Probably my first memory of quizzing was being asked to be part of a primary school quiz team for a PTA (Parent Teacher Association) fundraising night. I remember the thrill of being being chosen and desperately wanting to do well. Seriously wanting to do well. For so many years I believed I wasn't a competitive person, what a load of tosh. I've consistently cried, or thrown a huge wobbly if I wasn't able to remember the capital of a country, the period of a particular king or queen or who invented the thermos flask (James Dewar - a Scotsman if interested).
After the Primary School PTA quiz night I took part in a local area competition competing against various local primary schools. We didn't win, and I was gutted. I remember clearly it was on the night that Brian Clough won the European Cup Final with Nottingham Forest- and I was asked as a question which two teams were playing, I thoroughly impressed my Dad by getting it right. I also amused my parents by the infamous wrong answer, and explanation. 'In which country is the river Rhine?' - my answer, the USA. Mum and Dad asked me afterwards how on earth I got that wrong - all I could think about was Glen Campbell's the Rhinestone Cowboy and using my skewed logic....
Anyway, to this years ongoing task. Compete in 50 Pub Quizzes which I completed finally on Sunday. I didn't do this task as planned, originally I was hoping to go round loads of different venues and quizzes but to be honest the vast majority of quizzes clocked up were in our local Wetherspoons. I did though do take part in quizzes in Caernarfon and Torquay, a quiz in aid of Guide Dogs, a quiz in aid of osteoporosis, an international quiz, a University inter departmental quiz and another local pub one. If you remember, last year we were looking after a guide dog in training, Timber - during his stay with us he was a regular at the Wetherspoons quiz!
I competed mostly with Stewart, we've had a couple of different quiz team names over the years, prior to Wales we were always Toil and Trouble - I toil and he's trouble. Now we are the Richard Dawkins Appreciation Society - long story. But, I don't think it's a secret that me and Stewart actually met on a TV quiz show! In 1993. Catchword. It wasn't actually a general knowledge quiz, it was all about words and trying to come up lots of words or long words.
Stewart had won his first show, came back for his second appearance and met me. Our oft used expression is that I could have won a dictionary instead I ended up with a husband.
From that moment onwards we've joined forces to try and see what we can win with our combined general knowledge. This last year, we haven't actually done so well. I can only count 15 wins, which for a team of two isn't actually shameful but we have done a lot better in the past. Our local Wetherspoons Sunday quiz used to offer bottles of Moet and Chandon as a prize. We amassed quite a few.
Shortly after we drank the entire collection - with a champagne party for workmates, not just on our own - Wetherspoons changed the system so that the prize was not alcohol, but cash. Fair enough, we save our winnings and splurge for special things or occasions. Our current quiz stash is going to pay for various trips on a big holiday we've got coming up later this year. Think in the past our winnings have been used to buy a wine fridge and a few nights away in hotels. Not bad really.
Our quizzing pedigree extends beyond competitive pub quizzing. Between us we've appeared on four different TV quiz shows. Catchword - where it all started, then I went on Mastermind, initially auditioned for a laugh and the hell of it but got to the semi-final, then Stewart appeared on an ITV one series show called Ejector Seat and then most recently I tried the Chase. See me and Bradley at the top of the page. The Chase I found terrifying and I didn't do well, had a serious case of stage fright. But, it was an experience.
When we first moved to Wales, we were regulars at a different pub quiz and played regularly with a gorgeous bloke called Marc and together we ended up representing Wales in a national pub quiz league final. We were the only regional 'runners up' to attend and were the only team of three - every other team had four. In the end we actually came fifth which we were all pretty chuffed with. And guess who we met - yep, the toughest of Chaser, the Beast. This was way before I'd considered going on the Chase.
The Wetherspoons Sunday night quiz has a really good format. The first 26 questions are 'A to Z', so question one answer begins with A, question two answer begins with B and so on. There's then a 10 question 'specialist subject round, subjects normally being picked by the winning team, and it ends with four 'in the news' type questions. When I looked back over our winning weeks the specialist subjects were enormous in range - Victoria Wood, Mamma Mia, FA Cup Finals, 80s pop music, UK Prime Ministers, British Geography, Cars....we can choose anything and everything. I'd say that there's a lot of friendly rivalry. There are a core five teams who go every week with others popping up now and again. It is relatively lighthearted and I have in fact made some proper amazing and beloved friends from a couple of the teams. In fact, the support I got from these friends over the last few months was immense. Truly immense. So the rivalry, and the desire to win, comes second in actual fact.
'I've started, so I'll finish'....I'll end with a quick note about my time on Mastermind. I truly did apply for a joke, my ambition was maybe to get an audition and dine out on that. In the end, I was actually chosen to appear. My main aim was not to make an absolute tit of myself. Thankfully, and surprisingly to my entire family not only did I not make a tit of myself I actually won my round and made it through to the semi final! That was not on my bucket list but I'm not going to lie, I'm still dumbfounded that I can say I was a Mastermind semi-finalist. AND! My semi-final ended up being plastered all over the UK national press as one of my competitors scored the lowest ever score for his specialist subject round. I kind of felt sorry for him but he'd already won a quarter of a million on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire so I'm sure he could suck it up. So, my ugly mug inadvertently ended up being on the front page of countless newspapers.
So that's it. This was a very spurious blog, but hopefully you've enjoyed it anyway. Well into the final countdown now for this year of challenges. We already know that I will be going beyond my actual birthday which is this weekend, but I doubt anybody will give me a hard time about that. And besides, I should definitely be completing in June, so not too tardy. See you next time- and thank you SO SO very much for sticking with me. If I hadn't had this challenge and this blog, then I'm honestly not sure how I'd coping right now. This has been therapy, and good therapy. So thanks. xxxx
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