Oxford Brookes lost a tight first round match on University Challenge last night despite achieving a ‘fantastically impressive score.’

The team of John Manton, Lara Gardner, James Broadbent and David Caldecott faced Birbeck, University of London.

Despite leading for much of the contest, the Brookes team came away with 205 points to Birbeck’s 220.

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New quiz master Amol Rajan told the team at the end: “Back luck guys, that was a fantastically impressive score.

“I bet you thought that until the last minute you were going to win it didn’t you?

“I do not think this is necessarily the last of you.

“There is a chance that we may see you again depending on how the others do.”

Oxford Brookes has appeared on the notoriously difficult quiz show just five times in the past but has reached the quarter finals twice.

This year’s team was coached by Dr Ian Bayley from the School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics.

Oxford Mail: From left to right: Ciara Fagan, Lara Gardner, David Caldecott, James Broadbent, and John Manton

The team prepared by watching previous episodes of the show and by answering quick fire questions from Dr Bayley.

They then all travelled from Oxford to Media City in Manchester to take part in the filming in February this year.

Team captain Mr Manton said: “I haven’t had much experience in competitive quizzing before coming to Oxford Brookes, but University Challenge was a lot of fun and a great experience.

"The production team made us feel welcome instantly, and it was great to meet Amol Rajan and the voice of University Challenge, Roger Tilling.”

Two of the team members, Mr Broadbent and Mr Caldecott are from Oxfordshire themselves.

Mr Broadbent, from Wallingford followed, in his grandfather’s footsteps by appearing on the show.

He said: “My love affair with University Challenge started when I was five or six.

“My grandmother was an enormous fan of it, and when she looked after me I would watch it alongside her.

"I found myself captivated by it, despite being so young that I could not make heads or tails of what was going on. 

“When the day came that we heard our team was successful in making it on, I was ecstatic to say the least.

"As I was later to learn, I would be carrying on a family tradition in that my grandfather appeared on a similar quiz-style show back in the 1960s. I was honoured to be carrying his mantle.”

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Mr Caldecott is from Henley and he described the experience as a ‘once in a lifetime opportunity.

He added: “Upon entering Media City in Manchester, the surrealness of the situation set in. Never before had I shared the same space as so many television titans like Hacker T Dog and the cast of Coronation Street.

“I still don't quite think the situation has sunk in fully yet, and only will do when I see the episode on TV,  despite how much I hate watching recordings of myself.

"The experience was literally a once-in-a-lifetime experience, and I thank everybody who was a part of it, my team included.”