I’m telling you, “the Baptist” was John the Baptist’s surname. His career was destiny

Charles C

A packed pub created the perfect cauldron of intensity for an exciting night’s quizzing. 16 teams tested their trivia mettle, battling for the first-prize bar tab and/or the second-from-bottom bottle of wine. We learned the shape on the flag of Israel is called a hexagram, the Japanese dish, ‘yakitori’ means ‘grilled bird’; and, Windermere is the largest inland body of water (thank you, pedants – I know it’s not a lake!) in England. There was also some controversy about who baptised Jesus. There was light tutting at one team’s suggestion that the name ‘John’ was a sufficient answer. He’s called John the Baptist. If that’s not nominative determinism, I don’t know what is.

Come full-time, “Gin’ll Fix It” won the consolation pack of midget gems, just missing the wine, which went to “Kentucky Pried Chicken (KPC)” (who were one of only a handful of teams to get 3-from-3 on the Take That lyrics). Team scores were bunched from there all the way up to the podium finishers. “Backstreet’s back…alright” earned bronze (having been quick to recall that Rihanna’s real name is Robyn Fenty). Silver was tied between two previous winners, with “Yule Never Walk Malone” (great early Christmas-themed team name) and “Dr Quiz, Medicine Woman” (excellent on celeb identification) both delivering strong quiz performances.

This week’s top spot saw “Pizza Express Woking Branch” and “Winging It” wrestle over a tie-break question on the arm-span of the Christ statue in Rio De Janeiro (92 feet). With a guess that was fractionally closer, “Winging It” won the bar tab. Unbelievable scenes. A prize also went to power couple “Quiz Hemsworth”, for their points-per-person performance. Top quizzing.

Jackpot was un-won, despite “Dr Quiz, Medicine Woman” getting very close to the question about how long Neil Armstrong had been on the moon (152 minutes). A rollover takes next week’s winnable cash to over £120. Come and get it. Perfect timing for Black Friday. #onlytheduchyarmshastheanswer