Armed with cashew nuts, flavoured popcorn and quizzical expressions, we were brainy and dangerous…
By Katie Garner
l-r: Frank and Katie
Who doesn’t love a quiz night? Professional quizzers unravel buffet-style party platters and plastic bowls to fill with crisps and nuts to feed the potential brainpower of their tables; rows of bottled booze hiding the all-important answer sheet from any unwelcome gazes. The Holy Cross Church Community Hall, in Park Lane, Hornchurch was packed with diagonal slanted tables and plastic chairs, as teams congregated eagerly, checking out the agenda of rounds with anticipation and already getting stuck in to the picture round.
This year, Wychelm was able to raise enough people to book ourselves two tables, even though we did unfortunately have a couple of no-shows. Table One consisted of myself, returning doctor Jess, Welsh secret weapons Janet and David, new member Sarah and walking wounded Het. Table Two was headed up by West Ham supporting Frank, who was assisted by Noel and past member John accompanied by his wife Brenda. We would be partaking in ten whole rounds of full on and intense quizzing, as well as completing a picture round before the interval after round five. The rounds were TV, Geography, Sports, Music, History, Arts and Literature, Science and Nature, Guess the Intro, This Was the Week That Was and Films. The picture round was a page of ten images taken from maps that showed rough country shapes – our mission with this one was to guess what the country was by its land mass shape.
l-r: David, Janet and Jess
Table One plotted to play our Joker on the Music round, as Janet and David are self-confessed music buffs. We were relying on Het for the majority of any Sports based questions, while we fully expected Jess to have Science and Nature covered. Sarah was heading up the current general knowledge, while I tried to make myself seem important and knowledgeable by writing down all of the answers in very neat capital letters.
I believe on the whole, we did rather well, although I think we expected to be ranked higher than we actually were. We were the only table to get a clean sweep on the Guess The Intro round, which we were super chuffed about. At the halfway point, Table One was actually in first spot with 28 ½ points which was very refreshing! However things went a tad downhill after that as we only managed to achieve 73 ½ points after the final round, which saw us limping halfway through the teams in a very respectable 6th place. Table Two on the other hand performed very well (especially after Frank decided to join in with gusto after watching his beloved footie team lose) and they came in joint second position with a high flying 82 ½ points.
Full with punchy camaraderie, nibbled pen ends and fervent sideways glances, I love the debated head scratching and unexpected expertise that is often displayed at quiz nights. You don’t have to be Einstein to enjoy the evening, as everyone knows their patch of knowledge. If only there had been a Jane Austen question… Thanks to all of the members who came along to test the grey matter – it was a really fun evening and hopefully we helped Frank’s swimming club raise some funds as well.
l-r: Sarah and Het
November’s social is the Roding Rally in Epping Forest – the eagerly anticipated overnight orienteering that was such a success last year.
