Fife teacher took a gamble to Beat The Chasers on TV quiz

A Fife teacher has scooped £20,000 after beating the Chasers on a television quiz show – with just one second to spare.

Rachel Richardson appeared on the ITV quiz, Beat the Chasers, on Thursday night and took a gamble in a bid to win the cash.

Having banked £1000 in the ‘cash builder’ round answering multiple choice questions, she then opted to take on four Chasers, known from the series The Chase, in a head to head to win a bigger cash prize.

With 60 seconds on her clock, she was up against Jenny Ryan, Paul Sinha, Shaun Wallace and Mark Labbett who had just 45 seconds on their clock, giving her a 15 second time advantage.

And Rachel, from Kirkcaldy, won with just one second to spare.

Speaking about the experience, the 49-year-old said before taking part she thought she’d take a risk on the number of Chasers she chose to face.

“I knew I’d take a risk if it was worth it,” she said.

“Push myself a little bit. So I suppose that was the kind of thought I went with – I’d take a bit of a risk.

“I didn’t go with any great crusade thinking, I’m going to beat them all!

"I was not aware of the clock at all while I was playing, not at all."”

And there was one Chaser she was excited to face.

"Mark Labbett – I thought I’d quite like to beat him.

“My favourites are probably Paul and Anne. As they’re my favourites, you kind of think, I wouldn’t mind if they beat me.

"On a head-to-head there’s no way I could beat any one of them.

“It was a case of looking at the time advantage...

“On a level playing field one of them would have beaten me totally!"

Rachel describes the experience of being on set as “like being in a Roman Amphitheatre”.

“I hesitate to refer to myself as a gladiator, but that’s the kind of the feeling you got."

What was it like meeting Bradley Walsh?

She said: "He was absolutely lovely to me. He was really encouraging and so positive."

So what made the teacher apply to be on the quiz show in the first place?

She said: “I’m going to be 50 in January, so I decided to do positive stuff, different stuff – I don’t mean skydiving! – but things I’m genuinely interested in.

“It was a rainy Saturday morning and I was on a train, it was miserable weather, I was in a bad mood, I was sitting on my own, and I decided to apply.

“So I rattled off an application while I was on the train. I was astounded when I got the call."

Rachel admits before appearing on the show she didn’t really prepare as her view was “it was in the lap of the gods – if you get questions you know, fine, if you don’t, bad luck”.

But are there any questions that still play on her mind?

"If anybody had asked me what subject of question I’d be most confident answering on, I’d have said food – I eat out, I cook all the time,” she said.

“To have gone out of the Cash Builder on a question about M&S food..! I couldn't believe it."

And what does she intend to spend her £20,000 winnings on?

She explained: “I didn’t go with any set idea.

“What I felt then and I certainly feel now, I don’t want to spend it on anything that I would have saved up for normally, if that makes sense?

“I want to do extra special stuff with it.

“I want to do lots of different things – I want to treat a lot of people to a lot of different things."

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