Years in League: 2009-10 to date
Division 1: 2013-16, 2017-18
Division 2: 2009-13, 2016-17, 2018-19 to 2022-23
Division 3: 2023-24 to date
Eclectics (Eclectic adj ".. from various sources" OED)This rather random collection of QLL parvenus were originally gathered together by the QLL honorary life president
Donald Yule to contest the 2009 Handicap KO Competition and have defied expectations by staying together ever since. Don has been, at various times, Brain of Warrington and rugby correspondent for
Knitting and Embroidery Weekly.
Mark Rae - half Geordie - half Scottish but totally house trained, the only QLL player whose emails require a Gaelic dictionary to comprehend. He likes music and all things Scottish, not least of which the uisge beatha. He has a degree in French and a Certificate of Higher Education in Scots Gaelic, and will point this out at every opportunity. Mark takes the progressive rock bonuses.
Marianne Fairthorne - a conspicuous presence in the LSE team in University Challenge, she has finally finished her PhD in Difficult Sums and is, doubtless, well on the way to being awarded an OBE for services to millinery. Where most QLLers record their individual scores against each match in the back of their handbook, she notes which hat she wore. Marianne took the Radio 4 bonuses until the 2013-14 when she left us to form her own team,
Misfits.
The only man ever to be recruited to a QLL team whilst standing in the checkout queue at Sainsbury’s,
Ed Dovey (a veteran of 15-1) is an artist of some talent which has led him to be described by
Osprey Publishing as "much admired for his work in
Military Illustrated magazine". He also knows a great deal about religion. Ed takes the military history bonuses.
After a year's sabbatical wherein he trotted the globe,
Ian Griffiths aka "Griff the Legend" returned to the fold for the 2011-12 season. Griff possessed a profound knowledge not only of the capitals of Canadian provinces but also lower league football, and the team welcomed him back with open arms. Griff took the astronomy bonuses, but left us to move oop North at the end of the 2012-13 season.
The 2010-11 season saw the arrival of
Ed Vout who, having played in the Warrington quiz league, was no stranger to our brand of team quizzing. As some of the wittier QLLers pointed out, two Eds are better than one. He was a team secretary for one of the Summer Friendly League teams, runners-up in the 2011 competition. Ed took the sport bonuses, but left us at the end of the 2012-13 season.
At the end of the 2010-11 season, Don decided to hang up his quizzing boots and head for the coast. The team wished him all things good in his well-earned retirement, of course, but were faced with a major problem - who would occupy the much-prized seat 4 for the Eclectics now? Serendipity took care of that as
Stewart McCartney turned up early for the 2011 Summer Quizfest and Mark (now team secretary) popped the question: "Wanna be an Eclectic, Macca?" "Go on, then!" Much rejoicing in the ranks! Stewart, a former Allsort, is an excellent quizzer, and his book
Popular Errors Explained is available from
Amazon and elsewhere. Stewart takes all the Yorkshire bonuses!
At the start of the 2011-12 season the team upped sticks and moved into The Artillery Arms in Old Street, one of the league's best venues. This clearly had an effect as the team had its best performance to date, finishing third in division 2 and just missing out on promotion to the top flight. Towards the end of the season Ed V and his partner welcomed a future Eclectic into the world, and Marianne finally gave in and got a job!
So, the 2012-13 season began with no change to the squad, a conscious decision, and it proved to be a good one as Eclectics had their most successful season to date, finally achieving promotion to division 1 for the first time. However, this was tinged with not a little sadness as Ed Vout decamped to Milton Keynes and announced that he is unlikely to play much for QLL in the foreseeable future. Not long after, Griff the Legend decamped to Leeds. Both will be sorely missed, and four players just isn't enough for a viable squad. Yet, once again, serendipity opened a door and we welcome with open arms none other than
Andy Tucker to the squad. Andy is a fantastic quizzer, ranked 11th in the country at the time of writing, as well as former UK ambassador to Azerbaijan, Mastermind finalist and all-round top bloke. Andy takes all the other bonuses
At the beginning of the 2012-13 season, Mark told the team that his goal was promotion to the top flight, nothing less - his goal for the 2013-14 season is to stay there... Eccies had a pretty torrid time of it in an eight-team division 1, winning only three of their 17 matches and finishing the season second bottom, heading straight for division 2. However, with the extra teams coming on board for the 2014-15 season, the team remained in the expanded ten-team division 1 "by default", surely the two most beautiful words in the English language! And the 2013-14 season saw the arrival of
Matt Bayliss, initially as QM but will surely play more and more competitive matches.
Over the course of the summer of 2014, Marianne decided that she was going to form her own team, and the Misfits took their starting place in division 3 - we wish her well. This meant that Mark was now the only team member left from that fateful night of 10 March 2009 when Don and his three newbies won their debut match, after ten rounds, down at Rosslyn Park.
The 2014-15 season saw us welcome two new Eclectics:
Chris Yates, who joined us from the Mint Imperials, and
Hugo Barnacle, who is new to our brand of team quizzing but already shaping up to be an excellent player. 2014-15 was in many ways a frustrating season, with some great performances interspersed among too many average ones, meaning that the team struggled to move clear of the drop zone at any point, and only just avoided relegation on the very last match of the season.
The 2015-16 season proved to be very frustrating for the team, and too many "near misses" meant that we were relegated to division 2 after three seasons in the top flight. We also lost our wonderful venue The Artillery Arms who decided to convert their upper room into a restaurant. Good business sense for them - dreadful news for us in particular and the league in general, as the venue had also been home to Banana Splits and was one of the four Summer Friendly League venues.
So the 2016-17 saw us back in division 2 domiciled at The Morpeth Arms in Pimlico. We were, of course, aiming for a swift return to division 1. However, with the protracted loss of Andy Tucker due variously to charity work and illness, it looked unlikely. Nevertheless, we managed to win a lot of matches and were never out of the top two after week 3 of the season, finally gaining promotion back to division 1 with one week to spare.
The 2017-18 season saw a return to division 1 accompanied by the arrival of
Jonathan Elliott and
Brian O'Halaran. They say that it's tough at the top and we won only one match in the entire league season, being mathematically relegated by the end of January and ending up with a mere 13 points, our worst season to day.
Back in division 2, the 2018-19 season was a much happier one for the team, and we managed to win more matches than we lost to finish mid-table. Half-way through, Brian informed us that he intended to move back to his native Ireland, and Mark informed us that he intended to give up his team secretary's hat at the end of the season after eight years, handing the baton over to Chris.
The 2019-20 season saw another venue move, as The Morpeth Arms had informed us that they required a minimum of £600 (that's SIX HUNDRED EFFING POUNDS!) per evening for use of their upstairs room so, after picking ourselves off the floor and stopping laughing, we moved to The White Hart, a lovely venue in Southwark. Although we won a few matches, we once again found ourselves in a potential inter-divisional play-off, but just managed to scrape a draw in the last match of the season to finish in seventh place. By this time, The White Hart had also informed us that we wouldn't be able to play there either so, Chris secured the use of The Tokenhouse in Moorgate, which is where we played our last face-to-face matches in 2020.
By the time of the start of the 2020-21 season, the pandemic had made face-to-face matches impossible and we adapted to the 'new normal'. For the first time in a few seasons, we welcomed new players to the team:
Steve Coates and
Chris Dyson.
Various moves around the country have robbed us of the services of Chris Y, Steve and Jonathan. Three players have been recruited to fill the gaps. Birdwatcher and motorcycle adventure enthusiast
Jim Sirett,
Keshava "Sasha" Guha and
Glenn Conde. Glenn is relatively new to quizzing but is making up for lost time by entering every competition available.
The return to in-person quizzing saw a couple of safe middle-of-the-table finishes but we were relegated in quite spectacular fashion in 22-23. The Eclectics don't do, or drink, anything by halves.
Along with a change of division we've also had a change of venue and are now based at The Trinity in Southwark. It's convenient for London Bridge, the Coroner's Court and the most beautiful pub toilets in London. Just head upstairs from the spacious function room rather than down.