2016/17, Episode 33 - Wolfson vs Warwick

If you haven't already you can watc the episode here before reading this post:

Following their defeat to Edinburgh two weeks ago, a number of media outlets reported that Wolfson captain and human foghorn, Eric Monkman, would not be returning to the show. Fortunately these articles were clearly written by irresponsible clickbait merchants who’d never seen it, and were desperate to haul the UC demographic into their sordid clutches. As anyone who watches would know, because the venerable Pax reminds us every week, each team gets two cracks of the whip in this, the Goliath quarter final stage.

It was left to the man himself to decry these vulturine scraps of fake news, tweeting ‘Reports of my demise should be taken with a pinch of sand’, in reference to the infamous squeal at the end of his last episode.

Tonight, however, it could be the last we see of the booming man from Canada, as Warwick bid to bring to an end his run as the Crown Prince of Twitter, and install Sophie Rudd as Crown Princess in his place. She is the one of few contestants who can purport to challenge both his enthusiastic delivery and proficiency on the buzzer, with her excited last ditch exclamation of ‘Fritz Lang!!’ to win her last match bringing her total for the series to twenty three. Only Eric, Balliol captain Goldman and Edinburgh’s Euan Smith can top that.

Her joy at getting questions right and colourful wavy shirts mean that she and Warwick will have their own fair share of supporters going into this mammoth clash. Some may even be wishing that both could go through, the opposite of what many will be feeling for tonight’s FA Cup quarter final between Chelsea and Manchester United.

Sophie Hobb’s, Warwick’s left hand member, who battled through their previous two matches with her arm in a sling, has finally succumbed to the injury she no doubt aggravated through overzealous buzzing and been replaced by reserve member Jamie Keschner-Lycett. What a match to start your University Challenge career in!

Wolfson have retained all of their original members, despite the risk of being deafened they all face on a daily basis, and even though its the fifth time I’ve witnessed it, I am still shocked (and a little bit scared) by the sheer force of the thunder as Monkman introduces himself. Its something which you’ll never really be able to prepare yourself for, like ripping off a plaster of noise.

Some theorists posited, after their defeat to Edinburgh, that the source of Monkman’s powers, like Samson, came from his hair, which he had cut - hence the loss - but this is folly. All evidence points to the fountain of his knowledge residing in the resonance of his voice box. The louder he is, the stronger he is. As such, he has turned up the volume for tonight’s episode, to make sure that the same mistakes don’t happen again.

He claims the opener following a neg from Van, with a barked answer of ‘Dickens’, and Wolfson are soon fifty points clear before Warwick have time to rid the ringing from their ears.

Rudd decides that this is enough of a head start and sparks out of her slumber to get some points on the board. Her team miss their first bonus, guessing ‘Ming Qin’ instead of ‘Qin Ming’, the unlucky rascals. Even more unfortunate for them was that this was as close as they would get to Wolfson for the rest of the match, as Monkman turned on the flair with a virtuoso nine starters (though if he’d gotten the two he negged correct as well I could have gone ahead with my planned ‘turning it up to eleven’ joke)

As the lead stretched, he became ever more the outrageous showman, acting out his answer to one of the picture bonuses as if he thinks he’s auditioning for a Shakespearean lead rather than taking part in a TV quiz.

Following a slew of consecutive starters for Wolfson, Rudd buzzed early with ‘pebbles’, and Paxman gave them the points, but only after a suspicious pause in which he considered whether or not he was actually permitted to award points against the Cantabrigians, such was their dominance

He needn’t have been so confused, because in the final few minutes, Warwick produced around three quarters of what would have been the mightiest comeback since Barcelona vs PSG five days ago, going a straight 95 points to close out the game. If only there were added time in UC too.

This means that we’ll have three Oxbridge teams in the semis, with only Edinburgh left to fight the good fight, as Balliolplay Corpus Christi next week for the final spot.

Final Score: Warwick 175 - 205 Wolfson

A marvellous match, equalling the highest total score for the series with excellent displays from both sides. Wolfson march on, and will likely play Bobby Seagull’s Emmanuel in their SF, in what promises to be yet another incredible battle of wits. Thanks for reading