When Henry Dale was asked who could tackle isolating the water-soluble, mysterious active ingredient from the Claviceps purpurea sclerotia, he immediately thought of his long-time colleague and chief chemist, Harold Ward Dudley (1887–1935), at the National Institute for Medical Research. He knew him well from their joint research work on histamine, acetylcholine, and insulin, when Dudley had some tough nuts to crack. In 1932, Dudley and Chassar Moir set to work and were undeterred by the harsh criticism and skepticism of Moir’s clinical study results after his publication. They had to be quick, because three excellent scientific groups in Chicago, Baltimore, and Basel were hot on their heels. The two Britons soon realized that they had underestimated the quantities of sclerotia required in their study plans. As a result, they were repeatedly forced to interrupt the isolation process because their ergot stocks were depleted. The crippling waiting times until the delivery of new sclerotia, which only arrived intermittently from Spain, were almost unbearable. During these times, they anxiously wondered about the competing groups, who had breathed down their necks from the beginning. Had the Swiss and Americans already bypassed them, or could they defend their small lead?