Glutton for Punishment

It was excellent to see a team winning the quiz last week that have been attending every Thursday, in various guises, since day one. Although they have won the quiz three times before, and collected their free drinks, this was the first time that the foursome also picked up the (not insubstantial) jackpot. Sometimes it appears the questions just come together in their favour and this was one such time; not that they had an easy time of it. No less than four teams finished the night with 17/20 and it all went down to the tie-break. Persistence is a virtue, or so they say.

So, onto all those hecklers out there who have been leaving sometimes vitriolic anonymous one-liners on this post. I must say, I am flattered that someone would leave a comment two weeks after the initial blog stating that we have the most difficult quiz in Oxfordshire. Really? Do you really think that? As you are all anonymous then I have to take these comments at face value. Shame you cannot be more constructive in your criticism and can't offer a comparative take on your views, for instance, where I could find an easier quiz? Presumably there are loads of them about which is why you are so concerned with this one.

Anyway, thanks to Pete and another Anonymous (but this one came into the pub and chatted about it also and the anonymity was more down to a technical issue) for their constructive feedback. I mentioned here about a call for questions for quiz number 100, the "competitor quiz" on April 1st (the date is a coincidence, this isn't an April Fool), also the second anniversary of our quiz. To mark this occasion, we are going to trial a "BINGO! Quiz" format and see how it goes.

Our "BINGO! Quiz" works like this: You still get twenty questions, but instead of writing them down in a list, you write the question number and the answer anywhere in a five by four grid. When the answers are read out - in random order (I will make use of our BINGO cage and balls) - you can mark your own answer paper and if you answer a question correctly, then you get a tick. If you get five ticks in a row, then you shout "BINGO!" and - subject to verification - you have won the quiz. If two teams shout "BINGO!" at the same time, then the winner is the closest to the tie-breaker. If no team completes a line by the time all of the answers have been read out, then we'll go with the nearest to the tie-breaker (for this first trial at least).

So, this means that potentially, you could win the quiz by just being the nearest to the tie-breaker, or you might only have five correct answers and still win. Another team could get 19/20, but the winner might only get five, depending upon the order that they place their answers in the grid and the order that the answers are randomly selected, and be closer to the tie-breaker and still win the quiz. Unfair on the team that got 19/20? Possibly, but by answering more questions correctly, you are maximising your chance of getting a winning line. If you're just a lucky so and so, you can get a line anyway.

I just thought. If a team gets 20/20 (and no team has yet), then they could still loose to a team getting 5/20. Both would have the tie-breaker correct which would force use of the reserve question and the 5/20's might be closer on that. Scary thought, you get all the questions right and still loose...

Keep in mind as well, that quiz number 100 has competitor submitted questions, so if you have put forward a question and it has been accepted, then you'll already have one tick in the box wherever it appears on the grid. Sometime after the quiz, we'll have a vote and see whether we want to keep the "BINGO! quiz" or stay with the current format. Can't say fairer than that.