Nov 19, 2024 5 min read 2024-25

Voyage to Upton Snodsbury

Worcester - approx 7 miles west of Upton Snodsbury - Photo by Darren Tolley / Unsplash

There are six different rounds in a series of University Challenge.

Round 1
Repechage
Round 2
Quarter-finals
Semi-finals
Grand Final

In order, I would rank them:

Quarter-finals
Repechage
Round 1
Semi-finals
Final
Round 2

Let me know in the comments what order you would rank them in.

This week saw the first of the two repechage matches, AKA the high-scoring loser play-offs, my second favourite round after the quarter-finals which have such a fun format.

Four teams qualify for the second chance of the repechage, which has been in place since 1999, when Balliol and Victoria, Manchester made it through.

In 2010, the Emmanuel, Cambridge team led by Alex Guttenplan famously won the series title after coming through the repechage.

Wondering whether it was an advantage to enter the play-offs as the team with the highest round 1 score, I crunched the numbers. This is what I got.

There have been 26 years with play-off rounds.

The No. 1 ranked team won 15 (57.1%)
The No. 2 ranked team won 12 (46.1%)
The No. 3 ranked team won 13 (50%)
The No. 4 ranked team won 12 (46.1%)

So, potentially a slight advantage for the first seed, but not much difference among the rest.

These days the 1 and 4 ranked teams often play each other but hasn’t always been the case. Sometimes No. 1 would play No. 2.

UCL came into this year's repechage as the No. 1 ranked side, with St Andrews the 4th, but as you can see from the data, that didn't rule them out.

Upton Snodsbury

St Andrews' George Capell says he's from Broughton Hackett near Upton Snodsbury. Normally I am against such granularity in the 'this is where I'm from' section', but Capell justifies his level of detail here.

Both of these places sound like they have been made up by a bored train conductor who is testing to see if anyone is listening to them.

There is also a meme along the lines of 'why is every village in England called something like Mildew Cobblington or Grunkle?' and Upton Snodsbury fits wonderfully into this.

I wondered whether Capell might have been bending reality a little bit to get a mention of Upton Snodsbury in there. Surely there is a more recognisable place a little bit closer than Upton Snodsbury?

But to be fair to him, it is 1.3 miles (a 28 minute walk) from Broughton Hackett to Upton Snodsbury, which is also the larger conurbation, with a population of 392 according to the 2021 census while Broughton Hackett has a mere 175.

Worcester is 5.5 miles down the road, but I think that's far enough away to justify the use of Upton Snodsbury.

A brisk 7 minute cycle, also fairly close to Crowle

Here's your first starter for ten.

Mandel takes the opening points with pastoral, and UCL manage one bonus on cities ending in the letters 'abad'.

An incredibly quick buzz from Buffet-Mogel gets St Andrews off the mark, and they took a hat-trick on flywheels to grab the lead.

Vitamins keeps UCL healthy, but Mr Upton Snodsbury himself hits back for St Andrews with voyage on the picture starter. Prabhakar picks up a Buffet-Mogel mistake, winning UCL the first of several bonus sets this episode which feature a very long-winded explanation as to the type of answer which is to be expected.

This particular one is on 4th declension Latin nouns which retain their original spelling when used as English verbs - with all three answers ending in 'us' but which do not form their plural with a final letter 'i'. Phew, bit of a mouthful, and that wasn't even the question - that was the rules for the question.

The Fens continues Mandel's excellent start to the episode, and Buffet-Mogel keeps St Andrews in it with her second, art deco.

This wins them a bonus set on a mathematician, so Skerrett looks at his teammate Rosas, who is studying physics. Rajan says 'Don't look at him!' as if scolding a misbehaving schoolboy glancing at a partner in crime for reassurance. But this is exactly the situation he should be looking at Rosas, who clearly has more expertise in the subject than he, himself a historian.

A super-quick buzz of Holst on the music starter by Mandel, followed by an equally impressive one of mole by Skerrett on the next starter, keeps the game tight, but it doesn't remain that way for long.

Five starters in a row for UCL, three for Mandel and two for skipper Holtermann Entwistle, end the game as a contest.

An unfortunate neg of panthers instead of panthera compounds St Andrews' misery, but a couple of late starters brought them into triple digits, a very respectable score to bow out on.