Bangor’s first time in the semis since 1999
Students from Bangor University have managed to secure a place in the semi-final round of University Challenge.
After beating their rivals, Cambridge King’s College, by 195 points to 70 on April 8th, this makes it the first time since 1999 that Bangor team have advanced to the semi finals.
The show, which is currently on its 50th series, has seen Bangor University beat the University of St Andrews 125-105, the University of Durham 175-165, lose against University College London 190-125, and win against Imperial College London 210-120.
The team was created last year after a selection process including several rounds of questioning over a period of months. It was finally whittled down Nina Grant, team captain and currently studying French and Linguistics; Simon Tomlinson, who is studying Psychology; Mark Stevens, who is studying Environmental Science; and Adam Pearce, who is studying Translation Studies, as well as team reserve Catriona Coutts.
Captain Nina Grant said of the victory, “I’m amazed by how well we did, not because we didn’t believe in our own abilities but because we knew the calibre of the teams we would go up against.”
She continued: “The whole experience has been brilliant. We had no idea when we started out that we’d get this far, but I think we have a wide range of knowledge among team members.”
Teammate Adam Pearce added, “I’ve always liked the programme and it’s something I’ve wanted to do since I started taking part in quizzes. It’s important to have a broad variety of knowledge in the team, but the possible range of questions is so broad that there’s a lot of luck to it too.”
Bangor University’s Univeristy Challenge team will be playing against the University of Manchester in the next round, which will be broadcasted on April 22, 2013 at 8pm on BBC 2.
