The 1% Club contestant cracks fiendish clock puzzle to win £97,000 jackpot

A seemingly random sequence of clock times was all it took for one contestant to unlock a £97,000 jackpot on The 1% Club.

The ITV quiz show returned on Saturday, March 7, with host Lee Mack facing 100 contestants, all hoping to survive the increasingly difficult questions and reach the final challenge.

By the time the game reached its decisive stage, just Zoe and Ryan were left to tackle the question supposedly designed for only 1% of the public.

Could you solve the £97,000 question?

The final puzzle appeared simple at first.

Zoe and Ryan were shown five different clocks displaying the times 12, 1, 2, 5 and 12. They were then asked:

“What word is represented by the times on the clocks below?”

The clocks were deliberately presented in different styles. The first was an alarm clock showing 12, followed by a digital clock showing 1am. An old-fashioned mantel clock displayed 2 o’clock, while a wall clock showed 5 o’clock. The final digital alarm clock returned to 12.

With the countdown running, both contestants had to work out what connected the five numbers.

It was a race against time, and Ryan ultimately failed to submit an answer before the clock ran out.

That left Zoe with one final chance to crack the puzzle.

The answer was hidden in the alphabet

Zoe had spotted the crucial connection.

The answer was LABEL.

The five clock times represented the positions of letters in the alphabet:

• 12 = L
• 1 = A
• 2 = B
• 5 = E
• 12 = L

Put together, the sequence 12-1-2-5-12 spells LABEL.

The solution turned what initially looked like five unrelated clock faces into a straightforward alphabet puzzle.

Zoe’s quick thinking earned her the full £97,000 prize pot, making her the only finalist to leave with the jackpot.

A further £3,000 had also been added after another contestant chose to leave the game early rather than risk going home empty-handed.

A tense finish for Zoe and Ryan

The final question came after the pair had already made it through a series of increasingly difficult rounds.

When the clock began counting down, Zoe appeared visibly nervous as she tried to make sense of the sequence.

Ryan was unable to complete an answer before time expired, while Zoe managed to put LABEL down.

Her solution was then confirmed as correct, securing the entire remaining jackpot.

The result gave Zoe a place in the show’s 1% Club and a huge cash prize for solving a puzzle based on nothing more than five clock times.

The 1% Club airs on Saturdays at 8.25pm on ITV1.