Perfect Pub Quiz (2 page)

Music quiz rounds

One of the most popular of optional interval rounds is the music quiz round. Indeed, many pubs host whole evenings devoted to music questions, which may vary from straightforward questions about music and musicians of all kinds to challenges to identify excerpts of particular songs or other musical works. One relatively easy option for the quizmaster wishing to do this would be to extract the musical questions in this book and reassemble them in an all-music quiz.

Perhaps the most entertaining way to organise an interval music round is to record the opening notes or bars of a piece of music and then challenge teams to identify the piece and the performers or composer (or even all three). Alternatively, vary the formula by asking for the year in which it was released, or reached number one, etc. In many cases it is possible to play the whole opening verse of a song before the chorus gives the game away. In others, a single note provides a sufficient clue (for instance, the opening chord of ‘Hard day’s night’ by the Beatles). Preparing such a round may be fairly time-consuming, and organising something to play the clips on may be an issue, but the result usually makes the effort worth while.

Picture quiz rounds

Another great favourite is the picture quiz round, which can take a number of different forms. One that goes down particularly well is the challenge to identify pictures of celebrities of various kinds, disguised by showing only part of their face, showing the person in an out-of-character context or at an odd angle or even with a beard and moustache being drawn on the photograph. All the quizmaster needs to do is find suitable pictures of 10 or more well-known people, cut them out as desired and then paste them on to a piece of paper, number them, and photocopy the sheet for all the teams attending, who must match each number with the correct name. The process is even easier using a computer.

Alternative versions of the picture quiz round might involve teams identifying places (perhaps in the town where they live) from pictures of distinctive architectural details, etc. Particularly ambitious quizmasters may like to compile sets of three or four pictures and challenge teams to identify the link between them (for instance, pictures of a red squirrel, a football player wearing red, a Red Army flag and Mick Hucknall of the pop group Simply Red – ‘red’ being the link).

Atlas rounds

There are many imaginative optional rounds that a quizmaster can construct based on photocopied pages from an atlas (preferably one that presents just outlines of countries etc. and little written information). These may relate to the whole world, a continent or just a single country, such as the UK. The teams may then be challenged to identify marked countries, towns, islands, mountains, seaside resorts, rivers, or a host of other features. Alternatively, draw a line between two locations in different parts of the world and challenge the teams to identify all the countries, states or counties that a person would go through if flying directly between the two places (a line taking in the newer countries of south-east Europe or the states of the central USA would certainly test most teams).

Name the year rounds

‘Name the Year’ rounds are an alternative for interval rounds with which most quiz teams will be familiar. The usual option is to list three contrasting events of major or minor importance and challenge teams to guess the year. To make things a little easier, the quizmaster might offer leeway of a year either side.

Quotation rounds

Quotation rounds are a popular choice, especially if the quotations themselves are humorous or surprising in some way. There are various ways in which each question may be asked: teams may have to identify the person who said it, the work or context in which they said it – or even how the quotation ends. Here are some examples, with the answers in brackets.

Matching pairs rounds

These rounds comprise two lists of items that teams have to match up correctly. The difficulty of such rounds is up to the quizmaster. Teams may find it relatively easy to match famous husbands and wives or inventions with inventors, for instance, but much harder to pair up car models with manufacturers or battles with the wars they occurred in. The possibilities are endless – teams may be asked to pair sports teams with their nicknames, football teams with their grounds, artists with masterpieces, singers with hit songs, comedians with their partners, film stars with films, detectives with their assistants, sailors with their ships, people with their animals, companies with their logos, etc. etc. etc.

Running a quiz

To run a successful pub quiz, more is required than just a set of questions and answers (as provided by this book). Having found a venue, the potential quizmaster should negotiate with the landlord or landlady how best to set things up, ensuring that there is sufficient space for everyone, an adequate sound system and agreement about any prizes on offer to the winning team. Big prizes are not essential, but they add to the attraction and most pubs offer a small cash prize to the winning team (perhaps the total raised from the modest entry fees paid by each person taking part). Alongside this main prize, many pubs – bearing in mind the extra custom a quiz can bring in on an otherwise quiet night of the week – are happy to contribute a small sum to act as a jackpot (which will build up steadily over the weeks until someone wins it).

Managing teams

It is advisable to restrict team numbers to five or six people, if only because it may be difficult to get more than this round one table. The teams themselves will need to be supplied with sheets upon which to write their answers, as well as with pens or pencils: a sample answer
sheet
suitable for photocopying may be found at the end of this book. Each team must choose a name and write this on their answer sheet. Quizmasters must make sure that all the teams understand the way the quiz will work. Contestants should be reminded that cheating is not allowed, and that the use of mobile phones during the quiz is frowned upon. Above all, everyone must understand that the decision of the quizmaster, right or wrong, is final.

Scoring

The easiest way to score is to reward each correct answer with one point, the total being calculated after all the answers are announced at the end of the evening. Quizmasters may, of course, elect to award double points for their own interval rounds if they so wish. One option is to tot up scores after each round, as this can increase the tension as teams see how they are faring against each other. This also works best if jokers are to be employed (a joker being the option of each team to choose one round in which every correct answer they give is rewarded with double points). When totting up points at the end, incidentally, it can be advisable to get teams to swap answer sheets and to double-check the winning sheet before announcing the final result.

1.
Did you know, for instance, that the word ‘quiz’ came about as the result of a bet? When the eighteenth-century Irish theatre manager James Daly was wagered that he could not make a new word catch on in a single day, he travelled all over Dublin writing the mysterious word ‘quiz’ on walls – with the result that soon everyone was talking about it and the word itself entered the language.

Quiz 1

Round 1: Pot Luck

Round 2: Books

Half-time teaser

Cambodian has the largest alphabet of all the world’s languages – how many letters does it have?

Round 3: Pets

Round 4: Pot Luck

Jackpot

In American slang, what is a ‘hoosegow’?

Quiz 2

Round 1: Pot Luck

Round 2: Creepy-crawlies

Half-time teaser

Up to and including George W. Bush, how many US presidents have been Republicans?

Round 3: London