University Challenge: Round 2: Match 4: St George's vs Lancaster

So, the final regular match of the year, before the show takes its break for the festive season. What sort of match would we get?

St George’s College London won their first round match 175-145, defeating our friend James Gratrex and co from King’s College Cambridge, who were good enough to survive to the repechage and make the second round. So, therefore, the unchanged team must have had to be taken seriously:

Shashank Sivaji, from Southend-on-Sea, studying Medicine

Alexander Suebsaeng, from London, studying Medicine

Captain: Rebecca Smoker, from County Kildare, studying Medicine

Sam Mindel, from London, studying Medicine

Lancaster, like James and co, came through the repechage, losing to Pembroke College Cambridge (who are through to the semis), before pulling off a shock win over the much fancied Lincoln College Oxford team in their play-off by 165-120. They remained the same as their two previous games: 
Alan Webster, from Preston, studying Resource and Environmental Management

Anne Kretzschmar, from Chesterfield, studying Environmental Modelling

Captain: George Pinkerton, from Surrey, studying History, Philosophy and Politics
Ian Dickson, from Stirling, studying Ecology and the Environment

So, who were the favourites tonight? St George’s defeated a team that went on to do very impressively, while Lancaster defeated a previously impressive side, but they also lost a match. If you wanted a tip from me, I’d probably have gone for St George’s.

So, of course, Lancaster got the first starter, but no bonuses. St George’s pounced back, but no bonuses. Two incorrect interruptions then reduced St George’s score back to zero, but not for long, thanks to another starter.

But it was Lancaster who had the momentum, with Mr Pinkerton scoring some very quick and impressive buzzes. By the music round, on classical singers performing pop, they led by 90-50.

But then Lancaster incurred two successive penalties, which allowed St George’s to sneak through into the lead. A full set of bonuses on national sports took them into a strong lead, and seemed to trigger a shift in momentum, with Messrs Suebsaeng and Mindel generally swapping starters. By the second picture round, St George’s had pulled out a lead of 145-80.

So, could Lancaster emulate James and co’s impressive fightback from last week? They tried: George Pinkerton got another starter, and the bonuses bought them up to 100. But Messrs Suebsaeng and Mindel were now in their stride, and weren’t going to let Lancaster catch up. Lancaster did manage to equal their score from their first round match, but St George’s were now well ahead. At the gong, the Medics won by 230-140.

A good performance from St George’s, who have two good players in the form of Messrs Suebsaeng and Mindel, both of whom got six starters; as Dave Clark has noted over on LAM, having more than one standout player is a good strength, as, should one have an off-day, you have fallback. The Medics managed 20 bonuses out of 39 with two early penalties. George Pinkerton also finished the match with six starters, which helped his side to 14 out of 24 bonuses, also with two penalties. His side performed well in their three matches, and it’s a shame to see them go.

University Challenge now takes a break for the festive season. Next Monday, a new series of Christmas University Challenge begins, and continues all week. I will not be giving in depth reviews, but I will post a summary of the weeks’ games at the weekend (I hope).

Only Connect saw its third place play-off tonight. And also one of my favourite questions ever: Ms Coren listed four things, including UC legend Alex Guttenplan, in her intro as things she is not allowed within 100 yards of (allegedly!), and those four things formed the picture question for the sequences round! Very clever work.

And finally, my congratulations to our good friend Dave Clark of LAM, who announced the other day that he is going to become a grandfather for the first time. Many congrats to him!