Worlds Biggest Pub Quiz

 

 

After success last year, Pub Aid is back with the Worlds Biggest Pub Quiz taking place in hundreds, if not thousands of venues across the country in March. The premise is to raise money for charity so you are competing only against people in your venue, rather than any sort of national competition, but don't let that put you off. I did the quiz last year and it was fun, well put together and had some original questions to get stuck into!

 

The site can be found HERE were you can take a look at local venues running the event. 

Fifteen to One

Applications are currently being taken for Series 11 and 12 of Fifteen to One. I have just been up in Glasgow myself filming for Series 10 (Series 9 still yet to air) and had a great experience, being treated really well by the team and having fun playing the game. Check out this site to apply

Mastermind Subjects Banned

I am assuming many of you saw This Story when it appeared in papers last week. As any regular viewer knows, the inconsistencies in the subject lengths and breadths is just a natural part of the show, but it seems like they have finally had enough of people trying the same subjects time after time.

Worth a read!

HQ Trivia

In the last few months, a trend has started amongst Quiz Apps....Live quiz shows to win cash! Right now, there at least half a dozen on the App stores that give quizzers the chance to win real $$$ at assigned times throughout the days. I have no idea which actually came first, but the most popular, and the one that has the most awareness and players (up to 1.5 million a game) is HQ Trivia.

I have mentioned these apps to several people "in the real world" and their first question is always "What's the Catch?". Winning money without any sign up fee's, no adverts and by simply logging into your phone and answering trivia seems too good to be true? Whatever the long term plan of these games and however they intend to make money, I have no idea, but at this moment in time I can you tell you from first hand experience, they are as advertised.

That is not to say I have won anything....

Over the next few days Ill post up information about a variety of these apps with my thoughts as to whether they are worth your time.

HQ Trivia certainly is. As I said, of all the live quiz show apps this is the busiest, which can lead to the occasional connection issues, however I am yet to be affected. Every question is a multiple choice question with three answers and if you get all 12 questions correct you win a share of the jackpot. Depending on how many win I have seen this be anything for $20 to last nights UK only game which was $875. Looking at the leaderboard some people (including known quizzers) are into four figure winnings!

Obviously, with money on the line once you get past question 5 or 6 there is luck involve and some questions will come down to guesswork. There are features such as extra lives available if you get friends to sign up using your code but essentially to take home cash you need good solid knowledge to get past the 5-6 questions that are gettable, and then Luck to guide you through the rest. Some games vary and will have 8-10 gettable ones but even when you are eliminated you can watch the game and see how many winners there are.


I would be interested to know how fellow quizzers are getting on with the app and how much success they have had, but it is certainly worth a go and with 4-5 games per day (including UK only games), there is plenty to keep you busy!

Popmaster Live

 

 

 



Just a quick mention of an event I have noticed listed in the latest edition of Classic Pop Magazine (always worth a read by the way). As an avid fan of Master, but having scores so inconsistent I am yet to try my hand at it, this sort of event certainly appeals. I don't think I realised this existed until I saw the advert but seemingly it has been going on for a number of year. More information here

 

 

p.s. For fans of Popmaster the latest edition of the Quiz Book is always worth a look. Fun, challenging and well written. Many of the music quiz books out there are stuffed with filler and chestnuts, but they seem to have made a real effort with the Popmaster series!

 

 

 





Books of the Month

January has been a busy month but I have managed to get through a few excellent book titles that I wanted to mention.


The first is Jonathan Eigg's recent biography "Ali".  As a huge boxing fan, and knowing in the past the sheer amount of Ali based questions I have got wrong, I thought it might help me quizzing wise but also the book has rave reviews. Simply put, this is one of the finest biographies, and most enjoyable non-fiction books, I have read in years. I am struggling to think of a biography I have enjoyed more. Yes, it has been useful for the quizzing purposes mentioned above, but even without that and even if you know everything about Ali already, I am sure than anyone who enjoys a good biography will enjoy this...







Another great biography I have just finished is Robert Capa: Blood and Champagne. An easy to read concise and straight forward account of Capa's live from the people who knew him and spent time with him. From the travels around wars, to the high profile acquaintances and the founding of Magnum, this kept me engaged throughout.






Finally, "Symbols: A Universal Language" by Joseph Piercy, is a short (under 2 hours in all) book covering a range of symbols we see everyday and looking at where they came from and providing interesting facts that have helped me devise a great number of questions. Although some of the book you will already know about (the origins of the Bluetooth symbol) for example, there is a ton of other information about symbols you will see every day that may be news to you...

Moneyball - Contestant Call

 

 

 

The BBC are currently looking for contestants for a new show called Moneyball. Details are scant but the end game seems to be answering General Knowledge questions as the money ball drops.

 

Some of the team have been answering to comments on Facebook and the only downside for some people reading this, is that they aren't looking to cast people who have been on TV in the last 6 months or are due to be on in the next 6 months. That rules me out but for anyone who is eligible follow the link here

Book Suggestion

Any quizzer will know that no matter where you live in the UK, the stations on the London Underground tend to be a popular selection for question topics amongst quiz masters. It is always something I have struggled with but late last year I came across this cracking book which focuses not only on the Underground, put also on other transport facts about London. Easy to read, set out well and giving some great facts that will be useful to players and setters alike. And of course, it covers the basics of the stations, lines and all those "Which is the only station that...." type questions that I tend to struggle with.

Well worth a look.

Quiz Review

 

Bank Street Bar

Glasgow

Sunday Nights 8pm

 

 

I found myself up in Glasgow for a few days recently, more on that to come, and was invited by a friend to join them for a Pub Quiz in Bank Street Bar in the City Centre. For one reason or another, mainly due to the usual quizzes I attend being cancelled, this was my first actual pub quiz of the year.

 

 

The quiz begins at 8pm with a limit of 6 players per team. It was standing room only with around 15 teams taking part. Each round is broken down into subjects (the basics...TV, Film, Sport, General Knowledge, Music etc etc) with 5 questions in all but the Current Affairs round. However, each round is worth 10 points and many of the questions are for multiple points. Throw in a picture round and a music audio round and that gives you a very well put together quiz night.

 

 

You can always tell going to any new quiz, whether the person putting together the questions is a quizzer or not, and it is obvious from the high quality involved here that a quizzer is behind it! The questions were pitched at the right level, unique and interesting without a reliance on chestnuts or lazy writing. Superb selection of questions!

 

 

If you happen to find yourself in Glasgow on a Sunday Night, then head over to the Bank Street Bar. Only downside for me is I won't get to play again!

Quiz League Set

As promised, the second set from this weeks Quiz League....

Questions B

Round 1                                                                                                                        

1.       Voted into his sports Hall of Fame in 1958 and the subject of a 2003 Hollywood movie, who died in 1947 aged 14 as a result of a heart attack?	Seabiscuit
2.       What is the worlds southernmost landlocked country?	Lesotho
3.       Who was the first boxer, representing Great Britain, to win an Olympic gold medal in the Super Heavyweight Division?	Audley Harrison
4.       Which singer has announced he is planning a musical film set in Ipswich?	Ed Sheeran

 

Round 2

1.       What was the nickname of the London building that won the 2015 Carbuncle Award as the country's worst new building?	The Walkie Talkie
2.       Born Tony Beke, whose recent Christmas album contains  what the Sunday Times described as a bizarre version of the Arctic Monkeys' I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor?	Anton Du Beke
3.       Which Premier League team's manager (as of last week) is a former American international?	HUDDERSFIELD Town
4.       Which Stanley Kubrick film is based on a novel by William Makepeace Thackeray and tells the tale of a fictional 18th Century Irish Rogue?	Barry Lyndon

Round 3

1.       Sharing a name with the size of a champagne bottle, what is the name of the seminal photographic group founded by Henri-Cartier Bresson and Robert Capa?	Magnum
2.       The Prime Minister famously had a glass eye after a rugby injury but what was the nickname of the Gordon Brown, who played  at lock on three Lions tours and once punched his opposite number so hard his glass eye fell out?	Broon frae Troon (accept "from")
3.       Gammeltorv is the name of the oldest square at the heart of which European Capital City?	Copenhagen
4.       The High Roller, the largest Ferris Wheel in the world, can be found in which city?	Las Vegas

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Questions B

 

Round 4

1.       Which impressionist was the first person to impersonate the Queen on TV but fearful of reprisals changed her name to the Duchess of Brenda?	Stanley Baxter
2.       The name of which style of cooking in Japanese cuisine literally means “Glazed Roast”?	Teryiaki
3.       The Classic FM Radio show “High Score” plays music taken from what?	Video Games
4.       The Italian cities of Genoa and Livorno have a coastline on which sea?	Ligurian Sea

 

Round 5

1.       Which bank, still in business today, issued the first UK credit Card in 1969?	Barclays
2.       Which female author is the only person to win a Booker Prize and an Oscar. The Booker Prize was won in the 1970s with both of her Oscars coming in the 1980s?	Ruth Prawer Jhabvala
3.       Musicians Brian Jones, Gustav Holst and Wurzel from Motörhead were all born in which spa town?	Cheltenham
4.       Barci the cockerel features in the logo of which restaurant chain?	Nandos

 

Round 6

1.       Based on passenger numbers, which was the UK’s busiest railway station in 2017 outside of London?	Birmingham New Street
2.       The late Fats  Domino's eight children all shared the same initial as himself. What is it?	A (for Antoine)
3.       The city of Ragusa on the Adriatic changed its name to what in 1918?	Dubrovnik
4.       Detroit is situated where the Detroit River leaves which lake?	Lake St Clair

 

 

 

 

Spare

 

1.       Played by Dan Stevens, who is the subject of the 2017 film “The Man Who invented Christmas”?                                                                                                Charles Dickens

2.       Featuring a protagonist named Harry, “Only Time Will Tell” is the first novel in which series of books?     The Clifton Chronciles

 

3.       Which drink, launched in 1901, is currently being hoarded in Scotland due to the announced change in recipe in response to the upcoming introduction of Sugar Tax?

Irn Bru