QuizList

Next post/update on or before 23 August - I’m away for a while.

Any aspiring quizmasters want to do a Thursday night quiz in E3 (Bow)?  If so, mail me and I’ll foward your contact details to someone who can tell you a bit more about it.

A couple of new quizzes to be going on with while I’m off - nice to get central London ones for a change.  However, it’s my experience that these come and go more rapidly than quizzes in other zones, so check them out as always.

Mondays:
The Crown and Two Chairmen, 31 Dean Street, W1D 3SB, 020 7437 8192.

First and third Wednesdays:
Theodore Bullfrog, 26-30 John Adam Street, WC2N 6HL, 020 7839 2697.

Have I ever won a film quiz? Don’t think so. I have won pop quizzes and I find that a bit odd as I know more about movies than music. I think the standard of film quizzes is a lot higher, because frequently pop quizzes are set by (for want of a better term) ‘amateurs’ while film quizzes are set by afficionados.

The Phoenix cinema has teamed up with the Bald Faced Stag in East Finchley to offer a monthly film quiz, early evening on the third Monday of each month, with the next one on 18 August. Do you feel lucky, punk? Have a look at the questions from July’s quiz at:

http://www.phoenixcinema.co.uk/news/pubquiz.php

and see if you’re up to the standard…. Nice cinema, comfortable pub, so if I can persuade the Fun Boy Three along I might be there.

Some newly notified quizzes, not a lot of detail so please check out before you set out:

Brookhouse Pub, Kingshill Avenue, Hayes (may not be regular quizzes).

Sun and Doves, 61-63 Coldharbour Lane, London SE5 9NS, 020 7733 1525 (Wednesdays).

The White Hart, 96 Church Road, London SE19 2EZ (Mondays).

A lot of pubs don’t publicise their phone number and are difficult to find in phone books, and the explanation I’ve been given is that the phone may be registered in the landlord’s name rather than the pub’s.

On the subject of pubs generally, here is an unashamed and free plug for the O’Neill’s chain, as they are currently serving the best drink in the world on draft: Smithwick’s ale. Fairly decent selection of quiz machines as well if you’re an afficionado.

Was that round on ‘Mister Men’ at a quiz I attended last week a deliberate wind-up? Looks like it….

Yes, Pat Logue’s quiz in Sheephaven Bay has started, and thanks for letting me know. News also that the Larrik is no more (Sundays, Stroud Green/Finsbury Park). I know I passed a few pubs advertising quizzes which were new to me this week and as I was pretty far east and pretty far north on a selection of dire buses and expensive taxis will have to try to recreate my steps and remember… It’s coming back: one is -

The Black Horse, Union St, Barnet, Hertfordshire, EN5 4HY, 020 8449 6438, advertising a Thursday night quiz.

And the other is:

Angie’s, 710 Holloway Road, London, N19 3NH, with no phone number in evidence and I couldn’t see the night of the week indicated on the notice.

When is that hand-around of Mister (Bastard) Men going to lose its popularity? We’ve had it three times so far and each successive time got a lower score - strange, but true…

Once in the early days of QuizList I wrote that I had had more good nights in the Oxford Arms (Camden Town), the Half Moon (Essex Road) and the Shepherds (Highgate) than in all the other quiz pubs put together; I think because with all of those pubs the quiz was only incidental to the atmosphere and the whole pub experience. I should also have mentioned the Prince George of Cumberland (Albany Street) where the good times rolled till dawn. Let’s get things in proportion, quizzes themselves aren’t all that great, are they???

The Half Moon and Shepherds have been modernised and renamed; the Prince George is no more, and it’s a long time since I visited the Oxford Arms. To prevent this sounding like a lyric from ‘Dublin in the Rare Old Times’, let’s get down to business and what prompted me to mention the Oxford Arms. No sooner had I mentioned that Pat Logue, ex Oxford Arms, was now running a new quiz, than two people mailed me within an hour of each other with the required information. The pub where Pat is to be found now is:

Sheephaven Bay, 2-3 Mornington Street, Camden, London, NW1 7QD (no phone number in evidence), the quiz is or will be on Monday nights, and here’s a link to some more information from the Camden New Journal: http://www.thecnj.co.uk/camden/2008/061208/news061208_15.html

Pat’s Oxford Arms quiz was legendary and the free supper gimmick may have attracted a few people initially, but they came back for the quiz and Pat’s good-humoured baiting of the audience. The only detail I don’t have is whether the quiz has started yet…. no doubt someone will let me know.