A QUIZ SHOW addict came within a whisker of claiming the top prize on The 1% Club earlier this month.
Andrew Fenton, 49, from Rhoose, was a contestant on the popular ITV Saturday night show hosted by Lee Mack on 15th November, where he answered a series of ever more difficult logic-based questions.
The format sees 100 contestants gather in the studio at Media City, Salford, where they attempt to answer 15 questions of increasing difficulty (90% to 1%), each of which has a 30-second time limit. The contestants are then eliminated once they have answered a question incorrectly.
Andrew was one of just four contestants who got the 14th question (5%) right and went on to play for the 1% question, which was worth £95,000, to be divided equally between those who managed to solve the puzzle.
The four contestants were asked to work out the total number of squares within a square, and that was where Andrew came unstuck: “I knew the moment I saw the puzzle that I was going to struggle to get it within 30 seconds. You need a certain type of brain to be able to work it out within the allotted time, and I’m not that person. I said there were 26 squares, but the correct answer was 46.
“Only one of the four contestants got it, his name was Martin and he was a maths teacher, which I suppose makes sense,” he said. Had Andrew answered correctly, the top prize would have been split between the two for £47k each.
Enjoyed appearing on the show
Andrew says that despite falling at the final hurdle, he enjoyed appearing on the show. He said: “It was filmed during late June and I wasn’t allowed to tell anyone how it went, which wasn’t always easy.
“When you’re in the studio and you hear the theme music playing, it all seems very real. There were a lot of very bright people among the 100 contestants and it was a fun challenge.”
Owner of Chris Davies Estate Agents
Andrew grew up in Penarth where he attended St Cyres School and is the owner of Chris Davies Estate Agents, having worked in the industry since the age of 19. He lives with his wife, Claire, and their son Harrison, 9, and he also has a 16-year-old son, Elijah, from a previous marriage: “Family means everything to me, and I can’t put a price on the support they’ve given me or the joy they bring to my life.
“My father, Paul, is a retired Detective Inspector. He’s a very principled man and he’s active in community campaigning in Penarth, and my mother, Pam, has been wonderful as well,” he said.
Away from work, Andrew enjoys cricket, where in 2006 he took 10 wickets for just 25 runs during a league match for Barry Wanderers.
Andrew has been a keen quiz and game show enthusiast since childhood, and he fondly recalls watching the great hosts of yesteryear with his parents: “I feel very lucky to have grown up in the era I did, because I got to watch so many of the greats.
“Bruce Forsyth was my favourite, and Leslie Crowther was a real character. I was also a big fan of Roy Walker on Catchphrase.
“I loved Wheel of Fortune from the time it began with Nicky Campbell at the helm, and Bob’s Full House with Bob Monkhouse was another one I remember fondly,” he said.
A contestant on Countdown
Andrew made his quiz show debut in September 1999 as a contestant on Countdown, when it was presented by the late original host Richard Whiteley, and he was unfortunate to suffer a narrow defeat on the end-of-show conundrum: “I remember that day very well. Back then, Countdown was recorded at the Yorkshire Television studios in Leeds, and Angela Rippon was the guest in Dictionary Corner.
“It was a close game that came down to the conundrum, I didn’t get it, and the answer to the anagram was ‘flagstone’, which is an estate agent industry-related word. I got some stick for that!
“Hundreds of contestants have appeared more than once, but they like you to wait about 10 years before you try again.
“I returned 17 years later in 2016, when Nick Hewer and Rachel Riley were hosting it and production had moved to Media City in Salford, the same place where The 1% Club is recorded.
“My first show again went down to the conundrum, and I got it right on that occasion. I won for eight days in a row and made it through to the series quarter-finals, where I won on a conundrum. Then, in the semi-finals, I lost to Martin Hurst, who went on to become series champion.
“It was a thoroughly enjoyable experience, my father came with us for some of the filming and we got to meet Sir Tim Rice, who was going to be in Dictionary Corner for other episodes filmed that day and he’s a massive cricket fan. For the 2016 episodes I appeared on, the Dictionary Corner guests were the impressionist Jon Culshaw, Gavin & Stacey star Alison Steadman and weather presenter Carol Kirkwood.”
Keen to try other shows
Andrew says that he is unlikely to appear on Countdown again, but he is keen to try other quiz programmes, possibly alongside his wife: “Claire and I both applied for The 1% Club, but I got selected to appear, and unfortunately she didn’t.
“It would be good to try a quiz programme with her, because we have different skillsets and we complement each other. I’m quick with numbers and letters, but I’m not really that strong on general knowledge, so I’m not especially keen to apply for Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?
“Claire is good with word puzzles, though less so with numbers, but she has a lot of random knowledge that would come in handy.
“We’d like to appear on Lingo with Adil Ray, because it’s centred around solving mystery words, and Ant and Dec’s Limitless Win, because the answers are numbers-based,” he said.
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