Keyworth Quiz 2013

March 25th - Finals Night

Willow Brook School are 2013 champions!

...and the Quiz goes 'Strictly'!

In front of a packed Village Hall the 38th annual Keyworth Quiz was completed at the end of March and we have new champions – Willow Brook School have put their name on the Oakley Cup for the first time.

The Willow Brook team of Ly Toom, Louise Ballard, Rosie Dulwich and Jamie Jones played very well to pip the Dramatic Society team of Jim Shaw, David Wingfield, Angela Harris and Mike Hannon in an exciting final.

The players had to battle their way through team and individual rounds, a picture round of roads in Keyworth, a sound round of the musical introductions to various TV quiz shows, a mini Mastermind round where each player had a minute in the "black chair" and the traditional bell and buzzer finale.

Also included for the first time was a round entitled "The Village Quiz meets Strictly Come Dancing". Karen Kirk and John Burnell & Julie and Dave Burnell from the Valerie Burnett School of Dancing performed six brilliant dances and the teams had to identify the various dances. The packed Village Hall audience were enthralled by the superb performances of our dancers, and we're sure their dance school could well have lots of new recruits after their super display.

Our audience had the chance to show their knowledge and win an Easter egg in a quiz to identify UK towns from some tricky clues. Well done to John Stuckey who walked off with a whopper!

The quiz prizes were presented by Forest legend and Keyworth resident Frank Clark, and Frank summed up perfectly what a great place we all have to live in with all of the brilliantly run clubs and societies in the village, and with events like the Village Quiz. Long may it continue! We'll be back next year – our opening night is already booked for Monday 27th January 2014, and we hope we'll see you there.

Pictures (clockwise from top-left above): Willow Brook School (2013 champions), Village Quiz goes 'Strictly', U3A and Twinning Association teams in the semi finals, Dramatic Society (runners-up).

Click here to see a summary of results from the finals, semi finals and earlier rounds.

See below for reports.

March 18th - Comic Relief Special

The four quarter finals of the quiz were held on 18th March in front of a bumper crowd in the Village Hall. Perhaps it was the prospect of some exciting matches which attracted people, or maybe it was because of the interest generated by adding fun and games in support of Comic Relief.

One of our wonderful scoring ladies, Pat Jackson. had the idea to combine the quiz with last week's Red Nose Day, and Pat and her husband, Terry worked tirelessly to not only raise a staggering amount for a wonderful cause, but also made everyone feel better after a great, fun evening. We'll come back to the Red Nose antics later, but first the serious business of the Quiz.

The Parish Church and Dramatic Society teams gave us the perfect start to the evening, with an incredible drawn match which went to extra time and almost penalties as well! The Dramatic Society prevailed by answering the last extra bell-and-buzzer question which was "In 1970, which fashion designer opened his first shop in Byard Lane, Nottingham?" In fact the Society were so quick that they interrupted the question after the word "opened" and still knew the answer which appears at the end of this article. The other quarter final winners, all with very impressive performances were Willowbrook school, the Twinning Association and the U3A. Both of the semi finals look as though they will be really close games, and any of the semi finalists could easily claim the Oakley Cup.

Our refreshments this week were served by the award winning Friends of Rushcliffe Country Park who help make our local Park such a wonderful place to visit.

Back to Comic Relief! Past and present questionmasters agreed to take part in a Red Nose quiz believing that the audience had posed them some tricky questions. As our four players sat comfortably waiting for the questions to start, the Mastermind theme began to play and entering the stage were four lovely Year 12 South Wolds Students. Answering with great confidence and speed, Becca, Sophie,Becka and Katy thrashed the mature Magnus's – much to the delight of the audience, and congratulations to Alastair Allen who very skilfully managed to turn questions in such a way that teenagers were more likely to answer than oldies!! The girls duly walked off with a special trophy and individual momentos, which are now on display at South Wolds school, while our questionmasters walked off with their noses very red, but all in a great cause!

To raise money for Comic relief, Pat and Terry organised both a raffle and a sweepstake and our audience certainly responded in style. Local businesses and supporters of the quiz donated a vast array of great prizes and today £1,002 was banked into Comic Relief. Congratulations to Pat and Terry and thanks again to all of our sponsors and supporters, and to John Beeton for his photographs.

Next Monday is finals night at the Village Quiz, when both semi finals and the Grand Final will be played. Come along to the Village Hall on Monday, 25th March and have a wonderful evening. Entry as always is free, thanks to the Keyworth Parish Council who sponsor the Village Quiz.

P.S. – The fashion designer was Paul Smith

4th March - Week 5 Report

The second round matches were completed on 4th March and there were wins for the U3A, Keyworth Dramatic Society, Crossdale Drive school and the Methodist Church. Both the Dramatic Society and the Methodists had claimed second round places as the highest scoring losers in the first round, and their wins showed just how closely matched many of our teams are this year.

The Methodists should take particular mention as they overcame a very strong BGS side, who have been champions twice in the past three years. Four of this year's quarter finalists are past champions, the Methodist Church being the most recent, winning the cup four years ago. Will we see a new name engraved on the Oakley Cup this year? Certainly the Keyworth Dramatic Society, Willowbrook school, the U3A and
the Keyworth Local History Society will be going all out to put their name on the grand old trophy for the first time this year.

Our refreshments this week were served by some of Keyworth's delightful Guides and their leaders – our thanks to them and to all of the excellent groups who turn out so willingly to help.

The next matches will be held on Monday 18th March, in the Village Hall, starting at 7.30pm. All four quarter finals will be played that evening, and in addition we are looking forward to lots of Comic Relief fun. Questionmasters, past and present, are going to be put in the hot seat, with a variety of very tricky questions asked by both the audience and by our scoring ladies. Red noses are sure to be in evidence as the tables are turned on our questionmasters. We are also hoping to raise lots of cash for Comic Relief, and we will be holding both a sweepstake and a raffle on the 18th.

Lots of local businesses and individuals have donated very generously for this great charity and we currently have excellent raffle prizes from:

• The Keyworth Co-op
• Budgens
• Sainsbury's
• Wheatcrofts
• Plumtree Fish and Chips
• The Salutation Inn,
• The Nottingham Knight
• Morrison's
• And three anonymous donors

Do come along (with plenty of change!!) to the Village Hall on Monday 18th March and have a wonderful evening. Entry as always is free, thanks to the Keyworth Parish Council who sponsor the Village Quiz.

25th February - Week 4 Report

Another good attendance watched the quiz this week. The evening started with a Bell and Buzzer play off for the last available place in the second round, between the Baptist Church and the Keyworth Allotments. Both teams entered into the great spirit of the quiz and the Allotments prevailed by just five points.

There were also second round wins for the Keyworth Local History Society, the Parish Church, the Twinning Association and Willowbrook School who all claimed places in the quarter finals. All of the winning teams played very strongly, and it will be very tricky to predict the outcome of future matches. Special mention must be made of the Willowbrook school team who defeated recent champions the Scouts Turkey Trotters. This game included a round all about our local MP Kenneth Clarke, and the school team showed excellent knowledge of Ken Clarke's education, political career and his choice of shoes!

Our refreshments were served by the Friends of Macmillan Cancer Support, a wonderful organisation which does such great work.

Plans are well underway to make the quarter finals evening of Monday, 18th March into a Comic Relief Special night. This should be a super evening, with great quiz matches and lots of fun ways to raise some money for a great cause. Questionmasters past and present are waiting with trepidation as there will be a "Red Nose Quiz" with our Magnus's on the other side of what will be some very interesting questions! So make a date for some Red Nose fun – but, in the meantime, come along and see the second round matches on Monday, 4th March at 7.30pm in the Village Hall.

11th February - Week 3 Report

The first round matches of this year's quiz took place on 11th February in front of a good attendance in the Village Hall.

There were wins for the Scouts Turkey Trotters, Keyworth Local History Society, the U3A and the Parish Church who came from a long way behind to pip their friends from the Methodist Church. The Methodists were able to console themselves by claiming a second round place as the highest scoring first round losing team, closely followed by the Keyworth Dramatic Society who also earned a spot in the next round.

We always try to come up with a wide variety of questions for the quiz, and this week's match between the two churches emphasised this diversity. The team round was on the theme of one of our childhood favourites, The Dandy, and the first individual round was about the Assassination of John F Kennedy. So the teams had to move very smartly from Cow Pie and Bananaman to Dallas and the Bookstore Depository.

Players had to deal with lots of recent news questions, but the teams in one match could only laugh when the question "What, traditionally, is the main meat used in Moussaka"? was asked. The reason was that the audience, almost as one, called out immediately "horse"!! Two points to the audience for that question!

We take a break for half term on the 18th February, but we're back for the start of the second round at 7.30pm on Monday February 25th.

4th February - Close matches at the Village Quiz

A very well attended evening for the second week of the quiz saw some close contests with wins for Willowbrook, Crossdale and South Wolds schools (we must be doing something right in education!) and for traditional quiz heavyweights the Rugby club and the BGS.

For the first time, the BGS entered two teams in the competition and amazingly they were drawn against each other in the first round. A very good natured battle for "bragging rights" at work ensued and a top performance on the Bell and Buzzer final round saw the BGS 2 team through to the second round.

Our resident news hound, Chris Mills, always comes up with some very amusing last minute news items to include in the quiz, and the day of the quiz saw news stories break about the confirmation of the remains of King Richard the Third, and the ex-cabinet minister who faces jail after pleading guilty to charges of perverting the course of justice.

In the early hours of Monday morning the American football Super Bowl had been played in New Orleans and one of our questions was "Who won the Super Bowl earlier today?" Imagine the frustration of one of the players, who is a real fan of American football, and who had been watching a recording of the game – but had to leave for the quiz with 10 minutes remaining of the match. Not only did he not know who had won, but his anticipation of watching the end of the match was spoilt as the
other team not only knew the answer but gave the final score! The frustrations
of being a quizzer !

The first round will be completed on Monday, 11th February (and not 18th Feb as stated in this month's Keyworth News – apologies for the mistake) at 7.30pm, with refreshments being served by the very generous ladies of Community Concern. Come along and enjoy a fun, sociable evening and meet up with old friends.

28th January - 2013 Village Quiz opens in style

The Village Quiz started its 38th consecutive season on 28th January. The event was opened by Dick Francis, who is both a multi-time winner in the quiz, and was also the question master for no less than ten years. Dick is very well known around Keyworth for his appearances on BBC TV's Mastermind. He reached the semi-final of the competition in 1991. Dick regaled the audience with very useful tips for quizzes and modestly pointed out some of the gaffes he had made over the years.

The audience enjoyed some very close matches on the opening evening and there were wins for the Tennis club, Keyworth Medical Practice, Probus and the Twinning Association.

We always try to include some topical questions each week. These included "What curious piece of advice did the Environment Agency offer last week, which it said would help reduce flooding when the snow finally melted?" In case you didn't see the item on the news, they suggested we should all build snowmen to slow down the melting of the snow !

The intervals on quiz nights are always a super time to catch up with folks you haven't seen for a while. Our refreshments, on 28th January, were served by the Keyworth Cubs helped by some of their parents.

Do come along and enjoy the entertainment. The quiz nights coming up are Monday, 4th February and Monday, 11th February in the Village Hall – come along and see what you've been missing!