What is the challenge?

The Bexley Grammar School’s University challenge is a competition between our school and the other 3 grammar schools in the Bexley borough: Beths Grammar School for Boys, Chislehurst and Sidcup Grammar school and Townley Grammar for Girls. It’s organised similarly to the real life University Challenge quiz show in which teams of 4 students and 1 substitute from universities around the UK battle to find the most intellectual team. As a team, you must be the first to answer a ‘starter question’ for 10 points before the other teams and if answered correctly, your whole team gets the opportunity to answer 3 separate 5 point questions that are loosely tied to the original starter question. After 50 starter questions, the team with the most points is the winner.

Starting in 2022, the Bexley version works very similarly, but instead of 1 team vs another, it’s a single best of 4 teams to find the winners. After Beths won the initial 2022 Challenge, our Year 13 team of Akeel, Harry, Daniel, Pamela and Ross won the 2023 edition, which left our team of Leo, Zoe, Anqui and Imogen and I to retain the title, which we did after a tight battle with Chis and Sid that lasted all the way to the final 3 starter questions.

The Selection Process

Over the last two months, many of us in Year 12 attended the in-school selection rounds hosted by our previous team and the Head of Sixth Form, Mr Martin, to find the best combination of us for the team. Each Monday after school we had fun and enjoyable questions taken from the actual quiz show fired at us to find our team. Every week was an enjoyable experience with a less formal attitude than the final, and we all enjoyed swapping round our teams to see who we paired with best until Monday 13th March, when we found out our team. After a brief discussion with Mr Martin, Zoe and I were chosen as captain and vice captain, with Anqui and Leo filling out the rest of the starting line up, with Imogen as our substitute.

The Final

On Wednesday 20th March the final came. Despite all the preparation and planning, my nerves still ran high, which was not helped by the fact that in the audience we had around 30 teachers, headmasters, parents and students from the various schools with special guests of the former Mayor and current Vice-Mayor of Bexley Nigel Betts along with former Prime minister Liz Truss, who had come to support her daughter on the Townley team. After an early lead by us, Chis & Sid took a massive lead of 75 points which us, Beths and Townley slowly picked away at for the first half. In the second half, we moved ahead of the pack, leading to us and Chis and Sid being neck & neck on 235 points with 3 questions to go.

“ I was very nervous at the start and for most of it, but as I answered more questions and got more into the rhythm of it, it got easier and less stressful. I enjoyed all the bits of it but particularly discussing answers to bonus questions with my teammates, as they did not fail to make me laugh. The intense fight for first between us and Chis and Sid made the whole experience even more thrilling as it was very close the whole time".

Zoe Handscombe, Vice Captain

I can confidently say that my heart rate hasn't been so high for so long, and it still continued to rise going into this ‘play-off-esque’ moment. So when I answered the 2nd to last question to confirm the win, I felt as if the heaviest weight in the world had been lifted off my chest. This led to the final question of “What East Asian art style was the late Akira Toriyama known for?” being a sort of victory lap after we answered correctly with ”Manga” and the follow-up questions were a great end to the competition with us jokingly answering Liz Truss as an answer to a question on Prime Minister’s ages. In the end, the results finished as:

1st: Bexley 285 points

2nd: Chis & Sid 235 points

3rd: Townley 180 points

4th: Beths 150 points

Zoe and I were presented with the trophy by the Vice-mayor. Afterwards, we were able to celebrate with Mr Gilmore, Mr Martin, last year's team and our friends and family before taking a quick picture with ex-Prime Minister Liz Truss to top off the night.

The Future

After the amazing help from last year's team, without which none of this would have been possible, Mr Martin has asked us to help choose next year's team, which we happily said yes to, but we also have had other ideas that we would like to make possible. These included a possible continuation of the in-school practices as a club run by the team and also the possibility of making a house event out of the challenge.

Once again, I’d like to thank everyone who was involved with the team from last year's winners for coaching us, Mr Martin for selecting us and trusting me to be captain, the wonderful team from the borough that ran the event and the many people that came to support us and their respective schools. Finally, I’d like to thank the rest of the team who made this a brilliant experience that I’d recommend to any and everyone who believes they have the ability.

 Ashton Seager, Year 12