Sussex was unable to progress to the second round of the BBC’s University Challenge after losing out to Manchester in their first-round clash broadcast last night.
The 2014 team of four students had previously scored so highly against the victorious St Peter’s College, Oxford in their first appearance on the show that they were given a second chance to progress in the competition.
This time, Sussex could only muster 95 points against Manchester, which won a place in the second round with an impressive 210 points. In their first appearance on the show in August, Sussex’s team scored 150 points, the university’s best-rated performance in 11 years.
Manchester gave Sussex plenty of opportunities and, following the mid-show music round, Sussex had sneaked ahead in the tie with 75 points against Manchester’s 55.
However, Manchester went onto almost quadruple their score in the space of ten-minutes, leaving Sussex’s University Challenge dream shattered. Host Jeremy Paxman commented at the end of the programme that he felt the Sussex team “didn’t really get into their stride”.
Sussex’s second University Challenge appearance of 2014 aired on Monday, November 3 at 8pm on BBC Two and can be viewed for the next 30 days on BBC iPlayer.
This year’s Sussex team comprised of Matthew Dean, a Philosophy undergraduate; Thomas Whitehurst, studying a masters in Cognitive Neuroscience; David Spence, a masters student in Scientific Computation and Joss MacDonald, an undergraduate reading History and Politics.
The Badger, in its next issue (available on campus from the morning of Monday, November 10), will be introducing next year’s successful University Challenge candidates as well as breaking an exclusive interview with Joss MacDonald, the captain of this year’s high-scoring team.
