The MQL Council hopes that all players and their families are keeping safe and well as this extraordinary period continues. Many of you have embraced ingenious alternative techniques to keep on quizzing during the lockdown. These include using the telephone, emails and shared documents to video conference platforms such as Meet and Zoom, with the quizzes themselves ranging from nationally organised Leagues to informal gatherings. Whatever you are doing we hope that you are satisfying your ‘quiz needs’!!
We are all obviously looking forward to meeting up and getting back to face to face quizzing as soon as we can. However, regardless of the schedule for the easing of the regulations on assemblies and the opening of pubs and clubs, there are issues that the MQL must consider before a return to any form of normal quiz league activity. Most importantly it is vital that teams and officials are safe in getting to and from venues and also that once there, they have the space to enable social distancing. But also the venues themselves may be struggling to re-open and if they do, can they afford to be as accommodating to quiz matches on Mondays and Tuesdays as they were?
The MQL Council will continue meeting once a month to consider how the latest developments will impact on the Quiz Leagues, however, at the time of writing it is likely that the traditional September start to the new season will be delayed. So with that in mind, Area Secretaries have been asked to contact their teams to find out how much interest there might be in some sort of temporary MQL run on-line quiz league. It is anticipated that this would fill the gap until normal Quiz League activity can recommence. It is appreciated that this will unfortunately exclude those without access to the necessary technology, but it is stressed that this is just a short term solution to a problem that will hopefully be resolved as soon as possible.
We look forward to hearing any thoughts and ideas you might have through your Area Secretaries.