By Tom King
SOAS’ University Challenge team have lost out to Somerville college, Oxford in the show’s semi-final.
Competing for a place in the BBC Two academic quiz’s final, the team, made up of four undergraduates and one Master’s student, ended up 85 points behind Oxford’s Somerville, after an early rally in the first ten minutes which saw SOAS ahead by 55 points to -10.
Peter McKean captained James Figueroa, Luke Vivian-Neale, Maeve Weber, with Filippo Gabriele La Verghetta as the reserve, who together study a range of regions from within the School’s specialism as well as Chinese, Arabic and politics.
In previous rounds, SOAS defeated Reading University by 240 to 90 and narrowly beat Queen’s University Belfast by 165 points to 145. The programme’s host, Jeremy Paxman, who also fronts Newsnight, said SOAS had put in a “very impressive performance” against the University of Southampton last year.