The Brunton Shield has, for the past 3 years I have taken part, been one of the highlights of my quizzing calendar. The event pitches teams from Tyne and Wear against Quizzers. In the previous two years we have headed up to Edinburgh to compete but this year the venue was the Old George in Newcastle. A cracking pub in the heart of the city centre.
Strangely there was less of a turnout from the Tyne and Wear quizzers this year than on previous occasions, with 2 teams competing against 3 Scottish teams. In attendance were the likes of Fifteen to One winner Dave McBryan, Mastermind finalist Roderick Cromar, Brian Pendreigh who has appeared on a wide range of shows, Brain of Britain 2014 Semi-Finalist Dave Taylor and recent Mastermind heat winner Mike Foden to name but a few! So as you can imagine the standard was high and I did not envy Barry Howbridge's task of setting the questions to challenge such a crowd.
The format involved 100 questions in teams with the top team from the North East then pairing off against the top Scottish team in the final which was to be individual questions. I was paired with Mike Foden in a team of two. We pulled out some cracking answers and plugged along well but in the end were some distance behind the other North East Team who went into the final to play The Dude Abides.
It was a close contest but the North East Team took a few more risks and nailed the 2 pointers (it was 2 points for an individual answers, 1 if there was a need to confer with the team) giving them a 16-11 victory.
A fantastic quiz all round, a great standard and some superb questions. A great afternoon of quizzing and I am already looking forward to next year!
Hi Dan. Really enjoyed the Newcastle trip and a great day of quizzing. Just a point of information: the score in the final was a bit closer than that announced on the day. We had it as 14-12, and Barry confirmed this score by email after the event, there had been a misallocation of points on one pair of questions. We were happy to come out on top after the 100 question qualifier, and if the questions in the final didn't quite fall for us, at least we're getting a bit closer. We may even win it one day!
ReplyDeleteLooking forward to next year already.
Cheers - Ewan