The KLQ is back in town.

I went to Broxbourne yesterday for the London final of this year’s Kids Literature Quiz, compared by the inimitable Wayne Mills. Once again, Sue Shaper did a fantastic job of organising the event, though if it grows any bigger, they’re going to need a bigger hall! I didn’t count how many teams there were this year, but it was certainly the biggest entry I’ve seen since I’ve been involved with the event - I would guess about 40 teams.

The competition was closely fought, but in the end the Bishop Stortford Junior College team edged out last year’s World Champions from Arnold House to win the day with an impressive score of 80 points. (The Authors team were able to hold their heads high as they walked out with a score of 86, though I think they should brush up on their knowledge of aliens and ducks in literature before next year!)

I had the unenviable task of adding up the scores, which turned into a nightmare. I was doing it all by hand/mental arithmetic on a paper grid, which would have been fine except for a glitch in technology that meant Wayne was forced to run the rounds out of sequence. At this point I had to devise a system to keep a running total that meant something without filling the grid full of nonsensical numbers. The scorers then had a nightmare on round 7, mistakenly scoring a number of answers as incorrect when the competitors had in fact been more accurate than the marking sheet had anticipated. Chaos ruled for the next two rounds as I was forced to check and double check everything as fast as possible. My head was ready to explode by the end and I was more than ready to retire to the pub with Wayne, Sue and the other authors.

It was a fun trip, and the first of at least four that I’m attending in the next two weeks. Good luck to all the teams who have yet to take part, and well done Bishop Stortford A team.