NUI Maynooth and DIT go head to head in tonight's final of Challenging Times, the RTE/Irish Times TV quiz. While Maynooth will be looking for a record-breaking third title, DIT seeks its first taste of glory.

A DIT win would also see it become the first IT to take the title - universities have won every year since the competition began in 1991; Maynooth won the competition in its first two years.

The DIT team go into the final with a slightly better record, with 660 points in this year's televised rounds compared to Maynooth's 625. The Maynooth team had a relatively narrow squeeze in the first televised round, beating Galway-Mayo IT by 200 points to 145. The quarter-final score against last year's champions UCD was a more convincing 235 to 120. DIT had two convincing wins on the way to the final, beating Queens University Belfast 235 to 150 in the first televised round, then disposing of the Garda College with 80 points to spare.

In the semi-finals NUI Maynooth faced UCC, the only other college to have won the competition twice. It turned out to be a low scoring, close encounter: Maynooth reached the final with only 40 points to spare.

DIT earned a place in the final by beating the National College of Ireland by 60 points, despite strong answering by NCI captain John Keegan. The sympathy of regular viewers is likely to be with the DIT team - two of the team, Ronan O'Keefe and Brendan Dunne, are in the final for the second time in as many years. After last year's knife-edge loss to UCD, they will be hoping teammate Imelda Graham will bring them the rub of the green - against the impressive firepower of Maynooth captain Thomas Byrne and teammates Declan O'Donnell and Sean Kelleher.

The final, hosted as always by Irish Times columnist Kevin Myers, can be seen tonight on Network 2 at 8.30 p.m.