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Val Draper Cup - Round 1
Bards beat Albert
A Close Encounter of the Bard kind
 Tony
expatiates ...
It
is such a long time since I ventured to expatiate upon the merits and
demerits of both the quiz (and its setters) and the performance of
both teams, that I really don't know where to begin. But I was nobbled by Mike as I was on my way home from the Parrs Wood and he
made me promise a few well chosen phrases about tonight's match.
It was a close fought
affair throughout with the handicap proving just too much for Albert
to overcome. An enjoyable evening
with the Bards running out winners by a tight margin - leaving me
the problem of finding a team for the next round with Jim and John
investigating just how many ways there are to travel to Valencia
from Manchester. Who was it that wrote about Trains and Boats and Planes?
... and John describes how the Bards took the Perrier award
...
With a 4 point advantage thanks to the cup handicap system, the
Bards went into this match in confident mood. That confidence
was soon shattered as the Albert team quickly made up the deficit
with some excellent answers on musical instruments and obscure
Manchester bands from the 70’s. The final round saw the scores level
and the first 6 questions in the 'Nosh-talgia' round resulted in 2
points for each player. So, it was down to the final 2 questions;
Eveline zigged instead of zagged on the carcinogenic water question,
going for Evian, which allowed the Bards to steal the Perrier prize
at the death!
Bard Mike QM’d in his usual efficient style (apart from an
entertaining blurt on the Ashton United answer!).
The
Cup dream remains alive - bring on the History Men!
TV getting
you going in the 1970s
(R2/Q3&6)
 Ashton
implores us to go easy on the 'Jeremy praise thing'
The Albert’s woeful
record in the competition which bears the name of our illustrious
forebear continued last night with defeat at the death against the
Bards. Every other team in the league has made at least two
Cup final appearances since we last progressed beyond the
semi-finals, and you now have to go back a quarter of a century to
find the last time we got our hands on the trophy - a time when Mike
and Eveline had only just come through the YTS ranks and presumably
still had to clean Val Draper's boots.
A new venue of sorts for us in the league’s most
capacious stadium last night – the far left room behind the main
bar. If memory serves, I think we have now played in five
different locations in the wide open spaces of the Parrs Wood.
I was very taken by the photographs on the wall in our new spot,
which Jullien explained would probably be a nod to the theatre/TV
studio which used to stand opposite the pub. As such,
proceedings were overseen by a framed portrait of a
bumptious-looking Bernard Manning. You wouldn’t get that sort
of thing in the Quiz League of London.
"Come here
little fly!"
(R1/Q8)
In the end it came down to the final pair.
Alas, water is not the clear liquid of choice for Eveline; she
generally eschews the stuff for her preferred Smirnoff. A
steal and a conferred, and the game was up. Fortunately we
have plenty of spare rounds from our recent turn to set, so we were
not our usual despondent selves at the prospect of writing eight
rounds at short notice.
On that note, can I please implore other teams
not to praise Jeremy’s question-setting prowess as he is becoming
quite unbearably smug about it. If it weren’t bad enough that
he has won Question of the Season twice in recent years, we now have
Ivor (I think) extolling one of his recent rounds as "turning
question-setting into an art form". Given he has now taken
over editing duties for the Albert’s papers, he will be all the more
inclined to use his own rounds over what he views as the half-baked
efforts of the rest of us. If you end up with a paper full of
the minutiae of photography, legal jargon, impossible acronyms and
not a sport or pop music question in sight … well, you will have
only yourselves to blame.
Trump meets
his match
(R3/Q4)
 ...
while LOTAT
counts the expressions of sympathy ...
Illness forced me to miss the match tonight so I sat back and waited
for the messages of concern and affection for me which the team
usually conceal so well, and thus it turned out.
Juillien offered straight concern - a true gentleman; Jeremy offered
similar but with the addition of a sardonic sideswipe about missing
my baleful influence on the team; from Ashton and Eveline nothing -
a treacherous indifference to my condition which thereby reveals the
circumstances under which I work so hard to inspire the team.
Consequently I have decided I must become a more commanding
presence. If the acronym POTUS is suitable for the President
of the United States then I will become Leader of the Albert Team
LOTAT, a title which says everything about me and the qualities I
bring to the team.
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1970s student
nosh
(R8/Q8)
Friendly
Opsimaths beat History Men
The Opsis romp home for the first time this year
 Mike
enjoyed that winnin' feelin' when all pressure is removed
A thoroughly delightful evening in the (for once) noisy barn that is
the Parrswood. Groups of raucous drinkers made finding a quiet
corner impossible. Brian, however, as QM did his best and we
all managed. The only real noise-related problem came in Round
7 when most of the players thought they were looking for Bards and
Birds and couldn't see the connection between Albert Herring and the
avian race (herring gull perhaps?).
Playing the History Men is always fun and - even with Anne away in
Ibiza - Vanessa, David, Ray (Alison's little brother) and Ivor
entertained us royally, even to the point of losing by a margin,
which made even the 7 point handicap advantage we had superfluous.
The Opsimath team featured Charlotte, Tehmeena, Howell and myself,
and with 15 twos (to the History Men's 11) we were always in front.
To be fair to our opponents they did shoulder the added burden of 10
unanswered questions to our 3, but for once this year the Opsimaths
were back to their old form. With this form (and the
considerable handicap advantage of +8 points) - who knows? - we may
end up bottom of the League and top of the Cup. Oh, bugger!
I just jinxed it.
"God, that tastes awful!"
(R8/Q2)
 Ivor
waxes lyrical over Hungarian Bull's Blood
Howell, the Opsimath’s apparently affable Evertonian, invites the
Historymen to a 'friendly' to be played at the Parrswood, where the
other even bigger beasts (Bards and Albert) are slogging it out for
real. Is there such a thing as a friendly in quizzing
contests? We are put to the sword 50-36. Even if we had
been running on level weights without the handicap it would still
have been 42-35.
They may have finished bottom of the league but like Ali in the
Rumble in the Jungle they have come off the ropes to deliver a
killer punch. I think that is enough (possibly mixed) metaphors for
now. Howell got 6 twos and Mike and Charlotte 4 each.
Although we had four steals to their two we also got 10 of the 13
unanswereds (going second). David and I would have been
co-Jonahs with three each were it not for Vanessa’s magnificent
unluckiness in getting four. Only our Ray (also an affable
Evertonian) escaped the gods' cruel allocation of unanswereds.
Did the Opsimaths have any bad luck? Not unless you count the
Canadian questions not falling to Tehmeena, and maybe her getting
the questions on quirky UK foodstuffs and even quirkier UK
comedians.
Laughed?
We nearly died!
(R6/Q1&8)
We did have an enjoyable evening nonetheless. Like many in our
league we struggle with the 'new' stuff; no one remembered the name
of the 'Last of The Few' despite reading his obituary this week.
We 'hit the post' with a few answers - especially with the
BBC4 and BBC2 programmes featuring gentler pursuits than competitive
quizzing. Unfortunately we misheard the title of the round on
'Bards and Berts' thinking it was 'Bards and Birds'. We could
blame QM Brian but it is more likely our organs of Corti had been
swamped by ale at that time of the evening.
Anyway we were so thoroughly trounced that the Opsimaths had won
before the last round which meant we could enjoy our trip back to
the 60s and 70s to wallow in 'Nosh-talgia'. Looking back at
the nutritional value it is perhaps a surprise that we are still
around. It is often said that popular music of the time is a
potent generator of nostalgia and happy memories. but so is popular
(and mostly disappeared) foodstuffs. I look forward to further
rounds on the topic, which might even include Topic. There is
plenty to choose from: Spangles, Aztec Bars, Smash, boil in the bag
cod in butter sauce, and (the impoverished student’s favourite)
Hungarian Bull's Blood red wine (in Edinburgh this was the only red
wine in the corner shop).
Pride of WW2
Lions
(R5/Q3)
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Quiz paper set by...
...
The Charabancs
Average Aggregate score 80.5
A very satisfying
paper from the Charas for that horrible week when one of our teams
gets fingered at short notice for setting duties.
I think our favourite
round was the 'Berts & Bards' concoction - not least because the
theme only revealed itself to us once we'd clocked halfway through
the round that it was 'Berts' and not 'Birds' we were looking for.
There were no noticeable mistakes in the questions or the typescript
and everything flowed smoothly.
Thanks, Charas!
CP's
Paraguayan spoof
(R7/Q3)
... and these were
Tony's views ...
There were no howlers
or typos in the paper so far as I was aware, but loads of
well-crafted and mostly well-balanced questions to test the
abilities of both teams. I particularly enjoyed the 'Berts and Bards' round and, amongst the
spares, a tribute to both Albert and Hammond.
Bird's
powdered dessert
(R8/Q6)
... and this is what
Ivor had to say ...
It is the old stuff which is always the most satisfying - and there
was plenty in the quiz this week. The questions (and answers)
generated a lot of chat and anecdotes even between questions (we do
like to try the QM’s patience). Perhaps our quiz league will
some day be recognized as an NHS-style 'memory room' to keep our
brains ticking over.
The Manchester-born comedians evoked much appreciation of a gentler
time long gone. Ken Goodwin was guaranteed to have an audience
laughing even without telling a joke (no one ever settled down).
Colin Crompton in contrast had the deadpan look that could carry off
his chairman role at the Wheeltappers and Shunters Club to
perfection. My own favourite joke from Colin was:
“The first prize in the raffle tonight is a diving suit …sorry I
will read that again, the first prize in the raffle tonight is a
divan suite”.
... and John H
adds ...
It was a well-crafted paper with the 'Bards and Berts' round
particularly well received by the 2 teams.
Sugar Plum
Fairy instrument
(R1/Q3)
... and Ashton
has the last word ...
We liked the quiz, even if there wasn’t a lot in
there for those of us who can still claim to be at the more youthful
end of the WithQuiz demographic. The Wheeltappers and
Shunters Club? The Goombay Dance Band? The
millennials will be beating down the doors to join in next season …
Question of
the Week
This week the History Men and the Opsimaths loved the last round
entitled 'Nosh-talgia' from which any of the questions could have
won the QotW prize. I've chosen Question 2 in memory of
probably the foulest drink I have ever tasted ...
What brand of coffee and chicory syrup was first produced in
Glasgow in 1876? The original label showed a Sikh servant
waiting on a seated Scottish soldier, but, in more enlightened
times, since 2006 the Sikh is depicted as a soldier sitting beside
his Scottish comrade with a cup and saucer of his own.
For the answer to this and all the week's other questions click
here.
King of the
BAFTAs
(R3/Q6)
... and also
We now have 10 members for this WhatsApp group. It might make
sense to have at least one from each team. Currently there are
none from KFD or the Bards.
If you wish to join then let me know ...
... the name by which
you would like to be known (which I suggest has your team name
as the last part of it), and your mobile phone number.
I can then admit you
to the group.
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