Nov 9, 2025 3 min read 2025-26

Predictably Poor Punditry

Last year, I wrote a post about how pundits have a free pass for all of the terrible predictions they make.

There is no accountability for anything that anyone says because the content factory comes along to bury it under another mound of tasty soundbites and out of context ten second clips.

But I am here to change this, and change starts at home.

With that in mind, I have something to say, but first - the match.

Here's your first starter for ten.

Darwin scraped into the second round with a 135-130 win over Green Templeton, while Magdalen, four-time winners of the series title, thrashed Robinson 245-105.

One of these sides, then, entered the match as clear favourites, but it was Darwin who took the lead thanks to Captain Cameron and a buzz of Walter Scott. They grab two bonuses on Paris' Académie de la Grande Chaumière, before a starter from Ni Mhuircheartaigh put them thirty points clear. Bonuses on a video game voice actor followed, and Strachan knew them all, requesting that his skipper nominate him even though the answers - Overwatch and Mass Effect - weren't exactly impossible to relay.

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Walker gets Magdalen going with Nuremberg and Sharkey continued the nomination spree, handing responsibility for saying Maxwell back to Walker.

The first picture starter goes to Cameron, and Rajan chides him for his pronunciation of Brigid on a bonus, but gives him the points. He takes another starter on art and Darwin are flying. Quite the evolution from their opening round match.

A second starter for Walker keeps Magdalen involved, but they can only convert one bonus on opera houses, and a quick buzz from Strachan stops them from making major inroads on their deficit. Darwin seem a completely different team this time out, far more confident and assertive on the buzzer.

Woo takes a starter on films starting with the phrase A Fistful Of..., but Magdalen can't put together back-to-back ten-pointers, and it is Cameron who wins the music bonuses on tunes from the film Barry Lyndon. A neg from Cameron then hands Magdalen an opening, but they can't sweep up.

A starter from Sharkey results in an even more amusing nomination, for Woo and the word seven. Woo then picks up a starter on AI hallucination, and they take one bonus by repeatedly guessing brachiosaurus for bonuses on dinosaurs (it would have been a strange guess if that weren't the subject).

This is as close as Magdalen will get, and Darwin run away with it in the last few minutes, with Cameron taking the second picture starter to kick off a dominant streak. White gets in on the act with , and Darwin are really enjoying themselves now.

Magdalen try a few early buzzes in an attempt to get back into the game, but they're wrong and succeed only in losing a few points. Worth a try.

Magdalen 80 - 190 Darwin

A real shock, this. Or at least I thought so.

Before the second round, I ranked all 16 teams on Reddit and placed Darwin plum last. To compound my wrongness, I even said that 'I would be very surprised if any of the bottom four make it through'.

See below my full ranking, though I wouldn't place too much stock in it. Congratulations to Darwin (16), who pulled something out of the bag there, and commiserations to Magdalen (2), who didn't seem up for the scrap.

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