They are the student brainboxes who have just emerged triumphant from Britain’s toughest TV quiz – and Manchester’s University Challenge champs are still basking in the glory.
Their quizzing heroics culminated in a victorious BBC grand final last month. And after claiming a record-equalling fifth series win for the University of Manchester, the team has been causing a stir around campus ever since.
Indeed, when the Manchester Evening News meets up with the team at the university on Oxford Road, captain Kai Madgwick is even fielding selfie requests from two fans who rush over to meet them. PHD student Kai was hailed a “genius” in the final, and won an army of fans with their brilliant knowledge on everything from astrophysics to Greek mythology, as well as their unique buzzer style and trademark beanie hat.
Do they get recognised a lot now, I ask? Kai shrugs: “Yeah, I’ve had a few people recognize me here and there. A few people recognized me in Cambridge as well, which was kind of funny, I suppose.”
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Team-mate Rob Faulkner adds: “I’ve been spotted a couple of times, it’s surreal, mainly in pubs it tends to be – people know where to find me, I think! People offer to buy me pints – and my friends’ pints too. I’ll enjoy my 15 minutes of fame while it lasts. Never turn down a free pint,” he laughs.
Ah yes, the pub. The team also found themselves crashing straight back down to earth after their University Challenge victory when they headed to the Red Lion pub quiz in Withington – and failed to win – unfortunately due to a final challenge which involved making a paper aeroplane. Team member Ray Power laughed: “Mine went backwards!”
Thankfully no such skills were required for the University Challenge final, which saw Manchester beat Edinburgh by 145 points to 105. Former contestant Miriam Margoyles presented the trophy to Kai, Rob, Ray and Kirsty Dickson, saying: “What a pleasure to give this to all of you, you were brilliant.” She then singled out Kai for special praise, hailing them a “genius”.
I’m keen to know how the quizzing bug started for these intelligent young people – who fans of the show will have seen are able to answer questions on all manner of subjects in lightning speed. Meanwhile most of us watching at home are sat trying to even understand what the questions even mean.
They all told of “nerdy” interests in childhood, and a passion for learning facts and figures from a young age.
Kai, 24, from Cornwall, said: “I’ve been watching University Challenge since I was very small. I always just kind of enjoyed learning random facts and stuff.
“You know, I was the kid with a bunch of fact books rather than all of the reading story books. I have always been interested in learning just random things, I suppose.”
Rob, 22, originally from Norwich, agreed, saying: “I think the first properly nerdy thing I can remember doing was in year two I was 7 or 8 and it was the 2010 World Cup and I decided to make a little paper replica of all the flags of the countries taking part and then I thought 32 is just not enough, I need to do them all.
“I had a map on my wall so that led to learning the capital cities and just, I love a list, I’m a big list guy.”
He was also an avid watcher of The Chase. “It was a post-school routine, come home, cup of tea, put The Chase on. I’m just an old man, really. But it’s been a tradition, a tradition for years. Instead of learning stuff at school I thought I could just learn nationalities of loads of footballers who won the World Cup 50 years ago for no reason.”
Meanwhile Ray, 23, who grew up in Bangkok but her dad is from Wigan, remembers watching the show when they’d return to Greater Manchester on visits to family here.
She said: “My grandma used to be really into University Challenge, so when we’d come over to visit to Wigan she used to shout at the TV, and we all used to sit around and observe her shouting at the television. It was great fun.
“And then outside of that, I guess, kind of similar to Kai, I’ve just always really liked knowing things. It’s kind of the easiest way to put it, isn’t it?
“The things that I have an interest in I think I’ve always found quite easy to sort of have in my mind. I did a lot of academic based clubs at school as well growing up,” she laughs: “So basically i’ve been a nerd all my life.”
The team were put together by the University of Manchester’s Quiz Society, who include past team members who have also appeared on University Challenge. The team is selected to include broad specialisms to cover all bases.
Ray said: “The nice thing about our uni is that it’s done by the Quiz Society, so it’s very student-led, and I think that there’s a really strong sense of community around people who quiz. It’s really lovely and really welcoming.”
Rob, talking about the selection process, said: “We had to go through a couple of sort of preliminary quizzes. They built the team, mainly around Kai, to be fair, it was just how well did people do on those quizzes before, and what gaps in knowledge are there that we need to fill.”
Kai’s brilliant knowledge was clearly spotted by the Manchester Quiz Society, but incredibly, despite applying for every previous year when they were studying for their undergraduate degree at Durham University, they never made the team there. Durham’s loss is definitely Manchester’s gain, I say.
Despite their apparent steely calm under pressure, they all described the TV quiz experience as “terrifying”. Kai said: “I’ve done so many different quizzes in the past where like, if I win, that’s great, if I lose, whatever.
“But this is like, if I lose it’s on the record… forever,” to which the team all laughingly agreed.
Kai is now continuing to study for their PHD in Astrophysics and AI in Manchester, while Rob is doing his PCGE to become a maths teacher in Manchester, and Ray has now finished her studies but remains at the University of Manchester with a job there – working in the Central Sustainability Team in Comms and Engagement.
Fourth team-mate Kirsty, who is studying medicine, was away when we met up, so the team’s fifth member, Argyro Olympitis, joined us for the photos. PHD student Argyro acted as the “Reserve” should anyone have gotten ill for any of the rounds of the TV quiz, but she will be eligible to take part in future series.
While we chat about their vicotry, I have to ask Kai about their signature “crooked arm” pose during the TV show – that showed them poised to press the buzzer for every Starter for Ten.
Kai said: “It was a conscious choice. So last year there was a contestant called Thomas Hart and he was on the Warwick team and he made the final and he’s also a good friend of mine and did the elbow even more prominently than me, if you go back and look at it, he did it because he found the buttons difficult to press. I did it because there were some people giving him grief online for it saying they thought he looked stupid.
“I didn’t think he looked stupid. And I thought, well, let’s show a bit of solidarity for him and we’d do that as well. But like, I just kind of did it for a laugh mostly.”
When the team made it through to the finals, a live watch party was held at the Student Union which the team attended and by all accounts it was like being at a World Cup final. “It was rowdier than I thought,” laughed Rob. “It almost became a bit like a pantomime with people booing,” added Kai.
Would they fancy going on any other TV quiz shows now I ask? They all shake their heads. Rob jokes that Kai should become a new Chaser but Kai doesn’t look too keen on that idea.
But amid the team’s brilliant success on the TV show, the real victory for these students has been making friends for life.
Ray says: “I feel very lucky to have met this lot. We probably wouldn’t have met otherwise, so I think it’s really special, yeah.”
