Teacher top of class on University Challenge

Dale Crawford, a physics teacher from Ellesmere College, was part of the victorious Open University team who took on the University of Salford, accompanied by their lucky owl mascot.

A former graduate from the University of Oxford, Mr Crawford has been teaching at the school for more than 12 years and his commitment to education has continued with a mathematics degree with the Open University.

He said: "Once I heard the university were looking for candidates I decided to enter their selection process. We had to enter a number of online general knowledge tests before 750 participants were whittled down to a team of four with one reserve."

Mr Crawford said morale was high in the team following their landslide win in their warm-up match the month before.

The Open University team had only met once before, but they bonded over their love of maths, he said. The team, with their broad general knowledge in topics from geography to literature and the sciences, did not fail to impress in their match against Salford.

Mr Crawford added: "The first round which aired last week was a nail-biting match and the Salford students were truly worthy opponents, but at three minutes to go we had a convincing lead of 175 points to Salford's 105.

"When the final gong rang out our team were met by a fantastic cheer of applause, and the final score saw us declare victory at 210 points to 115. As a team we were so pleased with the result and we are now looking forward to the next round."

The next round will be broadcast on BBC Two at the end of October.