University Challenge Team Fall At Final Hurdle

It’s been a while since UEA gave any of the major players in University Challenge (read: about six thousand Oxford and Cambridge colleges) a sleepless night. The university team hasn’t even reached the televised rounds since 2007. So whilst us lowly students still search for glory and a put-down from Paxman, it was up to our alumni squad to prove that we are an academic force to be reckoned with in this year’s Christmas special.

The team was made up of David Grossman (correspondent at Newsnight), John Boyne (author of The Boy in Striped Pajamas), Razia Iqbal (BBC journalist) and Charlie Higson (author and comedian). Interestingly enough, all four members graduated from UEA with an Arts degree, which may explain why they looked so stumped when faced with a simple question on Pythagoras’ theorem.

After winning our first match against Birmingham easily and trouncing the University of Glasgow in the semi-final, we had high hopes for UEA achieving the kind of glory normally reserved for a student who has achieved all of the 5Ls. Sadly we were to be disappointed as in the final match, New College Oxford beat the team by 205 points to 110.

Better luck next time, UEA. Let’s hope the 2013 team finally show the Russell Group what it’s missing!