Some of you may be already be aware of the Black Mountains Lions? Whether it be for the fireworks display in November we organise, the car parking at the Hay Festival we do, the raffle tickets you see us selling . . . fingers crossed the little people in our area are now even more aware of us following a successful quiz held at Gwernyfed High School on Friday 30th January 2009.

The Quiz was organised by the president Pat Holmes, she has many ideas for the Club and one of them is to get children involved, making them aware of the on going work the Black Mountains Lions do. Towards the end of 2008 Pat contacted all our local Junior Schools with the idea of holding a quiz for children in years 5 and 6 of Primary School. John Hopkins was also asked if the Drama Studio could be used to hold the Quiz, us Lions thought it would be nice for the children, as many of them would be attending this High School in the near future – John Hopkins was more than happy to help.

I left Gwernyfed High School in 1999 so for me it was nice to re-visit the School, on my way down to the Drama Studio I passed a few familiar faces, I wonder if they recognised me as an ex-pupil? The Drama Studio was all set up, nine tables with five chairs for each of the Schools, a small table for the question reader, a top table and board for the scorers, and most importantly a table set up with squash and biscuits for the children on completion of the quiz.

One by one the Schools arrived, the five children were accompanied by a teacher and a helper. Due to the community we live in, many of the children knew each other even though they attended different Schools. Some showed signs of excitement with big smiles and laughter, others were less talkative and were clearly nervous about the competition ahead!

Once all of the Schools had arrived, Pat introduced herself and handed the reigns over to David James (Secretary of the Black Mountains Lions) to start the questions. The first round of questions were all about Science, it was clear to me that I needed to go back to School as the questions were really hard, I wasn't the only one thinking this as many fellow Lions looked puzzled! Ten questions later and the answer sheets were collected. Onto round two – History. Round three was Maths, round four was Geography and the last round, round five was General Knowledge.

As the sheets were marked and the board was updated with the results the children were nervously looking towards the board, they weren't the only ones either – the teachers in the back were also anxiously watching! It was clear from the results that all Schools did extremely well, but obviously there had to be a 1st, 2nd and 3rd place:

1st place – Llyswen Primary School

2nd place – Llanigon Primary School

3rd place – Clifford Primary School

At this point we all stopped for some refreshments, the children deserved it after all their hard work and it looked as though they enjoyed socialising with the other Schools.

When all the biscuits were gone, sorry I took the last one (!), it was time to all get seated to witness the awards. Llyswen Primary School were awarded a cheque of £300 and each member of this team got a £20 book voucher. Llanigon Primary School were awarded a cheque of £100 and each member of this team got a £10 book voucher. Clifford Primary School were awarded a cheque of £50 and each member of this team got a £10 book voucher. The cheques given to the Schools were gratefully received, Pat looks forward to hearing what they buy with the money. Every child that took part in the quiz also received a £10 book voucher as a token of their hard work and taking part.

The afternoon ran very smoothly indeed, all children, teachers and Lions had great fun. Thank you to Pat for the idea, I and others hope this will become an annual event for our local Schools as it was clear they enjoyed it.