BRAVO! for BINGO!

Last Thursday's quiz night - our second anniversary quiz, quiz number 100 and our first BINGO! quiz was something of a success.

Firstly, it was a record turn-out, so a big thanks to all of those who attended and submitted their own questions.

Secondly, from the point of view of the competitor submitted questions, I think it showed that setting a quiz isn't something as easy as it first appears. Of the questions that were submitted by the various teams, very few of them were answered by the other teams correctly; so a question on say, football or soap operas that you think is really easy is often not as easy as you think it is, regardless of whether a member of another team is a football or soap fan. It was quite fortuitous then that we only had thirteen questions submitted by competitors in total. This meant that I was able to add six of my own, plus the tie-breaker. The "True or False" questions that I added bumped up the overall scores, enough at least to potentially get a BINGO! line.

It was the first time that we had used "True or False" questions in our quiz and they were a real unexpected benefit and source of humor. It still begs the question as to whether such questions are easy, since they're all easy if you know the answer, but at least with questions like:

True or False: The Channel 4 TV series "Desperate Housewives" is set in Surbiton, or
True or False: Brothers Noel and Liam Gallagher are in the band "Scissor Sisters"

you have a 50% chance of getting it correct whether you know the answer or not. And before you say, "They're really easy," think about it. If you're not someone who watches much TV, or who only watches, say, natural history programmes on the BBC, and believe me, I know people with interests outside of the box, or your musical interest is Classical or Opera, then a seemingly simple question for most, is brought down to a fifty-fifty guess.

Thirdly, the actual BINGO! element of the quiz was brilliant and added a new excitement to reading out the answers, together with authentic BINGO! calls. In the end, the quiz was won by two young ladies who, with the help of one competitor question, four "True or False" questions and a whole lot of luck, managed to be the first to complete a line; narrowly beating several other teams who would have completed their line on the next one or two numbers out of the BINGO! cage. Our 100th quiz winners, it is fair to say, would not have won without the BINGO! element, so that, for me, is a result.

Talking to the teams afterwards, the general consensus was that the BINGO! format was fun and fair. Even teams that have won the quiz on many occasions agreed and reinforced the point that for many, the whole point of attending was not to win the quiz in any case, but to have an enjoyable and social night out. BRAVO! for BINGO!

So, how to move forward? Well, we are going to hold a BINGO! quiz on the first Thursday of every month from now on, so the next one will be the themed "Happy Birthday David Attenborough" on 6th May. If the format proves to be more popular both attendance wise and in terms of feedback, then we'll do it more often. I am also going to make "True or False" a permanent feature, so one each of the geography, music and culture, sport and leisure, entertainment and history questions will be of that type. That should keep things fresh and scores on the up.

See you Thursday 9:30pm