I think that I would have been about 7 or 8 years old when this happened, and I’ve always remembered it. I had been sent on a message to the staff room in my junior school in Hanwell, Ealing, one break time. The form was that you went to the door, knocked, and then waited. And waited. Outside the door were another three or four kids, some of whom were waiting for the telling off that they had been promised. A bit like the scene in the film Kes, now I come to think of it, however, I digress. Outside I saw Matthew, who was a year older than me, and a friend of my brother. He confided to me that he had also been sent on a message, and it made a nice change for him because he was usually one of the boys being sent for a telling off.
OK, so the door eventually opened, and Miss F. ( name withheld in case a superinjunction has been taken out without me knowing it ) stuck her head out. Miss F. could be a very stern, indeed , frightening teacher when the Force was with her, which was often. She took one look at Matthew, fixing him with her mesmeric gaze, before saying words to the effect of – not you again – what have you done this time ? – Matthew was understandably like a rabbit caught in the glare of the headlights of the oncoming juggernaut of Miss F’s personality, and he just stood there, saying nothing. So I chipped in with – He’s not in trouble miss, he’s just got a message – “. I broke off as she turned the full force of her ire upon me, and then in a voice literally dripping with scorn she told me to shut up – speak only when spoken to, and that nobody was interested in what I had to say. I’ve never forgotten it.
Right – one , two , three , we’re back in the room. John’s back from Hong Kong in the next day or so, which means that I won’t have to face the dilemma of what to do when I go to the Dyffryn Arms on my own any more for the foreseeable future. Not that its been a huge problem for the last 2 Sundays. As it worked out both yesterday and last Sunday evening I went down on my own, and certainly enjoyed myself as much as you could expect to when you’re playing on your own. It helped that I have all of the questions right , and only two of the pictures wrong in the first quiz, and then all of the pictures right and only a couple of the questions wrong last night. However that’s not really why I’m posting this. Last night’s quiz was a good quiz, with a really nice mixture of toughies, and not so toughies. Being the Sunday before a Bank Holiday there were more teams playing than you often get, and so my normal table was already taken. There were no invites to join another team. As a result I sat in the other side of the pub from where we normally sit, next to a team I didn’t really know at all.
They were struggling a bit. They did pretty poorly in the first half of the quiz, and then I could hear them agonizing over some of the answers for the picture handout, and for the second half of the quiz. I so desperately wanted to try to help them out, but the moment I opened my mouth it was as if I could feel the vitriolic words of Miss F. all over again. I kept trying to tell myself - if they want help – they’ll ask for it. In the end I thought – stuff it – if I offer an answer they could take it, they could ignore it, or they could tell me to shove off, but I’ll never know if I don’t say. So I told them that the rugby playing , Masterchef winning, Strictly Come Dancing finalist , who is a team captain on A Question of Sport is Matt Dawson. Which was graciously accepted, and so were a couple of picture answers, and friendly relations were maintained until the end of the quiz. Which was great, and, I hasten to add, did not materially affect the overall results, or the destination of the prizes.
But I don’t know, am I being unnecessarily sensitive by even worrying about this in the first place ? I mean, I don’t recall ever getting cold shouldered by another team on the odd occasions when I, or a member of my team, has offered another team an answer that they’re struggling for . Yet I do worry that it could happen. Take last night – the team to which I gave a couple of answers, and with which I then chatted were perfectly nice and decent people, but its not impossible that they might have seen my offer of answers as interfering, and even patronizing. I’ll be honest, I don’t know if there is a generally held and recognized quiz etiquette regarding this sort of thing – perhaps other people have had bad experiences they wouldn’t mind sharing with the rest of us ? Over to you.
Monday, 30 May 2011
Saturday, 28 May 2011
TV Choice Awards - Only Connect
I just happened to be passing through Facebook a short while ago, and found on the Only Connect group that it has been nominated for a TV Choice Award for Best Gameshow. If, like me, you feel that the show is well worth an award, then click on the link, and work your way through the many categories until you get there to register your vote, or a vote for one of the other nominees if you'd rather. Its a little tedious, because they have categories for absolutely everything, but it does only take a couple of minutes.
TV Choice Awards
TV Choice Awards
Were you on a Game Show -
- during the 1960s ? There’s an interesting email which you ‘ll have seen if you’re a member of the UK Gameshows Yahoo group. David Bodycombe has been contacted from a journalist from the Daily Mail : -
"The Daily Mail is urgently looking for someone who took part in a 1960's British game show. Can be any of the popular game shows from Double Your Money to Take Your Pick and ideally they will have photos of themselves on the programme.
We will pay £200 for taking part.
Please email me ASAP at dianaappleyard@aol.com"
Sounds interesting, and only 40 years too early for me to gain my £200. I will email my uncle, who once won a Crackerjack pencil ( although that might conceivably have been the tail end of the 50s as opposed to the beginning of the 60s ) and see if he wants the chance to earn a few bob.
I don’t know , of course, but I’d guess that they’re maybe looking at doing a piece comparing game shows of 50 years ago, to those of the present. Its an interesting topic if that’s what they’re planning. Although your gut reaction might be to say that they’ve probably changed beyond all recognition, I think that they’ve actually changed less than you might perhaps think. OK, I’m going to be pretty much limiting myself to quiz shows, since that’s my self imposed remit, but I believe that the principal holds pretty well for game shows in general.
In terms of basic format, I don’t think that there’s been that much change in half a century. After all, what intrinsic change can there be to the basic format of contestants come onto the show, they attempt various games – which may or may not involve answering questions – in return for the chance to win prizes ? Even if you take specific examples you can see parallels. For example, suppose I say that I am going to mention a quiz show, where each contestant is asked a series of questions. The questions become more difficult as they go along, but the amount of money won raises significantly with each question answered . Wrong answers mean elimination, and the game is over. The contestants can bail out where they wish to. Which show am I describing ? Who Wants to be a Millionaire ? Actually, no. This was Double Your Money, which debuted in the very first week of ITV in 1955, and was still going strong in 1968, when Associated Rediffusion, the company that made it, lost their ITV franchise. Now, before I get myself in legal problems I ought to stress that Millionaire most definitely is not plagiarizing DYM – they are different shows, which simply followed a similar basic format. But it proves a point that in terms of basic format there are some fundamental things about game shows that don’t change a great deal.
However, since I’ve started with these two examples, lets push it a little further. I have done a little research on this, and I hope that my figures are accurate, but I apologise if they are not. The average annual income for households in the UK in 1968 was £1488.98. The top prize in Double Your Money was £1,000, and believe me, this was not easily won either. Now, that’s a nice little earner, but hardly life changing even then. The £1,000 top prize limit in british television persisted for a very long time as well. In 1998, when Millionaire began, the average household income was supposed to be about £25,000. So in real terms, while in the 60s the top prize you could win was about 2/3 of one year’s pay, the top prize by 2000 was something like 40 times one year’s pay.
There are other differences between modern shows, and those of the 60s, though. I think particularly of the way that the contestants are treated by the host. Yes, you can still find hosts and question masters who are adept in peddling a similar brand of warmth and friendliness ( genuine or manufactured) towards contestants to that on offer from Hughie Green and Michael Miles of years gone by. However the deliberate baiting and belittling of contestants, so memorably introduced by Anne Robinson on The Weakest Link, seems to be a child of the 21st century.
One other interesting area for consideration is on the demographic of contestants on game shows. I honestly don’t know if there is any difference between the kind of people who got to appear on shows 50 years ago, and those who appear now, but I can’t help wondering. Instinct tells me that there may be more of a bias towards the 18 – 30 year olds now, especially in the higher prize shows such as the BBC’s lottery hour game shows, and Million Pound Drop. But I don’t know. If I’m totally honest I don’t know that the average age of contestants was higher 50 years ago, but I somehow suspect that it was.
One thing that doesn’t change to much in quiz shows is the questions, and that’s something to be glad about. For example, I bought the Mastermind 4 quiz book last weekend. I didn’t even know that this existed. Mastermind 1,2 and 3 came out in the 70s, and then in the mid 80s they were all published in a hardback compendium edition, of which a huge number were sold , and you can still get hold of copies from ebay, amazon used and new, and car boot sales the length and breadth of the country. This one, though, Mastermind 4, was not compiled by Boswell Taylor. It has a really nice long introduction by the great Magnus, and then all of the questions from the 1982 Champion of Champions tournament. Two of which I was actually asked in my final GK round in 2007 . Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose. Long may it remain so.
"The Daily Mail is urgently looking for someone who took part in a 1960's British game show. Can be any of the popular game shows from Double Your Money to Take Your Pick and ideally they will have photos of themselves on the programme.
We will pay £200 for taking part.
Please email me ASAP at dianaappleyard@aol.com"
Sounds interesting, and only 40 years too early for me to gain my £200. I will email my uncle, who once won a Crackerjack pencil ( although that might conceivably have been the tail end of the 50s as opposed to the beginning of the 60s ) and see if he wants the chance to earn a few bob.
I don’t know , of course, but I’d guess that they’re maybe looking at doing a piece comparing game shows of 50 years ago, to those of the present. Its an interesting topic if that’s what they’re planning. Although your gut reaction might be to say that they’ve probably changed beyond all recognition, I think that they’ve actually changed less than you might perhaps think. OK, I’m going to be pretty much limiting myself to quiz shows, since that’s my self imposed remit, but I believe that the principal holds pretty well for game shows in general.
In terms of basic format, I don’t think that there’s been that much change in half a century. After all, what intrinsic change can there be to the basic format of contestants come onto the show, they attempt various games – which may or may not involve answering questions – in return for the chance to win prizes ? Even if you take specific examples you can see parallels. For example, suppose I say that I am going to mention a quiz show, where each contestant is asked a series of questions. The questions become more difficult as they go along, but the amount of money won raises significantly with each question answered . Wrong answers mean elimination, and the game is over. The contestants can bail out where they wish to. Which show am I describing ? Who Wants to be a Millionaire ? Actually, no. This was Double Your Money, which debuted in the very first week of ITV in 1955, and was still going strong in 1968, when Associated Rediffusion, the company that made it, lost their ITV franchise. Now, before I get myself in legal problems I ought to stress that Millionaire most definitely is not plagiarizing DYM – they are different shows, which simply followed a similar basic format. But it proves a point that in terms of basic format there are some fundamental things about game shows that don’t change a great deal.
However, since I’ve started with these two examples, lets push it a little further. I have done a little research on this, and I hope that my figures are accurate, but I apologise if they are not. The average annual income for households in the UK in 1968 was £1488.98. The top prize in Double Your Money was £1,000, and believe me, this was not easily won either. Now, that’s a nice little earner, but hardly life changing even then. The £1,000 top prize limit in british television persisted for a very long time as well. In 1998, when Millionaire began, the average household income was supposed to be about £25,000. So in real terms, while in the 60s the top prize you could win was about 2/3 of one year’s pay, the top prize by 2000 was something like 40 times one year’s pay.
There are other differences between modern shows, and those of the 60s, though. I think particularly of the way that the contestants are treated by the host. Yes, you can still find hosts and question masters who are adept in peddling a similar brand of warmth and friendliness ( genuine or manufactured) towards contestants to that on offer from Hughie Green and Michael Miles of years gone by. However the deliberate baiting and belittling of contestants, so memorably introduced by Anne Robinson on The Weakest Link, seems to be a child of the 21st century.
One other interesting area for consideration is on the demographic of contestants on game shows. I honestly don’t know if there is any difference between the kind of people who got to appear on shows 50 years ago, and those who appear now, but I can’t help wondering. Instinct tells me that there may be more of a bias towards the 18 – 30 year olds now, especially in the higher prize shows such as the BBC’s lottery hour game shows, and Million Pound Drop. But I don’t know. If I’m totally honest I don’t know that the average age of contestants was higher 50 years ago, but I somehow suspect that it was.
One thing that doesn’t change to much in quiz shows is the questions, and that’s something to be glad about. For example, I bought the Mastermind 4 quiz book last weekend. I didn’t even know that this existed. Mastermind 1,2 and 3 came out in the 70s, and then in the mid 80s they were all published in a hardback compendium edition, of which a huge number were sold , and you can still get hold of copies from ebay, amazon used and new, and car boot sales the length and breadth of the country. This one, though, Mastermind 4, was not compiled by Boswell Taylor. It has a really nice long introduction by the great Magnus, and then all of the questions from the 1982 Champion of Champions tournament. Two of which I was actually asked in my final GK round in 2007 . Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose. Long may it remain so.
Quiz of the Week
Here’s a selection of In the News questions from the last week or so : -
Who or what are : -
George Groves
Richard Scott
Daniel Rigby
John Hemming
Heather Watson
Terence Malick
Santre Sanchez Gayle
Michael Tucker
Justine Thornton
Sharon Shoesmith
What date has US evangelist Harold Camping now set for the start of the Apocalypse ?
Lady Gaga demanded 200 what in order for her to appear in Radio 1’s Big Weekend ?
According to the 2012 University Guide, which is now the best university in the UK ?
Who took pole in the Spanish Grand Prix, and in which position did he eventually finish ?
Which TV show won Best Drama at the BAFTAs ?
Who became the first person to win BAFTAs for black and white, colour, and High Definition TV shows ?
Golf – who beat whom in the final of the World Matchplay ?
What is the name of the village where Barack Obama’s Irish forebears came from, which he visited ?
Who will be choosing Desert Island discs on June 3rd ?
Which record is the most popular non-classical music choice on Desert Island Discs ?
Which chain are taking over Iceland stores ?
How much exactly did Princess Beatrice’s wedding hat sell for ?
Name the town devastated by the deadly twister in Missouri ?
In New Zealand, the good people of Wellington complained about plans to put up a sign. Which sign ?
An unfinished draft of a Jane Austen novel is to be auctioned. What is the title of the unfinished novel ?
Who is the new manager of Swindon Town ?
Who finally had his 1974 conviction overturned ?
Which country has banned Marmite ?
Which company have been refused permission to trademark the name Navy Seals Team Six ?
A stuffed toy animal caused a security alert in Hampshire. Which animal ?
Who received the Best Actress award at Cannes ?
In which town or city is the G8 summit taking place ?
There we are – usual rules apply – answers in a few days, but if you can’t wait then email me. Good luck.
Who or what are : -
George Groves
Richard Scott
Daniel Rigby
John Hemming
Heather Watson
Terence Malick
Santre Sanchez Gayle
Michael Tucker
Justine Thornton
Sharon Shoesmith
What date has US evangelist Harold Camping now set for the start of the Apocalypse ?
Lady Gaga demanded 200 what in order for her to appear in Radio 1’s Big Weekend ?
According to the 2012 University Guide, which is now the best university in the UK ?
Who took pole in the Spanish Grand Prix, and in which position did he eventually finish ?
Which TV show won Best Drama at the BAFTAs ?
Who became the first person to win BAFTAs for black and white, colour, and High Definition TV shows ?
Golf – who beat whom in the final of the World Matchplay ?
What is the name of the village where Barack Obama’s Irish forebears came from, which he visited ?
Who will be choosing Desert Island discs on June 3rd ?
Which record is the most popular non-classical music choice on Desert Island Discs ?
Which chain are taking over Iceland stores ?
How much exactly did Princess Beatrice’s wedding hat sell for ?
Name the town devastated by the deadly twister in Missouri ?
In New Zealand, the good people of Wellington complained about plans to put up a sign. Which sign ?
An unfinished draft of a Jane Austen novel is to be auctioned. What is the title of the unfinished novel ?
Who is the new manager of Swindon Town ?
Who finally had his 1974 conviction overturned ?
Which country has banned Marmite ?
Which company have been refused permission to trademark the name Navy Seals Team Six ?
A stuffed toy animal caused a security alert in Hampshire. Which animal ?
Who received the Best Actress award at Cannes ?
In which town or city is the G8 summit taking place ?
There we are – usual rules apply – answers in a few days, but if you can’t wait then email me. Good luck.
Answers to those news questions
Yes, as promised the answers to last weeks tips for the in the news questions - I hope that some of them came up for you : -
Harold Camping - American evangelist who predicted that the world would end last Saturday ( as far as we can tell it didn’t.)
Tyler Hamilton - US cyclist who gave back his 2004 olympic gold medal after admitting drugs offences.
Elliot Morley -Labour MP jailed for expenses
Michael Browne - Sinn Fein Mayor of Cashel who shook the Queen’s hand.
Filip Slipaczek – Polish man who had Nat West employee disciplined for making joke about his name
Gary Dobson and David Norris- to stand trial for murder of Stephen Lawrence
Lord Hanningfield – Tory MP under investigation for expenses
Steve Webb – Minister for Pensions
Gabrielle Browne- Rape Victim to whom Ken Clarke had to apologise after phone in crass remarks
Luis Moreno – Ocampo – ICC prosecutor who wants Gaddafi to stand trial
Lars von Trier – film director expelled from Cannes due to vocal sympathy for Nazism
Carmen Calil – Founder of Virago , resigned from Booker prize jury after they selected Philip Roth
Rob Summers- US veteran , paraplegic able to stand again after pioneering electric treatment
Ludmilla Savchenko – Ukrainian weather forecast used report to launch attack on government
Graham Napier – equaled first class cricket record of 16 sixes in an innings, playing for Essex against Surrey
Glieise 581d – possible life bearing planet identified by astronomers
Manu Tuilagi – 20 year old Leicester Rugby union player punished for punching England wing Chris Ashton
Grimsvotn – another erupting Icelandic volcano
Who became the oldest man ever to win one a world boxing championship, sanctioned by one of the main bodies in the sport ?
Bernard Hopkins
Who made Princess Beatrice’s wedding hat ? For which charity is it being auctioned ?
Philip Treacy – UNICEF UK and Children in Crisis
The whales in the news are trapped in a loch on a Scottish island. Which species of whales, which loch, and which island ?
Pilot Whales – Loch Carnan – South Uist
Against which team did Shane Warne play his last ever professional cricket match in the IPL ?
Mumbai Indians
Which team won the conference play off to win a place in the Football League ?
AFC Wimbledon
Why has a statue of Pope John Paul II, unveiled by Rome’s main railway station, faced criticism ?
Some people think it looks like Mussolini
In which year did the late Kathy Kirby come second in Eurovision, and with which song ?
1965 – I Belong
According to a customer survey, which are the most popular, and least popular High Street chains ?
Most – Richer Sounds – Least – WH Smith
What is the name of the Lord Chief Justice ?
Lord Judge ( honestly )
In which welsh hospital did Deyan Deyanov receive treatment last year ?
Glan Clwyd
Which company’s flotation is the biggest ever in the City of London ?
Glencore
Who won this year’s Booker Prize ?
Philip Roth
Who has announced plans to remake The Flintstones ?
Seth ‘Family Guy’ Macfarlane
Which former Lib Dem MP has announced plans to sue the News of the World over phone tapping ?
Mark Oaten
The favorite Las Vegas haunt of the Rat Pack closed last week. What was it called ?The Sahara
Who was accused of cheating in the Giro d’Italia ?
Mark Cavendish
What is the title of Pirates of the Caribbean 4 ? Who plays the first female pirate in the series ?
On Stranger Tides – Penelope Cruz
What are the top 4 holiday destinations for Brits, announced last week ?
Spain- Greece – Turkey - USA
Name the 2 Lib Dem welsh assembly members disqualified for being members of the Care Council for Wales
Aled Roberts and John Dixon
Which newspaper was the first to publish the name of the footballer accused on Twitter of having an affair with Imogen Thomas ?
Scottish Herald
Who was named on the Forbes list as the world’s most powerful star ?
Lady Gaga
Which racehorse is nicknamed The Budapest Bullet ?
Overdose
Which team won the Europa Cup ?
Porto
Last week a man became a hit on Youtube when filmed trying to take what onto a train at Wrexham Station ?
A white pony
Which sporting venue was visited by the Queen last week ?
Croke Park
There we are - how did you do ? I'll see about posting a few more from the last week or so within the next day or so.
Harold Camping - American evangelist who predicted that the world would end last Saturday ( as far as we can tell it didn’t.)
Tyler Hamilton - US cyclist who gave back his 2004 olympic gold medal after admitting drugs offences.
Elliot Morley -Labour MP jailed for expenses
Michael Browne - Sinn Fein Mayor of Cashel who shook the Queen’s hand.
Filip Slipaczek – Polish man who had Nat West employee disciplined for making joke about his name
Gary Dobson and David Norris- to stand trial for murder of Stephen Lawrence
Lord Hanningfield – Tory MP under investigation for expenses
Steve Webb – Minister for Pensions
Gabrielle Browne- Rape Victim to whom Ken Clarke had to apologise after phone in crass remarks
Luis Moreno – Ocampo – ICC prosecutor who wants Gaddafi to stand trial
Lars von Trier – film director expelled from Cannes due to vocal sympathy for Nazism
Carmen Calil – Founder of Virago , resigned from Booker prize jury after they selected Philip Roth
Rob Summers- US veteran , paraplegic able to stand again after pioneering electric treatment
Ludmilla Savchenko – Ukrainian weather forecast used report to launch attack on government
Graham Napier – equaled first class cricket record of 16 sixes in an innings, playing for Essex against Surrey
Glieise 581d – possible life bearing planet identified by astronomers
Manu Tuilagi – 20 year old Leicester Rugby union player punished for punching England wing Chris Ashton
Grimsvotn – another erupting Icelandic volcano
Who became the oldest man ever to win one a world boxing championship, sanctioned by one of the main bodies in the sport ?
Bernard Hopkins
Who made Princess Beatrice’s wedding hat ? For which charity is it being auctioned ?
Philip Treacy – UNICEF UK and Children in Crisis
The whales in the news are trapped in a loch on a Scottish island. Which species of whales, which loch, and which island ?
Pilot Whales – Loch Carnan – South Uist
Against which team did Shane Warne play his last ever professional cricket match in the IPL ?
Mumbai Indians
Which team won the conference play off to win a place in the Football League ?
AFC Wimbledon
Why has a statue of Pope John Paul II, unveiled by Rome’s main railway station, faced criticism ?
Some people think it looks like Mussolini
In which year did the late Kathy Kirby come second in Eurovision, and with which song ?
1965 – I Belong
According to a customer survey, which are the most popular, and least popular High Street chains ?
Most – Richer Sounds – Least – WH Smith
What is the name of the Lord Chief Justice ?
Lord Judge ( honestly )
In which welsh hospital did Deyan Deyanov receive treatment last year ?
Glan Clwyd
Which company’s flotation is the biggest ever in the City of London ?
Glencore
Who won this year’s Booker Prize ?
Philip Roth
Who has announced plans to remake The Flintstones ?
Seth ‘Family Guy’ Macfarlane
Which former Lib Dem MP has announced plans to sue the News of the World over phone tapping ?
Mark Oaten
The favorite Las Vegas haunt of the Rat Pack closed last week. What was it called ?The Sahara
Who was accused of cheating in the Giro d’Italia ?
Mark Cavendish
What is the title of Pirates of the Caribbean 4 ? Who plays the first female pirate in the series ?
On Stranger Tides – Penelope Cruz
What are the top 4 holiday destinations for Brits, announced last week ?
Spain- Greece – Turkey - USA
Name the 2 Lib Dem welsh assembly members disqualified for being members of the Care Council for Wales
Aled Roberts and John Dixon
Which newspaper was the first to publish the name of the footballer accused on Twitter of having an affair with Imogen Thomas ?
Scottish Herald
Who was named on the Forbes list as the world’s most powerful star ?
Lady Gaga
Which racehorse is nicknamed The Budapest Bullet ?
Overdose
Which team won the Europa Cup ?
Porto
Last week a man became a hit on Youtube when filmed trying to take what onto a train at Wrexham Station ?
A white pony
Which sporting venue was visited by the Queen last week ?
Croke Park
There we are - how did you do ? I'll see about posting a few more from the last week or so within the next day or so.
Sunday, 22 May 2011
Have I Got More News For You ?
Actually, yes I have, since the last set of questions seemed to go down quite well. Here we go : -
All these people /things have been in the news. Who are : -
Harold Camping
Tyler Hamilton
Elliot Morley
Michael Browne
Filip Slipaczek
Gary Dobson and David Norris
Lord Hanningfield
Steve Webb
Gabrielle Browne
Luis Moreno – Ocampo
Lars von Trier
Carmen Calil
Rob Summers
Ludmilla Savchenko
Graham Napier
Glieise 581d
Manu Tuilagi
Grimsvotn
Now a few more straightforward news questions : -
Who became the oldest man ever to win a world boxing championship, sanctioned by one of the main bodies in the sport ?
Who made Princess Beatrice’s wedding hat ? For which charity is it being auctioned ?
The whales in the news are trapped in a loch on a Scottish island. Which species of whales, which loch, and which island ?
Against which team did Shane Warne play his last ever professional cricket match in the IPL ?
Which team won the conference play off to win a place in the Football League ?
Why has a statue of Pope John Paul II, unveiled by Rome’s main railway station, faced criticism ?
In which year did the late Kathy Kirby come second in Eurovision, and with which song ?
According to a customer survey, which are the most popular, and least popular High Street chains ?
What is the name of the Lord Chief Justice ?
In which welsh hospital did Deyan Deyanov receive treatment last year ?
Which company’s flotation is the biggest ever in the City of London ?
Who won this year’s Booker Prize ?
Who has announced plans to remake The Flintstones ?
Which former Lib Dem MP has announced plans to sue the News of the World over phone tapping ?
The favorite Las Vegas haunt of the Rat Pack closed last week. What was it called ?
Who was accused of cheating in the Giro d’Italia ?
What is the title of Pirates of the Caribbean 4 ? Who plays the first female pirate in the series ?
What are the top 4 holiday destinations for Brits, announced last week ?
Name the 2 Lib Dem welsh assembly members disqualified for being members of the Care Council for Wales
Which newspaper was the first to publish a photo of the footballer accused on
Twitter of having an affair with Imogen Thomas ?
Who was named on the Forbes list as the world’s most powerful star ?
Which racehorse is nicknamed The Budapest Bullet ?
Which team won the Europa Cup ?
Last week a man became a hit on Youtube when filmed trying to take what onto a train at Wrexham Station ?
Which sporting venue was visited by the Queen last week ?
There you go. No promises that you’ll encounter any of them in the next week or so, but that’s what’s caught my eye in the last few days. Answers at the weekend. As always , feel free to email me if you can’t wait.
All these people /things have been in the news. Who are : -
Harold Camping
Tyler Hamilton
Elliot Morley
Michael Browne
Filip Slipaczek
Gary Dobson and David Norris
Lord Hanningfield
Steve Webb
Gabrielle Browne
Luis Moreno – Ocampo
Lars von Trier
Carmen Calil
Rob Summers
Ludmilla Savchenko
Graham Napier
Glieise 581d
Manu Tuilagi
Grimsvotn
Now a few more straightforward news questions : -
Who became the oldest man ever to win a world boxing championship, sanctioned by one of the main bodies in the sport ?
Who made Princess Beatrice’s wedding hat ? For which charity is it being auctioned ?
The whales in the news are trapped in a loch on a Scottish island. Which species of whales, which loch, and which island ?
Against which team did Shane Warne play his last ever professional cricket match in the IPL ?
Which team won the conference play off to win a place in the Football League ?
Why has a statue of Pope John Paul II, unveiled by Rome’s main railway station, faced criticism ?
In which year did the late Kathy Kirby come second in Eurovision, and with which song ?
According to a customer survey, which are the most popular, and least popular High Street chains ?
What is the name of the Lord Chief Justice ?
In which welsh hospital did Deyan Deyanov receive treatment last year ?
Which company’s flotation is the biggest ever in the City of London ?
Who won this year’s Booker Prize ?
Who has announced plans to remake The Flintstones ?
Which former Lib Dem MP has announced plans to sue the News of the World over phone tapping ?
The favorite Las Vegas haunt of the Rat Pack closed last week. What was it called ?
Who was accused of cheating in the Giro d’Italia ?
What is the title of Pirates of the Caribbean 4 ? Who plays the first female pirate in the series ?
What are the top 4 holiday destinations for Brits, announced last week ?
Name the 2 Lib Dem welsh assembly members disqualified for being members of the Care Council for Wales
Which newspaper was the first to publish a photo of the footballer accused on
Twitter of having an affair with Imogen Thomas ?
Who was named on the Forbes list as the world’s most powerful star ?
Which racehorse is nicknamed The Budapest Bullet ?
Which team won the Europa Cup ?
Last week a man became a hit on Youtube when filmed trying to take what onto a train at Wrexham Station ?
Which sporting venue was visited by the Queen last week ?
There you go. No promises that you’ll encounter any of them in the next week or so, but that’s what’s caught my eye in the last few days. Answers at the weekend. As always , feel free to email me if you can’t wait.
Answers to the news questions
Well, you’ve all been very patient, so here’s the answers to the in the news questions that I posted at the start of last week. Questions are reprinted with the answers given at the end of each section : -
Eurovision:-
Which city hosted the contest ?
Which country won with which act and which song ?
Which position did Jedward come, and with which song ?
Which position did Blue come, and with which song ?
Which English singer represented Romania ?
What is the name of Chris Huhne’s former wife, who made allegations about him in her book ?
Who was the first person to leave “The Apprentice” ?
Name the head of the IMF currently facing charges of a sexual nature ?
The world’s longest running crime drama is about to end – what is it ?
On Thursday 19th May BBC Question Time will come from which venue ?
Who denied twitter rumours that they had taken out injunctions because they were having affairs with a) Jeremy Clarkson – b) Alan Shearer
Name the owners of British Gas who announced price increases are on the way ?
Who brought an unsuccessful case to fight freedom of the press to the European Court of Human Rights ?
For the murder of whom is Levi Bellfield currently on trial ?
On whose TV show did the Duchess of York say how upset she was not to be invited to THE wedding ?
Name the vice president of FIFA accused by Lord Triesman of soliciting a bribe ?
Who makes a cameo appearance as a museum guide in Woody Allen’s new film “Midnight in Paris “ ?
Name the Polish dance craze among Manchester City Fans
Who scored the cup final goal for Manchester City ?
Name the government security minister who resigned, allegedly after disagreements with Theresa May .
Answers
Dusseldorf. –
Azerbaijan - Ell and Nicki – Running Scared
8th – Lipstick
11th – I Can ( also scored exactly 100 points )
David Bryan
Vicky Pryce
Edward Hunter
Dominique Strauss- Khan
Taggart
Wormwood Scrubs
Jemima Khan – Gabby Logan
Centrica
Max Moseley
Millie Dowler
Oprah Winfrey
Jack Warner of Trinidad
Carla Bruni- Sarkozy
The Poznan
Yaya Toure
Baroness Neville – Jones
Bubbling under :
Who claimed that ‘Have I Got News For You Is Sexist “ ?
Which country NOW sells most wine to the UK ?
Who plays Margaret Thatcher in the film “The Iron Lady “ ?
The Olympic Marathon champion died unexpectedly – what was his name ?
Which horse and jockey won the Kentucky Derby ?
Name the BBC Countryfile presenter threatened by animal rights activists after a report on badger culling
Danny Cipriani was suspended from which Australian rugby team ?
Which boxer defeated Shane Moseley ?
Which unions are involved in a) The end of the BA dispute b) The Tube strikes
Who announced a) that he won’t run for President in 2012 and b) who announced that he will run for President in 2012 ?
What is the title of Mohammed Al Fayed’s film about the Diana and Dodi deaths, and who is its director ?
Which England goalkeeper has quit international football ?
Bubbling Under Answers
Mariella Frostrup
Italy
Meryl Streep
Sammy Wanjiru
Animal Kingdom – John Velasquez
Adam Henson
Melbourne Rebels
Manny Pacquaio
Unite – RMT
Donald Trump – Newt Gingrich
Unlawful Killing – Keith Allen
Ben Foster
And Finally : -
Carlo Napolitano died . What were his royal duties ?
Into which Derbyshire prison did thieves break in and steal tools ?
Who are The Invisible King and the Silver Wizard ?
What title has been won by Elmar Weisser ?
And Finally Answers
Keeper of the Queen’s Racing Pigeons
HMP Sudbury
‘Living Statues’ street performers who had a fight over their pitches on the South Bank of the Thames in London
Best Beard in the World
Eurovision:-
Which city hosted the contest ?
Which country won with which act and which song ?
Which position did Jedward come, and with which song ?
Which position did Blue come, and with which song ?
Which English singer represented Romania ?
What is the name of Chris Huhne’s former wife, who made allegations about him in her book ?
Who was the first person to leave “The Apprentice” ?
Name the head of the IMF currently facing charges of a sexual nature ?
The world’s longest running crime drama is about to end – what is it ?
On Thursday 19th May BBC Question Time will come from which venue ?
Who denied twitter rumours that they had taken out injunctions because they were having affairs with a) Jeremy Clarkson – b) Alan Shearer
Name the owners of British Gas who announced price increases are on the way ?
Who brought an unsuccessful case to fight freedom of the press to the European Court of Human Rights ?
For the murder of whom is Levi Bellfield currently on trial ?
On whose TV show did the Duchess of York say how upset she was not to be invited to THE wedding ?
Name the vice president of FIFA accused by Lord Triesman of soliciting a bribe ?
Who makes a cameo appearance as a museum guide in Woody Allen’s new film “Midnight in Paris “ ?
Name the Polish dance craze among Manchester City Fans
Who scored the cup final goal for Manchester City ?
Name the government security minister who resigned, allegedly after disagreements with Theresa May .
Answers
Dusseldorf. –
Azerbaijan - Ell and Nicki – Running Scared
8th – Lipstick
11th – I Can ( also scored exactly 100 points )
David Bryan
Vicky Pryce
Edward Hunter
Dominique Strauss- Khan
Taggart
Wormwood Scrubs
Jemima Khan – Gabby Logan
Centrica
Max Moseley
Millie Dowler
Oprah Winfrey
Jack Warner of Trinidad
Carla Bruni- Sarkozy
The Poznan
Yaya Toure
Baroness Neville – Jones
Bubbling under :
Who claimed that ‘Have I Got News For You Is Sexist “ ?
Which country NOW sells most wine to the UK ?
Who plays Margaret Thatcher in the film “The Iron Lady “ ?
The Olympic Marathon champion died unexpectedly – what was his name ?
Which horse and jockey won the Kentucky Derby ?
Name the BBC Countryfile presenter threatened by animal rights activists after a report on badger culling
Danny Cipriani was suspended from which Australian rugby team ?
Which boxer defeated Shane Moseley ?
Which unions are involved in a) The end of the BA dispute b) The Tube strikes
Who announced a) that he won’t run for President in 2012 and b) who announced that he will run for President in 2012 ?
What is the title of Mohammed Al Fayed’s film about the Diana and Dodi deaths, and who is its director ?
Which England goalkeeper has quit international football ?
Bubbling Under Answers
Mariella Frostrup
Italy
Meryl Streep
Sammy Wanjiru
Animal Kingdom – John Velasquez
Adam Henson
Melbourne Rebels
Manny Pacquaio
Unite – RMT
Donald Trump – Newt Gingrich
Unlawful Killing – Keith Allen
Ben Foster
And Finally : -
Carlo Napolitano died . What were his royal duties ?
Into which Derbyshire prison did thieves break in and steal tools ?
Who are The Invisible King and the Silver Wizard ?
What title has been won by Elmar Weisser ?
And Finally Answers
Keeper of the Queen’s Racing Pigeons
HMP Sudbury
‘Living Statues’ street performers who had a fight over their pitches on the South Bank of the Thames in London
Best Beard in the World
Saturday, 21 May 2011
Over 100 years of information
It started last Saturday. Mary volunteers in the Marie Curie charity shop a couple of times a week, and so on Saturday I drove down there to pick her up. I was a little early, and so while I was waiting I had a quick browse through the books, and I was delighted to see a copy of the dear old Pears Quiz Companion – the 1991 paperback edition . I’ve already got this edition, the original 1989 hardback, and the 2000 Penguin updated edition, so I wasn’t going to buy it. However it did start me off on a bit of a nostalgia trip about a book which was very much a mainstay of mine throughout the first few years of my career as a question master in the club.
As a result I thought about writing a whole post about the Quiz Companion. I looked at my three copies, and the introduction is pretty much the same in all of them. It tells you a bit , but there were quite a few things I’d like to have known the answers to. So I set out to track down Jim Hensman. Mr. Hensman compiled the whole book. I think that I found him on Facebook, and so I wrote to him asking if he wouldn’t mind if I asked him just a couple of questions about it. As yet he hasn’t replied, and if he decides not to reply then I have to respect that. So as it is, my post on the Quiz Companion is something the world for which the world will have to wait a little longer.
Still, in the course of thinking about the projected post I did speculate about the title “The Pears Quiz Companion” and I guessed that Penguin, who own the companies that have published the different editions, in their wisdom decided to call it this to link it in with the old favourite “Pears Cyclopaedia”. This is an interesting thing in its own right. I suspect we’ve all heard of it, but how many of us have actually used it ?
As the name suggests , the Cyclopaedia is in fact an Encyclopaedia, of one volume. I was surprised to learn that it actually first saw the light of day as long ago as 1897. Yes, if you are wondering, its Pears as in Pears soap. One Thomas Barrett, who had apparently married into the Pears family came up with the idea of the ‘shilling encyclopaedia’ as novel way of promoting soap. He was quite a smart cookie, so it seems – apparently it was his idea that cute kids sell a lot of soap, especially if you get that chap Millais to paint them.
I have just the one copy of the Pears Cyclopaedia in my personal library, the 2008-9 edition. This contains a chronicle of world events, sections on prominent people, background to world affairs, Britain today, the historical world, background to economic events, general compendium ( miscellaneous tables and statistics) Biblical glossary, classical mythology, ideas and beliefs, gazetteer of the world, general information, literary companion, the world of art, the world of music, the cinema, sporting almanac, the world of science, computing and the internet, the environment, medical matters and an atlas of the world. Phew. I did read that some of the subjects are rotated from edition to edition, which is sensible when you think about it.
One thing I would say about the Cyclopaedia is that you need to think carefully about tackling it without 20/20 vision, a good pair of glasses, or a strong magnifying glass. To cram all that information in the writing is very small.
There are collectors out there apparently, and if you click on the link, it will take you to a website I found -
The Pears Cyclopaedia Collectors Gallery
I’ll be honest, I have no idea how much a first edition from 1897 would set you back today.
The other work which I find often gets bracketed with the Cyclopaedia is Whitaker’s Almanack. If the Cyclopaedia is old, originating in 1897, then the Almanack is veritably ancient. The first edition was published in 1868, some 30 odd years earlier. It was originally published by the firm of J. Whitaker and Sons, then by the Stationery Office, and since 2003 by Bloomsbury , who I believe are best known for taking a punt on a then unknown writer called J.K. Rowling. However, I digress. A measure of the impact Whitakers’ made during its first decade was the fact that a copy of the 1878 Almanack was one of the books placed in a time capsule beneath Cleopatra’s Needle.
One thing I’ll say for the first two editors of Whitaker’s – they both had staying power. Joseph Whitaker, the founding editor, edited the Almanack from 1868 until 1895. His successor, Sir Cuthbert Whitaker, actually edited it from 1895 until 1950, an astonishing 55 years.
The big difference between Whitaker’s and Pears is that Whitaker’s makes no claim to being any sort of encyclopaedia. Its far more of a yearbook, and frankly a great source of up to date information on the UK – far more comprehensive than in virtually any other source I’ve come across. If we take the 2009 edition which I own, it has sections on the year 2009, The UK – which includes sections on Royal family, Precedence, peerage, parliament, Government and public bodies, regional government, local government, European parliament, law and order, defence, education, health, social welfare, utilities and transport, religion, communication, information technology, the environment, heritage, banking and finance, taxation, legal notes, the media, and organisations. There are also sections on the world, the year 2007-8, time and space and general reference.
In fact its very comprehensiveness in terms of the sections on the UK is impressive, but in terms of question setting, a little daunting. Its one of those books I’m happy to use to verify questions, but I’d need to think seriously before I start looking for question ideas from within its pages. Part of the problem with it is that by its very nature a lot of it goes out of date pretty quickly.
As with Pears, there are serious collectors out there, and here’s a link to a website that you could look at for further information.
Whitaker’s Almanack Collection
As a result I thought about writing a whole post about the Quiz Companion. I looked at my three copies, and the introduction is pretty much the same in all of them. It tells you a bit , but there were quite a few things I’d like to have known the answers to. So I set out to track down Jim Hensman. Mr. Hensman compiled the whole book. I think that I found him on Facebook, and so I wrote to him asking if he wouldn’t mind if I asked him just a couple of questions about it. As yet he hasn’t replied, and if he decides not to reply then I have to respect that. So as it is, my post on the Quiz Companion is something the world for which the world will have to wait a little longer.
Still, in the course of thinking about the projected post I did speculate about the title “The Pears Quiz Companion” and I guessed that Penguin, who own the companies that have published the different editions, in their wisdom decided to call it this to link it in with the old favourite “Pears Cyclopaedia”. This is an interesting thing in its own right. I suspect we’ve all heard of it, but how many of us have actually used it ?
As the name suggests , the Cyclopaedia is in fact an Encyclopaedia, of one volume. I was surprised to learn that it actually first saw the light of day as long ago as 1897. Yes, if you are wondering, its Pears as in Pears soap. One Thomas Barrett, who had apparently married into the Pears family came up with the idea of the ‘shilling encyclopaedia’ as novel way of promoting soap. He was quite a smart cookie, so it seems – apparently it was his idea that cute kids sell a lot of soap, especially if you get that chap Millais to paint them.
I have just the one copy of the Pears Cyclopaedia in my personal library, the 2008-9 edition. This contains a chronicle of world events, sections on prominent people, background to world affairs, Britain today, the historical world, background to economic events, general compendium ( miscellaneous tables and statistics) Biblical glossary, classical mythology, ideas and beliefs, gazetteer of the world, general information, literary companion, the world of art, the world of music, the cinema, sporting almanac, the world of science, computing and the internet, the environment, medical matters and an atlas of the world. Phew. I did read that some of the subjects are rotated from edition to edition, which is sensible when you think about it.
One thing I would say about the Cyclopaedia is that you need to think carefully about tackling it without 20/20 vision, a good pair of glasses, or a strong magnifying glass. To cram all that information in the writing is very small.
There are collectors out there apparently, and if you click on the link, it will take you to a website I found -
The Pears Cyclopaedia Collectors Gallery
I’ll be honest, I have no idea how much a first edition from 1897 would set you back today.
The other work which I find often gets bracketed with the Cyclopaedia is Whitaker’s Almanack. If the Cyclopaedia is old, originating in 1897, then the Almanack is veritably ancient. The first edition was published in 1868, some 30 odd years earlier. It was originally published by the firm of J. Whitaker and Sons, then by the Stationery Office, and since 2003 by Bloomsbury , who I believe are best known for taking a punt on a then unknown writer called J.K. Rowling. However, I digress. A measure of the impact Whitakers’ made during its first decade was the fact that a copy of the 1878 Almanack was one of the books placed in a time capsule beneath Cleopatra’s Needle.
One thing I’ll say for the first two editors of Whitaker’s – they both had staying power. Joseph Whitaker, the founding editor, edited the Almanack from 1868 until 1895. His successor, Sir Cuthbert Whitaker, actually edited it from 1895 until 1950, an astonishing 55 years.
The big difference between Whitaker’s and Pears is that Whitaker’s makes no claim to being any sort of encyclopaedia. Its far more of a yearbook, and frankly a great source of up to date information on the UK – far more comprehensive than in virtually any other source I’ve come across. If we take the 2009 edition which I own, it has sections on the year 2009, The UK – which includes sections on Royal family, Precedence, peerage, parliament, Government and public bodies, regional government, local government, European parliament, law and order, defence, education, health, social welfare, utilities and transport, religion, communication, information technology, the environment, heritage, banking and finance, taxation, legal notes, the media, and organisations. There are also sections on the world, the year 2007-8, time and space and general reference.
In fact its very comprehensiveness in terms of the sections on the UK is impressive, but in terms of question setting, a little daunting. Its one of those books I’m happy to use to verify questions, but I’d need to think seriously before I start looking for question ideas from within its pages. Part of the problem with it is that by its very nature a lot of it goes out of date pretty quickly.
As with Pears, there are serious collectors out there, and here’s a link to a website that you could look at for further information.
Whitaker’s Almanack Collection
Thursday, 19 May 2011
Playing by Yourself
If its anyone’s fault, I suppose that its John’s. I’d better qualify that. Yesterday John jetted off to Hong Kong for a well earned break, so that he and Lynne could visit their daughter. Nothing wrong with that either. However it does leave me with a quandary, namely, what do I do on Sunday evening ?
I could give the quiz in the Dyffryn Arms a miss. Lets be realistic, that’s not going to happen. Which means that either I play on my own, or I offer my services to another team. Neither of these options is without its problems.
If I play on my own, then I face a pretty boring evening, apart from the actual time that the questions are being asked. I’m not going to lie, either, I don’t like the idea of seeming like some sad , old, Billy-no-mates ( even if it’s true ). Then there’s the whole thing about what do you actually do if you win. Now, I’m not saying that I am guaranteed a win in the Dyffryn Arms. John and I together were beaten only a couple of weeks ago, so it can certainly happen. However I definitely might win. The quiz we had last Sunday, we won by quite a large amount, and I think either of us would have won it playing by ourselves. So while I’m not saying that it would happen, I’m saying that there’s a definite possibility that it might happen. I’ve played and won on my own in a couple of places before, and its not necessarily always the most comfortable experience you’ll ever have in quizzing. Having said that they are a terrific crowd of regulars in the Sunday quiz, and I don’t imagine for one minute that there would be any ill feeling at all if it did happen. Still . . .
If I offer my services to another team, though , well , that’s not necessarily always a good thing to do. For one thing, you like to play with the people you know. I wouldn’t want any team letting me play with them just to be polite, when really they’d rather play with their regulars. For another thing, its awkward when you join a team you don’t know. John and I have played together on a Sunday and at other times for so long now that we know each other’s game pretty well. He knows my weaknesses, and my areas of strength pretty well, and vice versa. He knows when I know what I know, and when I just think that I know what I know, and vice versa. As a result, neither of us throws away the other’s correct answer other than on very rare occasions. However the first couple of times you play with an unfamiliar team, it’s a little like walking on eggshells.
It works like this. A question is asked. If you know the answer for certain, then its not a problem. You’ll insist on your answer. If you haven’t a clue about the answer, then its not a problem either. Someone will chuck something on the table, and you’ll go with that, since its an answer to nothing. However if you have an idea, but are not certain, then it’s a real problem, especially if someone else on the table has an idea, and its not the same as yours. You have to make a very quick decision : -
Do you insist upon your answer, ( arrogance ahead – warning ) bearing in mind that you’re probably a more successful quizzer than the person you’re arguing against ?
Do you give way , not wanting to rock the boat and upset the team you’re with, even though you suspect that your answer is probably the right one ?
There’s no right answer to the question above. And it all comes about because you just don’t know the other people you’re playing with. You don’t know their strengths. You don’t know who amongst the team is the kind of person who’ll shout the odds when they really don’t have a Scooby Doo, just to reassert themselves within the team. Likewise you don’t know which member of the team doesn’t know what day of the week it is, but could write a book on Italian second division football, for want of a better example. And that’s how you can end up throwing away points that you’d almost definitely have answered correctly if you were playing by yourself.
The ideal thing is to actually be invited to play with another team. Then the thin vizard of corinthianism can be shed, and you can allow all your natural drive to win come to the fore. Of course, this does mean that the team will have such a trying evening with you that they will never invite you to play with them again, but then that’s the way it goes.
The absolutely worst thing that can happen is what happened to John and me years ago when we used to play in a pub in Bridgend on a Sunday. Nice pub, decent quiz, and always packed out. We usually won, and one evening a couple of people approached us and asked if we’d join them for the evening, since they never won, and they’d like to just once. – Sure – we said, all condescending smiles – we’ll help you out. We lost. We had our worst evening down there ever, and not because we were accepting the answers that they supplied, either. No , this was all our own work. If you didn’t know better you’d have said we were doing it deliberately, so poorly did we play that night. The ladies who’d asked us to join their team never did ask us again.
To finish off, I did once get some advice from an old quiz acquaintance on the whole subject of playing as a singleton. He always reckoned that the only thing you had to worry about was if you won, in which case he had these 5 invaluable tips : -
If you should win a quiz playing on your own : -
• Don’t smile.
• If someone else traps you into conversation, remember your mantra – “ I had a lot of lucky guesses tonight “
• Don’t be tempted to engage in conversation, or even worse, banter, with the question master. NEVER tell him about the mistakes he has made with his questions.
• Leave the quiz 12 and a half minutes after the end. Anything quicker makes you look guilty. Anything slower makes it look as if you are basking in it.
• A lap of honour is totally out of the question.
I could give the quiz in the Dyffryn Arms a miss. Lets be realistic, that’s not going to happen. Which means that either I play on my own, or I offer my services to another team. Neither of these options is without its problems.
If I play on my own, then I face a pretty boring evening, apart from the actual time that the questions are being asked. I’m not going to lie, either, I don’t like the idea of seeming like some sad , old, Billy-no-mates ( even if it’s true ). Then there’s the whole thing about what do you actually do if you win. Now, I’m not saying that I am guaranteed a win in the Dyffryn Arms. John and I together were beaten only a couple of weeks ago, so it can certainly happen. However I definitely might win. The quiz we had last Sunday, we won by quite a large amount, and I think either of us would have won it playing by ourselves. So while I’m not saying that it would happen, I’m saying that there’s a definite possibility that it might happen. I’ve played and won on my own in a couple of places before, and its not necessarily always the most comfortable experience you’ll ever have in quizzing. Having said that they are a terrific crowd of regulars in the Sunday quiz, and I don’t imagine for one minute that there would be any ill feeling at all if it did happen. Still . . .
If I offer my services to another team, though , well , that’s not necessarily always a good thing to do. For one thing, you like to play with the people you know. I wouldn’t want any team letting me play with them just to be polite, when really they’d rather play with their regulars. For another thing, its awkward when you join a team you don’t know. John and I have played together on a Sunday and at other times for so long now that we know each other’s game pretty well. He knows my weaknesses, and my areas of strength pretty well, and vice versa. He knows when I know what I know, and when I just think that I know what I know, and vice versa. As a result, neither of us throws away the other’s correct answer other than on very rare occasions. However the first couple of times you play with an unfamiliar team, it’s a little like walking on eggshells.
It works like this. A question is asked. If you know the answer for certain, then its not a problem. You’ll insist on your answer. If you haven’t a clue about the answer, then its not a problem either. Someone will chuck something on the table, and you’ll go with that, since its an answer to nothing. However if you have an idea, but are not certain, then it’s a real problem, especially if someone else on the table has an idea, and its not the same as yours. You have to make a very quick decision : -
Do you insist upon your answer, ( arrogance ahead – warning ) bearing in mind that you’re probably a more successful quizzer than the person you’re arguing against ?
Do you give way , not wanting to rock the boat and upset the team you’re with, even though you suspect that your answer is probably the right one ?
There’s no right answer to the question above. And it all comes about because you just don’t know the other people you’re playing with. You don’t know their strengths. You don’t know who amongst the team is the kind of person who’ll shout the odds when they really don’t have a Scooby Doo, just to reassert themselves within the team. Likewise you don’t know which member of the team doesn’t know what day of the week it is, but could write a book on Italian second division football, for want of a better example. And that’s how you can end up throwing away points that you’d almost definitely have answered correctly if you were playing by yourself.
The ideal thing is to actually be invited to play with another team. Then the thin vizard of corinthianism can be shed, and you can allow all your natural drive to win come to the fore. Of course, this does mean that the team will have such a trying evening with you that they will never invite you to play with them again, but then that’s the way it goes.
The absolutely worst thing that can happen is what happened to John and me years ago when we used to play in a pub in Bridgend on a Sunday. Nice pub, decent quiz, and always packed out. We usually won, and one evening a couple of people approached us and asked if we’d join them for the evening, since they never won, and they’d like to just once. – Sure – we said, all condescending smiles – we’ll help you out. We lost. We had our worst evening down there ever, and not because we were accepting the answers that they supplied, either. No , this was all our own work. If you didn’t know better you’d have said we were doing it deliberately, so poorly did we play that night. The ladies who’d asked us to join their team never did ask us again.
To finish off, I did once get some advice from an old quiz acquaintance on the whole subject of playing as a singleton. He always reckoned that the only thing you had to worry about was if you won, in which case he had these 5 invaluable tips : -
If you should win a quiz playing on your own : -
• Don’t smile.
• If someone else traps you into conversation, remember your mantra – “ I had a lot of lucky guesses tonight “
• Don’t be tempted to engage in conversation, or even worse, banter, with the question master. NEVER tell him about the mistakes he has made with his questions.
• Leave the quiz 12 and a half minutes after the end. Anything quicker makes you look guilty. Anything slower makes it look as if you are basking in it.
• A lap of honour is totally out of the question.
Tuesday, 17 May 2011
More QM's Eye Questions
Lots of interesting correspondence last week on my question master’s eye post. I’m glad that a couple of the questions I mentioned did actually come up in other people’s quizzes last week. I thought I’d done a pretty good job casting my eyes over the news this week, and last night at Newport I had the first 9 in the news questions fairly easily. The last one , though, got me really annoyed. Not because it was a bad question – here it is –
What is the name of the Queen’s horse, that is one of the favourites for the Derby this year ?
No, as I say, good question. The problem was that I had read it only a few scant hours earlier yesterday morning, but hadn’t bothered, or hadn’t had time, to write it down. Hence when the time came I needed to know the answer – boom – there it was, gone – as indeed was the chance of having a clear round ! Just in case you need to know I’ll tell you the answer – its Carlton House. It is of course the best question you can ask, the one where the players know they have heard the answer, but just can’t dredge it up from the tenacious clutch of their memory.
Other hot questions from this week you might be advised to know the answers to are : -
Eurovision:-
Which city hosted the contest ?
Which country won with which act and which song ?
Which position did Jedward come, and with which song ?
Which position did Blue come, and with which song ?
Which English singer represented Romania ?
What is the name of Chris Huhne’s former wife, who made allegations about him in her book ?
Who was the first person to leave “The Apprentice” ?
Name the head of the IMF currently facing charges of a sexual nature ?
The world’s longest running crime drama is about to end – what is it ?
On Thursday 19th May BBC Question Time will come from which venue ?
Who denied twitter rumours that they had taken out injunctions because they were having affairs with a) Jeremy Clarkson – b) Alan Shearer
Name the owners of British Gas who announced price increases are on the way ?
Who brought an unsuccessful case to fight freedom of the press to the European Court of Human Rights ?
For the murder of whom is Levi Bellfield currently on trial ?
On whose TV show did the Duchess of York say how upset she was not to be invited to THE wedding ?
Name the vice president of FIFA accused by Lord Triesman of soliciting a bribe ?
Who makes a cameo appearance as a museum guide in Woody Allen’s new film “Midnight in Paris “ ?
Name the Polish dance craze among Manchester City Fans
Who scored the cup final goal for Manchester City ?
Name the government security minister who resigned, allegedly after disagreements with Theresa May .
Then you might have a look at these : -
Bubbling under :
Who claimed that ‘Have I Got News For You Is Sexist “ ?
Which country NOW sells most wine to the UK ?
Who plays Margaret Thatcher in the film “The Iron Lady “ ?
The Olympic Marathon champion died unexpectedly – what was his name ?
Which horse and jockey won the Kentucky Derby ?
Name the BBC Countryfile presenter threatened by animal rights activists after a report on badger culling
Danny Cipriani was suspended from which Australian rugby team ?
Which boxer defeated Shane Moseley ?
Which unions are involved in a) The end of the BA dispute b) The Tube strikes
Who announced a) that he won’t run for President in 2012 and b) who announced that he will run for President in 2012 ?
What is the title of Mohammed Al Fayed’s film about the Diana and Dodi deaths, and who is its director ?
Which England goalkeeper has quit international football ?
Of course, sometimes question masters do like to put a few daft ones in as well : -
And Finally : -
Carlo Napolitano died . What were his royal duties ?
Into which Derbyshire prison did thieves break in and steal tools ?
Who are The Invisible King and the Silver Wizard ?
What title has been won by Elmar Weisser ?
I can’t promise that all, or indeed any of these questions will come up in anyone else’s quiz , but if you are going to a quiz this week, I’d say you’re probably better off knowing the answers than not.
Enjoy. Answers in a few days – or if you can’t wait, then email me.
What is the name of the Queen’s horse, that is one of the favourites for the Derby this year ?
No, as I say, good question. The problem was that I had read it only a few scant hours earlier yesterday morning, but hadn’t bothered, or hadn’t had time, to write it down. Hence when the time came I needed to know the answer – boom – there it was, gone – as indeed was the chance of having a clear round ! Just in case you need to know I’ll tell you the answer – its Carlton House. It is of course the best question you can ask, the one where the players know they have heard the answer, but just can’t dredge it up from the tenacious clutch of their memory.
Other hot questions from this week you might be advised to know the answers to are : -
Eurovision:-
Which city hosted the contest ?
Which country won with which act and which song ?
Which position did Jedward come, and with which song ?
Which position did Blue come, and with which song ?
Which English singer represented Romania ?
What is the name of Chris Huhne’s former wife, who made allegations about him in her book ?
Who was the first person to leave “The Apprentice” ?
Name the head of the IMF currently facing charges of a sexual nature ?
The world’s longest running crime drama is about to end – what is it ?
On Thursday 19th May BBC Question Time will come from which venue ?
Who denied twitter rumours that they had taken out injunctions because they were having affairs with a) Jeremy Clarkson – b) Alan Shearer
Name the owners of British Gas who announced price increases are on the way ?
Who brought an unsuccessful case to fight freedom of the press to the European Court of Human Rights ?
For the murder of whom is Levi Bellfield currently on trial ?
On whose TV show did the Duchess of York say how upset she was not to be invited to THE wedding ?
Name the vice president of FIFA accused by Lord Triesman of soliciting a bribe ?
Who makes a cameo appearance as a museum guide in Woody Allen’s new film “Midnight in Paris “ ?
Name the Polish dance craze among Manchester City Fans
Who scored the cup final goal for Manchester City ?
Name the government security minister who resigned, allegedly after disagreements with Theresa May .
Then you might have a look at these : -
Bubbling under :
Who claimed that ‘Have I Got News For You Is Sexist “ ?
Which country NOW sells most wine to the UK ?
Who plays Margaret Thatcher in the film “The Iron Lady “ ?
The Olympic Marathon champion died unexpectedly – what was his name ?
Which horse and jockey won the Kentucky Derby ?
Name the BBC Countryfile presenter threatened by animal rights activists after a report on badger culling
Danny Cipriani was suspended from which Australian rugby team ?
Which boxer defeated Shane Moseley ?
Which unions are involved in a) The end of the BA dispute b) The Tube strikes
Who announced a) that he won’t run for President in 2012 and b) who announced that he will run for President in 2012 ?
What is the title of Mohammed Al Fayed’s film about the Diana and Dodi deaths, and who is its director ?
Which England goalkeeper has quit international football ?
Of course, sometimes question masters do like to put a few daft ones in as well : -
And Finally : -
Carlo Napolitano died . What were his royal duties ?
Into which Derbyshire prison did thieves break in and steal tools ?
Who are The Invisible King and the Silver Wizard ?
What title has been won by Elmar Weisser ?
I can’t promise that all, or indeed any of these questions will come up in anyone else’s quiz , but if you are going to a quiz this week, I’d say you’re probably better off knowing the answers than not.
Enjoy. Answers in a few days – or if you can’t wait, then email me.
Sunday, 15 May 2011
Neville Evans
I can’t off the top of my head recall if this anecdote comes from David Niven’s “The Moon’s A Balloon” or his “Bring on The Empty Horses.” However I distinctly remember reading in one of the books that he was once staying with sir Noel Coward in Jamaica, and the two of them were reminiscing. Niven remarked that he was sad because he’d reached that stage of life when more and more of his friends were dying. To which Noel Coward replied “Personally I’m glad if mine make it through lunch.”
I started in my career as a quizzer at the relatively tender age of 23 and a half. This was back in the late 80s, when pub quizzing didn’t really seem as popular amongst twentysomethings as it is now. So it does stand to reason that my oldest quiz friends are literally my oldest friends. Many of my first quiz friends were in their 40 s and 50s then, and this was 23 years ago. It was only in my last post that I mentioned again my old friend Allan Coombs, who passed away a year ago. In one of life’s little ironies I was saddened to hear on Friday that another old friend of mine, Neville Evans, has passed away. Unlike Allan, Neville was not a very serious quizzer, but it was Neville who first made me into one. My wife grew up in the same street where Neville and his family lived. Mary and his daughter Anna became very good friends, and on top of that, Neville taught Rural Science in the school they both attended. So even after Mary’s family moved house, the two families still kept in touch. I can’t say that I felt that I knew Neville that well when he turned up on my doorstep a day or two after the birth of my son Mike, and announced that he was taking me out to wet the baby’s head at the Railway Club. Neville was a regular player in the Thursday night quiz there.
I enjoyed that evening so much that the Thursday quiz in the Railway club became the regular highlight of my week. Within a very short space of time I was in the club’s Port Talbot Quiz League team, and I was hooked. And Neville, for a long time, was my closest friend.
As I said, a serious quizzer he wasn’t , although his general knowledge was more than good enough for him to hold down a place in our league team until the whole thing broke down 3 or 4 years later. But as a man, Neville was remarkable, a genuine original in every way possible. For one thing, once he retired from teaching he began his own business making and selling replica Manx Norton motorcycles in his front room ( he did have a big house). Three days before my driving test, Neville turned up at my house and announced that he was going to take me out for a bit of practice. ‘A bit of practice’ turned out to be a lot of testing the route for the Black Mountain Rally the next weekend. I have been as frightened as I was on that day a few times since, but not many. Yet it must have worked, since I passed my test. Nev must have been a hell of a teacher, since whenever we’d go to quizzes in pubs throughout the length and breadth of Port Talbot men in their twenties, thirties and forties would forever be coming up to him, shaking his hand , and reminiscing about some or other of Neville’s more eccentric lessons. Whenever and wherever you were with Neville it didn't seem to matter. There was always somebody there who knew him. In fact the rest of the league team and I had a theory about what we thought of as ‘the Neville Evans Magnetic Effect’. Neville had been in the RAF in the 50s , in his own words ‘single-handedly holding back the red hordes across the Rhine’ . The rest of the team reckoned that if by some miracle we had been invited to represent Port Talbot in an international competition, held in Ulaan Baatar, for the sake of argument, someone would walk straight up to us on the street , holding out their Mongolian hand, saying the Mongolian equivalent of
“Ah, Neville ! How are you ? How long has it been ?” He simply knew people everywhere.
Well, the team broke up , when Allan became sick, Noel moved away, and the league folded. Though I still saw quite a bit of Neville, we didn’t tend to go to quizzes together any more. I’d go up to his place to watch the 5 Nations matches with him – an interesting experience since Neville, being a true Welshman always supported two teams – Wales, and whoever was playing against England. But we really did lose touch when Anna, his daughter, married and moved away to Gorseinon, and we moved away from one part of Port Talbot to another. We maybe saw each other and spoke to each other two or three times a year for the last two or three years, and I last spoke to him about three weeks ago. It happens. But the memory of those few years in the late 80s and early 90s were amongst the most memorable and happiest times of my quizzing career. Neville, thank you. You were the sort of person who leaves a man richer for having known you. Thanks for being a good mate. Rest in Peace.
I started in my career as a quizzer at the relatively tender age of 23 and a half. This was back in the late 80s, when pub quizzing didn’t really seem as popular amongst twentysomethings as it is now. So it does stand to reason that my oldest quiz friends are literally my oldest friends. Many of my first quiz friends were in their 40 s and 50s then, and this was 23 years ago. It was only in my last post that I mentioned again my old friend Allan Coombs, who passed away a year ago. In one of life’s little ironies I was saddened to hear on Friday that another old friend of mine, Neville Evans, has passed away. Unlike Allan, Neville was not a very serious quizzer, but it was Neville who first made me into one. My wife grew up in the same street where Neville and his family lived. Mary and his daughter Anna became very good friends, and on top of that, Neville taught Rural Science in the school they both attended. So even after Mary’s family moved house, the two families still kept in touch. I can’t say that I felt that I knew Neville that well when he turned up on my doorstep a day or two after the birth of my son Mike, and announced that he was taking me out to wet the baby’s head at the Railway Club. Neville was a regular player in the Thursday night quiz there.
I enjoyed that evening so much that the Thursday quiz in the Railway club became the regular highlight of my week. Within a very short space of time I was in the club’s Port Talbot Quiz League team, and I was hooked. And Neville, for a long time, was my closest friend.
As I said, a serious quizzer he wasn’t , although his general knowledge was more than good enough for him to hold down a place in our league team until the whole thing broke down 3 or 4 years later. But as a man, Neville was remarkable, a genuine original in every way possible. For one thing, once he retired from teaching he began his own business making and selling replica Manx Norton motorcycles in his front room ( he did have a big house). Three days before my driving test, Neville turned up at my house and announced that he was going to take me out for a bit of practice. ‘A bit of practice’ turned out to be a lot of testing the route for the Black Mountain Rally the next weekend. I have been as frightened as I was on that day a few times since, but not many. Yet it must have worked, since I passed my test. Nev must have been a hell of a teacher, since whenever we’d go to quizzes in pubs throughout the length and breadth of Port Talbot men in their twenties, thirties and forties would forever be coming up to him, shaking his hand , and reminiscing about some or other of Neville’s more eccentric lessons. Whenever and wherever you were with Neville it didn't seem to matter. There was always somebody there who knew him. In fact the rest of the league team and I had a theory about what we thought of as ‘the Neville Evans Magnetic Effect’. Neville had been in the RAF in the 50s , in his own words ‘single-handedly holding back the red hordes across the Rhine’ . The rest of the team reckoned that if by some miracle we had been invited to represent Port Talbot in an international competition, held in Ulaan Baatar, for the sake of argument, someone would walk straight up to us on the street , holding out their Mongolian hand, saying the Mongolian equivalent of
“Ah, Neville ! How are you ? How long has it been ?” He simply knew people everywhere.
Well, the team broke up , when Allan became sick, Noel moved away, and the league folded. Though I still saw quite a bit of Neville, we didn’t tend to go to quizzes together any more. I’d go up to his place to watch the 5 Nations matches with him – an interesting experience since Neville, being a true Welshman always supported two teams – Wales, and whoever was playing against England. But we really did lose touch when Anna, his daughter, married and moved away to Gorseinon, and we moved away from one part of Port Talbot to another. We maybe saw each other and spoke to each other two or three times a year for the last two or three years, and I last spoke to him about three weeks ago. It happens. But the memory of those few years in the late 80s and early 90s were amongst the most memorable and happiest times of my quizzing career. Neville, thank you. You were the sort of person who leaves a man richer for having known you. Thanks for being a good mate. Rest in Peace.
Friday, 13 May 2011
Question Master's Eye
I hope that nobody thinks that this post is in any way a celebration of the work of Mr. Jim Davidson. To be honest, on the odd occasion that I’ve seen him on TV shows when he’s offstage, being himself, warts and all as it were, he hasn’t really come across as being very nice at all. Still, the fact is that I did used to watch “Big break”, his 90’s snooker based gameshow. The reason why I feel drawn to make this confession is that he and his co presenter John Virgo always used to have a little banter each week over Mr. Virgo’s ‘Commentator’s Eye’. This referred to the way that John Virgo could spot almost immediately whether a given shot was going to go into the pocket or not. Years as a snooker professional, and then a commentator had trained him to this peak of ocular achievement, so it seemed.
Ok. Well, I wouldn’t have mentioned this, except that last night, at the rugby club, I found myself using the phrase ‘question master’s eye’ in rather a similar vain. At the moment none of our semi regular setters want to be question master in the club, so Brian and I have been taking it in turns between us, in a sort of holding pattern until somebody else volunteers to have a bash. Ths is why it was my turn to set the quiz at the club last night, even though I last did it only a fortnight ago. Now, both Brian and I like to start each of the 8 round with one ‘in-the-news’ question. It turned out that of my 8 questions, Brian had earmarked no less than 4 of them for next week’s quiz. When he mentioned this after the quiz was over, my immediate response was
“Ah, well, that’s question master’s eye.” Question master’s eye , then is the ability – or the affliction if you prefer- of seeing, hearing , or reading something, and almost instinctively knowing that its going to make a good quiz question. And as we all know, if you think some piece of information will make a good quiz question, chances are other people are going to think exactly the same thing when they hear , read or see it. After all, you don’t really have to be any kind of quiz genius to see that
What is the name of Sir Paul McCartney’s fiancee ?
Which two teams will play in the final of this year’s Europa Cup ?
Where in Pakistan was Osama Bin Laden Killed ?
In which city did the Tesco riots take place ?
etc. etc. – are all things which are going to make decent questions.
In terms of quizzing, certainly, I have always thought of myself as a fairly lucky soul. When I was nobbut a novice, back in the days of my semi-youth in 1988, I was fortunate enough to be noticed playing in a social quiz in the Railway club in Port Talbot by the best league quiz team in the town, and asked to play for them. The other team members were all pretty good, and one of them was a great quizzer, my old friend Allan Coombs who sadly passed away a year ago. I don’t honestly think you make a better start to a quiz career than coming under the collective wing of a team like that. For one thing they’d all been playing for years. For another thing, without being cold – hearted, win at all costs professionals they were serious and competitive, and they knew what you had to do to be a top team , well , certainly for the circles in which we moved then, anyway. I learned a lot about tactics, but also I learned a lot about preparation for quizzes. Most of which I have never put into serious practice, but that’s just through my own indolence. One of the things that Alan, Barry, and later on when I met him, John were all keen to stress was the importance of ‘doing the papers’, and loath though I am to admit it, of course they were right. And of course, the more you do it, the better you should get at spotting the questions which are likely to arise from them.
Coming back to this whole idea of ‘question master’s eye’ I’m drawn back to my first round appearence in Mastermind 2007 ( Season of Blessed Memory ) . I managed to have a brief chat with each of the other three contenders before the start of the show. I will admit, I would never deliberately try to psych an opponent out. I’ve had something of this kind happen to me once, and it was rather unpleasant. Still, I wasn’t above trying to figure out who was likely to be a strong player amongst the opposition. So I asked the quietest one of them, a very nice chap , a rather transparent, “Do you play in quizzes at home ? “ to which he made a reply something like this –
“Not so much now, although I set a few . In fact I’m hoping that my question master’s eye ( yes, I’m sure he DID actually use this very phrase, although this may be my memory playing tricks on me ) will help me spot the questions which arelikely to be asked. “
My immediate thought was that he was referring to general knowledge, in which case it was a bit of a forlorn hope, since it is just so wide. However thinking about it, he must have meant his specialist subject, in which case I think he was spot on. It worked too, he had a very good score , as I recall, although the wheels came off a little for him in the GK.
Mind you, with regards to question master’s eye, the glass is probably just as much half empty as its half full. I think particularly of the times we all think we’ve been rather clever on boning up on a thing we think we’re likely to get asked in a particular quiz, only to find that effort wasted. For example, all those hours spent on the Russell Ash Top 10 of Everything book in preparation for the CIU finals, only to find the top 10 question isn’t one of the ones in the book !
Ok. Well, I wouldn’t have mentioned this, except that last night, at the rugby club, I found myself using the phrase ‘question master’s eye’ in rather a similar vain. At the moment none of our semi regular setters want to be question master in the club, so Brian and I have been taking it in turns between us, in a sort of holding pattern until somebody else volunteers to have a bash. Ths is why it was my turn to set the quiz at the club last night, even though I last did it only a fortnight ago. Now, both Brian and I like to start each of the 8 round with one ‘in-the-news’ question. It turned out that of my 8 questions, Brian had earmarked no less than 4 of them for next week’s quiz. When he mentioned this after the quiz was over, my immediate response was
“Ah, well, that’s question master’s eye.” Question master’s eye , then is the ability – or the affliction if you prefer- of seeing, hearing , or reading something, and almost instinctively knowing that its going to make a good quiz question. And as we all know, if you think some piece of information will make a good quiz question, chances are other people are going to think exactly the same thing when they hear , read or see it. After all, you don’t really have to be any kind of quiz genius to see that
What is the name of Sir Paul McCartney’s fiancee ?
Which two teams will play in the final of this year’s Europa Cup ?
Where in Pakistan was Osama Bin Laden Killed ?
In which city did the Tesco riots take place ?
etc. etc. – are all things which are going to make decent questions.
In terms of quizzing, certainly, I have always thought of myself as a fairly lucky soul. When I was nobbut a novice, back in the days of my semi-youth in 1988, I was fortunate enough to be noticed playing in a social quiz in the Railway club in Port Talbot by the best league quiz team in the town, and asked to play for them. The other team members were all pretty good, and one of them was a great quizzer, my old friend Allan Coombs who sadly passed away a year ago. I don’t honestly think you make a better start to a quiz career than coming under the collective wing of a team like that. For one thing they’d all been playing for years. For another thing, without being cold – hearted, win at all costs professionals they were serious and competitive, and they knew what you had to do to be a top team , well , certainly for the circles in which we moved then, anyway. I learned a lot about tactics, but also I learned a lot about preparation for quizzes. Most of which I have never put into serious practice, but that’s just through my own indolence. One of the things that Alan, Barry, and later on when I met him, John were all keen to stress was the importance of ‘doing the papers’, and loath though I am to admit it, of course they were right. And of course, the more you do it, the better you should get at spotting the questions which are likely to arise from them.
Coming back to this whole idea of ‘question master’s eye’ I’m drawn back to my first round appearence in Mastermind 2007 ( Season of Blessed Memory ) . I managed to have a brief chat with each of the other three contenders before the start of the show. I will admit, I would never deliberately try to psych an opponent out. I’ve had something of this kind happen to me once, and it was rather unpleasant. Still, I wasn’t above trying to figure out who was likely to be a strong player amongst the opposition. So I asked the quietest one of them, a very nice chap , a rather transparent, “Do you play in quizzes at home ? “ to which he made a reply something like this –
“Not so much now, although I set a few . In fact I’m hoping that my question master’s eye ( yes, I’m sure he DID actually use this very phrase, although this may be my memory playing tricks on me ) will help me spot the questions which arelikely to be asked. “
My immediate thought was that he was referring to general knowledge, in which case it was a bit of a forlorn hope, since it is just so wide. However thinking about it, he must have meant his specialist subject, in which case I think he was spot on. It worked too, he had a very good score , as I recall, although the wheels came off a little for him in the GK.
Mind you, with regards to question master’s eye, the glass is probably just as much half empty as its half full. I think particularly of the times we all think we’ve been rather clever on boning up on a thing we think we’re likely to get asked in a particular quiz, only to find that effort wasted. For example, all those hours spent on the Russell Ash Top 10 of Everything book in preparation for the CIU finals, only to find the top 10 question isn’t one of the ones in the book !
Tuesday, 10 May 2011
Answers to those connections
I’m sure that you’ve all already worked out all the answers to the questions I left you last week. Still, just in case, here you are : -
1)
What was the full name of Ted Danson’s character in ‘Cheers’ ?
SAM Malone
Which England test cricketer died in a car crash in Australia in 2002 ?
BEN Hollioake
In which novel by Henry Fielding is the eponymous hero an orphan adopted by Squire Allworthy ?
TOM Jones
What was the name of the twin killed by Romulus, the founder of Rome
REMUS
What is the connection between your last four answers ?
UNCLE
2)
Which country’s national flag has a red field, on which there is one large yellow star in the top left hand corner, flanked by a semi circle of smaller yellow stars ?
CHINA
Caroline Lucas, elected MP in 2010 to represent Brighton Pavilion, is a member of which party ?
GREEN Party
Pennyroyal is a variety of which herb plant ?
MINT
What is the connection between your last three answers ?
TEA
3)
Which 1960’s sitcom, revived in the late 70’s, was set in Fenner Fashions ?
The Rag TRADE
Which English city stands on the river Wensum ?
NORWICH
Which Russian word denotes a worker’s council ?
SOVIET
What is the connection between your last three answers ?
UNION
4)
How is the Parthenon Frieze more commonly known in the UK ?
The ELGIN Marbles
Which famous explorer was born in the town of Blantyre ?
David LIVINGSTON
Who is the only driver to win the Chinese Formula 1 Grand Prix twice ?
Lewis HAMILTON
Which politician took the title Lord Bannside when promoted to the House of Lords ?
Ian PAISLEY
What is the precise connection between your last four answers ?
SCOTTISH ADMINISTRATIVE HQs
5)
The Lifeguards and which other regiment make up the Household Cavalry ?
The BLUES and Royals
Which dish consists of prunes wrapped in bacon ?
DEVILS on horseback
For which film did Jack Palance win his Best Supporting Actor Oscar in 1992?
CITY Slickers
What is the connection between your last three answers ?
CARDIFF SPORTS TEAMS ( respectively rugby union, ice hockey and football )
6)
In which old TV series did John Alderton play Bernard ‘Privet’ Hedges ?
PLEASE Sir
Which England international footballer, with 11 caps, once of Nottingham Forest, played as a lone striker for Aston Villa in their 1982 European Cup victory over Bayern Munich in 1982 ?
Peter WITHe
Which medieval poem sees King Arthur and his men challenged to a deadly game by a giant of an unusual hue ?
Sir Gawaine and the Green kNIGHT
Which alternative comedian released songs “Ullo John, Gotta New Motor ? “ and “Pop up toaster “ ?
Alexei SAyLE
Which charity was founded by Cecil Jackson – Cole in 1961 ?
HELP The Aged
Who captained the Scottish rugby team in their grand slam season of 1990 ?
David SOLE ( SOUL )
What was the name of Angie Dickinson’s character in the TV series Police Woman ?
PEPPER Anderson
What is the more usual name for the Collegiate Church of St. Peter ?
Westminster ABBEY
What is the connection between your last 8 answers ?
ALBUMS BY THE BEATLES
As I’ve said before, the connections are a bit of fun. Its not a format that I invented – I nicked it off Geoff Evans, he probably got it from someone else, and other people have taken the idea from me before now. But it seems to go down quite well at the club, as long as you don’t do it every time you compile a quiz. One of these to two normal quizzes of mine seems to work.
1)
What was the full name of Ted Danson’s character in ‘Cheers’ ?
SAM Malone
Which England test cricketer died in a car crash in Australia in 2002 ?
BEN Hollioake
In which novel by Henry Fielding is the eponymous hero an orphan adopted by Squire Allworthy ?
TOM Jones
What was the name of the twin killed by Romulus, the founder of Rome
REMUS
What is the connection between your last four answers ?
UNCLE
2)
Which country’s national flag has a red field, on which there is one large yellow star in the top left hand corner, flanked by a semi circle of smaller yellow stars ?
CHINA
Caroline Lucas, elected MP in 2010 to represent Brighton Pavilion, is a member of which party ?
GREEN Party
Pennyroyal is a variety of which herb plant ?
MINT
What is the connection between your last three answers ?
TEA
3)
Which 1960’s sitcom, revived in the late 70’s, was set in Fenner Fashions ?
The Rag TRADE
Which English city stands on the river Wensum ?
NORWICH
Which Russian word denotes a worker’s council ?
SOVIET
What is the connection between your last three answers ?
UNION
4)
How is the Parthenon Frieze more commonly known in the UK ?
The ELGIN Marbles
Which famous explorer was born in the town of Blantyre ?
David LIVINGSTON
Who is the only driver to win the Chinese Formula 1 Grand Prix twice ?
Lewis HAMILTON
Which politician took the title Lord Bannside when promoted to the House of Lords ?
Ian PAISLEY
What is the precise connection between your last four answers ?
SCOTTISH ADMINISTRATIVE HQs
5)
The Lifeguards and which other regiment make up the Household Cavalry ?
The BLUES and Royals
Which dish consists of prunes wrapped in bacon ?
DEVILS on horseback
For which film did Jack Palance win his Best Supporting Actor Oscar in 1992?
CITY Slickers
What is the connection between your last three answers ?
CARDIFF SPORTS TEAMS ( respectively rugby union, ice hockey and football )
6)
In which old TV series did John Alderton play Bernard ‘Privet’ Hedges ?
PLEASE Sir
Which England international footballer, with 11 caps, once of Nottingham Forest, played as a lone striker for Aston Villa in their 1982 European Cup victory over Bayern Munich in 1982 ?
Peter WITHe
Which medieval poem sees King Arthur and his men challenged to a deadly game by a giant of an unusual hue ?
Sir Gawaine and the Green kNIGHT
Which alternative comedian released songs “Ullo John, Gotta New Motor ? “ and “Pop up toaster “ ?
Alexei SAyLE
Which charity was founded by Cecil Jackson – Cole in 1961 ?
HELP The Aged
Who captained the Scottish rugby team in their grand slam season of 1990 ?
David SOLE ( SOUL )
What was the name of Angie Dickinson’s character in the TV series Police Woman ?
PEPPER Anderson
What is the more usual name for the Collegiate Church of St. Peter ?
Westminster ABBEY
What is the connection between your last 8 answers ?
ALBUMS BY THE BEATLES
As I’ve said before, the connections are a bit of fun. Its not a format that I invented – I nicked it off Geoff Evans, he probably got it from someone else, and other people have taken the idea from me before now. But it seems to go down quite well at the club, as long as you don’t do it every time you compile a quiz. One of these to two normal quizzes of mine seems to work.
A Rainy Night In Newport - Cash Prizes
Right, so we’re back at work, the league finished weeks ago, and it’s a Monday night. You’re right, there’s nothing else for it, we have to go to Newport.
Actually we don’t HAVE to go at all, and I certainly don’t want to make it out that the Monday night quiz in the Pill Harriers is a chore. Its anything but. I haven’t been since before Christmas, simply for the reasons that I’ve been playing in the league in Bridgend on a Monday night, and then after that my son Mike prevailed upon me to come and try to win some money with him in Cardiff, and then we had that nice little run of bank holidays. But those reasons are no longer valid.
In fact, its not a case so much of no longer having any good reason not to go to Newport, but a case of having very good reasons why I should. It works like this – at the moment its just myself and Brian who are taking turns compiling the Thursday night quiz for the Aberavon rugby club. Now, for all I know someone else will turn round this Thursday night and volunteer to do next week’s, and very welcome this would be too, but its not something I can bank upon happening. So at the moment I’m only actually playing there every other week. John and I were playing every other week on a Tuesday night in the Duke of Wellington in Cowbridge, but that’s currently closed for refurbishments. When it reopens a new landlord will be taking over, but whether he will resurrect the quiz is anybody’s guess. It will be a shame if he doesn’t, but there we are. So there’s no quiz on a Tuesday night at the moment. All of which leaves the Sunday night quiz in the Dyffryn Arms in Rhos. Very enjoyable it is too, but even so its just not enough when it’s the only quiz you get to play in during a week.
It isn’t just that, though. Sometimes you just need to be in a proper, hard quiz, with people who don’t mind it being a proper, hard quiz. If you’re a long term reader you might know that I’ve discussed the quiz in the Pill Harriers rugby club in Newport before. Its run by Trevor Parry. You might know Trevor, and if you’ve played in various leagues its just possible you may also have played in his quizzes before now. I’m not sure how many he is currently supplying questions for, but I fancy he has quite a few. Whatever my gripes about the handicap system that they use in the quiz on a Monday, I would never try to deny that the standard of the questions is very good, a cut above what you’ll get in most other places. And you know sometimes, well, sometimes that really is what matters most. So much so that you’ll even drive the best part of 40 miles there, and 40 miles back to play in it.
By way of a comparison, in the Sunday night quiz, which I have already said is a good, enjoyable quiz, there are 5 rounds of 10 questions – most of them not too hard. Sometimes there’s also a picture round, and sometimes there isn’t. In the Cowbridge quiz there were 7 rounds of 10 questions. Two rounds of general knowledge, and 5 specialist themed rounds, on one of which a joker must be played. In the rugby club on the Thursday there are 8 rounds of 10 questions, and a handout, usually pictures but not always. In Trevor’s quiz on a Monday night there are 3 specific General knowledge rounds of 20 questions. Then there’s a photograph handout, then a questions handout. The second handout usually has a good 50 or more answers required, so there are , when you think of it, well over 100 questions in the evening.
By way of another comparison too, there is still a cash prize. Now, my attitude towards cash prizes has undergone an unusual metamorphosis in recent times. Even as recently as five years ago round our way it was quite possible to play in cash prize quizzes 4 or 5 nights a week, two of which could be for very significant amounts. Most of these have either disappeared, or seen the cash prize replaced by wine, beer tokens, whatever. Is this due to the plague of mobile phones ? Possibly. Whatever the case, the cash prizes have gone. Now, I won’t lie to you, up until relatively recently I looked upon this as a handy source of additional unearned income. Whenever a money quiz folded, or changed to prizes, it used to really annoy me. Yet now, while I’ll never turn a cash prize down, I can’t say its that big a motivating factor for me. Case in point, I’ve played in a £100 first prize quiz in Cardiff maybe 6 or 7 times, and won it every time apart from the first. The reason why I only ever go once in a blue moon has nothing whatsoever to do with not wanting to do what I believe is known in the trade as ‘killing the goose that laid the golden egg. ‘ No. The fact is that I just don’t like the quiz very much. End of story. In fact if it wasn’t for Mike dangling the carrot of getting to spend an evening in his company, I probably wouldn’t go again. Whereas if the cash prize in Newport went the way of all flesh, I don’t think it would really bother me. Granted we never won it that often, and granted that it wasn’t ever quite of life-changing proportions, but nevertheless it would sometimes pay for your petrol and a drink or two. But I have to say that its not as important to me as either winning, or at the very least feeling that I’ve played quite well.
While I’m on the subject of cash prizes, looking back now , with the benefit of hindsight I can see that they were always something of a mixed blessing. Don’t get me wrong, there were times when you’d win a cash prize and the money would come in very handy, but then there were all the times when you were mentally already spending the money, and then you didn’t win. We’ve probably all seen how people will use phones to cheat in a quiz where there’s no cash, only a prize, or maybe even no prize at all at stake. So you can’t entirely blame cash prizes for the spread of phone cheating, but undoubtedly a cash prize must have increased the temptation.
Also there was the reaction of those who didn’t win. I shall have to be careful how I phrase this, as it really isn’t my intention to upset anyone in particular. Still, I think particularly of the £100 quiz in a pub in Neath, which I have promised myself never to mention by name in any arena that might give them free publicity. Alright, John and I were rather sneaky in the way we played there the first time. We turned up an hour before the quiz was advertised to start, had a couple of drinks, and generally behaved like two old codgers who’d just popped in for a drink and a chat, and then we let the landlady ‘talk us into’ playing in the quiz. The rule was that there was a maximum of 60 marks available. First prize was a gallon of beer. However if the winning team scored over 50 out of 60, then the first prize was £100. No team had ever achieved this feat before. We scored 54 that night, and left it for 3 or 4 weeks, then came back and scored 55. We did this a couple more times, and then the landlord finally made a point of approaching me one evening, and saying piously something like,
“Its not me, lads. As far as I’m concerned, if the prize is there, its there to be won. But . . . “
- Here it comes, I thought. –
“ But it’s the other teams. They think its unfair. (It wasn’t. ) They say that you only come into the pub to play the quiz. ( We did ) . They say that you’ll win the money every time you play ( We would ). “ and so on, and so forth. I have to say that it crossed my mind that he was himself getting a little sick of paying out £100 a month when prior to our arrival on the scene he didn’t. Still, if you took what he said on face value, the fact is that no other team had come close to winning the money in over a year. There is no reason to think that they would have been able to do it whether we were there or not. Which left me to ask myself – would they ever have complained about a team winning each time they played when they were only playing in one out of every four quizzes. I doubt it. Jealousy over money.
Mind you, having said all that against cash prizes, I still accepted my share of the pot last night.
Actually we don’t HAVE to go at all, and I certainly don’t want to make it out that the Monday night quiz in the Pill Harriers is a chore. Its anything but. I haven’t been since before Christmas, simply for the reasons that I’ve been playing in the league in Bridgend on a Monday night, and then after that my son Mike prevailed upon me to come and try to win some money with him in Cardiff, and then we had that nice little run of bank holidays. But those reasons are no longer valid.
In fact, its not a case so much of no longer having any good reason not to go to Newport, but a case of having very good reasons why I should. It works like this – at the moment its just myself and Brian who are taking turns compiling the Thursday night quiz for the Aberavon rugby club. Now, for all I know someone else will turn round this Thursday night and volunteer to do next week’s, and very welcome this would be too, but its not something I can bank upon happening. So at the moment I’m only actually playing there every other week. John and I were playing every other week on a Tuesday night in the Duke of Wellington in Cowbridge, but that’s currently closed for refurbishments. When it reopens a new landlord will be taking over, but whether he will resurrect the quiz is anybody’s guess. It will be a shame if he doesn’t, but there we are. So there’s no quiz on a Tuesday night at the moment. All of which leaves the Sunday night quiz in the Dyffryn Arms in Rhos. Very enjoyable it is too, but even so its just not enough when it’s the only quiz you get to play in during a week.
It isn’t just that, though. Sometimes you just need to be in a proper, hard quiz, with people who don’t mind it being a proper, hard quiz. If you’re a long term reader you might know that I’ve discussed the quiz in the Pill Harriers rugby club in Newport before. Its run by Trevor Parry. You might know Trevor, and if you’ve played in various leagues its just possible you may also have played in his quizzes before now. I’m not sure how many he is currently supplying questions for, but I fancy he has quite a few. Whatever my gripes about the handicap system that they use in the quiz on a Monday, I would never try to deny that the standard of the questions is very good, a cut above what you’ll get in most other places. And you know sometimes, well, sometimes that really is what matters most. So much so that you’ll even drive the best part of 40 miles there, and 40 miles back to play in it.
By way of a comparison, in the Sunday night quiz, which I have already said is a good, enjoyable quiz, there are 5 rounds of 10 questions – most of them not too hard. Sometimes there’s also a picture round, and sometimes there isn’t. In the Cowbridge quiz there were 7 rounds of 10 questions. Two rounds of general knowledge, and 5 specialist themed rounds, on one of which a joker must be played. In the rugby club on the Thursday there are 8 rounds of 10 questions, and a handout, usually pictures but not always. In Trevor’s quiz on a Monday night there are 3 specific General knowledge rounds of 20 questions. Then there’s a photograph handout, then a questions handout. The second handout usually has a good 50 or more answers required, so there are , when you think of it, well over 100 questions in the evening.
By way of another comparison too, there is still a cash prize. Now, my attitude towards cash prizes has undergone an unusual metamorphosis in recent times. Even as recently as five years ago round our way it was quite possible to play in cash prize quizzes 4 or 5 nights a week, two of which could be for very significant amounts. Most of these have either disappeared, or seen the cash prize replaced by wine, beer tokens, whatever. Is this due to the plague of mobile phones ? Possibly. Whatever the case, the cash prizes have gone. Now, I won’t lie to you, up until relatively recently I looked upon this as a handy source of additional unearned income. Whenever a money quiz folded, or changed to prizes, it used to really annoy me. Yet now, while I’ll never turn a cash prize down, I can’t say its that big a motivating factor for me. Case in point, I’ve played in a £100 first prize quiz in Cardiff maybe 6 or 7 times, and won it every time apart from the first. The reason why I only ever go once in a blue moon has nothing whatsoever to do with not wanting to do what I believe is known in the trade as ‘killing the goose that laid the golden egg. ‘ No. The fact is that I just don’t like the quiz very much. End of story. In fact if it wasn’t for Mike dangling the carrot of getting to spend an evening in his company, I probably wouldn’t go again. Whereas if the cash prize in Newport went the way of all flesh, I don’t think it would really bother me. Granted we never won it that often, and granted that it wasn’t ever quite of life-changing proportions, but nevertheless it would sometimes pay for your petrol and a drink or two. But I have to say that its not as important to me as either winning, or at the very least feeling that I’ve played quite well.
While I’m on the subject of cash prizes, looking back now , with the benefit of hindsight I can see that they were always something of a mixed blessing. Don’t get me wrong, there were times when you’d win a cash prize and the money would come in very handy, but then there were all the times when you were mentally already spending the money, and then you didn’t win. We’ve probably all seen how people will use phones to cheat in a quiz where there’s no cash, only a prize, or maybe even no prize at all at stake. So you can’t entirely blame cash prizes for the spread of phone cheating, but undoubtedly a cash prize must have increased the temptation.
Also there was the reaction of those who didn’t win. I shall have to be careful how I phrase this, as it really isn’t my intention to upset anyone in particular. Still, I think particularly of the £100 quiz in a pub in Neath, which I have promised myself never to mention by name in any arena that might give them free publicity. Alright, John and I were rather sneaky in the way we played there the first time. We turned up an hour before the quiz was advertised to start, had a couple of drinks, and generally behaved like two old codgers who’d just popped in for a drink and a chat, and then we let the landlady ‘talk us into’ playing in the quiz. The rule was that there was a maximum of 60 marks available. First prize was a gallon of beer. However if the winning team scored over 50 out of 60, then the first prize was £100. No team had ever achieved this feat before. We scored 54 that night, and left it for 3 or 4 weeks, then came back and scored 55. We did this a couple more times, and then the landlord finally made a point of approaching me one evening, and saying piously something like,
“Its not me, lads. As far as I’m concerned, if the prize is there, its there to be won. But . . . “
- Here it comes, I thought. –
“ But it’s the other teams. They think its unfair. (It wasn’t. ) They say that you only come into the pub to play the quiz. ( We did ) . They say that you’ll win the money every time you play ( We would ). “ and so on, and so forth. I have to say that it crossed my mind that he was himself getting a little sick of paying out £100 a month when prior to our arrival on the scene he didn’t. Still, if you took what he said on face value, the fact is that no other team had come close to winning the money in over a year. There is no reason to think that they would have been able to do it whether we were there or not. Which left me to ask myself – would they ever have complained about a team winning each time they played when they were only playing in one out of every four quizzes. I doubt it. Jealousy over money.
Mind you, having said all that against cash prizes, I still accepted my share of the pot last night.
Saturday, 7 May 2011
R.I.P. Sir Henry - Winning like a gentleman
A man who was something of a hero of mine passed away last week. I am referring to the late Sir Henry Cooper, of course, a true gentleman whom I was fortunate to meet once when I was a guest of a member of Ealing Golf Club. If you read any of the well deserved tributes in the newspapers , you may well be aware of the fact that Sir Henry was certainly the first – and I also think the only , man to win three Lonsdale belts outright. Without wishing to do any injustice to Sir Henry’s memory though, there was actually a boxer who won more British Heavyweight Championship fights than he did, and was British champion for longer than he was, who only won two Lonsdale Belts. I am referring to Bombardier Billy Wells, who fought in the 1910’s.
Back in these early days of professional, Queensberry rules boxing in the UK, a British champion could only win Lonsdale belts for bouts held in the National Sporting Club, in London. Hence the reason why Bombardier Billy only won the two. The NSC was founded in Covent Garden in 1891, and its first president was the Earl of Lonsdale, hence the Lonsdale Belt. The club did a lot to raise the status of boxing. It was a private members club, and bouts would take place after dinner in front of about 1300 members and guests. The rules insisted on silence between the rounds, and good sportsmanship, and the story goes that a prominent notice in the club reminded all concerned to –
Remember that it is better to lose like a gentleman than to win like a blackguard .
Noble sentiments, I’m sure you’ll agree. I mention this, since it impinges upon a philosophical question which I’d like to ask. What would you prefer – to win a quiz having not played to the level you feel you should, or to lose, having played really well nonetheless ? Now, if you are thinking to yourself – well , come on, Dave, the fuss you’ve made in posts in LAM about being beaten by cheats etc. etc. show that you take winning far too seriously, then congratulations to you. You know me very well.
Still , my team lost on Thursday evening in the quiz in the Rugby Club. This was all 100% kosher and above board, I hasten to add. We were beaten by the Lemurs, Rob and Terry’s team, and I know the team so well I know that there is absolutely no way on this earth that they would cheat. They don’t even need to either, they’re a good team. So, as I say, they beat us – only by a single point on the actual questions, and by another point on the picture handout, but there we are, a miss is as good as a mile. Now, losing down the rugby club is normally enough to make me trudge home with a face like a smacked bum, and wake up the next morning feeling that the whole world is against me. Yet it didn’t happen like this on Thursday night. I actually walked home feeling pretty good, despite losing. Why ? Well, though I say it myself, I played very well. We were short as a team, and I had some terrific answers. I’d ‘spotted’ all the in the news questions from the papers, and had all of them , and there were some good answers which came from the work I’d done to try to ensure the league team were covering all the angles. But Lemurs were brilliant on the night, full credit to them. They deserved to win.
For all the enjoyment I got out of the evening, though, I’d would still much prefer to keep the occasions when I feel very happy with the way I played, even though we lost, to a minimum. Losing like a gentleman is fun, but winning like one is still better.
Back in these early days of professional, Queensberry rules boxing in the UK, a British champion could only win Lonsdale belts for bouts held in the National Sporting Club, in London. Hence the reason why Bombardier Billy only won the two. The NSC was founded in Covent Garden in 1891, and its first president was the Earl of Lonsdale, hence the Lonsdale Belt. The club did a lot to raise the status of boxing. It was a private members club, and bouts would take place after dinner in front of about 1300 members and guests. The rules insisted on silence between the rounds, and good sportsmanship, and the story goes that a prominent notice in the club reminded all concerned to –
Remember that it is better to lose like a gentleman than to win like a blackguard .
Noble sentiments, I’m sure you’ll agree. I mention this, since it impinges upon a philosophical question which I’d like to ask. What would you prefer – to win a quiz having not played to the level you feel you should, or to lose, having played really well nonetheless ? Now, if you are thinking to yourself – well , come on, Dave, the fuss you’ve made in posts in LAM about being beaten by cheats etc. etc. show that you take winning far too seriously, then congratulations to you. You know me very well.
Still , my team lost on Thursday evening in the quiz in the Rugby Club. This was all 100% kosher and above board, I hasten to add. We were beaten by the Lemurs, Rob and Terry’s team, and I know the team so well I know that there is absolutely no way on this earth that they would cheat. They don’t even need to either, they’re a good team. So, as I say, they beat us – only by a single point on the actual questions, and by another point on the picture handout, but there we are, a miss is as good as a mile. Now, losing down the rugby club is normally enough to make me trudge home with a face like a smacked bum, and wake up the next morning feeling that the whole world is against me. Yet it didn’t happen like this on Thursday night. I actually walked home feeling pretty good, despite losing. Why ? Well, though I say it myself, I played very well. We were short as a team, and I had some terrific answers. I’d ‘spotted’ all the in the news questions from the papers, and had all of them , and there were some good answers which came from the work I’d done to try to ensure the league team were covering all the angles. But Lemurs were brilliant on the night, full credit to them. They deserved to win.
For all the enjoyment I got out of the evening, though, I’d would still much prefer to keep the occasions when I feel very happy with the way I played, even though we lost, to a minimum. Losing like a gentleman is fun, but winning like one is still better.
Thursday, 5 May 2011
Question Feedback
It was the May Day in Melin quiz last night which I mentioned last week. I think that it went off quite well. Mind you, it’s a little difficult to judge, and this is the main thrust, for want of a better word, of this post.
When I compile the quiz and act as question master for the rugby club, I also mark all of the answer sheets for each round. Its no chore really, and more than that, I find it gives me some valuable feedback about the questions. You soon get to see which questions are too hard, which questions are too easy, which questions that you think are sitters have been made too obscure by the way you’ve phrased them, and so on and so forth. If your questions aren’t written clearly enough you’ll soon see by the number of teams getting the wrong end of the stick. If you care about how much people enjoy your quiz, as I am sure that most of us do, then this is the kind of informal feedback that comes in handy.
Last night we opted for the ‘swap your answers with another team format’. Horses for courses. That’s the way its always been done in this quiz, and to be fair there are advantages in seeing what other teams have written, maybe having a bit of a laugh and a joke with them about it. But it did mean that all I had to go on were the scores that the teams achieved. Now, there was a sprinkling of quizzers from the old Neath league – sadly defunct since 2000 – but for the most part these were just innocent civilians, so scores for each round ranging between 6 – 9 out of 10 showed me that I had probably pitched the questions at just about the right level. But it would have been interesting to see which questions in particular caused the problems, for future reference. Never satisfied see, that’s my trouble.
When I compile the quiz and act as question master for the rugby club, I also mark all of the answer sheets for each round. Its no chore really, and more than that, I find it gives me some valuable feedback about the questions. You soon get to see which questions are too hard, which questions are too easy, which questions that you think are sitters have been made too obscure by the way you’ve phrased them, and so on and so forth. If your questions aren’t written clearly enough you’ll soon see by the number of teams getting the wrong end of the stick. If you care about how much people enjoy your quiz, as I am sure that most of us do, then this is the kind of informal feedback that comes in handy.
Last night we opted for the ‘swap your answers with another team format’. Horses for courses. That’s the way its always been done in this quiz, and to be fair there are advantages in seeing what other teams have written, maybe having a bit of a laugh and a joke with them about it. But it did mean that all I had to go on were the scores that the teams achieved. Now, there was a sprinkling of quizzers from the old Neath league – sadly defunct since 2000 – but for the most part these were just innocent civilians, so scores for each round ranging between 6 – 9 out of 10 showed me that I had probably pitched the questions at just about the right level. But it would have been interesting to see which questions in particular caused the problems, for future reference. Never satisfied see, that’s my trouble.
Wednesday, 4 May 2011
More Connections
Well, it seems that the connection question I left with you in my last post has sparked a little bit of interest. In case you couldn’t figure it out, and are too honourable to google it , here’s the solution : -
1) Which british athlete gained a silver medal in the men’s 400metres in the 1996 Atlanta Olympics ?
Answer – Roger Black
2) Who made his only visit to Britain in a very brief stopover at Prestwick Airport in 1960 ?
Answer – Elvis Presley
3) Which is the shortest of William Shakespeare’s play ?
Answer - The Comedy of Errors
4) What is the connection between your last three answers ?
Answer - Twins - Roger Black has a twin sister, Elvis had a twin brother, and the play is about twins.
Bearing in mind the response to the question I thought that you’d maybe like the other sets from the quiz. So here they are : -
1)
What was the full name of Ted Danson’s character in ‘Cheers’ ?
Which England test cricketer died in a car crash in Australia in 2002 ?
In which novel by Henry Fielding is the eponymous hero an orphan adopted by Squire Allworthy ?
What was the name of the twin killed by Romulus, the founder of Rome
What is the connection between your last four answers ?
2)
Which country’s national flag has a red field, on which there is one large yellow star in the top left hand corner, flanked by a semi circle of smaller yellow stars ?
Caroline Lucas, elected MP in 2010 to represent Brighton Pavilion, is a member of which party ?
Pennyroyal is a variety of which herb plant ?
What is the connection between your last three answers ?
3)
Which 1960’s sitcom, revived in the late 70’s, was set in Fenner Fashions ?
Which English city stands on the river Wensum ?
Which Russian word denotes a worker’s council ?
What is the connection between your last three answers ?
4)
How is the Parthenon Frieze more commonly known in the UK ?
Which famous explorer was born in the town of Blantyre ?
Who is the only driver to win the Chinese Formula 1 Grand Prix twice ?
Which politician took the title Lord Bannside when promoted to the House of Lords ?
What is the precise connection between your last four answers ?
5)
The Lifeguards and which other regiment make up the Household Cavalry ?
Which dish consists of prunes wrapped in bacon ?
For which film did Jack Palance win his Best Supporting Actor Oscar in 1992?
What is the connection between your last three answers ?
6)
In which old TV series did John Alderton play Bernard ‘Privet’ Hedges ?
Which England international footballer, with 11 caps, once of Nottingham Forest, played as a lone striker for Aston Villa in their 1982 European Cup victory over Bayern Munich in 1982 ?
Which medieval poem sees King Arthur and his men challenged to a deadly game by a giant of an unusual hue ?
Which alternative comedian released songs “Ullo John, Gotta New Motor ? “ and “Pop up toaster “ ?
Which charity was founded by Cecil Jackson – Cole in 1961 ?
Who captained the Scottish rugby team in their grand slam season of 1990 ?
What was the name of Angie Dickinson’s character in the TV series Police Woman ?
What is the more usual name for the Collegiate Church of St. Peter ?
What is the connection between your last 8 answers ?
There we are – hope that you enjoy them.
1) Which british athlete gained a silver medal in the men’s 400metres in the 1996 Atlanta Olympics ?
Answer – Roger Black
2) Who made his only visit to Britain in a very brief stopover at Prestwick Airport in 1960 ?
Answer – Elvis Presley
3) Which is the shortest of William Shakespeare’s play ?
Answer - The Comedy of Errors
4) What is the connection between your last three answers ?
Answer - Twins - Roger Black has a twin sister, Elvis had a twin brother, and the play is about twins.
Bearing in mind the response to the question I thought that you’d maybe like the other sets from the quiz. So here they are : -
1)
What was the full name of Ted Danson’s character in ‘Cheers’ ?
Which England test cricketer died in a car crash in Australia in 2002 ?
In which novel by Henry Fielding is the eponymous hero an orphan adopted by Squire Allworthy ?
What was the name of the twin killed by Romulus, the founder of Rome
What is the connection between your last four answers ?
2)
Which country’s national flag has a red field, on which there is one large yellow star in the top left hand corner, flanked by a semi circle of smaller yellow stars ?
Caroline Lucas, elected MP in 2010 to represent Brighton Pavilion, is a member of which party ?
Pennyroyal is a variety of which herb plant ?
What is the connection between your last three answers ?
3)
Which 1960’s sitcom, revived in the late 70’s, was set in Fenner Fashions ?
Which English city stands on the river Wensum ?
Which Russian word denotes a worker’s council ?
What is the connection between your last three answers ?
4)
How is the Parthenon Frieze more commonly known in the UK ?
Which famous explorer was born in the town of Blantyre ?
Who is the only driver to win the Chinese Formula 1 Grand Prix twice ?
Which politician took the title Lord Bannside when promoted to the House of Lords ?
What is the precise connection between your last four answers ?
5)
The Lifeguards and which other regiment make up the Household Cavalry ?
Which dish consists of prunes wrapped in bacon ?
For which film did Jack Palance win his Best Supporting Actor Oscar in 1992?
What is the connection between your last three answers ?
6)
In which old TV series did John Alderton play Bernard ‘Privet’ Hedges ?
Which England international footballer, with 11 caps, once of Nottingham Forest, played as a lone striker for Aston Villa in their 1982 European Cup victory over Bayern Munich in 1982 ?
Which medieval poem sees King Arthur and his men challenged to a deadly game by a giant of an unusual hue ?
Which alternative comedian released songs “Ullo John, Gotta New Motor ? “ and “Pop up toaster “ ?
Which charity was founded by Cecil Jackson – Cole in 1961 ?
Who captained the Scottish rugby team in their grand slam season of 1990 ?
What was the name of Angie Dickinson’s character in the TV series Police Woman ?
What is the more usual name for the Collegiate Church of St. Peter ?
What is the connection between your last 8 answers ?
There we are – hope that you enjoy them.
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