David Taylor may have retired from teaching, but the popular quizmaster still has plenty of marking to do
RETIREMENT seemed to come at a good time in David Taylor’s life. Having already taken a step back from teaching at Beaulieu, he stayed on in a caretaker role long enough to be involved in the school’s diamond jubilee celebrations in 2011. At his leaving assembly he introduced to the pupils his new grand-daughter, Sophie, who was then just two weeks old.
It was all falling neatly into place at the age of 60.
One of the things that he considered as a retirement project was to host quiz nights for charity. He is now known by many as a quizmaster who runs a charity night like clockwork, with members of his family joining in with the scoring. Together they have helped raise thousands of pounds for good causes – and they don’t charge a penny for their time.
Can you answer these questions?
1. What shape is a scow’s bottom?
2. Who had a hit in 1981 with The Birdie Song?
3. Which country has a September holiday called Respect the Aged Day?
4. Which singer’s real name is Katheryn Elizabeth Hudson?
5. Who married The Owl to The Pussycat and what was his address?
6. Who was the last player to score two penalties in an FA Cup Final?
Answers at the bottom of the page
David now has a stock of questions, and he likes nothing better than coming up with ideas for new ones. ‘I can mix and match what I have. You don’t want the questions too “samey” or too “schooly”. I think in terms of a whole round of questions based on a theme rather than individual questions.’
He used to dabble in running quizzes as far back as the 1980s and would organise one a year for the Beeches Old Boys and for church and school social evenings.
Fundraising and organising play to David’s strengths. When he was teaching at Beaulieu he introduced the Summer Stroll, something that has become an annual tradition for Year 10s. He had moved to Beaulieu from De La Salle, which had its round-island walk, so he adapted that.
‘I have always liked a sense of irony so we called it a stroll. It was 30 miles,’ he said.
Jersey-born and bred, David was educated at De La Salle and it was while he was in sixth-form that he met Karene, a pupil at FCJ. Their relationship survived the long distance of training for their respective careers – David was in Manchester and Karene was in London. She went on to work for nearly 30 years at the Hospital as a bio-medical scientist. They will celebrate their 40th wedding anniversary this year.
David returned to Jersey in 1974 to teach English at his old school, staying there until his move to Beaulieu in 1992. ‘The joke was that I was no longer strong enough to walk up the hill,’ he smiled.
Retiring from teaching in 2007, David considered himself fortunate to be allowed to stay on to help with organising events like assemblies or Swimarathon teams.
Both the Taylors partake in other activities which keep their diary remarkably full. Something that they have both taken up in retirement is singing with the Jersey Gilbert and Sullivan Society and Les Conteurs Singers.
And, if truth be told, this was not his first venture onto the stage. It emerges during our conversation that actually he was always the dame in De La Salle and Beaulieu pantos, and he has been known to be the ‘gavel-hitting chairman’ in the St Martin’s Old Tyme Musical Society. He has even been Baron Bomburst in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and last September was Sergeant Wilson in Dad’s Army, at the Arts Centre.
‘One of the reasons I do it is because it’s good for the brain learning all those lines.’
Performing is something that runs in the Taylor family. ‘My parents virtually met on the Opera House stage during the Occupation,’ he said. ‘My father Harold, a plumber, and my mother, who was known as Mimmie, were involved in various shows with the Green Room Club to help keep the spirits up.
‘I was a very shy child and didn’t push myself forward for anything but I enjoyed going on the stage at school – I felt much more at ease there.’
This has also been passed on to his younger daughter Michelle, who is marketing manager at the Jersey Arts Centre and has been in many amateur productions over the years, whether acting, stage-managing or passing on her passion and knowledge to children.
At the time of our interview David and Karene were fitting in three rehearsals a week – for Les Conteurs’ 40th anniversary tour of Normandy and for the next Gilbert and Sullivan production – a double bill of HMS Pinafore and Trial By Jury, which has a five-night run at the Opera House from 19 May.
They are also active members of the Jersey Walking Group which has a couple of hundred members. People take it in turns to plan a route and the Taylors come up with a new two-hour walk about three times a year.
Travel is another passion that they have to make time to include in their busy lives and they have done everything from China to Antarctica.
‘We like being busy,’ Karene admits, adding that David also spends time tending their garden and vegetable patch at their St Saviour home, where they have lived for 32 years.
Of course, even David has to sit down with a cup of tea sometimes and whenever he can he catches his favourite TV quiz, The Chase. ‘I like it because they don’t faff about with a lot of nonsense,’ he explained. ‘They have some quite demanding questions and I like the format.’
Last year he went to Southampton for an hour-long audition to appear on the show. He hasn’t yet heard if he will be picked – he doesn’t think it likely now but he was told that it could be any time before July.
So, it’s a matter of staying with asking the questions for now. What does he think makes a good quiz? ‘A good round of questions has to have a number of different topics,’ he says, ‘and you’ve got to have some easy ones and some challenging. Good ones are those that create a bit of argument or discussion in the team. And there have to be some questions that you can at least guess at.’
And he seems keen to get others challenged to take to the spotlight. Knowing his fondness for performing and teaching, it’s perhaps not surprising that in his quizzes he offers the chance to earn bonus points by singing or reciting Shakespeare.
Find the Taylor family on Facebook by searching ‘More Than A Quiz’.
1, Flat (it’s a boat).
2, The Tweets.
3, Japan.
4, Katy Perry.
5, The turkey who lived on the hill.
6, Eric Cantona.
