AND your starter for ten is which Bury lad has reached the semi-finals of University Challenge? No conferring!

Clever TV viewers know the answer. It's former Holy Cross College student Paddy Hayes, with his team from Imperial College, London.

The quartet dished out a thrashing to St Hugh's, Oxford, and are looking good to retain the trophy for Imperial.

Paddy (22) is a former pupil of St Gabriel's High School, and his parents still live in Brandlesholme Road, Bury.

After doing his A-levels at Holy Cross, he went to Imperial to do an M.Sc. in chemistry and is now reading for a Ph.D.

"I'm looking at fuel cells, alternative technology, for things like cars," he said. "It'll take about three years and I'm only four months into it, so I haven't saved the world yet!" Paddy explained that last year's winning team at Imperial played an important part in coaching the current squad.

"They advertised around college for four men (or women) brave and true, did a written test, and picked the four highest scorers.

"Then we applied to Granada, who make the programme, where we did written tests and an interview, no doubt to check how photogenic we were.

"They choose only 28 teams out of about 200 applicants, so just getting on TV is an achievement. So far we've beaten De Montford, Christ Church and St Hugh's. It's always nice to beat Oxbridge colleges!"

What surprises viewers about Imperial or, to give its full name, Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine, is the range of knowledge its team members have.

"People always ask, how come four scientists presume to know so much about art and history?" said Paddy.

"But, without doing anyone down, scientists know a lot more about art than the other way around: we go to galleries at the weekend, but artists don't tend to go to laboratories! Plus we're all complete geeks and I'm proud of that label!"

Paddy and the Imperial team take on Edinburgh University in the semi-final, which is shown on February 25 on BBC2 at 8pm. Our lips are sealed!