University Challenge

Desert Orchid

Desert Orchid

Senior Jockey
Joined
Aug 2, 2005
Messages
25,037
Did anyone see last night's final?

I've always enjoyed the programme but last night's final was up there with the all-time great performances - by both teams.

It was a bit like the Grundy-Bustino King George. Manchester went off like a scalded cat but Corpus Chirsti College gradually wore them down to forge clear in the closing stages. The pace of questioning and answering throughout was breathtaking and Corpus Christi's captain, Gail Trimble - who went into the final already hailed the highest scoring individual in the history of the programme - hauled her team in front by winning two-thirds of their points.

Spare a thought for Manchester. Corpus Christi had been wiping the floor with their opponents all the way through the series but Manchester had them under pressure from the off before being seen off late on.
 
I've have just finished watching on I-player as the Spurs were playing yesterday. A good contest Yeo of Manchester was pretty sharp as well but Trimble is amazing.
I'm crap at classical music and art but generally am pretty satisfied with my own score. There was some stuff last night I had no clue about whatsoever particularly near the beginning but in the latter stages when C.C. went charging on I found I knew the answers to many of the questions they got right. Perhaps it is a lottery as to what questions come up but I got the feeling that more history and literary questions came in the second half which was more to C.C.'s advantage.
 
Yeo had been superb all the way through the previous rounds. If he had answered the Milton Keynes question, I wondered if that would have made the difference? Manchester lost a little impetus at that point, but Trimble was amazingly knowledgeable.
 
Corpus Christi stripped of title - one of their number wasn't actually a student by the time of the final...
 
Yes, it seems that by getting a job with PwC he underwent a quantum leap in brain power that gave his team an unfair advantage.
 
Absolutely ridiculous decision - it is very common in intervarsity sport for recently graduated students to represent their university for up to a year after they graduate - it was in the rules for most sports (when they were run by the British University Sports Association (BUSA) which has now been replaced by British University and College Sports (BUCS).

I fail to see why University Challenge should be any different - I also find it hard to believe that this situation hasn't happened before during the show's history.
 
He was a post-grad student if that makes any difference?

I also find it hard to believe that this situation hasn't happened before during the show's history.
Click to expand...

Indeed. Even in this case, it only came out after broadcast - as far as I can make out, the final was recorded back in November. I wonder who pointed it out?
 
Flagship uberalles said:
I fail to see why University Challenge should be any different -
Click to expand...

For the very simple reason that it's a BBC production and falls under their rules etc

Personally I take plenty of schadenfreude from it:lol: though probably derived more pleasure from watching Christ Church get their arrogant butts kicked earlier. Oxford students are well used to the idea that the normal rules don't apply to them, and it almost becomes an expectation they regard as an entitlement. There's no end of misdemenours that get swept under the carpet, and sanctions and charges that might otherwise get brought against people from less priviledged backgrounds are mysteriosuly dropped every year in the city. You only need to take a peak round 'the union' and the alumni that hang on the walls there to get the idea.

I thought Fiona Bruce (Hertford) could barely conceal her smile on the 10 O'clock news.
 
The winner has been declared and it's not like he made a diffrance anyway, can the BBC get anything right now.
 
Should have said it falls under BBC rules, not the Oxford rules that says one set applies to us, and a different set to everyone else:p

Red Bricks wallahs can get in the union, it's just that you need a member to sign you in and buy your drinks as they become accountable for your alcoholic behaviour. Mind you it was 97p a pint last time I was there, and it can be a pleasent drink in a summers evening off-term time, even if it's a bit like a stuffy old gentlemans club, with its leather smoking chairs and copious copies of the broadsheets to parouse. Still I quite liked sitting in the garden doing a crossword from time to time, and if you fail you can always leave it lying around safe in the knowledge that someone will fill a few answers in for you!!!

You get the occasional student turning up with an NUS card who thinks they're entitled to enter etc. What they don't realise is that the union is simply a union between the 'debating' and 'literary societies' and not really a 'student union' at all. By Oxford standards it's quite a modern institution (even "New" College dates to the civil war). I do remember trying to get a game of snooker there when President Musharef was speaking..... urm.... not the smartest move and consequently it failed!!! I'm sure he'd have been impressed to see Benazir Bhutto's photograph starring off the walls as a former President of the OU
 
Back
Top