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About the QLL
The Quiz League of London is an independent, self-administered quiz league.
Our purpose is to promote and oversee quiz competitions on behalf of our member teams.
You can read the Constitution of the QLL here and find details of our Committee here.
Our main competition is a League Championship played on Tuesday nights from late September to February or March.
There are currently 3 divisions, and each team plays the other teams in its division on a home and away basis.
We also have cup, individual and other league competitions, all of which are listed here.
Although quiz league matches normally take place in a pub, and many quiz league participants also take part in pub quizzes, the pub quiz and the quiz league quiz are quite different.
QLL matches are between two teams of four players take part in a 64 question quiz.
Each player is asked a question in turn over eight rounds. When answering, a player can answer his/her own question for two points or pass to his/her team for one point.
An incorrect answer results in the question being offered to the opposing team for one point.
The full rules can be found here.
Spectators are welcome at our matches, and newcomers may be offered the chance to take part in a friendly after the main match.
We run a number of other events each year, including a Charity Quiz night, the National Team Quizzing Festival and a Summer Social Quizfest.
Attending either of the latter two will enable you to try your hand at playing quizzes in the QLL format.
New players and teams for the league are always welcome.
We think you'll find Quiz League of London matches to be one of the most exciting forms of quiz available, meet new and interesting people and learn a lot.
A little bit of history
The QLL was founded in 1990 as the South London Quiz League.
Our founding father, and still our Honory Life President, was Donald Yule.
He was a stalwart of the Warrington Quiz League who had, in his words "arrived with a box full of trophies from the 'The Oldest & Largest Independent Quiz Leagues in The World' in the Mersey Basin."
Frustrated at the pub quizzing which was then "the only game in town", Donald jumped at the chance to compete in a north versus south challenge, played under the "real rules" he knew and loved, at the Manor Arms, Clapham.
The London team "took a real hammering".
Something had to be done.
In August 1990, Donald, Brian Evans and Barry Scott held a formal meeting and founded a sporting association called the South London Quiz League.
They appointed themselves as its pro tem officers, opened a bank account and put an ad in the South London Press.
The result was an almost deafening silence but two small voices arose, one from a cricket club called Old Grammarians and a second from a bunch calling themselves the Jimmy Hill Club.
Now styled the Accies, the JHC remain in the QLL to this day.
By the autumn of 1990, by virtue of cobbling together a second side from the Manor Arms (the Manor Colts), the South London Quiz League was up and running with FOUR member teams.
By 1993-94, the League had expended to two divisions, with newcomers Allsorts becoming the first Division 2 Champions.
But it took another 17 seasons before the dream of a third division became a reality.
Donald concludes, "We started with the aim of emulating and perhaps overtaking my old adversaries in the north.
We have, I would submit, achieved that but there is still more we can do.
WE'VE STARTED BUT WE HAVEN'T FINISHED
"It is about knowledge and nerve, about memory and instant recall.
It is about the ability to retrieve information swiftly and surely from that marvellous computer we all carry in our heads.
It is about competitiveness and the capacity to rise to the occasion, to perform at one's best under pressure."
Thus wrote Magnus Magnusson in his foreword to Mary-Elizabeth Raw's little book about her winning Mastermind in 1989.
He was, of course, talking about a TV entertainment rather than our own Mind Sport but it is a pretty good description of the demands of our game.
What it misses, however, is the larger dimension that we have as a result of being an association.
Our League is more than just a half-hour contest once a week. We have a sense of community which has grown up with us, together with the sense of communal satisfaction which comes from having worked hard together to build something new and having succeeded.
My old brain can still fizz now and again, especially when we have a setter who is not in thrall to the proponents of popular culture.
So I will probably be still the kenspeckle figure in the Number Four seat for a game or two yet.
My thanks to Barry and Brian for the lift-off and my congratulation to all the movers and shakers over the years who have helped sustain our development.
Happy Quizzing!
Donald Yule"
Copyright © 2001-2012 The Quiz League of London (QLL) - www.quizleagueoflondon.co.uk
Founded in 1990, The Quiz League of London (QLL) is an independent,
non-profit-making association, owned and run by its member teams.
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