The first cut is the: answers

Here’s a very quick post with the answers to the questions posted over the weekend in The first cut is the…

I don’t have anything else to tell you… so let’s get on with it!

Read Full Post »

The first cut is the…

It’s not often that you can pin down which question in a quiz is the hardest.  Over the course of a few hours, the questions asked at the start of the quiz fade away from your short-term memory, being replaced by their more recent counterparts.

Not so on Tuesday night last, when I attended the weekly quiz night in Gilligan’s, Claremorris.  Question 1 it was.  The very first of what would turn out to be 104 questions.  I doubt anyone in the room got it right.  That said, the team whose answers we were marking did manage to get the first names right so perhaps I’m being quick to judge.

After that, things got considerably easier.  The winning team’s final score of 92 points making this pretty clear.  My team trailed in second, on 88.

Read Full Post »

Now that’s what I call answers

Here are the answers to the questions posted last week in Now that’s what I call…

I’ll be back later today with a post about a very tough quizzing experience I had last night.

In the meantime, click on the Continue Reading… for the answers.

Read Full Post »

Now that’s what I call…

… a Christmas quiz.*

The final quiz of 2011 took place in Gilligan’s, Claremorris, on Tuesday last and, fittingly, it was Christmas themed.

The picture round featured 12 “santas”, there was a round in which we had to name the carols which matched the cryptic clues and we had a round in which the questions were nothing to do with Christmas but the answers were homonyms of things that were.  It was very well done.

I was on the same team for the second week in a row.  That’s right, even though the tables are pulled from a hat, we three (kings) managed to end up together once again.  Thankfully, while we hadn’t been anywhere near winning last week, this time we managed to take home the final prize of the year.

It turns out we know a lot about Christmas.

Read Full Post »

Delightfully obscure answers

Here are the answers to the questions posed in yesterday’s last week’s Delightful obscurity post.  I’m sorry these took so long to appear on the site.  I’ve had a very busy last few days. Chief among those activites which kept me away from the site was the upgrade to Mrs tablequiz.net’s website, leavingcertenglish.net. Check it out if you feel like being educated!

Anyway, let’s move on.  Click the continue to see the answers.

Read Full Post »

Delightful obscurity

Not long after Mike’s post on questions and how, knowingly or unknowingly, the question setter may ease them for the benefit of the crowd hit this site, I attended the weekly Tuesday quiz in Gilligan’s Bar, Claremorris.

This week’s quizmaster was Mick, my recent team-mate on a couple of successful outings.  He produced a quiz to savour with questions coming from all angles and obscure locations. He opened up with a round featuring songs with numbers in the title. Let me tell you, not alone had I not heard of some of the songs involved, but, in two or three of them, I’d never heard of the artist either!

That set the tone. A couple of rounds were played out to a soundtrack of audible groans from the crowd but, after Bruges and this week’s discussion on difficulty, I found it very entertaining.  Why do we quiz if not to be challenged?

My favourite was a round on Shakespeare.  Yes, we all know “Forsooth I know not why I am so sad…” but do you know what play it’s from? And which character said it? It turned out that I did, although it was an educated guess.

My team finished second on 83, behind the winners’ 91.  These weren’t out of 100 though.  Several of the rounds had 11 questions, many of them had multi-part answers (worth a point each and a bonus awarded to any team who got all) and the picture round had 22. Truth be told, I don’t know what the potential full score was!

Read Full Post »

Twofer won: answers

Here are the answers to the two quizzes worth of questions posed in Twofer won. Or should that be “two quiz’s worth”?

I’m on quiz master duty again on Friday evening.  If you’re anywhere in the vicinity, please come on in to The Dalton Inn, Claremorris, for a quiz in aid of Claremorris Community Radio.  Kick-off is scheduled for 8.30pm, tables of four are €40 and all are welcome!

Right, let’s get on to those answers.

Read Full Post »

Twofer won

If only I had read the full title...

I have been very busy this past week and unable to come to the blog.  However, this does mean that today I have a bumper, two-for-one blog for you.

Starting last Thursday, I’ve quizzed twice in the past week and, I’m happy to say, ended up on the winning team both times.  The first of those was in The Loft Bar, in Ballina.  Ger was the svengali behind this excursion, rounding up Pat and Mick, two of the regulars, at Gilligan’s the previous Tuesday night.  Once there, we performed like a wonder team – even more than the sum of our parts – and won out by four points.  It’s not often you get to score over 100 points in an Irish quiz so our 107/115 was something to savour.  That said, the runners-up must have felt hard done by – they scored 103!

This quiz, which was in aid of Croí, featured three handouts, only one of which was a picture round.  The other two were quite clever: Famous slogans and Anagrams of Irish towns.  I’ve included them both below.  One the whole the quiz was very well organised. We did suffer at the hand of some very pedantic marking though when we weren’t awarded the point for identifying Joe Frazier’s nickname correctly. What we wrote down: Smokin’. What they wanted: Smokin’ Joe. Even a trip to the correctors’ table by one of the guys didn’t result in any flexibility. Ah well, luckily it didn’t matter.

I hadn’t been to Gilligan’s on that previous Tuesday. My head needed some time to recover from Bruges.  By all accounts it was a dramatic night with Ger’s team eventually winning on the sixth, sudden-death, playoff question. This Tuesday night my team-mates Mick (the same man as above) and Aidan ensured that the crowd would have no such drama – we scored 92/100 and won by three.

Read Full Post »

Don’t work… too hard: answers

Some breaking news: the low scores earned by the teams on Monday night last mustn’t have deterred me, as I have agreed to be the quiz master once again, on Friday night next (October 28) in Warde’s Pub, Claremorris.  The quiz starts at 8.30pm and you’re all invited! See the calendar for more details.

Anyway, back to the post.  Here are the answers to the (quite difficult, I admit) questions posted in yesterday’s Don’t work… too hard.

I wrote a bit about the concept of ‘quiz knowledge’ yesterday.  To flesh this out a little more, my point is that all knowledge is (or should be) valid.  It’s just a case of a situation arising where the more (shall we say) ‘obscure’ bit of your knowledge become useful.  But… shouldn’t the probability of any particular question coming up be identical across all fields? *

It isn’t. I knew almost nothing in the Popular Culture round below but that has never really mattered before.  99% of the time, in Irish table quizzes, questions like these never, ever, come up.  Is that ‘right’?

Consider the flip side: you might know someone who would do very well in the round being discussed but, if you asked them, would tell you that they are “terrible” at table quizzes and never take part in them. Surely there’s a flaw here?

By which I mean: is there a flaw in the way most Irish table quizzes are created? Do question setters, perhaps, consider their potential crowd and then design a quiz to suit them more than to really test them? Probably not consciously but almost certainly.  To take it further, is there a vernacular in the Irish table quiz world? Could the spectrum of knowledge tested at table quizzes be considered a ‘specialist subject‘ in-and-of itself?

This is a disquieting notion.

Read Full Post »

Don’t work… too hard

Question: How do you know the quiz you’ve (partially) written was too hard?

Answer: When the winning table scores 49/100.

That’s right, just 49%. And there was a playoff.

The night before its students decided to abandon Rag Week, NUI Galway played host to yours truly on the microphone, calling out questions in the back room of the College Bar.  I created three of the rounds used on the night (one of which you can see below).  The others were created by the members of my regular team so it was a rare occasion in that all four of us were at the top table, with the others collecting and correcting at various times.

Knowledge, or what one could consider ‘useful (quiz) knowledge’, is subjective and differs from person to person.  Even with my own abilities, this quiz featured a round I would have scored 2/10 in.  Of course, I’ve also included that for you to have a go.

Read Full Post »