MY most embarrassing moment in the run-up to Christmas came when I agreed to be MC at a quiz night in Widmer End.

I agreed on condition that I could take part as a member of one of the teams, because my wife and son were going and I wanted to be with them.

I was told by the organisers this would be no problem because I would only be given the answers to the written questions at the end of each round. So there would be no chance for me to cheat or have any prior knowledge.

Fair enough, and that’s exactly how it worked.

I also was confident there would be no conflict of interest due to my lack of ability. Veteran readers may recall how I was humiliated many years ago in a quiz in Bourne End when I was asked what a parasol did.

I froze that night and gave the wrong answer. Cue lots of laughter, deep shame and a vow never to sit on a panel again.

But I relented last month because it was a team effort and I rightly knew my lack of knowledge would not be publicly exposed.

I reckon I got one, or maybe two, answers right out of loads of questions at the Widmer quiz, but there were far better and brighter people than me on my table.

So imagine my shock when after calling out the answers in the final round, I then had to announce that my team had won.

Not only that, but our children’s team also scooped first prize in the village hall competition.

I could see several deeply suspicious looks on the audience’s faces as I revealed the winners.

If only they knew just how little I had contributed to my team’s success.

If it had been broken down into individual performances, the only award I would have won would probably have been the one for Village Hall Village Idiot.