Fifteen-to-One - Series 29 Grand Final

The start of the grand final of series 29 was strange, as for legal reasons, one of the contestants could not be featured and was edited out. When the introduction came, neither the contestant's numbers nor the shot of William G. Stewart walking across the set were shown. Instead of the latter, we were treated to this graphic (right) in the form of a sequence after all the names had been announced.

William G. Stewart then spoke about the playoff situation. Because Ian Volante was unable to make the grand final, a playoff was required.

Anyone who had watched the show for the previous few days of programs could have been forgiven for assuming that two contestants would be required, since Ivor Jones, Ian Clayton and Peter Effer were previously shown to be tied at position 15.

However, it became clear that only one had been required, since at the time of filming, the three players mentioned above would have been assumed to be tied on 201 points at position 16, not 15.

Attention then switched from the bottom of the finals board to the top, and William G. Stewart announced the victory for Daphne Fowler and the presentation of the Trophy.

Another edit came in the form of the presentation of the Top of the Finals Board trophy to Daphne Fowler for her score of 383. Laura was only shown to be walking past Contestants 1, 2 and 3.

The opening round saw the elimination of Neil Crockford and Daphne Fowler who departed in the first round for her second Grand Final in a row. The round also saw survival by the skin of his teeth of Pete Vernon, and Gena Davies emulating (remembering?) an incorrect answer given by Michael Penrice (in a past show) of 'The Sinking Fund' instead of 'The Consolidated Fund'.

The shot at the end of this round showed that the mystery contestant had also been eliminated, although only Neil's and Daphne's names were announced.

Round two began with Paul Greasley, David Albinson, Matti Watton, Michael Penrice, Mike Edwards, Russell Turner and David Stedman having retained their three lives. Paul immediately lost his life, before Ron correctly answered, to start up the nominations.

Paul Greasley was the first to be eliminated, after having failed to answer correctly any of his three second round questions. He was followed out by: David Albinson, David Stedman, Mike Edwards, Ron Simpson, Pete Vernon, and Gena Davies. Finally, with a pair of questions about De Beers, and the names given to diamond events and the people that go to them, Peter Effer and Michael Penrice were eliminated. The correct answers were ('Sites' and 'Site Holders').

The Final would be between Matti Watton, who as in the previous series had retained all of his three lives from rounds one and two; Russell Turner who was reduced to one life, and the nominator of the last two Contestants to be eliminated in round two; and Dave Berry who, through failing to give an incorrect answer in round two had retained his both his lives.

The opening question in the all buzzer final went to Russell, with the next three going to Matti. Russell then got one back then Matti responded with an interruption about the meeting between the leaders of North and South Korea.

Maths was the name of the game for the next question, when Russell correctly responded with 20 for a question about the number of European Commissioners. Matti fought back with two in a row before Dave made his first contribution to the final of the grand final by correctly stating that Steve Redgrave won his first Olympic Gold in 1984. He then lost a life on a question about Chronic Fatigue Syndrome by responding with "Yuppie Flu" instead of "M.E."

Russell then buzzed correctly for a question about the Louisiana purchase, before slipping up on a picture question about war poets. Then followed some 15 to 1 ping-pong with correct answers by Matti, Russell, Matti again, Russell again, and Matti before an incorrect answer of 'Ertha Kitt' by Russell on a picture of Jessye Norman. Down to one life, he still managed to correctly buzz in for the next question.

The power in terms of lives now firmly resided with Matti who, got a correct answer which was followed up by another from Russell and another two from Matti. Russell then fought back again with two correct answers. Dave chipped in with a correct buzz on a picture of Ricky Tomlinson. Before one of the most impressive responses ever, by Matti who buzzed in before hearing the essence of the question about who the Pythian games at Delphi were held in honour of. This brought an extremely rare 'wow' from William G. Stewart.

Matti then opened up his lead with five correct answers in a row, and it was all but over. Seven questions left and an eight question lead for Matti. Russell took the next, followed by another from Matti, one from Dave, another from Russell, an incorrect buzz from Dave, then a correct one and finally a correct guess (Swatch) on the last question to bring the final scores to:

Matti: 193, Russell: 121, and Dave: 52.

The cheers went up, and congratulations followed with William G. Stewart commenting that he thought Matti might do it one day. Then came the immortal words: "I think Laura has something for you." Laura then presented Matti with the trophy.

Congratulations go to Matti Watton for a superb victory in an amazing Grand Final.