An annual match between "Town" (the non-student residents of Oxford) and "Gown" (the University of Oxford) has long been a feature of the fixture calendar of many sports in Oxford. It's therefore all the more surprising that these two sides had never before formally played each other in a buzzer quiz match before last Friday night.

Barely two months after retaining the Varsity trophy in a great contest against Cambridge, Oxford could have been forgiven for a certain degree of confidence going into these matches. However, they were already on notice that their opponents were no pushovers.

Bodleian Library, from left: Gillian Beattie, Dorjana Širola, Mike Heaney, Bob Wyatt

The team from the Bodleian Library - the university library in Oxford, and one of the oldest in Europe - formed to take part in the series of University Challenge: The Professionals that will be shown on the BBC this summer. However, in addition to their Professionals experience, their team contained veterans of UC itself: Dorjana Širola, the long-time stalwart of the Oxford University team, won with Somerville College in 2002; and Gillian Beattie notched up two big victories as part of the Manchester University a year earlier.

The Town team, meanwhile, also boasted two UC veterans - from 1987 and that same 2001 series - not to mention a Brain of Britain as well. Indeed, any line-up in which you can mention both Billson and Bayley is likely to be a little on the strong side!

The first match pitted the team from the Bodleian - the "Bod" to Oxford students - against a team of those students playing under the "inventive" rhyming name of "Squad". It was clear from the start that this was going to be something of a one-sided contest, however, as the library team hit three figures before their opponents had even made it back to zero following a couple of unhelpful negs.

The solid depth of knowledge on both sides saw an all-round high bonus conversion, so it was always going to come down to speed on the starters. As the game slipped away from them, the students started to dive in earlier on questions, and paid the penalty as they registered negs on fully one-in-five of the starters. The Bodleian meanwhile carefully picked off the rebounds, converted the bonuses, and stretched their lead well into safety. After 25 starters, their 380-100 win was perhaps a little harsh on a student side whose 72% bonus conversion showed no lack of knowledge, but in the end it was experience and cool heads that saw the Bodleian home.

Dorjana Širola's clean 80 points led on the buzzer for the Bod, assisted by captain Mike Heaney's 40. Ian Webb's clean 30 points made him the best of the student team.

Bodleian Library 380-100 Oxford Students (25s)
Bod: Gillian Beattie 20, Dorjana Širola 80, Mike Heaney 40, Bob Wyatt 25, Bonuses 79.6%
Stu: Brian Danielak 0, Ian Webb 30, Samantha Warnakulasuriya -5, Caleb Liu 10, Bonuses 72.2%

Oxford Town, from left: Mike Billson, Gary Butler, Roger Mortimore, Ian Bayley

In complete contrast to the first game, you could barely slip a cigarette paper between the two sides in the second match the whole way through, as they traded starters backed with near-perfect bonus conversions. Only one set of bonuses went for zero in the match - the Town team demonstrating their (perhaps laudable) lack of appreciation of country music - as between them the two sides dropped just 65 points of the 600 available in the match.

Ian Bayley, once the talisman of the University side, had a particularly fine game for the Town team, including an alarmingly good knowledge of alarmingly bad television. For the Gown team, Peter Baker mopped up the science on his way to a clean 50 points, and the side recorded a record-equalling 90.9% conversion of their 11 bonuses.

The match came right down to the final starter with the scores tied at 255-apiece. Mike Billson won the buzzer race, the Town cleaned up the last bonus question, and after their last-ditch wins against Cambridge, the students found themselves on the wrong end of a similar 280-255 scoreline.

Oxford Town 280-255 Oxford Gown (24s)
Town: Mike Billson 5, Gary Butler 0, Roger Mortimore 30, Ian Bayley 80, Bonuses 84.6%
Gown: Peter Baker 50, Dorjana Širola 30, Gail Trimble 20, Michael Levy 5, Bonuses 90.9%