University Challenge

[Dave2002]

... but it'll be Reading that gets remembered more than any winner ever!

(Particularly embarrassing for Pippa Greenwood, not getting the latin name of the Chestnut tree!)

You don't know she didn't know it - one wondered if the buzzers were actually working at all!

[vinteuil]

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Paxo reprimanded the Reading team more than once for giggling. I wonder if they had over-indulged in the pre-show Christmas drinkies.

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[cloughie]

You don't know she didn't know it - one wondered if the buzzers were actually working at all!

Were they going for zero?

[LMcD]

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Paxo reprimanded the Reading team more than once for giggling. I wonder if they had over-indulged in the pre-show Christmas drinkies.

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I ended up wondering whether they had set out with the aim of scoring nowt, thereby achieving the same degree of immortality as Scumbag College.....

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Were they going for zero?

I ended up wondering whether they had set out with the aim of scoring nowt, thereby achieving the same degree of immortality as Scumbag College.....

I don't think so - the hysterical giggles when yet another attempted answer was wrong, the look of sheer desperation of the bloke's face as he struggled to think of anything that might do for an answer - AND the ability for Cotrell-Wotsit on the Keble team to get the correct answer after hearing just three words of the question. I don't think they could have "staged" that, or have wanted to for that matter.

[BBMmk2]

I wonder if the reading purposely didn't answer the questions? Looks like a conspiracy theory to me!

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I wonder if the reading purposely didn't answer the questions? Looks like a conspiracy theory to me!

I don't think so - the hysterical giggles when yet another attempted answer was wrong, the look of sheer desperation of the bloke's face as he struggled to think of anything that might do for an answer - AND the ability for Cotrell-Wotsit on the Keble team to get the correct answer after hearing just three words of the question. I don't think they could have "staged" that, or have wanted to for that matter.

[Dave2002]

Were they going for zero?

That’s been done before - in the regular series - but more obviously so.

[BBMmk2]

I don't think so - the hysterical giggles when yet another attempted answer was wrong, the look of sheer desperation of the bloke's face as he struggled to think of anything that might do for an answer - AND the ability for Cotrell-Wotsit on the Keble team to get the correct answer after hearing just three words of the question. I don't think they could have "staged" that, or have wanted to for that matter.

Thanks Ferney. That about sums it up

[Nick Armstrong]

The final .... unbelievably embarrassing.

The good-natured whitewash final I found far less embarrassing than the gormless musical ignorance of the Classic FM bod. She's almost certain to turn up presenting R3 weekend breakfast I imagine.

Also, the winning Oxford team was basically 3 in number wasn't it? Did the person on the right with the blue lipstick actually say anything at all during the final or the heats, other than introduce herself? I missed it, if so.

That said, Cottrell-Boyce's competence meant it was almost a one-man band...

[gradus]

It struck me that many of the questions had a literary bent just up Frank C-B's street whereas little of relevance to Reading was asked and when it was their botanist failed to answer. .

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

It struck me that many of the questions had a literary bent just up Frank C-B's street whereas little of relevance to Reading was asked and when it was their botanist failed to answer. .

But it was Cotrell-Boyce who answered that question. As Dave suggested earlier; Pippa Greenwood would almost certainly have known it, but C-B got there quicker - perhaps his next novel has a botanist/dendrologist as a main character?

[ardcarp]

It struck me that many of the questions had a literary bent just up Frank C-B's street whereas little of relevance to Reading was asked and when it was their botanist failed to answer. .

I agree entirely. But he also had phenomenally quick recall and buzzer-finger.

[BBMmk2]

The good-natured whitewash final I found far less embarrassing than the gormless musical ignorance of the Classic FM bod. She's almost certain to turn up presenting R3 weekend breakfast I imagine.

Also, the winning Oxford team was basically 3 in number wasn't it? Did the person on the right with the blue lipstick actually say anything at all during the final or the heats, other than introduce herself? I missed it, if so.

That said, Cottrell-Boyce's competence meant it was almost a one-man band...

That women on the extreme right actually did answered a couple of questions right but also answered some wrong as well, so she has a voice! MrsBBM on on one programme in this series answered five questions correctly!

[Stanfordian]

That women on the extreme right actually did answered a couple of questions right but also answered some wrong as well, so she has a voice!

Just! She was rubbish! But often a team has a poor fourth member. Not being able to contribute must be a dispiriting position to be in.

My wife often gets over 20 or so correct and she's never been near Oxbridge or any university.