University challenge

[osigiarak]

anyone know if the st andrew's team qualified for this year's edition? also, when were people supposed to enter, as I would have quite liked to have tried out?

[exnihilo]

I grant you that the programme makers' managed to get it wrong a few years ago, but one would hope that anyone actually in the running for the team would know where the apostrophe does, or does not, go in their university's name.

[KateBush]

Chances are the error was a slip of the finger. Worse things happen at sea, don't you think?

[exnihilo]

Doubtless. But just because other worse things happen is no reason not to try to avoid small errors. We ought to be able to punctuate without losing our concern for bigger issues, or surrendering our morals or our humanity, presuming our brains work more or less as they're supposed to - it's really not an either/or situation.

[Punctuation fascist]

I grant you that the programme makers' managed to get it wrong a few years ago, but one would hope that anyone actually in the running for the team would know where the apostrophe does, or does not, go in their university's name.

Fine one to complain about incorrect apostrophes.

Pot, meet kettle.

[exnihilo]

Well spotted, it originally read "the programme makers' failure..." and I neglected to remove the apostrophe when I recast the sentence. Ho hum.

[fnnybws]

I can confirm that yes, our team did qualify for the televised part of the show this year and our first round match will be aired on the 28th of September.
The team tryouts were held in March and (if I recall correctly) were announced in the Wednesday memos.

[luch]

Does anyone know who's on the team?

[fnnybws]

My bad, apparently, the coverage of the World Championsips (athletics) on bbc caused a 1 week pushback, first round match will be shown on 5th of October now.......

Sure you guys can wait that long until it's shown!!

[DACrowe]

Wish I'd read this thread before last night, as I was speaking to one of the chaps who was. I can't remember how he/if he said how they'd done.

The best person to harass about it is Fearghas MacGregor, as he's the Student Union's appointed harassee, however you don't have to worry about applying to be on until at least the new year (I can't remember exactly when forms go out, but certainly not before Christmas) but apparently last year there was a notice about it in the Wednesday bulletin.

[Oli]

Fearghas graduated last year, and although he's around St Andrews at the moment, I don't think he's still the appointed harrassee. Send an email to union@st-and.ac.uk and they should be able to advise you who's the new person.

[Starter410]

The first round match, St Andrews vs Somerville Oxford, will be shown tonight in the Union main bar at 20:00. It will also be broadcast on BBC 2 Scotland on Thursday 8 October at 20:00.

[guest]

Hey, just want to say well done to the guys, they scubbed oxford.

[RedCelt69]

Woohoo! WTG St Andrews. 255 to 150. A good, solid performance.

I have to say, though... a round on cricket grounds... when will the BBC understand that only one of the 4 constituent parts of the Britain the British Broadcasting Corporation is meant to serve actually gives a flying fuck about cricket. Even in England, it has a very low following (when compared to the likes of football or rugby). And yet every quiz on the BBC features questions on the "sport".

And the Scottish university ended up with the round.

[threekings]

Woohoo! WTG St Andrews. 255 to 150. A good, solid performance.

I have to say, though... a round on cricket grounds... when will the BBC understand that only one of the 4 constituent parts of the Britain the British Broadcasting Corporation is meant to serve actually gives a flying fuck about cricket. Even in England, it has a very low following (when compared to the likes of football or rugby). And yet every quiz on the BBC features questions on the "sport".

And the Scottish university ended up with the round.

i refer you to the many questions i've heard on robbie burns on UC - and i assure you people in england give as much of a fuck about him as you do about cricket.

[RedCelt69]

i refer you to the many questions i've heard on robbie burns on UC

I'm sure that in your mind there is some relevance between the point in hand (a fringe sport in one of the four British countries) and a literary figure. Now, if you'd compared it to the game of shinty, you might have had a point. Have there been many rounds on UC covering shinty? Or Gaelic football? Any English university teams sat struggling to answer questions on a sport that has little-to-no-following in England?

and i assure you people in england give as much of a fuck about him as you do about cricket.

Oh, well. So long as you assure me, that's OK then.

Ah, hang on... actually, no. It isn't OK. I don't need your assurance.

I grew up in England. Through the entirety of my time there (between leaving school and leaving England) I met 3 people who were keen followers of cricket. That's 3 people amongst all personal acquaintances and all work colleagues. Followers of football would run into the hundreds.

Not exactly a scientific test of the popularity of the "sport" in England, but it gives a rough idea of just how passionately the English follow cricket. I recently had a look to see if there were any reliable statistics about the game's popularity in England... without much success. Perhaps you could enlighten me?

And whilst you're at it, enlighten the quiz-compilers at the BBC.

[Power Metal Dom]

Oh, well. So long as you assure me, that's OK then.

Ah, hang on... actually, no. It isn't OK. I don't need your assurance.

Now now, no need to get arsey.

Not exactly a scientific test of the popularity of the "sport" in England

And yet every quiz on the BBC features questions on the "sport".

I can see cricket is not exactly your cup of tea but why are you rejecting its classification as a sport? What else is it?

[RedCelt69]

Now now, no need to get arsey.

I disagree. He attempted to turn a discussion about the BBC's blinkered view of the popularity of cricket into an anti-Scots dig. Burns is well-respected around the world... and even if he wasn't, comparing him to cricket is comparing apples to oranges.

I can see cricket is not exactly your cup of tea but why are you rejecting its classification as a sport? What else is it?

It is a grey area; when is a game a sport and not just a game? The inverted commas represent a literary sneer (on my part) wrt cricket - firmly demoting it to a game.

Just to be clear, it isn't that I passionately hate the game. If it wasn't for the fact that it can't be escaped (short of giving up on the BBC as a TV broadcaster or purveyor of news via their website) I wouldn't care about the game. Much as I don't care about elephant football or camel vaulting. My issue is with its coverage. Especially its coverage in Scotland, Wales and N.Ireland.

As a fan of quiz shows, nothing boils my piss more than (e.g.) a contestant from Kilmarnock on The Weakest Link being asked about the sticky-off-wicket position. Or a team from St Andrews being expected to recognise cricket grounds from around the world.

[Power Metal Dom]

Ok then, why are you demoting cricket from a sport to a game? I'm no massive cricket fan but I wasn't aware there was a grey area surrounding it. I thought it was widely held to be a sport. Certainly looks like one to me, there's balls and bats and everything.

I'm also not sure what's wrong with Scottish people being asked about a primarily English game, isn't it the point of the quizzes you mention to ask about esoteric things? Especially University Challenge in fact, it's rather known for it.

[DACrowe]

And the Scottish university ended up with the round [on cricket].

Steve's English; if there was a massive cultural divide on the subject of cricket, surely Steve (er... that is 'St Andrews, Hall') would be on the other side of it.