‘Online trials, remote practices and virtual pub quizzes”: all challenges faced by teams trying to prepare for this year’s University Challenge. But Covid gave contestants one that was far harder than any of those – meeting your teammates for the first time on the day of filming, especially in a game that depends so much on knowing your team’s strengths. The entertainment has not suffered, though – from first round dabs to 235 point winning margins, and no fewer than five games separated by five points, this season has certainly not struggled for drama. The same is true of last night’s nail-biting grand final.
The road to the final is often long and, due to the show’s convoluted quarter-final rules, often winding too. Not, though, for the Imperial College London quartet of Max Zeng, Fatima Sheriff, Michael Mays and Gilbert Jackson, who swatted aside St John’s, Cambridge, Exeter, Kings College London, Reading and Emmanuel College, Cambridge to make it to this stage. Their opponents: Sylvian Jesudoss, Margaret Ounsley, Michael Hutchinson and Kira Bishop, the University of Reading team completing the lineup of the first final not to feature an Oxbridge team in nine years. They knocked out the Scottish trio of Strathclyde, Dundee and Edinburgh, as well as beating Birmingham and St John’s, Cambridge, with their only blemish being a defeat to Imperial. This wasn’t necessarily reason to be downhearted, though: two teams have won the title despite facing previous conquerors in the final. Ahead of last night’s grand final, the only thing we could guarantee was that the trophy would go to a captain called Michael.
As the match started, a quick buzz from Zeng on Thucydides saw Imperial take an early lead, admirably dealing with the poetry bonuses. Reading’s Hutchinson quickly found himself striking back with a starter on modern pentathletes, giving them the lead thanks to a hat trick on musical modes. But Imperial then went on the rampage, with each player taking one starter, including a typical geography buzz for Zeng and Jackson showing his knowledge of “badass flags”. They found themselves with a 90-25 lead, despite being unable to answer any of the bonus questions on drag culture (“I’m going to get so roasted on the internet for this,” joked Sheriff.)
Reading’s Hutchinson was able to stop the rot by identifying the shape of pi on the periodic table, and they kept up their 100% bonus conversion to close the gap to just 40. With an aria from John Adam’s Nixon in China falling on Reading’s deaf ears, it fell to Imperial’s Mays – who is Scottish – to seemingly guess the correct Scottish king and claim the music bonuses. Proving the old adage ‘if at first you don’t succeed,’ Imperial eventually guessed correctly the aria that represented Jiang Qing, the wife of Mao Zedong, taking a 55 point lead at half-time.
One could be forgiven for writing Reading off at this point, but they rose from the ashes, with Ounsley and Hutchinson sharing the next four starters between them. Wasting no time in conferring, they quickly brought the game level at 105-105. An early maths buzz from Hutchinson ended up granting Reading the second picture bonuses, letting them take a 15 point lead.
In the final minute, Imperial found themselves going into a five point lead, thanks to another geography starter for Zeng – and their good knowledge of moons. With both teams knowing the next starter would win the title, nerves began to kick in. Neither team could take the starter on sundews, and an incorrect interruption from Hutchinson cost Reading five points, putting Imperial 10 up. Mays was unable to pick up the bounce back, and as Paxman turned the next card, the gong went.
A man known for his work levitating frogs (and discovering graphene), Professor Sir Andre Geim, turned out to be doing the trophy presentation – after some minor fist/elbow bumping shenanigans. As the winning captain went up to receive the trophy, his teammates looked utterly relieved. This shouldn’t be too surprising, though – Imperial had just won by a nose the closest fought grand final since 2006. Given what a strong performance Reading put in, they must have been very grateful it was their Michael who collected the trophy.
