How easy is easy enough?

Been a while since I posted something which isn’t about a quiz show, hasn’t it? It’s not because I haven’t been quizzing either, but, well, I’m conscious that I do end up repeating myself a lot, and so without anything that new to say about quizzing I’ve tended not to say anything.

It all goes back to last Sunday. Now, I’ve thought long and hard about whether I should actually bring this up on the blog or not, but enough vacillating, and here we go. After all the unpleasantness at the Twelve Knights a few months ago John and I haven’t been back to it, and have only gone to the other Sunday night quiz once a fortnight. We never take the prize if we win, but even so by only going once a fortnight it means that other teams can win at least every other quiz. As it happens the people in the quiz we go to are absolutely lovely, and I’ve an awful lot of time for them – but nonetheless we’ve had enough experiences in the past where we’ve seen the other teams’ attitudes towards us start benignly and eventually go sour over a period of time that I don’t want to risk it happening through overkill.

Time was, maybe 20 odd years ago, when you could pick and choose between pubs which had a home made quiz on a Sunday evening. I don’t know what it’s like round your way, but in my part of South Wales when you find one now you want to cherish it. What I do find, though, is that when I find one, sooner or later I’ll get asked if I’ll make a quiz for one of the Sundays. Not that I mind this at all. However, a couple of months ago I was asked in this Sunday quiz if I could produce one, and so I did. I wrote it to the standard of the easiest kind of quiz I ever do for Aberavon Rugby club. Nobody was at all nasty about it when I asked the questions in the pub, but in all honesty looking at the scores it proved to be too hard for that pub. Surprisingly they asked if I’d so another one a few weeks later, and so I did. This one I made even easier. It was still too hard. Then again I was asked if I’d do last Sunday’s quiz for them. I went out of my way to include the easiest questions I could this side of an insult to the intelligence. The scores were still lower than they usually are in pretty much any other quiz in the pub.

Now I want to stress this next point. It has nothing to do with the intelligence of the teams who play there. Just chat with them for a few minutes and you’ll soon see that. For another thing, they do better on every other quiz I play in in the pub as well, which I don’t tend to think are any easier than the one I produced on Sunday. For example, the winning team on Sunday scored 26 out of a possible 37. OK, not so bad, but it is when you think they are normally at about 30 out of 35. All I can think of is that I just haven’t clicked with what sort of thing I need to be asking. Maybe.

Does it matter? Well, everyone who’s played in one of the 3 quizzes has been perfectly nice and kind about it, but it matters to me. You see my philosophy about setting a pub quiz is that you’re not trying to beat the teams – you’re not trying to find out what they don’t know, they’re trying to find out what they do know. I don’t want people coming up after the quiz saying ‘I’ve never heard of t etc. etc.’ I want people saying ‘ I was really pleased with myself for getting that one right’. Well, it’s just something I have to work on. As for this week, well it will be my turn on Thursday to be question master at the rugby club. Now, if I get that one wrong, then I really will be unhappy. Watch this space. 

Why Do I Say These Things?

I was back in the question master’s seat in the rugby club last night.  It’s only today that I realized that I’ve been setting quizzes in the club on a regular basis for the last 20 years – I distinctly remember that my first quiz in the club was asked on the first Thursday of the summer holiday in 1995.

This year has been the first year when I’ve put off being QM on anything approaching a regular basis. I don’t want to drag you through the whole litany of work issues and other issues all over again, but suffice it to say that while all these things rarely if ever stopped me from going to a quiz, there were weeks when it was just too awkward to find the time to make a quiz properly.

And I’m sure you know, it does take time to make a quiz properly. I reflected on this last night again. Now, we have some little customs, and whenever Brian or I do the quiz, after round seven we always say – ‘I’ve got a round 8 – if you want it.’ I will admit that last night’s quiz was a little trickier than I often make a quiz for the club, which probably explains why, when I made the traditional announcement – hardly anyone responded. Now, to be fair, I didn’t hear any shouts of ‘NO!’. But even so, I made the comment,

“Oh, thanks for that round of indifference. It makes all the hours I spent putting together a quiz for you worthwhile.” Which, to be fair, got a far warmer reception than the original announcement.

Which means I am a hypocrite, I am afraid. For the fact is – and I have tried hard to stop myself doing this – I am the first and often loudest person to moan in the club when a question setter asks a quiz which is not to my personal taste. I inwardly cringe when I think of some of the comments I just can’t stop myself making – along the lines of : -

‘Oh good, yet ANOTHER entertainment question!’ – and –

‘Why the hell are you asking a question nobody is going to know the answer to –‘ and the ever popular –

‘Question Master – What is etc. etc. etc.?

Me – And more to the point, who cares?’

I don’t know why I do it. Actually I do – it’s because I honestly can’t stop myself. And the ironic thing is that I’ve probably enjoyed the quiz in the club in 2015 as much as any other year I can think of. Finding a bit of form against the Lemurs possibly has something to do with it. I don’t keep a tally of how many wins each team has, but I reckon we’re pretty much neck and neck for the year, which is all the better considering that a significant number of the quizzes we’ve won have seen Lemurs fielding a full strength, or close to full strength team. Wins against a full Lemurs team in the two or three years previous have been as rare as rocking horse droppings.

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Nobody ever complains that a quiz is too easy. Well I do sometimes, but nobody not obsessive about quizzes, sensible and well-adjusted does. I say this because while we’re on the subject of question masters and the setting of quizzes, it will soon be my turn to set the quiz for the Fox and Hounds. John and I started attending this one about a year ago. We only go once a fortnight, because we’re always made very welcome, and we want to keep it that way. About two months ago I agreed to a request to do a set of questions. As a rough guide, I thought that if I made it twice as easy as a quiz for the rugby club, then it should be at just about the right level for the regular players. .

Being honest, it didn’t really work. It was too hard for the regular players. I feel a bit sorry about that, but the right attitude in these cases is to invite honest, constructive criticism, and try to take it on board and do better next time.

Well, I tried. Thing is though, even though I made the quiz easier, second time around, it was still too hard for the players. Which gives me a problem, as you can see. After all, I have to ask myself, how easy can I make it before it becomes obvious that I am deliberately ‘ dumbing it down’, for want of a better word? I mean, in my opinion I’m already giving them quiz lite as it is. I'm worried that I'm only maybe one step away from 'I Can't Believe it's Not Harder' , and two steps at most away from insulting their intelligence. Oh well.  It won’t be for a couple of weeks, so I’m going to give it some thought. I’ll let you know how it went afterwards.