Quiz pros question

thecannonball89 · Post by **thecannonball89** » Sat Nov 17, 2012 3:26 pm

Do the quiz pros get fire in pubs? I know as fruit machine players/pros we get on top in pubs then a few visits later barred.

Any quiz pros been barred?

Topical2009 · Post by **Topical2009** » Sat Nov 17, 2012 4:53 pm

I've played in thousands of pubs across the country over a period of 25+ years, and been barred from precisely 1*, which means that I've either been very lucky, or have just learned how not to be noticed. (That said, there's been the odd time where I've given some Royston Vasey type pubs a complete swerve in the first place, rather than find out exactly what happens when a stranger wanders in and becomes the first person in living memory to take money out of the Local Machine for Local People). I guess part of it is that you can win / collect quiz winnings in much smaller amounts than the fruit machines, so people don't notice or care quite so much.

*The venue was the Duke of Cornwall in Hammersmith, in February 1989, and to be fair, I only have myself to blame for taking the piss: after emptying their Barquest on the Tuesday, I was back in the area on the Saturday to see some friends, so I thought I'd have a quick pint in the DoC, watch Final Score, and take out enough money to buy a bottle of wine on my way to dinner. I think I'd already been clocked by the landlord when I came in, which meant he was watching when I pressed Collect, and the money started coming out in 10p pieces, making the unmissable Barquest payout noise CHUNKA CHUNKA CHUNKA CHUNKA etc. etc.

I say I was barred, though it wasn't as official as that: in fact, once the noise began, the landlord, who looked a bit handy, started coming towards me at some speed with something which may have been a baseball bat in his hand, and it was pretty obvious he didn't intend to slap me on the back and congratulate me on my achievement in cracking that question set. I weighed up my options and decided the best one was a) have it away on my toes, sharpish. After a little jog down Fulham Palace Road, I decided I might not go back that way for a bit, and in fact left it till 2009...20 years on, nobody seemed to recognise me, but they no longer had a quiz machine anyway.

cp999 · Post by **cp999** » Sat Nov 17, 2012 11:45 pm

Quite a lot of bans, but most of them are a while ago. Seems harder to get banned now, probably because there's more chain pubs; small locals only type pubs are the worst. Was playing several of them the day after those newspaper articles, felt very self-conscious but seemed to get away with it!

tonkarentino · Post by **tonkarentino** » Wed Nov 21, 2012 7:53 pm

cp999 wrote:Quite a lot of bans, but most of them are a while ago. Seems harder to get banned now, probably because there's more chain pubs; small locals only type pubs are the worst. Was playing several of them the day after those newspaper articles, felt very self-conscious but seemed to get away with it!

In days of yore pubs in out of the way villages often had signs saying a variation on "This machine is for regulars only". I remember getting involved in the semantics of what constituted a regular as we frequented the pub regularly once every three weeks.
Does being chased out of a Midlands Chinese takeaway by a cleaver wielding owner constitute a banning?
I guess these days the difficulties in getting large sums of money out of individual units means that players rarely get noticed never mind respectfully asked not to bother coming back!

QuizMaster · Post by **QuizMaster** » Wed Nov 21, 2012 10:29 pm

Rising Sun Brownhills. Man that landlord was a nasty piece of work. Pub closed now.

harry2 · Post by **harry2** » Wed Nov 21, 2012 11:45 pm

Remember when GUAB was first out. There were four pubs in Reading with units in. Myself and another guy were the only people doing them. Was barred from all four within weeks. never had the dedication to keep going. Best of luck to those that have made money for a decent amount of years.

grecian · Post by **grecian** » Thu Nov 22, 2012 3:11 pm

I'm not a pro, but over 15 or so years of play, which have included times when I have made some reasonable sums from SWPs, I've only been banned once. Even that wasn't expressed as a ban - I was playing a pub on a central London council estate when I realised that the landlady and two meatheads were stood behind me watching me. She then said "I think you've played that enough, haven't you", I finished my game of 'X Factor', collected my thirty quid or so winnings and was on my way, watched by the trio as I walked off down the road. Only genuinely unpleasant SWP experience I've had, and I've historically not been choosy about the sorts of venues I'll play in (i.e. I'll go in any kind of pub no matter how rough or out-of-the-way).

I basically think that if you avoid acting like a total dick, the chances of being banned even for winning significant amounts are low. I recall that Mr Brewis got banned from only one pub during his 'Big Match' playing, and he was habitually visiting pubs on a regular basis and emptying or nearly-emptying their cabinets.

I was once asked not to return to a pub quiz after winning two £500 "snowball" jackpots within about a month, but that's another story.

grecian · Post by **grecian** » Thu Nov 22, 2012 3:14 pm

Ah, fuck it - this was the pub - http://www.flickr.com/photos/55935853@N00/2883667126/. Disgusting shithole, or was then.

tonkarentino · Post by **tonkarentino** » Thu Nov 22, 2012 4:28 pm

grecian wrote:I'm not a pro, but over 15 or so years of play, which have included times when I have made some reasonable sums from SWPs, I've only been banned once. Even that wasn't expressed as a ban - I was playing a pub on a central London council estate when I realised that the landlady and two meatheads were stood behind me watching me. She then said "I think you've played that enough, haven't you", I finished my game of 'X Factor', collected my thirty quid or so winnings and was on my way, watched by the trio as I walked off down the road. Only genuinely unpleasant SWP experience I've had, and I've historically not been choosy about the sorts of venues I'll play in (i.e. I'll go in any kind of pub no matter how rough or out-of-the-way).

I basically think that if you avoid acting like a total dick, the chances of being banned even for winning significant amounts are low. I recall that Mr Brewis got banned from only one pub during his 'Big Match' playing, and he was habitually visiting pubs on a regular basis and emptying or nearly-emptying their cabinets.

I was once asked not to return to a pub quiz after winning two £500 "snowball" jackpots within about a month, but that's another story.

For me "bannings" dropped off once "stand alone" single game units started to die out.

blackmogu · Post by **blackmogu** » Thu Nov 22, 2012 4:29 pm

Speaking of shitholes, I came across this collection on flickr - the Dead Pubs Society.

http://www.flickr.com/groups/deadpubsso ... 6816408675

Some rough dives in there !

Nixxy · Post by **Nixxy** » Tue Dec 11, 2012 11:19 pm

I used to be a contributor to the blog known as 'Dodgy Boozers' - which threatened to become almost encyclopaedic - and was hugely entertaining to update when it meant entering some of London's most feared establishments. Sadly the site doesn't seem to have been updated for a few years and most of the pubs listed on it have been levelled.

http://dodgyboozers.blogspot.com

Oscar · Post by **Oscar** » Wed Dec 12, 2012 12:55 pm

blackmogu wrote:Speaking of shitholes, I came across this collection on flickr - the Dead Pubs Society.

http://www.flickr.com/groups/deadpubsso ... 6816408675

Some rough dives in there !

Some real gems on that site.

messiah · Post by **messiah** » Sat Dec 15, 2012 12:48 pm

Nixxy wrote:I used to be a contributor to the blog known as 'Dodgy Boozers' - which threatened to become almost encyclopaedic - and was hugely entertaining to update when it meant entering some of London's most feared establishments. Sadly the site doesn't seem to have been updated for a few years and most of the pubs listed on it have been levelled.

http://dodgyboozers.blogspot.com

I can only see 12 pubs on that site?