University Challenge captain ready for final battle

A student known for their beanies and unique buzzing style says it feels "surreal" leading a team to the University Challenge final.

Kai Madgwick, from Fowey, Cornwall, has been captaining the team from Manchester University, which won its semi final with 250 points.

At the end of the semi final, presenter Amol Rajan praised the 24-year-old - who is studying for a phD in AI and astrophysics - saying they put in "one hell of a performance" and was on "fire" during the match.

Madgwick, whose appearances on the BBC Two show have caught the attention of fans on social media, said they had watched University Challenge for "absolutely ages" and could not believe they had made it to the final.

"Since I was very small, I've watched it with my parents and I just thought it'd be really nice to get involved one day," they said.

Madgwick said their buzzer style was inspired by a member of the Warwick team from last year, Thomas Hart.

The style involves Madgwick having a high right elbow while their hand is on the buzzer.

They said: "A lot of people online seemed to be making fun of him for it.

"I thought I'd rather have fun going on this programme and also show a bit of solidarity for him as well.

"I just started buzzing like that and I just didn't stop really, it's just kind of became natural to me."

The Manchester team lost one of their quarter final matches against their final opponents - Edinburgh.

In University Challenge, teams have to win two quarter final matches to progress to the semis, while a team which loses twice in the last eight is eliminated.

Madgwick said: "We've already lost them to them so far in the quarter finals, so this will be a revenge match."

If Manchester wins the final, it will be their fifth title in the competition and would take the university to the joint most series wins with Imperial College London.

Madgwick said "any further game has been an absolute gift" following the quarter final loss and the team has gone onto beat University College London, Sheffield and Imperial.

They said part being successful was luck and depending on the way the questions fell, but they also did a lot of preparation for the competition, which Manchester last won in 2013.

They said: "We watched some of the old episodes, there are also quite a few University Challenge books which we've read through and a lot of the old Manchester University Challenge people practice with us every week."

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