Market Drayton's Billy reaches his Tipping Point

Billy Gibbons, from Audlem, near Market Drayton, was swiftly eliminated when he appeared on the ITV show on Wednesday.

The musician, inventor and car enthusiast, who is well known throughout Shropshire, has previously hit the headlines for trying to design his own rocket car

He has appeared on shows such as Catchphrase, The Big Breakfast and GMTV in the past, but said lady luck deserted him on this occasion.

He said: "I didn't do very well at all.

"Tipping Point is a game of general knowledge and luck and unfortunately I left my general knowledge at home.

"I did have a lot of luck but sadly it was mostly bad and I ended up going out in the first round."

The show, which is hosted by former GMTV presenter Ben Shephard, sees contestants answering questions to win counters which they use on a large coin pusher arcade-style machine which releases counters worth £50 each.

My Gibbons said: "I was losing really badly but Ben said there were three counters up for grabs and if I won them I would be in with a chance.

"I was lucky enough to win them but when I put the counters in the giant arcade machine nothing happened.

"You usually get some sort of movement, I watch the show regularly and I actually said on the show I've never seen that happen before.

"Ben Shephard said how unlucky I was and when I went in the green room the producers said how unlucky I had been.

"So that was that, I was out first. I was gutted."

Mr Gibbons said being knocked out early was doubly disappointing as he was given permission to do some impressions if he got to the final.

He said: "During the audition stage the producer said he'd heard I could do impressions. I did a few for him and he said if I got to the end game I could do some on telly which would have been TV gold.

"So not only was I disappointed not to win any money I also didn't get to do my impressions."

Despite his lack of success Mr Gibbons said he still had a great day.

He said: "I was treated like royalty. Ben Shephard is a smashing bloke and really easy to get along with and all the crew were really nice people.

"It just wasn't my day though. One of the questions asked was what type of fruit do you find at a fair ground covered in toffee. I couldn't think of the answer at all so I really did leave my general knowledge at home."