Wednesday 18 January 2012

Welcome to Quizzle: a new online quiz

So then, what is a Quizzle? It's a combination of quizzes and puzzles, or a puzzling quiz, or a quiz-heavy puzzle. Best of all, it's fun.

Every two weeks I will be posting here a 30 question Quizzle which anyone can enter.

The Quizzle will consist of 5 rounds of 6 questions each:

Round 1: Picture Round - I show you 6 pictures, with a question related to each. A picture of Mozart asking 'In which city was he born?', for example.

Round 2: Ditloids - I show you 6 ditloids in the form of '1 X in a Y Z' and it is up to you to complete the phrase. '1 Xebec in a Yemenised Zanzibar', for example.

Round 3: Crossword Clues - I show you 6 cryptic crossword clues and you have to provide the answer. To help you on your way, one letter of the correct answer is always shown.

Round 4: What Comes Next - I show you a sequence of five items, the last item being 'hidden' from you and it is up to you to complete the sequence by finding the fifth and final item. I might ask you, what comes next '1,2,3,4,???', for example, but I suspect you may find the real questions a touch more difficult.

Round 5: Cryptic Names: I will ask you to give me 6 answers in a particular subject, for example pop bands, book titles, mythological figures, etc. and provide you with a cryptic clue for each. For example, to use some well-worn internet classics, if I wanted 6 pop groups I might ask you 'Prosperous city vermin' (Boomtown Rats) and 'Armadas oak coat' (Fleetwood Mac). This is a little like the Crossword Clues round but is a little more relaxed rule-wise, so expect the unexpected.

The questions are essentially un-Googleable. Although if, for example, you were to work out the sequence in one of the Round 4 questions but did not know what came next, you might choose to Google to find out. This is fine by me as the challenge is in working out the sequence (and as I have no meaningful way of stopping people Googling I might as well allow it). The questions are all original (although it is likely that occasionaly someone else will have had the same 'original' idea as me).

Once you have answered as many questions as you can, e-mail your answers to quizzlepuzzles@hotmail.co.uk prior to the given deadline (always two weeks after the quiz is published) along with your full name. There is, of course, no charge for entering. I will award 2 points for each correct answer and will award 1 point to answers that are almost correct. I won't be publishing tables of results (so don't worry about coming last, no-one but me will ever know) but I will publish a top 3 or, perhaps, top 5. At the moment there is no prize for winning but I might be tempted to introduce one if we can get participant numbers up.

Each fortnight, I will also provide two themed quiz rounds of 10 questions each which are for your enjoyment only and are not part of the main quiz.

The first Quizzle will be published here shortly. Don't worry if you don't score that many - I doubt anyone will get anywhere near full marks (although there are enough easier questions to allow everyone to score a few points straight away) but you will, no doubt, find you score improves the more often you enter. Enjoy!

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