Ask me another

'Coulombs per second - isn't that power?" asks Rachel excitedly. There's some heated discussion, but after a few seconds she scribbles the answer Coulomb on the sheet of paper. The next question's easier. "In which novel by Charles Dickens does the character of Sam Weller appear?"

"Pickwick Papers!" chorus Richard and I, ever so quietly. Rachel scribbles down the answer. At the next table, David gives us a sour look, not having been able to overhear our carefully-lowered voices. "My knowledge of Dickens ends with Oliver Twist," he grumbles.

We're on a hot streak. "Who," asks quizmaster Steve Bell, "has just signed a £1.5million deal to advertise Walker's Crisps?"

"Wasn't it...?"

"Gary Lineker?"

"Isn't he signed with them already?"

"He's just re-signed," says Richard firmly. "Not resigned. Re-signed," he says, as Rachel scribbles down the answer. There's no doubt who's in charge on this team.

We're not, in case you were wondering, taking part in University Challenge. We're sitting, pints clasped firmly in hand, in the crowded front room of the Tap and Spile on Monkgate. It is Wednesday night, quiz night - and with a big entry (at least ten teams of four taking part for 50p each) and the winners standing to collect the combined entry fee, there's a lot to play for - £20 split between a team of four

We might as well be on University Challenge, though, judging by the august company I'm keeping. Among the eight companions sitting around two tables with me (we've been split into two teams because there are so many of us) there's a headmaster and, so I'm told, at least two professors.

Nobody's admitting to anything - but Roger, who's part of David's team, gives it away as we're struggling to answer the maths question.

"Which number, squared, is the sum of the first nine prime numbers?" asks Steve Bell, deadpan - and we all know he's just loving it.

Out come the pencils, and we write them down. 1, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13, 17, 19, 23. They add up to 99, which doesn't help much. "One's not a prime number," someone suggests. Confusion. "You've left a number out," says David, helpfully, from the opposite table. "Try two, two!" says Ellen, sitting next to me. We scrub out 1, write 2 in its place, and add them up again. They come to 100. Bingo! The answer's ten.

Roger watches smugly from the opposite table. "Our school is actually doing very well at maths," he says. They have already, we note, calmly written their answer down some time before.

Never mind. Our powers of computation, we justify ourselves, have obviously been impaired by the copious quantities of liquid lubrication that have made their way down our throats since the evening began. Top quality lubrication it is, too. The Tap's got some great guest beers - my favourite is Wild Thing bitter, but the Leg Over and Hambleton aren't bad either - and it would have been an insult to all things bright and beautiful not to have sampled as many of them as possible.

So the latter stages of the quiz become rather hazy: but then, it wouldn't be a pub quiz if they didn't, now would it?

I'm a bit of an interloper, here. Pub quizzes aren't really my thing: but once Andy Mackay, the Tap's genial landlord, has introduced me to Roger, I'm made welcome at their crowded table.

They're regular quiz-goers, it turns out, rating the Tap's the best in town for the range of questions, set personally each week by Steve Bell, who works at York's tourist information centre.

In a spirit of enquiry - and before I've imbibed so much liquid that writing becomes hazardous - I ask them why they like pub quizzes. "Because we're suckers!" says Rachel, the youngest, brightly. She's excited because she and her partner Peter have just put in an offer to buy their first home.

Ellen admits quizzes are addictive. "Each week you think you can do better than the last week," she says.

"There are always one or two questions you think you could have done better with."

It's Peter who really puts his finger on it, though. "It's the beer!" he says, to general approval.

Which reminds me to take another swallow - and then we're off, grappling with the answers to questions such as who composed the music for the oratorio to the Messiah (Handel, of course) and what, in natural history, is a Purple Emperor? (Butterfly).

As the quiz nears its end, we realise we're doing pretty well - but so is David's team opposite. We begin hiding our answer sheet, and whispering the answers in case of eavesdroppers. It all comes down, in the end, to Venus.

I'm a bit of a planets buff myself and Rachel has already shown she's a dab hand at astronomy.

So when we realise there's a whole series of questions on the Solar System we're optimistic.

On which planet would you find the volcano Olympus Mons? asks Steve Bell. Easy peasy. Mars of course. On which planet would you find the Great Red Spot? Jupiter! Of which planet is Miranda a moon? Um, Saturn? Uranus, says Rachel - and down it goes.

And so to the clincher. Where would you find Ishtar Terra?

We're stumped. A terra is a crater, I say, so it's got to be one of the solid planets. We've already had Mars, and it isn't Earth. So ... Venus or Mercury.

We opt for Mercury, David's team for Venus. They're right - and they beat us by a point. Aargh!

Never mind, the beer's great.

Brain-teasers for tipplers

1 General knowledge: When does a ship fly the blue peter flag?

2 Science: What is the commonest mineral on earth?

3Sport: Who has played for York City more times than anyone else?

4Geography: Which countries are separated by the 38th parallel?

5History: In which year was the Battle of Marston Moor?

6 Local knowledge: Where was the Blue Coat School for boys established in York?

7 Current affairs: President-elect George W Bush is governor of which US state?

8 Entertainment: In which year did Crossroads first hit our screens?

9 Food & Drink: How many gallons of wine in a hogshead?

10 Music: What was Shed Seven's highest charting hit?

ANSWERS

1 When it's about to leave port; 2 quartz; 3 Barry Jackson; 4 North and South Korea; 5 1644; 6 St Anthony's Hall, Peasholme Green; 7 Texas; 8 1964; 9 63; 10 Going For Gold