This match is the reason why there should be a time limit in the bonuses. While it's obviously a strategy to keep the lead, it irritated me very much how the winner kept stalling from the very beginning. The only time I saw them answering quickly was in the last question when all was done and dusted.

The trigonometry question was the defining point of the episode, as was the rat/bat. I don't see the winners going to the semis...

Thank you so much CosmicP! You rule! As for the match, initially I liked Christchurch, but I found their almost endless discussions towards the end, and their total ignoring of pleas to speed up blatantly unfair and unsportspersonlike! I have never felt like that about this type of behaviour before. But they really took the biscuit! it wasn't even as if they were actually involved in substantial discussions. The chatter was just filled with hollow, meaningless blah blah! And yes, I am aware that Emmanuel at times went painfully slowly about things, too. But Christ Church was just playing for time! Boo!

It’s very frustrating to watch the team in the lead conferring leisurely on questions they can’t answer late in the game. There seems to be a premise that everyone will act in good faith. I wonder if teams are coached to stall with a lead late in the game.

Dean isn't the type who knows much esoteric stock knowledge but she really makes excellent use of deductive analysis -- like her answers "Sky", "Bat", and "Trigonometry". She isn't afraid to trust her hunch, which means also risking points. But the payoff was worth it. Rooted for Emmanuel but self-doubts took over in this match: like saying "It might be a trap" which only triggered analysis paralysis -- destructive in a time-constrained game.

Well that was stressful! I feel sorry for the losing team but they did their best. Thanks, as always, CP for your great efforts. Most appreciated.

It continues to baffle me that there’s no formal timer for conferring. Hearing the host say ‘Come on,’ repeatedly is annoying, and there’s no real consequence for repeated offences. There should be a timer that starts and which counts for the duration of the bonuses. If a team runs out of time before all the questions are completed, they forfeit the score. That’s one idea that could work.

Close it was; vintage it was not - that's the lowest joint score this series - bonus rates of 11/24 and 13/30, along with much more discussion time than as of late I think contributed to that (can't judge if the questions in this particular match were harder than any of the last few). Still nice for the winners that the buzzing was more spread - not sure at all on future prospects but they're in the dance for now at least. Also surprised that Mr Wotton's 9 starters in Christ Church's first game weren't mentioned as well?

Thank you for posting this great challenge, marvelous.

wonderful episode, both teams are fabulous. What spectacle of intelligence and culture

Thanks again, CosmicPumpkin! What a match this was. And decided by one wrong answer by the losing team. As Rajan himself said, that word will pain them for a long time. As usual, I listened to each team member's field of study from the introduction by both teams, and then guessed who would be the eventual winner. Also as usual, I was wrong. They say insanity is defined by doing the same thing over and over, yet expecting a different result. Oh well. It's a real shame these teams had to meet when they did. Both teams and each individual can be proud of their performance in this match. My best to all of them.

Christ Church Lowe was the best part of the episode hands down

Ditto, thanks CP. Brit in Michigan, really enjoying this. Delighted with how Amol has already put his stamp on the show.

Not too impressed by either team this week....a certain spark missing between the players. Far too much dithering and stalling by both teams, especially Christ Church.l agree that there should be a time out warning during conferring. However, great to see how each team tackles the questions each week. Thanks for keeping us entertained!

Christ Church should be ashamed of their obvious stalling tactics. If I were one of the organizers, I would disqualify them for what was a clear lack of sportsmanship.

Very competitive match with a lot of fun questions and damn if wasn't cheering for Emmanuel to get back in the lead at the end.

Talk about neck-and-neck , wow ! Both great teams. Thank you CP.

First click of the day...that woke me up😵‍💫 Anyone else think Wotton was winding the clock down, he pushed it to the limit more than once and was warned about it? They won't get much further, imo. Geometry? Ouch!

The moat ridiculous thing about the stalling is that you actually deny yourself the chance to score more points. We’ve all seen teams that faff about deliberately in close matches find themselves beaten at the last by a faster buzzer. Better by far to throw yourself straight back into the starters and trust yourself to pick up half of them.

Thank you CP. I think I got two questions correct, but was shouting at the screen with numerous wong ones!

WORST CASE of stalling I have EVER SEEN.

I don't wanna brag, but kinda chuffed with a full round on 18th century treaties and conflicts 😂 Quite enjoyed tonight's show, although I do feel both sides would struggle against some of the other opposition we've seen. Mind you, easy to critique from the comfort of my armchair!

Love Harrison's sweater

Sorry Christ Church dawdled much too long for their conferring. It lessened the time for Emmanuel. So wrong and unfair!

Frustrating watch, this one. I'm all for conferring - a team collaboratively working their way towards an answer is lovely to watch, even if it's just a best guess. But most of the discussions in this match seemed knowingly aimless, as evidenced by many of the wildly off-base guesses. Did *any* of the extended conferring eventually bring a team to the right answer? Maybe once? Perhaps it was a tactic, perhaps it was a way to appear less ignorant about the question topics, perhaps it's just what their coaches have advised them to do as a rule. Regardless, I much prefer when teams are confident and self-aware enough to admit (quickly) the gaps in their knowledge without pretense. I think it's much more in the spirit of the game.

Great round. Thank you for posting.

Really enjoyed this one. Thanks Cosmic.

Wasn't Emmanuel's captain quite slow at giving the answers? It felt there was time wasted just there.

Another thank you to CosmicP, my Monday hero!!! Good game. Both teams worthy of a win but I didn't think Cantab (Cambridge!) was quite up to prior form tonight!

good game, but can you imagine trying to get these people to hurry up when you're late for the train?!

Good match, although a little too much confereing for my liking. Most of the recent matches have had much faster questions and I prefer that style. Anyway, came here to say I really like Harrison as Q in the last couple of Bond movies.

Thank you!

Sad at the lack of Gaiman knowledge!

The episode that sparked the deranged right-wing frenzy, targeting a Muslim woman with bogus and laughable claims of anti-Semitism. Thankfully, today she has won in court and the idiots who defamed her have been forced to apologise. (if you can't tell how this comment relates to the episode, then that has proven my point about bizarre and baseless the claims of anti-Semitism were)

Disappointing performance from Emmanuel, I expected big things from them after 1st Round. Neither teams were good enough with the bonus questions. Unfortunately I don't see Christ Church making a push for the victory. Imperial still clear favourites in this tournament IMO, I was hoping to see Emmanuel make a statement tonight.

Alagar was too slow for a captain.

Does anyone know where I can get Harrison's goose jumper?!

Bro, Taiwan is an island. Come on now.

Very annoying to watch. I’d like to see Amol actually start timing teams out rather than just threaten it. As for Amol - feel like he’s getting stronger with each episode

Thanks

PHD in Astrophisics and can't ace astrophysics questions... sheesh...

Lowe didn't get the Christ Church email 'Wear something colourful' 😊

WHERE DID HARRISON GET THAT LOVELY JUMPER FROM?

Amol's BBC2 interview show started up again today, with Ronnie O'Sullivan as his guest.

It's crazy to me how there is still not a strict time limit for questions in these...

I was amazed that Gorgianeh actually spoke. She said nothing in the previous match

When are you going to upload E20?

Subs at 24:01 should read Iraq, not Iran, as Iran's capital is Tehran, breaking the question 🙂

Me during the whole video 👁️👄👁️

I got the most number of questions correct in this one. Managed to make a few guesses (Keats, Augustus) that were somehow correct too. There really seems to be the case of stalling here but I see it more on the team captain, who seemed to need a bit more push to give an answer, compared to the other captains. They should have a policy where if being reminded of time more than twice, there should be a change in captain or introduction of timer.

Am I the only person to note Amol is using Paxman's pronunciation of Juan.

My score this time was only 50😢

😢 I had a crush on Harrison and now hes out haha #sad

Yet another question about the box-ticker Lise Meitner.

I find it very frustrating to watch Christ church take the lead and then stall on bonus questions they know they don't have the answer for...

The stalling when they were ahead!!! 😮😮😮So dishonest. Disappointed it worked for them.

❤

The people complaining about stalling may not fully understand the feeling of needing to answer questions under pressure. As a quiz bowl player, I know what it's like when the panic sets in and you just can't make anything escape your mouth. Wotton looked especially like he wanted to be polite and give an answer but couldn't get anything from his brain to his voice (which maybe makes him not the best choice for captain, but that's a different issue). No one will see this because I'm three months late but I'd like to complain about people complaining anyway.

Alagar is pretty arrogant despite being wrong. I like how she shut down Harrison for suggesting Breda as a Dutch city, with her claiming it isn't Dutch...

Not saying anything that hasn’t been said by other comments, but this one felt very painful and almost unwatchable at times. The quality of this entire show would skyrocket if teams had like a 10 second timer on conferring. In the meantime, it’s an agonizing way to watch a close match turn into a deliberate stall-fest by the winning team 😔 Edit: I also feel like Paxman wouldn’t have let this episode go down like this. I like Rajan a lot but yeesh man. Fewer “come on”s and more “Sorry, took too long”s would make this episode feel more fair.

Just out of interest, why is Dave Garda not posting these still. ??

Don Jew-an 💀

The most egregious stalling I've seen.

Both teams kept stalling excessively. Hopwfully the winners lose their next match.

I wanna study Animal Behaviourology

No way its murman thurman

I love Alagar's facial expression every time she gives the answer. 😁

At the risk of sounding like a dunce, can anyone explain why he’s pronouncing it “don-jewan” instead of Don Juan?

Why is he pronouncing Don Juan like that? :|

Omg first 🙌🏻

What Is It Like to Be a... Rat! What a travesty

No offence, but I absolutely hate the face that Emmanuel's Alagar make while putting across her answer. Every. Single. time.

Interesting choice of colors, Gorgianeh

Once again sadly disappointed by the knowledge of British wildlife. Those bird call questions were all so easy. The way they treat the questions as if they are beneath them with lots of laughing also depresses me. No hope for retention of biodiversity when there’s so little interest from the young in the environment.

Always a pleasure to see an oxbridge college lose!

Can someone please teach Amol Rajan the "usual pronunciation" of the words "a" and "the", before he starts passing judgment on the pronunciation of foreign names at 4:02?

"Don Giu-an"??? the brits can't pronounce Spanish names properly!!! and this is University Challenge!!!

The woman in the middle for Christ Church Oxford absolute disgusting for displaying that octopus. Shows what the BBC are really like. Boycott the TV licence tax.

Does anyone know which other episode Gorgianeh is on please?