OVER the last week a vast army of journalists have commented on the phenomenon that is Gail Trimble - the girl who took the team from Corpus Christie College, Oxford to victory in the final of University Challenge ­ so I¹m going to have my say too.

Ever since her team reached the quarter finals, Malcolm and I have been watching "Corpus Christie Trimble" in open-mouthed admiration, not only for her knowledge on almost every subject but also for her delightful personality and her generosity and graciousness to the others on her team.

So we were incredulous to discover that there was a campaign of hate against her, originally for being clever, which had further degenerated into criticism of her appearance (glasses, hair with split ends, untrendy clothes, the possibility of hairy legs) ­ oh please.

What is wrong with people in this country who find it necessary to trash excellence and extol mediocrity? In Russia it¹s called negative envy and look where it¹s got the Russians. I suspect much of this is because Gail will not be tempted to accept the baubles of the media age ­ no change in lifestyle, no makeover, certainly no NUTS magazine "interview".

I¹m also convinced that this attitude to cleverness is the nastier side of the (in many ways admirable) British characteristic of self-deprecation. We pretend we aren¹t clever when often we are. Gail Trimble was outrageous enough to be clever on television and a lot of us didn¹t like it.

One April 23 Malcolm walked into a local pub and suggested to fellow punters that they drink a toast to "the great William Shakespeare" on his birthday. "Who¹s William Shakespeare?" they asked. Now, this could have been for one of two reasons. Either they genuinely ­ and shamefully - didn¹t know or, even worse, they were ashamed to admit that they did in front of their mates.

I rest my case.