A WEST Devon man led a fightback for his team in the first episode of BBC2's University Challenge broadcast on Monday.

Will Critchlow, 19, of Mary Tavy, is reading mathematics at Christ's College, Cambridge — Christ's, with an average age of 18 years and six months, were the youngest  team to appear on University Challenge and pitted their wits against Warwick University.

Will got off to a tough start by answering the first question wrongly, putting his team on minus five points. But he made amends minutes later by correctly naming three of the six counties of Northern Ireland.

Christ's recovered well, and with eight minutes to go were leading Warwick, thanks in no small part to Will correctly answering a question about a quadratic equation.

But Warwick produced a strong finish and were victorious by 200 points to Christ's 170.

Will said the first five minutes were 'really scary', especially as he got the first question wrong: 'It made me even more nervous, but after that it was pretty enjoyable and there were some questions that really suited me.

'Jeremy Paxman is also a really nice guy. I do not know if he is nice to politicians after he has finished with them but he was to us.'

Will and his team members took part in some trials at the college for University Challenge and got a shock when they were selected.

'We were considered to be the second choice team so we were not expecting it. I have always wanted to be on University Challenge but we entered this time for a bit of fun, not thinking we would beat the first choice team.'

Will, who correctly answered more questions than any other member of his team, may yet be seen again on the long running programme. Despite losing, at 170 points, Christ's may return as one of the four highest scoring defeated teams.