So even more obvious as there are several ports but only one ferry terminals.

I too was surprised at their relative weakness on those geography questions, but of course they were incredibly good on all sorts of other stuff.

You know you're not going to do well when during the team introductions you say " That's a coincidence, they all went to the same uni."

I was surprised that Manchester's "professor of poetry" (is that a real job?) got both the poetry questions wrong.
I wonder if there will be a queue outside his office when the new term starts of his students asking for their money back?

Well done to St. Anne's. They really shone.

"Manager of fleas and flies" was a new one for me, as well!

Mary Archer is a smart lady, makes you wonder why she married beneath her, love is blind as they say.

God, them men are a useless team.

Have you heard his "poetry"?

Why not? Can't you make an academic study of poetry? It's as much of a 'real job' as a professor of Economics or Theoretical Physics.

In more ways than one, he says, in a not at all stalkerish way as he scrawls NR4Me all over the cover of his diary!

It was refreshing to see a team of women trounce a team of men for a change. Mary Archer is very impressive. Apart from being too one-sided, it was a great contest.

The poetry prof. seemed to pause before answering even on the rare occasions he got the right answer. I'm amazed he didn't know William Topaz McGonagall.

Yes the ladies were a good team, but I'll probably get shot down in flames for saying the lady on the left of Mary Archer (her right) was getting on my nerves a bit.

It was a bit of cheek to call Scotland's National Poet the worlds's worst poet (or something like that).

But his style was immediately recognisable and "Tay" should have been a big clue. It is common though for people on the programme to have very detailed knowledge of a few subjects but limited more general knowledge.

Dr Janina Ramirez?

She is a bit excitable but always good fun on programmes that she does, she did the museum's quiz programme on BBC Four. I was surprised that she was not able to answer some of the questions about history and one about Greek?

Surely a certain R. Burns is Scotland's numero uno bard ?

However even I, who hates all poetry, recognised the twisted syntax of a William Topaz stanza.

Shot down in flames? No! Hanged, drawn and quartered, on the other hand. We love Ninja! You leave her alone!

Well, I don't suppose he comes up much in degree courses!

I thought the all-ladies team had been in the green room pre-match!

Rabbie is oor national bard

At least we have McGonagall to thank for Harry Potter purposes.

Why? Please explain.

Why not? He is one Britain's best known poets and many times better known than Armitage.

I've heard of him before as a "bad" poet , celebrated in a sort of ironic way , but would not have recalled the name. Unlike recalling the names of actual best known poets like Auden, Eliot and a few others. Because you are familiar with him, I think you underestimate how little he is probably known among the general (non Scot) British public at least..
However Armitage probably should have recognised him given his profession and academic career but the we have Historians who didnt get all the history questions right.

wrong thread

Paxman is a right idiot.
The fisherman bloke gave the answer "own" and idiot Paxman said incorrect, the answer is "Pwn" ... but as a player of online games the answer is actually "own" which is deliberately misspelled as "Pwned", the same way "the" is deliberately misspelled "teh" ... for grins.
I hate Paxman more than I hate the fisherman numpty.

Paul Ross is brilliant on this. The rest of his team, too.