God Bless The Humble Watermelon - £140 jackpot!

Charles C

The tension at The Duchy Arms last night was palpable. With the prize list including the coveted £40 bar tab for the winners, a bottle of wine for the second-from-bottom and a jackpot over £110 up for grabs regardless of the quiz outcome, a nervous energy filled the pub like a fine perfume in a department store. The riddle created an almost GCSE-history-exam-esque silence as teams wrestled over the clue. When one gentleman reckoned he had the solution, he demanded high-fives from each of his three team-mates, the barman, a passing dog-walker, a kindly gentleman sitting at the bar watching the football, and the quizmaster. In the end, the unassuming watermelon was the answer.
‘Euro Trip 2018’ had decided to spend their last night in the UK at the quiz and just missed out on the wine, just pipped by dynamic power-couple ‘Toblerone’. We saw the much-welcome return of ‘Potato’ (without doggos this time), who earned a solid third place. Meanwhile, ‘Putin You All To Shame’ built steady momentum through both halves of the quiz but it was ‘Fake Quiz – Sad!’ who went home with the bar tab. I dream one day that they might change their name to ‘Real Quiz – Happy’ but apparently it will take a Democrat in the White House to catalyse that change. Still, we press on. The jackpot went un-won, despite teams getting enviably close to the answer to my question on the first manned hot air balloon flight (1783 – don’t you know?!). Over £140 in the pot next week!