University Challenge BBC2/iPlayer It was the ancient versus the merely nineteenth century as Edinburgh took on Bangor on University Challenge.
Edinburgh triumphed, with considerable help from the team’s Glaswegian captain, finishing 320 points to Bangor’s 150.
Turning out for Edinburgh, founded 1583, with alumni including Julius Nyerere, president of Tanzania and the composer Max Richter, were: Matt Stafford from Ashton-under-Lyne, reading maths; Frances Hadley, London, music; Arun Uttamchandani, captain, from Glasgow, law; and Matt McGovern, Knaresborough, North Yorkshire, studying mechanical engineering.
Representing Bangor, founded 1884, with alumni including Hamza Yassin, wildlife cameraman and Strictly champion, were: Nihal Bhatt, from Banbury, Oxfordshire, reading biology with biotechnology; Katie Barnes; from Rugby, Warwickshire, marine biology; Jack Cunliffe (captain), from Croeso, North Wales, counselling; and Luke O’Hagan, Birkenhead, history.
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Edinburgh was first to get on the scoreboard when Uttamchandani correctly identified John Johnson as an alias for Guy Fawkes.
Bangor came back with a starter on films set in Boston, only to strike out on the bonus questions on music of the 1960s and 1970s. They did not know the name of the Bowie album with Twiggy on the cover (Pin Ups); they wrongly credited The Clash instead of The Who for the song I Can’t Explain; and they thought Ray Davies was the chief songwriter in The Monkees.
“Ray Davies was The Kinks!” shouted quizmaster Amol Rajan.
Bangor rallied, taking the next starter and answering all three questions on chess champions correctly.
At nine minutes in the team from Wales, mascot a dragon, had 35 points and Edinburgh 65.
Edinburgh began tearing ahead, scoring a clean sweep on Marvel films and two out of three on their pop music round.
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A wrong answer by Bangor on a starter wiped five points off, and Edinburgh’s Stafford piled on the pressure further with three out of three right answers on literary titles.
With 18 minutes gone Bangor had 50 points to Edinburgh’s 185, earning the Welsh university encouragement from Rajan.
“Plenty of time Bangor. “You just need a couple of starters and you’ll get on a run.”
For a while it looked as though Bangor, with strong showings from O’Hagan and Cunliffe, might be on the way back.
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But Edinburgh had established too much of a lead and could do little wrong. “That is a phenomenal performance by both of you,” said Rajan after the gong sounded. “Bangor, you had a frustrating lack of questions on biology.”
Edinburgh now go through to the second round of the quiz.
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