1990: Challenged? Yes. Beaten? No.

After minimal auditions at school, I ended up on Australian Double Dare.

(last updated: 4 September 2023)

In 1990, a rep from Channel 10 came to our school and auditioned the class for Double Dare. Then in either April or May, with Tom Jennings as host, it came my turn to play and around 8 teams from my school went in that season.

A week’s worth of shows were recorded in one day at the ATV-10 Nunawading studios. I played with a girl who had black hair and pony tails, who I never saw again…  but we won! At one point, we were down 90 – 310, but we came back to win 350 – 310 in an amazing comeback. Our team was called The Untouchables and we ended up with 6 (out of 8) prizes in the final obstacle course.

At the start of the show, Tom asked me what my favourite sports were and I said skiing and tennis and then he asked me what my favourite tennis swing was and I said the drive shot. I meant forehand so it might’ve gone over his head, though.

The recording I had of the show on VHS is long-gone, but this is a clip with Tom as host with other kids from my school (both in blue) including Daniel who was a great tennis player – at least back then and I once met his coach, Solly.

I am glad we won. That’s all I really cared about. We should’ve won all 8 prizes. DAMN IT!
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