12-05-2025
Dublin student Oscar Despard to lead his team in final of BBC's University Challenge tonight
DUBLIN STUDENT OSCAR Despard will be competing in the final of the prestigious BBC quiz show University Challenge tonight.
The 22-year-old Dubliner is captain of the Christ's College team from Cambridge University. He will be leading his team against the University of Warwick.
University Challenge is a long-running quiz show in which teams comprising students from universities in the UK battle it out, answering questions about esoteric topics.
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In the recent semi-final, Despard's team competed against the University of Bristol for a place in the final; Bristol's team was also captained by a Dubliner, 28-year-old Kevin Flanagan.
Belfast's Queen's University made it as far as the quarter-finals.
Despard, who is studying for his PhD in molecular biology, is joined by teammates Brendan Bethlehem, Linus Luu, and Anniko Firman.
He told
The Irish Times that the four put together a big spreadsheet covering around 200 topics that were likely to come up in the programme and then divided the categories between themselves.
Humanitarian aid organisation Concern wished Despard and his team luck on X this afternoon. In 2019, he captained his school's team in the finals of the Concern Debates.
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Quiz: Could you make it to the University Challenge final?
The student attended Sandford Park School in Ranelagh, Dublin,
where he was one of just two students in the country to achieve
9 H1s in his Leaving Cert in 2021.
The grand final airs tonight on BBC2 at 8:30pm.
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