First of all, massive apologies for being so late with this. We normally are pretty bad at promptly analysing the results but this time was it was exceptional. However, we do not live in normal times so we hope you will forgive us.
Here are the links to the Quiz posts:
Issues with questions
With the best will in the world and despite our best efforts, there will always be issues with questions that do not get picked up until they are published. This is one reason why we do not publish our marking scheme in advance.
We did initially have a question about a new ‘bang road’ service in 2021 but someone who worked on the Underground quickly pointed out we had misunderstood the term so that question got deleted before most people noticed. Maybe, with rewording, it will get into the 2022 quiz.
Nothing in Question 5 about a lack of a service at a station due to the ‘pingdemic’ actually said we were talking only about the London Underground although when reviewing the question we realise we should have been clearer. Looking at all the answers, it is surprising how many people answered ‘Pimlico’ which we still don’t think actually qualified as ‘hav[ing] no service at all for some weeks’. Only Timbeau managed to give the answer we intended – Birkbeck.
Imaginative answers
We always get a little nervous of questions that ask for reasons why as they can be difficult to judge. However, the positive side of this is that we really enjoy reading the answers. So it was a delight to read why the given reasons for re-opening York Road station, as suggested in an article, were totally invalid. The responses were many and varied (and all perfectly sensible reasons to debunk the article).
Similarly, the varied ways of saying basically the same thing as to the reason that Jack was anxious to point out that the cloak-room at Victoria station was on the ‘Brighton line’ we a pleasure to read. This varied from extolling the upper class nature of the South Coast to denigrating the Edwardian inhabitants of the Medway towns.
Unexpected correct answers
There are always correct, or at least plausible, answers we haven’t catered for.
Question 11 concerning Underground working timetables threw up more valid answers than anticipated. We decided to give this question a maximum of two points on the basis that there were two unarguable answers. Any of the well-argued answers counted towards these two points.
A special mention
A special mention must go to the Sir Herbert Walker team for the quality of the presentation of their answers as well as the completeness and detailed explanation. It doesn’t get you extra points though!
Also to all who got the answer to the ‘Covent Garden’ question. We were surprised as to how many people got this correct.
The winners
This year we didn’t provide any real incentive to send answers but were happy to receive any that did get sent.
After a quick sift through the eighteen answers we received there were no immediately obvious winners as there are in some years. There were seven that merited marking in detail and, of those, four responses achieved 28 out of a possible 30 marks.
It seems that congratulations are in order to them. Or rather, congratulations are in order to them again as the names seem very familiar.
Our top four are: The Sir Herbert Walker team, JW, JD, and Timbeau.
So as to avoid just naming the usual suspects, a mention to DJAL26 who achieved a very respectable 27 points.
If any individual who sent in an entry wants to know exactly how they did then please send an email to [email protected].
Thanks POP, there is something about the Christmas Quiz that makes it a pleasure to complete every year.
If you do another one this year, perhaps you can sneak in B******k as an answer to more than one question!