Cambridge graduate, Jeremy Paxman, could only keep on asking the questions as an all-women team from the university scraped the most miserable score so far recorded on the revamped University Challenge.

In front of millions of TV viewers, the four contestants from New Hall scored just 35 points while Nottingham University notched up 335.

The previous lowest score was 40 points recorded by Birkbeck College against Manchester University.

Even getting off the mark was an achievement - at one point wrong answers put New Hall on minus 15.

Half-way through the 30-minute show they had clawed their way back to zero.

With three minutes to go, New Hall reached 30, only for five points to be deducted when team captain, Sarah Davies, answered incorrectly.

With host Jeremy Paxman urging them to salvage "some honour", in the final two minutes New Hall won cheers and applause from the audience when they reached 35.

Paxman tried to console the team - Sarah Davies (studying Natural Sciences), Rosie Shaw (Philosophy), Rachel Coleman (Natural Sciences) and Abigail Bradley (Natural Sciences) - by saying they were perhaps just unlucky.

He added: "I want to be as kind as I can to you, New Hall, but it is a terrible score. I think it's the worst score since University Challenge, in fact I'm pretty sure it is. "

The team, which beat Nottingham in a warm-up competition, put their massive defeat down to stage-fright. Team member, Rachel Coleman, who hopes to be an astronaut insists that they are all very bright.

"It's not that we didn't know the answers. We were not as well-practised and confident as the others. It's not that we are thick, we were just slow."

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