Yes, of this course I’m going to tell you how we got on with the Jubilee quiz yesterday. You don’t think I’d be so mean as to keep you in suspense any more than is absolutely necessary, do you? It was good fun, actually. Yeah, alright, we did win. You know that I’m not always the greatest fan of themes quizzes, but since we all knew that this was going to be a themed quiz, and it was a one off, then that was perfectly fine. So, five rounds of 10 questions, and a picture round. We didn’t get everything right, but we got more right than the other teams did.
Jess overheard a member of one of the other teams, who
belongs to that genre commonly known as ‘nice old dears’, who expostulated ‘They
cheated!” when our final score was read out. Gotta be honest, it’s not the
first time this has happened. I still remember that evening in Culverhouse
Cross in Cardiff, when the team who HAD been cheating all night lost to us on a
tie break. I can even remember the question – in which year was the RNLI
founded? They blatantly looked on their phones – I know because I was watching
them – then decided to give verisimilitude to their answer by putting it a
couple of years out. The thing was, though, that John did actually know the
exact answer. One of them made a point of standing in front of me as I was
leaving, calling me an F@!*ing cheat. The landlord did bugger all.
I’m a quizzer, not a fighter, so I walked round him and we
left the bar. What else can you do? If someone is going to accuse you without
the slightest shred of evidence other than your score, then nothing you say is
going to convince them otherwise. So we said nothing, and let her get on with
it. I wasn’t looking at the old. . . dear’s face when Jess went on to win the
raffle, but I was tempted to say ‘You gonna accuse us of cheating on that as
well, love?!” I didn’t. I am mellowing in my old age.
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Of course, the jubilee quiz was only the starter course. We
went home for a couple of hours after a surprisingly good buffet, then returned
for the usual Thursday quiz in the evening. It was my daughter Jess’ quiz, as you may recall I mentioned yesterday. Now, I hadn’t been expecting to win any
prizes for the jubilee quiz earlier, but there were actually medals for all of
the team. So I suggested that we all wear our medals to see what Adam would
say. Adam didn’t play in the jubilee quiz – it’s fair to say that he is not a
great monarchist. Well, all I can say is that he didn’t bat an eyelid, didn’t
mention the medals, and in the end we gave it up as a bad job.
So to the quiz. Now, if you’re thinking – you’re not going
to say anything bad about a quiz when your family do it, well you’re right. I
wouldn’t. But on the same hand, I’m won’t offer praise if it isn’t deserved
either. And I have to say, that both Jess and Dan have done the quiz twice now,
and it’s impressive the way they’re picking up what I think of as the best ways
to put a set of connections together. Let me give you may favourite connection
that Jess used last night by way of a demonstration.
1) What
was the original name of the band Queen?
2) Who
played Tony Stark/Iron Man in the MCU film franchise?
3) Which
word was originally used in the Roman Republic for an officially temporarily
invested with absolute power, in time of war for example?
4) What
is the connection between your last three answers?
Answers
1) Smile
2) Robert
Downey Junior
3) Dictator
4) Charlie
Chaplin
What I liked about this wasn’t just that all of the answers
were clear cut, allowing for no other possibility. It wasn’t just the fact that
the connection wasn’t immediately obvious, in the way that -all three answers
can follow the word (insert appropriate word) – can be very obvious. But it was
well gettable, even if you didn’t know that Chaplin composed the song “Smile”.
It’s a good, well thought out connection.
I say this, because there are far more experienced setters
than Jess and Dan, who – and I appreciate that this is all in the eye of the
beholder and the ear of the behearer – who just aren’t very good at putting
connections together despite having done it for years. No names. No pack drill,
just in case they read the blog. I’ve no wish to upset them.
Answer of the night for our team last night was on a
connection as well, and it was Fran who had it. Fran is Adam’s fiancée. She
only comes from time to time to the rugby club, but she’s brilliant in the film
quizzes in the Gwyn Hall. I reckon she and Adam could win it on their own most
of the time – and that’s no disrespect intended to Dan and Jess because I’m the
lightweight in that particular quiz. Coming back to last night, Jess asked this
set:-
1) Which
humanitarian society or organisation was founded in the UK on fourth of August
1870?
2) What
name is given to a type of armour forged from interlinked metal rings?
3) In
which 1935 film does Fred Astaire play Jerry Travers, a dancer who comes to
London to star in a show?
I’ll tell you the answers. We had chain mail straightaway
and were giving consideration to the British Red Cross when Fran spotted that
the connection was sewing stitches. Bingo. Mind you, considering that we knew
this, it took ages for me to link Top Hat to top stitch.
I’ll be honest, the quiz last night was right up my street.
Of course, the question I remember most is the one I got wrong. The question
was – where is the world’s largest volcano? Now, I took this to mean – which is
the world’s tallest or highest volcano, which I knew is Ojos del Salado in the Andes
on the border between Argentina and Chile. However, the largest volcano is
Mauna Loa, on Hawaii. D’oh!
Well, there we are, two quizzes in one day, and we’re all
still in one piece. Mind you, there was some pretty bad manners from one of the
other teams last night, which I didn’t find out about until after the quiz was
over. Which brings us back to cheating in a roundabout way. Apparently a couple
of the ladies in one of the other teams – and yes, we are back in ‘nice old
dear’ territory here, were moaning like hell because they thought Jess was
going too fast reading out her questions. After each round Jess made a point of
asking if anyone would like any questions repeated, and they never said a word –
just went on moaning. We reckoned that they were upset because Jess was not
giving them time to google answer on their phone. They do it every week – Jess watched
them do it this week, Dan watched them do it last week. Usually they score
really well during the first round or two, then either they stop using their
phones or the batteries run down, but whatever the case, by the end of round 8,
without wanting to be horrible, they’re usually not even close to the lead.
Look, nobody likes to moan at a quiz more than I do. . .
er. . . did. As I said, I am mellowing as I get older. But come on! If you
think the QM is going too fast, then NICELY say – could you slow down a little
bit please? Especially considering that neither of the old dears involved has
ever volunteered to compile a quiz or act as QM. Not being funny, ladies, but
if you’re not prepared to have a go for yourself, then don’t criticise those
who are public spirited enough to do so. Put up and shut up.
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