The newsdesk try their hand at the Kilburn pub quiz

Wednesday is an odd day.

Languishing in the middle of the week, the initial enthusiasm with which you greeted Monday morning has long dissipated, and that Friday feeling still seems a long way off.

This is probably why the pub quiz at The Westbury in Kilburn High Road had such a packed audience last Wednesday, when reporters from the Times went along to try our hand at the competition.

Our motley crew consisted of two photographers, two reporters, our old news editor, and the editor. With such great intellects on the team surely we would do well?

We turned up at around 7pm – a healthy 45 minutes before the quiz started, giving us ample time to tuck into some hearty grub.

Filled up on that well known brain food burger and chips, we were raring to go.

The quizmaster is charismatic, if a little aggressive (as no doubt he would be the first to admit). He laid out the ground rules immediately – no mobile phones, and the quizmaster’s word is final.

The evening kicked off with general knowledge, which we seemed to be doing quite well at. Luckily our editor had been keeping a close eye on the Ashes, which cropped up more than once.

The second round was current affairs, or as the quiz master more aptly put it ‘stuff what I read in the rd tops this week.’

We were a little disappointed that it wasn’t stuff what he read in the Kilburn Times this week, but let it slide.

Desperate not to humiliate ourselves on our knowledge of our trade, we began to go over what we had spotted in the celebrity pages that week. As a big fan of ‘trashy’ news, this really should have been where I excelled.

But alas, none of the questions were about Katie Price’s marriage being on the rocks (can you believe it!).

Luckily the rest of the newsdesk had obviously paid attention to the papers that week, and we were even able to remember the name of that bloke who got jailed for fiddling his Parliamentary expenses.

The science and nature and music rounds were a little more hit and miss though, and we had the feeling that we were lagging behind.

But we really came into our own with the performance rounds which interspersed the quiz.

Definitely the highlight of the evening, these were challenges which a member from each team had to compete in to score a much coveted bonus point.

In the first of these, you had to throw a polystyrene model aeroplane and the person who got nearest to the quizmaster won.

Luckily we had ex engineer Jan Nevill on our team, who stepped up to the plate. But while he did indeed get it nearest the target, we forgot to out our names on the plane (doh!) and so were brutally disqualified.

Later, fellow photographer Jonathan Goldberg wowed the crowd by throwing some shapes on the dance floor in the dance off, which won him a respectable third place.

And I nearly gave myself an asthma attack in the bubble blowing round – which is harder than it sounds.

Then the moment of reckoning came – the scores.

We held our breaths. The quizmaster read out the team that had come last, phew it wasn’t us.

He read out the team that came second bottom – “The Kilburn Times”.

Our hearts sank. If only we had called our team after a rival paper.

Despite our poor performance, we had a great night and would recommend it to anyone trying to ward off the mid week blues.

The quiz takes place at The Westbury, in Kilburn High Road, every Wednesday, It is �2 person and teams can be up to six members. For more information visit www.westburybar.com