‘I am SO good at lightning rounds’ – Monica
If you ever asked me I would tell you that I’m the least competitive, most placid person you’ll ever meet, then if you ever happen to be on a pub quiz team with me it will take you about 30 seconds to realise that that’s an absolute lie.
I’m often seen as a good person to have on their quiz team due to my unnaturally indepth knowledge of boybands and 90s one hit wonders but give me a question about kings of england or the elements of the periodic table and it will be glaringly obvious how blonde I really am. That’s why I was so excited to find that one of my favourite pubs in Newcastle (No28) was hosting a pub quiz based solely on the TV show Friends. I put together a team of people who I knew would know even more about Friends than I did; Dave, Steph, Carrie, Emma and John. Could we BE anymore excited?!
Set in the great No28 just above the Grainger Market (Patricia first introduced me to this place a few years ago and I love taking new people there as most people don’t even know it exists!) we had a reserved table waiting for us (they’d had 3 Friends quiz night previous to this one which had sold out within 15 minutes so we were lucky to get a table for this one). I’m pleased they only used the tables they already have there rather than cramming in loads of extra ones in and making it impossible to hear each other or get to the bar. After much deliberation (mainly be me) over team name (Quiz in your Pants was poo-pooed) we settled on team ‘Santa Claus’ Pants’ – both seasonal and topical. Alas though we didn’t win the ‘best team name’ prize, that went to ‘Diamonds are for Geller’ damn them and their wit. Prizes available were 1st place, 2nd last place and best team name (we knew we’d already lost that one) so there was much at stake.
The rounds were split into: ‘Monica and Chandler’, ‘Ross and Rachel’, ‘Phoebe and Joey’, ‘General Knowledge’, ‘Celebrity Guests’ and a picture round. Cheish did an excellent job MC-ing keeping things moving nicely with no lulls in between questions or rounds and anything that needed clarifying got clarified. I’ll admit that I all I was expecting from the evening was a couple of glasses of fizz and some giggles throwing some Friends quotes around. I wasn’t prepared for Carrie and Emma’s super competitive Rain Man knowledge of everything that’s ever been said or done in any episode of Friends ever! But hey, these chicks are on my team so I’m not complaining.
Biggest drama of the night came with the question ‘how many episodes of friends have there been in total’. In some of my last minute research last week I knew I’d seen somewhere that it was around 236, so thats the answer we put down, then at the last minute I second guessed myself and changed it to 232 thinking that that would fall more within the ‘to the nearest 5’ rule they were imposing. The answer? 236 exactly. I honestly thought I’d lost it for the team as up until that point we had a clean sweep. To be honest, I’m still finding it hard to talk about so best move on…
Turns out that I needn’t have stressed too much because we only went and bloody won the whole bloody quiz didn’t we?! Other than the Christmas cake competition at work this is the only thing I’ve ever won in my life based on merit (well, Emma and Carrie’s merit to be perfectly honest but hey, a team’s a team!) So a £50 bar tab is nestled merrily on my mantle piece now, ready to raise a glass in honour of Santa Claus’ Pants after Christmas. Super competitiveness (which i don’t have of course) aside it was a really fun night and if you’re a clued up as we were then a quiz about a certain subject is a great change from the norm.
Winning smiles all round…
Hopefully No28 put on some more in the future, they’re a great quirky little venue that had lots of drinks offers and Friends related food available (like the Moist Maker Sandwich – genius!) I know they have a Sex and the City one planned soon, however we’re not sure our knowledge is quite en pointe for that one, but the next Friends one? Well we need so defend out crown don’t we?!