Noisy quiz nights
Your starter for ten: what is the quickest way for a pub to alienate its regulars? Many London Drinker readers will, I’m sure, have turned up at a hostelry anticipating a pint or two and a chat with friends, only to discover that it is quiz night. Many of us will have had an evening of quiet contemplation ruined by a quizmaster booming into an industrial-strength sound system, capable of shattering windows 500 yards away. This happened to my friends and me recently at a normally peaceful watering hole in south-east London. We stuck it out for as long as we could but the round featuring TV adverts from the 1950s to the 1970s was the final straw. Now I do realise that quiz nights are an important revenue stream for some pubs in a tough market and that it is better to have a pub with a quiz night once a week than no pub at all. Also, those people who really do know who Alloa Athletic beat to reach the third round of the Scottish Cup in 1977 must have some means of displaying their knowledge to their admiring friends. Surely however there is technology available now that could make the whole experience less painful for the non-quizzing majority. Would it not be possible to equip each quizzer with a pair of Bluetooth headphones, probably available for a pound or so each from some on-line supplier? A small outlay would then allow the quizzers to be quizzed without alienating the rest of the pub-going public.
Chris Lewis