25/04/2024
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The Wolfson team - consisting of captain Rob Steel-Browne (BA, Law), Patrick Pan (BA, Philosophy), Grace An (PGDip, Conservation of Easel Paintings), Scott Wilson (PhD, Neuroscience) and reserve quizzer Jackson Fitzgerald (MPhil, Archaeological Science) – undertook a rigorous selection process to qualify for the show, and were one of just 28 successful teams, with around 130 institutions applying to take part.
“This alone was a huge achievement,” says Rob, “and I'm exceptionally proud of my team for what we’ve achieved.”
Their first round match vs Warwick University will be aired at 20:30BST on BBC2. You can find out more about the broadcast on the BBC website.
Rob, who has just graduated from Wolfson with a Law degree, has been in charge of selecting the Wolfson team for the last two years.
“The aim was to try and get a team is representative of Wolfson as possible,” he says, “as well as a decent range of postgrads and undergrads”.
Rob formulated a written exam for Wolfson applicants, for which 30 students competed for the four coveted spots.
“The test questions were designed to be very difficult, but I was also assessing how people perform under time pressure and – most importantly – measuring their breadth of knowledge. You want a fairly well rounded team, you don't want just a team that's comprised of entirely historians or entirely physicists, for example. And you want a team with a decent range of specialisms who can also show themselves to be all-rounders. Ultimately, we were looking for people who've got that sort of extra knowledge.”
The Wolfson Team
The final University Challenge line-up is deeply Wolfson in its make-up: a blend of international and UK-based students, covering postgraduate and undergraduate levels, all with solid quizzing experience.
“Yes, you could say I’ve got a bit of a background in quizzing,” says captain Rob wryly. Rob quizzed at Glasgow for years before he came to Cambridge, including participating in the British Student Quizzing championships; and he now runs the pub quiz competition at Wolfson, which he says he is to continue despite graduating.
Scott Wilson, the new Boat Club President, had to balance a PhD and 6am rowing training with Wolfson’s Men’s first boat along with preparation for the show. Scott was voted as most likely to appear on University Challenge when he was at secondary school. “I’ve always liked trivia, ever since I was a child,” he says. “I used to read encyclopaedias, which perhaps isn't the conventional thing to do at that age – but here we are!”
Grace An, who is one of an extremely small number of students to be selected for the PGDip in Conservation of Easel Paintings course, a three-year course based at the Hamilton Kerr Institute, Fitzwillliam Museum, quizzed through high school in New Jersey in the U.S., where she also competed at national level. Though she says she hadn’t actually done much quizzing until the University Challenge opportunity came up.
“I’d thought I’d finished with quizzing, until Rob sent out his email,” she says, “so I had to reply to that!”
Jackson Fitzgerald was also a high school quizzer in Texas, and he became interested in University Challenge from watching episodes on YouTube. “Getting onto the University Challenge was kind of a goal of mine,” he says, “so to actually be involved was really exciting.”
Patrick Pan, however, has a somewhat different quizzing background: “I think I might be the odd one out,” says Patrick, formerly one of the College’s Brian Moore Accompanist Scholars, “because I had literally never heard of University Challenge until I moved to this country! I quizzed a little bit in year 8 in school, but the format was different, and I haven't done a lot of quizzing since then. Then I got the email from Rob one day saying, if you're interested show up in the Chancellor Centre on a Wednesday night. And I thought, well, I have nothing better to do on a Wednesday night!”
Getting selected for University Challenge
Once the Wolfson team members were picked, they took part in the programme selection process, which of course included plenty of questions.
“We’d been through the process last year, so we were much better prepared for it this time,” says Rob. “And once we got the good news, we had to keep it very hush-hush. We were not allowed to tell anyone that we’d got on the show.”
Keeping it quiet, however, was quite the challenge in itself: “I got the message from the production company saying we’d made it on the show when I was in the middle of a formal hall swap at Sidney Sussex College,” says Rob, “it was all very quiet and I just shouted and punched the air. I got a lot of looks!”
Similarly, Scott found himself having to keep the secret even from the Wolfson College President, Professor Jane Clarke: “When Rob sent us the message to tell the good news, I was in the Club Room. Jane was walking towards me at that very moment, and I was evidently very happy about something. She said, 'Oh, what’s up with you?!’ - but I couldn’t say a thing!”
Preparing for the programme
Wolfson doesn’t have a continuous line of University Challenge teams, so to an extent the team was operating a little blind about how to prepare without anyone in College to consult for tips.
“We could speak to people in other colleges, but we ultimately had to devise our own practice techniques,” says Rob.
“Without any Wolfson University Challenge genealogy to tap into, we had to wing it,” agrees Grace. “We did some quizzing between ourselves on Zoom or in person, and also took part in the University Intercollegiate Quiz competition, where we made the semi-finals. We also had some scrims against other colleges who also made it onto the programme, including Trinity.”
There was no clues as to the question areas from the producers of the programme either, which makes preparation difficult.
“The producers literally feed you nothing,” says Scott. “And there's not that big a window between being told you’re on the show and then actually appearing, so we had to quickly make up our own prep. Rob basically devised a template for us to follow.”
The team all agree that brushing up on knowledge only takes you so far, too.
“You ultimately have to realise that whatever questions you research, or whatever Googling you're doing, it’s never going to come up!” says Rob. “A lot of it is about how you handle the pressure and how you compete on the day, on the set, under the lights, against another team.”
Appearing on the show
The team’s preparation nonetheless continued on the train down to Salford, which attracted a bit of attention.
“We were getting looks from the guy on the opposite seat on the train, as we were quizzing each other and shouting out answers about Otto von Bismarck,” says Rob.
“It was such a great experience though,” adds Scott. “University Challenge is this thing that many of us have always watched on TV and all of a sudden we’re on the train together, annoying other passengers with our preparation – and then suddenly you’re on the set!”
The team are proud of their performance, although they cannot divulge the result before the show is aired next week. As the reserve, Jackson had the luxury of sitting to the side of the set and watching it all unfold: “I think I got to have the best time during the filming because I just got to watch – it was exhilarating and, for me, low risk! And in the end I was super proud of everyone.”
The sentiment is shared by everyone: “I think we are really proud of our result, given we all basically had to infer how the show worked just by watching," says Patrick. "You can watch people playing football every day, but once you get on the pitch, it's a different story!
“We also really have Rob to thank: it was his organization and passion that helped us get on the show, which is a really huge achievement in itself."
“It was a solid team effort,” Rob concludes, “the work we put in over Christmas ahead of the show, that took a lot of time and a lot of teamwork. We all had to balance our studies and the other obligations we have. The amount of commitment shown by everyone was fantastic."
Watch the Wolfson team on University Challenge
You can watch the show live on BBC2 on Monday 25 September. The show will be available on BBC iPlayer soon after broadcast.
If you are in College, you’ll be able to watch the show alongside the College community, with a screening to be held in the Club Room on Monday at 20:30.
