A total of 27 teams, representing various member businesses and Community Groups assembled for the start of the second annual “Brains of the Community” Quiz Night, hosted by the Chamber, at Canada’s largest Hotel, the Delta Chelsea on Wednesday October 26th last.
 

Inaugural winners, Dublin Auto were the subject of the most activity in the betting ring, and their status as pre-tournament favourites was reflected in the upgrade of team name from last year’s “Leaky Gaskets” to this year’s moniker, “Finely Tuned Engines”.

President Ken Tracey called proceedings to order, welcomed everyone, and, to the backdrop of trumpets and fanfare, declared the Games of the Second Triviad to be formally open. Gold Member, Jay Jhingran of the Delta Chelsea helped contestants mentally limber up and dust cobwebs off gray-matter largely unused since the previous November with a question for the Delta spot prize, a weekend stay at the Hotel. David Crabb’s guesstimate was “closest to the pin” and ensured he wasn’t going home empty handed. 

With the warm up question out of the way, Quizmaster Michael “Magnusson” Monaghan moved on to the main event and launched into what would prove to be a difficult night of questions, one which would see the winning team finish on a score of 63 out of 90. 

A new feature this year was a round of music questions, during which contestants listened to 10 tunes and were asked to identify the artist, having been told that all were either Irish or Canadian. This round, in addition to providing a pleasant musical interlude, also delivered the highest average score on the night, and was also the only round during which any team got the perfect 10.  The Purolator “B” team, managed by Mark O’Brien and captained on the night by Charlie “Name that Tune” Doorley was the only team to accomplish this impressive feat. 

Other innovative features included a round in which teams were asked to the identify the Country, Province or Organisation behind 10 given flags. The inclusion of Singapore and the Ivory Coast, and indeed Connaught, ensured that there were no perfect 10’s in this round. Interestingly the Ivory Coast’s flag is exactly the same as the Irish one, with the colours reversed in sequence. Hence we can all take some consolation that the Green White and Gold will be flying at next year’s World Cup in Germany.

Halfway through the proceedings, it looked like we could have a new name on the Waterford Wedgwood Trophy, as Gold Member Doug Batson’s team headed the field, with a couple of points to spare. However the Clamato Dealers were unable to maintain their early pace, and were overhauled by the Finely Tuned Engines of Dublin Auto, who switched gears in the second half to win by 3 points from Raymond Kerr’s team, with Team Batson slipping back to Bronze.

In view of the dramatic nature of the late charge by Kerr’s team the tightly packed nature of the tables in their area, there were murmurings that perhaps, in keeping with the Beatles’ theme of some of the evening’s questions, they had “got by with a little help from their friends”..! Kerr referred all enquiries to his legal counsel, Aaron Atcheson of the “Legally Sane” Stikeman Elliot quartet who also declined to comment.

All told, another very successful evening for the Chamber, and one which certainly cements the Quiz Night as an important part of the Chamber’s and indeed the broader Toronto Irish community’s social calendar.

Notable questions and answers included the near unanimous answer of Bono as the one Irish person to be included in this year’s Time magazine list of the World’s most influential people, whereas in actual fact it was Mary Robinson. “Well traveled Irishmen Connolly, McAuley, and Monaghan” were guessed by most to be better known as the “Three Tenors” whereas the correct answer were Sinn Fein’s controversial envoys to South America, aka “the Columbia Three”.  Other lessons learned included the revelation that Canada’s Prime Minister 100 years ago was not in fact Jean Chretien, but Wilfred Laurier.

Click here to view the pictures from the night...