Cheating pub quiz team sparks 'massive whodunnit'

A pub quizmaster sparked a "massive whodunnit" after he outed a team for cheating on social media but refused to name them.

Mark Rackham, who owns the Barking Dog in Urmston, Greater Manchester, said he and colleagues solved "the crime of a century" when they caught the team "cheating red-handed" when they were spotted whispering into their smartwatches to get answers during the competition.

The pub owner and landlord shared the news in a social media post but chose not to name the cheating team, which he said had led to massive speculation.

"Everyone's desperate to know who's done it. I was at a council meeting the next day and people were coming over and asking me about the quiz," he said.

Landlord Mark Rackham runs the popular quiz every Wednesday

Mr Rackham runs a weekly pub quiz with his colleague Rob Hardy every Wednesday.

He said the quiz was supposed to be low-stakes fun but he began losing competitors after the same team won every week.

"We kept having a repeating team winning and who were getting the obscure answers right," he said

"That then led to us having to put a complete ban on people having their phones out but we've never thought we'd have to enforce that because most people enjoy the spirit of the thing."

The investigation began in earnest when he received an anonymous phone call from a quiz regular, tipping him off.

"When I found out, I was disappointed because we're losing our paying customers," he said.

'Caught red-handed'

He asked his quiz co-host Mr Hardy to keep an eye on the team the following week and he spotted them whispering into their smart watches and using an app to identify songs during the music round.

"He caught them red-handed and, as a result, we've banned them from taking part in future quizzes," he said.

Mr Rackham said he had announced the discovery on social media in the hope it would bring back the teams that had left.

"Our sole purpose was to try and get those customers back," he said.

"Everyone who works at the pub is getting messages about it. It's like a massive whodunnit."

Mr Rackham said he would not be naming the disgraced team and, even though they were banned from the quiz, they were still welcome in the pub.

"I only posted it online because I thought let's try and get the good teams that stopped doing it," he said.

"It takes some of the fun away when you know people are cheating.

"We have a lot of regulars. Now they know we'll take action and won't stand for cheating."