Where now for the blog?

Apologies if this sounds a little self-congratulatory. I mean, it is a little self-congratulatory, but I’m sorry if this sounds that way. I revived the blog (again) on the 26^th August 2021 to review Clive Myrie’s first regular Mastermind. I didn’t know if I was going to continue the blog, or whether it would all just peter out again, just as it had done in previous revivals.

Since then I have made over 100 posts in just under 8 months. To put that into perspective, the last time that I made over 100 posts within a calendar year was as long ago as 2015.

Of course, the vast majority of these recent posts have been reviews of University Challenge and Mastermind. And there’s the thing. University Challenge 2022 ended with the Grand Final last Monday. Mastermind 2022 will end with the Grand Final next Monday. So I find myself wondering – what am I going to post about until the Autumn when they come back?

And it is a fair question to ask. Looking back to 2015, at the start of the year I was reviewing University Challenge, Mastermind, Only Connect and Brain of Britain. I was posting In the News questions based on my ‘doing the papers’ and their answers every week. I was also still just about doing my podcast. During the year I did post about some new quiz shows, and also about regular quizzes I took part in, and the quiz league in Bridgend. In 2011, 12 and 13 I managed over 300 posts a year, which, with the benefit of hindsight, is probably overkill.

Now, though, I find myself wondering – how am I going to keep it going now for the next few months until UC starts again? After all:-

In 2017 I stopped playing in the Bridgend Quiz League. I had been diagnosed with depression (don’t worry, I shan’t be banging on about this again much) and it was a bad time all round. I don’t have any bad feelings towards the league, but I haven’t any strong wish to play in it again now. Which is not to say that if I was asked to help out a team in a hypothetical local league I would automatically say no. I am far too susceptible to flattery for that. But it certainly isn’t in my plans.

I have only a couple of times gone to more than one quiz in a week since the pandemic began. I certainly don’t plan to expend my quiz activity at least until I finish teaching, hopefully in a couple of years’ time.

So I guess why I’m writing this post is to say that I want to keep the blog going, or at least ticking over until the return of my two fave shows, but as to the content, well, I’m just going to have to play that one by ear.