Ten Books to Suggest #7

As part of my series of posts of pointing you in the direction of Podcasts, sites and online quizzes to take part in at a time when your normal quizzing more than likely is shutting down, I am also going to suggest a series of books that you can get stuck into if you find yourself stuck inside for a considerable period.


Todays entry is a real tome to get your teeth into. Norman Davies History of Europe.....1400 plus pages covering the birth of Europe through to the present day. Written in an engaging manner this book will have you transfixed, and even the most duller aspects of the continent are brought to life!

Ten Books to Suggest #6

As part of my series of posts of pointing you in the direction of Podcasts, sites and online quizzes to take part in at a time when your normal quizzing more than likely is shutting down, I am also going to suggest a series of books that you can get stuck into if you find yourself stuck inside for a considerable period.

This is more of a series than a one off book, but the UK Chart Company have recently been releasing chart rundowns of each year in every decade that the chart has been in place. The books are what they say they are.....simple lists of the Top 50 or 75 (Top 50 in 1970s editions, top 75 thereafter) singles on the UK charts. Ideal for list learners, great for question setting and I find it much better using these than traipsing through website

Ten Books to Suggest #5

As part of my series of posts of pointing you in the direction of Podcasts, sites and online quizzes to take part in at a time when your normal quizzing more than likely is shutting down, I am also going to suggest a series of books that you can get stuck into if you find yourself stuck inside for a considerable period.

Although quite strong on music of my lifetime, I had to put a lot of effort into learning about pop music from before it for quizzing purposes. One of the books that really helped me along the way was this impressive journey through 1980s Number 1's. The book takes a few pages at a time to inform, educate and entertain readers about the hits of the period and its a quizzers dream. Fact after fact, and I would be highly disappointed to drop points on 80's Number 1 questions after this!

Guardian Article

A quizzing article from the Guardian earlier in the year that I am sure some readers can relate to HERE

Quiz - UK Sitcoms 1990 - 1995

Next up from me, is a quiz in UK Sitcoms from 1990 - 1995. The general rule of thumb here is that I have only included sitcoms that aired either their first or final episode in that period. Starts off nice and tame with some chestnuts, but hopefully as it goes on it will provide a bit of a challenge. Deadline - Noon tomorrow (26th March) Good luck and hope you enjoy it!
Click HERE for the quiz

Ten Books to Suggest #4

As part of my series of posts of pointing you in the direction of Podcasts, sites and online quizzes to take part in at a time when your normal quizzing more than likely is shutting down, I am also going to suggest a series of books that you can get stuck into if you find yourself stuck inside for a considerable period.

To be perfectly honest, although I had heard of Den of Geek before I saw this book, I did not really have a good idea of what it was all about. This book is a perfect introduction to a site that has been succeeding for years, and covers a vast range of articles, lists etc on movies. Its easy to read, covers a wide scope of movies and has more than enough facts to give quizzers plenty to learn, and setters plenty to think about!

Music Quiz - The Year in Music 1991

Similar to Yesterday....see how you get on, this time the year is 1991!

Click HERE

Music Quiz - The Year in Music 1990

Follow this Link for a Music Quiz I have created on WikiQuiz for the year 1990! Mainly chart music, see how you get on!

Suggested Blog

I came across this superb blog, or rather question archive, on the superb Quizmasters group on Facebook. Although the quiz that 'Jim' runs is not too far from me, I have never had chance to get there yet, but he posts his rather excellent questions online and they can be found HERE

Ten Books to Suggest #3

As part of my series of posts of pointing you in the direction of Podcasts, sites and online quizzes to take part in at a time when your normal quizzing more than likely is shutting down, I am also going to suggest a series of books that you can get stuck into if you find yourself stuck inside for a considerable period.

The next in the series is a 500-page tome to get stuck into about Britain in the 1970s! One of the best books I have read on the period, that gives good coverage to all areas of the decade without getting bogged down in one area too much. Written in a pacey style, detailed and fact packed with quizzing facts, this is certainly a book to improve your knowledge of the decade if the 1970s!

How Quizzing Got Cool

More in my series of posts to keep yourself entertained during these times when you may find yourself isolated or stuck indoors. In case you missed the excellent BBC "How Quizzing Got Cool" documentary, its available above on Youtube and well worth a watch

Trivia NYC Live Trivia

Another good Youtube series to follow that have started broadcasting quizzes during the Pandemic....

Clicking the link will take you to the Youtube Channel which has much more video content and live streams!

Ten Books to Suggest #2

As part of my series of posts of pointing you in the direction of Podcasts, sites and online quizzes to take part in at a time when your normal quizzing more than likely is shutting down, I am also going to suggest a series of books that you can get stuck into if you find yourself stuck inside for a considerable period.

Todays entry is Quiz book itself and its one that I would start off by saying, don't let the title put you off! Anything with "The Mammoth" or similar before it should always be treated with a little bit hesitation but in this case, just jump right in. For a book with around 10,000 questions, this doesn't let up with the quality and variety of themes in the rounds. The quizzes are split into 3 difficulty levels but even the easy ones are well put together and no matter what your level of quizzing, this is worth looking at! Especially for £3!

Dr Paul Online Quiz - Tonight 8pm

Continuing on to keep the quizzing going, one of Scotland's leading quizmasters, Dr Paul, is taking his quiz online tonight from 8pm!  It is all being ran via Facebook and can be found HERE

Youtube Quizzing

Posting as much as I can of whats going on in the Trivia world in the current Pandemic to keep people at home entertained...

This Youtube series is well worth keeping an eye on!

Ten Book Suggestions #1

As part of my series of posts of pointing you in the direction of Podcasts, sites and online quizzes to take part in at a time when your normal quizzing more than likely is shutting down, I am also going to suggest a series of books that you can get stuck into if you find yourself stuck inside for a considerable period.


I will start with a book I have urged people to take a look at before. 'The Penguin Classics Book'. This is a beautiful, hard back, full colour book taking you through the history of the Penguin series with synopsis, overviews and fact packed quiz information! It is pricey, but it will keep you going for months and be valuable the next time you face literature questions in a quiz!

Live Quiz Tonight - Online - British Sitcoms

The online quizzing community is strongly coming together  in these times when many find themselves stuck inside. There have been nightly quizzes ran on Wikiquiz which kick off at 8pm. Tonights quiz is on British Sitcoms and can be found  HERE

Quiz League of London Archive

The majority of, if not all, of the local UK Quiz Leagues have been postponed for the foreseeable future, so next up in my series looking at keeping quizzing going during these difficult times, is a link to the archive of one of the biggest leagues of them all. The QLL for years has been making its fantastic question archive available online. The site can be found HERE and the archive covers all of the Leagues events including the standard matches, friendlies, Brain of London and much much more!

A superb archive

Pop Master Podcast

As mentioned yesterday, here is the first in a series of posts to provide useful links to podcasts, online quizzes and such like to help pass the time in a period when many of your regular pub quizzes and social events may be cancelled.

If you have never have had the chance to discover BBC Radio 2's Popmaster quiz...now is the time. I was surprised recently when reading a Facebook post, as to how many quizzers had not either heard of it or took the time to listen. I guess it being broadcast during the day may have something to do with it. Anyway, the good news is for the past few months the BBC have been making Popmaster available as a podcast with a huge archive available on BBC Sounds HERE.

Enjoy!

Quizzing

Given the current state of the Coronavirus slowly bringing the world to the halt, I am planning on a series of posts in the coming weeks to suggest podcast, online quiz events, books and resources that quizzers might find useful to pass the time during the difficult weeks ahead.

I intend to try and post daily content and if any readers have suggestions of their own, please feel free to share.

Quiz Questions #1 - Answers

Hope you enjoyed the first set, here are the answers

1.	Who was the first serving Prime Minister to appear on the TV chat show ‘Parkinson’?	Tony Blair
2.	Subject of the recent ITV Show, White House Farm, what is the name of the now 59 year old man, who was convicted of murdering 5 members of his own family in 1985 on their farm in Essex? He initially appeared to be getting away with it, as he made out it was a murder suicide by his sister.	Jeremy Bamber
3.	Which British High Street Jeweller, was founded in 1919 in Belfast, and now has 71 stores in the UK? It was founded by the Adlestone brothers who later went on to name the store after a famous Lord, Politician and newspaper owner?	Beaverbrooks
4.	Who were the last men’s national football team to reach the final of the FIFA World Cup in consecutive tournaments?	Brazil
5.	On July 1st 2007, 63,000 people attended Wembley Stadium and 500 million people watched on TV in over 140 countries, when a concert was held to raise money for charity. The event was dedicated to which individual?	Princess Diana
6.	Malena Ernman is a famous Scandinavian operatic singer who reached the final of the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest, but her fame has somewhat been eclipsed by her very famous daughter. Who is her daughter?	Greta Thunberg
7.	In 2007, which then 60 year old British popstar played his 60th show at Madison Square Garden, making him (at the time) the most regular performer in the history of the iconic venue?	Elton John
8.	Voted by the Canadian Press as ‘Canada’s Female Athlete of the Century’, who had won 14 World Cup skiing events by 1975,  Gold in the Giant Slalom at the 1968 Winter Olympics and earned the nickname ‘Tiger’ due to her aggressive style?	Nancy Greene/Nancy Raine/Nancy Green Raine
9.	Who is the only Quarterback in NFL history to throw over 5,000 yards in a single season in both college football and the NFL itself, and alongside Peyton Manning is one of only two players to throw for over 5,000 yards and 50 touchdowns in a single NFL Season? He is also the youngest quarterback to win the Superbowl MVP	Patrick Mahomes
10.	This TV show began in 2013 and was presented by Claudia Winkelman. She lasted 4 series and was then replaced by a male comedian.  Ann Rowley, a housewife from Birmingham was the first ever winner and there have since been a further 2 female winners but only one male. What skill is being tested in this programme?	Sewing

Great North Run 2020

Another little reminder that I am doing the Great North Run this year! I am running in aid of Children North East which is a superb charity that assist Children in the region. The Justgiving Page is HERE and if you can help me reach my target it would be much appreciated!

Quiz Questions #1

I am going to try and post some more quiz questions up on the blog in the coming weeks. Lets start off with this set of 10....Answers posted in a couple of days

1.	Who was the first serving Prime Minister to appear on the TV chat show ‘Parkinson’?
2.	Subject of the recent ITV Show, White House Farm, what is the name of the now 59 year old man, who was convicted of murdering 5 members of his own family in 1985 on their farm in Essex? He initially appeared to be getting away with it, as he made out it was a murder suicide by his sister.
3.	Which British High Street Jeweller, was founded in 1919 in Belfast, and now has 71 stores in the UK? It was founded by the Adlestone brothers who later went on to name the store after a famous Lord, Politician and newspaper owner?
4.	Who were the last men’s national football team to reach the final of the FIFA World Cup in consecutive tournaments?
5.	On July 1st 2007, 63,000 people attended Wembley Stadium and 500 million people watched on TV in over 140 countries, when a concert was held to raise money for charity. The event was dedicated to which individual?
6.	Malena Ernman is a famous Scandinavian operatic singer who reached the final of the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest, but her fame has somewhat been eclipsed by her very famous daughter. Who is her daughter?
7.	In 2007, which then 60 year old British popstar played his 60th show at Madison Square Garden, making him (at the time) the most regular performer in the history of the iconic venue?
8.	Voted by the Canadian Press as ‘Canada’s Female Athlete of the Century’, who had won 14 World Cup skiing events by 1975,  Gold in the Giant Slalom at the 1968 Winter Olympics and earned the nickname ‘Tiger’ due to her aggressive style?
9.	Who is the only Quarterback in NFL history to throw over 5,000 yards in a single season in both college football and the NFL itself, and alongside Peyton Manning is one of only two players to throw for over 5,000 yards and 50 touchdowns in a single NFL Season? He is also the youngest quarterback to win the Superbowl MVP
10.	This TV show began in 2013 and was presented by Claudia Winkleman. She lasted 4 series and was then replaced by a male comedian.  Ann Rowley, a housewife from Birmingham was the first ever winner and there have since been a further 2 female winners but only one male. What skill is being tested in this programme?

RIP Dave Rainford

This weekend brought the very sad news that Dave Rainford has passed away. Many of you reading this will know 'Tremendous Knowledge' Dave from the TVs Eggheads, a team he joined in 2012. But many more readers may have been lucky enough to meet Dave on the quizzing circuit where his presence will now be sorely missed.

The outpouring of affection, stories of the man himself and personal tributes have been far and wide this weekend, from all corners of the quizzing community. Indeed, I hope these tributes give some comfort to the family to whom my thoughts are with.

On a personal level, I first met Dave in around 2011/2012 at one of my first quizzing GP events. Dave sought me out, greeted me and made sure I felt welcomed and settled. This was typical of the man himself. Always had time for anybody and the moment he started talking to you, he spoke to you as if he had known you years. Dave was a reader of the blog and spoke very kind words to me on that day.

The next time I met Dave, was when I went to film Eggheads in 2013. I was glad to see Dave on the opposing team, and indeed was honoured to compete against him in my head to head. After a tense tiebreak he defeated me, but was full of praise and encouragement. For someone I had only met once before, he remembered my support for Sunderland. Everyone who knew Dave knew he was a passionate Manchester United fan, and football was always a keen subject to chat about and his knowledge and passion for the game was unrivalled.

Dave kept in touch, both online and in person and I was one of the many many people to receive both praise and commiserations from him. When I had a particularly good finish in a quiz event, the first person to message was Dave, congratulating me. The same was true when I had a poor performance in the 15 to 1 Final and Dave sent a supportive voice message, as he did when I announced online that I was going to be a father.

Reading the tributes online over the weekend makes it clear, that Dave in one way or another touched many peoples lives. He never had a bad word to say about anyone, always had time to lend a ear or share a pint. I don't think using the term "the nicest man in quiz" has ever been more suitable. Like many I listened back to the voice messages this weekend and raised a glass, as I re-watched our Eggheads show. 

RIP Dave Rainford. 

The Quiz Podcast

Over the last few days I have been catching up with the first few episodes of this excellent Australian produced Podcast. Each episode is around 12 minutes long, and unlike other rival quiz podcasts, it presents a fresh range of weekly content to wrap your mind around! Well worth a look and you can find it HERE

The Albert Pub Quiz

Sunday 7.30pm

Sunderland City Centre

Looking for something to do this weekend? Then why not head down to my quiz in the heart of Sunderland City Centre. All kicks off at 7.30pm with loads of available prizes and a fun, unique range of questions. Hope to see you there!

The Last Quiz Night on Earth

Interesting sounding quiz-themed play HERE if anyone is local to it!

Suggested Book - The Penguin Book Quiz

A fantastic quiz book which I picked up just before Xmas and have been working my through. As the title suggests, The Penguin Book Quiz is packed with a range of questions on literature ranging from Dickens and Proust, all the way to Ainsley Harriot and Harry Potter. Each Quiz is broken down into rounds including connections, odd one out, extracts to identify and straight up book trivia. Its clearly written by somebody who knows what they are doing, and it was one of those quiz books I was genuinely sad to finish!

Well worth your time!