‘Twas a dark & stormy night with a whole gale blowing up the channel, the watch below were gathered around stoking the pot-bellied stove, which was already glowing cherry-red; one of them said “Bosun, tell us a story”… The Bosun said “ahhh me lads, ‘twas a dark and stormy night on the 28th of November, with a whole gale blowin’ up the channel and rain rattling against the windows when the Byfield & District Royal British Legion and its intrepid supporters gathered for their 2015 Christmas Quiz. Numbers were down this year with only a dozen tables occupied, each with four participants, was it the weather? OR the terrible legacy of BLACK FRIDAY the day before?”

It was still a good “do”, with many a hearty comment, and a few whispers, just loud enough for adjacent tables to overhear, spreading misinformation about some of the more obscure answers. Refreshments were available as before and donated goodies were raffled-off by members of the team, raising £110 in the process. BUT now adjusted for expenses (e.g. hire of hall etc.) The profit for the evening was only £283 - NEXT YEAR we "MUST DO BETTER"... This year, as last that will go towards our annual donation to the Legion's "Battleback Centre" for service personnel disabled in recent conflicts. This year's Quiz profit was a little less than last year 'tis true but still well worth the effort, given the circumstances described above. Anyway, everyone had a really good time and hopefully will attend again next year.

The twelve teams were closely matched with a tie for the top prize. Our leader, organiser and Quiz Commander Russ posed a real cracker of a tiebreaker question to those two teams; “What is the distance in nautical miles over a great circle route from Heathrow airport London to Kennedy airport New York? The nearest answer would decide the winner. BOTH TEAMS SAID 3,000! The answer was 3,005nm. We let it go at that and they both shared the accolade.

Some of the assembled company can be viewed below, including our eloquent caller, Shaun Start. Just visible to his left is his wife, Karin, our Master Madam Mathemetician doing all the scoring and then, under the multi-coloured pin-board, our three wise RBL adjudicators Bob, John & Peter. Quizmaster Russ's silver top can just be seen facing our caller.

Stimulants were served before the event and bacon butties, tabnabs, tea and other incentivising beverages were on sale by dedicated volunteers during the interval; various donated prizes were also distributed to winners of the raffle.

Above: a most important task is being undertaken by Chris Jones and Barbara Edmunds of the local RBL Womans' Section during the quiz; building bacon butties, for sale HOT during the interval.