Pub quizmaster wins libel action

The dispute arose over a quiz answer involving Noel Edmonds

Quizmaster Tony Barclay has won £5,000 in damages in his defamation case against a pub team member who made allegations against him on a website.

Mr Barclay sued contestant Dave Crane after he alleged on his website that he had been "ripped off" during a pub quiz in Bedford in December 2002.

The dispute arose over a quiz answer involving Noel Edmonds.

On Tuesday after more than two years of legal argument, a judge ruled Mr Barclay had been libelled.

Prize money of £210 was at stake in the King's Arms pub in Bedford on 3 December, 2002 and 39-year-old Mr Crane and his colleagues in his No Fear team were sure they had won.

Refused to back down

Mr Barclay, of Rushden, Northamptonshire, a full-time professional entertainer who has organised and presented quizzes for 15 years, unveiled his jackpot question for the teams.

Contestants were asked to name the first five presenters of the National Lottery show.

When he announced Noel Edmonds as part of the answer, Mr Crane cried foul, saying Edmonds had only presented the first show and was not a regular host.

Mr Barclay refused to back down and Mr Crane, who claims to be a veteran of more than 1,000 pub quizzes, took it upon himself to slander him in public in the pub and published defamatory comments on his quiz team's website.

'Clearly preposterous'

Ruling on the libel application on Tuesday morning, Judge John Hamilton, sitting at Luton County Court, said: "In my judgment the defendant's evidence wholly fails to support the plea of justification.

"There is not one shred of evidence to support the assertion that the claimant acted dishonestly or deliberately to cheat the defendant's team.

"It is clearly preposterous."

Judge Hamilton ruled that Mr Crane should pay £5,000 in damages as well as Mr Barclay's estimated costs of £12,500.