The fun we have!

it’s some time since I’ve mentioned the pub quiz. Pub quizzes are quite a thing and they take different forms, and I’ve taken part in many. There’s the usual quiz of a series of random and varied general knowledge questions, maybe two rounds of twenty-five or so questions, maybe more rounds, maybe more questions. There maybe a prize for each round, or a prize for the highest total of correct answers. Quizzers may be on their own, or in teams, there may be speciality rounds or general  knowledge, or music rounds with snatches of songs played.  There are often cash prizes, from the entry fees, or there maybe items such as bottles of wine, chocolates, tins of biscuits etc.

The idea is to have some gentle competitive fun, to build a pub community, to draw people in, to keep people in the pub and to bring them back again. For the people who take part it’s a way to meet new friends, to have an activity as well as just sitting drinking and chatting, to stimulate your brain and memory, and to learn new information. Quizzing in general has become popular, learning new things, keeping your brain active, improving your memory, and to do it in a convivial and friendly atmosphere is even better. Actually, some pub quizzes become very serious, winning becomes all!

The Dolphin quiz is a very convivial and jolly event, and we have made some fabulous friends over the years. I used to go down with my daughter before she went away to college; husband was out with his band so the two of us were a team. However, within a few weeks we met and then joined up with a couple who came from  Northern England (where I lived for many many years, and daughter was born and spent her early life) They had a wonderful ice cream parlour so we became team ice cream! Over the following years, others joined our team, my son and his friends, a South African couple who we got to know well, and my husband when not practising with his band.

We became friendly with other quizzers, some of whom were already friends of ours but whose team mates we met through being competitors. A group of friends who always sat at the bar, our pals Tim and Leonie and their gang, our friend Manchu and his pals, the landlord and his mates, and especially the local amateur dramatic group – the am-drams as we called them. Now we have more friends who collaborate with us, they’ve lived in the village for a year or so after spending an exciting period cruising canals on a barge – an extended team, which includes my writing chums.

There are lovely new landlords who continue the pub quiz tradition at the Dolphin, and make beautiful pizzas for us in the intermission. winning or losing almost become immaterial – we are all winners through the friends we have there and the fun we have!