The Bowling Club held a quiz night on Saturday (18th) - a David Atfield special.
The club house was packed, with 16 teams of four. The club provided some nibbles and quizzers brought their own additional ones. The bar was open (of course).
Round One was general knowledge, 20 questions with answers ranging from Croquet to Truro via Luke Littler and George RR Martin. Round Two was entitled ‘Threes’ with sets of three words having something in common. Round Three was Music with 40 points available for recognising artists or bands together with colours, countries or cities mentioned in the song title. The table quiz was to identify photos of 20 people who died in 2024.
After the scores for all these were totalled, two teams were tied on 92 going into the final round: ’Stick or Bust’. Ten questions, getting progressively harder, and scoring progressively more points - 1 for the first, 2 for the second and so on up to 10 for the tenth, a potential total of a massive 55 points.
The catch was that if you got a question wrong, you scored no points for the round. But you could decline to answer a question you didn’t know and stick with the answers you did. Even if you knew subsequent answers, they wouldn’t count. So if you knew for certain the first five, but not number 6, you could stick there and score 15. Or if you were just a little uncertain, you could gamble. Or if you needed a lot of points to win, you might guess and hope. The different possible tactics are what make the round, shall we say, interesting.
As it happened, question 8 was a stinker. Which UK city first introduced postcodes, in 1959? Do you know? No one in the room did, except David. So no one got beyond Q.7 for a score of 28. Some teams got fewer. Some bust and scored nothing.
The top two teams both got 28, so were still tied and it was down to a tie-breaker. Closest wins: how many songs did the Beatles record? Artful Codgers guessed 165. The Ex-President’s Men said 220. The answer was 213.
A great night, with thanks to David and to everyone who helped set up the room and provide the drinks and nibbles.
Oh, and the postcodes answer? Norwich. 60-odd people will never forget!