University Challenge: Our first round match against RVC

I’ve been struggling to write about what happened in our first round match. A lot of the day was something of a blur, but thanks to re-watching the match and thanks to David Clarke from the excellent Life After Mastermind blog:
www.lifeaftermastermind.blogspot.com
who gave me some helpful advice about writing about quiz experiences, I have managed to cobble together a vague account of what happened.

So, are you sitting comfortably? Then I’ll begin.

The day started like a military operation. Adam had taken the day off work to be able to attend the match. My dad was in such a nervous state that he drove up from Blackpool to be with us by 10am. My mum was on holiday in Portugal so it seemed sensible for him to come and spend the morning with us instead of fretting on his own at home! As I mentioned in my previous UC blog entry, it was partly because of my dad that I’d applied to be on the show in the first place, he was so excited that I was going to be on the show but he was also extremely nervous. So, I left Adam to look after dad while I went to have my hair and nails done. I wanted to make sure my hair was as bright as it could be for filming as if the pink has started to fade I’m sure my brain doesn’t work as well, the Samson effect I suppose, though I don’t think his hair was pink! Anyway, I needed all the help I could get!

Anyway, I left the hairdressers, went home and got changed in record time. I had planned my outfit carefully. Though the BBC obviously doesn’t allow product placement I cunningly managed to sneak the Cherryade logo in by wearing a dress and accessories covered in cherries!

Then we set off into town, picking up Anna on the way and, for once, arriving at Granada in time!

I waved goodbye to Adam, my dad and Anna as they went off to the audience door while we were ushered past security and into reception. From there we were taken to our dressing room and then given the much coveted lunch vouchers! Though having a dressing room was very nice, I have to say that we didn’t spend any time in there, just dumped our stuff and went off to explore the culinary delights of the Granada canteen where we all stretched our lunch vouchers to the limit (I kind of understand how politicians can get carried away with expenses now!) We sat eating our subsidised lunch while looking for celebrities to spot. We met Jeremy Paxman while we were queueing, he was a gent and let us have his tray. We also saw the actor who plays Norris in Coronation Street. I must say that I get on really well with my team, they’re great guys, and so we had a nice chat over lunch before being whisked off to make-up, where we were all dolled-up ready for the cameras. The make-up artists are amazing, really lovely ladies and it was so interesting discussing their job with them, I learned that as well as doing standard make-up for shows like UC they also do special effects make-up such as fake blood and bruises for soaps like Hollyoaks. She also told me they’re often given scripts in advance so they can pre-plan make-up based on the character’s personality and situation and the conditions of the scene being filmed. I had no idea how specialised and intense make-up artistry was.

Anyway, after that we went to the green room to relax and wait for our match. At this point we found out who we would be playing. UC matches are filmed in blocks of two, they ask the four teams in a block to arrive together, but as ours was to be the second match, we got to sit in the green room with our first round opponents, The Royal Veterinary College (a college of the University of London) and watched live footage of the match before ours, between Edinburgh and University of Central Lancashire, which was shown on the screen in the green room. The green room was lovely, lots of food and drink (tea before the match and alcohol after!) and was very relaxing. It was nice to be playing the second match as we got to relax, have a nice chat, fuel up on caffeine and get a look at what the filming process involves but from the comfort and privacy of the green room!

The match before ours was over far too soon though and the nerves set in as the production team came to take us to the studio for our match, the walk down the corridor was terrifying, I had butterflies for the first time. We hadn’t had time to talk to our opposition before the match so we were very nervous as this was the first time we met. UC is filmed in front of a studio audience and the set, albeit quite basic, suddenly seemed quite big. Each team were announced in turn by the warm-up man (who I recognised because of his 2-part BBC 7 series ‘Moths Ate My Dr Who Scarf’ and from appearances at the Comedy Store but annoyingly I can’t remember his name) and we walked on from the wings to applause. I hadn’t expected this because we’re obviously not being filmed at this point but it did make it feel like an event! We got settled behind our desk and did all the preparatory house-keeping stuff like testing buzzers, having last-minute make-up adjustments, etc. Then there was some discussion about the fact that I’m much shorter than the rest of the team and that this was going to look a bit weird on tv so a runner was dispatched to find a cushion, eventually I was raised up to an adequate height and we were set. The team then had to explain that the picture rounds would work a bit differently due to my Braille cards which would have to be changed between picture rounds. Matches are usually recorded straight through, unless there’s a technical problem or disputed question or something, but to take away the first set of cards and replace them with those for the second picture round would require stopping filming for a moment but it was done very quickly and worked out well and I must thank the production team for being so helpful with this and making the picture rounds so accessible. Once this was done we were able to take stock of the fact that we were actually sat behind one of the hallowed desks with a buzzer in front of us and Jeremy Paxman sat behind his desk ready to grill us for 26 minutes under the bright studio lights while being watched by a studio audience, it didn’t seem real somehow, but it was and it was too late to turn back!

Before filming starts, there’s a ‘knock-about’ game where Roger Tilling (the inimitable voice of UC) asks a couple of starters and sets of bonuses to give the teams a chance to get familiar with buzzing in and conferring and talking into the mics, this only lasts 2 or 3 minutes and also gives teams the opportunity to practise their introductions, this is more difficult than it sounds as you have to decide how you’re going to introduce your course (do you say reading or studying and if, like me, you’re doing a PHD in DIY music since 1995 in the UK and USA, do you say that and risk the audience at home sputtering over the rubbish they let students study now’ or do you, as I did, choose to say something vague like “I’m studying for A PHD in English and American Studies. Then there’s the controversy over where you come from. I’ve lived in Manchester for three years now but some people who saw our first round match asked why I didn’t say I came from Blackpool where I grew up, despite the fact I haven’t lived there since I went off to uni in Lancaster in 2003. So I think I was right to claim Manchester as my home town!). Then, without further ado, we’re into the game.

The distinctive theme music starts playing, this is really it, we sit there terrified as the music stops, Roger Tilling welcomes the audience at home and introduces our host and the studio audience claps. We have a quick breather while Jeremy makes his usual urbane and witty introduction to the show and then to our opponents (they get introduced first so we have a little breather as the camera focuses on them, but I’m too nervous to concentrate on what Jeremy says until he introduces us with some kind comments. We manage to get through our introductions without anyone forgetting their name or course, and, without further ado (Jeremy actually says he’s not going to explain the rules because we must all know them by now!) we’re off. First starter is one of those ‘which word connects…’ questions, this one is asking after a five letter word that is an archaic word for a sailor’s turn at the helm, a feat of magic, the cards played in a single… at this point I find myself buzzing in,before I really knew what I was doing, then Roger Tilling is saying Manchester Neiman and I’m saying ‘trick’ and it’s right, I can’t quite believe it. My main worry was going home without having answered a single question correctly, this can’t possibly happen now, no matter what happens from now on, I am very relieved and settle back into my chair for a bonus round on inscriptions on £2 coins which requires very little knowledge of the coins themselves, just a working knowledge of a few well-known facts, we duly breeze through the bonuses with a clean sweep. Next question is on a German composer and is quickly picked up by our captain Jakob who knows it’s Wagner, good stuff! We then have an odd bonus round on spots, another clean sweep, Jakob and Nick recall Bowdler’s objection to the Macbeth quotation ‘out damned spot’, I remember that the spots on a John Dory were said to be the fingerprints of St. Peter and Nick and Jakob remember Hogarth’s use of beauty spots to denote lysentiousness. RVC get off the mark by identifying a vandergraff generator in the next question and getting a clean sweep on constellations to close the gap. Tom impresses by a lightning quick recognition of a cultural cringe and we are offered a very tasty bonus round on pairs of words formed with the addition of an s. These are some of my favourite kinds of bonuses as I love word play and can actually be of some help! So, we get our 15 points without much ado! With considerably more ado we turn our attention to the first picture round. I must say at this point that I held out no hope of being any use to my team on the picture round as my Braille reading is appalling (I only learned it when I was 18 and have never really used it properly cause I read everything off the computer) and it was going to take me half an hour to read the few words on the card! The picture round involved identifying a poem by the last words of each line of one stanza. Tom had a guess which seemed fair enough but all credit to RVC who, to Mr. Paxman’s great surprise, identified it as Tennyson’s work. Unfortunately they were unable to identify the authors of the three poems in the bonus round, it was very tricky though!

Next starter is about a biblical tribe, Jakob has a guess at Philistines it’s wrong and is passed to RVC, Tom Shaw buzzes in and correctly identifies the tribe in question as the Hittites. RVC are given a particularly nasty bonus round on famous people from Gibrolta and unfortunately fail to convert any of them. Here comes a starter on a surname, ‘Which surname connects a serial killer executed in 1953, a writer of mystery stories…’ I go for the buzzer, I know this, if I don’t get this I’ll never live it down, it’s one of my specialist subjects, ‘Manchester Neiman’ for some reason I say ‘is it Christie?’ but I’m sure it is. Agatha Christie is my favourite author, I am obsessed with her work, I was hoping for a question on one of her novels, something to showcase my Christie fandom but this name question will do! We’re rewarded with a horrible round on opera. I know nothing about opera, we’re all looking at Jakob, our classical music expert, he makes educated guesses (more than I could have managed, but unfortunately none are right, still, we’re doing ok. Nick and RVC’s Hannah bones both have a stab at identifying a Thomas, both are unfortunately wrong, Jeremy was looking for Thomas Walsingham so we’re offered a new starter. Both Rvc’s Sid Sudunagunter and I have a stab at the next starter asking after a book in the Old Testament, once again we’re both wrong, Judges was the answer. So, another starter, someone’s got to get this! Tom duly identifies the Italian word being looked for is ciao and we have a set of bonuses about Canadian history which don’t exactly suit us and we fail to add to our point score. So, halfway mark and both RVC and us are putting points on the board. The halfway mark is, as always, signified by the music round, oh goody, it’s classical music, I’ll sit this one out! Luckily Nick is able to identify an extract of Holst’s planets in what seems like an indecently short amount of time, very impressive! Hooray, our bonuses are other extracts from The Planets and our job is to name the planet in question. I don’t think any of us were that familiar with the suite but we made educated guesses based on the mood of the music and thus were able to identify two out of the three planets correctly.

A starter on literary husbands is looking for Thomas Hardy, Tom has a stab at Yeats though so another starter goes begging. On the next starter we’re back to the planets a question about what’s missing from a planetary nemonic. The answer is Pluto and Nick once again picks it up to give us a bonus round on Shakespeare’s problem plays, we get Troelus and Cressida but fail to identify the next two from their convoluted storylines, Jeremy quips that he can see why they’re called ‘problem plays’! Nick’s on the case again with the definition of the law of diminishing return and we polish off a nice set of bonuses on WWII for another 15 points. Tom knows that Kubla Khan is the answer to the next starter and we’ve got a set of bonuses on sound in diagnosis, we manage to get two of them right so not too bad! Oh dear, a science starter, I zone out, RVC’s Tom Shaw buzzes in and gives the answer ‘entrapy’, Jeremy asks him to repeat it, apparently it’s not right, Nick buzzes in with ‘enthalpy’ which is right. Apparently ‘entrapy’ and ‘enthalpy’ are different things, but as I have no idea what either is it all seems very clever to me! Unfortunately our transport related bonuses don’t cover us in glory and we get a round 0! Ah, here’s the second picture round. I turn over my card and start to read. But, hang on, something weird has happened, I have finished reading this Latin phrase, I know what it means and nobody has buzzed in yet, this shouldn’t be happening, I go for the buzzer and offer my answer ‘love conquers all’ and it is, hooray! Our bonuses are more Latin phrases (I knew that Latin GCSE would come in handy one day!) Nick and Jakob deal with the first phrase ‘an ornament and a shield’ while I’m still reading, the second card is taking me so long to read that I’m forced to wave the white flag and the rest of the team aren’t having more luck with it, the last phrase ‘caput inter nubila’ is pored over for a bit, some jokes about nubile’ are duly made then I realise what it means, ‘head in the clouds’, I’m so excited about this breakthrough that I embarrassed myself by sounding a bit over-enthusiastic, Jakob takes my answer and offers it to Jeremy, it’s right, I’m pleased!

It would be disingenuous not to admit that at this point we were pretty confident that we were going to win the game. There were only a few minutes left and we were quite far ahead but RVC were putting up a good fight and the next question is about the founding of a newspaper, Tom buzzes in with News of The World, unfortunately the answer is The Times which is identified by RVC Shaw earning them a difficult set of engineering bonuses, unfortunately they fail to convert any of them. The next starter, asking after an industrial port goes begging again. The next question about a liquid measurement is incorrectly answered by RVC Shaw before Jakob buzzes in and identifies it as a pint for quite a pleasant round of bonuses on comparing land areas of countries to Wales, France = lots of Waleses, 7 Rhode Islands would fit in Wales and you’d squeeze one and a half Wales into Belgium! RVC Shaw fights back by identifying the Bernese Alps but the team fail to identify any of the academy award winning films that make up their bonus round.

My most embarrassing moment of the match follows as I answer a question on Katie Melua thereby giving the (entirely eronious) impression that I might actually like bland rubbish like that (like listening to paint dry), I didn’t really need to buzz in, we’d won already at this point but pointlust got the better of me! Anyway, we got a question on peristalsis, which we got then our second bonus on something complicated and sciencey but the gong went before we could have a go at answering it. At the gong the score was 235/60 to us. Jeremy tells RVC that it’s not the worst score they’ve had and that they seemed to enjoy themselves. I’d like to pay tribute to RVC who were a better team than their score suggested and who were very good contestants indeed, we greatly enjoyed playing them!

I’d also like to say that I think the rest of my team are awesome, really great people who are a pleasure to spend hours at Granada Studios with as well as being a very clever bunch! Their knowledge of such a wide range of subjects is astounding.

We had our photos taken with Jeremy behind the desk then went back to the green room to celebrate our victory with BBC wine, lovely stuff! We had a lovely chat and then eventually went off home. I was actually djing in Leeds that night so didn’t get much of a rest! Still, it was an amazing day!

Our second round match against Kings College London is scheduled for broadcast on BBC Two at 8pm on Monday Dec 21st. I’ll post an account of that after it’s happened!

Rach Cherryade xxx
www.cherryademusic.co.uk