13-05-2025
Dublin's winning University Challenge captain on revising everything and the reaction back home
FOR THE FIRST time ever, Christ's College Cambridge won the long-running BBC quiz show University Challenge last night – and did so captained by a Dubliner.
Oscar Despard, a PHD student in Cambridge, said he had the idea of one day appearing on the show for some time, but was still surprised when he led his team to victory.
In last night's closely contested final, Christ's College won the competition over the University of Warwick 175 – 170.
'We got the first question, and thought maybe this will be smooth enough,' Despard told
The Journal
. 'But then they just steamed ahead, kept beating us to questions where we thought we knew the answer, and we were trying to butt in. But they were just quicker than us for the first maybe ten minutes.
'I think that kind of reversed towards the end. I think they also knew the questions that we were getting right towards the end, but were just a few seconds too late.'
Despard's team won a narrow victory in the show's final yesterday evening.
BBC
BBC
The 22-year-old filmed the final a number of months ago and kept the results under wraps for the duration of the show's time on air, not even telling his parents.
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Yesterday, his family and friends at home gathered in Despard's old sailing club in Dún Laoghaire to watch the final and see Despard take the trophy for Cambridge, presented by actor Ian McKellan.
In Cambridge, Despard and his team watched the final in the one of the university's lecture theatres, where there was a big reception planned afterwards.
'There was a bigger audience, I must say, than I that I could have expected last night in the college to watch it.'
The reaction from home has been immense.
President Michael D Higgins issued his congratulations, saying today, 'Congratulations to Oscar Despard on captaining his team from Christ's College, Cambridge, to victory in the final of University Challenge.'
'My mother's got even more [messages] than I had from all her colleagues at work and her friends,' Despard said. 'I've been surprised at the amount of attention it's gotten – it's all very positive though.'
Despard's mother is Professor Niamh Moran of RCSI, while his father runs the popular Bretzel Bakery in Portobello. Through marriage, he is also related to activist and novelist
Charlotte Despard
.
Ian McKellan presenting the trophy to Oscar Despard on the programme yesterday.
BBC
BBC
The quiz show has been running since 1962. It is known for its incredibly difficult questions that span across history, literature, geography, politics, music, sport, drama, film, art, and many more topics.
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Dublin student Oscar Despard leads team to victory in final of BBC's University Challenge
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Christ's College were caught out when a question on Premier League popped up in another episode, but they made great efforts to revise for the programme.
'We try to kind of cover as much as we can,' Despard said. 'Part of it is in selecting the team, we try to select a group of people who all have complimentary knowledge, so that you try to cover as much as possible.'
Despard's team was made up of three others: Brendan Bethlehem (Linguistics), Linus Luu (Maths), and Anniko Firman (Classics).
The team made a spreadsheet with topics and items to revise, divvying out various areas to study in depth. The questions can span so widely that the team had someone revising video games, he said.
'I mean, to be honest, revision helps a little bit, but also most of the time, you'll get things that are the things you happen to know and have collected over years, gathering random facts.'
Once a student has appeared on University Challenge, even if only for one episode, they are then excluded from participating again. Despard said that he may have some role in encouraging his university's team next year.
In the meantime, he is continuing his studies for his PHD in molecular biology, and enjoys taking part in quizzes off-screen.
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