University Challenge: Meet the University of Leeds’ New Team 

The University of Leeds has chosen its team for the next season of the famous BBC quiz show, University Challenge. 

The iconic show has been running since 1962, with the first ever episode a match between Leeds and Reading. The show has been hosted by Amol Rajan since July 2023, following the departure of Jeremy Paxman. 

In the most recent series, the University of Leeds made their first appearance on the show since 2011, making it 13 years since a team from the University made the programme.

If this new team makes it past the first round, we could be seeing them on our screens this year. I chatted with the new team in December to get to know them and see how they feel ahead of the next round.

Can you introduce yourselves?

Vaughan Broadhead: I’m from Rotherham and I’m studying Medicine. I’m the Captain.

Oscar Wills: I’m from Bath and I’m studying Neuroscience.

Poppy Cairney: I’m from Rugby and I’m studying Biology.

Prahalad Srikanthan: I’m from India and I’m studying Biodiversity and Conservation.

Adiya Vatsa: I’m from India and I’m studying MSC Biotechnology with Business Enterprise.

What’s the plan for team building?

Vaughan: We’re just making plans to do some casual quizzing together. It’s hard because you’re thrown in the deep end. We’ve never met before and the first round is in three or four weeks. It’s not a long time, but we’ll figure it out.

When did you start getting into quizzing and when did you realise that this was something that you were particularly interested in?

Vaughan: I don’t remember a particular time. I just remember watching a lot of awful daytime television: The Chase, Pointless, Tipping Point and all that. I just picked up a lot of it.

Oscar: I pretty much exclusively watch University Challenge in terms of quizzing shows. I just always have, when I came home from school, after dinner with my parents.

Poppy: I grew up watching a lot of TV quiz shows as well. Also, pub quizzes were quite a thing with my family. I’ve never been to the Old Bar pub quiz but I think we’re going to go as a team.

Prahalad: Yes. It was primarily in my undergraduate years when I figured out that I liked quizzing because my University had a pretty big quiz club. Then I saw the Google form for University Challenge and I thought, why not?

Adiya: When I was in school, I used to do some quizzing in societies. When I was studying for my undergrad, I was so indulged in other activities. But when I came to Leeds, I found my passion for quizzing all over again. I did some quizzing in FBS, some casual quizzing, pop quizzes and all. And then I saw this BBC University Challenge and I thought of filling it in.

Can you take me through the application process?

Vaughan: We were told there were around 150 people in round one. That was an online quiz and the questions were set by University Challenge. 

Then the top eight were invited to round two, which was an in-person round.

The top five were then selected.

Prahalad: The next round is a two-stage process. First, we have an interview to check if we are fit for TV.

The second round is a 30-question sheet, which is a cumulative score of all our team members. 

If we get past the first round, we make it to TV.

How do you become good at quizzing?

Vaughan: It’s hard for me to isolate it. I do a lot of random questions.

There are a lot of online quizzes that you can do and watching TV programs. But there’s always things I struggle with. Music and film are hard because you’ve got to watch and listen to the right things. 

Oscar: I’ve got this app on my phone which has around 10,000 questions on literally anything in the universe. And watching a lot of University Challenge can put you into a good headspace.

Poppy: I’m not fully practising yet. I’ve watched every season of University Challenge since I was five years old. It’s a big thing in our household. And I know their style of questioning. If they say a French monarch, it’s nine times out of ten, Louis the 14th. That kind of thing is more what I’m practising.

Prahalad: In terms of preparation, It’s like anything else: the more you do, the better you get. I don’t have a preparation strategy. It’s more about reading random stuff on the internet.

My focus on the team is paintings and sports insights. I need to sit down and through a bunch of paintings.

Adiya: I’ve been doing online quizzing. Apart from that, I’ve been watching videos of University Challenge on YouTube. I am not fully preparing for it right now because there are so many assessments.

How did you choose a captain?

Vaughan: It was a team vote. Everyone else must have faith in me to coordinate things

I can speak for England, my family and friends would say that. I think it’s about communication rather than who’s the best quizzer.

Everyone here is very much capable of leading the team. There’s no shadow of doubt in my mind about that.

Are there any topics that you specialise in?

Vaughan: As a medic, I should say medicine. But also geography, flags, capitals and stuff like that. 

Oscar: I’m quite a fan of philosophy. I’m also quite keen on classical music. 

Poppy: Weird pop culture might be my niche. I don’t know how useful that is, but, hopefully.

Prahalad: I don’t think I have a specialist subject. I know a little bit about a lot of things.

Adiya:  I would say plant sciences. I did my undergrad in botany.

What would it mean to you to represent Leeds?

Vaughan: Something that we brought up was that this year, on University Challenge, Leeds was the only university from Yorkshire.

I don’t know about everyone else, but especially for me, being from Yorkshire, we’re typically proud people.

Being able to represent not just my university, but also my county is quite a big thing.

Oscar: Well, I know there are a lot of colleges from Cambridge and Oxford. Fair enough to them, but as an honorary Yorkshireman, I’ll do my best to bring it home.

Poppy: I’m also very excited at the possibility of representing it. Quite a few people from my high school have done it. The school always makes a big show of it and people from the town talk about it online.

But it’s such a great university for student culture, so I’d be very happy to represent it.

Prahalad: Even back in India, representing your college was a big thing because you’re carrying the weight of thousands of people. It’s also a big thing to be representing a university in the UK.

Adiya: I feel a sense of pride. I always look forward to making memories.