Leicester
v. Trinity Cambridge
Here we are in the second round proper. No
repechage reprieve in this round – the losing team was going home. Leicester
were amongst the most impressive teams in the first round, having beaten the OU,
the highest scoring losing team in round one. The OU also qualified for this
round by winning their repechage. The team of John O’Doherty, Adam Brown, Nadal Al
Masri and their captain Robert Greenhill were probably one of the teams
that others most wanted to avoid. Their opponents, Trinity College Cambridge,
were less impressive, in their first round, knocking out St. Andrews with 150
to 100. I said in my review of their match that the team of Matthew Willetts,
Claire Hall, Aled Walker and their captain, Hugh Bennett would maybe
need a little bit of the rub of the green to come through their second round.
Well, time had come to find out whether they would get it or not.
Claire Hall took a great
early buzz about the Greek philosopher Epicurus. Grains brought them a single
bonus. Claire Hall then took her second quick starter in a row. She knew that
if you have a critical quote about a 20th century novel published in
Paris, then you have to say “Ulysses”. A gentle set of bonuses on the works of
Aristophanes brought them a full house. Guess who buzzed early for the next
starter, on definitions of the word sublimation? That’s right, Claire Hall,
taking a splendid hat trick with the first three starters of the show.
Scientific prizes brought another 5 points. At last Robert Greenhill won a
buzzer race- hearing the words ‘three word hyphenated term” – and =”Norman
castle” he gave us Motte-and-Bailey. This earned Leicester their first bonus
set on Scottish composers. 2 good bonuses took their score to 20. For the
picture round we saw a map of Southern England and Northern France with several
key locations marked although not named. We were told this represented the
locations of key scenes n a Shakespeare play and asked which. I was a little
surprised that both teams took so long to work out that this must be Henry V,
but it was Aled Walker who did it first. More of the same followed – lovely idea
for a Shakespeare set this was. 2 were taken. Matthew Willets knew that the two
auxiliary verbs most often used to describe the problem known as Hume’s Law are
– is-ought. Nope, me neither. Years in the 60s brought one bonus. Matthew
Willets knew the old favourite, the Wheatstone Bridge, and bonuses on Physics
brought them a full house. So just past the ten minute mark, and Trinity were
already racing towards the finish line with 115, while Leicester were reeling
on the ropes with 20. A long way to go yet, but Leicester were going to have to
start throwing caution to the wind on the buzzer to claw back the advantage.
Nobody knew that Mercury has
the most eccentric orbit of any object in the Solar system. Robert Greenhill
took only his team’s second starter, knowing the incident that starter the 1937
war between Japan and China. 2 bonuses on 19th century art followed.
Nobody knew tocopherols (gesundheit) but an injudicious early buzz from Matthew
Willets lost five points on the next starter. Robert Greenhill took a
speculative punt at Cezanne for the name of the post-impressionist who provided
a particular quote and reaped the benefit. I wonder how good his impression of
a post actually was, however, I digress. As seemed to be the case for Leicester
in this show, they took two bonuses, this time on the former Straits
Settlement. Robert Greenhill, seemingly starting to find his range on the buzzer,
identified the undying greatness that is Olivia Newton-John’s Xanadu for the
music starter. More pieces of music referencing mythical or spiritual locations
and guess what? They managed two of them. Robert Greenhill completed his hat
trick knowing that the Plains of Abraham are located near Quebec. The bonus set
was on the Eiffel Tower, and now Leicester made no mistake, and took a full
set. This brought them to 105, just 5 points in arrears. Hugh Bennett decided
that was enough of that, and buzzed in first to link JRR Tolkein and the
language of Chaucer with the word middle. Animal histology did them no favours,
and they took no bonuses – I had my lap of honour round the living room answer
with collagen for the second one. Matthew Willets buzzed too early for the
subject of the opera The Perfect American and lost 5. Nobody knew it was Walt
Disney. It seemed to me that all the teams were sitting on their buzzers a
little when given the names for the first and last Space Shuttle commanders and
asked for the missions they commanded. Matthew Willets looked relieved to make
amends for his previous buzz with that one. Canadian provincial capitals were a
nice set and Trinity had the lot. This meant that the gap had just widened
again to give them a lead of 140 to 105, but Leicester had won the last ten
minutes 80 – 25.
For the second picture
starter nobody fancied identifying a photo of Charles Dickens until Claire Hall
had a pop. For me, this was one of the differences between the teams. Even when
not 100% certain Trinity were having a go and reaping the rewards. Leicester
were sitting too far back on their buzzers. The fact that only skipper Robert
Greenhill had answered a starter to this point was telling. Illustrations from
Dickens novels featuring dogs asking for the name of the work and the dog. The
only one I got was the wonderful George Cruickshank illustration of Bill Sykes
and Bullseye from Oliver Twist. What followed was one of those algebraic
questions where the answer is usually 1 or 0. I went for 1, Aled Walker went
for 1 and we were both right. Bonuses on General Cornwallis brought one correct
answer. 5 minutes to go, and the outcome was not yet cut and dried, but Trinity
would have been short priced favourites to go through at this point. I surprised
myself by dredging up the name of Freya Stark for the next starter, but neither
of the teams managed to do so. Inevitably it was Claire Hall who won the buzzer
race to take a UC special starter which asked for the three consecutive letters
of the alphabet that began various words. The bonuses were on computing. When
JP mentioned the acronym ASCII I couldn’t help showing my age by saying ‘Allo
playmates.’ Trinity only managed one, but the clock was very much their friend
at this stage of the game, and their lead was 75. A fine buzz from Hugh Bennett
identified the internet code for Kyrgyzstan as the abbreviation for the SI unit
of something or other. Bonuses on names in botany zoology or geology ending in –
ot took them to 200. Claire Hall recognised a quote from Henry James referring
to Tolstoy, and laughed when her captain gave the answer at the same time. Not
sure about the rules regarding that one – but it wouldn’t have made any
difference to the outcome of the match anyway. European cities with 4 letter
names brought a further two bonuses, and stretched the lead past 100 points. It
was nice to see Robert Greenhill buzz in for the next starter about Harrises. Leicester
are too good a team to allow a complete shut out in the last few minutes of the
show. Which they proved by taking a full house on Japanese cuisine. John O’Doherty
took his first starter with the word Karyotype. Bonuses on botany were beaten
by the gong.
Well, the final score was a
clear win for Trinity by 220 to 140. So what did we learn in the show? Did
Leicester flatter to deceive in their first round win? Not necessarily. I think
it was more that Trinity played much better than their first round match.
Leicester showed their class when they won starters, but Trinity outbuzzed them
for a majority of the match, and were impressively good on the bonuses. I said
at the start that they’d need the rub of the green to win. Rubbish – shows how
much I know. They were, on the night, clearly the better team. In recent years
we’ve seen Manchester take and then retain the title. Early days yet, but you’d
be foolish to start writing off this Trinity team’s chances of doing the same
after that performance.
Jeremy Paxman Watch
Absolutely nothing until the
Canadian capitals bonuses. When Edmonton Alberta was given as a last gasp
guess, and proved correct, JP replied, “That’s correct. . . you know more about
Canada than you do about Britain.”
Amazingly JP was forgiving on
a literature round, describing the Dickens pictures as ‘One of the hardest
picture rounds we’ve ever had.’ Well, quite.
Interesting Fact That I Didn’t Already Know Of The Week
The Marco Polo Bridge
Incident began the Sino Japanese war in 1937
