Venue: Fitzgeralds, Sunderland
Time/Date: Thursdays at 8.30pm
In the next in my series of posts reviewing Quiz Nights in the North East, I move onto to one of my favourites.
Fitzgeralds is one of the most popular traditional pubs in Sunderland, serving a wide range of ales and has had an established quiz night for as long as I remember. The venue is located in the heart of Sunderland City Centre and a dedicated room is used for the quiz. The questions are written by a dedicated setter (always good!).
The quiz varies in terms of popularity, for example in the last two weeks we were competing with 4 teams one week and 11 the next, but its a good, regular crowd and cheating is not evident.
The format involves an initial 20 question hand out which you are given half an hour to do. The questions are quite challenging for pub-quiz level and always give you something to think about. The highest score is never more than 16-17 on average with the lowest teams on average getting 10-11. I for one, like being given the time to look at and think about the questions, which is one reason I find this quiz so much fun!
The only negative aspect I have, is what comes next and that's the picture round. 20 pictures to identify. Now, don't get me wrong, I enjoy picture rounds but the quiz tends to be out of 62-65 points, and having 20 of those on pictures means this round usually determines the winners. The scores can vary massively, for example one week I thought I had done well getting 12 (average score around probably 13-14) and when the scores were read out discovered trams have hit 18 and 19. That's pictures for you!
A trivial pursuit round follows which is read out as a normal pub quiz. 2 questions from each of the categories on a Trivial Pursuit Card (although Art and Literature has recently been scrapped in favour of having a TV pair and Film Pair).
The final round is 10 questions on a given subject.....recent subjects include Horror Films (for Halloween), Tv Sitcoms, Crime and Punishment, Chemistry. Usually contains 3-4 gimmies and 6 to get your head around. The score tends to be low for these final two rounds giving a chance to catch up.
The pub pays out a lot of prizes throughout the night with a cash prize for the winner, 2 x pint tokens for the round winners and there is also a jackpot every round with a further 2 x beer tokens available so usually every team leaves with something.
All in all this is one of my favourite quiz nights in the region. The only criticism I would have is that starting at 9pm and finishing at 11pm, it could do with another round or two added but that's a minor criticism on the whole. A very good quiz all round and one I would recommend if you are ever in Sunderland and seeking a quiz!
As mentioned, my aim with this series of posts is to build up a selection of reviews and information on Quiz Nights in the North East. It's very annoying trying to find a quiz night online and hopefully these posts will give people keen on quizzing a little more information.
I am also ranking the quiz nights as I go, and will contain an updated rank at the end of each review.
At Present -
1. Fitzgeralds, Sunderland - Thursdays
2. The Willow Farm, Cramlington - Tuesdays
Do you have any ideas on the best way to structure a quiz so that weaker teams are given a better chance of competing against 'quiz masters'. The issue is that in a charity quiz we run 5 times a year, the same team regularly wins. Even though this is for charity, it has generated some negative comments. I did read that a pub landlord once asked a team to stop attending, because they always won...don't want to do this, so if you have any ideas I'd welcome your input/suggestions
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