It was quiz night at the Dolphin tonight, yes, although I haven’t mentioned it for quite a while, it is still one of the highlights of my week. I can’t think how long I’ve been going each Tuesday, probably over fifteen years, and through the quiz we’ve made so many good friends – from the village and further afield, husband became in the ukulele group and the shanty band, we’ve become great fans of the local amateur dramatic group, and enjoyed mostly losing and occasionally winning.
Tonight we sauntered down through the drizzle, and met my writing friend and team-mate, the poet Macaque. Shortly after, three more friends who are the rest of the team arrived and we settled down to catch up with each-other’s news. There wasn’t much of excitement, but we were pleased to hear all updates. Sitting next to us was Team Tim, without Tim and wife who are on holiday, further down were the Am-Drams, and beyond them Mark and his team, Manchu and his gang, and various others unseen and possibly unknown.
There are two rounds of twenty-five questions each. The answer sheet is a 5×5 square with numbers 1-25 arranged randomly. The questions are given/shouted in order and answers written on the sheet. The answer sheet has a carbon reverse, and a copy sheet beneath, so when its all filled in, the copy is torn off and given to the question-master. No cheating! The answers are read out and of course appear randomly on the page – the first person to get five correct in a row, horizontal/vertical/diagonal/or four corners, shouts ‘Dolphin! and if correct receives a prize. There’s also a prize for the highest score. It is all great fun, and as you can imagine there is a lot of banter. Between the two rounds home-baked pizza is served, sizzling hot and fresh from the oven!
We won nothing this evening, but did we care? Of course we didn’t, we had a great time, caught up with our friends and look forward to seeing them next week, same time, same place!
Lois Elsden 