2021/22, Grand Final - Imperial vs Reading

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

For the first time since Manchester beat UCL in 2013 there are no Oxbridge sides in the Grand Final, which is a welcome respite for many I’m sure. And for the second year in a row, it is a repeat of a quarter-final contest.

Last year Warwick came out on top over Magdalene College, Cambridge on both occasions, once by forty points and once by fifty five. Close-ish contests, but each with the same result. Seeking to reverse that outcome tonight are Reading, as they take on Imperial for the hottest crown in British Collegiate Quizzing. But first, let’s take a look at how they both got here…

R1 - Reading 175 - 110 Strathclyde

R2 - Reading 245 - 50 Dundee

QF1 - Reading 170 - 135 Birmingham

QF2 - Reading 120 - 225 Imperial

QF3 - Reading 145 - 75 St John’s, Cam

SF - Reading 145 - 115 Edinburgh

Average Score: 167

R1 - Imperial 210 - 155 St John’s, Cam

R2 - Imperial 205 - 70 Exeter

QF1 - Imperial 235 - 50 King’s

QF2 - Imperial 225 - 120 Reading

SF1 - Imperial 170 - 65 Emmanuel, Cam

Average Score: 209

As you can see from the pure numbers, Imperial come into this Final the clear favourites. Aside from the fact they have already beaten Reading, their average score is more than forty points higher, and they have only dipped below 200 points once, in their semi-final.

As discussed in my lengthy preview for this match, they have an absolute quizzing superstar in Max Zeng, whose ability to recall ‘about 10,000 cities or towns on the world map, including human and natural features such as national parks, as well as ancient and historical sites’ has naturally served them well on geography questions, but also on a number of other subjects, because his knowledge of world maps doesn’t come from rote memorisation.

Instead, it comes from a fascination with learning about the ‘relationships between people and places’, which is brilliant for quizzing, because no hard fact about a capital city or landmark exists in isolation - each fact is connected to a myriad of other things, which you pick up when you delve deeper into them.

Despite Zeng’s brilliance however, he has not won these matches alone. His 29 starter questions are only half of his team’s 58, meaning that his teammates - Captain Mays, along with Fatima Sheriff and Gilbert Jackson - have also been handy contributors. This is in stark contrast to Reading, who have skipper Hutchinson to thank for 40 of their 56 total starters, a remarkable split made even more remarkable by the fact that the other 16 have all come from the same teammate - Ounsley.

With all of this in mind, Imperial would seem a safe bet to lift the trophy. They have buzzes coming from all directions, as well as a magnificent individual star in Zeng, and the track record to prove it, but Edinburgh were the favourites against Reading in the semi-final too (though not to this extent), and if Hutchinson can find some of the form that gave him 12 ten pointers in their match against Dundee, then we could have a classic on our hands.

But that’s enough preamble. We all know the rules, so let’s get started - here’s your first starter for ten…

Paxman opens with a reminder that this series of University Challenge will have been heavily affected by Covid, which it’s easy to forget, though the screens separating the contestants have never really let us.

The teams give their introductions, and while it’s pleasant to see everyone again, I’m itching to get going. So are they - and Zeng kicks things off with a fantastic early buzz on Thucydides (which I’m very proud of having spelt correctly there without having to google it). Imperial. Sheriff pumps her fists at the third bonus, on poetry, such is her delight at Housman (which I did have to google) having come up.

Hutchinson hits back with the next starter, on the ‘modern pentathlon’. If Imperial could be said to have any weaknesses one would definitely be sport, so Reading needed to capitalise while they had the chance. Musical modes give them a hat-trick of bonuses, and they take the lead. However, it doesn’t last long, as Mays quickly snatches it back with his first starter of the night.

The picture starter is a map so obviously Zeng gets it. I have mentioned this before, but it really is quite a strange phenomenon on University Challenge for it to be such a foregone conclusion that a question will be answered by a certain person. Mays defers to him on the bonuses too, and he gets all three, of course.

Jackson gets in on the act for Imperial with the next starter, on the flag of Amsterdam, and then, as if to perfectly illustrate my point about the well-roundedness of their team, Sheriff takes her first with ‘atropine’. The London quartet are in absolutely fearsome form (despite their lack of knowledge on Ru Paul’s Drag Race on the bonuses, which they are all amused by) and Reading will need to wake up sharpish or this could be a rout.

Hutchinson does wake up on the next starter, working out a tricky one on the periodic table before anyone else. The music starter follows, and you feel like Hutchinson might have blown it by not coming in with an early guess, but no one from Imperial knows it. Unfortunately neither does Hutch, and when Ounsley negs the next starter it hands the baton of opportunity to Imperial, who win the music bonuses with an total guess from Mays. He only buzzes in after being prompted to do so by Paxman, and looks genuinely shocked when his answer of ‘David I’ is right.

A restrained fist bump follows Hutchinson’s answer of ‘Fanon’ on the next starter, giving Reading a chance to close the burgeoning gap. He is pleased, but doesn’t want to get too carried away. Ounsley then makes up for her neg with ‘Twelfth Night’. Another for Hutchinson, along with two of three bonuses, brought them within fifteen points, and they tied the game courtesy of Ounsley’s second ten pointer.

No one gets the picture starter, but Hutchinson’s fifth starter gives Reading the lead for the first time since the opening exchanges. Could they really do this? They are fifteen points ahead with only a few minutes to go.

But it is Zeng, who else(?) (Sheriff had turned to him before he’d even buzzed), who puts sand on the fire of their comeback, with ‘Brecon Beacons’, and they take back the lead, by the slimmest of margins, five points.

A brave, brave buzz from Hutchinson on a starter about a composer doesn’t pay off, and he loses five points. Imperial don’t get it either, but it doesn’t matter, because the gong sounds immediately afterwards. It was the right play from Hutch, it just didn’t fall his, and Reading’s way.

Final Score: Imperial 125 - 115 Reading

Not the highest scoring, but one of the tensest and tightest Grand Finals of recent years as Imperial take home the trophy for the second time in three years. Commiserations to Reading, and especially Hutchinson, who put up one of the best, and most tactically astute - he knew he had to make that buzz at the end, even though he wasn’t sure of the answer, as he had done on previous occasions in the episode - knowing that it was the only way they were going to beat Imperial.

The trophy is presented by Andre Geim, the only person to have won both a Nobel and Ig Nobel prize, and the series is drawn to a close with Mays holding the trophy aloft, a massive grin on his face. See you in July for the next one.

I hate doing this, but if I don’t do it at this point then when am I going to do it, so here goes… If you’ve enjoyed reading my blogs over the past year then it may interest you to know that I have a Patreon, where I am currently in the process of reviewing the 2014-15 series from the quarter finals onwards. Previous posts over there include those stages of the 2015-16 series, and an episode between Tabloid and Broadsheet journalists in which our current Prime Minister was a team captain.

You can subscribe here for as little as £1/month.

If you don’t fancy that then I’ll be back here for the regular series when it starters (I did spot this typo but decided to leave it in as it fits quite nicely) in the Summer.

Stay curious x