and the winners are...

Who says boys don’t read?  Dewsbury Town Hall was teeming with them last night and it was an all-boys squad from Roundhay School in Leeds that won the Yorkshire heat of the Kids’ Lit Quiz  with a whopping 78% of questions answered correctly.  That’s impressive - some of those questions were obscure and impossible (in other words, I didn’t know the answers).

The result wasn’t quite how I’d planned it, obviously. The cup was meant to be waved about in a happy but non-triumphant manner by readers-cum-Huddersfield Town supporters (i.e. Kirkburton School) but it was not to be.  Roundhay were just too good on the night. I hope it’s not an omen. We play Leeds soon…

What a great event  though.  If you don’t know what happens at these things, here goes.  First of all, schools need to get a team together so librarians pounce on any kid walking down the corridor who has borrowed more than two books from the library that term and asks them ‘Who wrote Charlie and the Chocolate Factory? If they get the answer right, they’re in the team. It’s as simple as that.

On the day there’s a minibus to take them to a town hall/arts centre/suitable venue. If they’ve got a kind librarian, she’ll have a packet of Rich Tea biscuits to keep you going through the quiz. You’ll need them. Trust me on this one.

On arrival, the organisers (in this instance, Kirklees Library Services) welcome you with more Rich Tea biscuits and a carton of Kia Ora (no expense is spared at these things) and you are escorted to your table. In the Yorkshire heat, because we’re posh in the north, the tables had white tablecloths.

Danum School, Doncaster at the ready. With table cloth!

Then the man in the black hat, Mr Wayne Mills, the Kiwi brain behind the KLQ, picks up his microphone and we’re off.  The first of ten questions on a specific category - lets say Books by Famous Children’s Authors with a Polish/Russian/Yorkshire background for example - are belted out.  Answers are scribbled down, crossed out, written down again and before you know it Wayne’s asking for the sheet to be ripped from the booklet and handed in.

Librarians suddenly loom from every corner of the hall, snatching the sheets from the team captains’ hands faster than mechanics changing tyres at a  pit-stop before dashing to other, less fit, librarians waiting at a long table by the stage to mark the answers.

While they tick and cross and guffaw, Wayne asks a bonus question to keep the teachers watching at the back from texting and thumping each other.  They love it but take an inordinately long time for them to answer some of the questions (told you they were hard). Then the winners of round one appear on a screen. The tension mounts but not too much because it’s time for Round Two which may or may not be on the subject of Books about Giraffes.  And so it goes on for TEN rounds with a 20 minute break in the middle for teams to finish their Kia Ora and stare at the guest author.

A mere three hours later the scores are totted up, the top three teams are announced and everyone congratulates them.  The winners come up to receive their awards and the teams return to their minibuses for more Rich Tea biscuits muttering ‘I told you it was Michael Morpurgo!’ to each other.  Apart from the winners, of course, who need to start swotting straight away because they go through to the grand final of the regional heats at the end of November in Oxford.  ‘Never mind polishing that cup!  What’s the S stand for in CS Lewis? their librarian fires at them as she pulls on to the M62.

Best of luck, Roundhay.  Win it for Yorkshire, lads. No pressure.