Antipapal Bulls from Avignon

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

St Andrews is old. To quote Wikipedia, because the sentence is too glorious not to:

St Andrews was founded in 1413 when the Avignon Antipope Benedict XIII issued a papal bull to a small founding group of Augustinian clergy.

The Avingon Antipope. What a title that is. And I've heard of papal bulls, but never really been sure what they are beyond the superficial. Like, what was the Pope - sorry, Antipope (in which case should this one be known as an antipapal bull?) - doing setting up Universties in random Scottish seaside towns? The level to which I'm interested in this small, seemingly inconsequential detail tells me I might get a great deal out of studying history, but who's got time for that when House of the Dragon is on?

Gonville and Caius, meanwhile, doesn't appear to have been founded by a papal bull (or a bull of any sort), but it is in fact even older than St Andrews. Edmund Gonville founded the college in 1348, and it was only in 1557 that the Caius was added, with John (you guessed it) Caius refounding it after the place had fallen into disrepair.

Given that they have had longer to revise, you might think that G&C would come into this as favourites, but that's not how things work on The Challenge. If it was, then Bologna University, despite being Italian, would win every series, seeing as it was founded in 1088, more than 250 years ahead of the Cambridge College (they've been going long enough that they'd have surely figured out a way around the geographical barrier if they needed to)

Anyway, that's enough about pre-1600 religious and educational history - here's your first starter for ten...

The Scottish side are first off the mark through Gibbons, who recognises the RSPB before anyone else, but they fluff all three starters on photography. Caius (I'm going to call them Caius from now on, because Gonville and Caius is too long, and G&C sounds too much like G&T) hit back quickly with a brilliant starter on Wordle - the name of which online game rhymes with hurdle, curdle, etc?

One of many genius questions from the setters this series - really liking the topical, yet classical style.

"Do we know any places in Sunderland?", pleads Tan on their first bonus. They don't, but they do know something about Warrington, which is enough to give them the lead, though it doesn't last long.

Cryan comes in very assertively for his first starter of the night, before Csukai displays some assertion of his own on a bonus. Unfortunately he mixes up his Ds and his Ns, giving Diobium instead of Niobium. Gibbons knows where Le Havre is for the first picture starter, and they grab a hat-trick of bonuses on cities (not the main host) which hosted the sailing in the Olympics (seas being the one thing that's hard to come by for inland cities).

The teams are lead down a blind alley to the answer Panama Papers on the next starter, and Cryan takes the bait, buzzing in just as Paxman says 'named after a figure in Greek mythology'. He loses five points for the Scots, but Caius can't pick up the pieces. No matter, a starter from Ivanov and a pair of quick bonuses tied the game anyway.

A starter on Russian film director goes to Anisimova, who is very confident that one of the bonuses is Mae Martin. A teammate suggests Katherine Ryan, but she resists this and is rewarded. She also takes the music starter with Shostakovich, calmly holding off her teammates after Caius had buzzed in wrongly, and then giving her hair a little flick after winning the ten points.

Taking advantage of Csukai's incorrect interruption of Montreal to guess a different Canadian city, Tan takes another starter with Quebec. They close to within fifteen points before a very perfunctory buzz of genes from Gibbons stole back the initiative for St Andrews. They spent a while discussing whether Paxman had asked for a measure of time or distance on the first bonus, eventually settling on nanosecond, which was the right choice, but the wrong length. Picosecond.

Some quick maths from Csukai put St Andrews in the driving seat, and they took two bonuses on tennis, including an inspired guess of Yannick Noah from Gibbons. They did miss Andy Roddick though, which wasa bit disappointing.

A few starters in a row for Caius, along with very quick and determined bonuswork, brought them within ten points going into the final seconds.

Unfortunately for them, the next starter, which turned out to be the last, is a silly mathematical one, which no one gets for ages, before Gibbons, almost reluctantly, buzzes in with three to seal the game for St Andrews.

Gonville and Caius 120 - 140 St Andrews

A fun game, that. Not least because I got hat-tricks on several sets of bonuses. There's a slim chance that Caius come back as a HSL, but I wouldn't bank on it, which is regrettable for me, because I haven't even made hay with stories of Ted Loveday like I usually would when they're on. Oh well, congratulations to St Andrews, and Hapax Legomenon.