The Manchester

So it appears the Manchester has a new host and format these days. Take this review with a grain of salt, and I'll try and have an updated review up soon - ed.

Where: The Manchester Public Eatery, 1941 W Broadway

When: 8PM Tuesday, Weekly

Web Presence: None that I can find

Registration Fee: This one's free

Team Info: 8 human beings per squad

Prizes: Top team at the halfway point gets a pitcher of beer, and the winners get a 50 dollar gift certificate. They run 12 week long 'leagues,'  and the highest cumulative score gets $500.

Format: Pretty similar to the Pub Stumpers quizzes: 8 rounds, separated into 2 parts. The first part consists of an image, then some general knowledge, then a music round, then True False. Part 2 is GK, more music, GK, and then some 'Bonus' questions.

Food and Drink: Pub food, nothing special. Likewise with the beers.

As previously mentioned, this quiz is similar to the quiz run by Pubstumpers at Donnelly establishments - or at least the way they were run over year and a half ago, since I haven't been to one in some time. The questions are average trivia fare. Nothing significantly harder than average, and a few things a bit easier. The difficulty is raised a bit on the bonus round, and they throw out some tough ones. At least they don't do the horrible "Did you read today's Province?" round.

The music round strikes me as generous, since you get the point if you can name the artist OR the song. I'm a little trained to it being a point for each, I guess.

The atmosphere is nice, the place is pretty cavernous and was not particularly full when I was there - there were probably 10 teams playing, but this place could hold about twice that easily. TVs ring the walls, so chances are that if you are looking for a game to watch, it will be on. I'm not sure what their Canucks game protocol is. If I had to wager, I'd say it falls in favour of the boys in blue. The quiz is marked by the two presenters, and they do an efficient job of it. The whole quiz took a little under two hours, breaks and announcing winners included.

In the end? It is very similar to a quiz at a Donnelly bar, but in a more enjoyable setting.