St Andrews vs Royal Holloway

Argentina beat France to win the World Cup, and Balliol beat Hull in the Christmas series of University Challenge since we had our last regular episode of the show. Messi showed everyone why he will go down as the greatest player of all time, and the grown-ups on Christmas UC showed us all how difficult it apparently is to avoid conferring on starter questions.

Anyway, I won't ramble too long in this introduction because my New Year's Resolution is to get more sleep, and I'm starting this late - so let's get into it. If you haven't watched it already you can do so here before reading this blog (note the account which posted the ep...)

St Andrews squeezed past Gonville and Cauis in the joint-lowest scoring match of the first round, while Holloway beat Cranfield slightly more convincingly, though the combined score in that match was only five more than in the Saints game. However, this is the sort of thing that fixture computers regularly throw up, so both sides would be chomping at the bit for a chance to make the quarter finals.

Csukai, of St Andrews, is wearing a brilliant pink hat, and all of the contestants are wearing blue and yellow ribbons in support of Ukraine - the episode was likely filmed around the start of the Russian Invasion. I'm glad that they were allowed to wear them, and wonder if this was something proposed by the teams themselves, or the producers.

On the Christmas series, they could do with a run-through of the rules sometimes, but we don't need that here, so with that in mind - here's your first starter for ten.

This goes to Brown, of Holloway, with art, and they took a hat-trick on adaptations of Jane Austen's Emma. The second starter also goes to Brown, when she is first to recognise definitions of Hull (second mention for Hull this episode, and it was also the setting for a game of Dungeons and Dragons I played just before Christmas. What the Hull?!). One bonus on trains followed, before Anisimova got St Andrews off the mark with Hannah Arendt.

They grabbed two bonuses on scientific institutes, with Cryan receiving a telling off for saying 'never heard of him' when given the answer to the one they missed. Harvey then gets a telling off of sorts too, on the picture starter, when his answer of reflector telescope was apparently nowhere near specific enough. Perhaps unfortunately he didn't even get the opportunity to be prompted into saying Newtonian reflector, which he might have known.

Hickford won the picture bonuses for St Andrews, and a single correct answer of Galilean brought them within five points. Csukai and his magic hat take the next starter, and with it the lead. Another from Hickford, which he celebrates with an ecstatic fist pump, gave them a bit of a gap.

Brown's third of the night brought Holloway back into the fold, and they, like St Andrews (and most teams on the Christmas series), took quite a long time conferring on the bonuses. Its becoming clearer why these teams played such low-scoring matches in the first round. Brown recognises Watermelon Man, the brilliant Herbie Hancock track on the music starter, and they took the lead thanks to a great answer of Oliver Nelson, courtesy, again, of Brown. At this point, she was almost single-handedly keeping Holloway in the game.

On a bonus about galactic empires, Cryan throws in a deep cut reference by giving Dave Garda as a throwaway answer - this being of course the name of the YouTube account which uploads the episodes I link to at the start of these blogs. Incredible. They go twenty five clear thanks to the one galactic empire they do recognise - Ursula Le Guin's Ekumen.

A fifth, and then sixth, for Brown, quickly erased this deficit. Skipper Harvey then got in on the act and suddenly they were twenty clear themselves. A seventh for the irrepresible Brown put Holloway in a very strong position going into the final few minutes, and an eighth put the game out of reach. What a bloody performance!

St Andrews 90 - 145 Royal Holloway

Absolutely loved the Dave Garda reference from Cryan, but unfortunately that wasn't enough for the Scots, who exit the competition before the quarter finals for the ninth time in a row. Congrats to Holloway, especially Brown, who make it into the last eight for the first time ever. And Happy New Year to y'all - who's looking forward to another barnstorming end to a series of quizzing?