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Concordia Merchant Taylors’ School Summer 2015
OMTwins University Challenge
When I was an A-level student at
MTS, I would sit in the Sixth Form
Common Room on a Tuesday morning
and compare my University Challenge
scores from the night before with a
number of my contemporaries. With
ten points for a starter and five for a
bonus question, anything over 100 was
deemed miraculous. A sad reflection on
the life of a 17 year old, perhaps, but in
hindsight it was early training for one of
the most enjoyable experiences I’ve had.
In my final year of medical school,
after five failed attempts to appear on
the quiz show, I received a call from the
producers, who, to my total shock, told
me that our team had been successful
in its application. What followed was a
mixture of excitement and mild panic
as I and three other students at Gonville
& Caius College rushed to fill the gaps
in our knowledge. We read up on the
solar system on Wikipedia, skimmed
“1001 Paintings to See Before You Die”
and loaded every Bach cantata we could
find onto our music players. Crucial to
our preparation was watching previous
episodes of the series together and
practising our buzzing by methods as
crude as simply hitting the sofa – the
pressure of even a fake interruption
makes the game significantly more
difficult than shouting answers at the
TV for every question, which was very
much my tactic when I was still at
Merchant Taylors’.
“Despite being primarily a scientist, the wide
grounding in history, geography, languages
and many other subjects I gained at school
allowed me not only to answer questions, but
also to captain effectively.”
Anthony Martinelli (2003-2008) is the first
OMT to win University Challenge. Here is his
account of his team’s success
The recording process itself took
place over three non-consecutive
weekends in Manchester – the long
northbound train journeys providing
a vital few extra hours to consolidate
our knowledge. Before our first match,
against St Anne’s College, Oxford, we
knew that we had a good chance based
on our preparation, but we thought it
would be a tight affair. As it happened,
despite an early scare, we managed to
progress fairly comfortably. I can clearly
remember the first time I buzzed in and
heard veteran voiceover artist Roger
Tilling announcing “Caius Martinelli” to
the room: fortunately, on that occasion, I
had supplied a correct answer.
The following weekends followed a
similar format, with the major change
being that the more matches we won,
the more confident we became. It was
after dispatching a good Durham
University team in our first quarter final
fixture that we first began to believe
we might have a shot at the trophy.
Highlights of the final few days of
recording included having my make-up
applied next to Jeremy Paxman (who
was nothing but civil to us throughout)
and turning around a 0-65 deficit
against Magdalen College, Oxford in
our second quarter final.
When we entered the competition I
don’t think any of us expected to win
and I would be surprised if we were,
on paper, the strongest team based on
the original application. For me, the
key point is that, motivated partly by
a fear of embarrassing ourselves on
television, we practised our quizzing
technique, improved our general
knowledge and worked as a team in a
way that most of the other participants
did not. It was, therefore, satisfying
to end up as victors, giving Caius its
first trophy, retaining it for Cambridge
and possibly also providing Merchant
Taylors’ with its first champion.
There is disdain in some circles
for the bastardisation of knowledge
supposedly encouraged by quiz
shows such as University Challenge
– rewarding recall, rather than
understanding. Certainly I would
agree that depth of knowledge is
not a prerequisite for doing well on
the programme, but I would also
argue that stimulating an interest in
matters beyond your own subject field,
particularly in the arts, is unequivocally
important. For example, it was no bad
thing that on several occasions whilst
preparing for the show I was forced to
confront how little I knew about the
history and culture of China, a country
which will no doubt be the dominant
power over the next century.
Finally, I would like to thank five
years’ worth of MTS teachers for their
immeasurable contribution towards
the bank of knowledge I was able to
call upon during the show. Despite
being primarily a scientist, the wide
grounding in history, geography,
languages and many other subjects
I gained at school allowed me not
only to answer questions, but also
to captain effectively. For anyone
interested in applying to be on the
show, I would, of course, thoroughly
recommend the experience and I am
more than happy to be contacted with
any questions.
“When we entered the
competition I don’t think
any of us expected to win...”