A Freshfields trainee has been accused of trying to cheat a student out of a prize at last week's annual Cambridge University Law Society Wintercomfort charity quiz.

Law firms sponsor tables of eight students to take part in the quiz (having each paid a hefty £4 entry fee), and also provide prizes. Trainee solicitors are sent by the firms but, in the interests of fairness and good sportsmanship, they are not allowed to win any prizes.

One Freshfields trainee apparently ended up winning a portable dvd player - arguably the best prize of the night. Insiders report that she claimed to be a student, nabbed the prize and tried to bolt before the quiz ended with it tucked under her arm. Well, when you're struggling to get by on £38,000 a year every little helps...

However, a sharp-eyed committee member had noticed that she was a trainee and confronted her. After a heated argument she returned the dvd player and stroppily exclaimed "do you want this wooden spoon back as well?" (having won it earlier in the night) before throwing it to the ground. Gosh. 

Freshfields said that she hadn't so much claimed to be a student as denied being a solicitor. Ah, very clever. And she wasn't trying to do anyone over but had merely failed to "hear the rules and so was understandably aghast when someone wanted the prize back at the end of the evening". And apparently she'd left in a hurry because she wanted to catch a train home and the evening was over-running. Well, that's certainly everything explained.  

A spokesman for the firm said that it would continue sponsoring the quiz but would encourage its trainees to "listen out for the rules rather than chatting to the students".