Pub quiz team have TV’S Eggheads on toast with show’s first clean sweep of answers
Helena Horton
Korbinian Vielmeier
IT IS one of the most difficult quiz shows on television, and for 16 years not a single team of contestants has managed to gain a clean sweep of right answers against the “Eggheads”.
Now, a formidable pub quiz team from Suffolk has become the first to answer every single question correctly on the BBC2 show.
Eggheads, which has run for 2,000 episodes, features a new group of amateur quizzers every episode who are pitted against the country’s most experienced quiz team, the eponymous Eggheads. Over multiple rounds a challenger is pitted against an Egghead.
The winner of each round goes on to the final, in which the remaining members of each quiz team are pitted against each other. The programme has often faced criticism that it is too difficult for all but the most knowledgeable quizzers. This time, however, the challenger team, the Shotley Open Spacers, achieved an unbeaten streak and took home a prize of £11,000.
The group consists of Derek Davies, a freelance sports journalist, Gary Richens, a retired electrical engineer, Marian Pugh, a retired primary schoolteacher, Shane Rolin, a business consultant, and Ian Peters, a retired retail manager. The team do not even take part in quizzes on a regular basis, instead enjoying occasional quiz nights at their favourite pub, the Bristol Arms and at Shotley village hall in Suffolk.
The team volunteer in their local area, keeping the open spaces tidy and clearing brambles from paths.
They were tested on sports, science, film and television, and geography. The rounds twice went to sudden death because the challenger and the Egghead drew. Both times, the challenger won. The team also became only the fourth ever to get all their players into the final round. When Jeremy Vine, the host, asked for the secret of their suc- cess, team leader Mr Davies quipped: “A few beers and a quiz game on the train coming up.”
Speaking afterwards he said: “It was great fun and we were amazed to be told we were the first team ever to answer every single question correctly.
“We went there to promote the Shotley peninsula and highlight the good work Shotley Open Spaces does for our community. It has been purgatory waiting for more than a year not being able to tell anyone how we got on, but now I hope everyone enjoyed watching the show and will be inspired to give it a go themselves.”
A show spokesman said: “They got everything right and, yes, it’s the first time it has happened in almost 2,000 episodes.”
Vine told The Daily Telegraph: “I love it when challengers beat the Eggheads. It makes my day – it makes everyone’s day. The problem is, the Eggheads only get more vengeful afterwards, and then they go and win 10 on the trot.”