Mersey Summer Quiz League

Billy Butler is looking for contestants for the Gamesroom which is played Monday-Friday 3.40pm on his show on Radio Merseyside.

If anyone would be up for playing you can email claire.minter@bbc.co.uk or contact them during the programme (2-4pm) on 0151 709 9333.

The new season of the Mersey Summer League will begin on Monday 8th June 2015 with a grand prix event to be held at Aigburth People's Hall, beginning at 8.00pm. The quiz will consist of 60 written questions, a music round and a picture round.

Questions and fixtures for the rest of the season will be handed out at the event.

Channel 4 have announced that 15 to 1 is coming back with a second series.  If you would like to apply you can ask for an application form by sending an email to 15to1apps@remedyproductions.tv

In each show fifteen contestants go head to head answering some of TV’s toughest general knowledge questions. It’s a gripping game of quick fire answers where the winner is simply the last person standing.

Ultimately more than just a game of survival, Fifteen to One is a battle of supreme knowledge with the fifteen highest scoring winners returning for the end of the series final where they’ll compete for the title of ‘Grand Champion’.

The Grand Champion of the series wins up to £40,000!

This is just to confirm dates for the Summer League and deal with a few other preliminaries before we start the season.

We’ll begin the season on Monday June 2^nd for a Grand Prix, at Aigburth People’s Hall, Aigburth Vale, Liverpool, L17 0DJ.  The evening will begin at 8pm.  On that night, as well as playing the Grand Prix, we’ll distribute fixtures, contact information and questions, and collect subs.  Owing to a reserve from last season, we’re able to reduce the subs this year to £20 per team.

The season will then run every Monday for nine weeks, and end with another Grand Prix on August 4^th.

MQL are keen to investigate electronic question distribution, which is used in the Quiz League of London, and saves considerable expense as well as not being at the mercy of the post!  We’ve agreed to pilot electronic distribution alongside printed questions this summer.  This will give us, and MQL, a chance to see what issues might be raised and also hopefully give us evidence with which to convince anybody who is reluctant to make the switch.

The system will be explained fully at the Grand Prix, but basically the quiz is sent by email or posted online as a password protected pdf file available for download on the day of the quiz.  The sixteen-character password is split in two, with eight characters sent to the home team, and eight to the away team by email or text.  On arrival at the venue, the two halves of the password are entered and the quiz is opened to be read from whatever device is to be used.  While teams would need a laptop or tablet to read the quiz, since it can be downloaded ahead of time, there is no need for internet access at the venue.

We propose that a small number of teams will have electronic questions at their home games, but this will potentially involve all teams at some point in the season.  For this reason, we will need an email address and/or mobile number for two members of each team, so that the password can be sent in order to access the questions; of course at least one of these two players must be in attendance at any relevant game.  If any team is particularly keen to be among those receiving questions electronically, let us know.  We’ve had a couple of offers already, but we’d like to have two games each week using electronic questions, so would welcome volunteers.

We look forward to seeing you on June 2^nd,

Angela & Brian

We are currently preparing for the 2014 season of the Mersey Summer Quiz League, and are asking teams to sign up. Last year’s competition was very successful, with nine weeks of head-to-head games after a Grand Prix event to start the season.  This year we plan to have a Grand Prix event at both ends of the season.

For those who’ve not taken part before, the format is seventy questions, asked to teams of up to six people. The team to whom the question is addressed are given twenty seconds to confer before answering, for one point.  If they answer incorrectly or fail to answer, the opposition are given a further 5 seconds to answer for a bonus point. The questions are directed to a team until they answer one correctly, at which point play switches and the questions are directed to the opposite team; when they answer one correctly, play switches again.

Last year we had nine teams playing; eight from Liverpool, and one from Warrington. This enabled us to play a nine week head-to-head season, with everyone playing everyone else once, and each team having one free week.  Obviously, an even number of teams enrolling would eliminate the free week.

The Summer Quiz League is more relaxed than the regular league, and an ideal way to introduce people to formal quizzing without the pressure of individual questions.  There is time for a friendly quiz afterwards, using whatever resources the home team has to hand, but because of the irregular numbers of players and home and away fixtures, there are no sandwiches or drinks bought for the visitors; the fixtures are no less friendly for their absence!

Results are sent by text or email immediately after the game, and tables are posted on the website: http://www.merseysummerquiz.org.uk  Do have a look at the website for more idea of last year’s competition.

While some teams playing in the league are whole LQL teams, many are made up of personnel from a number of LQL teams.  This allows for cover over holiday periods as well as a broader social mix.  Last season we managed to do a bit of “matchmaking” to enable players who were interested in playing to find a team glad of their presence, so please get in touch if you’re a singleton looking for a team to play for. 

We ask that all Summer League teams who wish to participate respond indicating their involvement by Friday 11^th April 2014, by emailing doyleah@hotmail.com; at the same time providing details of their venue and nominating a Secretary for receipt of questions.  Subscriptions, to cover the cost of buying question sets, photocopying, any postage etc, will be kept to a minimum (last year’s subscriptions were £30 per team) and collected at the initial Grand Prix, date and venue to be confirmed. 

Please pass on this information to any players who might be interested.  We look forward to hearing from you and seeing you over the summer!

Brian Thompson & Angela Doyle

Thanks to everyone who participated in the Summer League this year, we hope you enjoyed it.  Particular thanks go to Joy Platt for acting as Treasurer, to Mark Kerr for sourcing the questions and to Dag Griffiths for vetting the questions.

We will hold an AGM for the Summer League at 7pm on Sunday September 8th at Old Swan Conservative Club, Derby Lane, Liverpool L13 6QA.  All welcome, particularly if you have any comments about this year's season or ideas for next year.

Please note that for the rest of the Summer League season, Des Res and Cressington Swans will be playing home games at Aigburth People's Hall, Aigburth Vale, Liverpool L17 0DG.

We have nine teams playing in the Summer League this year, eight from Liverpool and one from Warrington. 

The season will open with a Grand Prix on June 10^th, at Aigburth People’s Hall, Aigburth Vale, Liverpool L17 0DG, beginning at 8pm.   The rest of the season will be played head to head, with the possibility of another Grand Prix at the end of the season to serve as a social get-together and presentation evening.

Questions for the first few games will be distributed at the Grand Prix on June 10th. We ask that teams please take care to use the correct set for each match – there will not be extra sets of questions available.  

Please submit results, along with the teams’ scores out of ten for the set of questions to on the night of the match.  The website will be updated once all results are in.

After the success of the Summer Quiz League in 2010 and 2011, it was missed last year; as a result we are looking to resurrect it this summer, given enough interest.

We propose to have a season that runs on Monday evenings from June 10^th to August 19^th.  The preference of people who played in the two previous seasons of the Summer League was for the head-to-head format, rather than the “Grand Prix” format, although we intend to begin the season with a “Grand Prix” on June 10^th, which will give everyone a chance to socialise together and enable us to collect subscriptions, distribute questions and the like.

The format we propose is for seventy questions, asked to teams of up to six people. The team to whom the question is addressed are given twenty seconds to confer before answering, for one point.  If they answer incorrectly or fail to answer, the opposition are given a further 5 seconds to answer for a bonus point. The questions are directed to a team until they answer one correctly, at which point play switches and the questions are directed to the opposite team; when they answer one correctly, play switches again.

Several teams within LQL found the Summer League very useful for recruiting new players for the following season, and it is a great opportunity to introduce people to League quizzing without the pressure of individual questions.  We are keen that the Summer League be fun and relaxed; however, from experience, it is felt that teams of more than six were too big for ease of conferring and also had the potential to create an unfair advantage over smaller teams.  This is why we are imposing a maximum of six players to a team for each game.  With that in mind, many Summer League teams were formed from a combination of LQL teams (which can help to ensure sufficient numbers through the holiday period) and often had more than six players.  It is for this reason that we are planning to have seventy questions rather than the eighty of previous seasons, so that there will be time afterwards for a friendly quiz (according to whichever rules suit, or questions people have available) in which any players who’ve come along and not yet had a game can participate.  Owing to uneven team sizes, and also because there probably won’t be even numbers of home and away fixtures, we think the practice of providing sandwiches and buying drinks for the opposition doesn’t work within the Summer League format.  We trust the fixtures will be no less friendly and hospitable for their absence!

Teams will be expected to send results by text or email on the night of the game, and results and tables will be posted online as soon as possible after they’re all in.

While we anticipate that the Summer League will be made up of teams primarily from the LQL area, we are inviting teams from other MQL areas as well, so teams signing up must be aware that there may be some travel involved.

If anybody receiving this email is not interested in the Summer League, but thinks other members of their team might be, please forward the information.  Also, please remember teams do not have to be formed from a single LQL team, feel free to join forces with other teams, and of course to bring new quizzers along!

We ask that all Summer League teams who wish to participate respond indicating their involvement by Friday, May 24th, by emailing doyleah@hotmail.com; at the same time providing details of their venue and nominating a Secretary for receipt of questions.  Subscriptions, to cover the cost of buying question sets, photocopying, postage etc, will be kept to a minimum and collected at the initial Grand Prix on June 10^th, at Aigburth People's Hall 8pm.

Please be aware that, in the event of oversubscription, places in the League will be allotted on a first-come-first-served basis.

It is hope that this year's competition will begin on Monday 10th June and will run for 10 weeks.

Further details will be posted as soon as details have been finalised.