Toby Cox already knows who will win the final of University Challenge in a few days, writes Katherine MacAlister. But the only unspectacled member of Oriel College's team for the television event doesn't have the gift of second sight.

He knows because the final was filmed weeks ago, immediately after Oriel's victorious semi-final appearance.

Toby is the chap on the left whose general knowledge is astounding. While his three team mates have specialist subjects, such as history or science, he is a jack of all trades, answering questions on the "great indefinable", as he puts it. But how does the Eynsham 21-year-old, studying Greats, store so much knowledge in his brain and where does it all come from? Has he been reading encyclopaedias since he was born?

"No, I think it's just having a memory which stores facts and being a very inquisitive person. A lot of it is actually lateral thinking," he says.

Taking part in quizzes has been a main pastime of Toby's since school.

And when he first arrived in college, he found several others with a mutual interest. They entered themselves in the weekly quiz at the Oxford Union and such was their success that they applied to be on University Challenge. Having beaten Manchester, Leicester, Bangor and arch-rivals from Corpus Christi, Cambridge, they are now about to be seen taking on either the Open University or Durham. But apart from swotting and quizzes, Toby still finds time for other things.

"I play cricket, rugby, darts and pool, and love a pint out with my mates," he says.

Toby lives in a student house off Cowley Road, and goes home to his parents in Eynsham during the holidays. He says he is as skint as the next student and has a vacation job painting and decorating. He has been going out with his girlfriend for 16 months and has a wide circle of friends. It's hardly surprising he's representing his college on TV when you look at his academic record. At Magdalen College School he gained ten As at GCSE and two As and a B at A-level. His father and grandfather were at Oxford before him.

But how is he coping with his new-found fame? "I have been stopped on the street a few times and do get recognised, which is nice," he says.

And he definitely enjoyed meeting quizmaster Jeremy Paxman and appearing on TV. "Jeremy appears very scathing on TV but that's all part of the act. He's actually very witty and pleasant off-screen. He told us he'd tried to get on University Challenge when he was a student at Cambridge but didn't make the team.

"Once the quiz starts you get so involved you forget the cameras are rolling, although I've made a fool of myself in three out of the five performances," he laughs. For the screening of the semi-final, Oriel College hired the top floor of the Wheatsheaf pub in Oxford to watch the action.

And the team members were even invited to take part in the American equivalent in Michigan last week, where they did very well.

So what's the secret to being a general knowledge whizz?

"Confidence, definitely. It's all to do with timing and when you push the buzzer. You have to trust your instinct and have the nerve to jump the gun."

Story date: Saturday 17 April

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