Monday 13 January 2014

University Challenge 2013-14: Preliminary Quarter-Final 1: Trinity vs Manchester

So, we've arrived at the hotly anticipated Quarter-Finals. Usual rules: win two to go through, lose two and go home. And what a match we got to begin the process!

Trinity College Cambridge defeated the very good Christ Church Oxford team 300-150 in a high scoring first round match, and then defeated the equally good team from Peterhouse Cambridge 240-110 in Round 2, despite being rather quiet in the mid section. They were the same as before: 
Matthew Ridley, from Northumberland, studying Economics
Filip Drnovsek Zorko, from Slovenia, studying Natural Sciences
Captain: Ralph Morley, from Ashford in Kent, studying Classics
Richard Freeland, from Glamorgan, studying Maths

Manchester got off to an average start, beating Brasenose College Oxford 215-105, but then shut up any doubters by beating Queens' College Cambridge 325-110 in the second round. They were also the same foursome as before: 
Edward Woudhuysen, from London, studying History
Joe Day, from Bideford in Devon, studying Physics with Astrophysics
Captain: Elizabeth Mitchell, from Birmingham, studying PPE
Jonathan Collings, from Manchester, studying Geography

So, on paper, not much between these two fine teams, both of whom scored 540 overall in their first two games. Of course, with JOW regular Filip 'opaltiger' Drnovsek Zorko amongst them, Trinity had my support in that sense, but I honestly couldn't call it. Manchester, after all, are never easy to beat; even when you appear to have beaten them, they'll come back at you and snatch victory from your grasp, as poor old Lincoln found out last year.

Off we set, and off went Manchester with the first two starters, one full set of bonuses, and one dropped set. In stepped Trinity, who took the next two starters, and also took three out of six bonuses. The first picture round was on the EU, and the years groups of nations joined. Manchester took this round, and narrowly led 50-35.

In stepped our man Filip with his first starter of the night, and a full set of bonuses gave them the lead. Manchester reclaimed it, but Trinity took it straight back. And now the Cambridge side began a run of momentum, getting the starters, and most of the bonuses that went with them. The music round was on classical pieces named after figures in ancient history, myth or legend. Trinity took the starter, and all the bonuses, increasing their lead to 150-65.

And when the next starter and bonus set took Trinity's lead to just over 100 points, Manchester looked to be in trouble. Not for long though, for in stepped Joe Day, who began a great run on the buzzer which saw him get three starters in a row. Suddenly, Trinity's lead had collapsed from 105 to 35.

Needing to regain momentum, Ralph Morley took a very speculative punt on the next starter, buzzing in before the main clue had been mentioned. When he was right, and Paxo asked how he knew what the question would be, he asked what else it could've been! A clearly annoyed Paxo said we'd see how they got on with the bonuses! They got two, and Paxo made a predictable sarky comment when they missed the third!

The second picture round, on Evelyn Waugh and his contemporaries, went to Manchester, and their deficit was now 190-155. All eight players went for their buzzer on the next starter, on books of the Bible in order; Richard Freeland got their first, and up went Trinity's lead once more. The excellent Joe Day got the next starter to keep Manchester in touch, and two bonuses on the commonwealth followed.

Miss Mitchell took a punt on the next starter, but realised her answer was wrong before she said it, and looked rather embarrassed! Our man Filip took the points. But Joe Day still had plenty of fight left in him, and hauled his side back into the game. But when Mr Day slipped up on the next starter, and Richard Freeland took the points, Trinity had a chance to put the game out of reach. A full set of bonuses seemed to suggest they'd done it, and when Mr Morley took the next starter, they had the match sewn up.

A couple more starters later, and the gong went. Trinity won a fine match, 285-205. Very well done Filip and co on a very good performance, and best of luck next time. Hard lines to Manchester, but they played superbly too, and if they keep playing like that, I'm pretty sure they'll make the semis too. We shall wait and see.

The stats: Joe Day ended the match with seven starters for Manchester, while Messrs Morley and Freeland got five each for Trinity. The Cambridge side converted 29 bonuses out of 39, which is very good indeed, while the Mancunians ended with 21 out of 33, which is also decent, though they did also incur two late penalties.

I'm guessing it's Cardiff vs SOAS next week, if the last two years are anything to go by. We shall see where this highly impressive and unpredictable series takes us next!

3 comments:

  1. At the risk of waxing lyrical over a team I know two of already, this was surely the best match I've seen for a long time. Certainly one of the highest-quality. The buzzing was at a ferocious speed throughout, and I think almost everyone contributed to it. I'm also pretty certain that every starter was answered correctly in the whole show, in itself a remarkable stat. And yes, the speed again of the buzzing was something special. I kept up for the first two or three but by the end I don't think most people would have had a look-in, especially on the Thatcher one where Morley almost took a leaf out of Ronnie Corbett's book of "answering questions before they were asked"! That was the stand-out example, but there were plenty of other inspired answers. I think it was brilliant that almost everybody chipped in, too, rather than Gail Trimble stealing the show as happened in that 330-15 thrashing of Exeter were by the end I'm not sure that anyone else was playing (didn't she get 11 starters in a row in that match?). Here there were answers coming from all over the shops, a real and fierce competition, with credit to Day and Morley/ Freeland in particular of course.

    Anyway, a wonderful match and I'm hopeful that there are plenty more like this to come featuring the other members of the five strongest teams, the "three S's" of SOAS, Somerville and Southampton.

    It's becoming increasingly clear that the standard this series is higher than that of last series. Oh well...

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  2. Well, that was fun. Hat off to Manchester - they were wonderful opponents, gracious losers, and just generally very nice people. :D Best of luck to them in the remaining quarter finals!

    Numbers! I like numbers. We got 319 for a new overall score of 283, Manchester got 264 and actually improved their average to 253.

    (In light of Ralph's ridiculous buzz, I kind of regret not going for 'Bayeux tapestry' after "Which 11th century artefact..." Oh well, at least I had a question about the Second Defenestration of Prague, which is easily the best-named event in all of history. :D)

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  3. I remember describing the Trinity – Christ Church match from round 1 as the “best show this series” back when it was aired, but this week’s game has blown it out of the water!

    One of the really enjoyable quirks about being a contestant on this particular series is that I sometimes feel that I’m watching it back-to-front. Just like quite a lot of Steven Moffat stories in Doctor Who (I’m a big fan – the fact that our second-round match was aired just two days after the 50th anniversary episode was fantastic!), I’ve got the answers before I’ve thought to ask the questions. To put that another way… I picked up a series of whisperings about various results in the series while I was in Manchester for filming, so I knew a fair bit about how each team had got to this stage, but not any specifics about the matches. This week’s match is a definite case in point. By the time we were up there for our quarter-finals, we’d heard about Trinity beating Manchester, and the word was that it had been a very high-scoring match. Now that I’ve watched the match, I can certainly say that it was worth waiting for!

    I can’t think of many other matches where buzzers have been going off at such an alarmingly fast rate throughout the 30 minutes. Manchester’s 205 is, I believe, the highest losing score for two years, and the aggregate of 490 is the best for two years as well – both since the earth-shattering 270-250 victory for Manchester over Clare in the 2011-12 quarters. That says a fair bit about how good both teams were on this occasion.

    As if that wasn’t enough, “Margaret Thatcher” is now a contender for moment of the series!

    Incidentally, my grandfather is an alumnus of Trinity College, so it's possible that his loyalties may be divided in the coming weeks!

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