The University of Edinburgh became the first in Scotland for 36 years to be crowned champion of the long running BBC quiz show University Challenge.
The four-man team of Matt Booth, Marco Malusa, Max Fitz-James and Robbie Campbell Hewson beat Oxford University’s St Edmund Hall by 155 points to 140. They gave Edinburgh its first win since the series began in 1962. Edinburgh was also the first non-Oxbridge finalist in six years.
Team captain Max Fitz-James hailed his team after winning the prize. Speaking to BBC Scotland’s The Nine, he said: “The main secret is to be good as a team and that came in the selection process; they really made an effort to find people who had a complementary basis of knowledge so it wasn’t just down to one person, we did it as a team.
“The best training was watching past episodes and doing it together as a team, so we would get together every Monday and watch past episodes, pause and try and answer the questions before the team.
“This is the third year in a row that Edinburgh reached the semi-finals so we were very pleased we got one further than that, and even more pleased when we finally lifted the trophy.”
Novelist and former University Challenge contestant Sebastian Faulks presented the winning team with their prize.
The last Scottish university to win the competition was Dundee in 1983.
Professor Peter Mathieson, principal and vice-chancellor of the University of Edinburgh, said: “I would like to send my personal congratulations to the University of Edinburgh team for this fantastic achievement.
“The standards set in University Challenge are incredibly high. It’s a huge tribute to the students involved to have beaten off very tough competition from some of the sharpest minds in UK universities and won the final.
“University Challenge is a real television institution and everyone associated with the university should be justifiably proud of what the team has achieved.”
Leave a Reply