Five weeks into University Challenge 2007 and I hadn’t seen a team that I thought could go all the way and win. There had been some outstanding individuals, but not a whole team. That was until last night. Jeremy Paxman introduced the two institutions: St Cross, Oxford (Arms pictured right) and Trinity Hall, Cambridge. For the former, this was their debut on the show, being one of the lesser known colleges at Oxford, while the latter we learnt had 350 students and previously schooled Oscar winner Rachel Weisz.

The two teams began proceedings…

St Cross, Oxford
Russell – studying for a DPhil in Material Sciences.
Leigh – studying for a MPhil in International Relations.
Ferguson (captain) – studying for a DPhil in Archaeology. Looked a little like actor Max Beasley and was the strongest of his team. I was gratified to see that he correctly answered a question on the address of cartoon character Bananaman.
Pilmoor – studying for a DPhil in Musicology. She frowned all the way through and must have given herself a headache through her evident concentration.

Trinity Hall, Cambridge
Prendville – studying Maths. Each member of Trinity Hall (excepting Wyatt) seemed to have the same hairdresser, with each of them sporting messy, wavy, slightly grown out locks. Might be a maths student but impressed with a tough classical music question.
Waller – studying Natural Sciences. A good contestant, though evidently embarrassed at correctly identifying a logo from Star Wars.
Moëd (captain) – studying Chemistry. A strong captain that was forthright and keen not to waste time, much in contrast to many of the dawdling captains of previous weeks. He spoke very quickly and sometimes I had a job keeping up with what he said.
Wyatt – studying Engineering. A very strong contestant. His knowledge was broad and eclectic and he would allow himself a wry smile of satisfaction on answering a question correctly. Wore a face of screwed up agony when striving for elusive answers.

Trinity Hall started well in the opening stages, though St Cross managed to stay in touch. After ten minutes, Trinity Hall’s lead was only that of 65 to the 40 of St Cross, but the Cambridge team was quickly gaining confidence. With Wyatt strong from the start and all team members from Trinity Hall chipping in with valuable points, the gap began to widen as the half-way point beckoned, with Trinity now leading convincingly with 125 to 30.

Paxman attempted to lighten the mood in his inimitable style, when after a question on people who only eat one thing, he quipped “like students and pizza, apparently.” Too focused on the job at hand, none of the students indulged his funny by laughing and soon it was the grumpy Paxman of old and back to business.

With ten minutes to go, St Cross was still lagging dramatically with only 45 points scored, compared to the impressive tally of 175 amassed by St Trinity. But they were not going to go down without a fight, and in the closing stages they began to win some of the starter for tens. Pilmoor chipped in with one on Elton John, Leigh, who had remained pretty silent throughout scored one and Russell swooped with two correct answers. Meanwhile, Trinity Hall fluffed when Moëd mistakenly believed that Prendville knew an answer, nominated him and found that Prendville did not have a clue.

Was this to be another amazing comeback or had St Cross left themselves too much work to do in the late stages? With five minutes to go the scores stood at 85 to 195, but as St Cross looked to claw themselves back into it, the gap was reduced to less than 100. Sadly, this fight-back didn’t, and maybe couldn’t last long, and Trinity Hall’s calm confidence saw them stack up more points to finish on a convincing 255 to the 110 of St Cross.

Paxman believed that for first-timers, St Cross had acquitted themselves well and that people would remember the contribution they made. His attempt to make them feel better by saying 110 was “not a humiliating score”, probably made them feel quite the opposite, while Trinity Hall were applauded for their “terrific score.” Maybe not the most best individual contestants, but as a team, the Cambridge boys will need some beating.

Week 4: Birmingham lost to St Andrews
Week 3: Liverpool lost to Leeds
Week 2: Magdalen lost to SOAS
Week 1: Lancaster lost to Nottingham