Archived News - Quiz
Eaton Bray Village Hall
Honestly, there I not much to say this month except to thank all of you who came to the quiz on the 21st April. This was a sell out and the Village Hall Fund Raising Committee and Tennis Club shared nearly £1200 between them, so again, we hope you had a good time and just to remind you that the next Quiz will be on Saturday 17th November, just give me a ring to book your tickets.
Just as Focus hits your doormat in late May or early June, we will be holding the Beer Festival (Friday 1st and Saturday 2nd June). I do hope that I will see some of you there and especially some of the younger folk who will be attending the Tea Party on the Saturday afternoon. This is a great way to bring all the families of Eaton Bray together to help celebrate the Diamond Jubilee.
I hope by next month to be able to fill you in on when the Hall's carpark is going to be resurfaced, we are meeting with contractors at the moment to put the finishing touches to our plans, so no more potholes, which I am sure will please us all!
Source: Focus, June 2012
Quiz - Eaton Bray Village Hall
Eaton Bray Village Hall, Saturday 21st April
This fabulous quiz with quizmaster Keith Blackburn will still include a Free supper with the questions
Bring you own glasses and drink, 7.00pm for 7.30pm, Just £9 per person, Teams of up to 8 people, Fabulous prizes!
This event is organised jointly by Eaton Bray Village Hall Fundraising Committee and Eaton Bray Tennis Club
For bookings contact: Ross 221411
Source: Focus, March 2012
Quiz, Beer Festival and The Diamond Jubilee!
You may wonder about the heading, well let me tell you a little more about the events of 2012.
Firstly on 21st April the Village Hall and Eaton Bray Tennis Club are holding their twice yearly Quiz. This will follow our usual pattern with questions from the undisputed king of question masters, the one and only Keith Blackburn. The price will be £9 and this will include your supper which will be even better than usual, not sure how, but I have been assured that it will!
Following on from that, we will be holding our 9th Annual Beer Festival on Friday 1st June and Saturday 2nd June. We will be having all the usual features plus even more Beers plus Ciders and Perrys. Again this is becoming a part of Village life and we are now into our 9th year. As soon as we finish this one, we will be putting our thinking caps on see what we can do to celebrate the 10th one in 2013.
But what of the Diamond Jubilee? You may have noticed that the Beer Festival is the same weekend as the Jubilee celebrations when the whole country will be celebrating the Queen's Diamond Jubilee. So we had a chat with Coralie, the vicar, to see what we could do to celebrate this event. Together we have come up with the idea of a traditional children's tea party! We hope that this can held outdoors on the Saturday afternoon (2nd June) with lots of good food and fun and games, including a children's entertainer. If it rains we still have the Hall!
As you may have seen from previous pieces I have written, volunteers are few on the ground but by combining the Village Hall crowd and the Church members together, we can offer a wonderful treat to local children. Coralie will be expanding on this part of the festivities in her own piece elsewhere in Focus.
Should you wish to help make this a special day for the children please feel free to contact either myself, Ross or Coralie.
We will both be keeping you up to date in further issues of Focus. Just put the dates in your diary now!
Source: Focus, February 2012
Quiz, Eaton Bray Village Hall, 8 October 2011
Eaton Bray Village Hall - Saturday 8th Oct 2011
This fabulous quiz with quizmaster Keith Blackburn will still include a free supper with the questions. Bring you own glasses and drink
7.00pm for 7.30pm
Just £9 per person. Teams of up to 8 people. Fabulous prizes!
This event is organised jointly by Eaton Bray Village Hall Fundraising Committee and Eaton Bray Tennis Club
For bookings contact Ross 221411 and Katrina 01582 662406
The 8th Annual Village Hall Beer Festival
Note: This article describes the 2011 event.
For details of this year's Beer Festival, please see Village Hall Events.
FRIDAY JUNE 3RD and SATURDAY 4TH JUNE 2011
Last year we did not run out of beer but, still sold more of it. We sold more burgers and hot dogs, we sold more food from the kitchen, but we sold less lager and wine!
What does this tell us? It means that more of the good people of Eaton Bray and Edlesborough are growing to appreciate the Real Ale, as chosen by our good friends from CAMRA.
Only last week a few of us had to attend a meeting with Roy Chatto and his friends (the beer experts), so over to Dunstable and the Globe pub we went. Obviously we had to have a couple of pints of real ale so we could talk about logos and the possibility of our own Festival glasses! I don't think people realise the efforts we go to in order to make the event a success!!
We will be having live music both nights and a family entertainer on the Saturday afternoon for the younger folk, so do come along and join in the fun.
There will be 25 barrels of beer, 2 types of cider, plus perry (pear cider to the uninitiated; really refreshing if a bit alcoholic).
Whilst writing this article in early April, I notice that we have sold 160 tickets for the quiz on April 30th, which we hold jointly with Eaton Bray Tennis Club. I hope another good night will be had by all. We really appreciate people coming along, as when we decided on the date we had no idea that Prince William and Kate Middleton would be getting married the day before. When the government decided to make this day a public holiday, we wondered, whether a lot of people would go on holiday after Easter and miss the quiz. However, in true local style we are nearly booked out with 4 weeks to go. Thank you all for your support.
Winners of the quiz will be announced next month but, please don't forget the BEER FESTIVAL.
If you need anymore information Please call me (Ross) on 221411.
Source: Focus, May 2011
The Village Hall Update
As usual at the beginning of each month I sit here and think what can I say that may be of interest to you all? Well......
Firstly a timely reminder of our next Super Quiz that is being help on Saturday 30th April in the hall. We have also kept the price at £8 per person which as you know, also includes the best ploughman’s this side of Edlesborough!
As usual we have the master Quizmaster Mr Keith Blackburn, who offers up amazing questions to tickle the old brain. I personally will be memorising the names of all the attendants/bridesmaids at the Royal Wedding and hope he asks us to list them in alphabetical order!
If you require tickets please let me know and as usual I will be offering two free tickets to the first person to ring me with the correct page our advert appears on in Focus.
I will probably be away at the time (4th – 7th April) but be assured the answer machine records all messages in time order. Just so you don’t think Shelagh and I are off on holiday I can assure you this trip is mostly business!
On the more mundane side of things we are planning the new car park and hope to go ahead with this project as soon as possible, maybe with following wind, even this year, although we do not want to make any promises we cannot keep.
Our next big event, to help pay for this, is the 8th yes 8th Eaton Bray Beer Festival, to be held on Friday June 3rd and Saturday June 4th. We will have the usual entertainment and food along with an even greater variety of beer, perry and cider. We look forward to seeing you all there.
To buy tickets for the quiz or just for more information please contact Ross.
Quiz Night
Tickets are £8 per person and include a ploughmans-style supper. Bring your own drinks and glasses and make it a real night out! Tables of up to 8, but if you have part of a table don't worry - we can help you find team mates.
Source: Focus, August/September 2010
I hope you haven't missed it!!
That's the Beer Festival I am talking about. It is on Friday 4th and Saturday 5th June.
I won't go on about it but if you do get to read this after the event I do hope you had a good time. I know I did, although I was made to have a shower before going to bed as the smell of burgers and onions apparently is not acceptable in the bedroom. Not sure why?
Next month I will let you know how we really got on. It is so much easier with the facts, rather than having to anticipate what we did a month ahead of the event. I do hope you are following all this as I am now completely lost!
What I do know is that the Quiz on the 24th April was a great success with “Not Maggie's Friends” (feel sorry for Maggie but that's the way it goes) winning a very close contest and just behind, in their usual place “Mary's Girls” came a very creditable last and collected all the chocolates! Between us the Village Hall and the Eaton Bray Tennis Club shared over £1,100. Once again we must all thank Keith Blackburn for being,without doubt, the best Quiz Master in the Village. So thank you to all that came and we look forward to seeing you all again on the 23rd October. N.B. I have already sold the first 5 tables so please book early.
For some year now we have been running the Village hall 200 Club which started with 200 members and paid out £200 a month in 5 prizes. Over the years the membership has dropped slightly so we are taking away one £25 prize. The odds are still the same and value of prizes is still 50% of the total income so nothing is really changing that much. Thank you all for your support over the years we have between us put in over £10,000 in to helping the renovation of the hall.
For any further information on any of the above, please ring me, Ross, on 221411
Source: Focus, June 2010
Quiz, Eaton Bray Village Hall, 24 April 2010
Eaton Bray Village Hall
Saturday 24th April 2010
This fabulous quiz with quizmaster Keith Blackburn will still include
a Free supper with the questions
Bring you own glasses and drink
7.30pm for 8pm
Just £8 per person
Teams of up to 8 people
Fabulous prizes!
This event is organised jointly by Eaton Bray Village Hall
Fundraising Committee and Eaton Bray Tennis Club
For bookings contact Ross 221411
Source: Focus, April 2010
Sold out 4 weeks in Advance
I know our twice yearly quiz (held jointly with the Eaton Bray Tennis Club) is popular, but can you believe it as I write this, on September 8th, we are already sold out for the Quiz on October 10th! What can we say, but thank you to all our fabulous supporters who have rallied round and done the business. And a really big SORRY to those of you who had wanted to come, but, we are unable to fit in.
See you there, don't forget 7.30 for 8.00pm.
On a very sad note I am sure many of you know of the passing of Mary French. She had been a keen supporter of the hall since its building and was, until only very recently, a trustee. She taught me a lot when I joined the trustees, as she was a “doer” not a talker and did many things to support us.
Recently she gathered many members to the 200 Club and collected their monies on a regular basis and I hope that they will continue with their support for the “Club”. She always organised a team for the quiz which, always managed to come last! We are sure they only did this to collect the special booby prize, which is usually some nice confectionery! We are delighted that Mary's ladies are coming to the quiz and we wish them the best of luck in trying to maintain their record!
You may have noticed that the inside of the hall has been repainted and that we have a new sign over the front door. We are really trying to make sure that the hall is kept in excellent condition. We will hopefully start work on redoing the paving at the front, so the entrance is user friendly and a lot smarter than at present.
We know that the car park needs a lot of attention, but that will be very costly so we need to keep fundraising. We will be announcing further fund raising events next month, do keep a look out for more information. If you have any queries or just want a chat about the hall, contact me, Ross.
Source: Focus, October 2009
Eaton Bray Village Hall Report
Firstly as we are getting into the summer holidays and this is the last Focus until October I think I had better mention the Quiz.
This is being held in the Hall with the Tennis Club and tickets will again be just £8.
The date: Saturday October 10th
So please book early to avoid disappointment. We have already sold 4 tables after I was accosted at the Beer Festival by one of our regulars who booked 3 tables on the spot. Thank you John! See, not only are the folk of this village intelligent but they enjoy a good drink now and then.
I am, as usual, asking the editor to put an advert re the Quiz and the first person to ring me with the correct page number will be eligible for two free tickets. So go on and give me a ring, you will only need another 6 to make up a team! Remember if you cannot get up to 8 don't worry as we will make up teams and you get to make some new friends as well.
The hall is getting along fine with only Monday evenings free (most weeks) at the moment, so if you need a meeting place on Mondays then just give Norman Lee a ring, to see if he can help you - 222831. Obviously there are also plenty of various times available for all those special parties and celebrations.
The final figure from the beer festival was nearer to £3,600 so almost a record and it would have been if we had had a few more beers and the weather had been kinder.
Thanks you all for your continued support.
For any further information please ring Ross Bagni 221411.
Source: Focus, August/September 2009
Funds go into Orbit as quiz has all answers
More than £800 was raised for Macmillan Cancer Support at an annual quiz night in Eaton Bray. Sixteen teams took part in the Dunstable and District Orbit Club event at Eaton Bray Village Hall.
In January, members held an open evening and back in December they helped Dunstable Round Table with its Christmas Float.
Orbit club members are friendly people who enjoy raising cash for charity, socialising and having fun. They meet every first and third Tuesday of the month at 8pm at the Dunstablians Rugby Union Football Club in Houghton Regis.
To find out more about the club, call 01525 222441.
For the latest news from Eaton Bray and beyond, get the Dunstable Gazette every Wednesday and make a daily date with Dunstable Today.
Source: Dunstable Gazette, 15 April 2009
Been & Gone
On February 23rd we held the official opening of the hall, I hope some of you came along, it was a great do (bearing in mind it takes place 13 days after I wrote this article!).
We have also had our Food, Humour & Dance, another great do held in the future (Doctor Who, eat your heart out). Our offer of a discount worked well as we sold 90 tickets before the end of January and we hope it was a sell out by the 28th February.
Seriously, it is good to see the Hall being put to good use and lots of villagers enjoying themselves. Apart from these social/fund raising events, the hall is used regularly by many groups and associations throughout the week.
Obviously the old GI s enjoy the work involved in ensuring that we continue to enhance the hall and we work closely with the Trustees, very closely, as they are mostly trustees themselves, to see what needs doing next. We each have ideas as to what would improve the hall for the best and soon we will get a list so we can plan for the next few years!
Just to keep the momentum going, we are holding a Quiz on April 18th, you know the format, just £8 same price for the last 3 years, fabulous food, incredibly easy questions (providing you know the answers) and a great time to be had by all. I have just taken the first booking, do let me know how many tickets you want so that I can get you booked in - Tel 221411 or email Ross.
That's all from me except to say congratulations to Kathryn Coad, who rang me with the correct page number of the advert in the February Focus. She won two tickets to the dance on 28th. However, I did persuade her to buy another couple at full price!
Thanks for your continued support.
Ross
Source: Focus, March 2009
Quiz - Village Hall - 11 October 2008
Quiz Village Hall Saturday 11th Oct 2008
This fabulous quiz with quizmaster Keith Blackburn
Will still include
a Free supper with the questions.
Bring you own glasses and drink.
7.30pm for 8pm
Just £8 per person.
Teams of up to 8 people
Fabulous prizes!
This event is organised jointly by
Eaton Bray Village Hall Fundraising Committee
and
Eaton Bray Tennis Club
For bookings contact Ross on (01525) 221411.
Quiz Sold Out Again!
The latest quiz held jointly by the Village Hall fund raisers and the Tennis Club was sold out 3 weeks before the event and I was sitting on a waiting list of 10 good and honest people. Well maybe I should have sold them the tickets and not the team that won! They might not have been as good as them. The net result would have meant that our team came 11th instead of 12th. Well one must think up ways of getting better mustn't one.
It was a great night and our thanks must go to Keith Blackburn who generously gives his time to creating and presenting these quizzes. For all his efforts and our feeble ones in trying to answer the questions over £1,300 was raised on the night. Thanks to all of you who came.
Just a reminder; The next quiz is on Saturday 11th October in the Village Hall and the booking office is now open so don't be disappointed, ring Ross on 221411 to book your places!Source: Focus, June 2008
Quiz - Village Hall - 26 April 2008
Saturday 26th April 2008 (N.B. Saturday!!)
This fabulous quiz with quizmaster Keith Blackburn will still include a free supper with the questions. Bring you own glasses and drink.
7.30pm for 8pm. Just £8 per person. Teams of up to 8 people. Fabulous prizes!
This event is organised jointly byEaton Bray Village Hall Fundraising Committee and Eaton Bray Tennis Club. For bookings contact Ross on 221411.
Source: Focus, April 2008
Quiz Question - What Animal Lives in a Holt?
Yes, on Friday 5th October, 171 people sat comfortably in Eaton Bray Village Hall to hear the Super Quizmaster, Keith Blackburn, ask that very question. We all sat and thought! Was it a beaver, was it a badger - no it's an otter!
At this event, the fourth joint effort organised by Eaton Bray Tennis Club and the Village Hall Fund Raising Committee, we raised a staggering £1,400.00, which was split equally between the two groups.
The Tennis Club have three newly re-surfaced courts and the Village Hall nice new toilets! Well, from Monday 8th October they did. Unfortunately, despite everyone's best efforts they were not completed until 48 hours after the quiz. However, they are really nice, so do go and try them out next time you are in the Hall!
The Village Hall has also benefited from two Grants. The 1st was £5000 from South Beds Village Hall Grant Scheme and this has gone towards the toilets. The 2nd Grant of £37,000 from WREN has been promised towards our next project. This will be the re-furbishing of the kitchen, meeting room and the creation of a new disabled toilet, along with replacing the roofing above these areas. This will cost approximately £50,000, so you can see that we still need to raise more than £12,000 by next June.
This project will complete the essential refurbishments to bring our Hall into the 21st Century.
So please keep supporting us. The next event is being run by the Villagers and is a Race Night on Friday 16th November 2007. Tickets are £7.50, please contact Graham Chappell for tickets and more details.
In December the GI's will be helping Dunstable Round Table with their Christmas Float. Some of the proceeds will come back to the Village Hall. It's really great fun going round with Santa and seeing the children's eyes light up. Any extra volunteers will be very welcome. Those of you who are interested, please contact me (Ross Bagni) on 01525 221411.
Lastly, by popular demand, we are holding another Joint Quiz with the Tennis Club on 26th April 2008. So, as we sold out again in October, please book your place early.
Thanks for all your support. Ross Bagni
Source: Focus, November 2007
Old & Young GIs Unite to Take First Prize at Largest Ever Quiz!
On Friday 29th April the Village hall was throbbing, with 173 eager minds just waiting for the off. Keith Blackburn (the greatest living quiz master in Eaton Bray) took the microphone and we were away. What a night, with difficult questions great banter, as exceptionally talented teams fought it out to become the champions.
In the middle of all this we had a lovely supper and I didn't win one of the fabulous prizes in the raffle. Still you can't have everything, can you?
Into the final round and 5 teams at the top could all win the title. "Art's Cool" led "The Team with No Name" by just half a point. After the last round with all the contestants waiting with baited breath while Keith in classic style announced the results in reverse order.......at last the final result: The Team with No Name were winners by half a point!
Well would you believe who was in the winning team? Yes the old and young GI's united in their brilliance (well actually it was two of our guests who answered 90% of the questions) but we will happily take the glory. Perhaps even happier was the Mary French team who had a great evening and went away with a large carton of Celebration for being the best non winners. Congratulations ladies.
The real winners, The Village Hall and the Tennis club, who will split the £1,483 profit between them. Our thanks go out to all the villagers and guests who come along and make the organisers life so easy.
A special thanks to Keith who gives up a lot of time to make these quizzes so special.
And so onwards, towards our 4th Annual Beer Festival on Friday evening 1st June and all day Saturday 2nd June, with the beers chosen and served by volunteers from CAMRA. We will be having 14 beers, 2 ciders and a Perry, not to mention lager, wine and soft drinks for non real-ale types. We will also have entertainment on both evenings plus a magician for the whole family on Saturday afternoon. Hope to see you all there.
Again thank you all for your support for the quiz and as I had to turn 3 people away on the morning of the quiz book early for our next one, Friday 5th October Eaton Bray Village Hall.
Source: Focus, June 2007
Dunstable & District Orbit Club
Dunstable & District Orbit Club held their Annual quiz night recently at Eaton Bray Village Hall. 18 teams entered and we raised just over £1,200 for the Paul Strickland Scanner appeal for Mount Vernon Hospital. The quiz was in memory of a very dear friend and member of Orbit who left us recently.
A few weeks ago the girls of Orbit arranged a "Boy's Night" for the boys. The boys came as scouts and the girls as guides. to celebrate 100 years of scouting We had games, worked for badges, sang round the campfire and had great fun.
Orbit meet in the centre of Dunstable every 1st & 3rd Tuesday at 8pm. For more information please contact 01582 755147 or 01525 222441.
Source: Focus, May 2007
What is the Answer?
That was the question on everybody's lips at the Largest Quiz ever held in the Village Hall on October 6th!
YES. When the old GI's (Village Hall Fundraising Committee) got together with Eaton Bray Tennis Club to organise this great Quiz Night, none of us realised that it would be a sell out and that we are now about to be entered into The Guinness Book of Records, as the Largest quiz ever held in Eaton Bray. We expect ratification within the next few weeks!
The benefit of these numbers was a massive £1,300 to be shared equally between the toilets in the Village Hall and a load of tarmac at the Tennis Courts. Thanks to all of you who came and helped it to be such a success.
A special thank you to our quizmaster Keith Blackburn who volunteered his services to set totally impossible questions (well for some us anyway).
The saddest part? Well, as a member of the winning team last time, it was being beaten by the 2 youngest GI's (no names to protect the innocent) Katrina & Paul Hurley led a team to first place. I suppose congratulations are in order to them and their obviously very intelligent friends. Honestly no hard feelings on my part.
We hope you all enjoyed yourselves AND if you did, we are all doing it again next year, on Friday 20th April. Same venue, same quiz master, BUT unfortunately different questions!
Tickets available from Katrina or me (Ross). OR is that a bit too early? Answers on postcard please, to .........
Source: Focus, November 2006