University Challenge 2017

The poetry and football round was my favourite.

There seemed to be a lot of questions based on popular culture. Being dumbed down unfortunately.

Dumbed down? Perhaps, though the first round is usually easiest. Ulster's older team was at an advantage for some of these questions, like the theme tunes from 80s/90s sitcoms.

But if not of the highest quality, it was exciting with the lead changing with almost every starter during the second half of the match.

Week 2: Trinity Cambridge vs Bristol

Both teams started slowly but Bristol's half-time oranges did the trick.

Trinity alumni include Kim Philby, Guy Burgess and Anthony Blunt: none of whom were mentioned.

(I've been reading about the Cambridge spies these past few days -- I'm not clever enough to have gone there myself.)

Is Monkman in it this year??

No Monkman, I fear.

We did have a live thread

Week 3. Southampton vs Cardiff.

Three medical students on view: two for Southampton and one for Cardiff.

Something of a rout.

OT -- Monkman and Seagull on the wireless.


[Monkman] and Seagull became friends off screen and even travelled to interviews together during the series as their popularity soared.

So what will their new radio show actually be about? Good question. The pair are set to explore whether being highly intelligent is actually a useful quality.


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-40811103

Another question would be 'is being very good at university challenge a useful quality'.

Episode 4.
St Edmund's Cambridge vs Magdalen Oxford

Funniest moment of the series so far came with an interruption to a spelling question: how do you spell the word

Soon followed by an encore: ... has the chemical formula

There was also a round on film scores possibly inspired by the chit chat thread, though I concede it is more likely coincidence.

Episode 5: York vs Warwick

A bit of a rout, and the Warwick captain looks like a character to follow, although I'm not sure a team consisting of two creative writers and two mathematicians is sufficiently balanced to go all the way. Warwick Jackson, on the far left, appeared to have been allotted the task of remembering the starts of questions.

Should be shown live, with in-running betting.

Warwick, Jackson-an interesting looking person. Warwick seem to have several of them at that university, as I seem to remember one in a previous year.

Episode 6: Oxford Brookes vs the Courtauld Institute of Art

Oxford Brookes de Kock carried his team to a comfortable win but the Courtauld Institute will get some stick in the student union bar for missing two artist starters (Degas and Constable) and two other art questions. De Kock is reading motorsport engineering, which is quite possibly the coolest subject of the series so far.

@Slicer -- Warwick Jackson reminded me of a woman at work but you probably do not know her.

The producers might now consider including a preliminary round for viewers at the start of each episode.

Guess the gender.

I might have come a (Hayley) cropper on a couple this week.

The old woman on the winning team was terrible, she gave away more points than she won. In fact the winning lot were pretty much a one man team - De Hoch.

The arty mob had Andy Warhol as captain.

I think there  might of been a couple of Lebanese at each end of the winning team.

I haven't watched this week's episode yet but I get the drift

I think you're right about that Slicer.

Just watched it. Apart from de Hoch who was studying a branch of engineering, they were all doing sinecures. No wonder he could run rings around them.
Perhaps Slicer is right, conforming to the Narrative is the most important selection criterion.

Think they select 28 teams from about 150? applicants?

I don't believe for a minute they are chosen purely on ability.

(There's a good question to them....what factors other than ability do they use in selecting teams to appear on the show?)

And why should Oxbridge have multiple teams??

Stinks a bit, doesn't it?

If the producers didn't tailor the bonus round questions to suit the contestants' particular subjects of study, it is quite likely that these Oxbridge teams would get their arses handed to them in a plate by four unemployed daytime quiz addicts. The general knowledge of many teams is often very poor - with one or two not notable exceptions of course like De Hock or Monkman who are clearly very smart indeed.

@Torquemada -- Birkbeck (the London evening college for mature students) proved that a few years back when they won with what was basically a pub quiz team. (One of them was basically a high-functioning alcoholic iirc.)

It is noticeable these days that many teams revise by swotting up on trivia -- wikipedia has a lot to answer for.

Some kind soul has put this scene up on Youtube.

Episode 4.
St Edmund's Cambridge vs Magdalen Oxford

Funniest moment of the series so far came with an interruption to a spelling question: how do you spell the word

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fo3wz8jWKJg

Here are the scores from the latest round of the British Quizzing Championship, the usual
suspects are at the top. To put scores into perspective a really good Pub Quizzer would
score just over  the 100 mark and a good quizzer would be in the 70s



https://quest.quizzing.com/#/season/100018/quiz/100179

Are the Q & As available online?

Trinity, Oxford vs University College London (UCL).

Not much to say this week.

Another two minutes and the other team might have won, I suppose.

The lighting seemed a bit poor this week, and made UCL Dowell look a bit zombie-like at certain moments when he looked upwards.

But none of the questions caught my imagination.

Parr-Reid was just there as eye-candy imo.

Sheffield Hallam vs Newcastle

A bit of a rout but both teams seemed weak and unbalanced: all arts from Hallam; two medics, a chemist and a trainee teacher (subject undisclosed) for Newcastle.

Neither team knew much about pop music, not recognising Marvin Gaye or various album covers based on paintings.

But the most surprising failure came with the astronomy question: which two solar system bodies have rotation periods of 30 Earth days? OK, so neither team got the Sun, but not to know the moon? (And that ignores that distances from Earth were also given.)

Newcastle knew some stuff. they could get better in the next couple of rounds. poor showing from Hallam.

Sep 3, 2017 -- 12:50PM, Sica Dan wrote:

Here are the scores from the latest round of the British Quizzing Championship, the usualsuspects are at the top. To put scores into perspective a really good Pub Quizzer wouldscore just over  the 100 mark and a good quizzer would be in the 70s https://quest.quizzing.com/#/season/100018/quiz/100179

I often attend these events, but I missed this one (and September is the best).
Now you've reminded me and it's too late.

I might go in for next month's event.

If you've ever seen the questions.... It's not like a usual quiz, it's lie sitting an exam.

On your scale btw, I'm nearly a really good pub quizzer

Leicester vs Fitzwilliam, Cambridge

Don't let Fitzwilliam Howe's Christmas jumper distract you from his equally colourful psychedelic shirt.

By coincidence, immediately before the programme I'd been reading in Dorothy Hodgkin's biography, of her Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1964, so knew the answer to who'd turned down the literature prize the same year (no spoilers here!).

Cambridge knew their stuff! They're going to be a threat this series

Imperial vs Strathclyde

Unfortunately I dozed off in the middle so have no idea how what started off looking like a walkover ended up as a head-bobber. iPlayer here we come.

The Spanish chemistry student Imperial Rubio Gorrochategui looks a good thing for the series' most exotic name.

Imperial College recently took over St Mary's medical school which explains why Paxo credited them with Roger Bannister and Alexander Fleming.

Emmanuel, Cambridge vs St Hugh's, Oxford

St Hugh's De Wijze put in some world-class grimacing.

St Hugh's used to be an all-women's college (the Prime Minister went there) and there seems to be some sort of social media kerfuffle that their UC team was all-male.

St Andrews vs St John's, Cambridge

A storming performance with at least three strong students on the winning team.

The 40 question has been used by QI, which is the only reason I got it first.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7fmavEEnK0U

Corpus Christi, Cambridge vs St Anne's, Oxford

Corpus Christi Krol could have turned up on his own.

St Anne's had a chemist, which imo should be compulsory as I got the chemistry supplementaries right.

St Anne's was unlucky to get a penalty on the plate tectonics question -- I thought the answer Wegener was given in time but Paxo clearly felt she'd taken too long.

Merton College, Ocford vs King's College London

Merton seemed luckier in having questions tailored to their degree subjects.

Ulster beat St Anne's Oxford. Nobody recognised Sir Tim Berners-Lee. I find that astonishing!

Both teams struggled with science. St. Anne's were poor. Considering that they are an Oxford college they were shocking.

Ulster vs St Anne's Oxford

Surprisingly one-sided.

As @Foinavon notes, St Anne's were poor -- far worse than they'd looked in their previous match.

The conventional wisdom is that older contestants might know more but it takes them longer to recall, leaving them at a disadvantage when pressing the button on starter questions, yet here the clear winners Ulster had an average age of 50: more than double St Anne's, as JP pointed out.

Was talking to my mate who somehow manages to get on the fringes of a pub team in Bolton.

His team was up against a team including Anne Hegerty.  I think The Vixen from The Chase was in the same team.

University College London (UCL) vs St Hugh's, Oxford.

Oh dear.

Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear.

Oh dear, St Hugh's. Not a good night for the Oxford team, who'd have answered more questions if they'd stayed in the student bar.

UCL's enthusiastic conferring was entertaining.

Monkman & Seagull have a quiz book out in time for Christmas.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Monkman-Seagull-Quiz-Book/dp/1911335995

Second round begins. Strathclyde vs Emmanuel College, Cambridge (formerly led by Seagull, of course).

The result was a lot closer than seemed likely in the first few minutes. Emmanuel had some very lucky guesses.

McKeown, very knowledgeable girl

@Foinavon -- McKeown, very knowledgeable girl 

St John's McKeown (to give her her full name) studying French and German certainly knew her poems.

There's something about her, maybe its the lisp.

Rosie Mckeown. She should let her hair down, the style is too severe.

I've seen plenty of movies where they let their hair down and take their glasses off.

Good team St Johns, shared out the answers and all contributed, possible winners.

Maybe she will for the final.

B loody cruel, putting an S in Lisp, whoever did it

St John's Cambridge vs Corpus Christi Cambridge.

The Fen Poly derby match was a bit one-sided: see the last few comments.

I can't put my finger on why but for the first time in many years, I'm not really enjoying this series.

I series record them on Sky.  I still have about 4 to watch.  Maybe I'm not enjoying them as much either.

Are the questions more difficult?!

I think it is the teams rather than the questions. It seems very obvious that some teams now treat it more as a glorified pub quiz than a test of general or academic knowledge, and you can see where they have divided up subjects to revise from wikipedia or wherever. Nor have there been any real stars so far.

Fewer geniuses, eccentrics or fit girls?

Have we had any contestants with really long or unusual names yet?

Warwick vs Ulster

Ulster team a lot older.

Warwick Salter always sounded pleasantly surprised when Paxman corrected a wrong answer.

Warwick Jackson on suicide watch after her team caught level just before the end only for Ulster to regain the lead and win.

Warwick looked like 2 men and 2 women but there seemed to be at least 3 adams apples on show!!!!!

I got the one about the assassin right.

Surprising neither team knew the temperature of maximum density of water is 4 degrees C. It's the reason why ponds and rivers don't freeze from the bottom up, fortunately for aquatic wildlife. Schoolboy physics knowledge.
I remember the physics teacher, who was deeply religious, trying to tell us it was evidence for the divine. Even then I knew it was bllx and beyond his remit to be telling us that.

Both captains annoyed the hell out of me, well at least we won't be seeing one of them again.

Warwick looked like 2 men and 2 women but there seemed to be at least 3 adams apples on show!!!!!

Women do have Adam's apples; they just tend not to be as prominent as on men. It is possible one woman was trans but a visible Adam's apple is not proof.

Stone is hot

That was a cracking show last night, lead changed hands a few times and it was won with the last question.

Edinburgh vs UCL (University College London)

To combine the two previous comments, it was Edinburgh Stone who won it with the last starter before the gong.

Hot on the buzzer?

Not on this week -- usurped by Nigella Lawson's whole hour of incompetent pot-rattling. The woman can't cook FFS. She did go to Oxford, mind, though Wikipedia doesn't vouchsafe which college she'll be cheering for.

Was she a challenge at university and did anyone win the challenge.

Why is it that the celebs constantly confer on a starter or buzz on the bonuses - only for Paxman to bark at them?
The students don't do it, but the older ones don't seem to be able to get their head around it. Also Paxman makes a point at the beginning, if he refers to the rules at all, of stressing that they will lose five points for an incorrect interruption. They don't need that reminder, its the conferring he should be stressing. Does my head in!

I'm losing interest in this series and you may have spotted a calendar-related problem with the thread title.

Newcastle vs Southampton

Four medical students -- two on each team.

What about the idiot the other day with a bow in his hair?

Was he making a statement or just a thicko?

Worse than the bow was his shirt, apparently made from several garish wallpaper patterns stitched together.

Good spot, maybe the bow was a distraction for his shirt.

Fitzwilliam, Cambridge vs Magdalen, Oxford.

This is the one with bow/shirt guy, reading Japanese studies.

Kudos to the Oxford captain for cutting short a discussion with, we should give up and get on with it.

steerforth 13 Dec 17 16:56

Why is it that the celebs constantly confer on a starter or buzz on the bonuses - only for Paxman to bark at them?
The students don't do it, but the older ones don't seem to be able to get their head around it.


imo cos the studes are ultra-serious about it whereas the 'celebs' are in a more relaxed mode...like when you'd be playing football with your mates in the playground, playing to win, and then a girl would join in and you'd start playing sh!te cos mentally you'd dropped off, werent taking it 100% seriously no more

Fair point Duncan, but personally speaking- back in the day, if a girl I fancied showed up while I was playing my performance used to suddenly go up two divisions!

if i had my time again, i'd defo follow that approach tbf

Oxford Brookes vs Merton, Oxford

Though mainly just Oxford Brookes de Bock vs Merton Peplow.

An entertaining and fast moving contest. The winning team's early lead gave them a sufficient cushion against a late run.

The start of the quarter-finals (with the odd rules about having to win two of them).

Bristol vs Newcastle.

Nip and tuck until the last five minutes, leading to a wide margin win that did not reflect the match.

How many thoracic vertebrae are there in the human spine? It helps to have two medical students on your team!

"O" level biology. The thorax is the chest, 12 pairs of ribs, 12 vertebrae.
I thought Newcastle were the better team but were overtaken at one point.

Fitzwilliam Cambridge vs Merton Oxford

Fitzwilliam's captain misheard copper as cobalt.

St John's, Cambridge vs Ulster

A tale of two halves: Ulster got no points at all till halfway but it was a head-bobber at the finish line.

Ulster must have fielded a ringer who claimed to be studying fine art but got two rounds of advanced organic chemistry questions right.

Edinburgh vs Emmanuel, Cambridge

Two rounds of psychology questions stumped the teams. Come to think of it, it is very rare to have psychology students take part.

Emmanuel Frazer gave the impression more than once that of buzzing before he has quite worked out the answer.

Newcastle vs St John's, Cambridge

An enormous number of penalties for wrong interruptions, and Paxo got one wrong when he disallowed St John's Hazell for DNP for Brady's Reagent, saying it had to be DNPH. As a former member of the chemistry union, I was seething for the rest of the programme.

And Es -- I can just about accept them not knowing the atomic number of Einsteinium, but surely the 2010 World Cup winners should have been within their ken.

Brady's reagent = DNP
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OugcrG8y_Ig

Bristol vs Ulster

Fairly one-sided. The Music and English students on Bristol's team should hang their heads in shame -- the lady mathematician had to bail them out on their specialist subjects.

Neilsen - Newcastle

Agreed.

Reckon if her Newcastle win, the captain may be getting a bonus.

.
https://thetab.com/uk/newcastle/2018/01/03/we-interviewed-the-newcastle-students-competing-in-university-challenge-and-this-is-what-we-found-out-30341

Running well behind live.

Fitzwilliam, Cambridge vs Emmanuel, Cambridge

Both teams having a medical student is not unusual but this contest had half an Arabic degree each side: Russian and Arabic against Arabic and Hindi.

Two wtf bonus rounds -- American presidents with the same names as England footballers, and literary expressions in the dead parrot sketch.

Brainfade as well. If Paxo gives you degrees longitude when asking about mountains, you certainly ought to know if it is in Europe or America.