"Does anybody know where I can get information about the British college bowl circuit or anything like it? I'm going to be in London this fall, and would like to participate while I'm over there, but haven't been able to find anything. Either post here or e-mail me at philpy_at_...." I'll send a much more detailed reply by e-mail to you on this, but I'd just like to follow up what Patty had to say on the subject. First, I'm rather flattered that I'm thought to be any source of reliable information, but I seem to have developed into a sort of strange liason role that I'm certainly not complaining about ;-). Anyone else wanting info, I'm more than happy to help (rjl_at_... will find me wherever I am). Patty's right in that quizzing is rather patchy in this part of the world still. The idea of any play outside University Challenge (which isn't quite as bad as Patty makes out, but then I'm biased as I'm on the next series - it's a CBI game on TV, with all the authentic CBI features: dodgy questions, dodgy moderating...) is still relatively new over here but developing apace. The reason the more "prestigious" universities are the ones who play most comes down to the game's image as something very show-off-ish, which is sneered at in a lot of places. We're slowly getting over this, but it's tough when the game originates from the likes of Oxford in England to take it to other universities and persuade them that top university does not equal top quiz university. Getting teams together: more places now have regular teams, and the quiz "fold" is always happy to welcome new ones. There's a tournament this November at Oxford for new teams (and new players from old teams) which is intended to be a less-threatening entry to the game for new sides. If your place doesn't have a team, get one and enter. Anyone is welcome! The reason that so many universities are without teams is funding. Buzzers cost. Road trips (or more often rail trips, given how bad the roads are here) cost. Universities don't fund their teams - at all. We have to pay for everything ourselves (including our trips to NAQT ICT, which is *bad* for us). Oxford are trying to break this problem, and next year should be really different. We'll be changing to the once-a-week US practice model, and watching to see if other top teams follow suit. Patty, you're more than welcome to join us as I'm sure you're more than up to the standard. E-mail me if you are interested and I'll let you know the details when I know. Plus, we'll be playing many more matches, and trying to get other places organising tournaments. It's a struggle at the moment, but it's not as bleak as Patty reckons. I've probably moaned on too long, but let's just say we do play a fair bit (but it is patchy), and we quite happily admit that we aren't as hardcore as you lot. But then, that's English reserve for you ;-> Rob not actually in Oxford at the moment PS I should also add that our different term structures makes putting in tournaments really tough, so you might have less time to play yourself.
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