Shannon were defending their Handicap Knockout crown but came up against a Con Club side in formidable form in this year's final.

Con Club pulled back one point of the four-point handicap difference in the first round but in rounds two and three their knowledge of geography and nature resulted in a nine point lead going into round four.

Round four, with individual questions on "Spring has sprung" proved a clincher with Club scoring a massive 16 points to Shannon's one. This gave Shannon a deficit they were unable to pull back.

Con Club pulled even further ahead after the round six pot luck, by which time they were leading by 26 points. Rounds seven and eight on quotations and history were fairly even and a late Shannon revival on rounds nine and 10 (sport and the individual take your pick round) was never enough and Con Club took the title by 88 points to 65.

Then it was on to this year's individual Sports Brain competition which saw a line-up of Simon Dearden, Richard Lees, Graham Greenwood and Roy Beardsmore (Fountain), Allan Lord and Dave Thomas (Bird), Ron McInulty (Shannon) and Paul Montague (Tod CC A), several of them former winners and Allan defending his title.

There wasn't much in it in the first three rounds but after round 4 Graham, Allan, Roy and Paul were equal on 6 points. Allan failed on round 5 (pot luck) but the other three all scored leaving them on 8 apiece.

Only two scored on round 6 on equestrian sport including Paul who was now the front runner on 10. Graham and Allan pulled equal with Paul on round 7 but Paul's full house on the last two rounds on rugby and football gained him the title.

The final scores were Paul - 14; Graham and Allan - 12; Simon and Roy - 8; Ron - 6; Richard and Dave - 4.