Merton College Quiz Society

The year 2020-21 was one of mixed fortunes for the Quiz Society.

Early in September, before Michaelmas started, our University Challenge team –comprising Conor Ó Síocháin (2017), William Isotta (2019), our reservist Elisabeth Le Maistre (2016) (team member Tom McLean (2017) being stranded in New Zealand due to the pandemic) and myself – returned to Manchester to film our second-round match. Following on from our resounding victory against Wolfson College, Cambridge, which briefly had us hailed on Twitter for beating the college that produced University Challenge celebrity Eric Monkman, we were disappointed to be squarely beaten by the team from Warwick.

Regardless of the result, we did our best and found appearing on University Challenge a thoroughly rewarding experience, even if the second time we lacked a studio audience and had to have plexiglass screens between us to prevent the spread of Covid-19. We fielded a team for the applications process of the next series, but sadly did not make it to the televised rounds. Lockdown also put paid to our dreams of a victory in the Inter-Collegiate Quiz, but we hope to come back stronger in Michaelmas.

In the meantime, Merton's JCR and MCR ran successful bar quizzes on Monday nights, both online and in person, and many of members attended and enjoyed these.

Keep an eye out. We hope to be returning to your screens as soon as we can.

Pax Butchart (2019)
Quiz Society President 2020-21