Saturday 17 November 2012

Tale of Two Quizzes


The Sunderland Echo Quiz League finally kicked off this week and after getting a small taste in the pre-season cup competition I was eager to get going in the league proper. The match was held at the Museum Vaults pub in Sunderland, which is well worth a visit if you are local to the area. It was the first time I had set foot in the place and its a nice little pub! Indeed, Museum Vaults is to be the team I play for this season and the match was against Penshaw, double winners from the past few season and containing some very good quizzers, most of whom had just returned from Estonia and the European Championships.

The whole match was great fun and I managed to come up with far more answers for the team than I imagined I would. It was close throughout the early few rounds but Penshaw gradually pulled away and won comfortably in the end. Some cracking questions, great company and it is great to be part of the league proper now!

The following night I headed to my local Thursday night quiz. I always have a choice of two quizzes on a Thursday but seeing as the one I attended this week is ran by a friend I decided to go there. I know this may sound foolish, but I don't treat it as a "quiz" as such due to the amount of cheating. The question master knows what goes on, he is fully aware of the cheating but there is little he can do about it. One "massive" team on the end always tends to win with the aid of google but as I said this is more a social night out than anything else. I would get very frustrated every week if I took this as seriously as I do some other quizzes!

Its not the question masters fault, the questions are actually really solid, its a good format and its a really entertaining quiz which is why it keeps the pub busy but the sheer amount of cheating makes it redundant as a decent contest!

Roll on next Wednesday and the next League match!

3 comments:

  1. What format of quizzing does your league use? Are there any buzzers involved?

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  2. There are things your friend can do about the cheating, Daniel, but it requires having the inclination and the balls to do it.
    * In the first place, he can actually announce at the start of the quiz – please switch your mobile phones off now. If you are seen using your mobile phones during the quiz, it will be presumed that your team is cheating, and you will lose all the points for that round.
    * In the second place he can take a walk around between rounds, and warn off any teams with their phones out.
    * In the third place, include an ‘impossible question’ - he can announce at the start of the quiz – ‘Because of the phone cheating, there will be a question tonight which will be impossible to answer without using a mobile. You won’t announce which it is beforehand, but any team getting it right will be docked half of the points they have accrued during the evening.’ At least it would make them think twice before they go diving for their phones.
    As you know, I hate phone cheating , and it can be very difficult to root out once it gets hold in a place. But that’s not an excuse to just tolerate it.

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  3. I like the idea of an 'impossible question' - but if it's too impossible everybody will be abe to tell which it is, and not answer it - or if it's not that way, but somebody genuinely gets it, what do you do? Also, announcing such a question - mighten this not stop people answering a tough question they think they know simply because they're afraid of being docked points?

    As a counterargument, one of my pubs used to be packed out (20-25 teams a week). I used to give the 'no phones' warning but because I was on a wired mic, in a far corner of the pub, I couldn't see much. I was given a wireless mic and was able to walk around - the scores went down, but do did the attendance. We got about 10 teams. I'm back on the wired mic, stuck in my corner, and some of those teams are coming back and the scores are going back up. Coincidence? And the pub quiz is all about getting as many teams in a pub spending money as possible.

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