STARTER FOR TEN MEMORIES

It was fantastic to see Solenne Scholefield 2012-2019 competing on the Balliol College, Oxford team on BBC TV’s University Challenge earlier this year. The competitive team made it through to an impressive place in the semi-finals, where they competed against Magdalene College, Cambridge. Amongst the OE and KES community following the show was Louisa Gummer 1982-1983. One of the first girls admitted to the KES Sixth Form before it became officially co-ed in 1986, Louisa was also the first former KES girl to be on University Challenge when she was on the St Hilda’s College, Oxford team in the mid-1980s.

Both OEs reflect on their experiences and memories of taking part in the programme.

Above: Solenne Scholefield (second from the left) on University Challenge this year

University Challenge may look as though it’s all about the quiz and academic knowledge, but really the heart is the people.

“We’ve all seen University Challenge on the TV and felt delighted at answering questions from the safety of the living room sofa. This year, however, I had the exciting and terrifying experience of going on the show myself, as a fresher, and trying to answer such questions under the intimidating stare of the one and only Jeremy Paxman. We’d been through the application stages – first I’d tried out for the college team, and managed to make it in – and evidently impressed the producers at interview by hinting at our knowledge of cheese and utopian architecture. In February we found ourselves in the studio under the lights, about to introduce ourselves for the first time. Our experience didn’t end there and along the way we defeated two different Cambridge colleges, Clare and St John’s (a relief to many at Oxford) to make it to the semi-finals, against Magdalene College. This was something we never expected to do, and which makes us immensely proud.

University Challenge may look as though it’s all about the quiz and academic knowledge, but really the heart is the people. I’ve got to know my teammates really well over the past year, and I couldn’t think of a more lovely group to potentially embarrass myself on TV with. The producers are delightful, and we loved hearing their amusing information about the show and Jeremy, and chatting with them about diversity and gender on the show. (I’m really proud to have been in a gender-balanced team.) I’ve stayed in touch with numerous other contestants via group chat, and occasionally we do pub quizzes together and have got excited when we’re on TV. I’ve gained so much from the experience – friends, knowledge, confidence, support – as well as having been praised by Jeremy Paxman. I would highly recommend trying out to any university student who is interested, as you won’t regret it.”

Solenne Scholefield

Louise Gummer (bottom right) on University Challenge in the mid-1980s

“Sitting in the packed St Hilda’s JCR, I watched the screen as the host, Bamber Gascoigne asked: ‘What do you call the scientific method of dating trees by counting their rings?’ I had no idea. But then, the one-year-earlier version of me appeared on the same screen, pressed the buzzer and shyly answered, ‘Dendrochronology’, promptly gaining the St Hilda’s University Challenge team ten points. It had taken over a year for the series we had competed in to come to TV, but even so I was surprised I had forgotten facts like that so quickly. Clearly adrenaline in the spur of the moment can dredge up memories that then go back into hiding!

There hadn’t been much interest in competing for a place on the college team when the notice had gone up in the Porter’s Lodge. In fact only five of us had shown up to the auditions, so we played a game of Trivial Pursuit to choose which of the five would be the travelling reserve. We didn’t do a huge amount of preparation either – we videoed episodes of Mastermind and watched them back, pausing the tape to see if we knew the answers. It felt as if some of the University Challenge question setters had done the same thing because a couple of those questions actually came up in our episodes. We also asked our friends to ask us random questions, and one friend from Queen’s College who suggested ‘Who wrote a Clockwork Orange?’ was clearly psychic as that too was a question I was posed during the filming!

Our series was different from the traditional show in a couple of ways – ITV (who broadcast the programme then) had chosen to screen it across afternoon TV and the gameplay was revised. Each team recorded at least two episodes, one in the standard format and one featuring a gimmicky ‘Pass the baton’ round. We also actually sat one team above the other – they didn’t use camera trickery to superimpose us on top of each other. After filming we were given a commemorative photo and a University Challenge pen, which still sits in the pen holder on my desk.

I hadn’t really thought about how being one of the first girls at KES meant I was the first KES girl to be on University Challenge until I saw Solenne appearing as part of the very competitive Balliol team. I am delighted to see that KES representation is still going strong!”

Louisa Gummer

Sitting in the packed St Hilda’s JCR, I watched the screen as the host, Bamber Gascoigne asked: ‘What do you call the scientific method of dating trees by counting their rings?