A team of architects from the RIBA have defended their woeful performance on University Challenge by claiming that they were just hitting their stride when the buzzer went
David Billingsley, chief architect at Ceredigion council in Wales, told Building: "Monday's show was shorter than average – give us another 10 minutes and we'd have pulled it back."

It was not immediately clear why the architects did not simply certify themselves extra time, citing the "relevant event" clause of JCT98 – the event being that they were 65 points behind a bunch of weird-looking scientists from the Royal Society, who won 135 points to 70.

The RIBA team included Aiden Ridyard and David Baugh of Telford practice Hickton Madeley and Dafydd Tomos, co-founder of George+Tomos. Before the show, they told inquisitor-general Paxman that they wanted to dispel the myth that architects were "egotistical, work-shy fops spending other people's money". Unfortunately, Ridyard then added: "I very much hope we can give a favourable impression …"

Despite the RIBA team's many articles and lectures on architectural history, the team's knowledge was a little rusty. When asked who provided architectural advice on the design of electricity pylons, they replied Giles Gilbert Scott. As every schoolchild knows, the correct answer is the great Sir Reginald Blomfield.

Paxman said they started well but "faded, and were unlucky in the way some questions fell".

Billingsley said: "The whole experience was great and, given that they were a very bright opposition team, we did reasonably well - but it really was over too quickly."