Christmas University Challenge - Round 1 - Match 1

Christmas University Challenge - Round 1 - Match 1

Well, its that time of year again for the Christmas University Challenge series. The first part in what shaped up to be a fun quizzing night on Tv. When it comes to Christmas University Challenge this time around we have eight episodes to look forward to with  the final next Tuesday. The only day the University Challenge special is not showing is for some reason on Friday. There are some episodes in prime slots on Xmas Day and Boxing Day.

There will be five first round heats with the highest scoring 4 winners making it through to the final. This first round match started with the following line ups -

York

Chris Dye

Zoe Lyons

Steve Richards

Richard Hollingham

VS.

Manchester

Tom Bloxham

Liv Boeree

Waldimir Janusczak

Steve Hewlett

”I think you have had long enough to look at this” – It may be Xmas but Paxman is not toning it down. Faced with media figures and celebrities Paxman laid down the law early on and even though the odd smile came later on in the show he was still his usual self throughout, the way we like it.

The questions as usual have been quite dumbed down, although still challenging. Not to the extent of the way The Chase has dumbed down its celebrity version, but still noticeably easier than the normal University Challenge series.

York got of to a great start heading to a 65-0 lead and remained comfortably ahead for the duration of the first third of the contest. Paxman bellowed to stop conferring but didn’t seem to hurry York up who were taking some time to answer….certainly wouldn’t get away with that long on the standard series.

Some enjoyable question setting early on with translated Shakespeare titles, Jane Austen etc and with a string of wrong answers and failures to capitalise on bonuses the scores began to close down and Manchester went on a solid run with Janusczak scoring some pretty good points. With ten minutes to go the scores were down to 80-65 to York.

By this point Manchester were in full stride and Janusczak was belting out points like there was no tomorrow and after a perfect round on Art Manchester were 25 points ahead and York needed to pull their fingers out. They responded well taking the next set and narrowing the score to 105-95 shaping up for a frantic final 3 minutes.

York resumed the lead but Manchester soon had it back and again Janusczak was leading from the front edging to a 125-110 lead. It was still anybodies game and when Lyons headed in with a solid buzz it ensured it was going to be one of the closest games in the Christmas University Challenge I have ever seen. A real exciting ending to the first episode.

The gong went and Manchester had sealed it with 125-120, it could have went either way but Manchester and in particular Janusczak just about deserved the win. Whether it is enough to see Manchester into the Semi Final’s we will have to wait and see tomorrow.

Either way a great start to the series, possibly BBC deciding to air this one first in order to attract viewer ship. I am slightly disappointed they are running this on Xmas Day itself as surely the week between Xmas and new year would have more ideal, btu never mind, Im looking forward to more.

Next episode airs Tuesday 20th December - BBC 2 - 7.30pm - Durham vs Edinburgh