2020/21, Grand Final - Warwick vs Magdalene, Cam

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

In the world of sports a Grand Final is defined as ‘a game that decides a sport’s league’s premiership (or championship) winning team, i.e. the conclusive game of a finals (or play-off) series’. It is most commonly used in Australian sports and is synonymous with the championship game in North American Sports - e.g. the NBA Finals or the Superbowl. British rugby league adopted the term for its season ending affair in 1998.

The commonality between all of these examples is that the Grand Final comes at the end of a league tournament, after which some number of the highest ranking teams take part in a knockout tournament to determine the season champion. Even with its complicated quarter-final format, University Challenge is a knockout tournament from the start, with no semblance of a league at any point. There does exist the possibility that the finalists could have played each other prior to meeting in the final, as has happened this year with Warwick beating Magdalene 200-160 in the quarters, but that hasn’t always been the case.

All of this is just to say that in the case of University Challenge, the use of ‘grand’ seems to be purely adjectival rather than providing supplemental information regarding the competition format as it does in these other cases. Not that I’m going to quibble with it, tonight’s final is undoubtedly going to be Grand.

For the second year in a row, after six consecutive appearances by various colleges, we have no Oxford team in the final. The two finalists certainly had something to say in that matter, with Warwick dispatching two Oxonian quartets - Wolfson and Merton - and Magdalene three - University, Corpus Christi and Balliol. Warwick won the whole thing in 2007, beating the reigning champions from Manchester, while Magdalene’s sole apperance in the Grand Final was a loss to Sidney Sussex back in 1978.

Warwick arrive in the Grand Final as slight favourites, courtesy of the unbeaten run that took them there, including their aforementioned defeat of tonight’s Cantabrigian opponents. Their average score of 201 is actually slightly lower than Magdalene’s 202, but they hadn’t looked troubled until their semi-final against Imperial.

Magdalene have produced two of the most impressive performances of the series, beating Birkbeck 240-140 in the quarters and annihilating Balliol 270-50 in the semis, and (stats taken from @StatsUC on Twitter) rank first of all teams in bonus question percentage, correctly answering 128, or 71%, of the 170, they have faced thus far. Warwick have an inferior percentage of 59%, but rank higher on the starter question league table (Magdalene have averaged more of those too, though with a lower percentage, suggesting that Warwick have been involved in slower matches).

Another interesting statistic is that Magdalene Captain Lawson, with six, has twice as many incorrect interruptions as the entire Warwick team so far. He is Magdalene’s best buzzer, and will likely have to take some risks to overcome Warwick’s superiority in that respect. If these risks pay off, and he is able to steal a few starter questions early on, I think Magdalene will have a far bigger chance of taking home the trophy. The first set of questions pre-first picture round will be pivotal.

Whoever wins, or rather, has won, by the time you’re reading this, its been another terrific series of The Challenge. The fact that they weren’t able to get the filming done at the usual time because of Covid, and then had to come back in later to record most of the episodes with plastic screen dividers makes me even more grateful to have been able to watch the show this year. We all needed that slice of normality on a Monday night, and what could me more normal than watching a bunch of nerds answering questions about complex organic molecules or Byzantine emperors?

Anyway, that’s enough sappiness, here’s your first starter for ten…

Warwick’s Burrell is the only one who has put any effort into their Grand Final attire, and is rocking an awesome floral shirt. Lawson comes in early with love, but he is wrong, and my flowery boy Burrell scoops up the points with hell. Only one bonus follows, but they are twenty points clear courtesy of Lawson’s neg.

Braid takes the second starter, and Rout remembers Burrell’s surname (which he had failed to do in the closing moments of their semi-final) to nominate him on two of the bonuses, of which they take three. The funky shirt must be providing Mr Burrell with some extra knowledge on top of the chilled out vibes, because he takes his second of the night.

Magdalene manage to get off the mark with the first picture starter, and a full set on grid references takes them up to twenty points. No one gets a starter on cavitation, before Burrell grabs his third starter! He’d averaged 1.4 in their previous five games!

There’s a second starter for Braid, before Rout wonders aloud whether ‘this is another example of us not knowing the popular culture’, in relation to a bonus set on vampire films. They miss Only Lovers Left Alive and A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night, but get Let The Right One In, so they’re not entirely ignorant.

Davies snaffles some more points for Magdalene, and then both sides miss the music starter, before Davies takes another to win the music bonuses for Cambridge. They are only forty points behind now. Davies completes a hat-trick of consecutive starters with Fox and Hedgehog, based on a clue about Jemima Puddleduck. We’re down to twenty points…

Braid gets his third starter, before an excellent bit of flagwork from Byrne allows Magdalene to close to within ten points. A neg halts their momentum and Rout swoops in to drag Warwick forty clear again. Magdalene can’t afford any more slip ups, but Lawson isn’t able to identify a Titian painting on the second picture starter, allowing Braid in to steal. A couple of bonuses put Warwick sixty ahead, and one feels as though Magdalene may have missed their opportunity.

In what could possibly be the most unfortunate incorrect interruption of all time, given the state of play in the match in which it occurred, Davies buzzes in with Bannerman Campbell rather than Campbell Bannerman, losing five points instead of gaining ten, and surely confirming Warwick as champions. It seems harsh, but in the end he was wrong, and he looks devastated.

Lawson buzzes frantically on the last starter of the year, and gets it right with a defiant shout of glucagon, but the gong sounds immediately afterwards, and Warwick have won.

Final Score: Warwick 195 - 140 Magdalene, Cam

Another fantastic match to end the series! Congratulations to Warwick on a flawless campaign, and commiserations to Magdalene, who were brilliant throughout as well. Like I said before, this has been another excellent series of UC, and has helped to keep me sane throughout the year. Roll on the next series…

The gap between the sides was 55 points, but this can be almost entirely attributed to the Campbell Bannerman Bannerman Campbell mixup. Warwick gained 20 points and Mags lost five. Had Davies got the names the right way round, and then the same two bonuses as Warwick the points swing would have been forty five. Not quite enough to turn the tide, but it would have been mighty close.

Thanks for reading this blog over the whole series. It means a lot that people continue to consume and engage with the silly ramblings I post, and I look forward to coming back for the new series, whenever that happens.

In the meantime, if you enjoy what you read here and want to support the blog, or more importantly can’t wait a few months for some more UC content, I have a Patreon where I’ve been reviewing the 2015/16 series. You can sign up here, for as little as £1/month.