By a combination of circumstances too tedious to go into, it turns out that its my turn to compile the quiz for the Rugby club this week even though it will only be a fortnight since my last turn. So I thought that it might be interesting to tell you something about the process I go through when making up a quiz for the club. Of course I often use different methods when I'm doing quizzes for other places, but this seems to work OK for the club. So what is actually involved ?
Theft
Yes, theft. Invariably the first question I ask myself when I start gathering the questions is - what good questions have I heard recently that I can steal for my own quiz ? - Its a no brainer really when you think about it. If you hear a question in a quiz, and you think - that's a good one - well, chances are that other people will think so too. Let me give you an example. Years ago I heard this one : -
Villa did it in the FA Cup Final in 1981, and Sunderland did it in 1979 . Who did it in 1980 ?
I'm sue you either know or have worked out that the answer is Brooking. Villa is Ricardo, rather than Aston, and Sunderland is Alan rather than FC , and the thing they did is to score the winning goal in the FA Cup final. Trevor Brooking did it in 1980. Now that's the kind of question you hear, and you just wish you'd asked it. Don't worry - you will - over and over again, probably.
Design
Theft is only ever going to get you a few 'star' questions which will give your quiz that little extra bit of flavour. Most of the questions you're going to have to find for yourself. But where ? More than that , what type of questions ? Which categories. I find it helps to have a template. I've never been a great fan of themed rounds, but its certainly one way of doing it, provided that there are enough rounds within the quiz to give a good spread of categories. If your quiz only has four rounds, and three of those rounds are, for the sake of argument, pop music, then TV, then film, then what you've got is a specialist entertainment quiz. Fair enough - many people like entertainment, but not everyone. But that's just an example. Its just as easy to overdose on sport, or Geography, or any one of a number of subjects. Personally I use a rough template for the club. It works like this. There are 8 rounds of ten questions. In each round I aim for one question each on in the news, History ( inc politics and world events ) , Geography, Culture ( classical music - literature , fine art), Science ( inc Technology , Industry , Economics , Business ) , Natural World, Sport - two questions on Entertainment ( popular culture - TV - Film - Pop Music etc. ) and one question on anything which doesn't fit into any of the other categories. Its not perfect, but then what is ?
Gathering Questions
Out of 80 questions, I'd say that a good 60 or so come out of books. Do you remember your first car, or your first love ? Well, my first quiz 'bible' was The Pear's Quiz Companion. When I first started compiling quizzes 15 years ago, anything up to 50 questions out of 80 would come out of the quiz companion. It had its drawbacks, and there's been much better books written since - Trevor Montague's A to Z of Almost Everything being the best I've ever had. I rarely use the quiz companion any more, though I'll get the odd question out of it for old time's sake now and again.
I don't use The A to Z of Everything on every quiz, but its always very good to fall back on, and its an invaluable source for checking the accuracy of answers to questions from other sources. Like many quizzers I have a very large collection of quiz books, and I'll use between 5 and 10 different ones on any quiz. Certain books are great for the bread and butter questions which will make up the bulk of your quiz - the three 15 to 1 books - 2000 for 2000 etc., and also the 2 Weakest link books are full of this sort of thing. Then you'll want some genuine ' thinking ' questions. The Prince of Wales quiz book is brilliant for this - all the quizzes within it were put together with love and care by genuine quizzers. I find The People's Quiz book good for popular culture and entertainment questions, although not a lot else. And the list goes on - the Perfect quiz book isn't my favourite, but does have themed rounds on specific dates which can come in handy and so on, and so forth.
They don't all come out of books. The in the news questions for example are culled from Newspapers, other quizzes, and also online In the News quizzes.
Then there's a totally different type of question, the 'original' questions which occur to you through something you've just seen, heard or read. you may get anything up to half a dozen of these in each set of 80 questions.
Combining Questions
You know that some questions in a given category are harder than others. Ideally I try to combine questions so that rounds 1 and 2 are relatively easy and high scoring, rounds three and our are tougher, round five is easy again, round six is a snorter, round seven slightly easier, and round 8 is left with the questions you didn't want to ask in any other round, because you never know, you might have a slow night when you only get through 7 rounds anyway. This isn't necessarily so easy to do when I use a connections quiz - like the July quiz of the month, where some of the question combinations are necessitated by the connections.
Testing
When I'm in work, I'll take a finished quiz into work and try out the questions in the staff room at lunchtime. my colleagues are non quizzers, so if they can answer 7 or so questions per round then I know that I've probably got the level just right. Nobody ever complains if you produce an easy quiz for the rugby club. However school broke up on Friday, so I'm kind of flying a bit blind this week.
Miscellaneous Observations
Its easy to become too sensitive to criticism. However its also dangerous to become blase and completely ignore feedback from anyone who has never made a quiz for the club themselves. So here's a few tips I try to take heed of myself, based on my observations of the way that people respond to my own quizzes.
* As a rule of thumb, people never complain that the quiz is too easy. If you're in any doubt about whether a question is too hard, then simplify it, or ditch it.
* Don't go making a quiz to appeal to your own interests. Your quiz will go best when there's something for everyone in it.
* I don't think that everyone realises just how important it is to phrase a question clearly, so that it is absolutely clear what you are actually asking. Even if you do take care, you'll still get asked for clarification sometimes. But if you don't take care it can be a very frustrating experience all round.
* You will make mistakes anyway. Some questions you've included in good faith from quiz books, for example, will be wrong. That can't be helped. Making up your own questions, and not checking that your answer is correct can be helped, and its something you really should avoid.
* Aim to write a quiz for the middle ability teams rather than the most or least knowledgable. I know that if the majority of teams are scoring about 60 out of 80, then I've pitched it just about right.
* Listen to constructive criticism. Unadulterated praise is nice, but not exactly helpful. Neither are comments along the lines of "Your quiz was crap ". If people tell you that they liked something or disliked something, then think about it. if its not fair comment - OK, but if it is fair, then use this to help you make your next quiz.
I'll let you know how it goes . Watch this space.
Saturday, 18 July 2009
Tuesday, 14 July 2009
University Challenge - Only Connect - The Fuse
Once again we find Monday nights have become a veritable cornucopia of quizdom, with University Challenge on BBC2 followed by Only Connect. But before we get on with the really serious business, lets take a look at ITV's The Fuse.
There are times, I hope you'll agree, when you find that you're watching some performance, and you find yourself enjoying it despite yourself. Now, regular readers will know that I'm a fan of the previous incumbent of the ITV 5 - 6pm slot, the Chase. I make no bones about it, I think that the Chase has real potential, and I hope that it does come back. So you can appreciate that I was hoping that The Fuse would be good, but perhaps not too good.
So lets de-construct it all a little to see what makes it tick. So in no particular order, here we go : -
Level
Probably just about right for this time of day. There's little enough which is ever going to give a regular quizzer nightmares - while if you watched The Chase you'll know that there was a real mix of questions, including some real snorters. But then this is a quiz for members of the Great British Public, the have - a - go types who'd be equally at home on a game show where there were no questions involved. That's fine The programme never makes any extravagant claims bout having great quiz players on it.
Game Play
6 players start as a team. Each in turn picks a category of questions. The team must answer a chain of 6 correct answers, before the fuse, from which the show takes its name, burns out. A la Weakest Link, the time allowed for each round goes down each time. Only if they complete the chain of 6 correct answers, or if the time runs out, do the team find out how much money was in the box. To be honest I found this round just a tiny bit slow, but I'm well aware that I do like my quizzes on the fast side, and so I guess for the teatime audience it was probably just about right.
Then in the next rounds, the team have to fight it out amongst themselves. The two players who answered most right in the first rounds pick two other players to play against in a 3 way fight. Each picks a category from the ones remaining. Then they have to buzz in to answer questions. A correct buzz means you can light an opponent's fuse, or if yours is lit, you can stop it burning. An incorrect buzz means ten seconds of your fuse is extinguished in one go. Once your fuse is burnt out - boom ! Off you go. When only one remains, they go through to the next round, where the last two fight it out in a very similar round.
Finally, the last player has to answer 6 questions in a row. Their prize money is what the whole team earned in round one, plus whatever his or her own category is worth. 50 seconds or less to do it, and the money is tripled.
I'll be honest, I thought the contestant(s) v. contestant rounds were much quicker, and much more exciting - well worth watching in fact, even if the questions in tonight's show were a little on the easy side. The final round was a little anticlimactic, IMHO.
Atmosphere
A bit of a catch-all term, this one. But easy enough to pin down. Far less serious than The Chase. Contestants had obviously been encouraged to whoop it up a bit when they succeeded in getting the 6 in a row in any category, and to 'trash talk' to each other at the start of the second round. To be honest, the trash talk was exactly that, and it rang far more true when the beaten contestants wished the winners good luck in the semi final. Mary, my wife actually really liked this, and said that she likes to see people who have a bit of life in them.
The host was, of course, Austin Healey, the Leicester Lip as was. Cards on the table, as an England rugby fan living in Wales I have a soft spot for Austin. He didn't do a bad job either. He looked professional, and seemed to be enjoying himself, which is always a plus. The catchphrase of the show is,
"Do you want to fight the fuse. Then let's light the fuse. " and Austin has to say it 6 times in the first round, which is probably at least 4 times too many, and did get a little grating. The format means that he becomes a little more matey with the contestants than the Chase allowed Bradly Walsh to become, as each contestant got the obligatory 2 minute chat before choosing their category. Its a little dated, this sort of thing, although it did allow Shaun from Swansea to tell us that if he won he could use the money for a dream wedding with his fiancée. Well, win he did, and so that was quite a heart warming moment , especially when he invited Austin to be his best man. Good stuff - its always nice to see a boy from South Wales doing well.
What's my overall verdict, then ? I'll be honest, once you get past the money gathering team round, this is actually a good show. There's something about the second round and the semi finals which really reminds me of another show - yet I can't think which one. I still really like The Chase, and hope it will be back - but I'll be watching the Fuse again during this fortnight.
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University Challenge - First round Match 2
Last night's second match of the first round saw The Royal Veterinary College taking on last year's champions Manchester University. Yes, I know that we had all that nonsense about the final, but if you look in the record books, they're the champions. Thankfully Jeremy Paxman didn't mention this at all in his preamble. What he did mention was that being as all of the RVC team were studying veterinary medicine that you'd expect them to be stronger on the Sciences than the Arts. Cue a huge smile from Our Jeremy when RVC took one of the first starters, recognising a quotation from Tennyson.
You'll know by now that we're far from impartial on the Clark sofa, and so being an alumnus of London University myself I was rooting for the RVC, more in hope than expectation. ( If you're wondering, I went to Goldsmith's College - who have never had a team into the televised University Challenge tournament as far as I know ) If we were expecting another close fought contest like last week's, we were to be disappointed. RVC were just a little off the pace throughout most of the contest, and indeed towards the end they could be forgiven for dropping points by buzzing in just a fraction too early on the starters. In the end Manchester ran out comfortable winners by 235 points to RVC's 60.
So what are Manchester's chances of emulating their illustrious immediate predecessors ? On the plus side they all shared out the starters and bonuses pretty well, and its difficult to single out any one of Mr. Whyman, Miss Neiman, Mr. Whitfield and Mr. Daunt as being the 'star' of the team. On the other hand, though, you can't help feeling that they might have scored a few more in this match. Not that it matters. At the moment its about getting through to the second round.
Its unlikely that RVC will progress to the repechage round, a fact to which Jeremy Paxman paid tribute when he commented, "Its not the worst score we've ever seen. " before generously adding, "Far from it " and paying tribute to the fact that they seemed to enjoy it. Bravo. I did too.
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Only Connect - BBC4 - First round Heat One
Monday evening. Often fiendish questions. String quartet. Question master not afraid to pour acid upon an ill advised answer. Oxford v. Cambridge. Its University Challenge again, isn't it ? Actually, no, it isn't, its the much awaited return of The Finest Quiz Only To Grace BBC4 - and winner of the Life After Mastermind award (honorary) for the Best New TV Quiz of 2008 - Only Connect.
A big congratulation to the production team for having the good sense to obey a maxim more honoured in the breach than the observance - if it ain't broke, don't fix it. Everything you loved about the show first time round - the connections grid - the missing letters round - Victoria Coren - is back.
As for this first round heat, the Cambridge Quiz Society took on the Oxford Librarians in a contest that twisted and turned like a twisty - turny thing ( Blackadder the 2nd c. 1986 ) . To use a phrase much beloved by one of my good quiz friends, the Cambridge boys looked like they were 'out with the washing' at one point, trailing the librarians by 2 points to 8. However it all came good for them with the connections wall, where despite sailing close to the wind with only 2 lives remaining they solved the whole thing, and picked up the full points plus bonuses. The librarians started well with their wall, but were stuck on the last two connections, knowing that one was a group of theatres, but unable to get the right combination. Still they went into the missing letters round with a small lead of 2 points. Last series we saw bigger leads than this overturned in the final round, and you had the feeling after the first minute or so that the Cambridge team were going to do it. They duly did, but only by one point.
Good show. Welcome back, Only Connect - I've missed you.
There are times, I hope you'll agree, when you find that you're watching some performance, and you find yourself enjoying it despite yourself. Now, regular readers will know that I'm a fan of the previous incumbent of the ITV 5 - 6pm slot, the Chase. I make no bones about it, I think that the Chase has real potential, and I hope that it does come back. So you can appreciate that I was hoping that The Fuse would be good, but perhaps not too good.
So lets de-construct it all a little to see what makes it tick. So in no particular order, here we go : -
Level
Probably just about right for this time of day. There's little enough which is ever going to give a regular quizzer nightmares - while if you watched The Chase you'll know that there was a real mix of questions, including some real snorters. But then this is a quiz for members of the Great British Public, the have - a - go types who'd be equally at home on a game show where there were no questions involved. That's fine The programme never makes any extravagant claims bout having great quiz players on it.
Game Play
6 players start as a team. Each in turn picks a category of questions. The team must answer a chain of 6 correct answers, before the fuse, from which the show takes its name, burns out. A la Weakest Link, the time allowed for each round goes down each time. Only if they complete the chain of 6 correct answers, or if the time runs out, do the team find out how much money was in the box. To be honest I found this round just a tiny bit slow, but I'm well aware that I do like my quizzes on the fast side, and so I guess for the teatime audience it was probably just about right.
Then in the next rounds, the team have to fight it out amongst themselves. The two players who answered most right in the first rounds pick two other players to play against in a 3 way fight. Each picks a category from the ones remaining. Then they have to buzz in to answer questions. A correct buzz means you can light an opponent's fuse, or if yours is lit, you can stop it burning. An incorrect buzz means ten seconds of your fuse is extinguished in one go. Once your fuse is burnt out - boom ! Off you go. When only one remains, they go through to the next round, where the last two fight it out in a very similar round.
Finally, the last player has to answer 6 questions in a row. Their prize money is what the whole team earned in round one, plus whatever his or her own category is worth. 50 seconds or less to do it, and the money is tripled.
I'll be honest, I thought the contestant(s) v. contestant rounds were much quicker, and much more exciting - well worth watching in fact, even if the questions in tonight's show were a little on the easy side. The final round was a little anticlimactic, IMHO.
Atmosphere
A bit of a catch-all term, this one. But easy enough to pin down. Far less serious than The Chase. Contestants had obviously been encouraged to whoop it up a bit when they succeeded in getting the 6 in a row in any category, and to 'trash talk' to each other at the start of the second round. To be honest, the trash talk was exactly that, and it rang far more true when the beaten contestants wished the winners good luck in the semi final. Mary, my wife actually really liked this, and said that she likes to see people who have a bit of life in them.
The host was, of course, Austin Healey, the Leicester Lip as was. Cards on the table, as an England rugby fan living in Wales I have a soft spot for Austin. He didn't do a bad job either. He looked professional, and seemed to be enjoying himself, which is always a plus. The catchphrase of the show is,
"Do you want to fight the fuse. Then let's light the fuse. " and Austin has to say it 6 times in the first round, which is probably at least 4 times too many, and did get a little grating. The format means that he becomes a little more matey with the contestants than the Chase allowed Bradly Walsh to become, as each contestant got the obligatory 2 minute chat before choosing their category. Its a little dated, this sort of thing, although it did allow Shaun from Swansea to tell us that if he won he could use the money for a dream wedding with his fiancée. Well, win he did, and so that was quite a heart warming moment , especially when he invited Austin to be his best man. Good stuff - its always nice to see a boy from South Wales doing well.
What's my overall verdict, then ? I'll be honest, once you get past the money gathering team round, this is actually a good show. There's something about the second round and the semi finals which really reminds me of another show - yet I can't think which one. I still really like The Chase, and hope it will be back - but I'll be watching the Fuse again during this fortnight.
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University Challenge - First round Match 2
Last night's second match of the first round saw The Royal Veterinary College taking on last year's champions Manchester University. Yes, I know that we had all that nonsense about the final, but if you look in the record books, they're the champions. Thankfully Jeremy Paxman didn't mention this at all in his preamble. What he did mention was that being as all of the RVC team were studying veterinary medicine that you'd expect them to be stronger on the Sciences than the Arts. Cue a huge smile from Our Jeremy when RVC took one of the first starters, recognising a quotation from Tennyson.
You'll know by now that we're far from impartial on the Clark sofa, and so being an alumnus of London University myself I was rooting for the RVC, more in hope than expectation. ( If you're wondering, I went to Goldsmith's College - who have never had a team into the televised University Challenge tournament as far as I know ) If we were expecting another close fought contest like last week's, we were to be disappointed. RVC were just a little off the pace throughout most of the contest, and indeed towards the end they could be forgiven for dropping points by buzzing in just a fraction too early on the starters. In the end Manchester ran out comfortable winners by 235 points to RVC's 60.
So what are Manchester's chances of emulating their illustrious immediate predecessors ? On the plus side they all shared out the starters and bonuses pretty well, and its difficult to single out any one of Mr. Whyman, Miss Neiman, Mr. Whitfield and Mr. Daunt as being the 'star' of the team. On the other hand, though, you can't help feeling that they might have scored a few more in this match. Not that it matters. At the moment its about getting through to the second round.
Its unlikely that RVC will progress to the repechage round, a fact to which Jeremy Paxman paid tribute when he commented, "Its not the worst score we've ever seen. " before generously adding, "Far from it " and paying tribute to the fact that they seemed to enjoy it. Bravo. I did too.
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Only Connect - BBC4 - First round Heat One
Monday evening. Often fiendish questions. String quartet. Question master not afraid to pour acid upon an ill advised answer. Oxford v. Cambridge. Its University Challenge again, isn't it ? Actually, no, it isn't, its the much awaited return of The Finest Quiz Only To Grace BBC4 - and winner of the Life After Mastermind award (honorary) for the Best New TV Quiz of 2008 - Only Connect.
A big congratulation to the production team for having the good sense to obey a maxim more honoured in the breach than the observance - if it ain't broke, don't fix it. Everything you loved about the show first time round - the connections grid - the missing letters round - Victoria Coren - is back.
As for this first round heat, the Cambridge Quiz Society took on the Oxford Librarians in a contest that twisted and turned like a twisty - turny thing ( Blackadder the 2nd c. 1986 ) . To use a phrase much beloved by one of my good quiz friends, the Cambridge boys looked like they were 'out with the washing' at one point, trailing the librarians by 2 points to 8. However it all came good for them with the connections wall, where despite sailing close to the wind with only 2 lives remaining they solved the whole thing, and picked up the full points plus bonuses. The librarians started well with their wall, but were stuck on the last two connections, knowing that one was a group of theatres, but unable to get the right combination. Still they went into the missing letters round with a small lead of 2 points. Last series we saw bigger leads than this overturned in the final round, and you had the feeling after the first minute or so that the Cambridge team were going to do it. They duly did, but only by one point.
Good show. Welcome back, Only Connect - I've missed you.
Sunday, 12 July 2009
How Did I Miss That ?
You turn your back for one minute, then . . . University Challenge is back ! Yes, if you're wondering, I didn't review it last Monday because I didn't see it. To tell you the truth, I didn't even know it was on. So I'm indebted to Weaver's Week for that. With a great effort of will, when I saw the review today I stopped reading it immediately, and went for my trusty remote control. If I'd left it a day later, then I'd have missed it completely , since we can only watch things on demand for 7 days.
Well, here's hoping that we have a series which replicates the high standards and high drama of the last series, without the descent into low farce at the end of it. The first match up paired Christ's College Cambridge with the University of Warwick , winners in 2007. It was actually a very close match, with Warwick streaking off, Christ's pulling them back, and then Warwick just eking out a lead by the end, to win by 200 points to 170. That's a close match , and as good a way to start the series as any.
Most impressive was Mr. Christmas of Warwick, who bagged more than his fair share of the starters. Was it my imagination, though, or did we see him use a naughty little word when he buzzed in too early on a starter ? If it was just my imagination, then I apologise. It puts me in mind of Miriam Margolyes, who appeared in an early series , and claimed that she used the 'F' word when she got a question wrong, and that it was never edited out, thus becoming the first person to use that word on British TV since she predated Kenneth Tynan by a few years. Sadly the tape of the show was erased, I believe, so we will never know for certain. If we're looking for quiz connections with use of that word, the presenter on whose show Mr. Tynan used the 'F' word was none other than Robert Robinson - doyen of 'Ask the Family' and 'Brain of Britain'.
Here's a thought to gladden the cockles of your heart. Only Connect returns tomorrow, to provide a powerhouse quiz hour, for viewers able to receive BBC4. So at least the series is back, even if the Beeb are resisting the wishes of its fans , ie that it could actually make a move to BBC2, where it would fit like a glove IMHO, and everyone would have the opportunity to see it.
Thi is turning into something like a mini round up on TV quizzes, and that being the case, a word about "The Chase". I personally think that this has been a really enjoyable show. That last, Final Chase round is great TV, and has become compulsive viewing as far as the Clark sofa is concerned. Looking back to my comments about contestants being at a disadvantage having to buzz in, its still turned out that 3 or 4 of the teams have actually managed to win the money. Again, I know that comparisons are odious, but if you do compare this with the number of teams who actually succeed on Eggheads, then it does seem to suggest that you do have a greater chance of success on the Chase. From what I've heard its done pretty much at least as well in the ratings as Divided. So here's a radical suggestion. Commission them both. If people really like Divided, then good luck to them. Its not a bad show, even though its not really my cup of tea. But make sure you commission The Chase as well.
Well, here's hoping that we have a series which replicates the high standards and high drama of the last series, without the descent into low farce at the end of it. The first match up paired Christ's College Cambridge with the University of Warwick , winners in 2007. It was actually a very close match, with Warwick streaking off, Christ's pulling them back, and then Warwick just eking out a lead by the end, to win by 200 points to 170. That's a close match , and as good a way to start the series as any.
Most impressive was Mr. Christmas of Warwick, who bagged more than his fair share of the starters. Was it my imagination, though, or did we see him use a naughty little word when he buzzed in too early on a starter ? If it was just my imagination, then I apologise. It puts me in mind of Miriam Margolyes, who appeared in an early series , and claimed that she used the 'F' word when she got a question wrong, and that it was never edited out, thus becoming the first person to use that word on British TV since she predated Kenneth Tynan by a few years. Sadly the tape of the show was erased, I believe, so we will never know for certain. If we're looking for quiz connections with use of that word, the presenter on whose show Mr. Tynan used the 'F' word was none other than Robert Robinson - doyen of 'Ask the Family' and 'Brain of Britain'.
Here's a thought to gladden the cockles of your heart. Only Connect returns tomorrow, to provide a powerhouse quiz hour, for viewers able to receive BBC4. So at least the series is back, even if the Beeb are resisting the wishes of its fans , ie that it could actually make a move to BBC2, where it would fit like a glove IMHO, and everyone would have the opportunity to see it.
Thi is turning into something like a mini round up on TV quizzes, and that being the case, a word about "The Chase". I personally think that this has been a really enjoyable show. That last, Final Chase round is great TV, and has become compulsive viewing as far as the Clark sofa is concerned. Looking back to my comments about contestants being at a disadvantage having to buzz in, its still turned out that 3 or 4 of the teams have actually managed to win the money. Again, I know that comparisons are odious, but if you do compare this with the number of teams who actually succeed on Eggheads, then it does seem to suggest that you do have a greater chance of success on the Chase. From what I've heard its done pretty much at least as well in the ratings as Divided. So here's a radical suggestion. Commission them both. If people really like Divided, then good luck to them. Its not a bad show, even though its not really my cup of tea. But make sure you commission The Chase as well.
Saturday, 11 July 2009
Charity Quizzes - a welcome return
D'you remember Charity Quizzes ? Back in my salad days, at the outset of my quiz career back in the tail end of the 1980s, and the start of the 90s, Charity Quizzes were fairly common. If you take just Port Talbot, the Bay View club, now sadly gone, and the Seaside and Labour social club seemed to hold them fairly often. Then when you factored in a few other clubs as well, you can see that you could easily take part in between half a dozen and a dozen in a year.
Now that I'm into my third decade of quizzing they seem far fewer and further between. I'm not really sure why this is. Maybe its something to do with the decline of league quizzing in South Wales, and maybe its due to other reasons - I just don't know. Still, I've always enjoyed Charity Quizzes, so its a pleasure to be able to write about anything that bucks the trend.
Last night I joined a team for a charity quiz in a school in the new development in Margam. Very good it was too. There were 8 rounds of ten questions. Thats a good amount of questions, especially for a charity quiz. By way of comparison we also do 8 rounds of ten questions in the rugby club on a Thursday night. in addition to this, there were two handouts - one of 25 pictures, and one of 30 advertising slogans. We only have one handout in the rugby club. To put it into perspective, the only other regular quiz I know which delivers more for your money is the Monday night quiz in the Pill Harriers Rugby club in Newport, where you get three rounds of 20 questions on General Knowledge, a pictures handout, and a handout requiring normally between 40 and 50 answers on a wide range of topics. I don't know how long it takes Trevor Parry to put together the Monday night quiz, but it must be hours. When I do the Thursday night quiz for Aberavon it takes a good three hours at least to put it together. So full marks to last night's QM - it must have taken a long time.
One question was intriguing.
Canada has the longest coastline in the world. In miles, in total , how long is it ?
Now, bearing in mind that the circumference of the Earth is a tad less than 25,000 miles, what would you think ? 5,000 miles ? 10,000 miles ? Well, actually , its -
151485 miles !
Staggering. I would be lying if I said that I didn't think that the question master must have misplaced a decimal point, but when I got home and fired up google it turned out that yes, its absolutely true, and this is one of those questions is just so much bigger than you would have imagined. But when you straighten out all those huge crinkly islands and the huge crinkly mainland, you actually get a line that would go round the world a little more than 6 times !
Now that I'm into my third decade of quizzing they seem far fewer and further between. I'm not really sure why this is. Maybe its something to do with the decline of league quizzing in South Wales, and maybe its due to other reasons - I just don't know. Still, I've always enjoyed Charity Quizzes, so its a pleasure to be able to write about anything that bucks the trend.
Last night I joined a team for a charity quiz in a school in the new development in Margam. Very good it was too. There were 8 rounds of ten questions. Thats a good amount of questions, especially for a charity quiz. By way of comparison we also do 8 rounds of ten questions in the rugby club on a Thursday night. in addition to this, there were two handouts - one of 25 pictures, and one of 30 advertising slogans. We only have one handout in the rugby club. To put it into perspective, the only other regular quiz I know which delivers more for your money is the Monday night quiz in the Pill Harriers Rugby club in Newport, where you get three rounds of 20 questions on General Knowledge, a pictures handout, and a handout requiring normally between 40 and 50 answers on a wide range of topics. I don't know how long it takes Trevor Parry to put together the Monday night quiz, but it must be hours. When I do the Thursday night quiz for Aberavon it takes a good three hours at least to put it together. So full marks to last night's QM - it must have taken a long time.
One question was intriguing.
Canada has the longest coastline in the world. In miles, in total , how long is it ?
Now, bearing in mind that the circumference of the Earth is a tad less than 25,000 miles, what would you think ? 5,000 miles ? 10,000 miles ? Well, actually , its -
151485 miles !
Staggering. I would be lying if I said that I didn't think that the question master must have misplaced a decimal point, but when I got home and fired up google it turned out that yes, its absolutely true, and this is one of those questions is just so much bigger than you would have imagined. But when you straighten out all those huge crinkly islands and the huge crinkly mainland, you actually get a line that would go round the world a little more than 6 times !
July Quiz
1) Two weeks ago who became the first woman since 1997 to win the Grand Final of Mastermind - and for a bonus point she also became the first champion from which country ?
2) Which silent film actress was the original It girl ?
3) On July 10th which famous traditional race was conducted on the River Thames in London ?
4) Which substance has the chemical formula H2SO4 ?
5) What is the connection between your last three answers ?
6) The Letters DOC might be found on bottles of wine from which country?
7) Song lyrics - which famous song contains the lyric
You've really made the grade
And the papers want to know whose shirts you wear.
8) Which word is used for an elephant driver ?
9) True or false - the Battles of Agincourt and Bosworth were both in the same century ?
10) Which line of latitude forms most of the boundary between the USA and Canada ?
11) Farah Fawcett died in June. She had married her long term partner, Ryan O'Neill. Who was her previous husband ?
12) Who was the first ever South African to win the British Open ?
13) The Norman Mailer book "The Executioners Song" is about the execution of which notorious American killer ?
14) Former opera singer Norman Lumsden achieved success playing which character in a long running series of adverts ?
15) What is the connection between your last 3 answers ?
16) Which people were defeated by the Greeks of Athens in the Battle of Marathon ?
17) Oxford has been described as the city of dreaming what ?
18) What type of creature is a pipistrelle ?
19) Who was the founder of antiseptic surgery ?
20) Which dye or pigment was originally obtained from crushed beetles ?
21) Name the player whom Andy Murray defeated in Wimbledon's latest ever finish in the 3rd round of the 2009 championships
22) Which dance is often believed to be Polish, even though its name actually comes from a 5 letter Czech word meaning little half ?
23) The word ferret , meaning a domesticated polecat, can also be used to mean a type of which thread ?
24) What was the name of the British tool company taken to court in the 90s over supplying arms and expertise to Iraq ?
25) Karl Malden, who died last week, was nominated for Best Supporting actor in 1954 for a role in which Elia Kazan film ?
26) What is the connection between your last 4 answers ?
27) Which old cartoon character was always foiled by Vince and Musky ?
28) The Tour de france started last weekend. who won the race in 2008 ?
29) Which element of the periodic table is represented by the letter K ?
30) What is the capital city of Mozambique ?
41) Which date last week saw the 40th Anniversary of Swansea being made a city ?
42) Which two time Oscar winning actress was born Shirley Schrift ? Her final Oscar nomination was for The Poseidon Adventure .
43) In or on which building would you find the Bell harry Tower ?
44) Which aircraft company built the RAF Swordfish torpedo bombers which helped to sink the Bismarck in World war 2 ?
45) What is the connection between your last three answers ?
46) The Danish word for King is Kong. So when King Kong was released in Denmark was it called
a) King Kong - b) Kong Kong or c) Kong King ?
47) Who was the dictator of Portugal, who died in 1970 ?
48) Which work of Literature begins with a collection of travellers gathering at the Tabard Inn in Southwark ?
49) Which term is usually applied to the marine mammals the manatees and dugongs ?
50) Who was the last person to win the Wimbledon ladies singles other than the Williams sisters ?
2) Which silent film actress was the original It girl ?
3) On July 10th which famous traditional race was conducted on the River Thames in London ?
4) Which substance has the chemical formula H2SO4 ?
5) What is the connection between your last three answers ?
6) The Letters DOC might be found on bottles of wine from which country?
7) Song lyrics - which famous song contains the lyric
You've really made the grade
And the papers want to know whose shirts you wear.
8) Which word is used for an elephant driver ?
9) True or false - the Battles of Agincourt and Bosworth were both in the same century ?
10) Which line of latitude forms most of the boundary between the USA and Canada ?
11) Farah Fawcett died in June. She had married her long term partner, Ryan O'Neill. Who was her previous husband ?
12) Who was the first ever South African to win the British Open ?
13) The Norman Mailer book "The Executioners Song" is about the execution of which notorious American killer ?
14) Former opera singer Norman Lumsden achieved success playing which character in a long running series of adverts ?
15) What is the connection between your last 3 answers ?
16) Which people were defeated by the Greeks of Athens in the Battle of Marathon ?
17) Oxford has been described as the city of dreaming what ?
18) What type of creature is a pipistrelle ?
19) Who was the founder of antiseptic surgery ?
20) Which dye or pigment was originally obtained from crushed beetles ?
21) Name the player whom Andy Murray defeated in Wimbledon's latest ever finish in the 3rd round of the 2009 championships
22) Which dance is often believed to be Polish, even though its name actually comes from a 5 letter Czech word meaning little half ?
23) The word ferret , meaning a domesticated polecat, can also be used to mean a type of which thread ?
24) What was the name of the British tool company taken to court in the 90s over supplying arms and expertise to Iraq ?
25) Karl Malden, who died last week, was nominated for Best Supporting actor in 1954 for a role in which Elia Kazan film ?
26) What is the connection between your last 4 answers ?
27) Which old cartoon character was always foiled by Vince and Musky ?
28) The Tour de france started last weekend. who won the race in 2008 ?
29) Which element of the periodic table is represented by the letter K ?
30) What is the capital city of Mozambique ?
41) Which date last week saw the 40th Anniversary of Swansea being made a city ?
42) Which two time Oscar winning actress was born Shirley Schrift ? Her final Oscar nomination was for The Poseidon Adventure .
43) In or on which building would you find the Bell harry Tower ?
44) Which aircraft company built the RAF Swordfish torpedo bombers which helped to sink the Bismarck in World war 2 ?
45) What is the connection between your last three answers ?
46) The Danish word for King is Kong. So when King Kong was released in Denmark was it called
a) King Kong - b) Kong Kong or c) Kong King ?
47) Who was the dictator of Portugal, who died in 1970 ?
48) Which work of Literature begins with a collection of travellers gathering at the Tabard Inn in Southwark ?
49) Which term is usually applied to the marine mammals the manatees and dugongs ?
50) Who was the last person to win the Wimbledon ladies singles other than the Williams sisters ?
Wednesday, 8 July 2009
TV Watch - Good Question - Set Questions
Ok, well where shall we start ? I guess that The Chase is as good a place as any. Its coming to an end of its initial run this week - watch out next week for a new quiz called The Fuse. ITV will thus have given us in quick succession Divided, then the Chase, then the Fuse. hat next ? Is there to be some great viewers vote to choose which will continue, and which will face the chop ? Personally I prefer The Chase to Divided, yet a lot of my non quizzing friends - yes, I do have some - are firmly in favour of Divided. Who knows, maybe The Fuse will blow them all out of the water. Watch this space.
Back to The Chase. Its confession time now. 5pm can sometimes be a quite awkward time for me to be trying to watch TV, and so I often watch the show using Virgin On Demand. Thing is, when I do that I play each contestant's initial round at normal speed, but all the chase rounds at fast forward - until the final Chase. That's becoming compulsive viewing for me. This week already Mark has won one and lost one. It was also interesting to see what happened when all four contestants were eliminated in their individual rounds. They were given a total of £4000 to play for, and they nominated one to face 2 minutes of questions. Without having to buzz in this actually gave the contestant a decent chance - even though he only started one step forward he ended up on 20 - that's good play. Mark got him in the end, but only just. I think that I've seen Shaun lose once as well. I hope that its a show that ITV will bring back.
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Right, I want to post about a couple of questions. Firstly, in praise of what I thought was a great question we were asked in Newport on Monday night - a real Trevor special.
Phonetically speaking, what connects Cary Grant with Liverpool FC, Middlesbrough FC, Sheffield Utd. , Cardiff City, Fulham FC, Arsenal FC, Tottenham Hotspur FC and a host of other football clubs ?
If you've read Simon Inglis' marvellous book about the football grounds of England and Wales, then its gettable. Archibald Leitch designed stands or part of the grounds, present or past, of all of those football clubs, and many more. As Trevor said, if the question is about who designed a particular ground, or stand, then chances are he's the answer.
As I'm sure you've worked out, Archibald Leitch is pronounced exactly the same as Archibald Leach. Which was Cary Grant's real name. Incidentally, it was also the name of John Cleese's character in "A Fish Called Wanda", although that wasn't part of the question.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Then last night over to Cowbridge, for the Duke of Wellington quiz. Good quiz as usual. One of the features of the quiz is that the last question of the quiz proper is always a multiple point question. Last night it was ,
Name (the ) five inert gases
Now, I was away the day we did Science at school, or some such excuse. Put it this way - its far from my best subject. To be honest, I hadn't a clue. Neither had John. So what we did was to start writing down names of what we thought were the Noble Gases - Helium, Radon , Neon, Argon and Krypton. We had a point for each of them except Argon, with Xenon being given. I've spent a couple of minutes today looking up the Noble gases, and Inert gases, and trying to see the difference, but I have to admit I'm a bit stumped - although I was delighted to take the points and run on this one. However I did find that Argon is also a noble gas. So did he mean inert gases, or did he mean Noble gases ? Or are they the same thing ?
I ask this, because there's a certain type of question where you know there are two similar sets of things, and its very easy to get one confused with the other. For example - the Leeward Islands, and the Windward Islands. You know the two groups probably, but which is which ?
Good quiz. Any quiz which asks you things that you think you should know, but either can't remember, or find out that you don't, is probably hitting a lot of the right buttons.
Back to The Chase. Its confession time now. 5pm can sometimes be a quite awkward time for me to be trying to watch TV, and so I often watch the show using Virgin On Demand. Thing is, when I do that I play each contestant's initial round at normal speed, but all the chase rounds at fast forward - until the final Chase. That's becoming compulsive viewing for me. This week already Mark has won one and lost one. It was also interesting to see what happened when all four contestants were eliminated in their individual rounds. They were given a total of £4000 to play for, and they nominated one to face 2 minutes of questions. Without having to buzz in this actually gave the contestant a decent chance - even though he only started one step forward he ended up on 20 - that's good play. Mark got him in the end, but only just. I think that I've seen Shaun lose once as well. I hope that its a show that ITV will bring back.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Right, I want to post about a couple of questions. Firstly, in praise of what I thought was a great question we were asked in Newport on Monday night - a real Trevor special.
Phonetically speaking, what connects Cary Grant with Liverpool FC, Middlesbrough FC, Sheffield Utd. , Cardiff City, Fulham FC, Arsenal FC, Tottenham Hotspur FC and a host of other football clubs ?
If you've read Simon Inglis' marvellous book about the football grounds of England and Wales, then its gettable. Archibald Leitch designed stands or part of the grounds, present or past, of all of those football clubs, and many more. As Trevor said, if the question is about who designed a particular ground, or stand, then chances are he's the answer.
As I'm sure you've worked out, Archibald Leitch is pronounced exactly the same as Archibald Leach. Which was Cary Grant's real name. Incidentally, it was also the name of John Cleese's character in "A Fish Called Wanda", although that wasn't part of the question.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Then last night over to Cowbridge, for the Duke of Wellington quiz. Good quiz as usual. One of the features of the quiz is that the last question of the quiz proper is always a multiple point question. Last night it was ,
Name (the ) five inert gases
Now, I was away the day we did Science at school, or some such excuse. Put it this way - its far from my best subject. To be honest, I hadn't a clue. Neither had John. So what we did was to start writing down names of what we thought were the Noble Gases - Helium, Radon , Neon, Argon and Krypton. We had a point for each of them except Argon, with Xenon being given. I've spent a couple of minutes today looking up the Noble gases, and Inert gases, and trying to see the difference, but I have to admit I'm a bit stumped - although I was delighted to take the points and run on this one. However I did find that Argon is also a noble gas. So did he mean inert gases, or did he mean Noble gases ? Or are they the same thing ?
I ask this, because there's a certain type of question where you know there are two similar sets of things, and its very easy to get one confused with the other. For example - the Leeward Islands, and the Windward Islands. You know the two groups probably, but which is which ?
Good quiz. Any quiz which asks you things that you think you should know, but either can't remember, or find out that you don't, is probably hitting a lot of the right buttons.
Friday, 3 July 2009
New teams -What do you do when you know what's wrong, but don't know what's right ?
Two new teams contested the weekly quiz at Aberavon Rugby club last night. Anything so unusual in that ? Well, yes, and again, no. We do have new teams from time to time, but two on the same evening is unprecedented. They competed well for much of the quiz, one of them finishing in the top 4, after being just a couple of points behind the leaders at the halfway stage, and the other being one of only two teams to score a full house on any of the rounds.
Hardly newsworthy, you might think, and of course you'd be right. I just couldn't help thinking that its always nice to see new teams, but even more than that, its nice when teams come in and are competitive. We've got a pretty good record at keeping new teams once they start with us so I've high hopes that they'll be back again next week. Judging by the scores there are a few quizzers amongst them, which makes interesting speculation whether they've only just discovered us, or whether they used to play in another Thursday nighter which has folded, or they've had enough of.
While on the subject of last night's quiz, we had one of those interesting questions where you KNOW that the answer your team want to put down is wrong, but you haven't got another alternative answer.
The question was something along the lines of : -
Which element of the periodic table - atomic number 83 - is often given to patients with heartburn or an upset stomach ?
The answer the team came up with was Magnesium - as in Milk of Magnesia. That's not a daft answer at all - but the problem was that I knew that Magnesium is number 12 . I'm not boasting about this, I just got lucky that we took a group of kids from the school to a presentation about memory techniques once, and one of the tricks he showed us he used the first 15 elements for as an example. It worked so well that I've never forgotten them since - but its only the first 15.
However, the problem was that I still had no idea which number 83 was. In such a case, we did the only thing you can do in such a case , and put down the plausible wrong answer in the hope that the QM had made a mistake. Of course he hadn't. The answer is Bismuth - as in Pepto-Bismol.
-----------------------------------------
Re: The Chase
As Anne kindly pointed out in response to my last post, we now know that there are two resident Chasers, and they are Mark Labbett and Shaun Wallace. As I'm sure most readers will know, Shaun was the 2004 Mastermind champion, and also the runner up in last year's Are You An Egghead - so there's no question about his TV quiz credentials.
I've never actually met Shaun . Its ironic really, since he's from Wembley and I'm originally from down the road in Ealing, yet he's the only Humphrys - era champion I don't know at all, so my comments need to be viewed in this light. But he has some screen presence, and I like him as the Chaser. I know he's a barrister, and I wouldn't be surprised if a few defendants have wilted under his cross-examination. Still, he came a little bit of a cropper last night. He was set a target of 20, which is formidable, but no more than he managed on Tuesday. A number of tricky questions later, which the team kept getting right to peg him back, and he fell short by a few steps. I can't say anything - I doubt very much whether I'd have done much better with that particular set of questions.
I love the last round, or The Final Chase as they call it. Yet I have friends who really like the head to head rounds, but don't like the final, because it goes too fast. Its all a question of personal taste I suppose. I personally think that quick fire rounds taste better than not - so- quickfire, or flippin-slowfire rounds, that's all .
Hardly newsworthy, you might think, and of course you'd be right. I just couldn't help thinking that its always nice to see new teams, but even more than that, its nice when teams come in and are competitive. We've got a pretty good record at keeping new teams once they start with us so I've high hopes that they'll be back again next week. Judging by the scores there are a few quizzers amongst them, which makes interesting speculation whether they've only just discovered us, or whether they used to play in another Thursday nighter which has folded, or they've had enough of.
While on the subject of last night's quiz, we had one of those interesting questions where you KNOW that the answer your team want to put down is wrong, but you haven't got another alternative answer.
The question was something along the lines of : -
Which element of the periodic table - atomic number 83 - is often given to patients with heartburn or an upset stomach ?
The answer the team came up with was Magnesium - as in Milk of Magnesia. That's not a daft answer at all - but the problem was that I knew that Magnesium is number 12 . I'm not boasting about this, I just got lucky that we took a group of kids from the school to a presentation about memory techniques once, and one of the tricks he showed us he used the first 15 elements for as an example. It worked so well that I've never forgotten them since - but its only the first 15.
However, the problem was that I still had no idea which number 83 was. In such a case, we did the only thing you can do in such a case , and put down the plausible wrong answer in the hope that the QM had made a mistake. Of course he hadn't. The answer is Bismuth - as in Pepto-Bismol.
-----------------------------------------
Re: The Chase
As Anne kindly pointed out in response to my last post, we now know that there are two resident Chasers, and they are Mark Labbett and Shaun Wallace. As I'm sure most readers will know, Shaun was the 2004 Mastermind champion, and also the runner up in last year's Are You An Egghead - so there's no question about his TV quiz credentials.
I've never actually met Shaun . Its ironic really, since he's from Wembley and I'm originally from down the road in Ealing, yet he's the only Humphrys - era champion I don't know at all, so my comments need to be viewed in this light. But he has some screen presence, and I like him as the Chaser. I know he's a barrister, and I wouldn't be surprised if a few defendants have wilted under his cross-examination. Still, he came a little bit of a cropper last night. He was set a target of 20, which is formidable, but no more than he managed on Tuesday. A number of tricky questions later, which the team kept getting right to peg him back, and he fell short by a few steps. I can't say anything - I doubt very much whether I'd have done much better with that particular set of questions.
I love the last round, or The Final Chase as they call it. Yet I have friends who really like the head to head rounds, but don't like the final, because it goes too fast. Its all a question of personal taste I suppose. I personally think that quick fire rounds taste better than not - so- quickfire, or flippin-slowfire rounds, that's all .
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