Southampton choir beats the Egghead TV boffins (From Daily Echo)

Southampton choir beats the Egghead TV boffins

1:35pm Thursday 14th February 2013 in News

A SOUTHAMPTON choir has beaten the boffins on top TV Quiz show Eggheads.

The Southampton Choral Society, which has more than 130 singers, entered a team of six for the show, hosted by Jeremy Vine and Dermot Murnaghan.

For more than six months the team swapped singing high notes for getting stuck into quiz books and encyclopaedias for two hours each day, whilst also fitting in their regular weekly rehearsals – in the hope of beating the UK’s most formidable quiz team.

But all the hard work has now paid off, as they won a jackpot of £2,000 by beating the eggheads. Before this week they had won 28 shows in a row.

Representing the choir for the show was team captain Rosaleen Wilkinson who was joined by Clive Barnes and his wife Diana, Steve Braithwaite, Jim Madge and reserve team member Rev David Snuggs.

The show was recorded in Glasgow in May last year, but the team kept the result a secret until now.

Rosaleen said: “It was so difficult to keep it under wraps, because so many people were asking. We all had to sign a contract to make sure we didn’t.”

To give themselves a chance of winning, they made sure that each team member had a different quiz speciality.

Rosaleen added: “It was so nerve-wracking being on TV. I didn’t think I would be nervous, but it was alarming and quite frightening. I feel amazed that we actually won, I never thought we would.”

The money raised will now go towards charitable causes and help the choir put on more concerts.