Old Friends

I've known people who have appeared on the show before - and have even played (very badly) in QuizBowl tournaments with some of them. But they were all on the Edinburgh team, and I met them in the Quiz Society, so it sort of feels like cheating, you know? Like if I claimed to have met Kevin De Bruyne because I went to watch Manchester City play. Of course he was going to be there - its his job.

With this match, however, I can claim legitimate acquaintance with one of the contestants. I won't do as I did last week and pretend to keep the identity concealed, because I've already done that bit so it would be played out at this point (not that I'm against reusing bits in general, and indeed I do think that sometimes milking a joke into the ground is the best way to go, but I don't think its well-suited for this occasion).

So - I went to school with Donald Anderson, though he was in the year below. We played Bridge together in the club opposite school for a few years and then he popped up at the Uni Bridge club while I was there. We spent many a good night racking up the pints trying to reach the £100 tab that we had negotiated as the minimum spend for Uni to open a bar for us, and we were also part of the same Bridge squad which was annihilated by Oxford in the 2016 Portland Bowl.

I've not seen him for a long time, but I still received several messages when the episode aired from people telling me he was on. So, and with no shade towards Roehampton, who were making their first ever appearance on the show, I was very much an RGU fan for this episode.

RGU, who hadn't been on the show since 1994, got off the mark first thanks to Captain Cullen, but they could only manage one bonus on planetary symbols. No matter though, because my guy Donald was on hand to take a second starter for the Aberdonian institution with Constantinople.

Roehampton's Holt, wearing a fantastic umbrella necklace, takes her side's first ever points on University Challenge and a pair of bonuses brought them back within ten points.

The first picture starter went to Donald, and some brilliant teamwork from RGU on the bonuses gave them two more. Cullen then took her second starter, and won them a bonus set on Shinto deities in video games (a marvelously specific UC set). Donald's third put RGU in a commanding position, which Cooke strengthened further following a Holt neg (she gave Dadaism rather than Futurism).

Giving Eric B on the music starter, Paxman prompts Cooke, but she knows what's needed and adds Rahim almost before being asked for it. Bonuses on remixes followed - they got Lana Del Rey, but mixed up Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion (quick side note - the queue for the Megan Thee Stallion show at Primavera earlier this year was out of this world, snaking so far around the venue that I swear you ended up in a different city. Needless to say we didn't get in).

Completing her hat-trick with her third consecutive starter, Cooke sent RGU's lead into three figures. Roehampton would need something special to come back at this point. By the time they got another starter, courtesy of Holt again, the lead was unassailable, and all they would be worried about was not posting an infamously low total.

Some quick maths from Birditt earned them bonuses on EGOT winners, before a nice bit of astronomy knowledge from O'Donohue won them a set on coastal geography. They were above fifty points now, and anything more than this would have been perfectly respectable, but they went on a small run to end the game with close to a hundred.

RGU 210 - 90 Roehampton

Commiserations to a fun Roehampton team, who can take solace from the fact they are the first team from their Uni to ever make it on the show (I've definitely stated this fact too many times, but I do think it deserves to be stated, so not going to remove this one). And congratulations to RGU, and Donald in particular, who finished the night with seven starters to his name. I look forward to seeing them in the second round.