This year’s CIU National Quiz saw a changing of the guard with neither of the two teams who have dominated the last four finals finishing in the final three.

Instead the team from Radford Social Club in Coventry, making their first appearance in the final, claimed the top prize, with the Ashford Road A team from Swindon second, and Trefelin WMC from South Wales, who also didn’t qualify last year, third.

Last year’s top two, Ashford Road B and Maesglas WMC, Newport both finished outside the top three at this year’s final at Alvaston & Crewton Social in Derby.

As well as an extra element of popular culture with a new prize for the testing TV and films round, regular quiz players, who generally prefer their answers cut and dried, were also discomforted by being asked to name the ten most common pub names in the country. An element of strategy came into this round as teams scored half a point for every right answer and lost half a point for every wrong one. With no points lost for not answering the best teams gave their four best answers and left it at that. It also helped to know your cats: among the questions were “Which scientist is credited with inventing the cat flap?” and “How is the artist Yusuf better known?”

The consolation prize for finishing second last went to the Sydney Street B team from Accrington, whose club had been hard hit by  floods that led to the closing of their downstairs bar. Ann Wilkinson from the club also won a bottle of spirits from co-sponsors The Co-operative Bank with the closest guess to our spot prize question: “What price in dollars was paid on eBay for a  ‘guaranteed UFO detector’?” Another prize was won by Dawn Wood, who had come along as a supporter of Hopetown Liberal Club near Wakefield.

Although the questions in the National Final are tougher than those in the heats, question setter Dave Cornish, author of “How to Win Quizzes” and “How to Run a Quiz” was delighted that none of the questions defeated everybody.

Quiz Winners - 2009