Three friends claim they have been “unfairly” banned from a pub quiz because they are too old and keep on winning.

Nick Mepham, 49, Graham Deaves, 65, and Norman Hughan, 82, who together make up the team ‘Storming Norman’, has been left feeling “insulted” following a decision by management at The Horn pub in St Albans to bar them from its Monday night quiz.

Although Mr Mepham is from Luton, and Mr Deaves and Mr Hughan from Dunstable, the team travel to St Albans every Monday night to take part in a pub quiz.

Since starting to attend the weekly quiz in early May 2015, the trio has won a total of 11 times.

By the time of the ban, 38 or 39 weeks had passed.

Mr Mephan said: “In our eyes we were making the quiz more competitive. There had been no official complaints about us for winning too much and the ban wasn’t made because we had been cheating.

“Before we came a long another team had been winning lots. The ban hasn’t been justified.

"The other teams that take part in the quiz are younger than us, and we were referred to as 'old boys', so we believe the decision was made on discriminative grounds. We’re disappointed and it’s unfair.It’s insulting.”

The cost of taking part in The Horn pub quiz is £2 per person and often the jackpot reaches a four-figure sum.

The biggest jackpot has been £1,600, which ‘Storming Norman’ won half of.

The pub’s co-owner, Adrian Bell, said the team won the quiz’s £40 bar tab prize two or three times a month.

He said: “We started getting grumblings from other people about their constant winning and the attendance numbers started going down.

“People thought they were professional quiz goers because they were always so many points ahead.

“When we spoke to them we suggested that it might be healthy for the quiz if they take a break for a little while, to get the numbers back up.

“When they wrote to the quiz team complaining they mentioned how some of the staff at the pub had described them as “old boys”.

“No offence was meant or intended by this. I’m 53 and I’ve been described as an old boy before.

“I’ve been at the pub since 1998 – a long time – and owned it for around 15 years.

“I’ve put a lot of time, effort and money into the pub for people to hear music and come and drink.

“I’m proud of The Horn. I’d never do anything to deliberately upset anyone.

“This was just supposed to be a fun quiz that local people could enjoy.”

Mr Bell added that 'Storming Norman' were welcome to come back to the quiz once the attendance numbers were back up.

In the meantime, ‘Storming Norman’ is looking to seek advice from Citizens Advice Bureau.