It’s Friday evening and the checklist for the Fishy quiz seems complete.
We have mustered the necessary six participants for our team with a mix of experience and knowledge which we hope can cover all the bases. I’ve found some old fan fold printer paper in the cupboard which needs using up (20 years old?) and packed pens, bottles and nibbles to keep us going until the fish and chips arrives. On arrival we decide on the essential team name and settle at our table for we hope will be an entertaining evening.
Those of us that went on the Isle of Man holiday have been in training thanks to Lee’s nightly evening quizzes in the bar which covered a range of formats and subjects. It remains to be seen whether that improves our overall performance.
As the start time approaches, we receive the picture round sheets from Chris the quizmaster. The first one is Ordnance Survey map symbols, which as ramblers we ought to be familiar with, even if we have never had to decide whether an H in a circle is a hospital or a helipad. The other picture round is national flags, which are by no means all familiar, but we have all evening to see what we can work out. On to the question rounds, three before supper. The pens and paper come in useful for offering the team scribe answers without being overheard. We pass our answers to another team to mark and the scores are gathered in. After a few rounds we find our feet and are within a few points of the highest scoring team. Every point counts and answers come from all round the table.
Some rounds prove quite tricky. Which decade saw the first domestic microwave? When was the Word Wide Web invented? Another round chains the answers – the last letter of an answer is the first letter of the next one. This could go badly wrong quite quickly, but we manage to choose a wrong answer ending in the right letter, which is lucky.
Over our good portions of fish and chips we attack the flags again and collect any prizes we have won in the raffle. I found when I first moved to Reading that there was nearly always a raffle. My father frequently came home with raffle prizes – I think his secret was always buying some tickets.
Another three rounds follow the fish and chips and we are still only a few points behind the leaders. It all comes down to the flag round. The leading team can identify 48 out of the 58, which is 11 more than any other team, to gain a convincing win. Congratulations!
A final challenge was chair and table stacking as we cleared the hall.
It was a good evening and thanks to Diana Lincoln, Chris the quizmaster, those who fetched and distributed the fish and chips and any others who helped with the organising. We hope there will be another quiz next year. Don’t be afraid to come if you don’t have a team – normally there are some spare places and you can be fitted in. Teams can be made up of members or their guests.
George