Yupper...a close shave it definetly was...

Participated in the 1st round game for ESPN's all-new football trivia gameshow on Sunday(15th January 2006), called Kick-Off(airing on ESPN-Star Sports 21st February 2006 onwards..keep a lookout for it) ...and this' how the competition layout was like:


Segment 1
Round 1: Odd One Out
Each team will be shown 4 still pictures of famous players, managers, stadia, trophies etc. with the team on the host’s right hand side (Team A) always being presented with their question first.
The team will then be asked to identify which is the ‘odd one out’ and then asked to explain the reason why that particular player, manager, stadium or trophy is the ‘odd one out’.
Teams may confer amongst themselves and will score 2 points for each element of the question that they answer correctly (i.e. 2 points for the ‘odd one out’ and 2 points for the reason).
Should any part of the question not be answered, or answered incorrectly, the question can be offered to the opposing team (Team B) with that team scoring 1 point per element of the question that they answer correctly (i.e. 1 point for the ‘odd one out’ and 1 point for the reason).
Round 1 will consist of one ‘odd one out’ per team.
Maximum Points Per Team: 6

Round 2: Great Goals
This Round is based upon ‘great goals’ from EPL, FA Cup and Champions League football. The team on the host’s right hand side (Team A) will always be presented with the first question.
Essentially each team will be shown a piece of VT (Videotape) featuring a ‘great goal’.
The team will then be asked to name the player who scored that goal and answer a supplementary question about him.
For example: if the goalscorer is Wayne Rooney the question may be: Which club did Rooney play for before he joined Manchester United?
Teams will be allowed to confer and will score 2 points for naming the goalscorer and a further 2 points for answering the supplementary question.
Should the supplementary question not be answered, or answered incorrectly, the question can be offered to the opposing team (Team B) with that team scoring 1 point for a correct answer.
Round 2 will consist of 4 ‘great goals’ with teams alternating in answering questions:
Great Goal 1: Team A
Great Goal 2: Team B
Great Goal 3: Team A
Great Goal 4: Team B
Maximum Points Per Team: 10
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Segment 2
Round 3: Home or Away
In this round contestants will be asked to answer a question without conferring with their teammates.
Once again we will start with the team on the host’s right hand side (Team A) and the player sitting closest to the host (Player 1). We will then alternate the questions from Team A to Team B with the ‘captains’ being asked to answer their questions last:
Question 1: Team A – Player 1
Question 2: Team B – Player 1
Question 3: Team A – Player 2
Question 4: Team B – Player 2
Question 5: Team A – ‘Captain’
Question 6: Team B – ‘Captain’
Each contestant can choose the content of the question as either:
Home: A question (Video, Still Photo or Spoken) about the club that the contestant supports.
Away: A question (Video, Still Photo or Spoken) about football in general (EPL, FA Cup, Champions League, World Cup etc.).
The team ‘captains’ (Les Ferdinand and Lee Sharpe) will be always be required to answer an Away question.
Correctly answered questions are worth the following number of points:
Home: 2 points
Away: 4 points
Should a question not be answered, or answered incorrectly, the question can be offered to the opposing team with that team scoring 1 point for a correctly answered Home question and 2 points for a correctly answered Away question.
Once each member of each team has had the opportunity to answer 1 question the round will be over.
Maximum Points Per Team: 18

Round 4: Freeze Frame
Round 4 is based upon the concept of showing each team a piece of VT based around the following themes:
‘What Happened Next’: A bizarre or quirky incident from EPL, FA Cup or Champions League
‘Referee’: An incident in which the referee was forced to make a decision (bad tackles, diving, penalties, handballs etc.)*
* Each episode will see both teams receiving the same type of question (either ‘What Happened Next’ or ‘Referee’).
If the teams receive a ‘What Happened Next’ question the process will be as follows:
The team will be shown a piece of VT that will freeze before a bizarre or quirky incident occurs. The team will then be asked to try and describe ‘what happened next’.
If the team exactly describes ‘what happened next’ they will score 3 points.
If the team partially describes ‘what happened next’ they will score 2 points.
If the team fails to answer, or answers incorrectly, the opposing team will be offered the opportunity to describe ‘what happened next’ for 1 point.
Once one or both teams have had the opportunity to answer the question the piece of VT will be shown in full in order to reveal exactly ‘what happened next’.
If the teams receive a ‘Referee’ question the process will be as follows:
The team will be shown a piece of VT depicting a bad tackle, dive, penalty decision or handball etc. that will freeze before the referee makes a decision about that incident.
The team will then be asked to decide which decision the referee made in relation to that incident (play on, free kick, yellow card, red card etc.).
If the team exactly describes the decision the referee made they will score 3 points.
If the team fails to answer, or answers incorrectly, the opposing team will be offered the opportunity to describe the decision the referee made for 1 point.
Once one or both teams have had the opportunity to answer the question the piece of VT will be shown in full in order to reveal exactly which decision the referee made.
As in all the other rounds so far the team on the host’s right hand side (Team A) will always be presented with the first question.
Teams will be allowed to confer and once both teams have had the opportunity to answer one ‘What Happened Next Question’ or one ‘Referee’ question the round will be over.
Maximum Points Per Team: 4
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[u]Segment 3[/u]
Round 5: The Long Shot
In this round each team will be asked to ‘gamble’ a number of the points that they have scored in the previous rounds against a question about an EPL or Champions League team.
Each team will be shown a piece of VT depicting an EPL or Champions League team and will then be asked to define the number of points they wish to ‘gamble’ on a question related to that team.
The minimum number of points a team can ‘gamble’ is 1, the maximum number of points a team can ‘gamble’ is 10 and teams can ‘gamble’ any number of points they wish between those two numbers.
In the instance that a team has failed to score a total of 10 points in the previous rounds, that team may only ‘gamble’ the number of points that they currently have (i.e. if a team goes into the ‘Long Shot’ round with a total score of 6 points the maximum number of points that they can ‘gamble’ will be 6)
The more points a team ‘gambles’, the harder the questions become:
For example a 6-point question will be harder than a 2-point question etc.
Having defined the number of points they wish to ‘gamble’ each team will then be asked a verbal question about the EPL or Champions League team depicted in the VT that they have just been shown.
In the ‘Long Shot’ round (unlike the previous rounds) the team that is leading will be presented with their ‘Long Shot’ question first, so the order will be as follows:
Leading Team: VT
Leading Team: Long Shot Question
Trailing Team: VT
Trailing Team: Long Shot Question
A correct answer means that the number of points that the team has elected to ‘gamble’ will be added to their score.
An incorrect answer means that the number of points that the team has elected to ‘gamble’ will be subtracted from their score.
Incorrect ‘Long Shot’ questions will not be offered to the opposing team.
Teams will be allowed to confer and when both teams have answered one ‘Long Shot’ question the round will be over.
Maximum Points Per Team: 10
Minimum Points Per Team: - 10

Round 6: Quick Fire Round
The final round of the show will be ‘against the clock’.
In a 90 second time period the host (Andy Penders) will put a series of general football questions to both team which will be either verbal, VT based or still photo based.
All the members of each team will have a ‘buzzer’ on the desk in front of them and the first person to press their ‘buzzer’ and answer a question correctly will score points for their team. Teams will not be allowed to confer.
Correct answers will see the teams add 2 points to their total score.
Incorrect answers will see the teams subtract 2 points from their total score.
Incorrect answers will not be offered to the opposing team
At the end of the pre-defined 90-second time period the round will end regardless of whether the host has completed a question.
However should the round end while a team member is answering a question that team member will be allowed to complete their answer and gain or lose points according to that answer.
Maximum Points Per Team: ?
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so up to round 5, Newcastle Singapore (the team i represented) was leading with an astonishing 9 points over Spurs Singapore...but it was where all it went downhill from here, in typical Newcastle fashion (think: 1995/1996 season, where we blew a 15-point lead at the top to lose the title)

For Round 5, aka Long Shot, we were actually planning to bet just 3 points, but Lee Sharpe, ex-Leeds and Man. Utd and also our "captain" for this round, tempted us with a chance to obtain an unassailable lead of 15 points by gambling 6 points for this round, as we had "superior football knowledge". Gambled we did, and we sure got our fingers burnt, as the subject we got was Liverpool, and for 6 points we had to answer the number of goals Ian Rush scored for Liverpool. When we got that question, Damian and I, including Lee Sharpe, were dumbfounded to say the least. We guessed 247, but the exact answer was 349. This then led us to think "Man,Ian Rush scored that many f*ckin goals!?!??!?!)...but anyway that's not the main focal point.

With a lead cut to 3 points, we got anxious and when it came to the final round, QuickFire, Spurs got the better of us and we lost 34-29 final score.

To be honest, I was totally gutted after the final whistle blew. From such a big lead, we actually LOST the game and stood every chance of being knocked out of the competition in all, with only the prospect of advancing into the 2nd round as 1 of 2 highest-scoring losers giving me something SEVERELY MINUTE to even cheer up about. Even pretty gals walkin around at the hawker centre near my place couldn't cheer me up...sheesh! Not to mention the anxiety of hoping the last 4 games of Round 1 do not conjure up any other losers getting a higher score than us, as we were then the highest-scoring losers with 29 points, as well as the heavy SMS bill chalked up due to the constant texting of Melissa, production assistant of the show and new-found friend, for updates of the 4 games...

But a sigh of relief was breathed when Melissa called me on Monday morning to tell me that with 1 game left to play in the 1st Round, Newcastle Singapore were still the highest-scoring losers and it effectively means we're in the 2nd round!!!


1 big round taken to get to the 2nd round, when it could have been all so easy...plus a chance to whitewash the demons of myself...could it be a case of Denmark 1992?
(Flashback, the Danish national team were already on their summer holiday, after failing to qualify Euro'92, when they were suddenly called back for training as they replaced Serbia and Montenegro, then known as Yugoslavia, due to the civil war within the country itself. They got off to a good start, finishing 2nd in the "Group of Death" which consisted of England and France, both of whom got beaten by Denmark 2-1. And from then on, as they say, it's history as Denmark made it all the way to the finals, beat the favourites Germany 2-0 with goals from John Jensen and Kim Vilfort.)


Hopefully my story ends like the fairy-tale of Denmark 1992. It'd make Hans-Christian Andersen proud definetly =). But before going that far, ARSEnal Malaysia, the father-and-son team, stand in my way of going to St. James Park. And with the same system of 2 highest-scoring losers going into the next round, not to mention 2 losers already getting 34 points each, minimum i'll aim for is a safety-net approach of 40 points, hopefully that'll be enough to win us the game, and a spot in the nest round....


Pray for me people...My old man was right, I can't study as well as other smart people..but i was born for such football trivia stuffs. Football punditry, here I come =)