In July 2019, twelve teams, most with five members, drawn from Bridgend (two entries), Pontyclun, Cardiff (who supplied three teams), Porthcawl, Swansea and four teams from Cowbridge, hotly contested an inter-U3A quiz, hosted, for the third time in four years, by Cowbridge U3A.

Organiser and quizmaster Gwerfyl had to use all her considerable teaching skills to quell some boisterous participants, as the knowledge of subjects such as art and literature, science, music, sport, geography, current affairs, general knowledge and history was tested in depth. There were two sets of questions with longer to answer: one was a set of photographs of well-known (to some!) people, with the other being “dingbats” (visual word puzzles from which a well known phrase or saying has to be identified).
Dafydd recorded the scores with able assistance from Glenda.

Welcome refreshments were provided at half-time by Anna, Mags and Marion, allowing fevered brows to cool before the fray was re-joined.

The worthy winners were the team from Porthcawl U3A (who had also led at the halfway point), with the gallant runners-up being Cardiff II and another Cardiff contingent (team III) in third position. The highest placed of the four Cowbridge teams, drawn from regular U3A quiz contestants, finished in fourth place, which showed that the questions were not biased in favour of the strengths of the home sides! The Cowbridge Tipplers were a creditable seventh, one place above the team entered by the table tennis group. Despite a good start (9/10 in the first round), the Cowbridge Strollers slipped down to joint ninth overall.

Our thanks go to Gwerfyl for organising the event and compiling the questions, although she was sorely-missed as a competitor for Cowbridge.

Steve Monaghan