Quizmadged

Post Winter Olympics, when we had a three-week break from University Challenge, I've been unable to get into the swing of weekly reviews. Which is kind of fortunate, because the series is about to come to a grand finale next week, meaning I won't be able to fall massively behind.

Instead, I'm going to treat you to my fourth consecutive double review, this time of the two semi-finals. I had a whole thing planned here where I was going to compare my lack of energy to Arsenal's poor performances of late, but I spent too much time emptying and then refilling (in a tidier fashion) one of our cupboards, so there is none left for self-pitying self-mythologising.

Onto the first semi-final, then, which saw my alma mater Edinburgh taking on Darwin, Cambridge.

Here's your first starter for ten.

If you've been following this blog throughout the quarter-finals, you'll know that I ranked Darwin 16th out of 16 teams going into the second round. So the fact they've made the semi-finals puts egg on my face. They've been brilliant to reach this stage, but faced a tough battle in Edinburgh.

White kicks things off for Darwin with Denmark, and they took a hat-trick on politicians who have used the phrase 'In the name of God, go'.

No one knows that the Poble Espanyol is in Barcelona until Richards hears the clue Montjuic. Side note, I saw part of a festival at the Poble a couple of years ago, and it was a great venue for a gig, though we had to queue for hours to be sure of getting in.

Cameron hits back for Darwin with a brilliant buzz of Webster, and when White follows this up with Brandenburg on the picture starter, they go 40 points clear.

Edinburgh maintain the leash, however, with Easwar's Bayer keeping them in touch. He loses 5 points with an incorrect interruption, but Darwin don't pick it up. Shadow from Amjad puts Edinburgh back in the light, and a pair of negs from Darwin gave them the lead.

No one knows that George McRae sang Rock Your Baby on the music starter, and when Amjad takes his third starter in a row, it is now Edinburgh who are in front by 40. Darwin are desperate to get involved, but a third neg, this time from Strachan, only increases their jitters, and a fourth from Ni Mhuircheartaigh drops them yet further back.

Amjad lays down the hammer and continues to smash Darwin while they're down. Over the past ten minutes or so, the score is 100 to -20.

The rot is finally stopped thanks to Cameron's artistic expertise, but they have a big deficit to overcome if they are to continue mocking my predictions. Cameron fancies having a go at this and grabs another starter, but they don't know much about cycling and struggle to go through the gears on the bonuses.

Ni Mhuircheartaigh takes a starter of her own, and the gap is down to 30, but she is unlucky to give torsion rather than torque on the next question. When Leonard picks this up, Darwin's slim chance seems to have evaporated. Or have they? A pair of starters bring them within a perfect set, but it is too little too late as Amjad is there, once again, to break Darwin hearts with halogenation.

Edinburgh 155 - 110 Darwin

So, another final for Edinburgh, and another semi-final loss for Darwin. Fabulous from both teams, to be honest. And both laughing at my rankings - I had Edinburgh 11th. What do I know, eh?

Now for Manchester vs Imperial and the chance to join Edinburgh in the Grand Final. FYI, Manchester I had 12th and Imperial 5th

Here's your (second) first starter for ten.

Coming into this match, Manchester captain Kai Madgwick had been the outstanding buzzer of the series, with a total of 38 starters for ten (more than 7 per match) and this trend continued with Guyana on the opening question. The second starter also went to Madgwick, an ominous start for Imperial.

Faulkner helped out his captain with a hat-trick of bonuses about sporting triple crowns. A triple crown of bonuses, as it were.

O'Flanagan, himself a very respectable buzzer, came in early on the next starter, trying to get his team going. But he was wrong, and Madgwick was there to steal the points. He buzzed first again on the picture starter, but couldn't get his words out. Dickson was on hand to pick up the pieces for Manchester by translating a description of Tourette's from French. She swept up another triple couronne on the bonuses with three more conditions named after French people.

Normal service is resumed with , from Madgwick - four starters already, and we're less than ten minutes in. Power gets in on the act with a Madgwick-esque buzz of Wanda and Manchester are more than a hundred points clear. Imperial are still in the negatives. What is going on?

Not content to let his teammates have all the fun, Faulkner makes it at least one starter from each Manchester player, and they now lead by 135 points. Imperial will need pretty much every starter if they are going to stand a chance, and O'Flanagan finally gets them in the plus column with A Raisin in the Sun, shaking his head, bemused, as he accepts the points. He can't believe how this has gone down, and neither can I.

Imperial's headache doesn't let up, as Dickson takes another starter for Manchester with paracetamol. In their first match, Madgwick took all nine of Manchester's starters, and while they remain the standout performer, the rest of the team has stepped it up considerably since then, though they were always a good help on the bonuses.

The fact that 100% of the starters came from one player in the first round is what made me rank them so low. I didn't think that this kind of heliocentric offence (a la the 2018 James Harden Rockets) would translate into the subsequent rounds, but the team look so much more comfortable now, and are backing Madgwick up big time (more like the 2025 OKC Thunder surrounding SGA. I don't know how many people will appreciate these references, but for me, personally, they're bang on, so you're going to have to accept them).

A couple more negs from O'Flanagan drop Imperial back to 5 points, but you understand why he buzzes - they needed to take some risks to try and get back in it. Dina boosts them to 15 again with squirrel, but Madgwick is not in a merciful mood and continues slapping down starter after starter. Georgia, Skye, Timbuktu. Bang! Bang!

At this stage, Madgwick reaches a plane rarely reached by University Challenge players, when even random guesses, and seemingly nonsensical combinations of words, plucked from the vast recesses of the ether, still turn out to be correct.

Imperial know that the jig is up, but drag themselves up to a respectable losing score, and seem to be having a good time doing so, laughing and joking among themselves even when they are 200 points down. At the end, O'Flanagan says that, having come through the high-scoring loser playoffs, every subsequent match was a free hit, which is a nice way of looking at it.

There's no need to tell you who won, but here is the final score.

Manchester 250 - 70 Imperial

Ten more starters for Madgwick, 48 in total for the series. I'll need to ask Jack McB what the all-time record is. Such was the dominance that word of Madgwick made it into the group chats. That's when you know you've got a breakout star. To explain the magnificence of the performance in terms that would be understood, I said that there had been a quizmogging. Make of that what you will.

And we are set up for a brilliant final, though if Madgwick plays like this, then Edinburgh will need to seriously up their game.