Cardiff University Mathematics and Chemistry students help team to take victory over Coventry on University Challenge

The Cardiff University team rose to the challenge on Monday night (19 September) and achieved a convincing win against the University of Coventry.

The team, captained by Mathematics student Zoe Revell and supported by Chemistry student Will Balkwill-Western, John Wimperis (Journalism) and Ella Freeman (Psychology) were at first trailing behind Coventry who established an early lead of 20 points. However, Cardiff quickly managed to catch up and overtake, continuing to answer questions correctly for the duration of the round.

The Cardiff team eventually stormed to victory with an impressive 230 points while Coventry stalled at 50 points.

Captain of the Cardiff team Zoe Revell said:

“The whole University Challenge experience was absolutely the coolest and best thing I've ever done and will do for a long time. I loved every second of it, even when I was tearing my hair out and banging my head on the table when I couldn't remember the name of an artist or a mathematician. That is fully down to having such an amazing team to practice with every week. I miss our training sessions the most! It was an honour to captain them and I'm so glad that we were able to do Cardiff Uni proud in our round one episode! It was also an honour to play against Coventry, the team were so lovely and welcoming.”

Chemistry student Will Balkwill-Western also really enjoyed the experience stating:

"I know it's a cliché to go on about the studio effect and how sitting in front of the camera is so different to shouting the answers at the TV screen but it really did put on that extra bit of pressure.

That said I think once we got settled in we really hit our stride and I think I was able to forget about the cameras pointed at me. I also helped that our team had really good chemistry and the fact that we all got on so well allayed a lot of the stage fright.

We had the opportunity to have a chat with our opponents before and after filming and they were such good sports and such warm and friendly people, as were the Uni Challenge staff who were utterly supportive and hospitable. Overall an unforgettable experience and a great honour, and would recommend anyone who is interested in quizzing to try out. I'm really proud of the team. Just getting on tv is a huge achievement so getting that score is truly incredible."

Cardiff will now progress on to the next round of the competition – good luck to the team!