Just three days after our last outing, we’re back at the Prince of Wales for a one-off charity quiz. It’s strange being in the PoW on something other than a Tuesday night, and the quiz is also a little bit different to the strictly-followed PoW format of two rounds, then a beer round, then two more rounds and then the snowball. We have eight rounds this evening, and we also have a joker which we can play to double our score on any round if we feel really confident.

The first round sees dissent breaking out. A question about the author of The Log from the Sea of Cortez splits me and Stu, with me being as sure that it’s Hemingway as Stu is that it’s Steinbeck. I am holding the pen so I write down Hemingway. Then, just as we’re about to hand in the paper, I have a crisis of confidence and tell Stu he can change it if he wants. He declines the opportunity. The answer is Steinbeck. I blame Stu for not changing the answer.

The second round is science and technology. I’m an astronomer and Oli has a degree in science studies (which is of course about as useful to scientists as ornithology is to birds) and so we play the wildcard. As question one is read out, the quizmaster says “Oh, and by the way, when we said science and technology, we meant science and nature”. Most of the questions are about animals, and we feel deeply aggrieved that we played our wildcard.

But we still manage a decent score, and find ourselves in the lead at this point. Unfortunately I have to leave before the end of the quiz, missing the geography round on which I’d surely have excelled, and surely because of that we finish the evening (so I’m told later) in second place. I also miss the snowball, which normally involves a single ticket drawn for terrifyingly high stakes, but in this charity quiz involves multiple draws for more modest prizes. I am hugely disappointed to learn that Oli’s number was drawn, and his question was about the subject he is least equipped to face a question on: football. How I wish I’d seen his face when he heard it.