How determined are you to win your local’s quiz? And what lengths would you go to, to ensure your team takes home the £30 prize?
Well, one team has left punters furious after using clandestine methods to pull a pub quiz victory.
The cheaters were unmasked after the owners of the Barking Dog in Urmston, Greater Manchester, noticed that some regulars were drifting away from the watering hole – and were especially dodging the weekly free quiz night on Wednesday evenings.
And concerns were ramped up when a former customer rang the pub to explain why they and others were staying away.
That is, a dominant quiz team were suspected of cheating and getting around a ban on phones by speaking into the smartwatches on their wristsand receiving the answers that way.
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After uncovering the cheaters, the pub said in a post of Facebook: ‘We are disappointed to say that there has been a team cheating in our quiz.
‘There have been suspicions for a while but no concrete evidence. This unfortunately may have cost us some genuine custom.
‘Last night we caught the team red handed and they have been banned. We hope that any of our genuine quizzers we may have lost, come back.’
One user commented on the post: ‘How desperate do you have to be to cheat in a fun pub quiz?’
Another wrote: ‘It’s always the minority who spoil it for the rest.’
Rob Hardie, a co-director of the pub who confronted the cheating trio, told the Daily Mail: ‘We had noticed there was a side who tended to get if not most but actually questions correct, whereas you’d think it very unlikely to get every single one right.
‘A couple of customers had noticed and we took a phone call a couple of weeks ago from one saying they wouldn’t be returning to the quiz because of someone cheating.
‘We want this to be an evening that people enjoy so decided to monitor things and I realised it was quite blatant that this time were cheating, using their watches.
‘After the reports we’d had, I thought I’d assess things with my own eyes – and it was clear what was going on.
‘I let them continue for a while, to make sure it was correct – and then I approached them with the allegation.’
Mr Hardie said the team behaved ‘sheepishly’ when accused of cheating, said sorry, then left.
He added that it’s a ‘real shame that people should try to taint things like this. It’s a real kick in the teeth’.
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