Quiz & Some Other Shizz 2025

Ryan Astle
6 days ago
7 min read

Updated: 5 days ago

Date: Friday 28 November, 2025

Venue: Eden Park (Aotearoa Room)

Kindly supported by: Loffty, in association with Venture Advisory, Speight's, Boys Trip, and Eden Park Trust

Hosted by: Seamus Marten & Steve Holloway from the Between Two Beers Podcast

Report by: Ryan Astle

“Fan-bloody-tastic! A perfect mix of fun, thought provoking content, stories and more fun!"

Another year, another epic quiz.

And that's not just me blowing my own trumpet. Participants rated it 8.7 out of 10 with responses such as "Great event. Very fun. Well done fellas", "Good vibes", and "Base on speaker needed to be turned down".

Can't win em' all.

This time last year Matty Hinton (accountant for the Between Two Beers podcast) was considering forgoing giving his clients a Christmas present and instead donating to charity. More specifically, to BetterMan.

After a quick phone call, he quickly changed his mind… 🤣

Thankfully for us, he did this as he was more interested in getting behind our goal of running a quiz up in Auckland.

We'd often wondered how Quiz and Some Other Shizz would go on the road after the successes of our first two events in Christchurch featuring Scotty Stevenson and Matt Heath.

So we decided to find out. And given we don't do things by halves we went the full hog and decided to host the quiz at Eden Park.

After months of planning, preparation and getting both teams and sponsors on board it was game day...

We’ve been Between Two Beers fans for a long time so it was nice to meet Steve and Seamus in person. If you haven’t listened to one of their podcasts, I highly recommend it. The Paul Henry, Marc Ellis and Sarah Walker episodes are a few of my favourites.

We share a lot of values with Between Two Beers. Both of us are focused on building community and connection through authentic conversations, delivered in a fun and accessible way. We pride ourselves on the quality of what we do, we’re absolute good bastards, and, of course, extremely humble.

Given the alignment, having them host up in Auckland was a no-brainer.

Shout out to Barnesy, Monty and Knighty - three of our BetterMan faithful from Christchurch that made the trip - the latter putting the pressure on Steve and Seamus by telling them just moments before they were about to present that "Scotty Stevenson had hit it out of the park as a previous host and that his speech was the best he'd ever heard. No pressure."

Thankfully, Steve and Che didn’t buckle and absolutely nailed it.

Given the photos below, pretty sure they enjoyed the games and banter as well...

I think it's clear from the footage above that Seamus dominated the Between Two Beers Best Puller competition. Having said that, Steve did himself proud in the full-body paper, scissors, rock competition.

giving back

At previous events we've raised funds for I Am Hope (was great to see Mike King in one of the teams on the night), Women's Refuge, and Le Va (Pacific mental health and wellbeing).

Given Ged's sister Helen is the head of Auckland City Mission we thought it only right that we give back to such a worthy cause. So, it was moving when Ged, who is extremely proud of the work Helen does, could present a cheque for $1300.

the Yarn

After running the cutter on the quiz with great banter and enthusiasm, the guys expertly changed tact and delivered an emotional and thought-provoking speech. Seamus (aka Che) spoke of his struggles with binge drinking, which was exacerbated by racial abuse, working in a high-pressure environment, and a desire to belong and be seen.

After years of embarrassing episodes and hitting new lows, it was Steve, along with a small group of Seamus’ friends, who essentially saved him. Steve became visibly emotional as he described a phone call with Seamus. The night before, Seamus had been drinking alone in a car park, overwhelmed and in despair, before driving himself home.

Sensing how serious things were, Steve asked Seamus directly if he was suicidal. Seamus admitted he had considered driving off the road. Change didn’t happen overnight, but Steve and his friends, who could see the immense talent Seamus possessed, rallied around him. They supported him in practical ways too, even chipping in to help pay for a psychologist.

What ultimately shifted things was a simple suggestion from Steve: “Why don’t you just change your story and become the guy who doesn’t drink?” Something clicked. Sobriety gave Seamus the space to grow, and it’s allowed him to finally reach the potential that was always there.

Seamus' three points he wanted people to takeaway were:

Own your story - don't be a passenger in your own life and take responsibility for your actions.
Be deliberate - Che lost 30kgs last year and stopped drinking by being clear with his story and taking deliberate, intentional actions. Self-discipline can play an important role in better mental health, when it’s grounded in self-compassion rather than self-punishment.
Be a good mate - after seeing the care that his friends showed him, he wants to pay that back.

Steve's story was equally impactful, but dealt with a different topic - that of burnout.

Between Two Beers began in Steve’s garage more than six years ago as a niche football podcast. Since then, it has grown steadily in popularity, and about two years ago Steve made the call to leave his role at the New Zealand Herald and go all in on the podcast.

Che later came fully on board, and the show has evolved into a fully-fledged business, supported by an advisory board and a growing team. Steve has stepped into the CEO role, while still hosting the show. On top of this he has another business called Reflections, has a wife, four kids and has been completing an Owner Manager programme at Icehouse. It all came to a head at an advisory meeting where Matty Hinton could see Steve was struggling and a simple "Are you ok, mate?" gave Steve the chance to reflect and realise he wasn't.

Following the death of a close friend, and the fact that his 8-year-old son mentioned that he was away a lot and that he missed him. He realised the way he was living wasn't sustainable and that he needed to address his priorities.

It was while recording an episode with Simon Barnett, who also has four children, that Steve gained some much-needed perspective. Simon spoke about the loss of his wife of 30 years, Jodie, and how he would give up everything to have her back.

Steve's three takeaways were:

Intentional time with the family - to be present when he's in their presence, not being distracted by work emails or jobs to be done. Phone-free Saturdays has been a game-changer.
Time for myself - in order to be there for others, it's important to fill one's own cup up first. Golf is a great escape and a time to be in nature with some mates.
Get good support - Steve and Che were both grateful that they had mates to check in on them in a time of need.

If there's one main takeaway from their speech, it's to check in on your mates, you never know what they might be going through.

the quiz

The quiz itself was tightly fought with 27 teams going toe-to-toe. With rounds on sport, geography, music, movies and more there was something for everyone.

At the end of the day there were only 8 points separating the top 12 teams.

Coming in in third place with 67 points was The Dave James Smithy Jono Nabbs & Dick Experience (a name they instantly regretted when they realised they had to write it out each round...), second with 68 points was Bite The Apple, and in first was Bad Habits with 69 points 👀.

And boy were they chuffed...

the Winners

Photos 1&2: Bad Habits, winner of Quiz and Some Other Shizz 2025. Photos 3&4: JD, winner of the MVP for getting into the spirit of the event.

Photos 5&6: Happy auction prize winners, and the winner of full-body paper, scissors, rock.

THANKS To...

Events like this couldn't happen without the support of sponsors, friends and family that helped us out. So, a huge thanks to the following:

Marshall Couper and Loffty for coming on board as principal sponsor, for really helping push table sales, and getting the word out about the quiz. Be sure to check out Loffty's comprehensive mental health and wellbeing self-assessment tool.
Matty Hinton and associate sponsors Venture Advisory. Thanks for believing in us Matty and pushing us to be better.
Dave Diehl and Andre Sintmaartensdyk and associate sponsors Boys Trip. Thanks for making the journey up north and for not falling asleep Papa Dre. I know it was past your bedtime.
Hayden Finch and Speight's for going above and beyond.
Chris Mintern and Eden Park for all of your support.
Joe Casey, Mike King, Mike Lane and The Alternative Commentary Collective, Asics, Duco Events, Windross Farm Golf Course, Escape Masters Manukau, Two Dudes, Eden Park, Speight's, and Loffty for providing raffle and auction items.
Leigh Hart from Snackachangi for donating a truck-load of chips and nuts.
Chris Robinson from Yeah Nah Quizzes for pulling the quiz together.
Our wives - Nicola, Rachel and Shaanti along with Nadine Rowe for helping both on the night and during the build up. Think you have a future in quiz marking Nidders...
Our kids - Jasmine, Cohen, Summer, Flynn, Macca, Ellie, Vinnie and Hazel for colouring in the table numbers.
JD for being our man on the ground in the Auckland - supporting table sales, sorting logistics and generally being a good bugger helping wherever possible.
Robbie Fisher from Ghost&Co for the photos and video reel. Great job boss!
Ged for bringing the fizz like usual as Games Master extraordinaire.
Todd, who piled in the hours over the last four months to bring our dream to life, including networking, building awareness, planning, quiz prep, and ensuring the night ran smoothly. Epic work, bro.
All the attendees for getting into the spirit of the night.