Absolute Slam Dunks

Imperial and Warwick have played each other three times in University Challenge history. First in the 1996 semi-final, which Imperial won, and then in the quarter-finals and semi-finals of 2021, both won by Warwick.

Seeking to tie the overall head-to-head, Imperial entered this quarter-final in stonking form, recovering from a first-round loss to smash SOAS in the repechage before narrowly defeating Southampton in the highest scoring second round match.

Warwick edged out Sheffield in round one following a 115-point comeback, before a comfortable win over Bristol in round two.

Here's your first starter for ten.

D for Dennett takes the first starter on V for Vendetta, and Warwick took a rapid hat-trick on the labours of Heracles.

O'Flanagan hits back for Imperial with physiology, and they took two bonuses on the NBA. Rajan mispronounces Kawhi Leonard's first name and then says bad luck when they guess five and six for the two numbers, which designate the positions of power forward and centre. But this is not bad luck, because there are only five players on a basketball team.

The final question starts at a reasonable difficulty level and then becomes possibly the easiest question you could ask about basketball, regardless of the level of the quiz - what team did Michael Jordan play for in the 1990s? Perhaps it could be easier if it were reversed, but you get the point.

And I may be wrong about this, but I don't think there are ever questions of a similar simplicity on subjects other than sport. They go out of their way to make the questions easy in a way they don't for science or history (maybe I just know less about science and history, but if there was a question about hydrogen that gave you some obscure information then said 'it has the chemical symbol H', you'd wonder why it was being included in University Challenge).

This is a bugbear of mine at pub quizzes too, when the question is set up in a way that the first clues make it quite hard, and then the final clue makes it a dead giveaway.

Levesley takes a starter for Warwick with Rogue, and they took one bonus on particle physics (unfortunately for them, none of the questions ended with 'it is the atomic particle that holds a negative charge of equal and opposite power to the proton').

The picture starter is missed. Imperial win the bonuses, but miss all three too. Keung gives them the lead with the Reubens, then Kluzowski hits back with a 'well-worked out' urchin. This wins a bonus set on non-anglophone filmmaking countries, one of which is South Korea, given away massively by mention of Parasite. Maybe sometimes the questions are just really easy all round.

Tong grabs a starter for Imperial, and Keung takes the music starter too to put them clear at the halfway point.

Halftime Score: Imperial 90 - 55 Warwick

A brilliant buzz of Darling from Levesley keeps Warwick in the mix. One of their bonuses, on chess computers, is Deep Blue (the most famous chess computer ever), and its becoming clear that there is often a bonus which barely scrapes the surface of a subject.

O'Flanagan takes another starter, before a pair from Kluzowksi and Dennett bring Warwick back within ten points. Tight game thus far.

The teams trade wrong answers for a while, with their wrong answers being either too specific or not specific enough for Rajan's liking.

O'Flanagan then nails the specificity with 1840s on a question which had asked for a decade, and from there he takes over completely, buzzing for all of the remaining starters, five in a row by my count.

Imperial 190 - 105 Warwick.

O'Flanagan steals the show with his closing performance, but his teammates helped put him in the position to do so. Some superb work on the buzzer from the Imperial captain, while Warwick fell away towards the end.

Still, they have another chance, and Imperial need another win before they can think about the semis and the opportunity for a fourth title in seven years.

Based on the order of the first set of quarters, the next set of matchups will likely be:

Edinburgh vs Merton

Sheffield vs Imperial

Manchester vs UCL

Darwin vs Warwick