A pub quizmaster who had “never been more nervous in his life” when he read out questions for the first time has just celebrated his 1,000th test of knowledge.
Every table was taken at the Roaring Meg in Biddulph for Chris Exon’s milestone occasion.
“Ecke” as he has become known by the pub’s quiz regulars, has been asking the questions at the popular watering hole each week for 25 years.
Even when the Roaring Meg was closed during the lockdown, his quizzes continued online and, as the “Chronicle” reported in 2020, more than 200 teams across the world took part in his virtual version each week.
There was party atmosphere for his 1,000th quiz, which to mark the occasion included an “I’m A Celebrity” round when locusts and mealworms were consumed, just as in the television show.
The season quizmaster said he had started to use AI for some of the rounds and that it was a far cry from when he first took on the role at the Roaring Meg a quarter of a century ago.
Mr Exon, (46), of Biddulph, said: “There was always a quiz at the pub, which I attended as a regular. Then a new landlady took over and she was not comfortable at all with hosting the quiz.
“She asked me at the bar one night if I would do it for one week – and I said, ‘just for the one week’.”
Mr Exon recalled: “When I sat down to do the first one, I’d never been more nervous in my life!
“But it went very well and she asked me to do it for another week, but then she moved on.”
Another landlord arrived straight away and, because Mr Exon had fronted the quiz for a couple of weeks, he carried on.
He said: “I’ve always enjoyed doing it and I like the people that go in to the pub, that’s the biggest thing.”
He said that quiz night could be “quite seasonal” and that certain times of the year were busier than others. He said there could be anywhere between eight and 20 teams competing.
Said Mr Exon: “There have been times in the last few years where you literally have to book a table or you weren’t getting in the pub.”
Pen and paper
It is still a pen and paper-based quiz.
“When I started, it was just me reading out the questions,” he added.
Being a web developer helped Mr Exon take his quizzes up a notch.
He explained: “During lockdown, we moved the quizzes online and I got quite a big following. I was already writing software so people could answer questions on their phone.
I just quickly carried on developing that software so we could continue doing the quizzes online.
“People could answer the questions in real time on their phones as I was streaming the quiz.”
Now, he said he read out the questions from his laptop at the bar, which was wired into the pub’s television screens so teams could read the questions there as well.
Said Mr Exon: “After doing the quiz on the phone during lockdown, everyone said when they came back into the pub that they missed using a pen and paper.
“When you answer on your phone you have 20 seconds to answer a question but that is too stressful. They want to discuss the question with their teammates.
“But it’s completely changed over the years as I can do stuff on screen with music now.”
And he is using the very latest technology to adapt his quiz questions.
“I’ll do rounds for which I’ve generated AI pictures. For the 1,000th quiz I generated pictures of what Disney characters would look like if they were transformed into cars. Or I’ll do rounds where I use an AI music generator for original song lyrics, but generate a new song in a different style based on those lyrics.”
Where once an encyclopaedia would have been consulted to research quiz questions, Mr Exon now uses Google.
“I don’t really copy all the other quizzes out there but I’m always looking for inspiration and people in the pub will give me ideas of rounds to do.”
He has kept every quiz he has ever compiled. “The people change all the time so I’ve got an archive of questions I can re-use,” he said.
Mr Exon said he always compiled seven rounds of five questions on a different theme.
“I give out a picture round at the start and there’s a music round. The most popular one that I’ve always done is a hand-out sheet at the start of the night that has cryptic clues or is picture based. People absolutely love the cryptic round. It drives them mad but they love it!”
The quiz is usually on a Thursday but the latest one was moved to last Saturday “so everyone could have a good time and didn’t have to worry about getting up for work”.
“I expected it to be busy but I didn’t expect it to be as packed as it was. It was hard work!” laughed Mr Exon.
And to mark the occasion, commemorative T-shirts had been printed and were worn by Mr Exon and his followers. They were emblazoned with the words “Ecke’s Roaring Meg pub quiz 25 years and 1,000 quizzes”.
He said: “I think we had between 25 and 30 teams. We were getting people booking for a table for four and then 10 people would turn up!
“It was brilliant and we did some good stuff. I did an ‘I’m a Celebrity’ round for which I’d ordered some insects, like locusts and mealworms, and for a point someone from the teams came up to eat one of them.”
Mr Exon said he didn’t have a favourite television quiz show of his own. “You’d think I would but I’m all quizzed out by the time I’ve done this one!” he chuckled.
When he marked his 20th anniversary milestone in 2020, Mr Exon decided to raise funds for the Peter Pan Centre for Children in Staffordshire.
The centre supports children with special needs aged from birth to five years old from across the county as well as Stoke-on-Trent and Cheshire.
He had hoped to raise £200 but ended up with donations of more than £2,200, which he said at the time was “beyond my wildest dreams.”
