Week 20: Standings - December 18th 2011

Well, we have reached the final quiz of the year at the Blacksmiths Arms and to be honest if you'd told me back in September that the quiz would still be going in December then I'd have laughed at you. Yet here we are, still just about going strong and tonight we have a nice turn out too. Just as well because there's lots of treats in store considering it is Christmas!

The actual quiz can be viewed here and it is a slightly extended version on the usual format. However there is one particular round that you won't be able to participate in back home and that is the final round. In the Wipeout Round every team was given a plate of 5 different mince pies labelled 1 to 5 on their base. Each mince pie was either from Sainsbury's, ASDA, Tesco, Lidl or Mr Kipling. All of the mince pies from each brand had the same number so it was up to the teams to identify which brand of mince pie they were eating! Of course I never really expected any one team to get them all right and unsurprisingly no one did. But it was a nice little end to the quiz (unless you don't like mince pies or you have a nut allergy (sorry Luke and Holly!)).

I should say at this point that although I would like to say I came up with this idea, I in fact did not. I first saw this type of round done at a quiz I went to last year with the Christian Union and I just loved how different it was and the fun factor that it possessed too, as well as being pretty random as to whether you get them right. Unless of course you're a mince pie connoisseur!

Throughout the quiz tonight too people had the chance to "pull my cracker" (one response in the pub was "come again?" which I thought was just bloody hilarious). Anyway, if you were one of the lucky few who got to "pull my cracker" then if you actually won the cracker (like broke off the most bit) then you'd gain 1 point for your team. 2 teams out of 4 crackers managed to gain a point but more importantly we were treated to the usual groaners within the crackers as well as the most ridiculous assortment of gifts (from wooden golf tees to some very tacky jewellery of sorts).

Not only that...I really did treat everyone tonight...there was a chance during the Connection Round to earn a scratchcard by getting the Connection first. The scratchcard went on to win £2 (and I've done this 3 times now and each time it's won £2!). It doesn't stop there though...it turns out that Dean (part of the team who won the scratchcard) cashed the scratchcard this morning but just got a replacement one. And guess what? You won't guess will you? Oh, you have guessed? Yep. He went and won £40 on that one! So I just think that is freaking awesome. Well done!

So, we've given out cracker treats, everyone had some mince pies to nosh on, Dean is now £40 better off surely no more stuff can be won? Well, I think you know where this is going....Open the Box was at £125 and it was a 1 in 9 chance. Martin from Young Farmers (who haven't yet missed a quiz) picked the right key and left £125 better off! This was great to see and it couldn't have gone to a nicer chap. So that was a little early Christmas present.

I suppose I should talk about the winners...well, we had one new team in tonight who I convinced to stay and by God I'm sure they were glad they did. They won the quiz tonight (they had a good mix of age needed for this quiz tonight moreso than usual) and won by 2 points in the end. By winning, they receive a free drink per person and would normally win the pot for the quiz. However, sort of unfortunately for them I had decided beforehand (and everyone did know) that we were playing for charity and to be fair I don't think anyone would grumble. The winning team decided that Macmillan Cancer Support should receive the £50 that was raised by the quiz tonight and that is just about that.



I'll leave you with the complete standings here and just say well done because the quiz tonight was very tricky and even though it was out of 60, it was pretty much out of 50 because of the almost impossible Mince Pie Wipeout Round:

43     The 'East' Fan Club
41     That's Tragic

41     Mike Oxlong

40     Chapel Fields Mafia

39     Christmas Wrappers

35     The Fag Hags

34     Young Farmers

30     That is Tragic

28.5  Merry Quizmas

28     Ryan Snowed Me the Money

Week 19: Standings - December 11th 2011

More than a week late but here we go. With the penultimate quiz before Christmas we had a quiet night in the pub this Sunday. Five teams braved it out though and some of the scores were mightily impressive. There was £100 to be won on Open the Box and more steak night specials to be won on the bingo too. So how did it pan out?

Well...That's Tragic had another historic win beating their fierce rivals Chapel Fields Mafia by a solitary point! These two top dogs often take up the higher places in the quiz and tonight was no different. The only round which perhaps could have won them the quiz was the Connection Round which if you got the connection then you could pretty much get all 10 points up for grabs...see the quiz here to actually realise how.

46    That's Tragic

45    Chapel Fields Mafia

41    Mike Oxlong

35.5 Young Farmers

33    Tonight's Winners are US (later changed to "Not US"

Thanks again to you all for coming down and I'll no doubt be seeing you all again for the final quiz before Christmas...it's sure to be a...CRACKER!

Week 18: December 4th 2011

An historic week in the pub quiz's path. The quiz this week went ahead despite me not being there, except for the fact that I was there, well, my voice was. That's because this week's quiz was recorded entirely onto a disc with meticulous timing so it ran as if I were there. Of course I don' have any standings but I did hear that the top score was 45 scored by two teams (the only time two teams have ever tied and I'm not there to read the tiebreaker question!!). Oh well, it's all a bit of fun anyway.

So here's the quiz: https://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=289172201124568

**UPDATED**

45    3 Muskaqueers
45    3+1 = Winning
42    That's Tragic
36    Chapel Fields Mafia
29.5 Young Farmers
25    I'm Sexy and I Know It



Now the reason for my absence was London. But whilst there I still learnt some quizzy goodness (albeit not much) and we took £10 collectively out of a spoonies quizzer which is always nice to do even if it could have been £13 with Sean Young.

So here are two quiz questions to whoever reads my blog (all two of you no doubt). They came to me when I was in London (the quiz questions, not my followers).

• Which 5 letters can be arranged in such a way that they spell the name of a racecourse, an opera by Puccini, a BBC documentary series and a coffee shop chain?
  
• Which tube station's name can have an item of clothing added to the end of it such that if you were to then write down the two together (the station and the clothing), the name of a famous palace would be present? (Badly phrased but it sort of works).

Week 17: Standings - November 27th 2011

STOP THE PRESS! QUIZ MASTER IN DOUBLE-GAFFE!

First of all I accidently slipped out an answer and so had to rewrite a question tonight which could have proved costly to some teams and then I misread an answer too! Having just gone through the quiz now I realised that of course that is the arse of Nell McAndrew and not Melinda Messenger!! 5 out of the 6 teams put that it was Nell McAndrew and not one of them questioned me when I said Melinda Messenger, maybe they had other (pairs of) things on their mind. Jokes. But yeah, maybe I am a fierce beastie who no one wanted to challenge! So yes, apologies all around for me saying that Nell McAndrew was Melinda Messenger and I have retrospectively awarded the points but thankfully it didn't change anything (position-wise). Also Melinda Messenger did win Rear of the Year too and she was initially in the picture quiz when I was compiling it so that's how that little error sneaked into my head.

Unmistakably Melinda Messenger

'Twas a fairly quiet night in the pub tonight but that always makes for a relaxing time and what a surprise we had in store. The so-called Dynamic Duo from last week actually did became a Dynamic Duo this week, mainly because one half of the not-so-Dynamic Duo from last week was engaged in other things meaning one third of the formerly Dynamic Trio made the Dynamic Solo back up to a Dynamic Duo. Got that? Just as well they called themselves Quizy Rascals then...

41.5  Quizy Rascals

39     Chapel Fields Mafia

36     Mike Oxlong

35.5  That's Tragic

33     The Facebook Privateers

29     Mother and Sons

One of those intriguing weeks where any of three teams could have won the quiz all because of that blasted Wipeout Round. Had the triple champions Chapel Fields Mafia gone with their gut instincts they could have pulled level with That's Tragic with 4 wins. Or had Mike Oxlong only known a bit of non Cockney rhyming slang they too could have chalked up another win. But as it was, it was the Quizy Rascals, a two-man team, that managed to score the only maximum of the night on the Wipeout Round to snatch victory despite a very poor music section.

Open the Box is now at £100 for next week (which is a fifth of a monkey!) and the Rock n Roll bingo just keeps on, er, rocking and rolling.

Memorable Moments: A terrible impression of Brian Badonde and some delightful WWII acronyms. And I always find something quite cool most weeks so this is my discovery when I made this week's quiz [contains spoilers].

The quiz can be found here and it has music with it too so you can do the quiz, the whole quiz and nothing but the quiz.