In my Quiz Trek earlier in the year I gave a glowing review of the Fitzgeralds Pub Quiz which is run in Sunderland City Centre every Thursday Night. Last time I was there it was full with upwards of ten teams, a great question master and definitely the best range of questions in the area.....However, for anyone interested, after attending the quiz for the first time in at least 8 weeks last night all has changed and not for the better.
Seemingly in our absence we have missed the fact that the local quizmaster has left the scene after gaining a job as a local reporter. Being a jolly good bloke I am obviously pleased for him as it sounds like a cracking job but it has left the Fitzgeralds quiz in a bit of a state and I fear for the future of the Thursday quiz night.
I had a feeling something was up as we entered the usually packed room, albeit a little early, to find just 2 tables of players. It did not pick up towards the start of the quiz and we ended up with 4 teams and overall 11 players in the venue. Not ideal!
With all due credit the quizmaster, who I think is the manager of the pub, tried his best joking about hosting "Sunderland Quietest Pub Quiz" and the quiz was not bad at all. The slight changes being the first round was no loner on the microphone meaning it was a sheet of 20 questions to answer followed by 20 pictures.
The huge downside here was simple, the quizmaster gave out the cheats and due to probably having barman duties at the other room left the area.......hence google came out. The team next to us were rampant in using their phones, something that you simply couldn't do in the old quiz which is one of the reasons this quiz used to be so great.
The last two rounds and Jackpot were done on the microphone. Good questions although the Geography round was a little tedious due to the repetitive nature of the questions.
It was a fun night in essence but the cheating ruined it. The amount of prizes they give away as well.....£40 in cash, around 16 pint cheques over the night must have meant it was a tough night for the pub in terms of making money.
Now, I feel including "bad" in the title of this post is a little harsh as, as I have said, we had a good night, the staff did their best to make sure everyone enjoyed it and due to the vast amounts of prizes we won basically every drink of the night but.....
I cannot see this quiz surviving much longer and I guess it shows the effect of a good quizmaster!!!
This is one quiz which had total control over phone cheating, a regular crowd and beat off competition from quizzes on the same night through this! Now though who knows what will happen!
If you are in Sunderland on a Thursday Night head down to Fitzgeralds! If they get the customers back maybe the quiz can return to what it was!
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