Pub Quiz road test: The Ravensbourne Arms, Lewisham reviewed

A warm, cosy pub is a lovely place to spend a Wednesday evening with friends and it’s made even better if there’s a good quiz.

The Ravensbourne Arms is just that place to celebrate passing the mid-point in the week. It serves good beer, like Gipsy Hill Brewery’s Beatnik and Weston’s Old Rosie cider, and a pretty good burger with cool young studenty types behind the bar.

There's even a cat (pictured).

As for the quiz, it is – as expected – a testing affair. The first question – complete the phrase ‘too many cooks spoil the...’ was deceptively easy as the pain soon mounted and Team Shopper was really stretched.

Questions ranged from low-brow (what is Jedward’s surname?) to latin (see the question below on uxoricide) and plenty in between.

• TEST YOURSELF (answers at the bottom):

​A little taster of what you’re in for at the Ravensbourne Arms...

1. The vowels have been removed, but what’s the Oscar-winning film: THTWRNGNFRN
2. Italy, Hungary, Austria and Croatia all border which country?
3. Post-Bellum is the period after what?

• WOULD YOU HAVE WON THE £160 BONUS POT?

You’d have to get all three correct to win, otherwise a tenner is added and the money is rolled over...

1. Which serial killer lived at 23 Cranley Gardens, Muswell Hill?
2. Who wrote the song Mad About The Boy?
3. If you had committed uxoricide, who would you have killed?

The forty regular-round questions contained plenty of pictures, in place of a more straight forward picture round chosen by lots of quizzes, and they include dingbats, decoding predictive text numbers, and recognising obscure pictures of celebs.

A personal low was wrongly identifying a child Keanu Reeves as James Corden. If you’re reading this Keanu (of course you are), sorry.

We faired better in the first half-ending music round – guessing the song title and the artist from intros across six decades.

Quizmaster Colin, hoody and bearded, kept things buzzing along with a sense of laid back fun and authority. Most importantly, he was clearly audible.

The questions were broken up with fun spot questions to win a free drink – one of which was claimed by Shopper’s Dan Keel for being the closest to guessing the right answer to the longest ever nail. He got it bang on.

Team Shopper's Dan Keel won a free drink

Sadly, our team’s success was short-lived.

Team Shopper was greatly changed since our last outing at Sylvan Post, with just one player remaining. Our winning balance of one guy and four girls turned into a six-man squad, so there was a lot at stake to prove we weren’t the second string.

As we swapped papers to go through the answers and mark each others’ work, we knew we were doing OK.

As the results were read out in reverse order, our ears pricked up as team names and scores were rattle off with no sign of us.

For a moment, we thought we’d recorded back-to-back victories. Alas, we came so close. Second place.

We won a bottle of wine. We’re no sommeliers but can tell you the plonk had the bitter taste of defeat.

STAT ATTACK:

Where: The Ravensbourne Arms, 323 Lewisham High Street, SE13 6NR

When: Wednesdays at 8pm

Cost: £2

Number of rounds: Two of 20 questions each, a music round and a final bonus round.

Number of teams: 12

How Team Shopper got on: 2nd

Prize: 1st -  an undisclosed amount of cash, 2nd - a bottle of wine, spot prizes of free drinks and a chance to win a separate snap quiz, increasing £10 every week it is not won (currently £170).

Best team name: Too many cooks spoil the brothel/  You’re a quizard Harry.

Go to ravensbournearms.com or follow @InquizitionQuiz on Twitter.

ANSWERS: Test Yourself: 1. The Towering Inferno, 2. Slovenia, 3. War. Bonus pot: 1. Dennis Nilsen, 2. Noel Coward, 3. Your wife.