The Brink of Defeat

A funny thing happened at the quiz last night. We nearly lost. Blimey, that’s arrogant and smug, isn’t it? Sorry. In case you’re new – and you’re very welcome to LAM if you are – the quiz I’m talking about is the quiz in Aberavon Rugby Club in Port Talbot. I first attended in 1995, and I’ve been playing and taking my turn as question master almost ever since. I say almost because I’d pretty much stopped going even before the first lockdown. But a chance meeting with a member of one of the other teams in August last year led to me deciding to go back and give it a go, as reported in this very blog. My daughter Jess and son in law Dan offered to come along, as did our friend Adam, and a team was reborn. Every quiz since then, other than my own, we’ve won, and my team also won my New Year’s Quiz.

Now, one thing you can guarantee about a winning streak is that however long it lasts, each quiz you win brings you closer to the next one you lose. So I’m always wondering at the start of each Thursday quiz – is this the one where we get beat? It looked like it last night. After the first two rounds we were floundering, four points behind the leaders. It was a long old fightback, and we’d only achieved parity after round 6. Round seven saw both of our teams score a full house, so it all rested on the last round. The last round had been announced as a special round. This week would have been the 34th birthday of Katherine, a regular player in the quiz who had tragically passed away recently. In memory of Katherine, the final round was split between 2 of her favourite subjects – Walt Disney and Harry Potter. I have to admit I did feel sorry for the other team when this was revealed. Jess and Dan combined have won whole quizzes on those two subjects. To add to our luck with this round, the only question that they didn’t know – a Harry Potter question – was one I did know. That’s the way it goes.

I hope that the other teams don’t resent it too much. For most of the years I’ve been attending the quiz the vast majority of quizzes have been won by just two teams – the various incarnations of my team, the Boycs, and the various incarnations of the Lemurs. That never seemed to be too much of a problem, and I’m sure that this is at least partly due to the fact that you don’t have to pay anything to play, and there’s no prizes. But I can’t help wondering if some of the teams are becoming a bit sick of just the one team winning. As I’m sure that I’ve said before, I can’t deliberately ‘throw’ a quiz. I can’t help wanting to win and trying to win. The time was when I would have said – well, if you don’t like us winning so much, then do something about it. Put a bit of effort in, make yourself a better quizzer then you’ll be much more likely to win a few. – Thankfully, I’ve mellowed since then. I’d rather another team beat us than anyone start to feel resentful about it. 

Dan and Jess said something which made my heart glad yesterday night as well. They’d really started coming down to give me a bit of company and to make up a team, but they’ve got to the stage now that they really look forward to the quiz on a Thursday. I know where they’re coming from. For so long the quiz has been a significant marker post in my week. It’s something to look forward to which comes at just the right time in the week and marks the gradual downhill run into the weekend. I hope it continues for the foreseeable future.