University Challenge Irish finalist: ‘There’s always a Shakespeare question, so I read his complete works’

For years, Oscar Despard has collected unusual pieces of information – just in case.

“It used to be, when I picked up a random fact, I would think, ‘oh, that’s interesting. That’ll be useful perhaps someday, when I’m on University Challenge’,” he says.

“Now, of course, I don’t have that excuse.”

Over the last few months, the 22-year-old from Dublin has put all those pieces of information to good use.

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The captain of the team from Christ’s College, Cambridge, he will tonight lead his teammates in the final of the prestigious BBC student quiz.

The match has long since been recorded; Despard and his team will watch it, not in the college’s bar, as they have done thus far, but on a big screen at a special event in its lecture theatre. Back home in south Dublin – where his father William is owner of The Bretzel Bakery in Portobello – another screening has been organised at his former sailing club in Dún Laoghaire.

His family have had “a very enthusiastic response” to his appearance on the programme, Despard says.

“I think my mother gets more text messages than I do after each broadcast.”

I always felt you could guess it and there was a reasonable chance you’d be right — Oscar Despard

Such is the significance of this student quiz in the cultural life of Britain, and indeed Ireland, Despard says he has been surprised – and delighted – by just how many supporters have been following his team’s progress.

“Lots of people who I didn’t think would be interested have been very enthusiastic and have been wishing us well, which has been very nice to see and to have,” he says.

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“You then find out who all the people are [who watch University Challenge], all the other weird people who decide the best thing they can do with their Monday evenings is watch eight university students answer questions.”

Open to teams from universities in the UK, this year Ireland was well-represented, with not just Despard but another Dubliner, Kevin Flanagan from Dundrum, captaining the team from Bristol. The two came up against each other in the semi-final, but they remain firm friends. The team from Queen’s University, Belfast, reached the quarter-finals.

Anniko Firman, Brendan Bethlehem, Oscar Despard and Linus Luu, of Christ's College Cambridge, on University Challenge. Photograph: BBC/ITV Studios - Lifted Entertainment/Rik Lowe

“In September, Kevin and I went up to Belfast to meet the Queen’s team again and we watched whatever episode was on that week. It was very nice to see them again.”

Despard has always been interested in quizzes. Growing up, he watched The Chase with his grandmother, while he and his mother – Prof Niamh Moran of the Royal College of Surgeons - “always watched University Challenge and Only Connect in particular”.

Was he thinking he would one day have a go at it?

“Kind of,” he replies. “Often, especially in the early rounds, even if I didn’t know the answer, I always felt you could guess it and there was a reasonable chance you’d be right, so I always felt it would be fun to take part.”

An outstanding performance in the Leaving Cert brought him to Cambridge. Despard was one of two students to achieve nine H1 grades in the 2021 Leaving Cert. He also won the Individual Award in the BT Young Scientist competition in 2020.

Oscar Despard won the Best Individual award in the 2020 BT Young Scientist of the Year competition. Photograph: Crispin Rodwell/The Irish Times

He emphasises that he owes his former school, Sandford Park in Ranelagh, “a great deal”.

“[I had] wonderful teachers who made studying for the Leaving Cert a joy rather than a chore.”

The breadth of knowledge required to do well in the Leaving Cert also came in handy on University Challenge, he says, and is key to the programme’s appeal.

“I think that’s what’s nice about University Challenge, is that it kind of rewards that breadth,” he said. “It’s one of the rare places that knowledge without purpose is celebrated.”

The team - biochemist Despard, Linus Luu (maths), Brendan Bethlehem (linguistics) and Anniko Firman (classics) – “made a big spreadsheet” that they thought covered all of human knowledge “in about 200 categories and subcategories”.

They then divided it up among them, albeit with a few exceptions including Premier League football, which “was never something we were going to be competitive in”.

“I decided it was probably worth reading the complete works of Shakespeare, because there’s practically always a Shakespeare question in an episode of University Challenge.”

I was surprised by just how much I enjoyed it — Oscar Despard

The team met once a week to practise. “We’d normally watch that week’s episode, because we were training as the previous series was being broadcast, then we also watched an older episode and tried to practice buzzing in.”

Their first match, he says, “was the most nerve-wracking, because it’s slightly hard to believe it’s happening and you’re on the other side of the camera”.

But Despard found presenter Amol Rajan and announcer Roger Tilling “very friendly” which put the team at ease.

“On the first few questions, you were kind of afraid to buzz, but once we got over that, it wasn’t stressful once you got into it,” he adds.

“We had a lovely time and that was the thing that surprised me most – I expected to enjoy it, but I was surprised by just how much I enjoyed it and how pleasant the whole experience was. It was just very fun.”

Despard is studying for a PhD in molecular biology, after which he hopes to “continue in some form of academic research, it’s what I’ve always been interested in doing”.

“I think, probably, my televisual career might begin and end with University Challenge.”

The University Challenge final, between Christ’s College Cambridge and the University of Warwick, is on BBC 2 on Monday, May 12th at 8.30pm.

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