On Monday, Wolfson College will appear in the final of this year’s edition of University Challenge. Making only their second appearance on the BBC Two series, the Wolfson team, captained by the enigmatic Eric Monkman, will face off against Balliol College, Oxford for the chance to lift the famous University Challenge trophy.

Wolfson will be hoping to continue a run of quizzing success for Cambridge in recent years. In the last three years, Peterhouse, Gonville and Caius, and Trinity have each taken the title, and each defeated an Oxford college in the final to complete their runs to victory.

The team, comprising Justin Yang, Ben Chaudhri, Paul Cosgrove, and Monkman, had a tough start to the competition, requiring a tiebreaker question to see off SOAS in Round 1. Since then, they have been in strong form, comfortably beating two other Cambridge colleges, Jesus and Emmanuel, en route to the final. A hard-fought defeat to beaten semi-finalists Edinburgh in the quarter-finals is the only hiccup in an otherwise unblemished Wolfson record.

Monkman has also achieved the personal triumph of becoming an internet sensation, providing the material for reams of memes.

Balliol have also looked impressive throughout, chalking up margins of victory of over 100 points against Imperial College London, Robinson College, Cambridge, and the University of Birmingham. Captained by Joey Goldman, who racked up a personal score of 95 in last week’s 215-140 victory against Edinburgh, the Balliol team has established itself as one of the most consistent high-scorers in this year’s series, only once failing to earn more than 200 points.

Nonetheless, Wolfson will begin as the favourites, having triumphed when the two teams met earlier in the series. After a slow start left them trailing 60-5, Balliol bounced back strongly to take the lead with ten minutes to go, before Wolfson recovered, eventually closing out a 165-135 victory.

All eyes will be on the Wolfson captain, who personally contributed 120 of his team's 170 points in the semi-final victory over Emmanuel, having defeated fellow internet celebrity Bobby Seagull to enter the final as fan favourite.

Speaking to Varsity ahead of the final, Monkman, who is Canadian, said: “I have immensely enjoyed playing University Challenge. Quizzing with (and against) so many good friends was one of the highlights of my time in the United Kingdom.”