Cheers to our fantastic Pub Quizzers

INTER ESTUARY PUB QUIZ A MAJOR SUCCESS

OVER £42,500 RAISED THANKS TO MATCH FUNDING GENEROSITY

Thanks to an extraordinary juggling act of volunteers, pub landlords and celebrity Quiz Masters, 13 pubs competed in parallel pub quizzes on Thursday evening with over 600 people pitting their wits with Suffolk’s Biggest Pub Quiz.   

The event was the brainchild of Clare Greenwell from Orford who masterminded an indomitable committee of volunteers to make the evening a success.  The quiz was set by Mark Nicholls and included questions on the geography and landscape, history, picture round of estuary birds, art and music, sports and hobbies.  Celebrity hosts including Bill Turnbull, BBC Radio Suffolk’s Lesley Dolphin, Terry Hunt and David Sheepshanks acted as Quiz Masters and introduced the evening with a showing of the Save Our Suffolk Estuary film presented by Nick Robinson.  The aim of the evening was to raise funds for the Alde and Ore Estuary Trust who need £12 million to upgrade the river walls in the Alde and Ore Estuary to reduce the risk of flooding.

The pub team who came top with the most points was “Ed Iot” at the King’s Head in Orford where Iestyn Edwards kept the pub fully entertained as his alter-ego Madame Galina, resplendent in a tutu. A close second were the Marsh Larks in the Golden Key in Snape, followed by the Friday Filosophers at the Butley Oyster.  Each winning team in every pub received two bottles of Prosecco donated by Adnams, and the pub that hosted the overall winner will receive a plaque to commemorate the day.

The total raised was over £42,500 thanks to the generosity of anonymous match donors who vowed to match the fundraising efforts of over 30 volunteers and pub landlords.  Generous pub quizzers in a pop-up pub in Sudbourne Village Hall raised £5,830 in extra donations, while other pubs such as the Plough and Sail in Snape organised auctions to raise more cash for the flood defences. In The Crown Inn at Snape, Quiz Master Maggie Hambling and pub host Mary James of the Aldeburgh Bookshop organised an auction which raised an impressive £925 which was doubled by the match fund to £1,850.

Whilst the fishermen team in Orford couldn’t make their quiz because of the tide, a team of quizzers from Essex arrived in Orford in camper vans to take part because they heard about it on BBC Radio Suffolk and came because they love the Suffolk coast and wanted to help.

Professor Jane Maxim, Chair of the Funding Committee said, “We are thrilled this event had enormous support from so many people in the estuary. I was at the pub quiz at the Cross Keys in Aldeburgh last night where the 1953 flood reached the ground floor ceiling.  Every single one of us needs to help raise this challenging funding – but let’s have some fun doing it.  Ideas for other events are always welcome.”

Full details of how you may make a donation are available at www.aoep.co.uk and updates on the campaign can be found at www.twitter.com/sosestuary and www.facebook.com/sosestuary