I've Heard of Ask The Audience, but . . .

I feel I should report that I had a genuinely new experience at the Rugby Club quiz last night. Hey, stop that , you’re making up your own stories now. No, what happened was this. Question master for last night’s quiz was Reg. I’ve mentioned Reg in this blog before. He is an absolutely lovely guy who is what is commonly known as ‘a legend’ in the rugby club quiz. Not because he is particularly successful, and not because he is a brilliant quizmaster. In fact, its because he is NOT a brilliant quiz master that has made him so beloved , and his quizzes so eagerly anticipated.

Last night during the first round he asked
“What is the currency of Pakistan ? “
As soon as he’d asked all the ten questions in the round he came over to me and said words to the effect of –
“I’ve got a bit of a problem here. My answer is rupees, but Mike says that rupees are the currency of India. “ Well, it was easy enough to set his mind at rest on this score. Mike, scorer last night, was right in that rupees are the currency of India, but the Pakistan rupee is also the currency of Pakistan. Problem solved. The new experience was that as far as I can recall I can never remember a question master coming up to me during a quiz, and asking me to confirm one of his answers, especially while the quiz is going on.

In fact it happened again during the next round. Reg asked “Name the first four men in the Bible “ We all agreed on Adam, Cain, and Abel, but there was a disagreement over the fourth. Reg had the answer “Enoch” while everyone else in the room said it was “Seth”. Again, Reg came to ask me for confirmation, and all I could tell him was that Seth was the third son of Adam and Eve, and as far as I knew was probably born before Enoch, the son of Cain. Brian advised him to stick with his own answer since he was the question master, but , probably in the face of the overwhelming feeling for Seth gave that as the answer. I haven’t checked in the Book of Genesis, but it is always possible that Enoch may be mentioned before Seth is. Over to you, dear readers.

I’ve thought about what Reg did last night quite a bit since. Now, I’d LIKE to think that he came to ask me because I have a certain quiz reputation there due to Mastermind and other TV/radio appearances. However I can’t help thinking that it was just because I am unfortunately one of the most vocal critics whenever an obvious wrong’un rears its ugly head during the quiz. Which in a way makes it a rebuke wrapped up in the form of a compliment.

Not that Reg would ever criticise anyone like that , because unlike me he’s far too nice a guy. I am pleased to say that he didn’t let us down in another way last night. Reg is the guy who gave us The Solvent as the stretch of water between Portsmouth and the Isle of Wight, and Davy Rockett as the King of the Wild Frontier. Last night he was happy to inform us that Steven Spielberg’s epic film which began with a dramatisation of the storming of the Normandy Beaches was called “Saving Private Brown . “ I was delighted that a couple of the teams immediately took up an impromptu chorus of the music hall favourite , “Knees Up Mother Ryan “. God bless you , Reg – don’t ever change.