Answering for their crimes

Are cheats ruining the great British pub quiz institution?

- Alexandra Topping

A charity pub quiz featuring Graham Norton. Quizmasters say the sport is in rude health, but phone cheats are a growing problem, with smartphones making the crime even harder to spot and police

(PHOTOGRAPH: ALAMY/PA)

Who is older, Gary Numan or Gary Oldman?* If you know the answer to this question, perhaps you're one of the hundreds of thousands of Britons who attend a pub quiz every week.

As a nation of committed quizzers, it was unsurprising that news this week of a pub quizmaster in Manchester outing a team for cheating sparked a national conversation about the exact whereabouts of the special place in hell reserved for those people who take a sneaky look at their phones as the questions are being asked.

A “massive whodunnit” ensued after the landlord at the Barking Dog in Urmston, Greater Manchester, revealed that the cheats were whispering questions into their smartphones, but refused to name and shame them. It is a misdemeanour that is, according to some quizmasters, an increasingly common blight on one of the nation’s favourite pastimes.