Bonny Banks

I said in my post yesterday that I'd been hiking the West Highland Way last week, but I feel the need to mention it again, because the beauty of the Scottish wilderness really cannot be understated.

If you fancy a big old hike (which can be made very manageable in various different ways), then there's nothing you can say against the WHW. Just look at this picture of Loch Lomond.

Anwyay...

This first round match was between Balliol College, Oxford and Imperial College London. You can watch it here before reading the rest of the review.

Last Apperance

Balliol- 1R (2023)

Imperial - W (2022)

Best Apperance

Balliol - W (2017)

Imperial - W (1996, 2001, 2020, 2022)

Imperial are one of three teams to have won University Challenge on four occasions, the others being Manchester and Magdalen, Oxford. Interestingly, all twelve of these wins came post-1995, meaning that the three institutions have won more than 40% of the BBC era series between them.

Balliol, with skipper Joey Goldman, defeated fan favourite Eric Monkman in the 2017 final, and were also runners-up in the very first series of UC, back in 1963.

Here's your first starter for ten.

Balliol's Cox gives Starman rather than Starboy for the name of The Weeknd's alter ego (The Weeknd himself of course also being an alter ego. An alter ego's alter ego. A double altered super ego, perhaps). Jones doesn't manage to pick up this mistake for Imperial, but he does take the next starter to get his side off the mark.

Lee is quickest with Galician on the next buzzer, as Imperial open up a 40 point lead. Another neg from Balliol puts them on minus ten, allowing Lee to extend the Londoner's lead.

Recognising some of Karl Marx's writing in German, Maier drags Balliol back to zero with the first picture starter. Two bonuses put them on ten, but Debnath is on hand to take back charge for Imperial, spotting that the word drive links the films Drive My Car and Mulholland Drive.

Poppies win Ellingham a set of bonuses on things which lasted 44 days. They know that Liz Truss broke George Canning's record for the shortest Prime Ministerial terms, but not that Brian Clough managed Leeds United.

Going into the music round, Imperial lead by 50 points, and they stretched this out with Rachmaninoff (just like Rachmaninoff stretched his gigantic hands to play notes with the largest gaps possible between them. Okay, sorry. That simile was a bit of a...reach).

Another for Lee continued Imperial's march and suddenly the lead was 100.

A stupendously early buzz from Jones backfires, and Balliol do very well to wait under the very end of the question before buzzing in themselves, as it only reveals itself to be asking for JRR Tolkein rather than Lord of the Rings in the final few words.

They miss a bonus on the conversion of Kelvin to Celsius by three degrees (270 rather than 273), which is a fact I'll always remember because I once planned to write a novel called Zero Degrees Kelvin, about a Universe that was steadily chilling towards Absolute Zero. I'm sure it would have been cool if I'd ever written it.

Back to back starters from Jones put the game beyond Balliol, and Imperial start racking up a hefty score with some excellent bonuswork.

The opportunity to relax is readily available, but they look like they're going for 300 and don't give Balliol any mercy. 260-75 with six minutes left.

A starter for Maier and they sneak close to the hundred point mark, but a consolation score is all they're playing for at this point. At least they had a fun mascot.

Wait, I may have written them off a bit early, because they are making a go of grabbing a provisional high-scoring loser place. But unfortunately, the gong comes too soon and they end on 145.

Balliol 145 - 285 Imperial

Phwoar! A mega-score that, beating the combined total of Birkbeck and Oxford Brookes from episode 3. Balliol have got to be one of the most unlucky losing sides of the past decade, to fall just short of a high-scoring play-off spot when their opponents smashed out 285.

And Imperial too - such a high score against a 145 from the opposition shows that they didn't have it all their way. They're definitely ones to watch in the later rounds.

If you've enjoyed this then you can subscribe here to never miss a post (which is easy when X is designed so shambolically).

And if you want exclusive content about great matches from 2015 and early, then you can join my Patreon, here