Secret Serranía SuperQuiz goes down a storm

Despite the inclement weather 30 people turned out for the first-ever bi-lingual quiz in the Serranía de Ronda and the evening went down a storm!

The aim of the quiz was to bring together locals and foreign residents for a fun but challenging evening, based around a tried and tested formula very popular in the UK, the Pub Quiz.

There were teams from Montejaque, Jimera de Líbar, Montecorto and Parauta and there were players from Canada, Denmark, Germany, India, Norway, South Africa, as well as the UK and, of course, Spain.

The brainchild of Paul Whitelock, one of the regular contributors to the Secret Serranía website, the quiz was held at the Hotel Palacete de Mañara in Montejaque and the questions all had something to do with Spain or things Spanish. With all questions being posed in both Spanish and English, answers in either language were accepted.

Because of Covid-19 regulations the capacity was limited to eight tables of up to four players. Each player paid 5€ which went towards an aperitivo in the interval and to the prizes.

There were 10 rounds of 10 questions including a joker round, in which points scored were doubled. With topics ranging from Andalucía to literature and cinema, from history to sport, there was something for everyone.

A music round and a picture round added to the variety.

Sponsored by this website, www.secretserrania.com and the Hotel Palacete de Mañara, there were generous prizes for the two highest-scoring teams. First prize was a night’s stay with breakfast in the hotel for four people and the second prize was dinner for four in the adjacent Restaurante Entre Ascuas.

At the end of the evening, the winners by nine points, with an impressive 93 points out of 110 were a team of three, comprising the two youngest players and the oldest player, local entrepreneurs Borja and Cayetano, both still in their twenties, and retired South African resident Michael, who is a little bit older!

Second place went to the team from Parauta, Spaniards Anabel and her brother Juan Francisco plus Anabel’s English husband Lee and Juan Francisco’s wife, German/Spanish Clara. The team were helped by two-year-old Carlotta!

Secret Serranía were delighted with the evening and plan to hold another quiz soon in the south of the area, probably in Gaucín.

Álvaro Gutiérrez, the proprietor of the hotel, was also delighted with the outcome. “When Paul first approached me with the idea, he had to explain what a quiz was. There is no Spanish word for quiz, by the way, as it’s not a typically Spanish activity.”

Álvaro continued: “To attract 30 people to the hotel on a wet Wednesday evening in mid-October is amazing. Because of the success of this inaugural quiz, we plan to hold two more quizzes this year, on 18 November and 16 December. We hope they will be as popular.”

When asked if he was pleased with how the evening had gone, Paul Whitelock said: “I was delighted. The atmosphere was great and they all seemed to enjoy themselves. I think that it went on a little too long. As a result future quizzes will only have eight rounds of questions.”

During the interval the several businesses represented were given the chance to plug their activities. These were, in alphabetical order: Actividades en Sierra de Nieves (Parauta), Andalucian Cycling Experience (Montecorto), Bar Allioli (Jimera de Líbar), Bar Serrano (Montejaque – opens on 31 October) and La Terraza (Montejaque).