Large Containers For Water

Bath is the only University Challenge team that also doubles as a large container for water in which a person can be washed. There are no other teams that fit into the category of household objects - the closest I can find are Hull and Keele, which are both parts of a ship (though Keele does have an extra E).

The keel is part of the hull, so that would be an incredible derby for UC. Unfortunately, Hull haven't been on since 2009, and Keele haven't appeared since 2014, so this is probably an unlikely matchup.

Southampton is neither a large container for water, nor a part of a ship, but it is right next to a large container for water (the English Channel) and was famously the launching port for the Titanic, a ship, which also ended up as a large container for water.

Let's Not Bother With The Rules

Southampton last appeared in 2023/24, and made the semi-finals in the previous year. Bath, meanwhile, haven't been on since 2015 and have never made it past the second round.

I'd need to do some more number-crunching, but I suspect Bath have one of the poorest size of student body to University Challenge performance ratios, with only five appearances and no quarter-finals under their belt (their 18,000 belts, to be more accurate).

Actually, I've just crunched some numbers, and their 18,000 students puts them outside the top 50 in terms of student bodies. Which seems low. Southampton are 31st with approx. 26,000.

What seems stranger is the fact that there are around 2.9 million students in the UK at the moment. 2.9 million! Is that a lot? It feels like a lot.

I'm getting sidetracked.

Here's your first starter for ten...

We open with a classic 'What cardinal direction links...' question, which goes to Bath skipper Wildman. Williams hit back for Southampton with Constable, and they took the lead with a hat-trick of bonuses on Dungeons and Dragons.

Hermanns-Kermode extended this with Mussolini, and made it two-in-a-row with the picture starter on a Cypriot sign. But their streak doesn't continue, because it's fingers on buzzers, and then finger on the lips of Romagnoli, but he's not telling us to be quiet, he's answering a question about a body part which can follow PHD, zinc and ring.

A quick Google tells me that the PHD referred to in the question is fully capitalised and is a motif in the plant homeodomain, a chain of between 50 and 80 amino acids which is found in more than 100 proteins. Rather than a special type of finger that one can only obtain when one completes a doctorate.

Interestingly, the RING finger referred to is also a protein structural domain. It stands for Really Interesting New Gene, which sounds like something I would make up for this blog, but is actually real.

Another for Romangoli brings Bath within ten points, though they missed a bonus on the poem 'Ode on the Death of a Favourite Cat', which Rajan says is his favourite. They cut the rest of the title from the question, which makes it more clear that its a comic poem.

Ode on the Death of a Favourite Cat Drowned in a Tub of Goldfishes - another large container of water. Another Bath, in fact.

It is from this point that Bath's hopes drowned too, as Southampton breached their hull and stole off like the cat who got the cream. Before the rout, the scores were 55-65. After, they were 250-70.

A 185-15 run.

For Bath, a Titanic sinking.

For Southampton, Titanic box office.

Bath 70 - 250 Southampton

The first trouncing of the series, but Bath gave it a good go at the start, even if they did end up getting taken to the cleaners.

The next episode sees Newcastle take on Edinburgh. We'll be four episodes in without an Oxbridge college, though that streak will come to an end the following week when Manchester play New, Oxford.