THE CAPTAIN of a team of quizzing Ascot teachers says he has no regrets after his side narrowly lost to the Eggheads in last Tuesday night's episode of the BBC2 series.

Representing LVS Ascot, the Victuallers led by James Paterson were defeated on a sudden-death question in the show's nail-biting final round.

Mr Paterson is adamant the experience was more about showing students to believe in what they are capable of, rather than the prize money.

He said: "It wasn't about winning, it was about putting ourselves forward. It wasn't like we missed out on ten grand each.

"The team was very evenly matched and it was good to push the Eggheads all the way to sudden death in the last round.

"We weren't kicking ourselves afterwards about getting any questions wrong. It was very tough."

The 34 year-old savoured his head-to-head win over the most fearsome Egghead, Kevin Ashman.

He defeated the former 'Fifteen to One' champion in the sport round, with the latter erring on a question involving the two As in the acronym NASCAR.

"I'm not sure what happened there. He said the answer but then didn't go for it. Either way I am delighted to have picked him," he added.

"We thought we'd try and knock him out and it worked. It was good to beat the guy Jeremy Vine called 'the grand master.'"

Mr Paterson admitted that it would have been embarrassing if the Victuallers had lost every single question, but this was fortunately not the case on the day as both he and maths teacher Nigel Collins achieved perfect scores in their head-to-heads.

"Nigel was very strong on the music round. In terms of the team everyone came across well," he said.

The psychology teacher revealed he had been preparing for the mental battle by revising all the world's capitals, but none of them unfortunately came up in the end.

"What did come up was where the countries were located and you either know it or you don't," he continued.

The quizzing hasn't yet stopped for Mr Paterson as he will be competing in this year's UK Memory Championships later this month.

He said: "I have been a runner-up four times and would like to go one better."

To relive the ups and downs of the Victuallers' performance on 'Eggheads' and have a go at the quiz questions yourself, visit www.lvs.ascot.sch.uk/Talented-Teachers-Almost-Crack-The-Eggheads-On-National-TV