Ulster team aiming for quarter-finals of University Challenge

They face off against Warwick University tonight in the second round, hoping for a place in the quarter-finals.

In the previous round, the Ulster team were watched by a distinguished audience in their match against St Anne’s College, Oxford, which featured on the celebrity edition of the popular Channel Four series ‘Gogglebox’.

In that episode, leader of the Opposition Jeremy Corbyn confidently shouted out the answer ‘Sparta’ to a question on the Punic wars – only for Ulster to gain five bonus points for the correct answer, Carthage, to Mr Corbyn’s chagrin.

There was more humour when rock star Ozzy Osbourne announced his bewilderment at the difficulty of the questions, saying: “I don’t understand the questions and I don’t understand the answers either!”

Team captain Matthew Miliken told The News Letter he was looking forward to the next round.

“At the beginning our aim was to make sure we didn’t disgrace ourselves by scoring the lowest points ever,” he said. “Then our aim was to get to 100 points. Then when the draw was made and we saw ‘Oxford’ we thought, well, that’s that. Now we’re in the second round so we’re surprising ourselves.”

As for the celebrity audience for the last round, Mr Miliken said: “The Jeremy Corbyn clip was shown on Have I Got News For You on the BBC.

“So there was me sitting down to watch it, and all of a sudden there was me on the screen. I was being watched by Jeremy Corbyn, who was being watched by the panel, who were being watched by me. It was like something from a parallel universe, very bizarre.”

Ulster face Warwick on BBC Two at 8pm.