Four Score and Seven Years Ago

S55E08 - Lincoln vs Lancaster

University Challenge isn't quite 87 years old (it turns 63 (three score and three) on 21st September), but Lincoln have still waited a long time for their first appearance on the show.

Actually, that's not quite right, because it was only granted university status in 1992, so the wait has only been 33 years (one score and thirteen), but I'm still going to stick with the Old Abe quote as the title.

Their opponents this evening reached the final in 1980, and they also have one quarter-final to their name in the BBC era, losing to eventual winners Corpus Christi, Ox in 2005.

I thought I was a few weeks behind, but it turns out that this is the only episode I need to catch up on (though I'll probably still be late), so I'm going to crack on without any further musings on what a strange custom it was to refer to periods of time using twenty years as the baseline.

From an incredibly cursory Google, it seems to be an archaism which was already outdated when Lincoln used it in the 1800s. It also uses the same form as the French, so it may have been a holdover from the days when French was the language of the court in England.

Feel free to tell me in the comments that I'm being a moron, but for now:

Here's your first starter for ten.

Lancaster's Hyland kicks things off by recognising a clue about Colonel Mustard, and they took a hat-trick on video game soundtracks.

No one knows Ingmar Bergman on the next starter, before a brilliant early buzz about crickets (sometimes this stuff writes itself) from Orman-Chan takes Lincoln's first-ever University Challenge points. Two bonuses gives them a perfect score.

Clayworth then gives them the lead with Hussein (as in Saddam Hussein, Rajan clarifies), though they struggle a bit on the bonuses.

Wiggins flips the lead back to Lancaster with Kazakhstan to win the picture bonuses, and he takes a second starter with Venus and Mars next time out. His opposite number then bags a second starter of his own with An Inspector Calls.

The question mentions that the name of the inspector might evoke the supernatural, and I am ashamed to admit how long it took me to figure out that this is because Inspector Goole sounds like Inspector Ghoul...

Potato gives Clayworth another starter, and Lincoln the lead, which he then extends with Spinnaker. This puts them on a total of four score and five points, the closest you can get to 87 in UC. Kraftwerk on the music starter gives him a personal hat-trick, but they miss all of the bonuses, which are on pieces composed for major exhibitions rather than exclusively on German Electropop. I, for one, would have loved to have heard some Glasperlenspiel or Beborn Beton.

Lincoln were sitting pretty on double the score of Lancaster, but Hussain kickstarts the comeback with Roland Garros. Neale takes the second picture starter with Mondrian, and another from Hussain closes the gap to fifteen points (three quarters of a score).

Neale gets overexcited and buzzes in without an answer prepared, but Lincoln can't capitalise, and Neale doesn't hesitate on the next question, buzzing early with Hungary, tying the game. But Lincoln haven't waited one score and thirteen years to go home without a fight, and back-to-back starters from Clayworth and Orman-Chan re-establish their lead.

A third starter from Hussain confirms a tense finish, with Wiggins buzzing early on a flyer that would have drawn the sides level once again. But he is wrong, and Orman-Chan then gives the right answer without buzzing. Rajan tells him to buzz, which he does, and his answer is then accepted, sealing Lincoln's debut victory.

Lincoln Eightscore and ten - Sevenscore and five Lancaster

A fun game which caught fire in the closing stages. Well done to Lincoln, who make the second round for the first time in their history. Lancaster have a small chance of coming back as high-scoring losers, but I don't think they'll make it.

Next time (i.e. later tonight, at the time of writing), we have another debutant, as Green Templeton, Oxford take on Darwin, Cambridge. Green Templeton was formed by merging Green and Templeton colleges, neither of whom ever appeared on the Challenge either.

If that fact has piqued your interest, and if you can't wait any longer for your next fix of University Challenge, I've been reviewing old episodes on my Patreon. You can subscribe for as little as £2.50/month, and there are about 50 extra posts on there.