Rainhill Grand Prix

I realise that the subject of quizzing isn’t related to matters automotive, environmental or geographical. However,though perhaps overshadowed by the F1 equivalent at Suzuka in Japan, this weekend’s Rainhill Grand Prix gives me an excuse to post my first proper, erm, post.

On Saturday, I went to the British Quizzing Association (BQA) Grand Prix at Rainhill in Merseyside. I’ve only been to one other BQA event, held in Horwich near Bolton earlier this year, but had a vague idea of what to expect in terms of the format, the competitive quizzing and, particularly, the prospect of finishing near the bottom of the pile. What I didn’t expect was to be sharing a table with TV Egghead (and eventual winner) Pat Gibson.

In fact there were three Eggheads and one Chaser in attendance – esteemed competition indeed! The morning was taken with an individual quiz consisting of six different subject rounds, each of 30 questions + 10 bonus questions (240 in all) to be completed in 90 minutes and, yes, it is a bit like being back at school! Following lunch, there was a (randomly allocated) team quiz event in which I was randomly placed with two people I recognised from watching BBC4’s ‘Only Connect’ – we finished 3rd in the team quiz (I think) and, insofar as the individual quiz was concerned, I finished 59th out of 68 returned scores, which was further from the basement than I thought I would finish. The result is here http://www.quizzing.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=262 .

I wonder if anyone has considered the geographies of quizzing? There’s a thought….