As venues try to bring back entertainment post-covid, Quiz nights (or days) have become popular as they face fewer restrictions than music events. There was talk of a ban on quizzes, but I received permission from the health ministry to run them as long as nobody shared pens or papers. It means I have to trust participants to mark their own sheets, which takes a little of the ‘swapping’ fun away – everyone wants to see what other teams put – but at least it meant we could continue through the pandemic once the venues had opened. Numbers are still way down as many people are afraid to come and sit in a busy pub, and every week it seems someone has, or knows someone who has, covid and has to isolate. But slowly we’re getting back to somewhere near normal. I’ve restarted my Monday quiz in Tala, but ironically will now have to miss many of them due to getting very busy as a wedding DJ. Before the season kicked in, however, I went along to support as many different quizzes as I could.
The belief that one needs to be part of a team, and that newcomers aren’t welcome, is not the case. Singles, couples or whole new teams are always welcomed in my experience, and there’s always a team happy to add a lonely quizzer. It’s a very quick way to make new friends, as there’s always something to talk about!
Cyprus Animal Rescue hold a quiz at Ollie’s Bar in Trimithousa on the last Thursday of every month, presented by their extremely knowledgable marketing manager Oana, who takes no casualties and hosts a tough but entertaining quiz.
The new managers of Cambana Restaurant in Kissonerga have begun hosting a quiz approximately once a month, running it themselves with landlady Jess hosting. An abundance of extremely well-thought-out questions mean this is one of the longest quizzes I’ve been to, but the friendly atmosphere of happy regulars and the extensive menu make for a thoroughly pleasant evening.
My fellow DJ Ray K also hosts a monthly-ish quiz in Kissonerga, at The Village Inn, again with menu available for diners, though as yet he’s never hosted one on a day I’ve been free. He was a regular heckler at my quiz back in Konia, so I’m looking forward to the chance to get my own back.
A quiz is held the third Tuesday of every month at the UKCA in aid of PAWS Dog Shelter, ably hosted by Kev, who presents several handout sheets and reads out plenty more. There’s an opportunity to double points on a Joker round, and the final round is a Wipeout one – each correct answer gets four points instead of the usual one – but if you get any of the ten questions wrong you lose all the round’s points. As I discovered to my team’s cost.
I did better at a music quiz hosted by DJs Doug & Tom in April at Peggy’s Secret Garden in Peiga. This was a one-off, I believe, but they do have a regular Monday afternoon quiz there – starting 2pm, so if you’re quick, you could go straight to my 5pm one in Tala afterwards!
A new experience in April was a Walking Treasure Hunt. Organised by Dale of the Paphos Kidney Association, this involved collecting a four-page questionnaire interspersed with directions, and an hour and a half to fill in the answers. I was in a team of three, with thirteen teams of similar size competing, all spaced out with 30 minute intervals between each team’s start times so we didn’t meet too often. Starting and ending at Yiannis Tavern in Kathikas Square, the 2.5K route took us along little back streets of Kathikas where beautifully maintained and crumbling abandoned houses nestled together, lizards and cats ran, and nature and gorgeous hilly vistas abounded. Even without the added interest of the questions, the walk alone was a wonderful way to spend a couple of hours. Some clues were cryptic and involved thinking a little ‘out of the box’, others dead simple, but helped to make sure we were on the right track. Our total of 35 out of 40 meant we didn’t win, but the Treasure Hunt concluded with prizes for the winning (after some tie-breaker questions) and fastest teams, followed by a sumptuous lunch in Yiannis taverna – with free cherry
