Ding-dong, the Witch is dead!

Which old witch? The Quiz-Crazy Witch!

No, gosh, that sounds harsh. I have a huge soft spot for Beijing's leading quiz competitor, The Trivia Queen, but..... she is apt to take it all a bit too seriously.

Only once did I go up against her head-to-head. And I won. Well, actually I lost on the bizarre supplementary round - but on the quiz proper, I won, virtually singlehandedly. (Our 'captain', The Choirboy, had double-booked himself for the evening, and turned up only minutes before the end; while my other two team mates, Dishy Debs and Sexy Sarah, were mainly focused on inhaling bucketfuls of the house white wine and distracting the opposition, rather than actually contributing any answers to our scoring effort.)

12 months on, we learned (late in the day and much to our surprise) that the occasional series of special quiz events at The Bookworm (Beijing's celebrated 'library bar') was to culminate in a grand finale, featuring the successful teams from all the previous rounds. (The events had been themed on various professions - we were masquerading as 'journalists'. Well, I was. The others do all contribute to magazines from time to time. I really should get my act together and become a paid writer myself. At that time, I was justifying my eligibility on the grounds of a few micro-travelogue pieces I'd written for an English-study magazine, for next-to-no-money-at-all....) That's the top two teams from each round. Wa-hey!!! We're in the final - now we have a chance to set the record straight, revenge last year's injustice, etc., etc.

It was unfortunate timing (and I have a minor gripe against Jenny - the thoroughly lovely Scots under-manager at The Worm - that I was somehow missed off the mailing list notification of this anyway) that this momentous event should be scheduled for last night - the night of the grand annual Early Christmas Shindig hosted by Sarah and Debs.

The Choirboy - perversely, unexpectedly competitive - insisted on taking part anyway. Despite the absence of the rest of his team. Despite the absence of the person who had scored all but one of the points on the team's previous outing (me). Despite being roundly scorned and abused for his misguided priorities and disgraceful party-pooping.

Of course, we forgave him when he showed up at the party at 11 o'clock - with the trophy!!!!!!

The Choirboy had rounded up a trio of rather formidable 'ringers', and the opposition was trounced. The Trivia Queen had attempted to get them barred, citing non-existent 'rules' and a nebulous concept of equity. She failed. Apparently she is very miffed. She may not speak to any of us ever again. And I wasn't even there!!!

The trophy is kind of cool, though. We were all drinking celebratory beers out of it last night. The Choirboy says he is going to have a glass display cabinet made for it.