OUR CLUB'S ANNUAL CHARITY QUIZ EVENING AND FISH & CHIPS SUPPER

RCCH ANNUAL QUIZ NIGHT AND FISH & CHIPS SUPPER, 30 JANUARY 2026

Oving Jubilee Hall was the venue for the annual RCCH fundraising ‘Quiz Night and Fish & Chips Supper’ on Friday 30 January 2026.  A sell-out crowd of 144 enthusiastic quizzers turned up for what was in equal measure an entertaining and appropriately challenging evening.  Participants had to answer questions in nine categories, which included three picture rounds: ‘RIP 2025’, in which quizzers had to identify 20 famous people who had died during the previous year; ‘All Dressed Up’ (photos of famous fashion designers’ outfits); and a ‘Dingbats’ round (a Marmite round that people seem to either love or hate in equal measure). Due to its popularity last year (?!), the ‘Jeopardy’ round (in which teams risked losing all their points for the round if they included an incorrect answer) returned, and new this year was a music round, with excerpts of theme tunes from popular TV programmes spanning 1953 to the present day.

The evening attracted RCCH members and their partners and friends, plus several teams representing local Rotary Clubs.  The atmosphere in the room was competitive but friendly, and fortunately there weren’t too many disputed answers, nor was a tiebreak question required to decide the winning team.

By the halfway stage, everyone had worked up an appetite and enthusiastically tucked into the tasty fish & chips (or halloumi kebab for the vegetarians), which was followed by a Cornetto ice cream for dessert.

Graeme Loten was responsible for overseeing the ever-popular Tombola stall, tickets for which sold out quickly as folk tried their luck at winning one (or more!) of the 40+ prizes generously donated by RCCH members.  Also on sale to raise funds for the event’s chosen charity (see later) were craft items brought back by Graeme from a recent visit to The Gambia.

Quiz Master and Mistress Patrick O’Bryan and Janie Foote acted as MCs for the evening and managed to maintain some semblance of order.  During the meal, £1 coins were collected from quizzers for their participation in a quick-fire round of ‘Heads or Tails’ which after an unprecedented (although not statistically impossible) sequence of six ‘Heads’ in a row, was eventually won by Michael Bevis, who held his nerve and plumped for ‘Heads’ one final time and thus emerged as the winner of the £25 cash prize.

The 18 teams came up with some imaginative and amusing team names, and the prize for the best name – a large sharing tin of ‘Heroes’ chocolates – was awarded to “We Thought It Was Speed Dating”.  Hopefully the team members weren’t too disappointed at how their evening turned out in the end…?!

Despite some (light-hearted?!) protests that the quiz was too difficult, the final scores were all creditable, with a single point separating the top two teams.  The winners were “The Board of Ps & Qs”, with a highly commendable score of 136/175 possible marks.  The team with the lowest score, the “Parson’s Son & Baddies”, collected their prize of an assortment of wooden spoons with good humour, much laughter and the taking of team ‘selfies’.  Indeed, there was friendly rivalry between the two lowest-scoring teams who happened to be seated on adjoining tables, both of which were ‘corporate’ teams made up of the ‘youngest’ quizzers in the room, which might possibly have put them at a slight disadvantage in the music round and perhaps also gone some way towards explaining their competitiveness?!

The event raised the record sum of £1330 for the International Committee’s chosen charities, the main beneficiary being Kafuta Tumbung School Trust in Kahlenge, The Gambia (https://www.ktschooltrust.org/).

Credit for the planning and smooth running of the evening goes to members of RCCH’s International Committee, who want to thank everyone for supporting what was not only a successful and enjoyable social event, but one that also raised an impressive sum of money for a very deserving charity.

Janie Foote (Quiz Mistress)