England great Panesar teams up with Northants sports heroes for quiz challenge

Two times Ashes winner, Monty Panesar, heads up a panel of Northamptonshire sporting heroes who are set to do battle in an online charity quiz.

The former England and Steelbacks spinner is just one of the stars who have signed up for the Not Just A Question of Sport quiz, which has been organised by University of Northampton staff member, Simon Chapman.

The contest, which takes place live on YouTube on Friday evening, will be hosted by Simon, who goes by the name of The Quiz Wizard, and will raise money for NHS Charities Together.

Joining Panesar on the night will be Northampton Saints stars Alex Waller and Paul Hill, Northampton-born Newcastle United goalkeeper, Karl Darlow, and former Cobblers, Sunderland and Derby striker, Marco Gabbiadini. Steelbacks players Ben Sanderson and Josh Cobb, plus club coaches David Ripley and Rob Newton will also take part.

Viewers can also play along at home, on the night.

Simon said: “I have no celebrity links personally, so when I came up with the idea, I knew it could be a challenge. To start with, I asked friends to see if they had any contacts, and with Northampton being a relatively close-knit community, many people came up trumps.”

“I also tweeted many people on Twitter and Monty Panesar responded straight away and was really keen to take part to raise funds for the NHS. It was amazing to have someone of his gravitas to support the event.”

He added: “The celebs will take part in the quiz with me via Zoom, which will be directly streamed out via YouTube. There will be six rounds of eight questions on different general knowledge topics to see which celebrity will reign supreme.

“I will also be asking the celebrities various questions ranging from information about their careers through to more general questions about how they may have got through our current lockdown situation.”

Simon has spent the lockdown putting on a series of online quizzes for both adults and children, and decided to arrange the sporting stars edition to raise funds for health workers.

He said: “NHS staff have worked tirelessly throughout the pandemic, including my sister, who is a nurse.  This is a chance to give something back to them.”

Simon is well-known to many people in Northampton. He studied for a teaching qualification at the University of Northampton a decade ago, before going on to teach at Kings Heath and Millway primary schools. Following a five-year stint at a Leicestershire school, Simon returned to the University in November, to become Project Manager of the Uniconnect department.

He added: “I have always enjoyed taking part in and running quizzes.

“I have organised pub quizzes, charity quizzes for MacMillan, Anthony Nolan and Harry’s Rainbow and also fundraisers for the sports clubs I play for, including Hardingstone Cricket Club and Northampton Hockey Club.”

Not Just A Question of Sport starts at 7.30pm on Friday 22 May on The Quiz Wizard YouTube channel.

Visit the Facebook event page for more information, and you can donate via the Just Giving page.