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Sunderland Echo Quiz League.
York Challenge.
History:-
The Inter-city challenge match between the York CIU Quiz
League and the Sunderland Echo Quiz League originated with a conversation
between Ken Needham, the organiser of the York League, and journalist
Chris Brewis from the Sunderland League.
In 1996 Chris, a sub-editor on the CIU magazine Club Journal, interviewed
Ken about the 50th anniversary of the York League which is recognised by
the Guinness Book of Records as the world's oldest league. For the
anniversary the league staged a match using the original questions from
1946 with among those playing, Gordon Falconer, who played in the first
match and the Lord Mayor, Coun. John Boardman a league regular.
Ken also mentioned that the League played a couple of regular challenge
matches, against the professors of York University, the Radio Rascals, a
regular team on Radio Hull and the Goole League, and had never been
beaten. The gauntlet had been thrown down...
At the next meeting of the Sunderland League ideas were being canvassed to
stop the rot in Sunderland, where the league was down to seven teams.
Chris suggested that as York had around 40 teams, there must be something
that could be learned from playing them. The idea was enthusiastically
taken up by League Secretary Dave Taylor and by the late Gowan Scott, then
Mayor of Sunderland,
The first match was played at Promenade WMC, York and ended in a narrow
victory for York.
The format adopted was the one York used in their matches against Goole.
Four teams of four from each league are chosen and drawn against each
other at random. The highest scoring York team then plays the highest
scoring Sunderland team in the final. In later years an extra piece of
theatre has been created with the members of the four teams being picked
out at random using Ken Needham's bag of beads. This has had an extra
benefit from a social point of view with players teaming up with those
they would not normally meet.
As Education Secretary, now Branch President, Ken has set all the questions in the league for many years and he sets the questions for York's home matches, which have also been played at Tang Hall WMC, Huntington WMC and Holgate WMC. Sunderland's questions have been set by Tony Gold and their home matches have been played at Penshaw Catholic Club, Newbottle WMC and Ashbrooke Cricket Club.
York have been helped with sponsorship by brewers
Carlsberg-Tetley, John Smith's and Coor's, while Sunderland have received
support from the Sunderland Echo, Federation Brewery and FreeClaim IDC,
who also sponsor the CIU National Quiz.
After some early successes for York, Sunderland seemed to be gaining the
upper hand but the last three matches have all ended in York's favour, leaving
the overall score level after 14 matches, at 7 apiece, and the series
remains seriously competitive.
The series so far:-
|
Year |
Venue |
Winner |
Series score (Sunderland first) |
|
1998 |
Promenade Club, York |
York |
0-1 |
|
1998 |
Penshaw Catholic Club, Sunderland |
York |
0-2 |
|
1999 |
Penshaw Catholic Club, Sunderland |
Sunderland |
1-2 |
|
1999 |
Tang Hall WMC, York |
York |
1-3 |
|
2000 |
Penshaw Catholic Club, Sunderland |
Sunderland |
2-3 |
|
2001 |
Tang Hall WMC, York |
Sunderland |
3-3 |
|
2002 |
Penshaw Catholic Club, Sunderland |
York |
3-4 |
|
2003 |
Tang Hall WMC, York |
Sunderland |
4-4 |
|
2004 |
Penshaw Catholic Club, Sunderland |
Sunderland |
5-4 |
|
2005 |
Huntington WMC, York |
Sunderland |
6-4 |
|
2006 |
Newbottle WMC,Sunderland |
Sunderland |
7-4 |
|
2007 |
Huntington WMC, York |
York |
7-5 |
|
2008 |
Ashbrooke Sports Club, Sunderland |
York |
7-6 |
|
2009 |
Holgate WMC, York |
York |
7-7 |
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2010 |
Sunderland - Date & Venue TBC |
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29 December 2009
© 2007 Eff-Tee-Emm Enterprises. All rights reserved.
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