The new season of University Challenge is now under way, with all five Cambridge teams safely through to the second round of the popular quiz show.

Since the programme began in early July, Christ’s, Peterhouse, Newnham, and Queens’ have all stormed to victory against their first heat opponents, dispatching major competitors such as Balliol College, Oxford, and the University of Liverpool.

Contestants exhibited an impressive knowledge of topics such as ‘salad vegetables in literature’, ‘Norwegian playwrights’ and ‘the monoclinic crystal system’.

St John’s College, Cambridge lost to Merton College, Oxford, by a nail-biting five points, but put in a convincing performance against the University of St Andrew’s last Monday in the highest-scoring losers round ever, winning 225-165.

St John’s College will face host Jeremy Paxman once again in the next stage of the contest.

Lizzie Coker, the Natural Sciences undergraduate captain of the Newnham team, told Varsity that her University Challenge preparation consisted of “watching previous episodes on BBC iPlayer and doing Facebook geography quizzes, amongst other things”.

“When we filmed our first round match,” Coker said, “we were the only girls out of about six teams at the studio. Southampton [which Newnham beat 135-115] were a lovely team to play against, and we all went out to a bar together afterwards”.

Other Cambridge participants were more guarded, expressing a reluctance to talk to the media out of fear of divulging any “big secrets”.

Emmanuel College won the tournament last season under the able leadership of Alexander Guttenplan, but Cambridge has struggled to perform in previous years.

Currently the University occupies second place in the University Challenge league table behind the University of Oxford, having lifted the winner’s trophy seven times in comparison with Oxford’s fourteen times.

Only four other universities have won the competition more than once - Durham, Sussex, Manchester and the Open University - all of which have won it twice.

Oxbridge’s dominance of University Challenge is often attributed to the fact that both Oxford and Cambridge submit multiple teams to the show, whereas other, far larger, institutions can only send one.

This controversial rule was famously protested by the 1975 University of Manchester team, which included future Times columnist David Aaronovitch.

They answered every question “Marx”, “Trotsky”, “Che Guevara” or “Lenin” in an unsuccessful effort to make the episode unbroadcastable, much to the bemusement of former host Bamber Gascoigne.

Louise Howes, captain of the Peterhouse squad, is not so sure that the rule should be changed.

She says that all entrants have to take “a pretty tough test” to qualify for the top 28 who make the show.

She added, “the public like watching teams from Oxbridge colleges compete in Varsity style matches or be completely destroyed by a modern uni!”

University Challenge airs every Monday at 20:00 on BBC Two. Be sure to tune in on Monday November 1, when Christ’s will take on the University of Edinburgh for a place in the quarter-final.