Well, I’m going to try to keep this going for a while with the weekly news questions. So if you’re ready, eyes down and here we go : -
Who or what are : -
James Brown
Tracy Crouch MP
George Atkinson
Dan Wheldon
Geordie Shore
Born this way
Storm Stocker
Wayne Bishop
Chris Hutcheson
Donald Tusk
HMS Flake 99
Sacha Hall
Charlie Wilcox
Karen Mulliner
Taransay
Lord Taylor of Warwick
Professor John Beddington
Release
Saffron Pledger
How many years has it been since Swansea City were last in the top division in English football ?
How many spectators attended the spectacular 5th day of the first test in Cardiff ?
How many new laws were passed in 2010 – a record number.
Which gimmick has been introduced by the National Trust in many of its properties ?
Who denied sleeping with Tony Blair ?
Which football team qualified for the Europa League through the Fair Play league ?
Where in Norfolk was a public toilet on the seafront sold to make a luxury holiday
home ?
An Anchor from which ship was raised last week ?
Which company currently sponsor the Derby ?
Whose son managed Peterbrough United to success in the League one play off final ?
Which two players had a one hole play off in the Wentworth PGA ?
Which country voted yes in a referendum on the issue of legalizing divorce ?
Which country won the Nations Cup in football ?
Which country announced that it plans to close all of its nuclear plants by 2022 ?
Who or what has been sued by South Tyneside council ?
Barbara Mills passed away last week. Which very important position did she once hold ?
Last week Egypt opened its border where ?
Which sportsman announced that he is suffering from Motor Neurone Disease ?
Which 2 players will contest the final of the Women’s singles in the French Open ?
An armed siege took place in a cooperative bank in which town ?
Hackers operating in which country hacked into Google email accounts ?
On June 2nd which country celebrated the 150th anniversary of its unification ?
Muttiah Muralitharan has played his first game for which county ?
Why was Moreton Hall estate in Bury St. Edmunds in the news ?
What went missing on Radio 4 on 31st May ?
Australia announced plans to force tobacco companies to do what to cigarette packets ?
What can the jobless now do, that only the homeless could do up to now ?
What is the name of the Bristol Care Home which featured in a Panorama
investigation ?
Where did a beached sperm whale die ?
Who is England’s Cricketer of the Year ?
Why was Boris Johnson disappointed ?
Who called his birthplace of Weston Super Mare “a tedious little place “ ?
What happened in the Church of St. John the Divine near Ripon ?
Which is the most popular town in England in which to get married ?
There you go. Usual thing , answers in a few days, but if you can't wait, then email me. Enjoy.
While we're on the subject , I've been to three quizzes this week. One of them, the Sunday quiz in the Dyffryn Arms, doesn't often contain in the news questions. But the other two always have between 8 and 10. The two questions which came up in both quizzes were about Denmark banning marmite, and Je Ne Regrette Rien being the number one non classical choice on Desert Island discs.
Have you been to Daniel Fullard's new blog , Quiz Addict, yet ? There's a link amongst my recommended links. A post on it yesterday mentioned Marcus Berkmann's "Brain Men" - and if you haven't read it yet, can I strongly recommend it to you ? It reminded me of a comment that Marcus Berkman makes in the book, to the effect of any quiz you win is work of rare genius, while any quiz you lose is deeply flawed - only he put it in a much more funny way than that. I know where he's coming from, and blaming the questions when you lose is always a useful default position. However I have to say that I've been to three quizzes this week, and the one that I lost was certainly as good as the two I won, and possibly even better.
It is possible to play in a quiz you win and not enjoy it, and to play in a quiz you lose, and still enjoy it. Case in point. The CIU Wales and West of England is coming up next week. Now I first played in the CIU back in about 2002, I think it was. I've won the regional a few times, but I've never won the final in Derby. In my first final we came close runners up, and I have to say that I loved the day. I had a great time. It was a very good quiz, and I was very pleased with the way that I played.There have been other times when that has happened as well, although not always in such a big and prestigious event as the CIU.
On the other hand there have been times when I've played in teams that have won quizzes, and come out of it feeling distinctly cheesed off. A lot of it comes down to boring or pointless questions. There's nothing wrong with old chestnuts, and they're an important staple. But not when the whole quiz is made up of really familiar easy stuff. ( Yes, I know that this seems to be flying in the face of what I said in my post about old TV quizzes - I didn't express myself well there at all. Sorry ) Likewise, I'm really sorry if this upsets anyone who likes this sort of thing, but I cannot stand Family Fortunes type questions. If I'm honest, I'm none too fussed about - in a recent survey - type questions either, but there we are, that's my problem and I have to live with it.
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Phones. Its a topic I just don't seem to be able to get away from for any great length of time this year. Chatting with Brian after his excellent quiz in the rugby club last night, I informed him that 6 of his 8 in the news questions were all items I'd marked down as potential questions. He asked me how many news questions altogether I'd written down for May. When I replied that its slightly more than 400 he replied - well you'll be alright for the New Year quiz in January then. - I don't know which inner demon prompted me to say this, but I just couldn't keep the next comment in, and I said something like - well, not really if you let those *&!!"s cheat with their phones again like you have done for the last 2 years. - Brian replied that he doesn't really mind them cheating in the new year quiz at all, and in fact its all to the good if it means somebody else wins for a change.
We agreed to differ over this issue.
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3 comments:
Regarding the enjoyment of the quiz. I am yet to be at the stage where winning is something I can realistically think about on a week by week basis but I do understand your point.
I attended one quiz, not so long ago and that I may have mentioned to you, where we tied for the lead and shared the prize. However, the quiz was only twenty questions long tacked onto a Sunday night series of events in the pub including raffles and money draws, so the quiz was rushed. I scored 15/20 to win, and considering all the other teams had numbers and age advantages I was very surprised a score like that won. However, the questions were okay but the question setter, who was not reading the questions out, was ruining it by giving other people answers and make comments throughout instead of letting the quiz flow.
I would say despite this being a good win for myself I have enjoyed quizzes far more when I have come far lower down the ranks. Questions I know I know but cannot bring the answer to my brain are my favourites.
And I guess your comment about phones goes back to something you mentioned the other day…..how a quizmaster deals with cheating? I know one, a friend who hosts a quiz a don’t often go to (due to the fact its too far away) who if he notices cheating will not allow that team to win, he will fiddle with the scores, harshly mark etc. In my local quiz that cannot really be done and the cheating seems to be overlooked.
Also a club I am a member of ran a quiz each Tuesday and had two fantastic teams battling for the top each week. They were local players, everybody knew and liked and were not arrogant or big headed in their success at all. But what happened was a group of younger players who were sick of being no where decided to try cheating on a particularly busy week and due to having 6 members and probably 26 iphones between them, they won by a whisker. Obviously they won quite a bit of prize money and thus continued to cheat for weeks afterwards. Everyone knew it was going on but the six players were regulars in the pub, played for the darts teams and pool teams etc and were big drinkers = big money for the club so no body would do anything.
However, the two teams who used to be top of the rankings got together one night with a few other locals and decided to switch allegiance and move to another pub quiz. Word got round and there was something of a strike and what used to be a 17-18 team quiz turned into a 3 team contest one week. The management asked questions and it was clear what happened and the cheating team were warned and eventually stopped playing.
Did the other teams start to come back to the quiz after the cheats stopped coming ?
Two have been covered this week at quizzes I have been too -
Geordie Shore - But the question was which TV station is it broadcast on
Who or what has been sued by South Tyneside council ? - The question was which council in the north east (where I live) has sued Twitter?
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