A tale of three quizzes
Sep. 4th, 2024 06:11 pmEarlier in August, our friend the Quizmaster took a holiday: one result of this is that on three successive Wednesdays, the Elm Tree quiz has been set by three successive Quizmasters (yes, all masters). Both substitutes were volunteers from among the regular quizzers, standing in rather than taking over, so these were variations very much on a theme.
So Round One is always the Word round, and the First Reserve's version of this was, to my taste, the highlight of his quiz - echoing the Quizmaster's love of bad puns with five cryptic clues to london locations. We were, as a team, pretty smug at deciphering "composed of beer" - sufficiently so that I sent it to![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
boybear, who greeted it as an old friend ("Ah, yes: we used to ask 'Which Westminster Library can you drink?'" - he was employeed by Westminster Libraries at the time).
An honourable mention also for his beer round, pictures of five towers from around the world, of which we identified only the last. The Quizmaster, seeing our answer sheet on his return, was baffled: what could have generated the answers Stockholm, Abu Dhabi ... Aykley Heads?
The following week we were a much reduced team grappling with the offering of the Second Reserve: indeed, had the Quizmaster not concluded that his return travel had gone smoothly enough that actually what he wanted now was a little light quizzing,durham_rambler and I would have been on our own. We were glad of his company, but were very aware of the absence of our popular culture expert. The theme of the quiz was 'things that Anthony likes', and it turns out that Anthony likes Neighbours (so we had five questions on the soap opera) and Comedy (so we had five questions on television sitcoms, mostly of the 21st century) and we did not do very well. However, we won the Beer Round (by identifying the artists whose styles had been applied to AI genreated images of Labour Prime Ministers; I have no idea where he had found these, but was proud of spotting Paul Gaihuin's take on Tony Blair - and of being stubborn about it. It wasn't all that like Gauguin, but it was even les like Hockney).
Last week we were back to normal, with a quiz set by the Quizmaster himself. There had clearly been feedback about the previous week, and there was a certain amunt of banter about the never-to-be repeated Neighbours round. And, fair enough, one reason the Elm Tree quiz has a reputation for being difficult is that questions about television and pop music are few and far between (which is why it's such a good fit for us, of course): but I also enjoy the Quizmaster's ability to fit a variety of subjects into an allegedly 'themed' round. So last week we had a round with the title 'Gala': in which question did the Gala apple originate, what was the hit record by Italian singer Gala, two questions about Labour leaders who have spoken at the Durham Miners' Gala, and one about sport. Other rounds are equally quirky: five questions asking Etonian, Estonian, or both? amused me greatly, though we weren't very successful at answering them.
And somehow while I have been constructing this post bit by bit, Wednesday has come round again. What will tonight bring?
So Round One is always the Word round, and the First Reserve's version of this was, to my taste, the highlight of his quiz - echoing the Quizmaster's love of bad puns with five cryptic clues to london locations. We were, as a team, pretty smug at deciphering "composed of beer" - sufficiently so that I sent it to
boybear, who greeted it as an old friend ("Ah, yes: we used to ask 'Which Westminster Library can you drink?'" - he was employeed by Westminster Libraries at the time).An honourable mention also for his beer round, pictures of five towers from around the world, of which we identified only the last. The Quizmaster, seeing our answer sheet on his return, was baffled: what could have generated the answers Stockholm, Abu Dhabi ... Aykley Heads?
The following week we were a much reduced team grappling with the offering of the Second Reserve: indeed, had the Quizmaster not concluded that his return travel had gone smoothly enough that actually what he wanted now was a little light quizzing,
durham_rambler and I would have been on our own. We were glad of his company, but were very aware of the absence of our popular culture expert. The theme of the quiz was 'things that Anthony likes', and it turns out that Anthony likes Neighbours (so we had five questions on the soap opera) and Comedy (so we had five questions on television sitcoms, mostly of the 21st century) and we did not do very well. However, we won the Beer Round (by identifying the artists whose styles had been applied to AI genreated images of Labour Prime Ministers; I have no idea where he had found these, but was proud of spotting Paul Gaihuin's take on Tony Blair - and of being stubborn about it. It wasn't all that like Gauguin, but it was even les like Hockney).Last week we were back to normal, with a quiz set by the Quizmaster himself. There had clearly been feedback about the previous week, and there was a certain amunt of banter about the never-to-be repeated Neighbours round. And, fair enough, one reason the Elm Tree quiz has a reputation for being difficult is that questions about television and pop music are few and far between (which is why it's such a good fit for us, of course): but I also enjoy the Quizmaster's ability to fit a variety of subjects into an allegedly 'themed' round. So last week we had a round with the title 'Gala': in which question did the Gala apple originate, what was the hit record by Italian singer Gala, two questions about Labour leaders who have spoken at the Durham Miners' Gala, and one about sport. Other rounds are equally quirky: five questions asking Etonian, Estonian, or both? amused me greatly, though we weren't very successful at answering them.
And somehow while I have been constructing this post bit by bit, Wednesday has come round again. What will tonight bring?
