Corpus Christi College thrashed Exeter University 350-15 in last week’s University Challenge quarter final, staking their claim for the overall title with a very strong performance
Corpus quickly picked up a big lead, and were 100-150 points up in the first 10 minutes. In response, the Exeter team felt the need to answer the starter questions quickly, often getting them wrong. As a result, they spent much of the quiz on negative points.
Their score of 15 points is only 5 points above the lowest score ever achieved on University Challenge, achieved when the University of Sussex scored 10 points back in 1971.
Host, Jeremy Paxman, was expectedly dismissive of their performance, but did comment that Exeter “were thrashed by a very strong team”
Exeter had performed reasonably well in previous matches, beating the University of Sheffield and Pembroke College, Oxford, but were unable to match the knowledge of the Corpus Christi team.
Corpus Christi now have a semi final match against St John’s College, Cambridge, before a final against Lincoln College Oxford or the University of Manchester. Corpus must now be favourites to go on to win the title.
