Who needs sleep - there's quizzes to go to .

Getting Back Into The Routine

I have a confession to make. I have already participated in my first quiz since I returned back from Spain in the early hours of Tuesday morning. The quiz was in the rather later hours of Tuesday evening. So I thought that it might be mildly diverting if I shared with you some of my thoughts on getting back into the routine after my longest break from quizzing since 1994. Yes, I know that I also attended the quiz in Catral on Tuesday last as well, but even so, that was an odd situation being as it was not with my usual quiz partners. Anyway, the three quizless weeks preceding it still qualify as my longest quizzing break for 15 years.

The venue was the Duke of Wellington in Cowbridge. I make no apologies for plugging this quiz again, because it packs a lot of bang for your bucks. A pound for each player, and another pound for the team buys you a pretty decent to good quiz of 40 questions, with a cash prize, a go at the Lucky 7 questions for another cash prize, and a selection of sandwiches during the interval. So even though my quiz partner John was unable to make it, I persuaded my daughter Phillippa to ignore the pain of her broken toe, and away we went.

I don't know whether this is just me trying to justify not winning the quiz. In all probability that's exactly what it is. Oh well, you make your own minds up . I'm going to say that there was nothing wrong with the quiz, but I did feel a little sluggish. There were two answers in particular that I feel I would have snapped up if I'd really been on the ball. For example, I knew that the city of Madras is now called Chenai, and even wrote it down, but then for some reason I can't accurately explain I crossed it out and wrote Calcutta. Likewise, I knew that you have an army of caterpillars, yet for some reason I wrote down line. Maybe I'm just getting old.

Not that I'm complaining about coming second mind you, especially when you consider about a couple of guesses that came in. The second was to answer about which rugby league team was coached by an Australian whose name escapes me. Having no idea I plumped for one of the big boys - St. Helens. Correct. However the first one was priceless. We were asked the question,
"In the acclaimed BBC drama The Passion, shown over Easter, which actor played Pontius Pilate ? " I didn't see it, had no idea in fact. So what I said to Phillippa was that in such situations, where its a british show, and I've no idea, I always put down James Nesbitt because he seems to be in everything. I can't tell you exactly how many times this has worked, but however many it is, last night was one of them !

I will admit that I thought that the Lucky 7 seemed rather easy. See what you think. They were : -
1) What did Britney Spears dress up as for the video of Baby One More Time ?
2) When Uruguay won the very first world cup in 1930, which country did they beat in the final ?
3) Winnipeg is the capital of which Canadian Province ?
4) In the film The Talented Mr. Ripley - who played Ripley ?
5) Which creatures live in a formicarium ?
6) Which was the only sea battle of world war 1 in which the British and German main fleets engaged each other ?
7) What was Lewis Carroll's real name ?

Normally you get at least one question in each set of 7 where you just have to guess. Not last night. So I was really surprised when it turned out that we were the only team to get them all. for the record, the answers are : -
1) A schoolgirl
2) Argentina
3) Manitoba
4) Matt Damon
5) Ants
6) The Battle of Jutland ( aka the Battle of the Skaggerak )
7) Charles Lutwidge Dodgson

Before I sign off, let me share two other good questions with you from last night.
1) Which Shakespeare play has a current European Capital city in its title ?
Now we did think about going with "Rome-o and Juliet " for a long time before I dredged up "Timon of Athens" !
Then the last question of the main quiz was this 4 pointer.
2) Only 4 countries of the EU currently drive on the left. A point for each .
UK and Republic of Ireland came quickly. However it took a couple of minutes of logical working out before we came up with Malta and Cyprus, through their British connections.

Good quiz - its nice to be back into the routine.