The usual favourite team, with their skills honed by appearing on Eggheads, were unable to appear and the team that pipped them last time were also absent. This left the field wide-open for every ambitious team. The Ps & Qs felt that their time had come; they are regulars near the top of the rankings but, on this occasion, they were denied by the plucky Tudor Bowling team.
The bowlers chose the first round as their bonus round and with their score doubled led the field from the off. One of the team was so excited by this strange turn of events that he had to take a picture of the scoreboard showing the score from the first round only. Another member succumbed to the tension by shouting out the answer to one of the questions but discipline was restored with the wartime watchword “Loose lips sink ships”.
There were some unkind comments about the team’s success; the question master bowls with them and the scorer joined them because his Egghead chums had deserted him. Nevertheless, the Tudor Bowling team deserved their win with a splendid team effort which was totally bona fide and above board.
Their tale of plucky determination is set to become another “Calendar Girls” film success. The Weinstein company (if it produces any more films) hopes to take it forward with Meryl Streep and Denzil Washington in lead roles. Stormy Daniels, when she is free of her legal tussle with Donald Trump, hopes to front the topless bowling scene on the lower green in Sandbach Park and Hugh Grant will play the question master.
Back in the real world, the 18 teams enjoyed wracking their brains to answer Keith Poynton’s questions while Jan and Liz Allcock played the glamorous assistants. Jim Thompson was the sound engineer and Kevin Dean put the scores on the wall. The producer of this long-running popular event was, as always, Bill Dowell.
