Among the Quizzers of the World
It was the moment of truth. I wrote down "The moment of truth!" in my notebook. We would discover the Top 20 placings in the 2006 World Quizzing Championships. My heart was beating thump-thump on the top of my head. I felt both light and heavy. Woooh.
First Nick Mills. He was 20th with 125. I had worked out that I had scored 142 long before so this was good news, but how far would I go? Chris announced the results and further and further up I seemed to have been placed. Once I found Bayley had scored 133 in tenth place and discovered my guaranteed top ten finish, I was probably the most satisfied I would ever be (not at all from beating Bayley mind you; I was competitor blind at this point) and when I found I had beaten Dorjana by two points and made it into fifth with 142 I knew this was true (also getting a share of the top world genre win in Media). Wow, all that world knowledge learning did pay off (thanks BH quizzes).
Compared to last year and 2004 where, if I can remember correctly, I scored 108, it seems I am making significant year-on-year progress. All I can say is that this year I didn't feel as if I had missed out on more 25-30 answers I knew I should have got. I didn't start kicking myself for being an idiot and not seeing stuff I thought was obvious in hindsight.
Maybe, rejecting pint-after-pint of mind-frazzling full fat Coke was a good thing after all. Instead I brought a two-litre bottle of the water than is "naive" spelt backwards, the wisdom of Jane Clarke ringing in my mind. I also ate much fresh fruit and a combo of unsalted nuts. Oooh, look at me on my health kick. But, you know what: I did feel a lot better and had absolutely no problems with my energy levels; my body being deprived of the normal crash-and-burn of regular and overpowering sugar intake. Now to give up the fags, or maybe not.
Still, I was kicking myself (can't help it, perhaps I like the sado-masochistic aspect of it and actually enjoy it) at not easing out the link the surname question on Dahl for instance and a few others. It probably was the painkillers turning my mind to the consistency of squelched mashed potato. It didn't obscure my faculties when I got the instant reflex answers, but when a touch of lateral thinking was called for I have to admit I was making sounds like a drunken man rendered unable to form coherent sentences. Tramadol makes you lazy.
I am, however, far from disgruntled by the potential score I could have got and think of it more a mini-triumph in the face of adversity (yes, I am still having a daily dressing done allied with half-an-hour salty bath and mum going "Blimey!"). Thinking about the potential of tomorrow and tomorrow, I guess.
Kevin was top of course. He never ceases to amaze me (as does Pat). I saw his half-time scoresheet festooned with mid-20s and was truly gobsmacked. He shows no sign of letting up in his consistent omniscient brilliance. It is actually inspirational in a way. And, obviously, he enhanced his DVD collection substantially with his many genre wins.
Like myself, he says that he finds world-type general knowledge to be the most fascinating and satisfying kind, and by doing so and learning the appropriate areas (Middle Eastern classic literature and dynasties, I seem to remember him citing) is sure to keep him hovering around the top. I think he too is a bit jaded by the parochial nature of much that is concerned standard quizzing in this country. World knowledge has the ability to rejuvenate a man tired of Midlands canals and Lake District mountains by revealing to you different and expansive spheres of GK. You should try it. There is so much out there waiting for everyone.
As I always do after I believe I have done well I did a lot of score-gazing at the final results. Admittedly, I never do it when I am stuck down in the comparative depths of the mid-table (or, as is apparent lately, outside the top ten). I looked at the sheet, then again. And again. And once more for luck. I even want to look at it right now. It is the sin of pride. But it is also savouring the belief that the work I have put in has actually bore fruit.
However, I would like to apologise for being an inveterate score-finder-outer and own-score dispenser. The set-up went something like this:
"How did you do?" (I'm thinking: I WANT TO KNOW. I MUST FIND OUT AND COMPARE)
They reply, most likely along the lines of "I didn't really count it up", in contrast to my utter certainty at my own tally having done the round-scoring arithmetic at least five or six times to make sure.
"I got 142" (Ah, relief spreads through my body)
Scores were meant to be kept secret for the purpose of having an exciting climactic announcement, but of course this didn't stop me.
Shameful, I know.
I would also like to apologise for repeating to at least five different people in ultra-smug fashion as to how I got the "Segovia" ("I looked up the Alcazars on Wikpedia at 8.23am this morning and blah blah it's much more famous than Seville's ... favourite castle of the Kings of Castles blah blah bum flop tiddle ... it was so lucky"). It was one of those hugely satisfying coincidences, but I should have told myself to shut it, you slag.
Silly Notes from The Journey Home
"On the train back I feel the amber glow of contentment. It may be fleeting, but it feels good and radiates from my heart and gut to every corner of my body. I am shattered but write up these notes and write some more up. I know I am going to put this on my blog and go all meta-stylee like some cheapskate Calvino. Sean nods off and snores in a disturbing manner. I go to the toilet far too regularly and encounter difficulties when I get there. Thank you very much, painkillers."
The Rivals
Yes, and I finally beat Stainer after two years. Chris Jones made reference to this. I responded to this off-the-cuff remark by pointing at Stainer with both hands and shouting: "Yes! Yes! In your face!" I am not joking about it either. The competitive imp inside me never rests. Not least with regard to people in my age range.
About The Belgians
Ever since the Belgians have taken part in the WQC, I have expected them to come in and smash us British folk to kingdom come and condemn practically all of us to lower places in the final standings thanks their astounding knowledge of things most of us have never thought of learning. But, to my genuine surprise, it hasn't happened yet. Which is weird, I think.
And just after it has happened every year and their top performer Nico Pattyn has yet again got the bronze, I expect them to go away consume knowledge like absolute demons. Except they don't.
Why is this? Maybe, from what I perceive, it is still something to do with the team-based nature of their competition. They have specialists far more brilliant than the likes of us and who make up perfect combinations of teams that get absolutely everything and do so in competition far more regularly than we ever do.
Yet there in lies the crux: the specialist nature of what they do. In contrast, Brits are generalists all. Weaned on TV shows like Mastermind and Fifteen-to-One, we see ourselves as individuals who have to have an all-round knowledge to win titles and the like.
Team quizzing is akin to an afterthought for many, especially those who never compete in quiz leagues (I'm talking serious stuff here, not pub quizzes). We pay lip service to working on our weaknesses in boosting team performance, but I for one always go back to learning stuff across the board.
One or two subjects bore me after a while. I must always do a variety to keep my attention focussed and my enjoyment intact. So we are haphazard and a bit casual. We do the learning at home on our own if that and never really mention it, because revision is still a naughty word to some Corinthian-spirited quizzers. And still our solipsistic ways mean we get nine over seven places in the WQC Top 20. Some day we will be found out, won't we?
Knowing their evident excellence the Belgians will probably trample all over us come the European Championships in Paris at the fag end of the year. And they will no doubt deserve it through sheer diligence and love of the general knowledge that really matters (breweries? Don't get me started). You see I'm already coming back to the belief that they will also hand us our asses on a platter at the 2007 WQC. Just like the inevitable cycle of the seasons.
That name
There was a competitor called Johan Craps in Belgium. I know it's stupid that I sniggered when I saw it but I think I have an equally stupid reason why I did. You see I have a brother called Johan (he's making snoring sound like dying swine right behind me as I type these words). And he's often constipated. (my bro won't mind me saying this: he doesn't even know that the internet exists and ignorance is bliss after all)
(Apologies to Johan Craps, whose name I have made to make a silly, some might say, superfluous point. But I just couldn't let it pass.)
For reference's sake
Top 20 of this year's WQC is here.
What It Means
So it has been a good season. Fifth in the worlds, sixth in the euros on aggregate score and never out of the top five in a GP since Uttoxeter last year (I think ... I wait for someone to pop up "Ha-ha! No you didn't!!!"). It also seems that I have climbed to third in percentage of correct answers given. Which is nice.
What do I put this down to? Well, setting a daily newspaper quiz means that it is paramount for me to research, set and verify more than 60 questions every fortnight. It means I am always on the lookout for new material and that the act of verification itself, in which I end up rejecting 20 or more questions, takes me into some of the most unexpected and useful highways and byways of knowledge. It is also taking me longer and longer every time due to the fact that I am conscious I have to take fantastic care with potential errors. The letter and email writers of Middle England lie in wait to pounce upon me and pelt me with deserved recriminatory words.
But, oh yeah, it's the lack of the office job. Time is fluid and quiz-learning can be done whenever I feel like it. Even at 5.30 in the morning. The consequences have gone away. Taking away my focus on the 9-5 machinations of working life has made me feel sharper when it comes to quiz matters. The improvement has been a not unforeseen but welcome consquence, but I wonder what the next year will bring in terms of work and therefore quiz. Both are inexorably tied up with each other and it will probably be "interesting" in negative and positive sense of the word.
First Nick Mills. He was 20th with 125. I had worked out that I had scored 142 long before so this was good news, but how far would I go? Chris announced the results and further and further up I seemed to have been placed. Once I found Bayley had scored 133 in tenth place and discovered my guaranteed top ten finish, I was probably the most satisfied I would ever be (not at all from beating Bayley mind you; I was competitor blind at this point) and when I found I had beaten Dorjana by two points and made it into fifth with 142 I knew this was true (also getting a share of the top world genre win in Media). Wow, all that world knowledge learning did pay off (thanks BH quizzes).
Compared to last year and 2004 where, if I can remember correctly, I scored 108, it seems I am making significant year-on-year progress. All I can say is that this year I didn't feel as if I had missed out on more 25-30 answers I knew I should have got. I didn't start kicking myself for being an idiot and not seeing stuff I thought was obvious in hindsight.
Maybe, rejecting pint-after-pint of mind-frazzling full fat Coke was a good thing after all. Instead I brought a two-litre bottle of the water than is "naive" spelt backwards, the wisdom of Jane Clarke ringing in my mind. I also ate much fresh fruit and a combo of unsalted nuts. Oooh, look at me on my health kick. But, you know what: I did feel a lot better and had absolutely no problems with my energy levels; my body being deprived of the normal crash-and-burn of regular and overpowering sugar intake. Now to give up the fags, or maybe not.
Still, I was kicking myself (can't help it, perhaps I like the sado-masochistic aspect of it and actually enjoy it) at not easing out the link the surname question on Dahl for instance and a few others. It probably was the painkillers turning my mind to the consistency of squelched mashed potato. It didn't obscure my faculties when I got the instant reflex answers, but when a touch of lateral thinking was called for I have to admit I was making sounds like a drunken man rendered unable to form coherent sentences. Tramadol makes you lazy.
I am, however, far from disgruntled by the potential score I could have got and think of it more a mini-triumph in the face of adversity (yes, I am still having a daily dressing done allied with half-an-hour salty bath and mum going "Blimey!"). Thinking about the potential of tomorrow and tomorrow, I guess.
Kevin was top of course. He never ceases to amaze me (as does Pat). I saw his half-time scoresheet festooned with mid-20s and was truly gobsmacked. He shows no sign of letting up in his consistent omniscient brilliance. It is actually inspirational in a way. And, obviously, he enhanced his DVD collection substantially with his many genre wins.
Like myself, he says that he finds world-type general knowledge to be the most fascinating and satisfying kind, and by doing so and learning the appropriate areas (Middle Eastern classic literature and dynasties, I seem to remember him citing) is sure to keep him hovering around the top. I think he too is a bit jaded by the parochial nature of much that is concerned standard quizzing in this country. World knowledge has the ability to rejuvenate a man tired of Midlands canals and Lake District mountains by revealing to you different and expansive spheres of GK. You should try it. There is so much out there waiting for everyone.
As I always do after I believe I have done well I did a lot of score-gazing at the final results. Admittedly, I never do it when I am stuck down in the comparative depths of the mid-table (or, as is apparent lately, outside the top ten). I looked at the sheet, then again. And again. And once more for luck. I even want to look at it right now. It is the sin of pride. But it is also savouring the belief that the work I have put in has actually bore fruit.
However, I would like to apologise for being an inveterate score-finder-outer and own-score dispenser. The set-up went something like this:
"How did you do?" (I'm thinking: I WANT TO KNOW. I MUST FIND OUT AND COMPARE)
They reply, most likely along the lines of "I didn't really count it up", in contrast to my utter certainty at my own tally having done the round-scoring arithmetic at least five or six times to make sure.
"I got 142" (Ah, relief spreads through my body)
Scores were meant to be kept secret for the purpose of having an exciting climactic announcement, but of course this didn't stop me.
Shameful, I know.
I would also like to apologise for repeating to at least five different people in ultra-smug fashion as to how I got the "Segovia" ("I looked up the Alcazars on Wikpedia at 8.23am this morning and blah blah it's much more famous than Seville's ... favourite castle of the Kings of Castles blah blah bum flop tiddle ... it was so lucky"). It was one of those hugely satisfying coincidences, but I should have told myself to shut it, you slag.
Silly Notes from The Journey Home
"On the train back I feel the amber glow of contentment. It may be fleeting, but it feels good and radiates from my heart and gut to every corner of my body. I am shattered but write up these notes and write some more up. I know I am going to put this on my blog and go all meta-stylee like some cheapskate Calvino. Sean nods off and snores in a disturbing manner. I go to the toilet far too regularly and encounter difficulties when I get there. Thank you very much, painkillers."
The Rivals
Yes, and I finally beat Stainer after two years. Chris Jones made reference to this. I responded to this off-the-cuff remark by pointing at Stainer with both hands and shouting: "Yes! Yes! In your face!" I am not joking about it either. The competitive imp inside me never rests. Not least with regard to people in my age range.
About The Belgians
Ever since the Belgians have taken part in the WQC, I have expected them to come in and smash us British folk to kingdom come and condemn practically all of us to lower places in the final standings thanks their astounding knowledge of things most of us have never thought of learning. But, to my genuine surprise, it hasn't happened yet. Which is weird, I think.
And just after it has happened every year and their top performer Nico Pattyn has yet again got the bronze, I expect them to go away consume knowledge like absolute demons. Except they don't.
Why is this? Maybe, from what I perceive, it is still something to do with the team-based nature of their competition. They have specialists far more brilliant than the likes of us and who make up perfect combinations of teams that get absolutely everything and do so in competition far more regularly than we ever do.
Yet there in lies the crux: the specialist nature of what they do. In contrast, Brits are generalists all. Weaned on TV shows like Mastermind and Fifteen-to-One, we see ourselves as individuals who have to have an all-round knowledge to win titles and the like.
Team quizzing is akin to an afterthought for many, especially those who never compete in quiz leagues (I'm talking serious stuff here, not pub quizzes). We pay lip service to working on our weaknesses in boosting team performance, but I for one always go back to learning stuff across the board.
One or two subjects bore me after a while. I must always do a variety to keep my attention focussed and my enjoyment intact. So we are haphazard and a bit casual. We do the learning at home on our own if that and never really mention it, because revision is still a naughty word to some Corinthian-spirited quizzers. And still our solipsistic ways mean we get nine over seven places in the WQC Top 20. Some day we will be found out, won't we?
Knowing their evident excellence the Belgians will probably trample all over us come the European Championships in Paris at the fag end of the year. And they will no doubt deserve it through sheer diligence and love of the general knowledge that really matters (breweries? Don't get me started). You see I'm already coming back to the belief that they will also hand us our asses on a platter at the 2007 WQC. Just like the inevitable cycle of the seasons.
That name
There was a competitor called Johan Craps in Belgium. I know it's stupid that I sniggered when I saw it but I think I have an equally stupid reason why I did. You see I have a brother called Johan (he's making snoring sound like dying swine right behind me as I type these words). And he's often constipated. (my bro won't mind me saying this: he doesn't even know that the internet exists and ignorance is bliss after all)
(Apologies to Johan Craps, whose name I have made to make a silly, some might say, superfluous point. But I just couldn't let it pass.)
For reference's sake
Top 20 of this year's WQC is here.
What It Means
So it has been a good season. Fifth in the worlds, sixth in the euros on aggregate score and never out of the top five in a GP since Uttoxeter last year (I think ... I wait for someone to pop up "Ha-ha! No you didn't!!!"). It also seems that I have climbed to third in percentage of correct answers given. Which is nice.
What do I put this down to? Well, setting a daily newspaper quiz means that it is paramount for me to research, set and verify more than 60 questions every fortnight. It means I am always on the lookout for new material and that the act of verification itself, in which I end up rejecting 20 or more questions, takes me into some of the most unexpected and useful highways and byways of knowledge. It is also taking me longer and longer every time due to the fact that I am conscious I have to take fantastic care with potential errors. The letter and email writers of Middle England lie in wait to pounce upon me and pelt me with deserved recriminatory words.
But, oh yeah, it's the lack of the office job. Time is fluid and quiz-learning can be done whenever I feel like it. Even at 5.30 in the morning. The consequences have gone away. Taking away my focus on the 9-5 machinations of working life has made me feel sharper when it comes to quiz matters. The improvement has been a not unforeseen but welcome consquence, but I wonder what the next year will bring in terms of work and therefore quiz. Both are inexorably tied up with each other and it will probably be "interesting" in negative and positive sense of the word.
posted by That Quiz Guy at 7:30 PM
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