Week 12: Standings - 23rd October 2011

Well, well, well. What an evening. A little bit of publicity on facebook goes a long way it would seem as we doubled last week's turnout by drawing in 12 teams! Woohoo! Of course they were probably all there though just for the £275 on Open the Box that was available...

...so to the quiz. Argh! A frustrating night for me as the Quiz Master as the scores reflected that I'd perhaps got things ever so slightly wrong but then when I look down each individual round, the highest scores respectively were 8, 8, 9.5, 9 and 10. Furthermore not one single question went unanswered which I think is excellent as it means at least one person in the full pub was able to answer each question and therefore none of the questions were a waste. Basically, I'm just trying to back myself up with some statistics to show that the quiz was fair after all!

The thing is with my quizzes is that I like them to be different and nowhere else in the world will they be doing a picture round like the one tonight and one of the questions in the quiz (Round 4, Question 6) has probably never been written before.

To bring this together, I think the scores were slightly lower than I'd hoped for because of the Wipeout Round. Tonight I successfully snared 10 out of 12 teams. Muahahaha. Only 2 teams actually scored any points on the Wipeout Round and only one of these scored the maximum 10 (the winning team). Interestingly enough, the team who scored 4 on the Wipeout Round (Mike Oxlong) would have won had they known about 'Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs'! Fine margins! Without further ado, here are the scores on the doors...

35     - Maple Leafs

32.5  - Chapel Fields Mafia

32     - That's Tragic

31.5  - Mike Oxlong

24     - The Three Muskaqueers

22     - 5hores

22     - Young Farmers

22     - The Good, The Bad and the Ugly

19.5  - Halal Sandwich + The Crazy Platelets

19     - Tequila Mockingbird

18     - You Too Can Have Doughnuts Like Fanny's

10     - Yeah Ya Do!

As you can see, a very wide spread of scores and quite a good margin of win for the winning team (which did include my mother and father although they were a team of 7 adults with one who admits to being a bit of a quizzer so no dodgy business going on there!). As for the team with 10 points, well they were just a team of two lads and if they were feeling down about propping up the board then they won't be now. At least one won't anyway because Daniel Whitfield was picked to Open the Box. With the odds stacked against him (a 1 in 5 chance at glory) he plucked the right key out of my velvet pouch and it opened the box! £275 to that young man. Bosh!

So yeah, really pleased with the night tonight, maybe need to ease it up a bit but hopefully people still thought it was fun! Come back for more next week. Quiz is here.

Week 11: Standings - October 16th 2011

Good evening, good evening, good evening [/fry]. Finally I have got around to posting up the results.

44     The Three Muskaqueers

38     Mike Oxlong

38     Chapel Fields Mafia

32.5  That's Tragic

32     This One Time in E Block...

28     Young Farmers

As you can see that last week's "losers" were this week's winners! What a great performance by a 3-man strong team with an average age of about 25. The picture round really suited them this week since it was sport-related and it just shows that with my quizzes the field is open for anyone to win which is why there is such a great variety of winners each week.

Alex, Sarah and Gina made the trip back with the addition of Hannah but all they could manage was 5th place after I pulled a Dickensian trick on them. Muahaha.

Last week's champions and so far the most successful quiz team, That's Tragic, slipped into the lower half after one fatal error in the Wipeout Round which left them kicking the "table". Or at least they probably wished they'd kicked the table out of table-tennis! (See Wipeout Round, Q3).

However the nights events weren't over for That's Tragic because they had the chance (1/6 chance) of winning £250 with the turn of a key. Unfortunately the wrong key was picked meaning that next week's jackpot on Open the Box is a staggering £275 and carries a 1 in 5 chance if your raffle ticket is picked out. All of that money for just a 50 pence investment.

Quizaroo is in the usual location: http://www.facebook.com/notes/sunday-night-quizzing-at-the-blacksmiths-arms-coniston/questions-and-answers-for-october-16th-2011/265078460200609

Week 10: Standings - October 9th 2011

A delightfully pleasant evening tonight with again 6 teams joining in the fun. Phew! And That's Tragic made it a quizzing double by beating the field by a full 12 points this week. Truly remarkable. The underlying factor of this was a solid round on the music and also being one of 2 teams to get the Wipeout round bonus. Their fierce rivals Chapel Fields Mafia were halved in size leading to a bit of a decline in music knowledge whilst the artist formerly known as Young Farmers salvaged a terrific 2nd place finish by nailing the Wipeout round.

I felt that although the pictures were sort of 'clever' and required lots of thinking, they were probably a little bit hard and needed a bit of guidance to nudge people towards right answers. And the music was probably a bit hard too as the highest scores in that round were 6 (both my very feminine teams).

41  That's Tragic

29  Mother and Son

27  Chapel Fields Mafia

26  Last

26  Halal Sandwich + Crazy Platelets

23  The Three Muskaqueers

I literally have no idea what Halal Sandwich + Crazy Platelets team name is all about. I don't think I should ask. As you can see the majority of scores were in the 20's and this was mainly due to the pictures and music which I've apologised for. This means they will be much more friendly next week!

The quiz can be found in it's usual place: http://www.facebook.com/notes/sunday-night-quizzing-at-the-blacksmiths-arms-coniston/questions-and-answers-for-october-9th-2011/261817560526699.

Week 9: Standings - October 2nd 2011

This evening was very enjoyable. I managed to convince a group of people in the pub to stay for the quiz so that meant we had 6 teams competing which I am more than happy with to be honest. Of course you always want more but 6 teams was fine and dandy.


Also, with reinforcements brought in this week for That's Tragic, it meant they performed very strongly and came home as narrow winners by just 2 and a half points. Every single team scored more than half on the quiz (25/50) which is pleasing, because in my eyes, that means I got the balance right (the winning team scored 88%).


44     That's Tragic

41.5  Chapel Fields Mafia

37.5  The Golby-Jacobs

32.5  Young Farmers

28     Destroyed by the Ditloids

26.5  Semi-Pro


A great debut performance by the Golby-Jacobs it should be noted with only the music round letting them down. 

There was just one question that went unanswered by each team: Which of these was first awarded Toy of the Year by the British Association of Toy Retailers: Rubik’s cube, Barbie or Action Man?

And there was also only one question that was answered correctly uniquely by one team and in fact it was just one person. That was spotting the connection in the Connection Round. Well done!

The jackpot of £200 for Open the Box was not won and that will rise next week and whoever gets picked has a 1 in 7 chance now of taking home the money.

The quiz can be found in its usual home.

Week 8: Standings - 25th September 2011

Tonight we set a new record. The lowest number of teams turned out - just four! However for some reason when I actually left the pub I found myself looking back and enjoying the night. 

One reason is the fact that I've decided to knock the £1 entry fee on the head and just make it a free quiz to enter with the prize being a free drink per person in the winning team. The main reason for doing this is the reality that the quiz will never see the likes of around 40 people again and so having a prize pot is not justifiable. Also by doing this you don't have to worry about how many turn up at all.

It's hard to put a finger on exactly why numbers are so low as there are many factors ranging from students going back to uni to location of pub but it is a little disappointing that a few more don't frequent the quiz just maybe 2 more teams would be great each week. I'm ruling out the possibility that the Quiz Master is so unpopular that people don't come since the same faces come back each week.

And so with four teams it is a little easier to win but Chapel Fields Mafia would have ran a field of 20 teams close to the first place finish as they only really had one mediocre round. Note the quiz is out of 50 this week as I cut what used to be Round 5 altogether.

40     Chapel Fields Mafia

30     That's Tragic

29.5  Young Farmers

29.5  3 Muskaqueers

Just picture questions went unanswered this week which on reflection were probably a little bit tough but I just knocked that one together yesterday so didn't fully review it properly I guess. My mistake. The quiz can be found in its usual place: http://www.facebook.com/notes/sunday-night-quizzing-at-the-blacksmiths-arms-coniston/questions-and-answers-for-25th-september-2011/255841341124321

Now I best get off this laptop now before I become completely sterile.

Week 7: Standings - 18th September 2011

After I got stranded on a train from London last week the quiz was cancelled and so the quiz was postponed until this Sunday. A disappointing turn out but nothing I didn't expect as many of the people I know who used to come would be back spread across the country at university by now. It does beg the question as to just how long this will go on until it is just me left in a pub asking 2 teams questions without even a use for a microphone - hardly a pub quiz. The pub just doesn't seem to have enough people in attendance and I guess that sadly this is the case of many pubs these days as we hear of that statistic of so many pub closing every day. Or something.

Even when I went to a quiz on Thursday night at a pub with a big catchment area there were not that many people in. Owning a pub these days must be pretty tough.

Anyway, the results:

52     That's Tragic

44.5  Chapel Fields Mafia

44.5  Hilary Duff Fan Club

41.5  Halal Sandwich

28.5  Seven 7

Well done to Debs, Eve and ANN who beat the field by quite some way! The Open the Box jackpot of £150 was not won and so rolls over to next week.

Week 6: Standings - 4th September 2011

For the first time the £50 prize was unfortunately reduced due to a low turnout which could be a sign of things to come. Could this be the beginning of the end? Or is it just the end of the beginning? Who knows. Time will tell.

Results:

52     Wireless Network Unavailable

51     Awesome 4some AKA Young Farmers

43.5  DEA - Without S
41     John

39     The Part Timers

35     Chapel Fields Mafia

33     That's Tragic

Young Farmers rose to their highest placing so far and perhaps a victory for them is not too far in to the future whilst DEA (without Sharn) also featured stongly after a week away. The lads (and lass) who won the inaugural quiz finished a comfortable mid-table with an average age of just 20 beating a more senior looking Part Timers outfit who made their quiz debut. Chapel Fields Mafia plunged again towards the bottom but that is because only half of the team were ther! 

But the story of the night was the good score by the winners who usually appear under the name of Quiz-Team Bleakley or something. They then went on to win Bingo (in yet more controversial circumstances) and also had the chance at Open the Box (but failed!). Very lucky night all round.