Charity Quiz the Second

We’ve been writing to sponsors, buying our airline tickets, getting confused about visas, vaccinations and driving licences and, of course, chatting to veterans of the Rickshaw Run to assess our chances.We’ve also done another charity quiz, bigger, better and more brazen than the last.
 
In the heart of the Ashdown Forest, that enchanted place where Pooh and Piglet played Pooh Sticks there stands a great towering castle atop a mystical hill. It was to here that Norfolk and Clue hastened for their next big challenge: a charity quiz that would play host to twice the numbers of the first, many of them pub quizzers of frightening experience.

The questions sallied forth into the room. Answers, retorts, laughter and the occasional stunned silence met them as intellects grappled with a range of devious subjects and a plethora of unanswerable questions. At half time, it was still anybody’s game and the competitors went for a half time snack. Mountains of chilli and a mass of delectable puddings had been laid on by Sue, the Lady of the House, and city folk mingled with forest dwellers as they sated their appetites together. And then with the toot of a 1920s car horn, battle recommenced.
From cigars to singing lessons, golf sets to dinners for two, the prizes kept coming, often to the same person! Jonie must have had every one of her tickets pulled from the bucket. Her cries of embarrassed success were a wonder to behold, while her returning of the prizes to the pot for others to win was a selfless act oft repeated as the prizes were read out.
Thank you to everyone who came for your great spirit, which made the event such a success. Thank you to everyone who donated a prize (list to follow) for your generosity. And thank you to the marvelous hosts for all their sterling work. We toasted you long into the night and shall continue to do so as we rattle our way across India!!!  

Charity Quiz the Second Well, it has certainly been a long time since this board last saw any action, the poor wallflower (pun intended)! But don’t let that fool you into thinking that we’ve been slacking. Oh no.

Competitors from across the county and beyond sauntered into the drawing room of Casa de Whitting (crammed full of tables and chairs) to take their places or to queue at the makeshift bar, manned by the ebullient barman Peter Whitting Esq. Once the crowd had settled, match fees paid and thirsts quenched for the moment, Norfolk and Clue stood up before the multitude. Behind them was arrayed perhaps the largest haul of raffle prizes ever gathered in a single place.

The tension was rising to unbearable levels as the second half stumbled to its conclusion, with howls of frustration and roars of triumph echoing around the halls of the castle as each answer was read out. In the end it was the pub quiz veterans, The Alligators, who reigned victorious over the field of battle. Clue marched through a room thronging with distraught teams, weeping, wailing and calling out for more ‘pink for a drink’ tickets, to present the winning team with their prize: a bottle of Champers from Berry Bros and Rudd.

And then the marathon prize giving of the raffle began in earnest.

And then it was all over. Much had been drunk, much had been eaten and much had been won.