The pub’s owners have issued a statement on social media and said they have ‘lost custom’ in recent weeks due to the claims
A pub quiz team have been banned from their local boozer after ‘caught red-handed’ cheating.
The Barking Dog in Higher Road in Urmston, Greater Manchester, holds a complimentary quiz every Wednesday evening which is promoted as being conducted in the traditional manner using paper, with mobile phones prohibited.
The independent alehouse and kitchen, which has featured in the Good Pub Guide for five years in a row, occupies a building constructed in 1939 that originally functioned as a post office.
The premises was subsequently renovated and relaunched as a pub in 2017, and has been operated by proprietor Mark Rachham ever since.
Writing on the establishment’s Facebook page after this week’s quiz night, the owners revealed they had apprehended a team cheating following a period of accusations, The Manchester Evening News reports.
The pub stated it had lost clientele in recent weeks due to the allegations, which had previously been unsubstantiated owing to insufficient evidence.
The post read: “We are disappointed to say that there has been a team cheating in our quiz. There have been suspicions for a while but no concrete evidence. This unfortunately may have cost us some genuine custom.
“Last night we caught the team red handed and they have been banned. We hope that any of our genuine quizzers we may have lost, come back.”
In the post, they reiterated: “Although some might think its not that serious, we know other teams had stopped coming because of them, due to suspicions that they had been cheating for a while. They have now been banned from the quiz and that has to be our policy.”
Punters responded to the announcement with a blend of support for the decision and bewilderment over why anyone would bother cheating at their neighbourhood pub quiz.
One person questioned: “How desperate do you have to be to cheat in a fun pub quiz?” Another joked: “And the team is… Rebecca Vardy!” A third observed: “it’s always the minority who spoil it for the rest.”
Someone else remarked: “Quite hard to cheat in a Pub Quiz because of the way the questions are put!” The establishment replied: “Very easy to cheat with traditional paper quizzes. We just hope that people are honest and genuine. Unfortunately there are a few bad apples out there.”
Curious customers also attempted to work out how the cheaters had been caught red-handed.
One said “How did u catch them?” The pub responded: “I can’t share those secrets.”
Another suggested: “They switched the Internet off.”
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