About the QLL

About

History

The Quiz League of London ('QLL') is an independent, self-administered quiz league. Our purpose is to promote and oversee quiz competitions on behalf of our member teams. You'll find the Constitution of the QLL here and find details of our Committee here.

Our main competition is a League Championship played on Tuesday evenings from late September through to the spring. Although league matches normally take place in a pub, and many participants also take part in pub quizzes, league matches are different to pub quizzes. League matches are between two teams of four players. Quizzes consist of 64 questions played over eight rounds, with each player asked a question in turn in each round. A player can answer their own question for two points or pass to a teammate for one point. An incorrect answer results in the question being offered to the opposing team for one point. The full rules can be found here.

We also have team knock-out Cup and Plate competitions, played in the spring, a team Summer Friendly League, and individual and other team competitions. In addition, we run a number of other events each year – a Charity Quiz, the London Open Quiz Festival and a Summer Social. Details of all our competitions and events are here.

New players and teams for the League are always very welcome! We think you'll find QLL matches to be one of the most exciting forms of quiz available, meet new and interesting people and learn a lot. If you would like to join the QLL, please complete the form here and we’ll get back to you.

The QLL was formed in 1990 as the South London Quiz League (SLQL). The founding father of the League, who remains our Honorary Life President, was Donald Yule. Donald had previously been a stalwart of the Warrington Quiz League, and wanted to play the same format in London.

Donald founded the SLQL with Brian Evans and Barry Scott, and the league began in the 1990-91 season when four teams did battle, with Manor Arms (based at the pub of that name in Clapham) winning the title. Other teams included Manor Colts, also based at the Manor Arms, the Jimmy Hill Club (who continued as Jay H Seedy, Accrington Cylindricals and finally Accies until the 2019-20 season, when the disbanded due to the lockdown), and Old Grammarians. The next six seasons saw Manor Colts, renamed as Manor Athletic, dominate, winning four league titles and running-up twice more. They remain in the league today, having become Atletico Manor and finally, since 2003-04, Atletico.

The 1991-92 season saw the debut of the All-London Cup, the League's cup competition open to members of the League and external teams alike. From 2007-08 a Plate competition was put in place for teams losing their first Cup game.

1993-1994 saw two significant developments: the League expanded to two divisions, and a team called Allsorts joined the league. Given that Allsorts featured quiz legend Kevin Ashman, it was not surprising that Allsorts won the inaugural Division II title. Perhaps more surprising was that, despite recruiting Mastermind champion Gavin Fuller for the 1994-95 season, it took Allsorts until 1997-98 to register their inaugural QLL title. That began a run of six titles in nine seasons for the Allsorts, broken up by wins for now-defunct Rue St George, Barbican (now known as Barb), and Atletico Manor.

Allsorts' run of titles finally came to an end in 2006-07 when Broken Hearts claimed their first league title four years after their formation. The team, put together by University Challenge alumni Olav Bjortomt and David Stainer, and augmented by players such as Ian Bayley, Jesse Honey and Sean Carey, yo-yoed between divisions in their early years before finishing second in 2005-06 and top the year after, going on to win three titles in four years.

The team that ended Hearts' domination was Nomads. The genesis of Nomads lay with the Red Lion, Barnes, team which debuted in 1995-96 with a perfect season, one of only two such achievements in QLL history. That team included Andrew Frazer, who became Chair of QLL in 2008, and Roger Bennett. In 2007-08, the team, by then renamed Priory Nomads, supplemented their ranks with David Lea and Paul Steeples of the disbanding Animals team, finishing second that year and winning two of the following three titles.

2010-11 saw the formation of a third division of the League for the first time, with the new division being won by Flutterers in their debut season. This season also saw the creation of a second Brain of London event, making that competition accessible to twice as many players.

2011-12 saw a splendid return to form for Allsorts after five seasons without a league title. Following the disbanding of the Old Itonians team, Fred Filby and Tom Dineen joined Allsorts to form an extremely strong team which won the league by three points from Nomads.

Allsorts retained the league title in 2012-13, and Pineapple won the All London Plate for the first time in the team's history.

Pineapple retained the Plate in 2013-14, beating guest team Grinling Gibbons in the final, while the Cup was won by another guest team Thread Vietnam. Both guest teams joined the league proper in the 2014-15 season.

Broken Hearts retained the league title in 2015-16 and Pineapple won division two in a welcome return to the top flight.

Gray Monks won the league title in 2016-17, and Fit For Purpose? and Eclectics both came straight back to division 1 after a season in division 2.

The 2017-18 season saw the arrival of four new teams, the largest increase in nearly a decade and the largest number of teams the league has ever had. Divisions 1 and 2 remained at 10 teams each, but division 3 was split into two conferences (Bamber and Magnus), each containing seven teams. Each team played the other teams in its conference twice, home and away, and the teams in the other conference once, either home or away. An extra week was added to the season to accommodate the additional fixtures.

The 2018-19 season saw a further expansion to 36 teams, with the Bamber and Magnus division 3 conferences now containing eight teams each.

The 2019-20 season saw the introduction of a second President's Cup division. Regrettably, this was not a success and was not continued beyond that season.

The season was of course not unaffected by the pandemic, which meant that the All London Cup & Plate had to be cancelled. But the League grabbed the 'new normal' by the proverbial and staged both the Summer Friendly League and Brain of London competitions entirely on line.

On-line quizzing continued for the entirety of the main 2020-21 season but we returned to in-person play towards the end of the 2021 Summer Friendly League, and that's how we continued throughout the 2021-22 season. The 2021-22 season also saw an increase in the number of winter league teams from 37 to 38, which brought with it a fourth division for the first time in the league's history. The number of winter league teams continued to grow every season, and the 2024-25 season saw a further expansion to five divisions containing 48 teams.

The future for the QLL has never looked stronger. It has grown from 16 teams in 2007-08 to 48 across five divisions in 2024-25, as well as introducing three new competitions during that period, including an inaugural Open Buzzer tournament in September 2012. Due to unprecedented demand, the Summer Friendly League grew from 12 teams in 2016 to 18 in 2017 when, for the first time, it was also split into two conferences, which were combined in 2023 to form one single table of 27 teams. There are 438 players registered for the 2024-25 League season, and members of the league have won numerous TV quiz shows and several prestigious British and international quizzing titles – click here for details.