There has been a lot written about Corpus Christi Oxford team captain, Gail Trimble. Some like her, some do not, some find her sexy. Whatever your opinion, the very fact that I'm writing about a team captain on University Challenge means this young woman is surely a bit special. I'd never seen her in action before, so I thought I'd better take a look. In last night's semi-final, her team took on St John's College, Cambridge and Ms Trimble revealed herself to be a one-woman, question-answering machine. Have a look over the jump for the evidence.
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2:41 Trimble gets the ball rolling by answering a question correctly about Pride and prejudice. 10 points.
3:31 Answers two bonus questions. 10 points.
4:00 Answers a starter for ten. 10 points.
4:18 Answers one of three bonus points. Looks surprised when one of her team mates suggests the right answer to another. 5 points.
Corpus Christi 40-0 up.
6:10 Trimble gets two bonus questions wrong.
7:00 St John's on the board.
8:20 Trimble's back on track, answering a starter about Latin phrases. 10 points.
8:37 Jeremy says "Yep" three times to three correct bonus answers. 15 points.
9:19 Another correct starter from Trimble. 10 points.
9:42 A Trimble bonus question guess is right, as is the second and then the third. 15 points.
CC already 105-15 up.
10:43 Jeremy just smiles, looks down at his questions... Trimble has buzzed in correctly yet again. 10 points.
10:58 Schwatzman gets a bonus q right, then is overruled by her captain. Trimble is right. They both agree for the third. 10 points.
13:02 Big fightback from St John's.
Corpus Christi 130 St John's 85. Exciting!
16:08 Trimbles gets a starter wrong...a bit tongue-tied there. Loses five points.
17:02 Get one bonus right, and then guesses incorrectly. Five points.
17:28 Back on track with a starter. 10 points.
18:09 Overrules team mate on a bonus, incorrectly. Gets help to answer the next question correctly, and then the next.
19:56 Oscar Wilde starter in the bag, no trouble. 10 points.
20:23 Collaborative correct answer on the bonuses.
Corpus Christi 180-105 up.
21:00 Incorrect starter.
21:30 Answers a starter about turnips correctly. 10 points.
22:31 Another starter in the bag. 10 points.
23:10 One bonus q right. Five points.
24:24 Another starter in the bag. 10 points.
24:53 One bonus right, one wrong. The final is right, but not GT's work. Five points.
26:36 Another starter. 10 points.
26:54 One of the three bonuses is Trimble's work. Five points.
27:33 She's on fire again. Starter correct. 10 points.
It's all over. Corpus Christi wins 260-155. I calculated that Gail Trimble won 185 of those points for her college, which was a pretty astonishing performance. And, contrary to some of my colleagues, I didn't think she was smug or patronising - to me she seemed shy, smiley and, obviously, hyper intelligent.
She's surely in line for our Woman Of The Year prize. The final is next week.
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Astonishing can be the only word to describe it. Trimbles performance in last nights semi final of University Challenge. Crikey, she could have had played on her own against the the other seven participants & she still wouldn't have broken into a sweat.
Like me, Jezzer alo seems enamoured with her bountiful knowledge. On some occasions, when he confirmed her answer as correct, he playfully swept the question card away, bowing his head, flirtfully grinning whilst raising his eyebrows in one complete unnerving motion. Gone were Jezzers obligatory sarcastic comments and the usual nagging 'come on' - only to be replaced by genuine adoring looks, glances & cheeky smiles.
Disappointingly for Jezzer, this affectionate ruse did nothing but to spur Trimble on to winning the semi final literally by herself.
It's not often I would compare myself to Paxman but on this occasion I can understand the attraction.
Can't wait for the final.
I actually found her much more likeable in this round. There was a point where I was rooting for St Johns to make a comeback! I'm such a sucker for an underdog, even a hyper clever brainy one.
In the quarter-final against Exeter she racked up about 270 - 280 points. Was incredible.
Just to correct you on the final score of this match Paul, it was 260-150 rather than 260-155.
Trimble's twelve starters on the night means that she's answered a mind-boggling 41 so far in this series, an average of over ten a match. There have been other brilliant contestants in the Paxman Era of UC - Ian Bayley from the Balliol Oxford side of 2000/1, Nick Mills from the Manchester team that were pipped by UCL in the 2004/5 semi-finals, and Ivan Polancec from that UCL side - but it's hard to disagree that Trimble is even better than they were. And I too don't find her smug or patronising.
However, she and her team will have to have their work cut out in the final - the Manchester side they're facing is just as awesome as she is. They too are lightning quick on the buzzer and have piled up huge scores, and it certainly wasn't expected in any way, shape or form that they'd demolish Lincoln Oxford 345-30 in the first semi-final, since Lincoln were also a very impressive team. Also they are the 'home side', so there's bound to be plenty of support for them in the audience.
I would like Trimble and co to win, though.
Mind you, without taking anything away from Trimble, I felt that St John's really should have got that picture starter showing Oscar Wilde, since they had three Irish players on the team.
Cheers Des, thanks for hilighting my rubbish adding up skills. I must have been blinded by Trimble fever!
Does anyone know how many points the wonderful Gail Trimble has personally scored on the road to the final??
Just come here from the Guardian's report - I didn't realise the Observer had nicked basically their whole piece from this blog.
Everyone seems to confuse knowledge with intelligence, but the former merely requires a good memory, whereas the latter requires the ability to work things out. University Challenge is essentially a test of memory, not of intelligence.
This is not intended in any way to denigrate Ms Trimble, who has indeed amassed an impressive amount/breadth of knowledge in her 26 years, but merely to point out that knowledge and intelligence are different entities.