Which city will be the host of the 2020 Olympic games? Who did Oliver Cromwell have executed? What two types of animal are on the front of a Lyle’s Golden Syrup tin?
Every Friday night at 8.00pm, The Viking Arms is the place to be with Mr Keith Settle’s Lockdown Quiz becoming a permanent fixture in our calendars.
With audience interaction through live chat, the quiz has really helped to keep the Shiplake Community together and entertained during lockdown.
Supported off-screen by his wife Tam, who is also a girls' sports coach at the College, the duo have now live streamed 9 quizzes to more than 100 families who take part each week.
We decided to reverse roles and see how Mr and Mrs Settle would score in our quick-fire question round...
How did your idea for the lockdown quiz and The Viking Arms come about?
We've been part of the annual Boat Club quiz night for the last few years and we've always enjoyed those so when we took part in another online quiz in the first week of lockdown, we thought 'we could do that for Shiplake' and it went from there!
The Viking Arms seemed like the perfect name and we wanted to give people a chance to chat with us too and interact with each other so the 'comments box' is perfect. In short, it's a dose of weekly escapism for everyone, with a few laughs and the chance to prove to the rest of your household that you're a bit of a brain box!
The quiz is now in its 10th week - did you anticipate it being this popular?
Absolutely not! Even on the first night, we were so surprised when so many people were online with us.
Every week, we've thought that people must be getting bored with us now but that doesn't seem to have happened. We hear, every week, how families have planned their weekly take away around the quiz or that they link up with other friends and relations to quiz together.
We've also been completely blown away by the number of Old Vikings who join us regularly and the number of families taking part who have sons and daughters starting with us in September. It feels like a real 'family' event now and we love hearing what everyone's been up to during each week (and sharing news of Wilson, our kitten, who seems to have become a bit of a hit!) In short, it's a big social highlight for us too!
How many questions have you asked to date?
So, after quiz number 10 which takes place tomorrow evening (Friday 5 June), we'll have asked 440 quiz questions! Each quiz is four rounds, each with 11 questions (although question 11 always requires everyone to complete some kind of list of ten things!).
What work do you do each week to prepare the quiz?
Putting the quiz together each week has become a fixture in our lockdown routine. We tend to write the quiz on Sundays, usually in the garden as the weather has been so kind to us and we have a chat about rounds that could work then do our research. It does take quite a while to put together but we've been helped enormously over the past few weeks with 'guest contributors' who've compiled rounds for us and we're so grateful to everyone who's helped, from staff to Shiplake families.
Do you have plans for a regular 'live' quiz when lockdown is over?
Well, we don't know about 'regular' but as soon as we're able, The Viking Arms will definitely be 'live', at least once. It would be so great for everyone to get together although we might have some heckling to deal with - the online comments box is always full with feedback as we're going along and without that, we might get shouted at a bit when we're live!
Do you have any other comments you would like to give about the families, students and staff who have got involved?
We can't thank everyone enough for getting involved. It's so nice to 'see' everyone once a week, it's made us feel like we're part of something special but that's all down to brilliant quizzers that log on every Friday. It's great to see all the staff interacting with students and families and we love that too. The comments, the chat, the laughs and even the moaning that the questions are tricky - it's all so great.
Seeing 'our regulars' every Friday is something we'll never forget and we'd really like to thank everyone for being so brilliant and letting us into their Friday nights at a time that we've all found difficult and unsettling.
It's a bit of a cliché to say that the quiz really shows the Shiplake Family at its best but it absolutely does and we're proud to have been part of this.
Tune into the Shiplake YouTube Channel for the next Lockdown Family Quiz, and to catch-up on previous weeks' quizzes.
