Early November, and by half five it is properly dark. That is exactly when the weekly pub quiz slides back into the diary, because a warm room, a pint and an answer sheet beat another evening on the sofa. So here is the short version: bring four to six people with genuinely different heads on them, keep the phones out of sight, and treat the quizmaster like the overworked volunteer they often are.
How do you win a pub quiz?
You win with range, not raw brainpower. The teams that take the prize money week after week are rarely a table of geniuses; they are a table where somebody knows the 1990s charts, somebody else knows capital cities and nobody is too proud to say "no idea". Add a bit of discipline on the night and a bit of charm towards the host, and you are most of the way there.
How many people should be on a pub quiz team?
Four to six is the sweet spot. Below four, whole rounds can sail straight past you. Above six, the maths turns against you: more people means more half-remembered answers, more whispered debates and a scribe who cannot hear anyone over the arguing. Six people who trust each other will beat nine who do not.
There is a practical side too. Plenty of quizzes cap team numbers, often at six, and some will make a large group split in two. Turning up with ten mates on a Monday and expecting one table is a reliable way to start the night badly, so ask the pub first.
Which pub quiz rounds decide the winner?
General knowledge rounds rarely split the field: every team gets the easy ones and nobody gets the impossible ones. Points are won and lost in the specialist rounds, so recruit for those. In rough order of how often they cause tears:
- Music intros. Three seconds of a song from 1987 and the whole table hums it, wrongly, at the same time. One person who actually listens to music is worth two who think they do.
- The picture round. Faces of footballers, celebrities in their youth, logos with the words removed. Recruit the friend who reads gossip columns and never admits it.
- Sport. Usually one round, usually brutal, usually won by whoever on your team still checks the league tables.
- Geography. Flags, rivers, borders. The person who reads atlases for fun is quietly priceless.
- Current affairs. The round that punishes anyone who has avoided the news since September. Someone has to have read a paper this week.
The lesson: a sixth generalist adds almost nothing. A sport obsessive or a music nerd adds a whole round.
Is it cheating to use your phone at a pub quiz?
Yes, always, and everyone in the room knows it. Phones go face down on the table or, better, in pockets. That includes the classic manoeuvre of nipping to the loo halfway through the picture round and returning suspiciously cheerful. Quizmasters notice. So do the regulars on the next table, who have been doing this for years and take it seriously.
The honour system works because getting caught is so much worse than losing. Lose and you buy the consolation round. Get caught and you are the team everyone remembers for the wrong reason, possibly for good.
What is good pub quiz etiquette with the quizmaster?
Make their night easy and they will make yours pleasant. The courtesies are simple:
- Arrive early enough to get a table, a drink and an answer sheet before the first question.
- Pay the entry fee without haggling; it usually funds the prizes.
- Keep debates at a murmur. Loud arguing gives answers away to rival tables.
- Accept the answer on the sheet. If you truly think it is wrong, raise it politely at the break, once.
- Do not heckle the questions, the scores or the microphone technique.
- At half-time, get the round in, and consider whether the host would like one too.
If you are newer to British pubs, our explainer on how to order at a pub in the UK covers the bar side of things.
What tactics actually win pub quiz points?
- Write something for every answer. A blank scores nothing; a guess sometimes scores one.
- Trust first instincts. The answer that came out before anyone thought about it is right more often than the one you talked yourselves into.
- Appoint one scribe. One pen, one sheet, one person with final say on what goes down. Committees lose quizzes.
- Play your joker wisely. If the quiz offers double points on a round of your choosing, put it on your specialist's round, not on the one you merely fancy.
- Mark tie-breakers carefully. Closest-number questions decide more prizes than people realise. Talk them through properly.
What makes a good pub quiz team name?
A good name is short, makes the room laugh once and can be read aloud without the quizmaster blushing. Puns that nod to the pub, the local area or a running joke at your table work best. Anything crude enough to be refused is a waste of a turn at the microphone.
Avoid the names every host has read a hundred times: Quiz Team Aguilera, Universally Challenged and Let's Get Quizzical earn a weary sigh rather than a laugh. Bonus tip: keep the same name every week. Regular hosts warm to teams they recognise.
Where can you do a pub quiz in London?
Two north London locals in our listings run quiz nights, and both are proper characters, the kind of room where losing still feels like a good evening. Days and times can change, so look at each pub's profile or ring ahead.
The Pineapple
Kentish Town, Camden
Built around 1868, reportedly to slake the thirst of railway workers, this Kentish Town free house came within a whisker of becoming flats. In 2001 new owners applied to convert it, and in just eight days English Heritage listed the building at Grade II, inside and out, stopping the plan dead. It reopened in 2002, and plenty of the people who campaigned to save it still drink here. Look up and you will spot carved pineapples over every window and door; the bar-back glitters with etched and gilt mirrors. Legend has it the old stables even housed a giraffe from London Zoo in the 1890s. The quiz runs on Monday nights at 9pm, and the pub plays in the London quiz league, so expect sharp regulars. Thai food from the kitchen and board games for anyone knocked out early make it the ideal place to start your weekly habit.
The Faltering Fullback
Finsbury Park, Haringey
Musical instruments and vintage prams dangle from the front-bar ceiling of this Finsbury Park local, which began life as the Sir Walter Scott just after 1870 and still has an interior of national historic interest. These days it is a family-run Irish pub with a Thai kitchen at the back: Guinness in the snug-like room nicknamed the Sin Bin, pad thai or green curry on the side. Behind it, a garden climbs in tiers of decking that one guide likened to the Ewok village. Quiz nights sit alongside live music and Arsenal matches, and it is always busy with locals. One guide notes a no-booking policy, which turns our earlier advice about arriving early into a rule: claim your table before the first question, not during it.
Once the quiz habit sticks, the rest of the season follows: fire-warmed rooms for after the final scores (our pick of London pubs with fireplaces helps), and, if your quiz team doubles as your office, the annual scramble to book a pub for the work Christmas party. Good luck, and keep that phone in your pocket.
