Knightmare.com

why did just one all female team win knightmare?

I think there were fewer teams of girls, so proportionally, fewer teams of girls would win.

In fact, other than a winning team in Series Two and Julie's all-female team, I don't think there was any other team with ANY female members who tasted victory. Although, as Mystara says, there were many more all-male teams. Like the males, you had some excellent girls taking part, and some considerably less.

Actually, i've just thought of something. Two of the most infamous teams in Knightmare history comprised of a male dungeoneer and three female advisers. You had Richard in Series Eight, and his advisers who suffered an early demise, thanks to being unable to understand a scroll's, and Treguard's, instructions, and the legendary Akash and his bunch!

Another interesting stat, which I've drawn attention to a couple of times before, is that no all-female team even got to Level Three until late in season six. Hard to say what it is, but dungeoneering seems to be a sport that the ladies simply aren't quite as good at. It'd be interesting to speculate why. Maybe a lack of leadership? Or maybe they just don't take it as seriously as the boys?

HStorm wrote:Another interesting stat, which I've drawn attention to a couple of times before, is that no all-female team even got to Level Three until late in season six. Hard to say what it is, but dungeoneering seems to be a sport that the ladies simply aren't quite as good at. It'd be interesting to speculate why. Maybe a lack of leadership? Or maybe they just don't take it as seriously as the boys?

I think its more a case of the latter. Without wishing to generalise, I think the dungeon was a bigger deal to boys than girls, especially winning the game. Plus, again I don't mean to generalise, the show seemed to be a lot more popular amongst boys. I can only speak from personal experience, but, Knightmare was a regular topic amongst us lads in the playground, whilst the girls looked at us as though we had two heads.

However, I will say this, after trawling through every single episode of Knightmare recently, I reckon Julie's team was the smoothest and most competent all-round team to participate in the show. They seemed to have an inate knack of doing the right thing at precisely the right time.

HStorm wrote:Another interesting stat, which I've drawn attention to a couple of times before, is that no all-female team even got to Level Three until late in season six. Hard to say what it is, but dungeoneering seems to be a sport that the ladies simply aren't quite as good at. It'd be interesting to speculate why. Maybe a lack of leadership? Or maybe they just don't take it as seriously as the boys?

But again, proportionally, is this a surprise?
Not many teams made it to level 3 in series 1-5 anyway, surely?

Winning teams: 6 all-male, 1 all-female, 1 mixed.

Teams: 42 all-male, 16 all-female, 11 mixed.

Auditioning teams: It would be interesting to know.

Related topic: http://www.knightmare.com/forum/viewtop ... f=1&t=1300

So the sample sizes are sufficiently small that we can't really comment.
Although even with those sample sizes, the proportions are fairly close.

One in seven boys teams was a winner, compared to one in sixteen girls teams.

Going back to the question of getting to level Three, I've done some extra research; -

Eighteen boys teams entered level three, including six in the first three seasons. (Two of the season 8 teams arguably should be discounted because of the short-cut, but let's not re-open that can of worms here.) Two girls teams entered level three throughout the series history, both in the Lord F era. I haven't totted up the mixed teams' score.

The boys' ratio for getting to level three is therefore slightly better than 5:2.

The girls' ratio for getting to level three is 8:1. (Or 16:2, if you want to make the comparison easier.)

Even talking proportionally, you have to say there's a very clear disparity there.

In scientific parlance, I would say that the numbers indicate a trend towards higher performance of all-male teams, but that the sample sizes are too small to draw any overall conclusions.

Well we can't be definitive anyway, but it's an interesting trend to consider.

For my own part, I think the boys teams were generally rather better, but not because they were more 'gifted', so much as their attitude was more involved. I get the impression a lot watching KM that the boys were taking it more seriously, and were more 'immersed' in what they were doing. The girls were a bit more relaxed and more likely to see the funny side of what was going on, but this also made some of them play with less urgency. (That wouldn't have endeared them to the prodcution crew...)

It's interesting how in Series 6 and 7, all the even-numbered teams were all-female. In Series 5, all the odd-numbered teams were all-female with the exceptions of Team 7 and William on Team 3.