Quiz League of London Sets

Many of you reading this will be aware of, and potentially play in, the Quiz League of London. By far the largest, most active league in the country with a website second to none. Last week I posted about the Fabulous SF Quiz Archives. Although great, the QLL has an even wider selection available on their site which can be found here.

Not only do the archives go back to include all the league, cup and buzzer contests that the QLL organise but also the newest quizzes from the current season are uploaded very promptly. Hours of fun to be had, great questions and a fantastic resource!

Connections Quiz Anwers

Here are your answers from Yesterday

1.      Who lead the Liberal Democrats into the 2017 General Election?	Tim Farron
2.      Which is the third film in the Ice Age series coming between “The Meltdown” and “Continental Drift”?	Dawn of the Dinosaurs
3.      Which British footballer has won the champions league 3 times in the last 4 years?	Gareth Bale
4.      What saint’s day falls on the 1st of March?	St David
5.      What is the connection between the above answers….	The Office (The main 4 characters – Tim, Dawn, Gareth and David)

1.      What is the name of the famous play by Eugene O Neill tells the story of a Salesman called Hickey with a budding passion for reform?	The Iceman Cometh
2.      Every year, the city of Nottingham hosts a fair dedicated to which bird?	Goose
3.      Also the name of a BBC TV show, what is the name of the Wizard most associated with the tales of King Arthur?	Merlin
4.      Which 1994 movie, a remake of an earlier TV series, sees Mel Gibson playing a character trying to raise the funds to play in a lucrative Poker Tournament?	Maverick
5.      What connects the above 4 answers?	Top Gun Characters (Iceman, Goose, Merlin and Maverick)

Book Suggestion

I stumbled across "The Title" by accident on Amazon, just released this year. It is a very good, fact filled look back at the pre-Premier League era of the First Division, written in an entertaining manner from Scott Murray (who according to the book writes for the Guardian). Certainly picked up a lot of facts and question material about the early days of the league. Who was the first team to win the league and won every game at home along the way? Who was the first person to win the league title with two different clubs? All these questions answered and more.

Well worth it for football fans and quizzers alike, and an ideal Xmas gift...




Speaking of ideal Xmas gifts and books that are a great read for Football fans, the benchmark is still "The Ball is Round". Not only one of the best Football books on the market, but one of the most enjoyable titles I have read full stop...

Connections Quiz

A couple more pretty straight forward Connections rounds from some of my pub quizzes set a few months back....Answers tomorrow.

1.      Who lead the Liberal Democrats into the 2017 General Election?

2.      Which is the third film in the Ice Age series coming between “The Meltdown” and “Continental Drift”?

3.      Which British footballer has won the champions league 3 times in the last 4 years?

4.      What saint’s day falls on the 1st of March?

5.      What is the connection between the above answers….

1.      What is the name of the famous play by Eugene O Neill tells the story of a Salesman called Hickey with a budding passion for reform?

2.      Every year, the city of Nottingham hosts a fair dedicated to which bird?

3.      Also the name of a BBC TV show, what is the name of the Wizard most associated with the tales of King Arthur?

4.      Which 1994 movie, a remake of an earlier TV series, sees Mel Gibson playing a character trying to raise the funds to play in a lucrative Poker Tournament?

5.      What connects the above 4 answers?

SF Quiz Archives

The Southport and Formby Quiz League's website was one of the first I came across some years ago when I was dipping into Quiz League's and trying to gauge an idea of the standard, revise some questions and test myself. Many quiz leagues have taken to adding questions to their site (more on that later) to give players a taste of what is involved and for the past 6 years the SF Quiz League have been uploading there's. The archive is now rather vast and is ideal for picking up on those quiz chestnuts that come up time and time again, and there is certainly something to learn in each quiz. The site can be found here.


By the way, if you enjoy testing yourself on League style questions then I cannot recommend this book highly enough. Several times over the years I have mentioned it on the blog, but for volume of questions and quality involved, its always worth a mention...

QLL Buzzer Tournament Final

Last weekend many of the finest quiz brains in the country headed to London for the QLL (Quiz League of London's)  Annual Buzzer Tournament. Always a popular tournament from what I gather (based on quizzers universal praise on Facebook) and one I hope to attend at some point.

Anyway, here is the final from this year....Eggheads Pat Gibson and Kevin Ashman, The Chase's Anne Hegerty and many faces you will recognise from various successful TV appearances.

A fascinating watch.

Quote Unquote - Latest Series

No sooner does one of the fantastic Radio 4 quiz shows come to an end (Grand final of Counterpoint last week.....click HERE to listen) than the next one starts. This time of year brings Quote Unquote which it took me some time to appreciate, but after sticking with it for a few series, it has became one of my favourites. The new series starts this Monday on Radio 4 at 3pm.

Eggheads Contestant Call

Eggheads are currently looking for teams (aren't they always!) to compete in the upcoming series. All the information can be found HERE

Eggheads was the first TV show I tried out for back in 2013, and entering with a team of local pub quizzers, we didn't manage to win the £40k on offer (won by a team if students on the very next show). But we had a great day up to Glasgow and I would suggest anyone to give it a whirl. The team, and the Eggheads themselves, are all very friendly and its certainly a worthwhile experience.

Great Lives

Posting up the podcast suggestion yesterday (BBC's Great Lives Series) reminded me of a great Book I have been working my way through this year. Great Lives by The Times. This is a huge tome of obituaries of 124 famous people from History. All fact filled and easy to read. Perfect to get a decent overview into the lives of people who appear in quizzes time and time again. I certainly picked up a lot of interesting facts (and being a question writer, a heck of a lot of material for future questions). The £30 new price tag is hefty, but click the link and head to the Amazon Marketplace section and you will see its available for pennies!

There are several other editions which I intend to dip into (such as Great Scottish Lives) too!

Useful Podcasts for Quizzing - Great Lives

Over the next few weeks I am going to post up some links to some of the best podcasts currently available that are either directly Trivia focused or are extremely helpful/interesting to quizzers. Many of which you will have heard of and be avid listeners of, but as a huge podcast fan, I know it can be time consuming finding consistently good shows. Hopefully I can help you find one or two more...

I am going to start with one that I am sure you have come across before...Great Lives from the BBC. The link to the shows site is HERE




Each show, as the title suggests, involves an expert, a famous-fan and the presenter discussing the life of a famous figure. The sheer breadth of personalities they have covered over the years is astounding and the show is always consistent with high quality, fact driven discussion.

There is many a time, since I started listening to this religiously, that I have been able to scrape out answers in quizzes because of what I had heard on the show. The archive is huge (currently standing at around 420 episodes on the iplayer radio app/site) all of which can be downloaded for ease of use.

I will recommend many podcasts over the coming weeks that are worth trying, but very few will exceed this in terms of usefulness to quizzing.

Book Suggestion: TV Cream Toys

Another great and very useful book I have read this week (useful for both facts and helping me devise some cracking quiz questions) is TV Cream's: Toys. TV Cream is a site you may have seen before (and if not, its well worth a look) and focuses on the 1960s-1980s. It originated as a site for TV Shows but it now cover's just about everything you could want in terms of nostalgia.

I picked this up from the Amazon Marketplace for pennies (see below link) and its basically and A-Z of Toys and Games from the 1960s to 1980s. Loads of great facts included (including learning who the father of current MP Jesse Norman is? The place Tom Stone, of the parachute regiment has in history?) and a fun book all round.

Well worth a look and would also a be great gift too....

Counterpoint Grand Final

Just in case you missed it, this week saw the Grand Final of the latest series of Counterpoint. One of my favourite quiz shows, and well a listen if you have never tried the series before this is a perfect point to dive in! The show can be heard here for the next few months.

The site itself has a couple of useful quizzes on too!

Sunderland Echo Quiz League Archive

I have kept meaning to mention on the blog, that the Sunderland Echo Quiz League have been, for the past few seasons, adding some extra sets to the website for people to see. The direct link can be found HERE.

Unlike most leagues, the Sunderland Echo Quiz League is based on team questions with up to 6 brains working at any one time to get the points. I always add my sets to the blog which you may have seen, but the site will give you a flavour of the league. We have some fantastic setters and I am sure you will enjoy them :)

Connection Round Answers

As promised here are the answers to the 3 connection rounds posted yesterday...

1.      Standing in Lancashire, what was became the tallest structure in England when it first opened in 1894?	Blackpool Tower
2.      What is the surname of the actor who played Fred Flinstone on film and voiced Sulley in Monsters Inc?	Goodman (John Goodman)
3.      “Never know how much I love you, never know how much I care, When you put your arms around me” are the opening lines to which famous song?	Fever
4.      Which TV Presenter is the daughter of journalist Eve Pollard?	Claudia Winkleman
5.      What is the connection between the above 4 answers?	Strictly Come Dancing

1.      Which British politician lead the Labour Party from 1983-1992, making him the longest serving Leader of the Opposition in British History?	Neil Kinnock
2.      Which British celebrity became a father for the first time in at the age of 54, when his partner Lauren Silverman gave birth to his son Eric?	Simon Cowell
3.      Which actor links Ron Burgundy, Ricky Bobby and Elf?	Will Ferrell
4.      Which rapper is married to Beyonce?	Jay-Z
5.      What is the connection between the above answers?	The names of the 4 main characters from “The Inbetweeners”? (Simon, Will, Neil, Jay)

1.      In 1996, Newcastle United broke the world football transfer record when they bought Alan Shearer from which other club for £15 million?	Blackburn Rovers
2.      What type of classical female singing voice has the highest vocal range of all voice types?	Soprano
3.      Bengal, Siberian and South China are all species of what type of animal?	Tiger
2.      Which low budget 1998 horror movie concerns three students who set out to make a documentary in Black Hills Forest?	The Blair Witch Project
3.      What is the connection between the last 4 answers?	Tony (Tony Blackburn, Tony Soprano, Tony Tiger, Tony Blair)

Question Time: A Journey Round Britain's Quizzes

Released in the first week of October, Mark Mason's book on quizzing is well worth your time! Having previously written the very entertaining "The Importance of Being Trivial" (see link at the bottom of the page, also well worth your time), this takes a more direct look at Quizzing in the UK featuring many names you will recognise. At just over 200 pages, its a nice brisk read and one or two passages in the book will divide opinion, but other than that I imagine it is a must for quizzers. We are being spoilt a little at the moment with this, the raft of new quiz books from the BBC and the excellent "Joy of Quiz"! All worth your time and all links below!