Thread: University Challenge Board: Oblivion / Ship of Fools.


To visit this thread, use this URL:
http://forum.ship-of-fools.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=70;t=025722

---

Posted by Chorister (# 473) on :
 
University Challenge, in my humble opinion, is the best quiz show on TV. Any other fans out there?

I love watching the programme, but can only usually answer 6 or so questions, not least because you have to retain so much information in your head while working out the answer.

Trinity, Cambridge is my favourite to win the competition this year (Morley is surely a robot!).

As only episodes 2 and 3 are still available on I-player, can anyone tell me who won Aberdeen v. Belfast?
 

---

Posted by mrs whibley (# 4798) on :
 
I confess that mr whibley and I watch on iplayer every week. Usually this isn't until Tuesday and mr whibley is on his honour not to cheat while I'm out at work. We keep score and often end up with 10-15 points each. Of course we have to beat the students themselves time-wise so we are usually smugly convinced that we would do so much better if in the actual contest!
I'm usually suffering too much from brain-ache to notice who wins on the programme. I think wikipedia is regularly updated, so may be able to answer your question.
 

---

Posted by ken (# 2460) on :
 
Can I confess to having been on it?
 

---

Posted by OddJob (# 17591) on :
 
You can. But why confess? Is the ability to absorb information and learn quickly - and/or to be in an environment early in life where the opportuity to do so arises - actually sinful? Using such aptitudes less than altruistically may be a different moral question.

I'm usually baffled as to how the contestants have gained such nolij so young in life.
 

---

Posted by Albertus (# 13356) on :
 

quote:

---

Originally posted by ken:
Can I confess to having been on it?

---

And me! Bamber Gascoigne was really nice to us all, BTW.
 

---

Posted by Sandemaniac (# 12829) on :
 
I wonder how many shipmates are going to "confess" to having been on it before one actually surprises us? I know ken was top of my list of those who wouldn't surprise me.

AG
 

---

Posted by ButchCassidy (# 11147) on :
 
Me! Paxman was also v pleasant. And there was always beer and a wheel of brie in the green room afterwards :-)
 

---

Posted by ken (# 2460) on :
 
"Confess" because it seems to be boasting.

I played in the old series and the new one. And both Bamber Gascoigne and Jeremy Paxman were very friendly.
 

---

Posted by luvanddaisies (# 5761) on :
 

 

---

Posted by Chorister (# 473) on :
 
Bamber Gascoigne was such a sweetie. I never thought anyone could replace him - but Paxman has done an excellent job.

I also thoroughly enjoyed reading 'Starter for 10', a novel about the programme.
 

---

Posted by Schroedinger's cat (# 64) on :
 
I enjoy the program. I get 4-5 questions right a week, which is not bad - I usually beat the rest of the family.

I have not been on it. I believe my uni was banned around the time I was there because they were making fun of the top/bottom way it is shown.
 

---

Posted by Arethosemyfeet (# 17047) on :
 
I was on my university team but we didn't make it to the televised rounds.
 

---

Posted by balaam (# 4543) on :
 
I never got the chance to be on.

But the Polytechnic where I studied is now a University, so just say I was ahead of my time.
 

---

Posted by Anglican't (# 15292) on :
 
I consider it an achievement if I understand the question.
 

---

Posted by Gill H (# 68) on :
 
I do enjoy it, but Only Connect on BBC4 straight afterwards is even better. (And yes, Ken has been on that too...)
 

---

Posted by Schroedinger's cat (# 64) on :
 
I do like Only Connect too. Gill H - how did you do? Will we see you again on it?

I am always reminded of the Undertones lyrics "He thinks that I'm a cabbage 'Cause I hate University Challenge"
 

---

Posted by Albertus (# 13356) on :
 

quote:

---

Originally posted by Arethosemyfeet:
I was on my university team but we didn't make it to the televised rounds.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Chorister:
Bamber Gascoigne was such a sweetie. I never thought anyone could replace him - but Paxman has done an excellent job.

---

quote:

---

Whoever would have thought that that horrid man could make such a success of University Challenge?

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Schroedinger's cat:
I do like Only Connect too. Gill H - how did you do? Will we see you again on it?

I am always reminded of the Undertones lyrics "He thinks that I'm a cabbage 'Cause I hate University Challenge"

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Albertus:

quote:

---

Originally posted by Arethosemyfeet:
I was on my university team but we didn't make it to the televised rounds.

---

That's a shame. When I did it (1987) I think there were only televised rounds: Granada TV presumably had a rota or something of which universities/ colleges would be invited to be on each year.
Trust ken to have been on twice. It's people like him that are the reason why the OU and Birkbeck traditionally did well.

---

I've been on it! IIRC they've now banned people from going on it twice, after the incident where an OU team was comprised entirely of previous winners of UC, Mastermind etc, all enrolled on part time masters courses for the purpose of winning UC.

They didn't have the wheel of brie in the green room either
 

---

Posted by ken (# 2460) on :
 

quote:

---

Originally posted by Dinghy Sailor:
IIRC they've now banned people from going on it twice, after the incident where an OU team was comprised entirely of previous winners of UC, Mastermind etc, all enrolled on part time masters courses for the purpose of winning UC.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Schroedinger's cat:
Incidentally, I think UC is the show with the highest rate of questions on the TV. Mastermind is probably a close second. Anyone else want to challenge or confirm that?

---

I never countes but I'm pretty sure Mastermind contestants typically face more questions than UC contestants in a game. Typically about forty. Also there is only one of you and you only get five minutes to answer them. Also the level of the questions has typically been harder than born-again-UC I think (though my impression is that UC got a bit stiffer over the last few years, after haveing been a little easier in the early 2000s)

Most TV quizzes are quite sparing with questions. In Only Connect a team will face six questions in the first two rounds, then a "wall" then maybe ten at the most of the missing vowels (much the hardest round unless you are a crossword nerd!)

When I was on Eggheads I didn't play in the elimination rounds at all (because my subjects didn't come up, I might have done either science or history) and we only got five or six questions at the end (did very badly )

There used to be a quiz called "Fifteen to One" that seemed much faster-paced to me than UC. I was never actually on it though so I don't really know!
 

---

Posted by Chorister (# 473) on :
 
Yes, I had a shock when they tightened up the UC questions again - a few years ago I was getting more right and thinking I'd developed more brain cells! Mind you, sometimes they buck the trend - last year I was getting more second round questions right than I was in the first round. Usually, you find the questions get harder as they progress towards the final.
 

---

Posted by TurquoiseTastic (# 8978) on :
 
Fifteen-to-One was excellent; the hardest quiz going. You had to be really good to win it. On the one hand, if you got more than 2 questions wrong over the whole programme you would be eliminated. On the other hand, to score highly enough to get to the Grand Final, you had to answer lots of questions correctly. So to get to the final, you had to actively put yourself in the firing line and get at least 15 questions right. And the questions were tough...

(Never been on any show myself but two former pupils were on the same episode of University Challenge last week!)
 

---

Posted by Ariston (# 10894) on :
 
Q. For fifteen points, what does Ariston do when he sees a thread look like it might do better in Heaven than with the sports discussion threads?
A. Hold on tight—going up!
 

---

Posted by Meerkat (# 16117) on :
 
The closest I can come to any of that was my primary school team - of which I was a member - being on Top of the Form in 1967 or 1968.

We... ummm... didn't win
 

---

Posted by Chorister (# 473) on :
 
I used to love listening to 'Brain of Britain' where Christian names weren't used at all. Robert Robinson (I'm pretty sure that was his name) used to say things like 'Come, come, Mr. Jones, surely you know that?!'
 

---

Posted by Stumbling Pilgrim (# 7637) on :
 
Another Only Connect fan, though I've never been on anything - I can yell at the TV at home, but I think I'd freeze if I ever got in front of a camera. I actually find the missing vowels by far the easiest bit - oh, wait a minute, I am a crossword nerd! Now it's finished and there's only University Challenge, I might have a slightly less intense headache by 9 o'clock on Mondays. At least with Only Connect you usually get time to think about it - watching UC I usually find they've answered the question by the time I've worked out what the question actually was!
 

---

Posted by Polly Plummer (# 13354) on :
 
Mr. Plummer and I have watched University Challenge devotedly ever since we met, and Only Connect since it started. Master Plummer was in U.C. and had the honour of being told by Paxo "You *are* on good form this evening", after answering a music question within half a second of its starting to play.

In the Only Connect final last night, even after hearing the answers we didn't understand what some of the questions were about!
 

---

Posted by moonlitdoor (# 11707) on :
 
Someone who I worked with was on a team that won University Challenge in 1978. ( One of his fellow team members is now a government minister. )

When he left the company, we gave him a present wrapped up in many layers like pass the parcel. Each layer had a question submitted by a different colleague and he gave his answers as he opened it. I tried a tick question of who lived at Dove cottage Grasmere between 1806 and 1820 but he was brought up near the Lake District so he was not fooled.
 

---

Posted by tessaB (# 8533) on :
 
I love University Challenge and was very excited when beloved daughter said her college (SOAS) was trying to get a team together for it.
Then I saw this and was not in the least surprised when they couldn't even organise a team, let alone get through to the televised programme.
 

---

Posted by Schroedinger's cat (# 64) on :
 
I was best man to the parents of someone who made it through to the finals. That is the closest I can get to it.
 

---

Posted by Nanny Ogg (# 1176) on :
 
I love University Challenge. It definitely gets my brain cells working and I am surprised just what questions I can answer!

Sometimes it's a case of "how many 20th British composers* do you know" as giving an educated guess.

*Just an example
 

---

Posted by Tukai (# 12960) on :
 
Even I was on University Challenge in the distant past, when I was a research student in England. Some of my team-mates knew answers that I had no idea of, although the reverse was also true but to a lesser extent.

As an extrovert foreigner, I also appeared on another TV quiz called "The Sky's the Limit", where the questions were much easier but the main idea was to joke around with the compere (and his pretty young assistants). No-one at my uni saw that , but many in the town did so, and I got ribbed about it for years afterwards!

[ 12. August 2013, 09:40: Message edited by: Tukai ]
 

---

Posted by Chorister (# 473) on :
 
One of the stars of tonight's programme (Clare, Cambridge v. Loughborough) was a Tom Wright, reading Theology. Any relation, do you think?
 

---

Posted by L'organist (# 17338) on :
 
A mate and I watch every week and endeavour to get a higher score than the eventual winners - but often stymied by the maths/physics questions.
 

---

Posted by ExclamationMark (# 14715) on :
 

quote:

---

Originally posted by moonlitdoor:
Someone who I worked with was on a team that won University Challenge in 1978. ( One of his fellow team members is now a government minister. )

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by L'organist:
A mate and I watch every week and endeavour to get a higher score than the eventual winners - but often stymied by the maths/physics questions.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Chorister:
One of the stars of tonight's programme (Clare, Cambridge v. Loughborough) was a Tom Wright, reading Theology. Any relation, do you think?

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Chorister:
People often aren't that good on the questions for their own subject. They feel the pressure even more hugely if they think they should know the answer! The one exception seems to be the Maths students, particularly the really geeky ones who have an obsession with the subject and not much else.

I remember, a few years ago, the Cardiff University theology student who hardly answered any questions at all - when a religious one finally came up, his one contribution was to mouth 'I should know that one' to his captain!

I have heard that, in some universities, there is not much interest in being on University Challenge, so the competitors - instead of being some of the university's best - are a random assortment of rather lost characters who don't have a better offer on the evening when selection takes place. Anyone with inside knowledge wish to counter that??

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Metapelagius:
A notice in the college lodge "Gather in the hall after dinner on such and such a day if you are interested". General knowledge quiz. Team selected on the basis of this. So it was in one instance in 1969.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Chorister:



I have heard that, in some universities, there is not much interest in being on University Challenge, so the competitors - instead of being some of the university's best - are a random assortment of rather lost characters who don't have a better offer on the evening when selection takes place. Anyone with inside knowledge wish to counter that??

---

It varies hugely from place to place. What you say sounds most likely in small specialist colleges (e.g. Heythrop, RVC, etc). Oxbridge colleges tend to have reasonable interest, as they are, to put it mildly, filled with nerds. The bigger Redbricks and London Universities can easily have hundreds of people trying out for four places. Interestingly, although teams formed in the latter way are more consistently good (as one would expect), some of the best teams have been formed by a few friends in the college bar.

As you may have guessed, I was on UC once. I won't comment on the circumstances other than to say that we did reasonably well, and even gathered a small cult following based on the eccentric appearance and behaviour of one of our members.

It's still probably the most impressive thing I've done in my life, which is a bit sad but I'll take what I can get.
 

---

Posted by Chorister (# 473) on :
 
I still enjoy watching the spoof 'Scumbag' version on occasion. Expect most people have seen it already, but just in case....
 

---

Posted by Drifting Star (# 12799) on :
 
I gather Manchester University have a very rigorous selection process followed by intensive training.

Presumably that's why they keep winning. That and the fact that they are selecting from the third largest student population for a UK university.
 

---

Posted by Polly Plummer (# 13354) on :
 
And they are on the spot and don't have a long journey to tire them out before they've started!
 

---

© Ship of Fools 2016


UBB.classic^TM 6.5.0