ST Andrews have lost to Imperial College, London, in the first of the second round matches of University Challenge.
The final score was Imperial 180, St Andrews 90.
“Bad luck, St Andrews,” said host Jeremy Paxman. “Ninety is a perfectly perfectly respectable score.”
Imperial, the current holders of the University Challenge trophy, lost their first round match against the University of Strathclyde but won through in a play-off against Exeter.
The Imperial team were determined that the bout against another Scots university would not be so close, and kept out in front for most of the half hour.
READ MORE: Edinburgh defeats Linacre
St Andrews tried to catch up, but a run of wrong answers - and hesitations - allowed Imperial to forge ahead and claim a place in the quarter finals.
Representing St Andrews were: Tom Sherlock, Hertfordshire, studying international relations and modern history; Max Holtzman, Maine, US, recently graduated in maths and physics; Ahzha Martin Khemsar, Glasgow, economics (captain); and John Er, New York, philosophy.
For Imperial: Justin Wong, Hong Kong, studying maths; Katie Marrow, Peak District, physics; Michael Kohn, London, pure maths (captain); and Imran Rahman, Petaling Jaya, Malaysia, theoretical physics.
READ MORE: St Andrews wins big
St Andrews made it through to the second round after beating Darwin College, Cambridge, with one of the highest scores of the series so far - 255 against 90.
First blood went to Imperial, before Er buzzed in by correctly identifying David Simon’s novel The Wire. At one stage St Andrews were ahead by five points, only to lose them with a wrong answer.
READ MORE: Strathclyde triumph over Imperial
At the half way mark Imperial was ahead 90 to 55, with St Andrews managing to close the gap to just 10 points.
But solid captainship from Imperial’s Kohn and Paxman’s exasperation with Martin Khemsar’s style of answering saw the fortunes of St Andrews take a turn for the worse. Having previously buzzed then hesitated before answering, the Glaswegian did the same in a picture round, eventually identifying James Joyce correctly.
“If you buzz you must answer straight away,” said Paxman. “You can’t think after you’ve buzzed so I’m not going to give [the points] to you.”
St Andrews lost 10 points in a row after that, before rallying. By that point Imperial were too far ahead to catch.
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