History of Quizathon

Quizathon is the name of two Quiz Marathons held at Colchester Rugby Club, Colchester, Essex, UK in 1992 & 1995. The event consisted of three consecutive quiz competitions, each lasting 2 hours, and with new teams each time. On each occasion a few teams decided to 'do the marathon' and compete in all three quizzes.

The first was on Friday 29th May 1992 (6pm - 8pm, 8pm - 10pm, 10pm - 12midnight). Three teams stayed the distance, and were joined by 13, 14 and 8 other teams respectively in the three sessions. £400 was raised and split equally between two local charities (Wakes Hall Residential Home & Essex Autistic Society).

On Friday 10th March 1995 the event was repeated at the same venue, this time to raise funds for 'Action for M.E.' Timings were the same and two teams completed the full course of 3 x 100 questions. Another £400 was raised from entry fees and raffles.

St Benedict's College Quiz (March 2001)- Click Here. Several more quizzes at St Benedict's College have raised funds for the PTA and on 4th July 2003 another Quizathon event raised over £500 towards the College's Business School bid. On this occasion the Marathon commenced with 3 separate quizzes during the day for Year 8, 9, & 10 students followed by a family quiz night in the evening. Not to be left out, Year 7 students were given a written quiz to complete during their day trip to France on the same day.

The Quizathon team ran successful quiz nights to raise money for the BBC's Children In Need charity from 1990 to 2000, raising over £10,000 overall.

The Quizathon team first generated quiz night questions in 1986, for Stanway Primary School PTA and ran two quizzes a year until 2001. Stanway Secondary School also benefited from a quiz night in the 1990's. Lawford Scouts were another early recipient of the Quizathon 'treatment'.

The portfolio is completed by 4 charity 'Jailbreak' events in the late 1980's and mid 1990's plus two BBC Essex 'Pier Chases' also for Children In Need.