Lifelong fan Jonny Wrigley put his City knowledge to the test when he applied to be a contestant on Hard Quiz, an award-winning show hosted by comedian Tom Gleeson.
Wrigley’s episode aired to 549,000 viewers in October 2021, and although he didn’t win, he gave a great account of himself to answer four of his five City questions correctly.
Hard Quiz sees four contestants compete over three rounds for the big brass mug trophy.
The first round includes five questions on their specialist subject, whilst the second is on a topic of Gleeson’s choosing and the third, called ‘The People’s Round’, focuses on general knowledge.
The contestant with the lowest score at the end of Tom’s Round and The People’s Round are eliminated, leaving the remaining two candidates to battle it out for the trophy.
Born and bred in Hyde, Wrigley emigrated to Australia in 2004 and so Gleeson’s choice of Australian breakfast TV proved his undoing.
With questions going as far back as the 1980s, the City fan finished joint last in the second round and was sent home after losing the resulting tiebreaker.
“As a lifelong City fan, I backed myself to do OK answering questions on the Blues,” Wrigley tells mancity.com.
“I went first with my five questions and got four right. Unfortunately after I got the first one right there was a 30 minute interruption which threw me off track.
“The next question was: ‘After years in the doldrums City were taken over by a group from which country?’
“I answered Thailand thinking of Thaksin Shinawatra, but the correct answer was Abu Dhabi.
“I went into the next round in the lead after I ‘stole’ a question about Mariah Carey for double points.
“Unfortunately, Australian Breakfast TV is not my strong suit, so I finished that round joint last and after a tiebreaker, it meant I had to do a ‘walk of shame’ and go through the doors.”
Despite not leaving a winner, it was an enjoyable experience for Wrigley and even on such a momentous day a City team wasn’t too far from his thoughts.
“All in all, it was a worthwhile experience even if it has led to a lot of leg pulling from my mates in the Melbourne Official Supporters Club,” he added.
“Anyone can answer questions at home, but when you’re under those lights in the studio you’d struggle to give the right answer if somebody asked you your name!
“After filming I jumped into the car and went straight to watch Melbourne City play as we took another step on our way to becoming champions of Australia.”
To find out more about the Melbourne branch, or your local Official Supporters Club, visit supportersclubs.mancity.com.
