I am officially a man of straw. I posted this on the blog on 2th October last year –
“My son Mike played in a quiz in Coity in
Bridgend last Tuesday. His team came second, and he told me that when they had
a chat with the team who won, my name reared its ugly head. I’m not exactly
sure how – but it did, and the other team’s reaction was words to the effect of
‘Oh God, he’s not going to start coming here, is he?” According to Mike they
calmed down a bit and seemed mollified when Mike told them that I hadn’t been
invited, and even if I had I probably wouldn’t come because I only go to one quiz
anymore, and I’d only started going back to that one recently. Mike reckoned
that they’d been part of the Bridgend Quiz League during the years I’d played
from 2010-16. Their argument went something like this – “This is just a nice
friendly quiz, and nobody takes it that seriously.” Then it went something like
this – “If he came we’d never have a chance of winning.” Honestly, I’m not
making this up or embellishing it to big myself up, this is what they actually
said.
You know, I have a nasty little metaphorical quiz devil that pops up on
my shoulder sometimes and whispers suggestions in my ear. Nowadays I rarely
listen to it, but there was a time when, If I’d been told something like this,
then I would have made a point of going to the quiz the next time it was on.
Yes, I’d have justified it to myself with the observation that there was a
disconnect between their two statements and that if nobody takes it that
seriously then you wouldn’t care if you don’t win. There was a time when I’d
have said that if winning matters that much to you, then start learning stuff,
make yourself a better player and increase your chances that way, rather than
just hoping that a better team never turn up. But that was then. Now, I can
honestly say that I hope they enjoy the quiz, and I promise that I won’t be
there.”
I had a phonecall last week. All of Mike’s team were unable to play on Tuesday, and would I like to come and play? I did think about before agreeing. However it was guaranteed that I would be home by bedtime – absolute latest being 10:30 on a school night. And it was going to be a one-off, Mike’s own team coming back to play next week. So what the hell?
So it was a team made up
entirely of members of my family – Mike, me, son-in-law Dan and daughters Zara
and Jess. It wasn’t bad at all, either, 6 rounds of 10 questions, and a picture
handout. Each round had a linking theme I think, and we came a cropper on ‘the Queen
in from 2000 to 2012’ I think. Thankfully I think all of the other teams must
have come a cropper on that round too. I think that with in the news questions,
they have a very limited shelf life. Just because something is newsworthy now,
it doesn’t mean that it will be at all remembered 10 or more years later.
Yeah, alright, we won, pretty
comfortably. Thankfully the Bridgend league players didn’t get upset because
they weren’t there. So I think I’ll get away with it as a one off.
Time was when I would go to
three quizzes a week on schoolday evenings, an even do a fourth if I could find
one. Not now. Granted there was parents evening in school on Monday. To put
that into context, imagine doing a full day’s work. Then having a 20 minute
break, then starting again and doing another three hours work on top of that.
After Monday I was exhausted at work for the rest of the week, and so going out
on Tuesday wasn’t the smartest decision that I’ve ever made. By my reckoning I
have a good 2 and a half years left before I can think about finishing, and so
while I’m still teaching I can’t see me regularly doing more than just the one
quiz a week.
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