The Quiz Addict Quiz Trek #10

The Barnes, Tobey Carvery, Sunderland

After a few weeks without a "new" quiz to take part it, I decided to drop my usual haunt this week and attend a quiz a friend had told me about at The Barnes Tobey Carvery, just outside Sunderland city centre. We did not know much about the quiz going into it other than knowing it started at 9pm but being a Tobey Carvery I had a hunch this would be a Red Tooth quiz.

And sure enough I was correct although it was not the format I was used to. This was the Red Tooth "Smart@ass" quiz which is a different format to the usual one I play. Now, unlike a lot of other quizzers, I do not mind the normal Red Tooth Quiz (Current affairs, top 5, trivia trail, connections and wipeout) but I was not too impressed by this format.

Don't get me wrong, it is a nice little pub, very friendly and relaxed, the company was good and it was a decent night, but in terms of the quizzing, I do not think I will be rushing back to Barnes in a hurry. The whole "smart@ass" format seems to be a quiz for people who don't like quizzes.

The first round starts off with pictures, we managed to score highly on this only failing to get Darcy Bussell which surprised me as I had watched a DVD of her tour with Katherine Jenkins just nights earlier. The first round proper was a multiple choice round with three options given to every question including the likes of "How many segments in a Terrys Chocolate Orange?" (20) etc. I did not enjoy this round as generally I find multiple choice questions in pub quizzes a bit dull.

Following this was a "Blockbuster" style round with questions along the lines of "What WT is a slang term for male genitals?" (Wedding Tackle) and "WC = A Famous Berkshire landmark" (Windsor Castle). Very boring and dull round. We were scoring well though but there were a few signs of cheating which, due to the guessy nature of the quiz I didnt mind. Rounding off the first half was a "specialist subject" round which involves 5 questions on one subject (this week being Puppet Shows). This was by far the best round of the night with some tough questions and a nice end to the first half.

A Fun Fortunes round followed. I mentioned a few days ago I like the Red Tooth Fun Fortunes Quiz when its run separately but did not appreciate this round where only the top answer scores points. Following this was an Odd One Out round which had 4 general knowledge questions that would not be out of place in the opening round of Weakest Link.

Up to this point we must have been winning, based on the final scores, but a 10 point questions on Eastenders blew us out of contention.Basically, the last round in this quiz involves you having to come up with a list of 10 things on the subject. You put your most confident answer first as as soon as you get one wrong your score freezes for the round. So if 1,2,3,4 were correct but 5 was wrong you would score five points. We managed to pick up 9 points in this round but mistakenly placed Ronnie Mitchell as our tenth answers (regarding Landlords/Ladies of the Queen ) which cost us 6 points as there were 5 bonuses on offer for a full list.

Regardless we finished just outside the top 3, I assume everyone in the pub picked up maximum 15 on the Eastenders question so no prizes and no free carvery :(

As I said then, the Barnes quiz is well attended, friendly and welcoming. It does not drag on and the quiz master gets it all wrapped up before 10.30pm. For some I imagine the format is ideal and there is enjoyment to be had out of the format, but I assume my opinion is the same as that of most quizzers, it is not the format for us. There are too many guessy parts and the Odd One Out seems to be ruined by obvious questions. The other Red Tooth format as I mentioned is far better and it would definitely put me off attending a quiz if I knew they were using the "Smart@ass" format.