World Quiz Championships info
May 10, 2012 in IQO
Click here for information on the Irish heat of the World Quizzing Championship, which takes place in Athlone on June 2nd: tablequiz.net/wqc/
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by John Nolan
by John Nolan
A local quiz… answers
May 10, 2012 in Quizzes
Below you will find the answers to the picture questions I published in A local quiz for local people.
Before that though, I just want to highlight a question from last Friday that I didn’t think of on Tuesday. It could be the worst question I’ve ever heard, in terms of phrasing anyway. Here it is:
“Who did Enda Kenny climb Croagh Patrick with last weekend?”
Do you know the answer? As it happens, we actually got a point for this one but only by getting inside the brains of the question setter to figure out who they were on about. I think we would have been within our rights to have answered John O’Mahoney, Michael Ring, John Delaney, Mayo Rose Dervla Kenny or any one of the several hundred people who climbed the mountain on Saturday, April 28th. However, the answer they sought was Giovanni Trapattoni.
Now, on with the answers.
by John Nolan
A local quiz for local people
May 8, 2012 in Interactive, Quizzes
Friday night’s quizzing adventure took me to the town of Kilmaine in Mayo, along with friend Ger. Due to a miscommunication regarding a funeral, that was our team. But that’s a story for another day.
My wife’s people hail from Kilmaine and their name is Murphy. That’s all I knew about Kilmaine before Friday night – the place is full of Murphys. My lack of knowledge of other facts pertinent to Kilmaine would prove costly before the night was out though.
Firstly, we struggled to find the quiz. “Where’s it on?” I asked Ger, as we arrived in the town.
“Murphy’s” he said. That sounded plausible.
So, into Murphy’s Bar we went, only to find the place practically empty, just two patrons, the barman and the Late Late Show on in the corner.
“Is there a quiz on here tonight?” we asked.
“No. It’s in the other Murphy’s – up the street there.”
Anyway, when we eventually found it, the quiz itself consisted of five rounds of 20 questions. This is a nice idea, it certainly speeds the quiz up. However, when one of those rounds is a ‘local’ round, it doubles the pain for those who live outside of five miles from the venue. Why publicize the quiz to the ‘outside world’ if you’re going to rig it in favour of your friends?
Some of the questions in this local round were beauts. Here’s a few I jotted down (Hint: the answer to at least one of these is Murphy):
- What does the name Kilmaine mean?
- When was the Kilmaine GAA club founded?
- What team did they play in their first ever match?
- Who went in goal for the girls’ U-15 soccer team when they won the Mayo title via a penalty shoot-out this year?
- Who played the postman in the recent production of the play The Real McCoy in Kilmaine parish hall?
- Who won this year’s Kilmaine Strictly Come Dancing?
- Which bog is being cleaned this weekend as part of Kilmaine’s Tidy Towns?
Oh yes, a question starting with the words “which bog…”
by John Nolan
World Quiz day timetable
May 5, 2012 in IQO
As announced on Facebook last evening, the Irish heat of the World Quizzing Championship now has a home. It will take place in The Bounty, which is the clubhouse at Buccaneers Rugby Club, Ahtlone, Co. Westmeath, on Saturday, June 2nd.
This is a solo quizzing event and is run along the lines of a day during the Junior or Leaving Certificates. Albeit, a short day at the Leaving Cert, as the two papers are only one hour long each.
Here’s the timetable for the day’s events:
- 11am: Paper 1
- 12 noon: Correction of paper 1
- 12.30pm: Lunch
- 1.30pm: Paper 2
- 2.30pm: Correction of paper 2
- 3pm: Results and presentation of local awards*
- 3.30pm: Innaugural meeting of the Irish Quiz Organisation
For more information on how the event is run, please read my report on last year’s event or visit the International Quizzing Association’s site www.worldquizzing.com.
It costs €5 per person to enter and all are welcome. Please book your place in advance though as we have to print out a copy of the two papers for each competitor. You can do so via email at wqc@tablequiz.net.
Footnote:
* We will have small awards for the best result in the venue in the various categories. For more info, check out the worldquizzing site.
by John Nolan
The Irish Quiz Organisation
April 30, 2012 in IQO
Allow me to introduce the Irish Quiz Organisation, a body I’m endevouring to set up between now and the end of June.
In the short-term, it will take care of the organisation of the Irish heat of the World Quizzing Championships and the selection of a team for the European Quizzing Championships.
In the longer-term, hopefully it will eventually oversee competitive quizzing in Ireland. I can forsee events such as resurrection of the (formerly Rehab) All-Ireland table quiz, helping third-level students restart Challenging Times and maybe even the creation of a Belgian-style individual quiz rankings ladder.
That’s all in the far future though. Right now, it’s me on my lonesome.
The WQC takes place on June 2 and the afore-mentioned Irish heat will take place. I’ve yet to nail down a venue but hope to have that done by the end of the week. At that event, we will then convene the inaugural meeting of the IQO and, all going well, elect a committee for the coming year.
That’s all I can tell you for now. If you’d like some more info, please visit the IQO page on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/IrishQuiz.
by John Nolan
Picture these answers
April 24, 2012 in Quizzes
A quick post to reveal the answers to the two picture rounds, created by Pat O’Connell, which were posted last week in the Picture this article.
A couple of projects which have been filling my time are coming to an end within the next week. I’ll then be free to put more time back in to the blog. I’ll also have to get cracking on organising the Irish heat of the World Quizzing Championship. If you glance at the calendar, you’ll see that the date has now been picked. It’s June 2nd. Hopefully, I’ll have a venue sorted out with the next two weeks and will announce it (with great fanfare, no doubt) here on the site.
Until then, here are your answers…
by John Nolan
Picture this
April 18, 2012 in Quizzes
I’m quite happy that the site is starting to get some input from its readers. Dan Kelly is still doing great work in the Quizopaedia, for instance. In the same vein, over the weekend, I received a nice batch of picture rounds from another user of the site, Pat O’Connell. You can give Pat’s nice creations a go by clicking on the Read the rest… link below.
On another (totally unrelated) issue, apologies to those of you discommoded by the recent problems with the Quiz Rankings page. This was due to an issue relating to a recent update to the site’s theme. It has now been taken care of so you can now get back to taking on the interactive quizzes.
Ok, enough outta me. On with the picture rounds…
by John Nolan
Something tasty – answers
April 12, 2012 in Quizzes
Here are the answers to the picture rounds posted in the Something tasty post on Tuesday. You’ll find them after the read the rest… link.
In other, surprising, news last week’s episode of After the Fact wasn’t, it turns out, the final show in the series. In honour of today’s significant anniversary, tonight will see a special Titanic-themed episode of the show being broadcast on Claremorris Community Radio at 7pm. Visit the website around then and click on the Listen Live link to hear the show.
It should be an interesting show. For a start, I’m going to be on the receiving end this week and a guest host will be asking the questions!
