British Quiz Bowl

"Oxford's from a strange land," claimed a quizbowl filk a while ago. For the teams at NAQT's 2001 Intercollegiate Championship Tournament, Oxford's sudden appearance in the top 10 must have been like a bolt from the blue. Starting with Imperial College's appearance in Philadelphia in 1997, eleven British teams have given the ICT an international flavour, but how do they play the game across the Atlantic? Rob Linham of British quiz organisers BuzzerQuiz explains more.

The television series University Challenge has brought buzzer quizzes to British students since 1962, but it wasn't until 1998 that an open student quizbowl circuit started to emerge in the UK. The team from Imperial brought back the concept from its visit to the ICT, and, with the help of several like-minded UC veterans, Chris Harrison hosted "QuizIC" in London, which was attended by eight teams from Oxford, Cambridge, Durham and Manchester. This was partly a reaction to the policy of University Challenge's makers that you could only ever compete once, and only then if you were successful in an audition. The London tournament was the start of the British Student Quiz Championships, now the longest-running tournament on the buzzer quiz circuit.

For several years, the Championships and other tournaments continued to be organised on an ad hoc basis, by arrangement between a network of senior players. The two dominant teams from this period represented Balliol College, Oxford, and Trinity College, Cambridge: They met in the final of the Championships four consecutive times, with Oxford, dominated by Ian Bayley, winning each time.

In 2001 the network of players began to disperse, yet demand continued to grow for more than just one or two tournaments a year. It was therefore decided that the organisation of tournaments should be put on a more formal footing, and British Student Quiz Tournaments was formed. After a year, however, two things became apparent: British teams were rarely funded by their colleges, leading to financial problems, and there was a growing demand among non-students (especially former students) to play the game. The logical option to increase the number of tournaments was therefore to open them up to all interested teams. The advent of the open era had two immediate effects: The number of tournaments increased rapidly, and the standard of teams taking part soared.

The BuzzerQuiz season roughly follows the British academic year, from October through June. The major academic competition tournaments are designated "Championship Series" tournaments, and take place three or four times a season in different venues around the country. For each tournament, the small team of BuzzerQuiz writers edit an NAQT Invitational Series set of questions, removing the U.S.-oriented content and replacing it with questions on equivalent British subjects. The subject distribution is roughly comparable to that used in U.S. tournaments, although there is slightly less emphasis on classics, mythology and the sciences, and slightly more on history, geography and pop culture. Championship series tournaments are open to all teams, and the victorious side can claim to be "national champions," at least until the next event.

The only tournament each season that is restricted to college teams is the British Student Quiz Championships. These have until now taken place each May, but from 2003-04 they will be played in February, shortly after the NAQT SCT from which they use the questions, edited as before. This will hopefully allow the top teams to journey to the ICT, continuing the tradition of British representation. In 2003, 18 teams took part in the BSQC, with Oxford reclaiming the title from Manchester.

For the 2003-04 season, BuzzerQuiz will also be pioneering trash and packet submission tournaments in Britain, in a "quiz weekend" in Oxford in November. There will also be a mirror of the NAQT ICT, which will allow British teams to get used to the difficulty of the questions and the differences in the rules of the game, in the hope of inspiring more British success at the tournament itself.

Apart from the obvious cultural differences in the question subjects, how different is the British game from the U.S. game? It would be fair to say that the British version of quizbowl is certainly more laid-back: matches are usually played over at least 20 minutes, questions are read somewhat slower and there are no definite time limits in which bonus answers need to be given. Tournaments usually last between eight and ten rounds as a result. While matches are just as competitive, a classic British "just for fun" attitude is also adopted--so much so that there was almost an outcry when Oxford became the first team actually to hold practices a few years ago!

British quizbowl has definitely evolved into its own game, but those U.S. exiles who have played the British game on their year abroad will testify that it is just as fun to play. All of our events except for the BSQC are open to U.S. teams who would like a short break in Britain, and BuzzerQuiz are happy to help with arrangements, including finding teams prepared to play friendly matches. Teams are of course advised to check before planning to attend a tournament that they won't hear the question set elsewhere!

The whole quiz scene, and quizbowl in particular, is bursting into life in Britain, so don't be surprised when your next opponents at the ICT greet you in an unusual accent!

For more information about British quizbowl, check out the developing BuzzerQuiz website at www.buzzerquiz.com, or contact the author at rob@buzzerquiz.com.