Sausage Sandwiches

My oven has three dials. One for the main oven, one for the grill, and one for the small oven on the left. For 95% of the dishes I have cooked in the three years I've lived here, the main oven has been the go-to guy. Big enough for multiple trays (including the Big Tray), with excellent distribution of heat (and quick to heat up), it reliably cooks just about anything in around 15 minutes.

You can't go wrong with it, really.

But most of the time, you don't need all of the space. It's the main oven for a reason, and could comfortably cook a big ticket number along with the entire supporting cast. On a regular Monday evening you simply don't require such lavish real estate.

Not when you are cooking three sausages.

This realisation only came to me a month or so ago. I threw my sausages on a tray in the side oven and came back fifteen minutes later, ready to enjoy an energy-efficient sandwich. The energy-efficient sandwich was not ready to be enjoyed however, as I had acted on pure instinct and turned the main oven on. My Linda McCartney Lincolnshires remained frozen, and had to be consumed as dessert.

They say lightning doesn't strike twice, but when preparing breakfast for a friend a few weeks after the initial disaster I did the same thing again. This time I realised my mistake before I had even opened the door of the side oven, exclaiming 'oh no, I've done it again', which my friend found very amusing.

Tonight, dear reader, I have vanquished all remnants of these cock-ups, and enjoyed a marvelously warm sandwich for my tea.

Without having to wait an additional fifteen minutes.

But that (I'm sure you'll agree), is enough about side ovens and sausage sandwiches - shall we get on with the episode?

Trinity and Southampton face off this evening in the first of the two high-scoring loser play-offs (next week we have Oxford Brookes vs The Open).

Trinity, three time champions of UC, were beaten by four time winners Manchester in the opening round, losing on a tiebreaker in the first episode of the series. Southampton lost another close one to Christ Church, Oxford, so the teams come into this repechage with little to split them.

I love it when we get to this stage of the competition. We've met everyone, and it'll be that little bit more painful when a team we like goes home.

If you want to watch the episode before reading the rest of the review you can do so here.

Here's your first starter for ten.

Kang cuts the first starter to pieces with stainless steel, and Trinity manage two from the opening bonus set. An early buzz from Jaksina wins them another three on tennis. They take another thirty. Sorry, two.

Their blistering start continues through Henderson, who is very quick with Dr Who. She takes a second with metronome, and Southampton really need to wake up if they're going to stand a chance. Tick tock.

Meredith gets them off the mark with Yangtze river for the first picture starter. Bonuses on the locations of hydroelectric dams followed, with Wickremasinghe saying 'I don't even know what country that is', in relation to a city marked in Russia. Oops.

Bannerjee hits back for Trinity, winning them a bonus on Olga Tokarczuk's Drive Your Plow Over The Bones of the Dead (which I saw an incredible adaptation of at the theatre earlier this year. Basically just this one actor standing with a microphone and reciting her thoughts, but one of the most enthralling and compelling things I've ever seen).

I was about to slag off all the contestants for not buzzing in with owl when Rajan mentioned that th animal in question can 'rotate their heads' 180 degrees', but it turns out I'd missed the part where he said it was an insect. So they are not all, in fact, idiots.

A starter for Counsell brings Southampton up to 45 ahead of the music round, but they are still more than a hundred back. No one gets the music starter (I won't slag them off for this one), but Bannerjee wins Trinity the bonuses with block and normal service is resumed.

Manchester came from 50 points back to tie with Trinity in the first round. Its going to take more of a comeback than that for Southampton. A couple of starters back to back meant that they couldn't be written off just yet, but when Jaksina guesses Rosalind Franklin for the second picture starter, things look pretty bleak.

Trinity are pedantically disallowed episcopalian (rather than episcopal), but they don't really care at this point. Bannerjee is flying and grabs a few more starters for himself.

Southampton aren't leaving without having some fun, though. Wickremasinghe wins them a bonus set on mammals, and they have a grand old time coming up with guesses, peaking with a comical moment in which they guess 'kangaroo rat' only to be told, with the grave tone of a police officer informing of a murder, that the correct answer is 'rat kangaroo'.

Trinity 245 - 120 Southampton

A walk in the park for Trinity, that. They will have the beating of a few sides in the second round, that's for sure. Southampton, meanwhile, can leave with their heads held high. They didn't have enough today, but they did seem to have a good time.

Join me next week for the second repechage match. Things are heating up (much like my side oven, prior to this evening, was not) and we'll be into the second round in a fortnight.

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