20 YEARS OF QUIZ NIGHTS

Today marks 20 years since I hosted my very first Quiz Night, which took place at The Hospital Inn in Bamber Bridge, Lancashire. That's a vicennial anniversary and marked with china, fact fans.

A quick glance at my journal entry for 8th September 1999 reveals that I was paid the princely sum of £10 a week to write and present 40 questions, something which is thankfully considerably better these days both in terms of remuneration and quality of content for the players!

Over the years I have hosted at many different pubs, some for more than one stretch at a time and several of which are no longer in existence:

• The Hospital Inn, Bamber Bridge
• The Mackenzie Arms, Bamber Bridge
• The Queens, Bamber Bridge
• The Anchor Inn, Lostock Hall (current)
• The Hob Inn, Bamber Bridge (current)
• The White Bull, Bamber Bridge,
• The Black Bull, Bamber Bridge
• The Peters Bar, Bamber Bridge
• The Mill Tavern, Higher Walton
• The Pear Tree (later Beam & Brycg), Bamber Bridge
• The Pear Tree, Middleforth
• The Roebuck Inn, Rishton
• The Free Gardeners Club, Rishton
• The Hunters, Walton-le-Dale
• The Greenhaus, Eccleston (current)

I've had the pleasure of meeting and working with hundreds of cheerful people and discovered recently that some of my current regulars have been coming to my quizzes for as long as 18 years!

It's a fantastic job to have, I love doing it and today I'll be raising a tankard to many more!