Christ’s College triumphed over Warwick University last night (12/05) on University Challenge to secure their first ever win in the programme’s 63-year history.

The College’s team secured their narrow victory on the very last question of the programme, for a final score of 175–170. Oscar Despard (Natural Sciences), Brendan Bethlehem (Linguistics and Egyptian), Anniko Firman (Classics) and Linus Luu (Mathematics) all competed on behalf of Christ’s.

Warwick took the lead early, breaking triple digits with a score of 105–25 as Christ’s lagged far behind. However, Christ’s slowly gained ground, before Firman buzzed to answer the final question with 30 seconds left on the clock, correctly naming Agamemnon as Clytemnestra’s husband in the Greek myth to tie the score at 170–170. After that, Brendan Bethlehem delivered the final correct answer for Christ’s, identifying George II’s eldest son, Frederick.

Ian McKellen presented the trophy to the Christ’s team at the ADC Theatre in Cambridge, where McKellen made his stage debut in 1958 while an undergraduate at St. Catherine’s College.

The team said they practised by reviewing spreadsheets of 200 subjects, training their buzzer reaction times, and rewatching old University Challenge episodes. After filming the episode, they were required to keep their victory a secret for several months until the air date.

Despard, the College’s captain, said: “I was amazed by the turnout from the College to watch it last night! It was lovely to have such support; it was a great atmosphere.”

Despard also noted that he is a lifelong fan of the programme, which he watched with his mother. He told the Irish Times that he read the complete works of Shakespeare to prepare for the competition, on the logic that the playwright always appeared in questions – correctly, for the Bard was indeed a subject of a question in the final round.

Every year, Cambridge selects several teams for the programme. This year, Christ’s competed alongside Gonville and Caius, St. Catherine’s, and Darwin. Darwin advanced to the semi-finals, where they were defeated by the University of Bristol.

Christ’s beat Imperial College in the quarter-final round to advance to the finals. Imperial was the defending champion of the programme and was considered Christ’s rival for the title this year. The Christ’s team also beat two Oxford colleges – Exeter College and St Edmund Hall – as well as the University of Bristol.

Warwick was the only team to have previously defeated Christ’s as they vied for their spot on the programme, making Christ’s victory a reversal of fortunes.

A Cambridge college last won the programme in 2018, when St. John’s took first place. Cambridge alumnus and the show’s presenter, Amol Rajan, concluded: “What an absolutely fantastic final!”