We have just learned that Martin Prendergast of Gladly Stoned passed away earlier this week. Martin's funeral will take place on Friday 9th November at 2:30pm at Landican. Our thoughts go out to his family and friends at this sad time.
What follows is a brief obituary that Martin's teammates at Gladly Stoned have sent.
Mart joined us at the start of the 1990-91 season, when the Windsor Castle team moved to become the Royal; he had a relatively quiet first couple of seasons, then improved with amazing speed to become an outstanding quiz player in Challenge Cup, Riley Cup and Feeny Cup matches as well as in the league. He usually scored in the high teens – sometimes higher – and very rarely had a bad game. It was his arrival that ultimately transformed a fairly good quiz team into a title-winning one: his participation has been absolutely crucial to the success which the Royal/Gladly Stoned/New Broom quiz team have enjoyed over the last 20 years. His best season was 2011-12, when he played in all 28 league matches, scoring 438 points. In common with all great quiz players he not only possessed extensive knowledge but also had that uncanny knack of dragging up a correct answer seemingly from nowhere, to the delight of his team-mates and, no doubt, the consternation of opponents. He won the Wirral Mimir title on two occasions and played in the President’s Trophy team, as well as taking part in regional quiz competitions. He will be greatly missed by us all, and the MQL will be the poorer for his absence.