Brain of Britain 2014

Well, its all over for another year. Mark Grant has been crowned Brain of Britain 2014 after a very riveting final that could have went either way right until the very end. Mark built a lead an held onto it for a much deserved win.

This was of course the series I was involved in, briefly....very briefly, and would recommend anyone interested in quizzing to give it a go. A very enjoyable experience and I look forward to 5 years time when I can re-enter and hopefully my "Tv/Radio Nerves" will have gone by then!

Congratulations Mark and well done to all who have taken part.

Quiz Addict Quiz Book

The boom I wrote at the start of last year is still available on the Kindle Store. The sequel will be coming within the next few weeks. Any thoughts on the current book would be much appreciated. No Kindle needed to read it. Cheers.


You can find the book HERE

Sunderland Echo Quiz League

The Sunderland Echo Quiz League has now entered its second half and it seems Ashbrooke (including recent Brain of Britain and Only Connect Semi Finalist Dave Taylor in their ranks) are running away with the title. Only a few more wins should assure them the crown.

All future fixtures can be found HERE and hopefully a brand new website will be posted up before long!

If anyone in the local area is interested in the league pop me an email to fully234@hotmail.com and Ill post on your details to the League chairman!

Quiz Book Suggestions - 15-to-1 2000 for 2000

I picked up the 15-to-1 2000 for 2000 title some time ago and have only recently managed to get round to working my way through it.

As the title suggests the book is now 14 years old but the quality of questions is rather high. There is very little filler and before long you are straight into quality questions testing all aspects of your general knowledge. One pet hate about quiz books is the amount of "easy" filler they tend to include in early pages but this title is in line with the series and is well worthy of a place on your shelf.

Questions - (Almost League)

As promised earlier in the week here are some of the unused questions from the latest League set I produced for the Sunderland Echo Quiz League. If you would like the full set please email me at fully234@hotmail.com

1. What is the title of the novel written under the pen name of Robert Galbraith that shot to the top of the bestsellers chart in 2013 after revelations that the real author was JK Rowling?

2. “Where Do You Want To Go Today” is an advertising slogan that has been used by which international company?

3.  Which golfer who was inducted into the Golf World Hall of Fame in 2013 holds the record for the most number of European tour event victories with 31 despite never winning a major championship?

4. Who comes next in this sequence  - Justin Welby, Rowan Williams, George Carey, Robert Runcie?

5. In which Jim Carey movie does he play a character called Joel who discovers that his girlfriend, played by Kate Winslet, has had their relationship scientifically erased from her memory?

6. Which former male TV Soap star is responsible for the “Standard Issue” clothing Range?

7. What is the name of the “intelligent personal assistant” which appears on Apple phones and tablets which requires the user to simply speak into the device in order to carry out tasks?

8. In 2011, Osama Bin Laden was located and killed in which town named after a 19^th Century British Army officer?

9. Which actor, comedian and writer is the current host of “The Unbelievable Truth” on BBC Radio 4?

10. Which former Prime Minister wrote a history of cricket entitled “More Than a Game: The Story of Crickets Early Years”?

Answers

--------

1. The Cuckoos Calling

2. Microsoft

3. Colin Montgomerie

4. Donald Coggan

5. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

6. Ross Kemp

7. Siri

8. Abbottobad

9. David Mitchell

0. John Major

New Twitter Account

@quizaddictblog

I have set up a Twitter account to co-exist with the blog which can be found @quizaddictblog

I intend to use it for questions, current affairs quizzes and all the usual bits and bobs along the lines of what you might find on the blog. 

Feel free to follow and by all means add your twitter usernames to the comments section!

Setting - Busy Times

It has been rather a hectic month on all fronts, hence the lack of posts, but I am fully intending to get back into a more regular series of updates.

2014 has started out rather slow in terms of actual quizzing for me. I have not yet attended one of the the monthly GP events due to restrictions on my time for a variety of reasons....one of which has been setting. For some time now I have been working for a major Quizzing App which has taken off like a rocket. I have been enjoying setting questions on a wide range of subjects and if truth be told I have been enjoying this a lot!

In fact setting has taken over the majority of the first 3 months of the year for me. In between the thousands of questions for the App I have also been working on two new books to be released soon on Kindle and the usual League set. All fun and games! I am finding this is a very useful learning tool so I am starting to deliberately set questions in areas I am unconfident with. All's good! Hopefully I will be posting up some leftover questions from the League very soon!


I hope you are all well!

Sunderland Echo Quiz League

The Sunderland Echo Quiz League is well into the season now. For anyone local the table below will give you an idea of the pubs/clubs that compete. The temporary website at http://www.wearside.webspace.virginmedia.com/page14.html will give you a lsit of fixtures and if anyone local is interested in joining then pop me an email to fully234@hotmail.com and I will pass your info onto the league chairman.

As you can see its a very tight league and it should be an interesting second half to the season///

The Link - Contestant Call

"Can you find the link? Have you banked enough to stay in the game? Will you hold your nerve facing... The Super Link?

The Link is a brand new quiz show where teams don't just rely on general knowledge but their lateral thinking, in a race to find the link between the answers.

We're looking for enthusiastic, outgoing teams of two, with good general knowledge, who fancy battling it out for a potential cash prize. So, if you, your family, friends or colleagues love a challenge and think you've got what it takes, get in touch for an application form now!

The Link is produced for the BBC by STV Productions Limited."

Interesting new BBC quiz show looking for contestants. All information HERE

Revenge of the Egghead

You may well have noticed that a new quiz show started this week on BBC 2....Revenge of the Egghead. Starring CJ De Mooi as "The Egghead" in question, this airs weeknights at 6pm on BBC 2.

I have caught up with the first two episodes and my general opinion of Revenge of the Egghead is that I certainly won't be sticking with it for very long. The main problem with this show is the fact that it seems nothing but a vehicle for the antics of CJ De Mooi. On his original run in Eggheads he provided good entertainment value, at times, and created himself a somewhat "pantomime villain" persona.

The format of the show is quite simple. CJ takes on 5 players on each episode of Revenge of the Egghead who each begin with two lives. they are asked straight general knowledge questions in turn by Jeremy Vine and each is worth £200. As soon as a player gets a question wrong CJ is given the opportunity to press his buzzer and if he is right, the contestant is then placed on the "hot spot" where they are given a multiple choice question by CJ (who apparently wrote it "himself"). If they fail to get it right they loose a life., loose both lives and they are out.

A claxon sounds towards the end of the game at which point any remaining players face CJ for the money. CJ is given 10 GK questions to answer and the opponents then have to beat his score on 10 different questions.

Revenge of the Egghead after just two episodes is dragging already. The novelty of a new quiz show can usually sustain my interest for at least half a dozen episodes but a number of factors contribute to this being fairly mundance.

Firstly, Revenge of the Egghead lacks the fun, question quality and all round excitement of The Chase. The final portion of Revenge of the Egghead comes no where close to The Final Chase and I can imagine the format will result in some pretty boring games.

CJ himself has totally ramped up the arrogance for the show and it no longer comes across as fun. A number of people have commented on his ability as a quizzer to carry off such a show, especially compared to other quizzers on Eggheads itself and The Chasers, but I shall refrain from that line of thought suffice to say that the show has not really been open to decent quizzers as contestants from the experiences I have heard of.

Overall I cannot really see myself changing my mind on Revenge of the Egghead but I would love to know the thoughts of others on this show?

Back to normality...

Well my Xmas/New Year break officially ends today as I return back to work in the morning! Its been a great 2 weeks off and I am now ready for a new year! Full blog service will resume as normal this week with a new couple of books due out on Kindle early in the year too!

Hope you all had a terrific break and I look forward to hearing from you throughout 2014

Happy New Year

Happy New Year and Thankyou for continuing to read and comment on the blog!

2013 has been a mixed year for me in quizzing. With a lot of hard work but into revising and learning I have definitely became a better player in the last 12 months in all forms of quiz. My main achievement have been a rise in the scoring at the GP's and I highly doubt I will rise at such a rate again. Pub quizzing has improved as has my contribution to the team in the league. The major disappointment was of course Brain of Britain but I cannot complain as not only was it an achievement in itself getting onto the show but having recorded Eggheads and Only Connect as well this year I have certainly had a 2013 to remember.

All the best for 2014!

Dan

Merry Christmas!

I hope everyone has a wonderful day tomorrow whatever you may be doing!

Brain of Britain - My evening recording....

Well, my episode has aired now and you will have heard me somewhat crash and burn on my appearance on this years Brain of Britain. I knew in applying for the show and taking part this year I was trying to run before I could walk, but when the chance came to appear in a show I have been a fan of for years, I couldn't turn it down. The score I ended up with was pretty much what I was expecting but despite a tinge of disappointment I enjoyed the whole occasion.

I headed down to the very impressive Media City complex in Salford on the Friday morning with a stay in the on-site Holiday Inn to look forward to. The call time was 5pm and after a short time waiting around in the lobby we were taken to the studio for recording. I say studio, the Salford episodes were recorded in a hall usually used for the BBC Philharmonic orchestra. Walking to the studio my first little shock was seeing the queue to get into the recording as an audience member! A little intimidating.


After being given the brief run down, we set off on a rehearsal game but with time running on, and a mix up with security who were double booked (with the Jeremy Kyle Show of all things), I had to carry my rehearsal out in front of the audience. For one reason or another, I was very nervous. This was the set up (see below) with the audience of about maybe 250-300 sitting from where the picture was taken.

Despite progressing well in all aspects of quizzing, evidence by my performances in GP's as of late, I am developing a nasty habit of freezing and getting overly nervous whenever there is an audience of any sort. It happened earlier in the year at the York vs Sunderland head to head which was on a stage and has happened in all my TV/Radio recordings to date.

The rehearsal was simply 2-3 rounds of practice questions and as far as I recall, I actually managed to win the rehearsal which I thought would put me at ease but as soon as the music kicked in so did my nerves. The Livingstone question was a total mind-fart and from then on in I was on the backfoot. I was quizzing against some strong players and the standard, apart from me was very high!

The only question I was a little disappointed not to get was Livingstone...the others I genuinely didn't know. I certainly didn't expect Rachael to pass over Vectis for my only bonus of the day. I was well beaten and I knew going in I was running before I could walk so to speak.

But the whole experience was fantastic, enjoyable and out of the three TV/Radio shows I have now done...this was probably the one I enjoyed most!

I would recommend to anyone giving it a try and I look forward to returning in 5 years!

Brain of Britain - Heat 3

My episode of Brain of Britain airs tomorrow on BBC Radio 4. Tomorrow I will post a run down of the experience recording it.