The Pub Quiz & Puzzle Book

Introduction

What could be more convivial than spending an evening in the pub with friends?

It is always nice to meet regularly to exchange news and gossip, but there can be times when conversation does not flow easily and a usually enjoyable get-together becomes hard work. If this sounds all too familiar, don't worry, a potent antidote to tedium is at hand – the Pub Puzzle & Quiz Book.

Armed with this collection of fun puzzles, challenges, traditional games, jokes and quizzes, you can make the evening an occasion to remember every week. You can take it along to the pub and get everyone involved or recreate that ambience of good humour in your own home. All you need in addition to the book are a few pads and pencils to share around, plus any other bits and pieces the challenges call for, such as coins, a dartboard, playing cards, dice, lengths of string, or a box of matches, for example.

So let the Pub Puzzle & Quiz Book revolutionize your social life: with this book as your companion, you may never have to buy another round!

Have fun!

Eric Saunders

Coin Puzzle

Here's a challenge to get the evening off to a good start...

Place four coins on the top of the table and challenge your friends to arrange them so that each is touching every other coin.

The solution to this puzzle is at the back of the book.

Solution

Pick Up Sticks

This is a challenge to be the last player to pick up a matchstick, so for this game you will need a box of matches.

Place the matchsticks on the table all facing in the same direction, in clearly separated groups of twos, threes, fours, fives or sixes.

Players take it in turns to pick up either one, two, three, four, five or six matchsticks, as preferred from one of the groups, provided those matchsticks are next to one another in the group. It is possible to pick up just one matchstick from a group of, say, six, so that two new groups of matchsticks are made, one of two matchsticks and another of three matchsticks.

Whoever picks up the last matchstick or adjacent matchsticks on the table is the winner.

Travelling In A Circle

This is a good game to play with a group of friends sitting in a circle.

The first person starts by calling out the name of a country and the next person clockwise in the circle then has to call out the name of another country which begins with the last letter of the previously called country.

For example, the first person might call out 'Wales, and the second would then have to call out the name of a country beginning with the letter 'S', such as Senegal, or Sierra Leone. The next person around the circle then has to call out the name of a country beginning with 'L' (if Senegal was called out) or 'E' (if Sierra Leone was called out).

No repeats are allowed: it isn't always easy to avoid repeats, as after a certain number of countries have been called out, people could forget what went before, but the idea is to think of as many different countries as possible.

Also try to avoid 'loops' such as Albania, Australia, Armenia, Argentina, Angola, Austria, etc.

At any point in the game, a challenge may be made when a country is called out. For example, if someone calls out Siam, it could be challenged, as this is the former name of the country now known as Thailand. If such a challenge is made, the person who called out the country is eliminated from the game.

The last person to stay in the game is the winner.

True or False?

A quick quiz to enliven the evening! All the competitors have to do is decide whether an answer is true or false.

You'll need a pen and paper for every member of the group and the winner is the person who has decided most questions correctly. Answers are in the Solutions section at the back of the book.

1 London is further east than Paris.

2 Mel Gibson was born in Canada.

3 A male wasp cannot sting.

4 Zeus was the supreme god of ancient Greek mythology.

5 A rolling hitch, a sheepshank and a bowline are all types of knot.

6 Budapest is the capital of Romania.

7 The Black Sea is closer to the equator than the White Sea.

8 The Canary Islands were originally known as the 'Fortunate Islands'.

9 The flag of Canada is red and white, with a stylised picture of a maple leaf in the centre.

10 Ludwig van Beethoven died in his bath at the age of 42.

11 The boiling point of water is 100 degrees Celsius (or 212 degrees Fahrenheit) at standard pressure.

12 Cats and dogs normally have seven claws on each of their paws.

13 Trees which are deciduous keep their leaves all through the winter.

14 British Prime Minister Spencer Perceval was assassinated whilst still in office.

15 In Roman numerals, the number fifty (50) is represented by the letter M.

16 A gnomon is the fixed arm which casts a shadow on a sundial.

17 A black mamba is a type of venomous spider.

18 People with tinnitus suffer from painful bunions.

19 Fats Waller was a famous trombone player.

20 The Zambezi River empties into the Atlantic Ocean.

Solution

Riddle

Here is a riddle to try out on the other members of the group: the first person to arrive at the correct answer receives a free drink – which the other members of the group must club together to pay for, naturally! The solution to this puzzle is at the back of the book.

It is only one colour, but not just one size,

It is stuck at the bottom, but easily flies,

It is present in sun, but not seen in rain,

It never does harm, nor feels any pain.

What is it?

Solution

The Big Chief

You will need one beer coaster for every person in the group. Mark one of these beer coasters with an 'X' and place them all face down, shuffling their order, so that no-one knows which is the beer coaster marked with an 'X'.

Each person takes one of the beer coasters and turns it over, and the person who turns over the beer coaster marked with an 'X' is announced as the Big Chief for the evening.

The Big Chief should nominate a word which, whenever this word is said by the Big Chief during the course of the evening, everyone else in the group needs to respond by placing the tip of a finger on the end of his or her own nose and repeating the chosen word.

The last member of the group to carry out this action has to buy a drink for the Big Chief, and the Big Chief gets to choose what that drink should be.

It could turn out to be an expensive evening – but not, of course, for the Big Chief!

Matchstick Mover

Lay out matchsticks as in the arrangement shown below, then challenge your friends to move two matchsticks to make two squares.

Solution

'Armless Fun

This is a game which everyone can join in, provided you look around first to make sure that all members of the group are wearing suitable clothing: it won't be much good if they're wearing shirts or blouses, for example, into which they can't fit a 'spare' arm.

First ask every member of the group which hand they use for writing, and to raise that hand in the air: this will determine which is each person's dominant hand. Now tell them to slip that hand and arm inside their coat/jumper/tee shirt, or whatever, so that they cannot use it.

The first person to remove an arm pays for the next round of drinks.

Some people will find it almost impossible to raise a glass with the hand they don't normally use; others will run out of patience waiting for a drink, so will remove their arms and buy a round, but it will cause some merriment at least, and the last person to remove his or her arm will have the pleasure of feeling rather smug for the rest of the evening!

Card Guessing Game

You will need a pack of cards and some Blu-Tack or sticky tape.

An amount of money for the 'central pot' is agreed before the game, and each player places this amount in the pot, which should be in the middle of the table.

Every member of the group is dealt a card face down on the table in front of them and may not look at the card. Instead, they should use a small piece of Blu-Tack or folded over sticky tape pressed onto the back of the card, which is then picked up (still without looking at the face of the card) and stuck to the player's forehead. In this way, everyone else in the group can see the card, but no player can see his or her own card.

The dealer starts the game by betting he or she has the card with the highest value. For the purposes of the game, an ace has a value of one, a jack has a value of 11, a queen has a value of 12, a king has a value of 13, and all other cards have the values shown on their faces. If the players see that the dealer has the card with the highest value (a king), the game should be started again.

People playing will look at the dealer's card and must then calculate the odds of their card being either higher or lower. Anyone who thinks he or she has a card with a higher value than that stuck to the dealer's forehead should say so, and anyone who thinks he or she has a card with a lower value than that stuck to the dealer's forehead can announce that they wish to retire from the game, forfeiting the money they have already paid into the pot.

Those left in the game (including the dealer) now place another coin into the pot and everyone removes the cards from their foreheads.

Anyone with a card of a higher value than that of the dealer's card takes the money in the pot and uses it to pay for a round of drinks for those players who didn't retire from the game and who also have a card with a higher value than that of the dealer's card. Those players whose cards have a card with a value either equal to or lower than that of the dealer's card do not get a share of the pot.

Numerical Tic-Tac-Toe

Suitable for two players, this is a game of tic-tac-toe played with numbers instead of noughts and crosses, so you will need a sheet of paper and a pen in order to play.

One player must use the single-digit odd numbers 1, 3, 5, 7 and 9, and the other player must use the single-digit even number 2, 4, 6 and 8. Whoever chooses to play with odd numbers must go first, as he or she has more digits to choose from than the player with even numbers. The next time the game is played, each player uses the digits the other player used last time.

The winner is the first player to complete a line of numbers which either separately or when added to the other player's numbers totals 15, as in this example:

Matchstick Mover

Lay out matchsticks as in the arrangement shown below, then challenge your friends to move two matchsticks to turn this L-shape upside-down.

Solution

Coin Tiddlywinks

Every player in this game will need two coins, the coins should all be the same size, and should be marked in some way (with a piece of sticky paper on which the player's name is written) so that they are easily identifiable. You will also need a small saucer or the lid of a jar.

Place the saucer or jar lid in the centre of the table.

Moving clockwise around the table, every player in turn uses one of his or her coins and tries to jump the other coin into the saucer or jar lid. Those who are successful are bought a drink by those who are unsuccessful (there may be unequal numbers of successful and unsuccessful people, so the total cost of the drinks for the players who were successful should be shared by those who were not).

Odd One Out

Which one of these tractors is different to the rest – and why?

Solution

Aces and Faces

You will need a pack of cards to play this game, plus a large group of friends sat around a table.

Shuffle the cards and place them face down in the middle of the table.

An amount of money for the 'central pot' is agreed before the game, this amount of money to be the same for every player. To start the game, every player needs to put one coin into the pot.

Play passes clockwise round the table, and continues until there are no more cards left in the middle of the table. In turn, each player takes either one or more cards (up to a maximum of five) from the central pile and turns them over.

If any of these cards is a jack, queen or king, he or she must place one coin (one per go) into the pot: but if any of the cards is an ace, he or she can remove one coin from the pot.

If, however, none of the cards is a jack, queen, king or ace, everyone else in the group must place the same number of coins in the pot as the number of cards picked up by the player (so it can sometimes pay to pick up five cards, if a player has been attentive, and knows which cards have been picked up before!). After each player's go, the cards are turned face down again.

The game finishes when all the cards have been dealt out, and the money in the pot goes towards paying for the next round of drinks.

General Knowledge Quiz

Test your friends – nothing too strenuous as these are questions with a choice of answers, only one of which is correct. You can also play, even if you are reading the questions, because the answers are in the Solutions section at the back of the book.

You'll need a pen and paper for every member of the group and the winner is the person who has decided most questions correctly.

1 The Sea Swallow is an alternative name for which bird?

a Seagull

b Penguin

c Tern

d Cormorant

2 On being executed, who said: This is a sharp medicine, but it will cure all diseases.?

a Marie Antoinette

b Sir Walter Raleigh

c Mary Queen of Scots

d Charles I

3 What religion was founded by Bodhidhama?

a Zen Buddhism

b Islam

c Hinduism

d Sikhism

4 Of what is Tribology the study?

a Lubrication and friction

b Hormones

c Animal behaviour

d Tissues of organisms

5 In what sport would you see a Western Roll?

a Ten pin bowling

b Wrestling

c High jump

d Judo

6 Who, when he was murdered whilst playing poker, held two aces and two eights, a hand which from then on was known as a Dead Man's Hand?