Online quizzes hit the big time

A local quiz in the Greenfields pub in Lancashire usually gets about a hundred participants on quiz night. Closed down thanks to Covid-19, it decided to run the quiz up the online flagpole and see who salutes it. Would you believe that 200,000 people took part? These were the early days, and now two months later there are loads of online pub quizzes and the number of people taking part has increased into the millions. You can either do the quiz on the screen and send in answers and in some cases get on an audiovisual chat and play against one another. Stay home quizzes are the in thing.

UAE has a very vibrant pub quiz circuit. Many a bangers and mash and mushy peas have been won over the years unless you prefer cod and chips. Indians, by nature, are choked with trivia and always have an edge if the questions are universal.

Having professionally done TV quizzes for 14 years when I had the arrogance of youth I volunteered last night to host a quiz and dusted my old charm and polished the twinkle in my eye and rustled up some questions. If you like the idea maybe we can consider a twice-a-week quiz on the KT website and even award a prize. It definitely adds a little bit of zest to the day, gives you a chance to 'meet and mingle' in the pre and post sessions and keeps the old brain ticking over. Here are 15 questions and we will seriously consider an online option.

1) Who created Dennis the Menace?

2) Which country does the Black Panther protect?

3) Which is the financial capital of the Middle East?

4) How many feet are there in a fathom?

5) In time terms how long is a jiffy?

6) What species of snake bit Cleopatra?

7) Who translated the 'Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam' into English?

8) What nut is used to make marzipan?

9) Which is the smallest number to have an 'a' in it?

10) Who were the three men in a tub?

11) Who said, "Do not go gentle into that good night rage, rage against the dying of the light."

12) This man said: "You must be the change you wish to see in the world."

13)  Which prime number is closest to 100?

14)  Who wrote the famous Billy Bunter series?

15)  A magazine created in 1952 by editor Harvey Kurtzman and publisher William Gaines, they created this character without his front tooth?

Have fun and let's see if we can get this show on the road regularly. Would love to have 200,000 readers tuning in.

Oh yes, the answers:

1) Hank Ketcham 2) Wakanda 3) Dubai 4) six 5) 1/100th of a second 6) asp 7) Edward Fitzgerald 8) almonds 9) thousand 10) the butcher, the baker and the candlestick maker 11) Dylan Thomas 12) Mahatma Gandhi 13) 101 14) Frank Richards 15) Alfred E Neuman in Mad magazine