Dear Editor,
I ATTENDED the Margaret River Gourmet Escape quiz night on the Friday at the Cultural Centre and have nothing good to say about it.
It was a complete shambles and the 10 of us at our table felt really ripped off.
We were told to be there by 7pm to be ready for a 7.30pm start. We were there and had bought our overpriced wine and $20 (not) worth of cheese and bickies. We waited and waited and were finally allowed in at 8pm.
Despite having booked a table for our team and thought up a really good name for ourselves (all necessary we had been told) there was no table. In fact there were no tables for quite a few teams.
A staff member said we would have to split up among the other tables. We refused and were finally seated after a smaller team had been ousted from their table.
Then on to the quiz: Only four rounds and of those just two rounds had sensible questions, the other two were all about the chefs on stage who most of us wouldn't have known as we don't watch much commercial TV and we certainly didn't know any of the allegedly funny things they have done in their lives.
It must be mentioned that the lot on stage appeared to be having a lovely time. We felt like an audience most of the time and couldn't hear most of what was going on the stage, rather than feeling like participants in the evening.
The staff, who were locals, were obviously embarrassed by the poor communication between them and the organisers as they got things wrong during the evening and were unable to answer any queries.
For $50 per head, one would expect a few spot prizes during the course of the evening but there was not one.
The first prize - for a team event - was a night for two people at a resort. There were 10 people in the winning team, so this was not sensible or appropriate.
All in all, it was the worst organised quiz night I have ever attended and every other participant I have spoken to felt the same.
Shame because quiz nights are popular in Margaret River and there were a lot of locals there who won't ever go to another one.
Or at least not one organised by the Gourmet Escape.
Not impressed.
Peta Goodwin, Margaret River
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