PETE Quiz Night
PETER
As everybody who knows me will know, Thursday night is quiz night. Barely a Thursday has gone by in 37 years when I haven’t been faithfully down the Red Lion with the rest of the Quizzical team hammering out answer after answer about snooker players from the 80s and the three capitals with no vowels in the name.
I was therefore the natural choice to bring together 11 households and ensure continuity of the great pub quiz institution in our family. The role of question master has always seemed to be an enviable one to me with its low-key authority, the modesty inherent in knowing answers to questions that other people don’t and the always properly functioning microphone. Thankfully, alongside my co-host, Dais, we were able to recreate the technical frailties through Zoom, a list of 90 painfully obscure questions and a natural flair for smugness.
The Blenheim Blighters were the first to walk through the door, order two pints of your finest bitter and to settle into the little round table in the corner that is their customary favourite. With a loud scurry of activity outside and what sounded awfully like the proclamation “And yet, to say the truth, reason and love keep little company together nowadays”, in stumbled Flight Squadron Echo already a little fresh from the day’s activities. No F in Quiz and New Cross on the Block, whilst having very different backgrounds, were united in their appeal to order in the rapidly filling saloon bar. But the mood was broken as F.O.X.O.F.F. tripped over Simon and Quizfunkel’s table, sending the double whisky flying with nothing but a “make mine a double” by the way of an apology. Drinks Anybody waltzed confidently in and promptly sat at the wrong table with a sign clearly delineating that it had been studiously reserved for Team Quarantine. With the only visible decorum in the room now being resolutely observed by Fizz Hero Quiz Hero, it was time to start.
Creating a quiz for a group who’s ages ranged from 14 – 82 and who’s interests could be at best described as complementary is not an easy thing. After much discussion between the co-hosts the following eight rounds were settled on; (i) The Decade 2010-19 (and yes, Simon and Quizfunkel that is a decade), (ii) General Knowledge (iii) Film (iv) Sport (v) Women’s History (vi) TV Series Soundtracks (vii) It Happened in March / History (viii) Music.
I personally really enjoy the “obviously it’s…” followed by the wrong answer and “ah yes, we knew that”, after not knowing it. Some sample questions included;
What was the UK’s best-selling book of the decade? (50 Shades of Grey)
Where was Marc Cohen walking when he put on his blue suede shoes? (Memphis)
How many players are their on an Olympic curling team? (Four)
Which of Henry VIII's six wives was Queen Elizabeth I's mother? (Anne Boleyn)
In 1966 in an interview with a London Newspaper, who said that his band was “more popular than Jesus now”? (John Lennon)
‘The Best’, Tina Turner
It was a very enjoyable evening to host and it was a pleasure to have so many different faces and branches of the family join and get involved. It’s something that we would love to do again. It is emerging as a theme that despite the difficulties and fears, I am seeing more of my family and spending more time chatting, laughing and supporting each other.
On the to the winners;
1st place: Simone and the Quizfunkel
2nd place: Flight Squadron Echo
3rd place: No F in Quiz & New Cross on the Block
Thank you to everyone who took part!
Oh, look, in saunter The Greenhorn Gamesters….
Images are owned by Ryan Kelly, no stealing without permission please.