FOR the second year running, The Northern Echo's Superbrain is teacher Dave Tucker.

Dave and his wife, Janet, of Aycliffe Village, County Durham, and friends pooled brainpower and were the only entrants in this year's long-running trivia quiz to score 297 points out of 300 - one-and-a-half points more than they managed last year.

Dave, 49, is assistant head of the upper school at Branksome School, Darlington. He had just returned from a half-term adventure holiday in the Lake District with 60 pupils when he was told that he was £100 runner-up in Superbrain, and his team-mate, David Chisholm, had won the £250 first prize.

"That's great," said Dave who, like David, is a football referee in the Darlington Sunday Invitation League.

David, 35, lives in Newton Aycliffe and is a bread delivery driver who starts at 2.30am - but he shows all of his customers the pictures in Superbrain to see if they can identify them.

Also in the Tucker team are Janet, a retired antiques dealer who works part-time for Victim Support in Darlington, and neighbour Donna Harris.

Donna, 52, was last year's Superbrain runner-up. Back then, she said she was off to Malaysia to help set up a school for autistic children. But after September 11, she was forced to return home and decided to try her hand once more at Superbrain.

The Internet has been a great boon for trivia researchers, but the Tucker team also has some unorthodox methods.

"Sport No 16 was a toughie," said Dave.

It asked which football club chairman said: "I'm not star-struck around players...I'm the biggest star around here."

A lot of entrants struggled, and answers ranged from Watford chairman Elton John to Norwich chairwoman Delia Smith and Darlington chairman George Reynolds.

"The answer was Ken Bates of Chelsea," said Dave. "I found it in a football quotes book in Waterstones, in Newcastle - and I didn't buy the book!"

Congratulations to them, and commiserations to other teams who pushed them very close: the Buckles of Darlington got four-and-a-half wrong, and syndicates from Shincliffe and Durham City got between nine and 11 wrong