Call handlers on 118 phone inquiry lines, which have been operating for one year today, asked where Brighton and Hove Albion were from and what type of business they were.

Operators also had no clue where the Royal Pavilion was or how to spell Bexhill. One asked if the West Pier was a type of fruit.

Yet most frustrating was the difficulty many had finding numbers on their databases, with some having to give up and admit the numbers were not available.

The standard 192 number for directory inquiries - and its 40p flat rate - was abandoned 12 months ago and replaced by more than 100 competing services, many of whom have since been disconnected.

Parliamentary watchdog the National Audit Office (NAO) has launched an investigation into the new system after a study found almost one in seven number searches was wrong.

A quarter of people now use directory services less frequently and one in ten has abandoned them completely. The number of 118 calls has fallen from 6.75 million at launch to 3.7 million a week, a slump of 45 per cent.

The NAO said its investigation, ahead of a report later this year, would examine whether "the expected benefits of liberalisation occurred in practice for the consumers".

The Argus revealed last August the poor standard of responses, roughly four times slower than the 47-year-old 192 service.

Call handlers for Telgate, on 118 866, claimed Herstmonceux Science Centre and the Royal Pavilion did not exist while another asked whether the West Pier was "new".

BT and the Consumers' Association urged people to be patient as the new services bedded in and built up their supplies of numbers.

A phone survey by The Argus yesterday revealed some had improved their response times.

Yet some operators used complicated cost schemes to maximise the price of calls while others working from bases across the UK and abroad were often let down by limited knowledge.

After being embarrassed by last year's Brighton Pier blunder, One Tel this year managed to provide the pier's number in just eight seconds.

Last August The Argus found the 192 service took an average 39 seconds to answer four queries, the same time it took other firms to supply just one number.

This year, services averaged 28 seconds for each call, with the BT 118 500 service one of the most cost-effective.

However, a 118 500 operator was among those who asked where Brighton and Hove Albion were based while another gave up after spending a minute searching for The Old Market in Hove.

A 118 119 call handler not only asked which city Brighton and Hove's football team was in but also the nature of the business, taking almost a minute to find a number.

A One Tel call handler struggled the most with the Seagulls, taking 100 seconds to finally find a club number after initially offering a connection for Brighton and Hove Foyer.

Call handlers on 118 118 and 118 111 needed repeated clarifications that Herstmonceux Science Museum was in Herstmonceux while 118 888 strived for almost two minutes before declaring it could not be found.

None of the operators knew the Royal Pavilion was in Brighton and many failed to distinguish between the historic palace and a pub with the same name.

The West Pier proved similarly difficult. When asked for a number for the West Pier Trust a 118 888 operator replied: "As in the fruit?"

The voice on the end of the 118 119 line wasted almost a minute searching for the "West Hair Trust" while a 118 888 call handler was unable to find the De La Warr Pavilion, until told it was in Bexhill, not "Becks Hill".

Almost every operator gave a different number for The Argus, with only 118 888 offering a choice of offices. Yellow Pages' 118 247 service, along with 118 097 and 118 118, helpfully put me in touch with Argos.

Industry regulator Ofcom found 118 118 was the most widely-recognised number, thanks no doubt to an advertising drive featuring moustachioed marathon runners.

Some 73 per cent surveyed in June could name 118 118, followed by 32 per cent remembering BT's 118 500 and 15 per cent aware of 118 888, owned by Conduit.

Yet the Conduit service came out worst in a survey conducted by Ofcom and Mori last June, which made more than 5,800 calls to the 30 biggest directory inquiries services. Conduit got one in every five numbers wrong.

Yet Ofcom said it was encouraged by an overall accuracy rate of 87 per cent for business numbers and 83 per cent for residential.

Jenni Conti, of the Consumers' Association, said: "We have seen more expensive charging, confusion and services which vary."

Internet users can log on to www.bt.com and get ten free directory inquiry searches a day.