Quizlamic State

With Easter intervening into quiz schedules, I thought it time to post an interim blog, with a chosen subject of quizzing (there’s a surprise).

I’ve actually spent some time pleasure quizzing recently (as opposed to my semi-professional quizzing), although a will to come first is still as much as ever. In fact, a grand total of three quizzes in March resulted a second place sandwiched by wins – a reasonable return by anyone’s standards.

The first quiz: Captain America*, Hulk* plus myself. Given a passage of time plus alcohol, I can’t really remember much about this quiz, save that we came first. The second quiz – myself and Parker* – became a much tenser affair. In a different location, with more teams, sizing up opposing teams wasn’t an easy task. We were doing well (so we thought) with a round or so to go.

A final round of guessing a person from random clues gave Parker a moment of almost divine inspiration. “Born in Czecholsovakia in 1956” resulted in Parker putting Martina Navratilova for the maximum 10 points – sadly less than needed to secure first place, enough to secure a prize free second though. I wanted to guess Sergey Bubka, however being born in Ukraine in 1963 made it wrong on so many levels.

The main thrust of this blog is quiz number three – a work’s piss up presided over by Seven Year Bitch* at a back street boozer in Birmingham. In entering, we needed an amusing team name. The initial choice, agreed upon by everyone – Quizlamic State – so opening a proverbial metal container full of soft-bodied invertebrate animals.

Apparently it is possible to offend those easily offended even by lampooning terrorist organisations! A different name being needed resulted in team discontent coupled with an inability to reach a mutually acceptable decision. Of those alternate names suggested, some cannot be repeated here (for reasons that will become apparent later); and some (Team Formerly Known as Quizlamic State for example) vetoed as they were still ‘offensive’.

We settled with Where’s Simba?, a better name than it looks. Pre-ordered curry featured as part of proceedings, so (as names suggest) pre-ordering became a requirement (no brainer that). However, a team captain considered it ‘amusing’ to part order food using Disney pseudonyms – then take some holiday. As a result, Seven Year Bitch sent emails to everyone asking question like does Simba want rice or naan (as well as making a meal of this on a MyFaceTube post). Simba eventually withdrew from quizzing – giving us a midly comedic (to seven-year olds at least) name.

Best team name – ‘Punch & Jeremy’. We couldn’t have beaten that anyway. At least no team chose ‘Quiz Team Aguilera’ – a certifiable first in a quiz in 2015. However, team naming fiascos paled into insignificance compared to a £60 prize fund, my share at least going towards the annual profits of Guinness.

Next quiz – Norway Open (in Wakefield – where else would it be held?) next week so further blog to follow then.

Weirdly, Lucy wouldn’t dress up in a burqa to link in with this blog’s theme – what is wrong with that woman? If she’s insistent on continuing like this, it’ll be dumping time again! However, we finally agreed on this – a version of a religious sister apparently:

I suppose, if nothing else, it fits with an Easter theme in that it might stir a resurrection in some readers undergarments.

Oh, and if you’ve noticed that this blog wasn’t it’s usual free-flowing self, it’s because of a challenge to write it without using three letter words, hence unrepeatable team names.

*Cast List