. Other recipients of the Grand Collar Order of Camoes for services to Portuguese took them to 145, and they looked about to cross the event horizon. Aurelia Walker worked out that the various clues in the next starter pointed to the colour red. I believe that the next bonus set may have been linked by the theme of chemical gobbledygook. I didn’t get any, while St. John’s got two. Moving swiftly on Henry Jameson recognised a reference to Twain (I think it was Mark, but might have been Shania) and the phrase Gilded Age. Terms for Church windows brought two bonus in short order. Henry Jameson also knew two rivers in Bangladesh for the next starter. Things in the natural world whose common names are used poetically as synonyms for black saw them take just the one from a pretty gettable set. Jonathan Watts knew several species of gibbons, although ‘funky’ and Stanley’ were not among those mentioned. Works in philosophy and the social sciences from the first decade of the 20^th century brought two bonuses and the double century looked on the cards for St. John’s. I understood the next starter relating author’s names to chemical elements but I didn’t know who wrote the Neapolitan Quartet (the Neapolitan trilogy of course being vanilla, chocolate and strawberry). Callum Thomas worked it all out and gave the correct answer of Iron. SI base units are hardy perennials on UC and St. John’s gathered a full harvest. Henry Jameson got his fourth and fifth French Republics mixed up and this allowed Liam Plimmer in for another starter. Events of 1924 in the USA didn’t add any gloss to their score, but it was all academic by this stage. David Worley won the buzzer race to answer Charleston for the next starter. There was no time left for bonuses, thpugh. St. John’s won by 220 – 100.

St. John’s were the better of these two teams on the night. They achieved a BCR of 58.3% this time to LSE’s 33.3%.

Amol Watch

“I don’t think I’d have forgiven you if you got that one wrong” said Amol to St. John’s about the Gettysburg address question. This was just an early example of the rather bumptious mood he seemed to be in for this show. Maybe it was filmed just after he was first to be kicked out of The Traitors. He then rather condescendingly told LSE he would accept Alice in Wonderland even though the official title is Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. When Daniel Yang couldn’t dredge up The Bangles he rubbed it in with “Never mind. We enjoyed watching you struggle.” What had rubbed Amol up the wrong way before the show, one can only ask. Even at the end he had another little dig – “you gave us such wonderful entertainment in the bonuses, having these feverish discussions then getting them wrong.” Oh, come on, Amol. This is not big and it’s not clever.

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

The bird on the flag of Kiribati is a frigate bird. I don’t know how I’ve never known that before, but I’m glad to know it now.

Baby Elephant Walk Moment

Smooth surface, pit and fissure, and root are three main types of what condition caused by exposure to acidic substances produced by bacteria? The last of these types is more common in older people, because the area exposed is more . . . (incorrect interruption) vulnerable lacking the hard protective surface known as enamel. – Yeah, it wasn’t the most difficult to understand, but surely didn’t need to be so long winded. Dum de dumdum dum dum dum dum dumdum.