When Oscar Despard watched the final of University Challenge on Monday night, he found it “surprisingly nerve-racking”.
“There was 10 minutes to go and we were something ridiculous behind, and I wasn’t sure how we managed to pull it back,” he said, looking back at the recording of a tense final.
[ Irish student leads Cambridge team to victory on BBC’s University Challenge ]
“We knew it was near the end, but I was thinking [that] maybe there’ll be another starter after this. So I was a bit stunned when the gong actually went and we were five points ahead.”
They had won by 175 to 170 points in the most dramatic of victories. The 22-year-old Dubliner and his team-mates from Christ’s College, Cambridge, are newly crowned champions of the BBC student quiz, with team captain Despard one of the few Irish winners.
They watched the final – the series is recorded well in advance – on a big screen set up for the occasion in the college’s lecture hall but, at just over the halfway mark, were trailing the University of Warwick by 40 points to 125.
“Even friends who had been saying before they were sure we were going to win admitted their faith was shaken about halfway through,” Despard said.
Some inspired answers brought them back into contention – “I normally only buzz when I’m sure, but in that game on most occasions I buzzed when I was not sure” – and with only seconds to go had pulled the score almost level at 160 points to 170.
Congratulations to Oscar Despard on captaining his team from Christ’s College, Cambridge, to victory in the final of University Challenge
— President of Ireland (@PresidentIRL) May 13, 2025
What turned out to be the final starter of the game was a question on classics; Despard’s team-mate Anniko Firman buzzed in with the correct answer: Agamemnon. The score was 170-all.
They got their first bonus question, edging them into the lead. Then, the pressure got to them: Despard said “Alexandrine” rather than “Alexandrina” for their next answer, which was disallowed.
“At that point, I was thinking, if we lose it on this, I’ll have a lot to answer for. But then the gong went, and that’s why I was so relived, because at least Alexandrine can’t have cost us anything,” he said.
“The rest of the team, quite properly, remembered to clap instantly, but I was so stunned that I sort of sat there for about three seconds and then remembered that was what I should be doing.
“But Warwick were a very impressive team, we felt a bit lucky to get away with beating them.”
In the college, and at home in Portobello, Dublin, where his father William owns the Bretzel Bakery, there were celebrations. Christ’s laid on a drinks reception “without knowing whether we’d be celebrating or drowning our sorrows”, while the team “have had lots of very nice messages from people congratulating us, which has been fun”, he said.
It was a surprise to his parents – “they were very pleased; I think they were proud with how it went,” he said.
Their victory, he said, was very much a team effort: alongside Despard, studying biochemistry, was Linus Luu, a mathematics student, Brendan Bethlehem, who is studying linguistics, and classics student Firman.
“It was nice that we all got a [starter] question in the final, and they were all important,” he said.
As captain, Despard had the honour of accepting the trophy from this year’s celebrity guest, Ian McKellen.
“That was quite cool,” he said.
“That was something else we couldn’t tell anyone. Mostly when I was talking about University Challenge I was very conscious about not saying anything that might give the result away, but occasionally if someone suggested say, watching a movie that had Ian McKellen in it, I had to restrain myself from saying, ‘Oh, yes, he’s very nice actually‘.”
Despard described the actor as “lovely”.
“We got to chat to him a little bit off camera as well and he told us about his time acting in Cambridge,” he said.
How does it feel to be a University Challenge champion?
“It’s a bit mad. Especially in the days after [the final was recorded], I’d sort of catch myself smiling slightly manically and then remember why, which is nice,” Despard said.
“It’s strange to have other people know now, but it’s great. Having watched it for so long and having always wanted to take part, it feels very satisfying, but also madly fortunate, to have managed to be lucky enough to win it.”
On Tuesday morning, Despard, who is studying for a PhD in molecular biology, was in the labs as usual despite all the media attention.
“I did get a text from a friend saying, ‘Don’t let the fame and the fast cars and all that get to you‘,” he said.
“There have been a few interviews this morning, but there are some experiments I’ve been meaning to do for a while. I’d like to do them today, but we’ll see.”
Back in Dublin, Despard’s father William watched the final not knowing the outcome.
He is a qualified engineer turned baker - the Jewish-founded Bretzel bakery dates back to the late 1800s; and Oscar’s mother is Niamh Moran, professor of pharmacology at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland. “It wasn’t off the ground my son licked it,” said William of Despard’s intelligence.
His son could read at the age of three, complete complex mathematical puzzles by the end of primary school and he got nine H1s in the Leaving Certificate in 2021, a year after winning the individual award at the Young Scientists competition in Dublin.
Not for him the usual student rounds of pints and parties, his father revealed.
“I don’t think I’m breaking confidence to say that he has enough desire and ambition to win a Nobel Prize,” he says.
“He verbalized that to me when he was 16. I told him he was a bit of a genius and that he shouldn’t waste the opportunity to make a difference.
“In contrast to his father who found sociability and drink before he was 18, he has respected his brain as a muscle. He would choose to read the complete works of Shakespeare rather than get hammered in a nightclub.”
Despard’s sister, Clara, who is 31, is a “bit of a genius”, her father added. She got a first class honours degree in mathematical physics at the University of Edinburgh and now works for an AI company in Dublin.
Keen students of Irish history will recognise the surname. Despard is a Huguenot name.
The Despard family are related by marriage to Charlotte Despard née French, the English-born suffragist turned Irish revolutionary. Charlotte Despard was noted for her opposition to her brother, Lord French, who was the Lord Lieutenant in Ireland during the War of Independence.
“We have always been disruptors. As an Irish family, we are very proud of Charlotte,” said William.
