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Entertainment

10th Jan 2017

Did the BBC give away £2,500 on Pointless for a wrong answer?

Some viewers were not happy

Patrick McCarry

There’s nothing like a challenging episode of Pointless to get the brain ticking/blood boiling.

The BBC quiz show tasks contestants [in teams of two] to find the most obscure answers to general knowledge questions asked to 100 members of the public.

It can be tricky as hell for the contestants and very often proves to be a compelling watch:

On Monday’s episode of the quiz, two contestants got to the final and were presented with a sporting topic. They could choose to give their answers based on the 2015 Rugby World Cup squads of England, Scotland or Wales.

‘Mike and Dom’ went for Wales and ended up winning £2,500 and one of the clinchers was saying scrum-half Rhys Webb was in Warren Gatland’s World Cup squad of 31.

https://twitter.com/TVsPointless/status/818516083015610371

The only problem was – and it proved to be a mind-melter for viewers at home – was that Webb was injured in one of Wales’ final World Cup games, against Italy.

Webb and teammate Leigh Halfpenny both picked up bad injuries in the match and had to be replaced from the original panel. Viewers were quick to point this out:

However, as one Twitter user pointed out, Webb was named in the original squad so using him as an answer counts:

Pointless host Alexander Armstrong did state that late replacements to the original squads would count as answers too but only if they saw game-time during the tournament.

The question, and subsequent furore, certainly got the attention of Webb, who had but one request:

https://twitter.com/Rhys_W009/status/818542302134149121

Emma Crooke was still not happy.

Can’t win ’em all.