UoL scraped past Sheffield in University Challenge

Liverpool boffins narrowly beat rivals Sheffield by just enough points to get them through to the next round of University Challenge.

The 25 point defeat aired on Monday in an episode which Paxman scoffed was “not the highest winning score we’ve ever seen”.

He congratulated Liverpool on their 155 point win, saying: “not the highest winning score we’ve ever seen but good enough to make it through to the next round.”

Former Tab News Editor Ben Mawdsley, Jem Davis, Hugh Hiscock and captain Deaglan Crew represented Liverpool, and drew in quite the following on Twitter.

Hiscock “the machine”- who’s doing an MA in French- appeared to be a firm favourite among viewers, along with captain Crew’s hair.

The masterminds consistently held the upper hand against the all-medic Sheffield team, even though they failed to live up to Liverpool’s past success.

In September last year, Liverpool smashed Keele in a 295-40 first round defeat.

A far cry off past Liverpool results

Either way, students were still delighted with the victory.

https://twitter.com/StobbsNorman/status/506550371763097600

The mighty Mawdsley, who studies astrophysics, said: “I’m glad the team scraped through against a good Sheffield side who looked like they were coming back very strongly towards the end.”

He continued: “I’ll promise to try and answer more questions next time round! I’m very proud of the team’s victory and hopefully the next one will be a bit more relaxing.”

Team captain and biochemistry student Deaglán said: “It was a really great experience, and I hope plenty of people will feel inspired to try out for the show next year.”

The team will know by Christmas whether they have qualified for the next level of the competition, after competing in several more first rounds.