It has become a custom to arrange the Village Quiz for a dark winter’s evening; what else is there to do other than enjoy banter and camaraderie on a cold February night?

And so it came to pass that five village teams - affectionately known as Densa, The Better Halves, The Baby Brains, Still my Favourite Things, and the Garden Baggers - undertook intellectual battle over ten rounds of questions organised by last year’s volunteers, ostensibly declared as the Beech Nuts. 

Actually it was not just ten rounds but twelve, if a couple of blockbusters are included. The evening was one of two halves – five rounds per session with a blockbuster left on the tables in each for people to mull over. The first blockbuster concerned decoding British Prime Ministers and USA Presidents tabled as twenty phrase anagrams; the second half required the deciphering of forty cartoon characters.

Each round had a theme – like Colours, posing intellectual questions such as what is the centre colour of Nobbly Bobbly ice cream, or what are the colours of Hufflepuff House. Even more serious rounds were tabled such as on Literature, historical Henrys, Ships, Sport, Local Knowledge, and even European national anthems. Not always easy but interesting. We believe cheating was kept to the usual acceptable limits, if only we knew what they were. 

At half time brain relief was provided by various cold food platters including cheeses, meats, vegetable nibbles and dips.

The end of the evening was time for reconciliation – scores were totted up and friendships rekindled after battle. The declared winners were The Baby Brains; their title was obviously a decoy. The real winner was actually the Village Hall, its kitty was bumped up by £158.

As always we are grateful to all those that made such an enjoyable and memorable evening, and contributed to providing raffle prizes.