2016/17, Episode 19 - East London vs Warwick

If you haven’t already you can watch the episode here before reading my review:

The University of Warwick won their first and only UC trophy in 2007, but   following a quarter final exit in their title defence, they’ve stuttered at this stage in five subsequent appearances. However they enter the second round this year off the back of demolishing a disinterested Liverpool with a round-high 235 pts in their opening match.

I have a problem with the word ‘Warwick’ - I don’t know why, but whenever I write it down I spell it ‘Wawrick’. It makes absolutely no sense, and its just something I’ve had to learn to live with. I have a similar problem with the word ‘weapon’, which I unfailingly spell ‘weopan’ (to the extent that before I realised my error I was so certain I was right I staked a whole pound on my conviction). The combination of these two idiosyncrasies makes it very difficult for me to describe Wawrick’s secret weopan without at least two typos.

Not that she’s so secret anymore, anyway. Taking nine starters in a single match makes it pretty hard for a person to stay out of the limelight. East London must have known that they had to keep a close eye on Warwick’s Sophie Rudd, but like Lionel Messi, she has so many weapons that its hard to stop her even if you know she’s coming.

Blink and you miss it. Rodentia. Emoji. She takes the first two starters and Warwick are 45-0 up.

And talking of female dominance, this episode is one of two in the past four series to feature more women than men. Five ladies, three gentlemen. Poor Chris Ducklin, Giles Hutchings and Thomas Van must have no idea whats going on. Have they accidentally entered University Challenge in an alternate dimension? For the record that’s two matches in a hundred and forty eight, since it can’t happen again this series (1.34% if you were wondering, or just if you enjoy percentages). I don’t have the exact number for the opposite happening, but I can confirm that it is indeed greater than one, and thats only including the previous three episodes

In other percentage news, The University of East London are, as of 8 o’clock tonight, the only team in UC history in possession of a 100% record, having edged out Glasgow in what was their first ever appearance on the show a few weeks ago. The longer they can hold onto this the more impressive it’ll become, but this is the Challenge, and thats exactly what it’ll be.

One of the main questions I had before the proper questioning began was whether or not UEL’s solo dude would be wearing another outrageously vibrant Paisley shirt. The man did not disappoint. Whereas the previous number had been more ‘pinkish’ in nature, he outdid himself on this occasion with one that was more ‘green-and-purply’. I’m no fashionista so those are the best descriptions you’re getting, though by the looks of it he’s no fashionista either… (apologies to @badcwazywabbit for that joke, I love the shirts really)

As I said before, the opening pair of starters were claimed by Rudd, and even at such an early stage it was almost tempting to think she had the potential to go the whole episode without missing one, but her run was brought to an end by one of her own quartet. Like Cristiano Ronaldo refusing to celebrate a goal scored by a teammate (continuation of previous reference alert! #football) you sense she would rather lose than share credit for their victory, such is her ruthlessness.

There aren’t many blogs that use so many footballing analogies when describing a quiz show, and its not often that you hear the word ‘runcible’ spoken out loud on TV, but if you watched the show and are now reading this article, you’ve encountered both of them tonight. After listening to him recite Edward Lear I realised there’s something quite authoritatively beautiful about the Pax Machine barking poetry at you.

Jeremy has been quite subdued in his mockery and spite towards this years contestants for the most part, but when it came to the direct translation of Latin to English, any mellowing he’d been suffering in his old age was quickly forgotten. Hutchings eventually did get the correct Anglicisation for ‘Insula Thesauria’, but JP couldn’t hold his tongue and lambasted the eight of them for having taken so long. My deepest apologies to Pax for not living in the Roman Empire (though I’d be kidding myself if I wasn’t at least a little thrilled at getting Diary of a Wimpy Kid…)

You may have noticed that I’ve only been talking about correct answers from Warwick, and there is a reason for this. Going into the music round they held a 145-5 lead over their competitors from the capital, and they would get to 175 before another retaliation would come from UEL.

The team from Coventry simply got out of the blocks a hell of a lot quicker than their opponents, who had probably been a little blinded and dazed by the sight of Ducklin’s shirt as they walked on, and from 170 points down, it would have taken a minor miracle, as well as a bending of the rules, and probably the disabling of Rudd’s buzzer, for them to have had any chance.

That being said, once the halo around Ducklin’s torso had dissipated, they found fresh fight in their hearts, and indeed the second half ended 50-50. They knew who directed Forrest Gump and obeyed one of the golden rules of UC - that if the question is about a Roman writer its nearly always Cicero - but it was too little too late. Their heads can be held high though, as they took part in an historic matriarchal episode of University Challenge.

Final Score: East London 55 - 195 Warwick

And the final score in the dude/dudette stakes: 5-3 to the ladies. Incidentally @BobbySeagull pointed out on Twitter that all three second round victors have scored 195 points. Come back next week to see if SOAS or Emmanuel, Cambridge can continue that trend. Thanks for reading