I'm going to a pub quiz tonight. I've not been to one in a while and I'm really excited. The last time I did a pub quiz as some time late last year and I had a really good time. I love testing my brain and those of my friends to see who can come up with the goods when the most obscure pieces of trivia are needed.
The concept of a pub quiz is simple, answer questions as part of a team, compete with other teams, win prizes. The implementation, however, varies from place to place. Most pub quizzes have some common elements to their structure. One goes along to the quiz night and pays a nominal fee of a few pounds then enters their team name into the contest. Pub quizzes normally come made up of about 3 / 4 + rounds or questions. These are broken up usually by 5 minute breaks so that refreshments may be bought as the quiz goes on. These rounds are ususally on specific topics and some of the more popular ones are:
Picture rounds - you are given a picture of the face / part of face of someone famous
and you need to give that person's name or their character in a particular soap opera.
Sport rounds - testing your knowledge of sport and sportspersons.
music round - this kind of round can be very varied with anything from the name of the song, artist or the next lyric being requested as answers to a short piece of music that is played.
wildcard round - this round usually consists of various random and obscure questions being asked. Rounds like these usually have more points attached to them due to the difficulty of the questions being asked.
Generally, the quizzes operate along these lines with a few of the above types of rounds being used along with others. I once attended a quiz where there was a round of questions solely on bears. The subject was approached from lots of different angles with Paddington Bear, Alaskan bears and even Bear Grylls making an appearance on the question list.
Each quiz is different due to different types of questions being asked each time . The nature of the competition is friendly and you have a great time encouraging your friends to give that disputed answer over a niche area and laughing at long-shot answers. This kind of activity makes for a great, fun evening and any prizes you win are a bonus.
Prizes
Prizes differ but generally don't deviate too much from a set pattern: the winner takes a small pot of cash originating from the money raised by all the quiz team entries. The second place will get a smaller pot of money and the third will get a bottle of wine or a free round. Other variations are the use of cuddly toys and physical items that can be won. If you've never been along to a pub quiz, support your local one by getting a team of mates together and give it a go!
