WHAT HAS happened to the DIT's Challenging Times teams in recent years? In 1993 Bolton Street looked set to win the final of Challenging Times after beating UCD in a nail biting 160-155 semifinal. That year, the Bolton Street team was unfortunate to come up against UCC, but it seemed that the DIT might yet field a team which could take "on the best in the country and win.

Since then, the DIT has under performed badly and despite expectations, the decision to field a joint DIT team from the six colleges has not yielded results. For a brief time in last week's heat of Challenging Times, it seemed the DIT might break out of the first televised round for the first time in recent years.

The DIT, represented by Dan O'Neill, Bryan O'Connell, Ronan O'Keefe and sub Terence Duffy, started off badly, finding itself 90-25 down before the half way stage and floundering at 165-85 two thirds of the way through. Then came a DIT fightback, during which the team scored three times as many points as DCU. But it was too little, too late: the score finished 185-145 to DCU, represented by Michael O'Sullivan, Philip Mansfield, Richard Walsh and sub Deirdre Ruane.

Tonight sees the end of the first round as Sligo RTC square up against Tallaght RTC. Challenging Times can be seen at 8.30 pm every Tuesday evening on RTE 1 and is repeated on Friday at 11.00am, also on RTE 1. The question master is, as ever, the man who puts the "tie" in Times, Kevin Myers.