‘It was a dream’: Leeds’ University Challenge captain on his experience on the iconic show

University Challenge team captain, Alex Tan, spoke to The Leeds Tab about what it was like starring on the BBC hit quiz show.

Alex was joined by fellow University of Leeds students, Finn Thomas, Jayan Patel, Ingrid Banerjee Marvin, and Callum Ormerod.

Leeds got off to a slow start on Monday night’s episode of University Challenge but managed to make “the most extraordinary comeback,” according to the show’s host, Amol Rajan.

It wasn’t enough though, with Leeds’ final score of 125 still falling short to Edinburgh’s winning score of 175 points.

However, The Leeds Tab spoke to Alex about his experience on the show. Talking about how confident the team felt going into the match, he said: “The team worked through everyone having their own set of specialisms. Mine were history, geography and computer science. That did mean there were certain areas where no one specialised and we were weaker in them, like animals and biology.

“So there was no expectation going into it because we knew lot of it was just down to luck depending on what the questions were.”

via BBC iPlayer

During the first half of the quiz show, Leeds struggled to move past 35 points, whilst Edinburgh sped ahead to 125. This meant that with just 15 minutes to go, Leeds was losing by a margin of 90 points.

Alex admitted that when Edinburgh was pushing ahead in the first half, he felt the pressure: “The panic does set in quite quickly.”

But a history question on a monarch from 1862 seemed to be a turning point, with the team’s captain, Alex Tan, first to press the buzzer and answer correctly.

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Once Leeds started making their comeback, Alex said it came as a huge relief. The team began building momentum, making it much easier to continue answering questions.

Leeds picked up the pace, scoring some difficult questions on bonus rounds in geography and literary works. The scoring soon began to level out, with Edinburgh slowing down as Leeds made their impressive comeback.

At the end of the show Amol told the Leeds team: “I did wonder about five minutes in whether you’d all sort of gone to sleep. You were on 40 points for ages and then you really woke up with an absolutely magnificent comeback.”

However, Alex said to The Leeds Tab the comeback wasn’t them waking up, it was them “getting into the groove”.

He continued: “At the start there were questions I knew but I wasn’t fast enough on the buzzer, I wasn’t feeling confident enough.”

Since the show aired on Monday, some viewers expressed feeling distracted by the unusual research topic of a member of the Leeds team, Ingrid Banerjee Marvin, who is studying for a PhD in the experiences of marginalised football fans.

According to the Daily Express, some fans were “baffled” by the choice.

Alex told The Leeds Tab: “It is a very unique PhD, but that’s what they’re meant to be. They’re areas of specialised research, relevant to your field.”

There appeared to be some despair from Amol during the music round of the show, when both teams failed to recognise the classic hit, Sittin’ on the Dock of the Bay.

Alex said whilst he thinks it’s fair the host was surprised none of the students recognised the song, he wouldn’t class it as “ridiculous”.

“It’s an older song and all of the competitors were quite young,” he explained.

Asked how Alex felt about the team’s performance, he expressed his pride, saying: “I was really proud. Everyone on the team tried really hard. I know it was a dream of mine personally, and I think it was a dream for everyone else, to actually go on the show.”

Featured image via Alex Tan