User:Lord Ted's Quiz

Lord Ted was born in Brenchley, Kent on 27th October 1961. Going to the Preparatory School Yardley Court in Tonbridge he discovered a passion for drama which he took with him to his Secondary School, Eastbourne College. Drama was very much at the for front of Eastbourne College's curriculum and produce some very fine performers and actors at that time in the late seventies, like Eddie Izzard and Michael Praed who were contemporaries of Lord Ted.

Lord Ted went through a number of career changes that only frustrated him until he ran his own pub, The Bull's Head, Mobberley in Cheshire, which provided a natural and regular audience for him. Every Thursday night he would put on one of his now legendary Quiz's. For this Quiz was not like any other Pub Quiz, which were deemed stagnant and two dimensional by him. He injected his own style and interpretation that brought life and vibrance into his performance. Lord Ted brought movement with his roaming mike, laughter with his clever improvised format, colour with his memorable stripy blazer and tartan jester's hat and of course he firmly stamped his catch phrases on a world where Pub Quiz's would never be the same again.

His format is simple but very effective. Always preparing three rounds of ten questions on a vast range of topics, on one of these rounds teams can select one to play their joker which doubles their points for every correct answer in that round. A fourth, music, round, usually playing a broad range of styles and genres is set over ten songs where participants are required to recognise both the song title and artist with a maximum of two points per question. To keep teams occupied between rounds a picture round is always prepared too.

The quiz is broken into two halves. In the first half two of the three topics are played out then marked by another adjacent team. Quiz goers are encouraged to shout the answers and if any team gets full marks in any of the special topic rounds hey win an instant bottle of wine but it is no ordinary bottle it is a much converted Lord Ted bottle of wine with a unique Lord Ted label and wine description the back.

Following a short half time break the second half kicks off with a quick game of Stand Up Bingo where £1 gets you your own bingo card and the chance to win a cash prize. The rules are simple; if Lord Ted calls out a number and it is not on your bingo card you remain standing and still in with a chance to win the cash prize. Unfortunately if any number on the participants bingo card is called out, that contender must immediately sit down and is out but the last person standing wins the cash prize. All this is achievable through Lord Ted's legendary "Balls"!

The second half of the quiz sees the music round being played out with about a minute and a half of each being played before being faded out and moving on to next piece. The last topic round is then executed followed by the marking of the final two rounds as well as the picture round.

Lord Ted has never put any restrictions on the number in a team. "The more the merrier" in his words. To make the scoring fair he applies a simple but extremely effective handicap system when teams calculate their grand total. All teams have to do is deduct the number of contestants in their group from their final score to give them their handicapped grand total.

His formula for setting questions is to source seven questions that he believes contestants should be able to answer correctly, two propositions that they may know and one that should really challenge their knowledge. Lord Ted, emphatically, never has any intention to humiliate any quiz goer but at the same time is quite prepared to put down a 'smart ass'.

Since selling his share of the Bull's Head in 2003, Lord Ted has been in much demand in other pubs all over Cheshire and also made his quiz available to Clubs, Societies and Charities to raise funds. This year he organised a special Quiz to raise money for the Red Cross's Tsunami Appeal within three weeks and collected £700 from quiz goers and sponsors.