Orrell & District Quiz League

BBC Two’s Mastermind is currently scouring the UK to find contenders for the next series, which will be filmed in Belfast!   

We would encourage you to apply as soon as possible as casting is currently underway, with applications for the latest series closing soon.  

To apply, please click: CAST IT REACH or click on the image below:

Or email mastermind.hth@hattrick.com (the application takes just 10 minutes to complete).  

Entry is open to UK residents (including Channel Islands & the Isle of Man) who are aged 18 or over.  

Hat Trick/Hindsight are committed to making programmes as inclusive as possible.   

The Mastermind Casting team

Here are the handicaps for the new season. They have been calculated on average points difference based on last year's final league table and will be adjusted after the first round of games.

Team	Handicap
Masons Arms	0
Merrymen	4
Cricketers	5
Delph Taverners	8
Sherringtons	14
Star Inn	16
Bryn Labour Club	23
Highfield CH	25

For the new 2025 season we are joined by a new team, Highfield CH, based at Highfield Community Hall - details can be seen here:

Millstone have moved venue and changed their name - they will be playing out of the Sherringtons Bar and have changed their name accordingly.

Delphic Horses are now to be known as The Delph Taverners.

Fixture details can be found on your own team's page, or in the main fixtures calendar.  The first match of the season will take place on Tuesday 1st of April.

Congratulations to the Star Inn on winning this years Knockout cup competition.  Starting with a handicap of 16, they beat The Cricketers 66-49 in the quarter final and The Millstone 67-61 in the semi-final.

Their opponents in the final were last year's winners, Bryn Labour Club, who played off a handicap of 23.  They beat the Delphic Horses 69-61 in the quarter final and Merrymen by 62-55 in the semi-final.

In the final, Bryn led for the first 7 rounds, with The Star Inn pipping them in the final round to win by 63 points to 61.

Congratulations to their squad of Peter Duffy, Arthur Heyes, Tony Spark, Lee Whitehead and Steve Pilkington on winning an excellent competition.

Huge thanks also go out to Bill Gerard who wrote all of the excellent quizzes used on the night.  The quizzes used can be found on the Quizzes page in the 2024 folder.

Congratulations to the Mason's Arms who have won the league by beating Merrymen in their final league match.

Further to the 2024 KO Draw listed by Chris it was agreed at the Delegates meeting on Aug 1st that a Plate competition was impractical this year given the amount of matches we need to compress into a single evening.

At the delegate meeting held at the Delph on 1st August the draw for this season's Knockout competition was made. Assuming that all teams compete, the draw is as follows.

Due to time constraints the matches will start at 8pm sharp, and timings for answering will be set at 20s for your own question, 10s after a pass to a teammante, then 10s when passed over to the opposition.

Handicaps will be calculated based on the final league table.

A	Millstone v Masons	Winner of Heat A v Winner of Heat B	Winner SF1 v Winner Sf2
B	Cricketers v Star Inn
C	Delphic Horses v Bryn Labour Club	Winner of Heat C v Merrymen
D	Merrymen - bye

 

The handicaps for the upcoming season have been calculate based on the pointsd difference fro teams at the end of last season, and can be seen below:
 

TEAM	PD	AVERAGE	HANDICAP
Cricketers	148	8.2	0
Delphic Horses	81	4.5	4
Masons	80	4.4	4
Star Inn	30	1.7	7
Millstone	-70	-3.9	12
Merrymen	-77	-4.3	13
Bryn Labour	-192	-10.7	19

All of the teams registered last year have decided to compete in the new season.  Fixtures are available both on the Fixtures Calendar and on each team's homepage.  Handicaps for the seaon will be released soon.

All delegates and Committee Members are required to attend if possible. Should anyone not be able to make that date, then please confirm in writing ahead of the meeting your intention to enter a team for 2024.

Further to submitting an entry it would be helpful if all teams competing in 2024 were also to make an initial, nominal payment of £50 at some point between the Registration Meeting and the first round of games. (This will preclude the need for an early April ‘paying in meeting’)

 The provisional date for the first round of League matches will be Tuesday 2nd April immediately after the Easter Weekend ….this will be confirmed or amended, if necessary in due course.

(We cannot be certain of all dates and full season costings etc until we know for sure how many teams will be competing.)