Asking the questions, Jeremy Paxman.

Hello. By the end of tonight's match, we will know the first

of the four teams who will be competing in the semifinal

stage of this competition.

Both teams playing for that place tonight already have one

quarterfinal victory behind them,

so whoever wins tonight will go through while the losers will

get one final chance to stay in the contest.

Now, the team from Liverpool University have managed to

increase their score with every appearance.

They came out of Round One with 155 points, only 25 ahead of their

opponents - the University of Sheffield.

But they had a happier time of it in Round Two

when they beat Glasgow University by 170 points to 105.

Their first quarterfinal win was by a 60-point margin at

the expense of the University of Bristol.

With an accumulated total of 500,

let's let them reintroduce themselves.

Hi, I'm Ben Mawdsley. I'm from Southport

and I'm studying astrophysics.

Hi, my name is Jem Davis. I'm from Gullane near Edinburgh and

I'm studying for a master's in tropical disease biology.

- And this is their captain. - Hi, I'm Deaglan Crew. I'm originally from

Liverpool and I'm studying for a BSc in biochemistry.

Hi, I'm Hugh Hiscock.

I'm from Southampton and I'm studying for an MA in French.

APPLAUSE

Now the team from St Peter's College, Oxford have also improved

their score each time we've seen them.

In Round One, they beat Sussex University by 205 points to 150.

They met Selwyn College, Cambridge in Round Two and were 135 points

ahead of them at the gong

and their first quarterfinal total of 240

was exactly three times that of

their opponents from Oxford Brookes University with an accumulated

total of 680 points.

Let's meet St Peter's again.

Hello, I'm John Armitage and I'm from Lancaster

and I'm reading mathematics.

Hi, I'm Ed Roberts. I'm from London and I'm studying history.

- And this is their captain. - Hello, I'm Gabriel Trueblood.

I'm from London and I'm studying medicine.

Hello, I'm Spike Smith.

I'm from Maidenhead and I'm reading for a Masters in mathematics.

APPLAUSE

Right, you all know the rules better than I do, I imagine.

So fingers on the buzzers, here's your first starter for 10.

Designed by the architect Luigi Moretti

and partially funded by the Vatican, which five building apartment

and business complex in Washington DC was the scene of a burglary...?

BELL RINGS

Watergate Hotel.

Erm... No.

And the scene of a burglary and the arrest of its five

perpetrators in June 1972?

BUZZER

Watergate...building.

That's correct. It's the Watergate complex.

It specifically wasn't the hotel.

Right, let's take a set of bonuses for you, then, St Peter's.

They are on Greek islands.

Which island group in the Eastern Mediterranean includes Kos

and Patmos and has a name meaning 12 islands?

- Dodecanese. - Correct.

Sharing their collective name with the area of the Mediterranean

in which they're situated, which group of seven principal islands

includes Ithaca and Zakynthos?

Could be the Ionian Islands.

- The Ionian Islands. - Correct.

Which group in the Aegean consists of numerous islands located

in a roughly circular configuration around the island of Delos?

No idea.

- Pass. - The Cyclades.

So a starter question. What ordinal number links a 17th-century Puritan

sect that believed in the eminent rule of the saints,

an alleged clandestine group of nationalist supporters in the

Spanish Civil War, the constitution introduced in France in 19...?

BELL RINGS

Fifth.

Fifth is correct, yes.

Right, bonuses, Liverpool, on chemical elements.

Which element with atomic number 31 has one of the lowest melting

points of all the metallic elements at just under 30 degrees Celsius

at standard pressure?

- Is it gallium or... Gallium? - Yeah.

- Gallium. - Correct.

With a similar melting point to gallium, which elements

lies between rubidium and francium in group 1 of the periodic table?

- Cesium. - Yeah, cesium. - Cesium.

Correct.

And finally, which transition metal has the highest melting point

of all the metallic elements making it suitable for alloys

used in heating and electronics?

- Tungsten. - Correct.

Time for another starter.

10 points for this. Also known as Sydenham's chorea, which

disorder of the nervous system is characterized by involuntary

tics in the limbs and face and takes its common name from an early

Christian martyr whose feast day is June 15th?

BELL RINGS

- St Vitus Dance. - Correct.

Liverpool, these bonuses are on 19th-century art.

Which group of artists and critics was formed in a meeting at the

house of John Millais in London's Gower Street in the late 1840s?

- Pre-Raphaelites? - Pre-Raphaelites.

- Pre-Raphaelites. - Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, correct.

"One of the very noblest works of sacred art ever

produced in this or any age," that was John Ruskin's description of

which painting by the Pre-Raphaelite artist William Holman Hunt begun

when he was 21 years old? I need the precise five-word title.

- Oh, dear. Any ideas? - No. - I...

I'm not a big fan.

- No idea. - It's The Light Of The World.

It's the one with Christ holding the lantern.

And finally, Beata Beatrix and Fazio's Mistress

are later 19th-century paintings by which other member of

the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood?

- Rossetti. - Rossetti.

Correct. 10 points for this.

According to its creator, which painting originated in a panic

attack he suffered during an evening walk near Christ...?

BELL RINGS

Oh, sorry. I was... Picasso, but... Never mind.

I'm sorry, you're going to lose five points.

..an evening walk near...

BUZZER

- The Scream. - The Scream by Edvard Munch, of course.

Right, these bonuses are on words containing the vowel combination

A-E-A, St Peter's. In each case, give the word from the definition.

Firstly, a five-letter term for a hymn of thanksgiving

for a victory in battle. It's used more generally for a tribute

or other expression of praise?

- Paean. - Paean.

Paean, yeah, sure.

Secondly, the adjective that describes

the system for assigning names to plants and animals drawn up by and

named after an 18th-century Swedish naturalist and explorer.

- Linnaean. - Correct.

And finally, the vast area comprising

all of the continental crust of the Earth's thought to have existed in

the Permian and Triassic periods before breaking up into Gondwana

and Laurasia.

- Pangaea. - Correct.

Right, we're going to take our first picture round.

For your picture starter, you're going to see an irrational number

expressed as a continued fraction.

For 10 points, I want you to identify the irrational number.

BUZZER

Square root of two.

It is the square root of two, yes.

So your picture bonuses are three more irrational mathematical

constants, this time expressed as convergent infinite series.

Again, in each case, I want you to identify the number to which

each of the following series converges.

Firstly, for five...

- E. - E is correct, yes. Secondly...

- How many irrational numbers can we name? - I don't know.

- The golden ratio, I don't...? - I leave you guys to it.

- Yeah... - Fine. - I have no idea.

- Try phi. - Phi.

Phi is correct, yes, the golden ratio. And finally...

Yeah, that's... That's pi.

Pi?

- Pi. - Pi is correct, yes.

Everyone at home will have been working those out

with great pleasure. Right, 10 points for this.

Established in 1916,

which office was initially occupied by Maurice Hankey, who had

previously served as secretary to the Committee Of Imperial Defence?

Later holders of the position include John Hunt, Robert Armstrong

and Jeremy Heywood, who succeeded Gus O'Donnell in 2012?

BUZZER

Head of the Civil Service.

That's correct, yes. It's the Cabinet Secretary, specifically,

but it's the same post.