Guttenplan leads Cambridge to University Challenge win

Emmanuel College sail to an easy victory in an Oxbridge University Challenge final

by David Pegg

This article is 15 years old

Monday April 5 2010, 10:41pm

Emmanuel College claimed victory in the final episode of the 2010 series of University Challenge tonight, steamrollering over the competing team from St John’s College, Oxford.

Jeremy Paxman announces the winning scoreBBC

The winning team, comprising Andy Hastings, Jenny Harris, Josh Scott and led by Alexander Guttenplan won 315-100, the highest score attained by any team in the finals for the past six years.

The team was also the highest-scoring team of the entire season, with an average of 270 points per round.

Poet Laureate and Honorary Fellow of Homerton College, Carol Ann Duffy, presented the team with the trophy and praised their "comprehensive" victory. Their win is the first for Cambridge in 15 years, when Trinity College beat New College, Oxford.

St John's briefly seized the lead early in the game with a round on Mexican history, but Emmanuel soon returned to pole position after correctly answering questions on medieval French provinces, dialectic street signs and linguistics.

Even the notoriously demanding host Jeremy Paxman was impressed by Emmanuel’s performance, calling it ‘astonishing’.

The first Oxbridge final in several years was heavily hyped by national media due to Guttenplan's encyclopaedic knowledge and Internet fame. The 19-year-old became an unlikely Internet sensation and hit national headlines after a celebrated exchange between himself and Paxman. When Paxman told Guttenplan "good guess" after the student correctly answered a question on W.H. Auden, Guttenplan calmly replied, "It wasn't a guess."

A Facebook group, "alex guttenplan; very clever. very nice", has attracted 2,104 "Guttenfans", who describe him as "a little wonder kid" and "a legend". In a recent interview with Varsity, Guttenplan good-naturedly describes the attention as "a bit odd".

It has also been alleged that Guttenplan had criticised Paxman for mispronouncing questions, although he has since claimed that his words were misinterpreted and has said that Paxman had been a "generous and friendly" host.

Speaking after the programme was broadcast, Guttenplan said, "We've come up against some great teams, both as competitors and as people - we hope they stay in touch."

The winning performance can be viewed on BBC iPlayer here.

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