Oldest open quiz contest makes a comeback after pandemic break

Kolkata: The Eddie Hyde Memorial Open Quiz, the city’s oldest open quiz, made a comeback after Covid at the Church of Christ the King, Park Circus on Saturday. The church was the original venue for the first edition of the quiz held in November 1967. The father of Indian quizzing, late Neil O’Brien, had helmed the first edition at the church’s parish hall. This year’s Eddie Hyde, the 53rd edition, was organised by the Church of Christ the King in association with the Archdiocese of Calcutta.Twenty teams registered for the event, including participants from Saifee Hall, Loreto Bowbazar and St Agnes, Howrah. The prelims had participants as young as six-year-olds to veteran quizzers in their 60s. Six teams — ‘Lateral Thinkers’, ‘Inmaniacs’, ‘Simple Interest’, ‘Hammer & Tongs’, ‘Not So Great Expectations’ and ‘Shaukeens’ — qualified for the finals. Team ‘Hammer & Tongs’ comprising veteran quizzers Jayashree Mohanka, Souvik Guha, Anil Vaswani and Kinshuk Biswas won. ‘Inmaniacs’ stood second while ‘Simple Interest’ stood third.Derek O’Brien said, “It was very nostalgic coming back to ‘where it all began’. It’s so great that an effort has been made to revive open quizzing. I hope the tradition continues.” For both the quiz masters, Barry Antunis and Nigel Vincent, who have been conducting quizzing events in the city for years, this was their first experience of hosting the Eddie Hyde Memorial Open Quiz. “Seeing all quizzing veterans in the teams I was rather worried that they would be a bit orthodox, but to my surprise all were having such great fun. I had a blast hosting the quiz,” said Nigel Vincent. Barry Antunis echoed him.