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Charabancs beat Ethel Rodin
A great win for the Charas moving them well clear of the foot of
the table
 Damian
has the smile of the Cheshire Cat
Last week we dredged up one of our lowest scores of the season
against the new league champions. This week we notched up one
of our highest scores of the season against last year's league
champions which happens also to be the second time this season we
beat them. The Charas rarely do things by half and it was
particularly satisfying that we won by the same number of points by
which the new league champions beat us by last week.
Double bubble from Remi
(R1/Q8)
In
contrast to last week's woeful performance everything seemed to go
well for us. Plenty of twos on offer and a disciplined team
performance in the confers. For once we managed to get the
seating order more or less right and - for once - won the toss.
This all added up to a very satisfying night which doesn't come
round too often these days. To cap it all we were able to
welcome back our regular QM Jane after a long absence. She
duly picked up practically where she left off handling some very
lengthy and wordy questions with her customary patience and
efficiency.
Rogue Hero
(R2/Q4)
Electric Pigs lost to KFD
A comfortable victory for KFD keeping them securely in second
place
 ...
but Kieran for once is not in his element
The
evening didn't start well, particularly for Thomas whose hidden
theme round on the subject of chemical elements has been dumped from
my inbox, the author now staring at a blank piece of paper hoping
for further inspiration while cursing Brian. The Lead Belly
and Silver Surfer questions were all but identical to those he wrote
a week or so ago. All the more odd since neither Thomas nor Brian
were present last week when we played the Opsis at the club. I
can only assume that Mike has hacked the KFD secure communications
network and is now correcting the grammar in this match report
before I've even hit send.
Hudie in his element
(R1/Q5)
We
had an unwelcome advantage in the Opsimaths performance round
because we'd somehow contrived to lose the first game of the season
to the league's equivalent of Spurs, United, insert
basket case team of your choosing, not City. We knew they had
started right but we didn't remember a player in their huge squad by
the name of Penny. Perhaps she made a one off appearance in the
shellacking they got off the Albert in game 2 and was never seen
again. Surely though it can't have been entirely her fault?
Touchdown Titan
(R8/Q5)
A very rare occurrence in the scoring - Dave Pig and the three other
KFDers all scored more twos than Martin; that really doesn't happen
often. I hope Ivor enjoyed the GAA question, but sorry, Pied
Piper, just because Thomas is irritated and having to rewrite a
whole round of questions at short notice it doesn't mean he's going
to set eight brand spanking new teasers on your favourite sports.
Ah yes we're setting next week; it's a good job I haven't been too
outspoken with my opinion of recent question papers.
Many congratulations
to the Prodigals on regaining the league title, we couldn't give you
any sort of a challenge right from the off (see above) and you've
just blown the rest of us away with ease.
FLOFS
(R6/Q6)
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Gaza victor
(R2/Q3)
Prodigals beat History Men
The Prods clinch the title - but only because the visitors fell
at the last
 Ivor
tells how the Table Toppers were, oh so nearly, toppled
'Close but no cigar' - and as an added bonus we now all know the
origin of that phrase. Despite being four points ahead going
into the last round our knowledge of Russian did not extend to
'parsnip' - which is unlikely to be found in my kitchen except at
Christmas along with other inedibles such as Eat Me dates and glazed
chestnuts. Even worse the tenacity of the Prodigals in chasing
us down meant that Anne had the curse of Seat 4 with the last
question needing a two to win, or a confer for a draw. And as
regular Seat 4 players know all too well, what a lonely place that
is, especially when your fellow team members know the answer,
believe you know the answer too, and encourage you to go for it;
only to find that the religious leader and philanthropist that was
the Aga Khan has been mistaken for the Great Panjandrum (which did
at least have a recognisable kitchen appliance hidden within it).
Perhaps my past blurts of Fu Man Chu as a great Mancunian, or Howard
Jacobson being born in 'turning the light on' Flixton rather than
Prestwich, will be forgiven (but I suspect not).
"Who loves ya, baby?"
(R3/Q1)
Of course the damage is never done with the last question. I
had ignored the advice of that great quiz sage HHJ Hammond.
Tony has noted it is essential to get around the table in the back
room of the Albert Club rather than sit on the cosy settee and
padded chairs. This allows more focussed team discussions and
attention to detail whereas lounging in comfort with intoxicants
leads to sloppier play than a Sloppy Joe’s. He probably has a
point (I can hear Tony muttering “Definitely”) as the Prodigals
never gave up any question without intense discussion - often
getting the answer with us awaiting a steal that just did not
happen.I was condemned for not listening properly (no change there)
as apparently there is only one Canadian cuisine item that everyone
except me knew. My colleagues do seem to be excellent foodies
- and we won that Round 7-3 (but had it been 8-3 then ….). I
was surprised to learn that Indonesia has a dish that sounded like
it originated in the Third Reich (Nazi Goering, I believe).
We did have an entertaining evening nonetheless, and the quiz was
very accessible with only one unanswered all night (the French
dish). A real points fest (so long as you knew the answers, of
course). It does allow weaker teams to get closer to surprise
victories, though that was not the case tonight. We enjoyed
the Elements round (some of them hidden very cunningly), and the
self-deprecating assessment of the Opsimaths' efforts this year.
Prodigal Richard was the MVP (he started with 5 consecutive twos)
but failed to recognise the past MVP of US football. Stella
was also stellar coping admirably with the names of now unremembered
French dukedoms, and Welsh delicacies (though even young David uses
the English name for these).
Go on then Donald - how much?
(R3/Q8)
Bards lost to Albert
Albert squeak home in the 3rd/4th place tussle
 Ashton
describes a narrow but tasteless victory for the visitors
A
very hard-fought match at the Parrs Wood last night where a draw
would probably have been a fairer result. The lead changed
hands a few times and, as elsewhere, there were plenty of points on
offer.
Any
setters wishing to hamstring the Albert team would be well-advised
to set a Food and Drink round. To our cataract-ridden eyes the
dishes all looked much of a mushy muchness. Damage limitation
was the order of the day in that round, whilst the Bards snaffled up
our passovers like the gourmands they obviously are. It
probably tells you all you need to know about our eating habits that
our best food answer of the night was the steal on 'pizza' in the
crypto question a few rounds later.
Liverpool-Everton derby but with sticks
(R3/Q7)
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Quiz paper set by...
...
Opsimaths
Average Aggregate score
88.8
Rules of humility
prevent me claiming that this week's paper was a corker, so I'll
leave judgement to the regular website correspondents.
However I thought I'd
share with you the Opsimaths' compilation process. It's not
just Howell telling Brian to produce another one off the production
line - well not quite. We have a Sunday afternoon run through
at the Club testing various offerings (mostly from Brian it has to
be said). Great fun, and hopefully well worthwhile in terms of
quality control. This last Sunday Tehmeena, Brian, Hilary,
Howell and myself were the quality controllers.
During the session
Tehmeena told us she was returning to Canada (Edmonton to be
precise) in pursuit of a promotion within her company, Hilti, so her
assignment in Manchester will come to an end. It's been great
having her in the team while she's been here. In this week's
paper she was peerless on the World Foods Round and generally on all
things American. Sadly, however, her knowledge of 1960s
British TV sitcoms, or villages in, say, Lincolnshire less so.
Having said that she did answer the Telly Savalas question in Round
3 with "I know, it's that guy who looks like Kojak". We'll
miss her!
...
and what was Kieran's verdict ...
A very welcome, right on point, paper from Brian and co. after some
rather uneven efforts at question setting in recent weeks.
Plenty of twos, a real pointsfest, only one unanswered each (of
course I got ours) and all hurried along by Andrew with unfussy
authority.
...
and Damian's feedback ...
I'm
guessing tonight's paper was another Brian special as it seemed to
bear all his customary hallmarks. Plenty of variety on offer
and the sort of questions which obviously appeal to our strengths
and seem to hark back to the good old days of WithQuiz setting (at
least as far as we are concerned).
We
would probably be sitting much higher up the league table if he were
able to set every week. The high scores from both teams bear
this out - so how about it Brian? We particularly enjoyed the
'Find all the nasty words used to describe the Opsimaths
performances this season' round which could frankly apply to us too
on rather too many occasions - but happily not tonight.
Accordingly I chose that as the best round of the night with
practically any one of its questions suitable material for QotW.
...
and these are Ashton's views ...
If the intention was to set a points-fest then it was mission very
much accomplished by the Opsis. We matched the 94 aggregate of
our draw with the Pigs earlier this season and I can't recall
playing in a game with a higher one. For all that, it never
felt like a ridiculously easy quiz, so kudos to the setters.
Cobblers to you Ma'am
(R5/Q1)
Question of the Week This week
Damian and the Charas enjoyed the Opsimaths' 'Sackcloth and Ashes'
Round 5 from which I have selected Question 1 which harks back to
happier times in October ...
Possibly Britain's oldest shoemaker, dating from 1792, was
granted a royal warrant in 1955 to supply footwear for Princess
Anne and Princes Charles, Andrew, and Edward, and a second royal
warrant in 1989 to supply footwear for Princes William and
Harry. Name this brand of children’s shoes.
For the answer to this and all the week's other
questions click
here.
Just a little push here and it'll all be over in days
(R2/Sp2)
... and also
At the Club last week there was a bit of a debate about the vexed
question of 'Bingo-style' rounds. Some love them and some
definitely don't.
Kieran's written to me
with these thoughts. What do you think?
"Since you mentioned jeopardy in relation to bingo rounds last night
here's an idea.
A
Bingo round is any round in which the players have to select which
questions to answer rather than the questions just being asked 1 to
8 as drafted by the setters. So for any Bingo round the
setters should be obliged to set 12 questions (or 18 if the Bingo
format is to cover two rounds as sometimes happens).
The
setters must scrupulously divide the questions into equal numbers (4
or 6) of 'easy', 'medium' and 'hard' questions as judged by them.
The degree of difficulty is shown on the Bingo selection sheet
handed out to the teams, or announced at the start of the round if
there isn't a bingo sheet.
'Easy questions' score one point, so presumably they'd always be
conferred since there's no downside. 'Medium questions' score two as
now and 'Hard questions' score three. Questions can still be
conferred or passed over for one point.
As
well as hopefully evening up imbalances (since there would be an
equal number of each type of question) this would also introduce a
refinement to the decision as to whether to go for a solo answer or
to confer. Teams that were behind and needed points might well
go for the 'Hard questions' to try to make up ground, as well as
making it more difficult for the opposition to score a bonus and
extend their lead. Teams reasonably comfortably in front might
well play it safe with the easy option but knowing that they could
be giving away an easy pass over. Might need a little tweaking
but worth a thought?"
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