I am a huge fan of the BBC quiz show, University Challenge. When I moved to the Netherlands I specifically sought to have access to BBC2 on television so that I could watch it.

I enjoy it for several reasons. The questions are academic; very few are trivial ones about celebrities, TV personalities etc., and even the sports questions are often historical. I also enjoy it because I know a lot of the answers, though not as many as I would like. And the banter between the quizmaster and the contestants is a big part of the entertainment. Jeremy Paxman was undoubtedly the master here, with his mild sarcasm and the occasional Paxman sneer, but the late Bamber Gascoigne’s genial repartee could be memorable. Currently, Amol Rajan is more restrained but, like Bamber Gascoigne, he is genial and pleasant.

The main reason why I watch it, though, is nostalgia, because in 1979 I was part of the University College Dublin (UCD).

Back then, when Granada owned the franchise and Bamber Gascoigne was the quizmaster, the format was different. Every third level institution that accepted an invitation got to appear at least once on television (our show was broadcast early in 1980). There was a preliminary phase whereby they had to beat three other teams in succession in order to qualify for the elimination rounds. The quid pro quo was that, as far as I can recall, each competition took two years before the cycle started again. Since BBC took up the franchise, prospective teams go through an elimination phase off air to narrow down the field, who then compete in a televised tournament.

Within UCD, the Literary and Historical (L and H) Society oversaw the selection of the team. I had to miss part of a botany practical to participate. As I recall, part of the process was a Mastermind style two-minute general knowledge round. It wasn’t as intimidating as it sounds because the auditor, Gerry Stembridge, who subsequently made a name as a comedian and writer, was much slower in fielding the questions than any of the Mastermind quizmasters. I remember his surprise when I got the question on the key of Beethoven’s sixth symphony right.

We were brought over to Liverpool on the B&I ferry (long since gone), where we had berths and access to the restaurant. Everyone was seasick, however, except myself and Ken Murphy, the Secretary of the L and H, who, along with Gerry Stembridge, accompanied the team.

Unfortunately we arrived to find ourselves in a situation where Saint Catherine’s College Oxford, having won two rounds, had just been knocked out by Kings College Cambridge, and we were the next up. In the rehearsals we played a round against them and were level pegging for much of the match, although we lost in the end. We also had a rehearsal against Saint Hilda’s Oxford, which was an all-girls college in those days, and we beat them easily. We explored whether it would be possible to play them first on air. However, for totally understandable reasons, Bamber Gascoigne (who was an exceptionally nice man) said that this would make a total mess of the running order. Ultimately, we lost on air to Kings by a narrower margin than their victory against Saint Catherine’s, so we were not disgraced (previous UCD teams had performed disastrously). Kings went on to beat Saint Catherine’s, also by a wider margin. We had a party afterwards, and the Saint Hilda’s girls were great fun. The Kings team were completely up themselves, but I have to acknowledge that they were extremely good.

In terms of assessing my performance, I learned the hard way that speed on the buzzer is everything and it’s not my strong point. Although I know much more now than I did then (I had just turned 20), it seems to me that the BBC questions are more difficult; I can get about 50% of them in the first round but that trails off exponentially in subsequent rounds.

Overall, though, it was a great experience. I subsequently competed in an Irish quiz of similar format, where my brother Daire was also on the team, but we were beaten by an outstanding Maynooth team, who went on to win the competition. And I won a few rounds in a more popular format RTE quiz called Dodge the Question.