Warwick students through to University Challenge quarter-finals

Monday night’s University Challenge showed the Warwick Team beat the University of East London, and secure a place in the quarter-finals.

The quarter-finals mean that the winning team will need to win two games out of three, in order to go through.

Team Captain Giles Hutchings said: “I obviously want to do as well as possible, and only eight out of 28 teams make it to the quarters, proving we’ve already done quite impressively.”

Although it is not yet known who Warwick will be playing, Hutchings added: “It will probably be an Oxbridge college, and it definitely will be harder. There’s more at stake when you’ve got a little closer to the trophy.”

When discussing their performance in the second round, the team said it was great fun to watch back, and they even surprised themselves with some of the things they knew.

However, it was not all plain sailing, as Hutchings was disappointed with one of his answers.

“I messed up one of the bonuses on French dynasties, and Sophie Rudd next to me knew the answer, but I switched up Merovingian and Carolingian and said the wrong one.

But I was really pleased with getting caduceus (hospital staff with two snakes), as it’s one of my favourite words.”

The Warwick team also added that the opposing team were very friendly and relaxed, whereas other teams aren’t usually like that.

“They provide games like Scrabble and Jenga to try and get the teams to socialise.”

Hutchings said that he had always wanted to be on University Challenge since he first saw it around eight years ago.

“I guess I kind of want to show my obscure and useless knowledge off, and I’ve got the chance to do that. And be on national television of course.”