Top prize goes west, again

"WE LOVE your accents, we do, we love your accents, we do." The cry arose from the massed ranks of the UCG supporters one of whom, rather worryingly, was waving a large axe in the general direction of the Cork RTC crowd, towards whom their distinctly facetious comment was directed.

This was the final of Challenging Times, the Irish Times/ RTE third level quiz competition, and tensions were running high among the rival groups of supporters.

A neutral observer might have pointed out that the UCGI contingent was in no position to tease anyone about linguistic peculiarities, given that some of them sounded like they had just landed in longships in Dublin Bay, but their attention was diverted from the Leesiders by the arrival of Kevin Myers, Challenging Times question master and all round good bloke.

"We love you Kevin, we do, we love you Kevin, we do", they shouted as he walked onto the set, causing him to grin like a cat who has just eaten a canary.

The final was one of the tensest and most closely fought in the six years of Challenging Times, with UCG taking the lead initially before Cork RTC caught up, bringing the scores to 25-25. UCG pulled ahead again, to 55 points, but Cork caught up once again with two excellent rounds and by one third of the way into the competition the scores stood at 70-65 to UCG.

Cork then came into their own, taking the lead for the first time and opening up a 25 point gap. UCG fought back but by two thirds of the way through they had still failed to catch Cork and the score stood at 110 points to 105 in favour of the Leesiders.

But as the competition entered its final stage, it was UCG who proved the more resilient, tenaciously going ahead to take the score to 130-110. Cork fought back to within 10 points, but by then it was too late and UCG forged ahead to win the final by 145 points to 120, the second year: running that the title has gone to UCG.

UCG were represented by Maidhe O Cathail, Ciaran Mac Lochlainn, Constantine Christofides and sub Tiernan McConville. The Cork RTC team consisted of Ronan Cosgrave, Robert Hill, Jeremy Kelleher and sub Martin O'Keefe.

Louis O'Neill, group managing director and deputy chief executive of The Irish Times, presented the winning team with their trophies, a set of Encyclopaedia Brittanica for the college library and a cheque for £2,000, to be spent on student facilities.