About Us

Updated 27th May 2025

Background

Newick Pub and Club Quiz League was formed in 1985 when a group of people who enjoyed regular Trivial Pursuits evenings in the local pubs decided a more structured and varied form of competition would attract more contestants. The original format was for two teams of three people to compete against each other within a league, each team playing against all other teams in the course of the season. However, as the popularity of the quiz evenings grew, the original format proved too cumbersome and the format was changed so that all teams competed against each other every evening.

The league has expanded over the years, and we now have three Divisions of teams, with six teams in each Division. At the end of the season the teams finishing top of each division compete against each other to determine the overall Quiz Champions. Teams finishing bottom of League 1 and 2 are relegated to Divisions 2 and 3 respectively for the following season whilst the champions of League 2 and 3 are promoted to Divisions 1 and 2 respectively. The main season is between January and April, and quizzes take place on Tuesday evenings, rotating around the three Newick pubs; the Bull, the Royal Oak and the Crown. In the past, we have sometimes had a couple of evenings further afield, such as at the Laughing Fish in Isfield and the Rose & Crown in Fletching. The start and end of the season are marked by special quizzes, open to all, which take place in the Sports Pavilion in Newick, and we also have a pre-season quiz there in the autumn.

Apart from the special quizzes, all the questions are devised by team members themselves, and are submitted before the season starts. Thus team members in Division 1 submit questions to be asked randomly to Divisions 2 and 3, and so on. This reduces the burden on the Quiz Masters, who usually just have to devise one round of Current Affairs questions for each session that they run. The questions generally fall into defined categories which include Art & Literature, Entertainment, Food & Drink, Geography, History, Music, Nature, Science, Sport and General Knowledge. Each session consists of six rounds of six questions per round and lasts about one hour. The special quiz evenings consist of nine rounds of eight questions per round and last about two and a half hours.

We have a Committee that is elected each year at our AGM, which usually takes place in July. The Committee members appoint a Chairman, and also many of them act as Quiz Masters during the course of the season.

Teams are charged a nominal fee to take part each week, and all the money we raise is given to local Charities at the end of the season. These charities are chosen by members of the Quiz League at the AGM.

2020 Season

The 2020 season was terminated prematurely, due to the COVID-19 pandemic lock-down. Despite this, we still raised a total of £1133, to be donated to charity. Also, Brian Peacock, who has served as Chairman for many years, decided to step down. We were unable to hold an AGM in the usual way, so Brian asked Andy Wilson and Graham Moore to take over running the league on a temporary basis. Accordingly, Andy will now serve as Acting Chairman and Graham as Acting Treasurer, until such time as we can hold an AGM. It was Brian's wish that, under the present circumstances, the majority of this year's money be donated to St Peter and St James' Hospice. The remaining balance held by Brian has been donated to NEASSA. So, in summary, the donations from the 2020 season were as follows:

St. Peter's and St. James' Hospice	£1,000
NEASSA	£133.37

2021 Season

We were unable to run any in-person quizzes during the 2021 season, due to the continuing COVID-19 lockdowns. However, we ran a series of "virtual quizzes", using our web-based Quiz Events system. We are grateful to everyone who took part and we still managed to raise over £760, which was donated to the Newick Distress Fund.

2022 Season

The 2022 season started late, due to continuing concerns about the spread of COVID during the winter. We eventually restarted quizzes in the pubs on 22nd February and ran on until early April. We still managed to raise over £600, and donated £400 to the Newick Distress Fund and £200 to the Chailey Distress Fund.

2023 Season

This was the first time in four years that we managed to run a full season of quizzes. We raised over £1100 and donated £1000 to the Newick Distress Fund.

2024 Season

Once again, we ran a full season of quizzes that were very well attended. We managed to raise the magnificent sum of over £1500, and donated £500 each to St Peter & St James Hospice, the Newick Distress Fund and the Lady Vernon Trust.

2025 Season

The 2025 season started with the pre-season quiz in November 2024, and then the opening quiz in January, both of which took place in the Sports Pavilion. We then had a full season of 12 weeks of the main league quizzes, followed by the end of season quiz which took place in The Bull, due to the fact the the Sports Pavilion is now closed for refurbishment until further notice. We raised a total of £1400, of which £200 has already been donated to Cancer Research in memory of Graham Moore, our long-serving Quiz Master and committee member who sadly passed away last September. The reminder will be donated to local good causes, as determined at our AGM which will take place in July.