OXFORD Brookes University’s triumph over Cambridge in TV’s University Challenge shows it can battle with the best, the team’s coach said.

The only other time the 19-year-old university was on the BBC2 show was in 1998, when viewers saw them knocked out in the second round.

But the team were seen beating Christ’s College, Cambridge, last Monday and will meet another unnamed team in the quarter final second round on February 7.

Captain and history student Tony McLarin, from Exeter, is joined by architecture student Richard Williams, from Malvern, mathematical sciences student Sarah Johnson, from Hartlepool, and Austin Sherlaw-Johnson, from Leeds, who is taking a PhD in music.

They are barred by the BBC from talking to the Oxford Mail until the show is over but coach and computing senior lecturer Dr Ian Bayley said it was a boost for the university.

He said: “I’m thrilled that I’ve been able to give these very talented students this opportunity to go on television on a programme which is watched by three million people, representing a university which has not been on the show for 12 years.

“I think this will mean people will start to look at the university a bit differently.

“At the moment it is perceived to be a university in Oxford that is not the University of Oxford.”

No stranger to quizzes, Dr Bayley appeared on the show, presented by Jeremy Paxman, in 1997 and in 2001 when he worked for other universities.

In 2010 he won the final of the BBC Radio 4 quiz Brain of Britain, scoring more points than the other three contestants put together.

Mr Williams said: “It’s been very exciting to be involved in University Challenge and it was a great achievement to beat one of the top Cambridge colleges. Traditionally you would be worried about a Cambridge or Oxford college and we were very pleased we managed to beat them. It shows we have exceptionally talented students at our university. It’s the first time the university has been so successful on the show.”

The team defeated Cardiff University in the July round by 220 to 210 after winning a tie-break starter about Oxford literary group the Inklings.

They then beat London’s University of the Arts by 320 to 100 to reach the quarter final first round.

The university was formed in 1992 when Oxford Polytechnic became Oxford Brookes University, named in honour of founding principal, John Brookes.

Since 1995, Oxford University has won the competition six times.