Little things . . .

It can happen that you go to a quiz which, hand on heart, you think was not that great and yet still walk away remembering a couple of questions that you felt proud of yourself for getting right.

Last Thursday’s rugby club quiz was not very good. Yeah, I know, I’m always criticising other setters’ quizzes. If it makes anyone feel better about it they can start their own blog and criticise mine if they wish. Or we ca sit down together, discuss it face to face and then agree that I was right. RIP Brian Clough.

Now, this is as always just my opinion but on Thursday night I felt that there were issues with the quiz. In no particular order these were –

It was a quiz in which every other round had a different theme. I’m not saying that it is impossible to make a themed quiz which is satisfying to the teams playing, but it is difficult. It requires a level of real skill to prevent rounds from becoming mini specialist quizzes. Each themed round can alienate teams who do not have a particular knowledge of or interest in that subject. I felt that this was pretty much the case on Thursday.

It was a quiz in which too many of the questions excluded the younger players. In the four general knowledge rounds too many questions required the teams being able to remember the 60s or fifties. It was a quiz which would have sounded old fashioned when I stared playing in the club. In 1995.

There were too many whythe’ells. A whythe’ell is a question which provokes you to ask – why the ‘ell are they asking that? It’s the kind of question where you wonder why the setter would think that anyone else might know it and why the setter would think anyone else might be interested in it.

Having said all that, as I did say at the start of this post, there were a couple of questions that left me glowing. Four of the rounds were not themed and would end with the answers to questions 7, 8  and 9 all being connected, and the answer to number 10 being what connected them. So we were asked

The actor who played Withnail in Withnail and I

The Team Sky rider who won four tours de France beginning in 2013

The member of the Carry on Team who played the Black Fingernail.

Now, we had all of the answers – Richard E. Grant – Chris Froome – Sid James, but could not see any connection. Then it struck me – Grant was born in Swaziland/ Eswatini, Froome in Kenya and Sid James in South Africa.  So born in Africa was the connection.

Then in the very last round we had this one.

Which team, beginning with ‘H’ did Eric Morecambe think had won the FA Cup?

Which team sport was played in the Olympics from 1900 to 1936 and shares its name with a Volkswagen car?

Which Elvis Presley song begins with the lines “As the snow flies on a cold and grey Chicago mornin, A poor little baby child is born”

Now, we had the car and the song – Polo and In the Ghetto quickly. But the Eric Morecambe one? All I could think of was that I did recall him from time to time coughing - h’Arsenal!- So we went with that, which gave us

Arsenal

Polo

Ghetto.

What did I know about any of them? Well, I was pretty sure that the first ghetto was that of Venice. And I also had a feeling that the term arsenal derived from Venice somehow. And Venice has Marco Polo airport. So I went for Venice. Bingo.

I’ll be honest, I’ve been mentally congratulating myself ever since over that one. Which all goes to show, little things please little minds.