A team of retirees from Wem came close to winning BBC2’s Eggheads, but were beaten at the final hurdle by the eponymous quiz team.

Paul Young, Allan Boyle, Liz Jordan, Roger Jones and Glyn Brace competed as ‘The Wembles’, and are all members of Wem and District’s University of the Third Age.

Paul told host Jeremy Vine about the University of the Third Age in the show’s preamble.

He said: “The U3A is about 20 years old now, and is all over different parts of the UK. Wem and District is where we all met.

”It’s not learning specfically; it’s doing things you enjoy because you want to.”

The Eggheads, supposedly the most formidable quiz team in the country, were given a tough challenge by the Wembles.

Roger, Liz and Allan all narrowly lost their rounds, but Glyn was hot on sport and took part in the final alongside Paul.

The first round was on geography and Roger who had traveled across the world when he was younger was a good pick.

It was a question on the location of Santa Catalina island though that proved to be his undoing.

Up next it was Liz, who again did well but was also unstuck, this time on a question on Alana Spencer – a previous winner of the Apprentice.

The third round was on art and culture, and Allan volunteered to go next despite the subject not being his strong suit. He put up a good fight, but was again defeated on a question related to Japanese/Britiish author Kazuo Ishiguro

What was left of the Wembles did well in the final, taking it all the way to sudden death, but a tricky question regarding the location of the Hippocampus – in the brain, quiz fans – saw them defeated.