Warriors quiz book the perfect challenge for Wigan RL fans

Wigan Warriors fans will be able to put their sporting knowledge to the ultimate test thanks to the release of this new quiz book.
Quiz book creator Ewan PhillipsQuiz book creator Ewan Phillips
Quiz book creator Ewan Phillips

Warriors super-fan Ewan Phillips has produced more than 200 pages, and over 1,500 questions in 120 different categories, about the town’s rugby league club, with questions sprawling all the way from the 19th century to present day.

Other news: Train operator calls for independent inquiry to solve safety row amid strikesEwan, who is originally from Standish but now lives in Sussex, conceived the huge book of trivia after he published The Wigan Warriors Miscellany in 2010.

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The 44-year-old said: “I thought it would be great fun to make. It’s the sort of thing that will interest you if you’re into Wigan Warriors, and if you have a brain like me, where you are interested in facts and trivia.

“It starts conversations: ‘Here’s a question for you’.”

And Ewan is no stranger to organising a good quiz.

Since the early 2000s, he has been working as a TV producer in London, working on hit quiz shows including Mock The Week, Whose Line Is It Anyway?, Big Fat Quiz of the Year and They Think It’s All Over.

“Quizzing is something that’s part of my job, but it’s also my hobby as well, so I thought why not combine my interest in Warriors with my quizzing ability,” Ewan said.

“Hopefully the book will show that I’m used to doing it. It’s helps to know how to make an interesting question.”

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And the process of researching facts and statistics for over 1,500 questions was, not surprisingly, a painstaking undertaking for Ewan.

He said: “I was conscious that I couldn’t just do a quiz book on the 30 years that I’ve been watching Wigan, so I had to do a fair bit of research.

“I must have bought every book ever written on Warriors. I spent a lot of time in libraries, a week or so in the Museum of Wigan Life, going through newspaper archives all the way back to the 1890s.”

But Ewan’s first-hand experiences of falling in love with rugby league certainly helped him get the book across the line.

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“It was an obsession for me. I used to go to all the home games and as many away as I could.

“I think the 1985 Challenge Cup final was the game that sparked my interest, but it was around 1987 when I started going to the matches.”

The Wigan Warriors Quiz Book is now available in all major book shops, including online at Amazon and in the Warriors store in the Grand Arcade.

You can pit your memory up against others with such questions as:

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- In 1996, which Wigan legend was seriously injured by a stolen Vauxhall Nova in a hit-and-run while getting into a cab in Poolstock?

- Which Wigan coach was notified of his dismissal via a note tucked under the windscreen wipers of his car?

- How were the men’s toiles behind the Popular Side stand at Central Park best known?

- In what year did Wigan first appear at the new Wembley?