Brunton Shield - Victory!

Yes that's me the on the right!

Well, I mentioned a couple of days ago that I was taking part in the Brunton Shield Quiz Event held up in Edinburgh last night and as you can probably gather from the photo it was well worth the trip! I had been up to Edinburgh in June for the World Quiz Championships and just by luck really this week I happened to have some time off and was invited up to play as part of the tournament which is in its second year. It basically involves as many teams as possible from the North-East playing against teams from Scotland and at the end of the night the top team from each region compete for the shield.

The North-East, mainly all players from the Sunderland Quiz League, took 8 players who I met  up with beforehand. Rather than any sort of ranking system Chris (Picture Left above) decided to randomise the teams by 'drawing names out of a hat'. I was placed in a team with Chris Brewis himself and Dave Taylor, both very experienced quizzers and by coincidence both will be appearing on Only Connect on Monday Night! We were joined at the venue by another player so we had 3 teams of three to take on about 5-6 Scottish teams most of whom had 4 players.

The Venue was The Grange, which is home to Scotland's Cricket team,  and is a nice little place and it was good to see a healthy crowd on hand. Credit must go to Brian Pendreigh for organising the event, setting the questions and running the night. A lot of hard work and time I imagine went into producing such a diverse set of questions!

The first part of the quiz consisted of 100 General Knowledge Questions for every team. The questions were certainly original and certainly very tough. Indeed I found it really tough going early on but managed to contribute a few answers the team did not know (mainly popular culture). Brian gave us a lot of questions to think through and work out which is always the sign of a good quiz! After the first 50 questions were were trailing one of the other Sunderland teams by a couple of marks so knew we needed a strong second half.

The second half was indeed much tougher than the first with questions on a few subjects I haven't even heard of. I was probably the youngest quizzer at the venue so what is rooted into other players minds I am still learning and in all fairness I could not contribute much in the second half. I knew the "easier" ones if that is the right word to use but in terms of adding points to the total I am not sure I did in the second half. We scored 31 which was a good score on a tough set and tied us with 65-65 with another Sunderland team. We were offered a tiebreak but our team mates did not fancy going into the final so it was myself, Chris and Dave that went forward.

The team we were playing consisted of 4 quizzers I recognised from the WQC in June and also having the extra man advantage I thought we would be up against it. The format had changed now and each team was given a different questions and required to shout out the answer. An incorrect answer would give the other team a chance for the bonus. I thought the format idea from Brian was spot on and a great way to end the event!

The opening rounds were team questions and it was tight all the way through. It headed into individual questions for two rounds in which every member of our team had to take one individual question and could either answer it for 2 or confer for 1. Again, a wrong answer and the other team could steal so it was important to stay safe. Given the form I was on I certainly was not going to risk silly answers so conferred my first questions, which the team knew. I had not known any of the first set of questions and would have been guessing, so I was beginning to feel like something of a burden on the team as Dave and Chris managed to score some great points.

And then came the classic case of right questions for the right person and lady luck was on my side............

It was quite tight and could have went either way but a round on video games changed the tide in our favour. All those years playing on Playstations etc up until a few months ago finally paid off and questions on Call of Duty allowed us to steal a point and then when a team mate conferred,  Assassins Creed score us another point. Finally, I felt of some use to the team and thought that would be my contribution for the night but there was more to come.

 I don't recall what order the next two questions came in but I managed to score another three points. To be honest given that I was a little out of my depth with some questions my plan was always going to be to confer but again, the right questions for the right person. My individual questions concerned naming the school in he Inbetweeners. Probably the only questions on recent television all night and it fell to someone with the whole box set! I knew it straight away and gave us two points. Dave and Chris added more to our total and again a stroke of luck allowed me in.

Every week a local quizmaster asks questions about the chart so I make sure every Monday I look at the top 10 singles and top 10 albums to be ready for that week. As a stroke of luck the next question was about the latest UK Number 1, a name (Ne-yo) came to mind and we went with it. Another point and that was that. I don't recall the final score but I think we won by about 3-4 points!

This was only my second or third "proper quiz event" i.e. not a pub quiz and I have to admit I was really happy to win. That is not to say I would have been disappointed if we did not win but it was good to not only win, but to play a part in the winning. Without the last few questions which I was able to answer and contribute, the win may have seemed as bit more shallow to me as to be fair, Dave and Chris did the majority of work to get us to the final but at least I got some points on the board at a crucial time in the final! As most people commented afterwards, a mixture of my age (being the youngest quizzer in the final and possibly the whole quiz) as well as a stroke of getting the right questions played its part in this!

A little ironic to say this after such a long post, but I hope I don't come across as taking this too seriously. The main and best aspect was the social side of things and being my week off it was a great break away from work! I met some interesting and very friendly people, put some faces to names and had a great night all round. Well worth the trip in all aspects and yet again serves to encourage me more to take part in as many events as I can.

Again, big thanks to Brian Pendreigh for the night and it was nice to see some familiar faces from the WQC event in June. The Brunton Shield will continue next year maybe in Sunderland this time, but wherever it is held I will do my best to make it as it was a very enjoyable occasion!