National Masterteam Final 2002/03 at Felden Lodge

For those of you unfamiliar with what Masterteam is all about, I will give you a quick rundown.  Masterteam is basically a table quiz.  It is open to every Boys Brigade Company throughout the UK and involves a team of four boys representing that company.  There are no age boundaries within the competition – the boys must simply registered as a boy in the company (Staff Sergeants are excluded).  Each district holds three rounds, with the top two teams at each venue in each round qualifying for the district final, consisting of four teams.  In the district final, again the top two teams qualify for the UK final but the winning team will be crowned their district champions – a suitable honour on its own.  The format for each quiz is 10 rounds, 2 of which are individual.  Topics include sport, geography, Bible knowledge and guess the object.  

The 2002/03 BB National Masterteam Final was held on Saturday 26 April at Felden Lodge; it was organised by the England Region. To reach a National Final is an outstanding achievement and we congratulate our boys, Steven Kelly, James Johnston, Michael McConkey and Matthew Luney not only on bringing credit to themselves and 1^st Ballyclare BB Company, but also to the East Antrim Battalion and to the Northern Ireland District.

The boys accompanied by Company Captain Niall McConkey and fellow officers Robert Johnston, Neil McAllister, John McKee and Philip Jackson travelled to Felden Lodge on the Friday evening. They were obviously keen to be well settled in and perhaps take part in a little last minute training for the Final followed by an early night to bed. Some training did take place but it was on the 5-a-side football pitch! As to an early night? Well, that depends upon your point of view.

On the Saturday morning two further supporters arrived, Officer Mark Irwin and former Captain Campbell Moore having taken the "red eye" flight and arrived just in time for a light breakfast!

Like any major event, the hours just before the Final were spent relaxing and making sure energy levels and mental alertness were preserved - the boys played football and their supporters played pool and snooker.  As Felden Lodge had no pool tables, the supporters were forced to go into Hemel Hempstead, the nearest town, to pass a couple of hours.  As there was so many of us from 1^st Ballyclare, we decided to borrow the centre minibus.  In hindsight, asking the guy who was doing the washing up for the keys was probably not the smartest thing to do!  When the weekend convenor came out of his morning meeting to use the minibus to collect the last remaining company to arrive from the airport, he got a bit of a shock – the bus was not there!  A frantic few moments were passed before it was realised that we had the bus in the centre of town.  When I came out of the pool hall, I found I had a rather worried and anxious sounding convenor leaving voicemail messages on my phone!  The bus was promptly returned and we were suitably told off!  Not only do you have to ask the right question, you have to ask the right person!

Following lunch the Final took place in the Felden Lodge Sportshall. The Question Master for the Final was Mr John Young MBE, a Brigade Vice President and Chairman of the Brigade Executive. He welcomed everyone to the Final, expressed the hope that everyone taking part would do well, but above all that "everyone would enjoy the event and the fellowship". Six teams took part in the 2002/03 Final; they were

3^rd Gourock, the reigning Masterteam champions. Their claim to fame is being one of only two Companies in the world which is fully kilted and the tartan worn by the boys is Smith of Pennyland (yes, they wore their tartan uniform for the Final). This was 3^rd Gourock's seventh appearance in Masterteam or Top of the Form Finals - quite a record;

20^th Motherwell, the Scottish runners up;

7^th Northampton, who won rounds at Birmingham, Northampton and Mansfield;

14^th West Bromwich, who came through rounds at Sutton Coldfield, Gloucester and Guildford. They were runners up in the 2001 Bedford Ten Pin Bowling competition;

1^st Ardstraw, Irish Masterteam runners up; and

1^st Ballyclare, the Irish Masterteam champions. Runners up in their first and second rounds, they won the Irish final by eight points having lead throughout. This is the first year Ballyclare have entered a National competition.

There were ten rounds in the Final: Sport, Geography, Bible Knowledge, Guess the Object, 2 Individual Rounds, Pop Music, TV Comedies, BB Knowledge and finally a Picture Round. Not only did the boys answer the questions but some supporters tried their best too!

A sample of questions included:

·          Between which two countries is the Denmark Strait?

·          Where in a house would you find a garrett?

·          What is kedgeree?

·          What word follows foreign, bad and dead?

·          What colour is a black box flight recorder?

If you are struggling with the answers, then you'll find them at the end of this report!

3^rd Gourock went straight into the lead in round one and led throughout the competition, finishing with a total of 71.5 marks out of a possible 96; hours of practice questions obviously paid off. Second place required a play off between 14^th West Bromwich and 20^th Motherwell; eventually 14^th West Bromwich took second place answering two questions correctly out of three whilst the Scottish boys could  answer only one correctly.. 7^th Northampton were fourth, the boys from Ardstraw fifth and 1^st Ballyclare sixth. Interestingly, whilst 3^rd Gourock won by 11.5 marks, only 3 marks separated second place from sixth as the results show:

Every boy taking part received a trophy as a memento of their appearance - a nice gesture which hopefully the boys will look back on in years to come as a reminder of their achievement in reaching a BB National Final.

Next year's Masterteam National Final will be held in Kilmarnock, Scotland. How many of this year's finalists will be there?

Whilst the Saturday morning arrivals returned home on the Saturday evening, the rest of the party stayed on and returned home early on the Sunday morning, tired but pleased to have taken part in a National Final.

Well done boys - you were a credit to yourselves and your Company. You are after all "Irish Champions" and not everyone can say that.

Answers to the questions: Iceland and Greenland; attic; a dish of fish and rice; language; and orange.