North East Quiz Nights: The Plough Music Quiz, Cramlington

 

Venue: The Plough Music Quiz, Cramlington

Time/Date: Sundays from 8pm

 

Unless I have not been looking hard enough, there are not a great deal of choices when it comes to Music Quizzes in the North East. I attended one a number of years ago which was so niche that it put me off for a while, but when I noticed that the same venue that hosts my favourite pub quiz of the week, The Plough in Cramlington, also hosts a Sunday Night music quiz, I decided to give it a go.....and certainly didn't regret it.

This is another superb quiz night in a superb venue. As mentioned in the last review, The Plough is located in the "Village" part of Cramlington and serves a superb selection of ales. There are around 10 teams in attendance most weeks for the Music Quiz and on the whole it is superb!

The night starts off with a picture round, that doesn't try to be too clever and gives you a good shot at doing well. A general knowledge round of 10 questions follows which are usually fairly gettable. In fact, it is pitched well as my usual non-quizzer girlfriend was able to clean up on the modern questions, on which other teams noticeably struggled.

The music round followed which involved twenty intro's...1 point for artist and 1 for track and there was a great range of tracks. Plenty I kicked myself on, plenty of songs I was pleased to get and again, plenty for non-quizzers who are being dragged along......This round though is one of my only two little bugbears with the quiz itself. This round is worth 40 points in all....The rest of the rounds barring the Who Am I? round is out of 40 meaning over half the points are available here. I understand it is a music quiz, but giving 1/2 a point for each would seem more balanced. Either way, that's just me being picky....great fun!


Another picture round follows which the quizmistresses varies.....recently it has been name the drummer, anagrams and Before They Were Famous before a second General Knowledge round. The music general knowledge questions were fun, gettable and well put together to cover a mix of era's so certainly no complaints there.


Now, before I go into this last bit, don't get me wrong, I loved this quiz. Its fun to play and certainly nothing will stop me re-attending but there is a Who Am I? round at the end of the quiz that is worth up to 25 points. It is staggered with clues from 25-20-15-10-5.....meaning there can be a huge turnaround in the last round. So you could win every round yet loose the quiz on this final one. I have been lucky in that my guesses have turned out right, for example, this week elevating us from 6th to 3rd but I can imagine there is going to be a week were a lead turns into a lowly finish based on a bad guess/going in too late.

But I guess that's the way it rolls.....

Overall though, a fantastic quiz, I would recommend it very highly and its so refreshing to have a music quiz of this quality in the area!

 

Current North East Quiz Nights Rankings -

  

 

1. The Plough, Cramlington - Wednesdays
2. The Ship Isis, Sunderland - Mondays

3. Fitzgeralds, Sunderland - Thursdays
4. The Plough Music Quiz, Cramlington - Sundays

5. The Blagdon Arms, Cramlington - Tuesdays

6. The Willow Farm, Cramlington - Tuesdays

7. The Lambton Worm, Sunderland - Sundays