Cleverdicks - Re-runs

Cleverdicks aired on Sky Atlantic earlier this year and is set for a re-run starting Monday at 7pm on Challenge. The show attracted top class quizzers to compete against each other with several familiar faces from the quizzing scene taking part. I missed this, apart from the very first episode, first time around due to moving flat and being without Sky for a few weeks. Also, the move means the show will be screened on freeview for the first time giving it a whole new audience.

From the first episode I saw it was a very enjoyable show, far better than a lot of the newer quizzes out there on TV and I am looking forward to seeing the whole run. Cleverdicks is airing seemingly every night at 7pm on Challenge (8pm on +1 too of course) and I think 30 episodes were made so for those of us who haven't seen this before in full, that is 6 weeks of some top class quizzing back on tv!

Gameshow.co.uk - Update

I reported last week that the online quiz game with real money prize that ran last week, Gameshow.co.uk, had seemingly gone offline shortly after the contest ended.

I managed to get an email from a fellow quizzer and have since been paid into Paypal. If anyone else needs the email address it is jamie@glassesdirect.co.uk

As far as I know Jamie is sorting all payments out and I know the main winner, £1,000, has been paid as well as other top prizes.

The Book that keeps on giving....

When I first started to take quizzing seriously and sought to expand my knowledge by building a useful library of reference books, one of the first books recommended to me was the Pears Ultimate Quiz Companion. I knew this book was going to be useful the minute it dropped through my letter box from amazon (£1.29 including p and P) but over recent weeks it has proved its weight in gold. 

A lot of reference books fall into the trap of overload, giving uninteresting, repetitive and unnecessary information that tend to distract rather than promote retention.

This book though takes a more plain approach and whilst I would not describe it as a book of lists per se, it provides information in short sharp "lists" of sort with two columns on each page crammed with facts. Its actually set out really rather real and works a treat for keeping information in.

At Around 690 pages and coming in standard paperback size you would imagine the book misses out a lot of areas and doesn't cover as much group as rivals. Well it does and the reason for this post about it today is simply because the more my quizzing goes on the more useful this has proved....

Whatever the occasion knowing the contents of this book has served me many purposes.

4 points at the World Quizzing championships were gained from knowledge I only knew from this title, the same goes for the Mastermind audition questions and GP questions the BQA issues. Week in week out pub quizzes are won by points based on knowledge I have learned from this book and it has won me jackpots and drinks rounds as well.

Although by no means the be all and end all of reference books (What book can be?) for anyone who is in a similar position as I was, simply looking to improve the basics of all areas of knowledge quickly and to improve performance on any level of quiz this should be an essential starting point.

In fact as a starting point I think this is hard to beat. Of course Trevor Montagues books go further into details but as a starting block, before getting stuck into some of the more weightier tomes, this is hard to match!


Here is a link to purchase for a pittance on Amazon

Pears Ultimate Quiz Companion (Penguin Reference Books)

Tipping Point

Tipping Point - Episode 1

Tipping Point is the latest teatime quiz show from ITV and it all kicked off tonight with the very first episode in a 4 week run. I had heard very little about Tipping Point prior to it commencing other than the fact that it is based on 2p machines from the Arcades and is hosted by Ben Shepherd. 

The game has a very simple format, something which ITV have not always adhered to in some recent shows. 4 players start and there is £10,000 up for grabs. By answering questions in the first round you earn tokens to slot into the giant slot machine and whatever you manage to push out you win.

By the way just in case I am not making sense about the "2p machines" this is what I am referring to...

There are a few other little parts of the round that aren't worth mentioning and the game continues into a third round where 30 seconds of questions earns each player tokens to use. Following a head to head the winner plays for up to £10,000.

You might already have gathered I lost some enthusiasm in describing the game as I found this show to be very dull indeed. I have seen a few comments online too after the show and during it which expressed similar sentiments. The fact of the matter is that Tipping Point, in my opinion, is boring and at 5pm on an evening after a hard days work the last thing I want is a boring game show dragging on for an hour. Don't get me wrong their were positive comments I notice and I would love to hear your views but for me Tipping Point on ITV does very little!

First and foremost is the questions. The actual Tipping Point questions are dull, old chestnuts and plain boring. Even when they select the "medium" and "hard" questions in the final round they are painfully easy. Shepherd does very little to bring any life to things and for anyone watching this, like me, for the quizzing value it becomes clear pretty early on that this is not only dull but also not the focus of the game.

The focus of the game is the second problem.....the machine. This is the selling point of the show and the questions merely serve a limited purpose of ensuring they can build a TV show around a gigantic 2p Machine. After the first set of coins have went in the fascination wears off. By the time you get to round 2 and the contestants are having 5 or 6 goes each, back to back the tedium clicks in. 

I imagine playing this game as a contestant is fun but the way I see it is simple.....we all enjoy an odd game on the 2p machines in arcades, but we wouldn't spend an hour watching someone else play would we? It is a very odd occasion when a quiz/gameshow is so boring on screen but would be so much fun to play in reality!

If you watched Tipping Point tonight I hope you enjoyed it, but I don't see myself spending much more time with it as I really cannot see what else it has to offer other than what was on show tonight.

I know at least one reader has been on Tipping Point and would love to hear how contestants found it to play.

Will it do well? Tipping Point will have that initial interest from people who liken it to the popular arcade machine but I cannot see it lasting.

Roll on the return of The Chase!


I welcome any comments below as to how anyone reading this felt about the show?

Trevor Montague is back...

Regular readers and friends will know my obsession with the reference works of Trevor Montague. He has a new book out this week (currently only in ebook/kindle format but due soon for a hardback version) which is the latest in his A-Z series....this time his focus is popular culture!

Its a cracking book so far as I have started to study it and this books is perhaps the most useful of the series to normal pub quizzers as these questions tend to dominate the average pub quiz.....

Here is an amazon link for the ebook. Well worth every penny and you do not need a kindle etc to use it as you can simply download the free software and browse it on your PC/laptop.





Just in case you are unfamiliar with the A-Z works Trevor writes then, in a nutshell, they are perhaps the most essential works for any quizzer's collection and studying even just a few pages of these books will boost your knowledge considerably!

The best remains the A-z of Everything....




And also very useful for British quizzers is the fantastic A-Z of England and Ireland....






All well worth the price!

Tour De France Quiz

The Tour De France has been keeping my attention this week so I thought I would put together a little simple quiz to test the basics....Answers as usual in the comment box

1. This years Tour De France began in which country?

2. Which German cyclist holds the record for the most Green Jersey victories?

3. Lance Armstrong holds the record with 7 Tour Victories. There are four cyclists who have won the Tour De France 5 times. One is Eddy Merckx. Name any one of the others?

4. Andy Schelck is from which country?

5. Which Briton holds the record for the fastest prologue which he achieved at Lille in 1994?

6. With a stunning 34, who holds the record for the most stage victories in the Tour De France?

7. Which Briton won the Green Jersey in 2011?

8. Who is the only rider besides Eddy Merckx to win the Tour De France, Giro and Worlds in the same season?

9. The wearer of the Polka-Dot jersey has achieved what?

10. The "Flamme Rouge" represents what?

11. Who was the first rider to wear the famous Yellow Jersey?

12. What appeared first in the Tour de France...The Alps of the Pyrenees?

13. What mountain was Tom Simpson climbing when he tragically died in the 1967 Tour De France?

14. Who was the first British cyclist to hold the yellow jersey in the Tour De France?

15. What is the highest position a British Cyclist has finished in the Tour De France overall classification (as of end of the 2011 Tour)?

Weekly News Quiz

Just before I settle down for a lazy Sunday here is a quiz of the weeks news to get stuck into. The answers are in the comment box.

1. Which Kindle title became the first to sell 1 Million copies this week?

2. Which entertainer made his first ever British festival appearance at Hop Farm this week aged 84?

3. The National Trust has appealed for £1.2 million to buy a stretch of what?

4. What was the name of the Hawk who was "employed" to keep pigeons away from Wimbledon this week who has since been stolen?

5. The divorce of Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes was announced this week. What is the name of the child who Holmes has applied for sole custody of?

6. The musical Viva Forever was launched this week based on the music of which act?

7. Which island became the fifth nation to appeal for an EU Bail Out this week?

8. The SFO has been busy this week investigating the shady dealings of British Bankers. What does SFO actually stand for?

9. It was announced this week that the law restricting the times of marriage in the UK will be changed in October allowing couples to tie the know at any time during the day or night. Prior to this change, what was (and until October is) the hours between which a couple in the UK could wed?

10. The Tour De France started this week. To the nearest hundred what is the overall distance covered in the tour....3000km, 3500km, 4000km or 4500km?

11. The Amazing Spiderman is the latest reinvention of the superhero to hit cinemas this coming week but who plays Spiderman in this movie?

12. Who is the author of 50 Shades of Grey, the book dominating sales charts this week?

13. Wild fires hit which US state this week?


SPORT
------

A bonus rounds in this weeks news quiz. I am going to give you 5 sporting figures, teams or events and I want to know how they have been in the news this week....

1. Yaroslava Shvedova
2. Laurent Blanc
3. London Welsh
4. Yohann Blake
5. Fabian Cancellara


Enjoy!

Tipping Point

A new quiz show starts this week, Monday in fact, at 5pm in ITV. I have seen very little about the show other than the fact it is hosted by Ben Shephard. There is going to be 20 episodes in this first series and Tipping Point focuses around some sort of coin machine (like the 2p ones at the Arcade).

Either way its a new quiz show so Ill give it a fair chance when it starts on ITV at 5pm on Monday. Anyone know much else?

Book Recommendation

The London Encyclopaedia is one of those reference books that turn a quick fact check into a 40 minute trove of information. Brushing up on knowledge of the capital was key to me a few weeks back and after getting this book my knowledge has improved dramatically. Its well written, full of useful information quizzing wise but also just a darn interesting trove of goodies!

Picture Quiz Revision

Rather than recommend a site, for a change, I am asking for help from any readers here!

Basically I am looking to improve my quizzing in picture rounds. What happens every single week at one quiz is we let ourselves down on the "20 question" picture. In a 60 point quiz this makes it hard to recover if we have a bad week!

It is not that I am terrible at these rounds. On some occasions Ill score maximum marks but there are always weeks every month when I struggle.

Unlike normal rounds it is hard to go away and revise picture quizzes. Of course I read several papers per day and my other half reads celeb mags so I get the chance to keep up to date with the "in celebrities" of the moment but what I am hoping to find is a website with a ton of picture quizzes I can use to test myself more regularly.

Does anyone know of any useful tools for this or any more tips on how to improve on these rounds?

Gameshow.co.uk - Scam?

I know a few readers and fellow quizzers got involved in this online game last week. Gameshow.co.uk ran a week long tournament for some pretty high stakes money given it was online. You basically answered questions and the players with the most points qualified for one of the prize positions (although you could "invite" wingmen to play who would score points for you too). The top prize was £1,000 with prizes descending from that down to about 50th place.

 It was a good little game to be truthful, all ran through facebook accounts but sadly it seems like one of two things has happened...

1) It is a scam for details. The site looking very professional and it was all so well done I have doubts it was a pure scam. Some people are reporting they have been asked for bank details which is the worrying aspect and everyone has been asked for an address for the cheque to be issued. I won a small prize but am not expecting anything to come from it.

2) What I think has actually happened is the people in charge have not gained the business they hoped and folded it. The site has gone totally, the tournament ended on Sunday night and by Monday morning the site said just "gameshow" in black and white. We all got emails saying where we had finished and what prize we won.

But basically the site worked by enticing you with three free plays and then charging to play. I think the organisers hoped that the high prizes, the competitive leaderboards and frankly the enjoyable game/questions would push people forward into buying credits. From what I gather most people seem to have used their free credits and then settled for their score. With so few players taking part the majority of players were in prize slots there was no incentive to buy credits.

A bit of research from a few more "in the know" about the internet than me shows that there is nothing overly suspicious in the sites registration details so I definitely think the second of the two options above has occurred.

It is a shame as a site like that could really work if they could find a way to make money without charging per play.

Team Size Restrictions

I had a little rant yesterday about large teams etc and this obviously has raised the issue of whether team size restrictions are appropriate for a pub quiz. I am purely talking about pub quizzing here as obviously in any serious, competitive quiz restrictions on the size of teams goes without saying.

I have had a similar conversation with a quizmaster before and his general idea I guess was the logical one. Restrictions on team size will always be counter productive in a pub quiz. The only argument I could muster was that large teams may put people off playing in smaller teams and larger teams winning everything would drive punters away.

The quizmaster in return raised valid point. First off he pointed out I was looking at it from a "quizzers" angle whereas 90% of the players in the pub where there purely for the social aspect. His job is obviously to get the quiz busy, keep the players coming in and buying drinks.

He then gave me a situation...."If I restrict the team size to 4, what if 5 friends turn up? Do I tell one he cannot play?". Obviously risking the whole team pulling out and loosing vital trade. I could not really give a good answer back. His role is obviously to attract not repel custom and pleasing the many certainly is better than pleasing the few in this case.

But what can be done about the team sizes? The one time I have had a massive team of 8 we split into two teams of 5 and the added "friendly" competition made it much more enjoyable. Maybe an idea for quizmasters to encourage?

Teasers for Sunday

I am trying to fill the nervous hours before kick off tonight with anything I can so here are a few teasers from my note book....(Sorry for the sport focus)

1.  Who scored the first headed goal in a World Cup Final?

2. Who is the current host of the Channel 4 show Countdown?

3. Next week marks an anniversary since the publication of the first Harry Potter book. is this is 10th, 15th or 20th anniversary?

4. Which former Northern Ireland football captain died this week?

5. Which F1 driver holds the record of most ever Pole Positions (68)?

6. And sticking with Formula 1, in which city is this weekends European Grand Prix taking place?

7. The Tour De France starts next week. Who holds the record for the most stage wins at the event?

8. Which football team was the focus of the 1998 BBC documentary "Premier Passions"?

9. In which British city would you find the Discovery Museum, the Life Centre and the Laing Art Gallery?

10. True of False. This years Eurovision winner "Loreen" entered the Top 5 of the UK singles chart with her winning track "Euphoria"?

Team Size

One problem I have always had in terms of quizzing is I have never been able to find a settled team to play with week in week out. In all honesty the majority of people I play with are not too serious or keen about quizzing, that is not to say they don't give plentiful answers. So usually the quiz night consists of myself and my other half playing together.

We play in a few quizzes where they are "huge" and I mean "huge" teams. Anything upwards of 10 and not surprisingly the big teams are always in the top two positions. The fact that such big teams makes it harder for us to win does not bother me, I am still learning and gaining experience so not winning every week does not concern me. But the team of 10 who only play when there is a large number of them really puzzles me and annoys me in some ways. 

I am not overly concerned with winning as I said but for us and other teams it would be nice to think we had a "chance". The team have quizzed before with 4-5 players and came about half way but at full strength they are hard to beat (made harder by a quiz in which 20 of the 60 points on offer are from pictures.....a round where more players helps incredibly).

Now I do not want to turn this into a rant about big teams or sound bitter in anyway, I hope I made that clear. I just cannot seem to work out the logic as to why someone would want to play in such a large team and what pleasure they get. If in such a big team surely most questions more than one player will know the answers.....I would feel like I was not contributing. I would not like such a big team even if it meant guaranteed victory every week. But that is just my preference!

I could maybe understand if the prize was big but it isn't. Even a win in every round and tiebreak bonuses would not cover their costs. 

I know I should not pick on this one team in particular as for all I know it could be a family who only get one chance a week to socialise and use that time to quiz but this leads me on to a post I will consider tomorrow.....should team sizes be limited?

Jackpot Success - Suspicions

Well for the first time in quite a while we managed to walk away with a jackpot win last night. The pub in question usually offers a £100 jackpot but it is rarely won, however this week they had decided to have a "guess the year" jackpot where a spot on guess would gain £100 and if this did not happen there would be prizes for £50, £30 and £20 for the closest three.

The question came up and I was sure I knew it...."In what year did Dick Whittington die?. It was one of those rare occasions in the jackpot where I actually roughly knew the answers. With only 60 seconds to think I decided a strange tactic. I knew roughly it was around the early 1420's so went for one guess just below and one guess just above what I thought it was. I was not being greedy by buying two guesses but did steamroller my other halfs efforts when I knew the question was gettable.

Sure enough the answer I had in my head was right but did the tactic pay off? Third place.....wasn't us the £20 went to the next table. £30......my other halfs name was read out. £50.....Mine! Quite a sweep.

But you can guess what happened next..........

Groans....head shakes...tuts...mimics of phones being tapped....."It shouldnt be allowed having two from the same table". This is very ironic as I suggested at the start it should be one guess per team as the team of 10 who had quite rightly taken pleasure in trumping everyone in the quiz mathematically had more chance of winning than a team of two. But alas the top two prizes to us.

It is one down side, major downside to quizzing I am finding. We have been regulars now for weeks, but money into the jackpot every week to build up and despite being the smallest team by far we play fairly and honestly every week.

It wasn't a very pleasant win as some of the other regulars felt narked the same table had won the top two prizes and it made me feel really awkward which it shouldn't. I know in other quizzes I play in any big winners of the jackpot/bingo games etc gets a well done and a smile.

It is becoming a recurring theme that anything our team or two does that results in any win whether that be the quiz, a pint cheque from winning the round or the jackpot its the same accusation of cheating and foul play.