Became a Regular at a Pub Quiz

I think we all know Britain loves a good pub. But what I didn’t know until I moved here was that nearly every pub has its own quiz night. Some are easy, some are impossible, some are just for fun, and some are for cold, hard cash. And I really came to enjoy ours.

The best quiz night in town

My first year in London was spent in quiet, lovely Wanstead. We had greenery and farmers markets and a lovely little high street that consisted of maybe 20 shops and restaurants. One of the first places I went was the local pub, called The Cuckfield. It’s a gastro-pub, meaning it’s a proper pub but with fancy food and nicer surroundings. The Cuckfield has an infamous pub quiz every Tuesday night, and me and all the Canadians I knew (and at that point, I only knew Canadians) gathered to try our luck at British trivia. And so, Team Canada was born.

The members of Canada House playing as Team Canada

The quiz consists of three rounds of 10 questions, a music round, and a sheet of pictures or word clues. And by the third question or so, it became painfully evident that we had no hope in hell. We bombed harder than anyone’s bombed anything before. We had enough successful guesses between the six or seven of us to avoid last place, but we were hanging on by the skin of our teeth. But we loved it. And we went back often.

 Let me just explain something—this quiz is serious business. Teams must reserve tables by the weekend or there’s no chance of participating. Teams can consist of two to six people, but no more. Each participant pays £2, and the winning team receives half the pot. With an average of 30 teams, this can add up. Not that we’d ever know how much the winning team gets. We were never ever the winning team. Ever.

 Every time we went, Team Canada came in near the bottom. Despite our desperate pleas for fewer British questions, much to the amusement of the quizmaster, Quizzy Lizi (whose real name, we found out much too late is Kerri), our shocking lack of knowledge landed us in the bottom four at best. We didn’t always walk away empty handed though. For quite some time, the bottom team received a bottle of wine to accompany their public humiliation. And let’s just say Team Canada enjoyed a few bottles on the house…

Though I have never come close to winning, I have really come to love this British tradition. Every week, I sat with my fancy strawberry beer and got to play what is essentially a drinking game on a Tuesday night, and had a laugh with Quizzy Lizi, who regularly apologised to Team Canada when she asked particularly British questions and laughed each time we looked at her with blank faces. We tried our hardest each time, but by the end of each quiz, our answers regularly turned to “Justin Bieber,” “David Hasslehoff,” and “Dr. Who.”

One variation of Team Canada, as depicted by Tina

I brought every visitor to the quiz to show them my Wanstead life, and each and every one of them loved it. But sadly, Team Canada started to dissipate as its members moved to different parts of the world. And we forfeited our regulars status.

 But hopefully, one day, Team Canada will reunite over a pint and throw out hopeless guesses while embarrassing ourselves publicly. Hopefully one day soon.