British Student Quiz Championships
The NAQT British Student Quiz Championships (BSQC) is an annual quizbowl tournament that determines the best quizbowl team in the United Kingdom. First held in 1998, the tournament was held for the fourteenth time in May 2018. The questions are provided by NAQT, but are modified to suit a British audience.
History
First incarnation (1998-2003)
The inaugural BSQC was held at Imperial College in London in 1998, although that tournament was called "QuizIC." Because they won the first series of the revived BBC2 quiz show University Challenge, Imperial had been invited to the 1997 ICT, which was the impetus for the creation of a quizbowl circuit in the United Kingdom. With Oxford and Cambridge colleges competing individually, the tournament drew eight teams and resulted in a 470-215 win for Balliol College, Oxford over Trinity College, Cambridge. (Note that the first three BSQCs used "British" scoring, by which each bonus is worth a total of 15 points rather than 30)
The 1999 BSQC was held at Oxford under the direction of Rob Linham at the Oxford Union Society. The tournament featured 11 teams from Oxford (Balliol, Oriel, St John's, Christ Church), Cambridge (Trinity, Selwyn), Imperial, Birkbeck, Manchester, Bristol, and the Open University. In a repeat of the previous year's final, Balliol College, Oxford defeated Trinity College, Cambridge by a score of 460-360.
The 2000 BSQC was held in Manchester and was attended by 8 teams from Oxford (Balliol, St. John's), Cambridge (Trinity, Darwin), Manchester, Imperial, Durham, and the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology. As in the previous two years, Balliol College, Oxford, defeated Trinity College, Cambridge, in the final, this time by a score of 490-265.
Cambridge hosted the 2001 BSQC, which featured 12 teams from Cambridge (Trinity, Clare, St. Catherine's), Imperial, Birkbeck, Bristol, Hull, UMIST, the Open University, Manchester, the University of East Anglia at Norwich, and Oxford. This tournament was controversial because Oxford played as a single university (and was consequently only allowed to field one team), rather than as individual colleges. The same Oxford team that had finished 9th at the 2001 ICT won the final by defeating Trinity College, Cambridge, 500-335. (Note that 2001 was the first BSQC to use standard "American" scoring with ten-point bonus parts)
The 2002 BSQC was also held in Cambridge, this time with a few changes to the format. Teams qualified to attend it by participating in regional "qualifying tournaments," one held at Manchester and the other at Oxford. Additionally, both Oxford and Cambridge now competed as single universities and both were allowed to field two teams. In all, 10 universities competed at the BSQC, representing Oxford (2 teams), Cambridge (2 teams), Manchester (2 teams), UMIST, Imperial, UCL, and Birkbeck. Oxford A finished the round robin undefeated at 9-0, one game ahead of Manchester, but Manchester won a one-game final 435-260 to win Manchester's only national title.
The 2003 BSQC, held at UCL, was by far the largest tournament ever held in the United Kingdom and featured 18 teams: Oxford (5 teams), Cambridge (5 teams), Manchester (3 teams), UCL (3 teams), Imperial, and Warwick. Three groups of six fed into three divisions of six, which resulted in a top bracket of Oxford A, Oxford B, Manchester A, Manchester B, Cambridge A, and Warwick. Oxford defeated Manchester in a final to repossess the dented plate that has remained ever since at the bottom of a box that is now in Edmund Dickinson's room.
Despite the large number of teams that attended the 2003 BSQC, there was too little interest to hold another tournament in 2004. One of the reasons was that fewer and fewer universities could field competent teams, even as the best universities fielded more teams than ever before. Manchester and Oxford were so much better than the rest of the field that the nascent British circuit atrophied. This problem was compounded by the fast decline of the Cambridge team after the graduation of its key leaders. At the same time, University Challenge was not helping new teams join the British quizbowl circuit, since it was accepting bad teams on the program as the result of a lottery and was so unpopular that it was nearly canceled. Oxford and Cambridge continued to play their annual varsity match after 2003, but for many years that was the only form of inter-university quizbowl played in the United Kingdom.
Revival (2011-present)
June 2011 saw the revival of the BSQC. The tournament used the 2011 HSNCT set which was Briticized by Kyle Haddad-Fonda. Oxford swept the tournament with Oxford A and B taking first and second respectively; however, teams from Cambridge, Manchester, and Imperial preformed well.
2012 saw the eighth BSQC take place at Imperial. The tournament ran on a version of the 2012 ICT-DII set whose Briticisation was led by Edmund Dickinson. An Oxford A team of Kyle Haddad-Fonda, Alison Hudson, Alex Bubb and Chris Savory went unbeaten to win the tournament.
In 2013, the tournament again took place at Imperial. The tournament was notable for the participation of John Lawrence, who was completing his Masters Degree at King's College London. Lawrence's KCL team went undefeated through the 11-team round robin to take an advantage into the one-game final against Oxford A. However, Oxford A (Alex Bubb, Zachary Vermeer, Hasneen Karbalai, Ewan MacAulay) overturned the deficit with 505-295 and 625-275 victories to keep the trophy firmly in Oxonian hands.
BSQC 2014 saw the field size grow to 15 teams, necessitating two prelim brackets for the first time in the modern era of BSQC. Oxford A and Oxford B cruised to the top of each of their brackets with average winning margins of over 300 points. In the playoffs, Oxford B took a shock win over Oxford A but then dropped a game to the Open University, forcing a one-game final between the two Oxford teams. The final was close throughout, with Oxford A (Joey Goldman, Zachary Vermeer, Charlie Clegg, Hugh Binnie) ahead by 5 points going into the final tossup. However, Oxford B (Henry Edwards, Hasneen Karbalai, Ewan MacAulay, Nikil Venkatesh) snatched the final question in an 8-way buzzer race to win 410-385. This was the first time a non-Oxford A team had won the revived BSQC.
The two-bracket 15-team format remained for 2015, as BSQC was held for the first time as St. Paul's School in London. New universities also appeared, including Nottingham, a combined London team, as well as Edinburgh, marking the first appearance of a Scottish team at BSQC. The Oxford A team of Charlie Clegg, Joey Goldman, Ewan MacAulay and Zach Vermeer were undefeated in their group, while the other prelim bracket was led by Warwick A (James Leahy, Ashley Page, Sophie Rudd and Ben Salter) and London (Pietro Aronica, Jimmy Chen and Chris Savory) both with a 6-1 record. In the afternoon, Warwick were only able to win one game, while London took three wins, but suffered a crucial defeat at the hands of the ultimately undefeated Oxford A, who won yet another title and sealed every match by at least 260 points.
For 2016, the tournament was extended to an unprecedented 18 teams (including the only appearance by the School of Oriental and African Studies), prompting three six-team prelim brackets. Oxford A (Joey Goldman, George Corfield, Daoud Jackson, Spence Weinreich) and Cambridge A (Sam Cook, Evan Lynch, Ewan MacAulay, Oliver Sweetenham) both comfortably won their brackets undefeated, and while Oxford B (Charlie Clegg, Francis Clark-Murray, Chris Stern, Lucas Bertholdi-Saad) dominated most of their matches, an upset loss to Warwick A (Sophie Rudd, Ben Salter, Emily Stevenson, Thomas Van) kept them from the top spot. Cambridge A and Oxford A were the favourites to win, and a 415-370 Cambridge win over Oxford gave the Tabs the advantage going to a potential two-game final. Oxford comfortably won the first part 510-280, triggering the second match. Despite a terrific 65-point game from Ewan MaAulay, though, Oxford clinched the title by just five points, winning the match 385-380.
In 2017, the inability to find a suitable London venue led to the tournament's emergency relocation to Warwick, where St. Andrews joined Edinburgh as a second Scottish team, while an exhibition team, known as "The Corrs", featured students from Goldsmiths and Queen's University Belfast. Oxford A (Charlie Clegg, George Corfield, Daoud Jackson, Spence Weinreich) and Cambridge A (Sam Cook, Evan Lynch, Ewan MacAulay, Oliver Sweetenham) were once again undefeated in the morning, and the third prelim bracket was won by Cambridge B (Tom Hill, Joseph Krol, Julian Sutcliffe, Elysia Warner), also undefeated. In the afternoon, Cambridge beat Oxford comfortably 485-320 to secure the lead, but a shock 345-240 loss to Cambridge C (Vitalijs Brejevs, Daniel Chiverton, Richard Freeland, Carys Redman-White) put the two rivals on level pegging going to the final. The single-game end of the tournament saw a decidedly sub-optimal nine negs and three dead tossups, as superior bonus conversion allowed Oxford to secure an eleventh national title.
A record 20 teams from 12 different institutions were present at the 2018 tournament, which returned to its initial home of Imperial 20 years after its first iteration. New teams for this tournament included Queen Mary's University, London (or QMUL) and Leicester, as well as a returning all-London team. The four five-team prelim groups were won by Oxford A (George Charlson, Daoud Jackson, Alex Peplow, Jacob Robertson), Cambridge A (Sam Cook, Jason Golfinos, Elysia Warner, Yanbo Yin), Cambridge B (Richard Freeland, Joseph Krol, Ephraim Jacob Jacobus Levinson) and Cambridge C (James Devine-Stoneman, Daniel Lawson, Rosie McKeown, Oliver Sweetenham), with Cambridge A showing an advantage on PPB. Despite a spirited attempt by Southampton (James Carrigy, Josh Holland, Niall Jones, Evan Lynch), Cambridge A and Oxford A trusted the top spots, and this time Oxford had the advantage thanks to an earlier 200-point win over Cambridge. After Oxford Brookes won a middle bracket tiebreaker against Manchester A, the final began. Solid 50-point games from Jason Golfinos and Elysia Warner drew Cambridge level with Oxford for the final game. The encouraging form exploded as Golfinos and Yanbo Yin powered three tossups each and Cambridge recorded a bonus conversion of 23.33 PPB to storm to victory, 515-225. This was the first BSQC victory for Cambridge, and the first for a non-Oxford university since Manchester in 2002.
Due to the 2020 tournament involving a record 32 teams participating, BSQC has been limited to 24 teams since 2021, with teams needing to qualify for the tournament based on performances in other tournaments. Starting from BSQC 2023, a dedicated qualifying round has been used to select the majority of participating teams, with four spots reserved for the top four teams from the previous tournament, and another four reserved as 'wildcards'.
Imperial A (Adam Jones, Justin Lee, Michael Mays, Enoch Yuen) won BSQC for the first time in 2023, besting Oxford A 370-185 in a one-game final. This was the first non-Oxbridge victory since Manchester in 2002, and the first final not to feature Cambridge since 2015.
Results
* From 2014 to 2019, ties between teams with similar win-loss records were not broken.
Participants
| Institution | Number of participations | Years | Best result | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oxford | 18 | 1998-2003, 2011-2023 | 1st (14x: 1998-2001, 2003, 2011-2017, 2019, 2021) | Includes entries by individual colleges from 1998 to 2000: Balliol, Christ Church, Oriel, St. John's |
| Cambridge | 18 | 1998-2003, 2011-2023 | 1st (3x: 2018, 2020, 2022) | Includes entries by individual colleges from 1998 to 2003: Trinity, Christ's, St. Catharine's, Selwyn, Darwin, Clare, Downing |
| Manchester | 18 | 1998-2003, 2011-2022 | 1st (2002) | n/a |
| Imperial College London | 16 | 1998-2003, 2011-2014, 2016, 2018-2023 | 1st (2023) | Included in London team in 2015 |
| Warwick | 12 | 2003, 2012-2023 | 3rd (2x: 2014, 2017) | n/a |
| Southampton | 11 | 2011, 2013-2022 | 2nd (2x: 2020-2021) | n/a |
| Oxford Brookes | 9 | 2011, 2014, 2016-2022 | 11th (2x: 2011, 2017) | n/a |
| Bristol | 8 | 1999, 2001, 2016-2017, 2019-2023 | 7th (1999) | n/a |
| Edinburgh | 8 | 2015-2023 | 2nd (2022) | n/a |
| Sheffield | 7 | 2011-2015, 2020, 2022, 2023 | 3rd (2012) | n/a |
| University College London | 5 | 2002-2003, 2014, 2019-2020 | 8th (2x: 2002-2003) | Included in London team in 2015 and 2018 |
| Durham | 5 | 1998, 2000, 2019-2020, 2022, 2023 | 3rd (1998) | n/a |
| Open University | 4 | 1999, 2001, 2013-2014 | 3rd (1999) | n/a |
| Glasgow | 4 | 2019-2022 | 9th (2019) | n/a |
| Birkbeck College London | 3 | 1999, 2001-2002 | 4th (2001) | n/a |
| University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology | 3 | 2000-2002 | 4th (2000) | Merged with University of Manchester in 2004 |
| Nottingham | 3 | 2015-2017 | 9th (2016) | n/a |
| Queen Mary's University, London | 3 | 2018-2019, 2021 | 15th (2021) | n/a |
| University of London | 2 | 2015, 2018 | 2nd (2015) | Includes students from UCL, KCL, Imperial, LSE and Goldsmiths |
| St. Andrews | 2 | 2017-2018 | 14th (2018) | n/a |
| King's College London | 2 | 2013, 2019, 2023 | 2nd (2013) | Included in London team in 2018 |
| Hull | 1 | 2001 | 10th (2001) | n/a |
| University of East Anglia | 1 | 2001 | 5th (2001) | n/a |
| London School of Economics | 1 | 2014 | 11th (2014) | Included in London team in 2015 |
| School of Oriental and African Studies | 1 | 2016 | 10th (2016) | n/a |
| Leicester | 1 | 2018 | 20th (2018) | n/a |
| City, University of London | 1 | 2019 | 3rd (2019) | n/a |
| Exeter | 1 | 2019 | 19th (2019) | n/a |
| Cardiff | 1 | 2019 | 26th (2019) | n/a |
| York | 1 | 2021, 2023 | 18th (2021, 2023) | n/a |