Builders Quiz Night with Reign of Terras

Sitting at home with the family on a Friday night enjoying pizza and some PVRed America’s Got Talent, I got a phone call from Lauren Terras to let me know I have been invited to join her table at the Johannesburg leg of the annual Builders Quiz Night.

Well, my year was made just hearing that as I have always wanted to go to a quiz night and finally I got a chance…YAY!!!!

Tuesday 8 December was the night and it was going down at the very elegant Maslow Hotel in Sandton!

Working my way through the Joburg traffic helped suppress the butterflies that was swarming around inside of me with thoughts of; will I be able to answer any of the questions, hopefully I can contribute, will we as a team be able to walk away with some of the R50 000 worth of prizes…?

Finally at the venue and I see all the people we will be competing against…some of SA sport’s elite from all spheres of the industry. I then notice some familiar faces, my teammates!

Drinks are in order and we start gazing over our notes to make sure we did not miss anything throughout the past year’s sporting moments. Thanks to Cecilia for your 2867 word document of 23 pages…my brain was already frying LOL!

All registered and ready to go…well were we really…who cares? It was all about having fun…and yes hoping to win!

The banquet room awaited and it was decorated with the well-known Builders theme with snacks and drinks available at an arm’s reach and even a goodiebag thanks to the sponsors involved.

Next on the agenda was finalising our team name…

Reign of Terras it was going to be with Lauren Terras being the host and only lady between the thorns.

The team was loaded from all sides of the sporting industry:

• Lauren Terras – Terras Communications CEO
• Gavin Hunt – Bidvest Wits Football Club Coach
• Lawrence Sephaka – Women’s Springboks Coach
• Derek Alberts – SuperSport Present and Afternoon Sports Anchor 947 & 702 Talk Radio
• Hannes Nienaber – Freelance Sports Writer
• Tando Manana – Former Springbok Flank
• Owen Nkumane – Former Springbok Hooker and SuperSport Presenter
• Jacques Henning – Owner of SA’s Favourite Sports Blog, TheYellowCap.com

Pretty impressive if you asked me!

I was privileged enough to sit between Gavin Hunt and our National Ladies Rugby team coach Lawrence Sephaka. What an amazing two guys to have met along with the rest of #TeamReignOfTerras.

Dan Nicholl was the MC and being very ill on the night he just showed how good he is at what he does. Well done Dan!!

With all the rules explained, and the only rule besides having fun was to have your mobile devices on silent and screens facing down on the table to avoid the temptation of Google, we were ready to get going.

The evening was divided into two halves of three categories each with a dinner break in between.

Excitement overload it was for Owen Nkumane and me as we were making our quiz debuts.

Questions were asked and teams then had to write down their answers. Some questions were easy and some really stumped us, but we deliberated answers while Mr Hunt would just flick a “coin” and say “go with that answer” while checking out his phone for what we assumed were new deals and signings for the upcoming January transfer window.

The room was buzzing with everyone making sure they got the right answers and before we knew it the first three rounds were over and all our answers were collected for the judges to review while dinner was served.

Another round of applause to the caterers for the glorious food that was dished up! Goodness me, everything from the salads to the rice, veggies and meat was out of this world! I can still taste the chicken…!

Stomachs full and drinks refilled it was time for the second half of the evening to get underway.

Mr Nicholl read out the scores after the first three categories and we weren’t where we wanted to be but we were still in with a chance, so it was time to put our game faces on and get in there, so to speak.

Onto the next three categories which included rugby and football. Once again we found some easy answers and sometimes we were found wondering where our minds had gone. Two of the questions on the night we were really shocked to have hit a blank was, who beat Ronda Rousey recently and who were the 2 Six Nations rugby players that made up the 6 World Rugby Player of the Year nominees…we knew the faces but could not remember the names…sad but true hehehe

Again it was time to collect the answers and then came the announcement everyone was waiting for…

We were in the prizes so checkbox number one was ticked; to our disappointment we came sixth only 5 points behind overall and third year running victors, Frontiers Sport.

In our opinion it was actually a very good performance and one we are very keen to improve on in the near future.

How would I summarise my overall experience of the event as a whole?

Fan-bloody-tastic!!!!

That is all I can say to Dave Brooke and his team from Builders on an event well hosted!

We have already agreed on a return and our only goal in mind is to dethrone Frontiers Group! We are coming for you in 2016 so best you sharpen up and beware of #TeamReignOfTerras

*Photos by Johan Rynners Photography