We arrived to a slightly more empty pub than usual. I've become accustomed to associating Tuesday nights in The Shakespeare with stifling temperatures, a fight to get to the bar, and a distinct lack of seating. Last night seemed somewhat more refined though; we had a table towards the back of the room, and all members of our team were comfortably seated. As usual I was the last to arrive and even I managed to get a seat. Not to say that the pub wasn't busy of course - for a Tuesday night after two days of national holiday and the prospect of returning to work tomorrow, it was still fairly busy. Busy enough for there to be thirteen teams in fact. I did note that our team was looking a little depleted though; usually, the ERASMUS kids come out in force for the quiz, but we decided we would be fine to soldier on with a team of eight.
At around 9pm, the familiar bell sounded across the bar to signal that the quiz was about to commence. One member from each team immediately leapt up to go and collect the answer sheets, whilst the quiz master ran through the rules from his usual spot atop the bar. For those not familiar with the infamous Shakespeare quiz, it consists of four rounds. The first is a picture round in which you are given ten images of famous people and you have to name them. The second is a general knowledge question round, normally consisting of ten questions, with the odd bonus point thrown in here and there. The third is another question round, but this time with a twist; there is normally one or two themes that run through the questions for this round, and in the case of last night the two themes were 'buildings' and 'numbers' (five questions on each theme). Finally, the last round is a music round; they play ten clips of ten different songs and you have to name both the artist and the song title. Simples.
The picture round went surprisingly well, with us only missing three answers. For the first time in quiz history I even managed to successfully contribute a correct answer... Many hours of watching Hellcats last year instead of writing essays had finally paid off as I identified number four to be a blonde Ashley Tisdale. Sadly "Paco Rabanne advert man" didn't quite cut it as the answer to who the chiselled, attractive man was, but you can't win them all! Despite Sean's heroic efforts, we still didn't get the name of the blonde pouting woman either. I think she was an actress, but frankly I'd never set eyes on her before. Sean was our guest team member for the week - he's Liza's boyfriend, thus it was necessary for him to have travelled nine hundred miles to attend a quiz in a distinctly English pub. Not that he was complaining. He very swiftly entered into the spirit of things, and since they announce the questions in both English and French, there weren't any language problems either. He also coined the phrase of the night: "I'm back". This was said each time he got a question right, and soon dragged us into a slightly alcohol fuelled association of "I'm back" with the nineties hit "Backstreet's Back". See, whoever said pub quizzes aren't fun has clearly never been to one with us.
The first round also brought the dilemma of the team name. Some debate over the name of the Asian duck dish had arisen before the quiz began; some said "Crispy Fried Duck", some argued "Crispy Aromatic Duck"... Come to think of it, I've also heard "Peking Duck", or is that a different dish altogether? Chinese dishes aside, when it came to a team name, Luis had the pen, and having been the chief advocate for "Crispy Fried Duck", thus took the executive decision that we would hereby be known as "Quizpy Fried Duck". Genius.
The second and third rounds went past without too much of great note. Sean was the only one who managed to name the two teams who played in a Major League Baseball match, and by the only one, I mean the only one to get the question right in the entire pub. Pretty impressive. Alex was then able to name the tallest sculpture in the world and its exact height. Also pretty impressive. Liza gave the names for the 50th, 60th, 70th and 80th wedding anniversaries, whilst I jumped in with the answer to the bonus question; the 1st anniversary is known as the 'paper' anniversary (that was two things I'd answered... I was on fire!).
The final round was probably the one that posed the most problems, but then again, the music round always does. We didn't do too badly though and even I managed to recognise two of the artists/bands. One was a little bit of an embarrassing one to admit to, but the other was Blink 182. Hearing a Blink 182 song being played as part of a quiz in a pub in the South of France did slightly make my night to be honest. Alex and Luis had to step in with the song name, but it really was on the tip of my tongue... Honest.
So, an hour and three quarters, four quiz rounds, and several pints later, and it was time for the results! As is customary, the results were read out in reverse order. By fourth place we still hadn't been announced and we were all a little bit astounded to be honest. With the team in last place having a mere six points, and the numbers now being up in the twenties, we figured we had to be third. The quiz master then took it upon himself to build the tension and announce, in no particular order, which teams were in the top three. We knew we were in the top three - we just wanted to know where! Several nail biting seconds later, he announced third place. It wasn't us. This instantly made us very happy, since even if you come second, you still win free alcohol. Next, second place... And that wasn't us either. Which could only mean one thing: we'd won! We'd finally won! And not even just marginally either. We were six points ahead of the team who came second, achieving a final total of thirty points. Epic. Especially given that the team who came second were stood behind us and had been looking over our shoulders for half the quiz. They should clearly look a little more often next time! Victory was finally ours!
The prize for first place is a bottle of whisky, complete with a bottle of Pepsi and enough plastic cups and ice to go around all your team members. To be honest, I wasn't that bothered with the prize. I don't even like whisky. It wasn't about the prize though, it was about the fact that we'd finally won something. Montpellier had finally given in and let us have our little victory. We'd hunted for days for places to live, we'd queued for hours for tram cards, we'd devoted days on end to organising bank accounts, and finally, we'd made it! Anyone reading this will probably think that we're/I'm completely nuts, but I defy you not to spend two months in a foreign country and then get a little bit over-excited when you finally win the pub quiz.
So, same time next week guys?! If anyone needs me, I'll be scouring French and English newspapers and gossip mags alike for obscure little facts that might pop up next Tuesday...
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| The winning team, minus Helen (she was taking the photo) |
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