LEIGH brainbox Dan Turnbull captained the Brasenose, Oxford, team in the University Challenge match screened on BBC 2 on Monday.

But his screen debut in the high-faluting contest may be his last.

The politics, philosophy and economics student's side was pipped at the post by opposition Cranfield who snatched the decider after a 165-165 dead heat thriller.

Dan played a big part in the game, which I have followed avidly for years, despite only being able to answer only a low percentage of the specialised questions. They can in no way be described as trivia.

Despite losing out they were congratulated by host Jeremy Paxman and told they could return as one of the highest scoring losers.

I do hope so, it's good to cheer on a local lad.

I have one criticism though. If they do come back I hope they speed up their answers which were painfully slow.