The Apprentice: How did Bognor's Phil Turner get on during last night's premier?

It was a bad showing for the girls and an even worse one for the boys on last night’s premiere, as Sugar’s hopefuls took to the Scottish Highlands to host competing corporate retreats in a predictably messy battle of the sexes.

Music producer Virdi Singh Mazaria who took the helm for the guy’s team, and, storming past his team's unaired objections, he settled on an activity package and appointed our man Phil as co-lead, responsible for sourcing and, eventually cooking, lunch.

It seemed like an ideal role for Phil, whose West Sussex bakery dates back to the 1930s, but the two butted heads early as Phil pushed for a clear budget on lunch, only to be brushed off by a blustering Virdi, who insisted on not worrying about it.

Communications breakdowns like that became something of a theme, as Virdi and co promised a boozy get away during client negotiations, while Phil’s team settled on an alcohol-free escape in a bid to save money.

Things came to a head later in the show as Phil’s team worked to prepare lunch ahead of a firm 2.15pm deadline – not without one member of the team, Ollie, trying to bake brownies without flour in just one of several culinary mishaps – only for Virdi’s team to waltz in forty five minutes late, having lost track of time thanks to Virdi's insistence on an impromptu Bhangra routine.

Cue several bust-ups over the lack of alcohol, microwaving ten plates of dodgy toad-in-the-hole, and a room full of sour faces for a wildly truncated Highlands dance, and it’s no wonder the boys came off worse; losing some £250 for an understandably grumpy Alan Sugar.

The girls only did slightly better, teasing out the kind of narrow victory that speaks less to your own skill then it does the all-conquering incompetence of your opposition. Their enthusiasm for the day’s activities, which involved Highland games and a tour of the nearby Loch, somehow conquered a series of catastrophic missteps in the lunch service; during which hapless contestants swapped breadcrumbs for crumble while serving fishcakes.

In the end, it was sales executive Oliver Medforth who bowed out, though not without Lord Sugar giving Virdi a few hard stares. A Yorkshire boy through and through, Oliver contributed miserably little to this week’s show, save bungling a lunch-time brownie, and referring to pie-man Phil as ‘Chef Phil’ through an overlong and frankly tortuous kitchen sequence, so it’s hard to doubt Sugar’s logic.

Personally, though, I think it should have been Virdy at the other end of Suralan's finger of doom. He failed to set a budget, bungled initial negotiations with the client, and regularly ignored his own instructions – all while shifting blame on to other members of the team.

As for Phil, I think he did well. Next to an anxiously manipulative Virdy, he came off honest, diligent and professional, bringing all those years of pie-making to bear. He might need to do a better job of sticking up for himself against some of the louder-mouths in the room, especially as the weeks wear on and the gloves come off, but it’s clear he’s a contestant who can deliver.