A Rutland quiz league has crowned its winners.

The Rutland Invitation Quiz League (RIQL) has crowned the winners of its knockout cup competition, with The Boat Inn, Melton decisively defeating the RFC Nomads of Oakham by 101 to 76. The Boat had earlier secured first place in the league competition, meaning they complete the double in the first post-pandemic RIQL season. 

Supported by the local Rutland branch of CAMRA, the season featured 14 teams based at pubs and social clubs in Oakham, Melton, and local villages around Rutland. CAMRA helps to support many of these traditional venues and engages with landlords to introduce new venues and teams to the world of social quizzing. 

Teams of six play head-to-head matches at 8pm on Tuesdays from September through to spring. Home teams provide a seventh member to act as question-master. Matches are played home and away in a round-robin format. 

Each match features ten rounds of general knowledge trivia at a range of difficulties and lasts around 90 minutes. Questions are provided by an independent question-setter, for which there is an annual subscription for each team of approximately £80. 

In the 2022-23 season, The Boat Inn of Melton finished top of the shop. They incredibly lost just once in 26 matches, fighting off stiff competition from Whissendine Wanderers and the Stilton Cheesewrights of Somerby. At the other end, four teams finished on 14 points, with Wheatsheaf Oakham unfortunate to win the wooden spoon on points aggregate. 

This year's winners and runners-up include:

League Winners: The Boat Inn, Melton 

League Runners-Up: Whissendine Wanderers (White Lion, Whissendine) 

Cup Winners: The Boat Inn, Melton 

Cup Runners-Up: RFC Nomads (Captain Noel Newton, Oakham)

The successful teams and runners-up will be presented with their awards at the RIQL AGM, to be held at 8pm on Wednesday 9 August at the Catmose Club, Oakham. 

The quiz league is open to new teams from venues in Rutland and the surrounding areas and existing teams are also looking for new players.

Next season's fixtures will begin in September, and anyone interested can contact the committee by emailing [email protected] or come to the AGM.

More information is available on the website.