This Friday sees the climax of the first Challenging Times competition of the millennium, with the quiz commandos from the National College of Ireland facing the trivia gladiators of NUI Galway.

NCI are captained by John Keegan, a man who will doubtless be fired by a burning desire, as he captained the NCI team knocked out at the semi-final stage last year. Keegan and Co will also be spurred on by the fact that if they win they will become the first non-university team to do so since the competition began in 1991. NUI Galway have won the competition twice already and if they win again will be undisputed masters of the universe - but hey, no pressure. NUIG also have a long running, and suffering, captain in the shape of Michael Cullinane. He has been doing the Challenging Times thing for 5 years now and after taking a break next year intends to come back and do it again, complete with 1,000-yard stare.

On paper NUIG, with a total of 730 points amassed on the way to the final as opposed to NCI's 605, are the better team, but potential punters would be hard pressed to find much else to separate the teams. NUIG faced a far harder struggle to get into the final, with a nail-biting contest against Waterford IT in the semi-final and an even closer match in the quarter-final, a 10-point victory over Griffith College Dublin The closest NCI came to a struggle was a quarter-final against King's Inns, won with a margin of 20 points.

The Galway team are Cullinane, Jonathan Egan and John Garvey. NCI is represented by Keegan, Ian McGahon and Paul Graham. Challenging Times, sponsored by The Irish Times and RTE, goes out on RTE 1 on Friday at 8.30 p.m.