MANCHESTER'S UNIVERSITY Challenge team has triggered a sting of complaints to the BBC, because irate viewers thought they were 'too old'.
The team, consisting of three students over 30 and one PhD student, have been accused of not being in keeping with the spirit of the popular quiz show.
It was claimed that the students' age gives them an unfair advantage with general knowledge questions.
One complaint suggested that the quiz show be renamed 'Postgraduate Challenge' or even 'Pub-Team Challenge' to reflect the growing age of contestants.
Another said: "The way things are going in the next series I expect to see dons and lecturers allowed - why not? - many of them are studying for advanced qualifications".
The complaints were aired on Radio 4's World at One after Manchester's second round appearance in December. When questioned, quizmaster Jeremy Paxman staunchly defended the team, saying that all students in Higher Education were eligible to be contestants.
Angaharad O'Leary, the Manchester team captain, said she was "horrified to be written off as 'too long in the tooth' at 24".
She added: "Representing a student body of over 30,000 in a four-person team is always going to be a challenge, but as a team we represented undergraduates, postgraduates, scientists, artists, men and women. Our ages, if anything, demonstrated a positive change in attitudes and access to Higher Education in the UK.
"Surely the most worrying thing is not that some of the contestants on the show are older, but that all the contestants are predominantly white and male".
An official BBC statement backed rallied in support of the team: "University Challenge strives to reflect the British student population. There is not a typical student these days; we have postgrads applying who are quite young and undergraduates who are relatively mature so it would be unfair to rule out anyone."
University Challenge is filmed at the BBC Manchester studios on Oxford Road, and has traditionally been the preserve of undergraduates.
However, in recent years more and more postgraduate and mature students have been fielded.
There was controversy in 1999 when three of the mature students representing the Open University were outed as 'ringers' – professional TV quiz contestants.
The team was selected by university librarian Stephen Pearson, who runs an open competition every February. The chosen team trains for several months to polish their general knowledge and buzzer-skills before the competition commences.
Manchester's team have reached the semi-finals of University Challenge for the fourth year in succession. Their last-four encounter with Christ Church, Oxford will be shown on BBC2 on 18th February.
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