The Stockport quizmaster entertaining lockdown students across the country

A Stockport quizmaster is providing hundreds of university students in lockdown or quarantine with some much-needed entertainment.

Professional quiz host Tony Murphy has been recruited by Student Castle, which operates a portfolio of high-quality student accommodation in seven cities across the UK, including York, Oxford, Cambridge and Edinburgh, to run a series of virtual pub quizzes for students over the coming weeks.

The initiative was born out of a desire to provide some entertainment to students living in its accommodation, many of whom are international students who are quarantining off the back of their trip to the UK.

Mr Murphy is running the quizzes using SpeedQuizzing Live, our app and online hosting platform that allows users to remotely connect and play in real-time through their phone, laptop or tablet.

The first virtual quiz hosted by Tony took place last week, with dozens of students of all nationalities battling it out over a series of fast-paced rounds, with a series of Amazon vouchers up for grabs for the top three teams. Interest in his quizzes is rapidly spreading and it’s expected that events over the coming weeks could attract as many as 150 teams at a time.

Commenting on the initiative, Tony Murphy says: “It’s great to have the opportunity to bring a little light-relief and entertainment to students up and down the country during these bizarre times.

“Virtual quizzing brings people together and creates a sense of community in a Covid-secure environment where people can have some fun and a bit of a laugh – and right now, that’s more important than ever.

Mitchell Jones, partnership executive at Student Castle, said: “We pride ourselves on providing students with a first-class experience, and while this year is a little different to previous years to say the least, we hope that initiatives like the virtual quizzes help students to settle in and make the most of a difficult situation.”

Tony Murphy has been running venue-based Speedquizzes for the last six years at various locations across the North West, including the University of Salford, where he currently hosts a hugely popular regular weekly pub quiz. During the lockdown, Tony used SpeedQuizzing Live to continue to run quizzes, albeit remotely, with many of these attracting in excess of 50-100 teams.

Anyone looking to host or play fast-paced, interactive pub quizzes, either virtually or in a venue, can find out how to do so by visiting Speedquizzing.com.