Their victory over Eric Monkman, the Canadian student whose eccentric mannerisms have made him a social media sensation, in last night’s series final of University Challenge was dubbed “worse than Brexit” by some disappointed viewers.

But the team from Balliol College have won back the hearts of some by publicly snubbing a request for an interview with the Daily Mail.

Two team members were contacted on Twitter last week by a Mail reporter asking for contact details. They gave a polite but emphatic reply.

Australian astrophysics student Benjamin Pope was the first to reply, explaining the team had a “ethical boycott” of the publication:

@LauraLambert8 Hi! As a team, we won't be interviewed by the Mail. We know it's not your fault, but we must ethically boycott that hateful publication. — Benjamin Pope (@fringetracker) April 5, 2017

Minutes later, Freddy Potts, a history student from Newcastle, went further and labelled the paper a “fascist rag”:

.@LauraLambert8 Hi Laura – I have nothing against you personally, but equally I have nothing to say to the fascist rag which employs you — Freddy (@FJPotts) April 5, 2017

The Mail are unlikely to have had any luck with another Balliol team member, Jacob Lloyd, who is a leading member of the Labour party affiliated Young Fabians.

The Mail reporter also contacted Monkman and members of his team from Wolfson College, Cambridge for interview but didn’t receive a reply.

The newspaper subsequently published an article which said the teams had “refused to answer questions on female under-representation.”

This was the response of Balliol College captain Joey Goldman:

.@fringetracker @FJPotts Obviously our Balliol team is extremely concerned by the lack of women, and we're working hard on how to ensure this doesn't recur. — Mouse Aesthetic (@JoeySwearwords) April 10, 2017

.@fringetracker @FJPotts I'm absolutely fuming. What utter bullshit 'journalism', the useless rotters. — Mouse Aesthetic (@JoeySwearwords) April 10, 2017

We’d like to see this settled by a Balliol vs Daily Mail pub quiz…