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History Men beat Opsimaths
The Hisory Men's forward march continues; the Opsis improve a
little
 Mike
wallows in an evening spent convivially with old mates
What a happy evening
lounging in the curtained off area of the Parrswood opposite the bar
with the friendliest bunch of quizzers you could hope to meet!
As a bonus Opsimath Tehmeena joined us to spectate and (of course)
she knew a number of answers none of us got (particularly the US
universities pair - well, being from Canada she would, wouldn't
she?).
The respective
line-ups were Ivor, Anne, David and Alison against Charlotte, Emma,
Brian and myself - with Guy QMing in his usual gentle and helpful
manner.
The Opsis burst into
an early lead (4 points ahead at one stage I seem to remember) but
then, as we feared, we slumped a little - but by no means as
severely as we have done over recent weeks. We were in with a
shout right up to the final round. Everyone had their moments
in the sun so no obvious Jonahs. We live to fight another day.
Perhaps post Christmas we can arrest the downwards trajectory.
Rugby's French Pele
(R6/Q4)
 Ivor
tells the story of a victory despite Vanessa being off ill
Back to the Parrswood for our last match of 2024. The pub was
a little busier than usual - apparently it is Christmas next week.
For us retirees, of course, every day is a Christmas Day. The
Parrswood is so vast that we have played at no fewer than four
different locations there this year and all relatively quiet (though
that might be down to age-related hearing loss). One of those
locations was labelled 'Reserved' but much to our delight it was
reserved for us. It was the subsidiary snug with the splendid
armchairs where team captains (appointed or self-appointed) can
preside over proceedings like a Judge Jeffries (or Hammond) of our
time.
Tonight we faced the Opsimaths. Mike informed us they now have
a pool of nine players available for call-up. This is rather
more than the Historymen but we reassure ourselves (like whistling
in the dark) that the few we have are rare gems. Unfortunately
Vanessa was felled by illness, presumably acquired from her class of
eight year olds (Covid, flu, RSV or noro, or possibly all of them).
Thus there was a last minute recruitment of Alison (Mrs C).
Alison normally spends Wednesday nights watching My Brilliant
Friend (fourth series now) as it is the only time she has entire
possession of the remote control, but she did her duty for the team
driving there in the rain, getting 2 twos, and failing to
blurt. As per tradition she did end up with the unlucky seat
getting three of the eleven unanswereds. We started badly and
were four points behind after Round 1, but were five points ahead
after Round 5 and for once held on. Anne, of course, was MVP
yet again.
Afterwards the usual post game banter and drinks with our now very
old friends and, like election night, the delight (and schadenfreude)
of the results of other games coming through to Mike.
Best wishes to all the teams and we look forward to returning next
year for further battles. Like student rugby teams we like to
play hard during matches and play even harder afterwards.
Sleeping partners
(R7/Q7&5)
Ethel Rodin lost to Charabancs
A famous Chara victory lifting them to a mere 2 points
below their opponents
 Soggy
but joyous Damian reports
On
the wettest night of the season I would like to humbly thank all
those kind virgins who accepted last week's invitation to sacrifice
themselves to the quiz gods to prevent us constantly snatching
defeat from the jaws of victory (as was the case last week - and on
various previous occasions). Thanks to their timely
intervention the only thing that suffered divine wrath were the
soggy bits of my marking sheet that emerged piecemeal from my soggy
coat.
Fortunately Chara Bill is proving to be an efficient marking backup
for us, arriving by car with our newly teetotal John. He
managed to keep his bits and bobs nicely dry enough to record what
must be the most pleasing score we have notched up this season so
far. That it was against one of the most formidable opponents
we have ever faced - and in the comfort of our old haunt, the former
White Swan - made the result even more satisfying.
After sneaking past us last week, the Bards atoned for the
heartbreak by providing a paper that really did have something for
everybody - at least in our case - and thereby helped us to a very
welcome victory against last season's league champions. Ethel
Roddy kept popping in to see us every few minutes to gauge how his
(former?) team mates were doing. He may now have to reconsider
his retirement plans after seeing them suffer their fourth defeat of
the season which has enabled us to emerge from the role of the
league's whipping boys (at least for the time being) and placed us
now just one level below them in the league table.
All
in all, a very satisfying way for us to complete the first half of
the season and so give us renewed hope and confidence for the next
half.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all!
Everybody likes it hot
(R2/Q7)
 James
watches the visiting Charas score a confident win
Charabancs took an early lead and maintained it throughout, despite
Ethel briefly threatening a comeback in Round 5. The subject
matter and themes played very much more into their knowledge base
than it did ours, and I suspect with that set of questions they’d
have given every team in the league a run for their money.
They left some points out there too - with at least three where they
mentioned the right answer in their discussions before plumping for
something else. They also picked up a ridiculous number of
steals.
There was possibly some advantage in going first, and, looking at
the scores across the night, that might have been the case elsewhere
too - but that was a marginal factor in our game.
Roddy sat out again, and would probably have got a few that we
missed out on, but again, that was only a marginal factor - and of
course, he would not have offered much insight into, for example,
alleged bully rapper Lizzo.
Merry Christmas to everyone and Best Wishes for the New Year.
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Delius' spring sighting
(R5/Q5)
KFD beat Electric Pigs
A goodly victory for KFD keeps them well-placed to benefit if the
Prods slip up
 Kieran
tells of a win - but more significantly of the end of an era
A
pointsfest (at least in our game) courtesy of the Bards. Our
highest score and biggest win of the season so far and a first
appearance in ten months for young Liam® (he's still way short of
thirty). All done by 9.50 under the firm and always fair
supervision of 'Ballcrusher' Bob. What's not to love? Well
not much really. Martin replaced Barry in the belly of the
whale, snagging all three of our unanswereds and we can only just
see the Prodigals way ahead up the road and looking unstoppable, but
overall it's been a decent first half of the season.
Dhani/Erling being back in the team was good news for a couple of
reasons: firstly because he's a nice guy and it's good to catch up
with him and find out what he's been up to since we last saw him;
secondly... more of that... well now actually.
Greatest saxophonist ever?
(R8/Q7)
You
see, in a few months time ... (klaxon alert) ... KFD will be
no more - at least we will not be recognisable as anything we have
been for more than thirty years. No it's not another gratuitous and
irritating name change, although if we have any future that is
inevitable. After nearly fifty years in Manchester and more
than thirty at the top of our order, the second half of this season
will be Barry's last in WithQuiz. The sci-fi cockney red, the
Lowestoft Ben Duckett, our man everywhere from the Halls of
Montezuma to the shores of Tripoli begins his valedictory tour, in
the Griffin of course, in just four weeks time. Now don't worry,
Barry isn't ill, isn't about to croak his last ever quiz answer;
he's just retiring and moving to Norwich. You might consider
that to be quite similar to turning up your toes and dropping off
the quiz perch but I assure you it's his entirely voluntary decision
and one he's very happy about.
No
more will his mighty Suffolk willow crash the first question of the
season over the ropes for a maximum (I've lost track of the number
of times he's done that, I'd guess at least twenty). Speaking
of twenty, that's the number of league titles he's won, and sadly a
romantic twenty first looks unlikely. Four WIST trophies (still a
chance of another one of those) and countless wins in other cups and
end of season tournaments. One of the most bemedalled players
the league has ever seen - or will ever see. Much, much more
important than all that he's one of the genuine good guys; utterly
reliable, totally trustworthy and completely discreet.
Someone I feel privileged to have called a friend for forty years -
and he's a red!
Hollywood's co-operative quartet
(R2/Sp)
You
have the chance to tell him, over the next few months, how much
you've appreciated being continually bested by his extraordinary
appetite for quiz points; don't miss it. At present we're planning
on carrying on after Barry leaves but our squad will once again be
pretty small and we won't be - can't possibly be - anywhere near as
good a team. Barry hopes he'll be able to visit Manchester
from time to time so you never know we might see him grace the quiz
league making an occasional guest appearance every now and then.
"If sometimes you're catching a
Fleeting glimpse of
A twelfth fifth man at silly Mid-on Ethel's White Swan
(?)
And it could be Geoff and it could be John"
or
it could be......
Barry it's been a blast, so many memories of so many great nights
quizzing and sometimes nothing to do with quizzes at all.
Thanks for being brilliant at answering questions and an awful lot
more besides.
"Greed, for lack of a better word, is good"
(R2/Q8)
Prodigals beat Albert
Magnificent! A whole half season and not a point dropped;
the Prods power on
 Mike's
having discipline problems - again!
As the newly appointed
commissar for team standards I drove through the appaling weather
conditions last night hoping to intercept the playing squad before
it reached the bar of The Albert Club. Alas, I was too late;
it was like watching a crowd of unruly kittens let loose in a field
of catnip and it was downhill all the way from there.
We were never really
in the hunt as the Prods established an early lead and maintained it
all the way through. I have tried to explain to my team that
to win quiz fixtures it is necessary to know something but the
concern on their little faces as they wrestle with this concept is
touching to behold.
Enabling footballers to move freely
(R8/Q3)
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Quiz paper set by...
...
The Bards
Average Aggregate score
76.8
An excellent quiz
from the Bards to take us into the Christmas break. Good
themes and knowledge demands set at just about the right level.
I just wonder whether Tony set the Porridge round having
spent much of his working life consigning villains to chokey.
Wilkinson's boat disguise
(R7/Q6)
... and
Damian's verdict?
The scoreline was just above the seasonal average making this one of
the more accessible papers of the season with mostly gettable themes
that helped rather than hindered finding the right answers. We
particularly enjoyed the Porridge theme round but failed to
recall anyone called 'Bonecrusher' to apply to the likes of Mike
Tyson. We waited in vain for 'Lukewarm' to make an appearance
but wisely decided that it didn't somehow quite fit Mr Tyson's
fearsome persona.
Innocent Edith
(R2/Q1)
... and
James had this verdict ...
If the
'Giuseppe Mazzini' question was obscure enough to have passed by
both Greg and Rob, it was probably a tougher answer than his
impatient quiz partner Busy Lizzie (by the way Jason 'Dizzy'
Gillespie resigned as coach of the Pakistan Test team a few weeks
ago, so that question wasn’t quite up to date - but we knew who they
meant).
The ‘On
the….’ round was a bit hit and miss, with a few missed/conferred
answers when neither team were sure if some of the phrases quite
reached the threshold of ‘well known’. Listing the local bus
companies that we all used to use was perhaps a less difficult
question than some of the others, as well as ‘On the Buses’ probably
being the first ‘On the.…’ phrase most people would write down.
But in
general the paper was pretty good.
Cissie and Ada chew the cud
(R6/Q8)
...
and Mike O'B's view ...
It was a perfectly reasonable paper with some innovative tweaks
involving connections and Run-ons, albeit with the occasional
signposting of the correct answer to the second of a pair of
questions in the answer to the first ofg the pair. Our team
got its nickels in a twist over this.
Batley belter
(R2/Q4)
...
and finally Ivor's feedback ...
We can't complain about the quiz. It certainly had all the
hallmarks of a Bards’ paper. Tony tells me they had it all
ready and sealed in the envelope over a week ago. This is
something we Historymen can never manage, and, even if we seal the
envelope on Wednesday morning, I find myself opening it in the
afternoon as I realise I have introduced a howler (hence recent
alterations in pen e.g. 'North Down' turning into 'South Down')
and then have to reseal the envelope with sellotape.
The Bards’ questions were more historical than even the Historymen
produce. We always expect a land or sea battle from Tony and
in 20 years he has covered every one since the Crusades.
Perhaps it was inevitable that he would go back even further in time
and that caught us out (but not Brian). The themes of old cars
and old sitcoms played to the strengths of both teams’ older
members. Both teams failed with the US universities (though
not the Opsimath’s Canadian reserve). I quite liked the 'On
the…' round though I was berated by Anne for hoping that 'On the
job' and 'On the game' might appear.
Contract - but with strings attached
(R3/Q8)
Question of the Week This week
I've chosen Round 3 Question 8, which had just the right degree of
guessability whilst still revealing a surprising fact...
Which instrumentalist’s contract with EMI lasted from 1929 to his
death in 1999?
For the answer to this and all the week's other
questions click
here.
Just another stock picture
(R2/Q5)
... and also
You may have wondered why one of our venues - The Sun in
September - is a tad different from your normal run of South
Manchester hostelries. Well, Andrew's referred me to an
article which goes to explain why Samuel Smith pubs are the way they
are ...
Sam Smiths
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