25th November 2020
University Challenge
BHASVIC’s former student Holly Parkinson led Durham University to another victory on University Challenge. Durham's Holly Parkinson and Edinburgh's Niamh Clarke who are both studying Physics; captained the teams in the 23 November episode of University Challenge. This episode represented the first time in the show’s history in which both team captains were women. The other three team participants from each university were men. Durham’s team was made up of team captain Holly Parkinson (Physics, Van Mildert College), Harry Regan (Liberal Arts, St John’s College), Thomas Banbury (History, Van Mildert College), Thomas Wilkening (Biosciences, Van Mildert College).
Durham University’s team won their second match in this year’s University Challenge, with 165 points to Edinburgh’s 145. The team need to win one more match if they are to make the semi-finals. Durham excelled on topics as diverse as Jane Austen novels, German cities, muscle and operas in English. Durham has reached the semi-finals in the last two series, but was narrowly defeated both times by Edinburgh University in 2019 and Corpus Christi, Cambridge earlier this year.
