Spoilers for Monday 23rd June 2025 - S91 QF3

[Philip A]

Two Apterites vie for a place in Thursday’s semi-final: Tim James, 3rd seed, plays Matt Fife who just missed out on his eighth victory by a crucial conundrum.

[Jon Stammers]

Good contest. Nervy from both of them.
Sad to see Matt go out.

Rd 8 I got ATOMISM for 7

[Gavin Chipper]

That buzz was very borderline in the 30 seconds. From the music, you'd think the time was over. The bong had started but was still in its fading out phase and the lights were fully lit. It's difficult to time exactly, but the conundrum starts just after it turns to 32:19 on the C4 catch-up and the buzz is just after it turns to 32:49. It's inconclusive.

It's previously been questioned whether the buzzers are actually locked out when the round isn't live. See discussion here in 2023 and also from here in 2013, which runs over a couple of pages.

[Philip A]

They were tough rounds admittedly, but the better numbers player won. And it’s still better to win 1-0 than to lose 5-4.

Two opinions from me:

1) Now that the conundrum is digital, the letters should simply flash up instantly without animation.

2) Neither buzz should be accepted at all after all the lights on the clock have lit up.

It should be like Only Connect where there is a strict 30 second window to buzz in.

[Graeme Cole]

That buzz was very borderline in the 30 seconds. From the music, you'd think the time was over. The bong had started but was still in its fading out phase and the lights were fully lit. It's difficult to time exactly, but the conundrum starts just after it turns to 32:19 on the C4 catch-up and the buzz is just after it turns to 32:49. It's inconclusive.

It's previously been questioned whether the buzzers are actually locked out when the round isn't live. See discussion here in 2023 and also from here in 2013, which runs over a couple of pages.

I too thought the buzz was out of time, but on closer investigation I'm pretty sure it wasn't. Stepping through my recorded-from-the-actual-TV-signal file frame by frame, C2's buzzer lights up 29.7 seconds (743 frames) after the clock hand starts moving. Even if you count it from when the virtual conundrum flippything starts to rotate, it's 29.9 seconds (748 frames).

The illusion of the out-of-time buzz possibly arises from the clock itself being very slightly fast. There also seems to be a short delay before the audible "buzz" noise starts, which made it sound like it was even more late.

If I were to hazard a guess, I'd say that the timing of when the buzzers are enabled and disabled is done by a computer, which can accurately measure 30 seconds. The massive clock, iconic though it is, isn't authoritative. It's just a decorative prop.

[Ryan Lam]

So many interesting things happened during the Introduction. Firstly, rediscovering the fact that Tim James did not meet Rachel Riley until now because Dr. Tom Crawford was the arithmetician throughout his eight matches. Secondly, we now know Tim's brother to be Dan Cartwright who appeared on the show in November 2017. Finally, Tim didn't have a nickname because Dr. Tom didn't think one for him nor Colin asked for it back in his Preliminaries. Oh shut it Colin with "Mr. Clint" , I preferred Susie's nickname of "The Young Pretender". But of course, no pretending not to be nervous for both Tim and Matt as this might prove yet another match too close to call!

First Third: What a bad start in R1, unlucky as both had the invalid beastier On to R2 then, and everyone on the Daily Chat probably had an inkling this part was refilmed because most of us got that rude eight-letter word instead (if it did happen, shame on Countdown for not showing the raw clip and censoring it) . Tim goes for a safe choice of 1 Large of R3, and it's so easy both him and Matt can relax for 25 out of the 30 seconds!

Second Third: Unlucky Tim, it's always words like aminos that trip people up, and unfortunately Susie is correct to say it's disallowed in R4 . With that, Matt pulls ahead, but not for long. I expected him to go with his usual 3 Large as he always did for his first selection in his Preliminaries, but he goes 4 Large instead and this is considered easy for a Finals since it's impossible to hit the target dead on. Tim does it and gets ahead with just a point difference! The margin is unchanged and Tim "gambles" with 6 Small in R9 and a hard one comes out (maybe the trick is to pick 6 Small for CECIL to generate hard puzzles, hmm...) such that there's only one solution for the nearest number you can reach. Neither contestant has anything to declare, yikes, looks like we're in for a low-scoring match at this rate!

Last Third: Oh man, Tim's luck couldn't get worse here with judoing and Matt coming up with DAIGOU for R10 which is still valid in the ODP surprisingly! Wow, the lead is changing faster than I could keep up! With three manageable letter rounds afterwards, comes the all important R14. 3 Large selection it is, but it's so simple to get the target once you see the key factors. Matt misses it, allowing Tim to have the advantage going into the crucial conundrum!!! This is it, if Matt buzzes with the correct answer, he'll be the third #6 Seed in a row to win QF3. He'd probably wished that a NIGEL would have VOIDed the round before as the conundrum was revealed, and I kept thinking to myself "No way the answer ends in -ING here", but guess what, it's one of those super rare times it did and I got the answer! Just as Colin starts his remarks to say time was up, oh hello, Matt manages to buzz in somehow (?!) with videoling, to which is obviously wrong and gave Tim the hard-earned win he wanted!!

If I were to hazard a guess, I'd say that the timing of when the buzzers are enabled and disabled is done by a computer, which can accurately measure 30 seconds. The massive clock, iconic though it is, isn't authoritative. It's just a decorative prop.

Definitely have this theory Graeme and I did mention it in the 2023 thread that this was my thinking at the time too!

Man, if you thought many University Challenge matches over the 2024/2025 Academic Year gave you heart attacks in the form of the matches being so tight, then add this episode to that list too. It was literally the last Numbers Round that made the crucial difference between who won and who lost, and so, Matt's fate was sealed here. I predicted this match would end with a crucial conundrum and Tim would win with a less than ten point margin, and I was right with the difference only at five points. Amazing match and to Matt, you might not have continued the streak of the #6 Seed causing an upset, but you definitely gave Tim a scare. As per what Colin mentioned at the end of R13, both you and Tim analysed each other's tactics when it came to selecting the letters and viewers like us could see this happening, so well thought and well fought out on your part! Hopefully you're doing well after the show was filmed and the Daily Chat members send our regards to you!

There you have it, it's the Battle of the Tims this Thursday in the second Semi-Finals and when's the last time there was more than one episode in the same Series where two people of the same first name competed against each other? I bet it must have been ages and let us know if you have the answer here! But before that, we of course will get to see who fills up that last Semi-Finalist spot. Will it be "A Filipino whose favourite place of all things, is Changi Airport" Amy Berry, or "80 years old plus, not to be messed with and redeeming herself big time after a heartbreaking tiebreak conundrum 19 years earlier" Christine Smith? It's a showdown between two women you don't want to miss!

Progress:
QF1 (19 June 2025): Rhys Jones (#1) vs Michael Kane (#8) (97 - 64)
QF2 (20 June 2025): Tim Bridgstock (#2) vs Tom Page (#7) (99 - 90)
QF3 (23 June 2025): Tim James (#3) vs Matt Fife (#6) (75 - 70)
QF4 (24 June 2025): Amy Berry (#4) vs Christine Smith (#5)
SF1 (25 June 2025): Rhys Jones (QF1 Winner) vs (QF4 Winner)
SF2 (26 June 2025): Tim Bridgstock (QF2 Winner) vs Tim James (QF3 Winner)
GF (27 June 2025): (SF1 Winner) vs (SF2 Winner)

[Jon Stammers]

Thanks for the commentaries Ryan.

I noticed following Colin mentioning a couple of times that Tim and Matt played each other online regularly, that there were several new players on Apterous that afternoon/evening. Guess this is how I found my way to Apterous as well, thinking about it.

[Rhys Benjamin]

As I said two years ago, the "bong" shouldn't be part of the 30 seconds and the clock music needs to be slowed down ever so slightly to correct this.

My brother declared TELEPORTING in Round 12, even though it's 11 letters long and has 2 phantom letters.

[Gavin Chipper]

My brother declared TELEPORTING in Round 12, even though it's 11 letters long and has 2 phantom letters.

Would have been even better if it was a numbers round.