The Egg Cups quiz team, from Kerikeri's Rock Salt Bar, who came fifth out of 81 teams in last week's Believe It or Not National Quiz competition are (from left) Max Hittle, Sara Epley, Corinne Wils, Paul Barker, Dion Prime, Carol Barker, Brett Choat and Louise Huett.
The Egg Cups quiz team, from Kerikeri's Rock Salt Bar, who came fifth out of 81 teams in last week's Believe It or Not National Quiz competition are (from left) Max Hittle, Sara Epley, Corinne Wils, Paul Barker, Dion Prime, Carol Barker, Brett Choat and Louise Huett.
There are some smart cookies in Northland, and few would be sharper than Kerikeri’s Egg Cups quiz team, which has come fifth in a national final of a major quizzing competition.
The Egg Cups team – Max Hittle, Sara Epley, Corinne Wils, Paul Barker, Dion Prime, Carol Barker, Brett Choatand Louise Huett from Kerikeri’s Rock Salt Bar – faced off against some of the country’s top quizzers in the Long Room at Auckland’s Eden Park last week.
And the competition included a top British quizzer, The Chase’s Shaun Wallace, AKA the Dark Destroyer.
Another team from Northland, The Submarine Cats, from Waipapa’s Pioneer Pub, made their first appearance in the national final, placing a creditable 64th in their debut appearance at the Believe It or Not National Quiz final.
Egg Cups team captain Paul Barker said the fifth placing came after the same team came fourth in last year’s national finals.
“It was good to prove that last year’s placing wasn’t just a fluke. It was a beautiful venue for the finals and great to be having a competition in our national sports stadium,” Barker said.
He reckoned there’s a fairly simple explanation for the Egg Cups’ success – they are Northland’s top pub quiz team, after all.
“For our team, it’s that we are a bunch of people who have been friends for a long time. We’ve got a broad range of interests and expertise, with one member from the US, one from England, we’re fairly well-travelled and complement each other’s knowledge well.
“I’m our only real sports person, but one of our ladies is very keen on Formula One, so that helps, my wife Carol is our literature and foodie [expert] – oh, and we’ve our very own amazing quizzer who knows just about everything, in Dion Prime. We’re so lucky to have him on our team."
Barker said the team members make sure they continue to increase their knowledge and skills and as regular quizzers, they know how to handle the extra pressure that a national final places on them.
And as part of this year’s finals, people could pay to be on the same team as Wallace, so seven people paid money – with the proceeds going to charity – to be on Wallace’s team.
International quiz master Shaun Wallace AKA the Dark Destroyer of UK TV show The Chase was no match for Kerikeri's Egg Cups quiz team at last week's Believe It or Not National Quiz final. Photo / NZME
“I reckon Dion is our Shaun Wallace, he’s just that good. And we beat Shaun’s team in the final, which came seventh, so we destroyed the Destroyer.”
Barker said the team were already looking forward to next year’s competition and honing their skills to make sure they don’t make any mistakes.
“Last week, as in all quizzes, there are those questions that are a 50/50 chance. For those, we have a team discussion and pick one. There were a couple that if we’d gone the other way, we’d probably have been on the podium and got a medal. That’s our aim next year, we want to get a podium medal.”
He said The Submarine Cats did incredibly well to finish as high as they did last week too.
“A national final is a totally different beast to your local pub quiz, and far more pressure. They have security guards looking down from above to make sure nobody’s cheating and the whole pace is so much faster and that can take a bit of getting used to. So, your first time is a bit harder, but they did well and will come back stronger for next year. I think in our first year we came 38th or something like that, so it shows how much of a step up it is.”
