Location: John O’Groats to Lands
End
Judge: JK Rowling
Theme: A bet on the distance (in Hawkings)
from Britain’s top tip to its bottom tip
What happened:
• Hawking
bet Fry he could guess exactly how many times his own crumpled
body would fit from John o’Groats
to Land’s End (stretched out flat, using only A roads).
• Fry
took the brainy bait – and the barmy bet was
on. Hawking claimed 475,502 times. Fry
said "you’re
wrong”.
• Aided by best friends Bamber
Gascoigne and Jeremy Paxman, Hawking spent 3 months being
stretchered across Britain. Paxman marked positions with
chalk, and Gascoigne kept count.
• Unfortunately for the scientist,
the journey totalled 474,999 Hawkings, a
mere 3 fewer than he himself had predicted.
Winner: Fry had been right to doubt his
opinionated opponent, retaining the title
belt of Stephen of Stephens for the fifth consecutive year.
|
