In the seventh episode of series three, The candidates have a day to buy ten products, each of which they must not buy at the initial asking price. Simon heads up Eclipse and Adam, after surviving three weeks running in the boardroom, leads Stealth. The clock’s ticking and they have to battle against traffic and time to be back at the boardroom with their ten products at six o’clock that night. Sir Alan’s shopping list is varied, with a white rabbit, a house plant, leather trousers and a unicycle amongst the goods they need to find. There’s clearly not a cook amongst them, as both teams are baffled by the nigella seeds. ‘I’m a rotweiller that won’t give up’, brags Simon at the start of the task. Yet as the day wears on, it’s clear that his grasshopper mind leads his team down fruitless paths and he’s too hurried to make good negotiations.
On the other team, arch rivals Kristina and Katie made a political decision to work together and cut some sharp discounts. Adam and Ghazal struggle to locate the elusive nigella seeds, questioning whether they’re used for Astroturf!
In the final hour Eclipse get lucky and track down the nigella seeds, but over in Stealth, Adam, despite finding an importer, calls it a day and is prepared to pay the penalty of not getting all ten goods.
Back in the boardroom it’s misery as Sir Alan announces Eclipse has won by a 97 pence margin. This is despite the fact Simon’s team failed to negotiate much money off the goods. Kristina and Katie’s cunning plan to ignore Adam had devastating consequences. A frustrated Sir Alan muttered that it was stupidity that brought Adam’s team back into the boardroom as, if they’d read the rules, they would have won.
While the winners were off racing Formula One style, back in the boardroom, the gloves were off and the conversation turned nasty. Adam dragged out Katie’s relationship with Paul as the reason for her having ‘her head down’ at the start of the task. We saw hard-nosed Kristina squirm as Sir Alan exposed the conversation about Katie and Paul’s relationship in the previous week’s boardroom. A furious Katie concentrated her attack on Adam - calling him ‘dull’, ’slow’ and that his best friend was ‘Mr Pinot and Mr Grigio’.
It was a tough call whether to fire the troublesome Katie, the ‘too young’ Ghazal or Adam. But Sir Alan couldn’t ignore the message coming from above. Four times Adam has been hauled into the boardroom and despite Adam’s pleas that he wants to be the apprentice, Sir Alan barked, ‘your luck has run out. You’re fired!’ and Adam became the eighth candidate to leave the competition.

Was it just time up for Adam or should have Katie gone?

Watch Highlights of Episode Seven