Quiz Tour: #7 The Colonel Fawcett, NW1

After a long winter break with only the traditional Christmas games of Trivial Pursuit to sate our quiz cravings the Conquiztadores are back and hungry for victory (moral, if not actual). First stop on the 2012 hit-list was the newly renovated Colonel Fawcett (previously The Camden Arms which by all accounts was a bit of a dive). First impressions of the pub were good, nice décor, buzzy Camden crowd, interesting beer selection. The menu looked gastro-heavy and reasonably priced but the food ultimately turned out to be disappointment as the portions were tiny, leading DV to quip when we were accidentally brought a second portion of pork belly “ah, there’s the other half of my food.”

The quiz itself suffered as only about half the pub’s clientele were participating so there was a lot of background noise and no great sense of camaraderie between the scattered teams. The quizmaster was fine, although he was also the DJ, and it showed as he had put a lot of effort into 2 rounds of song clips which made up about half the quiz and the rest of the quiz felt like it had been downloaded from the internet 30 minutes beforehand.

Despite music not being the Conquiztadores strongest subject I think we did pretty well but as the quiz didn’t actually start until after 9 we had to desert the pub to catch trains and buses home before finding out the final scores and how well we had fared. All in all, the Colonel Fawcett seemed like a nice place to have a drink but I can’t see us returning for food or quizzes in the near future.

The Scores:
Quiz Master: 5
Question Quality: 4
Competition: 5
Refreshments: 5
Pace: 3
Format: 4
Prizes: 2
Ambience: 4


The High Point:
Knowing that ‘Eye of the Tiger’ first appeared in Rocky III, even if we were marked wrong on the night as the quizmaster erroneously thought it was Rocky IV.

The Low Point:
Over-thinking what the quizmaster deemed obscure by guessing that the David Bowie song featured in the ‘Music from films’ round was from Christiane F. rather than the not at all obscure Labyrinth.

It wasn’t this song but I challenge you to watch this without cringing!

What We Learnt:
That Camden apparently annually contributes 1% of the total economy of England. Although I am not entirely sure that statement makes much sense.

Quiz Tour: #6 The Island Queen, N1

The Island Queen is a nice little pub tucked away round the back streets of Angel. Turns out it was an old haunt of one of the Conquiztadores and we were regaled with tales of the pub’s less salubrious past (back when this was all fields). These days there are fewer mannequins hanging from the ceiling but to make up for that loss they serve some interesting beers and cook up a fine burger.

It was a popular quiz with about 20 teams (lots of them obviously regulars) giving the pub a friendly, buzzy atmosphere. The quiz itself was outsourced to a company who you seem to be able to hire to run a quiz in your pub, which seems like cheating a little, although the quiz itself was pretty good. We were a bit low on numbers but luckily we found a replacement Canadian and a moustachioed Milanesi to make a guest appearance. The quizmaster was late, which we thought showed character, and he did a pretty good job throughout. The quiz was pretty basic, no themed rounds, no jokers, no audio round, just 40 questions, 10 of them making up a picture round but the questions were quite challenging and covered an interesting mix of topics.

A solid performance was put in by all and if a couple of guesses had gone our way we would have been walking home winners. As it was we won a bottle of wine for our comfortable second place finish and I am sure The Island Queen will warrant another visit in the future if we ever reach a point of drawing up a shortlist of potential homes.

The Scores:
Quiz Master: 7
Question Quality: 8
Competition: 7
Refreshments: 8
Pace: 9
Format: 4
Prizes: 2
Ambience: 7


The High Point:
There were some good answers all round but the high point had to be our resident archaeologist knowing that the first human invention to break the sound barrier was the bullwhip. Hang on, maybe that is not so surprising after all…




The Low Point:
A long discussion about which country has the lowest life expectancy in which we mentioned the correct answer, Swaziland, many times but didn’t go for it. Or possibly the longer discussion about whether the picture below was the SS Great Eastern or the SS Great Western and finally picking the wrong one.




What We Learnt:
We learnt that our sartorial knowledge is more high street than high fashion when we failed to recognise the Pierre Cardin logo. Carhartt, Quiksilver and Rip Curl all featured in our discussions but in our defence there are certain similarities as demonstrated below.

Quiz Tour: #5 The Swimmer at the Grafton Arms, N7

I’d heartily recommend the The Swimmer to anyone. It is a nice pub, with a good atmosphere, an interesting beer selection and an enjoyable jukebox. I’d probably go on to say that to experience the best the Swimmer has to offer that they possibly avoid visiting on a Tuesday night. Unless, of course, they are the sort of person who particularly enjoys 70’s Working-Mens-Club style light entertainment masquerading as a pub quiz.

I had high hopes for the quiz when we arrived. It was obviously popular (we had to fight for a table) there was a lively crowd and it looked pretty slick as the quizmaster was setting up speakers and a whiteboard with team names on it. Unfortunately, when it got started, it turned out to be less about the quiz and more about the quizmaster. All throughout the evening he cracked joke after unfunny joke. The quiz was constantly being interrupted with ‘wacky’ flapjack eating contests, chocolate rounds and sound effects. All this might have been forgivable if the quiz itself had been challenging or well designed but it was all a bit basic in both style and content. It says a lot that I had a better time losing badly at the Princess of Wales then winning at the Swimmer.

To be completely honest we didn’t actually win. We lost by half a point but only because we took the moral high crowd and didn’t mark the winning team down for their confusion between AC/DC and Amy Winehouse.




The Scores:
Quiz Master: 4
Question Quality: 4
Competition: 5
Refreshments: 7
Pace: 5
Format: 3
Prizes: 2
Ambience: 7

The High Point:
Quizmaster: Which invention of the industrial revolution…
JB: The Spinning Jenny.
Quizmaster: …is said to be named after the daughter of the inventor?

JB reignites the age-old debate as to whether being psychic constitutes cheating in standard pub quiz rules.


The Low Point:
When we each team was asked to call out their scores after the first round, the quizmaster decided that teams should precede their score with an appropriate adjective (e.g. a tremendous twelve). Having just got 14 out of 15 questions right and played our joker I thought an amusingly cocky call of “an Unbeatable Twenty-Eight” would be funny. The chorus of boos that greeted me proved this somewhat incorrect.


What We Learnt:
Annoyingly very little in the way of trivia although I think we learnt a lot about what we want from a pub quiz and sadly it is not on offer at the Swimmer…

Quiz Tour: #4 The Princess of Wales, NW1

Having come from glorious victory at the Junction Tavern we knew the only way was down but to fall so far and so fast was galling to say the least. In our defence it was a skeleton crew of 3 men and a dog that arrived early at the Princess of Wales in Primrose Hill. The unusually late start time of 9pm allowed for a relaxed pre-quiz supper (a large selection of pub staples and interesting Italian options). The pub itself is a fine establishment catering to a colourful crowd of the local gentry and manages to feel both spacious and cosy at the same time.

Despite coming last, the quiz itself was thoroughly enjoyable. It reminded me how a good quiz should feel with challenging questions, a friendly atmosphere and teams that are obviously regulars. One of the barmaids did a fine job as a pleasant (if unspectacular) quizmaster. The format was good, 5 themed rounds of 10 questions and a picture round where the highest scoring team gets a free round of drinks. There was also a welcome appearance of a joker option (surprisingly the first of the tour) which we thoroughly squandered on our lowest scoring round!

All in all, a quiz that left us itching to return with a full team to give the regulars a run for their money with only one big fly in the ointment, the 9pm start. The quiz ran at an enjoyable pace but didn't finish until about 11:15 meaning it was gone midnight by the time I got home. I hate to admit it but just the timing makes it an impractical venue for most of the Conquiztadores, otherwise, it could have been a contender...




Good in a blizzard, not so hot in the General Knowledge round.








Quiz Master: 7
Question Quality: 9
Competition: 9
Refreshments: 8
Pace: 4* *marked down for late start
Format: 7
Prizes: 5
Ambience: 7


The High Point:
Not much to choose from here but a good 'connections' round saw us spotting the connection early and getting all but one of the Olympic cities.


The Low Point:
Our joker round, 'Planes, Trains and Automobiles' which showed up our deficient knowledge of Frank Sinatra World War II movies, yacht races and most embarrassingly of all crediting the Vengaboys with a little too much originality for 'We're going to Ibiza'.





What We Learnt:
The names of the Stephenson Rocket's competition in the Rainhill Trials¹, who was appointed in 2009 as the youngest ever Chief Scout² and who loved their horse so much they turned it into some very collectable beer jugs³.






¹ - Cycloped, Perseverance, Novelty and San Pareil
² - Bear Grylls
³ - Oliver Cromwell

Quiz Tour: #3 The Junction Tavern, NW5

When I first heard that The Junction Tavern was doing a pub quiz I felt a nervous flutter of excitement in my stomach. The combination of fantastic gastropub food, great beer, a nice beer garden and staff who care about running a good pub make it a long time favourite of many of the Conquiztadores. If the pub quiz turned out to be as good as the rest of the pub we could have an early candidate for winning the Conquiztadores’ residency. So how did it turn out?

Well, the Quiz Masters were an enjoyably charismatic husband and wife team who wandered round chatting to the teams before the quiz started and encouraged some good banter throughout the evening. The food was the Junction Tavern’s usual high standard although we probably under-appreciated the premium you pay for it as we wolfed it down between questions. The questions themselves were interesting and pitched at a pretty good level although let down by there not being many of them. The format was disappointing, 30 questions loosely grouped into 6 rounds. No picture round, no audio round, no bonus round and all over by about 9:30. The prizes left a lot to be desired too. We notched up our first win of the tour after our Mystery V-P performed admirably in a tie-break situation, but we left with just a consolation bottle of wine after loosing a coin toss to see if whether we get to take home our hard-earned winnings.

It was only the second time they have done this quiz so hopefully they will get on top of the pace and format issues. A trickier problem for them is probably the lack of teams. There were only 5 teams on the night we went and it suffered for feeling a bit empty and quiet. Hopefully they can get some more bodies through the door because with twice as many people and some improvements in the format this has the potential to be a great pub quiz.

Quiz Master(s): 8
Question Quality: 7
Competition: 5
Refreshments: 8
Pace: 4
Format: 4
Prizes: 1
Ambience: 7

The High Point:
Full marks for a good round on assassinations with particular credit to Mrs Smith for knowing who the only British Prime Minister to have been assassinated was.¹




The Low Point:
Not spotting the trick question when asked to name any England substitute in the 1966 World Cup final.²




What We Learnt:
That Blue Peter are scrapping their annual to concentrate on apps and that The Who had a singles collection called Meaty, Beaty, Big and Bouncy (not Sir Mix-a-lot as we thought!)




¹ - Spencer Perceval
² - There were no substitutes in the 1966 World Cup Final

Quiz Tour: #2 The Alwyne Castle, N1

After limbering up with our 3^rd place finish at the Lord Palmerston we ventured down Highbury way to try out the quiz at The Alwyne Castle. We were reasonably familiar with the pub having been drinking there on a few occasions. An interesting selection of beer (don’t think I’ve seen Sierra Nevada on tap before) and the food is fine although it doesn’t go much beyond the ubiquitous sausage & mash/burger/fish & chips.

As for the quiz itself, if you wanted your pub to have a quiz night but wanted to make the absolute minimum of effort it would look something like the Alwyne’s. The questions and quiz sheets were bought off the internet. The prizes were just the cash entry fees. The quizmaster felt like a member of the bar staff who had been asked to read out the questions for the night.

For all that, it wasn’t actually that bad, just lacking in a bit of character. There were a couple of interesting rounds. We particularly enjoyed the ‘Wipeout’ round, get all 10 questions right and get 5 bonus points, get a single question wrong and you get no points. Having said that there were also 5 questions on Miss World. I mean, really? This is North London in the 21^st century? Surely they should be asking us to name the top 5 best-selling authors of feminist literature or something?

On to the scores...

Quiz Master: 2
Question Quality: 4
Competition: 6
Refreshments: 8
Pace: 4
Format: 7
Prizes: 2
Ambience: 6

The High Point:
A toss-up between working out the name of the Scottie Dog in the Fred Basset cartoons just from the last letter of his name being a ‘K’¹ or figuring out the connection between John Grisham, Sir Francis Drake, Louisiana and Julia Roberts² (although if any of us had seen the state flag of Louisiana this wouldn’t have felt like such an accomplishment).


The Low Point:
None of us being able to recall the name of the new Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police.<sup>3


What we learnt:
Las Vegas has been a city for 100 years. Who’d have thought it?


1 - Jock
2 - Pelican
3 - Bernard Hogan-Howe</sup>

Quiz Tour: #1 The Lord Palmerston, NW5

When Nick the Innkeeper vacated The Darmouth Arms a year or so ago he also left The Conquiztadores bereft of the best pub quiz any of them had ever attended. Untested for many months the team have now re-grouped but is there a pub quiz in North London to match the one they miss so much?

In an effort to find out The Conquizatadores are now on tour. First up was The Lord Palmerston, a very nice pub that's now doing a lot of things we liked about The Dartmouth - film nights, decent breakfasts, good beer. And a Wednesday night pub quiz.

This is how we scored it (out of 10):

Quiz Master	7
Question Quality	5
Competition	6
Refreshments	8
Pace	5
Format	5
Prizes	2
Ambience	7

Other Comments: The quiz also featured a physical challenge (we had to make a model of our favourite food from tin foil). This novel feature didn't square well with some team members' desire for an intellectually rigorous evening of general knowledge questions. We would also have appreciated an announcement of the scores at half-time.

What Did We Learn?

Cutty Sark is Old Scots for short skirt.

This is Kurt Cobain >>

And we really should have known who sings this song >>