DAVE’S DEAD? AYE JUST DEAD
Dave Rainford was one of the new generation of Eggheads on the popular quiz show, replacing older names like Daphne Fowler. The sods law is that he is the first of their expert quizzers to die, and at the age of only 51. Also outliving him is permanent car crash CJ de Mooi, the man Rainford replaced on the show. (For non-Brits, Eggheads sets a team of 5 nobodies against a team of 5 renowned quiz legends for money…) A renowned quizzer, Rainford had already won a quarter of a million pounds on Who Wants to be a Millionaire in 2005. But unlike other leading quizzers in the UK like “The Beast” Mark Labbett or Kevin “smartest man on the planet” Ashman, Rainford preferred to keep a low profile and shunned TV, preferring to be a family man, until he was banned from cash pub quiz machines in Manchester for being too good at them. He had to retire from Eggheads in 2018 after a serious but private health battle which has since taken his life. The tributes from across the quizzing world speak of his universal admiration among rivals, friends and fans alike.
I’ll best remember him for that time the contestants beat every other single Egghead, making the final round five contestants playing one Egghead. That one being Dave Rainford. An unfair battle, you might think, and correctly: Rainford kicked all five of their collected minds on general knowledge, and won single handed!
With the exact prognosis for the young father kept under wraps, Rainford was a unique hit on the DDP for You Dirty Rotten Swine, You Deaded Them! Tremendous foreknowledge there.
Dave Rainford
Died 7 March 2020 aged 51
unique hit