Quiz League of London Summer League

A few weeks ago I received an email from LAM regular reader William Barrett. William is a fine quizzer who has made a number of appearances on TV. He invited me to play in a Quiz League of London Summer League game if I was in London at all over the summer. What a nice chap ! As it happened I was due in London for a family do on Saturday 21st, so it was a no-brainer to stay on and play on Tuesday 24th. By virtue of my mum and stepdad living in Tottenham I don’t think we were stretching a point too much by shoehorning me into the North London team for the evening.

This was quite a momentous occasion for me. For one thing I have never played a quiz in my home town before, with the exception of appearances on a few TV quizzes made in TV Centre in White City, and a Mastermind competition when I was in school in Hanwell, Ealing. The venue for the quiz was the Old Star Inn just opposite St. James’ Park tube station, so we were comfortably within Central London. For another thing, this was a league quiz. If you’ve been a LAM regular for any great length of time you might recall me lamenting the demise of quiz leagues locally. As a digression I’d like to add that if any team from the Bridgend quiz league happen to be reading this, and are short of a player, I would most definitely be available, and would love to play.

Back to Tuesday evening. The quiz took the form of three matches, with three teams all playing each other during the evening. The format for each quiz was of 8 rounds of questions. In each round, each player in each team would be asked one question individually, with 2 points for a correct answer. If the player couldn’t answer, then it could go across to a team member, who could answer for one point. Incorrect answers would result in the question being passed over to the opposition for a bonus. Questions alternated between the teams. I apologise if I’ve got anything wrong in this.

I love league quizzing anyway, and although this was a format I’ve never played under before I found it really enjoyable. For one thing you need to be certain you know the answer before you volunteer to take one for the team. I loved the hand signals which were in common use as well – a closed fist meaning I’m certain – 4 fingers, pretty sure – 3 fingers, less sure and , well, I’m sure you get the drift. The three games were set by three different question masters, and it was interesting to see how different they were, even though each followed the same format. Another thing that struck me was the high quality of all the quizzers who played on the evening. A special thanks to William , Barry and Fred of the North London team, who made me feel really welcome, and didn’t make me feel less so when I cocked up my first question.

The results ? Well, that wasn't necessarily the most important thing about the evening, but I think I should record that East London carried all before them, beating us and South London, and that we managed to beat South London in our other match.

A massive thumbs up for a great evening. And yes please, I would love to play again next time I’m in London on the appropriate evening.