Quizmaster

Last evening I had the pleasure of being the Quiz master for the Killiney Lions Club Quiz Night in the Rochestown Lodge Hotel - the Lions were raising money for the local National Rehabilitation Hospital. We had 13 tables at the quiz - a little down on last year, but nevertheless a good evening was had by all with over €1,000 raised.

The Quiz Master.
Image link to
Freequizzes.co.uk.

The best part for me was that I actually prepared the questions for the quiz - 10 rounds of 10 questions each, 100 in total. It was much harder than I thought, I had to balance hard with easier questions to give everybody a chance. The winning team scored 86 points (out of 100), with second on 82 points. The winners are a team that go to a lot of quizzes, and they told me that the found the quiz very balanced and also a challenging one (they usually score higher). Some teams found the going tough, and I saw one older participant throwing his hands in the air when I asked about the name of the Michael Jackson series of concerts in London that were to be held when he died (Answer: "This is it!").

Writing questions is fun, but also a delicate exercise. The tables ranged from my daughter Vicki's table of 16/17 year old's to tables with retired participants - so I mixed in questions from the Simpsons with Shakespeare. I also discarded questions that upon reflection I felt were too hard and unlikely to be answered except by a small minority. So I changed "In the Beatles song Mean Mr Mustard, what did Mr Mustard keep up his nose?" (Answer: A Ten Bob Note) to "In what film featuring music by The Beatles would you find characters called The Blue Meanies?" (Answer: Yellow Submarine).

Here's the first round of questions - see how you get on (two tables got 10/10 in this round):

1. Who scored the first point for Dublin in this year's All-Ireland Senior Football Final against Kerry?    
2. Mary Byrne, of X-Factor fame, worked for which supermarket chain at the time of her success on the show?
3. Who was the U.S. President’s wife who opened an addiction Clinic in California?    
4. What do the letters in the acronym WYSIWYG mean?    
5. What is the name of the pet greyhound in The Simpsons TV cartoon show?    
6. In what county in Ireland would you find a town called Carnew?    
7. What company's logo features on the front of Premiership side Chelsea's shirt?    
8. How many counties are there in Leinster?    
9. Siam is the former name for which country?    
10. Who is the current President of Killiney Lion's Club?