Reading victorious on University Challenge
16 August 2021
Updated Tuesday 17 August
The University of Reading were victorious in the first round of University Challenge last night. The team comfortably defeated the University of Strathclyde 175 points to 110, even managing to impress Jeremy Paxman who complemented them on their “great score”.
The team’s knowledge of subjects as diverse as Hayao Miyazaki films, Belgian cathedrals and Scottish islands helped see them through to the second round, which will be shown on BBC Two later this year.
Congratulations to the team!
You can watch the full episode on BBC iPlayer.
Original story
The University of Reading will be appearing in tonight’s episode of University Challenge on BBC Two, going up against the University of Strathclyde (and Jeremy Paxman!) in the first round.
Our 2021 team is made up of students:
- Michael Hutchinson (team captain) – studied for a PGCE in Maths
- Alex Skopic – studying for a Master’s in English Literature
- Margaret Ounsley – studying for a PhD in Poor Law History
- Sylvian Patrick Jesudoss – studying for a PhD in Marketing at Henley Business School
The two reserve team members are: Kira Bishop (second year Maths and Psychology) and Sarah Turvey (studying for a Master’s in Education).
Team captain Michael Hutchinson said: “The whole experience has been a blast! It is very exciting to represent the University of Reading on one of the most famous of quiz shows. It has certainly been an interesting experience preparing and filming under lockdown. We only met in person the first time on the day of filming! We hope people enjoy watching as much as we enjoyed filming.”
The team will be hoping to do better than last year’s squad who went out in the first round. They will also be looking to avoid the unique honour received by the Reading alumni team from 2018. The team, made up of famous and notable former students, got to the final round of the Christmas series, where they scored zero against the University of Oxford’s Keble College.
We wish them the best of luck!
The show will air on BBC Two at 20:30 on Monday 16th August