Sophie & The Elders Win Telstar Quiz in Photo-Finish

On Friday 20 January 2023, Telstar Scouts held their annual fund-raising table quiz at the FNEL scouting headquarters in Luxembourg-Cents. 

A total of 17 tables (of six) participated, with dozens involved in the organisation: Rani Roloff compered the evening, Chris Atkinson and Barry Magee asked the questions, the scouts were runners between the tables and also sold tombola tickets, Dawn Butler and Sandro Pace-Bonello oversaw the tombola and spot prizes, others staffed the ticket desk, the bar and the food counters - all in all, a big operation!

Apart from the bar service both alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages, the scouts had prepared chill (both meat and vegetarian options), sandwiches and cake, with all proceeds going towards scout funds - around €1,000 is hoped to have been raised on the evening.

This was the 14th quiz over 16 years - none were held in 2013 or 2021. A total of 10 rounds, each of 8 questions (all answers written, with teams conferring), with one round nominated as a joker round by teams (resulting in double points for that round), meaning a top score to aim for was 90 points.

The questions were on a number of different topics, from the usual Geography, History, Sports and Music to Luxembourg, 2022, Odds'n'Sods, etc., and included questions such as:

- What animal is the Chinese New Year celebrating: The rabbit
- What is the capital city of Greenland? Nuuk
- How many members of parliament are there in Luxembourg? 60
- What is the national summer sport in Canada? Lacrosse
- What is the largest fish? Whale shark
- What is "French toast" called in France? Pain perdu

The end result was incredibly close, with no less than five teams within one point of each other. A tie-break question saw Basket Cases come 3rd (64 points); and another two tie-break questions saw Sophie & the Elders triumph over The Northerners (both on 65 points), with those three teams picking up team prizes.

The evening concluded with three awards being presented to leaders - two for 10 years service and one for 20 years service (Elisa Jensen).