Dr Tim Paulden, RSS Quizmaster, writes…
Back in December, we published a special 30th anniversary edition of the RSS Christmas Quiz, featuring no fewer than eighteen fiendish puzzles created by a variety of setters. We were delighted to receive more entries than ever before – more than forty in total – with the top entries being separated by just a handful of marks.
The winning entry this year was submitted by
Benedict Howell and Susannah Williams, who are awarded our first prize of a £100 gift voucher of their choice. In second place – just a couple of points behind – was the team comprising
Jonny White, Tom Barrett, Ima Bishop, Patrick Gildersleve, and Jake Barrett, who receive a £50 gift voucher of their choice.
Finishing in third place was the team comprising
Charlotte Desvages, Chrissy Fell, Alan Goddard, and Ben Goddard, and in fourth place,
Andy Knott, Hannah Knott, and Sam Knott.
The Quizmaster will be making an overall charitable donation of
£950 this year, which will be divided among the good causes listed below – these have been nominated by our top four finishers, and by the other 31 teams and individual solvers who achieved a score of 30% or more:
Nominated by our top four finishers:
- £100 to Edinburgh Dog and Cat Home (nominated by Jonny White, Tom Barrett, Ima Bishop, Patrick Gildersleve, and Jake Barrett)
- £80 to Shelter (nominated by Charlotte Desvages, Chrissy Fell, Alan Goddard, and Ben Goddard)
- £70 to Action Against Hunger (nominated by Andy Knott, Hannah Knott, and Sam Knott)
Nominated by teams scoring 30% or more (distributed according to points scored):
- £26 to The Bridge Foundation (nominated by Tim Green, Tony Green, Gordon Cameron, Annabelle Patel, and Derek Pugh)
- £25 to The Friary, Nottingham (nominated by Becky Russell)
- £25 to Shelter (nominated by James Taverner, Mattias Andersson, and Angus Walker)
- £24 to Cancer Research UK (nominated by Michael Mazur)
- £24 to Shelter (nominated by Simon Wiltshire, Catherine Wiltshire, and Isabel Wiltshire)
- £23 to Sense (nominated by Rosie Barron and Gerad Carter)
- £21 to RSPCA (nominated by Mark Payton, Gordon Emslie, Merrall Price, and Mackenzie Payton)
- £19 to St Columba’s Hospice Care (nominated by the Scottish Scrabblers – Chris Cummins, Simon Gillam, and Ross Mackenzie)
- £19 to the Woodland Trust (nominated by Andrew Reid)
- £18 to the Motor Neurone Disease Association (nominated by David Harris)
- £18 to the Trussell Trust (nominated by Marc Wiseman)
- £17 to World Central Kitchen (nominated by Heidi Kirsch, Jason Griesbach, and Mark Lew)
- £16 to Marie Curie (nominated by Clive Richardson)
- £16 to Mind (nominated by Jim Myers)
- £16 to Refugee Action York (nominated by Vincent L Fish)
- £15 to the Alzheimer's Society (nominated by Craig Fothergill, Alvin Kissoon, and Deane Short)
- £15 to Battersea Dogs & Cats Home (nominated by Ellen Williams and Abi Williams)
- £15 to Papyrus UK (nominated by Ian Davies)
- £14 to Cancer Research UK (nominated by David Blacknell)
- £13 to The Brain Tumour Charity (nominated by Mary Ann Collins and Dave Monteiro)
- £13 to the Child Rights International Network (nominated by The Big Load – Susi Kerndle, Peter Treitler, Stephan Lendl, and Thomas Doppelreiter)
- £12 to Ehlers-Danlos Support UK (nominated by Andrew Lawson)
- £12 to Rare Dementia Support (nominated by Tim Fowler)
- £11 to Alopecia UK (nominated by Neil Lynam and Anita Lynam)
- £11 to Animal Aid (nominated by the Cambridge Vegans – Andrea Chlebikova, Oscar Gillespie, Jessica Rigley, Dominic Plunkett, and Sarah Lambert)
- £11 to Swan Support (nominated by Jonathan Wells)
- £11 to the World Wide Fund for Nature (nominated by Darren Lee)
- £10 to the American Hearing Research Foundation (nominated by Sam Peterson)
- £10 to Médecins Sans Frontières (nominated by Michelle Wang, Sing-Young Chen, and Kevin Tam)
- £10 to RNLI (nominated by Brenda Mandeville)
- £10 to the Samaritans (nominated by the Jackson / Billington Families)
Many congratulations to all our prizewinners!
If you enjoyed solving the puzzles in this year’s quiz,
please do consider making a small donation to one of the good causes above – or another charity close to your heart.
Our winners, Benedict Howell and Susannah Williams, write: “We are absolutely delighted to win the 30th edition of this quiz, which once again provided hours and hours of puzzling fun over the Christmas period. We really enjoyed participating in the puzzle-making process too, a fabulous initiative that spawned a fantastic variety of colourful, multi-layered contributions, so to emerge victorious from such an obviously talented group of entrants is an honour and a pleasure. We are also very grateful for the generous donation to The Brain Tumour Charity.”
OK – time for the
Solutions to the RSS Christmas Quiz 2023!
If you’d like to take another look at the quiz page before reading the solutions,
the puzzles are still available.
The RSS Christmas Quiz 2023 was created and edited by the RSS Quizmaster, Dr Tim Paulden, and is dedicated to the memory of Richard Job. Many thanks to all those who participated in this year’s competition.