Biography
Born May 20th 1954 of an Irish mother and English father and brought up as a Roman Catholic. Trevor was a precocious child academically but an inherent love of sport always helped to develop playground credibility! All-round sportsman who became Crawley Sportsman of the Year in 1981 & 1982 and still competing actively in fitness competitions. Placed third in the 2000 Peugeot Zest National Fitness Championships from a field of over 10,000 giving away many years to all the competitors, and the following year gained a top ten placing in a cycling time-trial open race, on debut. and managed a first-placing in an open in 2004. Other hobbies include any kind of magic, playing guitar, karaoke, theatre, and studying the Bible, although his Christian beliefs are more a way of life than a hobby.
Competent in many mind sports but especially bridge, chess, puzzle solving, and general knowledge quizzes. Joined Mensa in the 1970s after winning the Evening News sponsored 'Brain of London' competition and began totting up radio and television appearances as a quiz contestant.
The Krypton Factor was an early successful show and other appearances include Brain of Britain, Challenge of the South, Connections, Countdown, Crosswits, Cryptogram, Discovery Mastermind, Fifteen-to-One, Five's Company Quiz, Game For A Laugh, It's Anybody's Guess, Mastermind, Masterteam, Runway, Say the Word, Think Tank, Thousand-to-One, Today's the Day, Treasure Trail, Winner Takes All, The Weakest Link, Who Wants To Be A Millionaire and many others .
In 1997 alone rattled up 32 television quiz appearances including series wins of 15 to 1 and Today's the Day. Talk Shows and Documentaries include the Esther Rantzen Show, This Morning with Richard & Judy, The Gerry Ryan Show, and The Big Breakfast.
Founded the British Quiz Association in 1999, which held the first-ever British Quiz Championship at Olympia later that year. In 2001 the Association was opened for membership and the ever-growing numbers include virtually all of the very best British quiz players as well as many of the rank and file players who simply enjoy taking part.
The A to Z of almost Everything was published in November 2001 and became the reference book of the year in 2002. The best-selling work has already established itself as the definitive reference book for settling family arguments, crossword solving, and of course, quiz-playing research. The third edition is to be published in September 2005.
Trevor had a successful cycling season in 2004, winning five club trophies with the Crawley Wheelers Cycling Club. His A to Z of Sport was published in November 2004 and has also been well-received by the public.
A spectacular failure in 2005 was Trevor’s appearance on WWTBAM when he was unsure of an answer to a question to make the safe haven of £32,000 so asked the audience with calamitous results as 92 per cent gave the wrong answer, the correct answer registering only 8 per cent!! Trevor went with the audience and toddled off with £1,000, a little upset he didn’t earn more for his charities. Perhaps when he reminded the audience of the producer’s instructions not to guess, it didn’t help that Chris chimed in with “they’re not going to take any notice of that, they’re on national television”
Trevor is a member of his local parish church and the Labour Party, being a staunch supporter of his local MP, Laura Moffatt, surely the most hard-working of all MPs. He is currently working on The A to Z of the British Isles due out in 2007.
Interview
Trevor, before we start is there anything you would like me not to ask you about?
That sounds a little ominous! But no, fire away, although if you start me off on religion or politics it could be a very long interview!
Trevor, did you always have an enquiring mind as a child?
Yes I suppose I did really. From the earliest I can remember I was obsessed with reading anything and everything and as I have quite a retentive memory you might say I was born to be a trivia-buff.
So did this make school examinations easy for you?
Well if I tell you my nickname at school was 'brains' that may give you a clue. I even remember the lad that coined the phrase, Peter Holden, God bless him. I loved him but hated the epithet. I was always top-boy in the class but I craved popularity and was very conscious of being labelled a nerd so I rebelled. Fortunately for me I happened to be a good all-round sportsman and this deflected a lot of the potential bullying and then I had a magnificent stroke of luck which stood me in good stead for the rest of my schooling. Whilst standing in the queue for my school dinner one day an older boy, a certain Mr Courtenay, decided to attack me by jumping on my back. Now the reflex action to take when this occurs is to bend forward in an attempt to remove the invading body as quickly as possible. This is the action I took and poor Mr Courtenay was stunned as were the rest of the assembled horde. The legend had begun. You do not mess with Montague cos he beats up older boys! Of course later on I did manage to learn some proper self-defence techniques but as I have an overwhelming fear of the sight of blood, especially my own, I have rarely had to use them.
So what was your home-life like. Do you have any brothers and sisters?
Yes, I have four brothers and a sister. They were all sporty types as well and played for the school and county at football and cricket. It was great being a part of a large sporty family as we always had something to do. Even my mum was a dab-hand with the willow and has scored many a four in her time.
Did you have this same feeling of wanting to be accepted by your family as you did with your schoolfriends?
Sort of but in a loving way. They would encourage mostly and to be honest I was something of a head-banger anyway. Wild-child my brother Gary called it. I was forever breaking bones in an attempt to break some piece of wood or whatever as part of my training routine and as we had the most colourful upbringing you could possibly imagine, I found myself in many a scrape, none of which I am inclined to mention to you!
Can you elaborate on this for us?
Well I was always pulling pranks and into some sort of mischief. I remember one year at the School Cross Country Championships I started a book on the race and gave fantastic odds on all the runners, Billy Daniels 10-1, Martin Burton 20-1 (they had both placed 2nd and 4th the previous year when running against boys two years older) but I knew that although I was a sprinter I could win the race if I tried. So that is what I did. I left myself out of the betting, won the race and had a coup on the scale of a Barney Curley special. Don't get me wrong we had the greatest camaraderie you could possibly imagine. We still have regular school reunions and I have remained friendly with all my old school chums. It was a special time.
So did you have any other hobbies apart from keeping fit?
Oh yes many of them but my greatest love was magic, any magic. Close up, illusions, card-tricks, I loved them all. I was a great fan of David Nixon (the Paul Daniels of his day) and was given one of his magic sets as a Christmas present and was hooked. Just by chance as I was practicing my tricks one day I realised I had the ability to pick cards from the pack at will. Please don't laugh, it is quite true. I do not believe in the supernatural in the traditional sense of ghosts, ghouls and goblins but I have learnt through my martial arts training that the human spirit is largely untapped as an amazing natural source of energy.
I remember a time when I had developed my ability to the point that my inner-self felt capable of anything. My brother Gary was always getting me to do my party piece for friends down the pub. It would start by me memorising a pack of cards but then develop into choosing cards at will, then I would get "how many fags in that packet behind the bar". Don't ask me how I did it because I haven't a clue and the cynics will say I either used tricks or have selective memory of my failures but I did not use tricks although I did struggle to convince my eldest brother Mike of my ability as I became so keen to convince him I often failed when performing for him. However when I was hot I was hot.
I remember one evening at my sister June's I was so confident I felt the force was with me to the extent that I not only picked four straight cards from the deck but I then threw the cards on the floor and asked her to name a card. "Ten of clubs" she said. Ok, it was boring now to merely pick the ten of clubs myself so I asked her to let her cat walk over the cards and he will choose one. Sure enough the cat not only walked over the cards but proceeded to pick one up in its mouth, you guessed it, the ten of clubs. This ability began to freak me out a little so I simply stopped doing it. I have no explanation as to why this phenomena should occur except to say that I have always had highly developed senses and sensibilities but who knows, after all, it's impossible isn't it?
Sorry to change a very interesting subject Trevor but could I now ask you when you developed your love of quizzing?
Well it was always there ready to blossom I suppose. I used to play Magic Robot as a child and became a bit of a walking junior encyclopaedia as I spent a lot of my time with my nose in the Guinness Book of Records and Whitaker's Almanack. I joined Mensa as a teenager when it was quite an exclusive club and we used to have a very active games section and one of the lads gave me a Pears Quiz Book written by Gyles Brandreth. Despite reports to the contrary this was in fact the only book I ever memorised from cover to cover. I did later read Bamber Gascoigne's Encyclopaedia of Britain from cover to cover over a four-day period but this was for a research chore.
As these things go the most fortuitous case of serendipity was to befall me as a result of good old Gyles. In the late 1980s a premium rate telephone quiz called "snookered" was launched and for over five years I totally monopolised it. Why? Well the original database for the quiz was taken from Gyles' book. So I knew how heavy the earth was, what distance you could see at a height of five feet, and other seemingly impossible items of trivia.
So did you ever go on the quiz-machine circuit?
Well I had rather a bizarre introduction to the "pro" circuit. My dear friend and fellow top quiz-player Eric Carden (one of the few to beat Kev Ashman in a televised one-on-one quiz) was an established pro by the mid 1980s and I was paid to "mind" Gatwick Airport for the local pros and ensure the Heathrow lot didn't invade their territory. This consisted of me sidling up to a recognised pro and in my friendly manner let slip reports of this guy Terry that roamed the airport looking for the chancing pros from foreign fields. Terry became a legend and the local lads including Eric told tales of this Terry being seven foot tall and built like the proverbial brick outhouse. (not Trevor's actual words).
Rather embarrassingly, one of the players known at Heathrow who took away-day trips was Andrew Curtis, who later became a good friend of mine and was my partner when I won the Today's The Day series in 1997! At this time I did not believe you could actually win money on quiz machines but after watching these guys play at the airport I soon changed my view. Eric knew of my quiz prowess and decided to show me the ropes and we formed a partnership covering every pub south of the Watford Gap. We logged the pub name, machine type, when the machine was changed last, frequency of play, and most importantly, the questions and answers. Being a near tee-total I was rather naïve in the early days and would stroll into a pub without buying a drink, empty the machine after logging some of the more tricky answers and wonder why I was asked to leave.
Eric soon put me straight and my usual tipple became a pint of Guinness (a swift half singles you out as a pro) which would invariably find itself feeding a pot plant or flushing the loo. Within a couple of months I had learnt all the answers to several machines including crosswords, quiz vader, treble-top, give us a clue, every second counts, inquisitor and question of sport. I was actually making far more money from quizzing than I was in my proper job as an accountant. We had some great laughs on our days out and Eric used to get so embarrassed when we clocked up £100 on a machine he would insist on waiting outside when I pressed the "collect" button.
Eric would sniff out machines in the most unlikely of places and on one occasion we found a "concentration" in the Romford Odeon. This was a favourite machine of ours when we were together as it consisted of having to remember playing cards and this was easy with two of us. We clocked up £80 on this machine before getting bored but when we pressed "collect" all hell broke loose. It was a particularly noisy machine and attracted the attention of all the staff who rushed over to see what was going on as we were not meant to be in the cinema. Quick as a flash Eric said "it's alright, we've just won the jackpot and it's paid out in 10p pieces. "That's alright love" said the cashier, "I'll change it up for you". "No, no" Eric replied, "I collect 10p pieces" Phew!
By now I had resorted to buying 100 shares in every brewery so when I was threatened with bans I would produce my certificates and wait for the grovelling apology. Unfortunately we had some unsavoury incidents too and on one occasion a publican smashed a glass on the machine and held the jagged edge to my throat. This did not deter me but when my sister asked me not to go in her local pub in Horley, as the guvnor was a friend of hers, this was when I made the decision to bow out while I was ahead as I began to get the message that what I was doing was perceived as seedy. Of course this was jealousy and I defy anyone who has the ability to make money in such an enjoyable way to refrain from doing so. For the statisticians among you our record day's take was £422 net profit (£460 gross) and my own personal average weekly take was invariably in excess of £1,000 thanks to the twice-daily airport raids. I was often warned about Terry but preferred to take my chances!
So when did you have the idea of forming the British Quiz Association?
Good question. It was something that was thrust upon me rather than an idea of my own. After being part of the winning team in the first Mind Sports Olympiad I was invited by the organisers to administer the quiz the following year. I became friendly with Lady Mary Tovey and David Levy and it is in fact David that should take the credit for the idea. He felt that quizzing should be on par with his own mind sport of chess and he asked me to gather a band of people together to try and achieve this aim. So we had our first meeting at a Chinese restaurant off Leicester Square and I left full of hope that we could begin something worthy.
Unfortunately, as often happens when the initial enthusiastic rallying calls die down, nothing much happened. Vic and Dave Steadman were busy building their Quizmail empire, Kev Ashman was busy conquering such empires, Ann Kelly was already on numerous other committees, Tony Sherwood and Eric Carden were job-hunting etc etc. I remained keen to proceed with the venture but needed to rethink a strategy. Having taken part in the North v South matches for the Quiz League of London I always felt there was a north/south divide among quizplayers and there should be more unity. I had formed a group of quizzing friends from my numerous television appearances and of course I had my pals from the Mastermind Club and my own local league team. All of these groups appeared separate and distinct from one another and I have to say very insular in their habits.
My dream was for there to be a global quiz fraternity and sorority, a recognised British Quiz Championships, ranking system, feedback from production companies and a general forum for like-minded people. I certainly did not want to be the one to establish this as I was by now well immersed in the production of the A to Z. The problem was that the sensitive words I required for the company name meant that I had to be sponsored personally as a fit person to administer a national organisation. This responsibility tends to focus the mind somewhat and by now I felt it was my duty to all my high-profile friends who wrote to Companies House on my behalf to try and make a success of the BQA.
Once my probation period was over and I was given the company name I went about recruiting its first officers. Mark Labbett I had met at the first British Quiz Championships, a very good quizplayer, outspoken but sharing some of my views, particularly on the subject of unscrupulous television production companies. Mark put me in touch with Rob Linham, a young enthusiastic quiz-setter and organiser. The third member of the original committee was Will Jones who was brought in on recommendation as our website administrator. To show that this was intended to be a self-perpetuating committee I asked a friend of mine, the Mastermind Club President, Tony Dart, if he would chair the meeting. We met at the Post House in Reading and the British Quiz Association was launched. A friend of Rob's, one Jack Waley-Cohen joined us shortly after the launch as did Peter Ediss, a friend of Will's.
To move on I would like to ask you about the 15 to 1 affair. Could you give the background to the case?
Ah clever, that's why you asked me that first question. I first appeared on 15 to 1 in 1989 and my appearance lasted a total of six seconds as I managed to answer the first two questions incorrectly i.e. apart from the mathematical connotation what is fraction and I couldn't recall who the presenter of PM was on Radio 4. I knew the rule about repeat performances but as I was fortunate enough to have a non-de-plume I had worked under previously I couldn't resist another crack although my intention was not to actually try and win the show. All my friends at my kung fu club and athletics club were in on the joke and my quizzing pal Eric Carden came with me to the recording and can vouch that it was just a joke.
We initially bought a syrup for me to wear but it was more like a hat so on the day of the recording my niece Mandy waxed my hair back and I wore four earrings to complete a new image. I described myself as a freelance writer rather than accountant as this was true although not my main profession at the time. I did start to panic a little when contestants began to drop like flies as I did not want to make the final three and risk the chance of my competitive juices flowing. In the end it worked out fine and gave a lot of people some laughs and no harm was done.
Throughout the summer and autumn of 1996 I was heavily involved with a brand new Channel 4 series called "Wanted". My fellow quiz pal Tim Westcott and I had been filming all sorts of audition and then promotional material. Wanted was the original reality television series and involved two members of the public being let loose in the British Isles and the idea was for them to stay on the run for up to seven weeks and be paid £1,000 per day for their ingenuity. We showed a lot of creativity and guile and were rewarded with the offer of being the first runners out. Now we both showed tremendous commitment to this show and it actually was going to cost me a small fortune in paying someone to cover my work for me and Tim was in even more of a quandary as he was only given three weeks leave of absence and might have required seven weeks if we were still going strong. Tim had the dilemma of having to decide whether we were caught on purpose after three weeks or simply jack his job in as Group Treasury Accountant with Motorola.
As it happened all this was irrelevant as two days before we were due to hit the streets we were pulled without any explanation and asked if we would mind running sometime within the following two weeks. This was bizarre as all the literature and documentation had been drawn-up and we had filmed all the promotional stuff to be shown as trailers. However we did not panic and Tim felt at least this would solve his dilemma as it was more likely now only to be a three week stint anyway. Week after week went by and we heard zilch. We became rather concerned as the imminent runners were shown in a cage on the live Sunday broadcasts and we had not even made the cage stages yet.
On the seventh and final week we were told that we would be in the cage and running as long as someone was caught. This may mean we were to be carried over to the next series but we went along with it all with good grace. We turned up for the last evening and were placed in the cage for the last show and as luck would have it not only did we not go on the run but as it was a live broadcast I just happened to be in the loo when they decided to film the one shot of the cage so I was never even seen on screen although Tim did have a brief cameo performance!
Now, William G. Stewart was the executive producer of Wanted and Tim and I were invited to the end of series bash on the 18 December 1996. During the evening William G. Stewart offered both of us a crack at 15 to 1 no questions asked, no audition, no pack drill. At this stage Tim was shortly to be seconded to Chicago and as he was still hopeful of appearing on the next series of Wanted, declined the offer. I had no intention of having anything more to do with this production company who had literally made Tim and I jump through hoops so I accepted the offer by way of compensation for our shoddy, but alas typical, treatment.
I rang Debbie at Capital Studios and told her of the arrangement and I was eventually given a February date that suited me as another quiz pal Ritchie Venner was filming the same day. Ritchie and I met a first-time player at the hotel and from our conversations in the bar we knew he was going to be a serious contender. He was a Scottish minister named Bill McKaig.
Poor Ritchie only answered one question wrongly during his appearance but was left standing as Bill went into overdrive scoring 243. My first win was not as spectacular as Bill's although I did manage to beat him in the Grand Final in March and better his score at a later date, but then of course he then replied by becoming the first person to answer all 40 final questions correctly and himself become champion!
Another interesting fact about this February appearance was that I was on heavy medication at the time as I have a chronic neck complaint which had reared up. I had been popping my prescribed drugs and other painkillers and made the mistake of having a pint of Guinness on top of them and my body began to hyperventilate. I knew I had a problem and just managed to make it to reception at the Lodge before flaking out completely.
An ambulance was called and I was taken to the Queen Mary hospital who thought I had taken a drug overdose despite my assurances. I was put on a drip and accompanied by a young female voluntary overseas worker who continually asked me what I had taken as she had been in this state herself when overdosing. I was given an injection and my body eventually stopped its spasms. I was parked on a trolley in a cupboard and when I awoke the next morning it was 11am. I was now in a complete panic as I was filming at noon so I asked for a taxi back to the hotel so I could get changed. I did eventually get a taxi but not until after I saw their psychiatrist who was convinced I was having a nervous breakdown. As it turned out he was soon to be proven right but that's another story.
When I arrived back at the hotel I was treated with contempt and told to vacate my room immediately. The girl had apparently told them I was obviously a user so nothing I could say would make them change their mind. I met another quiz pal Elaine Hill with whom I had appeared on Connections at the studios as she wanted to support me and she thought my street credibility was way up there after being thrown out of the Lodge. It was a surreal day and when I won my show and the credits were running I said to Bill "you wouldn't believe where I was two hours ago". I eventually bailed out sometime after my second Grand Final appearance and that was that, or rather it wasn't.
I was asked to appear on a Channel 4 themed quiz night and my item was to be included in a programme called Bob Monkhouse on the Quiz. Bill Stewart also filmed a 20 minute slot and I have no doubt he did not like me belittling his show by saying that I did not rank my 15 to 1 victory very highly in my list of quiz achievements as it was not difficult to win as the questions are repeated so often. The documentary was filmed on 23 March 1998 and on the very next day I received a letter from Mr Stewart demanding his prize back.
This letter included another undated and unsigned letter from an organisation called "The Fairplay Quiz League" which stated "are we right in thinking that your current 15 to 1 champion Trevor Montague is in fact one Steve Romana who appeared on the show in 1992. We think this man is a complete cad and a bounder" Now if anyone knows of the whereabouts of this organisation I would love to know. I fear it is more likely to be found within the pages of a P.G. Wodehouse novel.
In actuality the return of the prize was academic as Sotheby's had smashed it while in transit between their Billingshurst and Bond Street auction rooms after I sent it to be valued for insurance purposes. I had insured it for £3,000 as Mr Stewart had asked me to despite it being almost worthless as he had bought them all for a cheap job lot and they were damaged antiques having been broken previously. He had told other 15 to 1 winners to insure their prizes for £3,000 and I brought written evidence of this into the courtroom from Kevin Ashman. I was sent the invoice for 20 antiques and the most expensive one was £350!!
Mr Stewart would not accept £350 and was determined to go to County Court and buy himself a decision. I was inundated with paperwork every single day for the months leading up to the hearing, often his solicitor would write to me twice a day. I was in the throes of moving house and had all but exchanged when I found out he had put a stop on the sale and had frozen my bank accounts by way of lien. I was now in quite a bad way as it all began to take its toll on me. The doctor had put me on diazepam and seroxat as my body began to pack up on me through the worry of it all. I had days when I could not leave the toilet as my body would not hold food or even fluids.
Some of it was comical looking back I suppose. I had to call the doctor several times as my body reacted to the stress and I remember this one doctor was intrigued as to why as soon as I drank any water it would immediately be out the other end. My father was giving me a hard time for the shame I was unwittingly bringing upon him and I had set my heart on this lovely detached house in Crawley Down that backed on to a wood but could see it disappearing on the horizon by this vindictive and horrible man. On the day of the hearing Mr Stewart appeared with a full curly-wigged QC and I knew I was in trouble. It took me 20 minutes to actually enter the courtroom as I was surrouned by papperazi due to Mr Stewart appearing on every radio programme that would have him and calling me a cheat.
At our first hearing he had managed to get the judge to ask for my two decanters and crystal glasses that were given me for making Grand Finals. It was comical to watch News at Ten that night and see this young court usher walking from the boot of my car with these trinkets stuffed in two Tesco bags. I digress. The judge and the QC were old friends and that was that really. He found for Mr Stewart on some technicality that proved to be an error as a piece of paper he wanted to see was hidden among the six-inch thick file of correspondence and was only spotted at a later date. In view of this error I appealed and I suppose I had every right to suppose I might win the appeal but to be honest by now I just wanted my life back as I had been attacked in my local Crawley Hospital by a deranged person and things were becoming intolerable for me and my family.
Mr Stewart's court costs were running into the kind of money that would break me and I had already lost a few thousand on deposits etc while he caused my house sale to fail. My only way out was to take out a second mortgage and to offer to settle out of court. My Building Society gave me a terrible deal because of the lien but I just wanted to put an end to it all as I was really quite ill by now but putting on a front. I paid him £5,000 and it cost me another £5,000 on costs etc but it was a blessed relief. He got what he wanted as his failing viewing figures were once again up there in the top 20 for Channel 4 and he managed to sell the franchise of Regent Productions to Pearsons and keep his job as presenter for at least five years. I was just a pawn in his game.
The funny thing is after the settlement he asked me to sign a piece of paper to the effect that I would not talk to anyone about the case. The judge told him this was unenforceable in law but I was quick to agree as I hoped it would stop him from doing likewise. Despite offers of obscene amounts of money I have always declined to tell the true version of events although Mr Stewart is always very quick to talk about it. They wheeled him out yet again during the Major Ingrams trial to call me a cheat.
The truth is I have never commented even to closest friends about my true feelings about him or the case as I like to think I am a gentleman and the only people to even suggest I had in fact done anything to reproach myself about have been my own BQA committee who once suggested that perhaps I was not the right person to act as spokesman for us as my reputation has been tarnished. My appearance as Steve Romana was legitimate in the eyes of the law and was never an issue except by the tabloids of course. It was not allowed to be mentioned in court as it had no bearing on the case whatsoever.
The appearance I made in 1997 was deemed in contravention of his rule although I proved that numerous other people had been invited on the show again and again. The guy who stood next to me at number one when I was at number two on my farewell appearance had told me he had been on several times as he lived in Wandsworth so was always available at short notice. I would not have dreamt of applying to have another crack at the show and did not. I was invited onto the show by Mr Stewart without audition so he did not come to court with clean hands and so should not have been granted an equitable decision. Saying that, with the benefit of hindsight I would not have appeared in 1997 or even in 1992 if I could put back the clock but at least I probably saved the plug being pulled on a show that was dear to my heart.
That's quite a story Trevor. What has been the aftermath of the court case?
How do you mean?
Well did you begin the A to Z as a result of the court case?
Good heavens no. I began the book in 1994. The aftermath as you call it was embarrassment when I first met new acquaintances who did not really know me and of course I was banned by the BBC for some time. There was one awful occasion when I had travelled up to Manchester with Andy Curtis to appear in a celebrity edition of Today's the Day only to be told by Tim Brooke Taylor that I had been pulled. Tim was genuinely upset about it, but that's showbusiness.
I felt so much for Andy who is a smashing bloke that I love to bits and he was being penalised for something out of his control. He was great though as all my friends have been. At our next Mastermind function I was seated on the top-table and Magnus Magnusson awarded me the William G. Stewart Memorial Trophy which was very sweet although I really wish they hadn't bothered! Magnus did me another service, apart from the preface for the A to Z, when he arranged for me to go on the Esther Rantzen show and after making a public apology if my actions had upset anyone I received a fine letter from them and I was once again back in the fold and have recorded many shows for the BBC since and filmed at Capital Studios and stayed at the Lodge Hotel that once banned me as a drug addict!
Sorry Trevor I was just trying to establish a link to give you an opportunity to talk about the A to Z.
Bless you. I thought you were suggesting I began the project to retrieve some of my money. The A to Z was always a labour of love and was nearly completed by the time of the 15 to 1 affair.
So how did it come about. What made you feel the need to write it?
The last thing I want to do is criticise any other reference works as they all have some merit but I felt that as I had been quizzing at a high level for some years I knew the sort of thing i expected of a reference book. All of the existing books fell short as single-volume works as there was always too much padding, superfluous pictures or lack of depth. I was very fortunate once again in knowing the great Magnus, who had just had a book published by Little Brown (now Time Warner Books). He suggested I approach them and so I met his publisher Alan Samson during the filming of Magnus's This is Your Life at the Icelandic Embassy in London and we were on the same wavelength from the start. Alan is a Masterminder himself and he could see the possibilities immediately and we struck up a great rapport.
I think the great success of the work was even a surprise to Alan though and I remember him phoning me at Christmas in 2001 saying "Trevor, I do believe this book is actually going to make us some money" we purposely did not promote the book first time around as we wanted to see how it would do by word of mouth. Obviously risky from my point of view but essential for establishing the brand. It was offered as the featured book on an unprecedented two occasions by the Book Club Associates and became their best-selling book last year.
And when is the second volume in the shops?
Later this month (28 August 2003) although I hope to have some pre-launch copies available for the British Quiz Championships on 23/24 August.
How does it compare to the first volume?
Favourably I hope. It is a much larger book by necessity as all the information in the first volume remains although every section has been revised and updated as the new kids on the block are added. In a book with over one million words it was inevitable we were going to have some typos first time around and thanks to the many hundreds of letters we received pointing these out I think it is a much better finished article.
Obviously the current affairs section is completely new but there are a host of new subjects covered and included by popular demand. I am sure to forget some if you ask me to list them but off the top of my head they include an in-depth listing of Dickens' characters with brief biographies, Crime and Punishment section, top-tens of various things in 2002, Miss Worlds, Mr Men and Little Misses biographies (including the six new ones), a fully comprehensive list of every top-ten single since the inception of the charts, internet chat-room abbreviations, more sporting subjects, car registration plates, and a host of others.
Sounds great Trevor any chance of a freebie? Only joking. How is the new project coming along, The A to Z of Sport?
It is a mammoth task and although I am fortunate to have a half dozen friends from the BQA helping me in my weaker subjects it remains a monumental exercise and even more pressurised than the original A to Z.
How so?
Well, although the A to Z of almost Everything was a huge commitment it was always going to be as large as I wanted it to be and if I had got bored I could have said "That's it, no more". This is very different indeed. Sport is almost a finite subject and the public will expect to see comprehensive coverage of all mainstream sports and as many of the weird and wacky ones that I can unearth. I can't just say no marbles, it's silly, in fact we have a member of the many times world champion-winning team, The Black Dog Boozers, in the BQA so I don't think Neil White would thank me for omitting it. So it is a daunting prospect and I am already working 16-20 hour days on it. I am heartened this week by the offer of one of the most respected sports writers in the world, David Wallechinsky, to act as backstop to ensure accuracy and comprehension.
Indeed, I have copies of David's Olympic books and the book of lists he wrote with his father Irvine Wallace. How did you meet him?
I met David through Jeremy, who knows just about everyone of note in the world. I was invited to an informal dinner-party at Beadle Mansions and rather nervously brought Chris Hughes with me unannounced. David was staying at Jeremy's and big-hearted chap that he is it turned out that Jeremy had planned a sporting theme for the evening. Apart from David in attendance we had John Goodbody, the Chief Sports Writer with The Times, and Sue and Barry Hearn. Sue is a huge quiz fan and trivia buff and recognised Chris immediately so he was glad he came. It was the most amazing evening and as Jeremy said midway through the meal. If there were television cameras rolling it would be riveting viewing as one unguarded revelation after another became apparent.
Can you disclose any of these stories Trevor?
Nice try, but no. To be honest it was just a great evening of sporting chat and anecdotes by some very interesting people. It was also a highly intellectual gathering that reminded me of one of our Mastermind gatherings. I remember relaying the story of how I was ignominiously voted off on The Weakest Link when I asked Ann to qualify her question "What was the last play written by Shakespeare" I explained the situation as written in the A to Z and spoke of the probable collaborations with John Fletcher on Two Noble Kinsmen and possibly Henry VIII and how the former does not appear in the First Folio.
I then went on to mention Middleton's involvement in Measure for Measure and dated it at about 1604. Chris, who was still under the assumption we were talking of the final play scenario, piped in with "The Tempest was much later" "Yes" I said, rather smugly "about 1611 i believe, but the point I am making is, taking Fletcher out of the equation, the last collaboration would be Measure for Measure which some believe to have been penned by John Middleton. Quick as a flash John Goodbody intercepted with "I think you mean Thomas Middleton don't you" Doh! How often do conversations between Masterminders end in this fashion I thought, great stuff, good for the soul.
On the fly cover of the A to Z you list your proudest moment as your bronze medal in the 2000 Zest Peugeot National Fitness Championship, why so?
Well unlike the world quizzing championships with its field of 45! I had to overcome over 10,000 people just to make the final 12. Every gym in the country was involved and many of the usual suspects I have competed against for many years.
What did you have to do to qualify?
I competed in a series of competitions firstly in my own gym, part of the DC Leisure Group, then in local and area finals. In the area final i had to run three miles on a treadmill, cycle 5k on a lifecycle, row 2k and then run a mile flat out. This was all done with no rest in between and the clock was running all the time. I managed the fastest qualifying time of 26 minutes 41 seconds and I ran the last mile in 4 minutes 48 seconds. I say it was my proudest moment because I did this at the age of 45.
So how did the final go?
I travelled to Coventry with my friend Kev Ashman as he was keen to see me in a non-quizzing environment. It started fantastic for me as I managed to win the very first event, the batak wall. My reflexes had been honed by years of training and perhaps this is where I get my ability on the buzzer from. Kev was dying to have a crack at it as he felt his speed on the buzzer might stand him in good stead! The second event was the aerobic challenge and involved a 5k run, 5k cycle, 500ft climb and 2k row. I have taken part in many of these competitions over the last 25 years and am used to coming off the run first and as I set my pace at 5 minute mile it was a bit of a shock that I only started the cycle in third place. I clawed some time back on the cycle but the climb was not good for me and although my row was the best I only managed third place in my heat.
Fortunately my heat had all the fastest guys and nobody in the other two heats beat my time although the girls were given three minutes start. The assault course came next and it was a marathon course. It was not good for me. I flew round the first half and managed the hundred press-ups straight off and the 25 dips but as the bar chins followed I could not manage the 25 straight off and in fact came off for a brief second after 14. This was highly embarrassing for me as I have completed 66 bar chins in a minute during competitions and my worst effort ever had been 43 but unfortunately I have developed a chronic neck complaint over the years and I had not been able to practice the chins at all. I managed the rest of the course quite well but was only fifth overall and had now dropped down to third in the overall standings.
The weightlifting came next and as I was the heaviest person in the competition I had to lift more than others to win but despite a disaster in the arm curls I managed to complete 10x 105kg bench press and 10x165kg deadlift which was enough to win that event. When all was said and done I had come third to the two guys who beat me in the aerobic section and I felt that was a fitting result. I had put myself through a year of hell to get in shape for this competition and I ended up in hospital for a few days after it as I developed electrical problems in my heart due to enlarged heart muscle. My sponsor, Esporta Leisure, pulled out soon after so I made that competition my last and decided to take up cycling.
Yes, I notice you mention your top ten placing in your first open event. How is it going?
I had done some sprint cycling when I was younger and with my fitness competition background it was an obvious sport to try and I took to it very well. It is unusual to take up cycle racing in your 40s but then again I am one of the top guys in the country on a rowing ergo and yet I have never rowed on water so I knew I could transfer my stationary cycle skills to the road. Anyway I have not managed another Open race since my initial success as I have not had the time to enter one with my books, quiz hosting and BQA duties, I intend to have a crack at a top open event next year though as I will be 50 and it will mean something if I can manage to beat a few young stars.
Thank you for your time Trevor and for being so candid.
A pleasure.