Pub bans quiz team trio that keep winning

Three friends have been banned from a pub quiz because their “constant winning” left punters disgruntled and caused attendance numbers to dwindle.

The pub quiz is a British institution

The ‘Storming Norman’ pub quiz team, made up Nick Mepham, 49, Graham Deaves, 65, and Norman Hughan, 82, were banned from entering the weekly pub quiz at The Horn in St Albans after winning the pot 11 times since May 2015.

Speaking to The Telegraph the pub’s co-owner, Adrian Bell, said they had “started getting grumblings from other people about their constant winning”, adding that the number deciding to take part in the quiz had started to go down.

“People thought they were professional quiz goers because they were always so many points ahead”, Bell said. “When we spoke to them we suggested that it might be healthy for the quiz if they take a break for a little while, to get the numbers back up.”

Mr Bell said the team would be welcome to come back to the quiz once the attendance numbers were back up. The trio however had said they felt “insulted” by the ban which they believe to be unjustified.

“In our eyes we were making the quiz more competitive”, said Mr Mepham. “There had been no official complaints about us for winning too much and the ban wasn’t made because we had been cheating. Before we came a long another team had been winning lots. The ban hasn’t been justified.”

The cost of taking part in The Horn pub quiz is £2 per person with the jackpot often reaching a four-figure sum.